Hi i'm Olma, Flynn, March, Ceallach, Shraya

and i'm your DM Ethan welcome to Venture Forth

[Music]

previously you all had left the shadow

timberland after

um helping out tries community of elves

there

um you guys had solved the mystery and

defeated a villain

and you guys had exited uh

down the river and towards addersfield

after traveling for about a half a day

you guys finally

began to see otters felt over the

horizon

you were walking into town when you

noticed farms on your left and a refugee

camp on your right and walls

to the city in front of you looking off

to the refugee camp there seemed to be a

bit of a scuffle where

uh some some uh horseback riders were

possibly intimidating one of these

refugees here

um the refugee was holding a bag of some

sort not giving it over and

these riders were attempting to take it

after stepping in and attempting to to

stop the conflict

a bit of a fight erupted and

after some investigation by alma all

might not be

what it appears to be so with that we

are actually starting

this session in initiative so

with that um shraya

what would you like to do i'm going to

look up at the person who just

slashed me i'm going to look them

directly in the eye

and i'm going to say

the winds are shifting for you you're

off to new horizons

and with that um as my uh

staff has been charging i'm gonna hold

my staff

in between my hands my wings are going

to go out i'm going to

take off toward this person on the horse

and wrap my feet or talons

around them and attempt to carry them

off the horse into the air

okay so that's going to be

your athletics versus their uh yeah your

athletics versus their acrobatics

athletics versus acrobatics great

that's going to be a four on there oh my

god 5.

oh my god yeah so uh they're on a horse

so they're not very dexterous

and you just barely barely grab this

person

uh and i'm just gonna whisper in their

ear

and i'm gonna attempt to carry them up

and over toward the city walls

okay um as you are carrying someone who

is not flynn and not a halfling um you

are going to be moving at half speed so

what is your flight

50 50. okay so you are able to move

uh 25 feet towards the city walls

with uh with this person in tow

you guys are are moving um is that the

end of your turn uh yeah that's that

might

that's the end of my turn my goal is to

get to the wall

to the top okay

awesome um next up we have got

actually uh the guy who you just picked

up so he

is going to actually this depends um

so you're traveling towards the wall how

high up are you going i'm going high

enough

my my what i'm attempting is to go high

enough

to and i guess i don't even know this um

if there's an if it's just a straight-up

wall around the city or if it's one of

the walls that people can like

be on uh and like look down from um

but yeah the wall has got you can see

the wall has got a little perch at the

top where people

people that's and that's that's where

i'm going for my my aim is to get to

that point

okay awesome um cool

so he is gonna make since you guys are

i'm gonna say you guys are about at this

point like 25 feet up in the air

he's gonna make a courage check

and he's gonna fail it so he's going to

instead of attacking you he's going to

reach up and grab at your talons where

you're

where you're holding onto him and just

hold on

good um he is you know how to follow him

on this ride

um next up is uh this other guy right

over here

who is next to uh march so he is going

to take a

swing with his pole unconscious yeah

is he is he not unconscious now or is he

awake

oh he is oh that's my bad

back off his horse um so yeah he doesn't

get a turn

awesome great love it um next up top of

the initiative is flynn

um all right so recap real quick

try to just yeah grab someone and flew

off into the sunset

um they're gone i heard omar

uh yell this stuff out about hey guys

maybe we're misunderstanding something

um i saw the person heal

the one that was previously dropped by

kellik and it seems like she's breathing

again

uh yes she is unconscious though i'm

holding the bag holding my sword i hear

that

i see that i see try i run away with the

with the person i'm like um

almo what what's going on and i'm just

like unsure what to do now i'm just

gonna

take the dodge okay that's it you take

the dodger yeah

okay cool um awesome

next up oma okay

yep um

[Laughter]

flynn they're not the bad guys

it's okay i'm gonna i want to go forward

up to where um

um flynn and and um

kellic are like i want to make my way

between them and the guy

okay it's 25 i believe so i can get

there

okay um like right in between i want no

i want to be in between

um the band one where they're facing

like i want to push them both i want to

like put my hands against both of them

gotcha and like so in a triangle i guess

i know he's there but i would like to

like sneak him in front of him

yeah and and just like put my arms up

to to push both

not like push them down but to like hold

them just to

stop yeah yeah okay

cool make an insight check

14. um this guy that you just ran up to

um still very wary of kalec but

seeing you run up is taking a second

um taking a second of pause

um yeah that's what you

that's what you determine okay

is that your turn that's my turn well i

i don't know do i have an action left

timing wise

um i'll give you an action i will take

the dodge action

okay you take the dodge action nice uh

next up on the initiative is kellik

uh seeing this uh woman prioritize

healing her comrade

seeing the crowd uh

bonus and all this stuff

i am going to uh uh look a boat at the

remain and

then the one that hasn't been dragged

off i guess it's just one guy isn't it

no it's two all right the one who hasn't

been dragged off into the sky

uh and i'll just say all right you're

seeing what we can do

put a stop to this now for more people

get hurt

um make either persuasion or

intimidation check

[Music]

