Hey folks, we'd like to dedicate this episode
of Fantasy Pants to our dear friend, Emily, in
memory of Joshie. Storyteller Orrin here. Last
time I described the final leg of our hero's
journey as they escaped the city of Cerule as
it was consumed by storm. Jules found a way to
protect his cherry delights. And though Jeans
was mortally wounded, she was, in the end, saved
and healed. Zebulon, on the other hand, saw his
brother moving in to strike. At the storm eye
himself. And upon trying to help him, Zebulon
was taken in by the crowds and crushed by horse
and carriage in the chaos. Luckily though, a
hero pulled through and awoke inside the sapphire
just about to take off. Right beside none other
than Jules Roche himself. Finally our luminaries
meet eye to eye. What happens next? Well, I just
have to see. What are you guys thinking? I guess
some pretty exciting stuff happened last time.
Do we want to, I don't know, do you want to chit
-chat for a bit? Do you want to just dive in?
I want a long rest. Oh, that's impossible. I
don't think so. We're in church. Can't we rest
for like five days if we want to? You can long
rest when you're dead. Like Zebulon almost was.
Yep. That's close. But you're not. No. Because
he fudged his dice rolls. That's not true. You
used absolutely legal hero points. Yeah, exactly.
What was I thinking? Smart use of hero points.
And now you have no hero points. Wait, doesn't
it reset every session? Of course not. When does
it reset? Earn those motherfuckers. You can't
just get them back from participation. All right,
well, lots of new systems are doing that. Throughout
my life, I have gotten... Many participation
awards. Why should this be any different? Because
I'm mean. So our generation always got shit for
getting participation awards. I have a counterpoint.
Whose generation was giving participation awards?
Whose idea was it? We were just receiving them,
right? Yep. So I didn't ask for that. Every time
you point one finger, you get three pointing
right back at you. Wow. Wow. That was deep. Steven
with the, what is that, philosophy? Yeah, there's
your pre -show banter. You're welcome. Yeah,
thank you, sir. It's the best yet. Yeah, well,
we hit the peak at that. So I guess we're just
getting into this. So let's reset the scene.
Jules, we kind of just jumped to where you were
from Zebulon's POV, but I want to talk to you
about what happened and how you got there. um
there could be a misconception that that was
all very very quickly sort of or very slowly
done like like basically there was a long expensive
time between zebulon uh going down zebulon waking
up and you being there it was actually very quick
you rushed inside um people immediately kind
of like took in uh jeans you know it was very
obvious how how wounded she was they just grabbed
her and took her aside and uh basically you're
you and the cherry delights all just followed
as they brought her into the sort of center sort
of platform stadium right uh Yeah, I think it
all happened at once. Yeah, yeah, they drop her
down. I think Zeb was coming in at the exact
same time. You pretty much, when you got there,
when they put Jeans down and you guys all gathered,
you saw this healer, this warm light, like shooting
into this brass, little tiny, almost kobold -sized
brass dragonborn beside where you were sort of
set up to rest. And then she immediately gets
up and turns to you in this dragonborn. wakes
up um outside that storm is roaring you can't
see anything anymore even though it's like you
know you think sapphire should be somewhat see
-through i think i think it's like the color
the hue of blue is so strong you just you can't
see anything through it um maybe just like the
tiniest vaguest shadows of buildings but really
nothing you can make out but you can feel the
winds buffeting the side of the gem You can hear
like the roaring thunder almost far off now.
You feel relatively safe in this structure. Good.
I'm very glad for that. Very glad for that. And
Jean opens up her eyes. There's just like laughing
and there's cheering. Chester takes a step back
and wipes his eye a little. And Mulligan's just
like, you should have seen Chester. I think he
was crying when he ran. I'd never seen him run
so fast. And Chester's just like, hey, Mully,
there was wind in my eye. Come on. It's nothing
like that. Hey, come on, guys. Come on, guys.
That was intense for all of us, okay? I don't
think we've ever experienced something like that
before. It's got me all fucked up. And as you
say this, and as they kind of, they look to you,
they nod, they laugh a little, and I think you
feel a sudden kind of movement in presence, and
you look over, and sitting up is this Dragonborn.
Who are you? I don't even think Zebulon answers.
I think he just, with both hands, just like reaches
out and grabs Jules by the shirt. Where's my
brother? Hold on, hold on, hold on. And he's
looking around like crazy, trying to find his
brother. I think actually in this moment, as
you're grabbing him, as you're looking around,
you turn to the side and you actually see a figure
kind of pushes away through some crowds. And
you recognize the young man you saw outside with
the diamond held up to his eye. sort of tip of
the diamond, the main sort of top facet facing
you, and he's just taking in both of you and
smiling, laughing, like, oh, yeah, oh, this is
great, oh, this is so good. Oh, man, payday.
I need you actually to roll a history check on
this, and Zeb, you get advantage because you
live on the Citadel. Advantage didn't help. That
is a 21. Okay. Wow, so Zebulon, you, for some
reason, despite your advantages of your upbringing,
you know nothing about this. But Jules, you're
street savvy, and you probably may have seen
these kind of folk around before. Mostly in the
high city, probably not bopping around in your
leg of the woods. So, when you DM... There are
two different kinds of lore specifically, right?
