Watch the episode live on Twitch and YouTube at 7pm PST. Restreams on Twitch at midnight and the next day at 9am PST

Runtime Break start
4h 0m 1h 36m

Episode 100: Downfall: Part Two

Salutations, as we return to the heart of the city of Aeor in the moments before its inevitable downfall.
We return to where we left off, within the Chamber of Seasons, deep in the heart of the Opus Ward. Ancient stone and the illuminated images in this temple of old that now are brought to new life under the light of a hidden sun. Images of the gods flank the walls of this chamber. As you prepare to leave, knowing only that a weapon (made to destroy the eternal) is at the very threshold of operational status, deep within the heart of this last bastion of mortal might.
As you prepare to leave you see that these strange companions (also in the form of mortal avatars) begin to smile and make their way towards the exit. For those of you that have conversed here, we have several groups preparing to travel out from this place:

  • Asha and The Emissary are preparing to move with Tishar (a tall-hulking barbarian woman with a massive greatsword on her back) and Zaharzht (a spiky Tortle, sort of albino, sickly-green eyes, with hooks and jagged chunks of rusty metal in his flesh. They prepare to head to the Obtenebrator Engine (which disguises the city from divine sight and scrying) in the Genesis Ward at the center of the city.
  • SILAHA (an aeormaton) and Emhira are preparing to leave in the company of Umleta (a small halfling archer) to make use of SILAHA’s connections within the mageocratic city of Aeor. Searching for rumors or clues to the Eravox Protocol (a means by which, should the mageistry of Aeor become aware of the threat to their great project, the knowledge of that project would be transcribed and sent to the far corners of Exandria) one last failsafe that the knowledge found to destroy the gods would not be lost to mortalkind.
  • Arcadia (your companion and ally from here in the city) and Father Milo (a priest of the Dawnfather) accompanying Ayden and Trist. Searching for passage into the Genesis Ward (highly secretive, the arcane heart of Aeor where its greatest secrets (some of which will be discovered many years from now under the icy frost of Eiselcross but in this day they are at the zenith of their power) lie.

Is there anything that you do or say to each other as you prepare to disembark from the Chamber of Secrets, uh Chamber of Seasons?
As Umleta comes to join you, you see that she looks up at you and smiles. You see that she has this rogue-ish way of carefully taking this silken rope and begins to pack it around an elbow and a hand, creating a little coil that she tucks into this large, black bag on her back. You see there is thread… like a web. You don’t like that they (these betrayer gods) were here before you arrived. You’ve been in this city for a long time and you begin to wonder how long they’ve been here for.

Previous Episode: “Downfall: Part One”

  • Ultragramps@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOPMEnglish
    1·
    4 months ago