i'm looking let's go persuasion

critical fail ah

fail okay next up is march

i'm gonna be distracted by looking over

alma and seeing that she has physically

put herself

in between one of these guys and flynn

and is trying to kind of push them aside

and so now my attentions are turning

briefly from this guy that i was trying

to just sort of

hold is i'd like to just

hold an action i i can see that almost

trying to get us all to stop but i'm

not trusting these guys whatsoever so um

i guess can i hold an action

i'd like to hold an action if anybody

tries to do anything

to oma

okay yeah for sure cool

um next up is

the writers they are all

none of them are going to attack they're

all just going to

wait they're all going to hold actions

after that is shraya uh i'm gonna

continue to make my way towards the top

of the wall

uh see if i can get there awesome see

awesome

um yeah and this guy's just gonna keep

holding on

um so these guys uh just for simplicity

these guys that are currently in combat

with you

here um they're all gonna continue

holding actions

um so it's it's up to you guys is there

anything that you guys want to do

action economy-wise um

within combat still who's are we who's

up in initiative are we kind of going

out of it flynn

flynn you are up an initiative but i'm

just gonna if

if no one else if everyone's gonna

continue holding actions we can go

out of initiative um well i would see

alma run up and like kind of put her

hand on my sword arm and like kind of

stop me from attacking i'll kind of um

see this and like um

alma what's going on what

what's up did they what will happen

would you find out i think this is all a

big misunderstanding

um um it seems like these people

are are um they do they do take money

but it's more like a tax and they take

it from the people who have a lot like

those people over there

and and they distribute it evenly

amongst the people who don't have as

much

so at least that's what i was told um

so it seems like it seems like they're

not not necessarily um

i'm trying to hurt anyone or or trying

to take

anything from people who don't have

anything

so i i think that guy over there um

um he doesn't want to want to

um give his fair share

but i i don't understand and and and and

the guards are these people like and i

turn to look at him

and i say why won't you just talk to us

we weren't trying to do anything

caleb was offering to pay for this man's

fees and

and you didn't say it's not a fee you

didn't say no that's not what we're

doing here

we're trying to redistribute you didn't

say anything you just

were like get out of my way i'm gonna or

i'll beat you up that is not the way to

do things around here that's not how you

talk to people

and i'm just like i'm just uh really

small and just like yelling up at him

and saying you that's not how you treat

people as that's going on

i'll kind of like i sigh and i

i i'll sheath my sword as she's letting

this guy have it now i'll kind of

just like lightly push her uh to the

side and kind of step in front and kind

of just

toss the bag at the guy in front of me

i'll also uh

um extinguish my glowing arm uh just as

an act of further theatrics and put my

hands up in the air

um and with that the the woman who is um

kneeling down who just administered the

health potion um

to her her friend there um she looks up

to you guys and

after a second goes what were you not

hired by these people

no we misunderstood as far as i knew

this place was only a place with

those who were underserved not people

who had

inequity

well we're we're all underserved here i

mean compared to what's on the other

side of the wall but

but everyone has to have their fair

i i thought you were all you so you

weren't hired from

anyone here oma crosses her arms and

says

no we were not hired from anyone and if

you guys would just talk to us when we

asked questions

instead of pushing people around maybe

you would have

known that i'll put a hand on olma's

shoulder and

sort of like just pull her close to me

say

we're travelers we thought we saw

something uh

other than what was occurring you have

my apologies

um i mean

okay um give me give me one second and

the woman who's kneeling down there who

just gave the health potion

um unwraps uh the glove around her hand

and places her hand on the chest of her

unconscious

comrade and um under her breath goes

and you see her hand begin to glow with

this um

orange orange like glowing energy and

you can see some

um flecks of ash begin to peel off of

her skin

as um the woman laying on the ground um

takes a breath

and and comes back into consciousness

i'm gonna run over to march and the man

who's unconscious next to her

and say hey march march can you do the

thing can you do the thing we

could you gotta wake him up

i'm just gonna go like do a sigh and be

like yeah

yeah and i'm gonna go up to a

to this guy dude thingamajig

and

i'll go ahead and do a

five points of uh lay on hands

okay cool um and he then comes back to

consciousness his eyes begin to open

and um after a moment of panic and he

trying to

scurry away he looks over and sees that

the fight has sort of calmed down and

and he takes a breath gonna just sort of

hold his shoulder and say my

my apologies as as my friends are saying

here it seems that there might be

some serious misunderstandings here

we're just trying to get a little bit

more information

things you gotta admit from our

perspective

things look a little shady but i i

apologize

and at this point um the the woman who

uh was initially trying to take the uh

the bag from the man

um she stands up and and she goes

we're uh we're very wary of travelers

who come through

most of them who come here brandishing

your types of

weapons and magics tend to be hired by

people here to to protect them and keep

them from the rules that we have

established here so

so any any misunderstanding was on on

our part as much as yours

and uh march you look over at at the guy

who you hit in the chest and

he's like oh god that was it that was a

good hit i'm gonna i'm gonna

put an arm out and sort of pull to pull

him up like to try and get him

and see if he can get on his feet or you

know

see if he can get up at all um and if

not then

just be like want some water my bad

yeah he gets up to his feet and he's

he's still a little

beat up but uh he seems to be making his

way back

and uh the the largest woman who seems

to be the leader

of this group um walks over uh

over to oma and she sort of leans down

and and takes a knee and and puts her

hand out

to shake and she says rosslyn

hello rosslyn

she shakes your hand as well

um that was that was something

wasn't it um

i died that happens sometimes

but you're alive now wow okay

i i need to take a second for that um

well um i mean if if we don't have any

further conflict here

um do you have any any business

here um i guess not

um but is everything okay

here it seems a little tense

yeah um things get tense around

collection time

how often do you guys collect

um once every two weeks

and how are you able to judge and i'll

i'm

sheathing my sickle as as i do

who deserves uh who

people's earnings they're able to report

them to you

[Music]

we have uh certain systems in place to

keep track of um

whatever wealth is is uh acquired and

distributed

um i'm sure most of it uh on the higher

end goes under our radar but every once

in a while

we we get a whiff of of uh who has more

and

who has less and we distribute

accordingly hi

um i'm sorry about your horse

that's that's okay maybe you can find it

and yeah she looks around and and she's

like looking for it

um and you guys looking off in the

distance you can just see

barely over the horizon a horse running

running off in the distance

right um why this conversation is taking

place is

shraya still midair i was just gonna say

yeah so she she then looks around

and she says where why can i

can i scream out or try and scream out

to sharaya or would he not hear me

yeah um like you try and scream out

try it have you been using your full

movement

yeah there's yeah i've been burning

toward that i've been burning

at this point at this point you would

have been able to drop this guy off

at the top right about now

great do it do i do i see any other um

are there any other like town guards who

like notice that i'm dropping yeah

there's actually a patrol up on the top

of the wall and

as you um as you approach they have

their crossbows trained on you

as you come in and you drop this guy off

and then you fly back away and

they still have their crossbows drawn on

you but then none of them fire

[Music]

okay um i'm actually gonna

i'm actually gonna land for a second and

uh as a does it look like

does it look like if i get closer there

i mean i drop the guy off

if i drop the guy off and then also like

stand next to

the person um

i want to just whichever guy with the

crossbow comes up first

um i just want to address this person

really quickly

and say is this

is this man known to you and i look over

at the person i just dropped off um the

the man who's closest to you

uh with the crossbow um

says uh no never never seen him before

um get get on your knees

and uh keep keep your wings down

and uh put your hands behind your back

oh no right i'm i was just turning in

this misfit

who has been causing trouble outside the

wall i was told

that he might belong to your ranks in

the center of the city i mean you no

harm

um oh this has never happened before

um uh put put your hands behind your

back

you're under arrest

well uh i

very much do not like being bound and

with that

i'm gonna just try to kick off i i i

acted at first like i was gonna get on

my knees

but now when he says i'm under arrest i

kick away from the wall and try to just

okay

and seeing that you're you're flying

away from the city

um none of them shoot at you as you as

you leave

so i've just i've just left okay i guess

and now i'm gonna fly back to it all

right and shraya approaching the rest of

the party you can see

now there's conversation happening um

people are not fighting anymore which is

new to you

[Music]