You have the lore where you're really sitting
there and you're putting thought into the world
and you're thinking about mechanics and, oh,
the way magic did this. Oh, and when history
did this, that pushed for this to change. And
you're just kind of like maddeningly writing
down this sort of convoluted, you know, kind
of more realistic sort of lore. And then there's
those times where the lore kind of writes itself
because stupid. I'm curious. And I like those.
So, Jules. What? So, Jules, on the world of Hellenoa,
there was once this very famous bard, per se,
who essentially studied in the lives of other
icons. He's sort of like the father of modern
biographies, right? Okay. Basically used other
people as inspiration for his own art, tracing
their lives and lineages and just trying to get
all the information possible. And he artwork
and he pictures anything he could compiled of
many great, great people in the history of Palanoa.
So this man known as the father of modern biography
is known as Razio Ricci. In our current age,
this focus on, I guess, like, the biographies
of these great people has been sort of re -inspired,
re -ignited by, well, the luminary movement,
the luminary craze. And luminaries in particular
are just sources or focuses for these people,
this particular guild that believes and follows
Razio Ricci's teachings. They are generally always
wearing, like, black and yellow checkered sashes,
and they always have one of these diamonds on
hand, usually on loan from the guild itself,
which is titled, you know, in reverence to the
great creator, the great father of biography,
the Guild of Paparazzi. Oh, my. Hold on. Was
that from you or from the book? Is that from
you or from the book? Wizards would not write
something that terrible. I was going to say.
Don't worry. That was pretty bad. It was pretty
bad. It's pretty bad. Oof. Yeah. So here we are.
We're going to leave that in there, huh? Oh,
absolutely. This is lore, baby. Whoa. Whoa. It
takes all kinds. Yeah, man. Takes all kinds of
colors. Sometimes you got to have these beautiful,
vibrant reds and oranges and blues and whatever.
And sometimes you got to just take shit brown
and spread all over the artwork. Sometimes you
got to have a paparazzi in there. You got to
have a lot of paparazzi in there. Oh my goodness.
And this paparazzi has got his eye on you two.
All right. So that's just the thing that happened.
You don't need to address it. People generally
don't address them. Paparazzi are kind of a nuisance.
But he seemed very interested in you two for
some reason. Do I just automatically notice him?
Can I just notice him? Yeah. Okay, cool. I notice
him and I'm going to kind of take... Shit. I
don't know what I'm wearing. I have a hood, so
I assume I have a cloak. Yeah. Perfect. I'm going
to kind of put my cloak around Zeb and me and
as much of the group as I can. Okay. There's
no way Zebulon's going to allow it to happen.
I think he's just going to get up and... I think
he's going to realize that I can't get any information
about my brother out of this guy and get up and
go look for a shield bearer. All right. Zebulon,
just so you're trying to get this cloak around
him, Zebulon just sort of fights his way out,
pushes his way back, and starts trying to run.
Do you do anything? No. I'm going to look to
Chester and just say, what the hell was that?
So, Zebulon, I'm going to start with you here.
As you're moving away, actually, you guys feel
a sudden kind of lurch as... you can feel the
jewel being lifted up. And actually, that's something
I got a little off in the first session, so it
doesn't really change anything at all, but the
jewel would normally appear and then descend,
and then ascend back into the sky about 500 feet,
and then disappear. Oh, that sounds so awesome.
Yeah, it's very cool. Yeah, so when you first
would appear at Zebulon, you would appear up
in the sky, you know, staring almost down at
these gigantic towers, and then just... whoo,
descended down, landed in the plaza, all that.
Changes nothing as far as, you know, canonicity.
Okay, but you are able to stare down at the city,
though? You were able to look down at the city,
yeah. Okay, then yeah, Zebulon's just going to
rush to, I don't know, do we call it a window?
There's really no opening now, actually. When
they begin lifting, when this thing starts lifting
up, they've closed off the main sort of one opening.
It's just like sealed. by the same sort of sapphire
you're now just inside this locked in gem okay
so when we could stare down when we first came
in it's because the door was open so i think
you're probably pushing in that direction towards
the door yeah and you're you're rushing towards
that door and then you see like um It's closed
off. You can hear people screaming like, there's
still people out there. What are you doing? There's
still people. And Sealbearer's just like, we
can't take anymore. We've hit mass capacity.
We'll come back. We'll come back. This is our
first wave. We need to go quickly. And you just
hear like the wind buffeting the side of the
sapphire. Maybe you even wonder, you know, how
many are going to make it. This storm is getting
worse by the second. But that's not your concern
right now. Your concern is your brother. But
as you're moving in that direction, still in
the area where all these wounded folk are, you're
hearing less people screaming out. And through
that din, you hear something else. Sort of a
harsh woman's voice. You hear it just entering
the conversation. Whatever else you can remember,
while it's still fresh, I understand. It's your
brother's voice. It's coming from somewhere to
your left. All right. You're going to run there.
All right, so you just push those people, and
as you open up, you see there's a ring of shield
bearers surrounding your brother who's kind of
turned to the side. You're catching from, you
know, one side of his face as he is sitting down
on, like, I don't think what they would have
him to sit on. I guess. People are going to need
to, like, take a seat in this area. They have,
like, emergency medical stuff. A sapphire seat.
Or maybe just even a conjured... I don't know.
I don't know if that sounds wonderful or painful.
Yeah, right? It sounds terrible. Yeah. Opulent,
but uncomfortable. Most opulent things are...
