Hey, Pants people, if you love the original music
we have in the podcast, you can find it all on
Spotify and I think Apple and like, you know,
the places you get music. Just search music from
the Fantasy Pants podcast. I bet if you just
search Fantasy Pants, it'll probably come up.
Check it out. Varun here, with a warning for
the conquered worlds. I, uh, regret to inform
you that the Silent Roar has made an assault
against the Sky Prison. Now, many of the details
are still unknown, but it has been confirmed
that a number of dangerous criminals have escaped,
many of which were formerly members of the Silent
Roar. Now, I know what you're thinking. How?
How? How? How could the Sky Prison have failed
us this profoundly? Well, we know that there
was a security flaw exploited by the Singer,
one that involved the gross desecration of the
body of a treasured hero of the conquered worlds.
More on that later. But another factor we need
to face is that the Celestials are spread too
thin, stationed on 22 of our worlds to watch
for the return of Ozen. This is a problem that
cannot be solved until he is finally apprehended,
until those figures that stand behind him are
dealt with. The dawn incarnates. This has to
end, and it has to end soon. We need to throw
our support behind Atash now, more than ever.
We need to mobilize our luminaries, our shield
bearers, everyone with the strength and the courage
and the righteous fury to fight for our world.
We need to get working to take down those that
stand against our security and our freedoms.
It's us or them now. Us or them. Now, I know
what you're thinking. There's no way. You don't
know what I'm thinking. Just no possible way
that these idiots are going to put a fifth arc
in their arc. Well, you're right. We're probably
not going to do that. Oh, my God. No. Probably
not. Who knows? We're crazy over here. Yeah,
we are. What were you thinking? You guys have
looks in your eyes. No, no, no. I was just being
funny. Hell, yeah. We got to talk. yeah but those
last two episodes dude so good holy so much fun
wow what a blast man uh It's just a wild thing.
Like kind of a whim choice. Just go into that
and have this whole side arc and anchoring guard.
Bring back notable faces. Xena, the pig man,
Pepper and Paloma, who you guys played immaculately.
Get RZA up in here. John, it was so fun having
him here. Yeah. I mean, John, if you're listening,
thank you again so much for joining us. Yeah,
it was a good time. For helping to break out.
The pig man. Oh yeah. Uh, any thoughts you guys
have any lingering emotions? I'm a little sad
that I never asked you to say, uh, do a barrel
roll as pepper. Like, you know, cause yeah, this
is, this is all systems go, you know, star Fox.
Oh yeah. Star Fox. Okay. Um, what are you guys
thinking? What do you got? I was so surprised
to see the pig man, and I was so unsurprised
to hear you go, oh yeah, Sholay was deeper in.
We couldn't get to Sholay. There's no way. After
the full episode of choice, they came down to
like, do we keep Sholay, or do we sacrifice Sholay
to save the world? No fucking way Sholay's coming
back. No way. Pig man? I was dead set on that
being Shirley. And like, I like to think, I didn't
really bring this up in the episode. We were
wrapping things up pretty fast, but I like to
think that a part of why the pig man was able
to get released is he was in the higher security
area and they had to make some space for the
most terrifying, like the one person that, that
Atash fears more than anyone else is Shirley
because she's got that mind and the information
and the moves to get ahead of him. And so she's
now in the bowels of the prison and the pig man
who seems kind of harmlessly dumb gets pulled
a little farther out to a further. out cell,
which would be actually accessible. In a way,
Sholay getting arrested led to this outcome.
So, you know, one last little card to play out
from her end. I mean, don't get me wrong. My
want of Sholay certainly does not diminish the
pig man. Right, exactly. I'm so excited to see
where that goes. And then at the end of the episode,
they said the thing. They're going to the citadel.
Oh, shit. Oh, no. Fear is wet. Fear is wet. Mayday.
I made a result. We're back. Yeah. Yeah. Towels
were used. Beer was spilled. Computers were sacrificed.
Or not. We'll find out. No, no, no. Computer's
fine. We're back. All right. We're good. The
biggest loss was the beer. Yeah. Yeah. Well.
I have now put forth the rule of no drinks on
the table because of me. Honestly? Look, those
long, gangly arms. You can't control them. That
was me. Dude, that's the first and only time
it's happened in, like, three years of us doing
this. Yeah, that's true. You know what I mean?
That's true. It has been a lot. Honestly, pat
on the back us. Yeah. Yeah. Come here, guys.
I'll touch your arm back. Yeah. Bring it in.
Bring it in. Well, speaking of pats on the back.
Yeah, what were we talking about? I don't know,
but somebody sent us a little pat on the back.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. In present form,
in our new P .O. Box! Sorry, should I say that?
Well done! Well done! P .O. Box. Yes. Calm down
a little. The P .O. Box. The P .O. Box. What's
in that thing? So now, David, you gotta figure
out what your reward's gonna be for the first
person who... Sent somebody to the P .O. box.
Oh, that's rough. I did say that. I did say that,
didn't I? You did. I'm going to, tell you what,
blow you a kiss right now. Oh, wow. Point me
in the direction of wherever. We've got mail.
Can we open that mail? I want to see what's in
that mail. From Zila. It's from Zila. Yes, of
course. Oh, yeah, right. I'm going to give her
a present. I'll blow her a kiss. Yeah. Yeah,
yeah. Don't do it. There's some cool stuff coming.
