Beyond the Gates

Session 1 of The Long Walk, the 2nd episode of the 1st season of A Brighter Sun (Overall session #4).

Took place on March 26th, 2026. PCs were level 5.

Synopsis

SESSION SUMMARY

The party accepts an escort quest for Senator D'Khan and his retinue, including priestess Anak-su, vizier Abnasir, a shifty bodyguard, servants, mechalots, and krodlu mounts. They travel alongside Team Vale (Bale, Quill, Aura, Maul). En route, they encounter Demon's Hand adventurers (Orson, Ulu, Lisey, Samira). Facing a prolonged yellow sun, Aura and Pip dig shelter under a massive rock using earth magic and tools, producing water from soil. Pip communicates with krodlu in their song-language and discovers an intelligent fungal network. Nia basks in sunlight, absorbing energy. Night travel avoids undead threats sensed by Aura. A confrontation arises when Viz feeds hungry mechalots, drawing the bodyguard's suspicion. They reach a fortified campsite, huddling for warmth as temperatures drop.

TIMELINE OF EVENTS

Senator D'Khan arrives at guild with lavish sedan pulled by mechalots, retinue assembled, party mounts krodlu.
Pip bonds with krodlu via mimicry, understanding their simple language; Nia transforms at dawn.
Depart city gates, greet locals; encounter Demon's Hand group, tense banter ensues.
Yellow sun intensifies; Aura locates shelter rock, party digs tunnel with magic and shovels.
Pip extracts water from soil using cloth and purification pitcher; fungal ecosystem explored, intelligent network contacted.
Nia and bugs absorb sunlight outside; conversations on Pyrene nature and stars.
Feed mechalots fungus and grain; Viz confronted by bodyguard, de-escalated by pointing out hunger.
Nightfall brings stars and moons; Aura senses undead threat south, party pushes to campsite.
Arrive at stone shelter around 1 AM, barricade, build fire for warmth; mechalots guard outside.
Rest through cold night; early morning prep for continued travel.

QUESTS

• Escort Senator D'Khan and retinue to Kalamaze [In Progress] Started journey from city gates; traveled first day, avoided yellow sun by digging under rock, reached roadside campsite at night.

CHARACTERS & NPCs

• Senator D'Khan - Senator being escorted Arrives with lavish wagon, retinue; polite, political

• Anak-su - Priestess companion Khalidnese woman from Kalad-9, cat-like appearance, possibly priestess of Katet

• Abnasir - Vizier Pilots common wagon, struggles with beasts

• Bodyguard - Senator's protector Shifty female elf, drives mechalots, confrontational with party

• Nia - Sunlight entity Appears in radiance at dawn, diplomatic, soaks up sun

• Vale - Swordsman from Team Vale Confident, sexy self-image, leads his party

• Quill - Aarakocra in Team Vale Obsesses over Vale

• Aura - Fearbolg druid in Team Vale Tall, strong, reveres nature, earth-shapes shelter

• Maul - Fighter in Team Vale Large, half-orc like, peaceful but fearsome

• Akshay - A-class escort Well-traveled, tells jokes and tales

• Orson - Loudmouth from Demon's Ham Brags about fights

• Ulu - Loudmouth from Demon's Ham Teases Orson

• Lisey - Blood Witch from Demon's Ham Previously knocked out by party

• Samira - A-class adventurer from Demon's Ham Swashbuckler with artifice projectile device, probing

• Nua - Beast inspector Checks Krodlu, communicates with them, expert handler

LOCATIONS

• Kalamaze City rebuilding under Queen Katet, source of many quests including escorts and deliveries

• Guild house Starting point where Senator D'Khan arrives with retinue

• Fort Sconz Under Tyran control along the road

• Fort Amber Under Tyran control along the road

• Designated campsite Stone building with roof, walls, arrow slits, and chimney for shelter

MEMORABLE QUOTES

"Good food, good food. Make big eggs. Big, big, strong eggs." — Pip

"I'm trying to feed the bloodthirsty monster. Yeah, the bloodthirsty monster of your Thieves' Greed." — Viz

NEXT STEPS

• Resume dawn travel toward Fort Sconz or similar waypoint. • Consider wastes shortcut to shorten journey. • Maintain contact with fungal network for guidance. • Monitor Demon's Hand intentions and undead movements.