The shield bearers didn't bring, like, folding
metal chairs or anything? Yeah, what's it called?
They conjured up something. Some kind of chair.
Some kind of seat form. So he's just, like, resting
on that. Yeah, we're in like a stadium with like
stadium seating. He's a big guy. He's huge. Yeah,
but the stadiums are on the side. He's still
in the wounded area, which is kind of in the
middle. They have different bedrolls lined out.
We'll just say it's a fucking rolled up bedroll.
Yeah, we're spending way too much time deciding
what he's sitting on. This is world building.
Good world building. How much more episode do
we have? Because we have about 40 minutes. We
could really hash this out. Well, what I was
thinking is we could do a 45 -minute after show
where we talk about what he's sitting on. Ooh,
that's good. We'll just go out and buy all the
things we can buy. We'll buy a sapphire seat
somewhere. We'll give them all a try, and we'll
decide which one's the most comfortable, which
one's the most realistic and settled. This is
good stuff. Sit it or quit it. All right, we
got to move. We have to move on. Where are you
going to sit your fantasy pants? Damn it, Jeremy.
You can't make this into a good bit. You can
try. You did, but... Alright. He's sitting there,
he's surrounded by shieldbearers, and you see
he's being interviewed by this large, copper
-skinned female orc in shieldbearer armor. You
know the people Arhalon works with, so you recognize
Deputy Commander Meng Kong. So Arhalon just,
I understand. And you hear her just say, and
your shirt was him. The Storm Eye. It was Oshin
Yoshikatsu. Yes. He's like, he sounds so tired,
Zebulon. He looks exhausted. He looks almost
like that glittering sheen to his scales has
kind of faded, like yours. He's just kind of
staring down. He's got like one... clawed hand
rubbing at his his eyes i think as soon as zebulon
sees him he'll yell out arhalon and start to
run over to him okay um arhalon looks in your
direction and despite like like for the first
moment you just see these weary weary eyes and
he's still like most of his body is facing you're
seeing from the side just his head turns towards
you and he looks endlessly tired And then he
looks furious. He just puts one hand up in like
a stop motion and just turns away from you and
looks back at the deputy commander. The shit
that I do. Just says, I'm sure, I'm absolutely
sure it was Ozen. He let me live. He was content
with what he took. The others, though, the luminaries,
they're gone. I don't know why, but he was focused
on them. He said something. And we as an audience
are going to, like, zoom away from this scene
for a moment. You know, movie style. I want to
go into... A POV that's not ours, just because
it's fun. Cinematic. I just want to leave it
where Zebulon is standing there now witnessing
all this, just totally crushed and slack -jawed.
Like, he's had emotional whiplash. Yeah. Still
doesn't entirely know what's going on, but I
guess his heart is sort of even broken. That's
terrible, and I feel really bad because I'm going
to break it more. Great, thanks. That's so sad.
We cut back to the plaza, to the storm, to the
people running around screaming. We see Arhalon
is lying on the cobbles, teeth gritted. We see
his greatsword is lying just beyond him, the
blade resting right beside the armored foot of
Ozen Yoshikatsu. As the samurai spins around,
and turns, um, you basically bring another attack
towards the two luminaries beyond. You hear a
roar of a thunderclap, um, as he, like, spreads
his sword out horizontally, and there's, like,
these waves of sound just blast, uh, Gaius Argonius
and Demulich off their feet, and they go sprawling
under the cobbles as well. There's a huge gap
now, uh, in the crowd around you. People have
moved away from this, this fight. But Arhalon,
he sees that when, when, when Ozen turns away,
he sees an opening, and he lunges for the handle
of his blade. Eyes blazing, and Ozen spins around
in an instant again, feet quickly moving into
a different stance, and he raises his katana
high. And we pan up from Arhalon, we don't see
him now, we just see Ozen as he brings the katana
down in a vertical arc. The blade flashing, crackling
with lightning. Then we hear that same scream,
that wail the Zebulon heard as his consciousness
faded away last session. As it cuts off, Ozen
fixes a single blue eye, the one uncovered eye
of his mask on the figure below him, and just
says, Apologies, Shieldbearer. I gain little
from your slaughter, though. He whirls back towards...
The battle -worn Demulich and Gaius both slowly
climbing to their feet and says, As for you luminaries,
well, what I do, I do for Shadrakhan. And we're
back in the sapphire. Arlon relaying this phrase,
these words, to the deputy commander. And as
he says them, Everyone kind of, like, goes quiet.
Everyone just stands and waits, and Arlan finally
turns back towards you again, Zeb. But this time
he turns his full body back towards you. And
you see that his right arm is gone. Do it. Cleaved
off. Oh, my God. Burnt, black flesh, or I guess
scales, where it had been, all going, like, way
down his side. And he kind of slowly gets to
his feet, puts a hand out to, like, ward off
the others. They sort of, like, run to him, like,
no, no, don't get up, don't. He puts his hand
out, and he marches towards you, towering over
you like he always does. I told you. I told you
to stay in the sapphire. I told you! If Ariad
had not saved you... You'd be dead and left down
there. You know this, right? You understand?
