Cloudfall | 45 - Bog Downed
Last time on Cloudfall. Wasn't quite close enough, I think.
Thomas / Guy:Mhmm.
Tim / GM:Last time on Cloudfall, little too growly.
Hannah / Eryn:Do it as Mikey.
Tim / GM:Last time on Cloudfall. Mikey saved the day again. Goddamn it, Mikey. Everybody gave him chocolate. And then Hank Hill tried to punish him.
Tim / GM:And
Thomas / Guy:Hubert said he was proud of me.
Maggie / Poppy:Did you say Hubert?
Thomas / Guy:I might have.
Tim / GM:Last time on Cloudfall. The island vacation from hell continued as the party made a mad dash across the fallen ruins in the lake. Before they could face down the invisible threat of the rainy hills, they had to cross a treacherous gap between islands, and not everybody was equally graceful in their attempt. Long story short, Doran got a great opportunity to show off a new compact glider that he secretly bought back on back seat. Everyone else was able to get across easily enough with a combination of whip smart wit and a dash of magic from Journey and Poppy.
Tim / GM:Once Journey was in position on the rainy hills, they set their plan into action. Just as anticipated, the invisible beast attacked without hesitation. The party managed to light it up with fairy fire and then light it up with lethal force. It all came to an abrupt end with a demonstration of a lifetime. Guy's decades of martial training surfaced in a shining moment of steel and strength as he cleaved a corrupted great beast in a single motion.
Tim / GM:Now all that remains is the climb. Guy's body is heaving deep breaths, standing before the great felled beast, holding the heavy great blade of lotum dripping with fairy fire and inky shadows. There's a chilled breeze over the lake as the clouds above shift from green to feeble red. You can see the tower in some detail now, and the scale of it is absolutely nauseating. The tower is colossal, reaching vertically for miles disappearing into the clouds.
Tim / GM:And the structure of it is clear at the bottom, but higher up, it seems to be somehow made from natural stone. You see smaller structures hanging off the tower in a grand symmetrical design, but much of it crumbling, ruined, or missing entirely. And Guy, this looks remarkably similar in construction to that strange kingdom you once saw after transporting yourself through a massive echo bell.
Thomas / Guy:Did we get it? Guy turns around and kinda pokes at it with a sword.
Maggie / Poppy:You're asking us? You you just killed it in one hit.
Thomas / Guy:Oh, wasn't felt like a good one.
Tim / GM:Guy, your sword pierces the carapace and a little bit of pressurized pneumatic fluid just kind of spills out of the mantis. So
Thomas / Guy:what was this thing?
John / Doran:Guy, that was one of the great beasts.
Thomas / Guy:What? The great beasts? Indeed, it was. The island we're on now, the Rainy Hills. This is Phoebe, the great mantis.
Thomas / Guy:Was. So am I in some sort of trouble?
Thomas / Guy:I think not, my friend. You are not the one that took this thing's life.
Thomas / Guy:But we all saw it.
Thomas / Guy:It was corrupted. These shadows here.
Thomas / Guy:Ah, yes. Who could have corrupted such a thing? Well, probably an obvious answer.
Thomas / Guy:My suspicions lie the same. Lanati, of course.
Maggie / Poppy:I thought you said she doesn't leave the Feyrealm.
Thomas / Guy:It is not.
Hannah / Eryn:The creature fell down, and the Skyland fell.
Tara / Journey:Journey, as a wolf, is looking very irritated and is, like, pawing at the ground. It's kinda just nudging the the body.
Maggie / Poppy:What's wrong, girl?
Tara / Journey:I get out of wild shape.
Thomas / Guy:Is it something, Journey? What is it? What is it, Journey?
Tara / Journey:We saw Lord Trick corrupt in the same way, and he didn't come down here first. We can't say for sure that Lanati did this. I think that there's a a good chance that the blue eyed creature had something to do with it more likely than Lanati.
Thomas / Guy:Kree too seemed to be brainwashed in some way, if not exactly corrupted in the same way.
Tara / Journey:Right.
Hannah / Eryn:Well, we aren't gonna figure it out by standing around here. That's for sure. I think we should just try to keep moving.
John / Doran:Long shot, but can I roll maybe some sort of check to see what gave it power or if it's just it's an innate thing? Like it once it's dead, it's just a dead body. Like
Tim / GM:I see. Are you trying to learn something in this moment or are you pulling on your previous knowledge?
John / Doran:Probably pulling on previous knowledge because I'm inclined to agree with Aaron here that we should probably be moving.
Tim / GM:Okay. Give me a history check.
John / Doran:16. K.
Tim / GM:You know that great beasts are incredibly powerful, not just in their size and stature, but in their magic as well. You know that thing these things are chockablock full of high impact magic, much the way that like a potent bismite crystal is. However, you know that these black shadows means that this thing has been drained of every ounce of magic it ever had.
John / Doran:I agree with Erin. There's nothing to gain here. We should go.
Tara / Journey:I'm a little lot injured, and I might need to rest unless any of y'all have something I can
Thomas / Guy:We haven't the time or the shelter.
Tara / Journey:Maybe I can figure
Thomas / Guy:something out. Perhaps at the base of the tower.
Tim / GM:Hubert gestures up at the sky and just kind of showing you all that it's red, meaning that it's about to go pitch dark here in the Feywild.
Maggie / Poppy:I'm gonna Insta bake Mhmm. A bread and butter for Journey. Okay. And it restores HP equal to one d six plus my intelligence modifier. Oh.
Maggie / Poppy:So that would be I have to roll. Right?
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah.
Maggie / Poppy:Eight HP.
Maggie / Poppy:Eight you also get eight temporary hit points.
Thomas / Guy:Oh, that's good.
Tara / Journey:Oh, great. Thank you.
Maggie / Poppy:It's not much, but it it might help.
Maggie / Poppy:Still below half.
John / Doran:Oh, I'll stay close, Journey.
Tim / GM:Yeah. I won't let you fall. Journey is battered and bleeding out, and Poppy just hands her a slice of buttered bread.
Tara / Journey:It was great.
Maggie / Poppy:This always made me feel better.
Tara / Journey:Yeah. Thanks, Poppy. Sometimes it's the simple things.
John / Doran:Yeah. It's getting dark quick. We should go.
Thomas / Guy:Very well.
Maggie / Poppy:You're the one who was here before.
John / Doran:Right. Yeah. Okay. I'll go. And I'd start walking towards the base of the tower.
John / Doran:Doran's taking a chance to kinda glance around, still kind of hoping that he does see Toly running up from the distance trying to catch up.
Tim / GM:You're glancing back over your shoulder every few paces, almost trying to look like you're keeping up for danger when you're really keeping out for a friend. And then in that moment, you all hear a voice at the same time that you rarely hear at the same time. It's Ganymede. He says, stop. You
Tim / GM:are not meant to go in this place.
John / Doran:Okay. Everyone else hear this?
Maggie / Poppy:Yeah. Yes. Ganymede, do you mean? We're supposed to go there.
Tim / GM:I I barely recognize it now, but this is the castle of the autumn king.
John / Doran:We know.
Hannah / Eryn:I'm so sick of kings, god.
Tim / GM:As mortals, you are strictly forbidden from entering without the permission of the ruling royalty.
John / Doran:Right. Do you have any
Thomas / Guy:other great ideas of how we can get out of this place, Ganymede?
Tim / GM:I do not.
Maggie / Poppy:Who's the ruling royalty right right now?
Tim / GM:Now, I I I don't know. But before, it was the king Hail. This this was my home. Yes? I keep trying to tell you, but
Tim / GM:no one wants to talk to me.
Maggie / Poppy:Who is your home?
Thomas / Guy:We've been a little busy, Candomene.
Tim / GM:Oh, this place you call Lore. Before it was in disguise, it was a village here in the Feywild in this very crater. Do you remember the cave that you found me in?
Thomas / Guy:Oh, yes. Deep underground Lore.
Tim / GM:Hundreds of years ago in that very cave, there was a great shaking. Everyone around me began to flee and then exploded.
Tim / GM:But I was already a statue at the time, so I do just fine.
Tim / GM:But in that moment, I knew I was no longer in the Feywild, even as a statue. I met only a handful of people in the hundreds of years I spent in that cave, you were the first to accept my offer. But this was my homeland, and it used to be beautiful. The softest twilight sang to us from the other side, and everything remained in that last moment of dusk every hour of the day. You know, party time forever.
