Episode 8

The episode begins as the party is camping - Clay and Keegan take the first watch and notice that there are some people in the distance moving through the desert, some of whom are in chains, but they decide not to confront. They warn Rogg and Clancy but there's no further incident. Rogg and Clancy talk a long time in pleasant camaraderie - about Rogg's experience with various orc tribes, Clancy's time in the forests of his homeland, their respective families, and a variety of other topics. Warren and Emmett take the third watch - Warren tries ask Emmett about why he's traveling with the party, but Emmett is closed off and tries to deflect. Emmett tells Warren that if he ever hears that Jericho Cross is coming around, to warn him, because he thinks he's trouble. Warren gets the sense that Emmett is obfuscating something but lets it go nonetheless.

In the morning, Clay is the first to awaken, apparently shaken from a nightmare. He speaks to Emmett about it nervously, esplaining that a woman spoke to him and asked him if he felt lucky, mentioning a card labelled the Wheel of Fortune. He had a bad feeling about it but Emmett comforted him and told him that it would likely be okay. Meanwhile, the rest of the party gets up to antics, with Keegan placing rocks around Rogg and pestering Shiloh. After the party regroups, they travel through the gorge towards the direction the fey crossing is supposed to be. Along the way, they find some sort of very old elven structure carved into the rock face. Within it are stone statues and a mechanically and magically sealed door. Rogg and Keegan figure out how to move the statues in order to open the doors, but Keegan still gets herself electrocuted by a lightning trap in the process. Inside the door is a chest - Clancy unlocks it, revealing a scroll, a sentinel shield, some silvered arrows, and a mithril shirt. Keegan grabs for the scroll, which is disintegrated at her touch, but the shield is given to Emmett, the arrows to Clancy, and the armor to Clay.

The party leaves the place, still not knowing what exactly the historical or cultural significance of it is but happy to have found useful items. They continue on towards the Oasis and eventually come upon it. At the Oasis, there is a suspicious man named Mordecai, one his allies, as well as several jackals. Mordecai tells the party about a nearby pit fight arena and mentions that it is run by a woman named Kumari. He encourages the party to come see the arena. Meanwhile, Emmett casts detect magic, finding that the Oasis waters are very magical but not detecting any magic items on the men nearby. Mordecai offers Keegan an Oasis Fruit, which she accepts and eats, and he tells the group that Kumari has closed the fae crossing they were seeking. Keegan is very clearly intoxicated by the fruit, as are the horses from drinking the water. Meanwhile Emmet casts Zone of Truth and he and Clancy interrogate Mordecai. Mordecai heavily implies that he is a lycanthrope, specifically a jackalwere, and explains that he knows that Kumari has taken the key that opens the fae crossing. He admits to essentially being a slaver. The party bicker amongt themselves and with Mordecai, but Mordecai eventually convinces them that playing by Kumari's game and making a deal with her is the best way to acquire the key and continue into the fae realm. After some brief futzing about where Emmett antagonizes a moving cactus creature by the oasis, the party goes with Mordecai to the aformentioned pit.

At the Pit Town, the party meets with Kumari. The woman confirms what Mordecai implied - that she won't offer up the key unless the party participate in a pit fight against some beast that she currently has trapped in the pit. The party agrees to these terms, but just in case, they send Warren, Shiloh, and the horses to meet up with them at the elven ruins they'd explored earlier, not wanting to put Shiloh and the animals in danger. The party then rests briefly before entering the pit to fight. Just before the conflict begins, Clay reaches for his gun only to find a tarot card in the holster, labelled "Wheel of Fortune". He is visibly shaken by this, but the party isn't given much time to respond before the fight begins. The gates are opened and the party finds themselves trapped face to face with a brass dragon!