Campaign 2 (Astragar) Episode 49: Mandra Part 1

[00:00:31] Speaker A: Welcome to carrots and suffering A-D-D odyssey. I am Nate, your dungeon master. We are starting in a hard place here with Zerus having started a fight he can't win by walking into an ambush. [00:00:42] Speaker B: Malone. He took some risks and got unlucky. [00:00:46] Speaker A: But I'm a benevolent DM. And while I have not adjusted the plans of the factions or the negative actors in the story. I did adjust this combat scenario ever. [00:00:55] Speaker B: So slightly to give Zerus a chance. Let's see if he takes that chance. [00:00:59] Speaker A: Regroups and thwarts the machinizations of the big bad, or dies and loses his chance to intervene before things get real bad. Last time on carrots and suffering, Boulain. [00:01:12] Speaker B: Catches up with her mentor and learns that radicals inside the city's political factions. [00:01:17] Speaker A: Were working with Vecna to heist the. [00:01:19] Speaker B: Bodies out of catacombs. [00:01:21] Speaker A: In Astragar. [00:01:22] Speaker C: She says, gavon, this is quite serious. You understand that if anybody in the silent judge church is involved, we have to know. This is empire wide in terms of what is at stake. There is something huge happening here. And if there is inside work going on, even in our own church, we have to know. [00:01:47] Speaker A: Ziris caves to the influence of notig and launches himself into a get rich quick scheme. 20. Zero. Yeah. [00:01:53] Speaker D: Should I add 200 or 200? [00:01:57] Speaker A: 200. [00:02:00] Speaker E: Nice try to hustle. [00:02:02] Speaker C: No. [00:02:05] Speaker D: I thought he said 2200. [00:02:08] Speaker E: That's why I was being very clear about the shirt. [00:02:12] Speaker B: The party leaves town to head for. [00:02:14] Speaker A: Mandra on their next quest to defend a magic item under the summer estate of the translator. No sooner do they reach town than that their dinner is interrupted by news of a murder. [00:02:25] Speaker C: Poole stands up and waves down the innkeeper and looks at the person and says, can you take me to the body? [00:02:30] Speaker A: Yes, absolutely. Right this way. [00:02:34] Speaker E: Just a random person. I guess. You do have your robe, Rose. [00:02:37] Speaker C: With the tattoo showing, it's pretty clear that you're legit. [00:02:40] Speaker E: I'm just imagining somebody being like, sure, I'll show you the body. You can poke it. [00:02:44] Speaker D: Xeris will look at Creed and be like, we eat, right? [00:02:47] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:02:48] Speaker D: Okay, let's eat. [00:02:49] Speaker B: With the party split and Xeris alone, he spots suspicious figures in the Streets. [00:02:53] Speaker A: And gives chase, loudly wandering into an ambush. I'll just go home. I will just go home and I will go out the back door. [00:03:02] Speaker C: All right. Cirrus, will you walk her home? [00:03:05] Speaker D: Of course I will. [00:03:06] Speaker C: Thank you. [00:03:07] Speaker D: Okay. I don't have disadvantage. At least that's a seven four. A seven. [00:03:15] Speaker C: Oh, shit. Oh, no. Law of averages, y'all. [00:03:20] Speaker A: You turn around and start following this group. There are street lights that have been lit and are still on. They haven't burnt out yet, but they're little candles, basically. And you step into one of the candlelight circles that form in the middle of the street, and you realize a couple things. You don't have one shadow, you have ten. And they seem to be circling in on you. [00:03:45] Speaker B: Let's get into it. [00:03:54] Speaker A: Hi, I'm Nate, and I will be your dungeon master. [00:03:57] Speaker C: Hi, I'm Mandy. I play boulain, the grave domain death cleric distracted from Zuris getting killed. [00:04:05] Speaker E: Hi, I'm Claire, and I play the. I can't come up with good alliteration. I'm a sorcerer. [00:04:14] Speaker C: Sorcerer of shock value alliteration. [00:04:20] Speaker D: It's not. [00:04:23] Speaker E: Here we go. The sacred sorcerer. All right, I got some biggie for. [00:04:27] Speaker C: Effort. [00:04:31] Speaker D: We got there. Hi, I'm Robert. I play Zerus the barbarian, who is about to be a shadow of his former. [00:04:43] Speaker C: Well, you're. You're not even optimistic like you usually are about this. [00:04:48] Speaker D: Oh, no. It was a pun on the shadows. [00:04:49] Speaker A: When last we left our heroes, you had been investigating a murder. Assassination, maybe. [00:04:58] Speaker C: Oh, no. [00:04:58] Speaker A: Definitely of a local bishop, and decided to take the very anxious ex wife of this now deceased Bishop home. And two of you stayed at the crime scene to continue your investigation. While one of you went walking through the dark streets at night, Zerus spotted strange cloaked figures skulking through the streets and followed them, promptly rolling, I believe, a seven on his stealth roll. [00:05:30] Speaker D: Something low. Yeah. [00:05:32] Speaker A: And it now appears to be in an ambush, surrounded by shadows. We are starting this fight by Xeris, shouting something, and I'm going to set a DC for a perception check, and it's going to be kind of wild because you are blocks away in a house surrounded by a crowd. Perception, please, for Creden and Boulain. [00:05:59] Speaker C: Oof. That is. [00:06:06] Speaker E: Yeah. Okay, that's twelve. [00:06:08] Speaker C: I get a plus seven on my perception. I got a nine. [00:06:12] Speaker E: Oh, I have a plus zero, so I rolled a lot better than you. [00:06:15] Speaker C: You did. You rolled ten better than you. [00:06:18] Speaker A: Zeros for round one. You are on your own. I need an initiative roll, my friend. [00:06:21] Speaker D: Yeah, no problem. [00:06:22] Speaker E: Do a rage scream. [00:06:26] Speaker D: That's an eight. [00:06:30] Speaker B: Good news, they get a six. [00:06:35] Speaker A: To refresh your memory, you walked into. [00:06:38] Speaker B: A street light, which is the only. [00:06:40] Speaker A: Thing that exposed these shadows, which were actively circling and preparing to attack you. There are eight of them. [00:06:47] Speaker B: What do you do? [00:06:49] Speaker D: All right, well, I do what Zirus would do. I'm going to cast mirror image, and then I'm going to rage screaming again. [00:07:02] Speaker C: Do we try again? [00:07:03] Speaker A: Interesting start to this. What does it look like when Xeris casts spells? [00:07:07] Speaker D: No, that's a very interesting question. I hadn't thought about it too much so for this, because it's notig. I kind of imagined a lot more like Skyrim. Just like a shout in draconic. [00:07:21] Speaker A: And then all of a sudden, there's four of you. [00:07:23] Speaker D: Yes. [00:07:24] Speaker A: The shadows attack. They dart in at an alarming speed. They don't have the stealth drop on you because of this street lamp. These are regular attacks. So let's see how you do against eight of them. [00:07:44] Speaker D: That's not going to be great. I just realized how bad mirror image is for me. But that's okay. [00:07:49] Speaker E: We still have our boon from the green man. Maybe he can make some daylight or something. [00:07:56] Speaker A: Cirrus, what is your armor class? [00:07:58] Speaker D: Well, my armor class is 14, but the armor class of my image is ten. [00:08:04] Speaker A: I guess we have to figure out if they're attacking the image first. Mandy, roll me a d six. [00:08:11] Speaker C: Five. [00:08:12] Speaker A: Change my mind. Roll a d 20. [00:08:13] Speaker D: Yeah, I was going to say, if you didn't know, there is already predescribed ways to figure out if. Five. All