The Guildmaster (episode)

"The Guildmaster" is episode 75 of SuperQuest Saga. *Victory's Ascent* lies amongst a vast crystal forest...

## Synopsis

### Introduction

* William Stark shall be your transcendental dungeon master for this evening.
* Josh Freeland is playing Sebastian Crenshaw, half-orc paladin.
* Your Special Guest Jake is playing Persephone Goldpetal the firbolg druid.
* Brian is here for one of the last times to tell you he is a space wizard and a rogue.

### Recap

Sebastian and Primina went Super Saiyan to become as a god and open a wormhole. The Emperor arrived with his big, super dope, ridiculous ship and the party fled inside the wormhole where they found a silvery-white conveyor to another realm. The Emperor was not held off by their allies very long (R.I.P. Lightsong, Brightwind, and Verm), and a battle of epic proportions ensued with lots of lasers, lots of teleports, and lots of dragon breath. *Victory’s Ascent* managed to take down *The Larethian Grove* but unfortunately *The Larethian Grove* was a sore loser and took everything else down as well when it crashed. The party went tumbling into the unknown through the energy walls of the wormhole and crashed down on a mysterious surface. *Victory’s Ascent* is thoroughly thrashed, an old tube tv hit Percy on the head, and Echo and Sebastian looked outside to find they are in a forest of extraordinarily tall crystal trees.

### I'm Buff Now!

Echo takes his Jhank out. He, Sebastian, and Primina can’t see further than 30-ft into the trees. Echo suggests that he can send Jhank out and look through his eyes while Sebastian carries his body and looks a different way. “Oh, so you want me to do all the hard work and walk around with you?” Seb asks. Echo explains he didn’t mean it like that, and Prim agrees that it is a good way to split up without actually having to split up. Primina offers to carry Echo since she is buff now. Sebastian shakes his head as Echo maintains eye contact with him while climbing up on Primina’s shoulders.

Sebastian looks around to pick a direction; in the sky he does not see any celestial bodies, but he does see a prismatic array of orange and red above that fades to dark blue and purple on the horizon in all directions. There’s no way to distinguish different directions by looking at the sky. He cautions the group that they need to be careful about which way they go so they don’t get lost. Sebastian decides to head in the direction that the nose of *Victory’s Ascent* is pointing, and Echo sends Jhank off in the direction of the tail.

On both sides the forest is completely and utterly devoid of animal life. It is eerily silent, there is no wind, and even if there was wind the trees are made of crystal so who knows what sound it would make. There are no tracks and the ground appears to be made of a crystal-like material.

Echo sends Jhank up in the air 100-ft to see over the top of the trees and sees the forest seems to stretch infinitely in all directions. There is no indication on the horizon of anything other than more forest. They decide to head back to *Victory’s Ascent* to see if Watt can get it working again. Sebastian stays outside to maintain a safe perimeter around the ship, Echo leaves Jhank with him.

While Persephone has been inside resting, she’s heard Watt trying all kinds of different things to fix the ship and cursing up a storm. Percy asks if she can do anything to help, but he tells her to take her rest so she supervises from the table. Prim and Echo enter and find Watt under one of the consoles. Echo asks what he’s doing and Watt reports that it will take some time to get a full picture of *Victory’s Ascent’s* status. “As of right now she’s not turning on, so I’m going to say somewhere between ‘in need of repair’ and ‘absolutely devastated.’”

Echo asks if they can do anything to help and Watt doesn’t think they have time. The party should be trying to pursue the Emperor and stopping his plan. Since the party survived falling through the walls of the wormhole, there is a possibility that the Emperor made it through as well. Echo tells Watt that there wasn’t anything out there. “We walked around outside and looked around a whole bunch, and there’s nothing out there, Watt. It seems unwise to walk into the unknown, ever stretching crystal forest.” Watt responds, “Your point, it stands; but at the same time, is not every step we’re going to take moving forward going to be into the unknown?” Echo thought that if they all helped fix the ship they could gain faster ground by having faster transport. Watt thinks that repairs could take weeks, or at least several hours if they’re lucky, but that’s not looking possible at this point.

