#exactly like that liminal space between episodes 76 and 80 of the Mighty Nein

[12pt-times-new-roman]

c3e68

Right into identifying magical items! Let's go!

Chetney's sword is known as Graz'tchar, the Luminary Blade. This is a known weapon in Exandria; it's a neutral evil sentient weapon that contains a piece of the consciousness of Grazzt, the demon prince of indulgence, to whom Obann was once a servant. The sword was created during the Age of Arcanum.

The sword's sentience sounds like a kindly old man. To FCG: "Child of creation. Strange being of metal and will. There is such darkness in this world. Perhaps together, we can do great things, and turn this world right..." He claims that he lost his memory and can't remember his name, or anything about himself. However, he claims to want to eradicate evil and darkness in the world, to prevent anyone else from "falling as he did." So, in other words, he's a neutral evil demon prince manipulating someone into attuning to a cursed sword.

"I don't trust things that talk that don't have moving parts! There are rules here!"

Imogen uses detect thoughts on it, and though she detects a consciousness, she can't get through to it.

To Ashton: "You... you walk a strange path. There is a... fire that burns within you, that tells me there is great possibility on the road ahead."

FCG casts legend lore on it! "Those who wield this blade carry behind it a powerful will. The radiance is a curtain; behind it, that which is burned away. The light is false. The blade does corrode. The metal, that of the prince's will." And FCG just...... gives it.... to Chetney. Knowing this, they just give it to him, contrary to a literal message from their god. Because Sam thinks it's funny.

The immovable object of the sword being undoubtedly evil versus the unstoppable force of players wanting badass swords

"If you get even a little bit weird, I will crush your hand." "Define weird." "No!"

MOON DREAM!

Back to the storm. Clouds flashing with crimson lightning. A massive shape, obscured by the dust, before the winds reveal hundreds of domiciles built into the rock, organically inspired, with hundreds of humanoid creatures. Every single one stops, looks at Imogen in unison, and their eyes glow purple. "A yearning begins to consume your body from the inside, a heavy, emotional gravity that's pulling your attention downward, and you hear, again, in the storm. 'Imogen. Please. Run. I won't let it have you.' Do you give in, or fight it?"

She fights against it. "How can I trust you?" Nat20 on a wisdom save. "You focus your consciousness, and that urge, right as it begins to pool on the inside of your chest, like strings pulling you down to the ground, you push away with all the force of what odd power has been granted to you and you rocket out of the storm... you emerge from the clouds, and you drift, your hair gently floating, and a slightly darker stratosphere above the Ruidian skyline." She looks up and sees Exandria, and the tether that holds Ruidus to it like a bridge. In the storms, there are pockets where it subsides, and there are valleys... and minute movement. She glides toward one, and finds rolling valleys, mountains -- and herds of beasts, strange, unfamiliar. Sand flows like a river, things wade through it like water. There is an ecology here, like a shadow version of Exandria.

A presence behind her -- Liliana. "I just wanna protect you." "Then why didn't you?" "I am." "Was it you? Who shunted us away, wen everything happened?" "I don't think so. I don't know." "Why don't you fight this? Why don't you tell me what's happening." "I need him, and he needs me... the seeds we bear still pull us." "Are you trying to release Predathos? Is it really gonna destroy the gods?" "You deserve to be free." "At what cost?" Liliana is pulled away, and the clouds consume Imogen once more.

I want to note the wording that Matt used here. He specifically differentiated the force that was drawing Imogen to Ruidus and her power. He specifically stated that the strings and energy tethering her to Ruidus is not the "odd power granted to [her]."

FCG casts commune. "Changebringer, are the gods -- can the gods help my friends?" "Yes." "Are you worth saving?" She leans close, and the perspective shifts so she's right in front of them, their height. "Of course." "Are you scared?" The perspective shifts again, and she's leaning back, a mile high. Over her right shoulder, a mountain detonates into a volcano, and another to her left. "Yes." As the vision fades, the magma becomes crimson, the sky flushes red.

