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World of Ae'oene Bonus: Maeve & Jellen, Part 2 image

World of Ae'oene Bonus: Maeve & Jellen, Part 2

S1 · World of Ae'oene: Stories of Legend
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Three Years Ago...Maeve and Jellen, learning Siobhan's contacts are in danger, rush to the top of the mountain. There they face dangers greater than even they expected.

This show is written with adult audiences in mind and contains content that may not be suitable for younger listeners.

This episode has the following content warnings: Strong Language, General Violence

We'd love to hear your feedback! What do you want to hear more of? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!

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Our cast:
- Curtiss Woosley as The GM   
- Rennie Armas as Kaldin  
- Sapheara as Maeve Strongheart
- Jack Baldwin as Jellen Ykalle  
- MJ Guenther as Thalira Grimstone Eku'Lanathi

Additional Credits:
- Show graphics by Sentic GFX  
- Show editing Rennie Armas and MJ Guenther   
- Intro/Outro music composed by Ryan Muns, Owner/Operator of Eyes On The Moon Studios
-  Music, Ambience, and & SFX tracks purchased/licensed from Monument  Studios, Adrian Von Ziegler, and Michael Ghelfi Studios  (https://www.michaelghelfistudios.com).

Recommended
Transcript

Continuation from Maeve and Yellen Bonus Episode

00:00:00
Speaker
Destabilizing Foundations Bonus Content of Legends Maven Yellen Part 2 This is where the fun begins.
00:00:11
Speaker
The world of Aeon contains stories with mature themes. Content warnings are in the episode description.
00:00:22
Speaker
Welcome back ladies and gentlemen to the world of Aeon, Stories of Legend. Today we've got a special one for you. If you remember the Maeve and Yellen bonus episode from the three year gap that we released in December.
00:00:34
Speaker
This is finally the follow up to that. The big old cliffhanger we left you guys on. Literally. I'm gonna go, no, yeah, literally on a cliff. And gonna lie to y'all, I wanna go ahead and give you warning.
00:00:46
Speaker
Today's gonna be a little pretty, little little pretty intense. That's not the way that sentence goes, but that's okay. oh i do
00:00:54
Speaker
Smashing today. Indeed, indeed. Before we get into it, few things I want to do so they don't smack you in the face here for the audience.

Character Introductions and Setup

00:01:02
Speaker
I've got, obviously, Jack and I've got Sephira with me, playing, of course, Yellen and Maeve.
00:01:09
Speaker
But, as you heard in the last episode where MJ played the character from our prequel campaign that was not recorded, today, Jack and Sephira will also be playing, for a short time,
00:01:23
Speaker
their prequel characters as well so you'll hear them switch back and forth between voices here and there they're fairly different so i don't think it'll be hard to get them mixed up nor will it sound like a mixture of the same person but just so you all can recognize those i want to give jack and s sphere here an opportunity to introduce at least the voices for the characters and then we'll of course introduce those characters further on in the show sephira you bring dahlia onto the stage Hello, I am Dahlia.
00:01:53
Speaker
It is nice to meet all of you today. That would be Dahlia, indeed. fantastic You'll hear her a little bit later. And not only that, Jack, can you bring Laid on stage as well?
00:02:04
Speaker
Hello, my name is Laid. I enjoy long walks on gravelly beaches and sand in my socks. Wait, no, not sand in my socks. What was the line?
00:02:18
Speaker
I love it. If you guys remember, they were the two in our last episode that Siobhan had talked about having already gone up this mountain. So you can guess, yes, we will be seeing them.
00:02:29
Speaker
That's the only thing I'm giving away because we've got a lot going on here. So on that note, let's get into it.

Encounter with Stone Giants

00:02:55
Speaker
We last left Maeve and Yellen hanging off the side of the cliff from the peak of the Alvanian Mountains. the top of this mountain ridge being flat as if it was sheared off.
00:03:06
Speaker
Just a couple of hills here and there having been formed since whatever had done that had happened. As you peeked over, you saw a large bonfire roaring in the cold air and the snow covered peak as you saw quite a few massive stone giants sitting around this bonfire, weapons next to them.
00:03:27
Speaker
Not really able to make out what they say, just the low gravelness of their voice carrying, just so you get the tone. You also left as you had seen a stone giant rising from beneath the beneath the horizon of this this area, giving an idea that maybe there is an entrance to go in underground, per se, into this mountain.
00:03:51
Speaker
And that is where we join and Yellen once again, as they know their objective lies here at this peak. There's a very large, or several large, problems in their way.
00:04:06
Speaker
Maeve summons her fiend horse once more, since it was a while since they took their time to get up the mountain.
00:04:17
Speaker
um So she summons him to the tippy-tock with them.
00:04:24
Speaker
As you both climb over the edge, you summon your fiend horse once again, you start walking towards the center of this clearing, the center of this peak. As you walk forward, are you trying to stealth? Are you walking confidently to address these giants? Are you trying not to be seen? what What is the goal here for both of you?
00:04:45
Speaker
um I think Yellen would probably stop Maeve after little bit and be like, wait, so... Well, I'm not really dressed for sneaking. Mother mine. So... It might be our only option to... Just... Address them, say hello, and hope not to die.
00:05:09
Speaker
Do you have any ideas? Okay! Um... You know... i don't. I really wish that I did, but I'm... I'm... I'm kind of drawing a blank here. I think not dying is the best plan I've ever had,
00:05:23
Speaker
so That is a good plan, and I would like to abide by it. Let's do it. So would I.
00:05:31
Speaker
of So I guess they just cautiously approach with horse and toe. um Okay.
00:05:44
Speaker
Ready to see what happens? Absolutely. And you cautiously cautiously approach, luckily, the snow that had fallen, masking the sound of your steps. Not only that, but the the fairly loud thunderous boom of their voices tending to, when combined with the sound of the wind at this altitude, mask your approach.
00:06:07
Speaker
As you gather closer, you get into a fairly close range where you can start to make out features of these stone giants. Their bald heads, their very muted gray skin color, certain tribal markings like tattoos that you see on hands, shoulders, arms, and even on the backs of their heads.
00:06:28
Speaker
Their clothes are fairly worn, but warm as well. Being thick tunics and wool, mixtures of different coats of animals, including anything from ah a goat to a bear that's been sewn together.
00:06:43
Speaker
Wearing jewelry made of bones and beaks and things of that nature. These giants are indeed giant. The largest one, easily notable. sitting roughly 20 feet high while sitting down.
00:06:57
Speaker
So just torso and head. The other one's though noticeably smaller, 10 to 15 feet tall, of while sitting. You see they're very large weapons of axes and hammers and things like that. And it's about this time that you notice one look down as you begin to feel a hum in the ground and you see runic symbols light up on the handle of the largest stone giant's axe as he looks at it and then begins to look around and notices you.
00:07:28
Speaker
You notice these runic symbols, and they are familiar to you, Bees, because they are similar what you have seen on Talaira's axe.

