Now I know what you're thinking, pants people.
What are them pants boys up to this time, this
year, this coming season? Well, I'll tell you
what's up. Actually, I won't tell you because
I don't know. But what you can find out is by
joining our Discord, hanging out on our Instagram,
checking out our YouTube. We have one of those,
I think. We have a lot of cool stuff out there.
And as you know, every year we're doing something
else wild and crazy. SciFly coming back? Probably.
Are we doing some more collabs? For sure, maybe.
I don't know. Get on there. Check our stuff out.
Keep your eyes open. and get ready to unzip.
Just as I predicted, the situation on Dayalongon
has been handled! Kalabhang has been saved! We're
not entirely sure what set the storm giants off,
though they look to have been following at the
serpentine heel of Dayalongon's last Bakunawa.
This mythical dragon named Pangilang Buon has
long been known as a resident of the world, a
figure of legend. We know the storm giants of
the Deep Race have long worshipped the monster's
kind, but we just don't know why it suddenly
turned on the populace of Kalabhang. But no matter.
No matter. Who cares? The Greeks have all been
slain or sent packing thanks to the local Bonesinger
militia and the celestial forces posted by Atash.
We also have to give special recognition to Handsome
Jai and Salome the Sightweaver, who were instrumental
in the battle and its rescue efforts directly
following. Interestingly enough, another known
luminary appeared in the scene out of nowhere.
One mesmerized. Ha ha ha! I have been near certain
that Miss Yarevanka had died. But it seems her
little disappearing act fooled us all. How very
fortunate that she would return now. Well, I
don't know about you guys, but my chestnuts are
roasting. Because it's the holidays! Oh, yeah.
And we're current, so the timing is correct.
This is the Christmas episode. This is the Christmas
episode. We did it right. As we record, it's
December 19th. Yep. So, Jingle Bells. Mm -hmm.
Jingle Balls. You know what season it also is?
What was that? Sixth season. Yeah. Yeah. If you've
got a respiratory illness, say, hell yeah! Hell
yeah! So we decided, why not get into a small
room together? Yeah, exactly. Sad little podcast
crew today. Yeah, you'll have to forgive my voice
today. And every day. It's been a really rough
day. And yeah, I am sick. It's great. Well, you're
just getting into it as I'm just getting over
it. Yeah, today was like the first day where
I didn't need to cough drop 24 -7. So it feels
nice. And I've got a little pile right here.
You do. You know what else feels nice? What's
that? We got mail. Holy mail. Holly and Jolly.
Holly and Jolly. Belly full of jelly. Get that
thing open right now, Santa Claus. Don't make
me laugh. It hurts to laugh. Wait a minute. No
laughing tonight. I have a thing that I'm supposed
to read as we're to be read when opening. No
peeking. Okay. No peeking. Okay. One of you guys
start to open this while I do the reading. You
do. All right. I'm going to do it sensually.
No, I'll do it. Jesus Christ. Read it. Stop,
no. I need to hear you read it. It actually will
be better if you open it first and then I read
it. Okay. All right, I'll open it first. What
am I looking at here? What is this? Guys, I see
packaging. Oh, I see. Wait, I see. Oh, okay.
All right. Do I talk about it? Should I talk
about it now? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I see dice. I
see dice. I see three sets. Three sets of dice.
And I get first pick because I'm opening it.
Actually, Zila has already picked which dice
goes to which of us. Oh, Zila. We got dice from
Zila. Hell yeah. Just in time for Christmas.
Also, welcome to Castle Die Hard, it says in
here. Die Hard is a Christmas movie, and so it
all comes around. Hey, wow. That might have been
the most controversial thing that we've said
in the whole podcast, though. I think the company
is Die Hard. Well, no, no, no. I'm talking about
Die Hard being a Christmas movie. I've never
seen Die Hard. I don't have a dog in that fight,
but I just know that it's super controversial.
I've never seen it, and I don't care about it.
Wait a second. I know these. Hold on, hold on,
hold on. I know these. Oh, the tricksy Zilla.
Oh, the tricksy little gobliness. Oh. So Zilla
says, keep in mind colors. David will know his.
It matches the knives he's put into Zeb and Crispin.
Look at this motherfucking knife. Silver with
red spackle blood. This is the blood of Zebulon
and Crispin right there. You see that? Fuck off.
Get close. You'll be bloody on this too. I'm
going to cop all over you. Jeremy's was picked
for Jules and Dresden. Both isolated in their
own ways, but not always alone. I knew the second
I saw it. Oh, yeah. Holy hell. Those are beautiful.
Stephen's colors strike magical, resonant, bringing
change with every step. And the golden bay red
and gold, baby. Oh, yeah, look at that. They're
either gold or red as you look at them. It's
like this weird, cool mirror effect. Dude, the
D6 is a rounded D6. Oh, I love that so much.
Oh my gosh. Get out of here. Thank you so, so
much. What a very merry Christmas. And a very
merry skylights. You guys remember skylights?
We'll do it soon. Skylights. It's a holiday in
this setting. It's going to happen. We just forgot.
I forgot. Inside these are wild. Listen to this.
I'm just going to roll my whole set. Dude, that
sounds so good. Ready? Oh, yeah. Want to hear
it? Yeah. Listen to this. Oh, it's like the scream
of a Blanche Trudeau. These are so sick. Wow.
Thank you. Real quick. I'm excited to play with
these. There's a sticker pack here, too. Let's
open these real fast. Because it's presents time.
I'm having my Christmas now. Dude, I love the
numbers on these, too. Yeah. Super easy to read.
I'll be honest with you. I actually kind of had
Christmas already today, too. You did? We lost
power, and I didn't have anything else to do.