### Why Is It Always Doors?

Echo suggests that they take a few hours to reassess, rest, and then send out a search party. Percy asks if they saw any trace of the Emperor’s ship outside, and Echo tells her that there was nothing. Percy suggests Echo may be able to take *The Starling* out on a recon flight. The ship has no power so they’d need to open the bay manually and will need Seb’s help. Echo’s eyes roll back into his head as he takes over his familiar. Jhank starts pulling Sebastian back towards the ship and Sebastian follows.

Percy and Sebastian try to haul open the big door on the ceiling of the docking port; they manage to get it started but the door gets stuck. Echo helps Percy this time as they try to unstick the door. At this point it becomes clear that they’ll be able to eventually open the door, but it’ll take over an hour of wriggling it open. Echo casts Enlarge on Sebastian to make him bigger, and Primina jumps in to help as well as they make another attempt to force the door open. The door is soundly stuck. Persephone asks if Primina can turn into a dragon to fly and do some reconnaissance. Echo forgot she could turn into a dragon and asks if she can help get the door open. Prim heads outside and the party hears the sound of her dragon claws gripping the doors, but the doors remain stuck. Echo casts Bigby’s Hand to try to break the door, and at this point it becomes clear that it’s not a matter of strength, but the advanced locking system that keeps the bay secure as it travels faster-than-light in space.

Percy suggests that Sebastian and Echo can fly on Primina’s back as they scout the area. Echo flies on Bigby’s hand until the spell ends and then rides on Primina as well. Percy stays behind to help Watt with repairs. There are tears along the wings, motors that have been jostled so much they’re completely disconnected, the A-Reactor is all kinds of torn up, now the door needs to be closed, all the tv’s are broken. It’s a “go save the world, then come back and help repair the ship” situation. Percy knows that she’s the least technologically inclined one of the group and notes that maybe it would have been better for someone else to stay behind. “Honestly, it’s better to have a shoulder to cry on at this moment than actual help, because this is going to take weeks.” Watt tells her.

### Amber Is the Color of Your Energy

Prim with Echo and Sebastian fly above the treeline in the direction the ship’s nose points. The crystal forest extends as far as the eye can see in all directions. There is no sign of any other crash site to be found. Echo gets massive magical signatures off of the forest, off of the ground itself; it’s as if everything here is charged with a type of energy. It reminds him of the feeling when he’s holding Aetherium in his hand. The energy is not flowing or moving, it just exists.

Persephone heads outside of the ship and tries to Speak with Plants. There is no response; the trees were once living but have since been transmogrified or petrified into some non-living form. Percy puts her hand on one of the trees and closes her eyes, gently humming the Song of Stones to try to connect with the forest. Her Song reverberates around her as if the crystal is vibrating in tune with her, and she tries to get a sense of where they should go. The forest doesn’t have the capability to speak, but she senses two things. One is that the forest is protecting something, and the other is that the forest has an extraordinarily minimal level of sentience. The forest appears to be barring passage. Percy tries to relay through her song that she has Prim and Sebastian, bearers of the Nine Bloodlines, with her. The limited sentience of the forest is at such a low level that complex thoughts like that don’t translate. It’s as if this forest is programmed to bar entry unless it receives the correct input.

After around ten minutes of flying and nothing changing, Sebastian suggests they turn back. Echo asks if he can feel the energy from the forest. Sebastian uses a Divine Sense and feels a strong sense of divinity. Echo casts Detect Magic and everything around him starts to glow with an aura of divine magic. They decide to head back to Victory’s Ascent to reconvene with the rest of the group.

While Watt works on the ship, Echo, Persephone, Primina, and Sebastian meet up in the clearing. Percy shares what she learned from her song, that the forest couldn’t communicate with her but it seems to be protecting something. They need some sort of key to get through, but she’s not entirely sure what that is. It could be Prim and Sebastian though. Prim is game to try, and she and Sebastian reach out to touch a tree together. Nothing happens. Sebastian speaks his Oath; there’s a rush of power as his armor glows, but nothing else happens. Echo shows that his armor can do a cool thing as well and switches to his dragon armor while casting Prestidigitation to cause a subtle glow around him. It looks super cool.