He's so afraid. He's standing at his brother's
feet. You can't do these things, Zebulon. Because
I'm not strong enough to... And he just cuts
off and turns away. Just go! We will talk about
this at home. I have more report to give. I'm
sorry. He just turns away, doesn't respond, and
just stomps away from you. Wow. Wow. Jules, it's
cut to you. I don't know about that. I don't
know if I can go on with this session now. That
was intense. It was intense. So you're still
there with the cherry delights. I think all of
them are basically just, as you see this figure
runs off and then Zebulon runs off, you turn
back and everyone's just surrounding and almost
just bothering Jean as she's trying to lie there.
Chester's trying to ward them away. And then
I think Paul's just kind of quietly standing
at her side. Yeah, I'm going to kind of come
in. chew everybody away a little bit. Guys, guys,
guys, give us some space, give us some space.
And then, I'm gonna get down. And grab her and
hold her and be like, ah, ah, James, how are
you doing? How are you doing, James? You clear
him out and she's just over there like, oh, thanks,
Jules. And then you just rush down like, alright,
yep, okay. Yep, that is exactly what's happening.
She's stunned for a second, and they just feel
her little arms wrap around you and just hold
so tight. Jane, you just scared me. You scared
me. How are you doing? How are you feeling? And
suddenly you feel more arms all around your body
as everyone else just swarms in, just hugging
your legs, hugging around your hips. The only
one you look up and see Miskin's kind of just
watching from 15 feet away, a little too far
away. Yeah, I see him watching, and I just look
over to him and give him a little wink. He nods,
then, like, shiftily kind of looks both ways.
You know, it's like... And then somebody walks
in front of him, and then he's gone. He's gone.
He's comfortable basking in your warmth, a warmth
he cannot have. I don't know how... What? I don't
know how I feel about all this positivity and
wonderfulness when I know what's happening with
Zebulon. Yeah, I'm still dealing with it. But
I don't know what's happening with Zebulon. I
will say one more of the chariot of lights is
also not involved in this. You see Fibro, the
sort of tall and lanky half -elf. He's also kind
of standing apart from the circle, and he looks...
And he's, like, looking down at his, like, pages
of notes, which ones he could recover that he's
finally kind of pulled out of his bag. And then
you see him kind of look at you, Jules, and he's
got, like, this look in his eye of concern, curiosity.
Something is burning in his mind, and I think
you know exactly what it is. I'm going to get
up and go over to him. Okay. And the rest sort
of lets you leave the hug. I mean, they just
resume the hug with you gone. I think that's
what happened. Please wait. Just buried in orphans.
I'm going to walk over. Something on your mind
there, Fibro? Yeah. Jules, we all saw what you
did back there. I mean, and the others, maybe
they forgot. I don't know, but I sure as hell
didn't. Jules, that was magic, and I've never
seen you do that before. You went invisible,
and you put your hand out and killed that thing?
It's a side of me I'm not exactly proud of, okay?
I don't like to show it. But how did you learn?
All my life, I've wanted to learn magic, and
you could just do it all along? You could have
told me. You could have shown me. Call it a curse
on my parents. I think... This spark of recognition
enters his eyes and he'd sort of nod slowly.
Oh. Oh, it's that sort of art, then. Yeah. Right.
Okay. I'll do it if I have to. But I hope I never
have to again. You saw what happened out there.
And I don't know what we're gonna do now, Jules.
I mean, it's - great. The change is fine, and
I'm happy. Everyone should be happy, but we lost
our home. And you know how it is for us low folk.
What are they going to do with us now? We might
need you. We might need you to use it again,
and more. I can show you. I have notes. If you
have the spark in you, if you have the talent,
I can let you borrow them. You might learn something.
Actually, I... I did kind of borrow a little
bit from you here. I think, uh... Oh! I think
you lost these. You got some! He, like, whips
the papers out of your hand. He's just like,
oh, my gosh. Oh, you're missing this one. Yes,
yes, yes, yes, yes. I was looking so hard for
it. Jules! And he hugs you, too. Ah, I just,
uh... I hope you don't mind, though. I, uh...
I did a little bit of quick glancing over on
him. Just, uh... You know, maybe something will
come in handy down the road. Yeah, study him
any time. My stuff is your stuff. You know that.
Always. Sounds good. I appreciate that, Fibro.
Hey, um... It's one more thing. Shoot. It's not
a big deal, but... Mika looks over and sees everyone
else is busy. Joel, something's up. That... That
wasn't no natural storm. I said it before, but
that was... That was weird. Nope, that was something
else entirely. Maybe it's nothing, but when I
was on the ground there and I was looking for
my pages, I found something else, too. He reaches
into a pocket and he pulls out a piece of, like,
cobblestone. Maybe it looks like from the road
or something. And he, like, holds it out to you
and it looks plain. And then he shifts it over
to the bottom side. And you see, like, inlaid
on this stone some very faded but pretty, like,
recognizable arcane runes. You see one that almost
looks like a very stylized shape of a man. Almost
like a stick figure, but surrounded by all sorts
of swirling patterns. And he just holds this
up, and he's like, I have been looking at this.
And nothing in my notes really relates, but it's
weird, right? I'm going to grab a phone. You
see it's in this almost gold -colored... Kind
of like chalkish paint. Can I roll some kind
of check on it? Roll me Arcana. That is an 18.