Oh, no. Oh, my God. Oh, God. Are you serious?
Oh, look. Yeah, yeah. That's a gold side, and
then there's a red side. Ooh. And they're, like,
so shiny. Three stickers. We each get one. There
is the cleric dice, the wizard dice. And cherry
dice. Oh, my God. That's super sick. That's awesome.
I'll put these right here. Oh, my gosh. Thank
you, Zila. Thank you, Zila. As ever. Oh, my gosh.
That's so cool. Thank you so much. So special.
And at Christmas. And tomorrow's my birthday.
Yeah. It's your birthday. Happy birthday. It's
like an early birthday, early Christmas surprise.
Well, now all our chestnuts are roasting. This
is great. It was a Merry Christmas, everyone.
Are we rolling much tonight? Because Papa got
a new set of dice. I don't know. It kind of depends.
Maybe not. I don't know. We'll see. We'll see.
We're in a weird night because you just got through
the shit. Let's talk about that, by the way,
what happened last week. Because you played the
long game. You saved everyone. It was kind of
nuts. You guys put the super in superheroes last
week, right? I had some Jai's death scene right
now. But when I started, I was like, they're
not getting over there in time. He's going to
die. If you had gone to help him immediately,
I was like, yeah, he can get through this one.
But the situation was up. I didn't think it would
be possible to go and save everybody. I thought
you'd have to pick certain directions to learn
certain things and do everything. And you kind
of just blew me out of the way. I was starting
my death scene. Imagine you're writing a book.
and you're filming a movie and you're filming
or writing a death scene and you start the scene
off and then like some rogue agent shows up in
your scene and is like, oh no you don't. It's
the best feeling. That's D &D. You can't. You
start a death scene. You don't know what's going
to happen because the actual main characters
are totally out of your control and they're just
doing zany shit and they whip out spells that
have 300 foot range and you didn't even know
spells could go that far. I didn't want to let
you have it. I don't want to let you have it.
I'm glad. I'm stoked. I think I remember even
saying out loud that if I didn't do something,
Jai was going to die that turn. Yep. End of the
round. I could just read your... stupid fucking
face and like hitting the exact I rolled the
die I was like if you don't kill at least one
of them I'm still killing Jai I want to reward
you but I can't make it too easy you know you
cast one spell can't make it too easy I rolled
it was like something like some amount of d8
like 4d8 or something for how much HP they had
left after duoing Jai for a while they were obviously
going to be injured quite injured and it was
17 and you rolled exactly 17 the whole thing
blew my mind it was so cool that's the game That's
the game. A holiday miracle, one might say. An
early Christmas miracle. Or was that Thanksgiving
at the time? It feels like it's been weeks since
we recorded. It has been two weeks. Yeah. So,
let's get into the aftermath. Some hours have
passed now since the grand heroic efforts that
took place dead in the center of the capital
city of Kalapang, of the world of Dayalaman.
I got it right first try. You already said it
today, though. Well, I got it right those tries,
too. I'm on it. I have so many new words to pronounce
tonight, and I'm going to kill every one of them
in a good way. That sounded bad, but I mean it
good. There have been many efforts. Childer has
arrived. They pushed through combing the city,
combing the rubble, saving every life they could.
And there were casualties. Of course there were
casualties, but they're brought down to... I
guess the minimum possible, because you guys,
I mean, right here, the dead center here, like,
you saved lives that had no time. They could
not wait. Jai and a family trapped beneath a
burning shop. A woman, dead, truly dead in the
arms of her son. If you hadn't sent that diva
down to assist the fight, would Yara be alive
now? Who can say, Salome, but you. Linger here
yet, in the plaza of the Serpentine Jewel, where
everything went down, this whole battle went
down, and now where a huge crowd has suddenly
gathered. You see celestials flying above, you
know, kind of flying in this place of glory.
They look beat to hell, your radiant allies.
You see shield -bearers exhausted from tireless
and fast efforts. You see so many yellow and
black checkered vests of paparazzi guild members
and flashing recorders. You see a lot of Dayalongos.
This is the book that puts the resident name
for the people of Dayalongon. Dayalongos. Dayalongon.
Dayalongos. Everybody now, Dayalongon. No, I'm
waiting until you mess all of those up. No, I
think you did pretty good. I'm honest tonight.
120%. You see most of the residents of this city,
the natural residents of the city, are human
with dark hair and brown skin. You see they have
kind of radiant eyes, eyes of yellow, green,
or brown are most common. Also, there's a lot
of dragonborn and tieflings indigenous to this
sort of archipelago world. You see they're kind
of different. Many dragonborn have iridescent
scales, and their features are a lot more serpentine
than draconic. Uh, and many tieflings have, like,
iridescent feathers decorating their body, kind
of spiked up between their horns and such and
such. And we just see all these people are gathered.
I think we look through, we zoom down into the
crowd, and we see one paparazzi. Uh, looks like
some kind of, some important sash covering her
sort of figure. Um, you know, sort of middle
-aged woman, hair up in a bun, tight, and she's
excitedly interviewing, you know, people. And
you see she's, like, over there interviewing,
uh, Jai and... Yara Ivanka, mesmerized, open
and standing in the light at last. And there's
cameras flashing all around. Mesmerized, your
sudden disappearance had left us all reeling.
Most assumed that you had been killed. Would
you care to tell us where you've been? Mike just
goes, hand it out. Magical Mike, I don't care.
And she just made you and Mike. It's really like
a spell casting focus with like a spell cast
on it to increase voice volume. Right. Yeah.
