The Two Balls

0:00:01 CONTENT WARNING: This episode contains a flashback scene where a player character's childhood of neglect, trauma, and physical abuse is portrayed. The scene is roughly 14 minutes long, running from approximately 5:00 minutes to 19:00 minutes. [This transcript clearly marks where the scene begins and ends.] (epic instrumental music) (wind howling) (birds chirping) (metal scraping)

0:00:34 Brennan: Welcome one and all to the penultimate episode of "A Crown of Candy." I'm your humble dungeon master Brennan Lee Mulligan. With me as always are our intrepid heroes. Say hi, intrepid heroes!

0:00:44 All: Hi, intrepid heroes!

0:00:47 Brennan: Last we left our heroes they were descending from the Mountain of the Ice Cream Temple, far in the reaches of the Great Stone Candy Mountains. Zac and Siobhan both lean on Lou to hug him.

0:00:56 Brennan: They had learned of a terrible conspiracy by the devious Lord Cruller to assemble your family's greatest villains to broker an unholy alliance of all the forces bent on the destruction of your family, your people, and your homeland. Appeasing the desire for crusade by the Pontifex Belizabeth Brassica, the desire for conquest by the Imperator Ciabatta of Ceresia and the desire for presiding over whatever the new Concord shall be from the Lady Plumbeline Uvano, Calroy Cruller, de facto ruler of Candia in the absence of its royal court and Marquis of Muffinfield announced his desire to be baptized to welcome the crusade of people coming to slaughter those remaining devotees of the Sweetening Path and destroy the holy places of Candia and welcome the conquest of Imperator Ciabatta. A meeting of these great forces to occur in neutral ground, neither in Vegetania, Fructera, nor Ceresia, but in Calroy's held and occupied Castle Candy. You all having rescued the Duke Joren Jawbreaker have provided a potential to slow the machinations of war and give Candia just enough time to save itself by recognizing Saccharina Frostwhip as queen and sovereign ruler of Candia. (soft instrumental music)

0:02:38 Brennan: Journeying to the Ice Cream Temple in the far northern mountains, you've found the Sugar-Plum Fairy, the greatest and most powerful spirit of the Sweetening Path left in Candia whose mystical ambitions had been a part of your life ever since her first meeting with Lapin Cadbury many years before. Finally reaching the Ice Cream Temple, you discovered that her offer to reunite you with those you had lost and to save Candia was an offer to journey into mist, to turn your back on the world of Calorum, to live in a sickly sweet paradise beyond dreaming and to belong to the Sugar-Plum Fairy.

0:03:34 Ally: Was this an opioid epidemic homage?

0:03:37 Brennan: This whole season is an allegory for the opioid epidemic.

0:03:40 Ally: Okay, yeah, I think, yeah, okay, okay, cool.

0:03:42 Siobhan: Wow, meaningful.

0:03:42 Ally: Wow, deep.

0:03:43 Brennan: [to the camera, shaking his head] No.

0:03:43 Zac: Oh!

0:03:44 Siobhan: Deep.

0:03:44 Ally: Deep.

0:03:49 Zac: Oh.

0:03:51 Brennan: After pitched combat in a giant chamber discovering the Armory, a secret library of lost Candian lore and the Dracoria Azucar which was heated with fire and hatched by the Queen Saccharina.

0:04:03 Ally: So cute, [points to Cinnamon’s mini] oh, cute!

0:04:07 Brennan: Ruby of the House of Rocks plunged her sister's sword into the heart of the Sugar-Plum Fairy, destroying her forever, banishing the mist and the illusions of this place and revealing a hoard of Candian weaponry. Words were shared and Saccharina descends the mountain, flanked by her loyal followers. Gooey's hand touches your back, and as you descend the mountain ahead, the rest of the Candians behind you, the wind kicks up. (wind howling) Snow flurries around you and you remember another cold night a very long time ago. CONTENT WARNING STARTS HERE

0:05:01 Brennan: The year is 1196. It is Frostdawn, it's the 15th day of Frostdawn, and High Frosting’s Eve is approaching. It is a freezing cold snow-covered island in the Dairy Sea at the Abbey of the Shimmering Cream. A five-year-old Saccharina is looking out of a window at the sea under the starlight. What's Saccharina looking for out on the sea?

0:05:41 Emily: I think she's looking for the boat that her mom is gonna come back and pick her back up because she's gonna realize it was a mistake to have abandoned her.

0:05:58 Brennan: The door of this room is locked. You're wearing a common peasant's shift, sort of formless, austere dress. There's a small crust of cheese on a plate in the corner. And the other children, mostly orphans or runaways or peasantry that have had to give their children up for one reason or another. A war is going on so a lot of lost children have found their way to the abbey. They are kept far away from you, and you are in a part of the abbey where you cannot be close to them. The door opens and one of the nuns, peering down at you severely, says, (somber instrumental music)

0:06:45 Nun: [Scottish accent] Away from the window, child, this way. The Mother Superior will see you.

0:06:52 Emily: I obey because I know what disobedience will get me.

