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12pt-times-new-roman · 2 months

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They pull the bodies into the portable hole, and plan to lie to the approaching Vanguard members that FCG is a piece of malfunctioning farm equipment that caused the fireball and subsequent stampede. But among them is Evon Hytroga, the museum curator whose collection Hexum hired them to "rob." Imogen successfully convinces him that the Bells Hells also joined the Vanguard -- "what, are you surprised you had such good taste?"

Hydroga is desperately homesick, and Imogen takes advantage of that to convince him to allow the Bells Hells to join the caravan. She also manages to convince Hydroga's party -- against a 25 DC-- that the Willmaster was last seen running away from the stampede.

Meanwhile, they open up the portable hole where they'd put all the unconscious bodies, and Ashton immediately gets dominated by the reiloran and takes a round of attacks against Imogen. But since everyone in the hole is still very injured, they knock them out and bind them pretty easily.

They decide to use Ludinus' syphon on the Willmaster. Orym wears it, and they put the Willmaster's hand against it for a minute -- not enough to destroy her, but enough to take away her powers for 24 hours so they can question her.

As soon as the Willmaster touches the syphon, the runes light up, and Orym feels an icy-hot sensation. He can't move, the syphon is locking him and the Willmaster in place -- he is bound to the process as energy seeps from the Willmaster's form into the funnel and then into Orym. After a minute, they have to pull the Willmaster away from the syphon, and Orym gains the ability to cast dominate person once. (It's implied that if they had let the hour-long process complete, Orym would've gained the spell permanently as a once-per-long-rest feature.)

The interrogation begins: (Orym holds dominate person for the first few questions)

[What do you aim to do with the One Who Sleeps?] "To wake it." [What do you intend Predathos to do?] "Predathos is the heart of our people. Predathos is what has made us into what we are. We are its children, and it wants to be awake. It wants to feast, and when the gods are gone, the world the Blue Promise, will be ours." [What do you intend for those who live there now?] "Well, there are not many of us, and there are many of them. Some would like to live in harmony. Others know the nature of violence that they carry. We are not all that different. So perhaps we carve a place that is ours, and then we talk." [Why are you waiting for Predathos?] "So much of the strength of your world lies in its divinity, and the power granted by the deities. If they are gone, the playground becomes more even." [What are you waiting for, what do you need?] (Orym's dominate person fades here.) "Wait and see." [Do you know what Imogen is?] "You are one of the exaltants, yes. You walk the path as intended. You will know, in time. You want to know. But I am done talking. My lips are dry, and I hate your words in my mouth."

They pull the new exaltant out of the hole, and close it with the Willmaster still in there. He's young, no older than sixteen, and very scared -- he has a Dynasty-adjacent accent.

He started having dreams, like part of him was being called to Marquet; he thought he was following his destiny, when he was brought to the bridge and taken over it as part of the caravan. He was to be brought to the Weave-mind for "exaltation," so they could teach him how to control his powers. He -- Petrov Godo -- was travelling under the Willmaster's protection, but Imogen convinces him that the Bells Hells are members of the Vanguard rooting out the Willmaster's corruption; they tell Petrov he'll be under their protection as they travel with the caravan, as long as he sticks to the story that the Willmaster ran away in the stampede.

Chetney, still in the hole with the other two prisoners, uses grim psychometry on Ludinus' harness: "You can see Ludinus wearing it, you're no longer in the hole but in a tower, a chamber, this massive, beautiful chamber. The harness is on you, you see chains pulled down from the ceiling, and the faintly glowing, beautiful, struggling fey creature with beautiful butterfly wings and long hair, like some kind of air nymph that is bound and held there. It tries to scream, but no sound emerges, its eyes fearful. You see yourself pour through a book, servants running around, conversation. You feel a sense of hunger. You approach and turn around, step back, and feel the runes light up, warm. The torso vibrates with energy, and you can feel the screams of the creature as its life-force is plucked from it. Like a charlie-horsed muscle, you can feel a lump at the base of the neck where the harness meets skin, and it thrums with power."

Petrov goes back in the hole and they bring out the half-orc, Verdo. They plan to use the same ruse on him: that the Willmaster was traitorous, and the Bells Hells were sent by Liliana to root her and her corruption out. He believes this, and goes along with them, but Imogen notices that he is not Ruidusborn; it seems that while Ruidusborn and exaltants are loyal to Predathos specifically, non-Ruidusborn members of the Vanguard are loyal to Ludinus.

They send Verdo and Petrov back to the caravan with the knowledge that the Willmaster disappeared in the stampede. Fearne and FCG accompany them, while the rest of the group stays behind to deal with the Willmaster. As they arrive at the caravan, they find Otohan there, though she hasn't seen them yet.