Yeah. It's a magic Mike. Yeah. It's a magic Mike.
We've all seen the movie. Yeah. Yeah. We know
what it's all about. Wait, that wasn't, that
wasn't intentional. I thought, I thought you
were actually like just acknowledging that. Oh
yeah. Oh, okay. Uh, she holds it out to, uh,
Yara, who just kind of long pause staring into
like probably someone's camcorder. Then no. Ah,
okay. Well, handsome Jai, they tell me you battled
against two storm giants alone and you survived
this encounter. He points at him and just, well,
they almost got me. But he kind of looks up into
the sky nearby where I believe Salome may be
flying around. You hanging out, Salome? Yes.
I hope. He's just looking at nothing. He looks
up. Ah, she's trying to do something here, but
she's gone. Yeah, Salome's up flying around with
the rest of the celestials. And you see like
his eyes catch yours and he just says, it seems
justice is undying after all. The fact that he's
looking to you is not necessarily noted. I'll
say that was subtle, but he is making a statement.
And you see like this kind of a murmur. And then
the reporter sort of steps back in just like,
so. Tell me, what is next for our new luminary
power couple, huh? And Jai puts his arm around
Yara and, well, we'll stick around and watch
over things here in Kalapang and join in their
building and relief efforts wherever possible,
like Yara speaks of. Yes, we will be watching
very carefully. You might say that we will have
our eye... Honey, don't. Please. Please don't.
Please don't, Yara. We pan away to another spot
in all this chaos where another interviewer is
talking to survivors of the attack. And perhaps
your vision shifts here to Salome. You see there's
a familiar figure being interviewed now. They
only ever saw her half blackened by lightning
and collapsed on the ground, I think, following
the battle. Her wounds are healed now and a thick
blanket covers her body. It is the woman saved
by Jules. You see she has a very small frame,
almost alarmingly thin, kindly features aged
and sunken by stress. She's got some kind of
round spectacles that she's thrown on that maybe
had fallen off before. Neither of you noted them
before. And she's holding the hand of her teenage
son, who's actually, now you see, stands a bit
taller than her. And they both just stare out
with just bright, bright yellow eyes. Sunflower,
petal yellow. And you were struck directly by
the Bacchanal's lightning? And lived? You see
she shares a look with her son and... I... Yes,
I lived. I was saved by the Sightweaver. Incredible.
Incredible. And do you have a message for Salve
and the Sightweaver now? To share with us? Do
you have any words for your hero? And he points
the mic back to her and she does look up towards
you. And this is very notable. Like, everyone's
eyes follow her gaze as she looks to you. I...
Not now, no. No, I hope that I may find a time
to speak to my hero alone. To give proper private
gratitude. And to offer aid in whatever endeavor
they choose to embark upon. Especially if that
endeavor involves pursuing Pamiel. This all happening
beneath you, Salome. And I'll ask you, what?
What is your immediate intention? As, like, perhaps
time passes, she moves back into the crowd, her
son moving with her, both nodding some reverence
towards you. But clearly they want to speak.
You see Jai and Yara. Most of the crowd is gathered
around them. They start to kind of move down,
you know, maybe helping their people out, maybe
moving down to, like, discuss the rebuilding
efforts. And a lot of the crowd starts to slowly
pull away. A lot of the Celestials moving with
them to keep watch over a kind of large public,
you know, commotion. Salome is up in the sky
with the rest of the Celestials, you know, pointing
out spots where aid is still needed and helping
to coordinate relief efforts. And she's pretending
that she didn't really notice this conversation.
And at a time later when things have settled
down, most of the reporters have gone home. Salome
will try to keep her eye on where this woman
went and try to find her in a more quiet moment.
Hell yeah. Actually, before we move on from this,
we should talk about what's happened up until
now. Because you've had time to talk to other
Celestials, and as we talked about, you outrank
a lot of them. Is there any information you wanted
to gather from them, anything that they might
know that you'd want to ask about? This might
be a good time. Mostly my questions would be
how everything started. where the Bakunawa came
from, what may or may not have set the Bakunawa
off, where the Storm Giants came from, kind of
like what the beginning of this all looked like.
They would let you know, and you just get this
for free, because, again, you don't need to roll.
You outrank them. You saved some of them. They're
clearly going to tell you all this. They see
you bravely fighting this thing, almost get eaten
by it. It was about five days ago that this Bakunawa,
who was... Known to be the last of his kind and
thought to be dead, Pongail started attacking
random settlements and then vanishing into the
sky or sea before anyone can get there to sort
of pursue. His speed is made impossible to catch,
even for the Celestials, who are very fast. You
remember Hyronix chasing... Oh, you weren't there.
Jules remembers Hyronix chasing him down the
palace corridors. These things are fast. Pongail
is faster. You know that... It was all outer
settlements until now. But very shortly, very,
very shortly before your gemstone arrived, the
city of Kalapang is kind of resting on the northern
coast of a, hang on, is an island known as, hang
on, Malabilak. Believable. And so the northern
part of the city is just pure coastline. The
dragon appeared from the skies. A storm was building
to the north, and as it kind of came close, they
realized it was not natural. The wind was moving
too fast, and they began to start gathering for
battle. They thought they could just ward away
the creature. They flew up to meet it. What they
didn't realize, as the storm and as the serpent
flew into the city, the waters churned as storm
giants poured out from the coastline, climbing
onto the docks, rushing into the city. Storm
giants have... enclaves here in Dyalangan, but
they're all underwater. They are aquatic creatures.
They have like full aquatic sort of kingdoms
and settlements. And I guess one small clan,
you know, they say they worshipped this creature.