right, great. [00:08:19] Speaker C: Arm across 14, very consistent, these dice. [00:08:23] Speaker A: That is going to be an 18 to hit. Xeris, you are on the receiving end of nine necrotic damage, and your strength score drops by two. [00:08:35] Speaker D: Oh, that's not good. I'm going to die. [00:08:37] Speaker C: Do we get to roll again to see if we heard him the second time? [00:08:39] Speaker A: Yeah, but we have seven more of these. [00:08:41] Speaker C: Okay. [00:08:43] Speaker A: All right, the second one, I have a plan. [00:08:46] Speaker E: If I can get to him. [00:08:47] Speaker A: Tries to hit an image. [00:08:48] Speaker D: All right? [00:08:50] Speaker A: Succeeds in hitting one and dispelling the image. Okay, number three swings and does in fact get a swing at Xeris. Sure, rolling quite well. Another nine damage and three strength drain. [00:09:04] Speaker C: Oh, my God. [00:09:05] Speaker A: Five swings at Xeris actually ends up swinging at a mirror image, connecting with it and destroying it. Number five swings actually swings at the last mirror image, connecting with it and destroying it. That leaves three to go. Six swings at xeris, hitting. [00:09:26] Speaker C: Oh, my God. [00:09:27] Speaker A: Nine necrotic damage and four strength drain. [00:09:31] Speaker E: Mistakes have been made. [00:09:34] Speaker D: Yeah, the strength drain was not on my. Fuck. [00:09:38] Speaker A: Okay, nine more necrotic damage and two more strength drain. And the last swing misses. How's your strength score doing there? [00:09:54] Speaker D: Seriously, I am at five. [00:09:57] Speaker E: Okay, is the strength drain. What does that count at? Is that a condition? Is it a curse? What is it? [00:10:06] Speaker D: It's an ability drain. Usually you have to rest a long time or get a minor, a lesser restoration, at least to get it. [00:10:13] Speaker E: I'm trying to figure out if lesser restoration helps. [00:10:15] Speaker A: So this is going to bring us to round two. [00:10:17] Speaker B: I need a new perception check. [00:10:18] Speaker A: Combat has been going for 6 seconds, although I will say eight of the nine combatants are very quiet. [00:10:25] Speaker C: 17. [00:10:26] Speaker A: Boolain, you are tending to the body when you hear the crowd outside suddenly go really silent. [00:10:32] Speaker C: She looks up with a frown and says, we should go outside and then heads for the door quickly. [00:10:40] Speaker A: Excellent. Which brings us to Xeris. Xeris, what would you like to do? [00:10:45] Speaker E: How many rounds away are we? [00:10:47] Speaker A: Three. [00:10:48] Speaker C: We're three rounds away. Fuck. [00:10:51] Speaker A: I'll be honest, it was probably more. I'm being kind of generous because you can only move 60ft around even with my. [00:10:58] Speaker E: With my broom. [00:10:59] Speaker A: How fast does your broom go? [00:11:00] Speaker E: 60Ft. So if I did a full 120 move. [00:11:04] Speaker A: Yeah, good full for 120. You could get there on round two and still do something cool. Honestly, I'm going to go ahead because I said three rounds. Technically that means you're about 180ft away, which is really quite a bit shorter than I thought it was in my estimations. But it's more dramatic if you get there just as ears dies. [00:11:27] Speaker D: Right? [00:11:29] Speaker C: Jerk. [00:11:30] Speaker A: I will point out that if you can imagine a green man spell, it's get out of being killed by nature free. [00:11:38] Speaker D: Well, daylight, I mean, daylight is the right answer for using green man in this situation, but I'm going to try to not. What I am going to do is I'm going to go ahead and fight defensively. And I was hoping I could use my bonus action for something, but I cannot. [00:11:53] Speaker A: So in this addition, that means you go defensive and everything has disadvantage to attack against you. [00:12:00] Speaker D: That's correct. [00:12:00] Speaker A: Let's see how that goes. Well, the good news is it's preventing some crits. [00:12:07] Speaker E: Oh Jesus. [00:12:08] Speaker C: Excellent. Okay, good call. [00:12:12] Speaker D: Take it. I was hoping it would prevent some. [00:12:15] Speaker A: Hits, but whatever, the first one hits you and the 6th one hits you. 18 necrotic damage and seven strength drain. [00:12:25] Speaker E: Oh my God. [00:12:26] Speaker D: No, that'll kill me. I'll put my strength to zero. [00:12:30] Speaker E: It's like in the mummy. [00:12:31] Speaker A: If your target strength reduces to zero, they die. [00:12:34] Speaker D: Yes, indeed. [00:12:35] Speaker E: Oh my God. [00:12:36] Speaker A: Xeris, you fall dead. [00:12:38] Speaker C: Fuck. [00:12:39] Speaker E: We don't have a thing for that, do we? [00:12:42] Speaker A: Well, I have revivify and Xeris is actually free to revivify thanks to the power of his zealot. [00:12:49] Speaker B: So you just have to get here. [00:12:50] Speaker A: Within a short period of time. [00:12:52] Speaker C: Okay. [00:12:52] Speaker D: My God loves me so much, they will discount you resurrecting me. [00:12:59] Speaker A: A crowd of people that were sort of somberly milling about, talking to each other have all turned their attention down the street. And you see in the streetlight this ball of shadow that is wrapped around Xeris. As he collapses in the middle of the street, it begins to divide itself. And you see the shadow of Xeris push up through Xeris and walk away from him. [00:13:29] Speaker C: Oh, my God. [00:13:31] Speaker E: Can Cretan like, shove her broom in Bulain's arms and cast haste on her? [00:13:36] Speaker A: Sure. [00:13:37] Speaker E: It does only have 50ft, not 60. [00:13:39] Speaker A: Okay, well, that's all right. 50ft of movement is better than all the way there. [00:13:44] Speaker E: All right, so yeah, I'm casting haste on you. [00:13:47] Speaker C: Okay. Boulain hopped on this broom and zip. [00:13:50] Speaker E: Or no twin spell so that I can also cast it on myself. [00:13:53] Speaker A: You are both hasted. [00:13:55] Speaker C: Can we both ride the broom? [00:13:57] Speaker E: It'll only go 30ft if we both ride it. I think over 200 pounds. [00:14:01] Speaker A: I mean, you're both dainty, but you're not. [00:14:02] Speaker E: That print behind you. [00:14:05] Speaker C: Elaine hops on the broom, lifts off and rushes to Xeris's still warm corpse. Wait, you said the shadows are moving off. [00:14:14] Speaker A: They are moving from the streetlight into the darkness. I cannot promise you they're gone. You fly 150ft and are within 30ft of Zerus Creedon. You run 90ft and are a little behind. I need another perception roll from both of you, please. [00:14:32] Speaker E: But I'm bad at that. [00:14:34] Speaker A: 1425 up the road at the edge of your sight, deep, deep in shrouded darkness, you see the entrance to the catacombs and a large wood and iron set door has closed to bar entry into this thing. And you hear the telltale sign of something unbarring it. And the door swings open and the light that pours out illuminates three shadows and ten figures in weird cloaks that. [00:15:11] Speaker B: Immediately hunch animalistically and charge into the light. [00:15:17] Speaker A: Zerus, there's no death saves for this effect. You are actually dead. [00:15:21] Speaker D: Yeah, no, I know that. I think I might be straight dead, but yeah. [00:15:26] Speaker C: Cool. How far away are they at the crypt? [00:15:29] Speaker A: Oh, gosh, all the way down the road. 600. [00:15:32] Speaker C: Okay, so we've got a hot minute before they're going to get here. [00:15:35] Speaker A: They don't appear to be coming towards you. They're going into the crypt. [00:15:37] Speaker C: