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Episode 9: Fall of Magic Game Session pt 5 · Story Games

• Maggie Studio: friends and welcome back to Story Games, a podcast brought to you by Heart of the Deer and Acorn. Story Games is a podcast all about your favorite narrative-driven tabletop role-playing games. My name is Memo and I will be your host. Today we have more Fall of Magic. We are really getting close to the end here guys. ⁓ my goodness. The story is heating up. There is intrigue. There is drama. There is betrayal. There is backstabbing. ⁓ my gosh, I'm so excited. Anyway, I will stop yapping and just bring you Fall of Magic part five. If you have not watched parts one through four though, I highly recommend you do that first. All right, without further ado, here is more Fall of Magic. Hello everyone, welcome back to Heart of the Deer in a Coin. My name is Momo and I'm here with Bloom and with... I don't like how you're both staring at me. Creepy ass. Okay with bloom. Hi. Thank you and with Cruz Thank you and we're here to play more fall of magic and I'm so excited because this has been so much fun And I know I say that at the beginning of every one of these videos, but it really is just so much fun. So We are going to get started with a recap and I'm trying to remember what happened last session a lot happened last session But where did it start? In the forest, we left the... Wood hut? Yeah. Yes. On the Spirit Lake. And then we down the river. We went down the river. The screaming river. The screaming river. With the screams of the damned. You almost killed the Magus. I did, yeah. Yeah. He was over his BS. That's right. he is. And there was spookiness on the river. There was spookiness, there were people who were floating. Looking and there was a giant eyeball underneath us the sunset witches and set witches ⁓ You know them well If you don't you should you should they're horrific ⁓ We saw glimpses of truths in the eyeball ⁓ We made it out of there unscathed somehow we went down a waterfall Flipped upside down came out the other side And then we went to the backside of the map, which is really cool, which is the deep way. We to the deep way. While we were there, we found a city, a hanging city. There was the... Oh, there was the things. I don't remember what they were called. The beasts. Yes. Not the ragdraggers. You're talking about the... The things that make noise. They make music. What were they called? The Dark Dwellers. The Dark Dwellers, yeah. The Dark Dwellers. They make music. We didn't see them, but we heard them. Also very scary. Last session was scary. But it ended on a kind of a high in the cliffhanger when we were in the market of the Hanging City, me talking to all the ragdraggers. The ragdraggers? Yes, and we were invited to see the boss. That's right. Do you remember what their names were? I remember jalapeno popper was the big one and then egg sandwich. That's right, they're all named after food. Someone decided that. I'm pretty sure I named the first one egg sandwich. And then we just kind of with it and then jalapeno popper came up and we were like, well, it's a theme now. Yep. And also deeper flashback, it's the same creatures that we've experienced before in the very beginning. Yes. Along with some other characters. These like... fuzzy furry kind of goblin cat creatures. Really long pointy ears. Yes. With little like puff tufts at the end. It's important you get the puffs. The plosives. They like do this and then it goes puff. They have weird internal workings. One of them ate a lockpick and then pulled it out through his ear. As you do. It makes sense if you don't think about it. Yeah. I don't even know if that was his ear. We don't know if that was his mouth. ⁓ This is fun. We don't know how these things work. This is our first time seeing them. Yes. Yes. But this is a floating city, or it's hanging, but the gravity is all wonky. It's basically just oriented towards wherever there is ground. In the middle is the empty space. Yes. Also, the Magus is a child again. Yes. The Magus is a child because they're... using the last of their magic and kind of Benjamin Buttoning aging in reverse because of it. They're not currently with us, they kind of poofed into wherever it is they go to recharge. ⁓ But they are, they give us some vague answers because we were pretty frustrated with how that was going. But we didn't really get anything because the Magus also doesn't really know what's going on. So that's a great, that's good news for all of us. It almost seems like it's a cycle. So it's like there's spoken history, not written history, and they're always kind of being reborn. But there is some kind of corruption happening. It's not like a normal cycle. There is something else influencing these demigods and the natural order of things to kind of go a little haywire. And that's like the big question mark is like, what is causing that and why? Yeah. Awesome, shall we go meet the boss? meet the boss. Okay, so. I think we should just go to one of these and make that kind of like. That's what I was thinking too, we should use one of these prompts to kind of meet the boss. I selfishly wanna save that for Fawn. Okay. I want Fawn to have a crisis of faith story arc. I feel like the quest will end up in Kettlebottom. ⁓ that's right, because he has something like a quest for us. He was like a job for us. right. That's right. Guest house? What is forbidden? We could do guest house or even Draggers Villa. Maybe the boss lives in a villa and he can question us about where we came from. Is a thought. because we already did the rope hoist way, right? And the hanging market. I don't remember who is the one leading the scene. You wanna start? And we'll go this way? Oh, sure. Or we could go opposite ways, we could start with Cruz. Let's start with Cruz. Okay. I was angling for, one of you decide. So, one of you pick, and then I will do funny voices as needed. Beautiful. As is your role in our campaign. I'm gonna go ahead and do Guest House, What is Forbidden. Okay. And the Guest House, ⁓ Jalapeno Popper, this really big ragdraggr. ⁓ This all sounds terrible saying it out loud like that, ⁓ Jalapeno Popper the ragdraggr, you know him. You know him well. He brings us into the Hanging City Guest House, which is just like the... The Mob Den, really. So it's just like we see a bunch of other kind of miscreants running along the different balconies. They're watching us. I would say also just like a heightened sense of intellect is in the area where it's like these ones maybe are a little bit smarter than the average ragdraggers. They're a little bit more astute. And also it's funny because it's like we're hanging so there's stairs, there's ladders, there's things like that. But we're actually just going to go underneath the staircase. So there's this big grand entrance and jalapeno popper's like this way. Follow me, bub. Yeah, he can't make it through the door though, so he kinda just like, he guides us in, it's a lot more narrower space, it's pretty claustrophobic as we're kinda like just shimming through. Sully's fine though, maybe. If it's too small for Sully, the rest of us are not making it through. For those of you just tuning in, Sully's a frog. Sully is a frog. Not like a human-sized frog, just. Frog. Frog. Frog. Generic frog. Generic frog. With generic frog abilities. Standard issue frog. TM. And so we're like kind of crawling through. It's dark. We see a light at the end ⁓ as we kind of like spill into this bigger room that's underneath. I guess it'd be above since we're hanging, but underneath kind of like a main cavern and it's almost like a there's a balcony around us. And then sitting in the dark is just this giant, huge furry with just two yellow glowing eyes. We don't see him, but he definitely starts speaking to us. I think this is our boss. I don't know what to name him though. What is the funniest food based name? My first in sync was cupcake. I was thinking kimchi. Kimchi cupcake. I was thinking omelet and I think you both of you, both of you win. Omelet kimchi cupcake. Okay, so. As we fall into the room, there's, we see actually egg sandwich and he's kind of beaten up. He's on the ground in the middle and kimchi cupcake egg sandwich. Wait, what was his Yeah, it's, okay, okay. Big boss. I like, needs, he needs a first food name and a last food name. Kimchi cupcake. Kimchi, I do like kimchi cupcake, but he goes by omelet sometimes. I kind of also. Wildcard, I kinda like chicken parmesan. It could be, it's like, like Italian mob names where there's like, so it's cupcake, kimchi, omelet. Chicken parmesan. Chicken parmesan, the fourth. Fourth of his name. Yes. Yes. Wow, that's incredible. I need to write that down. What do we call him? Yeah, what's his colloquial name? Thank you. I won't be asking for that back. Ooh, definitely no. Dismai now. That's my juiciest pen. Omelette. Juiciest pen. Cupcake. Chicken. Parm. Hello colloquial colloquially known as Casey I Almost did the same exact thing and then I caught it. I didn't catch myself Wait so you're telling me he's the big yeah, yeah Anyway, Samantha. Big Parm. Big Parm. I like Big Parm. So we see Egg Sandwich kind of like being up, tossed on the