    ♪Episode Song References♪

    ᕕ( ᐛ)ᕗ

    Highlights

    • 00:06:28 Sam:“I like the state of your shirt.”
      We return to the flying city of Aeor. As you know, Primes, Betrayers side by side with the impossible choice before them.
      Sam:“Pepperoni or pineapple?”
      BLeeM:“Por que no los dos?”
    • 00:10:55 Ashley see’s Abubakar’s smile it spreads to her face.
    • 00:11:50 Laura loves that tortle.
    • 00:13:46 Ashley’s wiggle of anticipation.
    • 00:17:40 The way Abubakar says “humor me” sets chat ablaze thinking he’s teasing Umleta by calling her Umami.
    • 00:19:00 Umleta blames the Prime Deities for granting power to the mortals in the first place
      SILAHA:“Can’t wait to have you on board…”
    • 00:20:00 The Emissary attempts to view The Lawbearer’s face in the mural and sees the paint move and shift. A set of scales, a mighty axe. A woman turns to behold you,
      TLawBs:“My child (Asha), is she cross with me?”
      Emissary:“You made her sad.”
      TLawBs:“A consequence of a necessary action must be burdened unshirkingly, with neither excuse nor remorse. Please tell her that I love her more than words can say.”
      Emissary:“Double, triple much infinity.”
      These words give Nick the “Aww! ♥ face”
    • 00:24:00 The Lawbearer explains her absence was due to a conflict (did this MF recuse herself?) of promises made.
    • 00:25:59 TLawBs:“When the time for justice comes, they will not thank you for half measures. The will of the gods is law and our word is final.”
      something glows in the Emissary’s chest
      “They need not love this, but to know that it is true with give them lines that do not falter.”
    • 00:27:18 Tishar:“You’re not her. Sent a puppet. She scared? Maybe this time, I remember Vasselheim, don’t let my left arm down so much.” Laura is loving this.
    • 00:27:52 Ashley:(whispering)“I really just want to go to a tavern with the betrayer gods.”
      Taliesin:“Pub crawl? Pub crawl?” (Possible reference to Zaharzht/Torog/The Crawling King, chat demands “Pub Crawling King” shirts)
    • 00:32:20 A donation/sacrifice to Trist (The Everlight) has been found and the message is received, “Look after Hallis”. From the reverie of the prayer, they spot a high collar of an archmage of Aeor.
    • 00:36:13 This book (of songs and stories about the gods) is so old that it makes no reference (let alone to the Calamity) to the Age of Arcanum. This is a book from the ending of The Schism, from the age immediately following when you and your family sealed your family (the Betrayers) away from Exandria. These books were written in joyful celebration…The Betrayers sealed away, the Primordials defeated, the gift of magic given freely to mortal beings, and an Exandria of endless promise where you could walk freely amongst your children. This book sings those songs.
    • 00:43:26 Umleta:“Let’s see if we can get him well, just in time to drop him out of the sky.”
    • 00:45:41 Nick breaks after another fine sardonic performance from Father Milo.
    • 00:48:20 Arcadia casts Sphere of Invisibility
    • 00:52:58 Asha:“Why did the ones who break, why do they understand and the ones who kept their love don’t?”
    • 00:57:24 Scene change accompanied by whimsical music adds another vibe whiplash to the total.
    • 00:58:35 The sentient lock of SILAHA’s club.
    • 01:00:07 Fan Art Moment Chorus, the automaton and their “metal tuxedo” design.
      "Ladies, gentlemen, designations heretofore unmentioned, I am your Master of Ceremonies, Chorus. And what a wonderful evening to behold. Please welcome your proprietor, “The Chosen One! SILAHA, proprietor of the Ars Elysia! We welcome you with open arms and other probosci as well.”
    • 01:01:54 Ashley sneezes (Stop it!)
    • 01:02:22 Taliesin’s orgasmic face after Brennan’s description of the interactions between the robots and species like humans and demons.
      Laura:“Wait, where is this place?”
      Nick:“I went on the wrong mission.”
    • 01:03:24 Chorus:“Patrons of the Ars Elysia, the drinks are cold, the band is hot, and what the gods cannot see, (silly voice) I’ll never tell. Two! Three! Four!”
      The band begins to play.
    • 01:04:46 SILAHA begins to enjoy a massage of the finest mineral oil.
    • 01:05:21 Emhira reminds SILAHA they have a finite amount of time.
      SILAHA:“Yes…finite.”
      Taliesin loses it again.
    • 01:05:40 Aeormaton dancer:“I am 2R LON. Is there any way that I can make you feel good?”
      Emhira:“Yes, but maybe later.”
      Umleta:“You are a clown.”
    • 01:10:00 One of the spectacles is an aeormaton with small beams coming from its fingertips manipulating the tears of an actively weeping elven woman. A diamond is formed, followed by a golden ring
    • 01:12:56 The party moves to 4X 10MN, a bartender whom SILAHA trusts, with a colorful personality heard on early 20th century radio broadcasts.
      4x10MN:“If you’re lookin’ for some ‘delicates information’ we got some lingerie someone threw on the top shelf. It’s been a c-c-c-craayzy night.”
    • 01:14:27 The search for the celestial finally begins and immediately ends with the target seated near the unused bathrooms in this very same club.
    • 01:15:52 Emhira’s Booby Imp would like a drink and reveals that it was a witness to their divine conversations.
      “I am called Slitch, and I am an imp.”
      Emhira:“Come out, please. I don’t want to talk to my boobs.”
      Slitch:“That makes one of us. Listen, I am bound to the service of the military might of Aeor, but I would love a chance to betray? You are, I think, if I am not much mistaken, maybe the Goddess of Death? Just from some of the things you said. You were talking about death and endings and I am very clever. I think it should be obvious, this is an absolutely enormous opportunity for me.”
      Nick:“Slitch is on the come-up.”
      Slitch:“Several hours before, I was bound to the service of a drunk subway cop and now I find myself in the company of quite a more powerful host.”
    • 01:19:43 4X10MN:“Can I get the little guy a drink?”
      Slitch:“20 big bottles of booze.”
      Emhira:“One bottle of booze.”
      Slitch:“Yay!”
      4X10MN:“I’m giving you well.”
    • 01:23:56 Abubakar:"As he goes to go, I’m going to cast Command, and say “sit!”
      BLeeM:“Hell yeah, it’s about to pop off!” (thinking noises)
      The figure stands and stops suddenly, turns to look at you. You see gleaming golden eyes, a hairless head. You behold a planetar, one of the high angels of the celestial heights. The back (that you believed to be hunched in drinking) conceals a pair of mighty wings underneath his cloak, as this dour angel moves to leave and is suddenly frozen in place.
    • 01:24:58 Taliesin’s face is a priceless meme before being hidden.
    • 01:25:23 SILAHA:“Oh, you are beautiful. This was quite easy, wasn’t it? Now I’ve heard from a few little birdies that you have been quite the bad angel.”
    • 01:29:03 Lore Callback Laura:"I’m gonna bamf my Boots of Haste. (campaign 1 hilarity)