yeah uh what's happening

i thought

i don't understand the social norms and

customs of the earth walkers

yeah i don't think i do either rosslyn

and i'll uh pull down my mask and just

say

and i'll hold my hands up as far away

from her as i can

and i'll just say my name's kellock

i owe you a debt i apologize

um can you tell us

anything about the state of the city

about

i've been away for some time and uh it

appears things have changed

uh beyond my my knowledge uh

is the inside of the city as tense as

the outside i have i haven't been into

the

the inner walls of the city in quite

some time i keep my focus out here

um but more and more they're they're uh

expelling people from the city and and

they're forced to come out here so our

ranks

um beyond the walls are growing daily

and and it's

becoming a problem as far as

wealth and and food distribution why are

they kicking people out of the city

i could not say i don't know i i only

accept the people who leave

kicking people out that were there their

whole life

um it seems mostly travelers and

and people who don't have permanent

residence within the city as of late

and you're all here because you lost

your homes

yeah most of us are here from from

what used to be the border of ondale and

kaldur and

most of us have been displaced by the

war and they just

kicked you out yeah

our homes turned into

forts and castles and strongholds and

our cities reduced to nothing for

resources and weapons

i'm so sorry

it's not fun to get kicked out

no it's not well what now

you're just gonna live here in in tents

for the rest of your life

some of us are attempting to find more

permanent residents

um to the east but it's

uh it's a lot of people here it's it's a

lot of people to move it's a lot of

people to find homes for

so we have uh we have people going out

and attempting to find other

cities and places that will take some of

us but

i i do not think that this will be a

permanent home for

most

well i hope you find something everybody

deserves a home

thank you does the city

allow you to be out here do you get

trouble from them

the only trouble comes is is when people

from here

attempt to go into the city they will

not allow any of us in there

oh no what do they do to you if you go

the guards turn us away okay

caleb do you think the guards will turn

us away

i i'd say that's probably a safe bet

but we won't know until we try would uh

would flynn know

about how to get into the city um yeah

you have um a uh

you have a set of paperwork from the

iron light collective to get in and out

of the city sort of like an official

branded

thing um so that's how you are able to

get in and out of the city

um without any official paperwork or

you know payment to the guards um

getting in and out is fairly difficult

hey roslyn yes were you affected

by any shadows recently

no no no like darkness creeping in

affecting your brain creeping in no no

when um like the last couple of days

maybe felt a little more tense a little

more um

um paranoid um

i it's funny you say that um yeah

the uh that's a good word for attention

has

rose over the last couple days um yeah

everyone seems to be

have been a little bit more stressed um

this morning has been the first calm

morning

in quite some time without any

altercations yeah besides obviously what

just happened here

yeah that makes sense um that makes a

lot of sense

uh it was from the forest but but we

took care of that so it's it's all good

um should be fine now um

do you speak a bizzle

i no no no

no do you read it i no i

don't do much reading awesome

well does anybody here oh my that's not

more of a stink than we already have

yeah i think it's time for us to

head in oh right right

rosslyn um did russell

i'm sorry did ruslan mention who is

basically kicking him out or was it just

a town card

yeah town guard town officials um things

okay

i wanted to just quickly kind of look at

her is it any one particular

individual rosalind that we need to be

looking out for

or what exactly

should we be looking for when we are in

there to avoid

being kicked out

um just not making any trouble

not uh i would i would stay away from

any altercations but it

it seems like you guys might have a

difficult time with that um

um i i would just say you know um

don't be don't be breaking any of the

laws any of the rules

um most of the people that we've gotten

out here um

minor infractions though they may be

they still were enough to have them

expelled from the city from what i hear

from some of the people who have been

coming out the past couple days

it seems that their their jails and

their prisons are

sort of overflowing at the moment so

when they don't have anywhere else to

put them they

they have them leave the city noted tie

calyx hands together

is there any one person making these

judgment calls

or is it everybody you don't really

see that no addressfeld is ruled by

um more of a more of a council

government um there's not any one person

in charge

it's uh a collection um and and it seems

that

you know it's it's all laws and and

official rules

okay thank you for that information that

helps us

uh are we all uh content to take our

live here or are we

are there more questions for us please

yes no you're

you're free to go oh um yeah i would

just

ask one more time where there were five

of us

try it where did you put the man

i may have uh uh

left your friend uh up up on the

top of the city wall but i

i i think the per i think they're in

good hands uh and if they're turning

people away then

i may maybe soon that you'll see them

again

what's their name i didn't get their

name

no no rosslyn what's their name

um that that was marcus he uh he hasn't

been having

very much luck recently and this might

be uh

just uh another another bit of that um

but with

with uh everything that's going on i i

would not be surprised if we saw him

again within the end of the day

well we can look for him while we're

inside i'll do our best

um just in case we'll try to see to it

that he's returned to you

i'm sure seeing his wares they'll

probably just kick him out anyways oh

well maybe we'll see him on our way if

you see him please

yes any help for him would be i'm sure

appreciated

right well um

good luck you know i'll look around

with everything thank you

hey i appreciate that uh that gesture

guys uh

and i'll sort of um just lean in

and under my breath just say and

speak in a misfortune the powers that

that i draw from they

uh are somewhat discerning

so i'd be careful the

things beyond our reach as mortals

have plans for us and

something beyond wants you

very badly so take care

and she sort of gives you a wink and

turns around

and begins to walk as she does not have

a horse

um so with that you guys all

um i'll sort of exit away from this

refugee camp

and walk over towards the main entrance

uh of the city

as you walk up you see these um massive

walls that are constructed there

these thick and tall walls

um and you guys walk towards the front

gate and

there are about a dozen guards out

towards the front gate as this is

this is a massive entrance way and

dozen guards are laid out there how

would you guys like to

uh approach as you want to enter the

city um flynn would probably be up front

because he i know how to do this i'm

assuming

like i know how to go in and out of the

so i'll like if i i'll get my papers

ready

i'll um hey guys um stay with me i i

have

papers to get in another city so let me

do the talking

and i'll start walking towards pulling

up my dirty rag

and um yeah awesome

um as you walk up um the one of the

guards approaches

asks for your paperwork takes it after a

couple seconds looks it over

um make sure everything is in order and

uh hands it back to you

and opens up the front gate for you guys

to walk in

um these front gates open out towards

you guys

and the first thing that hits you is the

smell

immediately you smell um burning wood

and you guys smell sort of this ash in

the air and looking in

um you see a main street going towards

the center of the city and off to the

left

you see um

these run-down houses these houses that

haven't been taken care of in

a very long time made of wood and stone

and you look off and one of them

seems to be partially burned as as a

fire had

caught on one of them and you can see a

couple of towns people with buckets of

water just

extinguishing the last of the flames and

you look off to the right

and you see um more uh

like industrial buildings where you can

see blacksmiths

and woodworkers and

shops of that nature and as you guys

walk in

um i assume either flynn or killik is

taking charge here where would you guys

like to go within the city

um oh i i would like to

go to the castle to turn in my mission

um as we enter in and as we're walking

i'm kind of

at the front some kind of walking kind

of like i'm going to the castle and i'll

just kind of mention

um welcome to addersfeld guys

um weird entrance at the beginning but

hey we made it

um so here's here's the thing

um i have to go with tria and turn the

mission in

um if you guys want to

meet up somewhere um kellik i don't know

if you

want to take the group and go shopping

or go find the fisherman or something

but

we can reconvene somewhere if you have a

good spot i think that's sensible that

maybe while you're

dealing with uh your faction uh we can

go see about this uh translation yeah

um do you think he'll need uh backup

where are you going no no it should be

okay um do you want to meet it like the

temple district

or or or something is there like a

specific spot there

let's meet back here closer to the the

outside i don't want to spend more time

uh in the temple district than need be

all right

um well don't kill anyone

agreed not who uh

doesn't deserve it i i i mean to be fair

uh uh nobody stayed dead so far very

true very true we just you know i just

want to make sure

you guys are still here when i get back

we could stand to work on our definition

of killing i think

sometimes it's unclear there is quite

the uh veil between

life and death okay right so as you guys

uh continue to walk into the city

um you guys split off into two groups um

as you guys split off and walk deeper

into the city um

the you guys walk through this

disheveled

area of the city and it opens up and you

guys can see these

uh these you know more

nice houses um you can see you're

passing through

this there this very poor area of the

city

um into these nice stone houses

um looks like there's a polished marble

on in some of the

the stores and this um this beautiful

red wood

that is making up the roofs and the air

becomes cleaner

and you guys can see people walking and

and trading and going in and out of

shops and going home and

going to work and and the life of this

city

is uh is sort of a nice change of pace

for most of you

um first we will follow flynn and shraya

um flynn you are dodging in and out of

these crowds that are going down the

street you know exactly where you're

supposed to go and you know exactly how

to get there

um shraya i'm gonna have you make a

charisma check oh boy

oh boy can i help him with this knowing

the city or is this something he has to

do on zone

i i'm i'm feeling i i feel like i'm

probably just struggling to keep my eyes

on you i'm i'm gonna

i'm gonna keep it to just try it

oh god no no no no no

that that that's a zero that is a total

zero flynn you are dodging in and out of

these crowds you

recognize every street that you're

passing by you recognize

the bakery off to your right that you've

been to um you recognize

uh the um the shoe shop off to your left

with the really nice old lady who helped

you find the right wear shoes that fit

you just right as

as uh you know she had to she had to

modify some um

traditionally children's shoes okay

um but then she helped you with the

leather work and you recognized that

and uh oh up up on the right has uh some

amazing desserts like they've got

they've got this amazing orange cake

with the frosting on it that's that's

exactly how you like it

and i think i'm like saying this like

thinking that your eyes behind me i'm

just like oh

and over here that's where my shoes got

made and over there oh they have some

really good

pastries in there man we should go check

that out after and then you turn around

and shraya is nowhere to be seen

drya uh

crap and i'll turn around and start

dropping and weaving back the way i came

to try and see if i can

and i'll start like try it try it you

are lost in a whirlwind of people

people pushing past you you are getting

shoulder checked left and right

and and you just cannot keep your eyes

in one place and it's it's dizzying

is there is there anything around that

is like

any kind of park area are there trees is

this

all concrete is this all like is there

any clearing or

i i'm just i my immediate response is to

try to find

some area that's not just overloaded

with people just

make a perception check or you can make

a nature check

great

nature

[Music]

15. uh 15. the area that you're walking

through right now

is all stone and concrete and this

polished marble um looking around but

you do see

um out on a little balcony there seems

to be someone growing a garden there

um that's really the only source of

green that you can see around you

uh i'm gonna take a closer look

okay are you gonna fly up and uh it's

it's on a second story balcony

it's on a second story balcony okay yeah

i'm gonna i'm gonna

in in a moment of just desperation to

try to

get some air i'm gonna go up

toward this uh this balcony and see

what's going on there

okay awesome um you go up to this

balcony and

um it's it's some you know

nice flowers of all different sorts

looking through it you can see that

um most of these plants don't belong to

this area

um and most of them belong to different

areas around the world and

so it's nice to sort of take in the

smells from all of those

um flynn you turn around and you can see

shraya flying up above the crowd over to

a balcony

um how far away is he he's not that far

he's only maybe 30 feet

try up and i'll be like waving my hand

up in there like trying to get his

attention try uh

and uh is there anything i can climb to

like because i'm assuming i'm like

i'm like a bit like the the thigh height

of a lot of people in this crowd so he

probably won't be able to see me is

there a thing i can climb maybe

yeah there are um you look and there are

a couple of like

um carts that uh where vendors are

selling

different items um that you'll be able

to climb on top of sure

i'll hop up on a cart and just continue

like trying to get his attention

down here and try u-turn and you can see

flynn at this point

ah okay so i i turn over to the garden

and i look over at flynn and i turn back

to the garden

and then i take it in one more time

and like try to make a couple oh are

there any

flowers in particular that are

particularly brilliant or

like eye popping yeah there's one that's

almost like a neon

blue that that seems to um just shine

beautifully in the sunlight i'm gonna

grab it and then go back

okay awesome um and just

like just as you're flying down um

you just barely hear hey and you get

back down to flynn

um and laying there

hey wait why where where did you go man

like what were you doing up there

ah there was a beautiful garden up on

that balcony i was

i was mesmerized i i couldn't find you

and i

went to the only place that i knew i

could feel comfortable

yeah okay well

we can go back there after if you want

look what i found

i'm gonna show him this little blue

[Music]