Oh, they're going into the crypt. [00:15:39] Speaker E: Can we get a quick lay of the land again? So there's us going towards Xeris, farther away than that is these shadows. What about the shadow Xeris that we saw? [00:15:48] Speaker A: Shadow Xeris appears to be leaving the streetlight and into the darkness where it is very hard to see Shadow Xeris. [00:15:56] Speaker E: Okay. [00:15:56] Speaker A: It's really hard to spot a shadow in the night. [00:15:59] Speaker C: Good enough for me. She is going to reach Xeris and hop off the broom and she is going to grab hold of his shoulder. Can she just immediately tell he's dead? [00:16:08] Speaker A: Oh yeah. Nice grave domain. Priest power. He's as dead. [00:16:12] Speaker C: As dead as a doorknoil. Okay, so she is going to grab those doorknail shoulders and cast revivify on him. [00:16:20] Speaker D: Yeah. Okay, so fun fact. [00:16:24] Speaker C: Oh no. [00:16:25] Speaker E: Is it fun? [00:16:27] Speaker C: Is it really fun? [00:16:28] Speaker D: Euro's strength. There's nothing in revivify that says it fixes that. [00:16:34] Speaker C: I also have lesser restoration. But if he's dead. [00:16:37] Speaker E: Yeah, if he's dead, can you lesser restore it? [00:16:41] Speaker C: I got to get him not dead and then do lesser restoration, right. [00:16:44] Speaker A: Honestly, this is the most cited example on the Internet. [00:16:47] Speaker D: It is. [00:16:48] Speaker E: Are we looking up the well, no. [00:16:50] Speaker A: We'Re just looking up hot takes on it. [00:16:52] Speaker D: Exactly. If this were raised dead, only that spicy raised dead specifically says my strength would go to one. But this is not raised dead. [00:17:01] Speaker A: The answer is reviv plus lesser restoration or he will die again after. [00:17:06] Speaker E: I can also help with lesser restoration. If you can get him up. If I can get close enough, I can lesser restoration. [00:17:12] Speaker C: Or if I do it and then you run in and do lesser restoration, we could get him back on his. [00:17:15] Speaker A: Feet with haste, aiding you in the same 6 seconds. What does the spell look like? [00:17:21] Speaker C: I think there is a glow that originates with her hands on his shoulders, and that glow just floods his entire body. And it's like. And it's sudden. It's like a sort of thing. [00:17:43] Speaker A: The soul of Xeris drifts softly above his body in a land of ethereal shadows, waiting for what comes. The world he left behind is muted. [00:17:53] Speaker B: Dull, meaningless and motionless. [00:17:56] Speaker A: The weight seems to extend forever. For what is time without a body and mind to make meaning of it? [00:18:03] Speaker B: Around him, sparks of brightness move, sucking. [00:18:06] Speaker A: In the energy of death, igniting their. [00:18:08] Speaker B: Forms with a shadowy flame. [00:18:11] Speaker A: They stop to feed on him, to. [00:18:14] Speaker B: Pull at the essence that gives his soul form. Perhaps all is lost then forces, shapeless. [00:18:22] Speaker A: And invisible at first in this realm. [00:18:24] Speaker B: Of the ethereal, push shadows away, and. [00:18:28] Speaker A: Three cloaked figures appear. [00:18:31] Speaker B: One, a silent feminine form with a. [00:18:34] Speaker A: Scythe, another larger than life with golden. [00:18:38] Speaker B: Scales, and lastly, one shrouded behind a mask. They gaze at the soul of Xeris. And from the mask and the scales. [00:18:48] Speaker A: Comes faint voices in unison. Not yet. As the soul of Xeris returns to its body, we see the three figures look about in concern. Vecna is about to win this battle. [00:19:02] Speaker B: The scales state without emotion. From the mask comes passion. We should intervene. [00:19:09] Speaker A: The silent robe shakes their head and turns to collect the souls that begin amassing in their homes, moving quickly before the flickering shadows swallow them whole. Her actions are her answers, and so the gods depart. So Xeris's eyes flitter open. Zerus, you have one hp and no strength. [00:19:38] Speaker E: Don't forget that. We are both hasted. So you do have another action. [00:19:41] Speaker C: Oh, I get another action. [00:19:42] Speaker E: Yeah, I don't think that we can cast another spell. [00:19:48] Speaker A: Yeah, or not a spell. Like you could pour a potion down his throat or something. [00:19:54] Speaker C: Yes, I will pour a potion down his throat. [00:19:56] Speaker A: Xeris, you have eight hit points. [00:19:58] Speaker C: Now. [00:19:59] Speaker A: Creedon, he looks like he's dying again. What do you do? [00:20:04] Speaker E: I'm going to use one of my lunar sorcerer abilities to cast lesser restoration without using a spell slot. I can do that once per long rest. And then I also want to try to cast light in the general direction of where I think that shadow Xeris thing went to. See if I'm able to see it. [00:20:22] Speaker A: Xeris, you get back one point of. [00:20:27] Speaker D: Actually. [00:20:27] Speaker C: Oh, my God. [00:20:29] Speaker D: Well, do strength losses go on the negative? [00:20:32] Speaker A: They do not. No. [00:20:34] Speaker C: Oh, okay. [00:20:35] Speaker E: Well, that's something. [00:20:37] Speaker D: Yeah, that's better than the raw definition. Which is greater, restoration or bust? [00:20:42] Speaker A: And, Creedon, you said you were casting daylight light. [00:20:44] Speaker E: A cantrip. Yeah. I don't know if this will work, but I don't know. I have haste, so I'm trying to figure out something to do with it. [00:20:53] Speaker A: You cast it out into the street and you see shadows, a couple of them, just two or three, caught in your light, and they appear to be retreating into houses. By phasing through walls. [00:21:05] Speaker E: It's going to be difficult to follow. [00:21:07] Speaker C: Okay, so greater restoration is a fifth level spell, and I don't have any of those. [00:21:13] Speaker E: Yeah, like Creedon wants to stay with Boulain and Zirus. I don't want to separate us right now. [00:21:18] Speaker C: Yes, we are not going to separate again. That was stupid. That was stupid, and it was my fault. [00:21:23] Speaker E: And I'm sorry. [00:21:28] Speaker A: Zerus, you are nearly grappled by your own armor right now. What would you like to try to do? [00:21:36] Speaker D: I guess as quickly as I can, I'm going to drop everything that's not. [00:21:41] Speaker A: My glave, you're having trouble holding the glave, but if you're using it as a walking stick, you can kind of stand up. [00:21:47] Speaker D: Just me and my glave. Six pounds. It's only six pounds. [00:21:54] Speaker A: Okay. [00:21:54] Speaker C: Lane sighs and says, I saw the crypt door open and figures go into it, and you are not going to go after them. Zuris, you are in no condition. [00:22:07] Speaker D: Let's go. [00:22:08] Speaker C: Zuris, your arms. I can knock you over by blowing on you hard. So, like. No. [00:22:15] Speaker E: Let's get him inside somewhere. He's so easy to lift like this. [00:22:20] Speaker C: Can I roll a knife and check to see if I can figure out what he needs? [00:22:24] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:22:28] Speaker C: That'S a one. [00:22:30] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, you don't. Presumably, bedrest will fix it, but Zerus has no shadow. He casts no shadow of any kind. This is good for stealth. [00:22:41] Speaker D: It's good. [00:22:42] Speaker E: Do you feel different mentally? [00:22:43] Speaker D: I don't think so. [00:22:45] Speaker E: Just physically? [00:22:47] Speaker C: He might not notice. In the midst of just feeling like shit. [00:22:50] Speaker E: Can I also try to