Negotiation and Battle with Giant's Child

00:07:36
Speaker
Hello. Awkward wave, but also has her hand like dangling close to her.
00:07:42
Speaker
not Not on her blade, so it doesn't look like she's threatening or anything, but close. Close to her, the handle of one of her blades. His large head cocks to the side, kind of questioningly.
00:07:57
Speaker
Not having too much information on stone giants, it's hard to remember whether they are super intelligent or not. And it kind of makes you wonder. But he then follows that body language up with words.
00:08:09
Speaker
What are you doing here? We heard that you were trading. You had some bones of some children. We have just come to see if you wouldn't mind...
00:08:27
Speaker
giving them to us. He stands up, his height almost doubling. At least that's what it appears like from your point of view, being so small in comparison to these giants. At this point you can see the crow's feet at the edge of his eyes and wrinkle on his forehead, noting that the stone giant is up there in age, having lived for quite some time.
00:08:52
Speaker
um Being so large, can assume maybe he might be the leader. You see another smaller giant, this one looking feminine, walk up out of a now somewhat visible hole in the ground stair staircase leading down to what could be a mine or who knows.
00:09:08
Speaker
Walking out of it, looking at you all as they walk over to the bonfire and sit down as well. None of these people seeming alarmed or threatened by your presence.
00:09:19
Speaker
We have many bones. If you are not careful, you will join them. As he kind of licks his lips a little bit.
00:09:31
Speaker
Well, now, we're not looking to steal from you. We're just looking to yeah retrieve the bones. um Maybe come to something that's agreeable for both sides.
00:09:46
Speaker
Gives you a questioning look Whose bones do you look for? Children's bones. Well, exactly.
00:09:59
Speaker
You... We received information that you had a deal with some shadow-like creatures.
00:10:11
Speaker
Ha ha ha.
00:10:15
Speaker
Children's bones hold power. You seek power? We seek retribution. We seek closure as well for the families.
00:10:29
Speaker
That too.
00:10:31
Speaker
We're on a humble mission, not one of power.
00:10:36
Speaker
Those bones are useless to us, but we do not give for free.
00:10:47
Speaker
I think we've got a little bit of money. Your money is useless. My son, come forth.
00:10:58
Speaker
As you see, a child stone giant, about half the size of one of these normal stone giants, probably sitting, standing at a 10 to 15 feet, or im closer to 15 feet tall, um...
00:11:11
Speaker
Pretty large fella, but he's a child. And fairly obviously, you can see the bone structure isn't quite as matured. The muscular structure is still fairly weak, but he he carries also, to match his father, a roughly constructed stone axe.
00:11:27
Speaker
My son needs practice. I think you shall do fine. You manage to survive the fight with my son.
00:11:40
Speaker
You may have the bones.
00:11:44
Speaker
So you want us to fight your son to pick up your trash? Excuse me? You said that the bones were worthless. That you were done with them.
00:11:54
Speaker
But they are not to you.
00:11:58
Speaker
Us giant kin are not unintelligent. I never said that you weren't. The fact that we came to speak with you straight away means we have every belief that you are very intelligent.
00:12:14
Speaker
You see at this point about 10 or 12 of the other stone giants stand up and they don't move from their circle around the bonfire, but they do all face you.
00:12:26
Speaker
My son is 20 moons old.
00:12:32
Speaker
All right. Okay.
00:12:36
Speaker
All the other giants take up their weapons, anything from staffs to hammers. And you feel the ground start to shake as they all rhythmically start to beat their weapons against the against the ground.
00:12:51
Speaker
You no longer have a choice.
00:12:55
Speaker
Well then, Maeve takes out her blades.
00:13:02
Speaker
Yellen? I guess we're doing this, and Yellen will take out just his shield. Have you ever been in a fight before, Yellen? Besides the... Of course, I've been in plenty of fights.
00:13:15
Speaker
Okay. Just stay behind me. The large stone giant pushes his son out. as son His son like drops his axe and stumbles to pick it up. and Holds it, and you see he's he's shaking slightly, but he is still very large, and you can see the muscles, while not as matured as his father's, are indeed vascular and toned for how young this giant seems.
00:13:43
Speaker
Don't let me down, boy. And with that little stone giant clumsily raises his axe and rushes towards you all and swings it in a sweeping motion. Although haphazard,
00:13:57
Speaker
It is not done without without power and without agility. You can see that it's not that this boy, Stone Giant, hasn't trained by any means.
00:14:07
Speaker
It's the mental side of the fight that he is not prepared for. It is the it is the patience that he lacks. His ability to wield his weapon is not exactly bad by any means.
00:14:21
Speaker
What do you both do as this massive axe does a wide sweep towards both of you? ah Is it on the ground or head level to us? What what level? He is sweeping it for mid midsection for both of you, so pretty low for him.
00:14:36
Speaker
It's coming down at an angle. Okay. Yellen's probably going to try to jump out of the way. Don't you think? May be able to jump over it or under it, so she'd probably have to go...
00:14:51
Speaker
jump out of the way, but then she planned to, as soon as the blade just gets past her, she will lunge in to attack its feet, because he seems quite off-steady.
00:15:02
Speaker
Yes, absolutely. He's coming in very very haphazardly with with too much power and almost too too anxious coming into this as it it swings by towards your both your midsections.
00:15:16
Speaker
Maeve, having trained as much as you have with your father, especially in both with him and with Lionel, you're able to jump jump back the the blade larger and faster than you were expecting, just narrowly missing. And it slams with a glancing blow against Yellen's shield, knocking Yellen off balance.
00:15:35
Speaker
As you dive in with your sword, you're able to catch along the midsection, a midsection of the giants the stone giant's thigh. as he let lets a little yelp out, but immediately brings his axe up for a slamming motion down on you, Maeve.
00:15:53
Speaker
She would just try to dodge of the way again. you You attempt to dodge, but this time it's just not quite fast enough as you go to use your sword to help glance it off of you. It does manage to catch part of your armor, denting it and not searing into your skin by any means, but a dent in the armor is something you're going to feel and indeed is going to bruise and possibly even fracture part of your arm as it pushes you off to the side and off balance, knocking you prone.
00:16:20
Speaker
As you're down for a moment, the stone giant child picks up his axe once again, gaining a little bit more confidence, rights his chest, comes back up and goes to just go with a handled butt towards you, Yellen, as you are recovering.
00:16:32
Speaker
All right, I am going to try and meet it with my shield to try to knock him off balance. Ooh, you're going to try to you're gonna try to match strength with the stone giant. And as you do, you can feel the still the thundering vibrations of all of the other giants around this bonfire beating their weapons against the ground rhythmically, almost giving um like a war drum kind of feel to the background of this fight. And you can so you can kind of tell this kind of rhythmic Beat is helping this young stone giant to find a rhythm to his fighting as he bounces off of your shield, not quite ready for the amount of strength that that just even a young stone giant will have and ends up knocking you back onto your ass as he then takes another step forward to bring down the axe in another chopping motion.
00:17:16
Speaker
So if I'm on the ground, I'm going to try to do like a barrel roll out of the way. You barrel out of the way as the axe carbons carving into the snow and into the stone next to you with an impact flying snow up into the air.
