Out of the fissure and into a Wriem overrun by moon goblins, the party is sized up by Mikhail Asimi and sent to help civilians while keeping away from the Queen’s Guard. They rescue the healer Matilda from a collapsing herbalist shop, but are caught in the blast when a nearby arcanery full of essence crystals explodes: Orrin‘s orb and wand are disintegrated, and the other three receive a flaw called Spell Burn. They meet a mother and child struck by the Hollowing Plague and rescue a cat from a magical tower. Then a golden figure who looks exactly like Rue‘s quarry, Weston, kills the giant moon goblin with one blow. Mikhail names him Gabriel Landaluce, son of the God-Queen, and sends the party to hide at Willy’s Wards.
Details
Flashback: the tunnels
The episode opens with a flashback to the party following Wisp through the caves in e02 – We're Not From Here, trailing behind the Nightforge guild (e03 00:01). Orrin tells Rue and Vargus that his bosses at the Magisterium believe Wisp is a super powerful weapon, and wonders whether Wisp is leading them to their deaths (e03 00:03). Vargus calls Wisp an otter; Rue insists he is a rabbit, and Vargus says he doesn’t know what a rabbit is (e03 00:03, e03 00:03). Where Vargus is from, he says, there is no land, and you evolve with what you’ve got (e03 00:04).
Mikhail Asimi
They come up from the fissure below Wriem to find the chaos spread to the city above: giant moon goblins destroying the town square, bells ringing, people running for safety, and Mikhail Asimi standing before them (e03 00:09, e03 00:09, e03 00:09). His profile plays in Orrin’s head: a Beaumondian metamortal, tier six, whose powers include flight, speed, strength, durability, an incredibly high battle IQ, and the seven swords of Akaron, each blade with its own name, history, and ability. All of his abilities come from his incredible telekinetic powers: he imagines it and the world listens (e03 00:09, e03 00:10, e03 00:10, e03 00:10). He is potentially the second strongest meta on Edyrea, does not play well with others, and is a member of the Nightforge guild, an outfit of predominantly tier eights. His prior affiliation was the Prophecy of the Snake, right up until the day he killed their leader, a crime he was absolved of; only he and the Queen’s Guard know why (e03 00:10, e03 00:10, e03 00:10).
Mikhail calls over his shoulder to Gilbert to take his crew back to headquarters and then go close the last portal (e03 00:10, e03 00:11). The party feels the hair on their necks rise, as if they’re being watched: there is the gentlest surface probing from Mikhail into their emotions and minds, which is not divination magic (e03 00:11, e03 00:11, e03 00:11). In a blink he is standing in front of the four of them. He cocks his head: “Just who are you supposed to be? You’re not from here, are you?” Then he adds, “not right now,” saying this fight is a little out of their league (e03 00:11, e03 00:12, e03 00:12). Wisp tells him he’s a huge fan of what he’s doing with his swords, and asks him to teach him (e03 00:12, e03 00:12). Mikhail points over his left shoulder, without looking, at folks trapped on the other side of the collapse, and tells the party to help them out while he and the others “handle the mess you made” (e03 00:12, e03 00:12, e03 00:12). He also tells them he’d avoid any Queen’s Guard, pointing past them at guards gathering in the street and heading their way: “help me out and then I’ll help you out” (e03 00:12, e03 00:12, e03 00:13). He loses interest in them quickly, says he’s going to take care of the big one, takes his hands out of his pockets for the first time, cracks his knuckles, and takes off into the sky so hard the cobblestones crack (e03 00:13, e03 00:13, e03 00:13, e03 00:13).
Into the streets
From above, the giant moon goblin is far to the northeast, so tall it towers over the buildings (e03 00:14, e03 00:14). The Nightforge guild gears up to do what Mikhail told them, he flies off toward the giant goblin, and the Queen’s Guard is behind the party (e03 00:15, e03 00:16, e03 00:16). Ahead, crowds of civilians stream through an intersection, mostly heading west toward a moon goblin and fire, while a Queen’s Guard on an overturned cart yells at them to go south, where the road is clear (e03 00:16, e03 00:16, e03 00:16).