roll, like, Arcana or something? [00:22:54] Speaker A: You can roll Arcana. Actually, religion would be more of. [00:22:56] Speaker E: Yeah, but I'm bad at that. [00:22:59] Speaker A: Okay. Arcana will tell you what spells do. I can tell you the spell you need. [00:23:04] Speaker E: Well, that was only an eight for Arcana, so that's also. [00:23:08] Speaker C: I'm good at religion. All right. [00:23:09] Speaker D: I'm just going to meditate. [00:23:10] Speaker A: Arcana tells you that there's probably a spell that's better than lesser restoration, but you don't know it. [00:23:15] Speaker D: Actually, I'll tell you what. I'm going to religion. [00:23:17] Speaker C: I got a seven on religion. I still have no idea. [00:23:21] Speaker D: I got a 14 to religion myself. [00:23:24] Speaker A: I mean, a seven tells you that shadows killed him and stole his shadow. That's weird. You said 14. Serious? You think that 8 hours of rest will remove this sort of necrotic effect from you? And you do think that your shadow has been stolen. You think shadows innately crave the destruction of life and the warmth that they do not have, and that yours will be particularly mad at you. [00:23:52] Speaker C: Is the crowd still around? [00:23:54] Speaker A: They're walking slowly towards the weird light effects. [00:23:58] Speaker C: Okay. Boulain calls out, get the mayor, somebody runs. [00:24:01] Speaker E: I mean, I think that we just need to get him, like, inside to wherever we're staying, if it's in an inn or something. [00:24:06] Speaker C: Boulain will get one of Xeris's arms over her shoulders, support him with her wavy ass is going to try to support him? [00:24:13] Speaker E: No, just throw him on the broom. Throw him on the broom. [00:24:15] Speaker C: It'll be fine. Yeah, well, but he might take off for the crypt. [00:24:20] Speaker E: I tie him to the broom. I grapple you to the broom. With your minimal strength, you'll never. [00:24:28] Speaker C: If I flick you, you will fall to the ground. So don't you go nowhere. [00:24:34] Speaker D: If it wasn't for not wearing the armor, I'm still as good as combatant with one strength as I am with 16. [00:24:39] Speaker E: I don't believe you. [00:24:43] Speaker D: I now use charisma as a damage and attack speed. [00:24:46] Speaker E: Oh, yeah. Okay. [00:24:49] Speaker D: I murder through sheer force of will. [00:24:52] Speaker A: Out of the darkness emerges a brilliant light. You might call it a daylight spell. As emerging from one of the administrative buildings comes Lucius Beaconborn, a bishop of the radiant one. He is not the mayor, but this is a situation where his skills seem to be appropriate. [00:25:13] Speaker C: Just as good. I didn't know we had one bishop of the radiant one on hand. [00:25:19] Speaker A: He just heard what was going on and slowly meandered his way out. There was an l named theme around here. That one of the bishops is Lysandra and the other one's lumina. [00:25:28] Speaker E: How you doing? [00:25:30] Speaker A: It's like Mary and Mary. I just really just like fucking with people. [00:25:33] Speaker C: Thanks, we appreciate that. As Lucius comes closer, Boulain says we have to get him into shelter. There is something happening at the crypt. [00:25:44] Speaker A: The daylight spell illuminates the street in a bright and alarming way. And you realize that all of the shadows are gone. [00:25:51] Speaker C: Great. [00:25:51] Speaker A: And he says, okay, I will gather up some people and head to the crypt. He makes a medicine check on Xeris. [00:26:00] Speaker C: Does he have greater restorations? [00:26:02] Speaker E: Thank God. Some of the authorities finally helping us for once. [00:26:07] Speaker A: Xeris heal 70 hit points. [00:26:09] Speaker E: Nice. [00:26:09] Speaker A: It doesn't seem to affect your strength. So he's going to roll another medicine check. And he says, what happened? [00:26:15] Speaker C: Shadows attacked him and apparently stole his shadow. [00:26:20] Speaker D: I got weak. [00:26:22] Speaker A: Okay, I can fix that. We need to go to my house and get some diamonds. [00:26:26] Speaker C: You just keep diamonds in your. You know what, never mind. We'll go. Yes, just go in. [00:26:33] Speaker D: Makes sense to me. [00:26:34] Speaker C: Gift, horses, all that. Let's go. [00:26:37] Speaker E: They're official church diamonds. [00:26:39] Speaker A: You folks leave the street and walk into the house of Lucius. It is a reasonably good sized building. Church officials have it good, but not too good. And the thing that's interesting about his house is it is just covered in pictures of the sun. Prayer books on every shelf. This is clearly an incredibly devout man. He lives in a multi generational home. So when you come in, there's a bunch of adults, but obviously his adult children, trying to figure out what's going on. One of them grabs some water and some rags. Lucius walks to a study, and as you walk in, you realize you're in the chambers of a healer. He pops open a drawer where there's a safe. As the safe cracks open, you see a bag of diamond dust. He pulls it out and starts to measure out most of the dust in it, and he casts another spell. Zerus, your strength is back to fold. [00:27:31] Speaker E: Xeris is over there trying to snort the diamond dust. [00:27:34] Speaker C: This is for you, nerdy. [00:27:37] Speaker A: He turns around and he says, you're in luck. I don't have enough to resurrect you, so it's good you survived. [00:27:43] Speaker D: You have plenty to resurrect me should it occur again. Just try. [00:27:47] Speaker A: Okay, so we have a problem in the crypts. [00:27:51] Speaker C: Who else can help? Who else has powers? [00:27:54] Speaker A: I mean, I can call the bishops. One of them's dead, and one of them's missing, and one of them won't leave her house. But that still leaves us with, like, six. Lucius says, okay, here's what we'll do. We'll gather up. I'll call to the bishops. If there are shadows on the loose, we need everybody in some kind of light source. My spell's only going to last an hour. We could get them on the water. The water is reflective. That might help. [00:28:18] Speaker C: Good. [00:28:19] Speaker A: All right, we'll send them to the fishing boats. [00:28:22] Speaker C: Good. I saw ten figures enter the crypt with more shadows around them. And possibly undead within the crypt, from what we know from Astragar. So we are potentially looking at a pretty surreal fight here. [00:28:36] Speaker A: Okay, we're going to gather people up, then that's what we're going to do. And with that, you hear a blood curling scream from. Sounds like it's coming from below you. [00:28:54] Speaker B: The dread files Napil. According to witnesses, an empirical investigator arrived two days after a set of ten bodies were reported missing from Napil's catacombs. Napil is an isolated community spread thin through a thick forest, and the presence of the investigator did not go unnoticed, resulting in communitywide counterintelligence. Despite efforts of the investigator to remain incognito, the investigator was caught attempting to poison Rochelle Killington. During the ensuing scuffle, Rochelle cleaved the empirical officer's arm off with an axe, and the official was taken to Maxine Killington's home for questioning. It was apparent during this questioning that Rochelle had been involved in some type of political extremist activities and was harboring animated corpses in her root cellar. Maxine and her associates marched to confront Rochelle during which time the investigator escaped capture and disappeared. No more information is available on them at this time. Rochelle confessed, exchanging