18. Wow, okay. Yeah, all right. You're looking
at this, and it seems like it might be a fragment
of something far, far greater. A rune perhaps
used in some kind of conjuration magic. I think
you also realize that the stylized man figurine
kind of is a part of the spell that helps shape
the conjured being. Whatever it was, was roughly
humanoid -shaped. I think that's all you can
gather from this small piece. I'm going to look
down and say, holy shit. Jules? You haven't shown
anybody else this, have you? No, no, you're the
first. I wasn't sure it meant anything. Do you
mind if I hold on to this? Yeah, of course. It
might be pretty important. I want to keep it
safe. And I'm going to put it in my pocket. So
you put it down, you reach your hand into your
pocket, and you put it there, and suddenly you
just feel like another hand grab your wrist.
A small hand, but cold and firm and shaking.
And you look down and you see Paul is there.
He's looking at you with these wide, scared eyes.
And before you even have a chance to ask, you
feel like the light entering this place as the
jewel ships planes. And immediately as the light
fades, the whole thing shakes. Zebulon, where
you are watching this with Arhalon, you have
done this at least one time now, and you've never
heard of turbulence on a conquered jewel. And
there's a lot of like, what's going on? People
are like panicking, staring around. Again, everything
shakes. You guys are like barely keeping to your
feet. And the... Sort of light, the natural light
that fills the walls of this gem fades away.
And then the tint, the bluish color, fades away
with it, leaving only this clear crystal. And
you are staring out at the ethereal plane. You're
staring out, Jules, for the first time at the
radiant citadel. Your eyes are... are taken in
by this massive, shining diamond. Still glowing
with this alert red color, with this great sort
of fossil wrapped around it, with buildings and
people all over it. I knew this existed, but
whoa. And then you feel that tug again, that
scared hand, and you hear Paul just say, Storm.
And he points down. And you look down, and you
can see, far below the citadel, the Keening Gloom.
You can see an almost mirror copy of the very
storm you saw in the sky above Tythos, except
bigger. This swirling cyclone. And then you.
And Zebulon, you. And I think pretty much every
single person on this sapphire realizes at the
same time that that cyclone is getting bigger.
Because you're rapidly getting closer. Oh my
god. You are about 500 feet away from the docking
port of the Citadel. And you are watching that
port vanish above you. Holy shit. As the jewel
is sinking. And not just sinking, but like shaking
constantly. Like it's being pulled. So much for
that long rest. Yeah. Shit never ends. This is
horrible. So we're going down. We're going into
the storm. You are going into the storm. And
let me ask you, what do you guys do in this moment?
I mean, the thing is, you must realize, I mean,
this thing is sealed. You can open a door. What
are you going to do? You're 500 feet away from
land. Right. And rapidly losing it. Below you,
all that waits is the gloom. What do you do?
I mean, I call over the chariot of lights. They
all just rush to you. Jules! Jules, what's happening?
All right, guys, stay together. Stay huddled.
I don't know what the hell's happening. We got
a better chance if we stay together, okay? Chance
against what? I don't... You see that thing?
I don't know. I don't know. I don't know what's
happening. I don't know. This is, this is crazy.
Everything is crazy. And then I think like, like
Jean's kind of maybe grabs him aside. It's like,
Chester, it's okay. He kind of breathes in, calms
down a little. Miskin kind of appears out of
the crowd and then kind of stands with you all.
Maybe even gets closer this time. Maybe even
he looks scared, which is rare. I just pictured
him doing this little like, little shy, little
shuffle over. Sorry, listeners, you couldn't
see that. It was thoroughly awkward. It was a
shuffle. It was adorable. Oh, shit. Zebulon.
Zebulon. Let's roll on over to you now. We see
the Cherry Delights all standing together, and
now you're still standing in shock. And the shield
bearers around Arhalon are just like up, and
Adam Arlen's like, what? What is this? What's
happening? Someone get Ariat! And I think the
deputy commander's already booking it out of
there. The other guard are kind of up and talking,
but they're trying to calm people around them.
Healers are rushing to them. Like, what is this?
What's going on? People are scared. We're trying
to figure this out. We're discussing this right
now. We'll get back to you, all of you. Please,
please, peace. Calm people. We'll figure this
out. What do you do? That was Arhalon saying
all that? That was a guy that sounds like Arhalon.
Okay, gotcha. He likes to do Arhalon impressions.
And you said Arhalon walked off. He's gone. He
sat back down. Like right next to me? He's close
to you still, yeah. Okay. He actually, I think
during all this, he does look over at you and
you see like guilt and fear. You see a lot of
fear. I think at this point, Zebulon still hasn't
gotten over all of this. And I think now he just
doesn't want to be a burden anymore, I guess.
You said Ariat ran off somewhere? The deputy
commander did. Okay. Ran off towards the direction
of the cockpit of this crystal, which is where
you would assume Ariat was. You remember he piloted
you here? Normally that wouldn't be his duty.
There are actual certified pilots for these jewels.
There's a name for them. It's in my book. I'll
have to check that later. Because it's weird.
But Arya took over control for the sake of this.
He's trained in using them. So if you're looking
for him. Yeah, you know what? Let's see what
happens. Maybe Arhalon follows after Mankat.
See what's going on in the cockpit. See how far,
yeah. Yeah. What did I say? You said Arhalon.
It's like, you don't get to decide. See how much
you look up to your big brother? I know, for
real. He's like, thank you, David. I'll be taking
over Arhalon now. I'm going to play Arhalon now.
