The group sits down in the inn to discuss a plan to protect the bullywugs and also ensure the village has access to water. They think that the situation may be able to be resolved peacefully if both groups can reach an understanding, and they decide to visit the mayor to get his take.
The guards outside the mayor’s house are talking back and forth about how bad it’ll look for the town if the Republic of Kreme’s armies arrive without their problems being resolved. Jadeth’s ears twitch nervously under her hood, being a bit wary of how the Republic would treat her if her true identity is revealed. Slender ignores the gossip and requests and audience with the mayor – letting them know he has an update from the marsh. The guards’ eyes light up, and they move aside to let the group pass.
They enter the mayor’s study and find him meeting with a huge cobalt-colored dragonborn with spiky maroon hair that matches their platemail. They step aside and gesture for the mayor to meet with the group before leaning against a bookshelf in the corner of the room. They set their giant shield down with the emblem of the Republic of Kreme emblazoned on the front. Jadeth gives them a timid wave, and the big lizardfolk’s tail swishes back and forth like that of a happy dog.
Slender nods to thank the knight and begins relaying what happened in the marshes to the mayor. He’s shocked to learn that the bullywugs were able to be communicated with at all. He glances over to the dragonborn, and whispers to ask if they believe they can handle the problem sooner than later. The dragonborn tilts their head and asks what the issue is. Slender tells them about the bullywugs and the mist, and they look away and squint towards the fireplace.
“Mist, you say?” They repeat quietly and brush their hair back. Slender asks if they know anything about it, and they admit they know a bit more than the average person. They introduce themself as “Lil’ Mole,” and offer to come help the group out with the bullywugs. The mayor is instantly relieved, but Slender narrows his eyes and asks if that means they want a portion of the reward. Lil’ Mole shakes their head, noting that scouting the mist would be a benefit to their assignment in Olemnar. The king offers one of his guards to tag along with the group as well to ensure that a treaty is reached.
Jadeth does a quick bow and tells Mole she would be incredibly grateful for any help they could offer– somehow finding herself already trusting the dragonborn more than Juno or Slender. Spike admits it would be nice to have a fellow holy person with them, gesturing to the symbol of King Yama that Mole has around their neck. Mole grabs it and smiles, genuinely happy to join the team.
As soon as the group starts down the road towards the marshes again, Juno overhears someone telling her to stay out of a fight in Thieve’s Cant. She’s unable to locate the person speaking to her, but readies her crossbow and grabs Jadeth’s shoulder in preparation for a fight. Jadeth turns back to her, uneased by the contact. She brushes Juno off of her with an annoyed huff. However, as soon as she turns back around, a crossbow bolt flies by her face.
Jadeth yelps, and the whole group is alerted to the ambush. Jadeth and Juno run for cover in opposite directions as Mole pulls out their sword and shield to prepare for battle. Slender bolts for the mules and uses his bardic inspiration on Juno. She peeks over the wagon she’s taken cover behind and sees the assassin hiding behind a hut off the road. She calls it out to Mole, and the paladin charges forward to knock the archer out of their hiding spot.
They skid into the field of crops, and Jadeth jumps over a bush and readies her blunderbuss at their face. They quickly fumble with their crossbow, hoping to get a final hit in on the tiefling, but Juno snipes them dead before they are able. Jadeth snaps that she had it under control, and Juno stares at her in disbelief.
Slender mimics Jadeth’s voice and says: “oh, thanks for saving my life, gang!” Jadeth scoffs at him, and he mutters that she’s an ungrateful bitch under his breath. While they bicker, Mole loots the assassin’s corpse to find a letter with the seal from Jadeth’s former kingdom, Caldra.
Jadeth spots it first and tries to be discreet by pulling down her hood and walking away, but Mole begins reading the bounty aloud for everyone to hear. They read off that she’s the lost princess of Caldra– and wanted for seven counts of murder, including regicide, matricide, and uxoricide. Mole looks down at the tiny tiefling, not really knowing what to think. Slender casually hides behind Juno, and she steps forward to take the note from Mole. She reads it over with wide eyes and turns it over to hold it in Jadeth’s face.