    ROLL INISH BISH

    • 01:31:35 Fan Art Moment Celestial brawl at the robotic speakeasy. SILAHA has a lair action in his club bending reality.
    • 01:35:02 Laura:“Goddamn it!..I mean Me-damn it!”
      INTERMISSION
      We fade now from the Ars Elysia as SILAHA and Emhira head towards the pocket dimension within the Aeormaton door. We move back to the Opus Ward, where our friends Ayden and Trist move along with Father Milo and Arcadia towards a hospital within the ward. Squat, gray stones, a small wrought-iron gate, a few very elderly practitioners of the physicians arts. For all of its gifts, Aeor has never bent much, it seems, to the art of healing.
      Exceleter Hospital stands here, much ignored and a little bit derelict, and the hour see it mostly dark. Perhaps there is a candle in a window somewhere around the corner, but you see a locked gated. It’s also past curfew, although this ward (while there is a presence of flying military might) and the streets are largely empty here, and hugging to the back alleys it seems pretty effortless to get where you’re going.
      You approach the hospital and can sense the presence of some ailing folks within.
    • 01:51:58 Father Milo:“Do you need some help doing something dishonest?”
      Noshir’s face.
      Father Milo:“Great Dawnfather, wheresoever you might be, open those ways which are barred to us. Let your light peer out.”
    • 01:53:50 “I am Arcadia Cerenvetorix, an archmage of the Magestri. I am here with some companions of mine because we believe that there may be business of an urgent nature with one of your patients.” Dr. Bezel, chief physician, introduces herself.
    • 02:00:56 Hallis’ diagnosis is Graygill’s Wasting a degenerative disease.
    • 02:05:16 Father Milo:“It ever follows.”

    (continued)

