Episode 17: Unknown Quantities

Martin, the Metamorph

**Episode 17: Unknown Quantities** (1x17) - What remains of the Hall of Heroes has taken the Nearlies to what’s left of their headquarters for evaluation and interrogation. Fears over what battling something as contaminated as a Glorious might do to the group’s Sacred Curses spurs an excess of caution and a good amount of outright suspicion. Not exactly treated like the hard fought victorious, it becomes clear to the group that they are a test run of test subjects being sized up by one of Faritall’s very most powerful people: The Guildmaster. I’m sure they will totally respect his might and authority. What could go wrong? Cue Arc 2: The Past Keeps Following Me!

## Synopsis

### Prologue

We have reached the end of Arc 1: Nobody’s happily ever after, and brings up to Arc 2: The past keeps following me.  The Guildmaster is going mad with the grief over the loss of all his friends.  He was surprised at the Nearlies victory.  He couldn’t really explain how they survived.  Martin has the sacred curse like the others, but no sacred apple could be accounted for, and his name on the list remains a mystery.  He gives the word to start the evaluations, but also be ready in case they needed to destroy the Nearlies.

### Episode

The Nearlies awake, alone, in a room.  Friedl enters to ask some questions to the Nearlies.  They are analyzing the effect of the Nearlies’ contact with the Glorious. After the interrogation they leave the room and enter into a hallway where everyone is exiting their own room. The Nearlies discuss their interrogation.  They decide to leave, and wonder where Sarah is.  Lavaleen, having been the one to swing the axe, is the only one that knows that Sarah fell.

They enter into an impossibly long hallway lined with doors, longer than their eyes can see.  They decide to start at the first door.  Inside the room is a mechanical boy, a homunculus, to greet them. He sends them back to see the Guildmaster, telling them that they are expected.  They enter the room and he is sitting at his desk, writing furiously.  The Nearlies are in the Hall of Heroes.  The Glorious that they killed, Clasped Hands, was a rook, a builder.  They discuss the circumstances around the Triune, the splitting of the world, and the consequences of the lack of heroes in the world.  The Glorious are barred from the world for now, but there are still remnants, those left behind that need to be hunted down and defeated.  Leveling up is unlocked.  They are promised that they won’t leave without Sarah.

The Nearlies were tasked with trying to find the Damsels, and the Guildmaster gives some information on each of them and potential locations.  The Red Hide is possibly in the Lands of Sweet Delights/Cannibal land and is likely stuck in a rage due to the carnage around her.

The True Traveler has a penchant for small places connected to other small places, tunnels, burrows and the like.  She is a master of portals and likely to be somewhere ‘between worlds’.

The Witch in the Tower has a raw magic dependency. She has to bathe in pools of mana regularly, so we need to seek out those energies.

The Glass Dancer is a master of disguise.  She is potentially in a disguise so good that she has forgotten who she is.  So we have to look for people who seem ‘new’ or out of place.  Martin will likely have an affinity towards them due to their similar circumstances.

The Thorn Dream is most likely recovering from the Battle of the Last Stand in some far flung corner of dreams.  Keep an eye out for crescent moons, castles, or thorn bushes in our dreams.

The Golden Mirror has left no leads whatsoever.  The Lady Winter has the most promising lead. She changes the weather patterns around her, and often snows around her.  The area around Overwaters in the lands of Thas Lorem has some reports of strange weather.

Izarizal the Fair shows up to the office.  She has come to rescue us from the Guildmaster, as we’re late for tea.  She demands to know where the Woodcutter’s daughter is. ‘Here, she’s been here the whole time.’ Sarah needed to be with us because all Glorious have a dark core that needs to be destroyed.  Death isn’t required, but they must be willing to die in order to kill a Glorious.

The Nearlies are appropriately upset.  Lavaleen grabs the urn that contains Sarah, and Gwen destroys the Guildmaster’s desk. Valeriana steals one of the ships in a bottle and everyone but Xenator leaves the office.  Xenator tries to find out where the Nearlies can find another potential martyr to replace Sarah, so requests a list of potential people.

### Epilogue

The Guildmaster had once been an emperor with great power.  It was a small group of adventurers who defied him, containing Sarah.  He was truly grieving the loss of Sarah, and nearly destroyed the Nearlies for their accusations, but couldn’t when he saw Sarah’s urn, carved out of his own heart stone, and let Gwen just destroy his desk.

Friedl arrives.  The Nearlies have so far been resilient against the corruptive influence of the sacred curse.  He asks the Guildmaster if he wanted Martin to be erased, as the spells were already in place within him, and the panel was currently at a tie. The Nearlies wouldn’t even remember him so there wouldn’t be an issue.  It was the memory of Sarah that stopped him, and told Friedl to destroy the edict.

## Notables

Episode 17

 Objects Acquired

 Spells Used

 Metamorph Attempts

## Quotables

Martin: “I was just your typical guy, needing help getting out of a tree.”

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