Y'know, that is true -- attunement to the sword is most likely a curse, so in theory greater restoration at a high enough level would get rid of it.

After the dream, for the first time since she started running with the Bells Hells, Imogen has decided: she wants to "end her connection to Ruidus" and help the gods. I'm still not convinced that the Bells Hells know that helping the gods means keeping Ruidus around.

Chetney asks the sword for advice. It doesn't know anything about Predathos. But it does know Ludinus Da'leth. "He passed through in my time as king; a powerful, smart individual looking to make connections. He found his fortune... somewhere. I did not trust this individual." It also knows a bit about the Matron of Ravens. "Of course; she is one of the Prime Deities of Exandria. She existed during my time." i.e. the sentience in the sword is from the time between the ascension of the Matron of Ravens and the end of the Calamity.

Also, Ludinus having crossed paths with Warren Drassig actually does track with the timeline we have so far; they could've encountered each other while Ludinus was traveling eastward to Wildemount.

With three of them in the portable hole, we teleport back to Zephrah! Orym's clothes count as an "associated object," so there's no chance for a mishap, and they're back on the clifftops. They hastily make their way back to Keyleth's chambers.

Herbalists gather all the flowers and take them into an alchemical lair to synthesize them into the antidote. A short time into the creation process, Nell rushes in -- a half-elven woman with blonde hair (Orym got his dark hair from his dad) in a long braid.

The better part of an hour goes by, but eventually, they end up with a dull, sky-blue paste. They rush up to Keyleth's chambers with it; Orym takes FCG by the hand and they follow, while the rest stay behind with the remaining herbalists. The herbalists treat her wounds with the paste, and immediately, the pain eases, her brow relaxes, and her strength, her magic, returns. She takes her staff, replaces her crown, and casts a heal spell on herself, and all of her remaining wounds close entirely. She glances at Orym. "Well. You have my thanks... we have much to talk about. Give me a moment to re-engage my people; they've been nervous, my state being as it is. Then, I would like to talk to you and all those who helped us."

Keyleth exits, and from the balcony window, Orym sees that the people of Zephrah are gathering toward her abode. She steps, strong, onto the second-floor balcony, where proclamations are made. They can't hear her from where they are, but they can hear the cheers, see the joy that washes over hundreds upon hundreds of Zephrans.

Orym is brought to the balcony, too, as Keyleth speaks. "There are many heroes among us, but through the history of the Ashari, there are those who truly give everything for the future of our people and our realm. I am but one of many, and today, we welcome a few more." She puts her hand out, and next to Orym is Bearnie. "Faced with terrifying odds and long-ancient corrupting evils, some of our brethren gave our lives so they, so I, might live, to ensure that we will be safe and that there is a future for the Ashari people. I ask you all to celebrate this evening our surviving heroes, and remember those who did not return but will be forever remembered." Orym takes out his shield and holds it, because he knows -- sees -- that people will recognize it. And he speaks. "Hearts and minds, always Ashari. Home and abroad, morning and night. Kaiteake."

The night shifts to celebration. Carts are wheeled out, musicians start playing, food is distributed. As the cheer begins, the Bells Hells return to Keyleth's chambers to meet with her. "Now that I've set my people at ease for the evening... let us talk."

This is a big conversation and I can't transcribe all of it! So I've tried my best to just get all the new information and Keyleth's answers to their questions.

tl:dr, the Bells Hells recount everything that's happened and everything they've found out since the attack on the Malleus Key. Keyleth gives them a lot of information they already know, and some they don't.

There has been a lot of rising "insurgency" against temples throughout the world, and Keyleth is sure that this is Ludinus' intent: to split the temples' focus between stopping Ludinus and defending themselves.

While the Bells Hells were away, Keyleth learned that Ludinus was sighted in the Dwendalian Empire, apparently meeting with King Dwendal. Dwendal has been bed-ridden for many years, and the Cerberus Assembly has taken more control over the empire. Lastly, since the revealing of the Vanguard's plot, there has been some dissent and rebellion within the Assembly itself, which Keyleth believes to be connected to rising civil unrest in the broader Dwendalian Empire. She believes that some, but not all, of the Assembly knew about Ludinus' plot.