Jadeth snatches it from her and shoves it into her bag, telling them that there are plenty of “Jadeth”s in the kingdom of Caldra. Juno doesn’t buy it for a second and gets frustrated for even coming close to trusting the tiefling murderer. Jadeth retorts that Juno doesn’t know what she’s talking about and glares at her with the red eyes from behind her mask.
Spike steps between the two women with his hands outstretched and begs them both to calm down. Slenderbard plucks the strings on his lute as he tries to diffuse the situation with a cheerful melody. Jadeth sighs and begins to walk away, and after a moment of debate, Juno decides to drop it.
The group finally returns to the bullywug settlement, and Mole realizes that the mist problem is far worse than the knights in their order had originally thought. They lead the way through the village, but their attention is entirely focused on the encroaching wall of fog to the north. Slender asks them why they’re worried about it, and Mole tells him that it isn’t normal fog, but rather the edge of another plane. It’s called the Border Ethereal, and it serves as a gateway to the realm of spirits and monsters. What would typically only be found in the Ethereal plane could begin to spill over into the material world if the gateway remained open.
Jadeth notes that would explain what drove the bullywugs out of the land they had considered sacred, and Mole agrees that getting lost in the mist could prove to be incredibly dangerous. Slender laughs and notes that it’s a good thing the light they were chasing is on the other side of the mist. Mole tries to ask what he means, but one of the bullywug guards comes out to collect them to speak with the king.
Slenderbard tells the king that the mayor of Olemnar is also interested in reaching a peaceful solution. He tells him that the only thing the village wants is access to fresh water without being attacked. The king thinks for a long moment, and he tells Slender that he would offer the town water on the west side of the marshes as long as they avoid the sacred spawning pools. The mayor’s guard tells the king that his people would be happy with this solution, and the king lets out a satisfied croak.
As the mayor’s guard heads back to Olemnar to relay the good news, the king of the bullywugs invites the group to enjoy a banquet. Juno accepts on behalf of the group, never turning down a free meal. The king brings out an assortment of grubs, bugs, and raw fish. As soon as he reveals it, the majority of the team is hardly able to hide their disgust.
Juno downs the strange cuisine without problem, growing used to eating scraps to avoid starvation. Jadeth is able to keep her disgust mostly hidden, having grown up as royalty and knowing how to conceal her true feelings. Mole and Spike have a bit more difficulty with their own but are still able to stomach it. Slenderbard gags and outright vomits. The bullywug king narrows his eyes at Slender, and Jadeth thumps the back of his head for being rude as the king’s guests.
The king asks if there is something else they could serve that would be more to the group’s taste. Slender is quick to ditch the bowl of grubs and offer to cook them a real dinner. Everyone watches him warily, terrified the king will take badly to the bold disregard to the hospitality. The king ponders for a moment before sending his guards out to fetch some fresh meat. They disappear for a few minutes as Slender rifles through his bag of holding to find some spices.
When the guards return they offer their fresh catches to Slender who cleans and cooks them over the fire. He keeps grabbing various spices and flipping the fish over in his frying pan. All the bullywugs watch him carefully, trying to figure out what he’s doing. Slender returns over to the banquet table, and Mole is unable to stop their tail from wagging at the delicious smell of perfectly seasoned trout. Slender places some in front of the king, and everyone watches as he takes a bite. His red eyes widen and he makes a blissful ribbit– telling Slender its the best meal he’s had in his entire life.
At the king’s all-clear, the rest of the group begins digging into the gourmet fish. The other bullywugs begin croaking along, making a happy chorus of ribbits that seem almost melodious. Slender writes down the recipe and gives it to the king as a parting gift, and with their frog problems resolved, the group starts on their way back to Olemnar.
They return back into the city, and while Juno, Spike, Jadeth, and Slenderbard visit the mayor’s personal blacksmith, Mole sends out a carrier pigeon to warn the royal army of the mist’s advancement. They then settle back down at the inn and get ready for a few days of downtime.