floor. Big Parm with a deep, growly voice. Do you want to do that? Oh, OK. What do we want him to say? What is the vibe for why he's brought us here? So he's... He's essentially the person that controls the Haine City. Gotcha. He needs jobs done. And he also wants to the tone that he's not someone to mess with and that we don't actually belong here. And then people who brought us in, hence Egg Sandwich. getting a little bit more punished. Gotcha. So Exeon, which is punished because of us. Yes. he let us in because we gave him a lockpick that he ate. And maybe that's also what he's insinuating is like, you brought a lockpick in here. Contraband. Gotcha. Okay, before I do the voice, how serious do we want this to be? Because you did say deep growly voice, which I can do. I think it would be appropriate for us to... wanted to help the people of this place, but also, this is a dangerous person. Okay, okay. Because I had a whole other thought for a voice, and I like, this is gonna be hilarious. Well, I got to hear both. Okay, so the first one, the my version was going to be, well, hello. Welcome to the Hageg City. then, welcome. He made me cough. I'm glad you can make it. Please have a seat. There's nowhere to There's definitely nowhere to sit. Jalapeno popper all of sudden, Nexo just like pushes us down onto the Just, the floor. Yeah. Thank you. Now, what are two overworlders, a fox and a frog, doing in my city? passing through, we are just passing through, we don't want any problem, we don't want any trouble. No problems. No problems. No problems, no troubles. No problems, no troubles. Yeah. We just wanna maybe get some supplies and leave, we don't wanna stay. He's gonna toss the ⁓ lock pick and like ding ding ding ding ding in front of us, like what's that? It's a lock, lock pick. Lockpick? Lockpick? Lockpick? Lockpick? Lockpick? Lockpick? Lockpick? Lockpick? Lockpick? Lockpick? Lockpick? Lockpick? Lockpick? Lockpick? Lockpick? Lockpick? Harp is also like, my guy. Please, please stop. We don't intend to bring crime to your city. It's a piece of metal with a purpose, but the same purpose could be used with any piece of metal, if you think about it. We gave it to someone as a gift. I see now it wasn't the right gift to give. I do apologize, but. ⁓ I'm so sorry, Egg Sandwich. I did not mean for this to happen. ⁓ I hear you. Okay, I hear you loud and clear. We just don't want any trouble. We will not give any more lock picks, I promise. Can I take over for a part? Yeah, go for it. So what? You got this. to manifest blue. Doing a dark voice. Think as if you're talking with a really high voice and it makes it a little bit easier. It makes it a little bit easier. Nice! So you bring... You say you solve problems. We solve problems. Well... I like the idea that he actually did go... Mm. have become a real nuisance. As you can see, the city is falling apart. We used to have a balance with Shaka, who used to guard them. Shaka has since disappeared. As you owe me a favor by bringing trouble, I think it's only fitting that you solve my problem for me. And we could go our own ways. We solve your problem. You'll let us engage in commerce in your market and then we will leave. We'll see if you come back. Okay. Olive and your popper. Take him to the war room and give him the details. Olive and your popper, take the boss. Alright big palm. Come on. Get up. Oh my god. That's so funny. Um, Jalapeno popper. Pick up egg sandwich, get him off my floor. So funny. Switch the gate card. Send in feta cheese. I was thinking, I'm trying to think of a good one. Feta cheese is really solid. Not like that brie. No, too squishy. Okay. Brie plate is what? Is what? Thing and the giggles. Okay. I guess we will be taken to the war room then and maybe be debriefed on the situation a bit more completely, like where the dark dwellers have been spotted. Who's Shaka? Yeah. So, Shaka, to me, might actually be another demigod. That's what I was thinking. Okay. Gotcha, okay. Yeah. I feel like not all of them can be bad. ⁓ yeah. Yeah, not all of them are being corrupted, maybe, yeah. So like maybe Shaka was the person that like took this, ⁓ the Dark Dwellers in and kind of like has been like watching them, but since things have gone a little like askew, little- Gotcha. Then- ⁓ Shaka was like the shepherd for the Dark Dwellers. Yeah. What creature is and what is their patron god? What is like a cave animal? I'm thinking a crab. I was thinking a spider. No. Nevermind, nevermind. Our first X card, everyone. First X card and it's spiders, that's my biggest fear. I told you about my nightmare last night. That may have been where that came from subconsciously. It's just spiders around the mind. Yeah. Okay, I like salamander. I think salamander is really cool. Yeah, like it's It's it's comforting, it's in the dark. It's wet. And I like the idea of a reptile-based demigod. Maybe has a long tail. like maybe has like a forked tongue. ⁓ Has the cool like shovel shaped head for salamanders. Yeah. Like it just is a salamander. Just is a big salamander. I kinda like that too, yeah. They don't all have to be anthropomorphic, they can be. This one's just like, I'm just a salamander. I'm just salamander. Maybe he like adapted to live in the cave and he just adapted more so salamander traits than human traits. When you say what if he's just a salamander, are we talking like he's just a salamander? I imagine Salamander. that was gonna say, is this like, like, I have a demigod. Behold my infinite power. And ostensibly this is just how Latino pop are telling us this. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, totally. So yeah. Okay. Is that seen or? I feel like there's a little bit more we could develop, but I don't know if this is the right prompt for it. Where are we headed? Maybe? Okay, I have a thought. ⁓ shoot, we didn't say what is forbidden. Maybe that's what we have We can't bring lockpicks into the city. It causes crime. There we go. Yep, that is forbidden. I feel like the reason that shiny things are so sought after here is because anything that could be used for any sort of crime is very heavily regulated by kimchi omelet cupcake chicken parm the fourth. And is very like, ⁓ if anything is brought in that could be used for crime, that person is punished. Yeah. I like that, yes. I think as far as our next steps, maybe we go up to the temple to see where Shaka, maybe that's where Shaka resided. ⁓ ⁓ okay. Yeah, and then we see kind of like maybe if we can get any answers about what's going on at the temple and then make our way down to Kettlebottom and maybe that's where the dark dwellers are and maybe we do like a fight or something. I love it. Or some kind of dramatic thing before you move on then to the next place. Alrighty. Okay. So you want us to move. Yeah. So it's your prompt now. It is my prompt. Okay, I'm gonna field this out because I have a vague idea of kind of where I want to take this. So the jalapeno popper gives us kind of an itinerary of where to go and he tells us to go to the Temple of the Sightless and maybe the... Salamanders don't see very well, which is perfect. It's all coming together. It's all coming together. Wonderful, perfect. So the temple is a little bit farther away maybe from the city proper, right? You kind of have to take some hanging bridges to it. ⁓ it is, what's a material that's not that heavy, that's not wood? I immediately think of stone, but stone's really heavy and would be hard to suspend. It could be like pumice, so like. Oh, so like a really porous Yeah, like lava rock. Okay, yeah, lava rock. Yes, that's perfect, okay. So it is a temple made of lava rock. And it's porous, but it's still solid under our feet. And there is a big statue of the salamander god. Shaka is the demi-god. The god is, oh, that's an actual word, Hal. How? Hall. ⁓ the person's The god. The big god. The big god. ⁓ okay. Yeah. Yeah. It's all I could think of. Okay, and I forget the other god's names to kind of make it cohesive, but that's fine. I think we've actually named them. Have we not named any of them? No. Okay. Because we had the bear god and the ffff, the The The hair. And then also the... The bird. The witches were... The witches were with the catfish. Right, okay, so Which was another demigod. So it's the salamander god. There's a huge statue of the salamander god, and at its feet is a smaller statue of a salamander, which is Shaka. ⁓ Maybe there are offerings to both of these. ⁓ But in the periphery are smaller little effigies to the other gods. And for Fawn, this is startling, because Fawn has only known the Magus as this main deity figure. So the idea that these people deify someone other than the Magus is shocking. And it has her thinking, that doesn't make sense to me because why wouldn't they put the Magus front and center? Because the Magus is the most important one, right? And she's just kind of like uncomfortable but doesn't know exactly why. and she's having questions about why, how does Vamagus fit into this? How does my belief fit into this? It's very confusing for her, and she's thinking a lot of different thoughts. ⁓ But maybe we find a trace of offerings to Shaka, and maybe the offerings have been scattered. Like, they were. arranged a neat