Six Years Later...

and

Justin as the DM

"**Six Years Later...**" is the first episode of Rise of the Arcane, the third season of Tales From Del'nasra.

After a catastrophic event wiped out nearly all life across multiple planes of existence six years ago, reality was quickly restored by the few survivors that remained. Soon after strange arcane occurrences began happening in Del'nasra. Now, people are flocking to the newly rediscovered continent of Cathatuuin to investigate these mysteries.

## Episode Synopsis

#### **Previously on Tales from Del'nasra**

*The year is 75 AT, also known as the Age of Tranquility.*

*Six years ago, every living thing on Del’nasra, and across the planes of existence died in a singular moment. Life as people knew it had ceased to exist. The whole of reality was lifeless, dead in an event that came to be known as The Unmaking. Something however, occurred within the depths of Del’nasra in a place where the gods locked their true forms away. , a place known as the Panopticon of the Prime.*
*A powerful force from beyond the stars was defeated, the old creator god Cathossis, and whatever reunion this god planned to accomplish was set to occur was halted and with that, life returned to the world and into existence as a whole thanks to a group known as the Faust and the Furious. Due to their actions, and all of those that died in the Unmaking returned to life, their souls returning to their bodies wherever they fell, with fleeting fuzzy memories of a never ending void filled with eyes and a knowledge that they each had collectively died on the same day. Everyone across the world and the planes of existence known as The Scattering were united in that same life event.Things returned to normal, and every living thing when they think of what’s beyond after death, those fuzzy memories tend to return, but with a sense that this afterlife, this place they went to when they all died together, no longer exists. The world changed, continents long since forgotten returned to the world, and magic surged in power causing strange arcane events to happen almost daily for these next six years. Doorways to other planes, strange storms and creatures impossibly appearing in places they could never be. Six years on, these events are still occurring, and we find ourselves on just one of these newly returned continents. Cathatuuin, a continent that floats high among the clouds to the far east of Del’nasra.*

*As we drift through the early morning clouds we come to the City of Embers, a proud city and the heart of the Cathatuun Empire and the city where the world was born, or so the legends say. This city is unique in its design compared to the rest of the world, for this city is built out of nothing but angular, colorful crystals in all spectrums of color and the city itself is surrounded by a lush, tropical rainforest. spanning numerous miles in every direction. The streets are paved obsidian where people of all lineages and walks of life mill about, while airships devoid of sails, but instead have bird-like wings on the sides drift through the air as a good portion of this city floats above the streets by the way of magic.*

*The city is governed by a mysterious individual who rules out of a large crystalline tower in the north-eastern region of the city known only as Goad, and is rarely seen by the public, being quoted as not wanting to interfere in the daily affairs of the people. Amidst this arcane splendour, crystal buildings and torrent of flying airships, one building stands out.In the western reaches of the city near the exterior and nestled firmly on the ground is the only building of stone in the entirety of the city. The tower is built from simple grey bricks and rises about two-stories upwards to a domed peak where a thatched roof sits with a simple chimney expelling grey smoke. A singular window resides on the south-facing portion of the tower, and is slightly cracked from what appears to be significant exterior damage.Surrounding the exterior of the tower is a large white picket fence which encases a grass field devoid of any flowers or trees and instead is filled with a six-foot deep dirt pit surrounded by empty wooden benches for some sort of audience of spectators. Across from this pit is what appears to be a makeshift obstacle course of balance beams, pits, and rotating, spinning platforms.This is where our journey begins.*---

#### The Episode

Nestled within the colourful, crystalline city of The City of Embers is a two-story tower of stone where adventurers from all over Del'nasra have arrived to answer a call for renown, recognition, money and credit in a book written by a famous author known as Sir Arthur Wordweave. The book is titled "Rise of the Arcane" and is set to be a book cataloguing and documenting the series of strange magical phenomena that have occurring around the world for the last six years.

Hundreds of people have gathered to test their mettle in a test put forth by Sir Arthur to determine who is the best of the best and will be worthy of joining him on the adventure to study these occurrences. It is discovered that the trial is set to be a scavenger hunt that will occur throughout the city and that the first team back with the most items collected after three hours will be crowned the winners and brought on for a 'trial investigation'.

Most of the teams came prepared and set off into the city to begin, leaving seven or so individuals remaining. Walking towards the crowd of those that remain are Vonkar and The Creep who are being led by an insanely excitable child named Leek who refers to the two adults as his "uncles". This strange trio are approaching towards two others who seem slightly hesitant to to interact with the strangers now approaching them, due to The Creep's unsettling appearance.

These two others introduce themselves as Hopper Thimblefoot and Antyr Xiloscient. They both seem to recognize Leek based on the description given to them by someone called Auntie Gothel, who Leek happily proclaims that she is his 'momma'. They hand over a disturbing looking teddy bear made from animal hide, who Leek refers to as Cabbage and was a gift made by his mother, but that he left it behind when he came to the city. While this group discuss things among themselves, another duo are watching them from nearby, seemingly recognizing Antyr in some capacity as a "blue elf who drugged people" and caused those people to fall into a psychotic break.

