Arc 10: Daggers Out

Official illustration for Arc 10 Episode 1

Arc 10 is a split level murder mystery adventure DMed by Amelia ranging from level 1 to level 14. It takes place at the third centennial meeting of the Necromancer's Guild in Malum, before all other arcs, in the tower of a wizard named Tiffany.

The connection to previous arcs is the nation of Malum mentioned in Arc 3.

For this arc, Amelia let the players pick whatever level and magic items they wanted their characters to have. Additionally, for this arc, chaos dice were used: at any point in the game, players can make a wish and roll a d20. On a 20, they get exactly what they ask for, on a 1, their wish is fulfilled in a twisted way. Between 1 and 20, nothing happens. When a player has used their chaos die, they cannot do so again until everyone else in the party had the chance to do it, but if players do it too much, something chaotic is going to happen. Additionally, because Amelia wants to motivate players to look for magic items and use them in the wizard tower, attunement to magic items only takes 10 minutes in this arc.

## Arc 10 Characters and Players

Characters and Players in order of introduction in Episode 0:

**DM** Amelia (Any/None)

**Count Dion Alexander Grimmawk** (He/They) (played by Barnaby - They/Them), level 6, a Warlock / Rogue multiclass gentleman that used to be a Genasi and has since been turned into a diabetic Dhampir married to a vampire king. They are accompanied by their Quasit familiar named Montenegro.

**Marigold Westberry** (She/Her) (played by Maddison - She/Her), level 7, a Forest Gnome Druid / Gunslinger multiclass cowboy that raises Owlbears and is currently usually accompanied by her two newest cubs, Pork and Beans. She is a middle-aged divorcee, a bit of a loner, and has not talked to her ex-husband in eight years.

**Theodrink Davies** (He/Him) (played by Gus - He/Him), level 1, a Forest Gnome Ranger that works as a butler for the wizard Tiffany. He lives in a house outside the tower together with his spouse Nona and their 36 children.

**Bishop Batters-Westberry** (He/Him) (played by Haley - She/Any), level 7, a Shifter Rogue / Druid multiclass who used to be a cowboy until his divorce 8 years ago, since which he has not seen his ex-wife. He has spent the last years drifting around Malum, and is now a contract killer who comes to the party on a job.

**Queen Luminessa** (She/Her) (played by Sedona - She/Her), level 14, a Merfolk Warlock and powerful yet mysterious queen of the sea. How she harnessed the power of the ancient primordial magic has been lost to history, and only her sea cat Tippy knows her secrets.

The icebreaker question for this arc is: What is your favourite (murder) mystery movie or piece of media that isn't generally known as a murder mystery?

* Amelia: "The Pacifier" starring Vin Diesel.
* Haley: First considers "The Mysterious Benedict Society" by Trenton Lee Stewart, which is full of mysteries, and which they love. Gus then proposes the movie "It", Barnaby "The Magnus Archives", and Amelia "Inception", which Haley agrees to.
* Gus: "The Cabin in the Woods" is one of his favourite movies since highschool and has both murder and mystery in it.
* Madison: Agrees to "The Cabin in the Woods", but chooses "Memento", which is one of the first movies in highschool she really liked, and which also includes both murder and mystery.
* Sedona: Watched the recent "Murder on the Orient Express" in preparation for the arc and really liked it.
* Barnaby: Likes "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang", but also "Knives Out", and murder mysteries in general.

## Arc 10 Plot (Full Arc Spoilers)

### Episode 1

The arc begins with Tiffany setting something up for an arcane ritual in the basement below their mansion. Then, the camera pans to Theo's house, where Theo awakes to look after his children. His oldest son Rogra is there to visit and help, and, noticing that there is not a lot of porridge in the kitchen, asks whether he can financially support his family in any way. Theo thanks him, but refuses, saying that he plans to ask Tiffany for a raise, then he heads off to do some last preparations before the party.

