Arc 5 Descriptions

## Episode 0: Opening Monologue

[00:49:25]
"Come one, come all, the Festival of the Dawnfather's Rest fast approaches. This winter solstice, as with each before it, join us in the beautiful port city of Solaris, watch the sun slip beneath the Western Ocean and welcome the longest night. A festival with such humble origins, starting as a town gathered along the shore each year staying awake and together to the longest bout of darkness they would ever see, now one of the most marvellous and magical menageries in all the world. Citizens of the great kingdom of Hyranor and citizens beyond, come, habitants of land, sea, or sky, come, gamble your coin, win glorious prizes, eat well, be merry, sing the songs of times long forgotten, years that have slipped away into the sands. Watch the brightest young minds of the kingdom compete to be this year's Snowdrop Champion, see the greatest troupes perform mind-bending acts of pure mastery, listen to tales of mythic beasts and heroes who conquered them, find the most skilled craftsmen from all across the lands, and experience the jubilation of Fulldark, promptly at the stroke of midnight. Here, in the 21st year of the Age of King Lucius Pinn, there is no better way to forget about your worries and your strife, than among the colours, lights, and shows of the Dawnfather's Rest. The festival commences at sunset. Can you outlast the darkness? The only way out is through, and the only way through is together. May Pelor shine upon you."

## Episode 1: Start of the Festival

[00:05:50]
"The horizon flashes green for only a moment, and then all colour drains from the sky, leaving only an inky black canopy dotted with bright stars. It's a clear sky over the Western Ocean, and crisp cold winds cut thought the crowds of people waiting with bated breath for the Festival of the Dawnfather's Rest to begin. The sun has set and the crowds cheer. It's time. Music from every corner of Solaris, where the residents have been diligently preparing the festival for weeks, fiddles play and people sing. Lanterns are lit with flame and with magic and strung across the streets, barkers flip levers and settle into their games. Children giddy within all of this cause tonight there is no bedtime, run and laugh and take in the early spectacles. Everyone rushes to their favourite spot from the previous years. The Dawnfather rests for only twelve hours, after all. In the Merchant's Quarter, on the western side of the festival, a Half Water Genasi, Half Earth Genasi is placing the final flowers into her promotional garlands. Wren, after your hours of travel and setup, it's festival time!"

## Episode 2: Plottwist and End of Episode

[01:33:19]
"This entire festival comes together, and the lights just flick-flick-flick-flick-flick, and you are left in total darkness. Even those of you who have darkvision, it takes a moment to adjust from this well-lit festival to nothing. Looking up, it's still a very clear sky tonight, you can make out all of the stars, you can see the moon, it's almost full, and you can see the two little lunar satellites around it. It's beautiful. It's a beautiful night. And it feels right when the first voice begins to sing this song, and as more and more voices come and they join in. And all of you except for Sougle join into this as well. It doesn't matter if you miss a word or if you get a note wrong, everybody is here, it's everybody together. And Sougle, you can just kind of let the sound wash over you and as the song continues, people even break out into harmonies, just these sort of self-assigned roles, the chords that they learned with their families growing up, it all kind of coming together. And as this choir continues, in the total darkness of the longest night of the year, you are all enveloped in the sound. The chords are building, the syllables, the sounds that you all know are so familiar and you can feel it, like, building in your chest, this sound, as it gets more complex and together, and it feels like everybody is one person at this moment, understanding that this is how you get through it, right, with everybody all together, knowing that the sun is going to come. And the harmonies are building, until they become dissonant, there is a particular chord near the very end, it kind of grates, and it pushes against your ears, and it's building, and it's building, and everybody's waiting for it to resolve into the final notes, and you all take a breath. Omen and Wren, you hear, so faintly, underneath the cold wind blowing through this place, a desperate scream, and then: The horizon flashes green for only a moment, and then all colour drains from the sky, leaving only an inky black canopy, dotted with bright stars. It's a clear sky over the Western Ocean, and crisp cold winds cut through the crowds of people waiting with bated breath for the Festival of the Dawnfather's Rest to begin. The sun has set, and the crowds cheer. It's time. And that's where we're gonna call the episode."

## Episode 3: Booker's Arrival

[00:09:47]
"Booker, you are looking at a beautiful city, bathed in light. There are lanterns strung between buildings that are leaning precariously towards each other, there is candles hovering above narrow streets, there is magical orbs of light constantly shifting colours in the hands of children running around. Your foot falls, completing a step that you don't remember starting, and it hits solid ground in a way that takes you aback. Kinda like when you miscalculate the number of stairs that you are going up, and you are trying to take a stair that actually doesn't exist, so you're just over-correcting and hitting the ground weird. This city is beautiful, it looks gorgeous, and you find yourself wishing you knew its name, or why it's so lit up tonight. Your eyes are drawn to something bright, there's a Fire Genasi man, he's all decked out in purples and oranges and gold, and he's got a gaudy hat in one hand, and he winks at you, and he salutes before he turns and walks off, which is weird, cause you don't know that guy. So you're at the edge of the sea of people, who all seem excited and happy, and you don't know any of these people."

## Episode 7: The Glitch

[00:39:14]

"Booker, something happens, as you're kind of on the shore here. I don't think you're looking out of the horizon, necessarily, because you're looking at Rin, you're trying to figure out what he's doing. But there's this faint sort of crackling of static in your ears. And you just... something is wrong, and you know it, and you turn to look out at the ocean, and Booker Sailship does not have the words to describe what he is seeing, so I'm instead going to describe it to Owen, the human man." [...] "You're looking out at the ocean and you see the Plague Rat sailing away, and as it sails, the bow of the ship is sort of proudly pushing forward, and it suddenly seems to hit... some kind of resistance. It looks like the sky is warping, around the front of the ship. It's miles off by this point. You can see just this change in the literal sky, like the fabric of... space, over there. And then you start seeing these blocks of colour, kind of flash around this bending in space. And it's what you, Owen, would call a glitch. And this sort of glitch is cascading and flashing around the sky near the ship. And for a moment, as you're just kind of staring in horror because you can't do anything from this distance, you could have sworn the bow punctures something. And then the ship starts to flash those colors, and then it tips ever so slightly. And then it stops, and it freezes in space, still glitching these blocks of color. And it looks like the wood is contorting, in small ways, in places - it's so far off. The only reason you can see this is because you're an elf, and your eyes are built for this. But it's bending and it's warping, and then all at once, it is gone. And that is what you see."

## Episode 8: Sunrise

[01:35:58]

"You just bring a big crowd to watch the sunrise. That means you guys have the best seats. It's kind of a common practice to find somewhere high up or close to the ocean, to watch as this festival reaches its natural conclusion. You all watch it in a big group. Sougle's got Waggle. All of the Haxolpennys are here. Lily, and Wren, and Birk. Onyx, you've made it out. The Ashbournes came out, Briar are Scoria are both over here. Booker, as you're watching the sun rise, just two hands hit your shoulder and weight is leaned all the way in, as Phoenix Starfire kind of leans over your shoulder like he's trying to get your view? Just leaning into your space. A few other members of your crew are around as well, watching the sun finally crest over the ocean as light. The first you seen in- god, how does time work? Forty two hours? The first sunlight you've seen in forty two hours spills across your faces. And it's warm, and it's beautiful, and you're all watching it, together. And I guess that's where we end the arc, my friends."