While waiting the week for the armor to be made and fitted, they decide to get some training in. Slender asks Jadeth what language she was speaking in at the bullywug settlement, and she sheepishly admits it was Abyssal– the language of demons. Juno suspiciously asks her how she knows it, and she gestures to her devil-like tail. She admits that her uncle was unfortunately very interested in the demon heritage of tieflings, and she picked up more than a few phrases from being around him and his servants in her youth. Slender spins a silver piece around on the table before snatching it up and offering it out to Jadeth. She makes an unnoticeable face under her mask.
“Can you teach us how to speak Abyssal?” He asks with a casual grin. She leans her head into her palm and shrugs, not really seeing a reason they would want to know it. Slender laughs out that it’s terrifying and may come in handy for future intimidations. While Jadeth regards it as little more than a curse, she agrees to practice some phrases with the group. Even after the full week passes, neither Slender nor Juno have made very much progress aside from Slender having mastered the phrase: “go fuck yourself!”
At the end of their stay in the village, the group overhears chatter that people are gathering at the edge of the mist. Mole leads the way to find out if the rumors are true, and hopefully stop anyone from getting hurt. They aren’t able to get very far before being ambushed again.
A fireball flies over Juno’s head as she ducks down just in time to avoid being turned into a crisp. Jadeth pulls out her musket and searches for more assassins, but this time their attackers aren’t nearly as stealthy. Four battered tieflings stumble out of the wood like they are in a trance. Their eyes are all locked on Juno. Jadeth runs forward to challenge them, but they disregard her entirely. Her tail swishes back and forth in confusion, and she turns and sees that all of them seem much more interested in Juno than herself.
Juno takes out the first that charges at her with little issue, but is quickly targeted by the spells of the remaining three. She notices something concerning as she’s being pursued– she recognizes these tieflings from her old home. She dodges under a few more blasts of flame as Jadeth gets out of her daze and rushes to her aid.
Jadeth fires off a blast to take out the legs of the one, and is disturbed to find that even the pain of a bullet into their leg isn’t enough to distract them from hunting down Juno. Her target staggers back onto his feet, and Jadeth attempts to get between him and the rogue. He lashes out less like a person and more like a wild animal, but leaps over her and chases Juno.
Mole engages the two closer to Slenderbard, and the bard retreats towards the city gates, hopeful he can yell for help. Mole has little difficulty protecting themself from the frantic claws and dagger attacks coming from the tieflings. They note that, while the tieflings are moving like the undead, they are still very much living. Slender calls out that maybe it would be better if they weren’t living. Mole nods before taking the head of the one clean off and throwing an ax into the other as he begins to run towards Juno.
Jadeth asks Mole and Spike what they think is causing them to act the way they are, but they both have no answers. She turns her attention towards the city when Juno cries out in pain. Spike grabs Jadeth’s shoulder and cautions her to be careful, also worried about whatever could have done this to her fellow tieflings. She thanks him for his concern before charging off to help Juno.
She passes Slender at the gates of the town. He’s found a team of guards, and he asks her what’s going on. She pushes past them all without a word and runs into the watchtower. Slender looks back over his small army and sighs, “unbelievable.”
Badly injured from the barrage of fire blasts, Juno swiftly scales the stone city walls and takes cover. She collapses behind a crate and rummages through her bag to look for medicine to stop the searing pain of the burns. However, she’s not out of danger yet. Just as she finds her bandages, the final tiefling attacker uses his magic to teleport to the top of the wall. Juno swears and dodges his dagger attack just in time for it to get stuck in the crate behind her.
Jadeth arrives at the top of the wall and twirls her blunderbuss around. Juno sprints past her as she slowly closes in on the attacker with her gleaming red eyes. The other tiefling rips his dagger out of the wood and turns frantically as he looks for his target. Jadeth snarls, “face me,” before firing off a shot from her blunderbuss that explodes the crate behind him into splinters. He growls something unintelligible back and hits Jadeth with a spell to knock her backwards. He spots Juno climbing onto the mayor’s manor and teleports in front of her as soon as she reaches the top.
She curses and draws her rapier, desperately parrying his wild attacks. On the ground below them, Slender points to the commotion on the roof and begs the guards to do something. They scale the roof, but explode back off from a fireblast as the final attacker becomes more and more desperate to finish off Juno. Their bodies hit the ground next to Slender, and he jumps back with wide eyes. Jadeth lands gracelessly after jumping from atop the watchtower and rushes past him once again. He yells for her to stop being a reckless idiot, but alas, being a reckless idiot is all she knows.