flower that's cool

yeah we definitely need to go back to

get more of those i want one

well there's no short supply of beauty

up on that particular balcony

yeah this city is pretty great speaking

of city i gotta show you

i gotta show you the the place where i

got and i'll start trying to meet him

again and i'll start being like that's

where the shoes are and that's what i'll

just kind of like but this time i'll

like hold on to his uh

his his hand i guess yeah i'll just grab

his hand so i'll grab his hand i'll be

like right over there that's where i got

my shoes made and over there that's

where they're the best pastries

and i'll just continue just to do that

lin why don't we try to go find your

contact over oh we're on the way yeah

there's just a lot of cool places i

wanted to point out oh okay

all right and actually with that um you

guys

approach the front gates of the iron

light castle

um you flynn this is this is home this

has been home for

a while for you so um you are overjoyed

and you're also a little bit nervous as

what's gonna happen um you walk up

and um you see out in the front

is a little like um hand

uh indentation on the wall and you know

that this is how

people within the iron light castle get

in and out um so you walk up to it and

you put your hand

into this handprint indentation in the

stone

and you hear

as the stone wall in front of you opens

up into a doorway

you walk in into this doorway and

um it's the sights and smells of home

um shreya you follow him in behind him

so this is all new to you

um okay you walk in and you can see

um uh these long

stone hallways with doors on either side

most of these doors are shut so you

don't really know what's

what's in each of them but flynn leads

you down one hallway

to the right leads you down another

hallway and then

walks up to one of the doors and

knocks on it and do you guys hear a

voice say

yes come in i don't know before i push

the

before i push the door open i kind of

just take a pig

deep breath all right

how much ceiling space is there in this

place

how much above our heads it's it's about

nine feet okay i'm gonna

i'm gonna clutch my staff a little bit

and just

shudder a little bit as we walk through

the space and

uh keep my bearing try to keep my

bearings

yeah after i take a little breath i'll

open the door okay i'm walking opening

the door you see

a large um looks like an office space

um you see a big ornate wooden table a

heavy desk

on the opposite side of the room you see

bookshelves off to the right

and you see um cabinets off to your

to the left that are holding um

different

plants and and different arcane

components

sitting at that table you see sitting

there

with um these narrow shoulders

sitting very upright um she's got this

beautiful long uh blonde hair that's

that's almost

almost white hair and you guys walk in

and flynn you recognize this as melloroo

cardinal

and as you walk in she says ah flynn

wasn't expecting you back so soon

hi um yeah i'm i'm just here to

uh you know we did it uh

tria is here too um and uh

well yeah i don't know if we did it uh i

mean it was

it was kind of a it was a lot uh

it was kind of a great mess uh a party

for a while felt like we were

a big candle burning at both ends but uh

we were uh it was beautiful uh

we accomplished our goal and uh

i hope that uh all the credit

is due for for this little one right

here

and uh was very brave in the face of

certain doom and uh my people that i was

dwelling with in the forest could

never be more grateful to to the

collective you have here and for sparing

this little one to come help

and she looks down at her her um papers

in front of her and she

she grabs a quill and she goes that's

interesting i uh

i just want to note a couple words that

you said there you said uh

you you did say big mess correct you

said

mess and you also you also mentioned

having a party so oh um like me and him

me and him as the party oh yes i'm sure

a group

like a group right of course i'm sure

that's what he meant we yeah yeah

we did have there were some others who

helped us that uh

seemed to join us uh halfway through our

journey

that uh we're very they uh we

some of the some of the towns people in

his village that

came to show us where where some of the

stuff was um needed but it was just

it was a great evil it was a great evil

and and

it took every ounce of uh

strength to overcome

yeah and um you know and then we solved

it i mean it was a big mess but it's not

a mess any anymore

uh we we kind of we fixed it just try

and i

and then maybe a little bit of help from

the townsfolk just for directions

needed the help of commoners okay

um this is interesting um do you have

uh any proof of of the evil that you

vanquished

proof yes uh uh

trophy whatever you might call it

um there were artifacts that we left

behind

oh fantastic then you'll be able to hand

those over and show them as proof

uh they were the part of the evil that

was

consuming the area seemed to be uh

intertwined with these objects so we had

no choice but to leave them

uh however oh so you left left objects

of great evil

behind that's also very interesting i

will take

my wing and i'm gonna grab these the

dart the the little dark crystals

that have been there the whole time i'm

gonna hold them out and i'm gonna say

these particular uh items though seem to

have some sort of dark energy contained

within them

not sure if it was related but they seem

to have

uh some awful

things possessing them as well and and

i'm looking at them and do they

have they been changed they have not

changed but uh flynn make an insight

check for me

yeah also did i put something in that

box that i had

and camera and who has the bracer bt

dubs not to met a game too hard but

do i never i believe flynn i think i

still post it yeah i'll if i do i'll

pull that out

but i'll do the inside check first but

yeah when she's saying that okay

um that is a 13.

okay um so yeah do you pull the bracer

out

yeah i'll go into my bag when she

mentions when trial mentions artifacts

i'll go in my bag i'll grab the

bracelet yeah this is um this is

something that we found uh that seemed

to hold

a lot of sway in there and there was a

puzzle we had to solve and

you know try and i solved it and uh

mostly me

and you know we we got this and this is

something that we think was

part of the problem and so we figured

we'd keep it safe and bring it here

because you guys would be able to figure

out what it does

fantastic um as per uh

iron light tradition um you would be

able to turn this object in

for a gold reward or you would be able

to keep it which would you like to do

with this uh this particular object

um i'd like to know what it does first

and potentially keep it

well that's for you to find out i i

don't care much about this item

right right you sorry yeah and i'll put

it back in my bag

so did it pass

[Music]

