179. The Forgotten Isle

[00:00:03] Speaker A: Welcome back to Barely dnd, your sort of Dungeons and Dragons podcast. It's your boy, Daniel. We're here with the crew and all the peeps, and we're gonna. We're on an island, bro. We're on a lonely island, one might say, and that's where we're at. So I hope you're ready for some island shigari. [00:00:30] Speaker B: Did y' all hear it? [00:00:32] Speaker C: I don't understand the Millennial pause. I think I'm blind to it because [00:00:36] Speaker D: of me being a millennial. What's the Millennial Pause? [00:00:39] Speaker C: It's apparently something that we all do and they don't. [00:00:42] Speaker E: You set up the camera. [00:00:44] Speaker F: It's like. [00:00:44] Speaker E: It's the Gen Z Shake, where they set. They start a video actively setting the camera down versus the Millennial pause, where you. You start the video. Oh, sorry. It's like where you start the video and then you pause, and then you start talking. The Gen Z shape. Because is the. It's like the. The opposite side of the pendulum to the Millennial pause. Yes, Micah. [00:01:08] Speaker B: So it started whenever Snapchat. You had to hold it down and wait for a second. [00:01:12] Speaker E: Oh, did it? [00:01:12] Speaker B: And then it would start recording you. Yeah. [00:01:15] Speaker E: So I didn't know that it would [00:01:16] Speaker B: take, like, a second for it to, like, start. Start recording. So they would wait. And so then they got used to that. And so now whenever they just record themselves, there's like a. And now we're talking. [00:01:26] Speaker C: I love this you versus them thing going on. [00:01:33] Speaker F: You're making sure it started. [00:01:37] Speaker D: You're just. [00:01:39] Speaker E: Don't you think that the Gen Z Shake is like. It's like, on the fly, and it's like loosey goosey. And it's like, oh, I'm just like, no, the gin. [00:01:45] Speaker C: The Gin Z Shake is performing. [00:01:54] Speaker F: You don't need to shake that camera. [00:01:56] Speaker E: Set the camera. They just set the d. Hey, if I can't shoot my food, [00:02:04] Speaker C: the recorder has a timer. Set it down before you hit record. [00:02:11] Speaker F: Anyway, we know Gen Z's are editing it to the millisecond to start it exactly when they want. If they edit out the bloody applause, they can edit out the shake. [00:02:20] Speaker D: Guys, the animosity being produced here is not painting us in a good light. [00:02:25] Speaker E: Yeah. [00:02:25] Speaker D: It's making us exactly like the stereotype. We've got to back off. [00:02:37] Speaker B: That's the point. [00:02:38] Speaker F: Literally on the cusp. But I strongly identify Millennial. [00:02:42] Speaker D: Yeah. I've been told many times that, like, [00:02:45] Speaker E: all of us are, like, Millennial. I. A millennial. [00:02:49] Speaker D: We are so not Gen Z. It can't be overstated. Definitely millennials. [00:02:55] Speaker B: I will say. Okay, a little tiny story. I had a client who literally bad mouthed Gen Z as literally, like, just being absolutely stupid and having no, like, intelligence in front of me, like, to my face, and I'm, like, just nodding. He's like, this elderly client. I'm like, okay. And he's like, [00:03:20] Speaker E: I was at a book club, and they were. They were talking about, like, Gen Z and. And millennials, and I was, like, trying to. I was, like, trying to play it cool. I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah. I felt like I was undercover. [00:03:33] Speaker D: And it's like, can you guys not tell? Are you blind in those moments? Not to go like, oh, my goodness, yes. Gen Z's the worst. That's why I hate Boomer Jones. Like, Jen sucks and boomers are worse. Let's talk about it. Just watch him be like, [00:03:54] Speaker B: any, but he's sweet. We love him. [00:03:57] Speaker F: Remember, never, never forget Gen X is right there. To Sean. [00:04:03] Speaker A: Also true. [00:04:05] Speaker D: All right, [00:04:09] Speaker F: sorry. Last week, I just. [00:04:13] Speaker D: There's one bleep per episode. I'll bleep that one at the beginning. Bleep in. We'll keep going. [00:04:21] Speaker C: Technically, it's still PG13. [00:04:23] Speaker F: Wait, did I say something? Did I cuss there? [00:04:28] Speaker D: We're just gonna keep going. We're not gonna discuss it, because then I have to edit it again. Anyway, moving on. We really. We really got sidelined with that one. Our letter question, which Micah came up with, so she deserves the blame if you weren't right. [00:04:49] Speaker G: What? [00:04:49] Speaker D: What? [00:04:54] Speaker B: I thought you were passing it to me. I thought you were passing it over to me. [00:05:02] Speaker D: Okay, take it away, Micah. [00:05:04] Speaker B: I'm sorry. You mentioned my name, and I was [00:05:07] Speaker D: like, oh, that means it's my time to talk. [00:05:08] Speaker B: Okay. And then you continue anyways. [00:05:12] Speaker D: And that's that Gen Z right there. [00:05:16] Speaker B: Okay. [00:05:17] Speaker E: Homeschool. [00:05:17] Speaker B: The mix of Gen Z. Okay. That's where we're at. So my. My letter to your question, which I kindly got the introduction for, was. [00:05:29] Speaker D: That definitely was an introduction. [00:05:31] Speaker B: And we're gonna call it that. We're gonna call it that. I'm here now. [00:05:33] Speaker D: We're here now. Imagine if anytime someone said Micah's name talking, it was like a Pavlovian response. Someone was like, oh, my goodness, Micah. What I appreciate. Yeah. So I was at the store the other day. [00:05:43] Speaker C: I was over on the bench. [00:05:47] Speaker D: People in Micah's life have to. Have to learn never to say her name to her. Micah's like, crying, like, stop. And then someone says her name. She's just like, okay, time for work. And she just gets. [00:06:04] Speaker B: This is so bad because we're all out of breath. No, this is so bad because we're, like, all laughing. But this is a really sad question. So the question. If you're. If you could write. Oh, my gosh, what was the wording? If you could write your character's death, what would it be? What would be, like, the best way [00:06:29] Speaker D: you would want character's death in this campaign? [00:06:31] Speaker B: In this campaign? [00:06:32] Speaker D: How they would die in this narrative? What would you write? [00:06:35] Speaker E: Yeah. [00:06:36] Speaker B: How would you want them to be honored? [00:06:39] Speaker E: Question is this. [00:06:40] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:06:41] Speaker E: Like, are we. [00:06:42] Speaker F: Is. [00:06:42] Speaker E: Are we surviving? [00:06:43] Speaker B: Is this. [00:06:43] Speaker E: Have we survived Dolgoth in this Hypothetical. No, sorry. Zorgrim. [00:06:47] Speaker D: Joel Goth, he comes back to life. Hypothetical question. Did we die on the poor? Bet this whole thing has been a [00:06:57] Speaker C: dream since episode 20. [00:07:00] Speaker B: I would say not even with storage room Janice. [00:07:03] Speaker F: Just like, in general, they're not here. [00:07:07] Speaker D: So it's just all the way back to homecove. Janice is in the first tavern. Just like, yeah, I just take another drink and just narrating this for years. Should we do. Well, hold on. Here's the thing. Do we want. [00:07:24] Speaker A: I am confused about the question now. [00:07:26] Speaker D: Yeah, this is a clarification we should have made before we started. The thing is the question, like, how would you write your character dying in this conflict? Or how would you write your character dying peacefully after the conflict is over? [00:07:39] Speaker B: Because I wouldn't even say. I would say. You could even, like, say before the conflict, like, I'm saying how just in. In your lifetime, what would be the way that you would want your character to die? [00:07:53] Speaker D: Would want. Okay, never mind. This is not a sad question at all. How would you like your character today? [00:07:59] Speaker B: No, but I mean, like, okay, well, [00:08:02] Speaker D: peacefully married years later is pretty chill. [00:08:05] Speaker E: We might not get there. It's sad because that might not be how we die. [00:08:10] Speaker D: Hold on now. I didn't mean to. I'm sorry, Mike. [00:08:15] Speaker F: I didn't mean for the story arc. [00:08:18] Speaker D: I'm confused now. [00:08:21] Speaker F: What is satisfying for the story arc or what just makes us happy? [00:08:24] Speaker E: That's. That's a good question. [00:08:26] Speaker D: I say this is a train wreck. [00:08:28] Speaker B: Leave it up to your choosing. It can be Zorgram. It can be after Zorgrim. If you want to die at the fight with Zorgram, then fine. But if you want to die after, then cool. Like, pick. [00:08:38] Speaker C: You pick. [00:08:39] Speaker F: It's up to the person. [00:08:40] Speaker D: I feel like we've ruined. What if. What if. Hold on. What if we did first episode die in the conflict seven Episode Die After Dying Victory. No, I. No, no, I've made it worse. [00:08:55] Speaker E: Just interpret the question how you will and answer it that way. [00:08:59] Speaker B: Yeah, cool. [00:09:02] Speaker A: I'm ready. [00:09:03] Speaker D: Go get him, Daniel. [00:09:06] Speaker A: I definitely took a story, but that's okay. I think. I think nobly is how he would die. But to set the scene, I would imagine it would be all his friends hurting on the battlefield, but no one's dead yet. And, you know, there's the last strands of life in Zorgrim's eyes. And it's not even that I'm getting the last kill or anything like that, but I'm just in the way. And, like, he. He is technically able to go and fight every. Everyone else, but every round, he spends his whole time attacking me alone. I keep on reviving, right? So I have this amazing revival rate. So I keep dying and dying and dying and dying. And then right before my final death, everyone's able to kill him. And then I fall to my ground, to my knees, blood streaming down. And with a grim smile, I. I fall to my doom. [00:10:03] Speaker G: Well, we shouldn't have let him go first, because now I'm just gonna be [00:10:06] Speaker D: like, [00:10:09] Speaker F: were we not all gonna say her? [00:10:11] Speaker B: The battle? [00:10:12] Speaker D: The thing I wanted to point out about that was that Micah, very understandably in the chat was like, I forgot my food. And she went and got it. And then Daniel was like, and I fall to my knees with blood streaming down my face. And Abby messaged, yum, yum, yum, Yummy. [00:10:33] Speaker B: Oh, my God. [00:10:37] Speaker D: Let's go with Javian. How would Javion. [00:10:44] Speaker F: I mean, I. I've. I want him to survive, but I very much do think it would. He narratively would very much make a heroic sacrifice. He loves to throw himself in front of stuff. And especially if he sees, like, it's like fire or something. He's like, I'm resistant. Like, I could take this better than the person I'm moving. I don't have the whole story about that dance, seeing the state. But also, I. I do see. But I mean, like, at very much, very much a. Yeah, like a push Janice or Wee Woo out of the way Lockeyes with, like, for half a second and then. And keep the last hit on Zorgbattle about it. [00:11:27] Speaker C: Why not? [00:11:28] Speaker F: I do want the last hit. I do love that. [00:11:32] Speaker D: I want it all. [00:11:34] Speaker F: I want it all. [00:11:35] Speaker A: I want it all laser glory. [00:11:41] Speaker F: But, yeah, I, like, died of this campaign. And it was super [00:11:47] Speaker D: nice. This is Andrea. This description is taking me back to the Yepin fight when you, like, showed up and you were like, yepin, I have come to vanquish you. And he was like, with a beam, it did 90 damage. And you were like, heard, understood. I'll be over here. I'm so sorry. [00:12:03] Speaker F: Through that whole thing, I don't know what was wrong with me playing jv. And he had there was phenomenal moment. [00:12:13] Speaker E: That's crazy to me because we played the Winter Storm and we all died real fast. But I for you get you said the yepin fight. And I was like, oh, you guys survived that. [00:12:24] Speaker D: That's crazy. [00:12:26] Speaker C: They were a lot higher level than us though, right? [00:12:29] Speaker D: And there were a lot of them. [00:12:30] Speaker A: Yeah, we were ten. Ninth. Ninth or tenth level. [00:12:34] Speaker D: Yeah, ninth and tenth. Yeah. And in the northstorm one shot, I think everyone was level six and there were four of you instead of like ten of you. [00:12:43] Speaker C: So there's three of us. [00:12:44] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:12:45] Speaker D: Yeah. I was gonna do credit. What about rock? [00:12:54] Speaker C: Wait, so what did we decide on? It has to be like. [00:12:57] Speaker D: We never made a decision. [00:12:58] Speaker C: We never made a decision. Okay, fine. Since we never made a decision, I would like Ro to live until she's like, what's the age for half dry? It's like 500. And given that. [00:13:11] Speaker D: Yeah, given that you're half dryad and half halfling. I mean, it's like. It's like 4 to 500. [00:13:18] Speaker F: Yeah. [00:13:19] Speaker C: So I would like her to live a long, long, happy life and then die peacefully. [00:13:25] Speaker B: Okay, I have a question. Would it. Would it be really cool? [00:13:31] Speaker D: How would it. [00:13:32] Speaker B: Okay, this is just a possibility. What if her and Thespis have like mini rose and then they all are like playing music to you or like to row while she's like dancing. Yeah. Like playing like her favorite songs that she made. And like. And she's like. [00:13:49] Speaker F: So these are adult children at this point? [00:13:51] Speaker C: Yeah, they would be adult. Abby has a hammer. I just want to let that be known. Swinging it around. [00:13:59] Speaker D: How would Greta die? [00:14:02] Speaker B: I mean, like, that is a really sweet idea. [00:14:05] Speaker C: That would be really sweet. Yeah, I think. Yeah, I think she would want to die peacefully around her loved ones and any of her found family that is still around and which are the fun guys or any adjacent people. And yeah, that would be cool. The music thing. And then I don't like thinking about her death. Okay, that's why this is more vague than I usually go. [00:14:40] Speaker B: So that's it, [00:14:47] Speaker D: Grickle. I'm gonna be yours. [00:14:53] Speaker E: I think Greta would like to live through the Zorgo fight. [00:15:01] Speaker B: And [00:15:03] Speaker E: I think. I think she would probably like have been slowing down for a Long time, but, like, trying to, like, put on faces so that her loved ones don't get, you know, if she's, like. If whoever she's around and whoever she's spending her time with doesn't get too worried about her. And I think she'd probably, like, make a little dinner one night, maybe one time, and just have a little dinner with everyone. And then I think she'd go out into nature and just find a place to, like, kind of quietly pass away. Like, you know how, like, a dog will go and, like, find a place away from his little. Little pack to die. I think you would want to die just, like. Just like falling asleep under a tree, something like that. [00:16:00] Speaker D: That's really beautiful. [00:16:01] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:16:02] Speaker D: Embrace the inner raccoon. [00:16:04] Speaker E: Yeah. I feel like she would know when it was coming, you know? Like, I feel like she would be able to tell, and I feel like she just, like, I. I would like it to be pretty peaceful. [00:16:14] Speaker D: That feels very. Greta. Janice. Jickle. Oh, who's the tmnc? [00:16:25] Speaker G: You egg. [00:16:27] Speaker D: You. You get this. Sorry, J. No, that's confusing. [00:16:32] Speaker C: I don't. That's weird. [00:16:34] Speaker D: Kickle. Sorry. Tickle. [00:16:36] Speaker G: That's weird, [00:16:39] Speaker D: I think. [00:16:44] Speaker G: Anyways. [00:16:44] Speaker D: Oh, I'm gonna call you now. Please continue. [00:16:47] Speaker G: No, no, no, no, [00:16:50] Speaker C: no, no, no. [00:16:51] Speaker G: In general, like, for quite a while, I've always been, like, really scared of Janice, like, dying and everything, but I think I finally got to the point during one of our last sessions [00:17:07] Speaker C: that, [00:17:07] Speaker G: like, I feel like she would absolutely, like, take one for everybody and maybe do it in a way where, like, people don't even know what's on going about to happen kind