    • Ultragramps@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOPMEnglish
      1·
      4 months ago
      • 02:06:18 Ashley chooses to Lay on Hands for 70 hit points and additionally has a Cure Disease built in.
      • 02:06:54 BLeeM: Do you want to reach to this power now? The last time you embraced your power deeply (to try to work a miracle) was to give a chance at redemption to the Lord of the Hells (Asmodeus, currently played by Father Milo). The last time you reached deeply for power, it was to attempt to understand and heal a being that insisted it wished to know only pain. The ruin and chaos that came after that shattered a part of you. You see this child struggling to breathe and you see a proud archmage of Aeor, whose vast intellect commands the very edges of reality who cannot help her child. She clutches a symbol of everlasting light (Laura smiles at the Everlight reference) and the devotion that comes from her hands as she says,
        “Please, please, please if anything is possible, let this be possible.”
        Walking down the hallway, light fills the hall. Arcadia keeps her eyes wide open and forces her pupils to dilate so that she can know as much light as possible. You see Cassida gasp as she realizes that the heart she had been praying to did not send somebody, but is instead here. With the faith and worship of that emblem, not only does the disease fade (under the power of your light), but we’ll go ahead and let 70 hit points stand as you look at a young boy breathe and become perhaps the first person in Exandrian history to be a 0-level commoner with 70 hit points.
        Laura and BLeeM:muscles growing
      • 02:11:47 Cassida:“You are she. How are you here?”
        Trist:“Uh, it was the plan. I do need your help.”
        Cassida:“Anything. Anything.”
      • 02:12:23 Tissues for Noshir! Emotional investment!
      • 02:12:45 Father Milo:“I think this will all be over tonight. There is an opportunity here, I think. Decades of truce between us. Don’t you think it would be a shame for that to go away? What do you think happens after Aeor, Ayden?”
        Ayden:“I think we will find out. I think that the threat we now face is an opportunity, but you are the ones who must come to the table. Not us.”
        Father Milo:“They’re not real, Ayden. controls Dr Bezel They’re little playthings. They live for a second, die like mayflies. How many times am I going to hear you say family tonight? Do you really mean it? Family means us together. We didn’t leave the table. You left. You left for them.”
        Ayden: casts Protection from Good and Evil releasing Dr Bezel. “That which we created now exists. Just because our hands molded something does not give us the right to destroy it. Although there is multitude in them, we must light the path, not erase it…I am here because there was a time when we were young where we did not hate each other. Your jealousy blinds you and your rage hurts us all. You laughed at me for supporting her, but never was there a braver moment than when she came to you. And I knew what you would do. And I knew that she must try. And I will not abandon her now, just as I wish we had not abandoned you, and you us.”
      • 02:19:15 Ayden reveals a channel divinity spell specifically for clerics of the Peace Domain called Balm of Peace while walking through a recovery ward.
      • 02:23:15 Cassida:“I, of course, had to keep it a profound secret. The Magestri of Aeor, the Guard, the Ministry of Intention, just for bringing these machines to a hospital, I could be executed. But they need me, they need my research desperately. I’ve been careful enough to cordon off so that they don’t have every missing piece, not yet.”
        Trist:“It’s amazing what you’ve done here. I can see your heart, and you are full of so much love…We’ve been here for a while, we knew we had to come here.”
        Cassida:(putting it together)“The gods haven’t been seen in decades. You knew? Half a century ago, you knew that–”
        Trist:“Yes.”
        Cassida:“The plans you’ll make when time is infinite. What’s 30 years of living a mortal life if it gets you past the Latimus Princeps? My god.”
        Trist:“Well, I will tell you, 30 years in a mortal life is quite wonderful.”
      • 02:25:25 Arcadia:“I’m helping.”
      • 02:26:29 Cassida:“There is a creation that is effectively completed. It has not been tested yet. We’re preparing to test it tomorrow. I’ve been one of several departmental heads spearheading a project known as the Factorum Malleus.”
        Trist:“That is actually why we are here.”
        Cassida:“You were aware of it or you feared it?”
        Abubakar:“Ooh, what a question!”
        Cassida:“…culturally, there are many proud mages here, and I am certain that the weapon, if it fell into their hands, would be terrifying. I am part of a small secret coterie of archmagi within the city. We are known as the Society of Primes.
        Nick's reaction