============================================================ SESSION TRANSCRIPT

It has been about a week or so since your successful asterisk mission. You've been doing a lot of research with a librarian. Lumi's been involved with some of it. Alistair is also doing research, but not with anybody, because that's not how he runs. And, yeah, we found out that he's alive and escaped the fight just fine. That... He's very distant. He's polite, but very distant and always has somewhere some business. And in his estimation, this individual who's apparently named Zayin is too powerful for him to defeat alone and that's concerning to him in his estimation that means there is now at least one being in the city that meets that criteria yeah he might be a little for himself i mean abdul was a direct lieutenant of calak and People don't see her cast spells much, but everyone knows Lumi's got what it takes. But she's not offended by the allegation. You've also maybe taken a couple of minor jobs just to pay the bills. But there was some big news recently. Kalamaze is opening in a big way. It wasn't a secret that the city was rebuilding. that people were repatriating, no doubt, some not by choice. Slavery is quite legal there. And that Queen Katet is eager to be seen as one of the big girls, a sorcerer queen in her own right. And just a whole bevy of quests have hit every board. in every guild. Escorts for caravans and diplomatic officials. Pot of deliveries. And your share included two quests. One of which we handled by Team Vale to find a missing caravan. The other by your team to escort Senator D'Khan and his retinue. He arrived at the gates of the guild house with said retinue. A grand wagon lavish for both his comfort and that of his companion, the mysterious Khalidnese woman. All of my files are gone. Oh, they're there. Okay. Anak-su, a priestess from Kalad-9. You have an image of her, do you? I do. Actually, let's make this easy. I have tokens for all of them, too. And they actually should have portrait art. Yes. I guess the best way is this. Ah, okay. She's just basically Kaka'n. I mean, she isn't, but... That's one of my... Like the look. Yeah, exactly. Kind of a cat-like look. Okay. He looks like he has portrait art to me. Yeah, I agree. But I'll just zoom in real good. So this is his retinue. He is, of course, a githy-onkey with very fancy clothes. his companion, Anak-Soo. For the sake of musical continuity, I continue the recording. But to sum up, You have the quest, which you already know. Yeah. Senator Dakan has arrived at the guild with his big, very fancy wagon. And a second wagon that's less fancy. That's where we'll be riding, I imagine. He won't even be in a wagon. We'll be on the park. He and his companion, Anak-su, the Kaladnese priestess, will be riding in the lavish sedan. his vizier Abnasir is piloting the common wagon that has all the cargo and stuff except for the cargo you will be provided a Krodlu from his vast riches riding in the common wagon when they aren't attending Dakhan's needs in the sedan R4 servants. Uh huh. Well paid free servants who will be helping set up his very fancy tent and pampering him etc. Now his female companion what is the understanding of their relations and She is his companion. Plus one. She's not necessarily... She has her own titles in her own right as a priestess. Not entirely sure what she's a priestess of. Probably Katet herself, although possibly Katet's mother. Who might now be revered in a sort of divine way like a dead pharaoh having ascended. this is a crop look at here it's chocobo yeah I think they do have feathers I think feathers would help them quite a lot His wagon, the big one, are pulled by a pair of these adorable extremely dangerous animals. called mechalots. Yes, according to legend, they can't get that big. But these are not colossal. They famously, they're the cockroaches of the desert. They live fucking forever and they just keep growing. They're not the fastest. They get slower with size. So this is the age, the ideal age where they can pull a good heavy load at like ox speed. Their endurance is amazing. Their need for water is tiny compared to their size. They can eat anything. One of their favorite foods are their own handlers. They can get really temperamental at times. I'm gonna make really good friends with them. I know, I was gonna say me too. And so, he's got two of those, but he will provide you to eat a Kralu. Those are basically just horses pulling his... Yeah, so there's two mechalots pulling his sedan. In fact, I don't even think he needs two. I think one can pull this. This is huge, but the mechalot is huge too. So, like, it's not quite elephant... It has the same ground footprint as an elephant. It's not nearly as tall. Comparable in mass. It's very squat. This picture shows them as four-legged. I feel like it probably has six or eight or so. Like, it would need... They're little corgi legs. Probably moves more like a millipede. To me, they look like... Like... Like... Like, either maggots or... Yeah. Like, multi-segmented fields. Yeah, they are insects. Like, millipedes and stuff. So it needs... Yeah. Without as many legs, but like... There are also many, I much prefer this one, there are many different, people are battling over what megalots look like. A lot of them have them looking like the dinosaur. I say, why not just have dinosaurs in Athos? That would be fun. Yeah, exactly what I was thinking, why not? I would love it if we had dinosaurs. Dinosaurs are cool. And for some reason there are no Krodlu or Erlu in this. Oh, he's just excited. I don't think excited to think. Those are sighted sounds. Croddlou. Yeah, there we go. It's a chocobel. This is the one that I was using. Looks like a skexto. Just throw some feathers and wings. The thing this is definitely missing is wings. They are avians. Like... Yeah. They've got wings. They can't really fly, but they can flap a little bit like a chocobel. Um... Traveling with you, but not gifted amounts, is Vale and his party Quill, who actually has a portrait, but it's too small to see. Of course it needs. Yeah. It needs to be a better way to do this. Oh. Here, I'll just show you on this wiki. Oh, I think I saw that picture on the website. Yeah. There it is. She still says Obsidia. Oops. on that particular route. So, Bale is a pretty good swordsman, and he thinks he's a very good swordsman. He's pretty sexy, and he thinks he's the sexiest thing on Earth. Quill fucking loves him to death. She obsesses. It's an Aarakocra thing. He's a shiny object. She will say yes to anything. Aura doesn't say much at all. She is about eight and a half feet tall. She's a fearbolg. She's very strong, but she's more of a druid than a fighter. And big, unreferring nature. And Maul, his name isn't Maul, that's just what Vale calls him. It's Maul. And he is a large, large, fuck, what are they called in this world? Not... One of those. Maul, he's a Maul, sorry. And yes, ha ha, he knows that his name is very similar. They kind of look like half-orcs. He is a fighter and he's quite fearsome in battle. He's like a peaceful Klingon. They'll just be walking. Now, obviously on a Krodlu, you can outpace them. You can outpace most racehorses on a Krodlu. But you won't be needing to go much faster than a human walking speed since the mechalot doesn't move much faster than a human walking speed. Like an alligator, it can do a little burst of speed, but only if it goes into a frenzy and it's going to eat one of you. I'm going to try and actually establish communication with it. I'm very curious about those creatures first because I seem like it's a bit more ancient of a creature. make a sense for their age. The weather is typical for early summer. This morning it was in the 50s and it's already in the mid 70s at the stroke of dawn. Probably get into the low 90s by like four o'clock. The plan is standard travel procedure. You move in the dawn hours You break at high sun for camp. You move again in the dusk hours and then break for sleeping. It's recommended to take a siesta in the middle of the day, too. About the same amount of overall travel, but you avoid... Yeah, you avoid the most dangerous parts of the day. Hmm. I love what you've done with the place. I never could get the garden to Blossom, just so. My hat is off to your Brownskeeper. He snaps and the vizier struggling a bit with four of these majestic beasts. Three, actually. You're not bringing an NPC unless you would like one to come with you. I guess they're probably all available. I figured you got a ton of fucking people here already, so. We're gonna split off with them. At some point, you'll ditch them. You'll still have all these fuckers in Dakhan's party. Unless they get eaten by the Mechalat. Well, honestly, like, in the library, some of the research has been, like, on the threats we need to potentially encounter on this, too. So, I would, before you could say we don't want to take an NPC, I'd rather... That is a good call. ...the threat level after... So let's, yeah... sort of OOC since you had time to prepare. I feel like you arranged this like yesterday and you're acting quickly, but you still had all night and whatnot. So here's Tyr. And I'm not following one of my rest cycles right now. So you have, that's sure you're going to go through a few cycles on this trip. We'll see how that goes. There are roads the entire way with forts. This is good news. Roads are well traveled. They have designated campsites along them. They build, even if it's just a very simple structure with some cover from the weather, it's vitally important to have places you can stop to avoid the sun, sandstorms, etc. The forts are manned. And Fort Sconz