of so that they don't sacrifice themselves. Like, I feel like she would, like, try to quietly sacrifice herself in it. So, like, whether that's in the final boss fight or whatnot, I just feel like either way, I feel like she doesn't want to make a big dent in leaving because, like, she's been able to do everything that she's wanted to and. And, like, she's at peace, you know? So I think that's where I'm at either way, if it happens during or after, you know, so, yeah. [00:18:01] Speaker D: Heck, yeah. Micah. What about mickel? [00:18:16] Speaker B: So I know that this is not a canonized feature, but I'd like to think something magical happens when a character is, like, passing from life to something else. Not descript at all. Don't know what it is. You know? Don't know what it is. But I'd like to think. Yeah, thanks. I'm trying, you know, how sometimes you can transfer, like, healing points to someone. I'd like to think that if one of Craig's, like, friends were like, on, you know, like, rolling like the die, the scary die, that if he were close to passing, he would just transfer his, like, health to. To that person. And like, it would start out as healing hit points, but maybe that as like, power, friendship, you know, it just all converts to that person and they like me. [00:19:26] Speaker D: It could be more meaning or, like, more. I don't know, it could be more seriously flavored. Is like choosing to spend your last action on healing. But, like, just even that effort of casting the spell was all the. The energy your body had left. Yeah. It doesn't have to be as corny as power of friendship. No, no. [00:19:49] Speaker B: But I mean, like, like, even though Craig might not be close to passing, that the act of, like, seeing that his friend is almost passing, that he gives all of his health to that friend, that he gives all that he has and he allows himself to. To pass for them, that feels very [00:20:11] Speaker D: Craig act of passion. [00:20:17] Speaker H: Ueg. Let's see, [00:20:21] Speaker D: man, what a. [00:20:22] Speaker H: What a good question. [00:20:27] Speaker D: He's presided over the deaths of so many. I think for Uegg, an ideal death would be a letting go, which, you know, that is very true of death. But what I mean is that, like, as the great healer, I think he would not want ceremony and healing. I think in trying to find, like, an other. Other side of the coin, I think Ueg would love to pursue a more peaceful death. Like, I think Ueg is at peace with dying in conflict, but I don't think it's what he. Obviously it's not what any of the characters want, but I mean, I think he would love to survive and live on. I think he, like so many members of the group, would like to take on a much more humble existence. And I think he would like to. I think you would like to die by the ocean because that's where his life started in that isle of Vashtan. He was. He was in that sea edge temple at that rocky coast where, like, travelers would come and that order of Eldath there would like, meet sailors and tend to people's needs before they were pushed out by Kefkan influence. And I think returning to a place that felt like. That would feel like a coming full circle. And I think UAG kind of in a way very similar to Greta. And I think, like, partially in a reflection of his faith, I think he would just like to die near the ocean and to sort of relax into it. I think he would just like a quiet moment by himself kind of moving toward the next rather than trying to run away from it. Yeah, yeah. See Micah, we got there with the question. We didn't nail it at first, but we got there. [00:22:32] Speaker F: If you don't mind me adding more, I think that being a warlock of Zorgom for so long had like a level of me and Jade being like not seeing a way out. And the way out literally was death. That was the way out. [00:22:49] Speaker D: That's true. [00:22:50] Speaker F: Is that definitely affects the headset space about. I mean even though it's been months that he's been a warlock of the Maker, there is still like not years [00:23:02] Speaker D: of the other mindset and. [00:23:04] Speaker F: Yeah, and just not seeing a future past that because like there, even though some of his symbols are alive, there's no telethonom to go. There's no castle telenom to go back to. His old way of life is never coming back. [00:23:17] Speaker C: And then. [00:23:17] Speaker H: Yeah, yeah. [00:23:18] Speaker D: He had a very kamikaze existence for a while. That's true. I hadn't thought about that. Anywho, for the note taking nerds, this is episode episodes 178 of the Accidental Adventures. And 252. [00:23:34] Speaker C: 179. [00:23:36] Speaker D: No, I can't be wrong again. I can't do it. [00:23:41] Speaker C: You are though. [00:23:42] Speaker D: I'm not strong enough. [00:23:43] Speaker C: Sorry. [00:23:44] Speaker D: No, you're right. [00:23:45] Speaker B: I'm 79. I looked at the Spotify. [00:23:53] Speaker D: Do you know that? Do you know that scene in the [00:23:56] Speaker C: Incredible Mind is a curse in real [00:23:59] Speaker D: life where Bob and Helen are like finally fighting as the city's being attacked and he's like I'm not strong enough. It was that for me just then. Anywho, this episode 179 to the Accidental Adventures and 252 of the Legend. The new ones, the Forgotten Isle. [00:24:18] Speaker E: Wait, I forgot what? [00:24:26] Speaker B: The Forgotten Island. You're trying to find your mom at the grocery store and you can't. [00:24:30] Speaker D: Oh my God. [00:24:37] Speaker C: Where are you, Mom? I'm in the bread aisle. [00:24:41] Speaker D: The forgotten aisle. It is a level 19 and level 16 adventure. Slide this way. [00:24:48] Speaker C: First level 19 episode for the Warrior 3. [00:24:53] Speaker G: Dude. [00:24:54] Speaker F: And they're all so ready to sacrifice themselves. [00:24:58] Speaker D: I feel kind of bad. [00:25:01] Speaker C: My answer was not very nice compared to everyone else's. [00:25:06] Speaker F: No, that's reasonable. You're allowed a character to live. [00:25:09] Speaker C: Our characters. I want Yalls characters to live too. I just want to make that very clear. [00:25:13] Speaker F: Thank you. [00:25:18] Speaker D: People took the questions different ways. It's okay. Yeah, I don't think anyone wants their character to die. The date is 3488pb. So you call the 22nd still? Yeah, and actually it's very much till the 22nd, because you've technically gone slightly backwards by going to the other side of the world. [00:25:41] Speaker C: Birthday check. 11 days until rose birthday and possible eminent demise. [00:25:48] Speaker D: It was delivered very flight, Captain. [00:25:50] Speaker H: Just a quick check. [00:25:51] Speaker D: 11 days to your birthday and your imminent demise. [00:25:54] Speaker C: Thank you. Thank you for flying Fungi airlines. [00:25:58] Speaker E: It's the 22nd. [00:25:59] Speaker D: You said thanks for flying Apocalypse Airlines. Yes, 22nd. All right. [00:26:03] Speaker F: Oh, and then we landed on an island. [00:26:05] Speaker C: It's like lost. [00:26:07] Speaker D: All right, so party members, hold on. Let's see. How do I feel about this music? Yeah, I'll take this for now. I might change my mind in a second. [00:26:19] Speaker A: I forgot this color sucks. [00:26:23] Speaker D: Thank you. All right, so party members, sorry my notes are a bit scattered today. Fungi's and warriors of the well, the determined defenders of Yalabran, you find yourselves scattered unexpectedly on a foreign shore parsage its dour gloom of ruminous winter. And the close friends that were gathered there are nowhere in sight or sensation. You all have been moved a world away by the providence of Selune's answer to Ethmund Kai's supplication. So you're just very suddenly in another place, other side of the world. See, the sand of the stretching shore all around you is highly reflective. It almost seems to shine very slightly with an opalescence in the clear sunshine. And as you all are adjusting even there for a moment, we'll say one of you, maybe Janice, with her inclination to tyrology. As you get down and can't help but inspect the shore as you run some of the sand through your fingers, much closer up you can see that the beach is littered with. It has silica, it has sand. But among that is scattered minute granular fragments of uncountable gemstones and precious minerals. So it's like a silica schwarm in my pocket, but okay. Do you genuinely. [00:28:02] Speaker G: Yeah, I think so, actually. [00:28:04] Speaker D: So Jadis has landed there for only a moment and then just pulls out a vial and just starts picking up some sand that's also filled with. With. So imagine like. Imagine like sand on a beach, but it's also filled with like agate and diamond and. And pearl and of the same equal fragment, if not smaller. It's stunning to look at, like a firmament of soil, bound stars and silica and. Brilliant. [00:28:31] Speaker B: Just going to. [00:28:33] Speaker F: It's also silica. [00:28:35] Speaker G: It's all light stuff. Do you guys see this? I don't know if you were talking, Abby, to us, but you were muted. [00:28:47] Speaker E: I was talking. I'm happy to witness the geology corrections. I've heard about those, but never witnessed them. I feel like I just met a celebrity. That was great. [00:29:01] Speaker F: So there's like diamonds and rubies and. And topaz are things that could be. [00:29:07] Speaker D: I promise one day, if anyone else ever. DMs. I'll spend every session going, actually the grass. [00:29:16] Speaker G: I said out loud to people. Do you guys see this? And I'm gonna be putting it into the vial. [00:29:22] Speaker F: I feel like things where, like, you're looking down the rest of us, like, looking around, like, Greta. [00:29:29] Speaker E: Greta sees that and then, like, comes over and crouches over and, like, also puts some in her pocket. Just loose in her pocket. Like, puts a handful in her coat. And then, like, pulls out her notebook and, like, starts taking notes on it. Sprinkles a little bit of it in the notebook. And just. She's like, oh, yeah, that's a good find. [00:29:49] Speaker F: To who? [00:29:50] Speaker D: I have so much more to describe. Small streams wander out from the near division of deep foliage, occasionally crossing the pale sands to create narrow bands of cool movement cut into the soft shoreline, running into the lazily dancing waves down the shore to one direction, where the streams unite and broaden into the mouth of a small delta. The ocean mixes with their brineless breadth, creating an explosive and unexpected response of life. Even at the parallax of the water's refraction, the shape of a great reef blooms in stone and coral and rainbows of darting species beneath the shallow waters, which drop with unnatural severity near the shore, disappear impossibly into the ocean's fathomless indigo jaws. So, as you all remember, this island is just in the middle, a vast open expanse. So it's this very strange phenomena because very soon after the beach, it's not more shallow water, it's just beach shallow water. Shallow water, shallow water. Just fathomless depth. And so there's this whole reef growing off a part of the. Off the side of the island where this freshwater delta is running into the ocean. But it's just there suddenly until it's not. And there is lush foliage maybe 5, 600ft up the beach. And it just stretches at a gentle incline until you can see some central dark stone formation in the distance. But it's all vague from there. [00:31:29] Speaker C: Can, like, rose connection to, like, Ogba and like, knowing directions and times. Is it, like a lot less than here? Out of curiosity, like, well, does. Is it harder for her to tell [00:31:42] Speaker D: things as you remember, your keen mind has been heavily impaired recently. And actually, as you're in this place, it is greatly renewed. Your keen mind feels very sharp right now. And as one more visual set piece, as a reminder from last time, or if you did not hear at the end of last time, the sky here is not ashen. It's not one dark storm of gray. The sky above is bright and clear and blue. Except for about five or 10 miles in every direction, the storm resumes. It's like you all are in this singular eye of the storm. So you can see in the dark horizon in every direction that endless nuclear winter in the sky. But right above you all is this like 20 mile circumference. Just this cut eye in the storm of blue, clear sky. [00:32:41] Speaker G: Can I. Can I have, like, whatever. I can't find the word anyways. Can I make Mobius come out of my ring and start flying up? [00:32:56] Speaker D: Janice, you rotate your ring slightly and this tiny serpentine dragon, like itty bitty Quetzal. Like a Quetzalcoatl. Like a Quetzal, but made tiny, is just spiraling and looping in designs and brilliant emerald green. And as you mentally direct him upward, [00:33:18] Speaker H: he [00:33:21] Speaker D: darts upward into the air, up [00:33:22] Speaker H: and up and up and up. [00:33:25] Speaker D: How far do you send him, or to where? [00:33:28] Speaker G: I think it's like 100ft. So I'll try to just go up to see out as far as I [00:33:36] Speaker D: can in every direction. You see great forest stretching beyond tracts of clear land as well. And it seems to run up to not some great mountain at its center, but some sort of broad, more barren stone topography far off to the center of the isle. But it's unclear what. From there, there is a great. As you look over the forest beyond, it is very lush, very green, but many different shades of green and even some other colors. You see reds and oranges and yellows, but they don't look like fall. It's like a vibrant vibrancy. And you also see, like, blues and purples, browns. It's a deeply colorful forest, almost unnaturally so. Hi, Anna. [00:34:34] Speaker G: All right, I'll bring Mobius back down. [00:34:36] Speaker H: Okay. [00:34:37] Speaker G: Maybe I'll take him out on my shoulder. [00:34:39] Speaker D: What's up, Durangle? [00:34:40] Speaker A: If this is a. A rumored isle that the captains that I sailed with talked about, if not, it's fine. [00:34:53] Speaker F: But I mean, this is the forgotten isle. [00:34:56] Speaker B: Come on. [00:35:00] Speaker D: Last session we learned that it was. It was literally like Ioun hid it from mortal knowledge. There you go. And the Maker just shared it with it. But so, no, but also then Strangely, you can make a rumors check for me, Daniel, and it's gonna be for this, but not this and high D.C. i'm gonna call it like D.C. 20, probably. [00:35:29] Speaker A: Oh, sick. I got a 25. [00:35:34] Speaker D: Oh, that's a roll to start us off with. Phenomenal Daniel with a 25. [00:35:47] Speaker C: Oh, [00:35:49] Speaker D: wrong. This little, like, connection makes in your mind, this is the ocean's maw. So that is just exactly what it sounds like. Maw like maw. For any note takers. This is the ocean's maw. This is kind of. [00:36:10] Speaker H: Dang it, Micah. [00:36:12] Speaker D: Micah messaged the ocean has a mom. This is like the Bermuda Triangle of Yalombren. And instead of being some place where. Because you have heard long rumor that there's this. This moving land in the middle of the ocean, and if you have the misfortune of sailing into it, you never return. Now, some of that might not be too founded, given some things you've learned recently, but the moving land part, I mean, it's. It's. You've learned it's terribly apt or accurate of sailors to see something and be like sudden and complete interpretation which might be completely off. I mean, you heard long ago that there were these very large, like, aquatic mammals that swam in shallow waters and ate vegetation. And you've learned that they were just mermaids. So there's all sorts of things that sailors get wrong around the world. And so this might be another example of that. But this is probably the ocean's maw. [00:37:16] Speaker A: It clicked in my head. [00:37:19] Speaker D: I really appreciated whoever when Micah got that joke just then. That was good. Or maybe it was Abby. I don't know. Somebody had a face of recognition when I said that. Moving on. The. The beach lies out around you. The surreally magical forest beyond. An idyllic, if not startlingly different landscape. As a reminder, it was about half an hour ago that you killed Skonk. It's like evening in the part of the world you were at. So it was quite a shift. And it's almost unsettling to be at such a beautiful, peaceful place in such a dark hour. And the only other real feature