### Did We Lose Echo?

Sebastian examines some of the trees that broke when *Victory’s Ascent* crash landed. The pieces appear to be solid crystal through and through. The crystals remind Persephone of the crystal that encased Prim when they did the healing ritual after retrieving the Waters of Thalassia. She gets a sense that the crystal is the physical representation of the spirits of the trees in the area; this place was physically killed, but something happened to cause its spirit to coalesce into the crystal form. Echo tries sneaking past the trees and makes his way 10-ft into the treeline. Nothing happens.

“Hey, I’m gonna try something. I’m gonna try something out. You guys hang out. I’m in the trees.” Echo tells the rest of the group. He walks out into the forest and doesn’t return. Percy tries to reach out via the comms on their bracer jacks to tell him that she’s going to try the Song of Remembrance, but only hears white noise from the other end. Sebastian, Percy, and Primina wait around a few more minutes to see if he returns before deciding to follow him into the trees. Sebastian spots some residue from Echo’s boots that they follow 60-ft in before the trail disappears.

Persephone calls out, “Echo? Are you there?” Her voice eerily reverberates off the trees around her and when she turns to look at her friends, she and Sebastian both realize that Prim is gone. Persephone and Sebastian look around; Percy finds that Prim’s trail disappeared somewhere between where they entered the woods and the last traces of Echo’s trail. When she turns to tell Sebastian, he has disappeared as well.

### Codename: Labyrinth

Echo continues heading stealthily into the woods. He detects the scent of something burning, and through the trees ahead he sees the glow of a fire. Echo approaches stealthily to find a clearing and is extraordinarily shocked to find a very familiar ship; one similar in both size and appearance to T*he Starling*. He knows this ship, *The Skylark*. The cockpit has broken open from the ship’s apparent impact with the ground, and inside is a young, dark-haired, elven woman. Blood covers her face, but Echo recognizes her; her name is Hellea and she is his former partner in crime. Echo saw her ship decimated in front of him, she took a hit intended for him, and yet, here she is.

Echo isn’t sure what’s going on here so he tries to discern if it is a trick or illusion. If this is some sort of illusion, he’s not detecting anything, and it’s difficult for him not to believe what he sees and hears in front of him. He casts Detect Magic and again finds that everything is imbued with this divine magic. Echo slowly breaks the treeline and makes himself visible. He intentionally makes some noise and says “Hello.”

Hellea’s eyes open, and when they do, Echo sees that they appear to be grotesquely opaque. Blood drenches half of her face. She speaks in a rasp.

“Where were you? You were supposed to protect me, but I am dead. Burned alive… and you walk free. Do you think I haven’t seen you? Laughing with them… pretending as if you can be trusted… as if you won’t fail them, like you did me?”

At this point in Echo’s journey, he knows that’s some bullshit that he’s not trying to hear. “Who are you?” he questions. He doesn’t believe this is Hellea, this is some sort of ruse.

“I was your partner. You made the call, Arcadion. You were in charge, my death is on your hands… But you don’t have to feel guilt anymore. You can join me. Join me, in eternal sleep. They don’t have to know that you’ll fail them… betray them. You don’t have to live with the gnawing pain anymore. Join me… Join me! You don’t deserve to be alive… Join me!”

“I will join you… one day. And if I fail them, then it will be one day soon. But if I fail them, then I will die trying. I hope this isn’t truly you. I hoped that your final rest would be peaceful… is there any way I can help you move on?”

Hellea closes her mouth and the fire around *The Skylark* begins to blaze higher and higher, until she is engulfed in the flames. Soon the entire scene is burned away and there is nothing left but black marks upon the crystal ground.

Echo sends Jhank up in the air to look for the ship.

### Wrinna

Persephone looks up and sees that she is alone in the crystal forest. She calls out to everyone and her voice echoes, but no one answers. Behind her, she hears a familiar female voice. “Persephone?” Percy turns around to see a tall firbolg woman in a simple cotton dress. She remembers this woman as her biological mother. Persephone notices that the forest around her is no longer the crystal forest, but the woods of her childhood.

“Persephone, is that you?” Tears well up in her mother’s eyes. “Have you finally come home?” Wrinna rushes forwards and embraces Persephone in a deep, loving hug. “My baby… my baby girl, I’m so sorry. You’ve come home! You’ve finally come home.” Behind her mother, Persephone sees the silhouettes of stone buildings, the village she was born in. Wrinna pulls Percy’s arm and says, “Please, come. Tell me everything!”