        We are developing this and my research has been instrumental. There are blocks placed into the Factorum Malleus by myself and the society. We can help you win. That has been my dream. We can help you win. We can end this war. A weapon like this? There are political factions within Aeor that I do not agree with, but we can win this war. I’ve been very careful and we have the ability, if we could coordinate. This is a miracle that you are here. This has been my dream that the ancient legends, the Schism, time and time again, you have had to come and defend us from Primordials, from Betrayers over and over and over again. group's pained reaction to this misinterpretation We are finally at the threshold where we can join you and make a difference side by side.”
        Abubakar:“This is fucking great!”
        How about another BLeeM Vibe Whiplash?
      • 02:30:11 We are now going to move back to the Genesis Ward. As the tram comes into the station, Asha and The Emissary, you, Tishar, and Zaharzht exit the tram in a vast military square. You see this regal landscape, this brutalist, intense gray architecture of Aeor. You see under this flat stone overhang, there is what looks to be a magisterial building. Under that you see images of mortal mages holding scales at what appears to be a courthouse. You look and see at the edge of the military square, there is also a small tree planted in the ground. It appears to be one of the few places with sunlight. You haven’t seen any civic plants since you’ve been here, but there’s this old tree here in the parade grounds. A family of birds has a nest in there.
        Up towards the central spire (you’re at the very top of the city, so you know that the real shit is going to be buried down the long brumestone elevator shaft) you see an Onyx Pinnacle (a central spire of glassy jet black volcanic stone that raises aloft. You can feel the pulsing ripples. At it’s center point, it is almost creating visible shadow. 10 or 15 feet from that pinnacle, that shadow fades from visibility and moves out hiding the city from divine sight. At the base of that pinnacle, you see a building structure, that has very few entrances and exits (like many of the buildings in Aeor) and appears to be very well guarded. Exiting the tram, you are still under your Sphere of Invisibility, which will last another hour at this point.
        You walk over and see this old tree. It looks like some sort of old civic fruit tree. You see in the base of the tree are the words
        “A Gift of the Golden Scythe to the Magestri of Aeor.”
        It appears to be a civic gift as a relation between sky cities. You see that one of the little birds in the nest wakes up.
      • 02:35:18 Asha:“There are more trees, though, somewhere?”
        Bird:“Few, very few. More engines, more buildings, more loud buzzing things and humming things and rattling things and breaking things. Sorry, I can find trees, if you wish.”
      • 02:39:03 Tree:“They believe they make walls, but they make only nets. There are always holes for life to find.”
        You hear the ground breaking as roots spread from this tree towards the base of the Onyx Pinnacle. Asha hears her temple growing. Unnatural light, warped steel, endless stone, but there is a symphony of rats and birds and vermin; life unending in this place.
      • 02:42:24 Emissary:“Bird. She bears her teeth, but I know what mother sees in her.”
        Tishar:“Hate to be on a mission with a couple.”
        • Birds don’t have teeth, Apples!
        • Confirmed Tishar is Gruumsh, the Ruiner
      • 02:44:25 Getting this close to the source causes some vision impairment
      • 02:45:05 Tishar:“It troubles us. There’s nothing more beautiful than to destroy the things we don’t understand.”
      • 02:45:50 Back to the Ars Elysia. SILAHA and Emhira approach ZVX (The sentient door/lock to the speakeasy that also has trapped a planetar),
        ZVX:“All right, open wide. Boss’ pocket.”
        ZVX opens into a hidden chamber that is lit in a way like the edges are glittering tinsel that come up and above, forming a sphere of extra dimensional space. Hovering here, looking cagey and horrified and partially wounded, still bleeding, is this planetar.
        “How have you done this to me? Who do I now behold?”
      • 02:47:50 The planetar (Garathran) names his commander to be a Solar named Acastriel, a lieutenant of the Dawnfather.
      • 02:52:36 Garathran:“You made us to be good. You made us to fight. It was supposed to be right. Sealing the Betrayers, putting them in the shadows again. I have slain devils for a century thinking it was right and then one day I’m told to sheath my sword. Acastriel came to those of us who wondered why and said ‘Do you know what they are doing? It’s a war to us. To them, it’s a squabble.’ Why did you make us? Why did you make all of this? When you knew that you were hurting this world, why didn’t you just leave?”