Temples outside of Vasselheim have been attacked, causing the city to increase its guard and recall their forces at the Malleus Key. Again, Keyleth believes this is a deliberate tactic to buy Ludinus more time.

Orym mentions his vision at the Temple of Ravens, and Keyleth's face immediately hardens. He describes the sight of the Vorb. "In this vision, that winged man who appeared that day, Ludinus has him in some kind of prison, and, um... we could hear him. In pain." Her eyes go to the window, and what Orym thought was a small tree he sees now is a perch. An empty perch.

Keyleth harbors resentment against "those who call themselves gods." "Resentment enough to see them banished from this realm?" "Resentment enough to keep them at arms length, and to see the role they play in the balance of this world. Just because I don't see personal investment in what they have to offer, doesn't mean they don't offer it to many others. That's why the gods take, sometimes, in ways that don't feel fair." "And if she were to go away, what would happen to that man?" "I don't know... I don't know."

On Asmodeus and Tevon Klask, Keyleth believes that the enemy of your enemy is your friend, as long as you don't get too close to the enemy. "Just be careful who you have dalliances with."

And on Ruidus actually having its own ecology, "oh. That's a lot." Across the room, so everyone is out of its radius, Imogen uses conjure aberration and creates a reilora spirit. It's slightly different, more physically present than the last one -- a half-ethereal, half-physical form, tall, thin, humanoid. The skin is deep red with striations around major muscle groups, long arms with a maroon coloration, silver veins through the body. The fingers are adorned with rings and chains; it wears a sleeveless robe affixed with leather strips. The head comes into a crown of three horns, decorated with jewelry. The face comes to a shark-like point, dark set eyes, slits for a nose and a tiny mouth with a row of sharp teeth. When it sees Imogen, its eyes flash purple.

In her mind, Imogen hears, "what is it you require?" They are from Ruidus. There are as many of them as there have been. It wants to serve Imogen until her binding of it (the spell) fails. It hasn't seen any Exandrian-looking people on Ruidus, but feels a kinship with Imogen. Its name is "a vision of an odd, pale gray flower, open on a dusty red plane. In the center, it carries a gem, a sapphire, that makes a bell sound as the wind hits it."

Imogen is "among the dreamers." This spirit hasn't been pulled to Exandria before. "Are you happy about this? Or is it happening against your will?" Imogen sees verdant fields, lakes of cool water, clouds, mountains, joy, love, flashes of abundance and beautiful vistas and laughter. "We know your dreams." "You haven't had that?" It shakes its head. "I'm sorry."

She asks another question. "Who is Predathos?" "Predathos is the progenitor. It is the heart of our world. And it stirs. You feel it too." Imogen ends the spell.

Imogen concludes that the Reilorans are trapped on Ruidus, that they experience Exandria's dreams (man, I wish I didn't delete that post about how the plane of dreams could be contained within Ruidus), and that they want that for themselves.

"Keyleth. With this limited information... what would you do? What would you have us do?" "I've been blessed, or cursed, in my lifetime to far to have faced a number of cataclysm, and have met others who have done the same. The thing we all have in common is that we don't know what to do, but we do something. We trust in each other, we follow our hearts, and we look for friends. We do whatever we can, whatever it takes to make sure that those who put us down, who try to control us, who try to hurt us and those we care about, ensure they fail. We don't know how much time we have, and we don't know if we're going up against an entire... people? There are so many unknowns; if you're intending to go to Ruidus, then you can't do it alone."

Keyleth will reach out to allies, friends, trusted contacts to see who's willing to connect with the Bells Hells and work toward the same cause (though the Hells, and the majority of the fandom, seem to be very uncertain of what that cause specifically is).

It's wild to me that everyone is talking about how Imogen is the most anti-god out of all of them while Laudna is right there, with Marisha's doubt of the Exandrian pantheon baked flawlessly into her character.