letters with lesser known figures in the church's moderate, fated faction, who appeared to believe that the heretical fairy pantheon deserves representation in the mortal realm and that the stance of the church against their godhood and limited acknowledgment of only two powers was an anti competitive strategy. According to testimony, the still unnamed pen pal showed up with a wagon in the dead of night looking for a place to store illicit objects she said were part of a political move to create infighting in the conservative church faction, and the suspect agreed to harbor the objects while her accomplice from the capital returned to Astragar to avoid suspicion. Rochelle claims that she grew increasingly concerned with strange sounds coming from the root cellar where the objects were stored, and was overheard making several comments about a strange delivery from the capital. I conclude this testimony is all lies. Evidence in the root cellar shows no signs of packaging and no visible drag marks in the dirt flooring, indicating the bodies were not covered and likely moved themselves into the root cellar without living human aid. It is also clear from past comments that Rochelle resented her lack of standing in the church and felt compelled to boast about her receiving of strange packages from the capitol in the night. The investigator found her easily. We were quickly able to tell from the destroyed bodies that their province was from the capitol and not the missing bodies. In Napil, we also found one corpse featuring a jade skull crushed well before Maxine Killington arrived on the scene. Maxine's presence severely damaged the crime scene. Given that the bodies had the same specialized units visible in Tuscan and the tell tale Jade Skull, the conspiracy is likely the same. When discovered, the animated soldiers immediately changed their orders and began to rush the catacombs, confirming that a nearby leader must exist to direct them and that the likely target of the dead in Tuscan was also the catacombs. One of the entities destroyed by Maxine appeared to be more powerful than the others, and she's convinced it was the leader, though Maxine does not report it communicating anything. Max, as she prefers to be called, was not in a clear state of mind during the altercation, and her testimony remains suspect. Assuming the pattern of Tusken repeats, there are nine animated bodies and ten shadows, plus one destroyed body featuring a shattered jade skull somewhere else in the city. The nature of an appeal will make the town virtually impossible to search with any speed. Our only hope is that without another powerful undead to lead them, the corpses will remain confined following their last set of orders, as they did in Tuscan, two undead made it into the catacombs. I believe one of them experienced a kind of transformation as it fled, featuring a swelling in the skull. While I cannot confirm it is likely that this was a jade skull transformation, with the catacombs animating en masse almost immediately, I conclude that this is the host power from Palmville and that it likely travels from body to body up to great distances between undead. It has animated as indicated by a jade skull, though it appears to only be able to leave a host once that skull is destroyed, a task it has used its own soldiers to execute. With the doors to the catacombs sealed, the wards holding and the bishops on guard at the gate. Barring new information, we should be able to hold an appeal against an internal invasion. [00:33:25] Speaker C: Do you have a basement? [00:33:26] Speaker A: I have a wine cellar where there's a well. [00:33:30] Speaker C: I guess we're going down to the wine cellar. [00:33:33] Speaker A: Yeah, you run to the wine cellar, you throw the door open. There is a single torchlight that is almost invisible from the sheer quantity of humanoid shaped shadows that have filled the basement. [00:33:48] Speaker C: Okay. [00:33:48] Speaker A: Lying on the floor is the body of a woman. They appear to have been trying to draw water from the well. [00:33:54] Speaker D: I mean, is daylight still active? [00:33:57] Speaker A: Lucius can come up behind you. [00:33:58] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:33:58] Speaker D: Hey, Lucius, can you direct your light down here? [00:34:01] Speaker A: Lucius comes up behind you, and again he's this brilliant light. And he steps onto this first stair. And you see the shadows part away from the daylight and slide into the walls. Walks down the steps and picks up the woman. He is not strong in his older age. [00:34:19] Speaker D: I'll come and help him. [00:34:20] Speaker A: So the good news is she gets death. Saves because she went down from necrotic damage before she ran out of strength. Okay. She is alive at the moment. [00:34:29] Speaker C: I cast bear the dying on her to stabilize her. [00:34:32] Speaker A: Okay. [00:34:33] Speaker C: Boulain says, get her to a bed. [00:34:35] Speaker D: Get her to a bed because that's. [00:34:37] Speaker A: Who Boolain said to, no, don't take it to a bed, everybody. He shouts up in the house and. [00:34:44] Speaker B: You see a bunch of adult children show up. [00:34:47] Speaker A: A couple of them have very young children. And he says, everybody down to the docks. Get on a boat, go out into the water and wait. Wait for dawn. And fleeing into the street. [00:34:56] Speaker D: Okay? [00:34:57] Speaker A: Anywhere that's dark is a problem. Anybody who's gone to bed is in danger. Spread out. Do something. Do anything. Get people to a light source or out of the town. [00:35:08] Speaker E: I cast light on myself. [00:35:11] Speaker D: Do you have a light source to spare? [00:35:16] Speaker A: I don't know. I have magic so anywhere I go, I can keep light up, but that's it. [00:35:23] Speaker C: I can do dancing lights for a minute. [00:35:25] Speaker E: I cast out on Xeris instead of myself. [00:35:27] Speaker D: All right, let's go. Maybe we stick together anyway. Go house to house. [00:35:31] Speaker C: Okay. [00:35:32] Speaker A: I'll go gather the bishops. [00:35:33] Speaker C: All right. [00:35:34] Speaker D: That's the plan. Go house to house. [00:35:36] Speaker A: You have a skill challenge to see how many people you can save. [00:35:39] Speaker C: Shit. [00:35:40] Speaker E: Oh, my God. [00:35:41] Speaker D: I love it. [00:35:41] Speaker C: Well, I think our basic thing is just to barge into people's houses, making noise to wake them up and get. [00:35:47] Speaker D: Them out, and smiling real hard. [00:35:49] Speaker C: Did you say you're smiling real hard? [00:35:52] Speaker D: Yeah, I said and smiling to ease the discomfort of being woken up like that. Right. [00:35:56] Speaker C: Hi. Get out of your house. I mean, that's great. Exactly. [00:36:00] Speaker A: I think a stranger running in and putting their finger over your mouth feels right. Barge into people's bedrooms and run up. [00:36:07] Speaker E: And be like bile glowing. A glowing breastplate. [00:36:11] Speaker C: Yeah. That's not going to freak anyone out. [00:36:15] Speaker B: Anyone. [00:36:16] Speaker A: It happens to me, basically. [00:36:17] Speaker E: Anybody have thomaturgy. [00:36:19] Speaker C: I have thalmaturgy. [00:36:21] Speaker E: Can we maybe, like, announce to people to get. [00:36:24] Speaker C: Oh, I can amplify my voice in the village square. [00:36:27] Speaker D: Good. [00:36:27] Speaker C: Yeah. Okay. That's what I'm going to go in the village square and take the broom. Make my voice like a fucking bullhorn. [00:36:36] Speaker A: Boulain, you may roll. Persuasion or religion as our first skill challenge to gather attention