Zeal is all aware of that. And maybe we'll crank
up the cool meter a little bit. We'll talk. We'll
talk, Zeal. Hell, yeah. You want to pop that
bad boy open, Jeremy? See what we got? Let's
do it. Opal is going to help me. Oh, my God.
Oh, my God. Opal. Opal is currently attached
to Jeremy via a harness, and it's the cutest
thing. Just a little chihuahua face poking out.
She's the happiest thing in the world. Oh. Ooh.
That was a good one. That was a good one. What
is in that? Holy. What is in that? Yeah. Show
me. No. Holy shit. Guys. I saw a glimpse. I saw
a glimpse. Oh. Oh. Look at the prince. Oh, my
God. Prince. Oh, look. Look at that. I'm sure
you all know that Zilla has made a ton of art
for the show. And we are looking at some amazing
prints. Oh, dude. There's so much of it, dude.
Here, take some. Oh, which one's my framing?
This is so crazy. Take a look. Oh, look at this
shot. This one's the, it's the whole crew here.
The Jules, Blanche, Chester, and Akio all together.
It's like all of them. Akio! It's all of them.
It is. Oh my goodness. Well, if you want to see
what we're seeing, hop on the Discord. Yeah,
yeah, yeah. Go to the story. If you're caught
up, if you're not caught up, be careful what
you read there. And check out the threads. And
there is an art zone that has all the art Aziel
has made for our show. And it's... so so good
wow this is awesome they're beautiful it's so
i mean it's so cool to it's always so cool to
see them you know when zilla sends them um but
hold them yeah it's about the tactile experience
yeah it's it's a whole new level thank you thank
you so much zilla i'm gonna stack these off of
the wet table yes yeah please keep them away
from get away from your beer yeah it's cool art
and it smells like beer Holy shit. Actually,
David, can you put this on my desk behind you
there? Yeah, I'll take those. Safe. Away from
the beers and the waters and the Steven spittle.
And Steven sweat. Don't forget that. Pouring
off you. And then we're going to fight over them
later. We are. We are. We're going to fight to
the death. Last episode. Should I open roll 20?
No, because we're back in the theater. Oh, that's
right. A mind arc, baby. Maps, forget about them.
They're gone. Let me ask you guys. We got enough
pictures to look at tonight. Yeah, enough pictures
to look at. Yeah, yeah. We've moved this for
a while now. I guess, you know what? I'm going
to ask you later. I was going to say which arc
you prefer, but we've got to get through some
more episodes. We haven't gotten into the meat,
meat, meat of the day -long on arc yet, so we're
going to get there first, and then we're going
to get into it. Meat, meat, yeah. Hell yeah.
So with that, do you guys want to get into it
tonight? Let's play. So we resolved matters on
Anker and Sengar. But we still have three tales,
three arcs yet to weave. So tonight we're going
to return to Daongan. But to do that, we're going
to have to journey to the Radiant Citadel. That's
the name of the show! That's the name of the
show! And we'll call it there! And through the
interior halls of the House of Convalescence,
deep within the structure, far away from any
exits or windows or any other easy means of escape,
a battle is beginning to rage. Hey, bub. Can
you show us the way to the doctor? You're gonna
need one. Ooh. Our camera slides across white
walls, pulling out to reveal the speaker. We
see old Howlin' Longash, the Chiripor Badger.
The hard -boiled dwarf wears his classic leathers
of black and white in his arm with both his gauntlet
claws and scimitar. We see he stands over the
figure of a human guard who's been knocked down
onto his butt, his back resting against the wall.
The guard's helmet, shining with the notable
brass of the shield -bearers, rolls against the
hallway floor. The man opens his mouth to yell
as a chore poor badger clocks him hard in the
temple with the pommel of a scimitar. The man's
head drops, body going limp. A whinny, stamping
hooves, a unicorn, white fur shining with an
innate radiance, gallops down the hall, light
leaking from a gash along its body. No intruders!
Demons! They challenge the light of justice!
Another form steps up aside, howling glaive in
hand, the towering figure of a goliath. We see
at the butt end of this figure's glaive gives
way to thick bristles of a gigantic paintbrush,
crusted with old blood. with this hill chucker
known as the pain brush. Oren got that one wrong
because he can't read. Twice in three episodes
I've had to do that. Wow, that's so funny. The
dwarf and Goliath watch the unicorn speeding
down the hall towards the other figures in armored
brass. Their eyes meet in a knowing look. Badger,
want to see how us hill chuckers got our name?
Grab this. Without a word, Howland grabbed the
end of Uth's glaive. The Goliath whirls around,
building momentum, and launching the dwarf down
the hall. Triple chuck! So awesome! Howlin' sails
through the air, extending his claws, and he
comes down directly on the unicorn's back, driving
him deep into the celestial's flesh, and light
just spills out around the blade. The unicorn
fades away in a burst of light, its essence pulled
away to its original plane. As the badger rolls
to the floor, Uthus stomps up beside him again,
the brush of his glaive driving into the fading
light. The bristles glow with radiance, drawing
in the quote -unquote blood of the celestial.
I don't care. It works. As the two shield -bearers
raise spears, taking defensive positions, the
pain brush swiftly paints a shining rune into
the air and chants. Blood and bone, right and
rune, ancestral magic now consume. Shackles of
flame burst out from the runes, shooting down
the hall and wrapping around the guards. They
scream out as they are bound, falling to the
floor and swiftly sinking into unconsciousness.