little rose and like at the feet of this god and this demigod and it looks like someone like maybe took some candles and smashed him against the wall and like took some coins and just like like stole the coins and scattered them and it's just it looks like it's a mess it has not been up kept it looks like it's just a right mess and Shaka has obviously not been here for a while I also like to think that maybe ⁓ Jalapeno Popper told us to go here to get the story and maybe he's still with us. Okay, sure. And I would like to think, can I add that he's carrying still egg sandwich, like egg sandwich is part of this. Sure, can invite both of them in, yeah. Yeah, you can put egg sandwiches on jalapeno poppers. Yeah. Jalapeno poppers on egg sandwiches? It's a really big jalapeno popper. That is a big jalapeno popper. Jalapeno popper is like... I can't do the voice. Oh, for jalapeno pupper? He's just gonna be like, come on in, like, Oh, man, come on in, everybody. Yeah, get on in there, it's fine. Yeah, it's a little bit of a mess, sorry. Come on. Get on in there. This temple is a mess. What? Why has no one, like, cleaned it? Like, this is supposed to be your deity. Like, why? Why? What? Holopenio popper. What about it? It's a mess. Is it? Yes. Oh, no. Oh, God. That's not good. Where do you go to like pray? I don't know. Oh my. I ain't much of a church going type. It's almost like they the ragdraggers have like assimilated into this. Maybe it's not theirs. Maybe it was the dark dwellers before. Yeah, I like that. Yes, okay. This is definitely not this Ragdraggers kind of, or yeah, Ragdraggers kind of vibe. Totally not. But poor Fawn is just like, but it doesn't make any sense why, but I, We're only here for the map on the wall. And then it's kind of like a depiction maybe of like the story of like the forming of the Hanging City. Okay. ⁓ And like the Dark Dwellers actually were the ones that built this place. They were the ones that were left in from the scoop that ⁓ Bloom had described earlier for the Azmyth, this spiritual purgatory. ⁓ So they found comfort through Shaka, built this temple to help kind of connect them, worship them. ⁓ bit more off the beaten path, but still kind of like higher up. We see kind of like the tunnels that were dug when the scoop was made. We see kind of like the dark dwellers were at the top, but over time they've like slowly like meandered their way down, losing sight, becoming what they once were, but now are definitely corrupted and far from that. Totally. And then jalapeno popper points at the very bottom of the map. That's where you'll find what you're looking for. I think that's the voice you give them. Yeah, that's right there. That one. Yeah, go to that one. That's the stuff. So, jalapeno popper, where is this located? What? This big hole that you're pointing at, where is this? It's someplace. It's like, it's, ⁓ okay, okay. Have you ever been to like a bar and then like you go to the back room of the bar and there's a hole in the ground and then like people get thrown into the hole? ⁓ Not in a minute. ⁓ okay. Let me do some quick math. And then he's like, he literally just like points in a direction. Like, just go that way. That way. And then actually like we do like kind of like go around the map. Maybe it was like on the corner of a room. We look around and it just like is a staircase. well, that was easier than I thought it would be. Only one rule. No light. And then he drops egg sandwich and walks away. Do we take him with? we bring him? What? egg sandwich is up. ⁓ okay. ⁓ Say, I don't know if you have days down here. What's a day? Oh God. Oh God, Egg Sandwich. We're in it now, aren't we? And then he's like, he realizes where he is. He's like, I am not supposed to be in here. Oh, it's a mess in here. Thank you. Thank you, Egg Sandwich. I agree. What's hard thinking on all this? Oh God. Since we talked at the guest house, like I guess. Yeah. Harp is remembering the last time we went to a temple. Which we all got, if I remember correctly, got various vibes from the deities. And I like the idea of the same thing happening here. Because it was after that that we all received a boon from something. Harp is also very on edge and isn't talking very much ⁓ because they are very aware that there are things that we can't see that make creepy noises that we don't know how to fight them that we're going to have to go fight them to save a demigod again. It's just a little, little on edge. ⁓ Also, ⁓ the ragdraggers are really annoying. Just the very, very frustrating individuals. ⁓ that's, yeah, Harp is very just like off to the side and is just kind of looking around. Also a little bothered by the temple, but also kind of like just kind of like... kicks a vase just to like knocks it over. Clunk. I think at this moment too, staring down the staircase, Sully's just in the middle of the stairs looking down, kind of zoned out. ⁓ This is something very familiar. He feels like he's been here before. ⁓ He's not quite sure what that means to him at the moment, but a lot of weird stuff has been happening. Is he verbalizing any of this? You notice him just staring down the staircase. You good buddy? Why do you think he said no light? Maybe the dark dwellers are attracted to light? don't know. It's gonna be tough to see down there. Yeah. What supplies do we bring? Do we have anything that could help us with this? ⁓ Do foxes see well in the dark? Do foxes have dark vision? They do have dark vision, but I'm imagining they still need some sort of light. Right. I'm imagining that this is pitch black. Yeah, same. There is no light source. ⁓ guess we're just gonna have to a at their faith. I have an idea. Yes. Until we get down there, then I have an idea. Okay. Okay, cool. Before we make our way down, Fawn's gonna, I'll be right back. I'll be right back. She's gonna scuttle over to the tiny little effigy of the Magus. and she's just gonna sit in front of it and she's gonna think about, just think for a minute, and she'll take a pebble off the ground and kind of place it in front of the magus as like a little offering. And she's just gonna think about what it means to worship something and what it means to put something on a pedestal and to deify something and how people can worship different things and how that kind of all makes sense. She's just having a lot of conflicting thoughts about. what it means to be a follower of something. And she's gonna take a moment and think about that, and then she's gonna, okay, pick herself up and go toward the staircase again. Harp is gonna pull out a length of rope and begin tying us to each other. Good idea. Because we're not gonna be able to see how far apart we are, and I imagine we need to also stay quiet. I'd also like to imagine as soon as he's done tying egg sandwich to him, it just like falls off. Like egg sandwich just has cat, cat vibes. Egg sandwich, do you, are you coming with us? Or are we giving you supplies and you're going back to the Hanging City? what, what is... I can't go back. You can't, you can't go back. They can beat me up again. I gotta prove myself. ⁓ You have to... Okay, do you have a weapon of some sort? I stole it back. They're not gonna find it this time, I promise. Okay, Harp will pull out the tiniest knife, meant for whittling. Do not stab any of us with this. Kind of like, ow. Okay. Poor Harp. At one point, I feel like Harp does do the thing where if there is a camera, Harp just looks at it and is like. Hey Harp, who you looking at? No one. Okay. Everybody stay on your guard. I'm gonna pick up my fox. Just move slowly. Harp will go down first. As Harp descends the stairs, it is pitch black. Yes. It is impossible to see anything. We're making our way down these stairs kind of connected to each other, except breakfast sandwich, who knows what the fuck he's doing, he's in the rear. Egg sandwich. He's rebranded himself. egg, it makes sense. Breakfast sandwich was my father. It's egg. So maybe we're like kind of feeling away along the walls of this staircase, maybe kind of like touching the ground in front of us, just kind of slowly making our way through. And the further we get down, we start... Maybe Harp thinks that they're imagining it at first, but it's a blue glow. And then the farther down we get, the more the glow starts to kind of intensify. And we start to notice that there are tiny bioluminescent mushrooms growing in every single crack on the walls, on the floor, on the ceiling, tiny little mushrooms that give off barely enough light to see maybe a few inches in front of our faces. to enough to just see the mushrooms, like you can't see the mushrooms until you're like... Until you're right up on them, because they're giving off just the tiniest bit of light. Vaughn? Yep. Are these something we need to be worried about? Just gonna go up to one, poke it, little spores come off. Don't eat them. But they're probably fine. Egg sandwich, don't eat them. Put it down. When it touches liquid it just spores kind of like a cat ⁓ And then it touches another one, that one starts blooming out, another one. We start running down the stairs. It's a whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop. And then the rumbling stops, and we look back, and there's