Count Dion is on his way to meet with his friend, the former pirate king Ki Lon, and on the way picks up an old man that looks like someone resurrected him. The man introduces himself as Edd Yaug, and on the entire way is very bad company to Dion. In the meantime, Queen Luminessa hops out of the sea onto Ki Lon's ship and the two of them exchange some pleasantries before Luminessa lets one of Ki Lon's men touch and look at Tippy for a bit longer than he should, but not enough to kill him. Dion's carriage arrives, and Dion and Lumi greet while the old man just gets onto the ship. All together, they set sail towards their destination.

Bishop has a last meeting with his client, a Changeling named Arenothe Le'gauching, whose identity he will adopt for the night. He has some last questions, and Arenothe emphasises again that the timing is crucial, Bishop has to do his job at exactly 8:14 pm. If, for some reason, his target does not appear, he can just try to make Tiffany's night worse in some way. Then, Arenothe gives Bishop the earring to contact him with, and a magical pocket watch that is perfectly in sync with the one they have, so that Bishop can get the timing right precisely.

On the long road leading up to the tower, Marigold is approached by a Half Orc in his teens or early twenties, asking to pet one of her owlbears. She refuses, and he accepts that and introduces himself as Thorgash, Paladin of Pelor. Thorgash tries to make her feel welcome with some pleasant small talk, talking about himself, Tiffany, and the Necromancer's Guild, and the two of them continue their way together. As they become friends, Marigold allows him to carry Pork after all.

Before the guests arrive, Theo prepares the party while Tiffany is still in the basement. He checks the garden, waves at a ghostly woman in the trees, and then walks around the mansion checking in on the Unseen Servants and the three simulacra of Tiffany. One of them emphasises to him again that no matter what happens, the show must go on and they must stick to their schedule. Then, the guests start arriving, and Theo greets them, showing them where to go and getting an understanding of who is there, with or without invitation.

The first guest, Liyra Istin, immediately asks one of the simulacra to bring her to the real Tiffany, with Theo being unable to stop her. Arriving next, precisely at 6, are Thorgash and Marigold with Pork and Beans, then Dion with Monty and Queen Luminessa with Tippy. Ki Lon arrives shortly after, then Bishop, who introduces himself as Arenothe, and only then the old man, Edd Yaug. Seeing him, Theo is shocked, recognising the face, but he was invited, so he shows him the way in nonetheless. Thalia Ironmeadow arrives, and then Sharon, who Tiffany is scared off. As they all arrived, Count Dion suddenly hears the voice of Liyra say: "You've got to be fucking kidding me. I'm going to fucking kill you."

### Episode 2

Count Dion sees Liyra, who said those words, emerge from Tiffany's study, together with the host himself, who now goes around to greet the guests. Dion asks Monty to keep an eye on Tiffany. Marigold, who has not yet seen Bishop, goes into the library, where she looks for very specific information, but cannot find it. Sharon is there, and they have a brief and awkward conversation. Sharon reads Marigold's thoughts, and as she tries to leave, Sharon levitates a book in front of her, telling her that it will help her. It's about the study of leylines, written in druidic. Marigold grabs it and then leaves.

In the meantime, Theodrink makes his way around the house, and then updates Tiffany on the guests and his concerns regarding some of them. Tiffany decides to talk to Marigold, whose name she has never heard before, and asks Theo to check on something regarding Edd Yaug. Count Dion makes his way over to Bishop to introduce himself, and immediately realises that Bishop is not who he claims he is. However, he decides not to tell on him in exchange for a nice conversation. In that moment, Marigold leaves the library, and Bishop and her make eye contact, but before she can act on that, Tiffany approaches and questions her. Marigold tells him that she received an invitation, and came out of curiosity. Then, she walks back into the library to get away from Bishop, and Bishop walks into the opposite direction, out of the front door. Dion recognises the tension between the two of them, and walks over to Luminessa to tell her about it. The two of them make plans to bring Bishop and Marigold back together again.