Orrin warns the others that Mikhail knows they aren’t from here, and that they’ll have serious problems if the Queen’s Guard catches up and realizes it too (e03 00:17); he worries the guard might be able to detect anti-essence the way Mikhail did (e03 00:20). Wisp points out that “cool sword guy” told them to help people (e03 00:17). Orrin grabs Wisp and tells him there was no ghost in the caves; it was Orrin talking to him (e03 00:18). Vargus admits he’s too big and heavy to sneak (e03 00:19).
A woman goes down in front of the guard’s cart and starts getting trampled, with no one helping her (e03 00:19). Vargus immediately shields her with his bulk, and Orrin casts dancing lights around the guard’s face to blind him while Vargus is in view (e03 00:19, e03 00:20). Vargus helps her up; she looks at him with more gratitude than he has seen in a long while, thanks him, and goes on her way (e03 00:24, e03 00:24, e03 00:24). Wisp asks what time of day it is: it’s his first time above ground, and the cosmology here is so foreign that none of his instincts from home are firing. It is day, as much as that word has meaning across two completely different planes (e03 00:20, e03 00:21, e03 00:21, e03 00:21).
Healer or arcanery
Slipping north past the Queen’s Guard, the party reaches a giant crevice in the town square, where the original descent caved in (e03 00:25, e03 00:25, e03 00:25). In the distance, Mikhail is a speck going toe-to-toe with the giant moon goblin, which roars, swings its claws, and buffets things with its wings, while seven silver streaks weave intricate patterns around it; he seems to be holding it off (e03 00:26, e03 00:26, e03 00:26, e03 00:26).
Time slows, and Mikhail is standing in front of them as well, smoke and cinder flowing through him: a projection in their minds from a very powerful telepath (e03 00:27, e03 00:27, e03 00:28, e03 00:28). Rue takes him for Mikhail’s twin (e03 00:30). He gives them a choice: to the west, little old Matilda, the block’s best healer, who saves an awful lot of people, is stuck inside an herbalist shop and will go down with it if the crevice gets any wider. To the east, the arcanery is on fire and packed with essence crystals; if they explode, half the block goes up, “maybe even you, maybe even Matilda.” They’ve only got a chance to save one (e03 00:28, e03 00:28, e03 00:29, e03 00:29, e03 00:29, e03 00:29, e03 00:29). Rue wants to save the lady, and the others go with her (e03 00:30).
The herbalist shop
The herbalist shop teeters crookedly over the crevice, with vines and plants growing out of one window and into another (e03 00:32, e03 00:33, e03 00:33). Rue gently untangles the thorny vines over the door, telling the others that plants have feelings (e03 00:33, e03 00:33, e03 00:34); Vargus says his ship kept a couple of flowers below deck, which the crew liked to look at and sniff (e03 00:33). Orrin’s dancing lights reveal a fine dust hanging in the dark air, and Rue and Wisp begin sneezing uncontrollably; Rue casts elementalism to blow it out of the door, straight into Orrin’s and Vargus’s faces (e03 00:34, e03 00:35, e03 00:35, e03 00:36).
Orrin and Wisp take the spiral staircase up into a disheveled study full of plants and potions, where a very large, ornate book with antique pages, bound in some kind of plant material, lies open on the desk (e03 00:39, e03 00:39, e03 00:39, e03 00:39, e03 00:40). Orrin takes it to be the business’s sales ledger and hugs it to his side with his one arm (e03 00:39, e03 00:40). Matilda isn’t there (e03 00:40).
Rue and Vargus go down into a large greenhouse lit by magical lamps. At its far end are cellar doors overgrown with green vines, and between them and the doors is a purple, chomping, Mario-like plant, spittle flying (e03 00:37, e03 00:37, e03 00:37, e03 00:38, e03 00:38). The other plants include two creeping vines on lattices, one with gray leaves and one with red, beautiful multi-colored flowers swarming with bees, a flower with big drooping white bells, and the small green vines over the doors (e03 00:43, e03 00:43, e03 00:43). Rue refuses to hurt the biting plant and picks up one of each of the other plants to carry out (e03 00:44, e03 00:44). Orrin hasn’t yet reached the part of his Wriem encyclopedia that covers local flora (e03 00:45).