from the community. [00:36:46] Speaker C: Actually, Zuris, what is your persuasion level? [00:36:49] Speaker D: I love that you've asked this. It's good. It's seven. [00:36:53] Speaker C: Seven. Can I cast somaturgy on him to turn into the bull form? [00:36:57] Speaker A: Sure. [00:36:57] Speaker E: My persuasion is, I think, the highest, actually, if you can cast it on other. [00:37:03] Speaker D: Also, there should be a town bell that we can use. [00:37:05] Speaker C: That's True. [00:37:06] Speaker E: Well, yeah, but with thalmaturgy, we can communicate what's going on. [00:37:10] Speaker A: Yeah, true. [00:37:11] Speaker C: All right, so we're going to pound the bell, and then I'm going to cast Thomaturgy on Creedon so she can be heard to the furthest edges of the village. [00:37:19] Speaker A: Mandy, give me religion. Creedon, give me persuasion. [00:37:23] Speaker E: Okay. Oh, no, I rolled in that one. [00:37:28] Speaker C: Oh, no. [00:37:33] Speaker E: I sip in a banana peel. [00:37:36] Speaker C: People of Mondroid. Ow. But we are ringing the bell. [00:37:42] Speaker A: You have one of those moments where you forget the name of the town you're in and you look at your hand and it's not written there. [00:37:48] Speaker E: Oh, my God. At this moment, I am really just having this session is not going well for me so far in my roles. [00:37:57] Speaker A: Xeris, how do you help this situation. [00:38:00] Speaker D: I will use athletics to get to as many houses as quickly as possible. [00:38:06] Speaker A: Alerting people, getting them to the running door to door. [00:38:10] Speaker D: I will expend a rage to make that advantage, if that's all right. [00:38:14] Speaker A: Yeah, sure. [00:38:16] Speaker D: That is an 18 and a seven, which makes that a 24. [00:38:21] Speaker A: The bell is ringing. Creden is shouting. Xeris is running from door to door. Creedon seems to be creating chaos. There's nothing you're doing that's wrong per se. It's just people seem overwhelmed and they're running in every direction. Some of them seem to have crawled under their bed, which makes the whole darkness problem worse. What else are you going to do, folks? [00:38:42] Speaker E: I want to try this again with the person. [00:38:44] Speaker C: I was going to say, are we allowed to do this again? [00:38:46] Speaker A: I prefer when one person does not roll the same skill twice, but someone else could try to persuade. [00:38:52] Speaker E: It's wasted. [00:38:52] Speaker C: All right. Duras is already running from house to house. I will cast thalmaturgy on myself and try to do what Creedon tried to do. [00:39:00] Speaker A: Persuasion roll. [00:39:03] Speaker C: Oh, that's good. [00:39:04] Speaker A: 23, you are shouting slightly clearer instructions. [00:39:08] Speaker C: She just yells, people of Mandra, get to the docks. Get on the water. [00:39:12] Speaker A: It seems to be solving some of the chaos. Creedon, how are you continuing to help this situation? [00:39:18] Speaker E: Can I see any shadow creatures? [00:39:21] Speaker A: I guess you could roll me perception to try to figure out where they are, and that could be your contribution. [00:39:26] Speaker E: Okay. Yeah, sure. [00:39:28] Speaker C: Okay. [00:39:28] Speaker E: Finally something not terrible. An 18. [00:39:30] Speaker A: It's hard to find them when they don't move in darkness. They are indistinguishable from darkness, but they are moving. You get the impression that they are purposefully scaring people, killing people out of their homes. It's as if they are being given commands. So you see them phase into walls and the floor, into people's houses, and they appear to just be pouring out by the hundreds from the crypt. [00:40:00] Speaker C: Oh, my God. [00:40:01] Speaker E: Oh, Jesus. [00:40:03] Speaker A: That's a success, by the way. Thank you. Okay, Ziris, how are you continuing to support this save people initiative? [00:40:10] Speaker D: In order to keep people calm and maintained? I will be reciting prayers. [00:40:15] Speaker A: I will accept religion or persuasion. [00:40:17] Speaker D: Religion is where we were headed with that one. That's a 21. [00:40:20] Speaker A: As people start to hit the street, it wasn't so late that most of them were literally asleep. But they are sort of walking in their pjs with makeshift lanterns and torches to the ocean. And you seem to be successfully able to calm them down. Some wisdom of the luminous one. And following the radiant one, third round. [00:40:42] Speaker C: All right, culture question, are torches going to be a pretty readily available thing in most homes? [00:40:49] Speaker A: Candles, yes. Lanterns, probably. This is a wealthy merchant area. [00:40:55] Speaker C: Bulain is going to follow in Xeris's wake, and she's going to gather up candles and lanterns and light them and shove them into people's hands. [00:41:02] Speaker A: I could imagine sleight of hand being used to assembly line style light these things and get them into people's possession. Using light against shadows. I could accept a religion role as a kind of educating people on defense against the dark art. [00:41:20] Speaker C: Okay, of all those you mentioned, I get a four on religion, so that's what we're going to do. That's an eleven. [00:41:27] Speaker A: You are informing people. They seem a little too panicked to really take in your advice. They are leaving with lit candles, and that seems to be helping, I guess. [00:41:37] Speaker E: Okay, Creedon, can Creedon try to be like. Basically, my goal would be doing a deception check here, where she's possibly, like, casting minor illusions to make it sound like there are people in places where they aren't, to distract some of the shadows. [00:41:53] Speaker A: Okay. You know, they respond to warmth and. [00:41:57] Speaker E: Life, so possibly prestigation could create a small amount of heat. [00:42:03] Speaker A: It occurs to you that if you burn something down, that would be the best distraction you could come up with, because the illusion of a warm body is a little tricky. [00:42:14] Speaker E: All right, well, I guess we'll just start setting something on fire. [00:42:19] Speaker A: You may roll me. Deception. [00:42:21] Speaker E: Okay. Oh, my God, my rolls are so bad. That is a total of a 13. [00:42:29] Speaker A: Believe it or not, that is a success. They're not super smart creatures. [00:42:33] Speaker E: Good. [00:42:33] Speaker A: Which brings us to Xeris. The score is six successes to three failures. What do you got up your sleeve for helping this bad boy out? [00:42:41] Speaker D: You know, I am going to take my flaming glave. And as I escort people, I will intimidate the shadows with my flaming weapon. [00:42:53] Speaker A: Let's see it. [00:42:54] Speaker D: 22. [00:42:55] Speaker A: All right, the skill challenge ends. 30% of the town is injured in the course of this evacuation. A portion of them do, in fact, die. Generally speaking, you succeed in saving 70% of this town. The bishops have gathered in a large pool of light, and there is only five of them out of the city's ten. And they are standing outside of the catacombs when you are pretty sure you have the town evacuated. [00:43:28] Speaker C: He said he had ten to gather. [00:43:30] Speaker A: Right, he said he had ten to gather, but he only comes back with five. [00:43:33] Speaker C: Where are the others? [00:43:35] Speaker A: Well, Lucent is dead. Lysandra doesn't leave her house, is refusing to leave her house. Valyria rebirth song is missing somewhere. Cadence heartbender is here. Eloise Dreamsmith, the mayor is here. Bellatrix warbrand is missing. Thirdil cold sorrow is locked