The burning shackles fade away. Howland takes
in the sight with an impressed whistle. Paintbrush,
you're really a painter of light. From around
the corner at the end of the hall, another figure
appears. One that, unfortunately, was not planned
for by our heroes. A white -skinned diva with
parted brown hair and a long brown coat. Through
Salome's intel, you were aware of this figure,
known as Hothric, or Dr. Hothric to mortal patients.
This celestial is the overseer of this wing of
the third floor, but rarely comes to see his
long -term care patients personally. It was only
sheer bad luck that had him present in this place
at its exact unfortunate point in time. Hothric
is strong. Much stronger than the guards our
heroes are expected to deal with. And on top
of that, they would know that all D .Va have
the power to commune with higher servants of
their creator god. Higher servants? Like Felindora.
Intruders in long -term care. Private wing. They
must be here for our special guest. Two within
sight. I will see them subdued. The celestial
raises a golden mace towards our luminaries.
I'm afraid you're on the wrong floor, heathens.
Your stay in my care will only be a short one
before I send you to the Sky Prison. The chore
-poor badger raises his saber and chuckles. Hey,
Doc, how can you be so bright and not realize
you're on the wrong side? The pain brush brandishes
his glaive towards the diva, the bristles on
its hand, hungry for more paint. And Hothric,
Mesa -lite with radiant power, dives toward the
two, swinging fiercely. We cut from the scene
at the sound of clashing metal. We pan away,
sliding around a corner to a different, connected
hallway, where another group of heroes uses this
opening to move in on Storyteller Orin's room.
And we are back on Dialingen. Back on the serpentine
world. Back on an adventure across a serpent
bridge with an ever -damned island on the horizon.
But before we get into it... So let's get this
timeline straightened out real quick. Hold on,
hold on, hold on. Before you just brush past
it, that was really fucking cool. It was cool,
right? Yeah, that was really cool. What am I
doing? Yeah, yeah. Thank you so much, Andy and
Matthew, for providing me with those clips and
those heroes. So damn cool. That was awesome.
Thank you both. Yeah, thank you so much. Yeah,
let's see where this goes. Shit's about to get
a little crazy because the alarms are going off
and the house is a convalescent. I think things
are going to get a little hot over there and
maybe not all our heroes are making it out. Yeah,
it's always a possibility. Speaking of not making
it out, let's talk about these damned heroes
here. These fools wandering towards Limbacluha,
the haunted island, where you believe an ancient
black dragon and the top members of an ancient
demon -worshipping cult, as well as just all
sorts of unknown nastiness, unrested spirits,
evil plants, maybe? Who knows what sort of toxic
hellscape you're moving towards. Before we get
into it, I've got to talk about timeline because
it's kind of wild, all right? It's a little wild.
I want to make sure we're clear -ish on how time
is working right now, all right? Let's talk about
where all these arcs are lining up. The Sensa
group left on 2 p .m. day one. I'm using day
one because I didn't make a calendar for this
campaign because I didn't feel like I don't care
about calendars. They lived on 2 p .m. of day
one of this arc. Two -day journey. They went
to reach Anissa. They camped out one night. So
when they arrived at Anissa, it was nighttime.
So when they have actually reached the back,
gotten to the school, broke in, are doing stuff,
they're pretty much sitting at 2 o 'clock a .m.
or so on day three. And that's kind of around
where we left them, right? They're about 2 o
'clock a .m., day three. Yeah, we're good. We're
there. The dialogue group, however, left at 3
.30 on day one. They left Calipang around 8 p
.m., traveled through night into the next day,
found hunters in the evening of day two. They
stayed about 20 hours left, travel on the bridge.
They stayed overnight that night. And at this
point, they will have traveled through another
day. Day three, gone. Already happened. We're
going to retrospect it. They are now on day four,
around noon. The very night the Devil and Rue
came and camped up with the hunters, the night
Salome cast Geass on their leader, is the night
everything has been going on on Senza. Our Citadel
scenes will be placed on the morning following
that night, as a part of their setup was Rue
reacting to the escaped AG -6 from the Senza
arc. So, that happened. And our Anchor and Sengar
scenes? I don't know. We'll call it the same
day. It's a big day for Justice in Dying. This
is where we have to have a spot. I think that
makes sense. All bunch of shit happening at once.
Blow after blow after blow towards the bad guys.
Yeah, you gotta overwhelm the enemy, right? Exactly.
And the listeners. And the listeners. You guys
love convoluted timelines as much as I do. Go
watch Dark on Netflix. You'll love it if you
like this shit. I also gotta talk about Geass
real quick. Because... If you don't remember,
because it's been six weeks, I think, the last
thing that happened was Salome casting this spell
on the leader of this group of dragon hunters,
and they left. They just cleared out the next
day. We kind of skipped over the rigmarole of
what happened there, but basically this spell.
uh works as this very powerful as you kind of
put it it's almost like command but like super
command right they have to follow a thing but
the way it works typically is if you do not follow
what the what the spells so the quest is that
give it's given to you you take a shit ton of
damage every time you go against that spell's
rules um and it lasts for a long time so they
they have to go In this case, I like to think
that since he was half asleep during it, it also
acts as a compulsion. Because it's dumb if he
kind of just turns around and dies for some reason.
I think he wakes up feeling this need to leave.