is under Tyran control. I think Fort Amber is too. This one is under Kala Mae's control. There is a shortcut that goes through this waste that some people take. It shaves off like a day or two depending on how fast you're moving. It's not as well patrolled as the main roads. You might want a Ranger if you take this. This road is complete. This isn't wild anymore. This is well patrolled by Kala Mae. If you are going off-road, you absolutely need a Ranger because you need to know All travel in the wastes should always be between two known locations, timed so that you're definitely going to get there before the next major weather event, such as high sun or, you know, midnight. And you're avoiding known bandit sites and monster nests and all that stuff. If you just wander aimlessly, you're going to die. But on the roads, not everyone needs a radio. True. see how that goes it takes just take somebody we don't have anybody so you're totally insufferable so if we take an npc i'm fine with that you're already taking the most insufferable person in the deal exactly and that's for this i recommend oh are is the other guild going to be okay with that like how early would you split off from them if they're going to try they don't know i mean maybe the caravan is right outside the gates maybe it's all the way in Caledate. Maybe at some point they're gonna have to leave and wander into the wastes. I forgot one person. A very important person. Hi Greg Huge. Hi Greg Huge. They have an A-class escort. It is Akshay. That's right. It's their A-class. This is their B-class confirmation mission. Evie would very much like to go on this mission, but I figure you already had enough of her. Oh, Akshay starts with an A. I forgot how the alphabet works. There we go. Smiling Akshay. He's not a ranger per se, but he's well-traveled. You have... Number one, the twins. Yeah, I thought I was gonna take the twins. Now, she's not as much of a ranger as him. He is a very good ranger, but you only get him at night. He can leave you, like, instructions and stuff. Yeah. Um... Thora's decent in the wild. She hates the fucking desert. Uh, he doesn't mind the heat, of course. I mean, he doesn't like traveling. Uh, he has very little to offer as a guide. She's, uh, she's got a little bit in it. Gunner's more of a businessman than a ranger. Lazza's more of a wizard. I think Rex is kind of... Yeah. Yeah. You don't know enough rangers in this party. These two are really good at navigating the wastes. Yeah. I guess I need two tokens. Or should I just have one? No, they have totally different abilities. So that would... Sorry, Abby. Bye-bye. No, I want to see the Sith. There's probably other quests. Let's see. Nana. It's a little belly. They're just bellies with heads attached. They are. Really. I'm a belly, I'm a belly, I'm a belly, I'm a belly, I'm a belly. That's the remote saying, find me. I'm lost. I haven't found him yet. He's perfect. Where's my official? I did like her perfect. Who is in the box? Probably several. Where's the cannon? Oh, I don't have a cannon. All right, let's go with angry now. He's just a serious. Okay. He's just gonna, uh... You're, you're, it's the early hour of dawn, so Nua is still here. And he has a chance to inspect the beasts. Checks their flanks. He's looking for, he keeps checking their legs. You, uh, check in there, see if they're boy or girl. No. When they fight, they leave. Scores in each other's scaling. A poor temperament is a poor beast. These are well trained. They should serve. They have this sonorous song that I can't possibly make. They're big birds and they have big voices. You see that wagon is just absolutely laden with huge sacks of grain, some Some of the harder and less tasty grains that humans don't love, but Krodlu eat that shit right up. And basically corn. Now, I'm certain you'll take excellent care of my fine beasts. Yeah. Sure. Most I'll talk about love and rub all creatures. How do you, I'm really high up. The... Nua... Nua... If you're standing... Viz is about 6'3". His head is... Right about beak level when they're standing upright. So its head is still almost completely above him. And like the saddle's up here. He's looking around. But Nua... Calls to it. And it... It noses down like, oh, you got some food? And he's got some of that grain. And as he strokes it, it eventually coaxes down and it has a little sit. And when they sit, they're a lot easier to mount. Try this one. Yeah. Pip, one of them looks at you. Food? Food? Food? Eat? Anything. And they prefer vegetable matter. They can digest cellulose, so almost any plant part. The... the, the, uh... The grain store has some small bags. Good food, good food! Smell good food, smell good food. I like food. Are you food? to mimic their sounds. You do have a powerful voice. And as you make the sound, like, three of them look over at you. The ones that aren't spellbound by Pip. I'm like, what? It's like, it's like when, if you, you know, suddenly just speak Spanish out of nowhere. Some Spanish speakers nearby, they're like, wait, what? Did you? Except you just said, like, a nonsense word, but it sounded right. They're saying, wait, what? What about my mother? What about my plumage is beautiful? It's beautiful, her plumage is beautiful. Oh, beautiful, absolutely, 100%. Oh yeah, that bitch doesn't know what she's talking about. They're a little catty. Despite not sexing them, you can tell, Pipna, they're all female. Imagine the roosters of this breed might not have quite as nice of a temperament. Good food, good food. Make big eggs. Big, big, strong eggs. You're getting the sense they have an intelligence pip of, like, somewhere like six. Like, they're almost in the low end of human. And they really do talk. They have their own language. And you obviously natively understand it. You're already detecting the patterns, though. It is a song. So there's something... about that comes naturally to you. This is like, oh, fuck, oh Lord. Because when they stand up, you're all the way on the top of them. So you're as high as the highest horse. It's like riding a draft horse. You don't usually ride a draft horse. It's kind of scary. Especially since horses have a very stable four-legged gait and these guys are on two legs and they can move every which way. And like motorcycles, they bank as they turn. I'm gonna use my tail to help with the... Yeah, you have to learn to sway with them. Nua is shouting to Viz as Viz is like, oh shit! It's running away. Like, you've got to pull the reins! And then he's like, oh fuck. As you see, his body starts to glow golden sunlight. Tracers of golden light appear. See you tonight. In a burst of radiance, Nia's form appears just as the sun is peeking out over the mountains and makes direct content. I'm on a bird. It's okay. It's okay. So we're doing this then? Yes. Well that was unexpected. Good morning, madam. Your brother left instructions. Good morning, Senator. I'm Nia. I've heard of you by reputation. You've been a visitor to Calix Court. Yes, I had the most wonderful experience there. was not my friend either. My condolences. If only the Senate had been allowed to vote on such things back then. Technically there was a show vote for just about everything. Pretty much just rubber stamped whatever he wanted. Things are so much more civilized now. Zere, all ready. Everything's checked out. There's another one, by the way. He's been kind of slinking around, keeping, not to like the Shazen hiding, but he's just really good at standing where you're not looking. He reminds you of Viz. He's not a dark elf, but he's very shifty. He is actually an elf, not of the Ashkari. And Viz has him tagged immediately. That's the bodyguard. That man is a killer. Do not let him out of your sight. Forgot to give him a token, but yes, he does have a bodyguard. I'm sorry, that was the wrong description. She is, in fact, female. Otherwise, just a shifting. She is content to ride in the sedan once things get underway. the lazy mechalots one of them is munching and is like half asleep and the other is just completely... beasts! the uh... the vizier is checking on all the beasts but when once they're in motion the mechalots are going to be driven by the bodyguard You don't so much command them with reins as you like hang like a carrot on a stick type thing in the direction and they're so stupid that they'll just keep going after. They have kind of like turtle-like necks and heads. They, like steam trains, they get moving very slowly but they've got a good momentum. They move about three and a half miles an hour or so. Anyone on foot is perfectly comfortable keeping pace. The crowd lose her like, ugh, this is so slow. Viz is being poorly controlled, so it's just kind of like running circles around the party and running down the street and then running back. When is this stop? I think they get tired after a while. As you proceed down the main avenues, the city is coming alive around you. Market stalls are being set up on every street. People are throwing open their windows. The city, much like traveling, the city peaks in dawn and dusk and usually takes a bit of a siesta around noon. You're traveling down one of the more major roads since the minor ones can't handle this wagon. Colorful banners fly under flying bridges. You see Templars patrolling the streets, keeping an eye on things. The Senator greets a few, like, Good morning, Heloise. I hope your business is doing well. Sam. Excellent boots. Still wear them to this day. It's very, like... making sure everyone knows that diner has the best pie in the city. You come to the gates, which at this hour are generally kept open. And there's a flow of people, a lot of farmers bringing