pass is so far from what you have done

and that i think just shows exactly

how you're gonna fare in all of this

i i think that's very telling with that

question

but either way you did return

successfully

if you want to call it successful you

did return alive i will say that

you did return alive so

you may uh go find chat i believe he's

around here somewhere still

um if you want to go and find him

he might have something for you but for

now

for now uh get out of my office

well dude definitely uh and i'll i won't

let you down

and i'll kind of like nudge try it with

my arm and kind of like all right

try it let's get let's go paid the wind

thanks again meloru thank you

may the wind be at your back always good

and i hope to never see you again thank

you yes

and i'll go out and as soon as i shut

the door

hey man we i passed i

passed yes congratulations to you

yeah oh thanks man

that was she's scary to talk to but you

know i think i'm really coming over and

i'm coming around

you know i think she's starting to like

me a little bit with any luck uh

i don't understand the customs as well

as i could

but uh i think you made some

sort of good will uh eve be it albeit

we'll just call them baby steps or in

your case just steps

i'm gonna i'm just i'm gonna let that go

because i'm just too excited um

because that means that i get some cool

stuff now so i don't know if you're

allowed to come with me um but let's go

check in with check in with chad

and i'll lead him that way would i know

if i'm allowed to bring him along

or is this something i need to do alone

um i mean you can definitely bring him

through the castle you don't know

exactly when it's going to be sort of

your

independent time um

okay well i'll just head that way then

okay with with him um

so you and uh shraya head down

um again another long hallway and

you guys uh open a door on your right

and it opens up into this large

courtyard area um this is the center of

the castle and it's sort of an open-air

courtyard in the middle here

um you see set up all sporadically

um everywhere this is this is probably

like a hundred foot

circle um you see sporadically set up

combat dummies

and you can see some of them off to the

left are a little bit more

um elementary they're just sort of like

sacks

set up there and you can see off to the

right um

you can see some like more ornate

wooden statues that have

these uh these iron

sort of holes coming out of them flynn

you know these as

the more advanced combat dummies to

where uh magic effects and spells will

will protrude from these dummies as well

and in the middle of five of these

practice dummies um twirling in and out

and moving stepping in tandem with some

of these dummies

making strikes here and there and then

taking a massive sword out from behind

his back

lopping off the head of one of these

dummies you see a hulking red

dragonboard

and you see his muscles like are ripping

through his shirt this is a

massive dude and try you immediately

see this this red dragonborn and this is

ferocious warrior you can tell right

away um

he with one move um turns and and lops

off one of the heads of these

combat dummies and then turns around

immediately

and from his mouth fire spews out and

lights up another one of the combat

dummies

and you see across the courtyard is uh

your combat teacher chat i'm like as

soon as i see him uh

i'll just start running up to him like

chad chad i passed i passed and i'm like

like all my stuff is like jangling and

like i'm holding on to my sword as it's

kind of dragging on the floor and i'm

like jeff chad i passed a pass and i'm

just run up to him

come on i did it and he pushes two of

the two of the combat dummies away

and walks up to you and leans way down

as this guy's like 10 feet tall

he goes all right give me some and he

reaches out his hand to give you a high

five

yeah i'll give him a good high five man

i wasn't man it was it was it was

hard i i i think melloroo still doesn't

like me though

yeah she doesn't like anyone yeah that's

that's true

well i mean she said i passed so i i

guess that means i get to

get to do the ritual right yeah oh yeah

you

you haven't done that did you just get

back i just got back oh

man all right yeah let's let's yeah

let's get you started

all right what what do i do oh this is

trial

he's uh he's the person i helped fix the

problem and he's kind of been tagging

along with with me and we have a

we have a party together um because you

told me to

you know kind of get that together but

they're kind of somewhere else

oh amazing hey try how's it going

greetings

earthworker what's your name

uh my name's chad um i've i've known

flynn here for quite some time so uh hey

you want to get uh

started on that yeah can can tria come

to watch uh i don't think he can be in

the room

for this um he can come i can hang out

with him for a little bit he seems like

a cool guy

yeah yeah he he he can fly

oh no [ __ ] that's what those wings are

for

oh right yeah well i don't know try can

you you want to hang out here and then

i'll just come back when the ritual's

over

yes i i think i could hang here for a

bit

i'm gonna look around the courtyard and

just take in uh take it in

all right it's you and me my man let's

do it

right and with that we're going to uh

cut

back real quick to um march

alma and kellik as you guys are uh

heading through the city um is there

anywhere that you guys would

like to go specifically

i'd like to sort of like gather uh the

three of us

into a shaded area and just uh have a

bit of a pow wow

uh so marge explain to me

i don't you don't have to share the ins

and outs of your relationship i

you know that seems private but

how is it that this girl knows nothing

of the gods have you not taught her

anything

i mean caleb

have you seen her do you feel you can

really

quote unquote teach alma

anything she's one of the brightest

children i've ever met

yeah and she learned all of that on her

she learned everything on her own oliver

am i hearing i can hear all this right

you're just talking about me

and also you can just ask her i

i didn't learn on my own per se

um yeah

um but where where i was they didn't

really

talk about it um it just wasn't really

important well from what i understand

our best hope of getting our questions

answered

with any amount of adequacy uh

would be uh to ask people who

may be dressed like me but probably

cleaner

and maybe happier uh in appearance

so uh that is where i think we should go

but

i think it might be worth explaining a

bit about

you know what's been going on for the

last uh 30 years or so

uh so that you're not going in unarmed

as it were

sure sure i mean it's always been like

this though right i mean as far as i

understand

i guess if it's been 30 years yeah that

makes sense as far as i know it's always

been like this

um yes um

um also like we were in the mountains

so it didn't really it didn't really

affect us

i see uh the mountains where do you know

yeah like that way and i just point to

the east

ish area to the east which region of

mountains she might be referring to

let me see i'm pointing towards the

raging peaks that would actually be to

the west

yeah that way i you know what that

you're right yeah

that way to the west do i know

if it would be like which country it

would be in

um yeah you guys are on like the

westernmost

pretty much the westernmost border of

ondale

the only place that it could be would be

kaldor

right well you might find it interesting

to know

that before there were mountains there

nobody knows what was there and the

reason those mountains exist

is because of a god named fenra

and she birthed that land and

uh she's a very uh powerful

and just god very concerned with uh

things being aggressively right and

wrong that makes sense to you

uh a woman birthed a mountain

hi ah that tracks it's mostly mostly

right

and uh does that happen often uh should

i be worried about that

uh i would not be concerned necessarily

about

that exactly there's many things to be

concerned about regarding the gods but

that is not one of them

so you have fenra to thank for those

mountains and

for the forests that we've recently been

inside of

many many many forests but especially

the freywood you can count

on ildoria for that she was the one to

create

uh that region and uh as it extends i'll

try to keep this brief as

uh i don't want to be in the city longer

than we have to you see

alma's face like glazing over as you're

explaining just names and things and

and that

at the mention of uh fenrir as you're

having this conversation with alma

uh i physically bristle

and i kind of uh

kick a rock and start to try and

tune you out slightly and just

yeah you can have a physical reaction to

that

and uh for the place we're in now ondel

uh uh a uh old dwarven god named a tear

i was responsible for that so as

uh you're probably getting now i'm like

completely ignoring the fact that she is

glazed over

as i'm sure you're gathering and uh

gleaning from this

uh everywhere on this world

uh has had some progenitor some

great being that is responsible for its

creation and its protection

and those are the old gods eldoria fenra

laurus atir and at the top of them all

the sun and the moon and the stars

is vermeer the lady of light

those are are the old gods those are the

old gods

and those and i sort of gesture to the

skyline of temples

uh that we see uh as the temple district

begins to like um overlap with the

place we're now uh are represented by

temples in this district

uh and uh men like myself uh although

like i said probably not quite like

myself

um and uh those people

uh just like me has dedicated their

lives to studying

uh the ways of the gods and the ways of

the things that the gods

uh have qualms with uh which i

think might be where the answer lies

with this abyssal text

[Music]

if there are old gods

why do we need new ones

the cowlick blanches and and just

like his face just like freezes

that's a good question alma

[Music]

um and that's what we're here to find

out to some extent

so uh if you'll be my representative

no offense march who i imagine has her

back turned

oh no i'm muttering i'm literally

talking to myself like

like oh god's no kiss but new gods

i'll just i'll just look askance at her

and she says

yeah so i think it's okay you have my

confidence on my that you you can uh

do this um because i i can't be seen in

this area

right it wouldn't end well for us do i

have to follow

a god uh

the gods the gods give to those who

serve them

but they don't take from those who don't

the answer i think would be no it'll

depend on who you ask

[Music]

right this all

making some amount of sense to you

um sure

sure i will talk to the people wearing

robes

and i know everything about the gods

you don't have to know everything about

the gods i just didn't want you to have

to go in and be like

what's the point of all these temples

why are these

great buildings here oh

right

that makes sense and just

you know i wouldn't bring this up but

the change uh that's been occurring uh

let's leave that let's leave that out of

the conversation

yes it's not a comfortable subject for

the people here

oh okay

uh and that is the redux of uh a lesson

i've taught

manny many times uh people older than

yourself

uh as well so you feel good you feel

ready

um i don't remember any of those names

[Laughter]

you'll do fine okay so i'm not gonna

be tested they're not gonna ask me what

i remember and like make me recite

everything

because that used to happen and i wasn't

very good at it

when in doubt uh

just uh say praise the old gods

hey remember that right

easy i can remember that easy easy

you're a little girl no reason you

should

have all of the names and locations

categorically

uh memorized i mean i could write them

down maybe

if i write them on my hand then i can

like look at it

and see what i wrote and then i would

know

uh whatever makes you comfortable um

maybe later if i don't need it i don't

need it right if i if i'm if

if you told me they're not gonna give me

a test then i'll be fine i mean

it depends on how you ask some some

clergymen are

taller than others oh yikes

you don't think anyone else would speak

this language like in a library

do we have to go to a temple

the temple has libraries but

uh dm would i know of a library

alternative um

really the only places that you would

know of would be within the temple to

have this sort of knowledge

um i mean you would know the magic shops

off on the other side of the city um

might be able to interpret it in an

arcane sense

but not like a direct translation

i think this is the best place to

get your question answered

and manny of mine right

and my question is can you read this

yes and why do we need new gods

oh but don't ask that question

no it was i was speaking oh you know in

a global sense of

the answers we'll find as a result of

asking about the text oh okay

that makes sense don't ask that question

okay i'll remember

right i can remember that

[Music]