0:06:58 Brennan: You are brought down the hallway. As you walk, you go through one of the abbey's central halls. This is a poor abbey, but there is some, at least, decoration in this place and you see one of the sort of shining plates up on the wall to cast some of the torchlight. You see a reflection and a dark, indigo blue Candian woman with kind eyes gazes at you out of the reflection. You don't know her, but you see that she says to you,

0:07:43 Lazuli: It's all right. Stay, believe, the world is dark and dangerous, but there are forces other than wickedness at work in this world.

0:08:00 Saccharina: Is it wrong what I can do in my-

0:08:02 Lazuli: No, it is not wrong, no matter who tells you that or how many times, it is not wrong. I cannot help you in this world anymore, but I am trying as-

0:08:13 Brennan: And you are walked past the mirror and you are brought to a dimly lit office where a tall, imperious looking woman of many years, the Mother Superior of the Abbey, the Mother Superior Edam, looks at you, gazes down, stands up and takes a long razor-sharp cheddar switch from an old cheddar tree out back and says,

0:08:53 Mother Superior: [Scottish] Right there, Saccharina. Some of the other children at mealtime were doing as small children do, I suppose and talking out of turn about fairy tales and the like. One of them mentioned that you said you could see a woman all in blue in the mirror speaking to you.

0:09:17 Saccharina: It was a lie, I was just trying to get attention from the other children. That's what children do, children lie.

0:09:27 Brennan: The switch catches you across the face and she says,

0:09:30 Mother Superior: Lying is a sin, girl, and it's what you just did in saying that to me. Sit in the chair now.

0:09:42 Brennan: You are strapped into a wooden chair with leather bindings and you see that she faces you and hunches down and says,

0:09:53 Mother Superior: You're a wicked girl, and I think unlike most of the chatterings of children that these little stories might be more than false. Do you see eyes in the mirror, girl?

0:10:10 Saccharina: Doesn't everyone see eyes in the mirror? (switch cracking)

0:10:16 Brennan: She scowls furiously and says,

0:10:21 Mother Superior: All the cleverness in the world won't make you strong, and it won't make you big. The Bulb above knows best.

0:10:30 Saccharina: Is that what you wish for me, strength? Is that why you do what you do?

0:10:36 Mother Superior: I wish for obedience! (switch cracking) And silence! (switch cracking)

0:10:42 Brennan: You see that she bends the switch.

0:10:44 Mother Superior: (inhales and exhales sharply) What does the woman in the mirror say to you?

0:10:56 Saccharina: There's no answer that won't get me lashed, so. She says that I don't have to hide. That I'm actually not only good the way I am, but I'm actually great the way I am.

0:11:18 Brennan: She goes near the roaring fire in the corner, opens up a small, modestly decorated gilded box and takes a holy sign of the Bulb out of it and tosses the holy symbol so that it is resting in the embers of the fire. You see that in the underside of the now open box there is a small reflective surface of polished metal. And you see the woman look, the eyes staring out. And the surface is kind of not large enough to show the whole face, but you see the eyes looking at you saying,

0:11:55 Lazuli: You are perfect the way you are. You are lost for the moment, but that does not mean you will be lost forever. There are people in the world who love you, and they will see that this suffering will not have happened in vain. Misfortune has befallen you more than your share, but it will be made right, I promise, I...

0:12:28 Brennan: You see her eyes dart to the right as the Mother Superior picks the now burning red emblem up and says,

0:12:35 Mother Superior: The Hungry One works in mysterious ways and takes whatever form he wishes. And it sounds like exactly the type of thing he'd say to find a young, strident, impudent sinner and tell her that she was in any way acceptable or worthy.

0:13:02 Saccharina: You can do whatever you want to my body because what I can do barely even needs a body.

0:13:12 Mother Superior: You think I'm about to do something to your body? Simply a vessel of the flesh. I'm here to cleanse your soul.

0:13:20 Brennan: And she pushes the holy symbol onto your chest. It burns through the cloth of your shift and you are filled with incredible, blinding pain, a child being burned in the center of their chest by this holy symbol. In the blinding flash of light you can feel yourself ejecting from the horror of this own experience and you, in this space of liminal, outside of your own body pain and mindless fear and confusion you see the woman in blue, long robes behind her, flecked with purple and indigo. Her golden eyes reaching out and flickering, reaching a hand out to you, almost being blown away by the light and she screams, her voice chopping and disappearing,

0:14:13 Lazuli: My hand, hold my hand, hold my hand.

0:14:17 Emily: I hold her hand, I hold her hand.

0:14:18 Lazuli: Saccharina!

0:14:18 Emily: I hold her hand! (electric energy cracking)

0:14:21 Saccharina: No!

0:14:21 Brennan: The hand vanishes and the connection is severed as you are back in your body, the Mother Superior standing over you. No reflection waits for you in the cold metal. (eerie instrumental music)

0:14:45 Brennan: Mother Superior looks at you and says,

0:14:49 Mother Superior: I will burn The Hungry One out of you as many times as I need to. It is not of this world or the Bulb above that the water washes upon your feet and that the sea seems to hear your call. What you wield is sin.

0:15:23 Saccharina: [crying] It was good, what you took away from me, it was good!