in goods. A few fools like yourselves headed out into the vastness of that opens up before you. You're in a fairly high elevation area, so you see a sweeping valley. There's still traces of the old forest this used to be, especially in the higher elevations that haven't been farmed out. Massive obelisks that once extended Kallak's vision and power, visible. miles in the distance. Visibility is good. That's not actually good news. That means the atmospheric haze is thin. It's going to be hotter than expected and the danger of yellow sun is higher. Nia doesn't mind. She soaks up the orange rays of the dark sun and even in their relative weakness you see her golden tracery start to glow brighter and brighter as she charges up in the sunlight. Everyone else, wisely, is either inside a covered wagon or wearing hoods. She's not bothered by it. Yeah, you're not bothered. She goes out and she's just examining her and how she's taking into magic. The air is, as ever, dry, ever warm and getting hotter, and a little bit smoky. Because of the elevation, you guys breathe more of that atmospheric haze than lowlanders. And it's probably giving you cancer. But, eh, who lives long enough to find out what cancer does? You travel. And... Your first encounter... You hear them behind you... Gradually increasing in volume. The damn fool said, You really think you can take me, little man? I think he wanted to die. So I obliged him. Yes, yes, your might is legendary. Muscles are definitely the way to win every fight. You wanna fight, little man? I think that's the first time you've called me little. You've heard some of these voices, and you've seen some of these faces. Catching up to you, walking at a swifter pace, is an adventuring band from Demon's Ham, Orson and Ulu, are the Loudmouths. You recognize Lisey the Blood Witch from that time you knocked her ass out in one move. And the other you didn't encounter last time, Samira. She's an A-Class adventurer. Kind of a swashbuckler fighter rogue type. Her signature weapon is an artifice device that launches projectiles without using a bowstring. ridiculous contraption that she's very proud of. She's also... Fancy escort quest I see. Yes. You guys are still mounted so you definitely have the height advantage. What do you have in there? A senator or something? It's a state secret. Sorry, Katie. I'll just be... My toy-o. headed in the same direction, I assume. We might as well team up against bandits. We can outrun them very easily. Yes, and so I'm sure can the Mechalots. All are welcome with Phoenix Dawn. We're a friendly guild. Actually, shines the shit-eating grin. Samira gives him a look. He tries to keep his composure. That's their babysitter. Roll a wisdom check if you care to. It's not terribly important. I have not been able to roll. You can use real dice if you want. Especially for non-combat stuff. Alright, so I've got 19 plus whatever. Oh yeah, you definitely pick up on this. I think you both pick up on it. She's giving him the eye and, like, trying to get him to, like, betray something. And he's doing a decent job of hiding it, but, like... Oh, yeah, they definitely, yes. 100%. And, like... He's trying to play it cool. It's obviously an it's complicated type thing. And, uh... You're babysitting that lot? Just save yourself the trouble and fail them now. Just who the hell are you, lady? Don't you know who you're talking to? Bale, don't. No, I really don't, and I know everyone who's worth knowing in your guild. Are you new? We are attempting to prove that we're worthy of these low emissions. Oh my god, you're sea climbing. I'm sorry. Oh, that's so cute. And you're talking to me. Who the hell is this lady? I can't believe you just don't. Do you see the size of that fear bulg? We've got a fear bulg. I'm telling you. They love excuses to fight. You have a senator right there. And you are an important mission right now. Just smile and nod and laugh at their bad jokes. Why don't we have mounts? You've got to earn them, little one. I don't see you pocketing up the dough. They have... Oh, I'm sure they were just borrowing those from Mr. Moneybags there. She looks over at the senator's sedan like she's analyzing it for weak spots and figuring out where all the good plunder is. The driver of the sedan gives her... I kind of give her an aggressive look, an intimidation look. I see her doing that and I'm like... Both of the elves look back at her like... I just find her smiling really big. And you're like, hi, new friends. Friend, friend? You know the smile is just a little bit too wide. Your Krodlu looks back at them. They can turn their heads 180 degrees and just keep walking forward. Are those food? No, not food. Oh, do you have food? I think they're half some more seeds. You feed them like un-seeds from your un-garden and it's just like... Well, I don't know how they look. That's true. You don't want to get stranded without a mouse. We'll see. We might get there. A couple of hours go by as the morning lengthens. Akshay is very good at filling the silence. He's got jokes and tales and Nia's always good for diplomatic small talk. There's definitely a bit of prodding and poking she's talking to the senator and he's also very practiced at this and talking about Khalidne and you know how well does he know the sorcerer queen and blah blah blah Samira keeps inserting herself into the conversation Orson is like he's kind of bored with Ulu but you're still on the main road Oh yeah, you're well outside the city. And descending at a slope that's easily handled by your animals, occasionally annoying for those on foot. Yeah, you can range out and scout. Viz keeps doing little scouting missions. It's half intentional and half because he can't control his mount. And he just wants to run. I'm going to do almost like a DNA style. Exactly. That's actually a very wise thing to do, especially if you're winding around a hill. You can run up the hill to see if there's something bleeding for you on the list. Kate Bush, please. You can hide behind the Kate Bush to spy on anything. I can communicate to the creature effectively, so I feel like my path is a little bit clear. A few miles, let's see. You're approaching the time when you would consider stopping... for midday. You've made it maybe seven, eight miles out of the city. And the weather has been changing. And not in a good way. Let's see. She feels it first. Because it's like the moisture change in the air and everything. The problem is you and both fear bugs, but definitely Aura and Nia, possibly you, all feel, you feel it, but it's nice. Because it's nature. The sun is getting brighter. The sky is getting bluer. The haze is fading out. The ambient temperature is already rising into body temperature level. Nia looks up, she looks right at the sun with no discomfort. That looks very yellow to me. We need to find something. Survival is wisdom based I assume. We might as well all take a go at it. Viz, how's your wiz, Viz? Nope. I guess he has macros. So he got an 11 thank you pick. So the initial outlook looks pretty bad. It's still hilly terrain, so there's definitely some bumps, but it's very gentle. There's a ridge like a couple miles away. You guys could reach very quickly on the Crabu, but the Mechalots can't. But you, you just stop. You get off the Krodlu and touch the earth and just feel... There's a burrow. I don't know how a donkey got here. There's a hollow nearby and you start hunting around. Tapping. Looks like I'm doing a little dance room. as eventually the caravan comes to a halt because no one's quite sure which direction to go and a few people are looking in different directions. But you... You... You quest out a little ways like it's like shouting distance. There's this huge rock that it looks like a big sandstone rock that you would assume is jutting out. But... It's not actually like the tip of an iceberg. It's just a big rock. And you get the Kradlu to help dig with a big moss. Yeah, exactly. I get them to come over and I have them dig. And it's like the... It's just sand and loose soil. And it becomes clear after a minute or two of digging, that rock is flat-bottomed. It's just sitting on the ground. So if you carve a tunnel under it and you get enough people digging... You can hide under this rock. Eventually the others in Phoenix Dawn come to join you. And... You're like, fuck, fuck, fuck, which way do we go? And all of you have in your standard adventures get a shovel. And it's very useful in this situation. But also useful is an earth shaper. As Aura begins... to do this chant, this low... Her speaking voice is husky, but this is lower than you would think she could sing. And the earth softens. It's like moving, you know, the soil is easy to move as sand, and the sand is like almost a liquid. And she's softening earth and stone, making this job much easier. Orson, Terra, Terra whatever, Forma? Probably just Terraforma. With a spell he excavates like a full 10 foot Minecraft cube. Just sort of shlorps out and by the, about half an hour of digging You would guess the ambient temperature is like 110 and rising. While they're doing this, I'm going to try and slow down passing of the mist. Because right now what we're doing is we're losing the barrier. Interesting. I'm going to try and use my time magic to slow down. It's like relativity. We're just going to make a little bubble where time flows a little different. Maybe. It's similar to... Let's see. Yeah, haste and slow. If nothing else, you could haste the people digging. And so if you can't slow the universe, just beat up the people. Which is more or less the same thing. You can also, if somebody gets sunburned, you might also be able to rewind time