Ep. 15 Darkness Rising Chapter 2

## Listen

Ep. 15 Darkness Rising Chapter 2

—Pablo Neruda

The party lands in Xandrar, planning on investigating the shadows and the Swords of Liberty while undercover as members of House Cannith. They find the fight has already begun, however, and have to act quick to capture members of the dangerous organization.

## Synopsis

### Shadows in Xandrar

Dex has just landed on the shore. Therudak is on the other side of the river. Beric is *in* the river, and Crast lands near Dex, being the only other one to use his Feather Fall pack at the right time. Beric pulls himself from the river and Therudak starts heading towards them. A fight has already started with the shadows and the people in Xandrar.

Crast reaches into his bag and pulls out Dawn Light, the armor Draconos previously wore, and hands it to Therudak. Dak dons his new armor, Beric summons Curse-Bringer(who gives a contented sigh), and Dex casts *Daylight* from his ribbonweave. Beric rushes to the fight with Dex right behind him. Therudak checks with Crast first for permission and runs off to join them.

Before they reach the town, their path becomes blocked by four shadowy figures. Out of the ground, a shadow mastiff appears, snarling and ready to fight. Dak swings at them with his greatsword. The shadows wisps but doesn't feel quite right when hit. They turn on Dak, draining some of his strength.

Beric charges at the nearest shadow, placing his Hexblade's Curse on it. It recoils and wails from Curse-Bringer's touch. Dex hits his closest shadow, and Crast joins them, swinging at the shadow mastiff. He invokes the power of the Flame and silver light wreaths his sword. Silver fire erupts from within the creature and it cries out in pain. Therudak holds up his greatsword, puffs out his chest, and uses the armor's ability of *Dazzling Flare*. The shadows rear back in pain and the mastiff lets out an almost deafening howl as it erupts from within and dissipates.

The shadows attack, but are blinded from the flare and miss. Beric pivots backwards as one swipes at him and a trail of shadows follows his black blade as he swings, plunging it into the chest of a shadow. The blade draws the shadow into it as is dissipates, and the curse is moved to the next shadow. Curse-Bringer once again gives a contented sigh.

Dex swings at the shadow nearest to him, and while it still feels not quite right making contact, the shadow howls and dissipates. Crast and Dak both make contact with their shadows, and in return a shadow misses an attack on Dak. Beric deals some damage to the new target of his curse. Bringing it back high above his head, Dex whips the ribbonweave down as hard as he can onto a shadow. It passes right through and dust kicks up as the blade lands hard on the ground. The shadow is cleft in two.

Crast sees that Dak is hurt and restores him to full health. The shadow makes one last attempt at hitting Therudak, but fumbles instead, and Beric finishes him off with his sword, which one again drinks up the shadow.

### Swords of Liberty

As their battle comes to an end, they look around and realize the shadows have begun retreating. Along with the shadows, the figures in the blue eagle masks are starting to flee across the river over a bridge that leads off into the Eldeen Reaches. Dex and Therudak notice that amongst the people wearing the masks is a woman wearing a red owl mask who seems to be guiding them through hand signals. Dak slaps Beric's shoulder to get his attention and he recalls that at their inception, a symbol of the Swords of Liberty was a blue eagle.

The plan was to wait until the morning to investigate, but with the battle going on they need to act now. Crast, Dex, and Dak start discussing who to chase, the shadows or the Swords, and Beric, not wanting to waste time, starts running towards the bridge. Anyone leaving town has to also take that way out.

*"As I do now, I run after Beric."
—Jeff*
Dex takes off after Beric, and after a glance at Crast, Therudak follows, Crast right behind him. As they pass the bridge, they see in the distance through some tall trees small ferries in the river, towards ruins of a town referred to as Old Xandrar from the time of the Dhakaani empire. On the ferries are some of the Swords. As they run towards the boats, a feminine cry comes from outside of the town, sounding like someone is in trouble. Beric, having not heard, continues running. Dex hesitates a moment and chooses to ignore it. Dak is more reluctant and tries to get them to stop, but Crast tells him they need to get the Swords, and Dak grudgingly follows the others.