Percy casts Detect Magic; everything is permeated with divine magic. She is very skeptical. When Wrinna hugs her, Percy does not hug her back. She asks, “What are you doing here?” Wrinna responds, “What do you mean? This is where we’ve always been. We never leave The Wood.”  Percy tells her, “I mean, I’ve been… I’ve been all over the universe in fact, recently. You should know that that’s not true.” Wrinna looks perplexed. “Persephone, I want to hear about all your adventures. I’m so glad you’re home. Please, come inside, we’ll have dinner. You never have to leave again… not unless you want to.”

Persephone looks around and recognizes that this is her home forest. She stops and says, “I need to get back to my friends. To my family.” Wrinna begins to openly cry. “Please! Please don’t leave me again. I don’t think I could bear it. Please come home!” Persephone says, “I want to go home.” and turn around to exit this place. Wrinna falls to her knees, begging Percy to stay. Persephone cries as she leaves her mother behind.

Out of sight of her mother, Percy finds herself in a grove: the same grove she saw the White Stag when she was young. She hears a whistle of wind from the west, a babbling brook to the north, and an eerie cooing of mourning doves from the south. Percy follows her memories and heads to the north. She finds a spectral version of the White Stag and it kneels for her to ride it. Persephone recognizes that this is all fake; that something is playing off her memories trying to trick her. She keeps resolutely walking past, crying as she says “I just want to go back. I want to find them.”

### Primina

Sebastian finds himself alone in the forest. He scans the area and calls out. “Hello? Anybody there? Where’d everybody go?” He slowly continues forward, but finds nothing. He uses a Divine Sense and hears the sound of footsteps. “Who’s there? Hello?” He looks around to see who is coming. “Sebastian, is that you?” Primina’s voice calls. She steps out from the woods and asks where he went. “I don’t know. Everybody just disappeared… I was just walking, I don’t know what happened.” He tells her. Primina says the same thing happened to her. Seb asks if she’s seen Echo or Percy, but Prim hasn’t seen anyone else. Sebastian asks if they should go back to the ship; maybe the rest of the group went there, if they weren’t taken by something. Primina tells him they can go back, or they can stay out and look, whatever Sebastian wants to do. He wants to look around a little longer before heading back; he doesn’t think they would just leave without telling him.

Sebastian and Primina look around and call for their friends for ten to fifteen minutes, but find no sign of them. Seb asks if Prim is ready to go back to the ship and notices she seems pretty stressed out when she responds. “Yeah… Yeah, I guess so.” Sebastian tries the intercom on his bracer jack one more time, but none of his friends respond. They head back in the direction of the ship. After twenty or so minutes, Seb gets a sinking feeling as he realizes they should have reached their destination by now. “Damn it. I think we might be lost. I was worried about that; no stars in the sky to guide us, no way to navigate these trees. Everything looks the same! I don’t know if we’re going around in circles or what. I don’t know, I can’t sense anything. Prim, do you want to jump up in the sky, fly up there and see if we can see anything?” Sebastian suggests.

Prim’s mood seems rather dark but she thinks that’s a good idea. She transforms and flies up into the air, soaring around. After around ten minutes she returns and transforms back into her humanoid form. “I can’t… I can’t see anything anywhere.” She reports. Seb says, “Damn it. I don’t even know where to go. I don’t know if we should… Are we going in circles? I mean, you should have been able to see the ship from up there.” They both think something is wrong and weird here. Primina suggests they should either pick a direction to travel or just stay put. Sebastian thinks they should stay put and see what they can hear for now.

They bunker down for hours, without sound or sign of anything. The sky eventually starts to darken as night appears to fall. The eerie silence of the woods looms around Sebastian and Primina very ominously. Sebastian is concerned. “I don’t know what we should do at this point. If we keep moving, it just seems like you would have seen something when you were up in the sky like the general direction of where the ship was at. I’m pretty sure we’ve been going in the right direction, but something about these trees, something about this land… I don’t know. There’s just something not right. I don’t know what else to do. Do you feel anything, Prim?”

Primina is looking down at the ground and she begins to shake; she’s crying silently.

