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Ep. 55 And So His Watch Ends - De Profundis
102 Plays4 years ago
Follow us on our Twitters - @FellowshipTable
Intro written and produced by Joseph McDade - https://josephmcdade.com/
The Fellowship Party Twitter Pages:
- The DM/Mark - @HastilyRolledDM
- Drago/Ian - @IRolledA1
- Folly/Callum - @TheD20Gamer
- Princess Helena/Casey - @unicorncrit
- Carstan/Will - @Natural20Will
- Robin/Darren - @DarrenPage06
- Claude/Danny - @totalpartythrlz
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Transcript
00:00:00
Speaker
You know what? What's your name? Sorry, Will. Wow! Oh my God! I forgot what you mean. Oh my God!
Introduction and Character Setup
00:00:34
Speaker
Hello and welcome to this week's episode of The Fellowship of the Tabletop. We are a live play 5e D&D podcast set in the magical world of Aerith. My name is Mark and I am the Dungeon Master. And also with us for today's slightly smaller episode, we have Ian, who plays the Dragonborn Barbarian Drago. What up? We've got Catelyn, who plays the gnome sorcerer Folly Fizzlebang the Ninth. He is hiding here.
00:00:57
Speaker
Will, who plays the human bard Kastan. What up? And Darren, who plays the human fighter Rogue Robin. Holy magical world of Earth, Batman.
00:01:06
Speaker
We have missing two of our characters, Casey and Danny, and they will be back very soon, so please don't send your hate mail to us just yet. We haven't killed off your favorite characters, I hope, because Danny's still in it, don't you worry.
Past Battle and Helena's Condition
00:01:17
Speaker
And on last week's episode of The Fellowship of the Tabletop, we faced off with a rather large beast in the snow-covered mountains, the sky-road mountains, which we defeated.
00:01:27
Speaker
cutting a long fight short. Actually, we had a little creature trying to nick some of the gear. He managed to jump up onto a rock fully managed to blow up said rock and almost crush himself in the process. Drago then landing the final blow against this huge behemoth of the demon.
00:01:44
Speaker
smiting it into the ground and smashing it, smashing it, smashing it. In doing so, its guts kind of flying everywhere. And in the last few moments, a specific part of the creature flew up and kind of splattered Helena, who stood next to them in the face. This ichor then took on a life of its own and entered her ear, and she just fell, banged flat to the floor. Suddenly, the ground started to rumble as the soul of this creature tried to escape, which was dragged back down by who other but then Akiva, the god that Claude follows.
00:02:13
Speaker
which is one of the illegal religions. Through the crevice on this ground, Akiva then gave a message to Claude and said that Helena was under the influence of the blight of the mind, how it entered into her mind and that Claude's mission now was to be taken.
00:02:30
Speaker
from this planet entered into helen's mind to help her fight her almost internal demons and prepare for her use of this kind of combat in the future and so as the rest of the party turned around to look where clauda standing suddenly there was nothing there save the now
00:02:47
Speaker
slowly breathing in still body of Helena unconscious on the ground. We find ourselves with the snow slowly coming down, Tali steps out of the hut and Kanard comes out from around the corner surveying what now has just happened. Has everyone in the party after this long battle takes a couple of deep breaths and tries to come to terms with what has just happened. Tali takes a few more steps forward. Where's Claude?
00:03:14
Speaker
Just a quick question here. Did we all hear Kiva? Yes, you all heard that. It was spoken to everyone. So you're more than aware of all that information that was given to Claude. That was kind of spoken out to everyone yet. I think...
00:03:29
Speaker
And I'm not too sure about this, but I believe he's with his master, Tali. Kastan's going to run over to Helena, and I would like to use Detect Thoughts, because I assume we heard Akiva say that Claude had to help her in her mind. We're just going to use Detect Thoughts to check whether he's in there. OK, yeah, give me... What do you use? Are you going the deeper level? I'm doing the initial level first. OK, and what do you know from that?
00:03:57
Speaker
I know the surface of what is most on its mind in that moment. Okay, do you need to do anything about what we're casting in order to kind of pass that she goes over, he hovers his hand over her head
Journey Preparations and Strategies
00:04:12
Speaker
and he mutters some words that are perhaps, that aren't recognisable, they're Sylvan, so if anyone speaks Sylvan you can understand them, otherwise he doesn't.
00:04:23
Speaker
and essentially he's entering into her mind as this like glow appears from beneath his hand sort of casting a light upon her face. Nice. You see the image of a man that seems to be the most predominant image and that image you remember is the same image that you saw through the portal that Folly created in the black-mouthed mines when he created that glowing of her brother. You can see his face really really clearly in her mind.
00:04:52
Speaker
and a sense and a sense of comfort okay um robin at this point would have let down off the cliff base and will have come around the corner in a scene that helena is down for he wouldn't have known that until this point and he will just stop for a second and look back at tale who wouldn't have seen this either and tale will just see a look of
00:05:13
Speaker
Concern on Robin's face joins Drago and Karstam. What's happening? What's wrong with Helena? What's going on? Tally looks quite distraught at this situation.
00:05:25
Speaker
It would appear that Akiva has sent Claude into her mind to save her. From Akiva's own mouth we heard that the Blight had taken her, or some form of the Blight. And it appears that Claude is the one that's well equipped, probably being so close to Akiva, to save Helena. So we just... what do we do then? Do we wait for him to come out? I can't find...
00:05:52
Speaker
Claude at the moment, let me try and go deeper. Is she alive, Carsten? She's alive. Let me just try and see what's further in. So I'm going to go further in. Okay, Tali's going to run over at this point and kind of kneel down in the snow next to you as well to see if there's anything she can do to help. So you want to go further in and this is a... She needs to make a wisdom saving throw.
00:06:12
Speaker
okay luckily i remember her stats oh she rolled a four so she gets five uh yes so it fails so i gain insight into its reasoning if it has any its emotional state and something that looms larger in its mind unless you wish to give me further information as the dm
00:06:28
Speaker
as you do that cast and your vision starts to hay starts to come over your vision slightly and you don't disappear quite as much as you did entirely but you can start to see these shapes appear over your field of vision almost
00:06:43
Speaker
ethereal shapes in a different image, almost like you're blending to going between old school here, going between two analogue channels on a really old TV where they kind of merge across one another. You've got the face of Helena pale against the snow, but you're seeing something else kind of come across this, which seems to give the idea of something within her mind. And it's a real darkness. And you can see almost like over the shoulder, the back of Helena's head with her armour on, walking towards
00:07:12
Speaker
uh this face and you can just about see it's all darkness and suddenly you can see the light come around a door that appears out of nowhere and as the door starts to open this light starts to become brighter you can see the face of Helena's brother and she looks back at what you can imagine as Helena and you see a smile and as the door swings open you can see the silhouettes the large slumped over silhouettes
00:07:37
Speaker
of what you can assume is Claude stood there and then the haziness starts to disappear slightly from it and then you've returned to kind of your normal vision looking at Helena. Was there anything else you needed to know aside from that? No that's fine, that's fine.
00:07:52
Speaker
Um, she's, she's safe. Claude is in there. She's in some kind of memory or a dream involving her brother. So Claude is there. So she is, she is safe for now. Well, it's not the first time we've had a member of our party. Well, this isn't in a book at least, but Claude's in her. Okay. Perhaps we should take her back into the, into the hut. Otherwise we're going to get cold.
