Broken Bonds Season 2: Episode 01

March 24, 2021 (Arcadum's YouTube)

### Reddit Thread

***Broken Bonds Season 2* Episode 1** was streamed on Arcadum's Twitch channel on December 14, 2020. The party traveled to Steton in order to fix the ley lines, and found an obelisk that shows six anomalies that disrupts the flow of ley lines. They go to the nearest one, located on top of an inn ran by a Tabaxi named Big Doa.

## Summary

The story continues on the road to Steton. Nox pauses and feels the pull of Oun and Wode. The dream needs her once again, but she is given a little more time to lead this party to safety again. They detect something and see a haze of dream energy. Remag determines that they are standing right above a ley line, and he informs the party of their position. They all decide to follow the energy they feel seeping out from something.

The party follows a winding path that leads them to an assortment of shimmering standing stones surrounding an obelisk. Zorro claims to feel great life energy coming from the obelisk. Li’lu nears the obelisk and it begins to glow, but there seems to be no reaction to the half-dead Dhampir Bryan. Nox checks out the outer ring of the obelisk and finds Bazzlebop Fizzflam, a druid-in-training. Bazzlebop asks them all to step away as they had ruined the calibration by touching the obelisk and informs them that it is a centrifuge of the ley lines, keeping them balanced.

Bazzlebop says that they were only really trained in the rudimentary facts and do not know what to do as his druidic master left for Dolten. Ea’r remembers that she is a druid, but she panics as she doesn’t know what to do either. Zorro advises her to study the stones carefully. Upon inspection she can feel the imbalance of the ley lines and everything they have felt is due to the ley lines bleeding. She finds a small panel shaped for a hand and places her hand on it. There is a soft clicking sound, and the center stone obelisk begins to twist and shift in places.

As it does, beams of visible light of the ley line reflect into the obelisk. It is apparent that all but one of the ley lines are misaligned. They will now have to find the source of the interferences of the 6 ley lines. Bazzlebop sees that the ley line to the northwest interference is the closest and sends the party off in that way.

They follow it to a large tavern called the Autumn Tide Inn. The inn is troublingly empty. A large Tabaxi comes waddling up to them. He introduces himself as Big Doa, the owner of the inn. Li’lu asks about the lack of people in this inn and Doa chalks it up to the inn being haunted, scaring off the clientele. He offers a reward if they get rid of the ghost. They decide to stay at the inn because Big Doa says that he feels that the hauntings happen more at night. They split off and find their own thing to do. Bryan goes to smoke with a halfling named Diglet and Remag takes a bath. Li’lu, E’ar, and Hashbrown sit down and talk with a man who introduces himself as Nathaniel Cross. They ask him if he knows anything about the hauntings Big Doa mentioned. He directs to the stables outside. Nox interrogates Big Doa and asks what he knows about ley lines, as the haunting could be caused by its proximity.

The party that headed outside enters the stables and gets trapped by a spirit. Ethereal flames emerge from the straw in the stable. Hashbrown goes to touch it and is transported to a memory. He finds himself alone and runs to the inn. As he walks in he finds a scene of slaughter. He feels something that urges him to go upstairs, and he finds an open door at the end of the hallway. He enters and meets with an ethereal man. Hashbrown asks how to get outside, and the man tells him that he’ll just need to go sleep and he’ll wake up. But the man asks a favor of Hashbrown to find “it”. Hashbrown doesn't question further and falls to sleep.

Hashbrown snaps awake and finds himself back at the stables with his party. He tells them of what happened, and brings the rest of the party into the flames to ask the man more questions. Except for D’ahc, he goes to ask for help. He finds Bryan and Remag and brings them to the stables. Bryan in her baked state just walks into the flame, but Remag and D’ahc stay outside.

They ask the man more questions and find out that Big Doa is responsible for the massacre Hashbrown saw in his first trip. He had a device that controlled the man, and they see that he has a necklace of the 7-pointed shattered star. The man, Carson, asks them to get “it” or the device from Big Doa and free him.

They get back to the stables and gather Remag and D’ahc. They head to the stables and play nice with Big Doa long enough to get him distracted and tie him to a chair. He figures the scheme is up, but he doesn’t tell the party much. They however manage to get the necklace, a correspondence report from the Shattered Star, and the soul tether from him. The party mistakenly doesn't pay attention to Big Doa’s hands, and he casts a spell to teleport away.

After they have calmed down, they release Carson. Nox feels the pull of the dream and decides that her job with this party ends here. She advises the party to leave the inn and wishes them good luck in the future. Nox gets accosted with a hug and they part ways.

## Featured Characters

### Main Characters

* Bryan
* Fe'ar
* Hashbrown
* Li'lu
* D'ahc
* Remag

### New

* Bazzlebop Fizzflam
* Big Doa
* Digglet the Dig
* Nathaniel Cross
* Carson