0:15:30 Brennan: She lashes the switch across you and says,

0:15:35 Mother Superior: Get her back to her room. She'll have no breakfast on the morrow. After your prayers, if I believe the words of them, you'll have earned your food.

0:15:48 Brennan: As you are being led away by the sister, she calls to you at the door and says,

0:15:59 Mother Superior: What are you gazing across the sea for, girl? What do you think is waiting out there for you?

0:16:08 Saccharina: Why can't you let me have one privacy?

0:16:15 Mother Superior: Because in the dark secrets of your heart I know The Hungry One is waiting. When the children bully you in the yard and you turn to look at them, your voice rolls like thunder, and there is something dark in you that I will drive out. I'm only trying to save you, and it is me that will save you and not your sweet father, the Prince of Candia. Do you truly believe that story, girl, or is that just you telling schoolyard lies?

0:16:59 Saccharina: (sniffles) My father is Amethar of House Rocks. I am Saccharina Rocks. (dramatic instrumental music)

0:17:09 Saccharina: When the people of Candia find me and find what you have done to me you will wish you believed me.

0:17:22 Mother Superior: And how will this prince in his tall castle know that you are here? Do you think he wants you? Do you think anyone wants you? Not even your own mother wanted you.

0:17:44 Saccharina: She- She did want me. She just, she just was very, very scared, she thought she was protecting me.

0:17:56 Mother Superior: She was protecting herself and her people from what's within you. She sent you here because you're a danger to the world, to all the good folk under the Bulb. Your father, like as not, is some no doubt Candian sailor tellin' stories to bed a young milkmaid in her licentious youth.

0:18:24 Saccharina: If my father is nobody, then how can I speak to the wind? Then how can I walk out into the ocean and have the water do my bidding? If my father is nobody, why are you so scared of me?

0:18:47 Mother Superior: Take her back to her room. CONTENT WARNING ENDS HERE

0:18:52 Brennan: You descend the mountain, the crown on your head. Your sword's at your side, the Winterscoop in your hand, nobody in all of Calorum will ever be able to hurt you again. And Cinnamon (growls and snorts softly) wraps around your neck. It feels warm.

0:19:25 Saccharina: [quietly] That's right, baby.

0:19:27 Brennan: Ruby, you're standing at the top of the steps.

0:19:31 Siobhan: So anyway, I was like, “she can be my sister or my queen, but not both”, and I feel good about that. I feel like it was a good, noble choice that I made her make. (sighs) (Brennan and Emily laughing)

0:19:44 Brennan: Ruby's standing at the top of the stairs. You watch Saccharina and her marauders and her sweet baby dragon descend the steps. What's Ruby going to do?

0:20:01 Siobhan: I'm going to go find my dad, I think. I would also like to check out the library and see if I can find anything that will help us against, I mean, basically can help me kill Ciabatta.

0:20:20 Brennan: Cool, you walk back onto the steps. For those that were on the platform, I think it's just Theo, Cumulous, and Amethar, you're still looking at the chamber. The mist has all cleared at this point. Liam has scooted down to explore.

0:20:34 Ally: Yeah. (laughs) Big mistake.

0:20:37 Emily: Oh, no.

0:20:39 Ally: Big mistake.

0:20:41 Emily: Fingers crossed for a second dragon. (Brennan laughs)

0:20:43 Siobhan: Fingers crossed.

0:20:44 Emily: I mean, how cute is this, we need to.

0:20:47 Lou: A little one and a big one.

0:20:51 Brennan: What are Cumulous, Amethar, and Theo- I guess Theo, you actually walked away from Amethar.

0:20:55 Murph: Yeah, I think I'm kinda...

0:20:55 Zac: Cumulous did, too.

0:20:56 Brennan: So Amethar, Theo says his words-

0:20:59 Lou: Yeah, I'm just standing there looking.

0:21:01 Brennan: In the halls of the Ice Cream Temple, Ruby, you pass Theo and Cumulous who are exiting. In that little pronged room of hallways with the one going right and the one going left to the Armory you see Theo and Cumulous descending the stairs.

0:21:16 Siobhan: I don't say anything to them.

0:21:17 Brennan: You walk up, you guys are walking after Saccharina?

0:21:20 Murph: Mm-hmm.

0:21:20 Brennan: Cool. You guys, you know, look at this incredible victory, the Queen of Candia with her Winterscoop has opened this place and now Candia has the best fighting chance it's had in your lifetimes. You descend the steps, silently. Or I guess you say whatever you want to say, but the two members of this party that are like brothers in arms and like sworn to the service of this family and not of this family descend the steps together.

0:21:53 Murph: I think Theo's kind of just instantly kind of down to business, and I think I'll talk to Cumulous and Saccharina and stuff and just start coordinating how we get these weapons and everything to the troops and all that.

0:22:08 Saccharina: Yes, I think we should definitely- Cumulous will, I mean, would you consider going in and just finding every magical item in there?

0:22:21 Cumulous: Look… It may be difficult for me. Have you ever heard of choice paralysis?

0:22:34 Theobald: Could we consider this a new base of operations? Or is this gonna be too far from everything?