Theo makes sure that nobody can see him, and then crawls through his garden, where he starts digging until he finds exactly what he was looking for. As Bishop walks through the garden, Theo accidentally knocks over a pot, and immediately Bishop whirls around, daggers in hand. They question each other, and their reason for being in the garden, until Bishop tells Theo that he doesn't even know him, which makes Theo realise as well that Bishop is not Arenothe. He tells him not to steal any plants, and then walks back in to talk to Tiffany about that. On his way in, he passes Dion, who follows Bishop. They offer him their help, and in exchange for the promise of having an honest conversation with Marigold make him invisible. Theo's child Maximum sees this and wants to be made invisible as well to be able to sneak in. Dion refuses, but offers to take him in as their plus one. Theo, in the meantime, tells Tiffany about Bishop. She asks him to send him her way, and then goes to talk to Edd Yaug.

Luminessa finds Marigold trying to calm herself down from a panic attack in the library, and tries to make her join her back to the party, which Marigold declines, picking up a random book she cannot read. Only flipping through the pages, she realises that it is a book about sex, and becomes flustered, pushing it away, and joining Luminessa for the Show and Tell that Theo calls everyone into the ballroom for. In there, Theo hands out drinks, while Bishop is standing there invisibly, looking for his target. Theo finds Maximum and promises him that he can stay for the Show and Tell, as long as he keeps holding his hand and promises to leave immediately after.

Tiffany makes his grand entrance and holds a speech, claiming that death is his biggest challenge, and now his biggest victory. Then, she calls for a toast, gets out two daggers, stabs herself, and as she falls, the arcane glyphs powering the tower go out, leaving the guests in darkness.

### Episode 3

The power outage lasts one minute, during which the player characters roll initiative to determine who acts when, and the guests act on count 20, 10, or 0.

Bishop shifts into his Longtooth form and leaves the ballroom to get away from the people. He sees Maximum run out past him, and grabs him. Maximum asks to be taken to the dining room so that he can follow the ghost, and Bishop reluctantly agrees, since it's on the way to the exit, where he wants to go. On the way to the dining room, he uses his earring to inform Arenothe that Nea Veia did not arrive, but Arenothe tells him that that is impossible, they checked with a spell. In the dining room, Bishop and Maximum see the ghost woman for long enough that she can ask for help, then she disappears. Maximum convinces Bishop to look for clues together with him, and to go into the basement.

Luminessa casts Mislead on herself to turn invisible and leave an illusionary double in her place, then she heads towards the kitchen, breaking in the door, where she looks for some powerful magical ingredients. She finds some herbs in a glass container, but before she can take it, an armadillo enters the kitchen and changes back into Thalia Ironmeadow. Thalia grabs the glass case, escapes from Luminessa's bident, and vanishes.

Theo lets go of Maximum's hand as the light goes out and rushes towards Tiffany as Maximum runs out. He tries to find any clues, but can only realise that it cannot have been a teleportation spell cast by her. He is worried, and uses Minor Illusion to have the voice of Tiffany say "For my next trick, if you could all exit the mansion and look up at the sky!", to calm down the crowd and distract them, then he heads towards the staircase that goes down into the basement.

Dion asks Montenegro to follow Liyra, and watches through his eyes as Ki Lon heads into the study, Sharon into the library, and Liyra upstairs, opening a door with a silver key. Behind there is a blaze of red. She enters and closes the door, but leaves the key outside, and Montenegro grabs the key.

Marigold together with Pork and Beans escapes into the first room adjacent to the ballroom, which is the conservatory observatory. There, she sees a world map with leylines at the ceiling, and as she watches it closer, Tiffany's face suddenly appears on it, says "I fucked up a bit" to no one in particular, and then vanishes. Marigold locks the door and starts investigating the room, searching for answers.

Thorgash, who tries to follow "Tiffany's" orders, realises that the door is locked, announcing this to the room. Initiative ends, as everyone is doing things that take some more time, and a sort of emergency lighting goes on inside the mansion.

Luminessa runs after Thalia into the hallway and tries to take the glass case off of her, but Thalia refuses to stop, and vanishes from her tentacle spell. Since Tippy is not with Luminessa at the moment, she cannot threaten her with him, either. She heads back to the ballroom to find Tippy.

Dion finds Sharon in the library, flipping through a book that contains stories from the past, present, and future. She tells them that they should look for Marigold, and that she is in the conservatory observatory. He opens the door with his thieves' tools as Marigold crossreferences the information about leylines with her book. At first, she is suspicious of Dion, but then decides that they might be able to work together. Dion cannot find any more information about Tiffany's research, but finds a raven feather.