00:08:17
Speaker
I was going to say, have we got time to rest right now? Can I? Shouldn't we? I think we were halfway through a long rest, Drago, during this. We hadn't quite finished yet. Yeah, the storm won't be up for a few more hours yet before we might want to make head to the Skullroad Verdant. Maybe taking her in, warming her up might put her in better stead. And then we can make a move at first light. And then we can consider how we're going to carry her.
00:08:42
Speaker
I can carry her, it's no problem. And Drago walks over to Halino and picks her up in a normal whatever that carry is called. Cradle carry? We'll go cradle carry. Is it Feynman's lift? Feynman's lift over the shoulder, isn't it? This one isn't a shoulder.
00:09:03
Speaker
Is it carry over the threshold? That kind of like... Yeah, you got it. Yeah, that kind of carry.
Journey to the Verdant
00:09:10
Speaker
One arm under the knee pit, one arm under the armpits. Exactly how many carries are, and just picks it up. I assume, for Drago, this isn't really much of a weight to carry.
00:09:20
Speaker
Heavier than you expect, only because of the plate armor that she's wearing, but you kind of prepare for that and you manage to pick her up quite straightforwardly and move her into the tiny hut where the warmth does take over and you can see her body start to stop shivering. You could feel her body shivering slightly in the snow and as you put her down, clank onto the ground, her body starts to kind of calm slightly. You can see her breathing continue to move in her throat and in her mouth.
00:09:46
Speaker
okay this was um she's cold you are right i didn't think of that i have no problem carrying her as the journey carries on maybe we can put her armor in your bag folly but in order to keep her warm anyone got any ideas
00:10:00
Speaker
Well, I don't know. And Carson's fault has followed her driver. He's gathered up the satchel of things that were dropped by the creature and it's followed. Well, it's going to be tricky because if you're carrying her and she's not moving herself, her temperature won't be raised by her moving around. So I mean, could we put her in Folly's bag? But no. People in the bag, it's not a very good idea. And very disrespectful.
00:10:28
Speaker
What we could do, we could rest her on top and carry her that way. Carrying her is not the problem here. It's keeping her warm. But this is what I'm saying. I can just, you know, I have a staff and I have magic. And he's just going to kind of click his fingers and his staff's going to light up with a bit of actual fire that obviously generates a bit of light and heat.
00:10:51
Speaker
So she will always be in a nearby vicinity of some fire, literally within like a foot of a fire. And I could just cast that as many times as I actually need to, just to cantrip control flames. Fair enough. Seems to make sense to me. I was going to suggest doing a bonfire, but that's a bit dangerous. I would have had to carry a bonfire.
00:11:10
Speaker
Anything that doesn't involve lighting home fire is a winning idea. I believe I can control this. We should wrap her in, if you've got any extra furs or any blankets or anything in your bag as well, we should wrap her in that because we don't want to be in a situation where you can't be casting that at the same time as something else. Let me just see what I've got. While you guys do this, I'm going to go and keep watch outside.
00:11:37
Speaker
And while that's happening, Kennard is just going to then take off his thick Game of Thrones style jacket that he's got. And he's just going to put it over the legs of Helena and say, she can have that too. I'm fine from here on in. As Folly, it's kind of, I think this is one of those occasions where he's not entirely sure where in his rucksack.
00:11:58
Speaker
you might find anything to actually wrap up. So I think you would actually put it down, jump inside it as he has done before and you're just going to hear a massive rummaging with the occasional almost rag but like torn rag just popping out of the rugsack and an absolute mishmosh of colours of reds and pinks and polka dots and patch quilts and god knows what else just flying out but enough to at least wrap round
00:12:23
Speaker
rep around Hell and I have forgotten. Carson's picked at the polka dot piece and gone, oh this looks good. I believe somebody needs that more than you, you can have it afterwards. Oh excellent, thank you. Whilst this is going on Robin would have stayed outside and then he would have gone over to the the big creature.
00:12:41
Speaker
and he would have started to remove what arrows he can from it and he breaks he'll just cast mending on but because that thing appeared to be using quite a lot of black blood can Robin just inspect that to see if this is actually from the blight so he's looking for a very specific thing is it the same constitution this blackness as what's come out of the sharni yes you can indeed check for that give me a investigation please Darren
00:13:08
Speaker
12. Looking at it, it has the same consistency of it. You know this creature is not undead though. You can tell that very clearly that this creature is from another realm. It's from another somewhere else where it very much was in its own way living and not unliving. It's not rotting. It's just the internal makeup of this creature is of blackness, of darkness, of evil.
00:13:34
Speaker
and that you get a sense even from its internal organs of that and you can tell from the way some of its ichor from inside seem to even lash out in death. This creature is something you've never really encountered before but is not something you would see from the Blight from your experience so far. Okay Robin's going to take out his hunting knife and he's going to take out
00:13:58
Speaker
one of the empty potion vials from his hip and he's just going to scrape some of this into the vial. Yep, that's not a problem. You managed to get a decent amount into the vial without much trouble. You got time there. So back into the hut then, Tali would just quickly say to the group as you were kind of sorting out materials and Folly was reaching around and sorting bits out, grabbing material. Do you mind if I take our armour off and not any of you boys? Is that okay?
00:14:27
Speaker
you know if we're gonna do that i feel it's a bit weird if one of you do it she's wearing clothes underneath tallie i know but still like it's you know we we grew in affinity and she might ask why where who took you know where her armor went and if we say you did it car stand she'll probably try and beat you up or something
00:14:45
Speaker
I have experience in taking people's armour off, thank you. I know, but not Princess's armour. Personally, I don't see the issue in it, but if it makes you more comfortable, then have at it, you know. And then she quickly works very fastidiously on the armour, removing the breastplate, removing the arm, the pauldrons.
00:15:01
Speaker
the armour on her legs as well until she's just in kind of sivvy clothes underneath which then I assume Folly and Tali would help and Canel would help kind of wrap her in a number of layers so that she looks quite warm kind of with her head out almost like swaddling a baby almost so just the head's kind of sticking out so she can still breathe out of the middle and that probably takes a couple of minutes to do so so if anything else wanted to take place before that it can.
00:15:25
Speaker
I would just obviously as they are wrapping up he would be taking her armor as they take it off just putting it in the rutsack as well but again he would be doing it very very carefully at this stage it would he would jump in with it and then you could hear that oh no I can't put it over there no oh yeah over there there's a new spot and just random mumblings coming from this rutsack
00:15:50
Speaker
Brilliant, yeah. And so eventually you managed to sort her out. She's in a good place to move. Yeah, and Kennard kind of looks at you, the ones that are inside the hut anyway, so that'll be Folly and Karstam. And just saying, right, well, do you want to go grab the others? I think it's time we should make a move. I think it's time. Yes, we can do. So Mark, obviously that fine interrupted our long rest. But it didn't happen for an hour. So do we get to still have a benefit?
00:16:19
Speaker
Yeah, yep. So I'm giving you the benefit of the long rest. I'm considering that this stuff kind of took some time as well and that we kind of we long rested through this, so to speak as well as these events were taking place because they're quite low key things to be doing. Yeah. I mean, we started halfway through. It's just as long as the action didn't take over too long. I needed the spell slots.