“Prim? Prim, are you okay?”
“Sebastian. I… I can’t do this.”
“What? What can’t you do?”
“This. All of this! How are we supposed to save the galaxy, stop the Emperor, seal away this unnamable darkness?! It’s all too much, I’m just one person. And we’re lost in this woods without ends. And… and even if we do, we’ll all probably die in sacrifice. I don’t want you to die for me. I don’t want to die. I like being alive.”
“Prim, we’re all in this together. I swore an oath to you, I’m going to protect you until my last breath.”
“And what if you can’t? I’m just supposed to do it anyway, huh? Sacrifice myself for everyone else. I didn’t ask for this! I didn’t ask to be made. And what do I care about everyone else? Everyone who isn’t you guys has tried to hunt, kill, imprison, or use me. Maybe this universe isn’t worth saving. I’m not going Sebastian, the universe doesn’t deserve it. I’m tired of living in fear and stressing over responsibility that I never asked for.”
“Prim, we’re all in this together, like I said. I didn’t ask for this either; I came into this world thousands and thousands of light-years–”
“Well then you can go!”
“We go together.”
“Or you can stay with me. Together, with the power of the Old Gods, we can carve out our own safe haven. You said you would protect me, right? You took an oath, remember?”
“I did…”
“Or would you abandon your oath? Just because I won’t sacrifice myself like you want. Go then, leave me here! Go protect your precious reality. Come back if you remember your oath to me.” Primina stands and begins to walk away.
“Prim! Prim, wait! We do this together, you come with me. We gotta keep looking for the others, what are you going to do?”

She wanders into the darkness.

“Prim!”

Sebastian realizes something is up. They have known Primina for a long time now and this is not like her at all. She may have these feelings bottled up, but something is off. Sebastian starts to follow her.

“Prim… no! We need to stay together! I understand your concerns. I understand that this is a lot of weight on your shoulders, but I want to let you know that I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure we get through this together. What do you have left if you abandon your family? We’re all that’s left of each other. We must stick together”

She does not respond and Sebastian does not see her. He continues to follow her, calling after her. Every once in a while he catches a silhouette ahead that could be Primina moving in the trees. He calls for her, telling her to wait or stop, and that they need to stick together as a group. Everyone loves her. It begins to grow darker in the woods; Sebastian finds it harder and harder to see. He calls for Prim and tells her to go back to Watt at the ship. He’s going to go find the others since it’s getting dark and they do not want to be more lost in this crystal forest. There is no answer. Sebastian turns around and starts to backtrack.

### A Deep, Personal “I’m Sorry”

Jhank flies up above the treeline and sees that the forest ends very close by. The remnants of the Emperor’s ship crash landed right outside the forest in devastating fashion. Echo recalls Jhank and sneaks over in the direction of the crashed vessel. As he reaches the edge of the woods, he sees Primina with her back to him, viewing the crash site of *The Lorethian Grove*. Echo sends Jhank over; Jhank crawls up the tree Primina is hiding behind and taps her gently. Primina screams before recognizing Jhank.

“I think it’s okay, I’ve been looking for the last ten minutes and it doesn’t look like anyone is down there.” She looks around for Echo. “Where are you?”

Echo joins her and Prim gives him a big hug. She was hoping the rest of them would find this place too; she walked out of the forest almost an hour ago. Echo squints at her and puts out his hand; Primina grabs it and they do the secret handshake. He tells her he just had to be sure, he saw some messed up stuff in the forest. She asks Echo if he is okay; he is sad but he’s worked hard to process his trauma and grief, so he will be okay.

They hear something moving recklessly through the forest behind them. Echo and Primina hide out of sight. A crying Persephone comes stomping through the trees. Echo throws Jhank at Percy; she doesn’t notice him until he lands on her. “Oh. Hi, Jhank.” Jhank points in the direction of Echo and Prim. Echo shoots some sparks out of his fingers using Prestidigitation. Primina moves to hug Percy but Echo stops her before she can.

He squints at Persephone and puts out his hand. Primina is confused why he keeps doing that; she didn’t experience any of what they did, she was able to just walk through the forest. Percy is still crying as she does the secret handshake. Echo explains that saw someone in the forest that couldn’t be there, so he has to verify their identities. Persephone, too, saw someone that she had to walk away from. She’s glad that she found Echo and Prim but she is still shaken by the experience. Percy cries as Echo and Primina move in for a group hug.