dm does she look like she can remember

that make an inside check

17. homer yeah i'm gonna

i'm gonna remember yeah i'm not gonna

i'm not gonna

although maybe i should roll to see if i

remember

all right um so uh oma you're gonna head

off and

try to talk to some people right

is that yes yes um but we're still

walking all the way to the temple

district together

yes okay awesome and i'll i'll linger

just

just at the outskirts of it i i'm i

don't know if there's any

proper dividing line but i would have

some understanding of that

um kellogg i'm going to have you um

make you can either make a stealth check

or a performance check

um and this check is just going to be

for the entirety of the time that you're

here in the temple district this will

sort of be an overarching

um hide i guess oh boy

all right uh that is a ten ten

okay so now uh we're gonna go

back to flynn

um shreya you are just sort of hanging

out in the hallway here

um as chat just took flynn into

a room and closed the door behind them

so you're just

sort of waiting out here in the hallway

for the time being i'm gonna set my mind

meditating and focusing very hard

on the center of my staff the crystal in

the center of my staff

and uh i don't know how long a short

rest takes but i'm gonna try to get one

yeah um a short rest is an hour okay um

and i mean if you this is a possibility

it's totally up to you

um attuning to an item also is a short

rest

so you would be able to find out what

the bracer does

at the end of that hour if you would

like to do that but if you would also

like to meditate that's fine as well uh

yeah maybe i maybe i lean over to flynn

and ask

if you'd like i could go to work on

finding out

the true nature of this and i refer to

the bracer

um i don't know you seemed

kind of weird about the

gem i do like it very much i like

looking at it

yeah that's that's kind of what i'm

worried about um

just don't put it on promise me you

won't put it on

my mission will be purely fact

binding

okay good enough for me and i'll give

him the bracer yes

okay flynn um chaff ushers you into this

small circular room um only about 10

feet in diameter this is a room that you

have not been in before

but there is a just a very small

circular table

in front of you um there are a couple of

wooden um like

little tiny wooden stubs that come out

of the table

um perfect distance and a perfect

placement for you to place your sword

um as you walk in chat sort of takes a

step back

and sort of presses his back up against

the wall and

instructs you to sit down in the chair

um at the table

yeah i'll um take off my backpack take

off my

my bow i'll take off the

the sheath for my sword set everything

down kind of in the corner

and um i kind of know what's coming

right for everything in the ritual like

i have an idea generally this part you

you have a general idea of what's gonna

happen cool

i'll uh once everything's off i'll

unsheath my sword

and take a look at it

it's like mess with the hill like fine

little pieces of

ink that are still kind of left there

and i'll

kind of give a smirk as i think back to

all the times i would draw on this thing

and

practice for this moment and

look at it clean it off a little bit

maybe flick off some of the ink

locks that are still there and i'll walk

over to the chair and sit down

and put the put my sword on the little

pegs it

seems like if that's what i know how to

do yeah so you put your

sword down and this the the wood

pegs right there as you put your sword

down they

seem to warp just very slightly to

accommodate your sword being held there

and it holds it perfectly in place

you look down and you see on the table

are two sort of inset areas

and you can see it's sort of

resembling an arm inset

into the table and you reach your arms

out and your

your hands perfectly fit into these

little insets on the table

yeah before i actually put them down

let's look at my forearms

look at my i look at my right arm

i kind of like just move my fingers

around practicing some of the

motions with my right arm that i would

practice

late at night when i couldn't sleep

smile look at my other arm

look at it one last time both of my

forearms

all right i'll look over at chad

nervous hey there's nothing to be

nervous about

i know now it's just waiting for this

just like i guess maybe i'm excited too

place my arms in the insets

he walks um around the table and off to

the other side of the room

and the stonework on this in this room

is a little bit patchy there are some

stones that

are sort of made of different materials

and one of them seems to be marble one

of them seems to be just regular stone

one of them seems to be like a dark clay

and he walks over to one of them and

it's this

uh this beautiful white stone and he

grabs it and he takes the stone out of

the wall

and you can see now as he takes it out

the stone is hollowed out

and within it are

these um flowers

within it um these flowers that seem to

neon almost like the flowers that shraya

saw earlier

um these these neon

flowers and he lays the stone

on the table and he walks to the other

side of the room

and picks this this light orange clay

stone

out of the wand you can see that that

one's also hollowed out and you can see

two um like thin tools

one of them is sort of like a hammer a

small hammer shape

and the other one um sort of has a hook

on the end and has several needles

into it and he walks that over and he

puts that on the table

over the next couple minutes he takes a

bowl that's on the table and crushes up

the flowers

into this um into these uh three

separate dies

and after one of the dies is done he

dips the needles

into that die comes over to your forearm

that's laid out onto the table

and begins to tap the needles into your

skin

slowly moving it over your your skin

creating this

this beautiful circular design

and as he finishes up on one arm you can

see

this ink is is very dark black

almost like absorbing the light around

like more than natural black and and

this

process hurts each time he taps the

needle into your forearm it is painful

how how long does this take jeff oh this

is gonna take a while

oh all right keep going

so he finishes the black on your left

arm

and then he goes over to the

the bowls that are out there on the

table and you can see he's made um

a a bright blue ink and he cleans off

the needles from

the black and and he dips him in the

blue and he goes over to your right arm

and he begins to tap again

creating a very a very similar but also

with like distinctive

marks making a blue circular design

on your right arm and that takes another

couple minutes

man this one feels like it hurts more

yeah it's it's gonna get worse

just you just gotta hang in there is the

is there

is the next one gonna be worse than this

oh probably

is there anyone else in the room is it

just me just you and him okay i look

around to make sure that no one else is

in here because i don't want them to see

struggling it's a small room chatham

here being the size that he is

another person probably couldn't even

fit in this room if they try hey um

give me a second give me a second let me

hey um yeah take it everywhere

whenever we're done with this can you

tell him that i just like

jumped don't tell my you know everyone

else here that i just like

i took it no problem yeah hey i got you

man i got you

thanks thanks jeff you're the best all

right ready

okay go oh god okay

and he he continues tapping and um

finishes up with the blue

and he goes back uh over to the bowls

and you see there's

um this neon red uh die that he's

created and

and once again he taps a very similar um

but unique

circular design on your right arm as

well

once he's done with that he puts all the

bowls back he puts the needles back into

the

the clay uh the clay bowl that he has

he puts the the rest of the flowers that

he didn't use back into the white stone

and pushes them back into the walls

looking around you see that these the

the stones that he pulled from the walls

were not the only unique ones here these

walls are

lined with dozens and dozens of these

unique types of stones and

and your mind starts to wonder what

could be in them and what

ritual could those be used for

but he finishes up the the the process

and you look down and you have

three new tattoos on your forums yeah

does flynn know exactly what they do

not yet not yet no

all right the hard part over

oh no man this is just getting started

and he goes over and he pulls

um he pulls another one this one looks

like a sort of like a standard

just smooth stone and he places it down

on the table

and you can see within it there is uh

and on the part that's been hollowed out

um you can see that there is ink and

um a quill and also a a very thin

like paintbrush and he says

all right now uh you know what to do

from here iso

and he steps towards the door and as

he's about to reach towards the door he

goes oh

oh [ __ ] wait one second one second and

he reaches up and

it's it's one of the taller stones it's

tall for even him he has to reach up and

and sort of struggle to get this stone

from out of the wall and he places it

down on the table

and you see a stack of very thin

notebooks these like very

intricately bound leather notebooks only

a couple inches by a couple inches and

he looks through him and he opens up one

on it he puts it back and then he opens

up another one ah yeah here it is

and he puts it down on the table in

front of you and he reaches up and he

puts the stone back

and he says all right man it's you

from here on out and he walks out

and he opens the door shraya you see

this dragonborn walk out

you see him close the door behind him

you see him put a bar

over the door and you see him lock it

um is he going to be all right yeah

man i sure hope so

[Laughter]

oh no i hope so too he seems like a good

guy oh my god

and he walks down the hall and out of

your sight

so flynn with uh a notebook

some ink and a paintbrush and a quill in

front of you

what would you like to do i

quickly look at the notebook and i just

kind of like flip through it a little

bit

um am i familiar with what this notebook

is or

what i need to know like to look at it

to know what it does what it is um

just flipping through it real quick you

see

illustrations of different hand

positions

and you see notes off in the corner of

verbal components for spells and you see

specific instructions on how to place

your hands in certain ways and you can

see

different notes on how to cast spells

i will excitedly flip through it and

kind of almost get lost and like oh man

this is the this is the one i've been

practicing um

and i'll keep flipping through like oh

i've never seen this one before and i'm

like wait

i gotta i gotta get this first so i'll

take the book and i'll excitedly put it

down

um near my backpack just like sit it

down over there

i'll get back to that um pull the ink

over to this

to the side pull out the paintbrush and

look at my sword

look at my hand my left hand that i'm

holding the paintbrush in

with the tattoo right on my wrist this

black tattoo that's in a circle

on these little intricate designs going

in a circle around my

like right on my wrist on the inside of

my wrist and i'll look at it

[Music]

all right here we go and i'll dip the

paintbrush in the ink

and i'll start delicately painting the

symbol

on my wrist the black symbol i'll start

painting it

all over the sword i'll put a circle

here

do the description move up a little bit

put it there i'll

basically begin covering the sword in

this black ink

of the symbol on my left arm

and over the next hour you

delicately and intricately as you had

practiced

many times before you put these symbols

all over the sword and

at the end of the hour you finish your

final brush stroke

and you can see the runes

now they don't glow but they they deepen

in their blackness

and they inset themselves permanently on

the sword

i don't look at it because like this

doesn't happen when i was doing it

earlier so i'm like

oh it worked and i'll like i'll rub my

hand on the sword

to see if i can take off

you rub your hand along the sword and

you look down at your hand and

now your hand is covered in ink as

you rub the ink off of it but you rub

the ink off

but the symbols still stay there in this

deep black

you just wiped the surface ink off of it

but now these symbols are permanently

etched into the sword

yeah so this this sword is basically

covered in these circular

runic symbols just covered from head to

toe and all these little black symbols i

love it

um well would would would fling done

i mean i'll i will essentially i'll try

i'll try and focus

actually i'll run over the book and i'll

grab it

and i'll flip through is there is there

anything that

says how i should do this any

instructions the only instructions

within

are instructions on how to cast spells

when you pick up your sword however from

the table the table

[Music]

sinks down into the floor oh crap oh

crap

and the stones in front of you within

the circular room

they seem to fold back and open up in

like this weird dimensional

shift oh god as the the stone

peels away and moves back and folds back

in on itself

as a door appears in front of you on the

opposite side of the room

i reach over as i'm like i'll be looking

at the door but i reach over and grab

the book

of spells that has like the hand motions

in it and like a little

training journal and i'll put it under

my arm oh my sword on my other hand

i'll look at my hands look at the sword

all right i guess

word from here and i'll go through the

door

okay i'm gonna have you make an

arcana check as you are looking okay

[Music]

all right

let's see here

[Music]

that is okay that is a

15. okay

okay um so you sort of take a couple

minutes and you try

and and memorize as much of this book as

you can

do you step through the door in front of

you

um before i step through i'll flip

through one last time i'll set the book

down

and i just want to try and figure this

out so i'll place the sword on the

ground and i'll take like

a look at it i'll take two steps back

hold my hand out my left hand with the

black tattoo on it i'll focus

intently on my hand and i'll just try to

summon my sword to my hand okay

roll an arcana check okay

oh that's really good uh 22 a 22

nice in a puff of green smoke

your sword appears within your hand

[Music]