And perhaps, you know, already they will tell
you there was some ire being built between the
Celestials and the Storm Giants. Some demands
were made of them that the Storm Giants were
not happy about. And they have no respect for
Atash. They have no respect for law. And when
they saw their deity driving forth into battle
in Kalapang, they just saw it as a symbol that
they should strike as well. Another thing that
Salome would like to try to figure out, Salome
never knew Paul, but I'm going to guess that
she got like a lowdown from Jules when she knew
that Paul was missing and part of their... Part
of their mission here was to look for Paul. So
as Jules describes Paul to Salome, how old would
Salome know Paul to be? I believe Paul is eight
years old. Was I wrong? Stuff is six. Paul's
eight. I'm almost positive he's eight. I guess
I don't need to. I think you know more than I
do. I'll need to double check that, but I'm fairly
certain that Paul is eight years old. So the
next oldest would be probably going to sound
about right. I'm asking because. Salome wants
to ask the Celestials if they know more about
this Bakunawa. You said that it was believed
to be dead. And I'm going to guess that the timeline
lines up that like maybe the last time this Bakunawa
was seen was eight or so years ago. And then
it recently popped up around the timeline that
Paul went missing. Hmm. Not necessarily. What
could they tell you? Roll me a d20. Breaking
that D20 over there. We'll see how much they
can tell you. Just me roll. I'll tell you how
much they know. 19 on the die. Hell yeah. Normally
they're not super locked into local sort of myths
and legends. But I think it's the very one you
saved earlier on. I would guess that this information
is somehow readily available in this land. Yeah.
Yeah. I think it's the one that you saved. kind
of met you in combat, was talking to you afterwards,
and has been, I guess, interviewing what he calls
binukats, sort of historians of, like, local
lore, because he wanted to understand the world.
His name is Aloric, by the way. As Aloric is
telling you about things, he just lets you know.
Pong Il has not been seen for years. And so it
was assumed he had died. They knew, apparently,
he lived on an island far off, some... desecrated,
desolate place to the south and east of this
island here, which is, again, Malabulac. But
it came from the north? Malabulac. But he came
from the north. Yes, and you know he's been kind
of coming from various directions. It's hard
to lock down where he is because he's been sort
of appearing out of nowhere. He travels both
through the sea and the sky, so it's easy to
lose sight of him when he dips down. And, of
course, there is... Right, the missing foresight.
The power, you just don't have it. But you think
this doesn't line up, like his disappearance
does not line up with Paul and his reappearance
does not line up with Paul. Something must have
happened five days ago. That's when he first
appeared and started attacking. But the whole
time they say that that same mantra, save him,
was screamed over and over. Only now does anyone
understand what it means. I'm sure you did not
share exactly what. The whole save jewels thing
definitely took the time through a loop. There's
a lot of hot talking about that. What does that
mean? You know, could it be talking about rubies?
Like jewels the other way? Who knows? I do want
to talk about Foresight real quick, though. That's
another thing that I think you're catching a
lot of buzz on as you're speaking with your celestial
comrades. Like we said, you're used to kind of
seeing this almost double image of things that
might happen all the time. You know, if someone
takes a step there, you see an image of them
tripping, but they take a step somewhere else
and they don't trip. And it's like constantly
sort of overloading you with the wild variability
of the future. From now, minutes, to hours, to
days, and it all just surges through you, and
it's so hard to pick through, and sometimes you
see a prophecy so strong, so bold, so dangerous,
that it shines through, and you know there is
terrible danger. And right now, there's nothing.
You feel this sense of unease and tension through
all of the celestials, because there is nothing.
But it's deeper than that, too. It's ice in your
heart. That feeling of shock you felt when you
saw jewels in that cage, and that... In that
memory, not a vision, it stayed with you because
there's something wrong here in the very air.
And you have experienced this before, actually.
Only once. During the Battle of Angkor and Sengar,
when you first arrived into the conquered worlds.
During that fight, you could not see. It was
explained to you then that your view of the future
was essentially choked beneath the pressure of
a great... dominant will. A figure of immense
power, his true form forever trapped in the plane
of demons, with his sight focused fully on Acheron
Sengar, on the battle there, and on one singular
path to the future. Zomate Shab. Is he watching?
Is his will pressing up here? Why? Is this his
work? Is this the stirrings of another planar
rift of the demonic abyss? Or could it be the
work of his faithful conspirators in this mortal
land? Calypsania, Cerise, the fractured horn.
Something is building here. There is a future
being pushed towards, and you can't see it, but
you can feel the echoes of fear. That's a really
scary feeling for somebody like Salome, who's
used to that vision, used to that level of...
I don't know if control is the right word, but
not having it feels like not having control.
You speak to the others. Like I said, you know,
five days ago, these attacks started. Many years
ago, 12 years ago, was the last time the great
serpent, Pomniel Nangboan, was seen. And so it
was assumed he had died somewhere in the desolate
island. All you know about it, even with a 19,
I think all he can tell you... is that it is
a place known as Lembapluha, and that the residents
of this world do not go there. The celestials
do not fly there. How come? Because, Elder Sister,
we can't. We are grounded in that place. It is
a place of evil, a swamp land filled with sorrow
and phantoms contained beneath the boughs of
a burnt... and massive tree. It is a sight of
shame for the people of this world. I don't know
a lot. That woman, the one you saved earlier,
I heard her speaking of you. She is known as
a Binukot, a Storian. I have been meeting with
ones like her. I was to meet with her soon to
discuss Lembaklua. Perhaps she may help you to
learn more? I will speak with her. Thank you.