00:16:40
Speaker
It definitely took up less than the young. It was only about five or six rounds really, so it would have been a series of minutes if that really, this whole thing. So yeah, I imagine that this was kind of our downtime as well, helping kind of sort Helena right. And we were kind of the sun's just starting to rise over the peaks off to the east and we're in a position to kind of get moving.
00:16:59
Speaker
Okay, because the Carson will sort of leave the magical hut and see Robin and Drago. Kenneth says we should be ready to move out now.
00:17:10
Speaker
Aye, that sounds like a good idea to me. Fine by me. Right then, I cannot step site. He throws the bow over the back of the shoulder as he's done multiple times now, because it's the only image I can think of. And it looks to you all. We're not far now from the verdant. It's a bit warmer there, so we should be in a good position. It's about half a day's walk from here, and I think if we get a move on, if we move quickly, what do you say?
00:17:36
Speaker
I agree, let's go. So, Kennard, what's the verdant like? And he looks back at this point and this light smile. No one really knows where it came from or why it's there, but it's just serene. It's like a small paradise. It's a rite of passage really for those that come from Blackmouth and want to explore up near the Great Siphon and the internal workings of the Skylord Mountains.
00:18:00
Speaker
It's a nice place to rest, especially after a few hard days travel on the road. Some of us don't have the benefits of a magic spell that keeps you warm. It's lush, it's verdant, it's glorious, it's warm, it's moss covered floors, wildlife fauna. No one really knows where it came from or why it's there, but some imagine that they're somewhere on this pathway, on this plateau, is almost a spring of
00:18:26
Speaker
magic or arcana that spews out magic and causes it the the small amount of growth there to become this jungle this area this dome of life and of just of just amazing you've got to see it honestly it's anyway when we get there it's only a couple of hours through to walk through before you get to the other side and then well then we're there and then we're nearer to the uh to the gallon hollows okay this sounds fairly good but can we um can we make a motion to move forward
00:18:56
Speaker
We can walk and talk. It'll help feel like the plot's moving along if we walk and talk. Yeah, sounds good to me, actually. I could drop some more exposition on the way. Yeah.
00:19:07
Speaker
So, Karth isn't going to sort of be trundling alongside Kennard now. So, what's the siphon? You mentioned a siphon, what's that? Well, and he's really into this at this point, he likes his history, especially with Blackmouth and his Sillycard. Dead in the centre, we have a massive, massive area which has been mined for many, many years. It's been abandoned now for quite some time, the Great Siphon we call it.
00:19:29
Speaker
It's a huge winch system which takes resources from this area right down the mountains towards the center of Sleet Guard. It's kind of in the very center of Sleet Guard, but off the mountain so it can be collected into a small village there. It's actually, speaking of which, and it kind of turns to all this point, unless you guys want to come back to Blackmouth and cut round, that would be your quickest way back down off the mountains. I probably won't be doing it. I'll be heading back to Blackmouth.
00:19:58
Speaker
I can take you there and we can figure out a way of getting it working again. But once you're all down at the Gallon in Hollows, it's probably the best way off the mountain. It's an incredible bit of kit. The problem is right, it was too expensive and King Leopold didn't want to keep it going. We told him it's important, it keeps everything moving.
00:20:19
Speaker
he couldn't afford to put the money in to keep it going so it's not the safest but it'll get you down the mountain. From my memory it's not someone from sleek out unfortunately we can't take credit for that. It's out with Ukraine it's this scholar guy in the sanguine lands i think he's a he's a big hot shop there smart you know just one of those university types that just fucking does everything and came up with the system with him in a scholar like friends and just
00:20:49
Speaker
I don't know. We needed it. He needed it. Have I heard of this person, Mark? Yes, you would have heard of him. He's almost like the Dominic Cummings to Boris Johnson, so to speak. He's the man that is never in a position of power, yet somehow is in power, and is the right-hand man to Rothhawk splitter, and sits on many of the councils, and runs a lot of the meetings, and is an incredible... Is that a polymath?
00:21:16
Speaker
uh just can just ingest information and just it's quite well known that he has read every book pretty much there is in the sanguine lands because he can just look at it read it over and just he just absorbs knowledge and just takes it all in it's just he's not he's not a magician he's not magic in any way he's just he's just a genius
00:21:33
Speaker
Oh yeah, I remember, I was in a room with him once. Were you? Did you talk to him? No, no, it was some kind of like feast or ball. I think we all filed past and we were introduced, but I didn't get to talk to him much. All right, well, if you ever talk to him again, you can thank him from me.
00:21:52
Speaker
coming up with the system but like I said it's not being used much these days but I'm pretty sure we can get it started again but that's that's that's by the by really we need to get you into the gallon in hollows and see if we can find this the onyx river is that right we're still going for that yeah so the gallon hollows who who named them that what what are these hollows
00:22:11
Speaker
no one knows it was there before the mining took place it's actually we wanted to mine directly on it because that's where we could find the best resources but instead we didn't want to touch it leopold told us don't touch it if there's history there leave it so we've worked around it and actually it kind of stands out a little bit it's weird because the stone they use isn't stone from sleet guard it's from another land so it sticks out of it it's like the sand colored rock and no one knows why it's called the gallon in hollows the name is just passed down from generation to generation and uh
00:22:41
Speaker
Well, some of us know what's in there, many of us don't. But if you can get up there, that's half the battle, really. So, me, myself, and James Hardgrieve, we've spent most of our time, you know, patrolling these ways. And James takes a lot of interest in it, which is why I always said that if he was here, he could tell you so much more. But like I said, he never came back. Because he came up the mountains, didn't he?
00:23:04
Speaker
Aye, he did. And he should be running blackmouth as well, not me. Well, maybe we'll find him. Maybe he just lost his way and we'll find him. You said this man was quite the archer, is that correct? You said this man was quite the ranger. One of the best. Does it not strike you as odd that he may have lost his way?
00:23:23
Speaker
Yes, that's why I don't believe your friend here, your nod to you, Carstan. I don't believe he can get lost, especially when he knows these parts that well. Some hazard has befallen him, and it's my job to find him and bring what I can back to his wife.
00:23:40
Speaker
Hazard has just found us this night past. I'd hate to have tried and fought that thing on myself. I suppose what I'm saying is that it's entirely possible that this man may have encountered something similar and Noel has been as fortunate to have been in a larger company. No. His eyes are darting away from you now at this point, Robin. You're right. I can just only hope it was quick. And he walks on ahead and now picks up the pace slightly and gives it a little bit of a gap between you and Canard.
00:24:10
Speaker
Was he telling the truth then, Mark? I don't need to know, you're passive. Passive inside is 21. As far as you're aware, he was telling the truth about what? Well, it just felt like he was hiding, like the way he said about, the way his answer to Robin felt evasive to me.
00:24:30
Speaker
Yes, so that was my attempt at showing the ineptitude of males to show emotion. So that was him being a stereotypical man and being unable to cry or say, I miss my best friend, I wish he was back. Okay, sorry, that's fine. I've got to do over an accent. I'm not very good at with the character you can't see, but he's dotting his eyes because he doesn't want to look at him because I want to think about it. Okay. Just you get from it anyway.