00:17:28
Speaker
For a moment, he loses visibility.
00:17:32
Speaker
As soon as... Does the stone giant look like he's like off balance or using one leg more than the other with all his weight on maybe one leg? You definitely, absolutely. As he swings the axe down, most of his weight ends up going forward onto his front foot instead of staying planted fully.
00:17:49
Speaker
Okay. um As soon as he goes to put his weight back on his second foot, I want to try and attack the foot to try and sweep it from under him?
00:18:01
Speaker
You can certainly try, yeah. You can certainly try as you go to try to sweep his leg out from underneath him using using your sword, or are you just going try to tackle him?
00:18:11
Speaker
I'm not that strong so possibly with the sword I would attack his foot so he would at least feel the pain enough to so maybe not want to put his weight there and trip and get confused.
00:18:25
Speaker
Absolutely, and indeed you swing with the sword to try to slash at his at his foot or his ankle, and it finds home, managing to break skin and tear into flesh for a moment, immediately getting another yelp from this little stone giant child, causing him to start to fall. As he starts to fall, he places his weight onto the ax that is now into the ground, having just tried to chop and mist Yellen, and he pivots.
00:18:48
Speaker
on that foot, bringing his other ankle back around in a surprising motion that you wouldn't expect out of this child. But you can tell he's had to be more agile because the strength of the people he fights, aka bigger stone giants.
00:18:59
Speaker
He tries to to use his agility as he swings his foot back around pivoting on the one you just slashed. You can hear the grunt of pain that he goes through, and the back of his foot finds placement into the side of your head, Maeve, as it knocks you end over end.
00:19:13
Speaker
um While he's doing this, can i is he is he is his other leg still near me? Like he just turned around to... Yeah, yeah he pivoted on one leg. So yeah, absolutely.
00:19:23
Speaker
Okay, then I'm going to, as his focus is on Maeve, I'm going run up and I'm to to break ah the structure of his pose. And I'm going slam into his knee with my shield.
00:19:34
Speaker
Ooh, as you go to the side of his knee, trying to make it buckle, you're able to find home there, and indeed it finally buckles as he drops to one knee, bringing the other leg to try to steady himself, still holding on to one part of his axe that is still buried into the ground as he comes down now, his head at your head height for once.
00:19:51
Speaker
a Maeve will slowly get up. While while they're doing it, Maeve will start to talk and possibly distract him by saying, You're giving yourself too many openings for attacks.
00:20:05
Speaker
You need plant your feet and keep an eye on where each of your limbs are at all times and just give give the stone giant advice of how to fight.
00:20:17
Speaker
As you're somehow in the middle of this fight, like taking compassion for this young child, and somehow, having especially just taken the blow you did getting up and managing to find an era an air of calm energy about you, it frustrates this little stone giant child having only been around these he's very rough groups of of people that he lives with, and he he just swings out wildly with the back of his fist, completely missing you.
00:20:43
Speaker
Again, emotions are too high. You need to concentrate. You need to look at all of your limbs and every opening you have. Stop giving us openings where we can attack you. You're very strong.
00:20:55
Speaker
Come on. Focus. And attack. Stop teaching him and fight! As the his father stomps his foot. And don't forget, it's it's okay to yield, too.
00:21:09
Speaker
It's cold. a bit I can't breathe. o i don't yield. As he stands up and yanks his axe out of the ground, takes and a steady stance, bleeding from one leg, bleeding from the torso a bit.
00:21:25
Speaker
Takes his axe in both hands and and readies himself for round two. Mayfully hop now. <unk> She poses in a stance that would benefit more. not It won't put her in any danger, but it's more just like a You know what a when you're fighting someone who knows a bit more than you, they tend to go in a stance for you to like copy them a little bit.
00:21:47
Speaker
Like, oh, that's that's how you stand. yeah It's very much... She's just... she's just reliving like all the time she's had to fight her dad who trained her. So she would just do do a stance that would be better suited for what the child's trying to do to see if he like copies a little bit.
00:22:05
Speaker
Oh my gosh. Okay. ah All right. he He does not seem to catch on to that. Unacceptable. terrible And instead opens with the same exact move, except a little less impatient and more more focused as he does another sweeping motion with his axe, trying to get both of you within a sweep.
00:22:26
Speaker
I think with the axe. Because axe is when you sweep, I'm assuming it would be like on a downward because he's tall. a downward. Yes, it it is it is at a bit of a downward angle. Yes. Yep.
00:22:39
Speaker
I think she's going to run forward and slide and try to attack his feet and try to like duck under the axe at the same time, if that's a thing I could do I don't how small I am.
00:22:50
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. And what is Yellen doing in preparation for this attack as well?
00:22:56
Speaker
Yellen is going to back up slightly using his shield. Play defensively. Okay. As you try to back up and play defensively, you manage to use your shield to make it a glancing blow, not taking any damage from it.
00:23:14
Speaker
And the reason that is because he pulls it back, seeing what Maeve is doing. As you slide under under the axe, it works. But he counters by taking a step forward and coming forward with his knee.
00:23:26
Speaker
as you are getting back up from the slide, as his knee connects to the middle of your chest, sending you flying. And not only that, but he had stopped his axe mid-swing.
00:23:37
Speaker
And as he sends you flying with one knee, he brings his axe back down as your back finds the blunt bottom of his axe head, connecting with the top of your torso, flipping you face first into the snow.
00:23:50
Speaker
um That's it. Don't to underestimate me. No, wasn't planning it. And she slowly gets up, keeping an eye on all of his movements at the same time, just in case she needs to be a bit faster.
00:24:06
Speaker
A little too overconfident now. He takes his axe and goes to swing it back behind his head for an extremely big power move. Oh, opened himself up. He did. Yeah, Maeve's going to see that opening and take it.
00:24:20
Speaker
Okay, and what does Yellen do? um Yellen probably also sees the opening. This is obvious even to him. So he's gonna run up and he's gonna prepare to like get him in the, it it punch him in the side with his shield.
00:24:35
Speaker
Okay, and what what does Yellen, or what does Maeve do? um I guess she goes for the other side. Take advantage of the opening. Yeah, yeah, go ahead, yeah. Okay. How do you aim your sword? I wanna know. Look, I think it's just gonna be a... Just a... Just a slash? mass Yeah, just ah just a slash.
00:24:52
Speaker
She doesn't want to break a blade. As you, as Yellen, you punch into one side as is his act above his head behind him swinging. Overly confident, you caught him as he was looking to his father, looking for a source of approval. Catching the sword into the side up near the armpit, immediately spasming his nervous system. As he falls to one side, his other arm stays up, allowing for the slash of Maeve's weapon. Catching an artery.
00:25:18
Speaker
up near the armpit as well, as he immediately spasms and falls to one side onto the ground, tries to get up and immediately uses his ax to try to get up and falls back down.
00:25:30
Speaker
And with that quick motion, the fight was over as the young boy sitting there beginning to bleed out. ah Mabel instantly lay on hands. She's also- Don't touch him.
00:25:45
Speaker
He loses the fight. He loses his life. It is our way.