And if he breaks that need to leave, then it
starts to hurt. But his mind is telling him,
whatever reason there is, you have to go. You
have to leave. You're going to die. You're all
going to die. This is a bad plan. It doesn't
matter what happened to your ancestors. You've
got to go. And so they peace out. Basically,
you're well cast in the sleeping leader of the
hunters. It basically had him command them all.
So, that makes sense, right? It's compulsion,
especially if the subject's kind of unaware at
the time. Yeah. And the only thing the spell
says is the creature needs to understand the
words spoken. So, boom. Just want to put that
out there because it's really cool. I also want
to know, Salome, if you told the others about
your role in the hunters' choice to flee. Or
did they just... Last time we saw it was Chester
going, holy shit, as they just walked away. Is
that because he's saying, holy shit, you pulled
that off? Or holy shit, what just happened? Yeah,
I think it was holy shit that just happened.
She definitely didn't offer up that information.
Okay. Another quick thing. I was, like, thinking
about it today. Because the last time we were
with this group, you were pronouncing it G -E
-O -S. I was pronouncing it G -E -O -S. And I
was like, how do you pronounce it? Apparently
you're supposed to pronounce it Gesh. No. Because
it's like some Gaelic word. That's illegal. I'm
just putting it out there. Look, you cast Gesh?
I don't like it either. I don't like it either.
What's our ruling on this? Mr. Wolf, do we cast
Gesh? Gaios? Give me the week to research it.
Okay. Get in the Discord. Yeah, get in the Discord.
I'm going to say Gaios because that's what I
said first. I would like to note, though, probably
just for a little flavor. I think Jules doesn't
know exactly what went on, but he's looking around
a little shifty because he knows that was a little
too. Sure. Well, also, Jules being a caster.
Exactly. Understands the power. He senses that
something happened. I'm going to roll something.
I don't think he can really pinpoint it. I'm
going to roll a dice. But he knows you're the
only one that could do something, really. Right.
Yeah, Salome is a little bit of an anomaly to
even jewels. Right. Dice has been rolled. Perhaps
somebody else is a little more aware of them.
Anyway, let's get back into it. You've been moving
around. You traveled another day. You woke up
the morning of. They fled. It's been a whole
day since, just traveling along this bridge,
just nonstop, the waves crashing beneath you,
birds flying above, and you're just moving, you
know, sort of back and forth on this long, slithering
-shaped bridge. It's just endless, endless walking
as the morning breaks to afternoon, breaks to
evening, to dusk. You camp again, you wake up,
and you begin your next day, you know, your last
day. Throughout that day, that past you know
what chester's just been acting kind of odd you
know nervous not taking meals at all not taking
breaks just muttering to himself a lot the last
two nights he seems to be sort of barely sleeping
he gets up a lot throughout the night to go on
walks on the bridge he probably was away when
you cast your spell salome His mood just seems
to fluctuate wildly throughout the day. At some
point, he's just kind of ranting on and on, just
full of this sort of nervous, brooding energy.
Just, huh, those fellas are going to be waiting
for us, aren't they? Aren't they going to let
Amato's death slide too easy, huh? That might
have been a little reckless of me. Shit, shit.
Well, if we survive the Weeping Paths, we'll
have to deal with that, right? You know, if,
if. You know, we're going to have a lot easier
going through the paths if we kept those meat
shields. Just saying. None of the times. He's
back to his usual goofy self, just all smiles.
Hey Jules, if we find Paul over there, you think
it'll let us ride him back home? We'll certainly
be crossing this bridge again. I just hope he
doesn't forget about his family now that he's
some big shot storm dragon, right? Right? It
just seems strange. He looks a little different
too. Just, you know, getting a little paler,
just more nervous, almost like clammy. And maybe
it's just these weeping paths. He's been talking
about them. Went to this place before. Went through
once to reach Bethelang Puno. Found the entrance
to the cavern. As he said, he turned knowing
he could not face us alone. He went back. And
those trips made a left of mark on him. He goes
on and on about the terrors you're going to see
there. Just do what I say, alright? Stay in my
steps. Be real careful. Don't wander off. And
if I say something, if something's happening,
right? Just follow my lead. Just play it cool.
Just, uh, yeah. Play it cool. What are we walking
into? The stuff I saw, Jules. The spirits there,
Roman. Crazy. You know? I mean, they were burned.
It's like hell on earth. What? What's what? What's
what? Earth's... Earth's an element, right? It's
fine. I don't care. It's like hell over there,
alright? You're on. The morning of day four,
you know you're getting close to your destination.
You've all been traveling on this bridge with
no access to clean water, and so I have to assume
everyone is just incredibly stinky. There's five
stinky heroes on a quest to a stinky swamp island
beneath a big stinky tree. As you're moving,
I think at some point, Arhalon's been kind of
watching just this sort of strange, manic behavior,
and you can see him kind of like, his eyes falling
on him. oh boy he kind of moves up aside and
he's so trickshot huh that's it's very cool a
rather hot moniker a hot mon if you will what
the chest is just staring at him just this big
awkward smile you know sometimes during flights
of fancy i've often wonder what my name would
be right to walk the luminary path I think, yes,
I think sword -bearer would be my pick. My brother,
he would have thought that was cool. It harkens
back to my time as a shield -bearer. It honors
my past. Yeah, yeah, why not honor the job you
had when you tore my family apart, huh? Uh, I,
uh, yeah, I'm actually glad you brought that
up, Trickshot, um, Chester. I was in a dark place
after that day. I was haunted by my part in that
tragic sea, by my jealousy towards my brother,
by my insecurities, and I felt only rage, apathy,
and I took lies when I could have shown mercy.
