Cool murders, guys

The party comes out swinging against the angry mob. Nahk, toilet paper still stuck to his foot, slashes away at the yak folk who discard their human disguises on the ground. Unfortunately those human disguises are real humans and a large conflagration started by Rho and Livius kills four out of 10 of them.

After summoning a couple of earth elementals, the yaks all go down, except one who tries to negotiate. He tells them a few things:

• Ferdinand, the owner of this farmstead, two years ago tried to summon the Goat God and the yak elders stopped him (and then ate him alive for fun)
• The Goat God can be summoned with whatever was inside the boxes
• The goat monster the gang fought was not the Goat God, but a goat corrupted by the energy seeping out of the lockbox

The gang form an agreement with this yak guy:

• The party won’t summon the Goat God
• The yakfolk will agree to a truce with the human villagers (though the yak is confused as to why the gang would care since they killed four of the villagers, and again, he doesn’t give a shit about the villagers either because he and his people just spent the last two years systematically killing them for fun)
• The yakfolk will take the party up the mountain to the Castle of Aramestes

Sora and Livius also chat with a survivor and they trick him into thinking the following:

• That they were sent by the Goat God from beyond the white wall to bring forth the Goat God

Let the bodies hit the

The gang arrives back at the village. The yak guy who came with them says the jig’s up and the yak folk start dropping bodies and fleeing. The villagers follow in pursuit. Bodyslamming and brawling goes on.

Sora uses the gorget of shouting down to make everyone just chill out. Rho also calms some emotions.

KB and Nahk fail to fall for my trap – I mean, they let the yak guy free unscathed after he tried to keep them from the dogs.

The yakfolk do not stick around for any of this and just fuck right off.

What’s another light desecration?

Livius ransacks the desecrated elders’ hut and finds some treasure and another lockbox! But this one is made of bone! Creepy.

Rho goes door to door trying to find diamonds to resurrect the people she and Livius killed, but unfortunately, no one has any diamonds to spare. Imagine that.

Oh no they’re doing a midsommar

The village thinks that the heroes have been sent from beyond the white wall to deliver the apocalypse. They start partying hard. Rho tries to awkwardly dispose of the people she and Livius murdered in one of the sacrificial wells after she finds it kind of tricky to acquire diamonds. The families mourn but fear incurring the party’s wrath and do not move to bury their dead, leaving them unceremoniously dumped in the wells.

After some young people jump to their deaths (BAH GAWD) off the pillar (the wells are more like for solstice and equinox rituals, while leaping to your death is more for ad hoc sacrifices), Livius starts climbing the pillar. The villagers shout, “It’s not for you!” but Livius uses fly and just midsommarsaults off the pillar. He stops just before hitting the ground and everyone is amazed at the magic! Nice!

Halfling goodbye

Thinking that the gang is going to bring about the apocalypse (The Great Rumination), the village just gets weird with it and the damage sluts become quite chaste and do a halfling goodbye (leaving through the bottom half of the door so as not to let the top half of the door be disturbed, thereby concealing your hasty exit).

The proud dog-owners keep all their dogs inside the tiny hut, except Good Malory. As the whipping winds dissipate, KB watches the Castle of Aramestes emerge into view, perilously perched on the mountainside.

“But I’d be like a good immortal being”

The next morning, the gang leaves the dogs in a tiny hut next to the abandoned farmstead and start climbing the mountain.

They get to a niche where a 30 foot statue stands.

The face of whoever was honored here has been lost to time, but the stone woman wears alchemist’s robes and holds potions and a book. Three tiny bowls of thick black liquid sit in a place of offering before this statue. It is sirablood.

The gang assumes it’s the Alchemist. KB gets into an argument with the others about the ethics of using sirablood. KB has a hard time trying to convince the heroes to not use sirablood, arguing that sirablood is evil incarnate. Livius doesn’t help (tries to justify immortality and raising the dead). Nahk diffuses that really quick. Sora tells KB that the sirablood is merely a tool that in the right hands can undo the wrong that it has wrought (by creating the Deathless One).

They are at an impasse and they compromise by giving KB the sirablood to hold.

The gang makes it to the castle, crossing a great chasm. The front gate opens for them. The courtyard is barren so high up in the mountains, but it looks like a garden was stood here.

The front door then opens. A strangely familiar face greets them, tall, yellow-robed, a face like a white mask, but spilling from its eyes and ears is blood black as pitch.

It is mid-afternoon on day 29 since the Battle of Aurochs Island, the first engagement in the Argoti-Mineosi War.

The heroes are on Iskos, having dissipated the white wall and placated the village of the Goat God, and they stand before the so-called Castle of Aramestes.

Thirurl, Rox, and Goliath are escorting the rescued people from the witch’s hut to the village on the coast. The rest of the dogs are at the abandoned farmstead.

Four islands left: Iskos, Nistora, Dorost, and Charatos.

One beast left: The Skyswimmer.

You are on a demiplane, and Zulon is arriving on the material plane in two days.

Previous Episode: Banish me once shame on - shame on you - banish me cant get banished again

Next Episode: she woke up like this

As a note of clarification, this is the description of the Deathless One

Through the smoke billowing from Margo’s corpse steps a yellow-robed figure with a mask floating before it. The robe is full of shadows.

…

The Deathless One shows its true form, an eldritch horror of twisting humanoid skeletons trying to escape from a dark viscous shadow with a white screaming mask floating in front of it.