Challenging Traditions and Exploration

00:25:49
Speaker
That was never in our agreement. With outsiders, it is our way.
00:25:56
Speaker
The only non-lethal training that takes place here is with our own. Maeve lays on hands anyway. Look, pardon my elvish, but that's kind of stupid.
00:26:11
Speaker
The agreement was not to the death. It was a fight, and a fight we have had. We have kept to the rules and kept to your customs. Mercy is not our way.
00:26:22
Speaker
My child lost, so my child dies. And he takes a step forward, pulling his axe off the ground.
00:26:36
Speaker
Look, we are not stone giants and we don't know all of your customs. But from what I know about stones, a stone doesn't just break when it falls. It weathers the heat and pressure and becomes stronger. You will deny your child time it takes a forge into something amazing just because of one little fall.
00:26:58
Speaker
He takes in the words and and the impact that you were trying to give with them and he cocks his head to the side once again, similarly to the way he did when he first saw you approaching. You want to spare my son so he may
00:27:20
Speaker
our tradition with outsiders. Is a big fight lost? A life must be lost. So whose life?
00:27:33
Speaker
Um... Um... What if... You know, the life of the old tradition is lost? What if there doesn't need to Exceeding amounts of death, but, you know... Look, some old ways can be backwards.
00:27:50
Speaker
You'd rather lose your son...
00:27:56
Speaker
Little Rock is dead to our people now.
00:28:04
Speaker
Then there's a death already! Why doesn't... Why don't we take Little Rock, since he's dead to you and there's been a death? Doesn't he... know, to actually die?
00:28:18
Speaker
As Little Rock tries to get up, having just been healed slightly, he tries to take a step toward his father, kind of looking up to him, and his father kicks him back down. If I see him again, i will collect his bones too.
00:28:34
Speaker
Well then, let's make sure that you don't. Little Rock, is that agreeable to you? i guess.
00:28:46
Speaker
Collect your bones and leave. Where would we find these birds? He goes to turn around and sit back at his bonfire. The pounding having noticeably stopped a minute ago.
00:28:58
Speaker
there The rest the giant's still standing, kind of staring him and staring at you all, almost as if expecting something or amazed that he's letting you live. And he just points with his back turned to you towards the stairs that you saw the other giant come up.
00:29:15
Speaker
Thank you. Maeve will make her way, wait for Yellen. Yellen will um help Little Rock up and bring him, bring him over with him.
00:29:27
Speaker
think she'll probably also heal herself after healing Little Roy. ah Oh, Yellen will heal you for sure. Yellen, lay on hands for you.
00:29:38
Speaker
As you try to help a Little Rock up, he kind of shoves his shoulder forward and and acting like he doesn't need your help. Seemingly just angry. You're not sure if it's angry at you or if it's just angry at his father life.
00:29:51
Speaker
But Stone Giant Child is is not in a good place. Join us when you're ready, my friend. And Yellen will walk over to where Maeve has gone. Oh, Maeve took a few steps and waited for you to walk together.
00:30:07
Speaker
Sorry, away from the mic there. He'll join you then. Yeah, as you both walk towards this, I mean, it's it's huge, obviously. You're dealing with giants here, and not only that, very large giants. You walk towards this, this just hole in the ground, literally just an open hole with very rough, very large stone stairs built into this mountain leading down.
00:30:27
Speaker
As you look down, you see large opening doorways that go into other spots. Giving the idea that, especially after hearing him talk, these giants are not not dumb. I mean, they are fairly intelligent. Stone giants, if if you were to know, which I don't believe any of you had rolled higher on high enough on your history, but for all of our audience, in Aeon, stone giants, they live quite a long time and are capable of...
00:30:49
Speaker
seemingly pretty large intelligence. Not to the point of like Wizards of Gudorn by any means, but for giants, wisdom and intelligence can get high enough to use runic runic magics and understand basic architecture and things like that. And indeed you are seeing that as you go down, it is very cold up there.
00:31:06
Speaker
They're sitting on bonfire because they do manage to have a little bit more tolerance to the cold, but they need a place to live. And this seems to be where that is. But not very far down these steps is and is a large doorway open to what appears a prep station for food. It's not a kitchen. It mainly has just a large table, a place that collects guts and and blood and things like that. And it has some basic stone tools like large rough knives and things like that for the size of giants.
00:31:32
Speaker
But nothing more. nothing to heat them, nothing like that. And pretty close to the doorway, you see that is just a very haphazard pile of leftover pelts and bones and things like that that wouldn't have gone to use.
00:31:45
Speaker
And it's pretty easy pretty easy to spot next to them are smaller bones of bipedal humanity-esque structures. Keep an eye out for those two friends of Siobhan's.
00:31:59
Speaker
Oh, right. i'm I'll see if I can get all of And I'm going to cast Sending. Okay. To Dahlia. And I will say, My name is Yellen.
00:32:15
Speaker
Shebon sent us. Are you still alive? You send that and there's a little rustling in some of the larger bones of different animals and stuff that are in ah in the pile next to the children.
00:32:27
Speaker
Rustling of bones continues and you see head of a tiefling woman pop out.
00:32:36
Speaker
ah Saphira, can you explain what Dahlia looks like? Dahlia is a pink teethnake, like magentary hair, ah pale pink skin with green eyes.
00:32:48
Speaker
And she has flowers all in her horn, and she's a very druid-esque. parent And probably a little bloody now she's been chilling in bones.
00:32:59
Speaker
It's bit smelly. As Dahlia's head pokes out, she gets a big ol' smile, and... addresses the sending that she just received. She'll just send while staring at you guys.
00:33:15
Speaker
And she'll go, Oh, hello, Yellen. I am Dahlia. And she'll just wave at them. Dahlia. Okay. All right.
00:33:26
Speaker
We found him. Yes. At the same time. They... Oh, sorry. Continue. I'm assuming they're also in a pile somewhere. He is. He is in the pile. Yes.
00:33:38
Speaker
And this is lame. They were there to hide from the giants. like dekes into the pile like pulls them out.
00:33:47
Speaker
You can't have... If I had a gold for every time I had to hide in bones. You'll have one gold. I'd actually have three, but that's beside the point.
00:34:01
Speaker
ah A lot of gold. What does for the audience, what does Laeve look like? Laeve is an older dwarf. He's got a ah thick beard. It seems mostly well groomed, but he's been in bones for a while, so it's probably ah in a little bit of a disarray and it's gray at the roots and it grows out.
00:34:22
Speaker
The more it's grown out, it's it's black. um And he has a ah tightly kept Mohawk with little braids coming off of it. And in his beard are little dwarvish charms.
00:34:37
Speaker
Okay. And as you both pop up out of the bones, obviously Maeve and Yellen getting a clear view of where they've been hiding for the sending that Siobhan had received.
00:34:49
Speaker
The children's bones next to you, seeming that both the objectives that you came from here for are right in front of your faces. I... Well, that is... two birds, one stone. The only stone we need to overturn now is, uh, how do we get them out?
00:35:08
Speaker
Right. I'm assuming the same stone will not work against stone giants. How many stone ponds can we add to this? I don't know, I'm kind of at a rock and a hard place.
00:35:22
Speaker
The scene is your guys' for a moment. Feel free to switch between your characters she just gets as often as you like. She gives Yelena copper just because it was a really good pun. Oh, thank you.
00:35:33
Speaker
um I've not been around Stone Giants much, but I think there is a possibility of us sneaking out. Yes, and i can I can be very small sometimes, and I can um ah can be really cute and fuzzy, and hu I could be like my friend Peter! I know if being cute and fuzzy is... I mean, I suppose it's a perk of if but being small who is occasionally. Who
00:36:07
Speaker
he is my rabbit friend. Okay.
00:36:14
Speaker
Alright. Um... Well, um... Okay, so... How do we... get you all around? Okay, game plan, I guess.