And I was careless with my own life as well.
I felt like I was drowning, like watching myself
sinking away in a dark ocean, no matter how hard
I could kick and paddle the idea of breaking
the water's surface felt. He's just at the edge
of the bridge, staring down at the swirling whirlpools
and harsh waves. But then, when Crispin and Jules
found me, and after, when Zeb returned, I...
Hey, hey, we don't gotta do this, alright? I'd
actually highly prefer if we didn't. I'll get
to the point. I faced an impossible truth on
Howery. The truth about my father, my grandmother,
all of it. My own mother has vanished, and I
have no way to track her down. I... Should be
broken. I should have broken by now, but I haven't.
Instead, I feel lighter and stronger. And I just
want you to understand one thing. That the hardest
part of falling down is realizing that it isn't
so hard to stand again. To open your heart again.
Especially when you are not alone. And if you
ever want to talk about anything, I'm obliged.
Sorry, I'm happy. Happy to oblige. Trick shot.
Um, yeah, uh, sure thing, sword bearer. Big awkward
smile, and Chesla kind of saunters away from
that. I think we see another moment on the bridge.
Salome moving, and as you're, again, you're getting
closer to this sense of rot. You feel your wings
are starting to stiffen, and every once in a
while when you glance at them, they look almost
spectral. Phantasmal, like they're losing their
essence. The closer you get to whatever lies
ahead, you feel a presence just suddenly beside
you. Gabriella's grace always taken, filled by
surprise. Have you been seeing more visions of
Jules? Very demanding. Right in your face. My
visions have stopped on the bridge. I see. Does
that mean it's not happening? Or not going to
come true? And Jules, you're awake. I think she
waited until you're kind of maybe moving ahead.
Chester like ran over and is like chatting with
you and you're, you know, kind of back and forth
and, you know, slapping each other. Kind of just,
you know, back to the jovial old brothers for
a moment. I hope not. I would like to stop that
from happening. Have your visions ever not come
true? Can they be stopped? Is that how it works?
I don't... I'm here because of a vision that
I saw. I will not choose to resign myself to
that future. Has it ever happened before that
Salome has seen a vision that hasn't come true?
You tell me. I think it'd be very rare, but maybe
under some circumstances. I mean, here's the
thing. You know when horrible things are going
to happen. There'd be no point to the power of
prophecy if you couldn't change them, right?
Yeah. It's hard. Yeah. Like she could have just,
you know, sat on her hands after seeing... The
vision of Atash's world. Yeah. And maybe your
actions will change that future. Maybe. Maybe
they can change Jules' future. I think, ultimately,
Jules' fate is in his own hands. Maybe not. The
other night I saw something. You did something
to make those hunters turn back. I saw you get
up, go to the tents. The next day they were gone.
You made them leave. Yes? Some kind of angel
power? I am wondering if I am going to have you
use this power on Jules to send him away. Just
the two. Jules will hate us, but he will forgive
us, I hope, when we come back with information
on what happened to Paul. I know it's wrong.
Mateo believes... I believe that freedom is the
most important thing a person can have. But if
we see this quest through to its end, what if
it does lead to this vision? I needed to protect
those boys. I need to protect Jules. I will not
betray his trust like that. Without him, we will
surely die. We may die with him. If he becomes
a thing you've been seeing, we will die because
of him. Does that mean it's not worth trying?
I don't know. It's strange. We are fighting fate
itself, and... Who knows if in the fighting of
fate, we are falling in the fate's trap? It's
just frustrating to not know. Do we even have
choice? Is there freedom? When the future can
be set in these ways, I... Would that change
how hard you're willing to fight? No. I will
fight with everything I have. As will I. Her
eyes, like, go back to jewels. Standing by Chester,
the two walking side by side. Maybe at this moment
you kind of like feel something, Jules, and you
kind of glance back. Let them fight as well.
They choose to be here. Okay. Jules, what is
going through your mind? I've seen a bit of what
everyone else is thinking here. What is Jules
thinking? There's so much. You know that your
mother... likely lies ahead. Paul is some kind
of dragon creature. You don't really fully understand
why, but the answers lie beyond this cursed land.
Chesta's back, but he's still different. Something's
still wrong with him. And there's so much happening.
Everything that has made you who you are, it's
all coming to a head here and now. And that presence
within you and behind you, you can feel it reveling.
Excited. Every step closer. I think by this point,
he's kind of on autopilot. He's going through
the motions, and right now he might be playing
around with Chester and whatnot. But he's kind
of a shell, and it's empty. It's dark. Nothing
feels right. I don't know. I think the best way
I can describe it is it's similar to Frodo. toward
the end of the journey, where his eyes are just
wide and void of anything, really. There's like
so much prodding from Chester, I imagine. Yeah,
and he's, I don't know. Emotionally, he's like
he's underwater trying to run. Big guy. Big guy.
Hey, hey, big guy. What? Whoa, look. What are
you spacing out? Look, look ahead. What? It's
coming out. You all kind of glance up ahead to
see the mist on the horizon as it begins to part,
revealing a gigantic tree, thousands of feet
tall, its highest branches hidden by clouds.
The great tree's bows? Bows? How do you pronounce
that? Bows. Get me. I thought it was bows. Bows
of a tree? Bows or bows of a tree? Bows. Oh.
