100 Part 1 - The Song of Spheres

Wow guys, we're here. This is episode 100 of the Hittiest Laughter podcast. I just got to say I can't believe we're here. I'm so pleased to be producing this podcast every week and I really am so glad that you guys are enjoying it. I thought I might write something down for what I wanted this intro to be, but there's too much to say at the top of an episode like this and I kept trying and trying to write it. I figured it would come off better if I just kind of said what I wanted to say. So I wanted to start this episode with talking about what this podcast means to me. It's one of those things. It's a project that we had really humble beginnings for none of us thought that this would go on for as long as it did or we would create the community we have around listening five idiots play Pathfinder and shoot the shit and have a couple drinks around the table. This has been one of the biggest artistic expressions I've ever been able to do. I think it was episode one when we talked about how none of us are artists or even do creative things by trade and this has been such a huge creative outlet and to get to share that with people as well as just have a record of it is one of the things I'm most proud of that I've done in my life let alone in the past couple of years. And so one thing I want to say up at the top here is how incredibly proud I am of Emily Brooks, Steve and Haley coming together every week putting in so much hard work both for the show and for the story and for spreading the word of the show for creating a community for keeping up with the sometimes mundane stuff like social media without the help of the four of them. I could never have done or made anything this good let alone this okay. So to you guys thank you so much and I also just wanted to thank you the listener. I mean your support has meant the world to us and I know I can speak for the rest of the group because we all know it's true. Those of you that started listening to us in the beginning to those of you that are just picking up the show now maybe you're listening to episode 100 way down the road from when it released even still I mean your support means the world to us your friendship means the world to us it's I mean I do consider those of you in the carrying crowd crowd my friends I never thought creating this thing that we would also be creating a community of like-minded folks I've met so many friendly and wonderful people through this podcast and that's my favorite part of it. Yes it's a creative outlet and everything else but I've met so many more people in these almost two years of playing carrying crown then I would have doing almost anything else and so I just want to say thanks I mean you guys have done so much for us thank you for listening thank you for spreading the word thank you for you know supporting us financially or artistically or or just being there being a sounding board being a person that is a part of this community it's it's really heartwarming but I I knew I might ramble on a little bit so guys I'm so excited to give this to you a lot of hard work went into episode 100 and I really truly hope you enjoy here's episode 100 part one the song of spheres do you like liquor and things that go boom then book an uplismer because this wants for you prepare yourself for the hideous laughter podcast hey everybody and welcome back to the hideous laughter podcast episode 100 let's go yeah so at the top of this episode I wanted to start off by telling you guys that I love you that I love this group that I'm proud of everything we're doing here I think this is this is a huge achievement Griffin you're getting emotional I know I haven't even had any drinks but yes I'm so excited for this I'm I'm ready I hope you guys are ready I think our faith faith oh boy fearless leader sure start good for the thank you well let's get our drinks so Emily as our resident drink chooser theme picker what are we drinking at the top of this and not what everybody is drinking but what was the theme for this the spoiler alert first part of episode 100 we got a really great suggestion from Eric that we each make our own drink based on our character so we've all come up with a new drink and we'll explain what the drink is and why we picked it and the ingredients that went into it well since you're talking what are you drinking Emily well my drink I call fria a pretty simple nice name so from my beverage since fria is a follower of arastill I wanted something simple clean and crisp with some ingredients that I actually grew myself so I have vodka infused with basil and rosemary from my garden and then some lime in there to cut the herb flavor and then just a little bit of tonic water so it's a pretty simple drink but it's actually really good and kind of herbal earthy taste to it nice I like that hey she's known as the gasoline queen but I I tried it last night it's really good yeah I hated on that infute basil infusion I drink my words okay I mean that's a that's a good thing to hear that's a compliment yeah I've come a long way in a hundred episodes Emily used to drink the worst shit just think of where I'll be at episode 200 very refined the most refined of us speaking of the most refined of us hey Brooks wow that was kind of off-handed what do you drink it dude certainly surprising so I was having a lot of trouble with this the ikmeriest thing that I could think of as far as a drink would be a logger in the tanker but that's lame as hell and so I brought a spotted cow because it's unique but I really wanted something else that was a little bit off putting it first but then really grows into something you needed the whole time and that's tequila it where the tequila moon or else just yeah just tequila nice all right uh Steve what you got sure so matoomba doesn't drink alcohol which of course right away is a problem for me but I do so I am drinking a gin drink gin is my favorite hard liquor I was trying to find something good from a tombay couldn't find it until I abandoned the idea of looking for a gin drink and just searched for drinks for a funeral oh boy what and I found a a a a drink that actually checks the gin box called death by gin so it's a bunch of gin with with st. Germain so an elderflower lecourt some lemon juice and bitters and you guys were wondering where we're gonna be in episode 200 I'll likely be dead so yeah that's that's pre potent but I'll take it okay speak it a pretty potent hey Haley hey what you drinking um so I again I had a couple different phases and eclipse life that I was trying to think about a drink, right? I could do right now where she was when she first met the party or her childhood or even before she came to this kind of area as a whole. So which would be even earlier on her childhood. I wanted to get all the way back to kind of where she's from. She's from Tienja and specifically like liings are in our real life. Like it's an actual life. They are a part of like Indonesian culture. So I actually looked up because Pathfinder doesn't have a lot of information about Tienja besides like they like tea which isn't helpful. It's surprisingly not helpful. So I looked up some Indonesian drinks and I did find one that sounded really good. It has white rum, mango, coconut milk and some older flour look or so it is actually incredibly good. It's very it's actually lighter than I thought it'd be. It's really good though. What's it called? Do you know? I don't know because I kind of I don't remember exactly the name. I thought we looked it up earlier and it was something like the eclipse or something. That's all that coconut milk. So I don't have a character that I play solely on this show. I play everyone else and so I was thinking about something that would help me in that endeavor. I think through this episode 100 I'm going to be doing a lot of talking and so I call this the vocal cord revitalizer. It is mint cucumber vodka, a bit of water, some lime juice and a couple of fresh sprigs of mint and I think it's going to do me well. You'll see in about two minutes why I need something that is going to cleanse my palate and really help me speak. Well everyone cheers 100 cheers cheers it's been great. So we left episode 99 with some revelations. Ickmer met his father. You guys know that you need to go to Feldgrow not only for Ickmer to claim his title as the pack lord of the shutter would but also to stop the whispering way who has created a foothold in that town. Rick met Ickmer's father told you that if you're going to be successful and that's