00:24:58
Speaker
That's fine. Thank you. That's all I was checking for. Thank you. So he walks on ahead and there's a bit of a gap now. You continue up the mountain. The path is really quite steep at moments covered in snow, but there is no other snow falling. It seems to have settled overnight. The paths are thin. You can only kind of go one at a time. Can I just have a running order of view? I imagine Kennard's at the front and then who would be just behind him? I probably would have moved on from the conversation and fast-tracked forwards.
00:25:25
Speaker
Okay so then follow that by Drago. Is Folly like being, I mean I'm maddening Folly being buried in the snow like the hobbits. I think Folly would have a bit of trouble with it all he'd be at the back if not really close to it. Robert would drop back and keep pulling Folly out of the snow every time he'd fallen in a little bit too deep. They're going over the mountains and Lord of the Rings. Yeah that's exactly what I was thinking.
00:25:48
Speaker
yeah with a stick kind of trying to cut through the snow a little bit to make a pathway a little bit clearer for for uh folly as well many many the hell sorry car stands walking behind drago because he's probably making the biggest snow he's plowing through that snow probably making the path really easy yep and i imagine kennard's like lego lesson walking on the top of the snow a little bit what a dick have a little fellowship
00:26:16
Speaker
On one attempt, when Robin pulls Folly out, he'll just go, there you go, are you all right, Folly? Yes, yes, I'm fine, Mr Snooze, starting to make this quite a perilous journey. Oh, I'm on the subject of perilous, I have something for you. And I'll take the vial out and I'll go, I don't like the idea of a magical jungle.
00:26:37
Speaker
the grove that appears in the most inhospitable place. I don't get the sense that that creature was from this realm and perhaps where we're going is... I don't understand plan your activity but you do it seems and then maybe when we next stop you could take a look at that and I'll just hand him the vial from that creature. Folly will take it. He won't put it straight away in his rucksack. It was kind of took it away on the inside of his jacket for now. He doesn't really want to disturb Helena.
00:27:05
Speaker
who's obviously still resting there. I will certainly give it a go, but definitely when we're in a bit of a safer place, I wouldn't worry too much about where we're going though. We're all quite capable and beauty can come from the most strangest places from it. Well, it's the only other person here to have seen Elf here. I think you can understand that my worry is not necessarily about where we're going, but who we're probably going to find.
00:27:31
Speaker
That is definitely a worry but as you said yourself Robin trust in faith that's all you need. I trust in my comrades and I have faith in them. Robin smiles and just just makes your follies on the shore footing and then just carries on walking.
00:27:48
Speaker
And at that point in the music of, I've got faith to believe. Just plays in the background now. Is our cast on singing? Yeah. I've got faith of the heart. I'm going where my heart will take me. If Carson's singing that, Folly's just going to make himself some earmuffs.
00:28:07
Speaker
and cast a minor illusion on them to play some music of his own so he's walking around with headphones. I've got strength of the soul. Ken I was going to turn around and go I don't think now is the time bad. We're getting close. I don't think any time's the time either.
00:28:26
Speaker
And as the conversation continues, you turn another corner, and near the stomach, you take this final left turn, and in front of you, you do indeed see this plateau, this flattened area that seems to still have some mountains kind of shafting at either side, but it's flattened in the middle, similar to the last kind of area you're in, another plateau within the mountain.
Discovering the Verdant's Destruction
00:28:46
Speaker
And as you come around the corner, Canada stood still with his bow in hand, and his bow just drops
00:28:52
Speaker
to the floor and as you look up you can see streams of black smoke billowing into the sky. He takes off, kind of takes off a sprint towards this area and as you turn the final corner you can see the burning remains of what must have been this scale road verdant. There are signs of fire that have recently gone out, embers are hotly burned, you can hear the crackling of wood and
00:29:16
Speaker
And as you start to approach this, you can start to see incense as you did in the forest down in the kind of normal area of Sleetguard, the sense of the blight in this area as well. It's eerily quiet, except for the crackling of the wood kind of half burning as the pathway through seems to be the only thing now remains. Can I walk into it and turns back to you?
00:29:41
Speaker
i don't understand this what the fuck happened here we've come across something like this before canad um i'm really sorry to say it looks like the blight has passed through these hair parts but it wasn't here like five six days ago this was this was that that man's that that fucking that guy out here that's him that's what he's done he's done this
00:30:05
Speaker
Can I try and investigate to try and find the origin point of where this fire was started? Yeah, absolutely. Give me an investigation check, please. OK, I've got a 31. Oh, fuck you, Will. I've got a natural 20 and I'm plus 11. I can see it on the screen. That is ridiculous.
00:30:28
Speaker
You walk into the now-burned-out embers... I know everything, right? You walk into the now-burned-out embers of the Skullroad Verdant, and as you start walking through and this bit of conversations take place with Robin and Drago, Castan, you're busy looking around at the wreckage around you, the fallen logs, the trees burning, the leaves, the final leaves just slowly turning and curling and turning into ash as you walk through little puffs of smoke coming up here and there.
00:30:55
Speaker
This seems to be the entire stretch of this kind of glorious area of wildlife has now been killed off. As you go through, you notice there are a number of points along the path where physical fires were set. You can tell that because of there's some scorch marks near the side of the path, which are circumspect to the rest of the fire. There are no other scorch marks on the path except for those moments. So, you know, a number of fires were set along the way. You also realize, though, that there is a sense of
00:31:23
Speaker
You also realise, though, that there is a sense of this blight which has kind of come out of nowhere. You haven't had much experience with this blight affecting the land as much. But all you can tell is it seems to have come in through the soil because it seems to be the roots that are rotted and then it's spread upwards. The roots seem the most rotted. The lowest trunk part of the tree is the most rotted. And the higher up you go, the less rotted, if you want, it seems to be. And how long ago were the fires lit?
00:31:52
Speaker
The embers are still burning hard. You can assume from this it's only been a matter of hours since the fires had gone out. Okay.
00:31:59
Speaker
Well, Castan's going to wander back over to the group. Sorry, as you're doing that, Castan, as you're looking around and as you turn well, as you start walking back to the group, you look down and you do, I mean, 31, you do see a small tuft on the ground of a blue-flowered plant, which seems to have survived. It seems to be the only thing that seems to have survived. Just sat there with a couple of bits of grass around it. There's blue, almost like a bluebell, a single bluebell turned over on itself, which is the only thing in that area, at least, that seems to have survived.
00:32:29
Speaker
Kastan's going to sort of clear the silt and that lot from around it so that it has the space to grow. And as you do that, Kennard's going to walk past you and look down at it for a second. Agavetani, that's one of the flowers of Tiryani, doesn't surprise me that that survived. I'm making sure it can keep growing.
00:32:52
Speaker
And he's going to just nod and look around and just beside himself at this point. He's going to turn and start walking ahead, kind of head quite low at this point as well.
00:33:02
Speaker
What's going on, Castan? As Drago walks over and sees you playing with soil... What was the flower called again? Ian? Not Ian, Mark. I was waiting for Ian to give you the note then. It's called Agapantiani. Okay, it's not the one that Helen was looking for, that's fine. Castan will look for Drago.
00:33:27
Speaker
It looks like the blight did infect this area. It looks like the blight came from the soil. It infected all the plants here through the soil, through their roots and up. Wow. The fires were lit along the path and they would have gone out. I mean, it could have been lit within the last day. Are you saying that someone would have walked through here, summoned the blight through the soil at the same time as setting fire to this place?