Theo arrives in the basement and tries to find the right combination of bricks to press to open the wall at the end of the hallway, but fails to do so. As he sits there defeated, Bishop and Maximum come into the basement as well, but Bishop does not find it either. The only idea Theo has is that Tiffany likes pop culture references, and to look somewhere else in the tower for a clue.

As Luminessa comes back into the ballroom, only Tippy is left there. There is Tiffany's blood in the middle of the room, but Tippy is standing along the side of the room, looking up from an entirely different, but similar puddle of blood, next to which Edd Yaug lies dead on the floor.

### Episode 4

Luminessa investigates the body and then midlinks with Tippy, from whom she receives a disturbing memory of something similar that has happened before: "The threads are being severed, the veils between the planes shall fall. The darkness shall bleed further, the end shall become all." Tippy does not seem to like the idea, and Luminessa decides to let everyone be called back into the ballroom, and everyone comes to join her.

Theo first investigates the daggers with which Tiffany stabbed himself, and finds out that they repell blood. He starts pointing at people, demanding an explanation about who all of them are and what they are doing here. Marigold shows her invitation, and Theo realises that it was altered with and did not reach her in its original envelope. Luminessa admits that she went into the kitchen to take special catnip she needs, but that Thalia took it before she could; Thalia in turn claims that it is philosopher's rosehip, which Tiffany stole from her years ago. Bishop publically admits that he is not Arenothe, and Maximum tells the room about the ghost and their detective work. Using the Pipe of J'accuse, Dion casts *Zone of Truth* and Bishop admits that he is there to kill someone, but his target did not show up.

Ki Lon says that he might have killed Tiffany, and reflexively, Theo throws a dagger at him. As Ki Lon starts bleeding, Theo is immediately sorry, and Thorgash heals Ki so that he can tell the room that when the lights went out, he went into the study, where he was surprised by Tiffany, dressed in a simple button down. As he stabbed her, she died quicker than he expected, and collapsed into a puddle of blood. They realise that he stabbed a simulacra, which should not be filled with blood, but that Tiffany has for some time now used blood magic instead of material components for spells, and gotten better at that in the last few years. Marigold tells them about the appearance she saw in the conservatory observatory.

Marigold asks who the dead man in the room is, and Liyra tells them that he was a friend of Nea Veia. Both of them came by her house a few decades ago, but he just kind of followed her around. As Bishop hears the name Nea Veia, he checks his watch, it is 8:16 pm. He receives a *Sending* from Arenothe telling him that the job was unsuccessful and he is not getting paid, and that for some reason, Arenothe cannot get him out. After some convincing from Dion, Theo admits that he thought Edd was dead, because about thirty years ago, Tiffany gave him the body of Edd to hide in his garden, which since then has been more prolific. The body is still buried there, he checked. Lumi then casts Speak with Dead to ask him five questions: "Who killed you?" - "Tiffany". "How many times have you died?" - "So many". "What happened to Nea Veia?" - "I don't know. She and Edd left a while ago, never came back". "What are you?" - "A kind of reborn, me and my brother would bring each other back whenever we die". "Why did Tiffany kill you?" - "I don't know, I was just looking for my brother".

They leave the ballroom again, Marigold, Bishop, and Theo towards the library, Dion, Ki Lon, and Lumi towards the study, and Thalia towards the game room, while Thorgash and Sharon stay, with Montenegro watching them. Bishop and Theo get into a short argument about who gets to tell Maximum what to do, before Marigold stops them, and they all realise Maximum has ran off. Luminessa asks Dion to help her get the catnip, and he agrees.

### Episode 5

In the study, Ki Lon shows Dion and Luminessa Tiffany's record books. They show that she made various purchases of magical components over the years, always in quantities that on their own are not suspicious, but combined from various sellers, their amounts are concerningly high. Apparently he was hording them for one big project. Ki Lon also informs them that at the moment, he cannot travel through the planes anymore. They decide to find Liyra and ask her about her arcane knowledge. On the way, Lumi peeks through the door into the library to watch Bishop and Marigold.