a big if just to begin with you're going to need a little bit of help from the divine. You have a scroll that will allow you to commune with Desna at the top of the stairs of the moon in the observatory known as high throne by activating the dusk moth one of her holiest relics and so you do where we left off you climb the tower and you entered with some of the princess wolves there to assist you as you perform the ritual. You arrive in the morning but we find our characters now looking up through the observatory glass and into the sky as it darkens. You each feel the chill of a crisp night on your skin and the sky above you deepens in color starting as a dark royal blue the heavens take on a rich indigo hue then shift even deeper to purple finally settling into an almost lightless black. One by one stars begin to fill the infinite void above you illuminating the inky blackness in between. Finally the north star sinusure begins to grow it's pale light washing high throne with a radiance out shining even the brightest of the other stars in the night sky. As the north star descends the shape of a beautiful elven woman begins to appear from its heart. She wears a coy half smile and a slender blue gown hugging her figure. As if all lending to her brightness each of the other stars in the night sky seems to duplicate a perfect copy of itself and these newly formed pinpricks of light descend to the emerging woman coalescing around her form into butterfly wings. The wings appear blindingly resplendent behind her washing her in flattering tones but with the deep negative space of the night sky within the wings forming whirls and patterns a sharp contrast to their starlight edges. As the slender elven woman steps out of sinusures brilliant aura the celestial body itself scatters into thousands of shimmering butterflies fluttering up to join their main stars in the night sky. The beautiful elven woman starlight wings beat slowly as if to keep her aloft though her body levitates perfectly in the air. And then she speaks. I appear before you travelers to thank you for restoring the sanctity this place once held. I've missed having a temple for travelers to rest their weary heads within this dangerous wood. Woods where neither sunlight nor starlight in the night sky reaches all the way to the forest floor. My followers don't often construct temples this grand you know. So there are a few places like this in the known world. She chuckles to herself and the coy half-smile reappears on her face. I have many names but you may call me by the one most widely known to the people of this world, Dezna. I've been expecting you for some time long before you entered these woods all those days ago and even longer than when you all set foot on this nation soil for the first time. Although none of you identify as a dedicated follower of mine, I feel that I must deliver a message to you from the gods. For you have drawn the attention of our mighty Pantheon. They call you "saviors of the living". Upon saying this her demeanor shifts. Wings still beating albeit more deliberately now as if to become a bit more reserved. Allow me to explain myself for you certainly don't know what's in store for you. Having attracted the notice of the divine, I gift unto you a glimpse of what could be. Though your ultimate fate remains a mystery, do not fear what you see for the future is perpetually in motion. What you will each experience is only one of an infinite number of possibilities, a flicker of a star's light across the night sky, as fleeting as a dream but no less possible than any future that may come to pass. As she says this, your vision fades. And the four of you smell forest, but also the smoke of a peaceful campfire. The succulent meat of a wild animal crackles on a spit above the flames. Matune Bay eclips an nightmare, familiarity sets in as you slowly realize when you look across the flames that this is the last time you made camp with Lira. Unlike the first time though, something is different. Instead of sitting in a circle around the warm glow of the fire, all three of you are on the same side of the blaze, looking across a campfire to your late companion. Lira, her face lit from below by the jumping flames, looks directly into the eyes of Ickmer, her eyes unblinking, and lines of worry stretch across her forehead. She mouths something, but no sound escapes her lips. All you hear are the flames, and an increasingly loud crackling of roasted meat. The light intensifies, and the animal on the spit begins to catch fire itself. Lira pulls a card seemingly at random from her herodec. She shows it to you, and once again you see the Prince of Wolves. But this time the tiger no longer stalks the wolf. Both animals stand atop the hill, locked in bloody combat. The wolf appears more monstrous and less humanoid than ever before, and the tiger's head has grown devil horns and barbs protrude all over its body. Both animals dripping gore from their mouths and are covered in grievous wounds, apparently inflicted on each other with the shape of a crown hanging in the burning sky above both. Where once wolves alone surrounded the hill in a ring, those wolves are now locked in a deadly combat amongst themselves and shambling corpses that appear to be clawing at the backs of the creatures otherwise occupied with fighting each other. Suddenly, your vision stretches and the flames elongate as you're pulled across the fire and into the Prince of Wolves' card itself. Your world becomes the pain on the card and everything around appears as the creation of some mad artist. The tiger and wolf made of brushstrokes are still locked in a desperate conflict, but now you can see much more than just the hill they stand on and the battle between the wolves and the dead just immediately around them. As far as the eye can see, stretches a decimated town of painted buildings, all colors seem to run together at their edges. Splashes of red oil paint crash from the heavens as if some godlike painter is raining artistic blood down on the wolves in the dead. The blood paint smearing the landscape creating sick tie dyes of scenery and creatures. Though seemingly not real, the paint smells coppery like blood and the shambling caricatures of the dead wreak of rot and decay. The wolves and the dead continue to crash into each other in this mad man's wonderland, becoming less and less distinct from each other, the longer you watch. Even the tiger and the wolf, once so diametrically opposed, are becoming one smear of red. You turn towards a dilapidated tower, seemingly in shambles before its colors have begun to run with the landscape, sagging under its own weight, the brown of the wood mixing with the grays of stone and the oily red of blood. Suddenly the heat you've been feeling fades and an empty chill void takes its place. It's hard to draw breath anymore. Darker than any night, huge brushstrokes slash across the sky, leaving behind a writhing shadow looming over you. Beneath the shadow, a lone figure, features indistinct, exits the melting tower and raises a hand to the red paint, dissolving the structure he just exited. The red paint seeps into the ground and a mangled group of corpses erupts from the soft earth around him, themselves a mess of painted body parts, red stain and former wolves. Color begins to drain out of the environment and into the outline of the figures who raised these artistic abominations. Red eyes appear, burning against pale skin, and you can just make out the pearly white bones of his breastplate, beneath a vest made of stitched together skin. In the corner of your eye, you see a glint of steel and smell the noxious scent of chemicals before all goes black. Ickmer you find yourself alone in high throne. This monument that you know your people have used for centuries as a place where royalty sits and where royalty leads. And you hear footsteps on the cobblestone as desna appears before you. Hello there young man. I know what I've shown you is probably a little unsettling. How are you? Um, I'm pretty good. Thanks for asking, desna. I'm a little surprised I figured I'd be walking up to you. You should be, I know, have our places switched or something. You are the God after all. Well, I've taken a bit of an interest in the saviors of the living. And you did call me here and I came when called. Are you aware of your fate? I mean, everybody keeps telling me that I need to become the Prince of Wolves. Is that what you mean? Well, yes, it is what you were born to do. It is what your strand of fate has within