She climbs to the top of the roof just as the tiefling knocks Juno’s blade from her hand. Juno backs away from him until she reaches the gutter, clutching her injuries. She gulps as she looks down at the drop behind her. Before the tiefling can approach any closer, Jadeth grabs him by his collar and yanks him backwards– sending shingles flying off the roof in every direction. He tries to get back to his feet, but before he’s able, she lunges for his neck and holds him over the edge of the roof. She demands that he tells her who sent him and why he was hunting Juno, but in her blind rage (and definitely for no other reason such as me forgetting how the game works), she accidentally strangles him.
Juno looks between her and the corpse without saying a word, watching as Jadeth’s furious breathing slows back down. She tosses the body off of the roof just in time for the mayor to walk out of his home, and he shouts in panic. She leaps down next to it and begins rummaging through the tiefling’s things. She snorts upon finding nothing, but the mayor shouts at her. He resurrects his deceased guards and gestures wildly at the damage to his mansion.
Juno climbs carefully down and holds her hands up, telling him that they were attacked and didn’t mean to cause any destruction of property. Jadeth eyes Juno under her mask, remaining suspicious of why they all were after her. Juno keeps her familiarity about their identities to herself, unsure if the group would even believe her about the horrific experiments conducted on tieflings back in her homeland. As Mole and Spike join them back in the town, Juno ducks behind Spike. Mole tries to calm the mayor down, but he doesn’t care to listen to the excuses. He asked that the group either pay for the damages or leave Olemnar.
Slender looks between the mayor and his coin purse and shakes his head, saying they were just leaving anyway. Mole huffs and leads the way back out of the city gates. There is not much said as they continue down the road towards the edge of the Border Ethereal. Spike tries to keep the group’s spirits high with conversation, but the new rift of distrust cuts deep as everyone worries about who they are really traveling with.
When they reach the border of the mist, the woman who escorted them to the town is waiting among a group of others. Mole stops the group for a second, and looks out into the mist warily, warning them against stepping into it. This unnerves everyone, but the woman from before holds up her staff and sends out her birds to cast a spell that splits the mist for a narrow pathway to emerge from the ground as a path of stepping stones. She introduces herself as Anny the druid and admits that she’s only helping since she owes the person who created the beacon they were questing towards a favor. Once again, she leaves them alone with the group of stragglers.
Almost immediately, two of the strangers bolt off towards the mist. They vanish in the haze, but only a few moments pass prior to a blood curdling scream ripping through the air. As the only one unphased by the mist, Mole takes the lead and is followed closely by Jadeth. Unbeknownst to the group, Jadeth has no trouble seeing into the mist at all. Everyone else huddles together behind the two, looking off with growing paranoia as shadowy figures dance just in the peripherals of their vision.
They make it a good way in before Slenderbard sees something out into the mist. He stops moving suddenly, causing Juno to bump into him. He leans forward and squints, asking if Juno sees all the gold he’s seeing. She turns with a raised eyebrow but has no idea what he’s talking about. He takes a step off the path, but Mole turns around and yells at him to stay on the path. Jadeth sighs and grabs his arm, but as soon as she yanks him backwards, she sees her own vision.
Jadeth falls silent mid-scolding Slender, spotting an ethereal spirit of her wife smiling at her from 20 yards away. She whispers to Mole to confirm that the Border Ethereal leads into the realm of ghosts. They tell her yes, but don’t understand what she’s asking until she darts into the mist. The group all screams after her as she sprints into the misty bog.
“Lunara?” She calls out softly as she gets closer to the spirit, but it turns back around and walks further into the fog. She leaps over the tangle of tree roots and brambles, still ignoring the frantic calls of her allies behind her. When she finally reaches the apparition, she reaches out with a hesitant hand, once again whispering her wife’s name. The ghost slowly turns around, and Jadeth is met face to face with a monstrous draugr.