on them. I was thinking of slowing down air. Because I've been in the desert before, so I'm imagining she's been through some big It's an edge case like can you use time magic to change the denominator of frequency thus lowering the frequency of light rays. That's that's dangerous terrain. I'll give you this you can cast haste so for at least a few of the most important people I mean you guys basically you can you know speed up the rate at which this work gets done and later on you can probably rewind time if you need to. And those who are, no one is exposed except those who are immune, like Nia, who is just bathing it in. But yeah, the UV index right now is like 500. You need to be covered. She's oddly in a similar position to Nia. She doesn't even think about it, but she's like, she doesn't focus on that. And it's like, this is fine. I don't really mind. The Mechalots don't care. They don't care. They're just going to stay out. The Krodlu are iffy. They're just gonna... They're gonna go duck underneath the shade. They're gonna try to come with you, and if there's not enough room, they'll cram into the wedge part. And you guys can keep digging a little bit as you pile in, but basically everybody piles into this small, cramped space. Which is comfortably cool. The earth down here still feels like it's like 70 degrees to the touch. And in fact, it's a little bit moist. You're starting to... vaguely approach the water table. There's a few... You can't see them, but you can sense there are some tiny fungal life forms that extend spores into this depth. There's a few bugs. She's exploring her body's response to the sun. Viz is like, you need to get in here. You're gonna... He's totally pulled his hood down as much as he can. I'd like to make a survival check to people water out of the soil and also passing out snacks and trying to keep everyone calm. Snacks. Here you go. Mushrooms. I've got a maggot. You have... Wait, no. That was the right URL. I have your real pip, I believe. Oh, there needs to be like a fucking search feature. Okay. You no longer have control water. So the thing you want to do used to be a lot easier. You can do it the natural way as you start digging further down. I think there's probably a technique to separate water. Okay, this is interesting. If you put slightly moist soil in the pitcher of purification, can he pour out pure water? It's not a fluid, but there's water in it. No, I think it would be pure, there would be sediment at the bottom or something. Let's see. Gemini, is there a... Yeah. I think if you put soil or sandy water in there and you pour it out, you will get pure water and also sand or soil. Because it filters liquids. It doesn't filter out the solids. Like, it has filtered them out of the water. But it'd be annoying because you just dumped it right back into itself. Unless you set up a clever filter screen... situation, some cheesecloth, a linen press. My mom's check would be plus seven. I rolled a nine. I don't know why I have the skill. I can't really see my... So, you know that there's a couple of things you can do. So, you can take some linen cloth. The more the better. Yeah. And you take some of that damp soil and press it. And there's a number of ways to do that. Big heavy stones are the most reliable. But there's also some pretty big folk down here who could do some physical work for you. And you get this gritty brown slurry that needs to be filtered. Normally you use like a charcoal and sand filter, but you have a perfect filter already. After about 20 minutes of work with some... Aura and Mo are your friends here. They're happy to use their physical strength. And you produce enough slurry to fill the pitcher. And everyone can get like a small cup, like a four ounce kid cup of pure water. And it's very cool because it was naturally cool. Yeah. So it's like that temperature at the Indian restaurant where it's not ice water, but it's pleasantly cool. And it's pure. And everyone is happy to have some who isn't currently outside like a maniac. It's sad to think how few people get to see this. The sky that we were born under. The sky we deserve. You're not sure if solarians can do this, but you can see the stars through the atmospheric haze. You're sensitive enough to the wavelengths that don't get completely scattered by water vapor that normal eyes can't see. No, it's like you actually peeled up layers. Exactly, and the more direct exposure, the sun is the sun, it's hot, whatever. You feel its infrared light. bashing against you, but it's nice, like a reptile under a heat lamp. But the starlight, that's where the magic comes from. It's a trickle. But it's a trickle from every single star with life. And they all have life to a degree. The potential of life. Even the giants, they create hundreds of baby stars when they die that will someday have life. If there were any astronomers on this planet, you could answer a question they would be dying to know the answer to. The vast majority of stars like yours have some form of life in their solar system. For the first time, anybody in the guild would see her. She takes the gloves off. You've got like your little claws. They're retractable, but you can probably always see them a little bit. She never takes the gloves off. I have restrained myself out of a sense of decorum, but I must admit I'm very curious about your nature. There's not a lot of Pyrene. I'm glad that you're here under Lumi's protection. I understand it wasn't always that. ravages of the arcane may be at fault. I've heard rumors of wizards so great that their works eventually made them forget their own arcane skills and had to begin again anew. I wonder if I suspected you could be a bit older than you look, but I certainly wouldn't have guessed on. The Sorcerer Kings want nothing more than to become as you are now. Some have twisted their forms into crude approximations. Few have the wisdom to refrain. Our dear departed king was attempting to make the transformation himself. That ziggurat was meant to sack the life out of thousands of people, just to give him a fraction of what you were born with. I'm very glad you didn't arrive. He did have a certain charisma. There was a time that I thought I could ride his coattails to greater heights. And I've paid for that hubris. This is my brother. I don't think there's anyone else who wants to be out here. Did he get melatonin? No, he didn't. Oh, okay. Who do you Wesley? Come get melatonin. Yeah, certainly none of them. Wesley? Maybe Aarakocra don't mind quite as much, but I mean, right now it's probably in the high 120s, maybe low 130s, rising slower. Those heat shimmers that you get in a hot desert are like intense. But in terms of visibility, you can see for miles. You can see, since you still have a bit of elevation, you can see... It's like when you cross over the ridge in California and you can see all the way to the state line. Yeah. And it's like these are hundreds of miles away. No, and I feel like she feels for the obelisks. Like there's almost a connection to those. Yeah. They still pop up. They radiate away from the city. They definitely follow this road. And they're spaced off a little bit from it. You didn't want anyone messing with them. But you can see several of them in the distance. They're all about the size and shape of the Washington Monument. Substantial. She feels for them and the proximity of... As you're looking around at the landscape, and you really can see now, I mean, most people have gone to ground, but you definitely see, like, some leave behind wagons or carts. Sometimes they even leave behind their mounts to just... and like dots of other traveling groups along the road in the distance. You can see the fort from here. It's still in good ways, but it's designed to be only about a day's ride from the town, so, or maybe two. And you can pretty clearly see it from this distance. But as you're looking around, you notice something else, a weird sparkle in the ground. You walk over carefully. It looked like, it almost looked to your eyes like a ruby or something that was moving. And you peer down and there's this little bug. You're not sure if it's a bug. It's burning its way up. It looks like its skin is made of obsidian. But its back, like a beetle, it has a big, broad back. looks like a ruby, just deep red gemstone. Another one is popping up. It's got an amber, like, topaz look. And when they get to the surface, they just sit there. Are they taking in the sun? She smiles. Few have seen these. They dwell deep. They... quite safe in the sun and can absorb its energy. It keeps them sustained through long periods of torpor and deep. My brother and I have some vague means of communication. I was curious about them and he guided me in the right direction. An ill-studied phenomenon, they only come out during the yellow sun. You should know. I have a deep curiosity for what you and your brother experience as a... It's a powerful and unique magic. But it's also bound by time and the sun, so I am very deeply curious about it. And if you'd like, I'd love to participate in trying to help. So Ram said much the same, but couldn't make much It's not his art. But it is yours. You may well be able to see what he could do. I'm not opposed to the idea. But you'll have to ask anyone for this. I will. I will do both of you. Everybody deserves... Yes. Everybody likes this. You are underneath and you've been working with the... You know, you're still... just packing up these little things and just dig, dig, dig, dig. There's like a main area and I think you've just been questing down like Minecraft delving because you just keep finding interesting things in the wet soil down here. There's