of note is that not far away from you all on the shore, there is this. Not massive, but very, very, very large stone. Not perfect, not hand carved, not a perfect cone or pyramid, but this mostly it's very slightly longer than it is wide, but this very large conical stone piercing up out of the sand kind of at an angle, so it tilts a little bit more up than it does out. And it's kind of Shiny. At a distance, it's somewhat yellowish, and it's probably 2 or 300ft away from you all. Just. I'm checking it out in the shore. [00:38:55] Speaker E: It's about to go. Look at it. [00:38:57] Speaker D: It's about a five foot tall stone. [00:39:02] Speaker E: I'm looking. [00:39:02] Speaker D: So it looks like a number of the party just immediately heads there. And Micah comes full circle, everyone. Micah, how does that feature work for Craig again? We haven't used it in a year or two. I don't think down when we made the sheet digital. [00:39:21] Speaker G: Wait, how did I not get rock check. [00:39:23] Speaker E: What the. [00:39:24] Speaker B: I'm Craig and my name means rock. [00:39:28] Speaker D: It does, it does. Did you record anywhere how that feature works? [00:39:31] Speaker B: I have it. It's just on my old sheet. Can I go grab that real quick? I know where it is. [00:39:36] Speaker D: Yeah, go ahead. Thank you. [00:39:37] Speaker E: I appreciate you. [00:39:39] Speaker D: Okay, cool. I will describe it as everyone walks up and looks at it. Yeah, yeah. [00:39:45] Speaker E: Greaves, when you said that there was like a big pile of blue sky and then the storm restarted. How far away from the island does the storm restart? [00:39:55] Speaker D: There's like a 20 mile circumference of like eye of the storm, and then everything beyond that is back to that dark horizon in every direction. [00:40:05] Speaker E: Mm. [00:40:09] Speaker D: As the very large combined party treads across the soft shore and this like somewhat soothing ocean breeze comes by. The temperature is just idyllic as you all survey this landscape and move toward this very large stone. It's beautiful. It's. Oh, the color is kind of hard to pin down. The color I would call it closest to is it's kind of like a bronze ish colored stone, but not so harsh, not so metallic. Like somewhere, if you will permit me the description, it's kind of somewhere in between like sandstone and bronze, if that's making sense. A little closer on the tan sign. But it looks like there's somewhat metallic composites to its mineral makeup, and it looks very thoroughly worn and weathered. But. Well, actually, hold on. Before I keep describing. Oh, well, okay. So it's. It's conical and it comes to really quite a sharp point at the top. Not perfect, some imperfections and unevenness to it. And it also has at the very tip, there is a brilliant point of color. And then all streaking down it in kind of like a riverine pattern are veins. Very few clear veins of the purest, most brilliant gold. Shocking. And streaking away from it into pieces that trace down. They trace down it, but kind of on one side, not uniformly all around, kind of just the side facing the sea. Micah, did you Find those deets on how the rock check works? [00:41:54] Speaker B: Yes, yes, I did. So it's actually quite stunning. Not stunning. What is it? Stone cunning. [00:42:03] Speaker A: Stone cunning? Yeah. [00:42:05] Speaker B: Stone cunning. Yes. [00:42:08] Speaker E: Yes. [00:42:09] Speaker B: Stone cunning. And it's history. Stone cunning checks. You have expertise two times proficiency bonus. [00:42:18] Speaker H: Okay. [00:42:19] Speaker D: And I believe you're at 16. Your proficiency bonus is five or six. [00:42:23] Speaker E: Oh, wait, this is your. The Internet says, do you have a [00:42:27] Speaker D: plus 10 to this check, Craig? [00:42:29] Speaker B: Okay, perfect. [00:42:32] Speaker E: You're considered proficient and you add double your proficiency bonus. [00:42:36] Speaker D: Yep. That's what expertise is. Wow. [00:42:40] Speaker F: Yeah. [00:42:40] Speaker D: You don't triple your expertise. That'd be. [00:42:43] Speaker E: Wow. [00:42:43] Speaker D: A baseline of 15. [00:42:46] Speaker C: Just. [00:42:46] Speaker F: Just add plus 20. Just [00:42:50] Speaker D: 40 minutes. [00:42:51] Speaker A: Tell me what it is. [00:42:52] Speaker D: Okay. It's your character level times your proficiency bonus, plus the age. [00:42:58] Speaker C: Can you make some check for that? [00:43:00] Speaker F: Because that would be plus 100. [00:43:02] Speaker H: No. [00:43:03] Speaker C: That would be so fun. [00:43:06] Speaker B: I got a 27. [00:43:09] Speaker C: Is that Craig's highest roll ever? I feel like. [00:43:12] Speaker B: No, no, I've got it in 30s. Well, that's a. He's had. [00:43:17] Speaker D: He's had higher roles on attacks, but as a check, that is far. [00:43:21] Speaker C: That's what I meant as like a heist check. Yeah. [00:43:23] Speaker D: On anything that wasn't an attack roll. Yeah. We started out strong today, y', all, Craig, and there are all sorts of thoughts from among all of you. But as you walk up and examine it, Craig, you have many thoughts about it, and so much of it is about what it's not. There are many strange things about this massive stone. First of all, it's about 5ft tall. Taller than me, taller than you. And there are some obvious departures from what is common, given the river of gold spilling down its side. And again, not like a sheet of gold, but like veins of it, and they almost seem to grow out of it at points. Gorgeous. It's very well smoothed, but there are deep grooves in it. And what's worth saying is that it is not weathered horizontally. It looks weathered vertically. Like the deep grooves and lines that carve in it go up, not to the side, as if it were tilted, maybe, like Andrea is suggesting with her hands, but maybe not. Also, it's very hard to identify. You can't see any individual granules in. Doesn't. It doesn't look like sandstone or limestone. And in fact, Craig, it definitely looks magical. It is lost. It is not lost on you that on the magical isle, there's some very magical things going on with the stone, but actually, with a 27, you do identify that this looks most like some very uncommon type of bone. [00:45:01] Speaker B: Oh, she called it. She literally called it. [00:45:05] Speaker D: And that's why they call her doctor. [00:45:08] Speaker B: She went. [00:45:09] Speaker D: I said, there's a rock. And Andrea said, I heard all I need to hear. [00:45:14] Speaker B: Said, no, it's not. [00:45:15] Speaker C: There's a rock. [00:45:15] Speaker F: And it's kind of yellowish, brownish, and it's law oblong. And I'm like, okay, it's a bone. [00:45:23] Speaker B: This doesn't sound like a rock. [00:45:24] Speaker D: Chump change, kid. I'm like, craig cub. You perceive all that while you can't trick me. [00:45:29] Speaker F: That's not a rock. [00:45:30] Speaker D: You could share that with your compatriots. [00:45:33] Speaker B: I. Before I tell anyone, I go up to Janice and I'm like, hey, hey, I think I know what this is. [00:45:42] Speaker E: But [00:45:45] Speaker B: I really. I just. Before I tell everybody, can I just. Can I ask to make sure that I know what this is? I'm going to ask you, and then if you think it's the same thing thing I'm also gonna tell everybody else. [00:45:56] Speaker G: Okay. Yeah. [00:45:57] Speaker E: Like, looking around, she like, okay, she's like, [00:46:04] Speaker G: I've also seen quite a few rocks. Well, I don't know, but. But should I do a check sack or. No, it. [00:46:13] Speaker D: I mean, as Craig points it out, Janice, I mean, not what, like, what could that even be a part of, but like, yeah, you suppose. I mean, as Craig points it out, yes, that looks most white, but also like, what could that bone belong to? I mean, you've seen some massive organisms. The Kraken was kind of on that scale, you suppose, But I've a dead one. [00:46:39] Speaker G: I've only ever seen. I mean, this. This is such a large bone. [00:46:46] Speaker B: All right, guys. Janice was. We were just chatting on the side, and I think it's time we tell you that that's not a rock. [00:46:56] Speaker D: It's a boulder. Is that a boulder? It's a rock. [00:47:05] Speaker E: Greta asks the party. She says, nightcast. Identify on it. [00:47:12] Speaker C: Go for it. [00:47:12] Speaker F: That would be very helpful. [00:47:13] Speaker B: Absolutely. [00:47:14] Speaker E: Okay, [00:47:17] Speaker D: everyone's tracking their spell slots from last time, right? We're at the hit points and spells and everything. Okay, awesome. [00:47:22] Speaker E: No, [00:47:25] Speaker D: Abby, could you describe what. I mean, what. Can you describe to me what it looks like as Greta casts identify in this instance? [00:47:38] Speaker E: She spent some time studying it at first, all the while copying in her notebook. Well, I think she's actually just. Her full attention is just focused on it right now. She's not writing in her notebook, but she spends some time studying on it. And then she just leans up against it with her palm on it and just closes her eyes and like the magic flows from her arm and her hand into the rock and onto the rock, and it swirls around the rock, and then it flows back up. So for a while, there's magic going out of Greta and magic coming into Greta. [00:48:17] Speaker F: It's like. [00:48:18] Speaker E: Yeah, that's how she does it. [00:48:20] Speaker D: Phenomenal, Greta. As you go to place your hand on the stone, you touch it, and the moment you touch it, there is just very quickly, the magic, the pale green, misty magic starts to flow from you. And it's like, for a moment, the magic starts to pour off of your hand. And as it does, it's almost like some sort of energy is caught up in that mist. And as you press your hand to the stone, there's this momentary zap of electricity, and there's just this little blue line strikes your fingers and stings. You do take a point of lightning damage. Just the one. And are you guys hearing any squealing or screaming in the background or. No, we're good. [00:49:05] Speaker E: No squealing or screaming. [00:49:08] Speaker G: What? [00:49:10] Speaker D: Well, my wife's friend just arrived, and there's a lot of noise in the background, but I'm just checking. And which is. Which is a wonderful thing. But as you. As the bolt shocks your hand, it stings, and you kind of can't help but step back a little bit. And as you do, there is the moment after this sound, And there's like a vibration in the ground. [00:49:52] Speaker G: I'm investigating. [00:49:54] Speaker E: Where is it coming from? [00:49:56] Speaker D: Are we sure this is kind of around you? [00:49:58] Speaker F: Are we sure this is Janice Of a dead creature? [00:50:01] Speaker D: Javian says that as Janice kind of reaches down and puts her hand in this hand, and as she does, there's another. And all around you on the beach, the sand shifts and vibrates, and there's very suddenly this really large shift in the ground. And. And it's not a. What do you prepare, Micah? [00:50:29] Speaker B: I can't remember the name. It's the thing that gives me hp. [00:50:33] Speaker C: Wait. [00:50:33] Speaker B: It's cosmic instrument. I prepare a cosmic instrument. [00:50:37] Speaker D: Okay. [00:50:38] Speaker H: You. [00:50:39] Speaker D: Is there any particular way you want that flavored or. Not particularly. [00:50:42] Speaker F: Nope. [00:50:42] Speaker B: It just happened. [00:50:45] Speaker D: Okay. Awesome. You wave your hand over your blade, and it flares with. Brilliant. [00:50:49] Speaker F: I say, ready to wee. [00:50:51] Speaker C: Woo. [00:50:52] Speaker F: And I will take her 30ft up with my wings. [00:50:55] Speaker D: Okay, Shavian, you flare up golden wings. And you lift her up, and as you pick her up in her arms. Oh, yes. Yes. Javen, do you care to describe your wings really quick? [00:51:07] Speaker C: Yeah, describe them. Describe them. [00:51:09] Speaker F: Yeah. Says something to even grabs her and then suddenly out of his back. But, like, it's magical, so it's not like through the clothing are these masks. These. Besides, you expect very human of wings that are, they're, they're pure golden light. And so as they kind of like move in the. There's like the, the idea of feathers or the idea of some sort of bones in them. But. But it's, it's just mainly gold. They go out like. Yeah, I don't know, 15ft. And he flies up 30ft. [00:51:49] Speaker D: Phenomenal. So this like 15 foot wingspan of. They're not like angel wings, it's this, this like light imitation of them, brilliant and almost blinding, that fly out. And Shavian, as he flies up, the sand is dispersed out to every side. And as you pick Wei Wu up in your arms, she readies an arrow. Rangrim pulled out his sword and flared it with blue light. And as the sand shifts all around this, it's a very. This thing happens quickly, but the movement is slow. And that is because of the scale of the thing that picks itself up out of the sand as this massive head begins rising out of the sand that pours off of it like water and these huge shoulders and back and limbs and it just keeps rising and rising and it closes the bathroom door and it rises higher and higher and larger and larger. Sorry, that was a note to my wife. And I was talking to you guys. And I was talking to. Not you guys at the same time. This immense organism, about 30ft tall on four legs, with this huge tail that felt pushes the sand apart and these massive wings that fold up behind it. As some of you know, dragons. Well, It is among the largest you've ever seen. Warriors of the. Well, not anywhere near. Yep, in size, but other than that, about the biggest you've ever seen. And fungi, the biggest. I think the biggest living organism you've ever seen, other than as an individual organism, as. [00:53:47] Speaker C: What about the dragon that we met? The one that on Zorgram, comparatively, just for my brain. [00:53:57] Speaker D: Oh, the, the. [00:53:59] Speaker C: Our friend. Well, [00:54:02] Speaker D: are you talking about Vilek? [00:54:04] Speaker C: No, I'm not talking about Villa, the other one, but I'm talking about the one. [00:54:07] Speaker D: This one is bigger than Velek and is bigger than Atal Beru. It's bigger than both. And it is a deep, consummate indigo blue as it raises itself up out of the sands, lifting itself up to massive size. And that conical stone is the great horn at the front of its rostrum as it just sits up and it just kind of sits itself down with sand still pouring off at every other angle. The other really mentionable thing is that where Those lightning streaks of gold fall down out of the horn. They continue down the jaw, across and through the eye, all the way down the side of the head and down the neck, down the chest, all the way down the left shoulder and arm, down the left, left side of the body. And half of this immense blue dragon looks like it. It looks like it has had a shocked burn of lightning across its body that is all just gold. Like gold. The metal and it's like. Like a. Like a Kitsungi bowl, like putting things back together. Part of its scales and the bands and streaks of it get like 6 inches across at some places. And he just [00:55:31] Speaker G: sits down as soon as it's quiet enough where if I spoke, it would be able to hear me. I'm gonna say, in deepest speech, we mean no harm. [00:55:45] Speaker D: Okay. Janice looks up and her eyes flare with gold light. And out of her mouth, the many hundreds of echoing voices all at the same time in those indiscernible tongues. But in the words that you all just intrinsically understand. Inside, you all hear, we mean you no harm. No harm. And that huge head turns and looks at you all. And if you guys want to look up 5e ancient blue dragon, you can. I don't want to leave you without the. I mean, you know, there are the differences. Any image you look up is not going to look like the. The gold streak and all that. [00:56:25] Speaker C: Ro. Ro slyly just rotates her tongues ring to, like when Janice starts speaking in deepest speech. [00:56:34] Speaker D: Very cool. [00:56:35] Speaker E: We can hear it, right? Like you can comprehend the nature of [00:56:38] Speaker D: deepest speech is that literally any organism hearing it can understand it. But, yeah, you still totally can. [00:56:46] Speaker C: I just want to. Because if the dragon talks and I can't understand it, you slide the ring [00:56:53] Speaker D: and the spell is activated. But you find it does not work on deepest speech. That it is more than a language, that it is a