00:33:55
Speaker
I don't know. It could be that. Or if someone like Jamis or someone came along and found this place infected with the blight, they may have tried to use the fire to purge the area of the blight. I didn't think of that. That's a good logic.
00:34:09
Speaker
because it looks like the fires were methodically placed along the edge of the path to spread. So it might be that they're trying to destroy everything in order to purge this area of that infection and give it another chance. I don't know what's worth having someone who can summon the blight through the ground or for the blight to be self-conscious enough to do it.
00:34:34
Speaker
There's also the issue with speed. Claude tore this ravine, this grove, a few days ago, and there was no sign of the blight. There wasn't. It could have been in the roots. He may not have seen it. He was, after all, a bird. He may not have sensed it properly. But certainly these fires were lit within the last day. So whatever did this did so recently. Are there any survivors we should look around? This flower, that's the only survivor.
00:35:00
Speaker
Any tracks, Mark? No, none that you can find. Any tracks that would have been there have been decimated by the falling ash and rocks and ash and logs and everything of the trees. Thick, thick jungle trees that have burnt through at this point. Folly, is this fire magical or is it not magical?
00:35:19
Speaker
Can I make an arcana check and to see if it's a natural kind of fire that it seems to have been spread out, or if it's more kind of directional and purposely aimed? You can indeed check. That's two different things. You can either do investigations or check if it's purposefully aimed, or you could do an arcana check if it's a magical or non-magical fire, or it could do both. I will go purposely aimed to begin with. This is where one of the fires started, Folly, if you want to check here. So investigation, then please, Folly.
00:35:50
Speaker
As you walk over, you hear Draghi definitely want to know if it was magical. Give me one second. If it's been purposely aimed, then obviously somebody has created it. Yeah, Carson said it's been purposely done, but I'm looking if it's actually been aimed at certain areas or just...
00:36:10
Speaker
Well, I did say it was there were several fires on the path, but yeah, fun. Yeah, Kasten's already done this. Oh, fuck off then. I was trying to get along with something different. I was seeing if it's magical. Then go for it. Try and do the role and see what happens. I was going to walk up to you, put your hand on your shoulder for you and go, don't listen to them. You do you.
00:36:34
Speaker
You got a 20. You can tell this fire is not magical. This is a normal run of the mill lit with a flint, probably, fire along the path. You also get the sense that looking further up the path, they seem to match equidistance all the way along. This seems to have been done on purpose for some reason. Yeah. Well, it's definitely not a magical flame. It's rather usual, rather natural, but equally spaced. It's quite bizarre.
00:37:03
Speaker
It's methodical. It's like someone is planning to burn the wood down. Yes, but somebody with great control of fire to be able to keep this well contained. But not great control of magic. Someone like Robin could light this fire. Sorry Robin, I know you have magic. More like me.
00:37:19
Speaker
But if it was someone who is an experienced traveller or someone like that, they could easily spark a fire in the right place to do things. It seems to me we have two potential candidates or suspect, depending on what is the most appropriate word. If it was James, then he's done this to fight back something. If it was Elf here, then it's a message for us. Or the third option, it possibly could have been a trap for somebody else.
00:37:45
Speaker
Canard, is there anything around here or is it best for us to keep moving? He doesn't even turn around, he just shakes his head. I need to get the fuck out of here. I need to get out of this place. Canard, wait. What? You seem quite upset about this. Yeah, I am. Would Jamis share your despondency? To the burning of the verdant. Aye, I think so. I think he would. If he knew that it was infected with the blight though, is it something that he would do?
00:38:14
Speaker
I don't know. I haven't been close up with this blind thing enough to know what it does. I mean, I don't know. I don't think there's much more we can ascertain here.
Decision to Move Forward
00:38:24
Speaker
We can move forward. Yes, yes, sorry. I believe there is only speculation awaiting us here. I say we press forward and search for answers.
00:38:33
Speaker
okay do you want to lead the way yeah yeah and he throws he despondently puts his bow on his back and continues to take off down the down the path cast down further down the path you notice uh hold on just to pass back a little bit so just a quick pause as the party moves forward for that folly is actually going to look at the flower that was left over um is going to pull from his book sack just like a little uh slightly chipped
00:39:01
Speaker
vase and he's actually going to pick up the flower with the soil around it and whatnot and just kind of put it back into his rucksack.
00:39:12
Speaker
Yes, you would notice it, very clearly. I'm not being sort of... Folly, Folly, you need to leave the plant here because we need to let this grow. That plant has been blessed by Tiriani herself. We should leave it here so it can grow and regrow the verdant. With the greatest respect, I'm just wondering if this place has indeed been ridden with blight and fire and this thing has survived, perhaps there's a reason for it. Tiriani has left it and we should leave it here. Then perhaps Tiriani needs to be with us.
00:39:39
Speaker
No, Tyrion, it needs to stay here, Folly. It survived the flames, it needs to have a chance to blossom in a place that has been blessed by Tyrioni. Gentlemen, I'm not one for the gods of this realm, but please don't tell me you're holding us up to debate what to do with a flower. I don't believe we are, and Folly's just going to start walking. Well done. Folly, I think you should put the flower back.
00:40:04
Speaker
Make a wisdom saving throw, bitch. Oh my god, it's happening again. And I'm not involved. I'm casting suggestion on you. Okay. Let's roll. Oh, this is delicious. Oh, that's not very good. 12. Yeah. You think it's a really good idea to put the flower back.
00:40:24
Speaker
Okay, following suggestion, Folly would go back, put the flower back. He wouldn't say anything. He would basically complete the action as per the sentences of the caster, which is obviously cast now. And the point is, he doesn't know that he's been influenced by me. No, I don't know. Yeah, the whole idea of it is, because it's suggestion comes from that person's brain.
00:40:50
Speaker
well whatever that was uh well done there castan good uh okay as you continue to start going um castan as you just quickly look around the group you notice thali giving you kind of thin thin eyes that you kind of and then as she as she continues to walk on like she's on to you for something
00:41:13
Speaker
As you continue to walk down the path though, the wreckage continues and goes on for quite some time. It seems to get warmer almost as the file seemed to have gone at not as long ago the further down the path you go insinuating that the path of travel of the fire starter, twisted fire starter was the same way you are going along this path.
00:41:32
Speaker
Canard notices something off to the side and points off to the right from where you are. And you can all quite clearly see something happen. He goes, look, look at that, over there, right there, in the ash. Can you see it? And what you can all see is something really strange happen.
00:41:48
Speaker
you can see the movement of the blights which is nothing strange for many of you kind of creeping oozing almost across part of the land this this is green mossy area a small patch that's still green but what you see is as the blight reaches over it the moss seems to push back against it and actually successfully push it back out of the way clearing that piece of blight and it kind of covering that area more with moss and you can see these
00:42:13
Speaker
very small tiny sprouts of grass start to grow out as this greenery starts to try and kind of stretch yourself almost like you're trying to spread a dough out for a pizza. That kind of action kind of moves a little bit then kind of gets sucked back in before pushing out a little further as this kind of nature starts to try and push back against the blight. I've never seen anything like that before. Have you guys seen anything like that before? I mean is that beating the blight?