0:22:39 Saccharina: Wow, yes. That sounds great. I don't have much interest in actually occupying the Castle of Candy.

0:22:48 Theobald: Oh, I just meant until, just for our troops just to get all the weapons and everything and...

0:22:52 Saccharina: Yeah, I like that.

0:22:56 Cumulous: Sounds good.

0:22:57 Brennan: Ruby, you ascend the stairs and are at the edge of the platform looking at the Tower of Ice Cream where Amethar is standing.

0:23:08 Ruby: (sighs) I- How do you- How does peace happen? How do you live once this has happened to you? (somber instrumental music)

0:23:31 Ruby: I don't understand how peace works when war...

0:23:37 Amethar: I feel like I'm the worst person to answer that question. I'm a war guy through and through. I spent the last couple years just going through the motions. (sighs)

0:24:00 Ruby: Well, I love you, Dad.

0:24:05 Amethar: I love you, Ruby.

0:24:09 Lou: I give like a side hug. Siobhan leans against Lou and sighs.

0:24:18 Brennan: You guys stand at the platform looking out. You can't see Liam anymore.

0:24:25 Ruby: Liam?

0:24:29 Amethar: Liam.

0:24:32 Ruby: Liam, stop hiding.

0:24:34 Brennan: (wind howling) Liam, you are falling through endless fire and red—

0:24:38 Ally: [laughs] What? [pulls their sweatshirt hood up in shock]

0:24:43 Brennan: Swirling red, you smell cinnamon and smoke and hot chocolate, the cold peppermint of your body you can see is slowly disintegrating and little swirls of red and white are peeling off of your arms and legs as you fall and you hear a voice. It's like you're falling down, but you're also shooting into something and you hear. (growls and gulps deeply)

0:25:19 Ally: I'm being eaten?

0:25:27 Brennan: The pain you feel is, you feel incredible pain that disturbs you so deeply because it's also ecstatic because you know deep down that you taste good.

0:25:40 Ally: The Hungry One has eaten me.

0:25:43 Brennan: You, (wind whipping) but a hand was grabbing you. And you look down and see the hand. This hand on your chest that's pulling you in has been on your chest before. (wind whistling) You are in a disintegrating library as the hand rips you into it. The space you are in is like a ruins or something. It looks like it's part of the Ice Cream Temple maybe, but that it was an illusory part or something. There is like ice cream stone around, but the stone has become like reddened and covered in cinnamon ash and is slowly just disintegrating. You see the stone is just. (wind whistling) So you're in a ruin that is flying away. Stones will rumble a little bit and then just fly up into nothingness (wind howling) as this sort of comes apart in this other-planar realm. And I may have misspoken. It's not a hand on your chest so much as it is a paw. (Emily and Ally gasp)

0:26:56 Lapin: Hello, Liam. (Emily screaming)

0:26:57 Liam: What? Get off of me.

0:27:04 Lapin: I'm sorry I grabbed you by the throat earlier.

0:27:06 Liam: That was crazy!

0:27:08 Lapin: Um, it was a little bit of a stronger move than I meant. I'm not mad at you.

0:27:16 Liam: You- Lapin!

0:27:17 Brennan: Lapin is standing in front of you and is, is partially, (laughs) Lapin is disintegrating as well, but as his own chocolate and tinfoil comes off of it it doesn't leave, it looks like he is, so he's like disintegrating, but it's not diminishing him at all. He keeps, like, replacing and replenishing himself even in this space of things going away. He also is not, he is like partially this swirling red, cinnamon energy, but there's something deep and purple and magical about him as well, and you see that he's, the edges of him are very opaque. Like, he's here, he grabbed you, but his center becomes translucent and you see three spinning eggs of magic wrapped in bright green and yellow and purple tinfoil (wind whistling) as three little wishes circle around in his translucent chest.

0:28:34 Lapin: How are you?

0:28:34 Liam: I'm, what is going on?

0:28:39 Lapin: Oh, I, um, when you came down here, I'm, I guess I'm here just to pack up, so to speak.

0:28:48 Liam: What do you mean?

0:28:49 Lapin: I have to take these things to The Hungry One.

0:28:57 Liam: Whoa.

0:28:58 Zac: I think Lapin picks up some kind of magical artifact.

0:29:02 Brennan: You see that there are some scrolls on a weird sort of like stone altar and some candles. And as Lapin extends his paw to them you realize that these scrolls and candles are symbols, manifestations of dreams, memories, stories, wishes, prayers, and they just curl up in his hand and he deposits them as motes of light into a small scroll case at his side.

0:29:30 Liam: I've been feeling The Hungry One. I've been seeing visions that smell and sound just like this. What's going on?

0:29:42 Lapin: Um, Liam, this place is disappearing. (Ally sighs softly)

0:29:51 Lapin: When Ruby killed the Sugar-Plum Fairy it undid the illusion of this place.

0:30:01 Liam: Okay.

0:30:05 Lapin: This quote-unquote afterlife that, you know, King Amethar's sisters and Jet and I were all in is not truly an afterlife. It's sort of a sick dream of the Sugar-Plum Fairy.

0:30:27 Liam: Oh.