Blue boughs. I don't know. The great tree's boughs
are bent and mostly barren and lifeless. A few
gigantic leaves you see are falling down. I thought
you were saying like a bode. Like a bode brace.
Oh, a bode brace. Something like that, yeah.
The great tree's bode boughs are bent. Sorry,
the great tree's bode boughs are bode. And mostly
bode barren. I think it's besh. That's pretty
good. You got three buttons? No, I've got zero
buttons. That made me laugh. So the sky bridge
descends onto a sizable island overgrown with
tangled swamp vegetation and covered in a haze
tasting of ash. And that sickness just permeates.
You keep moving and so soon you find yourselves
descending. The bridge finally lowering down
to meet the Swamp Land. As you begin to move
down Salome, their wings become entirely spectral.
That wrongness just pushes through them. You
try to flap them, and they move. You can feel
them, the limb they always were, but they do
not touch the air. Your light, your essence,
is being choked by something so counter to you.
This marsh, this island, just rejects your celestial
light. You step down, your feet so used to treading
on, just stamping stone and brick. Squish into
muck. The ash -heavy air closes in, decay and
ruin all around, from the murky water flowing
through the endless swamp to the mildewed vines
and the rotting roots of swollen mangrove and
banyan trees. And you. Look out at the quagmire.
All right. Okay. Got about a day's travel here.
We can either camp here for the night or push
through. We'll reach the end late. We'll reach
it. Push through in one day? When we get out
there, I wouldn't want to camp. Just saying.
What are the risks? This place. It's teeming
with things. Things you can't always even see.
It feels like... Like it knows you're here and
that you don't belong. Like the island knows.
I don't know. It's hard to explain it, but you'll
find out. Just remember, do as I say. Alright?
I've been through twice. I've seen things and
I know how to bypass them. I'll take lead. Alright?
I don't want to camp, Jules. What say you? We
keep moving. Alright. You've only traveled for
about four hours today, so you're not terribly
tired. Oh, yeah, definitely. It's a long journey
through the swamp, but at the end of it, it'll
be late. But you don't think you'll be entirely
exhausted. All right, let's go. He starts looking
around, moving through a brush, and he's, ah,
here. And I think he points down, and you see
a track sort of moving into the swamp. And for
a second, you're kind of like... they don't really
look like Chesta's boots. They look a little
different, a little bigger, a little warped,
thinner. Then you realize, as he takes a step
down, that he's leaving those same tracks. You
remember he has these specialized boots, the
boots of false tracks. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That
make it so he can leave different kinds of tracks
behind him that aren't his own. It seems like
he just does it passively, almost carefully,
wherever he goes. All right. being to move to
the swamps. And I think Chester's kind of just
reminding you of various things, kind of going
over some of the local lore you heard when he
was just combing through the cities and listening
in, doing Chester things. Yeah, so the tree,
Baflang Puno, used to be a religious haven, right?
A dwelling place for Bakunawa and a place where
the people of the islands could seek their wisdom?
After the numbers dwindled, an army of raiders
from Laguna came and brought fire to the island.
Burning the forest, the temple city, the citizens,
the tree? They say the island just never forgot,
but it still feels the pain of that burning.
The dead here, they just don't rest easy. The
tree itself, it just sits on top of some huge
cavern, right? It's the holy sanctum of the city,
the lair of the Bacchanawa, which obviously now
the lair of Calapsania. Carlin kind of speaks
up. I've been thinking. If Paul... is this last
Bakunawa and it's not the Pong -il that everyone
believes to be, then do you think the real Pong
-il has already been killed? They said he hadn't
been seen in years, right? Before now? If Calypsania
has taken its lair as her own, then it only stands
to reason she slayed the poor creature, right?
Do you not think they are one in the same? You
think Paul has put his mind inside the creature?
But... How? How could he have done this, or become
it at all? How at all is any of this possible?
And doesn't it feel too convenient, in a way?
We are being lured here. It's a trap. You know
it's a trap, right, Jules? And as she looks at
Jules, and Salome, as you look to Jules, you
see a burned necrotic creature with horns jutting
up from his skull. The creature looks entirely
at home in these desecrated lands. I know what
I heard. You're moving on. Pressing through the
marsh. That ashy haze begins to sort of coalesce
and thicken. And hours pass. This place is too
quiet. So, so silent. It's verdant in a way.
Rotten, but verdant, and yet there's not a single
beast, bird, insect, anything you can hear. A
land touched by death that never came to life
again. And it's just so wrong. It's because it's
so silent that you can hear it mingling with
the very calm, very stale wind. She has to just
stop. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Okay, they're coming.
All right, I know these guys. Listen carefully.
They're going to come by. They're going to want
to ask you some questions, right? They want to
make sure you're dead. Just play along with what
I do. All right? All right? You can hear the
voices kind of a little louder. A low limb from
the great tree collapsed onto me, breaking my
bones to dust. I am so sorry. And you begin to
see them, shapes, coalescing gray spectral figures,
sort of made of the ashy mist around you, moving
past you. I was bound to a stake and roasted
alive. My family watched my skin crackle and
burn away. I am so sorry. Many voices at once
booming. And those figures suddenly stop. The
wind halts. It goes silent again. And they just,
for a long moment, just stare at you. Chester
puts a hand up like, don't do anything. How are
you reacting to this? Just these strange figures
all around you, almost like a full circle now
at this point. You see them layered and layered
and layered going back. These ghosts, these ashen
things. Jules is just slowly... circling around,
looking at him side to side. He pays no attention
to Chester's hand. He's waving his hand, covering
his mouth, trying to gesture something, but not
saying a word, trying to stay as quiet as possible.