Escape Plan and Portal Chaos

00:36:27
Speaker
Initially.
00:36:28
Speaker
We can... put the rabbit... in a bag. And I think... I can cast some visibility, maybe.
00:36:43
Speaker
end Unless that could work? That could work. Okay. I think so. um And Layth, out of the bones, he kind of rubs a little bit of the the must from them on him.
00:37:03
Speaker
going to try to hide my scent at least a little bit as well. Mayth just nods. I suppose that would be wise. Well, I'm gonna be a rabbit now.
00:37:14
Speaker
And then she just transforms into a rabbit. Wild shapes into one. Oh. That's quite convenient. Sometimes I wish I could be a rabbit.
00:37:27
Speaker
I mean, you know, I'm not going to make that joke. Let's, uh, Maeve goes and picks up the rabbit dahlia. It's like a little little brown rabbit that are kind of, if you look in the right angle, some of the pink kind of shows through and pops her in a satchel.
00:37:45
Speaker
Then she starts collecting the bones and handing them to Yellen because Yellen's not really doing much. Ah, thank you, bones. It's your favorite. Yes. Gift just for you.
00:37:56
Speaker
I love bones. Yon's just kind of putting them in his bag. Once we've collected everything, ah she will hold onto a lyre and i'll cast invisibility Leve.
00:38:12
Speaker
Okay. Thank you. As you now have an invisible lave, a rabbit dahlia, and a bag, and the bones collected, you'll begin to head back out of the essentially mine home of these stone giants.
00:38:26
Speaker
Begin to walk back across the clearing of the top of this mountain towards the way you came. She um also brings her horse to, her horse Red, to get Laev to jump on the horse.
00:38:40
Speaker
Smart. I was just about to say bring up his footprints. So that was smart. yeah As you're walking and passing by the bonfire, trying to keep a good distance, a little stone. haven't had a moment to kind of think and still very frustrated. You can see the mixture of sadness and anger on his face. He takes up walking behind you all, though leaving ah a bit of a distance, 15 feet, 20 feet or so behind you guys. but picks up behind you and as you as you pass by this bonfire, you kind of hear this big group of stone giants mutter a little bit under their breath. You hear some snickers and laughs as their leader is taking up a point of standing in front of all of them, holding his staff like a weapon, essentially, and facing them.
00:39:18
Speaker
As one of them watches you, one of the smaller giants in the group picks up what would be considered a pebble to them. It's a rock, more like a boulder, about maybe three and a half to five feet wide, you know, half the size one of you.
00:39:32
Speaker
And he chucks it at you. As it flies, it misses all of you, but hits the unintended target as Laeve, where you know, you see that it flies right above your your horse, Rhett, and you know that Laeve took the brunt of that hit.
00:39:48
Speaker
As you see the impact in the snow and the rock on top of him still, and you can see a little bit of gap between the snow and where the bottom of the rock is as if something is underneath him.
00:39:59
Speaker
I'm going to... So with the horse, I can tele telepathically communicate with said horse. Yes. So what I would like to do, if possible, is I would like to communicate to the horse to kick some snow up.
00:40:18
Speaker
Oh, no, no. I'm going to telepathically communicate to the horse to to kick the boulder. Okay, well, I was going to back to bring this up, so I'm glad you said that. Our audience, if you all remember, these bonus episodes have already played out through text for us.
00:40:33
Speaker
One of the rulings we had to kind of figure out and pause in our play was figuring out if that boulder, now that is is stuck on top of lave, on whether it turns invisible or not, and we ruled that it does.
00:40:46
Speaker
So one thing you also notice is a moment after as well, the boulder then disappears. don't know why fought you on that. After settling for a second on top of him. And so as you as you tell your horse to go kick it, it disappears and your horse no longer knows where it's at.
00:41:04
Speaker
There's no boulder here now. You see as the leader... turns as all of the other giants have now erupted into laughter. just at obviously the expressions on your all's faces and the reactions that you would have to this essentially boulder flying at you.
00:41:22
Speaker
um make Fairly obvious that they were essentially playing a joke in their eyes because of how small the rock is to them. But you see the leader lets out a small chuckle, but his eyes also narrow as he turns to watch it as he can't find where the rock went.
00:41:36
Speaker
And with heavy footfalls, you feel and see as he begins to walk to the area of where the rock should have been. Sorry, we have this ad in Australia and it's the funniest thing. It's, don't know, everyone quotes it. It's just stuck my head. It's like, boat? What? Charter boat. just walks around with like something on her head.
00:41:55
Speaker
Anyway, it's great. It's just stuck in my head now. I'm sure our Australian listeners are going to love that.
00:42:06
Speaker
It's an insurance ad. I'll send it to you guys later. It's fucking great. Anyway, back to it. As he walks over to go inspect the area where he thinks the rock should have been, I'll give you a moment, give you all a moment to have a reaction.
00:42:20
Speaker
i am going to cast...
00:42:25
Speaker
The name of the spell. Hang on. Thaumaturgy.
00:42:30
Speaker
Okay, so yeah, you you cast Thaumaturgy, and the sound of, like, a ah critter skittering away for a moment right as the stone giant leans down to, like... It almost looks like he's maybe go sweep his arm over the area, wondering is there like a ah a deep patch of the snow or something here?
00:42:47
Speaker
Right as he's about to do that, where Maeve is, or not Maeve, sorry, we where Laeve is, he turns his head towards the sound of whatever this animal might have been, giving you just another moment.
00:43:01
Speaker
I wouldn't be able to, with how big the border was, I wouldn't be able to, like, push it off him, would I? Casually lean on it? I mean, casually leaning on to push it off? Debatable. I'm sure you could push on it, but you'd have to, like, really push on it, and the giant is right there. Wait, that give, um, uh, the horse? I can, could I be able to, like, communicate to the horse where the rock is so he can kick it and maybe, hopefully not kill him?
00:43:25
Speaker
if If you know its exact location, yes? Oh, I saw it ah yeah. You did see where it landed. There's a small chance that you might get it wrong, but there is an indention the snow where Laev's body is, so you could probably do it, yeah? Okay, I'm going to try that. and you can do I'm going to try to communicate to the horse.
00:43:44
Speaker