0:30:27 Lapin: And so we all have to go to The Hungry One. And so...

0:30:36 Liam: Is that a bad thing?

0:30:38 Lapin: Not necessarily.

0:30:38 Liam: Would we still be able to contact you and, like, Lazuli and...

0:30:44 Lapin: [shaking his head] I don't think so.

0:30:44 Liam: Jet?

0:30:47 Lapin: They're already gone.

0:30:50 Liam: Oh.

0:30:50 Lapin: And I'm just, well, we're bringing up the rear. (Preston snorts)

0:30:55 Liam: Me? Oh.

0:30:56 Brennan: And Preston leaps into your arms.

0:30:57 Liam: [gasps] Oh, my baby boy! [hugs him] My sweet boy! You look so good, a haircut? (Preston snorts)

0:31:06 Lapin: I gave him a little haircut.

0:31:07 Liam: That's so cute! You gave him a haircut.

0:31:11 Lapin: He won't stop following me around for some reason and...

0:31:15 Brennan: (wind howling) You see Preston blasts out of your arms and goes and flies and nuzzles Lapin's head. (snorts) Leaves a little wet pig snout.

0:31:20 Lapin: Okay.

0:31:21 Liam: You love it.

0:31:21 Lapin: Oh, I do love it.

0:31:23 Liam: You love it. (Emily laughing)

0:31:25 Lapin: No, I don't love it.

0:31:26 Liam: Lapin, what, have you been watching? Are you able to see what's going on in our world?

0:31:32 Lapin: We can see, we were able to see.

0:31:34 Liam: We're fucked, what are we gonna do? I can- I'm gonna get that carrot. I'm gonna fucking ruin that carrot. I'm a war guy now, and at first I was just happy I was good at something, but now it's all I think about. And I just wanna get better and better at killing bad people.

0:31:54 Lapin: Yes. Well, I do not like that carrot man. I would very much like to- But before he killed me I found some information.

0:32:10 Liam: What?

0:32:10 Lapin: Before I could tell any of you I was struck down.

0:32:12 Liam: What was it?

0:32:15 Lapin: And that's why we're talking.

0:32:19 Brennan: You see that Preston snorts up at you and wiggles his little corkscrew tail and begins to ascend up to a viewing balcony in this ruin. (Preston running)

0:32:29 Zac: I guess I follow, Lapin follows Preston.

0:32:34 Lapin: Come this way.

0:32:35 Liam: Okay. Are you gonna teach me something?

0:32:40 Lapin: I will tell you something.

0:32:40 Liam: Cool.

0:32:41 Lapin: I don't know if there's much time to teach, but...

0:32:47 Brennan: You arrive at this viewing balcony and see yourself in this, indeed, this now cinnamon and ash-covered dissolving castle. And the realm around it has already been consumed. Huge tracts of land are just now empty void being (wind sucking) sucked up into this swirling red and black all-consuming vortex. And you see mirrored or like, that is going up into the vortex but through the ground there is another sky upside down. And far away through the blackness you see a brilliant shining Bulb, a beacon of pure light. And you see this castle constructed through magic in the middle of these two things. And you've heard about the will of the Bulb and the trickery of The Hungry One. And you're looking at, and forgive my sacrilege, two balls, there's a ball of light and a ball of all-consuming darkness and they're just two really big cosmic balls. The light emitting from the Bulb and then everything being sucked up into The Hungry One.

0:34:20 Lapin: So the interpretations of the Bulb and The Hungry One have been very complicated, and a lot of agency has been put on them for as long as any of us have been alive, but the truth is that they are truly just light and dark, you know, one is creation and one is destruction. They're just purely forces, they're not alive. They have no dog in the fight. Because of that the church, Pontifex, whoever can attribute any meaning to any of it with impunity.

0:35:10 Liam: Yeah.

0:35:11 Lapin: So they don't care about any of this. And what is going to happen, what has always happened is that The Hungry One and the Bulb both do what they do. The Bulb creates, The Hungry One destroys. So without the Sugar-Plum Fairy, the Sugar-Plum Fairy-

0:35:36 Liam: Yeah.

0:35:39 Lapin: Is not, they're not gods. The Bulb and The Hungry One are not gods. The Sugar-Plum Fairy is also not a god and more like- The Sugar-Plum Fairy and the other magical beings in this world, they're all just more like living spells. They're closer to mortals than they are to anything else.

0:36:05 Liam: Okay.

0:36:05 Lapin: So the Sugar-Plum Fairy is of the Bulb and she was able to use the power of the Bulb to create this area we are now, but without her it's time for it to go.

0:36:20 Liam: Whoa… Okay. So then what is the future of Candia if now we know that these are just two energy sources, but there's so much corruption that's being used with them as the source?

0:36:44 Lapin: I don't know.

0:36:46 Liam: Is it… (sighs) There's no way to get back the people that everyone is so upset about losing. We're going into some huge battle at a house. Is it worth killing even more and more? Should I keep being like a war guy? I could still be a seed guy, I just need a therapist.

0:37:13 Lapin: There's nothing wrong with being a seed guy.

0:37:16 Zac: And I think that's when the balls of light that are hovering in Lapin come forth.