Will you investigate the creature? It is dangerous
for our kind there. It feels wrong. I have merely
traveled through the edge of the great serpentine
bridge, Hope's Dagger, and as I felt the touch
of that tree, of that land, of that swamp, it
felt like... Being cut off from our home in true.
As if death there would be death. True death.
Never to return to the arms of Kameo and Pride.
Never to tell the story of Atash and his great
will. Death. Salome, we do not go there. Any
death for the people of this world is true death.
And I will face it to save them. If I must. Perhaps
we cut to you seeking out that woman and her
son, still walking together, and you see their
eyes are cast towards the sky, watching, hoping.
And they, like, round a corner, and Salome is
just standing at the end of the street. Knife
out again. Stay away from him! Oh, it's you.
Oh. Lady Sightweaver. Um. Excuse me, I am Nimuel,
and this is Luntian, my son. We are, um, looks
around. We wanted to speak with the person that
saved my life. I am very grateful to meet you
both. I am unsure where your savior has gone.
There is a problem there, huh? Yeah, now I'm
like, hold on. How do you find him? How do I
find him? That's a good question. You can't find
me. He's in the night. He's gone. You can't find
me until I want to be found. You're just going
to continue with the arc. You're just going to
leave the city. I won't be wanting this for the
entire next many episodes. So did any of the
other Celestials really clock that Jules was
here? No. There was too much going on. Jules
actually moved out of the way of everything pretty
quickly and into the building. There just wasn't
really a point where they would have seen Jules.
So from a high vantage point, is it possible
that Jules, or not Jules, that Salome could have
at least seen the direction that they were moving
in? Yeah, you were right there when they started
moving away. Okay. The question is, I don't know
what direction you would have gone. You don't
know this city at all. Nope. Nope. Well, I'm
thinking, like, can we just, like, say that,
you know, they went to some abandoned building
in some... quarter of the town that Salome saw
them moving towards. Steven, you know this would
be a lot easier if we had a fucking map? A map
would make this so much easier. You don't get
town maps. I never do town maps. Deal with it.
I mean, actually, what you see in this town,
too, is like, I think I mentioned before, there's
a lot of sort of white stone buildings with red
roofs. And, you know, these are all sort of new
constructs. But as you're looking at this town,
you can see where the further towards the north
you go and the further towards the sort of eastern
side, almost like a crescent moon shape around
the sort of outside of this town. It builds into
like older, older structures. Many are kind of.
Like I said, a lot of the areas here are just
like one -story buildings. Out there you see
more two -story structures, larger, almost like
small noble manors or palaces. And you see a
number of them are dilapidated and kind of run
down. Not like ugly, but just obviously unattended.
Okay. Yeah, all I can tell you, all that I know,
is that the second they started running, they
slipped into back alleyways and dark spaces.
I don't think he knows where they're going. I
mean, obviously he doesn't. The question is,
do you have a way to signal? Should we slide
to Jules? I mean, Jules is a way to signal where
he is to just Salome. Can we? Yeah. Let's go
to Jules. As you're over there, you say these
words. Is there a way? Yeah. I mean, you know
Salome can fly. You could do a number of things.
You could, like, mark the top of a roof. That's
true. If you want to meet inside, like, with
something only she would understand. I like that,
yeah. So we see Salome. You land down. You have
this conversation. You say, like, I don't know
where he is. And we kind of just. You fade over
to Jules. I like the idea that it pans across
the city, over the tops, and then it stops over
on a small rooftop on an unassuming bar. And
in one of the corners of the roof, Jules is going
to take out his lute and set it to the ground,
and it's going to shimmer. And then when he removes
it, under it is a small, bright J -U. Oh, that's
cool. Hell yeah. And then they keep moving. Okay.
Kind of leaving a trail. Mm -hmm. Hell yeah.
As you move, Jules, you and Arhalon and Gabriella,
the two of them are locked in, kind of like full
bodyguards. You're walking towards an alley.
They kind of move to the side, back against the
walls, turn their heads around the corner, nod.
They're just locking in together. Full soldier
squad. You're sort of following in their footsteps.
And you begin to hear... from somewhere in your
vestments, a of ascending stone. Or, what one
might call a ascending sturge. Sturge stone.
No, shut up. I think you called it the sturge
stone in one of our texts last week. I was mistaken.
Never happened. It's actually called a sturge
sturge. Sturge sturge. Sturge sturge. Sturge
sturge stone stone. The sturging sturge. Oh,
my God. I think it's Sturgeon. Is it Stone of
Sending or Sending Stone? I think it's Sending
Stone. It's the other way around. We've been
calling it the Sending Stone. The Sturgeon of
Sturgeon goes off. What do you want to do about
it? He's going to pull it out and listen. You
pull it out. We're moving in the shadows still,
and he's got it up to his ear as they're kind
of going. His eyes are darting this way and that,
but he also has this going in his ear. I think
you were waiting for this particular message.
Because... You and old Sturgy had a deal you
made recently following that. An extra reward
for your DC 30 persuasion check you made on him.
Yeah, yeah. As you hear a voice rings out. All
clear, Julesy. The coyote remains under my protection.
Your friends here will never see me, yet they
will never be out of my sight. And that's what
you hear. You can respond if you want. I don't
think he needs to. Hell yeah. He just wanted
that acknowledgement and that confirmation. Yeah.
Periodically. You may have pulled all your fighting
forces out for these vital quests, but with Sturgeman
on the line, he has, I will say he's done some
research, he's done some investigating, opened
his mind up towards your side, towards your line
of thinking. I mean, when you start digging into
what Atash has been up to, what Rune's been up
to, It gets ugly pretty damn fast. But for now,
he's happy to wait to continue his investigation
and putting the puzzle pieces together while
also watching over the Cherry Delights and making
sure nothing comes to harm them. I think you
feel very secure as you slide the stone away.