Kick there. Okay, I'm just warning you, the giant is right there to witness all this. that's true, but he's looking somewhere else. Just for a moment. He's going to see that there wasn't any animal or that it's gone. And it's it's it's just a a very quick distraction. so It's okay. We'll gaslight him. It's fine.
00:44:03
Speaker
We'll gaslight him. That's wild.
00:44:07
Speaker
We'll gaslight him. I don't know. That's so funny. Okay. So yeah, you send your, you send your horse over there to kick where you believe Laeve in this boulder essentially to be that's holding him down. As this is happening, yelling, you hear in your head a familiar sound of an old woman that you had previously gotten ascending from.
00:44:31
Speaker
Mom is holding on. One more ingredient for the remedy. Lou, safe and settling in. How are you? What news? Any updates? Well, things got interesting for a moment, but we're on our way back down from the mountain now.
00:44:47
Speaker
And we may need some help with some new friends.
00:44:51
Speaker
Okay. You don't hear anything back. The stone giant, the leader, turns his head back to see as this horse kicks the boulder off of Laeve. Laeve's still invisible, but the boulder now no longer essentially part of the structure, part of, you know, being on top of him, pops back into view. Just casually rolling.
00:45:11
Speaker
That's where that went. And rolls.
00:45:15
Speaker
You see the the stone giant's head cocks to the side again. You can see this is obviously a habit for him. He reaches down and picks up the boulder and holds it in his hand between a couple of fingers and looks at it very questioningly.
00:45:29
Speaker
Is that what one of your runes do? The ones that are on your axe? No. No. Oh, what did you do? How? You're... He's just super confused. You're the stone giant. we We thought you did that.
00:45:45
Speaker
No, I... Are you sure there's no, like, runes? We've got a friend, don't we, Yellen? Who has, like, those similar runes that you have on your axe.
00:45:57
Speaker
Could have... Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. she's She's, like, done things to lots of rocks. I've never seen ah rock act like this.
00:46:10
Speaker
Might need to study it. Maybe it's, like, and a a new rune? Invisible? Maybe if I throw it again. And he goes to, like, throw it straight down. Please tell me Leif moves.
00:46:26
Speaker
Yeah, as soon as the boulder was off of Leif, he probably started... Goes back on the horse. Carefully moving away. As Leif moves, the snow does too around him. He's looking at the stone But he is looking at the stone.
00:46:43
Speaker
You are correct. He goes to throw the stone back down into the snow and it poof, pops this very very fine dust of snow back into the air, clouding the air for a moment as the wind then picks it up and takes it away and the boulder is just sitting there.
00:47:00
Speaker
Laev luckily comfortably sitting on the horse once again. The stone giant leans back down and grabs the boulder again. The weirdest thing.
00:47:11
Speaker
And as he says that, es static begins to fill the air.
00:47:19
Speaker
Illusionary type wave as if heat on asphalt enters into the air. And as he goes to throw the boulder again, this time not straight down, he maybe, maybe if he throws it across the way in a similar manner to what had just happened, maybe you would activate whatever properties the stone has and you see that that stone disappears with a crackling, an electric sizzle. Weak-ass lighted too hard.
00:47:47
Speaker
Through what you can assume is a portal to the primordial plane based on your prior experiences. ah hu I think we need to go. I think we need to go now.
00:47:58
Speaker
It's just a portal. We could probably just close it. The stone giant looks questioningly again, now wondering, did it where did the stone go? Did it disappear midair? Why was there a crackle this time?
00:48:10
Speaker
And begins walking towards the portal, towards the rift. Where did the stone go? that's That's a rift. It's... He begins walking towards it and his knee collides with and starts to crackle where the rift would be. And he looks down and realizes, what the f- And he gets cut off as he goes flying back, his ass hitting the snow, reeling and dragging through it, sending the powder into the air for the wind to catch it once more. As the sizzling continues, although he is not there, and you look and it appears there are forms coming through the portal.
00:48:44
Speaker
May already saw weapons. That's new. We should go. Suddenly, the sunlight coming through above this mountain seems to darken. The wind that was just hearing the powdery snow begins to calm, coming to still as a chill not because of the cold seems to come over both of you.
00:49:03
Speaker
The two silhouettes coming through the portal continue. The first one you see seems to be humanoid coming through in set of robes. The first thing you see is a decrepit leg of skin full of holes with necrosis setting in, the tips of the white robe just above the calf coming through the rift. As he continues, the rest of the skin that you begin to see as he continues, also pitted, sunken. As you see the face, almost looking skeletal, extremely sharp jawline, his beard matted black and patchy.
00:49:35
Speaker
slicked back black hair that contrasts against the paleness of the lack of blood and warmth in his skin. And on the top of his head, two black ram horns with cracks within it curve down towards the base of his skull. and You see a satchel carrying a book at its side, with his arms wrapped in gold bands.
00:49:53
Speaker
As he comes through, he looks back towards the secondary silhouette coming through. now remember you can eat all the souls except the child
00:50:06
Speaker
as the second silhouette continues through with the sizzling and crackling, yelling as you see a wispy, black and familiar void to you. Holding no other discerning features other than the faint top half of some sort of silhouette of a humanoid.
00:50:24
Speaker
The voice emerges out of this dark floating entity. Again, you recognizing it. Yes, yes, I understand.
00:50:35
Speaker
lie that I hear orders with this damn collar you put on me.
00:50:42
Speaker
Mabel accepts straight away and tries to help him up. Are you okay? what do Do you know who they are?
00:50:52
Speaker
We have to go. We have to leave. Okay, a little rock. We should go.
00:51:01
Speaker
Little Rock sees that his dad, now getting up and immediately getting into the fighting stance, you can see the anger of the scrunched face of this stone giant as the little giant pulls his axe back out with a little little bit of a shing as it touches the stone underneath underneath the snow. And with that, it catches the attention of this entity as the decrepit man says, well, this is unexpected.
00:51:31
Speaker
And he has this wiry smile.
00:51:42
Speaker
wiry smile shadowy figure having turned towards the giants and begins to float towards them As he does so, you see the silhouette of the top of the torso turn slightly, finally noticing the blue crystal tiefling in his midst.
00:52:00
Speaker
Yellen. Ah, recognize that blue idiot.