At this point Beric and Dex are about twenty feet ahead. A couple of the figures run through the woods towards the ferries, on the east side of the town. They hear a straggler and Dex changes course to intersect him, tripping him up with the ribbonweave. Beric Misty Steps to within fifteen feet of the people running towards the ferries and tries to Lightning Lure them, but they manage to get away.

Therudak sits on the guy Dex tripped while Dex runs out of the shadows and swings his ribbonweave at one of the Swords. Crast goes over to restrain the prisoner so Dak can go join the fight. Beric, Dex, and the Swords exchange a few blows and Dak comes up swinging his "majorly big sword," trying to hit one in the shoulder blade, but misses.

### Enemies of the Light

Beric twirls Curse-Bringer underhanded and stabs it into the ground. All three enemies take necrotic damage as tendrils of dark energy erupts out of the ground where he thrust the sword. When they take the damage, Curse-Bringer tells Beric to stop. These are not enemies of the light. Beric, mid-battle, says aloud, *"Wait, what?"* The Swords continue to swing at Beric and Dex and Dak misses with his greatsword, and Beric demands Curse-Bringer explain himself.

The sword insists these are not the true enemies. They were driving the shadows away, and that's the real threat. Beric argues with the sword while swinging it, and reminds his weapon that these are the same people that just blew up a tower in Sharn.

Meanwhile, Dak is witnessing Beric talk to himself while fighting and looks to Dex for clarification. Dex just shrugs and says sometimes this happens, but he'll explain himself later. Beric, fed up with the bickering, tells the Swords that if they didn't just try to blow up a tower they can stop and talk, and they respond by swinging at him once again. Dex goes to trip one and crits.

*"Or can I just do double damage but make it clear that it's non-lethal damage, so I can knock his ass out."
"Knock his butt out."
"No, I'm knocking his* ass *out because I rolled a twenty and I don't get to do the cool table."* *"He's trying to additionally attack that donkey that came out of the woods behind him."
—Jeff, Eric, and Philip*
Beric tries subduing the one he's been fighting with. He's been having a one-sided conversation with himself and suddenly starts yelling at the guy instead, who is considerably confused. They've been parrying back and forth and Beric finally twists his sword and disarms the man, swinging out with the pummel of Curse-Bringer and catches him straight in the mask. The guy drops and Beric assumes a defensive position, giving the last Sword a chance to escape. He levels Curse-Bringer at him and tells him the fight is done, yelling at the sword to shut up halfway through. The guy looks at Beric, this crazy man who's been shouting nonsense, and drops his sword and takes off for the ferries. As he passes Therudak swings at him with his fists but misses and the man escapes.

Dex thwacks the guy he tripped on the head with his cane and hog ties him. Around where they came from he hears a struggle, and he and Dak run over to see what's going on while Beric stays behind with their prisoners. They see the Sword they captured tied with his hands behind a tree trunk, Crast wailing on him, demanding to be told who was behind the bombing. Seeing a side of Crast he hasn't before, Therudak runs between him and the prisoner, telling him to stop. Dex tells him they'll never get the information they want this way, and Crast looks at them both disdainfully and walks off.

Dex calls for Beric, who drags both prisoners over. While Dex is cleaning up the man's wounds, not being overly careful while doing so, the man asks who they are and Dex once again puts on his Dante Cannith persona.

End of episode.

## Spells

* **Beric**
	+ Arms of Hadar
	+ Lightning Lure
	+ Misty Step
* **Dex**
	+ Daylight

## Quotes

"*Yessss…*"
"That's very distracting. It's very, very hard to maintain my forms while you do that."
"It's apparently pretty easy for Curse-Bringer to maintain an erection, though."
"Ugh, see, now you've made it so much worse."
[Groaning] "Uhhhh… *Yessssss…*"
"Please don't make that sound again, Jeff. *Or* Eric, frankly."
"Or anybody."
*—Curse-Bringer, Beric/Philp, Jeff, and Randy*

"I like that what happens now is that Beric runs, Dex follows, and then Dex explains to Beric what we all see, because he can't pass a perception check.  *'Well, what you've run towards, Beric, is boats.'* "
*—Jeff*