Perhaps movement above catches your eyes, Jules.
You glance up and you see Gabriel Arhalon stop
and slide and look up to see Salome following
your trail. Salome, are you carrying a small
woman? No, no, no. Here's how I picture it. Salome
says to this woman, you know, something to the
effect of, I know which direction they went.
I don't know exactly where they are. So I'd like
to think that Salome and this woman are walking.
in that part of town, you know, discussing things.
And because maybe of Salome's observant feet
or something like that, she can see on one of
these rooftops a soft glow coming from the corner
of the roof. She flies up to investigate, sees
the first mark of the trail, and then the two
of them, you know, between Salome dropping down
and walking and flying up to see, they make their
way together. Hell yeah. And you're moving out,
I will say, a lot of the public's been pulled
in the other direction, where handsome Jaya and
Yara are doing the thing. Every time he gets
a lady, it explodes. So, yeah. And as you are
moving along, you see Jules and the gang. You
jump up at one point, look down. As you're flying,
you see the whole group in an alley just by the
main thoroughfare. And you know that this woman,
Nimuel, is right there, too. What do you want
to do? How do you want to set this up? Give me
a scene, damn it. Give me a scene. Salome will
fly down to Jules and the rest, and as she lands,
she'll tell Jules, the woman you saved is here
to speak with you. She's on the street. Shall
we meet inside and keep this private? The fuck,
did you carry her here? We walked together. I
saw the light from the, and I flew up and...
We don't need the whole story. Where is she?
Are we safe? Yes, most of the excitement is on
the other side of town where Jai is. You know,
he pulls the camera's attention. I was going
to say you guys are heading to like the eastern
side of town, which is more quiet. The western
and northern sides of town are like way more
busy right now. Up where the coastline is. I
have the impression that some... around here
may be amenable to our cause. All right, I'll
listen. And Salome will go back to the street.
Oh. Fetch. What was her name again? Nimuel. Nimuel?
Did you keep the teenager, too? I'm going to
leave that up to Nimuel. Oh, yeah, Luntian's
there. That's her son? That's her son, yeah.
Okay. Long hair kind of covering his eyes, and
he looks almost very awkward and nervous. Insight
check. Is this kid cool? Yeah, roll a check.
Roll a check. Jules is looking from the alley.
Only an eight. He looks sketchy. He looks kind
of sketchy. Sixteen. Jules saved his mom and
he stabbed Jules. He stabbed him. He feels really
bad. Okay. He's like not sure how to face and
talk to Jules because he just kind of stabbed
him and then never said anything else to him.
And... Thanks for saving my mom. Sorry about
stabbing you. Basically, yeah, he doesn't really
know how to approach that topic, and you see
he's kind of just playing with his hands and,
like, picking that, like, scabs there. It's all
good. He kind of raises a fist up. Thanks, and
I'm sorry for what I... No apology necessary,
buddy. He has a little smile under his long,
dark bangs, and he kind of takes a shuffling
step back to let his mother, who... He kind of
fixes the glass up higher and knows, like, I,
I, Jules LaRoche, you, um, I don't know how you
did it. I was, I died. I was dead, dead. I could
feel that I was dead, dead. I felt myself go.
I was staring into the fugue plane, the mists
of, all I could think was, I was leaving my boy
behind. But now you're not. And it's over. Not
for us. No, no, no. Here. In Dayalongan, we have
this tradition. It's called utang ning lu. It
is a life debt. When you save a life, you gain
family. And anything we can do for you, anything
at all, please, we will do it. My entire clan,
from this day forth to the end of our days, will
serve at your request. I can't help in many ways.
I have no political power, but I am a binakut.
I have some... Ability to recall information.
I know much of the laws, traditions, culture,
history, poetry, songs. You're a songwriter.
I can help you with that. I can tell you so much.
And I heard you called to Pangil. You said, what
did he say? He kind of turns and the boy kind
of, I'm here. He said, I'm here, Mom. I'm here.
Did you seek the last Bakunawa, Jules LaRoche?
Do you know where I can find them? I do. I want
you to roll something for me, actually, real
quick, Salome. I want you to roll for me. Give
me a perception check, I think, will work for
this. I think it's more just like perceiving
a memory and thinking of something. What's your
passive? My passive is crazy, I think. Okay.
That was a 15 rolled. I'll say a 15 would be
good enough for this, anyway. Okay, yeah, I'm
not familiar enough with my... Oh, yeah, my passive
perception is 19. Jesus. When you talk to Aloric
the Diva, he talked about Limbacluha, this cursed
land. Very specifically, he mentioned a massive
tree. And maybe now you're thinking this through.
You say those words, I do, as it connects in
your mind. The vision of Paul. That great cavern
where he was trapped, where Jules, this phantom
of Jules was trapped. There were massive roots
hanging from the ceiling as if from a giant tree.
Wow. I mean, the only reason that I, Stephen,
thought that Salome would figure out that that
was the place to go was just because, you know,
because of the evil, because of the Zalmante
Shab connection. She'd felt this before at the
rift. And so she knows that Zalmante Shab is
involved in this somehow. With the whole Paul,
Cherry's a light connection being kidnapped by
them. So it was like, just like, you know, like
obviously that's the next place we have to go.
But she, oh, can she share the memory with Jules?
Whoa. Oh man, you've done something like that
before. You know what? Yes. Great. You, you,
yes. It was only through your connection to Jules
that you were able to do it before. I think it
makes sense that you can do it again. This was
something that was meant for Jules. You feel
that. It was meant for him, but you had bardic
inspiration at the time. You drew it to yourself.