magic. [00:57:01] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:57:02] Speaker D: In lore and reference, I've sent a pretty good image of what an ancient blue dragon looks like, which is an excellent image. Yeah. Huge. [00:57:12] Speaker F: It's like he's just a little guy [00:57:16] Speaker D: as you say those words, Janice. And the immense dragon sits back. He cocks his head and he speaks, opening his mouths or his mouth. And as the massive jaws separate in the interlocking teeth part, there are all these webbing, arcing bands of lightning between the teeth as he opens his mouth to speak. And this immense tongue dances. And he says, [00:57:41] Speaker H: I am aware of that. [00:57:44] Speaker D: And he sits back onto his hips. I don't think this is the. We'll go with this song. [00:57:51] Speaker F: Wait, I'm sorry, I. What did it reply? Did it reply in draconic or. [00:57:55] Speaker D: I am aware of that. [00:57:57] Speaker F: No, no, no. What language did he apply in. [00:57:59] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:58:00] Speaker D: As he speaks, the. The many tongues echo back. And it's also deepest speech. [00:58:06] Speaker F: Okay. [00:58:07] Speaker E: So we can understand it. [00:58:08] Speaker D: And everyone understands. Yeah. And he just sits there looking at you all. Every time he shifts slightly, more sand pours off and there's this huge depression in the sand where an almost in quantifiable weight was displaced from his rising. I shouldn't. The party scattered around him and starting to relax. [00:58:35] Speaker E: I do a little bow. [00:58:37] Speaker G: Oh, but everybody. Can everybody understand him? Sorry, I think I missed. [00:58:42] Speaker D: Yeah. Because he's also speaking deep of speech. Okay, Greta, you bow slightly. Craig, you were saying? [00:58:48] Speaker B: He's. He's gonna like, show respect, you know, putting kind of like. Okay, coming to a different posture, but he's gonna say, were you. Were you expecting us? You act as if you know us. [00:59:04] Speaker D: Looks at you, Craig. He's huge. As his head turns, it is both, you know, seems you're not in conflict with this organism. But as that huge head turns towards you and the eyes look forward, you can see them. They are this brilliant, shocking cobalt with these lines of gold. And at this distance, you shouldn't be able to see too much color in them just because of how far away they are at his height. But it's like that color is so vibrant. It's like it's giving off its own light that you can see. And the hairs stand up on the back of your neck as he looks right at you. [00:59:38] Speaker H: And he says, no, I don't suppose that I am, but I could feel your energy. And so I suppose, not that I know you, but that you are known by the one who knows me. [00:59:58] Speaker D: And his very large feet sift in the sand, displacing more. And he kind of doesn't fully lay down, but he rotates his hips slightly, kind of the way a dog can half sit, so that he's less towering over you. I mean, he still is, but kind of lowers it slightly and his wings shift. And as his wings open up slightly, you can see that both of them have veins of gold coming down them and then close at his sides. [01:00:25] Speaker F: The one who knows you. Is there someone else here, or do you refer to Yeshkala? [01:00:31] Speaker D: It's very odd to see such like a dinosaur like head do this, but the edges of his mouth pull back slightly, slightly into a smile, and he goes. [01:00:44] Speaker H: You could say as much. [01:00:46] Speaker D: I. [01:00:48] Speaker H: Who are you? All who've Come to this place. [01:00:58] Speaker G: This is kind of hard where there's a couple different groups here, but I just start introducing people, you know, like [01:01:12] Speaker D: Tello's. Like, knees are quaking, but he just kind of nods. [01:01:16] Speaker C: I'm like, where are the fun guys? They're the warriors of the world, but individually. Then she just. [01:01:22] Speaker D: He gets a puzzled look when you say the fun guys, but he nods. After everyone's introduced himself, he just repeats or he respond. [01:01:34] Speaker H: Those titles mean nothing to me. But it is good to make your acquaintance. I am Calaclast, Child of the Land, Keeper of the Spring. And I ward over this isle, its borders, as I have for millennia. But if you've come here, you must be sent. [01:02:04] Speaker D: His name is Caliclast. K A L, A. So K, A L, A K, L, A S T. K, A L, A. I was a S, T. And the first A has an accent on it. Kala class or Kala class. Um, there is no character here who can make a check, but, Abby, would you, the human, like to make a history check for me, the human? Add on Greta's history modifier if you want. [01:02:44] Speaker E: Am I just trying to remember. Wait, let me. Okay, okay. Alice, blast. [01:02:53] Speaker D: Because I could have you guys go digging for it, but that'd be pretty hard to find. [01:02:59] Speaker E: Let me. Okay, hold on. So. [01:03:03] Speaker D: Yes, Jackie, it was okay. [01:03:07] Speaker E: I got a. [01:03:14] Speaker D: Jeez, Working for that math. [01:03:22] Speaker E: I got a 27, but I think I know where it's from. But you can tell me. [01:03:26] Speaker D: Would you like to guess? Look at those blurry lines on a page. [01:03:39] Speaker B: Wow, look. [01:03:41] Speaker D: They're even more blurry. [01:03:42] Speaker C: We can't see a thing. [01:03:44] Speaker D: I would almost say it's a form of writing. [01:03:48] Speaker C: Your camera's so blurry. [01:03:50] Speaker E: We met him on. When we did the. The Hilal. One shot. [01:03:56] Speaker D: Abby, this is the ancient blue dragon from your birthday. One shot from two years ago. Okay, wait, this is him [01:04:07] Speaker C: for his name. Name. And I still didn't even remember it when you just said it. Now I gave you the spelling. [01:04:17] Speaker D: So, Abby, this is. This is the same dragon who was in the hill. And could you read us the date on that one shot? [01:04:24] Speaker E: Yes, I have. Ward of the Life Waters and Child of the fountain. 66. 1948. Atga in spring. [01:04:39] Speaker D: So this means that almost 700 years into a date scale before the date scale that came before the date scale that you're in now. He was in that one shot. [01:04:53] Speaker B: He's old. [01:04:56] Speaker D: So this Calloclast fellow. Oh, Kitty. This Caliclast fellow is before you all. What's anyone Got to say [01:05:08] Speaker B: so, like, I'm sure you're aware of the current state of our. Well, the world. [01:05:18] Speaker D: He looks up at the distant dark horizon in every direction and he nods [01:05:23] Speaker H: somberly and he says, I. [01:05:27] Speaker B: Did you feel. Did. Were you affected when it first happened? Did it hit you? [01:05:35] Speaker H: You know, I felt it, but not as you all did. [01:05:41] Speaker E: Okay. [01:05:44] Speaker H: This place is an investiture. [01:05:54] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:05:56] Speaker H: So what business have you all here? Various people. [01:06:02] Speaker E: Greta kind of steps forward and she says, we were sent. By the goddess of. By the goddess Ioun. For looking for a way to. To defeat him. [01:06:33] Speaker H: So. If you are sent by a faithful daughter, then our trust is in you. [01:06:47] Speaker D: And he shifts his weight again and the sand disperses. And as he rises, oh, he's so very big. And he just turns slightly and begins. Treading up the beach toward the more lush foliage. You can see he's walking about as slowly as he can because he understands that he moves at a much faster. [01:07:19] Speaker E: His legs are so big. [01:07:22] Speaker D: Yeah. He said if you were sent by a faithful daughter, was his faithful. [01:07:30] Speaker E: Thank you. [01:07:31] Speaker D: Okay, I take it the whole group follows instead. [01:07:34] Speaker C: Yeah. Shuffling, shuffling. [01:07:36] Speaker F: I'm gonna keep flying. Cause they're out. [01:07:38] Speaker C: Oh, that's true. [01:07:39] Speaker D: Okay. Javen's like, well, holding on. Javen. Oh, she's heavy. It's a lot of muscle. But you got her just like carrying her. [01:07:50] Speaker F: Well, I feel like there's part of Javen that like, clearly the sky is here to help us. But it's still a dragon. [01:07:57] Speaker D: Yeah, you're like running for our experiences also, Xavian, with enough experience. And from your memory of Mataheda, the ancient Draco Hydra, you don't remember the blue being a friendly variant. Not much is known of dragons in this. In this current age. But you read in some of the annals of Tchaskennen and you learned that the metallic dragons historically were more the actual allies of mortal kind. And that the chromatic dragons, which tend to survive today, are the ones who have in your experience been so much more aggressive and violent. So it is odd to see this blue dragon here like this. You all follow in near to and you just very quickly travel into this vast forest. There are some very large trees here, some very small ones. [01:08:52] Speaker H: It is thick foliage. [01:08:55] Speaker D: This place teems with life. But there are open stretches in between. Some of these sections through forest through which you could walk. Which is good because Caliclast would just be ripping through the forest if he couldn't. There's no way he could fit in the dense cover. But there are open tracts in between of sort of thick grasses that pop up and decaying foliage cover. No, actually not decaying, just fallen. But even the leaves on the ground don't look rotted. All around you, you hear whooping calls and trills and rolling songs and chirps. This place is teeming with life. There is a thick din of insect noise and organisms all around. You can see colors moving, banding through the trees, not at a staggering scale, but as populated a forest as you can imagine. And at some point in the path of your travel, you all step over sticks and as they shift serpents of brightly banded color through the grass and up trees. And at some point, this very large mammalian creature, which is a deep dark black color with stripes of blue moving horizontally along its back. And it's got this sort of bovine head, but broader and flatter. And it has these two. Two curled horns at the side that go down the back of its head, and then one very large horn out the center that curls down the back of its head. And it just stalks in between some trees. And it doesn't even particularly seem to react to caliclast or to any of you. It just continues on its way, moving from one package of foliage. Sorry, [01:10:57] Speaker F: you said the stripes going down his back. I heard it as it was moving horizontally down its back. And like the bull things like, he's just shimmying. [01:11:07] Speaker D: He's just. [01:11:11] Speaker B: The horns are going to hit. Sorry. [01:11:15] Speaker D: And Caliclas is just treading quietly. And you all are walking. Is the group just moving in total silence? Cuz it's fine if they're like, this is where we're going. That's fine too. [01:11:32] Speaker C: Yeah, [01:11:35] Speaker E: we're walking inside. [01:11:38] Speaker G: You go ahead. [01:11:39] Speaker D: I'll never get tired of people not just like coming in with what they're saying, but unmuting and going like, you could just say it. You could just go. You just roll that play. [01:11:49] Speaker E: Oh, Micah. [01:11:51] Speaker B: I was just going to say I'd like to be beside him and large, like ethereal type, kind of like, whoa, you're old and magical and crazy, is like. I don't know, it's like Craig's type, I guess. So he like, is beside this. This big old dragon. He's like, so how long have you. Have you been sitting right there? Like, how long were you in that one spot? [01:12:17] Speaker E: I want to be near Craig. I'm. I'm walking as fast as I can to keep up with Craig. [01:12:22] Speaker D: Sure. [01:12:22] Speaker E: His legs are. [01:12:23] Speaker D: You're really having to kick those little legs. And it's funny. Craig because he can move gracefully for a creature his size. It's like being near elephants and being a little unsettled at how quietly they can walk. But sometimes when parts of his body collide the edge of his shoulder with. With the barrel of his ribs, the very soft collision of his scales is not dissimilar to what your armor sounds like when you take steps. There's this strange cacophonic harmony struck between [01:12:56] Speaker H: you all as you move. [01:12:57] Speaker D: And his massive head turns and looks down at you all so deeply grooved with like, sort of gothic and morose shape. Frighteningly beautiful. As he looks at you, he says, [01:13:14] Speaker H: I don't rightly keep track of time, but quite a while, undoubtedly. [01:13:23] Speaker B: Are you hibernating? Do you just kind of. What do you do? [01:13:27] Speaker C: Do you think? [01:13:28] Speaker B: Are you asleep, [01:13:31] Speaker H: waiting? [01:13:33] Speaker G: Wow. [01:13:34] Speaker B: Wow, you are one patient guy. What are you waiting for? [01:13:44] Speaker H: I did not know, but I suppose you, [01:13:49] Speaker B: wow, I barely know you. Just kidding. He does not say that. He does not say that [01:13:58] Speaker D: when you say it, Craig, he just kind of looks at you and goes back a little forward, keeps treading again as slowly as he can. [01:14:06] Speaker B: No, but, like, really, you have. Like, do you. Have you had friends, other dragon friends, or has it just been you? Like, have you gotten used to it? [01:14:16] Speaker D: His head turns back and he says, [01:14:22] Speaker H: This portion has been of my own. But even in solitude, I am not alone here. [01:14:36] Speaker A: I think Rongrum, after seeing the boldness of Craig, comes up and he just, like, show up. Did you. What did you do with all the sailors that came here or have done? They never reached your isle. [01:14:53] Speaker D: He turns and looks at you keenly. He kind of nods to the question. [01:14:59] Speaker H: He says, some have. Very few in all these many years. But some have. Many have lived here. Many I knew closely as friends. But this isle long has moved. And so in this place they lived, and in this place they died. I've buried them. I've known 43. 