S3 The Story So Far: Eps 21-30

A bonus episode recapping the plot events from S3E21-S3E30

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Tale of the Manticor bonus material the story so far
chapters twenty one through thirty. The following a few minutes
of audio is not an episode of Tale of the Manticor,
and it will not take the place of a real episode.

(00:24):
It's just bonus content. A summary of the last ten
chapters told in the shortest time possible. Let's get started.
Chapter twenty one begins with Queen Anaya's offer sacrifice fair
one to her and she will let the rest of
the companions go free. By way of answer, Achilleus sends
a jarring psychic blast with her last message spell, and

(00:46):
with that the fight is on and the Queen's animated
skeletal warriors rush to attack. After a string of critical
failures and hits, the pieces vanquished the enemy and the
Queen retreats to the nether world after tender who's gone
awful to retrieve a new torch, considers investigating part of
the unexplored sessions of the crypt alone. The next chapter

(01:07):
follows Tendier on his solo exploration. Eventually he finds the
chamber that features two suits of armour, both rusted and useless.
There is also an iron bound chest with no lock.
While he's looking at that, a supernatural breeze passes through
the room, and the sword, held in the gauntleted hands
of one of the suits of armour, becomes shining and new,
as though by magic. Tender examine the sword more closely

(01:31):
and finally dares to take it. He knows he should leave,
but his curiosity is still strong. Perhaps he will quickly
examine the chest before he goes. Chapter twenty three begins
with Tenio's decision to leave the chest alone and return
to the others. While he's away, Achille and Court examine
the wand taken from the Royal Magus's slab, and Fairwyn

(01:52):
performs his first ever miracle of healing on court. When
Tender returns in reports, the others decide not to investigate
the crypt and its contents any further. Instead, they leave
it altogether. In the evening, as they shelter in Fawin's chapel,
the clearerg offers to join the party. In the next chapter,
with Frewind now part of their number, the party leaves

(02:14):
the land of the kym Wors, heading north for over
two days. Nothing interrupts their travels. On the evening of
the third day away from the Kymoor Ruins, the companions
round a hillock and are shocked to see an iron
tower in the distance not too far away. In chapter
twenty five, Achillea runs for the iron tower, but by
the time she gets there, it has once again vanished.

(02:37):
She's distraught, but her friends off for their support, and
Duranting points out that her quest remains the same, and
so the journey continues north in search of the historian
odok Zygog. The next day, at around sunset, the companions
here howling close by and then practically collide with a
vicious battle between dire wolves and blink Dogs. The party

(02:57):
steps in on the side of the blink dogs and
say two of them, but Tenier almost dies in the effort.
In the next chapter, after the two surviving blink Dogs
abruptly vanish during any levels are harsh reprimand to Achilia
for having forced everyone into the fight, pointing out how
close his brother came to death as a result of
her rashness. The half elf admits her fault and apologizes,

(03:21):
her words smooth over the tense situation, and the companion's
journey north continues all that evening and into the next
day without further incident. By now food is becoming a
growing concern once again. The episode ends with a flashback
describing the elf maiden Eulaloon's very unfortunate encounter with the
group of Sprites when she accidentally trespasses in their land,

(03:41):
they threaten her with curses. Things get worse when Ulaloon
accidentally kills their leader and then succumbs to the other
fairies drug tips peers. In chapter twenty seven, the pieces
manage to hunt some food, but as the miles go by,
water supplies grow short. The companions have just finished the
last to theirs when something unexpected happens in a forest.

(04:03):
They come across a clearing with a fallen log a
top which is a broken arrow. Dernni recognizes it right
away as an alvin piecetoken. When he picks it up,
an unknown Elf walks into the clearing from the other side.
He introduces himself as Colin, and warning the companions that
he has two dozen archers hidden in the trees, proceeds
to question de Renny. Before long, they meet a second Delf. Zotope,

(04:27):
is Colin's sister and the only other female of her
race that Achilia has ever seen. When the pair question Ferwynd,
asking if he comes from a place called Duroth, Achilia
suddenly remembers something. The next chapter picks up in the
middle of the conversation with Colin and Tootope. They give
the party directions to Duroth, which Achilia believes to be
the most likely place to find odok Zygog. It is

(04:50):
a little off course, but not so far off Valkene's
directions to be obviously wrong. Calin ands Tope also provide
directions to a nearby lake and some provisions for taking
their leave. The lake turns out to be a place
of beauty. While there, Cord undergoes another set of changes
as he slowly evolves into his potential. The companions leave

(05:11):
the next morning and for two days journey to the northwest.
On the morning of the next day, they discover something.
In chapter twenty nine, the companions find the village of Duroth.
It's a place that's built into the side of a hill,
with a number of outbuildings constructed in a basin at
its foot. Ominously, the place is ringed with stake skeletons.

(05:31):
When the party passes this border and lays eyes on
the village itself, they can see that some kind of
disaster has occurred there. Every building is broken and there
is no sign of life. The companions walk through a
scene of desolation as they go to the broken stairs
to the lowest cave opening. Next, in a flashback, we
learn what happened to Duroth seven years before the events

(05:52):
of achilles Quest. The community was attacked by some kind
of giant humanoid monster. The derothe eliter and rector, a
man named by, does his best to get his people
to safety, but it is still a massacre. In the
final chapter of this round up, chapter thirty, we witness
Rector Bium's attempts to maintain order. Their only hope, now

(06:13):
he knows, is to evacuate everyone to the inner caves,
where the monster cannot reach them. This immediately presents a
second problem. There are no other exits to the cave
system they call home, and so they are trapped. Between
flashes of the past, we followed the explorations of the
player characters, who investigate the first two rooms of the
cave complex discover a skeleton bound to a chair in

(06:34):
one room, and they continue until they're forced to stop
in a large cavern filled with corpses covered in hairy
yellow mold. In a final flashback scene, Biom has a
terrible argument with the curate Amsen, who wishes to make
a break for it everyone all at once, but Biome refuses.
He's not willing to risk losing the second scroll of Galandal.

(06:56):
The dispute ends with violence when the curate abruptly attacks
his le