Nevermind, she sees them immediately, and it just so happens that the Bells Hells have sent the two most recognizable people to the caravan.

FCG takes the only route that gets them out of a death sentence: "We've been sent here by the one you want, Imogen, to arrange a meeting." It fails.

Otohan has a +6 initiative and 3 legendary resistances. She decides that she can't harm Fearne or Imogen by virtue of them being Ruidusborn, but FCG they can do without.

Fearne convinces Otohan that Imogen is gone from them, in Krevaris already.

FCG tries to banish Otohan at 6th level. She fails, but uses a legendary resistance. However, at 6th level, FCG can target 2 other creatures: themself and Fearne. They are drifting in a grayish space, together -- and they start transforming into clouds. Banishment lasts for a minute, and turning into clouds takes a minute. FCG got a telepathic message out, and the rest of the party starts turning into clouds in response -- but before that happens, Laudna uses hunger of the shadow on the Willmaster. She was at one hit point, so it kills her instantly -- Laudna hears the creaking of branches, the shadowed memory of a dead tree crawls past her shoulders as she feels the welcoming cold of Delilah fill her spirit. So much stronger than Laudna's pity is her hunger, and the Willmaster's reddish flesh turns to ash gray, the eyes go snow-blind. Before she fades, Laudna says, "your power should've been mine, not the halfling's." Delilah responds: "Very good. Very, very good, my dear. Now, on to the next."

""the halfling"" I swear to god--

They turn into clouds. Just as the banishment ends, FCG and Fearne transform, and there's already a search party scattered -- they both take a bit of damage, but they fly away, FCG barely standing -- and their 300ft speed outpaces Otohan, even though she tries to catch them with a massive leap that brought her 90 feet in the air. They're safe, reconvening with everyone else as mist -- for now.

It's not that Otohan can track Imogen, it's that something she did -- likely reaching out to Predathos -- sent up a ping to the Ruidusborn network.

They decide to head toward the city, but to make contact with the Volition outside of it rather than actually entering it like Otohan expects them to.

And now we're traveling, rolling for travel encounters while the cleric is out of spell slots. It's only a storm, though, and they take shelter. In a canyon/crevice, they find a river that barely crests the surface as it spirals underground. They follow the cave it carves into a chamber almost 300 feet down, where water is pooling; and beneath it, a submerged cave. (well, somebody read Underland.)

Fearne prepared water breathing! Excellent. So they all de-cloud, cast water breathing, and proceed to cave-dive.

As they enter the cave, its smells are familiar to Chetney -- less like Ruidus and more like Exandria. As they emerge in an open-air cavern beyond the subterranean caves, they see buildings, carved, man-made -- above them, what appears to be a temple, crumbled, embedded in the rock. It's of elven make, but very, very old -- pre-Calamity, at least.

They climb, and they can see greenery. Unique sections of enchanted gardens, giving off gentle glows from magical orbs. There's no sunlight here, there's not a lot of air, but something about the enchantments have provided everything necessary for growth.

There's no evidence of animal movement here, but there are bones: fossilized, embedded in the stone, not traumatic but as if they were transported along with the city, locked in a moment of time. The architecture here is prototypical of contemporary elvish buildings.

Chetney uses grim psychometry on the bones, but it fails -- "it's like grasping for a fleeting memory that's just beyond reach. You see images, flashes of a blue sky that goes red. Fear, acceptance, but nothing beyond feelings and emotions. The rest just slips away, too old or too alien for you to grasp."

They continue to explore deeper, going along the cave, and come upon a garden with berries remaining on the bush. To the right, there is a delicate, faintly-painted, well-crafted doll. Elven features, gentle eyes, long ears, golden hair, a disheveled blouse -- a child's toy. Laudna picks it up and takes it with her. (something something about Laudna assigning the role of a child to other people because she refuses to assign it to herself, yada yada)

An investigation check reveals that there is either some volcanic activity here, causing the creation of glass, or the sheer amount of heat generated by Ruidus' formation caused parts of this structure to fuse when it was sheared from Exandria.

(also, all the berries are goodberries! they collect them all to restore some hitpoints.)

There is no rainfall on Ruidus as far as they've seen, so this water must be coming from somewhere, and Orym thinks that the spring of this river -- just upstream from them -- is the portal to Exandria that produces the spring.

Fearne transforms into a salmon to swim upstream, and eventually gets there: 80 feet up-stream, she breaks into still water, with light above -- and breaching the surface, she sees cloudy gray day, in a space she doesn't recognize, in a forest with snow falling in the distance -- Exandria.

#critical role #note watches c3 #critical role spoilers #critical role campaign 3 #critical role c3 #critical role liveblog

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