Sebastian continues walking through the forest; he notices it starts to get lighter. He notices a group of three people in a big group hug at the edge of the forest. Seb squints and calls out to them. Echo throws Jhank at Sebastian’s face to quiet him. Sebastian asks Primina how she got there so quickly, she ran off in the other direction. Primina tells him she lost them a while back and she’s been here for over an hour. “I think all of you guys seem to have gone through some sort of hallucination? I don’t know.” Sebastian shares what he experienced with Primina in the forest, but Primina doesn’t remember any of that. Echo does the handshake with Sebastian and relates what he saw in the forest as well. They ask Percy what she saw, and Percy tells them about the encounter with her mom. She starts crying again; Sebastian gives her a hug.

Echo doesn’t think any of what they saw was real. Primina confirms that the “Primina” with Sebastian was not her. Percy suggests the forest was testing them to see if they’re worthy enough to pass; preying on their insecurities, weaknesses, and the things that are important to them. “If we hadn’t done those really good therapy sessions together, maybe we would’ve been lost in the forest forever. But… yay, healing!”

### Let’s Make Some More Dead Elves

Percy asks about the crashed ship below. Primina reports that she’s been watching the last ten minutes and there are a lot of dead elves, she hasn’t seen any movement. They venture out together as a group; there’s dozens of dead elves littering the ground along with splintered wood, glass, and machinery from the ship. Beyond the ship itself is a colossal glass bridge that arches across a great chasm. The bridge seems to stretch for miles and on the horizon is what can only be described as a crystal city shining with light. Dominating the city skyline are nine lustrous shining pillars thousands of feet tall that appear to be in a circle at the city’s heart.

They keep moving forward, keeping a wary eye out for any elven survivors or ambushes. There are no signs of life, and no sign of the God Emperor’s body. The party decides to go to the city. They travel across the bridge, which seems to be made of iridescent glass, over the chasm, walking for about an hour. The prismatic array of the sky, the iridescent glass of the bridge, the shining city in the distance, and the deadly fall below all add up to a very surreal atmosphere.

Then, a strange moment happens. The sky above suddenly darkens, almost black but not quite, and then the entire world seems to shake violently. Everyone but Primina falls prone. Just as suddenly as it began, the darkness fades and the shaking ends. Sebastian asks “What the fuck was that?” as they pick themselves back up. They decide to pick up the pace to quickly cross the bridge.

After twenty more minutes at their quick pace, a structure on the bridge becomes apparent in the distance. The bridge seems to widen up ahead to a mid-bridge plaza. They can see a fountain and a building structure in the distance, all made of iridescent glass. Before they draw any closer, a blue hologram appears before the party. It is a familiar warforged with a long, tall face and wide goggle-like ocular lenses. Echo shoots. The shots go right through the hologram. The warforged’s body is adorned with belts and pouches, a cape hangs from his back, and two floating drones hover behind him. It’s The Guildmaster.

### Well, We’re Gonna Kill Him

“Greetings and Salutations! I must say, I began to fear none of you would make an appearance and I’m relieved to see that isn’t the case. It’s been quite some time since someone defeated The Ambuscade, and The Logician for that matter. This will be good for both their egos; they were both in need of some humbling. I’ve sent this message since our meeting will likely not be the most conducive to conversation. I would like to forewarn you of our duel’s imminent arrival. You deserve as much. It is few who manage to earn my direct regard so to you I say,” he salutes and bows, “It will be a personal badge of honor to defeat you in battle. May victory go to the worthy.” The hologram disappears.

Percy is fuming. “How did he even get that here?! Like, I was never here!” Echo is incredulous as well. Sebastian asks why he is even still tracking them. “I would imagine the bounty on us is gone, what is this guy’s deal?” They decide to kill him. The group moves forward shoulder to shoulder towards the plaza. A sniper shot comes tearing at Percy, hitting her. They see the vague silhouette of Gil with a sniper rifle on the roof of the temple-like building.