Tim / GM:I don't know what happened, but this is bad. Unrecoverable, I think.
Tara / Journey:Well, we were told the land was corrupted and it was from something that king, the Autumn King, did having to do with pulling power out of the land. It feels a lot like what we've experienced on the Skylands and pulling power out of the land and not giving any back. Maybe this is the the big version of that. But you you were pulled out of this place and into the sky and
Tim / GM:Yes.
Tara / Journey:Now it's fallen back here.
Tim / GM:Yes. Good
Tim / GM:timing, by the way. All of you, I mean, finding me, Primo. Yes. But if you entered this place uninvited, not knowing who might be in there, you're sure to get the royal ass whooping.
John / Doran:Well, we know who the the ruling party is right now. We're kinda hoping to sneak on by.
Maggie / Poppy:Doran, did you get permission the first time?
John / Doran:I did. Yes. I don't know if that counts each time. Ganymede, if I got permission once, can I enter as much as I want?
Tim / GM:Probably, but it's your dice to roll.
Tara / Journey:Who did you get permission from?
John / Doran:I think you know. Lanati.
Tara / Journey:Well, then that's easy then. If she's the ruling party right now, then we just go to her and we ask her if we can all go up there. She was gonna help us anyway.
Maggie / Poppy:Would that require another contract?
John / Doran:I I imagine she'll want something from all of us.
Thomas / Guy:I say no more Fae contracts. We're bound for a royal ass whooping out here if we stay here any longer. So what's the difference?
John / Doran:The way you handled that grade b's. If you really wanna go for it, guy, I'm I believe in you.
Maggie / Poppy:Cana Mead?
Tim / GM:Yes, Palpy.
Maggie / Poppy:Did you say King Hail?
Tim / GM:Yes. The Ottoman king.
Maggie / Poppy:Means Lyrian is the prince. Lyrian.
Tim / GM:Yes. The young prince.
Maggie / Poppy:What do you know about him?
Tim / GM:Their family was ambitious, but kind enough for the proximity to the Unseelie Court and the darkness that lies here in the Feywild. They were humble, kind.
Maggie / Poppy:I don't think he's kind anymore.
Tim / GM:I I don't understand. Why would a king destroy his own land, his own kingdom?
Hannah / Eryn:We aren't sure, but we think Lanati showed him an evil power. Olyrian's father, I guess. I don't know. All I know is it seems like kings and queens just seem to keep fucking things up, so I definitely don't wanna go ask anyone for any permission to do anything.
Tim / GM:The usual suspects.
Thomas / Guy:Yeah. It could very well be that Lyrian thought he was doing the right thing by this place and simply got caught up in some fey trickery.
Tara / Journey:Or it could have been his fey trickery and a misunderstanding of something he was taught. We know that there's a process that Lanati shared that the whole picture wasn't given.
Thomas / Guy:I'm sure Lyrian holds no small share of the blame, but
John / Doran:Ganymede, would you be offended if we decided to go for it? Just try to enter.
Tim / GM:I won't be offended. I'll be bummed if all
Tim / GM:of you get vaporized and your stuff falls to the ground.
John / Doran:Us too. Why don't we vote on it?
Hannah / Eryn:How close are we to the tower?
Tim / GM:Roughly quarter mile. Okay.
John / Doran:Who wants to just go for the entrance?
Hannah / Eryn:I have another idea.
John / Doran:K. I
Hannah / Eryn:mean, I have to get closer to the tower to see it up close, but I think I might be able to climb it. And Erin pulls out shopping flashback. Okay. So I don't know exactly what I want, but I want something that's gonna be either like a climbing gear kit or something that like a shoot what's it called? Grappling hook.
Hannah / Eryn:Grappling hook type situation, but more magical. A grappling hook. Grappling hook, but maybe just it can do something cool.
Tara / Journey:Don't know. Batman. Batman.
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. I wanna get I want a grappling type climbing climbing or just climbing gear with a grappling hook. How about this?
Tim / GM:Erin, you're back on backseat. You're strolling down the main causeway here in the marketplace. There are flower petals floating through the air, and you stop by a little curio shop that has all sorts of adventuring gear, climbing gear. What do you search for?
Hannah / Eryn:Erin tentatively goes in the door, not used to actually having money to be in a place like this, and sort of walks around the aisles up and down looking for just kind of ropes and hooks and sort of just basic climbing gear.
Tim / GM:Mhmm.
Hannah / Eryn:And so they're just perusing, trying to mind their own business.
Tim / GM:Well, hey there.
Hannah / Eryn:Oh, hi. I didn't I didn't see you there. Sorry.
Tim / GM:Oh, no worries at all. I don't mean to impose,
Tim / GM:but you're Erin. Is that right?
Hannah / Eryn:Oh, yeah. Yeah. I am.
Tim / GM:Like the hero Aaron of Backseat that was doing, like, the talking to the people and saving us and all that. That was you.
Hannah / Eryn:Sure. Sure. If you want my autograph, I need I don't I don't really
Tim / GM:do that. I've heard you weird about that, but Yeah.
Tim / GM:Anyway, I've seen you crystals. I've seen what you can do. You're looking for some gear?
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. Yeah. So I just I really like climbing, you know, the great outdoors and, like, Why
Tim / GM:are we looking at all this shit? Come back here. Come with me.
Hannah / Eryn:Oh, okay.
Tim / GM:She takes you into a back room immediately.
Hannah / Eryn:What what's your name again?
Tim / GM:She puts one finger to your lips. She says, no words. Just commerce. Understood.
Tim / GM:So here we have
Tim / GM:a couple options. This one's called a sling hook. Mhmm. It's a
Tim / GM:little heavy, a little bulky and cumbersome, but you can throw it pretty far.
Tim / GM:About a 100 feet at
Tim / GM:a time, and it'll yank you up right quick.
Hannah / Eryn:Wow. Looks pretty nice. It is it's a little big. Do you have anything smaller?
Tim / GM:Yeah. Maybe not quite your speed. How about this? It's called
Tim / GM:the spider's hat.
Tim / GM:Which is a little strange,
Tim / GM:I understand. It's not exactly a hat. It's a it's actually a bunch of stuff. She opens a drawer, and you see a headband. It's actually a very plain little circlet that just goes around your head.
Tim / GM:But what comes
Tim / GM:but what comes with it
Tim / GM:are small fingerless gloves and what look like ballet slippers that go over your shoes. What these do is make you incredibly sticky. You can move on surfaces. You can stop on walls. You can stop on ceilings Mhmm.
Tim / GM:At any point. You have no penalty for climbing. You can move at twice your movement speed while climbing. In fact, you benefit from being on the wall rather than on the floor.
Hannah / Eryn:Okay. Holy shit. That's awesome. Yeah. I I think these might be a little bit more what I'm looking for.
Tim / GM:They're pretty chic too.
Hannah / Eryn:Sure. I guess.
Tim / GM:Fashionable. I like the little silver details down here.
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. I mean, that's fine. Oh, and you said it's called the spider's hat?
Tim / GM:The spider's hat.
Hannah / Eryn:Might need some
Tim / GM:You can come up with your own name if you
Hannah / Eryn:Work on that branding a little bit, but I appreciate it.
Tim / GM:Well, all the stuff in the back doesn't have cool names quite yet.
Hannah / Eryn:Okay. Well, how much do I owe you?
Tim / GM:Well, Doran's was 200,
Tim / GM:So this is probably gonna be another 200 gold pieces.
Hannah / Eryn:Doran was here?
Tim / GM:Of course. He came first. She
Tim / GM:nudges you, doesn't he always?
Hannah / Eryn:Eren's eyebrows just raise and are like going into their hair like so high.
Tim / GM:The circlet's gonna fall off.
Hannah / Eryn:Oh, okay. Yeah. Here's the money. And Erin just shoves it at them and then exits the shop as quickly as possible.
Tim / GM:And my name was
Thomas / Guy:through the skylight.
Hannah / Eryn:Basically, I can climb on all the walls and ceilings.
Tim / GM:Your movement speed is doubled while you're on walls and ceilings.
Hannah / Eryn:Oh, okay. Sorry. I had that wrong.
Tara / Journey:That's really fucking cool.
Maggie / Poppy:Spider's hat.
Tim / GM:And you can stop on walls and ceilings as well.