She holds out her hand, sort of looking at Jules
knowingly, saying with her eyes, you know what
to expect. We've done this once before, Jules
LaRoche, but I have something important to show
you. Am I intruding? This feels really personal.
Can I be here? You're doing great. Okay, great.
Thank you. And Jules will reach out. Memory in
your mind like a flash. Paul's hand reaching
out behind bars, reaching towards you. Jules,
you but broken and beaten, barely alive, tortured.
And you see the sickness of your mother's design.
That's how she would break him. She would use
you. Use your image. Torture you before him until
he snapped. There is an island. The Pari, the
Celestials, cannot fly there. La Magla, right?
Oh, sorry. This is not my part still. I'm gonna...
Go on. There was a local militia. What were they
called? The Bonesinger Militia? The Bonesinger.
They were mentioned earlier, yes. How can we
get to this island? Could we utilize the Bonesinger
Militia? Do you have any connection to that group?
I don't know. I wouldn't really directly get
any help from them. There's honestly not a lot
of them, and they're probably going to be busy
here, but I can help you get there. You can't
take the sea. I don't know if you know much about...
but the sea here is bad. Rough waves, whirlpools
everywhere. You can barely take a ship from port
to port. Only close to the islands where it's
somewhat calm, but between islands, no. But we
have the sky bridges made by the ancient Bakunawa,
the great ones. Oh, so much bigger than Pangil
even. Their bones are built into these bridges
that span miles and miles, days of travel. They're...
If you haven't seen them, you're going to be
blown away. But there's one hope stagger. It
leads from, I'll never remember this name, ever.
Malabulic on the southeastern coast towards Lomboklahud.
It's almost never traveled now, but of course,
the Bonesingers will maintain the bridges no
matter what. The other celestial, was it Leoric
or? Something like that? Aloric. Aloric. How
far did he say he got on that bridge? He basically
had just reached the edge of the bridge, stepping
onto the landmass, and he felt his wings give
out. Okay. So he got to the far end. You can
get to the island, and then at that point...
Gotcha. It's a dangerous place, though. In Snakesong,
local dialect, Lumbakalham means veil of tears.
It was once the holiest place in all of Dayalongan,
home to Bathalang Puno, a temple city nestled
within the roots of a colossal tree, a banyan
tree, also known as Bathalang Puno. It was said
to be where islanders' souls went after death,
all of us eventually rejoining the tree, becoming
a leaf in its branches. Centuries ago, during
a war between islanders, Invaders to Mumbakla
burned the great tree and razed Bethelangpuno,
killing untold people and spirits. And in the
aftermath, Mumbakla became a cursed, cursed place
where spirits seethed in the land, spreading
corruption across the islands. This was hundreds
of years ago. But still, it is dangerous. Feral
spirits walk the marshes. No one goes there now.
But Pong Hill. He was said to have lived there,
perhaps trying to restore this land. The last
anyone had seen him, he had traveled that way.
But it's been 12 years, and we have not heard
from Pangil. I assumed he had been killed. Perhaps
the poison of the land had taken him. It's darkness.
And she kind of looks to the sky. You see, like,
great pain on her face. She says, maybe it did.
For him to come here and attack us like this.
He was said to be sweet and wise. He killed me.
His lightning. But if you want to go there, then
yes. You'll need to travel to the southeast until
you see the bridge. You truly can't miss it.
It takes nearly a day travel to reach it and
about two days travel to cross it. It's big.
Our path is clear, Jules LaRoche. We will save
the last Bakunawa. I hope you can. It is a sad
thing to even have one last one. But for us to
feel the wisdom of Palm Hill again, have him
break the storms above our skies and help our
people, it would be a miracle. You and your people
deserve a miracle. I mean... I've already experienced
one. You see she full blushes. And you kind of
hear a, hmm, from behind of Gabriella. So she's
the jealous type, is she? Run, Jules, run. Spread
the word. Gather as many people as you can. Just
as I'm dying. And then here. There's this, like,
look of confusion as she, like, she hears you
say that and her eyes go wide and she looks to
Salome. And I think she sees you. What's your
expression? Are you stoic? I mean, obviously
you're not reacting, but, like, do you expect
a celestial hearing that? It's like, oh, my God,
oh, no. And she kind of calms. Justice undying.
Justice undying. Sorry for putting you in a weird
spot. No, no, no. Salome kind of almost always
wears a very stoic expression. So I think her
non -reaction speaks just as loud as a confirmation.
Hell yeah. And so I ask, do you depart from this
city? Anything else you want to do before? No.
Yeah, I mean, it's not like we're going shopping
or anything. Yeah. Yeah, we are on the path.
Hell yeah. I think knowing the way around the
city, Nimuel and Lungtian kind of offer to guide
you and, you know, bring you to maybe a very
unknown or exit point or like a crack in the
wall you can slide through so you're not seen
by guard jewels. I think they immediately catch
the vibe. You don't want to be seen. You know,
obviously, everyone knows your license was stripped.
They clearly knew who you were. So, so. march,
you know, another travel down the alleys. I think
as you're moving, Gabriella is staying real close
and kind of a little between you and Imuel. Oh.
I guess it wasn't clear what I was doing. When
I went, he was doing kind of like the dark hero
thing where he's like, okay. And just flicks
his cape and leaves. Flicks his cape and leaves.
Oh, you're leaving. Oh, okay. Oh, he left. Oh,
so Jules is gone. Yeah. Oh, yeah. So, yeah. Like,
he's giving people a time of day, but he is going.