Ashton brings up the Hishari, how they were born into the cult, and Keyleth seems genuinely intrigued and curious beyond her general aloofness toward the Hishari. She asks for Ashton's hand -- "I'll have you know, sometimes this goes very poorly, and it's nothing personal."

As motes of energy swirl, the glass in Ashton's head sparkles faintly, and there is a deep warmth in their chest. For a moment, they feel like nothing could move them, and Keyleth opens her eyes. "You carry a power I cannot recognize, and a power I can, but seldom feel. Your blood carries elemental power, but not that of the normal genasi; you carry a fragment of primordial capability within you. The best way I can describe it is that you are titan of blood. A friend of mine once carried an artifact that bore the shard of one of the titans (Grog's titanstone knuckles); your potential is vast and frightening, and I'm glad to have you at Orym's side." Ashton shows her the symbol on their jacket, which they've dreamed for their whole life: it resembles the Ashari crest, with emphasis on the earth part. Keyleth looks like she's simultaneously is frustrated and has had an epiphany. "Maybe it came at a great cost, but the Ashari did something." "Yeah. Apparently."

As per rumor, the leader of the Hishari (Ashton's father) had the blessing of Evantra'vir, though some of that has been disproven. But regardless, Ashton's symbol resembles the Ashari one but is exactly the Hishari one, and Keyleth remarks that it seems that a fragment of Issylra's eidolons latched itself to Ashton's being. She is uncertain whether the eidolon's power and the Luxon's "get along."

In order for Ashton to have been imbued with the power of the eidolons, the Hishari "must have had something that held the essence of the ancient Primordials" that Keyleth has no understanding of nor idea of where they could've found it. SOUNDS LIKE A LUXON BEACON TO ME--

Evantra'vir, who was once themself a Gau Drashari, is the Great Tree of Atrophy, a powerful tree spirit whose roots "wind through the realms of life and death to watch over the spirits beyond." It resides on an island within the Shattered Teeth.

That motherfucker is absolutely the remains of the Tree of Names, right? A tree of atrophy that guards the line between life and death, sitting at the top of an island in the middle of the Shattered Teeth where Avalir crashed? PLUS its name bears resemblances to Atropos, an Elder Evil.

Laudna proposes that they combine pieces of god power with pieces of primordial power in order to take on Ludinus. Meanwhile, FCG is considering attempting to repair the Schism. Which, y'know, if it gets the job done then I guess--

"It's not about the gods. It's about Exandria." THANK YOU, Ashton, someone finally fucking said it--

Hold on, why is Imogen bringing up people connected to the gods losing their power? Have we seen any evidence of that whatsoever?

Regardless, they're all in agreeance for the moment. It doesn't matter whose team you play for, whether you're for or against the gods, for or against the Primordials -- the Ruby Vanguard, Ludinus, needs to be taken down and Predathos cannot be released.

(Ima be completely honest, Orym multiclassing into paladin was my favorite possible multiclass up until now. But Ashton multiclassing into druid is looking more and more appealing, tbh.)

Keyleth points them to the island of Slival in the Shattered Teeth. She sought answers to her grief there, and though she found not the ones she was searching for, she found [a "therapist", a specialist on loss and grief].

Are we finally going to the Shattered Teeth? Is this campaign going on a world tour of Exandria??

Regardless, the Shattered Teeth were created when two primordial titans were demolished, and the entire region was shrouded in residual elemental energy.

OH!! Ludinus' vest! They pull out Ludinus' harness, thinking that Keyleth might know what it is or what it was for. She looks over the notes and at the device itself. "He used this to draw the natural magics of fey entities, that are very tightly connected to the natural magics of Exandria. We Ashari, who bind with the natural world, life a long life because they give into these magics and become one with them. He is mimicking the druidic extension of life." Ahhhh, so it's a life extender. So this motherfucker could be millennia old, since he's technically still within the normal lifespan of an elf.