### The Guildmaster

The bridge is 25-ft wide and the plaza is 100-ft by 75-ft. Persephone casts Call Lightning centered on Gil; he resists most of the lightning damage but one of his drones takes the full blast. Persephone Wild Shapes into the Raiju and moves her full movement towards Gil. The Guildmaster fires another sniper shot at her as she approaches and hits her again. Echo uses Cunning Action to dash into the plaza and take cover behind the fountain. Percy, Primina, and Sebastian see an ovular drone float out from behind the temple building. It fires a cannon and shoots a Fireball at Percy, who manages to avoid some of the damage. Sebastian moves forward and pulls out his BFG to shoot at Orion the drone; both his attacks hit the drone. Primina turns into a dragon and flies 80-ft towards The Guildmaster.

Persephone moves 40-ft forward and the Raiju’s eyes spark as she activates Call Lightning to hit Gil and his other drone, Nimrod, with another blast. Gil avoids some damage again, but Nimrod takes the full blast. Percy uses her bonus action to heal with a spell slot. The Guildmaster leaps off the roof of the temple onto the fountain that Echo is hiding behind to attack with his Aether Blades. Two out of three attacks hit Echo, and Gil looms atop the fountain. Echo activates his Bladesong and then attacks Gil with his rapier, successfully striking the robot, and follows up by casting Blade Ward to give himself extra protection. Gil looks at Echo and says, “Impressive. I don’t believe we’ve had the honor.” Echo introduces himself; “I’m Echo.” The Guildmaster does the same; “Gil.” Orion the drone turns invisible. A diamond-shaped robot floats down from the roof of the temple and hovers 10-ft in the air right behind Gil’s back. Sebastian moves 25-ft closer and aims his BFG at Gil; he’s struggling to keep up with the others and both his shots miss. Primina swoops in, landing on the opposite side of the fountain, and swipes twice with her claws and bites Gil. Nimrod the drone puts up a Shield in reaction to Prim’s first attack, defending Gil. Both of Primina’s claw attacks and her bite bounce off this shield.

Persephone moves 40-ft closer to The Guildmaster, her tail perks up and with a flick she moves her Call Lightning to focus on Nimrod, striking the drone and Gil with a blast. The Guildmaster looks around and sees that he’s surrounded by three enemies. He hits a button on a device belted across his torso and Nimrod drops to the ground and an EMP pulse of electricity blasts Echo, Persephone, and Primina. Echo uses his reaction to activate Song of Defense; he spins his sword with one hand and repels most of the damage. Percy and Prim are hit by the full blast and stunned; Percy loses concentration on her Call Lightning spell. Gil is impressed that Echo slapped his electricity away with his sword. The Guildmaster leaps back onto the temple roof. Echo attacks Nimrod on the ground twice, applying Sneak Attack to the first hit, then hides behind the fountain. Orion is still invisible but another Fireball explodes above the fountain and catches Percy, Prim, and Echo. Echo avoids the worst of the blast and uses a Song of Defense to eat some of the damage, but since Percy and Prim are stunned they take the full damage amount. Nimrod wakes up and the drone begins to hover, it makes a humming noise then floats up to be near Gil. Sebastian dashes 50-ft forward to get closer to the action. Primina shakes off the stunned condition.

Persephone remains stunned. The Guildmaster jumps down onto the fountain and unleashes another EMP. Everyone but Sebastian takes full damage and is stunned. Echo is stunned and cannot do anything. Orion starts focusing fire on Sebastian and hits him with Magic Missile. Sebastian closes the distance on Gil and uses his Holy Avenger sword to attack. His first attack hits and he imbues the strike with a 3rd level Divine Smite. Gil comments that it seems Sebastian has gotten a lot stronger. Seb’s second attack also hits and he again adds a 2nd level Divine Smite to the damage. Primina lets out a mighty draconic roar and attacks. One claw attack and her bite miss, but she strikes critically with her second claw attack, bloodying The Guildmaster. Gil says, “I may have made a miscalculation” as he fends off her attacks.