I'm playing them both. No, yeah. I don't imagine
that anything useful could come out of this,
but I think Zebulon doesn't want to be near his
brother right now. Maybe some small part of him
thinks that maybe there's something I can do
to help. Yeah, hell yeah. I actually love this.
So you bolt after. I think as you're moving by,
maybe you faintly just see Arhalon. He's watching
you. You run past him because Mekong went the
other direction. And he almost reaches a hand
out. Just like, wait, wait. And you just kind
of. Into the crowd before he can really you don't
even hear him But he just like reaches out and
like we as the audience kind of look back and
see his hand just like lingering and like His
eyes almost look tearful. Hey, do me a favor
and just like quit breaking my heart and tonight.
Nah. Yeah, nah Um And you rush you follow up
my Kong man Kong and you Basically, you're moving
through this crowd. You move to the other side
of this great sort of stadium where there's ramps
built up for wagons to move goods down. Normally,
right now, it's pretty much all people. And you
see that sort of just beyond there, there's kind
of this slight opening in the jewel, which leads
to just this small room, a number of, like, crystal
artifices, knobs and such, just, like, sticking
out of the platform. And still, everything is
see -through right now. This crystal is, like,
see -through. And you're still... And remember,
you started off and you were, like, at the very
tip -top head of the fossil, the serpentine fossil
around the Citadel. At this point, you're, like,
down to the lower neck. It's a serpent. You're
down, like, almost to the first coil. Maybe at,
like, the two -thirds mark of this thing falling
down towards, like, the bottom of this diamond.
It's not great. Gotcha. And once you're below
the fossil, what do you do? There's nowhere to
go to. Even now, 500 feet distance is not something
you can do anything about. Right. You rush over
to this room and you see there's a guard kind
of around it as people are also trying to rush.
You're almost being blocked off by a bunch of
people, civilians. And as Ming Kong gets close,
the shield bearers move over and sort of push
these people out of the way. Like, move, move,
move. We need the space. And Ming Kong sort of
moves into the room. And I think the last you
see is Arya, like, sweating. His bald head's
sweating, just turns towards her. His hands on
the, like, moving over these, like, crystal hard
faces, and nothing is happening. And then the
crowd moves back in the way as the shield bearers
kind of, like, part and move back in front of
the door. But then you hear something. You hear
gasps. You hear, what is that? Look, look up.
Up there, at the docking bay. and eyes all turn
up, and you turn your head up, too, as you see
a figure lunging off of the sort of crescent
moon head of the serpent, of the fossil, where
normally the crystal would dock. You see a gigantic,
a gargantuan brass dragon, and Steven is nodding
because he knows exactly what's happening here.
Grandma's home. Oh, shit. Yeah, coming to save
the day. You see this dragon comes flying, arcing
down, wings like pushed back as it slides around
to the side of the gem where it would normally
be like a door. And people were just like, Charlotte,
Charlotte. A lot of like screaming, cheering
as her claws rake around the side of the once
sapphire towards where the opening would be.
And she like. puts a paw onto it. Um, shield
bears kind of rush around to the sides, activating
the mechanisms to like cause like the crystal
to sort of part and show lay bursts in and immediately,
um, assumes human form. Oh, that's not what I
thought. I thought she was gonna try to like
pull the gem up. It's a big gem, right? Think
of the weight of like this many people. Well,
but I kind of assumed that like we were in sort
of like a, a minimal gravity sort of situation,
and I thought that it would just be the dragon
versus the storm. It's a weird situation, because
gravity... I think here there is full -on gravity
in the Seydel, right? Like, if you were to fall
into the Seydel, you'd fall into the gloom. Let's
get into the physics of it. We actually should,
like, a little, but just tiny, tiny bit of physics.
If you fell off the Seydel, you'd fall into the
gloom. I think the gloom almost creates an atmosphere
of gravity. The gems normally wouldn't move,
though. They stay locked in place. So it is weird
it's being pulled. So you might be onto something
there, because the fact this thing is falling,
it's not falling. They don't fall. They have
weightlessness in that way, but it's being pulled.
But Sholay, I think initially is moving to the
controls. She is a hold, and she has a mastery
of arcane arts that is unmatched in the worlds.
Well... It's matched by some folk, but not by
many. She's like, get out of the driver's seat,
you bum. Basically, yeah, she just marches, she
pushes through the crowd, people out of the way,
and very swiftly, suddenly, you just see Shole
appears, and she's, like, moving towards, like,
the crowd in the way, and they sort of part for
her, and as they part, I think only one figure
is just standing in awe, stands between her and
the door, and she sees you, Zebulon. Her eyes
widen and narrow, and she says nothing to you
and just keeps walking past you. The fuck did
I do? Oh, my God. And walks straight into the
chamber, and you're still falling. People still
crowd on the way again. Can I try to sneak in
behind her? Yeah, you want to? Yeah, definitely.
Let's say we're doing another crowd check, acrobatics.
And if you want to view it stealthily, we're
going to roll a stealth check as well. Holy shit.
It's like you broke some family code or something.
Yeah, I don't know why everyone's so pissed at
me. All right, so acrobatics to 20. Dirty 20.
Yeah, you get through the legs of the crowd,
push your way in, and you're right behind. Roll
stealth. 17 for stealth. Okay. So you push to
the door. I think at this point, there's a point
in time where someone rushes over like, Charlie,
what are you going to? And like one of the guards
like moves forward to push them out of the way.