Wisp ropes the plant’s pot with mage hand, which looks like a trail of little smoky hands, and drags it aside, while Orrin turns his four lights into a vaguely humanoid figure for the plant to chomp at (e03 00:47, e03 00:47, e03 00:48, e03 00:48). It bites through a different patch of green vines, which snap back like rubber bands (e03 00:49, e03 00:49). Wisp’s sword won’t cut the vines on the cellar door, and Rue can’t coax them loose, so Wisp moves the plant back with mage hand and Orrin tricks it into biting through them (e03 00:50, e03 00:50, e03 00:51, e03 00:52).
Through the door, behind a fallen beam holding up the cellar, is a very old, frail woman: Matilda (e03 00:52, e03 00:53, e03 00:53). Rue works out how to move the beam without bringing the cellar down (e03 00:54), but as they strain at it, the building lurches until it’s tilting at 45 degrees (e03 00:55, e03 00:56, e03 00:56). Wisp tries a crowbar, then hacks at the beam with his greatsword, and together they get it up (e03 00:55, e03 00:56, e03 00:58). “What took you long enough?” Matilda says, and goes up the stairs looking for “my boy,” the purple plant, which chomps at her; she won’t leave without it (e03 00:58, e03 00:58, e03 00:58). When Rue steps in to pick it up, it bites and poisons her (e03 00:58, e03 00:58). Matilda tells her you can’t walk up to it when it’s hungry, and throws it a bee-covered flower; it catches the flower and calms down, and Rue carries it out (e03 00:58, e03 00:58, e03 00:59). The moment Matilda steps out of the shop, it collapses into the crevice behind her; she looks back, asks “are you dead?”, and tells them to quit fussing (e03 00:59, e03 00:59, e03 00:59). Orrin hides the book under his cape (e03 00:59, e03 01:00).
The explosion
Time slows again as the arcanery goes up in a deafening explosion, fire shooting into the air (e03 01:00, e03 01:00). Mikhail is still fighting the giant moon goblin in the distance, but also in front of them, shaking his head, looking a little disappointed (e03 01:01, e03 01:01). Orrin shields Wisp, Vargus shields Matilda, and Rue shields her plant (e03 01:00, e03 01:01, e03 01:01). The blast seems almost selective: some buildings explode, disintegrate, or burn away, and others are untouched (e03 01:02, e03 01:02, e03 01:02). The fire engulfs all four of them. They feel burned, but not physically: a searing heat without being on fire, which Orrin feels more than anyone (e03 01:02, e03 01:02, e03 01:02). Several buildings are destroyed (e03 01:03). The GM gives everyone a flaw called Spell Burn, without saying what it does (e03 01:03). He then removes it from Orrin, whose orb and wand are both disintegrated instead (e03 01:04, e03 01:04).
Matilda looks up at Vargus with the same gratitude as the woman in the street, then snaps out of it and heads for the tavern, Willy’s Wards, up north, probably the only safe place (e03 01:04, e03 01:05). Orrin stares in terror at the dust that used to be his orb: “they are going to find out now, they are going to realize what I am” (e03 01:05, e03 01:05). “I am like you! And they are going to kill me for it!” (e03 01:05). He says it was super helpful: he was immune to divination magic, and they didn’t know he was made of the same stuff the others are (e03 01:06). Wisp welcomes him to the club; Orrin asks how he leaves it (e03 01:05, e03 01:05). Rue points out he was going to quit his job and come with them anyway (e03 01:05).
The chapel
Mikhail is being beaten back toward the square (e03 01:07, e03 01:07). To the north, people inside a large stone chapel are boarding it up with pews and statues, while outside a woman bangs on the door with a human child of about six (e03 01:08, e03 01:08, e03 01:08, e03 01:08). Vargus sees the child doesn’t look right: bags under its eyes, almost gray, not reacting to anything around it (e03 01:09, e03 01:09, e03 01:09). He sends the mother to Willy’s Wards (e03 01:09, e03 01:10). The priest screams through the door slit, “You’ll kill us all! The fear has taken her. Do us a kindness, put them down now,” and that no one should let her talk to anyone or go near anybody (e03 01:10, e03 01:10, e03 01:10, e03 01:10). “The little one has it,” he says, but he can’t say what: “if I say it, it will be more real” (e03 01:11).