When he gets what he needs, he's going. Hell
yeah. So maybe they point out to you, like, there's
one other way you can get out of here. So you
don't have to, unless you have a plan to walk
past the guard at the gate. Okay. So they point
it out of the way. Nimuel catches up and says,
actually. Actually, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait,
wait. Yeah, do what you got to do to make that
happen. That way. Jules is gone. Can I just give
you a quick instruction? Yes. And before we leave,
Nimuel. Jules, Gabriella, gone. Arlan's kind
of hanging out. Other flyer. Shall we, when we
return, we may need to leave this world in secret.
As you know, Jules cannot travel in the open.
Of course. If there is something that you can
set up for us in these days to come, we would
be very grateful. Life debt. Yeah, of course.
There's a, you'll find it on the path as you
leave. You'll be passing through a great sort
of meadowlands and about three quarters of a
mile outside the city on the southeastern trail,
I think you'll see a large slanted rock, hard
to miss as long as you're viewing it in daylight.
I will find a way. I'll leave a message. I'll
be there in person. Something. Just find that
place and wait for me or seek out my message
and I'll find a way. I promise I'll get you back
safe and unseen. So we know the days it takes
to travel. Yeah. So if we add those up and then
a little bit of time in between, maybe Salome
can tell her, you know, meet us there in six
days time. Yeah. Or leave us a message or something.
Hell yeah. Cool. Takes it in. And good luck.
Protect him, Salome. He's a very special man.
I don't think he needs my protection, but I will
give it all the same. Hell yeah. And you. Take
to the skies, perhaps, or maybe stay sweeping
low towards the building tops. Arlon falling
in behind you, beating wings as you catch up
to dashing, quick footsteps. You work your way
through the old structures, pillars carved into
draconic faces, and... You find yourself at a
point in the gate where there is a sort of notable
kind of opening, a crack or a surface entrance,
and you leave the city behind. You step out into
this vast meadow. At this point, it's getting
dark. The moon is rising. You see moonlight reflecting
off of a number of white flowers, like tiny white
flowers, just way off into the distance. where
they touch the ocean somewhere you cannot see
in the darkness. You're moving, probably not
directly on the path, but as you kind of, perhaps
like we're noted with instructions where to go,
kind of parallel to the path, just walking through
meadow under that moonlight, letting the city
gates fall behind you. Salome. Salome. It hits
you. In a heartbeat. Like a grip tightening around
your chest. The moon feels so much brighter suddenly.
Vividly silver. Everything has a almost dreamlike
cast. It's not an unfamiliar sensation if this
is what it's like. Sometimes these visions, the
strong ones, the ones that resemble a future,
dangerous and true. And inevitable. But nothing's
changed. You look around and you see the meadow
stretching on and on. All under the silver light
of this moon that's just too bright. Almost malignant
as it just pours down on you with some kind of
gravity that wants to push you deeper down into
the soil. You're shaking. Because you know something's
wrong and you don't see what it is. Jules. All
you see is Salome kind of suddenly stopping and
looking very nervous, very awkward. Do you do
anything? Yeah, he'll stop. And he'll walk up
to her. And he'll grab her shoulders. You okay?
Hands. Grab your shoulder, Salome. You hear that
voice in your mind. The hands that touch you
as you look to see them are black and necrotic.
Both. You turn to regard Jules LaRoche and realize
something has changed. Jeremy, once you described
for me the look of corruption covering Jules'
hand, now I would like you to describe for me
what it will look like when you have fallen,
when you have become fully corrupted and taken.
What does Jules... the demon avatar of the horned
lord look like? Jesus Christ. You're supposed
to warn me about this so I can put something
together. Goddamn. You and your sick mind. Beauty
of improv. You can only think about this kind
of thing when you're sick, right? I think if
we're looking, yeah. Give me some flu, fever
dream bullshit here. His skin, everything turns
black. and his skin starts melting off. Oh, God.
And it goes all the way down to his bones, and
as it gets to the last little bit, everything
kind of catches fire. He got himself. Yeah. Don't
forget about the respiratory illness. And it
just kind of scorches the rest of the skin that's
on his bones. Holy shit. And what's left is just
black, smoldering bones with embers and ashes
all over them. And his head is... Have you ever
watched Tales from the Crypt? No. Sure. Yeah,
that guy. The Crypt Keeper? The Crypt Keeper.
His head is very much like a dead thing with
stringy hair sticking out everywhere. If I may
add one small detail, we see the bones of your
skull begin to rise up at two points as two...
curved horns indicative of a very dangerous god
rise up gleaming in the silver light. You were
a part of the battle for anchor in Sengar Salome.
You watched as Atash locked blades with a humanoid
being of immense power. An avatar of Zolmateshav.
You don't know who this previous avatar was before
the possession and transformation. I don't believe
anybody who lives in these worlds now does, perhaps
Calypsania, but you did see the figure post -transformation,
and they look so much like this premonition of
Jules. But you take in this figure, eyes wide
with horror at the inevitable future. What does
our concerned Jules continue saying? Hmm? Just
give me some cool lines to come out on. You know,
like, hey, you okay? You okay? You know, because
you were starting saying that. I don't know,
like, just imagine, just cinematic, boom. You
know, Salome's staring at you, and you're just
kind of talking. Just give us a cool outline.
Well, I was going to take her hand and put it
onto him. Do it. All right, yeah. And Jules takes
Salome's hand into his hand. Salome. Hopefully
being able to see what she's seeing. And Salome
says, very quietly, Jules might only even notice
that she's saying anything if he watches her
mouth. And she says, Jules, your horns. And we'll
call it there.