Episode 51: What Lies Untold

Having escaped the haunted Castle Rum, the Heroes of Bingle now find themselves forced to protect someone they know will become a villain! As they set sail for Ocean’s Gull Point, each of them faces a decision that will shake them to their very core. A demon looms, shocking connections are made, and James reveals his greatest secret!

#### **DM/GM Intro**

*It started as a simple Dungeon Run…*

*5 adventurers who retrieved a magical amulet that turned out to be one of the most powerful artifacts in the world. An amulet that connected them to you, the Watchers of the Time Stream.  And in your wisdom, you used it to reveal to them the location of a grand prize.  Their old foe, a pirate named Whitebeard, put his most valuable treasure inside a Vault in the city of Terlis.  But what was it?  And how did it get there?  Answers that seemed impossible to know in their own time.  But somehow, some way, these five adventurers have been transported back in time.  Thrust into the lives of 5 sellswords, 22 years in the past, working with Whitebeard to acquire that treasure.*

*First, they captured a fugitive of the Shaxen Gao empire in the north.  A Triton named Cho’Ran who claimed to know where the dragonborn dynasty’s cache of valuables was hidden.  He offered the knowledge in exchange for help in reaching his wife and young son, who were waiting at the Isle of Rum in the city of Boster.  But upon reaching Boster, the team discovered that Cho’Ran’s family had fled the city and sailed into the Castle Rum, a haunted mansion detached and floating in eerie waters, only reachable by boat.  The journey itself was said to be perilous - a sanity-breaking assault on the senses.  To survive, they were told they would need a substance called The Liquor of the Dead, a foul concoction distilled inside rotting corpses.*

*Lily and James managed to find a supplier of the vile drink - a man calling himself the Viscount Winger-Sticks Envoy.  A strange, debilitated creature living inside a lighthouse on Ocean’s Gull Point.  He allowed them to dig up a jug of the Liquor of the Dead in exchange for a promise that they would relinquish their own corpses to him, in the event of their demise.*

*With pints of the tincture in hand, their journey began, the lighthouse illuminating the dark seas leading to the island castle.  But their sanity was indeed tested, as they encountered a ghost ship full of spectors that bombarded their minds with paranoia and unrest.*

*Arriving at the Castle, the team discovered the manor had its own tale to tell.  Each room, a piece of a larger puzzle, revealing snapshots of a disturbing history.  Murders and betrayal, culminating in the Lady of the House sheltering, with 2 of her three children, inside a secret room hidden behind a bookcase.  But a servant by the name of Jaspin killed her husband and trapped her inside, setting fire to the Castle as she screamed and pounded on the walls.  Seeing this vision play out, Lily and James immediately recognized the servant as the Viscount himself, the same man from whom they acquired the Liquor of the Dead.*

*When the vision ended, the team unlocked the secret room to discover Cho’Ran’s family hiding inside.  A dragonborn woman and a half dragonborn, half Triton boy of only five years old, holding tightly to a small toy in his hand.  Baozhai and Cho’Mel.*

*But as they stood there, it was undeniable.  The boy named Cho’Mel was the same person who would grow up to be Yan Mo, the warrior who fought them during their adventure at the bottom of the Deep Reef.  The leader who commanded an army to decimate Lily’s island home of Bingle, and forced her mother and sisters into servitude inside a bubble on the ocean floor.*

*But no sooner had the team made that realization than the Lady of the House herself appeared.  A ghostly phantasm with wild eyes passing effortlessly through the walls and into the room, floating between them and Cho’Ran’s family.*

*The team leaped into action, attacking The Lady of the House, despite Baozhai’s protestations.  When Lily finally convinced the team to stand down, they witnessed the spector disperse the other ghosts in the house, defending them and protecting Baozhai and her son.*

*The Heroes of Bingle made their escape, ushering everyone down the stairs and out the front door, even as the Lady hovered hauntingly behind them.  But when the team finally made it out of the Castle, a new danger befell them.  The creepy wood and feather figurine that Cho’Mel clutched in his hand began to vibrate and convulse, eventually transforming into two malevolent creatures.  A Wicker Boy, made entirely out of sticks, and a winged devil, able to command the very birds in the trees.*

*Siv wasted no time.  He sprinted forward and grabbed the young Cho’Mel, making a break for the water.  Meanwhile, Fahima blasted the Wicker Boy with a fireball, only to see the wooden monster catch fire and burn, unharmed.  With Siv and Cho’Mel out ahead, it turned into a race to the beach, the winged demon flying as fast as it could to chase them, the rest of the team hurling spells and tiny crustacean hammers at the enemies as they tried to keep up.*

*Finally, James and Lily dispatched the Wicker Boy, who revealed itself to be the third son of the Lady of the House.  Reunited and at peace, the Lady retreated with the ghost of her son inside the Castle one last time, and the structure was released from its transitory state - exposing a burned, empty ruin.*

*Meanwhile, Siv forced Cho’Mel under the water, confident that the half Triton could breath there.  The gambit worked, and the winged demon eventually flew off to parts unknown.*

*As we ended last week, the team decided to leave the island and return to their ship, anchored off shore.   But the small rowboat they arrived in could not fit the entire group in a single trip.  Uggo rowed Fahima, Lily, Whitebeard, and Cho’Ran in the first group, while James, Siv, Cho’Mel and Baozhai remained on the beach, waiting for the dingy’s return.*