It groans, and suddenly several more bodies rise up from the murk around her. She ducks under the swipe of the first’s claws and darts backwards. The others try to prevent her escape, but she leaps up into the branches of nearby willows to jump from tree to tree. She dives back down to the path, panting from her hectic escape. Juno asks her why she ran off after just saving Slender from getting lost in it, and Jadeth doesn’t answer at first.
She finally gets back on her feet– her eyes never leaving the mist, and makes the group promise that they won’t leave the path. She growls, “whatever you think you see is a lie.” Juno asks what horrible thing she could have possibly seen that had frightened her so badly, but Jadeth simply replies, “someone I lost.”
The group continues on and sets up camp for the night on the path. One of the strangers offers to take the first watch. Overnight, the group is plagued with horrible nightmares. Morning finally comes, letting faint light filter town through the branches of the nearest skeletal tree in rays. Juno wakes up first, reaching instinctively for her bag. She blinks a few times when she can’t find it, and nudges Slender awake asking if he has his stuff.
Slender shoots forward with just as much urgency to quickly look around for his loot. He utilizes his new phrase in abyssal, snapping that the stranger must have made off with their bags. Jadeth pats both of her guns and shrugs that she’s not really worried, but Slender and Juno both take off down the path. Spike watches them go and wakes Mole, worried to let them get too far on their own. They finally find the thief badly mutilated on the side of the road. The bags are strewn around him, but with one issue: they are all inside the mist.
Juno doesn’t wait and jumps off the path to grab her bag. She checks to make sure the cloak she stole from the lord of Ravenspurn is still tucked away inside, but as she stands back up, it seems almost like the world shifts around her. She tries to find her way back towards the path, walking further off into the mist. Jadeth yells for her to stop going further into the fog, and Juno admits that she can’t see them anymore. Slender squints between where Juno’s voice is coming from and where Jadeth is looking, and asks how Jadeth can see into the mist so well. She thinks about it for a second and says that she actually has no idea.
Jadeth calls for Juno to come back towards her voice, but it echoes around, luring her deeper into the mist. Juno starts walking further away from them, and Jadeth yells for her to stop. She thinks for a second and tells Juno to turn around in a half circle then walk straight forward. Everyone watches in silent fear as she slowly listens and makes it back to the path.
Now realizing that no one else can see through the mist like she can, Jadeth goes in to retrieve the group’s remaining bags. Deep in the fog, she sees an old man with gray hair wandering around with seven golden songbirds flying around him. She calls out to him, offering to guide him back towards the path out of the fog. He follows her gratefully, even though he really didn’t need the help.
The old man introduces himself as Bahamut– a name that Slender vaguely recognizes from legends. He approaches Juno and gestures to the cloak in her bag. She flinches as he mentions it since she worries he knows it was stolen. To her relief, Bahamut admits that the cloak’s previous owner wasn’t worthy of its power. He holds up a hand towards Juno’s face and closes his eyes as he sifts through her memories. He makes a sad face as he sees the turmoil in her past and acknowledges that she may be worthy of the cloak’s power. He gives her his blessing to read the first two runes as “swift” and “fly.”
Slenderbard finally recognizes Bahamut’s similarity to a legendary platinum dragon that’s said to be accompanied by seven smaller golden dragons. Before they can comment on it, he walks back into the mist to continue on a search for his son.
The group once again begins making their way down the path, now having lost all of the strangers to the mist. They hear chattering in the mist again, and Jadeth spots the merchant dwarves from earlier in their adventure, Kromrec the Blue and Kormec the Pale. Much like Bahamut, the dwarves seem to have little issue navigating the mist. They seem to hear the group, but don’t see them until they cross through the path that Anny made. They stop to make some sales with the group before continuing on their way.
As the group keeps walking down the path, Jadeth sees a figure on the side of the road and calls out to them– asking if they’re lost. The figure turns around, letting her see the face of her former instructor, Ward the Starfarer. The tieflings stare each other down through the mist, with Jadeth trying to come to terms with what she’s seeing. His tail flicks impatiently as she calls out to him again. He moves his hands around, causing a strange glow to follow them.