43 have been marooned, died, and been valued companions to me. One ship came, barring individuals of less forthcoming will. That group I delivered to the rest of the bottom of the ocean. [01:15:59] Speaker D: And he just keeps treading. [01:16:05] Speaker F: And Wee Woo, I think, you know very much is interested with the dragon set is just kind of like distracting and just being like, you know, he, like, is a naturalist in some way. Just being like. Like being like, oh, like, you see that bird? What do you think of that tree? [01:16:19] Speaker D: At some point, as you all are flying, Wee Woo goes, just put me down and go. Enjoy the nature, you dork. Okay, you swing down and drop her. And you're just like, oh, enamored with it all. At one point, Javian, as everyone is focused on the dragon and you are. You're not. Not looking at the dragon. [01:16:38] Speaker F: No, no, no. It's just almost like I'm letting myself think about something that's not the dragon. [01:16:42] Speaker D: As you can't. It's this weird. Like, you have to look at the dragon, but, like, whoa. [01:16:46] Speaker H: That forest. [01:16:47] Speaker D: And this is very much a part of your character that's been embodied. As you look at the forest. At one point, you see something moving through the trees. And you realize it's an incredibly large fela. It's like a tiger. But if it were far more gold than orange, and if it were without tail, about 12ft long, about 7 foot at the shoulder, is just kind of stalking through the near treeline at some point, very slowly, kind of tailing along you all. And you cannot help but react protectively, Shavian, until you watch it cross out of the tree line, kind of move behind everyone, but so silently, no one else really notices. And it just stops and sits and watches everyone continue forward. And you're the only member of the party who particularly notices as it just sits there and sits and watches everyone walk away. The natural dynamics on this isle are odd. [01:17:51] Speaker F: The urge to take out the notebook, but, like, there's too much going on to dig that out. [01:17:55] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah. You're like. I mean, it's being burned in your mind to watch. Yeah, go ahead. [01:18:06] Speaker E: After Oz, no. Sorry. Craig and Ron Grimm talk to Pallid class. [01:18:14] Speaker G: She. [01:18:15] Speaker E: She works up the nerve, and she asks, how long have you been on the island? [01:18:26] Speaker H: I do not know. For a very long time. For most of the ages of this world I have. I was cold here long ago. Before the great cities began, before they rose and fell to the Second and Third Ages. Before they began moving the cities to the skies. Before the war broke, before the curse, [01:19:04] Speaker D: before everything grew. [01:19:11] Speaker H: I'm not sure of the time. [01:19:14] Speaker E: Have you been here as long as the island has been here? [01:19:20] Speaker A: No. [01:19:22] Speaker D: No. [01:19:23] Speaker H: I was given the ward while its true keeper sleeps. And I have slept for countless ages, too. [01:19:40] Speaker E: Okay. [01:19:42] Speaker B: My. [01:19:43] Speaker G: I'm gonna, like, walk up to him and start talking to him, too. My family was tasked to be the keepers of the well. [01:19:56] Speaker H: Yes. [01:19:58] Speaker D: It was you. [01:19:58] Speaker H: I felt this today. [01:19:59] Speaker F: I. [01:20:01] Speaker H: Your family, your bloodline is of this place. All your heirs and all your forebearers are children of this isle. You won't know them, but cousins are ahead, I suppose, [01:20:30] Speaker G: And I'll just be a little Deep in thought after that, [01:20:35] Speaker D: he smiles a bit at you when he says that, very softly, even though [01:20:39] Speaker H: no expression looks too soft on his face, continues walking. [01:20:43] Speaker D: He's moving as slowly as he can. It's a very meandering pace as he walks with you all. As you all are moving forward. Does anyone have any other desperate notes of roleplay they're trying to interject? Because fine, if they do. Okay. As you all are meandering forward, Ro, [01:21:05] Speaker H: you feel a sudden turn inside you, [01:21:13] Speaker D: like getting sick to your stomach. And you feel a great internal withering. In a moment, a very sudden pang. It cramps in your lower abdomen. It turns your stomach to nausea. Your chest clenches and your heart beats too very hard. And I need you to go ahead and make a constitution saving throw. Throw for me. [01:21:48] Speaker C: What? [01:21:49] Speaker D: And when you're done, I need Boz to do the same. [01:21:52] Speaker C: Oh, shoot. It's a dryad thing, isn't it? [01:22:00] Speaker F: I can't believe a pen to S is going to take Rowena out. [01:22:06] Speaker D: So you guys are walking Road dies. So up ahead in the forest, [01:22:11] Speaker B: go [01:22:11] Speaker D: ahead and bring out your second character. [01:22:12] Speaker F: Well, I was thinking the game. [01:22:16] Speaker D: I'd like to be walking and then I'd like to just. Oof. [01:22:20] Speaker C: Crap on a cracker. [01:22:22] Speaker A: We got a per diem. [01:22:24] Speaker C: Does Boz have a per diem that's an npc? [01:22:29] Speaker D: Sadly, no. [01:22:30] Speaker C: But he didn't use the beam. [01:22:33] Speaker E: No. [01:22:34] Speaker D: Okay. [01:22:38] Speaker E: Doesn't that mean he's always on time? [01:22:41] Speaker C: Yeah, [01:22:43] Speaker D: absolutely. Boss also means he has none of the benefits of a PC. [01:22:48] Speaker C: Boss got a six, which. And Ro got a 15. [01:22:57] Speaker D: Okay. [01:23:02] Speaker C: And that was with her perium. [01:23:04] Speaker D: You all fall forward and everyone else, I mean, you know, there's a lot going on. It. It would be excusable to miss some of the things happening here. But like unconscious transpires, you like to your knees fall or like kind of all. [01:23:22] Speaker C: I was like, am I unconscious? [01:23:24] Speaker D: Like. Like falling over very suddenly. [01:23:27] Speaker C: Okay. [01:23:28] Speaker D: Your party members can see suddenly as Ro doubles over to the ground. And Boz does as well. Can I try to catch there is? Sure, yeah, yeah. As Ro falls over, you grab her in her arms. Boz is walking a bit more to his lonesome, observing things. And he doubles over and falls. And Ro, you feel this horrible ache inside. And it feels like just very suddenly being sapped of all you your strength. And it does not leave. And Boss two doubles over and having failed your saving throw row, both you and Boz have suddenly incurred a point of exhaustion. And right now, in this moment, you can just write this anywhere in your notes or whatever. We'll come back to it. In this moment right now, you have a point of exhaustion. And two other things are the case. Your movement is halved right now and your strength score is, at this moment halved. Both you and that's a modifier. The score of both you and Boz is, in this moment, halved. [01:24:41] Speaker G: Seeing that happen, I feel like Janice would have PTSD from when Shavian did that to her in Omkove. So can I figure out if it's the same thing? Does it feel or look like the same thing? [01:24:59] Speaker D: Absolutely. The whole party stops. Caliclast also stops and turns. He kind of every time he stops, he kind of like the way dogs sit. He puts his hips down and keeps his shoulders up. And he turns and he looks not above it all, not aloof, but calm, but concerned. Turns and looks for Oz's brown. And obviously party members stop and attend to people rather quickly. Tello rushes to Boz and kind of catches him. And as he goes towards Boz, at [01:25:27] Speaker F: a really good point, to just like swoop down to someone also. [01:25:30] Speaker D: Absolutely. Do you want to swoop to Boz or to Ro? It doesn't matter. [01:25:34] Speaker F: J, I guess to boss just because he's farther from other people. [01:25:37] Speaker D: Sure. You. You land down next to him. You get there about it. As Tell and as Tello lifts Boz up by the shoulders, he goes to push himself up and he doesn't have the strength and he sort of collapses down a little bit and Tello kind of has to hold him in his arms. Ro, as you kind of are caught by Janice in her arms, you, like, you feel nauseated and your head hurts and you feel suddenly sickened and. Janice, I'll have you give me, unfortunately, an arcana check also. Neither here nor there, if this probably shouldn't happen, but if while the Mega Party was formed at some point in these sessions, you all wanted to try to go for the highest, maximum possible check while Janice is around. And you have a bard and you could do guidance and you have per diem. I don't know if you want to play that dumb mini game. You can, but anyway, we do. Janice, you can't make. You can't on this one. [01:26:39] Speaker C: I know. [01:26:40] Speaker D: Can't give anybody information, but you can go ahead and make that arcana check. Janice, I have a question. [01:26:47] Speaker C: Has. Has Ro ever. Has she ever felt these symptoms before? Like she's been like, cursed before? She's been like, different things like that. Has she ever, like, felt this particular feeling before? [01:27:04] Speaker D: As Janice makes her check, I will elaborate. [01:27:06] Speaker G: 26. [01:27:08] Speaker D: 26. So low. [01:27:11] Speaker F: What? [01:27:12] Speaker C: I mean, that is low, but it's still good. [01:27:16] Speaker D: The 26, Janice. [01:27:18] Speaker G: Ridiculous. [01:27:19] Speaker D: It strikes you there is a very apparent similarity you recognize and also something you don't. But some inferences you could probably make. Again, your magical knowledge is one of savantism of this, like, mortally precocious. Just. You just. You just understand, you just discern, you just get it. The way that a true genius, actually that word is thrown away, is thrown around way too much in our culture. But like a genius of an age, the way that they just innately perceive something. This is your relationship to magic, given the powers that flow through you. And you recognize instantly that sort of the way the mortal flesh reacts to the changes in the greater arcane. And it is in some way remnant of the far more severe soul fire that recently happened in the wake of the Veil being burned up, but at a smaller scale. It is, however, also, though not the same intensity as what beset Xavian five years ago, but it reminds you of, again, what it's like to watch a mortal being where some part of their magical existence is tied to a force, to watch that connection tampered with. So it does, in that way, remind you of, though you're not sure beyond their Ro. This feels a little bit like when you got cursed by Shiztha, if not just much more. It's like the best way I know how to compare it is it's like the difference between like, knowing the sting of a paper cut and then knowing, like, the ache of, like, a really severe cramp that's taking up multiple parts of your body. Like the papercut might be a higher level of sting. That large intersectional cramp might be a lower register pain, but it's so much broader and deeper and wider. It's like that. So it's not quite the sting of that curse you receive from Shiztha, but it's more broad. And as you all look over, Boz looks all the worse off. Like, Ro is recovering after 15 or 20 seconds and everyone's attending to her. Boz is struggling and weak, and he doesn't look like he's in any sudden eminent threat. He just looks greatly sapped and weakened. Caliclas looks confer, looks concerned in sighs, but says nothing, just watches you all. [01:29:47] Speaker F: I know you didn't say anything about hp, but for whatever it's worth, he is with his healing aura. [01:29:57] Speaker D: Okay, okay. And Javen is you are nearby. That aura of light pours off of You. But Boz doesn't seem to recover from whatever's ailing him in your presence, which is concerning because you have watched that aura heal egregious harms. [01:30:13] Speaker G: I'm going to look at Caliclast and say, do you know what's happening? [01:30:23] Speaker D: Again, it's not aloofness. He looks deeply concerned, but also very calm. And he just responds [01:30:31] Speaker H: to a degree. [01:30:39] Speaker C: Can Ro talk? Like, am I able to, like, speak? [01:30:42] Speaker D: Yes, Ro, you are able to speak, though you feel weak as you speak. [01:30:45] Speaker C: Okay. [01:30:46] Speaker D: But Boz, like, goes to say something and kind of chokes on his words a little bit. He. He's just breathing shallowly. [01:30:55] Speaker C: Does it have to do with. It's only affecting us. It's only affecting, like, druidically. [01:31:08] Speaker D: Ueg rushes to Boz's side, and he pours in at a level of healing. If you want to burn. A first or second level spell. I don't know. [01:31:15] Speaker H: Carrots. [01:31:15] Speaker D: We don't even really have to keep track of it. He places a cure wounds and mutters. And the magic flows across boss. But again, he doesn't seem particularly aided by that specific. So you all get the feeling that it's not a wound necessarily. [01:31:29] Speaker C: I'm gonna. [01:31:29] Speaker D: And can I tell. [01:31:32] Speaker C: Can I think of my, like, my connection again, like, to the lost Lands, kind of. And see if I can feel the [01:31:39] Speaker D: direction as you are feeling all of these other things. The other thing that is happening is as you blink and sort of like, you know, recover from these wave of senses, you feel your keen mind is entirely dampened again. That's what I figured. Not at all functioning. [01:31:56] Speaker C: Is he. Is it the loss? I think the loss. The lost lands. Could it be. Could he have gotten to them? And she looks over at Boz just to check on him. [01:32:14] Speaker D: Boz looks up at you. He looks at you and registers your eyes. [01:32:21] Speaker H: And he just. [01:32:26] Speaker D: You know that face that Landon would get where he gets a little vacant when he's truly concerned about something. Boz is looking at you with that face. Just that, like, [01:32:40] Speaker H: We have to go there if he's there. I. I don't. [01:32:46] Speaker D: And he kind of like, falters stammeringly. Just. He can't really. Like, he looks like he's having. Oh, my goodness. He looks like he's starting to have a panic attack, but doesn't have the energy for a panic attack. Like, it's starting and stopping. And he's just. [01:33:01] Speaker C: I grabbed Greta. Greta. Check, Check. Balls's bees. [01:33:08] Speaker D: I think you guys left there. [01:33:10] Speaker C: Oh, did he. [01:33:11] Speaker H: Ouch. [01:33:12] Speaker C: Okay. [01:33:12] Speaker G: And she dry in the area. [01:33:15] Speaker D: I don't know. [01:33:19] Speaker E: So we don't have the bees. [01:33:21] Speaker C: So we don't have the bees with us. [01:33:23] Speaker D: I don't think you guys want to have the bees with you. [01:33:26] Speaker C: Oh. Oh, crap. [01:33:29] Speaker D: I don't even mean for this moment. I just mean. [01:33:30] Speaker C: Okay. [01:33:31] Speaker D: I don't think that's a logistic. You want to track right now. If you feel me. [01:33:35] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. [01:33:38] Speaker A: I'm going to go and be like, I can carry him. [01:33:45] Speaker C: Craig, can I have, Can I have the stone? [01:33:48] Speaker B: Yes, for sure. [01:33:49] Speaker C: The sending stone. [01:33:52] Speaker B: Yeah. He just takes it and gives it to him. [01:33:54] Speaker D: Greg, you supply it to Ro. [01:33:56] Speaker C: I hate this. I don't even want to do this as a person, as a player. Ro thinks of Jath. [01:34:03] Speaker B: She. [01:34:07] Speaker C: She. She thinks of Jath and she says, are you there? [01:34:14] Speaker H: Sorry, I need to go open the table. [01:34:17] Speaker C: Hit the table. You should delete the table. [01:34:22] Speaker H: Yeah, sorry. Give me a second here. [01:34:28] Speaker D: Sorry to leave you in this kind of suspense. [01:34:31] Speaker G: It's okay. I feel like you enjoy it. [01:34:35] Speaker D: I don't. No matter how much I am suspected of evil, it brings me great discomfort. [01:34:44] Speaker F: I think he has great joy in this game. Like, oh, I was just thinking, this guy, this guy to, like, kill half the best users of the world. And then he's actually rolling. He's like, oh, no. [01:34:55] Speaker D: The day I came up with that idea, it stressed me out. [01:34:59] Speaker H: So I did it. [01:35:01] Speaker B: Yeah, I can't imagine it's a good story. [01:35:04] Speaker D: As you grip the stone, what do you say? Oh, no, [01:35:10] Speaker C: I say, oh, I'm. Are you. Are you there? That's all she has the strength to say. [01:35:23] Speaker H: Oh, my goodness. [01:35:24] Speaker D: Ro, I'm so worried about you. [01:35:28] Speaker H: I didn't have a way to speak to you. [01:35:31] Speaker D: Darling, are you all right? Are you okay? [01:35:33] Speaker C: I'm. [01:35:34] Speaker D: I have no idea what's going on. [01:35:36] Speaker C: I, I, Yeah, I'm. A lot of bad things have happened. Are. What. Are the lost lands okay? Right now I don't feel. [01:35:47] Speaker H: No, no. [01:35:47] Speaker C: The same connection. [01:35:48] Speaker D: Where are you? Are you, Are you all right? [01:35:52] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm, I'm okay. I'm okay. She's, like, trying as much to mask her. [01:35:56] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:35:57] Speaker C: Her pain to him. [01:35:59] Speaker D: Did you, did you feel it just then, too? [01:36:01] Speaker H: You sound. [01:36:03] Speaker E: Yeah. [01:36:04] Speaker C: Balls and I, rough. Balls and I both. We're really far away from you right now, I believe, but we both kind of collapse. Balls is doing worse than me. I'm. [01:36:15] Speaker D: I hope it's not like this where you are. [01:36:17] Speaker H: The sky has been ash for days. [01:36:20] Speaker C: Yeah, same. [01:36:22] Speaker D: A couple of the folks I knew just Died. I wrote. I think something's really wrong. I mean, I don't know what's going on in the world, but I think there's. [01:36:31] Speaker H: I think there's serious danger. [01:36:33] Speaker D: You and your friends need to get somewhere safe. [01:36:36] Speaker C: We. We will, we will. Just you stay safe. [01:36:43] Speaker D: All right? [01:36:43] Speaker H: And I don't. Oh, I don't know who could come to your aid. [01:36:50] Speaker C: No, I'm actually, I don't. Ro. Is Ro able to, like, try? Is she. Is she strong enough to try? To cast like a prestidigitation. [01:37:01] Speaker D: Your body works you as you. [01:37:04] Speaker C: She tries to grasp prestigation because that's her easiest spell. [01:37:09] Speaker D: There is a slight, like, ruffle of your hair and your. The sweat is removed from your bow, from your brow. You clean yourself. [01:37:17] Speaker C: No, I. My magic's. My magic project's working. I'm just. I. Oh, it must be