Persephone is still not able to recover from the sun. Gil focuses on Prim, who is bloodied, and hits her with two out of three attacks. Echo is no longer stunned. Orion continues to focus on Sebastian and fires a glass orb filled with black ichor at him. The orb strikes Sebastian and oozes acid all over his armor. Nimrod reactivates and floats over to its place next to Gil. Sebastian lashes out and hits Gil, using a 4th level Divine Smite to increase the damage. His second attack also lands and he uses one more 4th level Divine Smite. Large parts of The Guildmaster’s armor are wrent, his cape is completely torn in half, and he’s leaking in several places. Primina attacks; her first attack misses, her second attack triggers Nimrod’s Shield and her claws bounce off, but her bite hits The Guildmaster. She shatters the Shield, backhands Nimrod out of the way, and chomps on Gil, throwing his body onto the plaza floor.

### We Gotta Respect the End Monologues

The Guildmaster’s body begins to spasm. Fluid gushes down his abdomen and legs; he’s incapable of moving much. He raises a hand and presses a button; Orion, now visible, and Nimrod float towards Gil and deactivate. “I’m… I’m done for.” He enters a passcode into a keypad on his chest. “I’m disarming the self-destruct mechanism in this body. I don’t think there’s any chance my relay signal will reach my headquarters from this place. The final death. You know, I thought I’d be more frightened but after ten thousand years I seem to be ready. I’m happy my death has come at the hands of the worthy. I haven’t much time left. You should know you are greatly outnumbered ahead. The Justice Saints are with him, along with… others. Proceed with caution.” Echo asks what he means by others. “When we arrived in this quadrant of space it was believed that there was going to need to be some sort of ritual to enter this realm. The Emperor brought with him children. I don’t know what he intended but they all survived the crash and are still with the Justice Saints and the Emperor himself.

Inside Nimrod you will find a device. I’d suggest you use it, it will rejuvenate you completely. I keep it in case my squishier companions are in need of healing…”

Sebastian walks up to him and says a warrior’s death prayer over Gil in Old Orcish.

Gil looks up at the sky as his body bleeds out. “I’ve known adventures, seen places and things that you here will never see; across the galaxy and back, planets on fire off the shoulder of the Maldar Nebula, I’ve ridden on the backs of astral dreadnoughts and watched Aether beams glitter in the dark near the Living Gate. And all those moments… they’ll be gone.” His body loses power and he’s gone.

Sebastian notes he was a worthy foe. Echo takes Gil’s head and torso to try to get his memory card later. Persephone drops her Wild Shape and cracks open Nimrod; there’s an obvious compartment that holds a drawer with a metallic, triangular, flat metal object with one button on top. “When we’re ready I’ll press this here button and hope this dude told us the truth. Let me know when you all are ready!” Echo casts Secret Chest and stores Gil’s body inside, then Percy hits the button.

The device gives off a green energy pulse and Percy feels her life force and magic returning. She places it on the ground and instructs everyone to huddle up around it. “Huddle up, guys. This is that good shit!” After five minutes, the device dies.

Suddenly there is a blinding light from the sky above from the city, and then the sky begins to crack.

## Characters

### The Party

* Sebastian Crenshaw: a half-orc paladin. Doesn't understand why Prim was so mean.
* Persephone Goldpetal: an albino firbolg druid. Running and crying but the therapy is helping.
* Codename: Echo: an elf wizard/rogue. Not interested in any toxic nonsense from ghosts.

### NPCs

* Primina: a genetically engineered young woman. The MacGuffin. Was wondering why her friends took so long in the woods.
* Watt Wainwright: an elderly gnome and engineer. He's devastated that the ship is destroyed.
* Hellea: Codename: Labyrinth. Echo's former companion and would have been his life partner if not for her untimely death.
* Wrinna: a firbolg woman. Persephone's mother.
* Fake Primina: exactly the same as Prim but meaner.
* The Guildmaster: a warforged. Leader of The Freelancers and the last of the seven bounty hunters. He's ready for rest.

## Trivia

### Out of Character

* Primina was resting at the end of the last episode but they forgot.
* Hellea was Echo’s best friend and life partner; she was killed in combat before Echo had a chance to do anything along with the rest of his close compatriots and comrades.
* The Freelancers were paid up front. It’s an honor thing. He was probably aboard the elven God Emperor’s ship.
* Gil is Will’s favorite Freelancer.

### Dice Breakdown

#### Nat 1's (3 total)

* Freeland (Strength Save)
* Freeland (BFG Attack)
* William (Claw as Primina)