John / Doran:Okay. That's great.
Thomas / Guy:And you have a spider's hat.
Tara / Journey:I'm just picturing a headband with a tiny little top hat
Tim / GM:on it. I kept thinking of a spider with a newspaper hat.
Hannah / Eryn:Oh, yeah.
John / Doran:How about to balance it? It says like spider's hat and stupid writing on on Yes. The
Hannah / Eryn:I was thinking like a little the hipster beanie where it's like halfway on your head somehow.
Tim / GM:I was thinking like
Thomas / Guy:those like hippie, like it's just like
Tim / GM:a like a literal like thin shoelace band. Oh. Yeah. Yeah. I like
John / Doran:that. Okay.
Maggie / Poppy:Yeah. Interesting. Okay. But hammered into it, says the spider's hat.
Thomas / Guy:Yeah. Or just like in like cheap, like, jewelers, like, letters that get stuck on like a bracelet, friendship bracelet? Yeah.
Maggie / Poppy:Like, a really tacky little metal spider at the front There
Tim / GM:it is. With a
Tara / Journey:a Dangles. Plastic
Tim / GM:a plastic spider on
Tara / Journey:it. Sorry. That was
Maggie / Poppy:Yeah. I'm
Tara / Journey:really excited about damage Equipment It's over
Hannah / Eryn:like the little cupcake rings that you get.
Thomas / Guy:Yeah. Exactly. Alright.
Tara / Journey:Oh my god.
Tim / GM:Erin's kind of dazed a little bit as you all continue to walk towards that tower. The island you're on right now is a great grassy hill that slopes down towards that massive tower ahead of you.
Tim / GM:But at the bottom of
Tim / GM:this hill, that path dips into the lake itself and a shallow mire a few thousand feet wide separates you from the brickwork pathway leading towards the tower.
John / Doran:Okay. Water. Is the water bad? Dorian steps his foot into the water a bit.
Tim / GM:Yeah. On top of this water is a good like six to 10 inches of black fog. This permanent black mist that sits on top of it. And Doran, you know that moving through this fog is no issue. Breathing it in is toxic, deadly.
Thomas / Guy:Okay. Doran takes his foot out and it's just like bone.
Tim / GM:So not good.
Tim / GM:But Doran moving through this water, you feel nothing. The water is cold and unforgiving, but it's water.
John / Doran:Okay.
Maggie / Poppy:Is it shallow all the way across?
Tim / GM:Seems like it would be based on the angle of this here, but you're not entirely sure. You had also seen holes in the island before, so who's to say?
Hannah / Eryn:Doran. Doran, use your stick.
John / Doran:I I I'll I'll find another one. I I lost that one.
Thomas / Guy:Oh, your favorite stick.
Tara / Journey:How far is the distance across the lake?
Tim / GM:A few thousand feet, it says here.
Tara / Journey:Well, that's too far. No.
Maggie / Poppy:I I don't think I wanna walk in that.
John / Doran:Can you fabricate it into something?
Tim / GM:No. Make some ice.
Maggie / Poppy:Hold on. Just fabricate a few thousand feet, Doran.
Thomas / Guy:The whole table should know. We fucked up fabricates.
Tim / GM:I knew. So I
John / Doran:knew, but
Thomas / Guy:it was like, why would I
John / Doran:just like derail this and just be like, actually Yeah. Yeah.
Tim / GM:You near that mire, you all start to lose sight of the tall grass here with only the tips of some of those cattails poking out from the black fog on the water. Looking about halfway across amid the darkness here, you see a single barren black tree and a few boulders and nothing else. A great distance across the swamp, you
Tim / GM:see
Tim / GM:a stone roadway rising from the water with massive stone archways punctuating every 100 feet or so. Even from this distance, you can see much of that stonework has crumbled to feeble withered columns.
Maggie / Poppy:Okay. So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna use paper.
Tara / Journey:I've been watching John play Tears of Kingdom. So I'm like, Ultra Hand. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm gonna stick the tree to the boulder and then stick that to the yeah.
Tara / Journey:Just
Hannah / Eryn:log log log. Sorry. We're just afraid to walk in
Maggie / Poppy:the water?
Tim / GM:So far.
Hannah / Eryn:Can you tell there was like a walkway at one point? Sort of it looks like we just got flooded.
Tim / GM:Yeah. If you trace where that stone roadway goes, you could like try to make sure that you're on that as you're walking through the water here.
Hannah / Eryn:Maybe we should just stick to the path and try to use a stick, right, or some some branches to feel our way in front of us.
John / Doran:Journey, I know you don't have many fae buds now, but can they glow and can they go in the water, or is it dangerous for them? We could see the where the ground is.
Tara / Journey:Yeah. Maybe that's not a bad idea. I don't think they breed the same way we do, so maybe it would be alright. And I'm gonna gesture for one little bud to follow my hand and then point at the water Yeah. To kinda light things up and see if we can see underneath there.
Tim / GM:You all watch the fey bud kind of descend under that black fog hesitantly as it does, but it seems to be unaffected. Journey was right. They don't breathe like you do. When it gets under that fog, you can barely see a dim glow coming from underneath. Very little else.
Tim / GM:When it gets into the water, you see practically nothing. Okay.
John / Doran:Okay. Come back, little guy.
Tara / Journey:Yeah. I kinda just reach out my mind.
John / Doran:It comes back. That didn't bring a lot of comfort.
Thomas / Guy:We might be able to make it if we take it slow, but it will take quite a while.
Tara / Journey:And you said that there were crumbled roadway pieces every 100 feet or so?
Tim / GM:So this expanse is like all water. You can just see where the road rises back up out of the water at the end of this pathway here. Okay. So it's all water and then all road after and then the tower.
Hannah / Eryn:Are there logs or any other are there trees around us? Real trees?
Tim / GM:So there's trees behind you, but from here on out, it's just water and then like little pieces of grass and cattails poking out of the water. And about halfway across, there's one single tree and a cluster of boulders around that tree.
John / Doran:I'm in pretty good shape. I I can go first. Apropos of nothing.
Maggie / Poppy:Okay, Doran.
John / Doran:Doran abs Driscoll. Unfortunately, if I do sink though, I I have such, a high muscle mass to fat ratio that I'll sink. I can't stop.
Maggie / Poppy:Doran, low b
Tara / Journey:and I. Deep
Hannah / Eryn:eye roll from Aaron.
Tim / GM:You going across first, Doran?
John / Doran:I will. Yeah. I'm going to use prestidigitation to just kind of like shoot little gusts or like little breezes just to kind of move the fog away. Yeah. Probably not gonna help anything but it at least I can see the water.
John / Doran:So Yeah.
Tim / GM:As you push that fog away, of the vortex effect is pulling in new fog from behind it that more or less leaves you blind anyway. But you do get occasional glimpses of the water's surface.
John / Doran:Okay. Only other thing is I'm also holding my lock stock dagger, just it's attached to my hip and I just have my finger on the button just in case. Yeah. Yeah. Keep going.
Tim / GM:You all hear the solemn sloshing of Doran walking through the weeds there. Shortly after, he follows.
Thomas / Guy:Poppy, if you feel like getting on my shoulders, I could follow after.
Maggie / Poppy:I'm already up here.
Thomas / Guy:Oh. Oh, there
John / Doran:you are.
Thomas / Guy:Very well.
Tim / GM:Let's have everyone make a quick perception check.
Thomas / Guy:Great at this.
Tim / GM:Doran can take advantage on this one.
Hannah / Eryn:Does this involve sight? No.
John / Doran:12. 23.
Thomas / Guy:Puppy's feet are in front of Yeah. Guy's eyes. Got a 4.
Hannah / Eryn:23 for Aaron. 18.
Tim / GM:Alright. The 23 is both Aaron and Doran hear Mikey talking to Huber in kind of an aside. Mikey's saying, Huber, I don't feel good. I think I keep getting some of this smoke. I stop.
John / Doran:Guy, could you at all maybe lift Mikey up too? He's a little too short to be making this trip.
Tara / Journey:I can carry Mikey.
John / Doran:You can?
Tara / Journey:Yeah. I'm really strong.
John / Doran:I'm sorry.
Tara / Journey:And I go over to Mikey.
Tim / GM:Yeah.
Tara / Journey:Hey. Hey. Hey, buddy.
Tim / GM:He gives you uppy hands right away.