not light coming from there, because the entire tunnel entrance has now been sealed by the spores. Ooh. It's just a wall of mushrooms. Yeah. Not yet, Harp, not yet. It's fine. Just somebody else I have to keep alive is okay. You're doing great, Harp. And as we as we're falling down the stairs we come to a landing it's those behind us rumbling stops But then we see kind of just like we're in a big gallery space now Kind of like a dome shape and then in the middle. There's just one giant Mushroom hanging upside down. That's a little bit more light. Okay, we can kind of see the area gotcha and Unless anyone has anything to add. Nope scene. All right We are now in Kettlebottom. Kettlebottom. I'm sorry, I don't know why I did that. Kettle. W-bottom-w-a. W-bottom. To any British viewers that are watching this, that is kind of what you sound like sometimes. Also, we're sorry. Also, we're sorry. ⁓ Sometimes accents are funny. Sometimes accents are very silly and Watt-O-Bottles is just really funny. It is. It's incredibly fun to say. Well, we're in Kettlebottom. We're in Kettlebottom. Kettlebottom. Great job. I think named so in that the room, the domed room that we're in. It almost gives the vibe of a kettle that's been flipped over and we're on the inside of it now. You can even see where some lava tunnels are leading up that look almost like legs ⁓ going into the ceiling. I also feel like there's no, immediately we see that there's not a ton of, there isn't another way out. Okay. Like this was the only entrance in here. ⁓ As we're walking, it's echoing like crazy. ⁓ There's some debris on the floor from bits of the ceiling falling. ⁓ There aren't really stalactites or stalagmites. The air is very dry, very still. It's unnervingly quiet. And as we're walking, ⁓ the light from this giant mushroom ⁓ falling down around us. that I'll say, which one of you is most likely to look down first? Well, I'm on the ground. Probably Sully. Sully. Sully, I am ground level. You like look down and you ⁓ jump for a second because you're looking at an eye. God damn it with the eyes. Yeah, eyes are always a good go-to. ⁓ You jump and then you realize, ⁓ it's a mosaic, it's a tile. And as you look around, see that this entire bottom of this floor is just one huge mosaic tile scene. That's like 600 feet across. Damn. It's a big floor. What does the mosaic? I like to think that it's a... retelling of how the, what is this place called again? Kettlebottom? The Hanging City? ⁓ the dark, Deepway? Deepway? Or are you talking about the Azmuth? The Azmuth, ⁓ yes. Like how this space was created. Okay. How... the deities kind of scooped up and made this into like a little demi-plane, how the Dark Dwellers came to be, which the Dark Dwellers are only represented by like bursts of colorful light. Not by any specific image. Got it. ⁓ It even has how the Ragdraggers eventually came to take over the Hanging Market after the... the dark dwellers left. Okay, cool. But it really focuses on the salamander originating from an egg that was used as a light source for the hanging market. It hatched, it led the dark dwellers away to some place, it doesn't actually say where, but it's just them wandering. But is just a... Less of a, it's not hurting the... The It's almost like the color of the light that the salamander Yeah. Oh, okay, got it. There's a bunch of pieces missing from like broken tiles and like pieces of the sky falling, or the, not the sky, the inside sky. The cavern. The cavern, yeah. But it takes a while to walk around and see all of this. Yeah, our footsteps just echoing and reverberating back, because there's nowhere for the sound to go. So it sounds like there's like 15 of us. Yeah. At one point, Egg Sandwich sneezes, and it's just... Cacophonous. Yeah, it's a lot. It's a lot. A dirty job is the prompt. Dirty job. There has to be some way, somewhere to go, right? Like, this can't be the bottom, right? Maybe part of the mosaic is covered up by dirt and debris. maybe Fawn will be like, maybe this has an answer? And we'll start trying to clear it, startin' to wash it off, trying to maybe use her sleeve and kind of buff it out to try to see what's underneath it. sandwich. And maybe it reveals a part of the mosaic that's like the ending of this little story. And maybe it shows that the dark dwellers were led deeper into the caverns. ⁓ But what, let me cook. I feel like there's something right there. Maybe the... where they led. Maybe the salamander was transformed a little bit. ⁓ When it became kind of this Pied Piper figure for the Dark Dwellers, maybe it kind of morphed into something new, and maybe that is a clue of where we can go next. Yeah. but I'm having a hard time kind of. Maybe it's also just like a story of like how they survive in the dark because of the light. Maybe it's illustrating the clue of like maybe what we have to do next to get out of here. ⁓ okay, sure. Gotcha. We are cleaning off this mosaic. Yes. And it tells us more about the dark dwellers and where they've gone and how they've adapted to this place. And maybe the dark dwellers emit their own light. ooh, okay, I have an idea to go with that. Okay. The salamander actually led the dark dwellers here. ⁓ okay. With the idea of keeping them contained in this room. Okay. We talked about the salamander actually transforming into something else. Axolotls, if there's enough toxins or if the pH is wrong, they'll actually turn into salamanders. Wait, no shit? Yeah. Like that's real? Yeah. ⁓ my god. What? Yeah. That's so cool. So what if, it's like a reverse thing. Get into this room and the salamander becomes an axolotl and is like floating above them and like a little like curled up on itself and it's just holding them there. Something happens and the dark dwellers actually pull down the axolotl. Siphon off its light and they escape. Okay. And then I don't know what to do with the... I don't know where to go with that. you know, it's just like... Because we don't know what the Dark Dwellers are or look like, but they now have this power of the god. And so we definitely don't want to mess with them. We also know that they can have immense power. Obviously they've destroyed the Hanging City. ⁓ I guess they must have escaped from here somehow. They escaped. And maybe the way to get them back is we need to kind of pied piper them again. What are they attracted to? What can we do to lure them back here to trap them again? And then we just hear a tiny little squeak. then we look up and on the mushroom chandelier, we see a tiny axolotl. There's an axolotl, yeah. Tiny tiny axolotl and then it's like no one has been here for so many years Stop I love him Is this shocker is this shock I think this is shock I think this is what's left of shock what's left of shock To clarify, just because I think I got my time line messed up, how recent did this happen that they stole the light from? I would say, for me, was imagining it like maybe like a century or two. ⁓ I was thinking way sooner than that, like when magic started dying. Gotcha. Maybe this was like one of the stops where they would bring all of the Dark Dwellers, and this is where the Axolotl would like. Recharge this is the actuals recharging area. Okay, but that's when magic started to fail and you can't recharge Yeah, and then also the dark boys then can't siphon or get energy or they they were able to steal the energy But it's also kind of dying for them, but they're kind of going on a rampage now that they have it. Yeah They like using the last throws of their power to just create chaos. I'd also like to think like this mushroom that's growing upside down that's creating the light is actually like if you go above it, it's actually like a little pond. Yeah. Also just add a little ⁓ fantasy whimsy to this. We realized that, because there's no way that this tile, this floor. like predicted this, this is a living history. So the tile actually shifts and we actually see there's a part of the story now of us arriving to the Axe Loddle. That's sick. Yes. Egg sandwich is not in. ⁓ no. They excluded egg sandwich. Poor egg sandwich. He was redacted. Poor guy. ⁓ There's just a question mark next to one of us. This is a lockpick? Yeah. But yeah, I I am Shaka I really hope this voice shows up on the microphone. ⁓ I'm sure it will. Excellent. If not, I'll caption. Perfect. Okay, cool. ⁓ So do you want to talk to the axolotl? Yeah, let's, ⁓ Shaka. Yeah? Great and powerful? That's me! I don't know how to talk to a deity that's not the Magus. Um... Hi! We're here to help you! What's going on with the Dark Dwellers, Shaka? The Dark Dwellers have stolen my power of light and goodness and music. They have siphoned from me my life force and I have not recovered it. We must bring them back to this room where I might... Do magical something I don't remember. Where I might perform the rites to retake my energies, pacifying them, and again ascending to godhood during this fall of magic. This might be hokey, it may be cheesy, but what if they're also attracted to music and to lure them back? We gotta jam out. ⁓ Well, I mean, were, they did find us because we were making noise. Yeah. we got out of Yeah. Hear me now travelers Take up these arms these instruments of the divine