00:42:43
Speaker
It must be Tiriani. It's something, it's the fucking moss, it's something doing that. What? This area is blessed, clearly. Claude would love to be here, as would Helena. Hold on, hold on. This is something here is beating back the blight.
00:42:59
Speaker
Yeah. It just looks like Moscow. Look at it. And you can walk up quite close to it now. And it's just this undulating area of almost like live nature, so to speak, and a fast moving nature, which seems to kind of spread itself and push itself. It doesn't look like a gelatinous cube or anything like that. It just looks like almost like when you watch nature programs and it does bits in kind of time lapse and it moves quite quickly as you see a flower kind of out of the ground. It's kind of doing that in terms of the speed at which it sometimes moves.
00:43:25
Speaker
Chirago tentatively walks over to the nearest moss in front of him and sticks his foot on it, almost like he would just tentatively step in on it. One foot. It's highly suspicious. The area underneath your foot kind of stiffens a little bit and returns to kind of still moss as your foot lands on it. And then as it moves off, it starts to continue its kind of movement to try and spread. Are you saying this is the work of that Tiryani?
00:43:53
Speaker
It might be. If Tiryani's fire is the only thing to survive, then potentially it shows her blessing of the area, and this might be her work. It's certainly fascinating. I'm not one to believe in God, but I've never seen such grip. Maybe you could take a sample of that, Folly. You know what? What's your name, sorry, Will? Wow! Oh my God! I've forgotten. Oh my God!
00:44:21
Speaker
What was it? I'm really sorry. I was going to forget. Cast that. You know what there, Castan, that's a very good idea. And Folly's going to bring out a little bit of vials, scrape it off, and as he's doing that, I really wish I'd grabbed some of that flower as well. That could have been quite interesting. And he's just going to pop the moss back into his pocket. And Tali, just out the corner of your eye, Castan, is still kind of giving a stank eye a little bit.
00:44:48
Speaker
as she continues to walk past you as well. Dang it! I'm going to scoot along to walk beside Tally. She's right, Tally. Oh, hi. You all right? Yeah, what's wrong? Nothing, nothing. You like going in people's minds, don't you? Don't know what you're talking about. No, no, of course you don't. Of course you don't. There's no problem. What the hell is going on? I'm so confused by this. I'm watching something beat back the blight.
00:45:17
Speaker
Folly's taking a, it's taking up botany and he's going to still be the plant and, you know. Right. Yeah. If this thing can beat the blight, then perhaps as much as I say, perhaps we can replicate it in some way. What do you mean like regrow it or something and build more of it? It seems to have a bit of an accelerated growth to it.
00:45:39
Speaker
perfectly plausible that under the right conditions if this thing does beat the blight that we can replicate this growth and possibly I could make some kind of concoction that we can use against the blight. So I'm the only one, everyone else also sees this as a strange remarkable thing right? This isn't just me. Oh yes definitely, definitely very strange. This could be something that really turns the tide couldn't it? Couldn't we go and do it to the forest or something?
00:46:08
Speaker
I mean, this is huge. I'm just like, what? Drago, let me clarify. Very weird, very remarkable, potentially useful. Tell you what, Drago, I'll help. I'll play some music to my... No, no, no, no, no, no. Good point, Karsten. We should carry on if we've got everything here that we need.
00:46:30
Speaker
Kennard's just going to over the shoulder as he's walking, a bit more upbeat now and seeing that there's nature kind of finding a way in and amongst the verdant. If you're after the botanist, there's a couple of really good ones in Goldview. It might be worth checking them out if you need a hand with that little one. Sorry, I forgot your name.
00:46:51
Speaker
Sorry, it's not like we've been, you know, traveling for a while. Apologies. Apologies. We've shared many a pipe together. I shouldn't have forgotten that, but you can understand given the state of nature at the moment. It is quite an interesting time. Yes, most definitely.
00:47:04
Speaker
When we come down off this mountain, Kanard, when we come down off this mountain, how far away are we from Goldview if we go the path you recommend? That's a very good question. Let me just get out by map, which happens to be naturally on the fellowshiptabletop.fandom.com, which you can visit and find any useful information about the Fellowship of the Tabletop Wiki page. I'm going to do that myself. I think that's a great plug.
00:47:28
Speaker
Just please don't edit anything because I haven't put a lock on anything yet. So it really upset me if you went and changed all the names.
00:47:37
Speaker
The town of Goldsmith is now known as Goldmember. I'm imagining when Folly picked up the moth like a little plant quest appeared in the log journal and when we discovered that there's people in Goldview that's now taught to the botanist in Goldview written beneath the quest log. There's now a slight light that I can see far off into the distance. On your head, yeah.
00:48:00
Speaker
so you are basically at the moment if you happen to look at the map but don't worry if you know in the slap bang center of sleet guard within the skull road mountains which dominate the center of sleet guard the way that kennard is talking about getting you off the mountain is directly east which takes you directly east basically if you look at the map in line with where it says sleet guard and kind of plops you
00:48:23
Speaker
equidistance between Evershire and Highhaven. So you're basically back on that southern road that you were on previously to get from Evershire down to Blackmouth again would be your quickest way. The other way would be around the random hills through the pits of Sleetguard, but it's muggy and slow going. The road would be your quickest bet. And then it's directly south and then taking a left turn at the where you turned right to go to Blackmouth, you actually turn left to go to Goldview. And so probably two days worth of travel.
00:48:51
Speaker
I believe our plan was to go to Goldview once we had the Onyx Reaver. So, fortune may be smiling upon us finally. Some kind of fortune at least, not much though. As Drago hears that and turns to look at Helena on Folly's backpack. I think we still got a way to go there Robin, but I like your optimism.
00:49:10
Speaker
I was going to say, we'll move through this. There's only about three hours to get through the rest of the verdant. The sun's about quite high in the sky at this point. It's still warm there, so whatever biome seems to be over this area, it still keeps the air warm. There's no snow or anything around, but you can see it far off down the road. It's a straight line, pretty much through the verdant. At the other side, you can start to make out
00:49:30
Speaker
a fog, you can start to make out something off in the distance where the broken and now burnt forest ends. And the burn ends at a kind of sheer cliff edge, which opens up into a giant bowl shape etched out of the earth. This has small pathways, paths down it, paths up it, tunnels inlay and outlay all from around this place.
00:49:54
Speaker
Huge pieces of mining equipment, polysystems, siphoning of rocks, removal of minerals can be seen, can be made out in a very efficient system of industry. This isn't a small fish mining operation, this is an industrial size and speed and efficiency of mining. But the place is absolutely still and everything you can see around you seems to be rusting, everything seems to have just been left abandoned.
00:50:23
Speaker
There is a form of pulley system on the far side which seems to snake off into the distance, which you can assume from what Ken Arder's earlier said would be the great siphon. The quarry is totally uninhabited. The paths of industry are dug deep into the earth here, into the very centre of Sleepguard.
00:50:38
Speaker
Kennard points off to the right and there's a thin path. Snakes are mirrored at 300, 400 feet before a large entrance opens up off to the side into a cliff face. The stone is older than it surrounds it. It yawns with a design that strikes you out of place. The dark stone of Sleet Gal is replaced with this light colored stone almost sand like stone surrounding this entrance.