Due to their obvious staring, these final two figures are called over and introduce themselves as Torger and Doe. After more discussions and quickly learning as much as they can in a short time span, Sir Arthur provides them with the list containing items on the scavenger hunt. The list seems to contain mostly strange objects. Knocking the first item off the list, a mangy old shoe filled with stale red wine mysteriously appears before The Creep and falls to the ground. Somewhere around this time, Antyr attempted to cast a message to The Creep due to a weird, disembodied voice he seemed to speak with which didn't seem to match the strained moaning and groaning coming from under his bandages. As he cast the spell he was assailed with a different voice begging to be freed and released. Unnerved by the outcome, Antyr quickly ended the spell.

The Creep mentions with his weird disembodied voice that he knew of a menagerie nearby that deals in extraordinary animals where they could knock a couple of items of the list. Agreeing to follow along, the group made their way towards the menagerie and after trying to determine what was a strange animal they could milk. While on the way, a minotaur approached The Creep seeming to recognize him and handed him a silver coin before punching him in the head, and then kicking him twice while he was on the ground. Vonkar explained this was normal for The Creep and was how he earned his coin, which was confirmed by Leek and The Creep's disembodied voice. The group soon after arrived at the menagerie and after some discussions on what animal milk they required, Torger stepped inside the menagerie's stables and successfully milked a walrus.

Successfully claiming yet another item on their list, the group exited the stables and witnessed somebody fall from the nearby Skydock, which is a tower in the city where the various air-ships dock to drop off and pick up passengers. The person in question was found deceased from the fall, and the guards of the city who dress in purple, high-collar robes and armed with wands were in the process of cleaning the scene up. Antyr was able to convince the guards that this halfling had stolen the bag on his person, and the guards allowed him to retrieve the bag before magically cleaning the body and gore off the pavement.

The halfling's nearby allies who were also part of the scavenger hunt immediately came after Antyr for the blatant theft and were quickly targeted by The Creep's enthrall spell while Antyr made off with the bag and the rest of the group. They begin looking through the bag and collected a series of items on the scavenger list and knocked a significant amount off the list. As well as shaving one of the allies who was under The Creep's enthrall spell to check of the " one pound of hair" on the list.

Determined to go for quite possibly the hardest item on the list, they all headed towards the entrance to the Undercity, an area they learned was off-limits so they would need to sneak inside. They made their way towards the Undercity's entrance and discovered most of the remaining teams having been caught and arrested. After a botched attempt to sneak inside, and a re-directed attack by one of the guards, the disembodied voice the group kept hearing from The Creep was actually the voice of a sprite named Grin who seemed to pull The Creep around by a leash.

During these revelations, fireworks went off in the direction of Sir Arthur's tower signifying that the scavenger hunt had ended after only an hour. The group slowly made their way back towards the tower, learning more about each other along the way with Grin revealing that no matter what, nobody can remove The Creep's bindings. No matter what.

They all eventually returned to the tower and learned they were the only team left standing as most had been arrested trying to get into the Undercity and that one team quit after a member of theirs died. Sir Arthur crowned them the winners and led them deeper into his property towards a magical, patchwork hot air balloon. He explained it has come from the continent of Esselvyre and had one trip left in it and that they would be taking the balloon on their trial investigation towards a jungle made entirely of mushrooms that appeared a month ago seemingly out of nowhere. He also added that once they got back and were curious on working with him, he'd have a contract drafted up by the time they got back.

Clambering into the hot-air balloon, Grin activated its magical flight device causing the balloon to slowly ascend before rocketing off into the clouds and towards its destination at incredible speeds. The balloon arrived rather quickly, but the magic had waned and the balloon plummeted from the sky and into the canopy of a gloomy, dark jungle made entirely of mushrooms with the only source of light coming from bioluminescent black and purple moss.

## Featured Characters

### Player Characters

* Antyr Xiloscient
* Doe
* Hopper Thimblefoot
* Leek
* The Creep
* Torger Otrson
* Vonkar Eldsaga

### New

* Auntie Gothel (via *Sending* spell)
* Cabbage
* Captain
* Endylus
* Grin
* Pickle (unnamed), male warforged proprietor of Pickle's Patch.
* Sir Arthur Wordweave
* Terry

### Mentioned

* The Archmaw
* The Faust and the Furious
* Goad
* Grundle
* Rattle

## Quotations

* **Grin**: (*after people ask about the unnerving appearance of The Creep*) He's the worst!
* **The Creep**: (*after Antyr attempts to communicate with him via a Message spell*) Set me free! Help me!
* **Doe**: (*in regards to Grin*) Can I taste your skin?
* **Torger**: *(in response to Doe asking if they could shave him)* Oh, you guys could shave me likes a baby seal.
* **Torger**: *(about to milk the walrus)* You looks like yous swollen and fats with milk. We's going to gets some.
* **Torger**: *(while milking the walrus)* Gives you delicious walrus juice to us!
* **Torger**: *(to himself, while milking the walrus)* Alrights, no needs to freak out, all your friends are counting on you to get this delicious walrus juices out.