a whole ecosystem and you have an audience. Mole and Aura are both very interested. They don't get to this part of nature often as you show off. You know, you know, needle crabs. And this is eaten by this, and you see how this is used here. Look at how the cycle is here. And now this is, we can make clay pots here, and we can take some of this sludge here, and we can pour it into the thing later. Are those roots? I didn't see any plants. Well, technically they're not roots because they're part of a fungal network, but you can think of them as roots. explain how if you trace it upward you'll find tiny microscopic spore vents. They more resemble the connections in the sentient humanoid's brains than anything else. You're describing... they're very much like that because like if you trace this down it's thin like a root. Yeah. But if you trace it down it gets bigger and then there's a big blob. Yeah exactly. And then more of those connecting to other blobs. Is that just the shape that that sort of network takes in the wild? Exactly. It's a neural shape of colonies that aren't specialized to think, but they definitely think in a neural net capacity. On some level, at least to see, like, tap it where the best places to get water are. This is a take 10 scenario. This thing speaks your language. I think I want to patent that on a route. You are not me, but you speak. What are you? I am nothing. Strange, but... We are strange, perhaps. There's this sense of like... Like... Instead of one voice, there's this wave... this close node sort of broadcasts thoughts and it starts to bounce back and there's all this overlapping echo and it resolves the wave interactions of the echo become an emergent thought. Individually, these nodes are just fungus, but together they have a mind. It's difficult... because it does have some concept of its physicality, but it's an emergent mind, so it feels highly separated. But between your magic and your communication, you can work out that this is a network of several billion nodes, most of which are the central blob is probably somewhere between a potato or a small car, depending on the page. And their dendrites are measured in tens of meters or hundreds for the big ones. Yeah, like it's basically, that's why I figured it's basically spread out across this whole area. If you could see a cutaway of the landscape, wherever the water table is, that's where all the big ones are. Yeah. And then they have all these little things, and so they're... They're mostly, they're not all that 3D, they're more 2D because they have a certain depth they prefer. And my goal will be through this trip to try and stay in contact with them as much as possible to tell where we are and use a nice navigation. And they span for miles and miles. There's, the water table naturally is descending with the land as what little water is caught on this lee side of the mountains tends to sink into the sun, slowly flow into the sea. unfortunately gets trapped under the silt sea uselessly. But for here, that's why there's still some scrub around here. Because the soil isn't garbage. But this thing is, it eats things, but it emits things that other things eat. It's not really an apex predator because it doesn't predate, but it does to some degree use psionics to convince certain creatures to do certain things. cordyceps-y-ness to it. There's a bunch of insects that form a really important part of this ecosystem that they will go up to the surface and eat things that are dead and then they burrow down here and they poop it out and so they're transporting nutrients from the surface to things that are... Those are different and you'll have to sync up with her about them because they are truly silicate life forms. They are not organic. They are mineral based and they're from like a totally different part of the ecosystem that have adapted to this new reality. The yellow sun can last a long time. It doesn't have to. Let's find out how long it lasts. This particular yellow sun is going to last for 11 hours. Which of course means that by the time it's over it would have been over anyway because that's nighttime. But the haze returns but that also means you get a few hours of pure starlight as well. I know we're actually established with this with this pure starlight charging Takan wasn't able to bring much of his finery into this pit. And it's hard to enjoy anyway because as the surface gets hotter and hotter and hotter, you know, the latent cold and shade can only do so much. Within a few hours, it's not quite a sauna. It's like a sauna with absolutely no water being boiled. You can see them. I can see them. I can feel them. Well, if this goes on much longer, I suspect everyone will be able to see them. Except for me, of course. But I've... I remember them. Eventually you'll see them again. I promise. I will solve it. I know I will. Ambitious, but... no voice has a ring of truth to it. Lumi didn't promise she would do the same, but she did tell me that if ever there was going to be an arcanist who could, it would be somebody in our guild. She's a very good citizen. Lumi has amazing instincts. The more experienced adventurers recommend everyone drink as much as you can. Water in the body is more important. And it's gonna get hot and the only... you're gonna wanna sleep through it. So from about like 2 p.m. to 5 or 6, most people are asleep or like having airplane naps. And uh... The... Nia's a girl's gonna spend the whole time outside, because why not? I think that's what they're both gonna do. She's gonna learn a lot about her. Those who are thirsty can either tap into their own reserves, or if they're willing, they can keep digging and packing soil. And... Viz graciously lends out his pitcher for purifying. The... She takes out some pastels and starts sketching the bugs that she sees in the sand as she's absorbing the sky. There's so many interesting shades and colors. It's like the word is getting out. Over time, more and more, they just keep appearing. And they're just going to soak it in as long as they can. Like Jules. Given the height of the mountains to the west and the time of year, I think... You're probably looking at somewhere between 5 and 6 p.m. for virtual sundown. And as it approaches, you see no sign of the haze lifting. She's just beaming and radiant. But soon she'll be replaced. And... No, she gets quickly. when the transition time comes. You're like, stare. Sure enough, as the sun is peeking below the mountain, this silvery lunar radiance begins to wash over her that the golden glow disappears. It was a very pleasant afternoon. Whoa! There's no bird. Okay, what happened? We're... He spots the Mechalots just sitting there in a torpor. A long period of yellow sun. Gods, it's hot. He looks up. It's probably still, it's coming down, but it's probably still like 105 or so. And now that the direct sun is gone, the UV index has dropped very rapidly. And even he can probably see some stars as the deep blue sky gets a little on the dark side in the far east. Were there any casualties? No. No, the team did a very good job. He sees this. Interesting. It comes out. She has him a cup of water. This looks pristine. Thank you. Somehow I wake up with a dry mouth. Well, your sister could spend the whole day in the sun. No doubt. It's... It agrees with her. It agreed with me a lot, then. I was wondering about that. I can see the stars in the daytime. I mean, you do resemble the reptile. I mean, they don't seem to mind. The Mechalots, actually, as it's getting onto her dust, they're like, mm-hmm. Look at these bugs that come out in the sunlight. One of them... starts walking. She shows her first sketch of the bugs in the sand. One of the mechalots starts lurching in your direction and then encounters resistance because the harness is still tied to the sleeping one. And for a moment, you get this, it's not really words because they're too stupid, but it's like, you know, if you hear a man shout, you instantly know Is he trying to get my attention? Is he angry? Is he afraid? And that was a very frustrated, like, I'm hungry. I want to eat them. Fuck this thing. But its laziness prevails. And it's like, I'm the tired. But it's hungry. What can I do? What can we get done? Yes. One of the crop boots? He approaches. Fungus. Yeah, I mean, you've been gathering up all sorts of stuff down there. It's like, I want to eat you. Wait, wait. You don't really smell like food, but that does. Because you toss. Yeah, there's just like, you dug them out and just grab chunks of fungus trunk. And just toss them and it's like, sniff, sniff, sniff. That's food. He's, uh, Viz is sneaking over to the utility wagon. looking for a feed bag. And as he does so, he's like, he's not in it. He's just sort of peeking over the edge. Like, yeah, it does look like... And he's reaching, and from absolutely nowhere, a woman is holding a dagger to his throat. What do you think you're doing? I'm trying to feed the bloodthirsty monster. Yeah, the bloodthirsty monster of your Thieves, Greed. It's why would I steal corn? What does anyone steal? Because they're thieves. You're literally escorting. I knew I couldn't trust you. What are you talking about? Did you want us to just report to you when the animals are hungry? He's holding his arms out, but she's still got him at knife point at the neck. She comes to try and disheak. escaped slave oh and you've drawn blood from a captor yes the picture of trust yeah what the hell would you know about it you want to tell me you never killed before I've never been asleep before he's you see that like ripple of tension like he's like no hands don't attack Nua has taken like a flanking position and he hasn't drawn