it, but it is still a choice that you have, dear boy. How do you feel about that? Well, I'm not going to lie. It's certainly a lot going on and is a lot to process and things, apparently, move pretty quick. I did not expect to be in this position, but I would be happy to help more people and where Wolves alike and make sure I guess everybody gets along. You have a sweetheart for someone that's been through as much as you have. It surprises me, but it also delights me. I think you have the makings of a good ruler, a just ruler. Probably that puts themselves before the people they lead. Well, thank you very much. That's very kind of a god to say to me. I'm going to hold onto that one for a while. Yeah, catch a golden star and put it in your pocket. Save it for a rainy day. I mean, when in the stars, I guess you got to collect them where you got them. But it was an extremely hard childhood and growing up. If you knew what my path was, at least, going to partially be, why did the gods make me learn everything on my own? I could have had somebody there to at least help and I had to do it all on my own and it hurt. You can see her smile kind of drop a little bit, but she looks at you and her gaze seems very serious. Heck, my right, I don't think you would be the same man that you've become without all of that. If you had someone guiding you, they might have taken you on a different path. The path you're on now is the one you forged alone, the one you forged yourself and the one you forged with the friends that you chose, the family that you chose. I mean, I guess I can't really argue with the god, but I mean, all of this, like I said, moving so quickly, I don't lead anybody right now. I don't have any experience with all of this. I don't certainly don't lead our group of friends or anything like that. I'm not supposed to lead everybody else. I think you'll learn to lead. You're the kind of man that learns from experiences every cut and bruise you've gotten has made you a stronger fighter, a stronger protector. And I think you'll lead this way too. You may stumble, you may fall, but Iqmer, you always get back up. Yeah, I guess that's true. The gods and you and the other gods have made sure I do that. That's for sure. Just kind of wish it hurt less, you know? I think she, her smile returns. I want to offer you a little bit of divine help then, since you feel you haven't had any so far. Maybe it will make you a more confident leader. Draw your sword, Igmer. And he does so slowly and very deliberately. Now in order to lead, you're going to have to look the part. And we can't have a mighty leader without a legendary sword. And holy light, coalesce is around the blade. The handle morphs and it becomes the shape of a crescent moon. The blade itself takes on this pale silvery glow. It looks almost like the reflection of a full moon off the water. You see, designed on the blade itself, the stages of the moon. You will use this sword to lead. You may lead peacefully, but those beneath you know, or will come to know that a mighty leader carries a mighty blade. Beyond that, well, look at you, look at what you're wearing. This armor is not befitting someone as good and just as you are, Igmer. It looks like you're wearing some evil man's armor, and we can't have that. And the light coalesces on your half plate as well and those infernal insignias and the kind of depictions that were on your black armor morph. And the color itself morphs too. Again, matching the blade, a pale silvery color that looks like reflected moon light. There is one thing I think will truly help you beyond these items, items are fleeting. You've been having some trouble adjusting to becoming all of these changes happening at once. What if I could fix that? I can't possibly say no to that. You've already given me so much, of course, absolutely. And so she produces a cluster of stars from her hand and you watch them rise into the air and you watch them leave the observatory outside of high thrown and they kind of form a circle and within the circle the full moon appears. And you feel yourself change, but this time nothing hurts, nothing feels off. It feels completely natural to you. As you become the full-blooded werewolf you were meant to be. No more corruption. Oh shit. I'm all. This is the best. I'm so excited. And she smiles at you, Ickmer and says, "I hope beyond hope that all of this has made you a bit more confident." Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much. Trust me, I won't let you down. Right and just, one hundred percent away, nothing to worry about. That's good to hear, I'm sure, Sheyland will be pleased as well. She sends her regards. She saw her as she couldn't be here for this, but you didn't climb her tower, did you? No, but definitely not. This is just all too kind. Well, I guess you know that it's extremely surprising for me to be receiving these gifts from you. While other, I guess my path has been so hard up till now, and I don't expect it to be easy from here on now, but definitely easier and I seem to be rambling a little bit. That's okay, Ickmer, you do that. The kindness I've given you here, I hope you will spread throughout these woods. I don't know your true path, not for certain, but I believe in you. With that, we would fade, and Ickmer, you would fade off, you'd see the smiling face of Desana just, and she'd kind of wave at you, but then everything would go black. Because he's being pulled away, he says, "A really pretty." And now the four of you, hear the heavy crashing of waves on rocky shores as a salt-tinged wind cuts beneath your armor, finding its way into every crevice and stinging what skin is left exposed. The setting you find yourself in is some sort of rocky cave at sea level, only illuminated by the dim light reflecting off the water, which itself recedes every few moments before the next wave crashes in. The ocean seems angry, but it can't quite seem to flood out the cavern in its entirety. Salt spray, coat your hair, collect on your lips, burn your eyes, soak to the bone and waste deep in the roiling surf, you come to realize that you're not alone. You seem to be non-participating, unnoticed members of some sort of ceremony, but more likely some sort of cultist ritual. Dark robe figures chant in a low hum, and ethereal energy plays with the shadows thrown off the water on the ceiling of the cave. Looking at the head of the dark figures is a man cloaked in holy robes of blue and gold, his back facing you and the group. As he turns to the crowd, you see in his arms is a crying baby wrapped in the same color blue and gold adornments. The corners of his eyes narrow knowingly and for a moment all the echoing sound in the cave cuts out. Suddenly, the man raises the child up, shouts a torrent of unintelligible words in an other worldly tongue, and the largest wave yet crashes into the cave, submerging you and all present, even the babe held high above the heads of the others. There is no sound underwater, and this time the sea doesn't recede to make way for another wave. When you hear it, the singing of a child. Freya, even underwater, you alone recognize this song. It's a rhyming tune, Mikael's daughter would often sing when he brought her around. Is it a lullaby, a nursery rhyme, something she made up by herself? You think you might have known at one point, but you just can't seem to recall now. What you do remember though, is the letter you were tasked with, and you remember Lira. Funny, you've been underwater for a few moments, but haven't thought to breathe. Strangely enough, your lungs don't ache for fresh air. Is this what it's like for the fish of the ocean, the seaweed and the coral, the sirens and the sea creatures? No longer surrounded by the cultists, your friends, or even in the same cave, your vision dips further below the waves, deeper and deeper into the inky-expans until the sun is nothing more than a faint memory. For a moment you forget the sun's purpose. All existence is you, suspended in pure homeostasis with the pitch black saltwater. Shouldn't the pressure this deep crush your bones to dust? Before you can puzzle out a response to your own question, light appears. A speck in the pure darkness of the deep ocean. Your drawn closer until the light forms itself into a cavern in the sea floor before you. Rainbow coral and bioluminescence sea life leading the way to its entrance like a candle placed in the window sill of a lonely inn, beckoning in weary travelers. You see pinks, greens, reds and purples, all awash with a constant green glow of