Tara / Journey:Yeah. Why don't you get on my back?
Tim / GM:He reaches up towards you, and you begin to heave Mikey. And, Journey, yes, you are incredibly strong. Mikey is incredibly heavy. Even so, you're able to hoist him up, and Doran, looking at Journey, you see her biceps and shoulders flex out, and they're so vascular beyond what you expected, you actually just kind of turn away. Oh,
Thomas / Guy:shit.
John / Doran:What is Journey's strength?
Tara / Journey:I count as one size larger when determining my carrying capacity and the weight I can push, drag, or lift.
Hannah / Eryn:Damn. You're an ant.
Tara / Journey:Okay. I'm big. I didn't
Tim / GM:know that. I didn't know you could do that. That's awesome.
John / Doran:Okay. Cool.
Tim / GM:Sweet. Yeah. Mikey is riding on shoulders. He looks happier.
Thomas / Guy:I see Doran's the only one who decided not to carry somebody.
Hannah / Eryn:Mikey, does your shell float in water?
Tim / GM:I mean, yeah. If I land on the shell, I'll float. But yeah.
Maggie / Poppy:That would put his face directly in the vapors.
Hannah / Eryn:No. If you land on your back, mean?
Tim / GM:Yeah. If I land on my back, I'll float.
Hannah / Eryn:But you'd be in the vapors.
Tim / GM:Yeah. It's not good.
Hannah / Eryn:What if we
Thomas / Guy:All had big shells.
Hannah / Eryn:Yes. What if we put Mikey on his back and use pinch to close-up his head hole? He goes in his shell.
Tim / GM:How come every time Aaron says what if we, I end up getting hurt?
Tara / Journey:I think I'll just keep carrying him.
Hannah / Eryn:I don't know. I'm just trying to come up with ideas here, folks.
Maggie / Poppy:I think Mikey needs to breathe.
Thomas / Guy:We do have one more turtle to worry about.
Maggie / Poppy:Also, Pinch didn't make it. Oh, no. He didn't? He burned to a crisp last time.
Tara / Journey:Oh, Pinch.
Hannah / Eryn:My gosh. It's a cruel.
Tim / GM:Another noble sacrifice. How many pinches must die?
Maggie / Poppy:I pull out a big what are the leaves that you put in soup?
Hannah / Eryn:Bay leaf. Bay leaf?
Maggie / Poppy:Pull out a big bay leaf, and I put Pinch's burnt hand on it, and I send him off in a little Viking burial.
Tim / GM:Just control flames igniter or something. Fireball.
John / Doran:Guy guy pulls out a
Thomas / Guy:little scrap of paper and adds, like, a thirtieth notch to it.
Hannah / Eryn:And she possess just get more and more dramatic every time, the drama.
Tim / GM:Doran is bravely leading the pack across the mire here.
Maggie / Poppy:Are you make a roll for that.
Tim / GM:Roll for brave?
John / Doran:Yeah. Well, you make an insight and see if I'm not brave.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Do that.
Maggie / Poppy:Oh. 22.
John / Doran:Am I doing perception or persuasion?
Maggie / Poppy:Or is it deception? Yeah.
Tim / GM:You're doing performance, Doran.
John / Doran:Performance? Okay. 23.
Hannah / Eryn:24, Doran.
Tim / GM:Oh. This is not a pizza. Interesting. High rollers. Yeah.
Tim / GM:You can see Doran's making a great show of appearing confident, but
Maggie / Poppy:But his knees are knocking.
Thomas / Guy:See a just a crack in the facade. Little little
John / Doran:bit of mom's spaghetti on my shoulder. As
Tim / GM:you cross through here, you can't help but notice a stench.
Thomas / Guy:Oh, especially guy.
Tim / GM:And sure, you may have smelled a swamp before, but this is like a swamp born inside a city sewer, born inside an infection.
Thomas / Guy:Ganymede, this is this is why you told us we should not cross.
Tim / GM:Oh, guy, what is this? I'm sorry. I want to disconnect. Fuck this.
Thomas / Guy:No. No. We know. Oh, actually, that's much better.
Tim / GM:And then there's a sudden breeze. And you swear you could see those boulders start to move. When you look up, that tree is no longer there. That single barren tree halfway across the mire has disappeared. And suddenly standing before you as tall as that lonely tree is Lanati.
Tim / GM:Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep.
Tim / GM:Oh. She's staring down at Journey with a sympathetic smile, her arms wide open, and a sweet, fresh fragrance washes over the swamp. And she opens her mouth, but just as she starts to speak to you, you hear two tiny splashes. The sound of Doran and Journey's charms falling into the water. Poppy, I need you to make a wisdom save.
Thomas / Guy:Add plus three, please.
Maggie / Poppy:24.
Tim / GM:Incredible, but you fail. With
Maggie / Poppy:a 24?
Tim / GM:By one.
Tara / Journey:Holy shit.
Tim / GM:Poppy, you see the gorgeous inviting face of Aluma that you've seen once before. Not that she had ever revealed her name to you, but you know it intuitively. She is welcoming and kind with large apple cheeks and ringlets in her hair, looking down at you smiling. Doran and Journey, you feel a hollow scraping inside your stomach as the vision of Lanati, of Maeve, fades away into the true form of Lanati, the hag. The rotten stench of the mire fills your lungs again, and your eyes hone in on a withered, loathsome creature.
Tim / GM:Lanati stands barely five feet tall, the crimson red face and faintly glowing yellow eyes. Her skin is cracked and torn as if poorly fit. Her teeth are slender and crooked in her mouth as if borrowed. Not to be mistaken for a human, not to be mistaken for anything with a heart. She looks down at you.
Tim / GM:Leaving so soon? Eager to get back to the hunt, are we?
Tara / Journey:Very good. Very good. I don't I don't understand.
Maggie / Poppy:Yes, we're thank you, ma'am. We're we're just heading this way.
Thomas / Guy:And I think we've been here quite enough. So if you would excuse us
Tim / GM:But just a moment. Young journey, why do you look so upset, my child?
Tara / Journey:Why, is this a is this a test?
Tim / GM:Durney, you see drifting all around Lanati are these dully glowing sprites. Fae buds, but they look dazed, tired, stupefied. One of them drifts towards Lanati as she strokes her chin in thought. And as that fae bud passes by, she idly reaches up and pinches the sprite between her fingers. Still idly nodding to herself, her eyes fixed on journey, Lanati puts the squirming fae bud between her teeth and bites down, causing a spray of colorful fluorescent fluid to dribble down her chin while she chews.
Tim / GM:Yes. Very good. But the worst is yet to come. The tower is punishing. Not even little Doran knows its true horrors.
Tim / GM:Little Doran.
John / Doran:We're still we're still trying to do what we came here for, which is to get rid of the Autumn Court.
Tara / Journey:Why? I don't understand. What's the matter, child?
Tim / GM:And she reaches out to touch her face. You see sudden understanding in her eyes as she looks between all of you.
Tim / GM:I see.
Tim / GM:You hear a cracking as she straightens her back out. She says,
Tim / GM:are you going to take all of this on without my help? Or will you swear a pact and accept my blessing?
Hannah / Eryn:It's not a blessing. It's a curse.
Maggie / Poppy:Oh, I I don't know. I think we should hear her out.
Thomas / Guy:Poppy, we are not taking anything from this.
Tara / Journey:Why do you look different?
Tim / GM:Different? Oh, child. I don't look different. I'm still mother.
Tara / Journey:No. What? No. I don't understand.
Tim / GM:Are you denying me? What a waste. What a waste. All that time I put into you. Doran, you'd better go, my boy.
Tim / GM:The clouds are calling you. As for these few,
John / Doran:I I can't leave without any of these people.
Tim / GM:You all start to see movement. You hear something sloshing, those boulders all around you. They were disguised by Lanati. What they really are are a herd of catablopus.
Tara / Journey:The what? You
Tim / GM:see moving in the dark here a small swarm of bison like creatures standing up from the mire. They look like overgrown buffalo, but their necks are three, five times as long as they should be. Their face like swine with overgrown tusks, massive lumpy tails growing out from behind them, and slick brown lumps of bacterial growth all over their fur. The stench alone is enough to kill, and there's a herd of them here.
Maggie / Poppy:How close are we all to each other?
Tim / GM:Very close.
Maggie / Poppy:Poppy's tiny hut.
John / Doran:What's going on up there?