And you kind of like swiftly dart right. And
then this guy turns away and into the room. And
you are suddenly in this small, like piloting
chamber, this small, like, like, you know, fully
crystallized. You see like a big platform in
front of a, it's not like a cockpit, like a sitting
cockpit standing, but yeah. And it's you and
Kong. uh, Ariat and Sholay. And nobody sees you
yet. They're all. Yeah. He'll just, he'll just
stand back against the wall up by the door. I'm
imagining. Yeah. Like I can't imagine they're
going to turn around and look back at all. I
think they're going to be looking at the controls
and out the, out the glass or not the glass out
the window, whatever the wall. It's funny. Cause
it's like, you have these things where you expect
them to be kind of off screen and suddenly they're
very much on screen. And it's like, I guess I'm
role -playing this now. Okay. Throw my notes
away. It's fine. It's good times. You're welcome.
You just hear Shoalite just like, you're right.
This is unusual. It's not responding at all.
The words, you didn't, the words aren't making
a difference. What happened exactly? We left
Tithos. We phased. And that was it. The moment
was phased into existence here. It's like we
were caught in a storm. The gem lost all its
power. None of the artifices are working here.
No words are working. And there's a moment of
silence. And then you hear Homing Kong just say,
Well, what do we do? And Ariat just nods his
head and says, As many as we can get off. We
take as many as we can get off. We go. We go.
It's all we have. Xole, you can fly them. No
one else here can do it. You need to take these
people, whatever you can take, and get to the
Citadel. And Xole is just a thousand yards staring
out towards the Citadel, which is slowly sinking
away. You're about halfway down it now. He just
nods. I can stop this. And she just spins around
and starts running. I think she sees you, Zebulon,
at the door then. And she, like, looks at you.
And she actually, I think maybe sees how scared
you are. And you can see she just forces on this
small smile towards you. And says again, but
this time directed towards you, I can stop this.
And she rushes back out of the chamber. There's
like, there's nothing that I can conceive of.
There's no way that I can think to help. There's
no way that I can think to help. A moment later,
you see, and Jules, you see this ancient brass
dragon comes flying out, remains like that, that
massive dragon form swirls under the stone, and
you just kind of see like, It tries to push against
the crystal. Pushing and pushing. And I think
this is happening right below you. You're in
the middle. I think you and the chariot of lights
are seeing this so close just beneath you. Hold
on tight, guys. Hold on tight. Shit's happening.
Sholay is just... Like pushing up wings. As hard
as they can. Flapping. Flapping. And for a moment,
everything kind of steadies. And then starts
to drop again. You can see her straining and
straining. And I think you realize then that
there is nothing that's going to stop this. Jules,
as you stare down at this, you feel, again, another
hand clutch yours. It's Jean's. She's stood up.
And you see Chester has one of her hands. Fibro
has one of his. Mulligan has one of his. Paul
has one of his. Miskin has one of his. Roundstuff
has one of his. And she reaches up and takes
your other hand. I'm just gonna sit on the floor.
With all of them around. Yeah. You're all just...
This might be it, guys. I don't... I don't know
how we're going to get out of this one. I have
a question, David. Yeah. What can we see if we
look down at this storm? You just see an open
maw, just a black, black abyss. You just see,
like, swirling clouds and lightning flashing
against the storm wall here, and you're basically
being pulled right into, like, this looks almost
like endless darkness that exists within it.
Hmm. Does anybody know? what actually is in there?
I would love for you guys to roll arcana checks
on this, actually. Or history. Both will work.
Because we know that it was threatening, but
I haven't heard anything about what it actually
is. So maybe I'll take it from a... We'll roleplay
it, maybe. Yeah. So I'm in the pilot room with
Mankind and... Ariat. Ariat. Deputy Commander
Man Kong and Captain Commander Ariat. You're
with the literal brass. Get it? Because I wear
brass armor. Oh, man. I should have given you
a moment to do the bottom chick. I'll paste it
in right there. No, I'm not going to paste it
in right there. That's just going to happen as
it happened. Commander Ariat, you heard my brother's
story. But so am I. He doesn't want to kill regular
people. He only wants to kill the luminaries.
We don't know what's down there, but... It might
not mean... Yes. Ariat just fixes you with this,
like... Long, quiet look. And he stands up and
he walks over to you. And he puts a hand on your
head and says... It's a shame. I, um... When
I pulled you out of there... I hoped I'd really
been saving you. But all I did was save you for
this. We don't know much about the Keening glue.
But there have been tests. And nothing and no
one that has ever been pulled into the storm
has ever come back. It's assumed they were torn
apart. Don't spread this around. Why would he
spare Arhan just to let him die like this? I
don't know how he managed to use the gloom in
this way. It was there in the sky. I saw it.
You saw it. That was the Keening gloom on Tythos.
It could be unrelated to the storm eye. It doesn't
seem likely, but it could be the theory of planar
absorption. It's like he can control it. And
I think Arya just stares you for a moment and
looks up. Once, like, he's thinking this thought
over, and he just sort of shakes his head and
steps out of the room with one last, um, I'm
sorry. And you can hear him just step outside.
He's like, people, people, it's okay. We're working
this out. Don't panic. Nobody panic. It's fine.