you can see for the brief half second

between you summoning your sword and

your sword actually being there

the runes the runes appear in place

first and then the sword appears within

your hand in this puff of smoke

sick so i do that

oh man i wish jack could have seen that

oh or kaelin

i have to show them soon i'll look at

the door pick the book up

and go through baby okay as you walk

through um you open up into

uh more of a larger room it's

still circular in the middle

of this room you see this like

stone well going deep down into the

ground

you look around and off to your right

you see some spikes coming off of a wall

but just in in one section of the wall

you look down and you see that that

the ground is is this sandy dirt

beneath your feet where the rest of the

castle is this

immaculate stone you see dirt beneath

your feet

and you also on the opposite side see a

gate

sort of a a port cullis type of a gate

and you see it begins to shift and move

upwards

revealing darkness and black on the

other side

and from the other side bursts forth

whipping and and moving in every

direction uh

these tentacles of plants and vines

come whipping out from beyond this gate

and they begin to

to move out and and pull itself out

towards this open area

and it attaches itself to the wall and

as as soon as it came out it attaches

itself to the wall

and completely still

it's just one it's just this one plant

creature

oh boy it's just this

ball of of writhing vines

um hmm

am i i'll step into the sand i don't

know if i did already i'll step into the

center of the room

and like i'll have my sword out

pick the book and set it down on the

ground like i

hope i practiced enough i'll look up at

the

plant thing

okay and charge in okay i'm gonna have

you roll initiative

let's do it oh i wrote a

seven seven all right

terrible freaking terrible

down when rolled a seven

let's go flynn yay let's go

okay um so this thing um

sort of sensing that is coming towards

you it um

whips out two of its vines and as you

are moving towards it

it plunges them deep into the ground and

the ground around it begins to crack a

little bit and you can feel

the dirt underneath you begin to shake a

little bit as right from underneath you

these vines burst out from the ground

and take hold of both of your wrists um

this

plant is going to attempt to disarm you

okay um is this an attack role

this is an attack rule to disarm you

okay okay cool go ahead

that is a 23 day

yeah it definitely hits but

um yeah it still would hit

now as an eldritch knight bonded to your

weapon

you are now not able to be disarmed oh

yeah that's right

ah so i'm holding onto this thing and it

tries to rip this

the sword out and you see the the black

circular symbol on my left hand glow

with like a pulse and the sword stays

steadfast in my hand as you see the

runes on the sword also glow

can't take it out and i'll just look at

the thing like ah ain't gonna work

okay and that it's gonna is gonna be its

turn

um glenn you are up what would you like

to do

um is it still trying to hold on to me

or did let go after

um it was trying to get the weapon out

from your hands

but you are not restrained in any way

all right i'm gonna hit it so what i'll

do is

uh oh boy it's just one thing so what

i'll do is you are

um technically currently on the opposite

side of the room it just sent over

through the ground can i get in can i

get up to it yeah sure

all right i'm gonna run up to it and i'm

gonna attack this thing

[Music]

okay make an attack roll sure so i will

i'll look at my blade i look at my hand

my i'll look at my

right hand and you see on the wrist on

the inside you see the two tattoos you

see the first one it's the blue

circular with the designs and then you

see the other one that's red right below

uh on the inside arm with the red and uh

here we go i will quickly rub

my thumb and two fingers together on my

right arm

and the red tattoo and my two fingers

begin to glow bright red

i rapidly tap the hilt middle and end of

my sword

on the flat end of it on each tap it

seems the small rippling aura

sends it sends a rippling aura like and

thunderous sound

transferred to the blade and with the

final tap the blade becomes encompassed

with a pulsing aura of arcane energy

and i'm gonna strike it i'm gonna try

and hit it okay make an attack roll

actually before you do that okay

i'm gonna have you make another arcana

check sure to see

how much information you got from that

book so um because you rolled a 15

before that means that the difficulty

the dc

of this arcana check is five

to correctly cast this all right so i

already rolled the hit but i'll just put

that aside and i'll roll

another one for that okay let's go plus

eight plus so like nice yeah you

successfully cast this spell

okay cool all right so and then i rolled

a 16 plus

oh boy uh what is it to hit

uh it's uh 23.

yeah a 23 for sure okay so

okay so when i hit him uh the energy

from the sword seems to transfer

uh as i slash through it'll it transfers

into the wound

and the aura slightly pulses inside this

cut

seemingly held at bay and i will roll

my damage okay uh that's this

oh man that's low uh oh but i get a

possibility good plus uh nine points of

uh piercing damage okay nine points of

piercing damage

and uh as i'm looking at this pulsing

wound i'm like oh

yes it worked and not knowing how the

spell works i will

oh man i don't know if i'm i'm going to

just take a few steps

back if i have the movement i'd like to

just move back a little bit

okay out of its reach you will be taking

an opportunity attack if you do that

that's okay

okay move back it's going to take an

opportunity attack

and that's going to be a nine to hit it

doesn't hit

okay it swings one of them vines wildly

and misses you

and i'm kind of like a becking i like do

the link back in it towards me like come

come get me okay it

now leaps forth from the wall that it

was attached

and it is going to

move its vines all the way around you

circling you

leaving you no place to move it does not

encompass you yes it does it does move

okay so

here we go guys when it moves oh yeah

the energy in the cut that is pulsing is

disrupted

from its movement and the thunderous

sound emits from the wound as it is

briefly

stretched and torn larger from the force

of the energy escaping

and uh i do some damage to it as this

energy just pulses out of the wound

it's the only role for that boom and

blade baby

boom and blade geez all right

man that is a d8

all right so it takes five points of

thunder damage as it moves you just

and it rips the rips the wound a little

bit larger nice oh my gosh

okay um next up it is going to

whip two of its wire its vines towards

you

that is going to be a

17 and a 21 to hit

yeesh um

i will

i'm gonna catch i'm gonna i'm gonna do

it okay so uh as a reaction

um because i can stop one of them as a

reaction i will

with a quick motion and a quick whistle

like a like a high pitch like

i i raise my forearm in an arcing

fashion upwards

with an open flat hand and as i do the

blue tattoo

uh on my my right arm glows trailing

behind

uh and pass my uh forearm upward

a glowing arcane barrier that like holds

steady around me

and uh i'll catch shield shield that's

so the first one will make it first one

misses but the second one

may get through so as the first attack

comes in i'll do that and i'll like

raise my hand up

and then it glows and uh the one the

vine slides off and then the second one

kind of pushes through awesome

okay so now i'm going to roll the damage

for the second one that hits

that is going to be 12 points of

bludgeoning damage

as this thing whips around and hits you

okay

ouch fighter fighter hp let's go

um okay okay next up uh it's your turn

what would you like to do

um let's see

i'm going to

hit it again um i will

yeah i'm going to hit it so i'll i mean

i can't do much else guys i'm gonna hit

it again so i'm gonna do the same thing

i i take my fingers and i do the same

motion i tap tap tap

and my sword becomes pulsed in energy

and i'm gonna strike down at the

at the enemy okay

okay just making sure that i don't have

to like add more damage

okay oh wait that's wrong guys

i have to roll for attack oh my god uh

uh 16. 16 hits yeah roll your dick

okay oh that's max damage uh dude that's

so much damage

13 points of piercing damage i was like

sticking to it

you can see the the vines begin to wrath

around um

it did not enjoy that and uh

i will do it again

i'm gonna back up again if i can you

said that wasn't completely encompassing

it it is completely surrounding you you

cannot move no it isn't work out

yeah you cannot move oh that's that's it

that's my turn

okay nice okay it is going to make two

more attacks towards you

that is going to be a 19 and a 4.

um i'll cash actually i'll take it i'll

take it okay

four misses the 19 hits that is

that's going to be 16 points of blood

okay

all right okay are you still standing

wait am i okay

oh that's a lot okay um yeah i'm up okay

and that's gonna be its turn it is still

surrounding you jesus

does it how does it look i mean i don't

know does it look like it's written most

of its vines are now like shedding and

falling to the ground

[Music]

i'm going to oh boy oh my god

this is where we lose flesh oh man

i hope he's gonna be okay in there he

seems like a nice guy

i'm gonna i'm gonna like i'm really

[ __ ] up after the last hit and i'm

just like

oh man and i like take a second to kind

of just focus

and slow my breathing

when i'll use second wind to heal up a

little bit okay

a little bit um i think it's a d10

i have to look quick

oh boy yeah d10

plus my level which is three now

that's nice all right six seven eight

points okay that's

good i guess it's not enough okay so i

get eight points back of healing nice

and as i finish breathing in slow i look

at it

i'm going to oh man i want to get more

extra damage

i'm going to take my action to to

disengage uh

can i i can't get out you can't you are

unable to move then i'm just gonna

i'm just gonna i see that i'm surrounded

in fines

all right well this is it this is it

i'm gonna go out swinging and i'll do

the same thing oh

tap tap tap and strike it make an attack

[Music]

once

12 12 hits yes okay come on come on come

on kill it

kill it now kill it now that

uh 12 points of piercing damage and with

that you swing and this thing goes

completely

as you have now a circle of dead and

withering vines around you the green of

the vines

slowly um turns to brown and and it

dries up and withers around you

i'm like i just like after that happens

and it's dead i'll just kind of

poop just plop down on my butt and just

i'm just sitting there breathing

i did it i did it i look up

what's above me do i see any people um

no you just see

a um a like impossibly tall

uh cylindrical room you can't even see

where this thing

ends at the top you don't know if it

goes out to daylight it is

it looks like thousands and thousands of

feet tall you can't even see the top

oh wow this place is cool

and now after i look up i look down at

my arms

awesome and i'll look back over at the

door i don't know if it's open or closed

you look back at the door that you came

through and it is closed the only

door that is open is the one that the

vines came through

oh boy there's more um

i'll steal myself and look over at the

door and walk through it

okay you walk up and there is um just

beyond the gate that opened up

there is just a a very simple wooden

door

and as you reach out you grab hold of it

and you open it

and it opens to a hallway and you look

out and

right there to your left you see shraya

sitting

hey hey man

i did it and i went over to try it try

you see flynn running out of this room

uh black eye blood dripping from his

mouth

um he's beat up

amen

[Laughter]