Maggie / Poppy:I cast a 10 foot radius immobile dome of force around all of us. Mhmm. Nine creatures of medium size or smaller can fit inside the dome with me. Mhmm.
John / Doran:Casting time?
Maggie / Poppy:One minute. So I'm gonna start as soon as I see them. Yeah. I'm gonna, like, frantically try and cast this.
Tim / GM:Okay. Yeah. You all hear Poppy start some spell work under her breath as Lanati starts to grin that colorful juice still dribbling down her chin.
Maggie / Poppy:The creatures and objects within the dome when I cast it can move through it back and forth freely. All other creatures and objects are barred from passing through. Spells and other magical effects can't extend through the dome or be cast through it. The atmosphere inside the space is comfortable and dry regardless of weather outside. And it lasts for eight hours.
Tim / GM:K. As is coming, Poppy, you've still got some work to do. Mhmm. These catablopas start to rise.
John / Doran:Okay. Let's calm down a bit. We are trying to pass through and our mission has not changed. What you set me out to do, I fully intend to act upon. Then you may go.
John / Doran:My strength, as you may know, is acting through others, supporting them. We have a shared vision for what we want to do.
Tim / GM:Then you will choose. One stays with me.
John / Doran:This is a new deal you're offering?
Tim / GM:This is your punishment. You deny my offer, my bargain?
Thomas / Guy:We have already agreed to complete your task.
Tim / GM:You've not agreed to anything. The nameless boy has.
Thomas / Guy:Well, we've all agreed to help Doran on this task.
Tim / GM:You'll not speak again, corpse. Why
Tara / Journey:did you eat it?
Tim / GM:Mhmm. You
Tim / GM:see her eyebrows kind of crook up as if she still thinks she's Lanati in your eyes for some reason. Just says, oh, dear. I didn't eat.
Tim / GM:What did I eat? The bud. No. No. No.
Tara / Journey:I don't understand. I I think the flowers and the smoke have gotten me.
Tim / GM:Poppy, you're getting closer to finishing your work. Almost done here as this is stalling out.
Maggie / Poppy:One pinch of salt. A splash of vanilla.
Thomas / Guy:Poppy's pizza.
John / Doran:Yeah. Maeve, I I am I am not like you. I I act within my means and I need all of them. I I can't finish this alone. I the years I've spent just trying to get this group together, we we've killed one.
John / Doran:We've killed one since we've been here. Smile grin is no more, and we know much more about the rest. I I mean, perhaps we can talk a new bargain or something to lend us your strength so that we can act more swiftly. Why take one from me? A new bargain.
John / Doran:Potentially, I mean, we'd all have to agree upon it.
Tim / GM:Perhaps I could lend you the power to pass this tower,
John / Doran:young Doran. The power of tower. No, the tower. That's what this episode is titled.
Tim / GM:There is one in your heart, Doran, that I would like to have in my collection.
Tim / GM:And she gestures up towards the fey buds. She says, I see him in your mind. Rune,
Tim / GM:bring him to me and you will have safe passage.
John / Doran:I bring Rune back here.
Tim / GM:I want his mind for myself.
John / Doran:I I could contact him. I could even have him
Tim / GM:Bring him to me, and I will grant you my power.
Tara / Journey:Wait. Doran. I don't understand. What do you mean collection?
Tim / GM:Oh, dear.
Tara / Journey:And Journey has, like, tried to get Mikey off of her shoulders and, like, put him anywhere else.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Yeah. He's off by now.
Tara / Journey:And she's just kind of dipping her hands in the water and picking up these, like, buds that are so wrong. Yeah. I don't understand. What are you doing?
Tim / GM:The the colorful droplets of essentially fey bud blood is running through your fingers. Perhaps it's just best, young Journey, if you died. You all hear the rising of Klatopopus from all around you. They raise their tails high into the air and you see this dark energy begin to swell. Time for some saves, Journey.
Tara / Journey:Oh, no.
Tim / GM:I need you to make a constitution saving throw. I'm make two more of
Thomas / Guy:those. Headbustering? Oh,
Tara / Journey:no. First one is 12. I'm sorry. I'm not even reading my character sheet. Constitution saving throw?
Tara / Journey:Yep. 13. K. Second one is thirty twenty.
Tim / GM:K.
Tara / Journey:Third one is 18.
Tim / GM:Two successes.
Thomas / Guy:Good. This is like one minute scene that takes like four minutes in Mhmm. The
Maggie / Poppy:Keep panning back to Poppy and zooming
Hannah / Eryn:in on the beads of sweat.
Tim / GM:That is 36 necrotic damage. Oh, she's down. Oh. Journey has been hit with a special feature of Cataplapus, which is called death ray. If the saving throw fails by five or more, the target instead takes 64 necrotic damage.
Tim / GM:With your 13, you failed by three
Thomas / Guy:Yeah.
Tim / GM:Not five.
John / Doran:Okay. Oh my god.
Tim / GM:If the target is reduced to zero hit points in this way
Tim / GM:Mhmm. It dies.
Tara / Journey:I'm dead.
John / Doran:Wait. Only if it failed by more than five?
Tim / GM:If it's reduced to zero hit points, it dies.
Tara / Journey:I'm dead. Okay.
Maggie / Poppy:Oh, what the fuck?
Tim / GM:You all feel a sudden shift in pressure as Poppy's tiny hut activates. Around you, a dome of force is protecting you from Lanati, from these cataplopus, from everything in the Feywild. You are safe, And Journey is dead.
John / Doran:I cast a healing word on Journey. It has no effect.
Thomas / Guy:Just in time, Poppy. Why, what's
Maggie / Poppy:Fuck. Journey?
Tim / GM:What's happened?
Hannah / Eryn:Journey. It didn't work.
John / Doran:Is I I don't I don't know.
Thomas / Guy:Is she okay?
Hannah / Eryn:Aaron gets down on their knees because Journey fell. He was just shaking. Journey. Journey. Journey.
Hannah / Eryn:Is she she dead?
John / Doran:We were too
Maggie / Poppy:slow. What what do we do? I don't I don't have all the ingredients for the
Thomas / Guy:Can we
Tim / GM:see outside the hut? Yes.
Tim / GM:From outside the hut, Lanati is smiling and nodding. She slowly reaches up into the air and plucks out another Fae Bud.
Thomas / Guy:Poppy? I
Maggie / Poppy:I I don't know.
Thomas / Guy:Poppy, climb down for my shoulders, please.
Maggie / Poppy:Okay.
John / Doran:What are you doing, Guy?
Thomas / Guy:She can't get away with this.
Maggie / Poppy:Don't you can't go out there. No. You have to stay in here, please.
John / Doran:She said she wanted to get one of us. This is the best we can expect. I mean, if you go out there, I'll go with Guy, but we're gonna die.
Maggie / Poppy:Please don't leave. Please don't leave me.
Tim / GM:You all see Lanati turn around. She looks up at the sky, up at the clouds.
Hannah / Eryn:Eren's gonna try to shoot a crossbow bolt at her back.
Tim / GM:Can Eren shoot out of this thing?
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. I think so.
Maggie / Poppy:Creatures and objects within the dome when you cast it can move through it freely. Yeah. So bolts would
Tim / GM:be Okay.
Hannah / Eryn:Eren's pissed off because she already hated this Lanati thing Mhmm. For making baby Doran do a pact. Mhmm. And so Eren grabs a bolt from Diavolo's concoctions Mhmm. And it's the raging red.
Hannah / Eryn:Mhmm. He's like, fuck you, bitch. And she shoots it at Lanati.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Yeah. Give me an attack.
Hannah / Eryn:Angry.
John / Doran:Can I partically inspire? I'm just trying to support Yeah. This outrage. So So you get a d eight.
Hannah / Eryn:19 Yeah. Plus a d eight.
Tim / GM:Yep. I
Tim / GM:Oh, yeah.
Hannah / Eryn:My d eight back. 21 to hit? Yes. And then they attack everything around them because they're angry. Six damage.
Tim / GM:K. Yeah. You all see Erin, without hesitation, lift up her crossbow and fire it straight into Lanati's back as she's turned away. You see the arrow sink in and you see those familiar red veins light up all over Lanati just like it did with a smile grin. You see her turn around, her eyes glowing brighter than ever before.