tired. [01:37:24] Speaker H: You're more capable than I am. Oh, hon, I'm so glad to hear [01:37:27] Speaker D: that you're all right. [01:37:28] Speaker C: I. I'm. You don't understand how happy I am [01:37:31] Speaker D: to hear that the cat's okay. I've been feeding him. He's doing fine. [01:37:35] Speaker B: I'm. [01:37:35] Speaker C: I'm glad. I'm. Give him. Give him a scratch for me. I'm. [01:37:40] Speaker D: You have to go. I'm heard from you in months. [01:37:44] Speaker C: Yeah, for now I have to go, but please just stay safe. If you can get just underground, don't go outside or go underground or. [01:37:56] Speaker H: Okay, I mean, I've been in my [01:37:57] Speaker D: house and that's kind of underground. [01:37:59] Speaker C: Just stay there. [01:38:00] Speaker H: I'm going to get the fruit from outside. [01:38:02] Speaker C: When this is. When this is on in a while, I would like to come visit you again and bring you some. Someone I. I'd like you to meet. But please just stay. Stay safe and. [01:38:18] Speaker H: Okay. [01:38:19] Speaker C: Yeah, just stay safe. [01:38:22] Speaker H: Okay. [01:38:22] Speaker D: I love you, Rona. [01:38:24] Speaker C: I. I love you too, dad. She gives the stone back to Craig. [01:38:35] Speaker D: Well, the moment you hand the stone back to Craig, you look over and [01:38:38] Speaker H: you see the deeply the look of [01:38:44] Speaker D: shock on Boz's face as you taking your focus off of the call. You just have perceive what Xavian and Tello and Uegg watched happen while you were speaking, which is that as you were prompted to test your spellcasting, Boz tried his. And as he tried to do some sort of restorative spell on himself, absolutely no magic responded. And you look at the shocked look on his face. [01:39:22] Speaker C: I. I know, like, okay. I know he's like, okay. I asked boss, I say, would it have. He said that. He said that the sky there has been dark for days. I didn't think it would have reached. I mean, I figured it did, but why are we feeling it now? [01:39:47] Speaker D: I. Boz. Boz looks up and just goes, agba. [01:39:54] Speaker C: Oh, is he going after? Is he going after? [01:39:59] Speaker D: Ewan kind of shakes his head and goes. I mean, he points at Greta. [01:40:03] Speaker H: I said he was going north. [01:40:06] Speaker D: That's. That's not there. But he, like, kind of holds his necklace and he says, I've been feeling it in the plants all around. [01:40:16] Speaker H: My magic relates to that, too. I think the world's dying, [01:40:22] Speaker C: which would mean a. [01:40:31] Speaker D: He just puts a hand on Baz's shoulder and says in sylvan. No, I don't think he speaks Sylvan. He puts a hand on his shoulder [01:40:38] Speaker H: and he says, I'm sorry, Boz. [01:40:42] Speaker D: Baz is just kind of shaking a [01:40:44] Speaker H: little bit, pulling his arms in. [01:40:46] Speaker D: And in this moment, you all understand that at this time, Boz has lost connection to his Druidic power. [01:40:54] Speaker E: Wow. [01:41:01] Speaker B: Okay. [01:41:02] Speaker G: I, like, do, like, a history check. I feel like I would have learned about, like, what happens. Like, would it come back, you know, like, in the Instance Institute? [01:41:12] Speaker D: Like, not only is the Institute not aware of the existence of the Lost Lands, and not only is Ogba, the Great Mother Tree, completely undocumented, but the great primal trees in this age to the knowledge of the mortal world are dead and past, and their life cycles are not documented. [01:41:29] Speaker G: I don't mean that. I meant like a Druid. [01:41:33] Speaker C: Oh. [01:41:36] Speaker D: Magics don't tend to leave magic users. These times are very unprecedented. [01:41:41] Speaker C: Can I do an arcana check at disadvantage to see if. If Boz were closer to his home, if he could possibly get his magic back? [01:41:56] Speaker D: Sure. Well, Andrew, our. [01:41:59] Speaker F: So, yeah, we've been in nuclear winter for days, not 20. But so are the plants here on the island, though, like, better off than they look like we thriving because they've had sunlight. [01:42:12] Speaker D: Okay, well, so who knows? [01:42:17] Speaker C: So. [01:42:17] Speaker F: Yeah, I'm sorry. [01:42:19] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:42:20] Speaker C: My first roll was a nat 20. [01:42:22] Speaker D: Yep. [01:42:24] Speaker C: But my second roll was a 2, so that gives me a 17. [01:42:30] Speaker G: Heartbreaking. [01:42:31] Speaker D: Truly, truly heartbreaking. Did you hear that maniacal cackle? Roe? With a 17, you are innately aware that you can move as close as you want to a dying fire. Doesn't really change the fact that it's going to stop giving off heat at some point. [01:42:55] Speaker E: That's so sad. [01:42:58] Speaker D: As you all are racing through these thoughts, there is this very intense thudding, and the ground shakes slightly as Caliclast draws nearer. And this huge limb Raises up off the ground this foot and hand, so much greater than the size of any of you. And this massive claw, this claw itself, as large as rose body that comes down to this, this terrible tip, just raises itself and barely touches your forehead. Roe as he speaks in the deepest speech. And he's going to cast a greater restoration on you. [01:43:32] Speaker C: Holy crap. [01:43:34] Speaker D: And your point of exhaustion will be taken away, as well as your halved movement and your strength impediment. Okay, so there's this sudden wave of magic that rushes across you. [01:43:50] Speaker H: And you. [01:43:52] Speaker D: You still feel a little wrong inside, but you feel physically recovered. And wordlessly, Kalaklast just thunders over to Baz and lifts up the same claw as Uegg, rotates him and goes, [01:44:07] Speaker H: I was about to do the same. [01:44:09] Speaker D: And Caliclas just nods and touches Baza's forehead all the same. And Baz shudders and coughs a little bit, but then just stays equally as quiet. Very deeply shocked, looking like he can't cope with the things he's feeling and experiencing in the moment. As he sits up, he's just breathing heavily. He looks a little. Some of the colors returning to his skin. He looks physically repaired, but still just deeply shocked, concerned. [01:44:44] Speaker C: We have to be saved. [01:44:51] Speaker E: Do we think that he's there now? [01:44:56] Speaker C: I don't know. I mean, I know Ja. Jath is physically not as close. I mean, he's on his own island. But I feel like he would. [01:45:10] Speaker H: Light of this moment that you feel. But the bloodied one is here. [01:45:15] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:45:16] Speaker H: Nowhere is safe. [01:45:18] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:45:18] Speaker H: You've been told for what he comes. His return heralds only one end. What you feel is a symptom. And I mean, not to make light of of it, but all of your magics are likely in jeopardy. Your existence, your world. He's slain gods. [01:45:42] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:45:43] Speaker H: And by this force. [01:45:44] Speaker D: And he turns and looks at Greta and Ueg. [01:45:46] Speaker H: The clerics lose their magic. [01:45:52] Speaker D: And he turns and looks at Janus [01:45:53] Speaker H: and Javen and he says, what if that well is poisoned? There'll be no life left in this world. [01:46:04] Speaker D: And he just turns and looks at Boz again. Not aloof, not cold, but surely. [01:46:08] Speaker H: And he says, I am sorry, Druid. I will be at the top. [01:46:17] Speaker D: And he turns and just begins slowly trailing up that path again, just pressing onward. [01:46:29] Speaker C: Bro's still there with Boz, and I'm. [01:46:33] Speaker D: You feel physically recovered, bro. Also, anyone hop in with anything they want? There's a lot of players just take the scenes. [01:46:40] Speaker C: She looks at Craig and. And Greta and Tello, and she's like, I I think I'm worried. Well, I mean, Baal's end Jath, which probably means anyone born of the Lost Lands no longer has their powers. I think it affected me less, maybe because I am only half. I don't. I don't know. [01:47:10] Speaker E: I think your magic comes from your music and Boz's and Jaths came from the nature. Right? [01:47:17] Speaker C: True. Yeah. Yeah. [01:47:20] Speaker E: Greta goes over and she puts a hand on Boz and kind of like, she gives him like a hug. [01:47:29] Speaker D: He like, kind of pulls from it a bit and he just says, I can't. [01:47:33] Speaker H: I can't. [01:47:34] Speaker E: Yeah, Yeah. [01:47:38] Speaker H: I can't. We have to. I have to. [01:47:45] Speaker D: I have to. [01:47:49] Speaker H: I can't do this. [01:47:51] Speaker C: It's okay, boss. It's okay. [01:48:02] Speaker E: We're gonna do the best that we can. [01:48:06] Speaker H: So that's just it. [01:48:09] Speaker D: Just like that. [01:48:19] Speaker G: I mean, I. I feel like if we. If we're able to stop him, maybe it'll reverse it or something. [01:48:25] Speaker H: Yeah, I touch your stuff, too. [01:48:28] Speaker C: If we do our part, maybe you can do something there. I. [01:48:34] Speaker G: If it affects everything, we won't. We all won't have our powers. [01:48:43] Speaker A: I think Ron Grimm, in the. In the midst of this, seeing a man who's losing his will, he kind of. Not in a way if, like, Boz shies away from it, he's not going to, but he's going to try to put his hand on his shoulder. And I think Boz is huge, right? Compared to me. [01:49:01] Speaker D: Well, well, yes and no. I mean, he's. He's twice your height. [01:49:06] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:49:07] Speaker D: But your frame is very stout. Sure. So, like, in the same way that, like, if you imagined. Oh, this is the dorkiest comparison. If you imagined Legolas sitting on the ground, Gimli would look quite his size. And so. And Boz is there sitting, so you could reach his hand very, very easily or his shoulder very easily. [01:49:26] Speaker A: I put my hand on his shoulder and I say, I mean this in no real comfort, for you are willing to put your life on the line to save the world. But sometimes the hardest assignments are the ones to protect your home while others save the world. [01:49:51] Speaker D: Boss. Just kind of. When he looks at you, it's hard to tell if he's glaring at you. He just looks a little shocked. And you can't tell if he's just balking at those words or at this reality he can't process, but he just kind of turns and looks at you. And he looks all at the same [01:50:08] Speaker H: time, [01:50:12] Speaker D: like, enraged, but also completely confused. Like he also doesn't understand it all. And he Just. [01:50:22] Speaker H: Yeah, okay. Go up the mountain. I guess. I'll just be here. [01:50:41] Speaker C: Boz, I can take you home if. [01:50:50] Speaker D: Calaclast is some distance up the hill. He's gotten two or 300ft away from you all now, and you think you'd be out of his olive oil range, but his head turns and he just [01:50:58] Speaker H: says if you leave, you'll be hard pressed to return. [01:51:06] Speaker D: And he continues treading away. [01:51:08] Speaker F: I think we'll be safe if you continue with us. [01:51:13] Speaker D: Tell just. He squeezes B's shoulder and he looks up and he goes, [01:51:20] Speaker H: I'll stay with him. You all are the magical ones. [01:51:30] Speaker D: He and I will walk up slowly behind you and when we get there, we get there. [01:51:38] Speaker H: I've owed him one for a long time. You all go ahead. [01:51:45] Speaker D: We'll catch up. [01:51:49] Speaker C: If he lets her. Ro reaches out to squeeze Boz's hand. [01:51:54] Speaker D: Okay. He refuted Greta's embracement before, but his shock seems to be stilling him more now, like a numbing and as you reach for his hand now, there's no reaction. You squeeze it. He doesn't. He rotates his hand slightly, kind of squeezing it but also not fully reacting, Just like scowling with confusion. [01:52:23] Speaker E: Go ahead. [01:52:25] Speaker C: I just. [01:52:25] Speaker G: I [01:52:28] Speaker C: pluck one of my flowers and I tuck it in his pocket. [01:52:32] Speaker D: Okay. [01:52:36] Speaker E: Greta takes this sending stone from Craig and she presses it into Tellah's hand and says, just call us if you need anything. [01:52:47] Speaker H: Of course, We'll be behind you. I'll get this moving in a bit, but I think you guys have urgent business. [01:53:00] Speaker E: Edda nods. And she goes up after the dragon. [01:53:09] Speaker D: Ueg reaches out and kind of squeezes Tello's arm and just gives him this strangely knowing nod. Tello doesn't seem to. He doesn't seem completely lost in the expression, but also not fully understanding, but he just nods back and Yue gets up and walks with Yua [01:53:31] Speaker H: and in [01:53:32] Speaker D: this very strange, [01:53:37] Speaker H: unsatisfying, confusing moment, the [01:53:41] Speaker D: fungi's move on without Boz left there by the tree up the hill. [01:53:51] Speaker H: And the rest of the walk is [01:53:53] Speaker D: a great deal more somber. It's fine if no one has any other further conversation as you all travel at some point as you're moving up the hill, Uegg sidles up near Janice [01:54:10] Speaker H: and he says in a quieter tone, [01:54:13] Speaker D: we're really only only two Janus. [01:54:15] Speaker H: And he says, hey, I. I wanted to say. I'm not sure what I want to say, but I want to say something to you and I think maybe I was reminded it's been going so Hard so fast here. For a little bit, I think I kind of forgot how to think and feel, you know, just surviving the way things are with us often. [01:54:54] Speaker G: Yes. [01:54:55] Speaker H: And I think that jarred me to. I'm glad it was you, Janice. When you met me in the street, I. I, You know, I. If you'd never met me, I. I would have just carried on. I would have found somebody else. That's all I know. I would have helped somebody. I would. I would have. I would have grabbed onto something. But no matter how many wounds I closed or prayers I said and I know wouldn't have ever stopped saying, [01:55:54] Speaker D: I [01:55:54] Speaker H: don't think I would have really believed much of anything. I think my faith would have quietly died my whole life. And if I could have known everything that was coming, if I could have [01:56:12] Speaker D: seen into the future and. [01:56:18] Speaker H: And seen all the. All the hell we danced through together, I. I wouldn't have gone with you. Not a chance. But I'm glad I didn't know. Yeah, I'm glad I didn't know. I'm glad I was blind to it all. I'm glad it was you. [01:56:41] Speaker G: I think we wouldn't have been able to do half the things that. That we have without you. I'm incredibly glad that it was you. [01:56:54] Speaker D: He gives you the warmest, dopest smile or dopiest smile, and he goes, no, [01:56:59] Speaker H: no, you couldn't have. [01:57:04] Speaker G: And then I'll just, like, pat him on his shoulder, you know, and, like, just keep my hand there for a while. [01:57:09] Speaker D: He just smiles at you, letting his arms sway a lot as he. He has this kind of, like. Like, kind of not quite as comically exaggerated, but he walks like Shaggy from Scooby Doo a little bit. [01:57:20] Speaker H: And he just. He just smiles and says, I love Reganus. [01:57:25] Speaker D: And he keeps walking. [01:57:28] Speaker G: Love you too. [01:57:32] Speaker E: Ed is going to walk up behind Ro or, like, walk up beside her and, like, take her hand and just, like, hold it as they're walking, and she's gonna say, like, we're gonna figure it out. I think that we can. And I don't know if we can make it better, but I hope that we can. I know that we'll try to make it better. [01:57:59] Speaker C: I. Yeah, I think. I hope Janice is right, that. That maybe some of it can be reversed a little bit if. If we win. [01:58:18] Speaker E: Yeah, I think that it. I. I think I. Yeah, I hope that it can. And I. I have faith that if. If even a little bit of it is protected, then it'll grow back. [01:58:39] Speaker C: I am glad that. I'm Glad. I'm glad it didn't. I'm glad he's alive and I'm glad that. Well, and Boz. [01:58:57] Speaker E: Oh yeah, everyone. [01:58:58] Speaker C: I didn't know how it would affect. I mean I think we felt the same things but I'm certain that he felt it at a greater strength than me growing up. [01:59:17] Speaker H: Eternal. [01:59:18] Speaker E: Well and yeah, but I am glad [01:59:20] Speaker C: that death is alive. That was a call I was dreading and you