bioluminescence algae and the dim light modes of anglerfish. As you approach the surreal seascape of color quickly drains and you feel as if your soul is doing the same. Your very essence retreating with the light and your body approaching the darkening underwater cavern. Leera's voice again pierces the silence. Suddenly reality breaks again and both you and Leera breach the surface of the water together, small waves tossing you about and no shore in sight. As you both gas for breath and cough up salty brine the water begins to boil violently around you as amorphous shadows rise too and fro beneath the depths. Leera looks at you but as she's about to speak a black shape erupts out of the foaming surf. You've never seen such a creature and have never learned the right words to describe it. The monstrosity hanging above you bellows and though it speaks in a collective of thousands of voices it has but a few words to share. You hear Leera's voice become more and more faint as the waves crash around you and you're separated in open water. The violence see holds no quarter or peace. If the sun was once a wake overhead it now slumbers. The ocean stretches for eternity but never meets the sky. Freya you find yourself alone in high throne. Then you see no sign of any of your friends. Then you feel a tap on your shoulder and you spin around quickly and you see Dezna once again smiling at you. Freya bows her head saying "It's an honor to have an audience with you. I'm afraid my actions are not deserving of your praise. I was not able to save Leera. I was too late. I was never even able to deliver her letter." And this vision is she in danger even in death. This is but one of many paths but it is one that is possible for you to tread. It appears that your late companion friend I don't know how close you were with the girl but she has some greater purpose as well and you may play a part in saving her from it. I failed her the first time. What can I do differently to make a difference? Among the saviors of the living you Freya are the most wise. You may not be the strongest in combat but you are the most capable to guide them. If what O dead eye has said about you is true you are a steadfast companion. They need someone like you whether they know it or not. If you hope to save Leera from whatever fate has been fallen her you need to use that wisdom. You need to guide the rest of your friends in that direction with you. We've formed quite the family. I won't be leaving him anytime soon. I've been saving this letter. I was planning on returning it to Mikael. I think we need the information more now. I'll do whatever I can to make sure I don't fail this time. I believe with a bit of luck you will succeed at your endeavors. And she places a hand on your shoulder. Use your wisdom to guide and the gods will provide. You see that on your breastplate and your holy symbol to the bow of a rastol changes. And it still forms a bow and arrow but the two parts of the bow that separate from the arrow turn into butterfly wings. And you channel the power of a rastol know that your channel in a bit of mine as well. Keep that in mind. It should provide you with the luck you need to succeed. Thank you for your generous gift. I'll use it well. The image of the rastol's holy symbol intermixed with desna is kind of burned into your vision as you fade out of the scene. And all of you fade in and see that the sunrise peaks over buildings and blinds you. As you find yourselves at the entrance to an alleyway. You don't know what town this alley belongs to, even though everything looks strangely familiar. Not yet touched by the warmth of the morning sun's rays, blood seeps in between the cobblestones and runs in rivulets down ruts created by decades of wagon wheels. The blood appears to lead to lifeless corpses discarded further down the alley, pale and seemingly drained of their fluids. Oddly drawn to the carnage, you approach with eyes locked on the dead. You stride forward at a normal pace, but time around you seems to briefly accelerate, though no sign of life emerges from the surrounding houses or shops. By the time you reach the bodies, the sun is crested far enough over the top of the adjacent buildings to not only wash over you, but to shorten the shadows in the alley as well, until the entirety of the way is illuminated. Under the revealing light of the morning sun, horror develops before your very eyes. The blood on the cobblestones has solidified to a sticky rust-colored substance, and the body is once dry and desiccated before you begin to dissolve into ash under the sun's rays. Though silence once filled the alley, the quiet is broken by an unnaturally amplified sound. Teeth, tumble and click on the warm stones. Are they fangs? Suddenly perspective shifts again. Take my refrain and eclipse find themselves seated side by side in a dark-brand hall. The hall seems regal, but the brazier's lining it appears if they haven't been lit in centuries. Dark art and stained glass scenery adorn the walls, but there isn't enough light to illuminate the subject matter portrayed. Looking down, the three companions find themselves seated at the foot of a long table, stretching into the distance. with indistinctly pale gaunt figures occupying the other chairs. A man at the head of the table stands to address the guests, but at this distance, Nodick Murr, Freya, Nora Clips, can hear his words or discern his features. As the three companions look around, someone's missing. Nowhere in the hall can they spy the distinct figure of their traveling companion, Moutoumbe. She won't let me show it to you. She doesn't want you to see. In Quizzar, your goddess is worried you will stray from your path. I will show you what I can for as long as I am able. You must observe what you can and commit it all to memory. Moutoumbe, you're now able to see your friends sitting at the end of a long table, but the rest of the room is a blur. You hear the muffled sounds of conversation, of agreement. Then you hear something clear as day, a little girl's voice. Daddy, help me. You look around for the source of the sound, but the room begins to warp around you. The table, once formed of hard timber, bends and morphs above the heads of the people's seat, it's becoming a thatch-roofed hut and all your comrades alive and well, but a moment ago, our corpse is on the ground in front of you. Daddy, help me. Daddy, please. You raise your holy text in your hands, beginning a prayer for Farasma's intercession, but the spiral forged onto the iron-bound tone begins to seer your way. The iron-bound tone begins to seer your flesh and distracts you from the liturgy you began to recite. Suddenly, the pages of the book flip open to the text. Not this year, not yet. You turn the pages rapidly, the burning sensation growing as you do. This is your book written in your handwriting in the languages you know, but every word and phrase replaced with the passage, not this year, not yet. Every bit of text has been replaced, printed passages, citations, hand-readed notes, everything. The young girl's voice gets louder. Daddy, help me. Daddy, please. Suddenly, as if bursting out of the air itself, Matune Bay appears before the rest of you in the Grand Hall, his body engulfed entirely in a pyre of white-hot flame that emanates from his hands. The holy tomah phrasma nowhere to be seen. One of the people at the table, a young mowangie girl you didn't notice before, jumps from her seat and shouts, "Daddy, let me help." The inferno burning up the very words from his lungs, Matune Bay silently screams a reply to this girl before collapsing. Flames strip every bit of flesh from his bones, then consume those as well. Nothing but ash falls to the floor of the Grand Hall. Nothing but ash and fangs. Be strong inquisitor of a phrasma, not this year, not yet. And Matune Bay, you go from feeling the white-hot flames surrounding you to staring desna in the face. Have you spent so much time in the heavens that your soul has left your body like you left us on the earth, that you would show me something like this ever since? I lost my baby girl. There's been in my chest a thundering pain. And you would show this to me now. Is there nothing left in your heart? What has happened to you? Matune Bay, I don't show you this to harm you, but to show you what is to come. And what is to come, that my goddess would leave me, that my friends could not see me stand in front of them. And when I do, they see me burn to death in front of my own child who has passed from this world so long ago, taken