The two of them, in the meantime, went in the library, where Marigold starts looking through books, while Bishop looks outside, seeing thick vines pressed against the window, as if the earth itself had started to grow over the mansion. Marigold, still distressed by him being there, demands to know what happened, and why they meet in the mansion again, of all places. She tells him that when she received the invitation, she had hoped to be able to find some explanations in the wizard tower as to why her town and ranch are being swallowed by darkness, and why her owlbears are dying. He tells her that it's lost, and she is upset about having brought Pork and Beans into the situation, and that he wins: She cannot fix this. He immediately tries to console her, careful not to overstep her boundaries, and tells her that he never wanted to win. If she thinks Tiffany knows more, he is willing to help her, and then vanish so that she never has to see him again. When she asks him whether he hates her so much, he tells her No, and she breaks into tears. Marigold tells him that she never wanted him to leave, and he says that if he were to come back, he could never leave again. Showing him her wedding ring on a necklace, she says that that was the deal they made, but that she doesn't want to hold him hostage. They agree to try and fix the ranch, but that they are going to try and make their relationship better than what it was.

Calmed down, Marigold continues her research, noticing a mention of the Loom of Lives, while Bishop notices Lumi and quietly leaves to confront her. Luminessa tells him that there is always a second chance, and that he should talk to Dion for relationship advice. Bishop in turn tells her about the colour puzzle in the basement.

In the meantime, Theo is looking for Maximum, and finds him looking through Tiffany's diary. Reading it, Theo finds that her most recent entry says that this was her last and only chance to make up for what she has done, but no further details. He expressed worry for Nea Veia, and Theo realises that the ghost actually looked a lot like Nea Veia, from what details he could make out. Also, mentioned in there is the Loom of Lives, which Tiffany believes to be able to fundamentally change the understanding of magic, time, and space. Theo remembers a broken loom in the game room, and they decide to go there.

Montenegro spies on Thorgash and Sharon talking in the ballroom. Both of them are concerned about the fact that they cannot communicate with the outside world anymore, including deities.

Dion and Lumi find Liyra in the dining room and ask her some questions about herself, Tiffany, and what is going on. She does not know much, as Tiffany and she decided that it would be best for her to be ignorant of information she does not want to be liable for, after she has betrayed Tiffany's trust before. But whatever is going on with the fabric of magic, all its knots and tears are centred on the mansion. Lumi takes Dion aside and tells them that she knows Tiffany had a pact with the Raven Queen. She fears that he might have dabbled in the "wrong" kind of magic, and got punished by her for that. Dion tells her about the feather he found, and they decide to talk to Sharon next, who has a dark and raven-like aura. Marigold and Bishop decide the same, as Marigold tells him that Sharon knew exactly what kind of book to give to her.

Theo and Maximum find the broken loom in the game room. It visibly is a magic item, and as Theo touches it, it tries to weave itself, but the thread snaps and starts tangling into itself. The fabric at the bottom of the loom starts fairly organised, but then becomes muzzled and frayed as well. Next to the loom is a basket containing six clearly labelled spools: mustard, green, scarlett, orchid, plum, and peacock. While looking at the loom, Theo gains a fundamental understanding that the fabric consists of separate strings, and of the interplay between the one and the whole.

### Episode 6

Theo and Maximum show the others their findings and the loom. Using the occasion of everyone being assembled, Dion asks Sharon whether she is the Raven Queen, but she refuses to answer. Marigold asks how she knew what book to give her, and Sharon just says that she read her mind. Lumi introduces Sharon and Tippy to analyse Tippy's reaction, but Tippy just nuzzles into her hand and purrs as she pets him.

With his background in textiles and arcana, Dion investigates the loom. The pattern of the fabric is too random to be a standard pattern, but also not random enough to not have a meaning, it looks similar to a temperature blanket. Even in the parts that are basically perfect, there are a few knots, but at some point apparently someone who was less skilled than the person that started the weave took over, and shortly after that everything gets frayed and tangled. They conclude that Tiffany might have stolen it from a skilled weaver, potentially Nea Veia. Theodrink adds that the ghost looks kind of similar to Nea Veia. Bishop, however, says that Nea Veia is definitely alive and in the building, and when questioned admits that he was hired to kill her. He also tells them that he was contacted by Arenothe, even after the lights went out, which surprises Thorgash and Sharon, who were struggling to contact people outside. Thorgash also adds that Tiffany stole something from the local shrine of the Raven Queen.