and like out of the ground like there's a And just a bandstand I love this Perform well the songs of your people Lure them here and reclaim what is mine Wow. Well, do you know how to play any instruments? I'm just wondering why the ragdraggers didn't do this. This seems like a setup. We're going to be right in the heart of where They kept stealing the instruments. They've done this so many times. They come down here, they steal the instruments, they take them someplace. I don't know. I really don't- I keep telling them not- I love the deity just like persona drops for a second. I don't know to tell you I'm not putting that one in the massage. That's not happening Is that a sandwich? Hi! Give me my flute spat! What's a flute? It just spits out a flute. Nevermind. It's like the only leftover instruments that they have. It's just like a bunch of maracas. Finger symbols. Okay, Sully plays the finger symbols. They're just normal symbols. They're just normal symbols to you. What does Harp play? First, Harp is like, is my new deity. Yeah, the axolotl, the salamander nose. Screw the mages, I'm not with this guy. What would Harp play? I think also the axelot might point out ⁓ Fawn because she left an offering, right? I left it for the Magus. I didn't leave it for the Solomander. Whoa. Is he going to point that out? Is that something to be concerned about? Is he offended? No. I'm chill. No, Magus is great. We're way back. Can you tell us why the magic is failing then? If I knew that, think I would have let the dark brother siphon off all of my energy and cause all this hit my head? Yes. No! You know you! ⁓ that's fair. That's fair. You're so chill for being a demigod. Some of the hostiles. Okay, that's fair. You're just... Where's the... the grandiose? Where's the... the mystique? The... the... You're nothing like I thought you'd be! I'm three inches long! You should see me. It's so logical, but it doesn't make sense to me. I'm fully full of popular and a giant glowing mushroom. Yeah, we're basically just talking to a mushroom. Nothing makes sense. I don't know where I am. That's not perfect sense. But I'd like to imagine also like the shape of the kettle bottom is amplifying his voice too. Okay, Fawn's gonna walk over. gonna pick up a lute. Sully on drums. Lead guitar. ⁓ Harp vocals? I think Harp's gonna do vocals. Let's go! What's Egg Sandwich gonna do? He's a groupie? pyrotechnics Yes, he has a sandwich just has a whole bunch of like cherry bombs He starts with a smoke bomb to set the ambience I imagine that scene from spongebob where it's the band and they rise for the football halftime. Yeah, that's us Winner takes all It's the thrill of one more kill. Okay, I'm sorry. Copyright. DM. Okay, how good are we? Should we roll a dice? I think we gotta roll for I think we have to roll for it. I hope we're terrible. I think we have to succeed no matter what. But. But just to see if we can actually. see if we're like actually Yeah, we can actually jam with this. Okay, I am going to do a little shenanigans. Ooh. Harp does have the beautiful tag. ⁓ I think Harp. You get advantage? I'm gonna give myself advantage, just because I think it'd be hilarious if Harp, after fighting the beautiful tag for so long, can just sing. Just sings like an angel. Just, yeah. The hero of Barleytown, should hear him sing. Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. Okay, better than average. Better than average. Better than average. I was expecting a Florence Welsh. You're more of a Florence Welsh impersonator. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not Freddie Mercury, it's Adam Lambert. That's a way better analogy. ⁓ but you can lay it down on the drums. Those cymbals are going ham. How is he the bass drum with cymbals? No! Fawn has never played an instrument in her life. She's a hunter. You know, in Avatar the Last Airbender, where Sokka is playing... Roll to one. ...is playing the lute. She's like, Fadrimos, please don't eat me. It's like that. Yes. Mixed with going crazy from the cactus juice. It's the quenchiest. She's just kind of flailing her arms trying to like dance to it. Yes. Should we roll just for the pyrotechnics one? Yeah. Yeah. I swear to God. Ambience? Yeah. Five out of six. Egg sandwich is like, I was born for this. Yes. This is my moment. This is why I've been carrying all these bombs. I knew they'd come in handy someday. I knew we'd need fireworks. For a little added flair, the salamander, the axolotl, does use a little bit of what magic they have left and creates like a disco ball effect. Yay! The mushroom is a disco ball. So we start playing. I'm singing. It sounds good enough to pass. ⁓ We're really being carried by the pyrotechnics and the drums. The lute is not. Is not. Do you want to try a different instrument? Yeah, this isn't working for me. Okay, do you want to pick up the, there's a different flute that Egg Sandwich didn't. As long as he didn't touch it. Yeah, it's different. I can try the flute, I can try the flute. Jazz flute. I got a six. I was born to play the flute, actually. Yes. I didn't know I had this in me. I've never picked up a flute before in my life. There's something innate inside me that needs to play the flute. Is it Anchorman where he does jazz flute and he does like a lighter and it does like a, ⁓ yeah. Hell yeah. Yes. Okay, so I would like to add that. Yes. So we're jamming, it's working. The room starts to like, it almost feels like the room is itself kind of moving. feels like it's spinning, it feels like it's traversing through the ground. Ooh. Ooh, yeah. As it's kind of going, we see kind of like the different holes in the area that kind of like shift around us. And then we come into this... ⁓ kind of like from the ground up as it rolls back, just like a giant door just kind of like forms in front of us as you're playing. ⁓ And then we see the Dark Dwellers. They are, can I describe them? Yeah, go for it. They are... grotesque beings where they almost look like stone with red eyes have molded into each other. So some of them have like more legs. Some of them are like attached to the back. Like they're just like amalgamations of beings that have now turned to stones. I imagine almost like gargoyles. Yeah. They've got like claws, some have wings, some have like fangs, but they're just like, yeah, grotesque. Yeah, they're like multiple stacked on one. Yeah. Nice. Like you melted a bunch of gargoyles together. Each one is also giving off eerie, ⁓ aurora-like lights. ⁓ And the music is them singing. But it doesn't look like they're singing. It looks more like they're just kind of moaning. Like their face expression isn't moving very much. But like this pitch in the sound is undulating to make the noise. As we are playing, there's a moment of them turning and looking at us, and then they all start running ⁓ towards us. Does anybody have anything to add? I do, actually. I think the way to get us out of this, unless anyone has anything else that they'd like to, as a way to kind of save us. I just wanna do the salamander voice again. Please, yes. I imagine the aurora that the... beings are the dark dwellers are giving off, is the power, right? So the power is kind of being siphoned back into the Axolotl, and the Axolotl, with the power that he has left, of like creates a bubble around us. And this bubble kind of shields us from the oncoming onslaught, and they're kind of just like funneling around us, like surrounding us on all sides, but there's like this invisible barrier, and we can kind of move through it. and it kind of like surrounds us. I like it. Yeah? I was hoping that you would just like start slaying people. But I think the bubble would be great. I'm a bard at heart man like yeah I never think of violence first. I love that I like to think that the the salamander has been storing up energy in the liquid of the mushroom So the mushroom like suddenly shifts in the water pours out and as it falls it like dissipates into bubbles Okay, and then like a big bubble encapsulates. Yes. I love that dark dwellers are like bouncing off of it. Yes. Yes and We just hear See that's what I was expecting from like a demigod that that that's I was expecting It's fine, it's And so we continue to play and like the dark dwellers are like they kind of look like they're like crumbling, falling apart. ⁓ What should they look like as they turn back into like? They like separate. Still. ⁓ actually. Go ahead. ahead. Do you remember in Howl's Moving Castle? Yeah. The little light dudes. ⁓ the star. The star dudes. Maybe that's their true form. And so as they kind of shed their rocky exterior, you see these little beings just like kind of like a little light and they're just kind of like sparking and their music turns from moaning to more of a joyous kind of harmonious sound as they kind of shed this corruption that has encapsulated them. Yes. And then it's just like another like fireworks show going on. Another. Egg sandwich is having a blast. Egg sandwich is crowd surfing. like we're standing there inside of this bubble and there's just these swirling lights. There's like a screaming salamander. Yes! Yeah, it's like this, it's glowing, it's beginning to expand. And it's one of those surreal moments where