his bow, but like he's ready to. You just want me to look the other way as you're going to steal from my master hands? Would you like us to go have a conversation with him right now? How could you do that? I don't need to tattle to the boss. I'm just the one who's going to solve the problem if he says yes anyway. So would you like to feed them? It's clearly hungry. More, more, more. This thing eats 600 pounds of food a day. I point at her and say, she's food. Okay. Oh, no. It's strong. It's not strong enough to bust the harness, but that wakes up the other one who's like, what are we doing? I can tell you I've got food if you want. But with the other one now participating? Yes. whole sedan starts lurching toward her. She backs away from Viz. Purrfody! Here, I turn to the beast. More mushrooms. Roll a charisma check. For the beasts. To convince them. I rolled a 13. The one already trusts you. He's like, oh, you've got good food. You gotta try this stuff. They start fighting over it. Give them the fucking feedback. I don't have to touch it. It's your master's shit. Exactly. Just give it to them. We were just telling you it's hungry. I'm obvious about the fact that it lurched towards you, showed you it is hungry. Do you need any more demonstration? You take that bag and nothing else. I suspect you don't even have to open it with these idiots. Just watching this. How much foot are we to get attention? It's about a 50 pound sack. It's a bit awkward, but you can easily hoist it over your shoulder. And thwomp! And they just both go rip it right apart and there's these big coarse grains and there's like hungry, hungry hippos. They're fighting over the bits. They're all paired with the food. I've never been. I have food delivery. I don't know if you want to be associated with food delivery. You've got a hurry, you beasts. I want to be associated with food delivery. It's better. Better work. Well handled, Nua offers. You seem to have a gift. I just listen really well. I imagine their voices are hard to understand. Not really. They're rather simple. As they're, uh, They're still willing to eat more, but their immediate thirst is slaked. And Dakhan has emerged with his companion. What a lovely sight. A night sky? It's not quite night, but it's like entering twilight. Stars? Look. I can see the moon and the others should arise soon. What a blessed evening. Feels like it's already in the low 90s and coming down at a good pace. This is prime traveling time. The sun's not likely to come out for a while yet. I was thinking the same. We've lost time. Let's see if these hungry beasts can make it up. He signals to the... bodyguard who's doesn't like being assigned to this task as she goes to retrieve two like big like dried hand hocks and mount them on like these fishing pole like contraptions in front of them yeah yeah I think that's probably like a blind so that you can remove it and then reveal the food so that they don't just immediately go crazy while you're doing this but it's still dangerous work I have service for this work. Don't you have better sense than to pick a fight with our adventures? You weren't there. I'm everywhere. He gets back in his fancy sedan, helping his companion in. The party puts itself back together. You leave this space for the next weary traveler. It'll slowly fill in over time if not maintained. And you can get a nice long, what did I say, 11 hours instead of 10, so you're good until about 11 p.m. And it'll get hazy. But until then... Oh, that's how Wesley learned the difference between Maddie and I. Just so. He knows his opposites. Opposites are words like this. Lips like that. As full night dawns? Appears. You see a rare sight on Athos. Thousands of stars twinkling in the remaining atmospheric haze. The... twin moons. The Ra and Guthi. Ra is a mottled green. Many wonder if it's a world with life on it. It doesn't have seas, but then again, neither does Xathus these days. It's the larger, it's about the size of our moon in the sky. its features are clear to see. The, uh, the life theory is given more, uh, more indication by the fact that it has ice caps and a system that includes clouds. The, uh, people have made, like, crude telescopes, and the Pyrene, with their excellent vision, can also just tell you, uh, The different greens mean different things. There are seas of green. And then green land. There are dizzyingly tall mountains. Guthe is the smaller and more distant moon. It moves at about half the speed through the sky. And it's an orb of gold with a tiny... vaguely visible ring system. Every now and then, bits of scarlet peek out from its thick clouds. There are stories that tell of ancient magics that could be used to travel to these worlds. Doesn't really jive with your understanding. I mean, okay, I guess to these people, there were ancient arcanists. What the fuck happened to the TV? sleep mode youtube mode who's up and triggering there may be a cat triggering a remote on the ground it has happened before um yeah arcanists existed uh you know within the last 2 000 years and perhaps even nope where's that oh it's up here isn't mirrored. This is a different desktop. Here we go. Got some ambience. But, uh, that's not the kind of magic a Pyrene would have, or like literally one Pyrene would do that. Your sister could do it, probably, if anyone could. But that wouldn't mean a lot of people would get to go there. Maybe a Sorcerer King figured it out, but if they did, why would they stay here? Even, uh, Alien world is... What the fuck? Yeah. I'll switch my audio. We don't need the screen right now. I think there's a Fire TV... I think we installed the Fire TV app on one of those tablets. Under this... But as the night The haze begins to return. The stars dim. By day the haze. Logan's. Logan's iPad is streaming to this. He's probably rolling over. No, he's using it right now. He's awake. He woke up. He's trying to tablet it. Yeah. He's like, where is it going? It's like when I have my headphones, but... steals my phone and he's like he's not getting audio because it's going my headphones I have to turn off Bluetooth it's annoying by day the haze shields us from the harshness of the Sun by night it takes away what little light there is and makes the otherwise wise choice of traveling by night stars begin to fade, the light level drops considerably. Soon, the humans can barely see 20 feet in front of you. And that's only if you have some sort of light source. Light sources are possible. You've got a couple of arcanists. You've got a starlight. Oh, Orson, does he have looks? I don't know if he does. He's... No, he's all in for elemental stuff. Samira's got some sort of gadget that resembles a lantern, but you don't see any oil or flame. The light that comes out of it is like a magic-y blue-white. Akshay has a lantern because he's not crazy. Where's my sister? What would be a problem? I've got this old valley. You eek out a few more miles and let's see if you're lucky enough to reach a designated campsite. 50-50. You and Viz probably have the best vision at this hour remaining. And you can confirm that there is a stone building for campers. It's still a bit of a hike. Maybe another hour. And the light levels by then are going to be bad. It's like being underground. It's like whatever the radius of your light is, that's what you can see. A lot of things come out at night to hunt them. Are you gonna turn into a bird? You're just gonna fly without becoming a bird? Oh that's right, you probably have both feets so you can actually levitate. You can't fly, that's why, but you can go up a bit. You can go up about 30 feet. That is a question. I mean, you are a Voidwalker yourself. But if you don't have the feats... Yeah. You can have Night Vision at this level, certainly. If you don't, you might want to. Yeah. You have... Oh, no, yeah, you probably want to keep that. You want to keep that. Ooh, yeah, that's a good one. I like that you have necromancy feeds. Makes sense. Maybe bad luck. Yeah, we can swap that out. So you at least have as good a vision. You've entered the domain where those with night vision are still seeing a little bit. And it's like twilight for humans where you can see large shapes, but the reaction time of your eyes drops tremendously. Like if something's moving fast enough, it's literally a blur. But at least it's a blur and not invisible. Also, in my research about the creatures of the night in the desert, what are we risking with the extra travels? It'll give us a nice flair of how deadly they are. I do know some of them. Number one, they're semi-mythical. A lot of city slickers think that they are a tall tale. But unfortunately, they're the real deal. The Belgoi. They're like Morlocks. You know the Morlocks? Time machine... They're weird twisted underground cave people. They eat people. They lure them with these psionic bellies. They make this noise that fascinates people like a Will-O-The-Wisp. They like to draw people away from camps by night. They're like coyotes. They don't want to attack a group usually. They want to lure people out and devour them. They do rely on sound. The Tembo is a feline-esque reptile. It is, uh... It's kind of like a mountain lion on steroids with necrotic magic. There's a dinosaur that's like... Yeah. They will... They have excellent night vision, and they like to sneak up. If you have, like, a fire going, they will find you... get close and they'll sniff out if there's like a small person they can grab and butt off with and devour. The Psylops is a gigantic centipede-like monster. It uses psionics to follow its prey. And even though it's huge and can kill you easily, it has a paralyzing touch. It famously will paralyze you