Confrontation with Ominous Figures

00:52:11
Speaker
I really thought he'd had enough of me after the last time. Yellen, um, stands back up. And he looks at Maeve and he's you can see in his eyes like absolute terror.
00:52:27
Speaker
And he says to you, Maeve, no matter what happens, get Littlestone out. And he's going to. ah put his lantern out in front of him.
00:52:41
Speaker
And similarly to before, um he starts casting a spell and smoke starts to billow out the top of the, where where the hooded part of the lantern is. And it surrounds him and like a yellow spark starts to like bounce back and forth and spider along his horns. And he's going to cast divine spark on the entity.
00:53:05
Speaker
All right. The decrepit man having moved forward during the process of this has all of a sudden appeared behind you all, grabbing onto the wrist of Little Stone.
00:53:17
Speaker
As the entity Just gives a wicked laugh as you try to cast Divine Spark. Ye second holds no place here, boy.
00:53:29
Speaker
As I'm doing this, can I change, redirect the target to hit the old man as he's grabbed a little stone? Absolutely you can. And as you do that, you get a ah sickening chuckle.
00:53:47
Speaker
This one you call Yellen has gu I like it. Maeve would have already unleashed her blades. Okay, the dark entity, as you take the the purpose of your spell off of him towards the old decrepit man, turns his back to both of you and begins towards the massive giant as well as the other 10 or 12 giants that were sitting upon at the bonfires. They have all at this point moved to grab their weapons, the ground shaking underneath you as they all go to engage this thing as his his form of shadowiness seems to expand.
00:54:22
Speaker
And the next thing you know, you see a giant fly, 20 feet, his ass hitting the ground. You can't pay attention to that as the ulticrypt man in front of you begins moving his hands to cast a spell. I've got this.
00:54:36
Speaker
And then Maeve just runs to attack. Yellen, as she's coming towards him, he does not abandon the spell whatsoever. is You feel the energy of this man enter your mind. Feeling it and knowing instantly that whatever this is, it is ancient and it is old and it is powerful.
00:54:50
Speaker
And something about the energy of this man just seems, seems wrong, seems off. I'm so sorry. you lost your parrots questionable age young man.
00:55:03
Speaker
Maybe I could be of help to you. As he takes one hand and an invisible force waves off the sword of Maeve as she comes to attack. And he says with a big smile on his face as he continues ah just pulling the giant child who is struggling, who's frozen in fear after he just sees his father literally get thrown and his head ignited into a divine blue flame behind you all.
00:55:24
Speaker
it is out my head Maybe I could be of help to you.
00:55:35
Speaker
He says one more time and it echoes inside your head, yelling. What does Maeve do? Uh... So he's holding onto Little Stone and attacking Yeah, he's holding, how he's just dragging a fear-frozen little stone as he as he batted away your first attack. Okay, well, Maeve's gonna look at Yellen for two seconds and look back very angrily, and she's like, let them go! And she's gonna attack again.
00:56:05
Speaker
Okay, this time as you attack, you manage to find home just a slight slice, but he seems to not even take notice he raspy laughs again. Ha ha ha ha!
00:56:22
Speaker
as he lets out an impossibly dark bolt of energy that hits Maeve in the chest, sending her flying back. And at the same time, inside Yellen's head, you get the the illusionary image fills the air for you as you see two crystal tieflings sharing characteristics of you, Yellen, recognizable as your mother and father as they sit atop a mountain, although not this mountain, from this one having an actual peak, as you see certain special creature sort of gemstone atop of it that that seems to have magical energy. It's what they're studying, you remember it. And a rift opens as they fall and disappear into it.
00:56:55
Speaker
And that's when you see the old man having just knocked Maeve away, turn, motion with his hands, and a rift appears in front of you. pulls his hands as if he's pulling something, and the rift opens.
00:57:07
Speaker
As you momentarily show the landscape of jagged spires of rock, massive fissures in the land. Yellen looks at it. And it appears to see to be just the very blink of the same image that you saw your parents just go through in the image he showed you.
00:57:22
Speaker
It's not real. No, no, no, no, no.
00:57:28
Speaker
No, they couldn't find them. They couldn't find them. out And he tries to pull himself together. He stands up and... Stands back up in the snow. Unbeknownst to him, he knocks his lantern over and the embers spill out. What?
00:57:45
Speaker
You are… That's not… I… That's not real. That can't be them. Yellen, um… Maeve just notices Yellen freaking out, and she… she yells.
00:58:01
Speaker
Yellen, snap out of it. You're here now. Feeling this, uh, that his parents are potentially through the portal, um, having seen this, stands up, pulls himself as hard as he can into this moment, swallowing the bile that's risen in his throat, tearing off his cloak, and you can tell you he's shivering, but not from the cold. It's more so from the adrenaline that's coursing through him.
00:58:29
Speaker
Maeve? Get them off the mountain. And he's going to rush the old man. The old man sees you coming and checks his head slightly.
00:58:40
Speaker
He produces a ah fear-inducing illusion over near where Red is, near Maeve. And as it as it comes into fruition, the smokiness... Not without you. beginning to to take shape, he disappears and is now in front of Maeve.
00:58:54
Speaker
You are becoming a pain in the ass. As he takes both of his hands and whips them in an X motion, as you feel, not his hands, but some sort of energy rip through your armor as blood splurts out in an X across your torso, finishing it with his right arm into the neck of Red as your spectral steed begins to dissipate, as he then turns as you begin to keel over in pain.
00:59:18
Speaker
and only in your head, Yellen. It will save you a lot of pain if you take this opportunity to go find your loved ones. ah He stops in his tracks for a second, and he he's going to cast um Healing Word on Maeve.
00:59:37
Speaker
As he's doing this, he's, Maeve, please, I need you to go! A massive giant 20 feet tall, literally engulfed in divine blue flame rocks the ground, shaking it like an earthquake as it piling by you all, literally through the middle, in between Yellen and where Maeve and this decrepit old man is, taking Dahlia out in the process. Not without you!
01:00:03
Speaker
She just stands back up. As it skids by and out through the other end of this of the fight of U2, as you hear screaming pain of these giants being ripped apart just off in the distance, as you look over and you just see a swirling shadow constantly popping in and out of around the battlefield, blue divine flame reflecting off of the snow at different points.
01:00:26
Speaker
capable in your memories but there's a chance they are surviving somewhere and there. He takes his whole hand out as his physical arm grasps around the neck of Maeve. As your sword finds hold into his collarbone, he doesn't even seem to shake it as he slams you into the ground. And at the same time, his other hand comes out, the invisibility on Laev dropping as he is now holding Laev above his head.
01:00:51
Speaker
He lets go of Maeve's neck for a moment to sweep his arm around as blood splurps and one of Laev's arms hits the ground and he just dropped Laev. yes Yelling, feeling such intense emotion, tears start to like stream down his face, but they're like freezing halfway down because of the temperature.
01:01:11
Speaker
I can't let you do this again. and he is going to continue his slow, marchy charge towards the entity and this guy.
01:01:25
Speaker
that Again? What did my pet do to you in the past? yeah
01:01:39
Speaker
I will bury you on this mountain. Adventurers continue to prove just how I tap a chip thing on. And with that, Yellen is going to pick up speed and once again go for the grapple to take this guy down.
01:01:56
Speaker
ah Since Maeve's on the ground, she's going to put a leg up and aid in the grapple by putting a leg up to try and trip him. The trip seems to work, but the key word being seems.
01:02:07
Speaker
As he takes a step back before Yellen even gets to him, beginning to trip. And as he would trip, he instead bends himself impossibly as his legs come above him and back down the other side as he grabs onto your leg and twists breaking it at the head.
01:02:25
Speaker
And as the leg falls, he reaches his hands out with Yellen coming to him. And without actually grabbing onto him, you feel the spectral hands grab your torso and pull you as one of his arms does a circular motion and the portal that was just open