      (continued)

      • Ultragramps@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOPMEnglish
        1·
        4 months ago
        • 02:54:35 SILAHA:“…sometimes there is a beauty in not understanding. You just ‘play by the rules’ as one of my favorites would say. Ignorance can be bliss. Now hear me very, very, carefully. This thing that threatens us will soon threaten you, and there will be no end. At least with us, there is some form of control. It’s just the way things are. So please, humor us, what do you know of your time being here of this thing? I promise we will give you purpose back, for you are our children, after all.”
          Garathran:“With deference to the hands that move creation, if you wanted to make us to serve the gods, you should not have made us good.”
        • 02:56:45 Laura:“Speak With the Dead”
          Abubakar:“Oh my god!”
          Taliesin makes many faces.
        • 02:57:53 Fan Art Moment Raven Queen’s Divine Form meeting the soul of Garathras in her dimension.
        • 03:00:48 Garathran:“…There is a dragon that they have enlisted in their service.”
          Laura:“Fuck.”
          BLeeM:(smarmy NYC accent)“Y’all thought when I said 20th level, it was gonna be a fuckin’ cakewalk? Is that what you’re tellin’ me?”
          Garathran:“Ataro, a shadow dragon, a dragon of death reached out to Acastriel when he began to foment unrest amongst the celestial ranks. There are devils as well that have joined his cause there. The Fey, fiends, all of them. There are many in the past years of quiet (where the gods’ presence have not been seen) have wondered if some new order might be possible. There are many who have placed their bets on mortals…if they believe that gods can walk in their city at this very moment, they will not wait to unleash it…he left the bar about 20 minutes before you arrived.”
        • 03:03:00 Garathran:“He mentioned something before he left about a scribe, an aeormaton meant to copy (DOTY?!), beneath the Obtenebrator Engine.”
        • 03:06:45 BLeeM leaves to get a Battle Map! while the players hunt a local flying insect.
        • 03:08:12 Laura is molding Nick into a fine dice goblin.
        • 03:14:52 You see their shield is made of hundreds of of thousands of intricate little runes and phrases. There is one rune on your axe written in the language of the gods which simply translates to “Denial.” As though they had written a thousand pages of petition to some divine judge to be able to warp reality and got a one word response: No.
        • 03:17:00 Fan Art Moment The Emissary pulling the Archmage into their maelstrom of rock and ice and axes while whispering “Repent.”
        • 03:19:50 The raven familiar of Emhira is assisted by the birds emboldened by Asha’s communion with local nature and appears nearby. This allows her to see where to put the other end of the Arcane Gate about to be cast.
          Fan Art Moment (Keep in mind, she is still in her true RQ form in the extra-dimensional space of her death plane, so you see that through the gate)
          BLeeM:“Fuck yes. That is fucking awesome.”
        • 03:22:57 SILAHA follows up the gate up with Dimension Door and brings Emhira along.
          BLeeM:“You are both slightly nauseous…That’s a lot of teleporting.”
        • 03:26:30 Clockwork Cavalcade: You summon mechanical spirits (aeormaton souls) which can restore up to 100 hit points divided as you choose within the cube. Any damaged objects entirely within the cube are repaired. Every spell of 6th level or lower ends on creatures and objects of your choice within the cube.
        • 03:27:57 Epic Sound FX from Abubakar as SILAHA’s eyes turn purple and a concentrated gravitational beam pulls the aeormaton inside him, simultaneously absorbing and dismantling it.
          Mission: Complete
          SILAHA:“Oh my.”
          BLeeM:"You just fuckin’ ‘Kirby’-ed the Scribe…You are able to metabolize (as the knowledge enters your chest) the heart of the Arch Hearth. You hold within you a poem so beautiful that it could convince reality to kill a god. "
        • 03:32:18 The nail in the coffin for the Archmage, Dome of Silence cast by Zaharzht and both attempts at counterspelling fail.
        • 03:37:40 Archmage Cassida teleports the group at the hospital (minus Hallis) to the Obtenebrator.
          Nick:“We got Betrayer Gods, we got Betrayer mortals.”
        • 03:40:37 Ashley and BLeeM:“Get it!”
        • 03:46:48 Fan Art Moment Asha’s massive leap (bouncing off of Zaharzht (or maybe the orb)) into combat
        • 03:48:48 The dice run from Taliesin.
        • 03:50:01 You, falling like a predator, fangs distending. Even without sight, the breath, life always leaves a trail…
          Taliesin:“How they lookin’?” (this is how you fish for a killing blow) HDYWTDT
        • 03:53:47 BLeeM’s Barbarian rage noise sounds like a deep Dragonball powerup. Neat!
        • 03:55:40 Ayden Giving Shaden:“It’s taking you that long?” grants Tishar an extra attack
        • 03:56:40 Tishar (noticing Ayden’s blessing granting her the opportunity to ruin something) she remembers the ship of light. Force. Power. Hope.

        “It didn’t have to be this way. There is a purpose to all of us.”

        • 03:58:10 Laura:“My Arcane Gate is still open. Ten minutes, baybee.” (wasn’t the other end in her plane of death to speak to the soul of Garathran?)
        • 03:58:35 Winds. Howling. (the Storm Lord can see where to strike now)
          Laura:“Yes!” (typical RQ celebrating mass death)
        • 03:58:58 Through the Arcane Gate it can briefly be seen (felt?) that the Magestri of Aeor are all teleporting in and discovering the disabled constructs, a dead arch mage and broken Obtenebrator.
          BLeeM:“One round was all you fucking had.”