Tim / GM:You see her throw out her hands to either side. Instead of attacking these things with her claws or with her staff or something, she instead raises her hands, and you see this great black tornado around her of all the fog being spun into a vortex. You see these catablopus around her begin to shudder and sink as they all die. In the safety of the tiny hut, none of you are affected by whatever she just did. She was fuming with rage.
Thomas / Guy:Guy is holding his sword watching all this happening, ready to move, but clearly kind of intimidated by what he's seeing.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Journey. No.
Maggie / Poppy:Journey. Journey. I I don't have anything that can fix this. We didn't get the ingredients yet.
Hannah / Eryn:I don't think anything's gonna fix this, Poppy.
Tim / GM:And then you all see it. What Lanati is looking at, what she was waiting for. There's a sudden ripple in the air and a shifting in the light and a quiet pressure from above. When you look up, your stomach sinks as you see the bottom of a skyland breaking through the clouds, creating a swirling vortex as the null mist trails behind it. Two more smaller pieces pass through the clouds racing down faster than the main part, and you hear a distant torrent.
Tim / GM:As that island begins to make contact with the lake, and from it, see a massive black wave mingling with the fog of the mire racing toward you.
John / Doran:How close are we to the entrance of the tower down?
Tim / GM:Out a thousand feet. Still?
Thomas / Guy:Fuck. Poppy is the thing going to hold.
Tim / GM:You see Lanati turn back in slow motion, grinning her wicked sharp teeth up at all of you and says,
Tim / GM:another corpse to harvest. And disappears.
Maggie / Poppy:I'm going to reinforce my magic to make
Maggie / Poppy:sure that this thing holds. Okay.
Thomas / Guy:Now he's going to hold his breath.
Tara / Journey:It says dead on my sheet.
John / Doran:Wow. I've never
Tim / GM:seen that before.
Tara / Journey:It's fucked up, guys. It's real fucked up.
John / Doran:Doran kind of holds on to Journey's body and braces himself like on the ground Yeah. With a wave.
Hannah / Eryn:Eren's on the other side doing the same thing.
Tim / GM:You all close your eyes as this gigantic black wave of the lake swallows up the base of the tower, and in seconds, it is on you like an avalanche, blocking out anything you can see in the outside world. And for a while, you're underwater, never knowing if you're gonna come back up or if you'll survive. But after a while, those bubbles clear out. The fog begins to dissipate. Poppy's tiny hut held, but it didn't bring Journey back.
Maggie / Poppy:Can we see what island fell?
Tim / GM:Is that a great distance? You're not entirely sure, but you did see a structure on there. Part of you thinks it might have been the High Shire, the first skyland you ever saw, home to humble halflings who spend their days making goods for the mainland. Like halfling turned butter.
Maggie / Poppy:How long do bodies last in this game?
Thomas / Guy:Stop. The coast appears clear. We should keep moving to the tower.
Hannah / Eryn:What do we what do we do with Journey?
Thomas / Guy:I can take her body.
Maggie / Poppy:So much death.
Thomas / Guy:We can at least give her a proper burial when we return to the surface.
Hannah / Eryn:Guy, is it is it too late to do the Dullahan thing and turn her into an undead like you?
Tim / GM:What?
Hannah / Eryn:Can you can you do the thing with the sword and the thing and then come back?
John / Doran:Can you make her a dullahan?
Tim / GM:How I
Maggie / Poppy:don't think Journey would want that for herself.
Thomas / Guy:I don't think I want that for Journey.
Maggie / Poppy:If if we can find all the ingredients, could try and bring her back, but that's a long shot.
John / Doran:That doesn't instill us with confidence. Poppy.
Maggie / Poppy:Well, I'm sorry.
Tim / GM:Don't Will
Thomas / Guy:it have work or will
John / Doran:it not work if you have everything?
Maggie / Poppy:I've never made it before. It's something I learned on lore.
Thomas / Guy:We must move forward, please. We cannot remain in this mire.
Thomas / Guy:We have just seen Poppy's power protect us from that falling island. I think if anyone can do it, it's her. But we have to keep moving.
John / Doran:What are you missing, Poppy?
Maggie / Poppy:Halfling churned butter, but I figured I can make that. Dragonfire roasted cacao nibs and Panderson's perfect pastry flour. Oh, and sugar blended with pixie dust. But I don't even know if we've met a pixie before.
Thomas / Guy:I feel like Journey probably knows some.
Maggie / Poppy:I don't know what to do. I think we need to
Hannah / Eryn:just go on. That's all you
Maggie / Poppy:can do at these moments. Can we keep her with us?
John / Doran:Do we need to if your recipe works?
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. We can't just leave her here. It's supposed to restore life to the body. Journey doesn't deserve to be corrupted in this place.
Tim / GM:Yeah. You're right. Erin, at the mention of corruption, you see those shadows, that fog? They're leaching up from the lake into Journey. The land here is trying to rob Journey of her latent magic, anything she had left.
Tim / GM:It's trying to siphon it out.
Thomas / Guy:Well, Guy picks Journey up.
Maggie / Poppy:Does she are there still fey buds around?
Tim / GM:Yes. They're still in her hair.
Maggie / Poppy:Hi, fey buds.
Tim / GM:They look a little panicked, but they respond to you.
Maggie / Poppy:Do you remember? You you saved someone before. Could you do it again?
Tim / GM:You see them all cluster up. They seem to be conversing with each other, and they float back to you a couple times and back down to Journey. They seem to be trying something, Nothing's taking.
Thomas / Guy:Keep trying, little guys. We should head for the tower.
Tim / GM:You all leaving the hut? Yeah.
Maggie / Poppy:If I leave, it ends.
Thomas / Guy:We have to leave sometime.
Tim / GM:You're all exposed to the breeze again and the noise out here. Before long, you're back on that promenade and you're out of the water. You stand before a crumbling castle tower unlike anything you've ever seen. And your senses tingle as you behold the height of this tower reaching miles above into the clouds. All around here, see artful spiraling stonework that seems to be coated with a thick layer of melted glass, creating uneven organic looking ripples over every surface.
Tim / GM:Up close, this place looks like a colossal black candle half melted by some fiery calamity. Further up, you see rigid structure, hard right angles and square spirals of this might. Some incredible force that ripped through here seems to have imprinted the geometry of this might into the DNA of this entire tower. You all come to pause under a lamppost bent at hard angles into a square spiral. Ahead of you is an archway leading into the colossal rotunda at the Ground Floor of the tower.
Tim / GM:This is it.
Tim / GM:Dorian, do you have what it takes to lead these people into this tower?
John / Doran:I stop and look back at Guy carrying Ragdoll Journey instead of Poppy as he usually would. Yeah. It's very macabre and just the the desolation of this place and nothing can be worse than this. And I go towards the door and I'm gonna try to open it.
Tim / GM:You all pass under a series of freestanding archways as you approach the gates of the tower, and a glimmer of dim red cloud light reflecting in the glassy edges of the stone all around here. You ascend a massive rise of steps into the tower, and at the top of these steps, you can see that the gates are open. You can see clear into the heart of this tower, more like a cave than anything else with angular glassy stalactites hanging from the ruined ceiling. But the space is so massive that most of it is lost to darkness. You thought the Feywild was dark before, but here you can see nothing.
Thomas / Guy:How do we find our way inside once inside?
John / Doran:We can make a little bit of light. I just pull out some spare cloth and just set it on fire just to kinda make shift. I tie it to my stick.
Maggie / Poppy:Make a little towards your favorite medicine.
Thomas / Guy:We're all making sacrifices here today.
John / Doran:And, yeah, not totally necessary, but Doran wants to set like, props it up and wants to make an effort to, like, shut the gate, basically. Yeah. Just to put some separation between that place and where we are now.
Tim / GM:You do get some peace of mind from doing that. Those denizens of the Feywild dare not come into this tower.
Hannah / Eryn:Is the fog still chasing Journey's body?
Tim / GM:Once you kinda lifted her out of it and made made it more of, like, a trouble for the fog, it kind of disconnected a little bit.
Thomas / Guy:Okay.
Tim / GM:But if you were to leave her here, she would be converted to Absolutely not. Yeah. As you all enter this stadium like Rotunda, it feels no different than being outside with its own localized indoor breeze. In the infinite dark overhead, you see gleaming points in the glassy stonework above like stars in the night sky at some unknowable distance. And in the distance, you see a bonfire, a white bonfire.
John / Doran:Erin, do you feel up for scoping this out maybe?