from my very hands. Matune Bay, you will eventually be faced with a choice. And that is one of your options. I keep trying to make the right choices. But the future, as you say, is always in motion. It seems as if so many people I have met keep telling me that everything happens for a reason, but the longer that I keep on this quest, the more I believe that those words are false, and not only falsehoods, but actual poison. I don't know where I am going, and I'm not sure that when I get to that choice, I will make the right one. I can feel the love you still have for your daughter. In the conviction, you feel to your lady of graves. But one day, these may not be feelings that you can have at the same time. One day, I hope to be able to learn the meaning of your words. I will commit them to memory. You have one of the strongest minds of all the mortals I've encountered. I trust that you will know when you've come to this choice, and you will calculate every option to make sure you make the best one. I will do what I can to help you in that endeavor. She puts out a hand and there's a fruit. You recognize it as one of the fruits local to the Moongi, something sweet, like a star fruit. If a mere mortal was offering me a fruit like this at this time, I would ask what sort of trickery it was. But this is part of my home. Thank you. And you take a bite and the juice kind of rolls down your chin and you feel this immense burst and flashes of experience of knowledge. It's as if you're being trained over and over in things that you only briefly understood before. You know kung fu. And Matumba, you feeling this rush of experience and knowledge, you feel a bit more ready to make that choice. Whatever it is, the path is unclear. But you know it's coming. I must thank you for your assistance. I know not what choice I must make or when I might make it, but hopefully with the gift you've given me I can be at least somewhat ready. Is when you meet mortals on this realm, even if they do not outwardly venerate you, do you ever grant requests of theirs, small ones? Mendee, that's something that many people call upon the gods to do. If you have the power to call us. I am a follower of the Lady of Graves of the venerable Phoresma. But what many do not know is much like I am a father, Phoresma is a mother. She has children and her youngest daughter, Atropo, is the one that helps decide the most difficult to judge fates of mortals that pass from our realm into the next. The souls of children. who have not yet lived their life. If I may ask of you, please, next time you intercede with Farasma, find out from Atchipo the fate of my beloved Giza and send me a sign. And once I beat up Mitsubi Nonsense had, then I would never ask a single thing of you again. And your vision fades. A gem-encrusted arch made of bleach bone stands before you on a patch of scorched ground surrounded by withered oak trees. Sickly ravens with matted feathers perch on crooked branches, their horse cries echoing in the still air. You walk towards the arch through this husk of a once beautiful grove and take a moment to observe the landscape through the atrophied trunks of the old oaks as your footsteps create swirls in the mist clinging to the hungry earth. The land beyond the grove is dead as well, drained and decayed from years of necromatic energy corrupting the lay lines that run through it. You continue to walk towards the arch for some time in silence. The four of you on the same path but somehow growing increasingly distant from one another. The same mist once lapping at your ankles begins to thicken and the deeper you travel into the grove, the deeper the mist gets over your waist, over your shoulders, over your heads. One by one you dissolve into the thickening fog. You've been traveling in this mist for what feels like forever. But abruptly in the blink of an eye, the four of you break through the clutches of the mist and reunited once again are rewarded with the resplendence of a beautiful ferrasmon church sitting in a verdant field. A massive stained glass serullian spiral gleaming in the afternoon sun on the tallest steeple. It spires stretch to the sky, and as you walk along the path towards the entrance, you can feel the churches holy aura wash over, the song of so many whipper wills guiding your wayward spirits home on what appears to be a beautiful summer day. Suddenly, as if from some sort of glamorous spell wearing off the visioned deteriorates, revealing a sad mockery of the grand chapel you once saw. In its place, the ruined remains of old monastery walls break from the dust, mason re-crumbling before you from neglect and shattered like jagged glass on a dirty bar room floor. The once lush field surrounding you becomes like the desiccated landscape you saw earlier outside of the atrophy grove. Several spiraling, monastic towers reach feebly upward, their upper levels crumbling away. Only the sharp blood stained blades affixed about the once-re-splendent cathedral give any hint that the area is more than just a forgotten fragment from an earlier time. So long do you smell wildflowers and honeysuckle, or hear whipper wills flitting in the breeze. Instead you smell the sickly sweet odor of death in the air, and hear the horse cries of feeding carrion birds as you approach the building. The closer you get, the more the gaping mall of the ruined entrance yons widen at you, like the door of a huge oven, an orange glow burning deep inside and pounding like an infernal heart. The heat builds from within, causing a sweat to form on your brow and run down your back. You almost feel as if your flesh itself is baking under your armor. The more you approach and the higher the temperature rises, the more that sickly sweet smell of decay blends with another smell. It's the smell of baking, though you can't place what deserts. The alive adribles from the corners of your mouth and your nostrils widen as you forget the smell of death and breathe the deep hints of vanilla chocolate and cinnamon enticing you to enter the oven and feast your eyes on what bakes within. Once more reality bends. The heat of the oven is replaced with cold and a chill wind bites at your exposed skin. No longer in the oven like a cathedral you descend on a crumbling city, a carcass of the humanity that once thrived there. Glorious towers now collapsed and crooked, not unlike the brittle ribcage of a toppled giant, flesh-rotting and picked away long ago. Bones left exposed. The towers seem bleached white, but the sun hides behind overcast clouds, only dimly illuminating the city below in a grey glow. Surprisingly enough, this husk of a town has streets alive with movement. Undead creatures move and swarm and masses, cresting and breaking over the toppled structures and broken buildings around a beacon-like spire in the center of the dead city. This once more and eight-tower of crumbling stone spears through the center of the city a jagged knife through where the heart of the city had it been a toppled beast would be. Its walls festooned with hanging chains and cruel barbed hooks impaling countless preserved corpses. A haze of dust perpetually falls from the towering obelisk, almost as if the stone itself is rotting. Its dust coating the undead masses below like fungal spores and washing all color away. A stairway of entwined skeletons spirals around the perimeter of the tower, their bones forming a path to send the structure, and swirling phantoms howl and scream in a furious storm of unquiet dead around the spires dizzying heights. The only entrance into the windowless tower appears to be a pair of massive doors at the fortress's base. The dead seem to part before you, and your steps leave footprints in the grey dust as more rains down from above like falling snow. The closer you get to the tower and deeper your journey into the bleach bones of the city, the louder the sound of huge beating wings. A shadow several buildings wide races past as a blast of purple flames momentarily blinds you. When you regain your vision, somehow you've been transported atop the tower face to face with an undead being crackling with a meyasma of arcane energy. Through a skinless mouth, the lich lets out rasping hideous laughter as it points towards you and lightning emanates from its gnarled finger, then once again, darkness. And as the darkness fades, eclipse, you find yourself, a top high throne, alone. But this feeling is different for you. You don't feel the presence of any of the spirits that have been along for your journey. It's eerily quiet in your