Ep. 150 Mirrored Past Chapter Two (C2)

## Listen

C2 Ep. 150 Mirrored Past Chapter Two

—Erys

Erys, Hob, and Reynard go into the tower, doing their best to ignore the horrific and odd things happening around them. Inside and up a spiral staircase, they find a wizard mumbling about the Mourning, guarded by three unfathomable creatures. Erys shoots the wizard out the window, and Reynard and Hob get to work on the creatures. When they're cleared away, Erys is able to put a stop to the magic, halting the smoke and putting everything back to normal.

## Synopsis

Erys, Hob, and Reynard are reeling from the changes to the world and themselves. Hob takes a minute to dwell on his face-in-chest situation, both him and Erys being thoroughly disturbed. After a few moments, it start to hail from the clear, orange sky, and they realize the hail is made up of tiny Iggriks. Erys catches one and puts it in her pocket "for later."

They head to the tower, and realize the cobblestone is now made of chocolate. They pass by a tree made of skin. Inside the tower is a spiral staircase, as well as some boxes and crates. It seems to be a storage room. Erys starts ascending the stairs, fletcher ready, behind Iggrik. A stuttering voice can be heard, speaking in common.

*"The truth…must show them…the truth…the truth of the Mourning, the tragic event. It's all a **lie,** an elaborate **ruse.** I must show them the **lies** that they see by exposing them to the **truth.**"*
They see a wizard with greying beard, long greying, salt and pepper hair. He's bent over a table, which he's carved runes and an arcane circle that he's performing a ritual with. From the circle, a very defined column of dark smoke going straight up, hitting the ceiling and dissipating before roiling out the windows. Standing around him are three incomprehensible figures. The man sees them, and addresses them directly.

*"I see the truth. Cyre still exists; it's merely veiled from our perception, hidden in plain sight. Help me, and I will show you!"
"Oi, you taat, cut it the frack out!"
—Wizard and Erys*
He insists that with Xoriat's power, he'll tear down the Dragonmarked houses and reveal them for the manipulated puppeteers they are, and free his people. Seeing the unearthly horrors, Erys starts screaming and shooting her fletcher into the wizard. He takes a ton of hits, and stumbles back, tumbling out the window. Gravity shifts, and he falls right back down.

One of the creatures opens up to reveal serrated teeth, which scrape against Iggrik's stone, leaving jagged edges. Another creature tries hurting Hob, but it bounces off of him. The smoke roiling out of the arcane circle reaches out to the creatures, enveloping them and giving them a boost to their defense.

Reynard shoots an arrow at one of the creatures, hitting it square into the center mass. It splinters off and embeds into the arcane table, as well. The thing stumbles back into the table, knocking off some of the components. The smoke lessens. Hob attacks two of them, absolutely annihilated into paste. They turn into sludge on his arm, oozing all over it. He notices that Erys has grown eyestalks, with her goggles sitting on top. The colors on Reynard have inverted.

An arrow hits the last creature, and it slumps down against the table—transformed into a giant teddy bear.

Having just practiced on planar runes with Olive and Milo, Erys is familiar enough that she can reverse the table runes into an "off" position. The smoke stops, the party looks as they should, and the land is flat. People are looking around, confused about what just happened.

Before they leave, Iggrik opens the crates and finds grains. He closes it when they see there's nothing special about it.

As they walk out of the tower, Iggrik's arms reach out and pull them back right as a body falls onto the cobblestones.

End of episode.

## Spells

* **Hob**
	+ Bodyguard on Erys

## Quotes

"Are you all headed toward the tower?"
"Don't say 'headed,' please."
*—Eric and Jeff 0:01:50*

"Turns out my tongue's in my foot, so I tasted it."
*—Jeff 0:03:24*

"In addition to the hands, and the face, and god help us, the hair."
*—Eric 0:07:46*

"Is my face similar, proportionally, to the canvas it's on? Because Hob has quite a lot of torso."
"Please don't MODOK him. Please don't MODOK him."
"I was not envisioning MODOK."
"I just needed to know if my eyes *were* my nipples, or *between* my nipples."
"It was bad enough when it was done by professionals."
*—Jeff, Philip, and Eric0:29:06*

## Trivia

* In the presense of the Xoriat creatures, each character suffers a setback on every check they make.