and then eat you at its leisure. It's not an unconscious touch, just a paralyzing one. Athazian Sloth is sloth-like, but not lazy. They're extremely strong, and they are masters of camouflage. But they're more like ambush predators, so if you blunder into them, you're in trouble. But they probably wouldn't set up on the road. Nightmare Beasts are... hopefully mythical. But some people swear they exist. They're gargantuan. They... believed to sleep for years and then emerge for feeding franties. The calling card is people in an area will have horrible nightmares and by day they'll just experience this despair and terror and less of them hunting you and more like just a wave of destruction flattening you. There's also environmental dangers. already beginning to notice as it's now getting on toward midnight. Temperatures about 40 degrees and falling. I think there's another one that disappointed me. There is something about the probability of things. My first thought would be to pass the Drib, but she doesn't have a spell. I think there's a debate happening about do we camp right out here or do we risk the extra travel time to get to this much safer camp? Right, that's kind of where I'm at. Yeah. So... She gets in a yoga position and sits on the earth and just feels... If you can speak to fungus, she can speak to rocks. Rocks speak very slowly. But she can learn about a three-mile radius, which doesn't quite cover all the way, but it certainly gives you some forewarning. I will determine what she found. As far as... Oh, Sandy Bases. Okay. Roll a d20. I can't say which direction they had. But they feel terribly unnatural. Some threat to the south exists. There is... two other... She gets to ask two more questions. Let's see. That... Basically the rocks are saying something is vibrating. is... Okay, that's basically nothing. But she gets the answer. There's no important weather events in our immediate future. Finally... Nothing. The only threat nearby that she can sense is that something unnatural in the south. You are moving southeast, so if they're moving east, you could be in trouble. If they're moving north, and you don't move north, moving in any other direction you might just pass by each other. They're pretty widely spaced let me determine if you're particularly close to one. I will tell you this though they offer no shelter and are heavily warded against intrusion. There is one kind of close remember it from when you could see and it as the road is going it's like off to the side of the road yeah if you if you walk for a while and then she cast that again you know use that as like a known point then you might be able to sort of triangulate it closer that's wise she can probably pull up another one of those you recommend moving in centers okay with the prospect of a nice safe facility everyone is a little freaked out even the demon's hand people are there's no quips and funny jokes there's some discussion of whether they should all get out everybody has some sort of light source if you want to burn valuable fuel Yeah, the light is also cooler to anything with eyes. Let's see, one minute cast. Okay, you can definitely move through straight. You move for like, you need a decent amount of distance, 20 minutes. Barely a mile. You're walking slowly because you don't want to do a trick on your leg. But you're also kind of... I feel like it's like melt-bearing. Yeah. The emphasis for the lights you have is on lighting the ground so you don't trip over yourself. And you can... You have enough druids to maintain directionality. Plus the road, and I say road, it's like... It's a path. Yeah, it's a little path. But even so, you can tell when you've walked too far off of it, or those who are on the earth, can be like, okay, the ground's getting really scrubby. This is not the road anymore. And so there's a bit of navigation old trickiness. But 20 minutes gets you far enough away to meaningfully triangulate. And when she casts it again, she doesn't sense them anymore. Because you've got a nice little brother. You leave the pack of wandering undead in the dust. That would have been so much fun! I know, he would have loved it. Life. Absorb the life energy. At about one in the morning, with zero visibility beyond your light sources. And it's not that nothing is hunting. There's a number of things that have peeked out and like, it's way too much of them. And they're moving. No. Come on, one of you trip and fall. Get left behind. Come on. Get lost. I come upon this building that it's simple. It's mostly like just a big rectangle, but it has a roof. It has thick stone walls. It's easy to, there's some big stones that are designed to be able to push in front of the only door from the inside to just block yourselves off. There's arrow slits so you can see what's going on outside. you want to you can build a fire there is a small chimney and it's about let's see what's the weather like since you had yellow sun i think it's good yeah it's all it's it's above zero but it's below freezing and so everyone's bundled up real good the mechalots are getting real slow and unfortunately they cannot fit these But the birds can. They don't care. They're gonna come right inside with you guys. And the wisest thing to do is for everyone to huddle together real close. The fancy wagon doesn't quite fit in. You'd probably use it as a barricade to block the door. Yeah. It's a first line of defense. He painstakingly tells his servants to take the more valuable cargo that they can, as much as they can, inside. And it's heavy work. Is he going to insist? Yes. They also have to set up his tent. Which is very difficult. It barely fits in here. It's a big tent. They're so tired. His crew isn't ready. They're not done until about 2 in the morning. Most everyone else, I mean, you all have like a sleep sack. And... If you want one, you can get a tent. A good tent can be a little pricey. I don't need a tent inside. Yeah. It's hard. Exactly. All the birds cluster together, drape their wings over each other in a big pile of warmth. Does anyone have any warmth magic? You can build a fire if you want to. Yeah, it's not like anyone's gonna see the light from it. Exactly. And, uh... It'll be nice and toasty in here because it's so consuling. But we will keep track of your equipment use. Yes. The fire is small, but it gives you a nice little ring and this enclosed area heats up nicely. gets up to like a balmy 50 degrees and it's much easier to sleep and more relaxing and you'll have to discipline yourselves to wake up at like 5 in the morning to prepare I mean if I'm not on active rest phase I think my sleep cycle is much shorter I'm going to roll a die and this is what day of your cycle you're in right now So you're most energetic. Especially I've been all that sun yesterday. She's just like, God damn it, I don't have a library right now. Normally I get into books and I can't travel with books, so... Exactly. Some cool shit will happen tomorrow, but for now, you sleep. And... I watch the night. I am. Exactly. There are creatures that come to investigate... You've basically positioned the Mechalots as your Cerberus. And so anything that wants to get close, like, I don't know about those guys. They look, they almost turtle in this weather. And they burrow themselves down a bit into the earth. And they just curl up. In my head, they secretly look like Axwaddles in the face. Like, like, the little goofy leg. Perhaps. But they're like, because for me, in my headcanon evolution, They evolved from salamanders and fam axquaddles into this new environment and then they got bigger and you know... They're like giant axquaddles that aren't amphibians anymore. Yeah, they would have to be... They still have to have very thick carapace and stuff. The earliest risers have to get up at like 5 to start tearing down all the stuff and removing all the cargo. And by 6 the whole caravan. She's still ADHD at that point. She's helping them hang up. She's just sort of plucking it out of here so fast. You're just taking these huge loads. The men look surprised and just grab this heavy 50 pound bag and toss it in there. Everyone eats a normal amount of food. A normal amount of water is consumed. At 6am you guys are ready to move and there's still not really a lot of light but it's still a good time to start because get a couple extra hours of darkness but also cold. And the next day promises to bring with it. This is also where we have to make our decision to go down. Not quite yet, you're probably gonna get to a fort by day two if nothing weird happens. And overall, this is probably about eight to 10 days. Maybe on the, if you don't get slowed down by any 11 hour. It's eight to 10, and without the shortcut. Yeah, closer to eight with the shortcut. You will find out what, Tuesday is a school day for you. Nothing in particular going on with this in the front. It's just a little shorter. Like, on Monday, Tuesday, Logan gets home around 2.30. And they get moved. Tuesday's the normal. So Wednesday should be fine. And like 10 to 2. I mean, we just did, what, two hours? If we can start as early as 10, that's double the length of the normal session. And nighttime isn't bad. Monday won't work as possible to get up so early. Tuesday might not work either. But you know, it might work. If possible, Sunday night will work. Or Saturday, if... That's an anti-dave. Yeah. My plan. Assuming some, you know, you guys follow the path, there are six planned encounters of which you have done one. All right. Yeah. Sit at a... We will certainly be going out on Sunday. It might be during the weekend Saturday. I like this though because I can roll dice. I'm just doing an American so much.