everything seems to like slow and we're... We've been so used to dark, dreary, fog, mist, everything's dying. It's the middle of the summer, but it's like it's in the middle of winter. And we're just surrounded by a... A... A light show, like it's shooting stars. Like a celebration almost. cacophony of color. Yeah. Yeah. What's Harp singing about? Ooh. Yeah. What would Harp's go-to karaoke song be? I'm a survivor. I need a hero. Oh Yes, Yes, but specifically specifically the version. Yeah Yeah, they're a godmother version. Yeah, you gotta get a copyright and play it over this moment. Oh my god, please If you can buy I can play five seconds of it. That's it. Just I need a hero. That's it. Oh Harp is feeling themself. Oh, yeah harp is into it Yeah, I feel like once the bubble hits and all this is happening all of us have sixes. Yeah, yeah, yeah like after this we're starting a band ⁓ And then I would like to think like the like all these sparks and flying off the the Shocker like then grows to like his their full size and then the little stars end up like landing across his back Like spots and that's how he like carries them and like cares for them and that's like that I love that as the bubble pops were just surrounded by this like scintillating multicolored salamander or axolotl whichever it is now Started as a salamander lost his power became axolotl but as a salamander again and Like telepathy is now like how they speak to us. Yeah, like a giant salamander head like and is just inches away from us and we just hear, thank you! That's just his real voice? Yeah, yeah. Like, we wasn't actually talking to us before, it was talking- ⁓ my That's just- That's just his voice. That's so funny. Dance with travelers. You are forever, or I am forever in your debt. Please take this bone and go forth. To recover magic and save the magus. Be brave, be kind, and above all else, rock on. I think I worship you now. Yeah, that's fine. Okay. but no, happens. Magus will understand, right? What are they gonna do if they don't? I don't. No, you have to worship me. That's not their style. It's fine. I mean, there's a... Yes I Would also I mean it was a good moment to to be like well, how do we save magic? Okay, What is the axolotl say or what does this alamander say like what's the advice that the salamander gives us? For where what we need to do. I need a metagame a little bit You must go to where magic was born. one is that? ⁓ But we don't know that it's the glow yet. Follow the light. ⁓ Look for the colors. Do not give in to despair and ruinous. Let your soul shine forward in all of their sparkling glory. It was you who saved me and these dwellers in the darkness. Go forth with your own light and be the brightness of the world that you desire. Hell yeah. And then it's a just a bubble Where do we end up and it's dark again? Right I think we should head back to the guest house right? I think that I think the salamander left us with boons with something with something something ⁓ Lanterns maybe magical lanterns of some kind that can never go out bubbles I think bubble shield. Yeah, I was gonna say I think they leave Harp a shield. Oh I love that. Okay, because Harp is very focused on protecting everyone Okay, and has only been able to protect people through violence so far. I think they will leave Fawn a lantern. What about a tiara with a light? Oh, I like the circlet That emanates light because she usually hides in the shadows being a hunter and this is the first time she's been thrust into kind of a spotlight role which she's shied away from until now but now maybe it's time to embrace that guiding light that maybe she can be. Grape, I'll wear your pin. Thank you. Real quick, the shield that Harp gets ⁓ is like Mother of Pearl. Ooh. Just very, very glinty and shimmery and wherever you look at it. No. No, I mean, they are carrying a sword called Forget Me Not, so. That is true. ⁓ But yeah, very, very does not, they're not a pastel kind of person. But very, very sparkly and shiny. I think the circlet will be made of the same material. what does Soli get? What does Soli get? His human body, just pearlescent. Just shiny boy. Shiny boy. I actually think Sully doesn't get anything. And he's wondering why. Scandal. Yeah. Why? Yeah. But he's happy for you guys. Do you want to share my circlet? No, it's best for you. I kind of like try to place it on his head and it just goes over his like right through. not. Let me put this back on. No, but I mean, we'll use it for sure, so. Okay. Once we get your body back, I'm sure that's where your reward is. We'll see. Egg sandwich is gone. sandwich is now with the axolotl and is part of the light show. Just cut to it, just like he's writing? Egg sandwich is now part of the demigod. Oh my god. The axolotl is just like, I'm gonna hang out with egg sandwich. He just seems like a really cool guy. We've made amends actually. We're cool now. Forgive him for the flute thing. totally. I think that's a good place to end this scene. Yes. If I may, just because... We have spent an hour and a half here. ⁓ If I could just kind of blow through, we go back to the guest house to Big Parm. We explain what happened. He seems not pleased, but will accept it. All right, that's a darker twist. ⁓ Jollipini Popper killed Big Parm. No. But Big Parm is dead. who's standing there? Oh, oh, oh no. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, ⁓ no. ⁓ god. ⁓ But hold on, I was gonna... Yeah, yeah, yeah, go, go, What if we, so we make our way back to the Hanging City completely dead. ⁓ yeah, was bustling. It bustling, like, ⁓ maybe the Dark Dwellers, like, them moving back to Laxloddle, like, cause them to ring the bell and they're hidden. But it's definitely eerie, we all get a sense that it's eerie. Yeah, definitely swore-it-out kind of situation. Yeah. ⁓ like ⁓ well we kind of know this villa now there's no one out and on these patios now that was watching us let's just like go up the stairs and we'll probably end up like inside in the foyer but on the top balcony and then we look down big palm on the ground now and the lady ⁓ is standing in front of him and then the other little ragdraggers that was with her is like standing like just like crawling over Big Parm. ⁓ Do they see us? They don't see us at the moment. Perfect. I think we run. I think we see this. We kind of look at each other like and then I think we... has a new shield now. Does the ring turn to predator That's what I'm... I think. Harp's hackles are up. Okay. And I do have Forget Me Not Out, and they don't see us. And they have been hounding us this entire time. We don't know that though. ⁓ We don't know that they're the ones who've been following us. all we know, we didn't like Big Parm to begin with. He's kind of an asshole. What is your reaction to seeing her? I am completely frozen. Okay. I see cold. I'm going to pick you up. I'm gonna touch your arm. Yeah. Now is not the time. Okay. I think it's best if we focus on the magic and the magus. This is bad. I think we don't engage right now. Not until we have to. Sully speaks up. This place is gonna be gone if we leave now. It will if we don't find the egg. Okay, so we definitely run. Are you okay with that? I mean, I'm completely frozen, so Sully is on board with whatever. Okay, then I'll, yeah, I you up, touched you, we have to go. Yeah. I'm sorry, but we have to go. And then as we're leaving the staircases, we just start hearing her laughing. No, it feels bad, but I think it's the best call. Yeah. Okay. ⁓ The ring, the hair in Fox Ring turns to the hair side and it gives us a little speed boost. ⁓ yeah. Heck yeah. And then that's where we leave the Hanging City. We can move to the Dogtooth Jungle. I would say also like your TR might also like guide us maybe? Yeah, it like creates like a little like light, like a like a laser pointer. And it tells us how to exit the Hanging City and go further into the deep. What is this place called? Under, under, not the Underdark. Deepway. The Deepway. And it tells us how to exit in the most efficient way. And we all go forward to the Dogtooth Jungle. Does anyone want to? describe the dog tooth jungle? Let's see, there's, so it's definitely got a lot of colors. Like it just says the colors. ⁓ wow, it does say the colors. I feel like it might be like a axolotl situation. Maybe there's just like an aurora borealis? What's that? Aurora. Aurora borealis, like underground. Yeah. Based off from all these mushrooms. ⁓ yeah. And they're also giving up. yeah. It's just because like the flow of air through like the tunnels and like the spores going in creates an aurora borealis effect. ⁓ I like to think that the axolotl also is giving us a path. ⁓ But yeah, it's just fields of mushrooms. ⁓ There are a lot of stalactites. Actually, I like the idea of the dog tooth part of it being just giant teeth. Just actual teeth. Actual teeth. Like maybe this is, we're underground and it's the corpse of like the alligator god or something like that. I was thinking it's the teeth of whatever being predates the current gods. Yes. So we don't even know who they belong to. They are giant, they are weird. they moving? No. Don't know. There, looks like they're gnashing, but like frozen. But I believe that like