As a test, Bishop sends another message to Arenothe, claiming that he had seen Nea Veia. Arenothe responds, telling him to not kill her, but bring her alive. Dion, in turn, tries to contact their husband, but gets no response, which makes them a bit uneasy. Theo then asks the people who of them is Arenothe, and Dion takes out his Pipe of J'accuse to cast *Zone of Truth* again, but everyone claims not to be Arenothe. The party and Maximum, Liyra, and Ki Lon go into the basement, followed by Sharon a bit further back. Marigold leaves her owlbears with Thorgash.

In the basement, they open the wall together, and see a room full of glyphs, with furniture and papers thrown against the back wall as if hit by a strong gust of wind. On the back wall, there is another door with a panel next to it. The glyphs are written on 18 inch by 18 inch tiles, and are spells waiting to go off if someone steps on a wrong tile. Dion remembers the "ancient scripture" (the Peter Panda Dance from the movie "The Pacifier"), guiding them from the indent in the floor through the room. However, as they all try to go through together in a line, everyone except for Ki Lon and Luminessa, who lead the group, are hit by glyphs going off. The floor erupts vertically below them, throwing them against the ceiling and back down again. Maximum falls unconscious, Theodrink dies, as he still had not healed from his prior injuries. Bishop and Marigold grab them and jump back out of the room again. Bishop heals Maximum, and they run up to get to Thorgash, grabbing Sharon on their way to come with them. Thorgash has no diamonds, so he cannot cast *Revivify*, but Sharon first makes Theo's dying process stop, then offers Bishop and Marigold that she will bring him back in exchange for a favour from each of them. Before Bishop can make a deal that it would be two from him and none from Mary, Marigold already shakes hands with Sharon, so he does so as well.

Theo, in the meantime, is in a place between life and death, and sees the porcellain mask of the Raven Queen, but before she comes into vision, the environment around him changes, and Sharon is there, asking him whether he wants to come back. He does, and so, back in Tiffany's mansion, Theo opens his eyes with a gasp. He apologises to Marigold and Bishop, and thanks them, and decides to stay up with Maximum while they go down again. There, Ki Lon also decided to go back out of the glyph room, while Lumi and Dion continue to the back door together. They manage to get their, and Lumi, being able to read the glyphs, first resets the room, and then opens the door so that everyone can step through.

In the next room, they see Tiffany in a slouched stance, gashes in her chest that are not filled with blood or flesh, but darkness. He is held like a puppet by bright and thin strings going through the room, going through his chest and through the invisible sphere holding black smoke and, in the middle, an Elven woman with navy blue hair, that looks a lot like Nea Veia, and just says "Help".

### Episode 7

Before the episode starts, Sedona receives DM inspiration in the form of being allowed to have anyone aside from herself roll a 10 at any point. Gus gets to spread two points of DM inspiration over the party, and chooses Marigold and Bishop. Barnaby gets the chance to roll a d8 to add to anything, including damage. Then, the episode begins.

Seeing the scene in front of her, Lumi asks Tippy for strength and then immediately casts *Finger of Death* on Tiffany. Even with Sedona using the 10 as Tiffany's save, he saves through his high bonus, but Haley rolls her Chaos Dice and gets a 20, so the spell gets through and even passes Tiffany's resistance to necrotic damage. Thus, Tiffany dies immediately, and is turned into a zombie under Lumi's control. Carefully, Lumi approaches Nea Veia, one of her best friends, who is still suspended in the air, black smoke around her. As she reaches out to her, Nea Veia's hand goes for Luminessa's throat, her eyes pitch black, and Initiative starts.