Hannah / Eryn:Oh, yeah. Sure. Ganymede.
Tim / GM:Make a perception check with advantage.
Hannah / Eryn:Mat 20.
John / Doran:Motherfucker. Nice.
Maggie / Poppy:Holy shit.
Tim / GM:You see a white glowing bonfire just like the one that Huber had built to keep away the denizens of the Fae here. You see something else glimmering far beyond that white bonfire, something silvery in the distance that seems to morph its shape, almost like water suspended in midair.
Hannah / Eryn:I relay this to Doran Mhmm. And the rest of the group. I don't I don't know what it is.
Thomas / Guy:We should be safe at the bonfire, should we not?
John / Doran:I suppose anything that's near it would at least not be the same nature as Lanati or anything similar.
Thomas / Guy:Yeah. That's good enough for me.
Tim / GM:The closer you get, Doran, the more you can see the overhead skylight, if you wanna call it that. In the center of this rotunda, looking straight up, you see a giant circular hole in the ceiling of this room. And from that hole are dangling great vines and great woody tree trunks that are reaching down your only path up to the next floor is climbing all of these roots and vines that hang down through this hole. But it's over a 100 feet up, and it's a tough climb. Those roots reach down to close to where this bonfire is.
Tim / GM:Good place to take a rest if there was any.
Thomas / Guy:We should gather our strength.
Maggie / Poppy:K.
Tim / GM:You all sit down by the bonfire in solemn silence. And after about two minutes pass, journey begins to cough.
Hannah / Eryn:Sorry. Some good cock fully.
John / Doran:Dorian jumps.
Hannah / Eryn:Woah. Woah. Woah. Woah.
Maggie / Poppy:What what's happening?
Thomas / Guy:Journey.
Tim / GM:Journey, are you there? What happened? What what happened?
Maggie / Poppy:Are you alive?
Tara / Journey:I don't know.
Tim / GM:You all hear through the near darkness, through the shadows, a single word.
Thomas / Guy:What?
Tim / GM:Wait. You can see just barely on the edge of darkness here a tangled mass of bones standing eight feet tall, holding a hulking scythe in each hand, each weapon composed of cobbled tarsals and femurs stepping into the light of the bonfire.
Thomas / Guy:Guy draws his sword.
Tim / GM:You see his arms go up, entirely made of bone. It looks like a bone amalgam, a bone colossus, some kind of bone elemental.
Thomas / Guy:Halt, bone man. You
Tim / GM:see two hands go up, those scythes disappear almost as if thrown behind him. And when they do, those scythes turn into great wings of bone that curl behind his back. And you hear,
Tim / GM:I'm I'm the servant of the underworld. Please do not be afraid of my countenance, and enjoy this melody I have prepared for such occasions. Hello. From the other side, You must be thinking, who is this guy? I'm Thibi Eau Femur, and I'm here to say, your death will arrive on another day.
Tim / GM:No. I'm not the Grim Reaper. I'm more of a keeper of spirits and souls who wish to go deeper, a servant and guide for those who have died, and my duty is always for peace. Now you know who I am, but know also I'm glad that yourself and myself could meet.
Tara / Journey:That's so good.
Thomas / Guy:What the
Tim / GM:I am so so sorry that you had to come so far through such horrible things as the Feywild here. The least I can do is borrow your friend's soul from leaving you so soon.
Hannah / Eryn:Wait. You just brought Journey back?
Tim / GM:She was No. No. No.
Tim / GM:She was not gone.
Tim / GM:Not yet. Her spirit remain with you because it desires to do so.
Maggie / Poppy:Oh. Journey, you're back.
Maggie / Poppy:I hug her leg.
Tara / Journey:Are we sure I'm not dead? Because this is really weird.
Maggie / Poppy:He definitely died, I couldn't breathe back and and
Tim / GM:If there is anyone who can guarantee you are not dead, it is me.
Tara / Journey:Well, thank you, I think.
Tim / GM:Yes. Make no mistake. This is a traumatic transaction. We will need to do some talking.
Thomas / Guy:Alright. More fey bargains.
Tim / GM:No. I am not from the fey though. I grew up in the Fjernglaid. Right.
Thomas / Guy:I see. Guys sheets of sorts.
John / Doran:You've done a wonderful thing, Tibio. Thank you very much. We have went through a lot recently and are just trying to escape this place. Oui?
Tara / Journey:Do we know that name? Have we heard your name before?
Tim / GM:I do not know. I am not exactly famous.
Tara / Journey:Ship.
Maggie / Poppy:Oh, yeah. We I think we met a friend of yours. Oh,
Tim / GM:did you? Uli?
John / Doran:A hungry one.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Indeed. She is my friend. We are friends.
Maggie / Poppy:And there was a a Minotaur as well.
Tim / GM:Dave Hackborn. Also, are friends.
Maggie / Poppy:Wow. They're looking for you.
Tim / GM:Yes. I take responsibility for this. It is my fault. I come to the Farewell of my old volition. Why?
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. Why are you here in this tower?
Tim / GM:I was looking for a soul, a friend of mine who died. I was trying to find answers and the answers lied in beesmite and the story of beesmite starts here. It's okay.
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah, Journey. Just let it all out.
Tim / GM:Take your time.
Hannah / Eryn:Erin Erin pats them on the back.
Maggie / Poppy:You want some water?
Thomas / Guy:Yeah, please. We might have heard a bit of this story of a king who ruined his kingdom and this tower, I believe. We created the Bismite.
Hannah / Eryn:This hag called Lanati taught him how to drain the power. Do you do you know her?
Tim / GM:I have held Lanati, but my familiarity is lacking. However, this place, what happened here, have seen it. I have communed with the bones of the deceased here. I know what happened to this place.
Hannah / Eryn:Can you tell us more?
Tim / GM:It's it's difficult to intimate. I wish I wish I could show you what is in my mind.
John / Doran:I mean, the best thing we can do is jars. Right? Jars? Jars.
Hannah / Eryn:Hey. You're doing really good.
Tim / GM:You're doing really good.
Tim / GM:Before I finished saying that word, I was
Thomas / Guy:like, they're gonna make fun of me.
Maggie / Poppy:Hubert, do you know how to do you have any?
Thomas / Guy:Who the fuck is this guy? I mean, I I certainly appreciate what you've done here, but how how do you have the power to determine life and death?
Maggie / Poppy:I'm not gonna question it.
Tim / GM:Tibia shrugs.
Hannah / Eryn:Journey's back. I mean, he did sing a song about it. Did you miss that? Or
Thomas / Guy:The song seemed pretty self explanatory.
Thomas / Guy:I was a little shell shocked, to be honest.
John / Doran:Maybe he'll Tibia, would you do it again just so Peter remembers? Sure. Let's
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. One more time for us.
Tim / GM:Yeah. I came here looking for my friend Emily, but his soul did not pass through La Porte De Nuit. It did not move on. And now I understand. The creature that took his life also took his soul.
Tim / GM:Yikes. This thing, this creature, it does not represent death. It is imprisonment, slavery.
Thomas / Guy:This creature that took your friend's soul, what do you know about it?
Tim / GM:It is a collector. A strange blue eyed creature that grows in power with every forward faces. It knows everything they know. It can do everything they can do.
Tara / Journey:It's the blue eyes.
Maggie / Poppy:The blue eyed man.
Thomas / Guy:And you've been tracking this creature?
Tim / GM:Unsuccessfully.
Maggie / Poppy:Didn't Lanati say that she was a collector?
Tara / Journey:She ate them.
Thomas / Guy:Oh.
Maggie / Poppy:Oh, we we don't we should maybe think about that later. I'm sorry.
Tara / Journey:Did she kill me?
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. Yeah.
John / Doran:There's nothing we could do.
Hannah / Eryn:Well, technically, her weird undead bulls killed you, I think.
Maggie / Poppy:She told them too. We couldn't do anything.
Tara / Journey:She wanted me to die. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Go on.
Tim / GM:It's it's okay. It's okay if you need to process. So much of this is so heavy.
Tara / Journey:I don't have a lot of time.
Tim / GM:Tibio gets near you and he says, you need sometimes
Tim / GM:to make time.
Tim / GM:And Tibio touches your hand.
Maggie / Poppy:And it falls off.
Tim / GM:And it falls off.
Thomas / Guy:It falls right off.