they are, yeah, whatever primordial being used to rule and now no longer does. I feel like as we're going through this as well, this is where it really starts to pick up that the people from Sully's past are definitely after us. Yeah. Like we- Once is a coincidence, twice is they're after us. And like we- at some point see like a camp behind us when we stop for the night and yeah. Like we know that they are after us. Do we want to do at least one of these? I think doing one would be a good idea. Maybe the fruiting grove. taste the fruit so we eat some of the mushrooms. Yeah, we're setting up camp. We hightailed it out of there. It is your go if you want to leave the scene. Yeah, we'll do the feeding grid. And then, strange urge, visions. I'd like to get six. Wow. Damn, okay. So the fruit in grove, you rolled a six. You get visions. I get visions. And something changes. ⁓ and then you change something. Okay, wait, this is really cool. Okay, so the mechanic is, you were in the fruit in grove, a taste of the fruit. Visions and then something changes so you can cross something out You can add something or you can change one of these to something new. Okay, We're setting up camp Sully is still just like really on edge from that person ⁓ And as we've been in the dark, it's just like a familiarity has come up. And ⁓ like we said, the colors are beautiful. It feels kind of like a peaceful moment. ⁓ Harp has laid out his bedroll. Fawn is looking at her totem of her sister. ⁓ We're all missing a sandwich. Yeah, sure. Harp definitely misses egg sandwich. Did Harp say that? No, Harp did not say that. Incorrect. And then there's just these kind of berries and Sully picks one. He's kind of like looking at it. This feels like a bad idea. Yeah. ⁓ I'm gonna do it anyways. I like the idea as you do that, go, no, no, no, no. I zoom in. And we see Sully, but as an adult in his 20s. ⁓ He sees himself down in the, what is this? Grit water? Grit water, yeah. He's in grit water. I'm just gonna pick that. ⁓ Or actually what's this one the fortress of karst he's in the fortress of karst ⁓ And the woman is there She has him on a table and he has his arms open splayed out surgically. ⁓ damn ⁓ and she is infusing him and Like doing a ritual to get the frog deity into its body ⁓ As she's walking around him, she says, you know we were there at the very beginning. My bloodline was the one that brought fire to the world. ⁓ no. ⁓ shit. This world belongs to us. And we're gonna reclaim it this next cycle. This has been set in motion far beyond our families, but you're gonna be my tool to bring this around. Okay, so. Sully is originally like an elder race of being that predates the gods. And also the frog deity. No, he has... So his father actually is from one side, yes. But the woman is part of that overarching thing that is controlling Sully. But you've been infused with the frog deity's essence, similar to what... the Dark Dwellers did to the Axolotl. Yes. But maybe something went wrong because you are a little frog. Well, I think that's for us to decide how I turned into a frog at the Magus, because I was a man. Right. Okay. Okay. What? But we don't have to go into that right now. Okay, sure. But now we're just getting the tidbit of the vision that this woman has weaponized solely. Got it. Yes. Because she's part of this primordial race. something like her, this is their teeth. Yes. Like her and these are her ancestors. Dragons? Dragons. Dragons! Okay, sorry. We were gonna get there eventually. You gotta bring dragons in. So you're part dragon, part frog? Dragon frog. Oh my god, that's so cool. Wait. We can draw that later. Oh my god. But, you know, this wasn't solely his destiny. His family was trying to live a simple life, but there was always this kind of darkness, this curse around them that caused him to essentially murder his father. Right. He lost his sister, was in a very moldable state. This is something that this woman has always been cooking. She's been planning this. She sent Sully there to kill Domagus. Right. and she's the reason that there is a corruption. And Sully sees all of this. So Sully now knows. Sully just sees that he's getting operated on. Oh, okay. I'm letting you guys know. Got it, okay, so he doesn't make the connection quite yet, but like, now we the table could hear her saying, maybe like, just like muttering as she's operating on him. Sure, That would be the tool for my ascension. Ooh, yes, okay. What are you changing on your sheet? I'm gonna... That's a great question. So I could add, change. Or take away. Or take away? Yep. Well, so my currently legendary honest galleon. I think I'm just gonna take away honest. Okay. Except for you haven't been dishonest, if that helps. Right, but your whole reason for going to the Magus maybe was not the most honest of intentions, at least to begin with. I think... ⁓ For Soli, also Soli's not his real name. Right. ⁓ I think this has also been the pull to why he's been trying to kill the Magus. ⁓ Shit, okay. So, maybe I'm gonna add one. Okay. ⁓ added killer. ⁓ okay. So we all see this, yeah? Or is it just you? Well, only Soli ate the berries, so. It's just a wild trip, Damn. We just gotta get him some water and like some saltines, he'll be fine. Listen to my voice, Soli. Activate a charcoal. Yeah, I wake up and maybe we're at the next location. Yeah, maybe you pass out and we just like, we gotta keep moving. We can't stay for too long. Soli isn't capacitated, the Magus isn't capacitated. We've really just gotta blow through here. We just run. We just run. Damn it, Sully, why'd you eat the berries? They called to me. And he said unconsciously. They called to me. called to me. That's why. Oh yeah, maybe it was the whispers. Oh, the whispers coalesced around the berries. They called to him. They were like, eat me, Sully, I'm delicious. Okay. Okay, so we move on to the gate of the Umbra. Umbra is the darkest part of a shadow in art terms. I didn't know that. Learn something new every day. Internet. Okay. Shall we boop, boop, boop over to the Umbra? Oh, it's so dark. Too dark. Too dark. Too dark. Gate of the Umbra, what breaks? Hmm. Well, I think that'd be you then, right? Yeah. Is it me? Oh, okay. Yeah, I guess it is. That's right, that's right, that's right. Okay. The Gate of the Umbra. So, okay, we're running. We are past this mushroom with these teeth. We're scared, we're hungry. We just had this really high high of this celebration with the music and this low low of being, you know, tracked and hunted down. And we come across this beautiful gate. It is easy, five stories tall. It's huge. It's gilded. It... The light off my circlet reflects off of the metal of this gate and just like casts beautiful shadows and light flecks all over the place. It has beautiful intricate carvings of all of the deities on it. They're all just kind of intermingled. There's the raven deity, the salamander, the bear, everything. And it's this beautiful, beautiful gate. ⁓ And as we approach it, what breaks? The gate itself, I think, is too big to break. Maybe something of ours breaks. What does everyone have? Mentally breaks? I have an idea. Okay. So this person that's chasing after us, ⁓ we as the audience know that she can send creepy things after us. Totally. What if this entire with you being unconscious, us running from the dog tooth jungle has been days. ⁓ it has been more than 48 hours of us just running and moving as far as we can. We get to this door, we don't know how to open it and we're also being hounded by... Not as big as the rabbit ⁓ demigod thing was as before, but like smaller versions of other... And that's just things that live in the space? Yeah. Yeah. But she's able to manipulate and control them. Okay, sure. While we are fending them off, or I'm fending them off, because Sully's still asleep, the Magus is a... child in unconscious. Forget Me Not breaks. No, not Forget Me Not! Like, over the course of an hour or so, as you're figuring out the door, ⁓ Harp is fighting back all of these monsters, and it's towards the end that Forget Me Not snaps, and it's just half of a sword and the shield. Can I? And you're still fighting. Still fighting, still fighting with Can I add something? Forget me not belonged to your father. Yes, it's what, whoever has it is considered the hero of Barleytown. As it breaks, there is a flash of light. Everything is pure white for a fraction of a second. And in that fraction of a second, you feel a hand on your shoulder, and you feel a breeze. and you feel something just like pat the top of your head. It's a stand up boy. Before it, before it kind of fades away and when the light fades, everything is gone and it's quiet and the monsters that were once chasing us, we have a moment of respite in the chaos. Yes. And yet the sword lays in like five or six pieces. Damn. harp will bend down and gather them up as best as they can. I imagine... Oh, okay, wait, maybe not gone. Okay, I've reconned something. The creatures aren't gone, but they're frozen. We have a limited amount of time. Your father has given us a blessing, and we have maybe five minutes to figure out the door before the monsters continue their onslaught. Scene. Scene. Scene. What are the other? A tale from childhood, an