Liyra is angry about what Lumi did and attacks the zombie Tiffany, while everyone else tries to defend Luminessa, who, in turn, tries to plead with Nea Veia to recognise her. Nea Veia unhinges her jaw, and a disembodied voice says that "everything will end", as the darkness presses in further. It reeks up into the ground floor, where Theo sits with a still sleeping Maximum. He decides not to try and do anything, but to stay at Maximum's side, and realises that he can see through the magical darkness, when during the power outage he couldn't.

Down in the basement, the rest of the party tries to free Nea Veia from the strings around her, but she is incredibly powerful, and they start retreating, badly injured. Barnaby, using a Chaos Dice, wishes for Nea Veia to be freed from her pain and sorrow, and rolls a 20. As Lumi helplessly watches this person she loves being consumed by darkness and hurting her friends, she suddenly hears her say "I'll be okay". Beside herself with grief, she attacks Nea Veia, until descending down the stairs comes Sharon. The glowing threat that surrounded everyone, passing through them harmlessly with nothing but a little tingly feeling, gathers around her in a different way, and the darkness changes its presence from a humid pressure to a quiet desert. Sharon steps towards Nea Veia and gently caresses the back of her head as the smoke coils around them, being absorbed into her. Then, Nea Veia rests in Sharons arms, dead, and she lays her to the ground and furrows her brow.

As the room lightens around Theo as well, he wakes Maximum, who is fascinated by the slowly disappearing strings around them, saying that they look like the loom. They hear a crying and follow the sound towards Tiffany's private quarters, where Liyra cries next to the zombie Tiffany. Theo expresses his condolences and gives her Tiffany's diary, in case she wants to read it. When asked, he says that he would probably not continue working for him even if he was still alive, as he realised that he was little more than an extension of Tiffany for the last few years, and lost some good time to that. She then asks about his relationship with his children, and he finds out that she is pregnant with Tiffany's child. However, Tiffany did not want to be a parent, and Liyra says that because of this, his soul will stay where it is, in a gem on a volcano. She then composes herself again to conduct the summoning, which has to happen during the meeting, and she is the only one left able to do it. Theo helps her with the preparations.

In the basement, Dion again asks Sharon for her name, and she says "You already have it. You just have a little bit more than you need." Then, he receives a message back from his husband Chance, and has a short conversation with him. They also see that Sharon has received a message back as well, but seems to regret now to ever have contacted the person she reached out to. Lumi carries Nea Veia into the ballroom, and everyone follows. There, she tries to conduct a ritual to bring her back, but although Tippy tries to help her, there is no soul to reach out to. The only thing they hear is the crying of a baby, somewhere. Luminessa decides to use her map as soon as possible to find her way back to Nea Veia.

Liyra conducts the summoning, which is the summoning of a heavy tome containing the bylaws of the guild. She asks if anyone has any amendments to propose, and unsummons the tome again when all proposals are made. Since they survived the night, Bishop and Marigold are officially members of the necromancer's guild now as well. Then, they hear an unknown voice say "oh my darling sister", and in storms a woman that hugs Sharon, telling her that she is glad she is safe and fulfilled her contract, and that the matron is so happy. Sharon looks deeply unpleased with this, and after her sister teleports away again admits that she was contractually obliged to make sure the universe would not be destroyed.

Before they leave, Dion offers Theo a new job at their ranch, and Theo takes it. Bishop also agrees to meet again with Theo and Maximum, and everyone agrees to join Bishop and Marigold at their owlbear ranch to help them close the rifts of darkness. Lumi first has to look after Nea Veia, and the others offer to help her with that, too, so that she doesn't have to go through it alone. Then, everyone except for Theo, who is looking forward to go back to his family, leaves to spend the night at Thorgash's moms' house, where they are greeted with open arms. As the night ends, a raven lands on Marigold's windowsill, looks at her, and sheds a single feather, before it flies away.

## Trivia

* This is the first arc in which there is a guest DM DMing the arc instead of Gus or Haley
* This is the first arc in which Haley and Gus are both player characters
* This is the first arc set in Malum.
* The name of the arc is inspired by the movie "Knives Out".
* In episode 0, Madison challenges Gus and Amelia to get the names of all of Theo's children into the arc somehow. They did not succeed, but got close.