And, like, trying to do what he can out there
because there's nothing that can be done in this
cockpit anymore. And Jules, you are sitting on
the floor. Zebulon, you are in the cockpit. I
guess watching all this, watching your grandmother,
as you call her, just fighting and fighting and
weakening and not making a difference. And suddenly,
a bright light bathes everything from above.
Everyone looks up once more. Sorry. This is supposed
to be serious. Everyone looks up and you see
far above you the shape of a man with these great
wings appearing in the sky in this brilliant
light. And then again, Arcing down a new figure,
a new hero. And every, every one of you, both
of you, everyone on this fucking jewel recognizes
Atash. Hand of the Sunweaver. The first and greatest
of the luminaries. And you see it's not just
Atash. You see the heavy hitters suddenly like
flying down beside him. Suddenly you see a woman.
A dwarven woman wearing long embroidered dark
blue robes. And you see she pulls this really
simple yet elegant teapot from her sleeve. And
she turns and pours this magical energy out of
it. Like this light that encompasses her. That
encompasses this gigantic... bear -chested man
in sort of a goofy -looking pink pig mask, a
luchador from San Sitian, Fu Lingling from Xing,
cast fly on herself and her companion, and turns
to another one, a man in red leather armor with
sort of a big mosquito nose -like mask, and sort
of these red leather cape. uh, Sturgeman. No
one knows where Sturgeman is from. Everyone knows
he's awesome, though. Um, and as these figures
fly down towards the kind of land on top of the
jewel, um, you see actually the Fululing sort
of arcs away and turns back towards the tail
of the Citadel, which you're almost equal with
right now, about to lose your last bit of, like,
horizontal land you could ever potentially reach.
Um, You see as she moves over there, two more
figures stand at the edge of the tail. You see
Jai, or Handsome Jai, as they call him. This
half -elf warlock. I guess you would know these
figures very well. Handsome Jai is a half -elf
Earth Genie Dao warlock from Taib. Just this
handsome playboy dressed in a beige kurta wrapped
in colorful checkered shawl. And he, too, is
just, like, standing at the edge of this fossil,
the very tail. And he raises his hands up in
an incantation. You see this stone bridge begins
to, like, form itself in front of him towards
you. You see next to him a tiefling woman. Crimson
skin with pure white garments, very simple looking.
Three long braids down her back. Zopa reborn
from Teletepec. Wildfire Druid, again, just like
him, is creating this other sort of stone platform.
Not in a bridge -like arc, but rather just this
great sort of platform, much tighter to the building,
but sort of in your direction, which Fu Ling,
the mage, lands down on and begins to cast some
spell. Ariat flies down beneath you, beneath
Sholay. And you can see her just turning this
weary gaze towards him. And rather than facing
the gem itself, he turns towards a storm. And
with a voice that sounds like a thousand voices
piled on each other, you just hear him say, Storm
of Malice, be gone! And this incredible... I
think this is the part in the movie where the
bass fucking hits. As like this... arc of light
just blasts from his hands down towards the storm
and you feel like like as he's shaking as he's
holding us off you feel the jewel just slow to
a stop um and he's just resting there he's go
save them i'll hold it off and shoelace just
like immediately looks down at him nods flies
up and begins taking people on her back and i
think what happens next Uh, we're not going to
dwell on for too long because as fucking awesome
as these heroes are, they are not the heroes
of our story. But we see like a montage of, uh,
we see, uh, these, this bridge is finished being
built out right to like the opening gate of the
Sapphire and people begin to like move towards
it. We see Sturge man fly out. He's got, uh,
these immovable rods that he likes placing along
both sides of the bridge. And Fleury went so
fast, you can't even make it out. He's tying
ropes amongst them and creating this long railing
system so no one's falling off. People start
rushing in in a single -file line. It's a thin
wall going 500 feet, but they are rushing across
it, slow going because they can't overbear the
weight. And as this is happening, we see... Fululing
finishes her spell, the dwarven mage finishes
her spell on the sort of platform created by
her for by the druid and you see this like sort
of opalescent fog like a doorway appears a circular
door that also appears inside the citadel as
well and people start moving towards that we
see the mighty pig man is joining shoaling, grabbing
people and flying them back and forth between
the, uh, in the Citadel. He's great with the
kids. They're, they're scared to go on the bridge.
And he's just like, come on kids. Uh, pig man
will take you over. And he does that for the
kids. They love it. They love it. Uh, he carries
them. And you just see like, ah, Tosh, just holding
this thing back, snarling as he, his, his shimmering
white eyes. I mean, you, and actually, This is
the first time you've probably ever seen Atash
in person. He does not come to the Citadel often.
He does not leave Ankarin Singhar, where he rules,
often. But you just see this, like, well -muscled,
incredibly majestic solar angel. You see his
eyes are just pools of radiance. You see he's
got, like, this pretty, pretty nice close -cropped
beard. He's got kind of long sort of brown hair.
He's got like red crimson robes that just billow
as he flies about. He's the coolest. So I think
we're just going to like move past this montage
of everyone moving out. Everyone's like leaving
this jewel. And all of you are resting on the
tail of the fossil. Everyone grouped up together.
It's probably been... you know, just, just only
like a few minutes, maybe 10 minutes have passed
during all this. And you watch as Atash, the
last people funnel through the bridge, the last
people like move through the door and Atash finally
releases his light and wearily sort of moves
away as the jewel begins getting pulled again.
And you watch as the gateway to Tythos is gone.
And we'll call it there.