know, silver lining and all. [01:59:32] Speaker E: Yeah, I hope that we can help. [01:59:40] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:59:44] Speaker D: That pervasive somber displacement of what to say and do and be holds over the strained walk up. And you all just walk quietly. Javen. At some point you notice that your girlfriend has a very wee Woo's pretty unflappable. She's not the process your emotions type. She's the carry through and joke about it type. But you notice she has a really worried look on her face, see while they're walking up the mountain. But she doesn't say a thing about it. [02:00:20] Speaker F: I was literally just thinking about that before. You said nothing about her. That he was going to pay attention to her because her magic is also a level of placement based and her. I know her home is the final. Is the final objective. So yeah, he's going to, I don't know, keep a close eye on her, but maybe not mention anything yet. Just walk by her and squeeze her shoulder. [02:00:52] Speaker D: Neither of you say a thing. But you watch for her. Imagine what she might be feeling. Party treads up. You all walk quietly, a bit shocked. And eventually the forest thins a bit. [02:01:11] Speaker H: There's still beautiful trees as you all [02:01:14] Speaker D: move further up now indeed the leaves range wildly in color, diversity and individual ingenuity which pales the shock of a Japanese maple. You see leaves of purple and pink and red and lime and flowers that look fantastical and comical in their arrangement and structure. And there are at some point there are almost what look like hanging lights, like Christmas lights between trees. But there are these long organic fibers that seem to have glowing organism along them that blink in and out even in the daylight between trees. [02:02:03] Speaker F: Fiber optics. [02:02:06] Speaker D: And as you all get further up as some of the soil disappears and grasses become less common in forbs and flowers along the ground and thick succulent plants growing on the sides of walks throughout apertures and cracks. You notice that some of the exposed more igneous stone has bands of precious minerals in it and gemstones and xavian and janus and rongrim. You all have seen this kind of physical response in a landscape before. As you grow near a Source of very powerful deep magic. The land begins to be filled with precious methods, materials. And you all eventually realized, sorry, you all didn't see this exact mineral response because the Wellspring was in a wooded area. [02:02:59] Speaker E: I feel like we saw this in the Lost Lands, though, with the Mushroom People. [02:03:04] Speaker D: You did. You did, yes, in that big chamber of the evaporated Wellspring. And as you all move further, the. You realize eventually that that dark topographical point you're walking to is a great caldera. And at this yawning, crowned jaw of this long dead volcano, there is [02:03:35] Speaker H: this [02:03:35] Speaker D: great broad, shallow mouth of a mountain, dark and fractured. And as you all near closer, Caliclast has been walking entirely quietly. He stops. He doesn't sit, but he just stops where he's standing. [02:03:54] Speaker H: And he turns and he says, I yield you to the keeper. [02:04:03] Speaker D: And he turns his head back toward the caldera, and he bends his limbs slightly, rears back, and lets out this one massive roar that just thunders across the landscape and shakes you all as it. Roars outward. As he does, there's this long pause. It was also thundering in your ears. And then you all watch as there's this spark of reflective light at the lip of the caldera some couple thousand feet ahead. And there's this strange optical occlusion in the sky, moving, moving toward you all [02:04:56] Speaker H: that gets bigger and bigger and bigger. [02:05:02] Speaker D: And that is not what I wanted to do. [02:05:05] Speaker H: Computer, thank you. [02:05:08] Speaker D: And eventually, what begins to look like a mass of living mirrors is flying through the sky toward you all. It's fine if no one's doing anything in particular. I'm just checking to see if anyone is. [02:05:31] Speaker E: I'm looking at that thing in the sky. [02:05:33] Speaker C: I'm looking at the mirrors in the sky. How far away is it? You said it keeps getting closer, but. Well, it is coming fast. [02:05:46] Speaker F: Top of the caldera. Looking into it. Or are we at. [02:05:49] Speaker D: Yeah, he didn't take you all the way to its edge. [02:05:52] Speaker F: We're not to the. [02:05:53] Speaker C: Remy, wait, where did he roar? Did he roar up or down? Like, was he, like, calling out for someone? Is that what. [02:05:59] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, I'm gonna send an image and more in reference. Please don't look there yet. [02:06:04] Speaker E: I want to look at it. [02:06:11] Speaker D: This great reflective object nears and grows and grows until. Oh. Landing in front of you on the immense mountainside is a very large dragon. I've chosen artwork for a different kind because it seems the most appropriate to me. But if you'd like to go look in Lauren reference, just Take whatever you look at and really play it up in your mind. This is some of the 2024's artwork for a silver dragon. And I love this image. I think it's one of my favorite depictions of a dragon I've ever seen. But the dragon which lands there is this color. [02:07:02] Speaker C: Zach said, finally, final episodes of the campaign. We're gonna really put the dragons in the Dungeons and Dragons. [02:07:08] Speaker D: Hey, man. Years ago, I said, what should there be more of in dnd? And Daniel said, dragons and giants. And I said, hurt [02:07:20] Speaker F: dragon drop. [02:07:21] Speaker B: We have too many dungeons. Okay? And we had to make up for [02:07:25] Speaker D: some dragons missing the dragons missing them. And this trip dragon that lands is rather than silver, like a gleaming platinum all over its body. But that frill that you see in the artwork for the silver dragon, there's one down the middle and then two smaller ones out to either side. The backs of her jaw protrude into these massive horns that curl up. She gleams with brilliant light at every angle. And she dwarfs Cala classed. She makes him look so very small. Janus and Javian. So much bigger than Yeppen. [02:08:09] Speaker F: Oh, [02:08:12] Speaker D: this dragon that lands is about. She. She lands and sits, lowering the back half of her body. And when she sits, her head comes to somewhere between five and six stories in the air. [02:08:30] Speaker C: Does she land, like in the caldera? [02:08:33] Speaker D: And she's like, no, you all have not reached the lip of the caldera yet. It's still maybe five, 600ft ahead. [02:08:39] Speaker C: So she's at the lip of the caldera. [02:08:41] Speaker D: No, she's landed right in front of you all, because then she's 600ft away from you guys. So she's maybe 50ft away from you all. The size of her head. Her head is about the size of, like, it's about the width. It's. It's taller, but it's about the width of like a Humvee, like the military vehicle, and about the length. That's the size of this organism. Each of her feet are not quite 20ft in span. She looks like she might be almost 200ft long. The massive spines that grow off the bottom of her jaw at angles, they look like platinum, until at their tips, it almost looks like they're so reflective, but they get kind of clear. It looks like they turn into diamond. And her huge sweeping tail as it moves across the mountainscape. You watch as everywhere it lifts, it touches, as it breaks stone. Any stone that is broken by her tail is left dotted with gleaming gems, as if her physical contact with the stone turns it into Some sort of a gemstone, just in little bits. And as she opens up her wings for a moment, as if stretching them for the first time in a very long time, you all have to turn your eyes away. You all have to shield your eyes from being blinded by the sunlight it reflects before she folds them back up immediately. When she landed, Caliclast bowed his head all the way down. [02:10:27] Speaker E: Oh, I bowed too. [02:10:28] Speaker G: You bowed too, Too. [02:10:31] Speaker D: A lot of bowing. [02:10:31] Speaker C: Big bow. [02:10:36] Speaker D: And the massive head cocks to a side. She nods. Caliclas looks up and she says, you may go, Caliclast. [02:10:51] Speaker H: You've done well. He just nods and says, as you wish, Keeper. [02:11:01] Speaker D: And he begins treading back down the way. Guys, that's my cousin thundering with his steps. And as she lands, Janice, you watch behind her as if rising up for the first time in a very long time, attending her these long looping bands of. Of green and emerald in the sky, like 30 foot snakes or, well, maybe 40 or 50 foot snakes with wings at their backs as Quetzalcoatls begin filling the sky. They don't near you all anywhere near enough to approach or speak, but these huge, massive winged snakes are just looping in the air in some distance around you all, as if a retinue of attendants staying at a distance to be called upon. [02:11:49] Speaker E: Whoa. I've never seen that word. [02:11:53] Speaker D: That is a cool word. [02:12:01] Speaker G: I'm just gonna introduce myself in hopes that she'll introduce herself. [02:12:08] Speaker D: All right, how does that go? [02:12:11] Speaker G: I just. [02:12:17] Speaker C: I'm. [02:12:18] Speaker G: I'm Janice. This is. And then I feel like out of nervousness, I just start repeating everybody's names again. [02:12:26] Speaker D: I'm gonna send an image in Lauren reference of what the quadles look like. Okay. [02:12:35] Speaker C: That's in my head, what they sound like when they talk. [02:12:38] Speaker D: As. As Janice speaks and introduces, the immense figure nods, and she responds in Deepa's speech, this voice that is not at all loud but surrounds you all. [02:12:52] Speaker G: Oh, yeah, I would have done that [02:12:53] Speaker D: in deepest speech, too. Yes, absolutely. She responded, I am Yana Zangalada and I will spell that name for you. [02:13:03] Speaker C: Thank you. [02:13:04] Speaker D: That is Y A, N, N A. So Y A, N, N, A. Y' all know what's coming next? Apostrophe. This next letter is capitalized again, so that first Y was capitalized, but this letter is also capitalized Z A, N D. G a h, l, a d a. So that was capital y a, n, n a. Apostrophe. Capital z a, n d, g a h, l, a, d, a. Yeah, gorgeous. [02:13:49] Speaker G: I will just make a slight joke that it looks like you sneezed and then typed. [02:14:02] Speaker D: I was literally thinking. [02:14:03] Speaker B: I was like, does Zach just kind of, like, hit the keys and go, how can I pronounce that in French? Like, how can I pronounce that? [02:14:10] Speaker D: Funny. [02:14:12] Speaker E: This. This name is making me curious. If there's like. Like, there's obviously a. A naming scheme. [02:14:21] Speaker H: Yep, yep. [02:14:22] Speaker D: No, it's a lot of thought. Sorry. It's been years since I practiced this name. I was. I made this name six years ago, the Keeper. And she. When Kara and I were first playing around with the idea of the aisle is when I came up with this name. [02:14:44] Speaker C: Crazy dude. [02:14:46] Speaker D: Also, Daniel, for some reason, we're getting the fan sound again. You can either mute in between or turn the fan off. Whatever suits you better. And, oh, Maya's decided to start. [02:14:57] Speaker C: I was like, is that a cat? [02:14:59] Speaker E: This package of gummies? [02:15:00] Speaker D: No, that was Maya going, [02:15:04] Speaker H: I don't [02:15:04] Speaker D: think those are gummies anymore. [02:15:07] Speaker F: That is nothing. It's. It's. [02:15:11] Speaker D: It's. [02:15:11] Speaker B: Gummy plate, gummy bar, gummy bark. [02:15:18] Speaker D: And so this Keeper, Yanna Zangalida, she responds, and she just continues and she says, [02:15:32] Speaker H: have you come to rekindle the world? [02:15:41] Speaker C: We're. [02:15:42] Speaker G: We're trying to save it. I don't know if that's. [02:15:47] Speaker D: She smiles this big, broad smile, and [02:15:49] Speaker H: she says, yes, I've known you were coming, but only recently was I awoken. [02:16:03] Speaker B: Awoken. [02:16:04] Speaker G: Awoken by who? [02:16:07] Speaker D: She smiles, looks at Craig, she continues, [02:16:11] Speaker H: and she says, I think it's time you all finally had some help. [02:16:19] Speaker D: And she, like, widens her stance. She widens her stance and stands up. And this war that comes out, I can't make. I'm just gonna describe. There's first this deep bellowing, like, rolling sound. [02:16:39] Speaker H: There's like. [02:16:41] Speaker D: But as it produces the final, like, kind of that string, like, layered, like, cello pull of that, like, sound of a roar, it instead, immediately it, like that bass remains, but it trills up higher, so much higher. And it sounds like a roar being formed out of like, 10,000 orchestral stringed instruments being played all at once. It sounds like the most intense note produced by Rose. Old song just plugged in an amp and turned up to 11 and just blasted. And it continues on and on and on for about 20 or 30 seconds. And it feels like. Like the land shakes around you. And I need every party member to roll me a D4 as it thunders in your ears and shakes your core, [02:17:35] Speaker G: I. E. Even UE. [02:17:39] Speaker D: Yes. Yeah. [02:17:40] Speaker C: Okay, I got a three. [02:17:43] Speaker D: The numbers you Only need to know. Though I appreciate you telling me because typically you would. That number one single note of the old song itself just penetrates through you all. Whatever your number was, you got, you rolled. Those are hit points, permanent hit points. [02:18:06] Speaker H: So that's just. [02:18:07] Speaker C: Wait, that was gained. [02:18:08] Speaker D: Whatever that number was just then. You just gained that number as hit points [02:18:14] Speaker F: as it friendly through the chest. [02:18:17] Speaker D: And Yuan's like shocked there in that moment, kind of struggling to speak after that sound was produced. And that goes for Wee Woo as well. She's also there. And somewhere further down on the isle, that sound was heard all across the isles. So Jack, if you'd also like to roll that number for. Excuse me, Abby, if you'd like to also roll that number for Tello, you can add it on. Jackie, you can if you want for Boz. But it's also pretty clear what I'm doing here. So if you want to not bother with that, you don't have to. [02:18:54] Speaker C: He got a one. So I mean, it's not that much [02:18:57] Speaker B: anyway, up to you. [02:19:00] Speaker D: And you all are just kind of stunned for that moment before, you know, you're so shocked having heard that. And even after the call ceases, it echoes all around and reverberates in your ears before that sort of shaking of the aisle produces this one large thunderous crack. And the side of the caldera splits is the. The ground shakes underneath your feet. Massive slabs of stone fall away in the distance in part of the caldera caves. You all can see through that sliver in the distance these long arcs of light, colorful light. Some vast source of deep magic lies beyond. And before you all can draw any nearer, you watch another great being emerge, flying out. This one as its wings beat. Do not make a wing. The sound that's produced sounds like. Like the highest pitch wind chime you've ever heard, striking its many small plates together. Or like someone moving a chandelier. This like as this dragon that flies over is this gleaming long, serpentine thin emerald. Not the color of emerald emerald. And the dragon which lands nearby is a fully gemstone dragon. The dragon is made of gemstone. [02:20:56] Speaker G: Craig, what kind of rock check can you do? [02:20:59] Speaker D: Just kidding. [02:21:04] Speaker E: There's a huge cockroach on my wall. [02:21:08] Speaker D: It was foretold. [02:21:10] Speaker F: Thought it was gotta be Janice's great great grandpa when it was green. [02:21:16] Speaker G: Literally, bro, I think they were meaning that the. Maybe the Quetzalcoatls were my family, not the dragons. But I'm running with the dragons. They're my family. [02:21:26] Speaker D: So there is. I put another. I Put an image of an emerald dragon and lore in reference. And where spines would float would. Would be on its body and ridges instead of being connected, they are gemstone spines that float near it as if orbiting. And the dragon bows slightly before Yannazangalida. Yanna Zangalida. I'll get that name soon. And she just speaks in the deepest speech, yanna Zangalida. [02:21:59] Speaker H: And she says, senva. [02:22:02] Speaker D: And the dragon nods. And its serpentine head cracks and turns [02:22:06] Speaker H: and looks at you. She says, I come to your call, chosen defenders. I have for you. It's a ritual. [02:22:25] Speaker D: And she turns and she looks at [02:22:27] Speaker H: you, Greta, and she says, [02:22:31] Speaker C: sister. [02:22:36] Speaker D: And as she looks at you, you all watch as these emerald shards. Her forehead breaks and all these shards of emerald float out of her head. And all of these pieces rearrange themselves, floating in the air in front of her head until they make the outline of an eye, and then another eye, and then another eye, and then another eye, except these shatter into fractaling patterns until they look like infinite eyes. [02:23:04] Speaker H: And they begin rotating. [02:23:06] Speaker D: And as they rotate, they alight. And you watch her eyes. Just all of a sudden, in a moment, her wings lift, her eyes flash with light. And you watch as Greta falls to her knees, her head tilts backward and relaxes, and her eyes just fill with pale green light. And Greta, you are instantaneously as this High Priestess of Ioun is contacted by the once great Xenal priest of Priestess of Ioun, which was a dragon in the former age, as this gemstone dragon ship shares with you the secret entrusted to her by the knowing mistress. 