The mist swirls around him, becoming more opaque and taking a physical shape in the form of a long serpentine body. A head coils around with long jagged fangs and pointed horns– it seems like a dragon made entirely of mist, and it’s positioned right between Ward and the group. Slender backs up and Mole yells for them to scatter before it can hit them with its breath attack. Ward begins to run off, but Jadeth ignores the beast and chases after him. She rips off her mask to show who she is and beg him for answers.
Back with the dragon, Mole charges at it to get its attention off of Slenderbard and Juno. Juno uses the time to slip into the trees, and Slenderbard gives her another boost with his magical music. Mole and the dragon clash in a furious battle of claws and steel, and Juno takes magically charged shots from afar. The dragon turns its attention towards Slenderbard and his mules, and the bard panics and bolts down the path towards Jadeth. The dragon bounds after him like a flying-dog chasing a very musical-rabbit.
Jadeth’s instructor is still trying to flee, but as she pursues him, he rips open a gateway for a big fleshy monster to lash out and attack her. She sustains a brutal injury and slowly backs away towards where the group was. Slenderbard sprints past to avoid becoming the mist dragon’s lunch, and sees Jadeth limping back out of the mist. He waves at Jadeth as he runs by, noting that she looks like she’s seen better days and gesturing at her lack of mask. She asks him why he’s running away, and the answer comes swooping down from the sky with an earth-shaking roar.
Juno fires off an arrow and Mole comes running, but it’s clear that neither of them are going to make it to Slender and Jadeth in time. Jadeth gasps and casts a protective ice armor spell on herself just before the mist-dragon can strike her. It bites down on her just as the spell completes, and a frosty explosion ensues that turns the beast into a fine powder and blankets the area in powdery snow.
Juno, Spike, and Mole reach the area, spotting Jadeth unconscious and curled up in the snow. Juno runs for her, finding that she’s still breathing, but the wound from the monster Ward summoned is staining the fresh snow around her with crimson red. Slender comes back to ask if the dragon is dead, and Juno yells that Jadeth’s hurt. Slender comes over to Mole and quietly remarks, “when isn’t she hurt– she has a tendency to run into danger.”
The two of them approach Juno with Spike and see that she is already busy bandaging the wound on Jadeth’s stomach. Slender remarks he expected Jadeth to be scarier looking under her mask since he’s personally terrifying under his own. Mole elbows him with a quiet growl. The tiefling coughs and blinks open her dark brown eyes. She immediately flinches away from Juno when she realizes how close she is to her, clutching her stomach and scooting away. She reaches up and traces her fingers along the old scar on her cheek. She turns pink and quickly looks away to shuffle through her bag until she finds her mask of shadows to re-cover herself.
Back on the path, Jadeth points out some huts that are off in the mist. They look similar to ones from the bullywug village, and she asks if they are ready to settle down for a rest. Slender tells them that he hadn’t gotten much rest the night before, and everyone agrees to that. They reluctantly approach through the fog in hopes of being able to hide in one of the huts to get more rest with the safety of the walls surrounding them, but there is no such luck there.
They wake after a fitful sleep and find themselves surrounded by the source of the nightmares – a night hag and her cult. Mole pulls their sword and shield out and Jadeth follows them with her blunderbuss. They squint around in the mist and ask Jadeth how many she sees, and she counts them out on one hand. The hag cackles as the paladin approaches, and Jadeth rushes up to one of her nearby cultists with her weapon ready.
Juno tells Spike and Slender to stay down before rushing out the door and repositioning onto a nearby rooftop. Slender scoffs that he can still help before loading his own crossbow and peaking out of the door to fire a bolt directly into the hag that was previously focused on Mole. She snarls and gets past the paladin to chase Slender into the hut. Jadeth gestures to the cultists and asks Mole to watch her back.
She chases after the hag who has Slender and Spike both terrified in opposite corners of the room. She fires off a blast to get the hag’s attention, and she spins around before Spike and Slender both rush forward to engage. The trio is able to dispatch her just as Juno and Mole finish off the few remaining cultists. Juno descends from the sky thanks to the magic of her newly powered up cloak, and Slender strokes his chin– wondering where she got it. She quickly snaps that she is not willing to sell it, and he shrugs, admitting he was thinking about stealing it– not buying it.