head. And you hear the approach of someone and desna comes into view. Hello there, eclipse. Hello? I wanted to talk to you after everything I've shown you and your companions. I recognize an evil inside you, a corruption of your soul. And I wonder, after seeing where your path might lead, how you could tread that path with something like that living inside of you. Um, well, honestly, I'm not really sure exactly what you're expecting from us based on this. This is a lot, for anyone, regardless of what's going on inside. Well, nothing is expected of you, eclipse, but word is getting around about the four of you, pursuing the whispering way, the agents of death on glaring, the agents of undead, rather. I suppose if you weren't on our side, you might have found a temple of Urgothawa to commune with her. But instead you're here with your companions. and they seem to trust you enough. Well, I mean, ultimately, right? I want to be with friends and family, and I don't want to be alone. If this group of people here have become like a second family that I don't have anywhere else, I want to make sure I'm with them, regardless of what's going on in my head. Well, for you to follow where they tread, the things you've seen may come to pass. What I'm getting at a clip is I could help you remove the evil inside you, the spirit, sharing a body with yours. There's an issue with that, though. He has something I need from him. I don't know. Can I am I able to talk to him before I decide? I could bring him here and give you to a moment to speak. And with that, she disappears. And you hear footsteps on the stairs leading up to high throne. And what you see is a very flesh and bone, Vance. And he approaches you kind of cocks his eyes at you. He's not used to seeing you from the outside. What's going on, Eclipse? Well, here's the thing, Vance. You've been in my head for a little bit. I would like to think that I have become stronger for it, but I don't always know. And there is someone, a dozen of, to be exact, I talk to a god today. And she is willing to get rid of you. If I ask, and so I'm here to make you a deal. I think that we can be a fairly okay team when you're not trying to take over my body. And even sometimes when you do. But ultimately, the reason I might let you stay is because you know where my family is. And you've talked to them, and you can bring me to them. So what I'm asking of you is, promise me, no matter what happens, you bring me to them. It's the only thing that would get me to leave this group ever right now because this is the only family I have. But you know where my actual family is. My mom, my dad, and my brothers. And that's what I need from you in order to tell Desna, the god that can get rid of you. Remind me, reminding you there, that I want you to stay. Fine. Just say the word. I've already offered to take you. You just didn't seem no one to leave. And that's. A pretty bad thing to get rid of the guy that's helped you out so much, wouldn't it? I've gotten you this far. The reason you and your friends are still alive is because I've intervened. That's why I say I think I've been stronger for it. But I want to make this clear. It's in my own time. It's when I choose that we go and see my family. We don't. We're not killing the rest of the party to get there sooner. These are also my family. Fine. Yeah, that sounds uh, you know. Acceptable to me. You gotta promise me one thing too. When we get there. And when I show your family to you. That's it. I want a new fucking body. Got it? I think I could find a way to procure a body for you. Then it's a deal. Perfect. Thanks. And you, the lopper kind of. poofs into smoke. And Desna appears back. Well, have you made a choice then? Yes. He has something that I need still. So I'm not ready to give up his presence yet. But it's difficult for sure. Well then, the least I could do is offer you the strength to fight your inner demons. And she touches your armor. And you feel it shimmer with a ghostly energy. And then that extends to the rest of your body too. And you become ethereal. And you see high-throwed now through shades of grey. And then you pop back. It's as if you're shifting between planes. Well, that's going to be interesting. Thank you. You're welcome. Take care of your. Family. I will do everything I can. And everything fades to black. And you guys open your eyes collectively and you're looking out now at a night sky. You started this ritual in the morning. But you're flat on the ground looking up through the observatory at the night. And there's another thing you kind of feel as you stretch from laying on cold stone for probably hours. And lift yourselves up. Feel stronger. Feel like you might have leveled up. Yeah, I do. And as you get up, you look at Ickmer now. And he's wearing this resplendent armor that looks just like the armor on the Prince of Wolves. The first time you drew the card. Pale is the moon light. But seeming to sparkle with the light of so many stars. And that's not the only thing that's changed about him. He's in hybrid form. And it doesn't look like it's awkward for him to be there. Doesn't look like he's angry. Doesn't look like he's upset. Like the many times you've seen him change before. You also see Rick met there. Kind of just staring. Dumb struck at Ickmer. It looks like he has a mix of pride and almost reverence in his eyes as he looks at you. I was worried something had gone wrong. Four of you went down. You didn't get up for almost a day. "Day? What happened? Did you see her?" "And I think maybe. ickmer being very resplendent now. Ritunbe looks like he's about to answer, but the first toickmer. Is his dad after all?" "Yeah, dad. We. we saw her." "What was it like?" "It was certainly strange being in the stars and among them and it's also very strange to actually talk to a god." "Where you polite?" "I told her she was pretty as I was leaving. So yeah?" "I would have done the same." "And he nudges his dad like, "Ah, what father like son, right?" "The real charmer's here." "The real charmer's." "But he also gave me a lot of hope. There's still a lot of struggle ahead, but there's also some good." "And in his current hybrid form he really embraces the teeth and showing them off and almost like stretching out his arms and legs like they're brand new." "And he's revitalized. You look strong son, you." "I don't know that we've ever had a pack of lords that looks as capable as you do right now." "It's going to be an honor fighting by your side and I was given the strength from Desna to be able to lead." "And I should be watching over making sure that we stay on the right path." "That's good to hear. And the rest of you, I assume she spoke to you all. Were you granted boons in order to take fel-grow?" "Topple, the whispering way." "I don't think that mine were necessarily specifically for that, but I did get some boons to help me in my life. And I think that I have a little bit more abilities now." "I'm just good to hear." "I also converse with this mother of dreams. She answered a few of my questions but left me with him anymore and I'm afraid some of the visions we shared showed a very ominous future." "However, I feel stronger today than I did the day before. And though we knew our fate would lead us to fel-grow, it has no longer just become a possibility but a reality." "The town stands before us. This is where we must go. This is where we will have our final fight, at least for now." "Desna granted me the wisdom to make it through the trials we're surely face. I think a little bit of her luck will be following me from now on. I hope I can pass it on to all of you. We'll surely need it in the future." "There's still some information we need." "Lear is still affecting this plane. Her store is not yet finished. I was tasked to give Lear this ladder from lower more." "I failed and given it to her but I think we can still get some vital information from it. It's time we read the ladder and she'll pull a ladder out of her backpack and it's starting to look a little bit ragged as it's gone through quite a bit of travel to get to this point." "It looks like the wax seal is still intact and you see the PL on the insignia." "She gathers the party around and she breaks the seal and opens the ladder." "And she reads." "Dearest Lear, if you're reading this then I must be dead. I would have preferred to give you this information face to face just as I would have loved to see the exceptional woman no doubt be able to see the world." "The exceptional woman no doubt you've become. But time makes