0:37:29 Brennan: You see that Preston flies up and lands on Lapin's head. (snorts) And goes, (spits) and coughs up the three peppermint heart seeds, and each one goes (wind whooshing) and spins around the wishes coming from Lapin's chest. (wind whooshing) And they stack vertically, horizontally, into a triangle and begin to circle in that triangle in front of you. One of these raw, glowing wishes takes on a red hue with a deep smell of cinnamon. (wind howling) Sucks in the light around it. Another one takes on a bright, golden, luminous hue. And a third one is a many-colored foil-wrapped, shimmering wish much like Lapin's robes.

0:38:39 Lapin: So one of these looks sort of like the Sugar-Plum Fairy, right? This is the Bulb, this is that energy. This is the energy to create.

0:38:47 Liam: Mm-hmm.

0:38:50 Lapin: One of these is like the cinnamon dragon, The Hungry One. So it has the energy to destroy.

0:38:58 Liam: Mm-hmm.

0:38:58 Lapin: And this third one-

0:39:03 Liam: Yeah.

0:39:03 Lapin: Is something else. It's the energy to change. And I think that's what's happening to this world is things are changing. And that's what happens when we leave this place. The energy that is created by the Bulb is also destroyed by The Hungry One, and that cycle keeps continuing. And I think that's not a bad thing, but the way that I can help you is I can offer you one of these.

0:39:35 Liam: I'll take that one.

0:39:35 Lapin: Which one?

0:39:37 Liam: The change one.

0:39:37 Lapin: The change one, cool. (Brennan laughing)

0:39:43 Liam: Was it the right answer or wasn't it?

0:39:45 Brennan: It moves forward from Lapin and you are holding a part of Preston's heart, a part of Lapin's soul, all wrapped up in a wish, and that wish becomes wrapped in a seed.

0:40:03 Liam: Cool. Not gonna plant this one, no, no, no. This is a collector's item. So, (sighs) nevermind.

0:40:16 Lapin: What's up?

0:40:16 Liam: Fucking- So people are so hell-bent on using their time alive to either homage creation or destruction, but wouldn't change be the only thing that the living have to do with?

0:40:37 Lapin: I think that both are fine.

0:40:37 Liam: Is there a religion associated with this wish?

0:40:48 Lapin: I don't know that there would be a religion associated with it, but I think it's associated with living.

0:40:57 Liam: (sighs) Okay, I'm just wondering if we made the wrong choice with killing the Sugar-Plum Fairy.

0:41:05 Lapin: No, she sucked.

0:41:05 Liam: Okay, cool, okay, cool. And one last question, does the queen now have a mini Hungry One that she's treating as a pet? That feels bad.

0:41:13 Lapin: Remember when I said a living spell? It's kind of like a living spell.

0:41:16 Liam: Okay, cool, that's cute then. It's not gonna grow up and then eat everyone.

0:41:21 Lapin: Maybe, I don't know.

0:41:21 Liam: Okay, I don't know. I guess I'd take it, start with the vegetables.

0:41:25 Lapin: Mm-hmm, it's good to see you again.

0:41:28 Liam: It's good to see you too, Lapin. Are you in pain at all?

0:41:30 Lapin: All the time! I'm joking.

0:41:32 Liam: No! Fuck you, rabbit!

0:41:36 Lapin: Ha, I gotcha!

0:41:37 Ally: Your foil is being ripped away from you and you're essentially stripping at me while you tell me about religion.

0:41:46 Brennan: Liam, as you share that laugh with Preston and Lapin you suddenly wake up, and Amethar and Ruby, you found Liam. He was passed out in a cavern underneath in this old dragon's nest, this giant dragon's nest where there's like, broken egg shells around and bones and stuff like that, but yeah, he's just down here. He must have collapsed.

0:42:13 Ruby: Liam, you having a nap?

0:42:15 Liam: Oh, no, I, I just saw Lapin.

0:42:22 Amethar: What?

0:42:24 Liam: I just saw Preston.

0:42:24 Amethar: Wait, are they here?

0:42:28 Liam: I know the meaning of life.

0:42:30 Amethar and Ruby: What?

0:42:31 Liam: I don't need to be a war guy anymore. Hurt people hurt people, and that's just a cycle of abuse I don't need to continue to act out. I need to go start a garden.

0:42:38 Amethar: Okay, uh...

0:42:41 Ruby: Um, maybe...

0:42:41 Liam: I need to move to somewhere up north.

0:42:43 Amethar: Did you just?

0:42:46 Ruby: Hang...

0:42:46 Amethar: Did you have a bunch of dreams or what?

0:42:48 Liam: I don't know.

0:42:52 Brennan: You look down in your hand that you're gesturing with and you are holding a brilliantly foiled seed, silver and yellow and green and purple and it is as real as can be in your hand.

0:43:04 Ally: Okay, I relay everything that Lapin told me to them.

0:43:08 Brennan: Cool.

0:43:09 Ally: And then I show them the seed.

0:43:13 Amethar: Wow.

0:43:16 Ruby: Are you supposed to plant the seed? What are you supposed to?

