Welcome back to the Table Ring of Contrarians! Happy NEW YEAR! We’re glad to be back with you and we hope you had a safe, warm, and happy holiday!
BAD NEWS EVERYONE! If you recall from our last episode we were having issues with the sound gate settings in our recording set up. Sadly this same issue made what was originally supposed to be Ep 43 almost completely unintelligible. By the grace of some unknown god what is NOW to be episode 43 only had about 15 minutes of soundgate and very little happened in its predecessor so we felt it a better experience for all involved that we summarize the events of that unholy monstrosity.
Where we left off: Syphos woke, far closer to Alcier than he had been before the explosion, very alone. He found himself at the base of a large, tree-like, rift that spread upwards for miles. Tendrils of crackling green energy wavering off into the heavens like some sort of sickening canopy. He began to search for his friends; stumbling first upon the broken and lifeless body of Clive.
Leofin he found not far from the valiant goat, half-buried in the sand but thankfully still breathing. Together they find the Rod of Absorption that Volah had been carrying but instead of the hand of their half-orc cleric sticking out of the sand nearby; they find Kaine buried up to her knuckles. The dragonborn monk appeared to have suddenly aged a few years but was otherwise only slightly sand logged. Leofin and Kaine set out to search for Volah but found only the faint remnants of footprints heading out into the open desert.
Syphos continued his search; pushing closer to the rift and finding close proximity to it was painful. As his head ached he spotted a form, half-buried in the sand, in what could only be Brydis armor? Quickly he moved to dig her out and found wrinkles in the corners of her eyes that had not been there before. Grey in her hair where it had once been only black. She roused to consciousness seeming to have aged nearly two decades.
After helping his now age-ed swordswoman to her feet and quickly filling her in they move off to find Dio. They spot just the tips of his bagpipes sticking out of a dune. Acting as signposts to where the halfling lay buried.
After digging him out Byrid begins to inform Dio as to the fate of his faithful mount…
Dio stumbles to his feet and makes a mad dash in the direction of the city; finding he has to give the rippling rift a wide birth in order to keep himself from passing out again. After a while the rest of the party reconvenes and finds Dio curled up and clinging to the body of his dead companion.
When they can wait no longer Syphos, Leofin, and Kaine begin to make their way back to the city. Byrdi moves off to see if she can follow Volahs tracks with any more luck. They leave Dio to mourn in peace for as long as they can. Byrdi tracked Volah a fair distance before all sings of her vanish into the wake of the retreating orcish army.
She returns as the sun wains into the afternoon and helps Dio bring the body of his goat back to the city for a proper burial. They find the rest of their party waiting as the forces of Alcier attempt to un-barricade the gate.
Once back inside the walls of the merchant city they are reunited with Petrick and Korn. The excitable Lantern Dragonite informs them that as soon as the gigantic rift stabilizes hordes upon hordes of creatures will come spilling through. Armies in numbers to which this plane has no way of counting will beset his world and every living creature in it… so they better act fast and find a keystone that can close it. The good news being that the stabilization could take anywhere from two weeks to 47 years, give or take a few hours…
As the rest of the party heads back to the Guild House; Byrdi sets out to search the remnants of the orc camp for her father. Once reunited they head back to the city...