00:51:02
Speaker
There was a space above the entrance for some text, but it has long since eroded away. And it's still about 400 feet away at this point, kind of looking towards it. As he points to it, it says there. That's where you want to be going. That's the Galanin Hollows. And you say the text has been worn away. Yeah. From where you currently are. Yeah. And even if we get closer, you can assume there would be something written there because it seems very purposefully placed. But there's nothing written on it anymore.
00:51:30
Speaker
So what's the plan then? Are we going in? Yep. I guess we must. Right then. Just follow me along the path. I'll take you there. And like I said, I haven't been in here before. James was the man who knew his way, but I'll help where I can. How dark is it in there? I have no idea, to be honest.
Discovery of James Hardgroove
00:51:49
Speaker
No idea. It might be worth bringing a torch if you've got them unless some of you can see in the dark, which I know a few of you can. Robin's quite handy at it.
00:51:57
Speaker
I should be able to help and with that he's gonna use control flames cantrip and I can basically make the fire that I've I presumably put out but I've relitted before we go into this cave I can make it basically twice as bright okay
00:52:12
Speaker
whatever fire viewing range is, I think it gets double. Yeah, it does, yeah. So you pretty much, you can see as, if you were in the Dark Dragon, you'd be able to see if you stick to around, stuck to around where Folly is. If it is indeed dark in there, you don't know yet. And as you start to get close to the entrance of the mine, you can see one side of the entrance. And as you come closer, you can see slumped up against the other side, against the dark, the sand-colored stone of the entrance is the body of a human, badly beaten and not moving.
00:52:40
Speaker
uh he's got brown hair across his face matted face covered in blood he is still he isn't moving cannot runs over to him and drops down to his knee and then the other knee and the bow is dropped on the ground and then he is down onto his hands and knees as his face is just kind of buried into the the ashen sand beneath it as he mourns um
00:53:03
Speaker
I think we've found James. Something you can do here. I'm not a healer. I can check if he's alive, but I think we've found James. Hi. This is James, and he's gone. I fucking knew this would happen. Can I have a look at him, can I? Can I stand up? Do what you must. Just do what you must. Okay. He takes a few steps away, conducts away. I'm going to investigate the body, see what I can find out.
00:53:33
Speaker
okay you can find out from looking over the body that many of the wounds were defensive his forearms and elbows and hands are badly badly attacked these are blunt force trauma wounds of impact bludgeoning impacts you can also notice an amount of
00:53:52
Speaker
bruising and internal bruising across those parts of his body. So they bruise really, really, really quickly. The damage seems to mainly come from the head. You can notice that the back of the skull is really badly damaged. But the main thing you take away from this is the style of damage is forced. The style of damage also seems to have left many areas around these impact marks of kind of scorch, of darkness, of blackness. It looks like a scorch mark has been left.
00:54:19
Speaker
uh putting your hand up nearer you notice it's almost the same size as a fist so it's like someone punched him with a flurry of blows you bastard yes how meta is this this is this is one character of one player yeah what have you um found out castan it looks like
00:54:45
Speaker
He died fighting, he was defending himself and whatever attacked him didn't use a blade or anything like that. It used its fist and literally beat him to death. Elphir did this. Certainly appears so. Canard.
00:55:06
Speaker
we're going to venture on in. It's up to you if you need to stay here or you want to come with us. Canar turns around at this point and you can see he's destroyed. He's trying to hold back some some semblance of tears but he's streaming at this point and he just pushes past you Drago and doesn't say anything and then just opens up his jacket and starts to go through James's pockets and
00:55:30
Speaker
as he's doing is that we always said, if we knew it was coming, we'd leave each other a note somewhere here. And he pulls out a note and he goes to open it, but calm past. And do you want to.
00:55:40
Speaker
Well, OK. Carthon reached over and takes the note. Kennard's going to take a few steps back, and he's going to just sit facing into the giant bowl, which is the mining area of the Skull Road Mountains, and kind of sit with his back. He can still hear, but looking out towards the mines. You open up the note, and it's some neat cursive writing, well-educated, from your eye. The paper, though, is rudimentary at best. It seems to have been created from somewhere
00:56:09
Speaker
quite poor, the paper isn't of metropolitan standards. And it says, I knew he would come for it, the figure from my dreams. I knew he would. If you are reading this, then I have failed. I have failed my sacred duty to protect the onyx reaver. This creature is not to be trusted. He has power beyond anything I have ever encountered before. He is akin to the great flame.
00:56:35
Speaker
If you are true of heart, know that they could not take it. The verdant is gone. Let it burn. Let it relive. It will survive. It always will. There is an ancient magic upon the weapon, which can stop even the blackest of hearts. Take the weapon. Take the keltrad that surrounds it. It offers protection. Fight back.
00:56:59
Speaker
Fight back for the good of us all. Fight for the realm. In haste, Jamis. P.S. Take this note to Lemond Hardgrieve, my father in gold view. Tell him that Kennard is to take over running the half hoof in. Tell him to do right by my father and my family. And the note ends there.
00:57:24
Speaker
Can our tan head would have gone into his hands as he just kind of silently sobbed to himself upon hearing this? Robin's gonna glance towards the sky, what sort of time are we on? It's about midday, couple of clouds in the sky. Drago's gonna go over to Kennard.
00:57:42
Speaker
Well, this is weird. And put a hand on his shoulder, only a hand. And Drago's going to still stay in a kind of a crouch position. He's still stood over him almost. And as your kind of hand reaches out and touches his shoulder, he kind of... And the tears really start to flow then. It starts to become a bit more intense, really, in his morning.
00:58:08
Speaker
Keitryago's phase displays a huge amount of awkwardness at this foreshowing of emotion. And you hear this audible swallow as he's trying to piece together what to say. Listen, Kennard. We're on a journey that will link up with Elthea, who have you just heard has killed your friend.
00:58:35
Speaker
It's up to you whether or not you come with us. If you need to see him, I understand. But if you need to go and do what this letter tells you to, and do right by your friend, that's okay too. And he looks up to you now, bleary and red-eyed. Thank you for your understanding.
00:58:57
Speaker
Healthier will answer for his sins. Drago says that quite uncomfortably. You have us all behind you. So you don't need to go on a revenge chase if you want to honor your comrade. To be honest, I'm no good with this fucking bow anyway. And to be honest,
00:59:18
Speaker
I trust you more than I trust most people dying in Blackmouth. So yeah, I believe you. I believe you can do right by him, if I can do right by his family. I'm gonna leave you here. I'm gonna go back. I'm gonna go back to Blackmouth and I'm gonna find his wife first and just tell her somehow and then I'm going on to Goldview. So if you end up back there at any point, come and find me and I can put you up in a shitty inn, but hey, it's the least I can do.
00:59:47
Speaker
I look forward to that day, and thanks for all your help getting us here.
00:59:52
Speaker
I hope you find what you're looking for and I hope that bastard Elphir gets what's coming to him. And Kennard's gonna walk over to Jamis one last time and just place a hand on his head and then reach down to his left hand and take a ring from his pinky finger that seems to be wrapped around it. Takes that off and looks at it for a second or two. Pockets it in his left breast pocket and turns to the rest of you. I'm leaving now. Best of luck. When you get to the great siphon, just let the gnome have a look at it.
01:00:21
Speaker
and then he's going to start walking out of the entrance. OK, so we can see here. Is this real? At least we know that Elfie wouldn't have been able to get the blade. Hopefully. But he didn't live. And Drago points over to Jameson. He didn't live long enough to find that out himself. We can only speculate. I still think we need to push on and find the blade.