The mother sits down in the street with the boy standing over her (e03 01:11, e03 01:12). Vargus sees she is covering a wound on her arm, the way pirates hide injuries so they can stay useful, and that the boy has a trickle of blood down his cheek; she insists it’s fine and that they shouldn’t think or talk about it, but nervously shows him: the child bit her (e03 01:12, e03 01:12, e03 01:13, e03 01:13). Vargus dresses the wound and calms her (e03 01:14, e03 01:14). The boy tries to bite Vargus, who palms his head (e03 01:15, e03 01:15); when Wisp leads him away by the hand, the boy bites Wisp, and Wisp summons his blade and raises it on reflex before Orrin and Vargus talk him down (e03 01:16, e03 01:17). Orrin tries to cast message to Wisp and finds he can’t without his arcane focus (e03 01:16).
Orrin realizes what he is looking at: the Hollowing Plague, which is ripping across Edyrea, which he has been hearing about for a long time, and which should not be here; it is something very far away from here (e03 01:18, e03 01:18, e03 01:18). People say the plague is born from fear, and the worst thing to do is be afraid of it, which is why the priest and the mother are trying to ignore it (e03 01:18, e03 01:18). The boy isn’t fully in control of himself, isn’t afraid anymore, and his skin is graying; as Orrin acknowledges what it is, the boy’s eyes light up again and he becomes more animated (e03 01:18, e03 01:18, e03 01:19, e03 01:19). Orrin tells the others there’s no plague, and they agree (e03 01:19). With Vargus’s encouragement, the mother takes heart, takes her son’s hand, and heads for the tavern (e03 01:23, e03 01:23, e03 01:23).
East, and Marlin
Orrin knows the east side of town is the merchants’ quarter, and that it will probably be lost (e03 01:20, e03 01:21, e03 01:22); Wisp and Rue want to go toward the fighting anyway. As they head east, Mikhail lands a big hit; the giant moon goblin stumbles back, crushing buildings, and falls against the chapel, which holds, completely untouched, with a faint shimmer of magic around it (e03 01:24, e03 01:24, e03 01:24, e03 01:24).
A woman stands in the empty street staring at a mini wizard’s tower (e03 01:24, e03 01:24). She won’t leave without Marlin, her husband, who is inside (e03 01:25, e03 01:25). Rue throws her over her shoulder and carries her in (e03 01:26). Inside is a very large library, with bookshelves rising several stories and scrolls everywhere (e03 01:26, e03 01:26), and a staircase so long its end can’t be seen, which the woman says is locked (e03 01:27, e03 01:27). When Wisp runs up it, the stairs keep getting longer, and he runs in place (e03 01:28, e03 01:28). Orrin grabs five books or scrolls at random (e03 01:30, e03 01:32). The woman explains that during the day she can’t go upstairs but Marlin can, and at night she can go up just fine; she didn’t build the place (e03 01:30, e03 01:30). So they put out the lights and push bookshelves across the windows, and in total darkness Wisp reaches the door at the top (e03 01:30, e03 01:31, e03 01:31). Behind it is Marlin: a very pretty black cat with white mittens, who purrs, meows, and brushes against Wisp (e03 01:31, e03 01:31, e03 01:32).
Gabriel Landaluce
Outside, the last of the smaller moon goblins has crushed whatever was to the south, and the streets are empty (e03 01:33, e03 01:33). Mikhail slams into the street beside them, leaving a crater, stands up uninjured, says “pretend you didn’t see that,” and flies back into the fight (e03 01:33, e03 01:34, e03 01:34). A golden meteorite appears in the sky as Mikhail takes another hit and is slammed into a building; it is a person, blazing with fire and gold, who lands softly about a block away (e03 01:34, e03 01:34, e03 01:34, e03 01:35). He has gleaming armor and beautiful long golden hair. He takes off his helmet, glances at Mikhail with the briefest sneer, then turns to the party with a big, bright, charismatic smile (e03 01:35, e03 01:35, e03 01:35, e03 01:35).
