Episode 16: From the Heart

The Glorious Clasped Hands

**Episode 16: From the Heart** (1x16) - An evil thing wants to be a god. The Nearlies say no. Sometimes you win to lose. Sometimes you lose to win. Arc 1 ends with a bang and a whimper.

## Summary

The Nearlies engage in their first battle against a Glorious, Clasped Hands. The Nearlies are immune to the power of the Glorious, but Sarah falls to her knees in worship. Attacks commence with varying degrees of success. Lavaleen gets absolutly crushed under the Glorious, but Ashley the Ashbone manages to sever on of its arms. Xenator casts a straw pig's wall, and Gwendylyn sets the Glorious on invisible fire, which succeeds in also setting the wall on fire. The Manticore helps in his own way, taking the severed arm off the battlefield and out of the fight.

There is some more fighting, and finally an embiggened Valeriana crushes the now limbless creature underneath her foot, also crushing the now revealed black stone, which attempts to pull in everything in the chamber, like a sudden vaccuum.

Sarah, now out of her hypnosis, shoves her axe at Lavaleen and tells her to hit her hard in the chest, and mean it. Lavaleen does so, spilling blooderflies out which surrounds and defeats the vacuum. Sarah falls.

The cavalry arrives to the unconscious Nearlies and rush them off for medical attention. The Guild Master is heard being told that there are too many of them. “Who in the hell is Martin Sirque and how did he end up on the list of Nearlies? Get Friedl here now.”

## Synopsis

### Prologue

Opens with Sarah, well aware that this is a deceptive dream, due to her own experience.  She was honestly happy to see her headless chicken friend, Gertrude. They sit for at the stump of a tree, that used to be Applejack’s sister, and felled by Sarah’s own axe, to have tea. They are aware of the dreams that the other Nearlies are enduring, and Sarah discusses her new companions.  Sarah is afraid.  A terrible voice: accusing Sarah of being afraid, and telling her that the Nearlies would let her down, and they will all die. She answers in defiance, and decides that she would tell the Nearlies that her nightmare would be about bees.

### Episode

The scene opens up to the Glorious, enraged that only Sarah is worshiping it, and battle commences; the Nearlies begin the fight.   There are some attempted attacks, but Lavaleen gets pancaked by the Glorious’ attack. Melee attacks against the Glorious commences.  Xenator sends in Ashley, and after a very successful attack, Ashley is able toe able to sever one of the arms.  Xenator then casts a straw pig’s wall between the Glorious and the smashed Lavaleen.  Gwendylyn then sets the Glorious on fire.

Martin gets sucked into his previous dream.  The fog comes together and forms the shape of hogs, “you did this.”  He spends several of his turns fighting against these ghostly mists.  Nobody else sees this, they only see vague ghostly mist shapes. In the meantime,  melee attacks continue.  Gwendylyn is muted, preventing her from casting spells for a turn.  The Manticore shows up to help against the Glorious, and pins the phantoms to the ground, preventing them from continuing to attack. The Glorious, only knowing he is in pain and not knowing that he’s on fire, touches the pig’s wall which immediately bursts into flames.  Gwen identifies that the severed arm is still a danger, so the Manticore swoops in and removes it from the battlefield.

After some melee attacks of mixed success, the Glorious attempts to escape through a crack in the world.  Valeriana is embiggened and starts to grapple with the Glorious and cuts off his remaining arm, dropping the body.  Valeriana crushes the body beneath her foot.  The chamber suddenly starts to shake.  Within the body of the Glorious was a black stone, and that stone becomes a vacuum and is pulling everything into it.

Sarah turns to Lavaleen, shoves her axe into her and says, hit me hard and mean it.”  Lavaleen breaks her breastbone with Sarah’s own axe.  Her blooderflies spray out, coils around the black hole, crushing it.  The battle is over and there is the sound of others rushing in.

There is some commentary; noting that the Nearlies were immune to the effect of the Glorious, and worry about the reckoning. Then someone notes that there are too many.  “Who in the hell is Martin Sirque and how did he end up on the list of Nearlies? Get Friedl here now.”

### Epilogue

Sarah has once again saved the world, and accepts the loss of her life to have helped the Nearlies fell a would-be god.

## Notables

Episode 16

 Objects Acquired

 Spells Used

 Metamorph Attempts

## Quotables

Sarah" “I don’t think we can be defined by our worst day.”

## External Links

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