01:00:49
Speaker
No, I agree. But it looks like James believed that it was his responsibility to protect the blade. So maybe it was something that he had been told to do or something that was tasked to him. So whatever happened, he was warned about Elthir coming in a dream, which would suggest that James's purpose was to defend the blade. So he would know a lot about it.
01:01:10
Speaker
The dream wasn't about Elphir, the dream's about the thing that's got to Elphir. I know because I've seen it myself. Everyone look here and make a decision whether or not you wish to proceed because by all accounts Jameson was a fierce fighter and here's the results of that. We have to go in there. We have to get the blade and we have to get the flowers that are around it. I agree. That's just making sure that everyone knows what's on the line here.
01:01:39
Speaker
Princess Helena is looking for the flowers that were mentioned in the letter. Well, if I can leave you with the task of doing that, because I don't know anything about these flowers, my pressing thing is the onyx reaver. But if you've got Helena's back, that Nanda will be good. I won't forget. Okay, so anyone, anything else? Because I think we should push on.
01:02:02
Speaker
We've got presence of the blight in this area. We owe it to James to ensure that he doesn't succumb to whatever that was.
Paying Respects and Entering Galanin Hollows
01:02:10
Speaker
Tarly and Folly, I need you to create a pyre. We need to give this man a funeral and make sure that he's not coming back. If Claude was here, he could do it easily, but it's a good idea, Robin.
01:02:22
Speaker
Aye, that's a great idea. Okay, I've never really done one before but, Foley, can you kind of lead the way? I can certainly see. And with that, just a quick gander around the area, he's going to at the least try and find some kindling or something like that, just to make like a wooden base to actually rest him on, so I don't know if there's going to be anything around that he'd be able to use.
01:02:47
Speaker
Yep, just further along where you just came out of the verdant actually, there's some rather burnt that you could create out of some of the wood there a base for you to build some kind of stand at least to place the body of James Hardgroove upon, yes. Yep, okay, so he's going to quickly build that as best as he can, just having seen Claude do it as well.
01:03:09
Speaker
He's going to rest two, is it copper pieces that he puts on over the eyes? Correct, yes. Weird stuff. Yeah, you're going to take two copper pieces out, put them over the eyes. This is really uncomfortable Folly doing this. He doesn't like this idea because he thinks it's an absolute load of codswallop.
01:03:27
Speaker
But out of respect for the party and out of respect for Jameson at the moment, he is going to carry on. After it's all finished, he's just going to wait there quite solemnly and just trying to make sure everybody's in the same kind of state of mind before basically setting the bed on fire. Cast down the view. Oh, God. Maybe you have some sort of thing you want to say.
01:03:51
Speaker
I think I can remember some of the words. It's customary in our sword coast to pay tribute inside. Did James follow any of the gods, particularly? Kennard's gone. Oh, sorry. He left pretty much with a quick to loon. He was a soldier, so I'm just thinking a soldier's farewell. Do you have anything like that over? Question to the DM while this is going on. Kennard left his bow, didn't he?
01:04:21
Speaker
I know, he took his bow. OK. Can I take his bow? He dropped it in the shock and I've picked it up to return. OK, Robin is going to take out then. Sorry, James has a bow on his back. I was going to say, Robin's going to take James's bow, and similar to when they put Boromir in the boat in the fellowship and they clasp his sword to his chest, he's just going to clasp the bow in one hand and he's going to take an arrow off his back and put that in the other hand.
01:04:48
Speaker
and just lay his hand on that and he's just going to then just say very solemnly, rest well. And Tali's going to step forward as you all kind of gather around and just rest a hand on his shoulder for a second bow ahead and then take a step back and say, a wise dwarf once said to me, your friends become your family when you're an adventurer and
01:05:13
Speaker
We might not have known you, but I feel like we're all fighting the same cause and I think we are part of your family if we can help avenge you in some way.
01:05:21
Speaker
Well put. After Tally says that, Drago turns and he walks towards the entrance to the mine. Tally will look to Folly for the signal to cast bonfire. Folly will just quickly nod and it'll start a small flame just along the base of the bed and just let it grow naturally. He won't interfere with it. He'll just let it all happen in a normal state.
01:05:47
Speaker
Tyler will have a book out about to cast bonfire and realise, well actually this doesn't need to be done, closes the book solemnly and puts it back in a satchel and stands and lets the fire burn. Oh, cast and I'll then just say a few words over it if you want. Yeah, go for it.
01:06:02
Speaker
Dawn has broke, the time has come Move your feet to a marching drum We'll win the war and pay the toll We'll fight as one in heart and soul Midnight mare, blood red rowan Fight to keep this land your own Sound the horn and call the cry How many of them can we make die? We finally got him to sing
01:06:28
Speaker
That was fucking A. That was brilliant. That was real good. That was awesome. Real good. And with that as the ash of the now deceased warrior, Jamis Hardgroove starts bringing up into the sky, the fire prying out properly, properly lit as the group turns to the Galanin Hollows and to the remote silent darkness, which seems to follow deeper and deeper into this dungeon. That as well will end this week's episode of the Fellowship of the Tabletop. Thank you very much, everyone, for listening. That was
01:06:58
Speaker
that was solid and yeah special shout to will there that was yeah but where did you pull that from uh that's that's one of uh it's it's a verse from one of the songs we sing at lap that i that i might have found i thought that's a suitable part of the song to say over a pyre that's real good real good god i hope you're there if drago ever dies man i expect an eight verse fucking
01:07:25
Speaker
Symphony. That was a good episode. Yeah, real good. Had a little bit of everything. And thank you very much everyone for tuning in and listening and making this a part of your everyday week. It's very hard to pick up the momentum after you just attended a funeral. That's what that was.
01:07:44
Speaker
Can I also, before we end it, can I reference the fact that, almost so consistently, we managed to get in some kind of Lord of the Rings reference to almost every fucking episode. I know, I know, I know, I'm starting to think, it's really bad. And it's not even on purpose. We are crossing some lines right now.
01:08:01
Speaker
It's every other episode or so we get, oh, you know, like in the Lord of the Rings when this happens, we just, as a reference point, we always return to it and it's totally by accident, but just then I forget like, oh, we've got the fellowship at the tabletop. So it's kind of fitting that if we're going to reference anything, it's going to be Lord of the Rings.
01:08:16
Speaker
I don't want to blur the lines too much. This is very, very different things. But yes, no, very good. And I really do appreciate you guys for tuning in and listening. And yes, like I said, making this a party every day week from our voices to your ears. We love you.
01:08:33
Speaker
If you wanted to keep in touch with the podcast, and please do, you can do so on our combined Twitter page, which is at Fellowship Table. And then if you wanted to go one step further and do a cast and enter the very minds of us, you can follow our individual pages. I'm at iRoller1, Callum's at TheD20Gamer, Darren's at... Darren page 06, Will is at
01:08:58
Speaker
Natural 20 Will. If you wanted to follow Danny, you can do so at Total Party Thrills. And if you wanted to follow Casey, she's at Unicorn Crit, if I remember rightly. Yeah, correct. Brilliant. And our fantabulous DM is at Hastily Rolled DM. Until next time, guys. Farewell!