0:43:17 Liam: I think it's a wish. I don't really know how it works.

0:43:23 Ruby: Okay.

0:43:23 Amethar: I mean, I don't think I'm the guy for this.

0:43:24 Ally: Can I like, figure out what this, can I do like an Insight check or something?

0:43:28 Brennan: Give me an Insight check.

0:43:28 Siobhan: Can I do an Arcana check on it?

0:43:29 Brennan: Do an Arcana check on it.

0:43:30 Lou: I'm just gonna look at it.

0:43:30 Ally: I got a 10 on the Insight.

0:43:34 Siobhan: I got a 9, I rolled a 2, I got a 9.

0:43:39 Brennan: I mean, that's a magic goddamn seed.

0:43:43 Ally: Wow, cool. I put it in like a special seed holder. I still have my seed book. I put it in my seed book.

0:43:50 Brennan: You take out your dusty seed book that you haven't used in quite-

0:43:53 Ally: Bunch of pressed flowers in it and I put the seed in one of the little holders.

0:43:57 Brennan: Like pockets.

0:43:57 Ally: Like when you collect cards.

0:44:01 Brennan: You put it in there next to, like, some candy daffodil seeds and it feels a little like, strange neighbors.

0:44:06 Ally: I'm like, hmm.

0:44:11 Brennan: Cool, and you guys ascend up out of the pit.

0:44:16 Siobhan: Can we, before we leave, check out the three of us check out that third strange room? Just have a look at what's going on in there with the enchantment magic, is that too scary?

0:44:27 Brennan: Sure, yeah, go ahead and give me an Arcana check as you walk in there.

0:44:29 Siobhan: Okay.

0:44:29 Lou: Can I also give you an Arcana check?

0:44:31 Ally: Yeah, same.

0:44:31 Brennan: Yeah, sure, go for it.

0:44:33 Siobhan: I got a 13.

0:44:35 Brennan: 13.

0:44:37 Ally: A 13 as well.

0:44:37 Lou: [seeing his roll] Oh, no, no, no.

0:44:40 Brennan: Cool.

0:44:43 Emily: When you roll so bad you just don't say it out loud.

0:44:45 Lou: It's embarrassing.

0:44:45 Zac: It was like almost a 15 and then it rolled.

0:44:48 Brennan: The Illusion magic has faded from here. There is still some Conjuration magic here which makes you think that you are not going to see lies in here anymore, that you will probably just see things that are true.

0:45:00 Siobhan: Okay.

0:45:02 Brennan: You look, Liam, and see that the ice crystals in here are flickering, and that as they flicker...

0:45:09 Ally: Whoa.

0:45:10 Brennan: They are flickering with stories and like memories and things like that. As they flicker with stories and memories you see that they're flickering because they're disappearing and you can tell on the other side of them that Lapin is taking them where they need to go.

0:45:29 Liam: Lapin's kind of cleaning up.

0:45:32 Brennan: Go ahead and you guys can give me either an Investigation or a Perception check.

0:45:36 Siobhan: Can I use Yak?

0:45:36 Brennan: You can use, actually you can all roll this with advantage.

0:45:40 Lou: Wow.

0:45:40 Ally: Me too?

0:45:42 Brennan: You, too.

0:45:44 Siobhan: I rolled a nat 20.

0:45:46 Lou: I didn't, I rolled a 16.

0:45:46 Brennan: 16. What'd Liam get?

0:45:49 Ally: Not- Like 10 or something.

0:45:54 Siobhan: Even with advantage?

0:45:54 Brennan: Cool, what is Liam kind of...

0:45:57 Ally: Oh, 14, but still.

0:45:57 Brennan: 14. What are you kind of looking for as you look? Anything in particular?

0:46:03 Ally: I mean, maybe I'm kind of, I'm trying to see if, I know Lapin is taking everything.

0:46:07 Brennan: Mm-hmm.

0:46:07 Ally: And I know that we were kind of hoping to use this cache of like, magical items to defeat everyone who's against us so maybe I'm trying to see what is gonna stay that we could possibly use if anything.

0:46:20 Brennan: Of the things that are here, you see memories of cinnamon dragons from ancient Candia. Truly enormous, huge.

0:46:30 Ally: Cool.

0:46:33 Brennan: And monstrous and terrifying. Lots of weapons here, lots of lore here. As you're thinking of Lapin you look back and see a memory of Lapin in a sort of city, town in the Great Stone Candy Mountains as a young, scrappy urchin. Like a pickpocket thief kid with no birthright or inheritance, low-born and you see some standing stones of the Sugar-Plum Fairy and you see a holy place where different scrolls and stories of the Sugar-Plum Fairy have been amassed by the priests of the Sweetening Path sort of freer to go about their business here in the mountains. And you see a young Lapin break into a small monastery of Sweetening Path druids and steal an ancient bound tome with a ritual on it to summon the Sugar-Plum Fairy, bind it, and get three wishes granted. And you see this little kid do this ritual with not even necessarily really being able to read or know what they're doing, do the ritual, and the Sugar-Plum Fairy herself showing up and the bindings not working. And instead of being bound, in an act of mercy or perhaps in an act of manipulation the Sugar-Plum Fairy saying,

0:48:08 Sugar-Plum Fairy: I'm not going to give you three wishes. In fact, you're going to give them to me.