a fool of us all and the fates must have decided that my hourglass has run out of sand." "Your gift for singing has been a part of you since you were a child. When I first met you it was in assault cave on Avalon Bay. You were singing when we brought you to safety from those that would do you harm and use your gift for ill. It's time that you know who they are and what I believe you are." "A vile cult of Deygon exists in the small town of Illmarsh under the guise of Gars' Rewarshipers. They, along with the scum who dwell beneath Lake Encarthan, have tapped into forces beyond our reckoning from the space between the stars. From my research and with the help of my close confidant Horus Krun, I've gathered that your mother was used in a failed ritual to connect the town to creatures from the dark tapestry. Although the ritual failed, its residual effects are within you. The latent energy you possess is released when you share your gift with the world. Your voice carries with it a conduit between all realm and the realm of the outer gods. The call to the sea you felt all your life must be from this connection. From whatever impregnated your mother that night the ritual failed. You must resist it." "I wish I could have told you this next bit in person. I don't believe you are entirely human-leer. Our checkups and all the tests I performed when you were little girl lead me to believe that this condition will grow worse as you reach adulthood. The call to the sea will grow stronger and your resistance will grow that much more imperative. You must never return to Ilmash. I cannot stress this enough. The fate of Usulav and maybe even Galarian hangs in the balance. If you were to return, your gift would undoubtedly draw the attention of beasts from beyond the veil. As your song continues to strengthen, the barrier between the material plane and what's beyond the dark tapestry weakens. If that barrier breaks, it could spell the end of the world. I apologize that this letter contains too much information I never got to deliver. Please give your father and Kendra a hug from me the next time you see them. I hope when you think of me, you still think of me fondly. Love Petros." I wish I would have been in time to deliver this letter to Lira. Maybe it would have helped her survive to this point. We must not look back on the decisions we made for hindsight could be the death of us we must push forward. Now we have the knowledge of what Lira truly was, who she was and where she came from. Unfortunately, it seems to be tied to some sort of vile ritual occultists with world domination or extinction on their minds. We are busy people. When it seems, we've got a lot of work to do. With the boons we've gained here from Desna, working together, we have to tackle each problem one by one. Unfortunately, this is not our most present task. It's good we know. But you're right, we must move forward. Then the path before us is clear. First Velcro, the new march. And as you exit the stairs of the moon with the rest of the princess' walls, you see below you a small army. It appears that Sabrissa was successful in calling the rest of the doors and abs to your aid. And the fallen sang, you can see their large forms among them. It seems they've joined as well. The Morgornaq aren't anywhere to be found. And some of the princess' walls didn't join you for the ritual of joined. You see another thing. Three celestial-looking steeds. With saddles and blazoned with butterfly wings. It seems Dezna's given you. One final gift. You wonder why there are three. But as Iqmer tests his new form, you realize you can run faster than a horse. And so you can all now make great haste to Feldgrow. Is that what you do? Yeah. Yeah. It may be gladly. Just runs alongside his buddies. Yeah. Yeah, you feel like you just have this energy that doesn't end. You must feel like you have to, like if you were to try and ride a horse for that long, you would explode from not being able to run yourself. It's like you're a border collie. You need to run like miles and miles every day just to exhaust yourself. Yeah. And as he does, run alongside if a wolf could smile or. He would be. And definitely find joy in this little moment. The journey is four days. You find traces of the devil wolves presence on the path and off the path, but it looks like they've passed before you. You haven't caught up to them. On the fourth day in the evening, you actually exit the woods. And the whole time in the woods, it's been the four of you on the path. But you've heard the howls of wolves alongside either side of the woods as if they're. They're mobilizing in groups as well to join you. Outside of the wood, you find a somewhat intact farmstead. But the land here looks infertile. It looks like something has scarred the earth. Hardly any plants grow here besides scrubs. Scrubs? What are scrubs? They're like the stuff that grows in deserts and stuff. Desert scrub. Okay. As you approach the house leans uneasily. It's weathered planks, straining to keep the fragile shell of peeling paint and crack shingles upright. You see a tree towering to the side, kind of leaned over onto the roof. You see that its trunk has been chopped. But as you approach, you find that it's more like claw and bite marks have ravaged the tree at its stump. And then you look up and you kind of see why. There are several bodies hanging from the branches of this tree. But it does seem like a good enough place to camp. And just to clarify how far away are we from Felgrove? Probably an hour or two journey. You're in the furrows now. I do not believe we will find a better place to rest our heads tonight. We could charge forward to the city of Felgrove right now. It has been a long few days of travel and we will need our entirety of our strength to overcome the tribulations before us. Do these bodies still here carry much of a scent? With your new form, you can smell that they were likely once wolves. Actually, go ahead and make me a perception check. Anybody can as you approach. It should be known that with my level up, still do not quite have enough skill points to put into perception. Solid eat. Solid eat. But I do have scent. I gave you that one. That would be a strong scent that I could smell three times the distance of normal. Oh wow. But guys, I definitely can tell that these humans here were part wolf at some point likely taken by the evil forces. To 32, tell me something a little bit more helpful than that. You can see it even from the ground. Some of them have symbols of like holy symbols on them. You can make a religion check. Sure will. I auto ate. I don't think my tombey knows anything about religion. Freight also ate. I'll talk to you to a god so I guess you know a little bit. So how many ate did I get? Two. Yeah. Let's go ahead and find out what the symbols are and everything about them with a 42. I mean, they're holy symbols to Jizelda, the demon lord of werewolves. Let me see if they will hold up a hand. It appears we have crossed into devil wolf territories. It would appear the clan mother, Anja Savarene has been here or at least her followers. Observe here the abyssal ruins of Jizelda herself. Anybody want to go ahead and make me a knowledge nature check? Try to eat. No. No, no, no, no, no. 29. 29. This tree doesn't look like a normal tree. Where you slept up to? Yeah. Looks like it's what's known as a hangman tree. Okay. And so it likely attacked the wolves when they were staying here. Looks like they killed it. The hangman tree is a creature? Yes. Oh. And it's dead. Yes, it's dead. It's a carnivorous plant. That's so crazy. Hold on. Yes. So let me put this together. Wolves were killed by this tree who is now dead and the wolves have Jizelda's insignia's carved into them. No, no, no. They have holy symbols of Jizelda. Oh, holy symbols. Okay, I don't know why I thought they were carved into them. Well, maybe not quite so devil wolf territories I once thought. They were here. But they got beat by this carnivorous tree. I've seen similar trees in the Moongi expanse, nothing quite like this, but. That's why I'm always careful around the plants, you know me. And this whole time, Ikemer is probably talking to either Rick Mitt or another one of the wolves. Ikemer, for the love of the gods, pay attention. Well, you were actually the first to arrive, so that does bring up a good point. The rest of the wolves begin to, you know, as you're surveying, begin to come out of the woods. And yes, you do see Rick Mitt and Sabrina and some fallen saying have joined, so some of the