Salome's just standing behind Chester. And one
figure finally speaks. You do not feel dead.
You do not feel dead. Tell us. How did you die?
And they turn. So they turn to Arhalon first.
Arhalon's kind of just looking around, just kind
of nudges him, like, gives him a quick nudge
and a wink, and Arhalon, oh, I was killed by
my monster of a father. He drained my life away
so that I might join his side in death. I am
so sorry. They looked at Chester. Yeah, actually,
a couple weeks ago, you guys, you already...
I am so sorry. Oh, sweet, all right. Guess I'm
good to go. Turned to Gabriella. How did you
die? Someone asked me a stupid question, so I
broke them in half. Silence. Oh, and then I had
a heart attack. Silence. And I died. I... I'm
so sorry. Attention shifts to Jules. It's like
this strange, like all the heads, almost like
shadows overlaying. Their facial features just
turn towards you, and yet they do not move their
bodies at all. It's almost like stop motion,
the way they move around. How did you die? Well,
I was going to say heart attack, but... What
she said. Common killer. Common killer. My mother
killed me. I am so sorry. Heads turn to Salome.
How strange. Can you die? Heads all cocked to
the side facing a celestial. An immortal being.
Salome is going to try to play along. I was crushed
under a pile of rubble. In your case, I need
you to roll a persuasion check. Jesus Christ.
No, sorry. Deception check will be the one. Jules
gives her a look like that's the best you could
come up with. You're a celestial. They're like,
they can believe you got your story. It was magic
rubble. It was magic rubble. It was magic rubble.
Magic rubble. I want to. How do you kill a celestial?
I meant to correct myself earlier. I didn't have
zero buttons. I had one button. So I'm going
to give you one. And I now have one. Hell yeah.
Oh boy. Be a good one. Neither of them are good.
Okay. First roll was a three. Second roll was
a four. No modifier. Sorry, let me just get some
dice real fast. Get my hands on some dice. You
guys got any D6s over there? You can't have my
D6. Just give me all of them. I'll roll a few
times. You say this. They're just kind of looking
at you. And you see like places where the mist
parts on their faces. It's not my fault. As their
mouths open and scream. And a number of them
just run at you and just begin to burst into
flame as their bodies wrap around you. The flames
burn and sear you and you feel their pain. You
feel how they died. And it feels like, hang on.
Make a wisdom saving throw for me, please. Because
it's going to feel like. 40 points of fire damage.
Of fire damage? Jesus Christ. Hang on. I've got
a, it's a dirty 20. Okay. Halved. You, these
things just wrap around you. You feel them searing
you, and you are suddenly living through their
last moments, hearing their screams. I think
your throat opens up as if you're screaming in
this direction, and it's about to bubble out.
You're feeling them burn, and then you kind of
realize, you see through it. You're not them.
This is not your death. They are in agony, forever
in agony. And maybe you are so sorry, but you
are not affected fully. You just take, sorry,
it was 40 points, 20 points of fire damage. Yeah.
Yeah. Ouch. And they are gone. Chest really hurts.
It's long. Breath out. Oh. You all right? Hey,
that could have gone a lot worse. What the fuck
was that? Yeah, they do that. Get ready. It gets
a lot worse. How long ago did these people die?
I think it was, I'm trying to remember now. I
want to say, I think it was 200 years. Was that
before or after Celestials came to the Radiant
Citadel? It was before. So it's only been here
for about 50 years. And they recognize a Pari
angel flying around. They recognize something
that cannot die. Bitch. They just feel energy.
That's not like theirs. Chester. Yeah. You got
to give us more time to prepare. Sorry. Yeah.
You got to fucking let us know what's coming
up. All right. Yeah. The DM just thought it'd
be funny. If you didn't know. Well, too bad I'm
asking you, so now you've got to tell us. All
right, hey. I'll be more careful. I didn't think
they'd come. They're usually farther in than
that. They must have wandered away. It's weird.
Will we encounter more? Them? I don't know. Maybe.
There's more, all right. Hey, they're the nice
ones. They're the ones you can get away with.
I had to run a lot to escape some of these things.
They get nasty. I will be drinking a greater
potion of healing. I got it almost all back.
17. Not bad. How can I trick them if we see them
again? I guess get a bit of lie? Is that how
you can die? Can you die? Do you die? And you
know, the only way you can die is if you go back
to your original plane and are killed there.
That would be on Kameo. Yeah. Here, I can't die.
I can only leave. Well, I guess we just gotta
hope we don't find them again. Look, they're
going that way, we're going this way. So, uh,
maybe on the way back, we gotta deal with them,
but... Well, that's a then problem, right? Yes,
we'll push forward and... Deal with them later.
Then you continue, moving along. Perhaps another
half an hour passes, and Chester's just even
more on alert than before, really watching out,
trying to get a little bit ahead of you guys.
You see the moment he just kind of freezes in
the trail. Your feet all sort of squish in the
muck as you all stomp dead. He kind of glances
back and sort of... He does a come here, quiet,
sort of gesture, like a careful drawing of the
fingers. The mist is beginning to sort of dissipate
as you're moving ahead, and you see what he sees
as you get close. You're moving through this
thin path. It looks like the trees have almost
parted to give you an almost easier way through.