himself in the catacombs. I think at this juncture we can presume he is dead. And this is lumina, moon shadow. That's all we got. [00:44:05] Speaker C: All right, then. That is what we have. Do we have any military here? [00:44:10] Speaker A: Retired soldiers, and not many of them. This is a very peaceful area. Most of them evacuated with their families. [00:44:19] Speaker C: Okay, I would like to use my eyes of the grave. [00:44:21] Speaker A: Well, you're about to learn something terrifying. You ready? [00:44:24] Speaker C: Yes. [00:44:25] Speaker A: You're pretty sure everything remotely animatable in the crypts and catacombs is alive right now? And their shadows spawned separately from them. You are pretty sure that every basement, root cellar and darkened living room is currently swarming with shadows? [00:44:51] Speaker C: Oh, my God. Okay. [00:44:53] Speaker D: Wasn't there a problem in another city somewhere? [00:44:56] Speaker C: There was a problem in another city somewhere, yes. We had more help. [00:45:02] Speaker D: Maybe that urgently needs our attention. [00:45:04] Speaker C: Okay. She goes very still and she says, we are facing hundreds of undead. From what I can tell, they have animated everything in the catacombs and their shadows separately. [00:45:20] Speaker D: All right. [00:45:20] Speaker A: There is a noise, like a clearing throat that seems to wander out of the catacombs. It is a single cloaked figure brandishing a sword who slowly walks up towards you and this group of people and steps into the daylight. And you can see him visibly weaken in the face of the daylight. And it pulls back its hood and it is this just desiccated face. And it lets out this raspy voice. Mandra is ours now. Take the living and flee. [00:45:56] Speaker C: Is there, like, any aspect of jade in his skull? [00:46:01] Speaker A: You don't see any? [00:46:02] Speaker C: I'm guessing he has a higher credit rating than one. [00:46:08] Speaker A: Credit rating rating is definitely higher than one. [00:46:14] Speaker C: Villain looks at Zuris. [00:46:16] Speaker D: I don't know. [00:46:18] Speaker E: This is messy. [00:46:19] Speaker C: This is fucked with a cat. [00:46:21] Speaker E: Where was that place that we needed to go? We needed to go under the summer home. [00:46:27] Speaker C: The summer home of the translator. [00:46:30] Speaker E: We would be in danger of these shadows there, wouldn't we? [00:46:32] Speaker A: It's a temple. [00:46:33] Speaker D: We should agree and then do what we need to do. [00:46:37] Speaker E: I mean, if we think that we would be safe running into the temple and doing what we need to do there, it might make sense to go ahead and do it because it's only going to be more difficult to come back. [00:46:46] Speaker C: Would a religion roll tell us whether the temple would be off limits to these things? [00:46:51] Speaker B: Sure. [00:46:52] Speaker A: Roll it. [00:46:53] Speaker C: Seven. [00:46:53] Speaker E: Creedon looks at Boulain. And zero. [00:46:56] Speaker A: It occurs to you, that, yes, definitely. The undead should never be able to enter any kind of temple. [00:47:01] Speaker E: But is the temple not desecrated? [00:47:04] Speaker D: I'm going to go ahead and just try to use not magical religion to renounce this thing. Jesus Christ compels you. [00:47:14] Speaker A: Okay, give it a roll. [00:47:16] Speaker D: I rolled a two, so that's a ten. [00:47:18] Speaker A: The creature turns his gaze to you. The lord of Jade cannot be dissuaded by your foolish and petty gods. [00:47:26] Speaker C: The lord of Jade. Vecna. [00:47:28] Speaker E: Oh, yeah. [00:47:28] Speaker A: This city is lost to you by day. You may walk its streets, but you will never stay here at night again. You see, one of the bishops steps forward and she says, I am Eloise Dreamsmith. I am the mayor of this town, and I demand parlay. [00:47:46] Speaker C: She's gonna die. [00:47:47] Speaker A: The creature turns and looks at Eloise. Eloise is a gnome, by the way, so they're not terribly intimidating. And the creature looks at Eloise and says, by what authority do you claim the right to parlay? And she says, I am the mayor. I am the priest of divine hammer, and I demand that you negotiate immediately. And it says, divine hammer. Hilarious. The lord of jade has come and gone. The city is lost. We do not wish to hurt you any further. And you see Eloise start to bristle and she says, we have an army of paladins, an army of divine power that will descend upon this city in mere days. And the creature turns to walk out of the light and says, that'll be fun. [00:48:41] Speaker C: If we attack it, we're going to get flooded with shit from the crypt. But do we attack it? [00:48:47] Speaker E: I mean, we're in a beam of light right now. Who's casting the beam of light? How long does this last? [00:48:52] Speaker A: Lucius has a daylight orb. He has four of these spell slots, and I believe each one lasts an hour. So he can give you 4 hours of bright, bright sun. [00:49:04] Speaker E: What time is it now? How long do we have until daybreak? [00:49:08] Speaker A: Probably another three or 4 hours. [00:49:09] Speaker E: But in theory, we could have daylight up for the rest of the evening. [00:49:13] Speaker A: He could do it. [00:49:14] Speaker E: Yeah, as long as he stays alive. Oh, this is tough. I don't think that retreating is a good idea. [00:49:22] Speaker D: I think we're here for a mission and we should regroup and focus on that. [00:49:27] Speaker C: To the temple, everybody. [00:49:28] Speaker A: Roll me an insight roll, please. [00:49:31] Speaker E: That was a two on the dice. [00:49:33] Speaker C: Hey, 23. [00:49:35] Speaker A: Interesting. Provocative. The creature was when the Paladins were mentioned. You think that was the plan? It wants the Paladins specifically to come here. [00:49:48] Speaker E: Maybe to get them away from Astragar. [00:49:50] Speaker C: I'm trying to figure out whether to use my channel divinity on this thing or if I should wait. [00:49:54] Speaker A: Retreat to the temple was your last plan. [00:49:56] Speaker E: Yeah, I think that we go to the temple. [00:49:58] Speaker C: Yeah, I think the temple, because we also need to warn her. We are not sending for. [00:50:13] Speaker A: Arrive at the translator's summer estate. And this is almost a cathedral in its design. It's huge, it's glorious. And you know that the translator likely. [00:50:25] Speaker B: Lives, if they're ever here at all. [00:50:28] Speaker A: In a very mundane room, but that this house is meant to entertain people. [00:50:34] Speaker B: Like, this is a social hub for the city. [00:50:37] Speaker A: And so you walk into this house that is massive stained glass and huge tables, and the first thing you notice when you walk up to it is the door is open. There does not appear to be any guards on duty. They seem to have evacuated. You don't see any servants? [00:50:53] Speaker D: All right. Lighting a torch and looking for shadows. [00:50:57] Speaker E: Well, we're also bringing daylight guy with us, too. [00:51:00] Speaker C: Yeah, I think we're all walking in this circle of daylight. [00:51:02] Speaker A: If you want to bring all the bishops, they come with you. [00:51:05] Speaker E: I mean, yeah, I do think that we should stay together. [00:51:07] Speaker A: As soon as you step onto the temple grounds, you can feel it. You are in a place of faith. It is good to assume you are safe here. And the bishops all kind of collapse into chairs and start rubbing their temples. [00:51:24] Speaker C: Vulain is going to do ascending to do. We get the impression that people in Astragar listen to the arch