old custom, what burns, what fades. Dusk hills cavern at the burden. What I'm hearing is we need to do another jam sesh over this door. Door. But the drummer's passed out. No, we can't without the drummer. I'm going to. go to monument. Okay. And a tale from your childhood. We look up at this door and there's the depictions of all the different deities. Each one has its own domain and its own like focus, things like that. And it's the sort of the creation myth, sort of like the Chinese zodiac where it has the list of how, like what the order is and why they all showed up that way. Harp is recalling the creation myth from how all of these animals were picked. Or at least how all these deities picked these animals to be the representation of whatever these ideals were. What if in order to open the door, we have to make a sacrifice of some kind to each of them in order? Okay. Yeah. Okay. So is it like your dad is like sitting you down talking to you about it? Yeah, like it's like there's flashbacks of young Harp laying in bed and his dad is like doing almost like finger puppets or shadow puppets on the walls. Harp has like a broken leg. Yes. okay. So we know that the crow is the God of magic. We know that the salamander is the god of light. The bear is the god of warriors. Yes. In battle. I thought that was the moose. Was that the moose? What was the Do we have a moose? I thought the bear was the... That was an elk that we trapped in the water. Elk. Yeah, the elk is the... Yeah, of the wilds. The wilds, that's good. The hare is the god of prey. Yes. little things. The god of the small things. God of the small things. The fox is not necessarily of the hunt, but of the chase, if that makes sense. So it's also like competition and excitement and things like that. And then the fish, I think, is the last one. The god of memory. Yes, perfect. Unless there's any other anyone would like to add. We could have a whole pantheon, but I think this is good. I think that's good, yeah. Okay. So, the God of Magic... ⁓ We sacrifice one of the feathers. One of the feathers. That one's the easiest one. Yeah. And maybe there's like a ritual, in the monument, there's like a ritual fire that's like always burning. Yeah. And we throw the sacrifices into the fire. What's the next one? light, sacrifice light. I just got it, I just got it. I'm gonna toss in a piece of Forget Me Not, because it's like a guiding light of a symbol, like it's thing that is. Hero. Yeah, I like it. Warrior? I'll toss in one of my metal arrows that I got. ⁓ Wilds? Some of the fox's fur. Not just a fox. Just the fur. ⁓ Small things. Prey. Sully. No, what's something that we have of small things? The candied flies? Sully was a frog. He had no pockets. He no pockets. He had no pockets. ⁓ what about your totem? I was gonna save that for memory. ⁓ that's a good one. Small things. I don't know how mad Sully's gonna be at this. He's unconscious. Your dagger. The dagger is, ⁓ you can throw it in. Yeah, okay. Okay. Just, cause it's a small version of a sword. We'll find you a new one, buddy. There's a story behind that. ⁓ Excellent, okay. Fox? Chase? Salt Chase. Do we have any meats or anything? A harp will cut open their palm and drip some blood onto it. And the last one is the fish memory. Yep, my little totem of my sister. I'll hesitate just a second before throwing it in. Didn't hesitate for a solis dagger? Nope. But because of the offerings we give, the door doesn't actually just open. ⁓ It gets corrupted, gets cracked, and then just like the littlest bottom section of it just like crumbles. And we have to crawl our way through as these things are like. Yeah, yeah. But the only thing that didn't burn was Sally's dagger. Do we see that? You can see that. I will grab it. Okay. Okay. I will burn my rejected the sacrifice for some reason. I will burn my hand grabbing it. Ooh. Yeah. Damn. Thank you. Yes. And then, yeah, we'll drag Sully and the Magus through into the sunlight. ⁓ it hurts. It hurts a lot, blinking into the sunlight. And we come across the other side of the deep way. After nearly a week. However. The night ward. The nameless city, the cost of magic. ⁓ is this me then? The cost of magic? We thought we were in there for a week or two. Yeah. It has been months. It has been months that we've been down here, and the state of the world is so much worse than when we left it. Ash-choked skies. Trees barren. There's no bird song. We blink into what we expect to find bright light and it is just diffused. It's barely brighter than it was in the deep way. And the cost of magic is that while we were under there, everything has gotten much, much worse. Yay. Actually, like we turn around and we see the magus is now just like an egg. Or is it still a person? ⁓ I would say still a person, but now like yay big. Like doll sized. Doll sized. Not like an infant. Yeah. But like small person. Like yeah, like a doll. Yeah. And is that where we call our session? And then we will conclude. Next we will conclude our story next session. Good job. Everyone. Good job. That was really good. That was a whiplash. That was a whiplash of religious trauma and then a Late 80s disco. Yeah, had one bright bright moment before I got back again to revelations of dragons and demigods to harp losing the one thing that tied them to their dad still. Oof. That's I got a really cool idea that could form. I love it. Are you gonna keep it close to the chest or you wanna share it? I'll share it later. Okay, cool. All right. So I haven't been doing this, but we should do a debrief. Yes. Where we share a memory of our session, an appreciation for another player, or a moment of silence. Okay. I will start by saying I appreciate both of you so much. I think the story that we're telling is so goddamn cool. ⁓ I love the pantheon of gods that we have, and I love the way that we're kind of tying it all together. I think we're doing a great job of actually tying up loose ends, which shouldn't be the focus of a game like this, but it's cool that it's happening. Yeah, and I just. Appreciate both of you for the many amazing things you bring to the table. Thank you. I appreciate you using defense and like starting a jam sesh. That was sick. Yeah I figured we could use a little bit of levity. Yeah. Yeah, that was brilliant Thanks, and we got to the here harp sing. Yeah, you did and of course the hero barley town sings I need a hero Yeah, yes It is the ballad of barley town. Yep I appreciate the gravity that both of you brought to this. There was a lot of levity, but you also added a lot of depth to it. It wasn't just jokes. Yeah. Which is very easy to do. Yeah. And it's hard to make things a little more intense. Totally. Definitely. I think we're doing a good job. Yeah, moment of silence for the salamanders voice actually being that. I was actually expecting big salamander head, hello travelers. Hello. Nope. He's just down there disco-ing like I Love that cuz like down there everything is like still relatively fine He was like suffering a little bit, but he was still like up there chillin on his mushroom And now they're just like having a dance party all the time Meanwhile the rest of the world is in absolute fucking shambles. Yeah. No the rest of the world is is Mmm bad like great. Everything's just great bad times, but they're doing great. So we did something. Yeah might be my deity of choice. The salamander? The salamander? Yeah. I think we're all worshiping the salamander after this. Except Which is giving fun. If egg sandwich is with the deity for the rest of forever, I don't think Harp can do it. I can't, I don't What if egg sandwich is the new demigod after- damn it. After Shaka? No. I refuse. Is that X-Part? No. based off of the list we just made, The salamander would be the next one after the magus. It would be. Oh shit. We just dump the magus. Like throw them off of... Yeet. Yeet? The next era of magic is gonna be lit. It's gonna be. It's just a rave. Parties all the time. Just a century of raves. That's amazing. There actually was a century of raves. It did not go No, it's the... It was cool. It's like the equivalent of a dark century except for it was very, very bright. That's why the bear was next because we had like a century of partying and then we had a century of war. All right, well, thank you go. Thank you both so much. This is really cool. And we will see you next time for another episode. The last episode of Fall of Magic, which is insane. If you would like to get a copy of Fall of Magic for yourself, you can do so through our website. The link will be in the description box below. Very fun time. Highly recommend, it's been amazing. So we'll see you next time. And until then, ⁓ party hard, I guess. Party hard. Bye. See, I told you it was heating up. ⁓ my goodness. This also means that there is only one episode left of Fall of Magic before the end. I hope you're all excited to see the conclusion of our story in our next episode. But until then, you can pick up a copy of Fall of Magic through our website, heartofthedirnacorn.com. You can also follow us on social media at deerinacorn or heartofthedeerinacorn on most platforms. Thank you so much for hanging out with us again and we'll see you in the next episode.