You don't know if Chester somehow made this path
his way. coming before, but you get the feeling
he didn't. There's many, many times where he's
seen different options, and he's sat for a second,
nodded, then taken one of three different ways.
You get to assume it's almost like a labyrinth
through the sort of close, sort of stretching
branches of these trees, through the swamps that
could pull you down forever. But as you move
up beside him, you see that the path ahead is
obstructed. There's a tree. Sitting right into
it, right where the path seems to kind of widen
out, you see this small, scorched banyan tree,
blackened, bark sort of flaking away. And you
see two corpses are hanging from the branches,
their flesh entirely blackened by burning, making
their races, ages, and genders completely indistinguishable.
You just know that one of them is notably tall,
and the other is notably short. And Chester just
whispers, Look, this was not here before, right?
We can't get around it. We gotta go off path.
It's dangerous. Any way you can help us to not
fall through the swamp? What does it mean to
go off the path? I don't know. I didn't do it
because I'm smart. I'm smart enough to know that
that is bad. He points to that tree just sitting
there, the figures slowly swinging. Caught in
a wind that you do not feel. I can cover them
in fog. All right, yeah. We just loop around
a little careful -like. Yes. Let's do it. Pass
carefully. And she'll cast Fog Cloud. Just looking
at marks down where the tree is. All right. My
steps. Exactly, all right? So I'm in. He wordlessly
nods. He begins to move ahead. With the fog cloud
obscuring you, he kind of slides around. It kind
of opens up where the tree is. He's sliding around
very close. He's putting his hands out. You can
feel the branches sort of prickling you. You
are right at the edge of the trail. You feel
yourselves like something, some great malice
pressing on you as you push beyond. This long,
tense moment. Every step sounds so loud. You
know it's right there. It's right there beside
you. It's branches practically hanging over you.
Those bodies swinging. And you're stepping out
to the other side of the fog cloud. Oh. Holy
shit. Alright. Come on. Justin moves. very quickly
now, and you begin to move quickly, and a natural
fog begins to kind of start rolling in around
you as you move. It'll be 10 minutes past, and
you're leaving that behind. You're feeling pretty
good. And here. Something large is moving in
the fog, coming from behind you. moving around
you somewhere off the path. You all turn a corner
and you see a scorched tree ahead with two corpses
hanging from its branches. Holy shit. I don't
know what this is. I don't know what this is.
It just stands there waiting. The tree was walking.
We heard the... It feels like that's the case.
Jeez. You can try. I wouldn't. What are you suggesting?
I don't know why. Do we kill it? Just kill the
tree. It's not a big deal, right? Your sword
is fire, yes? I suppose it is fire. Do we face
it down or try to move ahead again? We heard
it move. It was fast. I don't know. I don't know.
Jules? Salome? I would rather try and avoid the
fight. So on the sides of the path, does it look
like if we could get the tree off the path, it
would... It could maybe, I don't know, get stuck
or at least slowed. You heard it go off the path
before. Oh, okay. It's going to move quick off
the path. It moved around you and came up ahead
of you again. The path is also kind of snaking,
so you're kind of like where you're having to
curve along. It's able to kind of shoot straight.
Was the insinuation that this was the same tree
that we snuck around? Yep. Oh. You look at it,
it's the exact same tree. Same bodies, one short,
one tall. It is the same tree. Huh. Do we try
to speak with it? It seems like it could have
snuck up behind us, but it chose to be seen.
Well, the dead here, they want to be seen, all
right? The fucking freaks. The angry and just
taking out everyone. Let's see it. What do you
think, Jules? Have you ever spoken to a dead
tree before? Well, you know what they say, this
is the first time for everything. Can Jules ready
an action? Yes, you can. Cool. Do I need to tell
you which one I'm doing? You can leave it a surprise.
How about this? Tell me the trigger. Because
normally if something happens, then it unlocks
your reaction to cast whatever you're doing.
Don't tell me what you're doing because it's
fun. Just tell me what needs to happen for it
to happen. It animates and attacks? Okay, perfect.
Perfect. Okay. You all move up to it. No scaring
fog this time. Yeah, I think we at least want
to get close enough to try and call out or something.
It's still like, it's like late in the day now,
probably something like 5 p .m. And the light
from the sky as it's dimming, it just like, the
treetops, the scarab branch just seems to like
filter it out. It looks almost kind of wrong
and gray. But then it's light enough to see,
to witness as you come and approach this thing.
You walk closer. How close do you get? Let's
say you're about 80 feet back now, kind of just
around a corner. Oh, I wasn't even thinking that
close, but I guess maybe half the distance, up
to 40. Hell yeah. You get 40 feet away. Allies
moving in behind you. Gabriela close to Jules.
Arhalon staying next to Salome. Chesta kind of
actually starts moving a bit behind, has his
crossbow drawn. How did you die? Movement. Ashy
bark begins to fall from the front of the tree.
You see, the bark begins to tear itself open.
Two eyes and a mouth. Jagged. Rips. Bodies drop
from the tree, the rope that held them vanishing
in a burst of shadowy smoke, and you see that
smoke coalesces around these burned forges. They
become spectral as well. They open their own
mouths, jaws snapping too wide, screaming out.
They begin to rush towards you as the tree's
roots behind snap up and step. into the muck
as it opens its mouth wide again and screams
again, I BORED! And we'll call it there!