Spike relays that he anticipates they may be able to sleep a bit easier with the hag defeated, and the group is relieved to hear it. They settle down in opposing corners of the hut, and get their first good night’s rest since they arrived at the mist. Morning comes, and the group makes their way back to the path.
Right before they’re able to leave the mist, a banshee and two harpies descend on the group. The harpies perch into two of the nearby trees and sing a beautiful song to try and lure Jadeth and Mole off into the mist. Juno, Spike, and Slenderbard resist it, and Slender sprints towards Mole and begins sifting through the murk. He finds a little rock and hurls a rock at Mole and clinks it off their horn. They blink a few times, then look up at the horrifying bird woman. She screeches at them, and they back up towards Slender and ready their shield.
Juno chases Jadeth and gives her a bitchslap so hard that she would have been seeing spirits even if they weren’t in the Border Ethereal. The tiefling flinches away, but Juno hesitates when she sees that Jadeth is no longer under the trance. She laughs in embarrassment: “oh, sorry, did I hurt you?” Jadeth denies it, even though it was in fact a crit so like, girl yes.
Seeing that the harpies’ song failed, the banshee lets out a deafening screech that kills one of the harpies outright and brings the group to their knees. Juno’s eyes narrow, but she stays upright and fires a bolt from her crossbow to catch the banshee in the throat to silence her screech.
Having a pretty successful streak with her spells, Jadeth attempts another– twirling a tiny spark of fire around until it becomes huge and uncontrollable. It flickers around wildly then bursts and badly burns her hand. Slender asks what the fuck she’s doing, and she pulls her hand back towards her chest and glares at him without a word. His eyes soften a bit, and he casts some healing magic to help her. She thanks him, but notes that the scars left from her magic seldom heal.
Mole chases the fleeing harpy to the best of their abilities and kills her– getting badly injured off in the mist in the process. Juno gets both of her swords out and dual wields them to finish the banshee off. She heads back over to Jadeth and Slender and asks if either of them have seen Spike or Mole. Jadeth gets back onto her feet and sees a handful of bodies off in the mist. She runs out to use healing magic on Spike, unaware that Mole is taking their final breaths behind a nearby boulder. Jadeth finds them dead from their injuries, but before she can grab their body, they fade away.
When she returns to Slender, Spike, and Juno, they ask her where Mole is. She looks back into the mist and shakes her head. Slender follows her gaze and his mouth falls open. He yells at her for picking Spike up and not Mole, and she backs away, saying she had no idea that Mole was so badly injured. Spike looks down, but he ultimately thanks Jadeth for saving him, even though he is torn up inside from the loss of Mole’s life.
Juno takes the lead guiding them out of the mist, letting them exit at the edge of a quiet city in the middle of a colorful forest nestled in the valley of the mountains. Across the huge lake, lies a massive mountain with a glowing green light coming from the top of it like an aurora.
At the edge of the city, they are greeted by a mage that doesn’t seem to speak any of their languages. They look to Slender, and he prepares to translate with his spell. However, prior to casting it, Anny comes up from behind the group and exclaims, “hey, you made it!” She looks back at the young mage and teaches him Common simply by stating a single sentence clearly.
He thanks her and looks back over to the group, welcoming them to his city. He seems surprised that they’re the only ones that made it through the mist. As if on cue, one of the strangers from earlier – a goliath named Nalla Rune-Weaver Ogolakanu bursts out of the mist carrying the body of Mole. Everyone gathers around, asking if there is anything anyone can do to resuscitate them. Spike steps forward and asks if anyone has a diamond. Slender looks between Mole and his bag and sighs before retrieving the expensive gemstone. Spike takes it and it shatters in his palm, turning into a magical dust that spreads over Mole’s body. They gasp in a breath and wrinkle their snout– asking where they are.
The mage introduces himself as Argos and gestures out to the beautiful city. He tells them that they are in Argosia, a region safe from the Border Ethereal. They look at the metal spheres that seem to be pushing the mist back from the perimeter of the city. Argos tells them that they are free to explore wherever they want, but he makes one thing very clear:
Do not go into the lake.