She picks out one line from the notes: feed the root. There's a saying within the Ashari that "the center of where your connection to nature is, is the core of your being. We refer to that as our root. It is often considered to be right around the back of the neck, where the head joins the rest of the body, not far from the heart."

I will also point out: "the back of the neck, near the heart" is precisely where a humanoid's silver cord originates when they're in an astral projection state. That point is the tether from the body to the soul.

Keyleth also implies that Vax'ildan has personally seen to the fact that the Matron's rites of ascension have been erased from all knowledge.

Imogen asks Keyleth if she thinks there's time enough for them to go to the Shattered Teeth, and Keyleth doesn't know. No one can know. But what they do know is that they have not improved their capabilities enough since the fight at the Malleus Key to take on Ludinus again.

Even though Laudna seems to be pretty damn anti-god, she still knows full well that Predathos and Ludinus are worse than them all, and decides that stopping them is the immediate goal.

.....Chetney unironically suggesting repairing and then using Ludinus' vest to do the exact same thing that Pelor threatened to do to Deanna is peak comedy

Still, they need to gather allies, pool resources. They suggest Milo, Imahara Joe, Hexum, and D. Keyleth, I think, suggests finding parties of high-level adventurers like Vox Machina and the Mighty Nein and the Pansophical. But FCG decides to scry on D, because they have been around for a very long time.

D fails his save! He's walking near a shore, on a road traveling over hills by a cliff topped with tropical trees. FCG doesn't recognize it specifically, but the location is eastward of Tal'dorei, and coastal. On description, Chetney immediately recognizes the scenery as the Menagerie Coast.

Hey, can someone get a count of how many words Liam said in-character this episode? Because I feel like it's less than 50.

FCG scries on Dancer. She's half-dressed, asleep, passed out over the side of a worn couch.

FCG uses divination. "If I wanted to find someone to repair this specific thing [Ludinus' vest], where would I go?" There's a gentle wind that perpetually sits around Keyleth; but in it, FCG hears elements of a voice. "The path with one from your past, you are most bound to." That could mean anything.

They do it again! "Oh, Changebringer! Would you say I'm more bound to Dancer or to D, and please don't say you're more bound to the one that starts with a D? And I love your hair, by the way, it's beautiful!" "The path to the mind of that which gave you life, renewed."

Fuck, man, this is what happens when no one in your party has an intelligence score above 15

"Maybe the Changebringer is trying to tell you that either one could help you!" Wow. Okay. Imogen just fully summarized this entire conversation in one sentence, huh?

They cast divination again! "Is it Dancer?!" "The road you seek will guide you to the one whose name beigns with a D." YUP! There's a cumulative 25% chance that, after each consecutive casting, divination returns a random result. (A long rest resets it.)

Orym turns to Keyleth. "Believe me, I've seen these people do great things." "I've traveled with people similar in the past... I'll tell you a story about a goldfish sometime."

And for the last part of the episode, we go shopping to recuperate and collect supplies.

Keyleth tells Orym to feel, control, use, and finally laud over his anger. She tells him that the strength of the collective Ashari are his, and his own bravery is collectively theirs. That some days, it doesn't feel fair; some days it never is; but when the others rally, they will help him carry that weight. "Orym of the Air Ashari... you are a paragon of the memory of dear Derrig and his son, your partner, Will. You are a heart buffeted by the winds of change and the cold of reality, yet you continue to move forward. You are hope. You are Orym, my friend. You are Orym, the Savior Blade of the Tempest. And you are never alone." "It all feels real heavy, and I'm real small... but I'll try, as we grow together. I'll try to do you and Derrig proud." "I know you will. And if it helps, I watched someone even smaller than you speak a few words and send a newly born god to a realm he'll never return from. So, I think you're much biggero n the inside than you give yourself credit for." "Some days I believe that." "On the days that you don't, it's up to you (she looks at the Hells) to let him know."

The Bells Hells filter out of the room, Keyleth takes her headpiece away, and the door swings closed.

Laudna suggests they all get tattoos, Orym and Ashton go to pick up their new outfits, and tomorrow, they head to the Menagerie Coast.