sage. Is he pretty clandestine? [00:51:36] Speaker A: He was in a hidden warehouse when he talked to you, so he might have influence. But you don't think, like, he could run outside and make something happen tomorrow. [00:51:45] Speaker D: I mean, he's not even the arch sage anymore, right? [00:51:48] Speaker C: She is going to do ascending to Archbishop Brightwind. [00:51:53] Speaker E: Oh, if you're using a spell slot for this, you don't need to because I have ascending stone. [00:51:57] Speaker C: Oh, you do? [00:51:59] Speaker E: Okay, it goes only to Bishop Brightwind. It's my phone home to mom. [00:52:05] Speaker C: I will still do sending to somebody else, but I will tell Creedon you need to get a message to your mother that mandra is overrun with undead and that sending the paladins is a trap. [00:52:21] Speaker E: Mandra is overrun with undead. Do not send the paladins. [00:52:24] Speaker C: Do not send the paladins. Do not call in the calvin. [00:52:27] Speaker E: No other. Because I only have, like, 25 words or something. That's it. Okay, I send that. [00:52:33] Speaker C: She is going to use a spell slot to do ascending to Gavon with a similar message that says the undead have overrun Bandra. Do not send paladin's trap. [00:52:47] Speaker A: The response is concerning. I'll do all I can. The empire will not see the city. Claire Creedon's mom. You hear her voice come over the sending stone, and it isn't the archbishop. It's your other mother. And she says she's working late. I'll tell her immediately. Be careful. [00:53:09] Speaker E: I guess. Can I reply again with my sending stone, just to be like I'm safe? [00:53:16] Speaker A: No. [00:53:16] Speaker E: Okay. [00:53:19] Speaker C: One time. [00:53:20] Speaker E: One for long rest or something, I imagine. [00:53:24] Speaker A: So Eloise starts to take charge and says we're safe as long as we're in the temple in the morning. We'll bring people in off the water. We can't fit the whole town in here, but we can maybe start sending people in batches back to Astragar. And there's got to be. When the lights back up, maybe we can get the foodstuffs out of people's houses, and we'll wait here and coordinate for the paladins. [00:53:55] Speaker C: Bishop, if Astragar knows what's good for it, it will not send paladins, because that is a trap. We also have reason to believe that what is happening here is likely happening in every city that rings Astragar. So even if they wanted to send paladins, I doubt they have enough to send to everywhere. [00:54:19] Speaker A: I appreciate your advice. Roll me. Persuasion. [00:54:22] Speaker C: Okay. Eleven. [00:54:26] Speaker A: The empire has survived 500 years, and this is a wild violation of everything we stand for. Our faith and the entire pantheon. This is a war now. It's out of our hands. [00:54:38] Speaker C: Yes, I agree. It is out of your hands. [00:54:40] Speaker E: Did Harold, in his little cap form, have any particular reaction to the shadows? Like in the chaos when we were running around the town? [00:54:47] Speaker A: Harold didn't seem to notice. [00:54:49] Speaker E: Oh, okay. [00:54:50] Speaker C: Interesting. He's like Tom Bombadill. He's probably totally unaffected by all of this. So he doesn't care. [00:54:57] Speaker E: I don't know. Those are worth asking. [00:54:59] Speaker A: He was sort of a six, seven pound cat. He looks like a 1213 pound cat. [00:55:02] Speaker C: Now, turning into a chunker. [00:55:04] Speaker E: Zaris, are you feeding my cat secretly? [00:55:07] Speaker D: I am not. I would never. [00:55:09] Speaker C: The three of us should probably have a huddle, because Boulain says we need to get below the temple, and we probably should not be telling our hosts what we're up to. [00:55:17] Speaker D: I agree. [00:55:18] Speaker A: The bishops are trying to do a huddle of their own, and they are shook. [00:55:24] Speaker E: Can I try to eavesdrop on what they're huddling? [00:55:26] Speaker A: Sure. The fact that five of them are missing seems to be causing a mass panic. How did someone come in and kill half of the leadership of the city fair. They are unproductive. They devolve into shouting and screaming at each other. [00:55:43] Speaker E: Well, we could probably just slip out. [00:55:45] Speaker C: And they won't even notice until we're gone. How do you feel about that, zero? Should we just go get below the temple and see what we can find? [00:55:54] Speaker D: Yeah. The only other option is to wait for day and then do it. [00:56:01] Speaker C: We have nothing else to do until day breaks. [00:56:03] Speaker E: I think the faster we break the better. [00:56:05] Speaker A: All right. You begin looking. There is an area clearly marked private translator only. You assume that's his bedroom. There are two doors there. Looking through the rest of the place, there doesn't seem to be any other way down. So you will have to trespass into the translator's private chamber if you have any hope of finding something. [00:56:22] Speaker C: I have no problem doing that. [00:56:24] Speaker D: Trespassing. Yes. I will declare this a state of emergency and therefore I'm not trespassing. I am performing my sacred, rightful duty. Exactly. [00:56:38] Speaker A: One of the doors, you swing open and it leads down a stone set of stairs, takes you down a winding path into the sort of. [00:56:49] Speaker B: You're on this plateau, landmass and it's. [00:56:52] Speaker A: Just sort of taking you down into solid stone as you walk. It's really well lit down here. You don't understand where the light is coming from. And as you reach the bottom, there's an archway. And above the archway it says divine temple of the waning mind. [00:57:08] Speaker E: Wait a second. Waning mind? Haven't we heard that before? [00:57:11] Speaker A: Upon reading it though, it should probably occur to you that. What a weird ass name. [00:57:16] Speaker C: Yeah, that's a weird name. [00:57:19] Speaker E: Can I roll history? [00:57:20] Speaker D: Sure, I'll try to. Religion the name. [00:57:23] Speaker C: Yeah, can I roll religion? [00:57:25] Speaker E: That was a 16. History. [00:57:27] Speaker A: You have never heard of the divine temple, the waning mind? You did know that the translator had a private temple over here? You didn't know that's what it was called, per se. And you don't remember any lore about it? [00:57:38] Speaker D: 19 for me, one. [00:57:40] Speaker A: So with a one, temples are always named after some God or some title of them or some aspect or domain they stand for Zerus. With an 18, there is no God that corresponds to the concept of a waning mind. And that tells you that this is one of very few temples that are actually named for an administrative function of some kind. [00:58:01] Speaker C: Okay, well, the translator is very old. [00:58:04] Speaker E: Perhaps this is a way that they determine whenever translators are no longer able to perform their duties. [00:58:11] Speaker D: No, if this were specifically for translators, I feel like I would know more about it. I think this is more of a general, waning mind. [00:58:19] Speaker E: We do know that there's puzzles in here that should test our intelligence, metals. [00:58:34] Speaker A: And that is our show today. Not what I had planned, but it rarely is, truthfully. [00:58:39] Speaker B: And everybody lived after a fashion special. [00:58:41] Speaker A: Thanks, Todd Ferguson of my pet machine for our tunes and Julie at elaborate flight of fancy for our logo. [00:58:47] Speaker B: Will our heroes solve some puzzles or. [00:58:50] Speaker A: Get lapped at by you, the audience? Find out next time on carrots and suffering a DND odyssey.