primals, some of those larger wolves. And much of the doors and eves and all of the princess wolves, you can imagine. [Music] Just during this time, though, Ikemer would just converse with them from what he can perceive and ask questions about, I guess, the culture, and I'm sure at least one of these other wolves has seen the symbols before and explains Jacelle the. and what they do. They just ignore us a bit too bad. They're like talking to everybody. Before he, before he and before everyone else arrives, just like, "Oh, okay, so. Yeah, stay away from that." I'm sure. But then you would at least into Matoombae as well. Interesting way to get around the checks. I just have somebody tell me about them. I'm a fucking prince of wolves. Somebody has a nature check. The wolves showed up after by the. that is what Gryff just said. Hey, you guys were there. Matoombae told you all the information. And then you asked people to shout out, be like, "Hey, if you see ladies. What the fuck?" Oh, it's tree. I am so sorry. It's just a preposterous joke. You're saying that it's gonna be shit about the timeline in book two. So. You decide to make camp here for the night. The wolves are with you. I think, you know, by the. by the firelight, Rick Midd actually pulls out a. a loop and starts playing it. And. You get a glimpse at what. I mean, there's nervous energy throughout the pack. But it looks like. of those packs that joined, they brought everybody. They couldn't afford to leave anyone in the woods. And so. You. You start to get the feeling of what their community is like. Freya, a group of pops comes up to you, recognizing that you're. you're. they're almost as tall as you are. And they're kind of giggling. It's like they haven't seen a dwarf before. And they approach you and they kind of like, "Get the scent of you." And nobody bats an eye to the rest of the wolves. This seems like normal behavior. But they. they kind of like. like. One of them like tugs on your cloak or whatever. And they. they sit by. by you by the fire and kind of at, like, pepper you with questions. It seems like they're curious. I think. Why are you so small? Just like you have variability amongst. the sizes of your wolves. My people are just born smaller. We never quite grow as tall. I'm quite a bit older than you, even though you're already my height. How old are you? Bickmer perks up a little bit. You're usually kind of curious about your stuff. You're never asked. Well, you know, it's not very kind to ask a woman her age. But you seem like nice enough kids. I'm pretty old. I'm a little over 100. And one of the kids gets like wide eyeing. Whoa! People live that long? Some can, if you're wise, and choose your actions carefully. Bickmer nods his head like, "Yeah, yeah, that makes sense." Yeah, that'll wrap your head like that makes sense. And they. they just seem to be like interested in you, like kind of drawn to you for. for whatever reason. Maybe it's because you're more inviting looking than eclipse. But still strange to them. Bickmer, one of the. one of the vullen sang. kind of approaches you. As I imagine you're all sitting by the fire listening to Rick Mitt play the. loot and. and just kind of. mentally preparing for what the next day is going to be. And she morphs out of her large hybrid form. And she's a. a keled girl looks maybe a little bit older than you. So I. heard you. knew my mother somehow. You're. you'reigma, right? The new. well, everyone's calling you the prince of wolves. Yeah? That's. that is me. It's. pleasure to meet you. And yeah, I. I did know your mother. Was. extremely brief, unfortunately. But. I. think about her every day and the kindness that she showed. And. welcoming presence. Well, she seemed to care about you. Does? I'm just surprised she. she hadn't shared much about you until now. Well, until. until you were somewhat grown up. We didn't hear stories about the prince of wolves. Until just before she. she died. But she did tell them. I'm sorry for what my tribe might have. put you through in the. in the fighting. But. I'm. Louetta saying. if anyone has a voice in. the violence saying wolves, it's me. being the. the pack lord starter. So I just wanted to say that. we're with you. Louetta, that's. extremely kind of you. And. I. want you to know that. any. differences that. or disagreements that I've had with your. your pack and. your people and I plan on. while keeping them still your people. There's no reason why. just because there is a prince of wolves meaning that. someone should dictate over. anyone. But. I appreciate your loyalty and. I. very nice to meet you. Look forward to. getting to know you better. She flashes a toothy smile at you and. kind of like. playfully punches you on the shoulder. And she's bigger. she's probably bigger than I am, right? No, I mean. it's just the way. like when she's a wolf she certainly is. not to say that she's like a small person but because the the Kellids are kind of like the you know barbarian folk but but I wouldn't say like she's she's like bigger than you uh but she yeah she she kind of grins at you and uh stands up from the fire and walks back to a group of some of her people um seeing Freya talking to the kids, Ikemer in his own conversation with Louetta um Haley what's the clips up to? I mean I guess she would just be sitting by the fire so so Matume probably walks over to the fire or a different fire it's got a spit of like a fesent or a wild bird that was caught for dinner and pulls off like a big chunk of meat um and he looks around a couple of his friends are busy and he sits down next to a clips and maybe like two or three full minutes pass of just silence and he like rips off a piece of meat and passes it to her and I I'm thinking myself that like every time the shit hits the fans super hard like end of book too hard like it it it tends to seem like a clips in Matume like although not super connecting outside of combat within those kind of combats they're all they always like have each other's backs and end up in like terrible situations together and help each other out. They're the opposites at the end of the world right so like it's these two people that nobody's really talking to and they're not even talking to each other for a couple seconds or a minute or so he offers her some meat and says you ready to do this again? I don't know if we have a choice. It certainly seems that way it doesn't it it seems that the world turns around us pulling it with us. We don't have much choice in the matter like you say. I just some of the things that we saw I want to make sure that however they play out we come out on top. We have so far have been to me and it's been a long road a difficult road. I've almost passed from this mortal life more times in the last couple months than the rest of my days combined but it seems that every time I do fria ikma or yourself is there for me. I have no reason to believe tomorrow or the next day or the next are going to be any less difficult than those days that we shared together and though one or more of us may perish together we will conquer. I think that we will come out it's just I don't think that anything will ever be the same again and I don't know how I'm not sure how I feel about that yet. You speak the same words that echo in my mind and I guess the only words I can express to you right now is that it's been the pleasure. Definitely and then she would take more meat off of the skewer than the tombase holding and just eat that and kind of stare at the fire. Right and like I can't imagine we have anything else to talk about but it's just like just like two vets together you know like they don't have to talk to to have a connection. Sure. Yeah they're great friends they haven't spoken in years. It's like Ron Swanson and his barber. So the night progresses and the thought on everyone's mind is what tomorrow is going to bring but Matune Bay eclipse Freya you can see it all evening and into the night. Different wolves are coming up to have a conversation with Hickmer to get to know him to you know just meet this person that is almost in a strange member of the pack. Someone they never knew existed and you can see he's getting along with them famously. Amidst all the feelings of woe and and stress. There's one light spot in this campsite and it's surrounding the Prince of Wolves finally getting a chance to talk to his people. And you go to sleep prepared for what Feldware House going to bring and I need you all to finish your drinks because we'll see you in part two. I knew it. (dramatic music)