Episode 22: Shadows From Before Categories

**Episode 22:Shadows From Before** (1x22) - Among the Land of Un’s greatest beings are the Seven Sisters. The Ladies of the Wood, Lake, Mountain, Sea, Below and Tapestry and the youngest sister, the Mourning Lady. She who weeps for us all and walks the swamps and moors of all worlds crying for all those who must die. A temple to this mysterious goddess is discovered sunken deep beneath the earths surface. So…. there’s loot in here right? Also featuring some info on the process and origin of the Witch of the Wild’s Sacred Curse, told by The Cunning Woman herself.

## Cast

### Nearlies

Josh | Xenator Brisbane
Kathy | Lavaleen Crest
Andy | Martin Sirque
Amanda | Gwendylyn Cloot
 Robbie | The Speaker
 Aaron |  Production & Sound

### NPCs

APPEARING
 Izarizal
 Sagoza

## Summary

The group continues to explore the underground cavern, bypassing the beetles by various means. Further in, Gwen comes across two wild/freed spells. With translation help from Lavaleen she convinces the spells to come with them. To make room, she expels Wandering Hex, takes in Crystalline Curiosity, and stores the Fire spell in a book until she has enough room. Xenator, always on a quest for power, takes in the expelled Wandering Hex spell, gaining some Reckoning in the process.

Once the spells are figured out, the group goes to explore the temple that is down here. They encounter a skeleton, Sagoza, who tells them that the temple used to be in the Nightlands, but sunk some time ago, and warns the group that it is still protected by the Nightwing Brothers, who will attack if you take the Shadowsteel from the temple. Though some shenanigans headed by Martin, and some quick thinking by Xenator, the group manages to promote Sagoza to an acolyte, be gifted the Shadowsteel instead of having to fight for it, and send the Nightwing Brothers to help the fight against the Glorious and other assorted evils.

With all this accomplished, the Nearlies return to the Tree to continue their journey.

## Synopsis

### Prologue

We hear from the tradition of witchcraft, who was founded by the Crafty Woman.  A witch of the wild is like a tree, growing from a seed, upwards, and becoming one with the nature.  The hive of a magic begins in the womb, and then eventually fill the entire structure of the witch.  There is no limit to a witch’s life.  When men tried to take the world all for themselves, the Crafty Woman stood against them.

### Episode

Lavaleen moves in to help Gwen with the beetle she’s engaged with, and Martin uses his flail.  Valeriana commands her dominated beetle to drag away another beetle, and Gwen finishes up the beetle she had been attacking with Verdant Lightning.  Having finished it off, she goes to collect some of the ley lava.

Valeriana heals up one of the injured beetles and flips it back onto its feet.  Martin turns into a saddle, letting Valeriana ride her newly acquired mount and head towards the crystalline structures.  Xenator is drawn to the wild, living spells, and heads over to them.  Lavaleen chooses to avoid any further combat and flies over to explore a shadowy temple dedicated to the Lady of Shades/Sorrows.

Martin/Valeriana combo goes to harvest some of the crystalline structures, which turns out to be humming crystals.  Gwen examines the spells; they are a fire spell and a spirit spell.  Lavaleen speaks their language, so goes over to help.  This spell used to belong to someone, but has been freed.  Primordial Fluid spell.  The fire spell puckishly set some of Lavaleen’s feathers.  After some debate, Gwendylyn expels the Wandering Hex to make room, takes in the crystalline curiosity spell, and puts the Fire spell in a book.  Xenator, unable to leave power behind, takes in Gwen’s ejected Wandering Hex, transforming it into a different Black Magic spell.

Spells sorted, the Nearlies go to explore the temple. Lavaleen spots a skeleton near the entrance of the temple, that seems to be making eye contact with Lavaleen. Gwen uses her newly acquired spell to analyze the skeleton.  He introduces himself as Sagoza the skeleton.  The temple used to be in the Nightlands, but has sunken years ago.  The Ravenwing Brothers still reside in the temple, protecting the treasures within the temple.  Sagoza gives Xenator some of his preblackened ashbones, and Xenator replaces it with some of the bones he had gathered in the corpse chute.  The group then goes to enter the template.

Gwen finds some sort of rune/seal, and Val finds a nearly identical one on the other side of the room.  Xenator gets sucked into a trance, although nobody else knows that something is wrong, so Lavaleen explores the statue of the Goddess. Martin introduces  himself to the two Ravenwood brothers.  They watch for those that would steal the shadow steel. Martin tries to get the brothers to fight each other to distract them, and eliminate a potential opponent.  They refuse, but are frustrated because they can only fight the group if everyone agrees.

Meanwhile, Xenator is released from his trance. Joining the conversation, he catches the Brothers up with what has been going on and the Glorious invasion, and suggests that they would serve a better purpose out in the world.  They are extremely agitated to hear this and want to go help, but can’t leave until the 3 sacred relics of shadow steel have been removed from the temple.  The problem is that they are also bound to try to stop the removal of the shadowsteel from the temple, and anyone with the authority to gift the shadow steel have long since departed the temple.  The group convinces the Brothers that Sagoza, as the last remaining member of the temple, would be promoted to the highest level, and thus would be an acolyte of high enough rank to gift the shadowsteel.  The three pieces are gifted to the Nearlies and passed out.  The temple then travels to the shadow realms. Xenator touches mud from the swamp of sorrows, which makes him grieve for the equivalent of a year.

The tree is now unstuck, so the Nearlies return.

### Epilogue

Long ago, life was a lot less complex. The world was ruled by mothers.  The world bowed to the magic of mothers, and their ability to grow life. But then men realized that their seed is what starts the process.  This led to the overthrow of the matriarch, and the Crafty Woman sought an alliance with a powerful force.

## Notables

Episode 22

 Objects Acquired

 Spells Used

 Metamorph Attempts

## External Links

Patreon
Instagram
Twitter
 Website - Episode 22