7,000 years ago. No. [02:23:55] Speaker E: Wow. [02:23:56] Speaker D: Excuse me. 11,000 years ago. And you are told of. I'm just going to tell you this. The ritual of seating. Bear with me. I'mma lay it up. S E E D I N G Seeding. Yeah, I'm gonna lay it on you. [02:24:19] Speaker E: Okay, hold on. [02:24:22] Speaker D: And we're gonna do some stuff and then we're gonna go to break the episode. Thank you all for coming with the A game. I had a lot for you guys this evening. This is definitely what was once long ago. A couple different sessions and then scheduling happened and I'm putting stuff together. [02:24:40] Speaker E: Did you guys see the. [02:24:41] Speaker D: This is Greta. You perceive this was an investiture of provision. And my exact words here, you can copy down with lightning if you want, but I want you to absorb the message given. This was an investiture of provision laid by the maker very long ago. A plan not for the assured battle against Zorgrim someday No. You see in your mind's eye what [02:25:17] Speaker H: you saw long ago in the temple of the Old Ones. [02:25:22] Speaker D: You watch the world being written again. And it is the same vision you had long ago. You all watch Greta fall backward, see this vision, and then in a moment, she will speak to you. But Greta, for you, this vision spans hours. You watch again as the world. You watch again as the writing transpires. But this time, instead of witnessing this abstract creation as the part where the great finger writes upon the surface transpires, you see one of the things being written into the world. And indeed it is the world itself being written. But you read one of the lines being written into this great story. One of these verses of script. [02:26:13] Speaker H: And it is a promise. A promise written when the world was made. A promise of faithfulness. [02:26:26] Speaker D: And you read of this plan. Not for battle, not to one day fight this certain enemy, but a plan that was made with the awareness that the beings he had made, the children [02:26:43] Speaker H: of his children in this place, that [02:26:45] Speaker D: they would always forget him. A knowledge that they would choose many other things. [02:26:53] Speaker H: And so when the wells ran dry, this was the plan to seed them again. [02:27:03] Speaker D: A plan to bring all the things scattered so very far away back. This is the ritual of seeding. In this moment, Greta, you instantly learn there is among your party those chosen both by the author and by his children. Great wielders of the arcane who can help conduct the movement of this ritual. And even more importantly, you perceive that there are here warriors who are entrusted with what they might have perceived as weapons. But what in this more ancient thought is thought of as great act. Excuse me. That you all here have this title. Or at least you had this title long ago. Of the Quorum of the Ordained. The word Quorum. Q U O R U M Ordained Quorum of the Ordained. And that each of you were granted great instruments of power. The divine instruments. These were wielded by great warriors of the elder age, who themselves might have been entrusted with this promise. Not simply weapons, but keys to cutting through the natural and into the paracausal, prophesied in forgotten days to eventually conduct the deep magic from its sources and to begin to start to reseed the rivers of life that ran dry so long ago. You perceive that the blade that Craig carries, that was given to him by Ekmund Star Splinter is, as Yahala told him some time ago, not just a sword. [02:29:06] Speaker H: It's a pen. [02:29:09] Speaker D: You understand that the blade that Javian has, Redeemer is not just a weapon. It is a scalpel. Into this Lifeblood. And you know in this moment that the trident that Rongrim wields is not just an instrument of offense. It is a conductive ligament into the life of this world. And that these three objects, they're not just so powerful so that they can be wielded as weapons. They are some of the only weapons in existence, some of the only instruments capable of conducting that power in this moment. You know that each of you here has a role. You just instantly know that Ro must begin the song. She must perform the old song, directing the deep well here in the forgotten isle that must exist over the bow of that caldera to overflow its banks. Here, the wielders of the three divine instruments must touch its power without being entirely destroyed by its world shaping force. And then, as Rowana guides, sings, wills the magic to rise up and overflow its banks into the wielders of the divine instruments are moved to conduct that power. That it will need to be Janice, who uses her great influence of the undefiled arcane to bend that unyielding force to the purpose of the party. To not let it simply overflow and annihilate you all, but instead be directed into these instruments so they can be conducted to flow over the edge of the deep well, out of the well and back into the world. You know, in this moment, how this ritual must be conducted. You know that Ro must call the magic to overflow. Janus must direct its purpose, or else it will certainly destroy all of you and let the wielders of the divine instruments, instruments must then conduct that magic through the land so that it might once again reach the sea and flow back into the world. Greta blinks. She fell to her knees for a moment and did this weird little backbend thing. But then she blinked it out and she was back. That just happened. [02:32:02] Speaker G: I'm gonna. I'm gonna check on Greta because obviously I just saw Rowan. [02:32:06] Speaker D: Yeah, a lot's been happening. [02:32:08] Speaker C: I'm gonna run over to her. So you said that we all feel this, or. Because you said you just know. Okay, but you were saying Greta just knows. Okay. [02:32:16] Speaker F: Yeah. [02:32:17] Speaker C: I run. I run to Greta as well. [02:32:19] Speaker E: I think she's facing the emerald dragon, Right? [02:32:25] Speaker D: The fragments of stone of which have resealed themselves back into her forehead. [02:32:29] Speaker E: Yeah, I think that she just puts her hands together and just chucks her knees beneath her and just presses her forehead, looks at the dragon and looks at this incredible priestess and just kind of like presses her forehead to the ground for a little bit with her hands at her chest just like as a sign of gratitude and respect. [02:32:55] Speaker D: Sen vah S E N apostrophe capital V, A H S E N apostrophe capital V A H, senvah. The sighted bows back to you. She lifts her head up. She whispers. [02:33:11] Speaker H: Knowledge is unconcerned with rank and catechism. Sister. [02:33:18] Speaker E: Oh, that's good, Brett. And nods and just kind of feel [02:33:30] Speaker D: so free to just say. I say what he said. Like, you don't have to. We don't have to. You could just say, I tell them if you want to. [02:33:35] Speaker E: Yeah. [02:33:38] Speaker C: She. [02:33:38] Speaker E: She like picks up her head and nods and just like kind of settles down to sit cross legged and just looks at the people like her teammates and just kind of. And relays what she saw and the instructions that she. That she. [02:34:04] Speaker B: I don't understand how, like, how will we know how to use. How will we know how to use that? You know, like, like, I've only used. [02:34:15] Speaker D: I don't know how. Do you, Greta, you understand that it's your role to guide everyone that, you [02:34:21] Speaker F: know, [02:34:24] Speaker E: I. I say to Craig, I say you, you and. And on Grimm and jv and you need to just guide and move, conduct the magic to the sea. And Craig, I think that every. I think that. I think that you'll know what to do when the time comes. I think that you've known what to do every time so far [02:35:00] Speaker B: except when there's a field and a ring of fire. [02:35:02] Speaker E: But, you know, well, that was a long time ago. [02:35:08] Speaker C: DM just. So I'm understanding this correct. Did you say here, like where the cataclysm. I mean, where the caldera. Where the caldera is. Is where it needs to happen is. Was I understanding that correctly? [02:35:27] Speaker D: And Abby, I so do not want to speak for you because the whole point is that this is yours. There's also a level of detail here that you can just inherently understand and communicate. So what Greta proceeds to explain in detail. [02:35:40] Speaker C: Yeah, sorry. [02:35:41] Speaker D: Is that this is basically going to be a skill challenge. [02:35:45] Speaker C: Yeah. [02:35:46] Speaker D: And Rose gonna need to perform the old song and literally summon the deep well to respond. Then Janice is going to need to use her great power to control it, to keep it from killing everyone. Then as it flows, each of these three weapon wielders will need to place their weapons into that overflowing arcana, essentially charge them and then move to points on the path to the sea and help this flow of deep magic reach the ocean. And that these are all going to be skill challenges, essentially, that I'll probably [02:36:30] Speaker H: describe to you as they go. [02:36:33] Speaker D: It occurs to you all, oh, that worn path to the mountain, it wasn't for walking up. It was cleared for flowing down. There are these thunderous steps. [02:36:47] Speaker F: This is to be the site of a new deep well, or it already is. [02:36:50] Speaker D: And we are freeing it as you ask. Shavian Yanazala Yana Zala Yanazand. [02:37:01] Speaker C: Sounds like [02:37:05] Speaker B: way. [02:37:12] Speaker D: Curved. [02:37:15] Speaker C: Every time. [02:37:17] Speaker D: As Yana Zand Galada smiles, she turns her head and walks up to the edge of the caldera as if gesturing you all to come look. [02:37:32] Speaker A: I think Ron Grim takes a moment and looks at his trident for a long while, seeing this as more of a burden than it has ever been, but now seeing it not as a burden. And so he just looks at his trident for a while, and then once everyone moves, he'll look up and move after them. [02:37:52] Speaker D: UEG hadn't gone with them yet. And as you stop looking at the trident for a second, you kind of. You know how you can focus on one thing immediately in your field of view and you can shift your focus to see past Daniel as you kind of like look past the trident, he's not far back, and he just kind [02:38:10] Speaker H: of [02:38:12] Speaker D: nods at you and he goes, [02:38:15] Speaker H: glad we picked you up. [02:38:18] Speaker D: And he just starts walking further up. [02:38:24] Speaker F: Dm. [02:38:24] Speaker E: When I. When I. When we were walking up the mountain, do I. I'm wondering. [02:38:34] Speaker B: I'm. [02:38:35] Speaker E: Greta's, like, mulling this all over and she's trying to. I think she's probably feeling the, like, intense. She's very excited and awestruck and honored. But I imagine that she's feeling like, like an intense, like, oh, I have to get this right. Like, it, like a really, like the heavy responsibility of it all. And she's just like, pondering through it all. Was there. Do I get the impression that there are locations that. [02:39:04] Speaker D: Yes, the. And you get the feeling that you'll know when it's time. [02:39:08] Speaker E: Okay. Okay. So they need to go touch specific locations. Okay. [02:39:16] Speaker C: This. This is. As we're, like, walking towards the. [02:39:21] Speaker D: Also we're about to wrap. [02:39:23] Speaker C: Yeah. Row looks at Greta and just kind of says it to everyone. But she knows that Greta's the one that, like, had the thing, had the vision or whatever. She's like, so this is to happen before we can. Before we can defeat him. [02:39:39] Speaker E: I think [02:39:41] Speaker D: Greta, you understand? Oh, this is to happen right now. Now. [02:39:47] Speaker E: Yeah. Greta says. She says, I think we're. I think we're doing it now. [02:39:56] Speaker C: Yeah. [02:39:58] Speaker F: Xavian feels a bit of more hope than he's felt in a bit. Just like, oh, There is a plan also. Like, so be told exactly what to do. Like, like, oh, the maker had a specific plan. And like the level of just seeing, like, okay, like the people who are necessary for this are here. So there is. There is some level of like, destiny that has been led. [02:40:28] Speaker E: Yeah, [02:40:31] Speaker D: you all feel this great disquieting thrum of energy, like looking up at the sun or standing too near a fire or reaching the edge of a cliff. A feeling that the warriors of the well have felt before. And as you all reach the edge of that caldera, [02:40:54] Speaker H: oh, [02:40:57] Speaker D: each of you has seen a wellspring. The warriors of the well were near a deep well, but it was contained within a massive constructed cage, sort of with only bits of its power streaking out. And what before you beyond the edge of the caldera, the caldera is this massive well, you know what a caldera looks like. And the edges of it are the bold exposed stone. Past that lip of igneous rock is just square. The surface area is just square miles of brilliant diamond. Miles of diamond. [02:41:41] Speaker C: Holy cow. [02:41:41] Speaker D: And beneath these brilliant reflector sheets is this roiling star surface of energy. Shifting, churning liquid light, opalescent and rainbow at its edges, cycling through colors banding up in arms of power that snap up into the atmosphere. Light dapples physical obfuscations to reality like heat waves or like some points light seems to like, disrupt by their snapping. And you guys have trouble even perceiving what it is that you're looking at. Conjuration magics are suddenly formed enchantments, evocations, lightning energy that is similar to the electromagnetic phenomena of lightning, but entirely different. Bolts upward at times and snaps away other times. What look like the forming edges of great rifting portals form, but then snap into other more basal forms as the pool of energy churns and burns and cools and writhes. And you all look at a lake of deep magic far larger than any lake in dfw. The span of this lake is like. It's not like great lake size, but you're essentially looking at a small ocean of rainbow liquid light. And that is where we will end. Episodes 179 and 252 of you sneaky sneaky sneaky DM boy legend of the new ones. [02:43:33] Speaker A: I know. [02:43:33] Speaker D: That was quite a session. [02:43:34] Speaker G: Wow. [02:43:35] Speaker D: It's quite a session. When we come back. Thank you guys for going hard. I'll try to keep us moving, but it is going to come at you. We'll take a break anyway. I could tell this after. We'll focus on, listeners. Now, listeners, that was a wild session. Again. I know it feels like we're all the way at the end, but there's a lot chalked into this. So I hope you continue to enjoy the adventure. We will come back after a break for us and a week for you. But we want you to know that in every circumstance, life is an incredible adventure, and you're an important part of it. Skibidi wap. [02:44:09] Speaker E: Hi, listener.