Tara / Journey:It just crackles. It falls right off. How many HP do I have?
Tim / GM:We're gonna put you at one.
Tara / Journey:Dope.
Maggie / Poppy:Can I make another bread and butter for her?
Tim / GM:Yes. Give me one moment,
Tim / GM:though. K.
Thomas / Guy:I mean, I think we need a minimum, like, three bread and butters per.
Hannah / Eryn:Why can't you just keep making them? I just hand out
Maggie / Poppy:a stack of
Maggie / Poppy:bread to everyone. Got, like,
Hannah / Eryn:just a a giant sandwich. Bread and butter. Bread and butter. Bread and Bread and butter.
Tara / Journey:That's truly my ideal meal. Yeah.
Tim / GM:It's a cantrip puppy, but you're still limited by the proficiency.
Tara / Journey:That's what Oh, that's right.
Hannah / Eryn:I can only do three. Yeah. Got it.
Tim / GM:I could see John's mind working there.
Hannah / Eryn:John doesn't know the John know the parameters.
Tim / GM:Doesn't know the parameters. He's just public static main void out here.
Thomas / Guy:John John
Hannah / Eryn:can get bent. Okay?
Tim / GM:That was a Java joke for John.
Thomas / Guy:That was special for John
Tara / Journey:right there.
Hannah / Eryn:That was special. Sorry, John.
Maggie / Poppy:Alright. I'm not actually mad at you.
Tim / GM:If we wanna play D and D a little bit more, here we go. Journey, when Tibio touches your hand, you immediately feel tears streaming down your face. First, there's an overwhelming sensation of belonging, of pure unbiased love flowing out from Tibio, then a powerful feeling of connection like this was your own brother. There's something going on here. Something more powerful than the Feywild itself that is binding you to Tibio.
Tim / GM:And then you finally see what Tibio saw. In their final moments, the autumn court stood in this very stadium, all gathered for some massive reverence ceremony with the king, the autumn king standing in the middle of all of this. And as his subjects rise and praise his name, he draws the magic from their bodies and in an instant murders his entire kingdom for his own gain. In Journey, you feel some new power swelling inside you.
Tim / GM:TBO steps back. I I felt something so strong. What the this Lanati, that's who I saw. A dark hag creature.
Tara / Journey:Yeah. And I I saw I saw what you said happened here. The king killed them all. He stole everything.
Tim / GM:They were destroyed so that he could become powerful.
Tara / Journey:And she does the same thing.
Tim / GM:I
Tara / Journey:let it happen.
Tim / GM:No. You are deceived.
Tara / Journey:My whole family.
Tim / GM:You all deceived. Tibio kind of looks at the rest of you and he
Tim / GM:says, do not allow this.
Tim / GM:She was deceived.
Thomas / Guy:This fake court, they call themselves royalty. They are capable of powerful deception journey. You cannot blame yourself.
Tara / Journey:I wish it was that easy.
Thomas / Guy:It's not easy, but you must press on.
Hannah / Eryn:When you think something's been the only thing you've known most of your life, it's pretty hard to change, so don't you don't need to figure it all out today. I'm just glad you're you're back, and Aaron squeezes Journey's leg.
Maggie / Poppy:Mhmm. Glad you're back too. I don't I don't know what we would have done without you. Yeah.
Hannah / Eryn:We would have been really screwed without you and your bow and arrow.
Tim / GM:It was Johnny. Is that correct?
Tara / Journey:Yeah. You can call me Johnny.
Tim / GM:When you saw what I saw, and then you hear, and I saw it too. That was crazy fucked up. You
Tim / GM:must have seen the consequences. And he points to that silvery blob beyond the bonfire here. He says,
Tim / GM:when the magic was wielded here, when the power traded hands between the people in the Autumn King, there was destruction to the weave. A rift was torn, and I cannot close it by myself. It is fortunate in some way that you all showed up here because I need some help. I need to destroy a curse, and I'm hoping that at least one of you can help me give it all you got.
Maggie / Poppy:What does that entail exactly?
Tim / GM:Well, if you're anything like Uli, a whole lot of boom.
Maggie / Poppy:Oh, I I don't know. I just make cookies.
Tim / GM:I think you've got the boom in you.
John / Doran:Closing this rift, what does it do? How how does that help anything?
Tim / GM:It heals the world. So much of the blight that is inflicted upon this land here, it is due to this. And he gestures towards that silvery blob. Not all of it, but this land can begin to heal should we close it.
Thomas / Guy:Things are quite bad out there.
Maggie / Poppy:It help us on our way up the tower?
Tim / GM:No. It would not. It would not affect your lives ever again if you were to leave this place as it is.
Tara / Journey:No. I get it. I get it. It's like Backsy. We gotta fix things.
Tara / Journey:We gotta give back. It's we're part of this world, and we have to give back to it.
Tim / GM:No. You don't have to, but you can.
Thomas / Guy:And for what it's worth, I think this would be a blow against Lanati.
Hannah / Eryn:You help Journey. I'll I'll help you. I'll do whatever I can.
Maggie / Poppy:I'll help too.
Tara / Journey:I don't have a lot to give, but anything I have.
Thomas / Guy:You have my help as well.
Maggie / Poppy:And my axe.
John / Doran:Show us what we gotta do.
Tim / GM:Thank you.
Tim / GM:But for now, we can rest and eat some moss, and he pulls out like
Tim / GM:a bag full of just a plastic baggie full of moss.
Hannah / Eryn:No. Are those drugs?
Tim / GM:You're you're
John / Doran:supposed to smoke that.
Maggie / Poppy:I can make something better.
Tim / GM:Play bean.
Maggie / Poppy:But I I'll I'll use the moss as an ingredient. He
Tim / GM:tosses it to you and I think with that, we will end it right here.
Maggie / Poppy:What the fuck?
Tim / GM:It's a
Hannah / Eryn:it's a freeze frame of
Tim / GM:Baking the thinger. Yeah. I have a plastic baggie full of mozz. Thank you all so much for listening. I am Tim, your GM.
Hannah / Eryn:I'm Hannah playing Aaron.
Tara / Journey:Pooh, baby. I'm Tara, and I'm Journey, and I'm not dead.
Maggie / Poppy:She's back, baby. Anymore.
Thomas / Guy:I'm Thomas, and I'm Guy.
John / Doran:I'm John. I adoren. What?
Maggie / Poppy:I'm Maggie and I Poppy.
Hannah / Eryn:I hate it. Please
Tim / GM:share the show with people you love and we'll see you next time. Bye. Actually, hold on. Wait. Stop.
Tim / GM:If you're listening, don't pause it yet. Don't turn it off.
Hannah / Eryn:Oh god.
Tim / GM:We gotta do shouts. Have actual Patreon subscribers now. We have people who love us and we wanna love them back. So I'm just gonna run down our no. Maybe not love
Thomas / Guy:them back. Sorry about
Tara / Journey:that. From afar with Yes. Okay.
Tim / GM:Great. With appropriate emphasis.
Tara / Journey:Nice with nice solid boundaries.
Tim / GM:Anyway, our Patreon subscribers, Paul. Thanks, Paul. Woo.
Tara / Journey:Paul. Woo. Paul.
Tim / GM:We got Kian d. We got Dana d. We got Michael r. We got frosty one one five three four.
Hannah / Eryn:Spicy. Frost.
Tim / GM:And Peter. We have six?
Maggie / Poppy:Yes. That's insane.
Tim / GM:Of course, shouts always to Andy and Allie, to Robert, to Anna, to Zachariah, to our moms and dads and parents and guardians and guardians. Guardians. Guardians and friends and lovers.
Tara / Journey:To my sister who only watches the little clips.
Hannah / Eryn:Yes. Still
Tara / Journey:love it.
Tim / GM:Who might someday hear this.
Tara / Journey:Who maybe will someday listen to this episode.
Maggie / Poppy:Also, Paul, check your DMs.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Oh, thank you. Yeah. Paul, we've been trying to get to you on Instagram and Patreon. Please check your DMs so we can send you some shit.
Maggie / Poppy:We've been trying to reach
Thomas / Guy:you.
Tim / GM:Regarding your car's extended warranty. Alright.
Thomas / Guy:We should end it there before I go too far. Alright. Our Patreon subscribers have touched us, and we wanna touch them.
Tim / GM:Alright. And we're out. Let
Hannah / Eryn:me touch you.