Rue sees it first: he looks exactly like Weston, if Weston had long golden hair, in the best shape of his life and as if he’d never seen a hard day’s work. There is no recognition in his face (e03 01:36, e03 01:36, e03 01:36, e03 01:36). He waves at them like children at a sideshow, then shoots into the air and puts a fireball of golden light straight through the giant moon goblin’s head in one hit, spraying black blood (e03 01:36, e03 01:36, e03 01:36, e03 01:36). The goblin falls toward the party, who step back, and the golden figure flies off south (e03 01:37, e03 01:37, e03 01:37).
Rue wants to chase him; Vargus suggests finding out where he lives and stabbing him in his sleep, and Rue says she has done that for the last ten years (e03 01:38, e03 01:38). She decides that if his name is Weston, they punch him in the face (e03 01:38). Mikhail walks up, hands in his pockets — “just so you know, I softened him up” — and when Rue asks, tells her, “You’re definitely not from here. That was Gabriel Landaluce, the son of the God-Queen” (e03 01:38, e03 01:39, e03 01:39). Whether Gabriel ever renamed himself, he couldn’t say (e03 01:39, e03 01:39).
Mikhail tells them they did a pretty good job saving people, but that it’s a little concerning that they just listened when he told them they couldn’t save everyone (e03 01:39, e03 01:39). When Vargus says you can’t save everyone, that’s a fact of life, the smirk leaves Mikhail’s face for the first time; he looks right at Vargus and says, “You’re wrong” (e03 01:39, e03 01:39, e03 01:40). Then, laissez-faire again, he tells them they had best hide, and that Willy’s Wards is their best bet: avoid the Queen’s Guard, who don’t take kindly to people from other places, while Willy is a friend who isn’t very friendly to the Queen’s Guard (e03 01:40, e03 01:40, e03 01:40, e03 01:40). Asked about Gabriel, he smiles: “Of course we’re friends. Why would us metas ever disagree on anything?” He says he’ll find them at Willy’s if they want to talk again, and rockets into the air (e03 01:40, e03 01:41, e03 01:41, e03 01:41).
Essence dust
On the way to Willy’s Wards, Orrin asks to stop at the ruins of the arcanery (e03 01:42). The magical items that ran it were disintegrated into dust, which is used as currency (e03 01:42, e03 01:42, e03 01:42). Orrin scoops 18 gold pieces’ worth of essence dust into his purse, and tells the others it is money here (e03 01:43, e03 01:43); Vargus eats a handful (e03 01:43). They head off toward Willy’s Wards, with battle still sounding from the south, where the two smaller moon goblins are still roaring (e03 01:43).
Still open
- What the Spell Burn flaw does isn’t stated (e03 01:03).
- Orrin says that without his orb they’ll realize what he is, and that he’s made of the same stuff as the other three; what that means isn’t stated further (e03 01:05, e03 01:06). See also the e01 open thread on why the wand never glowed for him.
- Who Gabriel Landaluce is to Weston, the man Rue is hunting, isn’t known; Mikhail couldn’t say whether Gabriel had ever renamed himself (e03 01:36, e03 01:39).
- Wisp and the mother were both bitten by the boy with the Hollowing Plague (e03 01:13, e03 01:17).
- The Prophecy of the Snake, Mikhail’s former affiliation, and why he was absolved of killing its leader, aren’t explained (e03 00:10, e03 00:10).
- Gilbert’s crew was sent to close “that last portal”; whether they did isn’t shown (e03 00:11).
- What is in Matilda’s plant-bound book, which Orrin took, isn’t stated (e03 00:39, e03 00:59).
- What the five books or scrolls Orrin took from the tower are isn’t stated (e03 01:32).
- What the plants Rue carried out of the herbalist shop do isn’t stated (e03 00:52).
- The tower Marlin was in, and why its stairs work for its owner only at night, isn’t explained (e03 01:30).
- Two smaller moon goblins are still loose in the south of the city (e03 01:43).
Episode history
- e03 — the party helps civilians in Wriem; Matilda rescued; the arcanery explosion destroys Orrin’s orb and wand and gives the others Spell Burn; the Hollowing Plague appears in Wriem; Gabriel Landaluce kills the giant moon goblin.