• We are in the Land of Sin and Cobble
    • Kaelen is dreaming, they hear a voice
    • Its a silver gauntlet with a cup full of liquid metal, it wants Kaelen to choose
    • These are the people who killed Jørgen, they want Kaelen to use the power to save his friends
    • They protect ‘their own people’ and that protection could extend to the people Kaelen wants to protect (specifically against the undead and other attacks)
    • Kaelen takes the goblet, it smells metallic and stings his nostrils
      • Oath: Keep your eyes open
    • Kaelen awakes as an Oath of Watchers Paladin
  • We switch to Soren
    • They’re in their wolf form
    • She’s not angry??
    • They enter a clearing, they’re wandering over to a great tree
    • They lay to sleep, but suddenly they awake in Kerlan’s Crossing
    • They’re being shaken awake by a farmer, they mention bright lights (and we disappeared)
    • Soren enters Barn, confused/scared farmers are peering in
      • The trapdoor has some silver residue on the edges
    • Inside Catacombs, there’s silver dust everywhere
    • They find the imprint of the door, they start searching for Altaeum’s blood
    • In lieu of Altaeum’s blood, they smear their own blood on the door
      • It kinda reacts? It starts to bubble. It seems to lack some kind of source?
  • Back in the Land of Sin and Cobble
    • Kaelen vomits up a silvery liquid, but it still feels to be a part of Kaelen
    • Puke bending: they start shaping the liquid
    • Kaelen tries to lay on hands Altaeum, their skin feels flakey and dry and it feels like they’re being pulled in and consumed
      • An entire layer of skin is gone
      • They try Cure Wounds, but it does poorly and they take damage instead
    • Evelyne kills the thing
    • Altaeum is suddenly in a room full of black sand
      • They hear crashing water in the distance
      • There might be a horizon? The sky isn’t perfectly pitch black but the water is
      • Altaeum’s hands are like when they were a child
      • They feel like they’re being pulled toward the water
      • Older man, long, white beard, black sackcloth, hastily dyed
      • They stand at the precipice
      • Altaeum asks for their name; they are talking to “Magus
      • This is a place Altaeum shouldn’t come to often
      • Altaeum asks to be sent back, Magus hopes when theyre back theyll be ready to finish their journey
    • Altaeum awakens and sees an enemy!!! (Kaelen is wielding a silvery weapon!!)
      • They awaken the second the enemy gets killed??
      • They rise and speak in a strained, echo-ey voice
      • Kaelen heals Evelyne for 40 hp with Lay on Hands
      • Altaeum walks toward Evelyne stilted-ly
      • Altaeum and Kaelen talk, Altaeum is staring straight at Kaelen
      • Kaelen grabs the gem that the creature dropped on death
        • It looks like its eye???
    • Altaeum opens up The Black Door
      • It opens into a room covered in silver dust
        • Kaelen tries to gather the silver dust, they only get a little bit
      • There’s pools of blood (Soren’s)
      • They exit the catacombs, the peasants get scared by Bertrada
      • There are festivities going on
        • Kaelen watches from the corner (he might be a pervert)
  • Lysander is talking about some stuff as the Abbey of St. Beltramus finishes up last prayers
    • Kaelen heads up to the abbey, at the end they see Lysander
    • They head into a storage room to talk privately
    • Some believe that St. Beltramus and The Red Swordsman are similar
    • There’s a room where they store wine and blood,
    • Kaelen asks about the founding of The Host of Saints
      • It emerged before The Empire truly fell
      • the Lightbringer was the first to bring the religion, him and his saints became the first saints
        • The Lightbringer was the first saint but nobody knows his name
        • He teaches much about the world, but not about himself
      • Later saints joined, eventually St. Beltramus joined the host
      • There is a tale of St. Beltramus where he rescued a whole village from the undead and slew 40 undead
        • Blood Hunters follow in St. Beltramus’s footsteps, they copy him, they don’t get their powers from him
        • Normal clerics do get powers from their saints (or so its believed)
      • Abbey of St. Beltramus has a secret basement for just the abbot
        • Usually they’re in an elevated place, but this one is in a basement???
    • Kaelen leaves Lysander and heads towards the room of blood and wine
      • The blood is every so slightly magical (evocation)
      • Somebody comes down, somebody Kaelen knew who was young when they were here
      • The blood smells like wine?? The blood also has a sweet smell.
    • Kaelen leaves the basement and back to Kerlan’s Crossing
  • Bertrada finds a standing stone at the edge of Kerlan’s Crossing
    • Its carved in the image of some sort of minor Ost travel gods (Aundros)
    • They can see in the woods another one, and then a third one further in the woods
    • Kaelen seems the party in the forest observing these weird standing stones
      • They’ve always been here, Kaelen never followed them because its dangerous to follow them into the forest
    • They are leading vaguely north so we start following them, night falls
      • We leave our horses in Kerlan’s Crossing and follow the stones
      • We follow 8-9, they’re all statues of Aundros
      • Soren leaves their shoes at one of the statues, Kaelen gives them a spare pair they have
    • Each statue faces the next one, we’re kind of heading toward a tribe that lives north of Kerlan’s Crossing
    • We take a rest beneath one of the statues
      • Soren wakes up and their sleeping bag is full of cream tarts!!!
    • We wake and continue following the standing stones, there are hundreds of them
      • Some of them are very simple and basic, some of them are more complicated
    • We notice that on our journey, Altaeum is different
      • He doesn’t eat, his eyes are getting strange
        • His pupil is beginning to divide??? Its hard to tell
      • Altaeum’s skin doesnt look properly attached
    • Whenever Kaelen is awake, he’s always watching Altaeum in the back of his mind
    • The statues have gotten bigger and more detailed as we approach civilization
      • We notice the things around an ost camp, rogue traps
      • We get spotted by a war path, we push ahead into the camp and see some simple tents and signs of civilization
      • In the center of the clearing are large pikes with people stuck onto them
        • Thorns are growing on these people
        • They look like they’ve been sucked dry (there are Crimroses around)
        • Garag usually brings Crimroses to villages