Conclusion and New Mission

01:02:39
Speaker
over yonder closes and reopens here, sending Yellen through it in a snapshot.
01:02:46
Speaker
He smiles, big toothy grin as the gurgling of heavy breathing from 10 to 12 giants all around you, spitting up blood and the rest of the area going eerily quiet. As the old man gives a big toothy grin, showing the blackness of rotting teeth as you think you might see a cockroach crawl out of it and across his face.
01:03:08
Speaker
You're heaped of the gods.
01:03:12
Speaker
ah we
01:03:15
Speaker
You just signed your death warrant.
01:03:20
Speaker
Thank you guys so much for joining us for this episode of the world of Veon's stories of legend. This was a fun one with a lot that happened. I really don't have a lot to say.
01:03:31
Speaker
Jack, Sephira, thank you both for joining me today. I know we've been looking forward to this one. We'll see you guys next time. Bye-bye. by See ya.
01:04:32
Speaker
We would like to thank our cast, myself, Curtis Woosley, as the GM, MJ Gunther as Talira Grimstone Echelanathi, Saphira as Maeve Strongheart, Renny Armas as Kalden, and Jack Baldwin as Yellen Yakal.
01:04:44
Speaker
Additional thanks to Scentic GFX for our graphics, to MJ and Renny here for our show editing, and our intro and outro music composed by Ryan Moons, owner-operator of Eyes on the Moon Studios.
01:05:14
Speaker
I'm going to go ahead and put it in the middle of the day.
01:05:48
Speaker
Several weeks later, the familiar red fiend horse carrying a barely conscious Maeve and a still unconscious Dahlia trots into Orlanus, directly to Siobhan's house as Maeve and Dahlia slip off and fall with a thud out of the house as red, the horse, dissipates.
01:06:08
Speaker
The sound, just loud enough for Siobhan to have heard, come running out to Maeve's aid. Luckily, in time, Maeve and Dolly are both saved. And once having been settled and some time to heal enough, Maeve comes to able to give account and the knowledge of everything that had just occurred, as well as delivering what bones of the children that they could manage to get.
01:06:36
Speaker
Not long after, just due to pure exhaustion, Maeve falls asleep again. With such newfound knowledge gained, both in the investigations that Maeve and her party had undergone, as well as the occurrences at the top of the Albanian Mountains.
01:06:53
Speaker
Siobhan knows exactly who needs to hear this. Siobhan pulls out Ascending Stone and contacts an old friend. Dali is back.
01:07:04
Speaker
Maeve, too. Laev is... dead. Yellen taken, bones found except from this year, may not be on this plane.
01:07:18
Speaker
Research Zorilgog, behind sacrifices. Just a moment later, she gets a response from her friend Vykor, a student at the University of Kudorum.
01:07:33
Speaker
Nave, my condolences. He will be missed. What is this Zorogog? Did they give you any more information regarding this group?
01:07:47
Speaker
Last scroll. ah Couldn't get much. Elemental plane cult? Can pass between material and primordial planes. The rifts, do they create or are they natural?
01:08:00
Speaker
There's a slightly longer pause this time before he responds.
01:08:06
Speaker
Recently he was able to study one of these rifts within Rothdorre. It appears to be some sort of fission occurring between the individual particles of... You, are cut off after particles of... Oh, my apologies.
01:08:22
Speaker
This fission appears to be occurring between the individual particles of arcane energy which hold the fabric of existence together. Thus, this creates an explosion which results in rifts...
01:08:35
Speaker
Perhaps these cultists have found a way to orchestrate this event manually. Terrifying implications, if so. Gods. If that knowledge gets into the wrong hands...
01:08:46
Speaker
With the information delivered to the hands that can do more with it, given to the great minds of the University of Kudoram and those who research such arcane manners on the daily, Siobhan can go back to helping Maeve and Dahlia to at least health enough to travel.
01:09:03
Speaker
And Maeve does eventually make it back home to Rothdare.