looks like you've seen some great uh

challenges behind you uh my little

friend it wasn't a problem

i took care of it without a problem i'll

look around is chat there anyone else

out there

no just try yeah man

and i'll cough a little bit i'm good man

yeah it was super easy man

let us commence into the courtyard

perhaps i can

perhaps i can help what hail's you here

have a have a barrier i saved one

okay i'll eat mountain okay take a bite

of the berry

oh man yeah that's that helped

what you get up to

i've been focusing all of my energy on

this

and i hold up the if i

you now know what it is so yeah

i'm gonna send you this item's

description

you may disclose what it is you don't

have to disclose what it is totally up

to you

amazing i'm going to send this to you

right now

tell us

[Music]

i was getting v worried for a second

depends on how shiny these let me know

if you got that

oh i got that okay nice okay

um as you guys head back out into the

courtyard um

sharya now having an understanding of

what this object is

um would you like to tell flynn about it

or do you want to keep it

by yourself

i've noticed certain things about it

that have deepened my understanding of

the earth for beings

and where we go once

we leave the earth i'm very excited to

see how it might impact my understanding

of the things we do

as we move forward

[Music]

i'll be honest man i don't know what any

of that means um

i kind of feel like i could i could use

a nap

sure well perhaps i can demonstrate it

the next time

we come into an opportunity we can see

it firsthand

i'm feeling very good about what i can

do with it now

i think it will be a great help oh

um hey check this out and i'll take my

sword

i'll just chuck it across the room

whoa oh wait no no that's not it no

try it and i'll focus and i'll summon

the sword back to my hand

[Music]

and it bursts into your hand with a puff

of green smoke

cool huh that's quite a trick yeah

well congratulations on uh on

remaining alive it looks like you had to

go through quite a few trials since we

last

saw each other yeah it was it was a lot

but uh

i made it

here let's take a little bit of time

rest in the courtyard perhaps there are

some of your compatriots who

might want to see you now that you're

clearly in one piece

yeah where's chatham i'm not sure he

just

he left quite a while ago okay yeah

let's just hang out here for a bit

all right and i'll just chill and take a

short rest as you guys

uh chill out there um oma

kellick and march you guys are are now

deep within the heart of the temple

district um do you guys have anywhere

specifically that you

would like to head

[Music]

or anything you're looking for do you

know which one we should be going to

are there a lot of temples here vm are

there a lot of temples here um

yeah there are temples left right and

center um

you enter this sort of this district and

you can see everywhere the iconography

of the old gods

um through here it's pretty pretty

diverse in

the gods that they worship um of the old

gods um

but with a heavy lean towards

familiar okay caleb do you know if

there's one

temple or god who who might know abyssal

more than the others

uh uh atir

might be the one who would uh he's sort

of a keeper of knowledge

although he can be a little you know

shaky as far as uh he can be a little

bit nebulous

if you will uh so uh but

i think that might be your best bet if

there's a there's one to him he's an all

dwarf

dwarven man in his presentation so look

for directions of that sort

uh on the outside of the building

and i can uh i can sort of point her to

the to the one yes dm if the

would i know of which one it's here yeah

you would know

all of the the temples around here

and that is that's correct right that a

tier would probably be the one

most linguistically inclined probably

yeah oh yeah for sure

first okay okay unless there's one that

is a t fling

there is not there is not

um so oma you walk up to this this um

temple again a very nice white stone

building

um and it's got accents of of red wood

all over it um this one seems to be

sort of taller and skinnier in

construction

whereas the other ones seem to be a

little bit wider at the base

you walk in and you walk in and it's

pretty much a library in here um you can

see

tables lining the sides where um

you can see people in robes um not

giving

sermons but giving lectures on how to

to craft intricate little technologies

and

and working with um sort of like uh

mechanical clockwork

elements and you can see that there is

one head priest

um at the the front of this temple who

um scribbling furiously in his notes you

can see behind him

um plans and blueprints for some vast

machinery

and uh they're sort of overtaken by the

the books and and all the technology

that's going on in here

wow and i'm alone right i came in alone

yes okay i'm gonna walk up to

the man scribbling and look at the

blueprints what do i see

um you can make a

straight intelligence check oh

really good um 21.

uh 21. you see him scribbling into his

notes

it looks like a machine that would be

able to

like better optimize farming and crop

collection

and he uh he looks up at you as you

approach

and he goes oh hello

hi and i'm still i'm not even looking

i'm still looking at the blueprint yeah

that's cool oh yeah i'm hoping it will

how big is it gonna be oh it's it's

probably gonna be about the size of a

house

by the time i'm done with it wow

that's so cool thank you

can i help you with something oh right

right

yes you can um i was traveling

uh with some friends and came across an

inscription that i couldn't read

and i was hoping maybe um because you

guys are so intelligent here and and

you've got so many books maybe you could

help me read it or or point me in the

right direction

oh yes um that's

that's something that i can definitely

do um i i

there's rarely a language that i don't

know um

if if you want to come back to my study

with me um

we can discern exactly what this is i

just i just

i i'm sort of in in the middle of my

process here so i didn't want to

i don't want to disturb the the flow of

my thoughts up here

oh sure sure that makes sense

okay thank you um i'm also um

uh would you would you mind if i brought

my assistant i don't know how delicate

this is but

um my assistant is is um sort of a

linguist herself and i'm

i'm hoping that uh i can i can teach her

some things here and there where i can

uh sure sure yeah hi i'm oma

um my name is vincent by the way i i i'm

sorry i didn't ask your name my name is

vincent ratley i am the head of um this

church to

a tear and um i am i'm the head uh

the head here hi head

and and your assistant oh she's she's

actually coming over right now her name

is rory

rory rorsk

that's a fun name oh it is

part of the reason that uh i took her on

as my apprentice

my last name is marsk and so it's kind

of similar

look at that anyway okay um and and you

can see his assistant approaches

she's got like 10 books in her hands

this is like

she they're they're leaning and she's

trying to you know maneuver around

people without

knocking these books in these papers

over are they both human

they are both human yes

um pretty much everyone that you've seen

in this whole city so far has been human

like 99 of people

thanks so much vincent i appreciate your

help you're welcome

any opportunity for knowledge i can get

um so yeah if you would like to to join

me and he

they go back into um sort of this little

back room area and you can see um as you

approach it looks like a private study

more books more books but these ones

are like thick and you can see looking

around

they've got loose pieces of paper coming

out of them um

probably lots of notes taken in these

books

um but then he sits down at his desk and

he ushers

uh rory to pull up a chair next to him

and he says all right uh what what would

i be able to translate for you

um so so i said we were traveling and

and we came across

across um um this graveyard

and this was written there and and most

of everything i could read but i

couldn't read this and

and i know that um the town around the

graveyard was having some trouble

recently not anymore they're okay now um

but i just figured maybe this would help

them

so that in the future it doesn't happen

again

oh uh i i applaud your noble pursuit um

yeah if i can see the writing i would be

able to translate it for you um

i pull out of my like the pouch of my

pants

um i pull out um the folded piece of

paper

that we've um like um highlighted the

the words in the shaded the words in

from the

from the wall of the tomb and i hand it

him to read okay um

as you hand it to him um it's still

sort of folded up he hasn't really

looked at it fully yet and

he said now i just

curious as to what your level of

knowledge is do you do you know

anything about this um

about the scribbles yes i mean the

language um i don't speak that language

so no i don't know anything about it

oh okay would you like to learn i can i

can teach you

at least at least at least what this

says here i can sort of

uh i i enjoy teaching people that's

that's why we have uh

rory here is is i enjoy teaching so yeah

yeah if you would like to okay and he

unfolds it and immediately his

eyes go wide and he says

oh maybe not

um where did you say you got this from

uh it is from a graveyard a graveyard

okay has anyone else seen this

um anyone else like who

um anyone anyone that you've shown this

to anyone who

was also there at the graveyard

just me just you

okay um well first off um

this is this is a very old

dialect um this is this is written in

infernal

infernal inferno can i can i insight

check because we

thought it was written in abyssal uh

yeah make an inside check

natural 20.

for sure this is infernal um

okay and he says

yes this is um infernal um

and he actually says um infernal um

the old dialect is often mistaken for

abyssal as as they are are very similar

in structure

um but this is this is very definitively

infernal and this this is

a very dangerous language to know i i

would caution you of the people that you

show this to

but yeah if you would still like me to

read it i can

um please because we don't want um any