0:48:14 Brennan: And the young rabbit replies, you know, or what does Lapin, a young Lapin in this memory say?

0:48:20 Lapin: Oh, no.

0:48:23 Lou: He always sounded like that? [cast laughing]

0:48:27 Brennan: And the Sugar-Plum Fairy saying,

0:48:28 Sugar-Plum Fairy: But your wishes won't be of much use if you have no magic to grant them.

0:48:34 Brennan: And you see her granting the first magical powers to Lapin and making him a warlock.

0:48:37 Ally: Cool.

0:48:40 Siobhan: Dude was so cool, we didn't even know.

0:48:42 Brennan: Didn't even know. You see a world without an afterlife and a world without gods and a world that has to come up with its own answers for itself. And there is no wisdom in these memories that will save you, but you do have a seed, and you don't know what it does, but it does something.

0:49:10 Ally: Cool.

0:49:14 Brennan: Amethar, what are you looking for?

0:49:16 Lou: I think having seen Sapphria earlier, looking for my sisters. (peaceful instrumental music)

0:49:24 Brennan: You see many, many memories of your sisters. You see a memory of you being about, you know, five or six years old skinning your knee down by the Cola River and Sapphria picking you up in her arms and telling you, you were gonna be okay and carrying you back up the hill towards the castle. You see memories of Rococoa training you in swordplay, Citrina helping you with your prayers and your studies, Lazuli making you the first cola concoction for you to enter your rage. You see the memory of Rococoa dead on the ground and you crying out and screaming. Out of cola, out of your ability to even rage and you feel Gustavo's arms on you and you remember him saying something to you in that moment of the fact that the world that she had died to build was going to be one worthy of her memory. And you remember looking at his face and seeing someone who had just killed the Imperator of Ceresia, and seeing a man who had fought a war and you looked into his eyes as he wept for your sister and her martyrdom and you knew that something that he and Rococoa both shared was a vision for what the world would be like after the war. What's Ruby looking for?

0:51:09 Siobhan: Show me the snakes.

0:51:11 Brennan: The what?

0:51:12 Siobhan: I wanna know who's betraying us. I want to know all of the goddamn people. And I have a list and it's gettin' longer.

0:51:20 Brennan: With a nat 20 I'm gonna give you two things. You see a lot of them, you see Calroy's got people in the army, no one close to you guys. You know, Calroy was as close as it got, but you see who the snakes are. You see who's talking on Jawbreaker's side. You see people in Saccharina's marauders. You see people in the House of Rocks. Saccharina's crew's got the least of them just because they're remote. And you don't see Saccharina in there at all. For whatever fears or concerns you have there is no, Saccharina and no one within one step from her is being deceitful about why they're in this fight. You also don't see your mother in this. Who else do you not see? Yeah, you don't see Joren Jawbreaker. The remnants of Candia that are still here are trustworthy.

0:52:26 Siobhan: What about the sisters?

0:52:29 Brennan: Rococoa, Sapphria, Citrina, and Lazuli? You see memories of all of them. Strengths and heroism, faults, mistakes that were made, things that were done and undone. You see all of them look back, and no.

0:52:55 Siobhan: Okay.

0:52:55 Brennan: There was no betrayal. There was only sacrifice and tragedy and the chaos of four different people that could have ruled and didn't live to. Speaking of rulership, on a nat 20 is there anything else you are looking for?

0:53:23 Siobhan: Is this only information about candy people, like the...

0:53:27 Brennan: Only really Candian memories, I would say.

0:53:29 Siobhan: Okay… (sighs) I don't think so, I've seen Jet die too many times. I don't think I need to see it again.

0:53:41 Brennan: Yeah, in that case I'll move your nat 20 one step down the table.

0:53:45 Siobhan: Okay.

0:53:48 Brennan: You see a memory that you've long forgotten about and someone that I think in many episodes of this campaign we have not seen yet. Amethar, you're about like 16 years old and you see King Jadain. There is a screaming argument in the main hall in like the throne room of Castle Candy. War has yet to break out, but the rumors of war are on the horizon. You hear your mother, Pamelia Pomegrana, having it out with your four sisters. Your mother and your four sisters despise each other and both sides in this disagreement are flexing on your father who is being very silent and just trying his best to agree with everybody. After a moment you see that you hear your father say,

0:54:39 Jadain: [slightly high-pitched, faintly accented] Yes, yes, obviously this will be continued. We will find a resolution and I just need to use the chamber pot and I will be right back. (Emily laughing)

0:54:48 Brennan: And you see that your father is a slim man of green hue. A little shiny, but not translucent green rock candy steps out as the crown that has never quite sat well on his head, it's a little too big for his head. And he never wanted to kind of complain to get it resized. You see he comes out, little mustache, and he walks out and doesn't see you. And you see he just walks out and is just shaking and standing. (breathes with shivers) (gasps and coughs) And you see he sits on one of the steps in the dark.

0:55:38 Amethar: Dad?

0:55:38 Jadain: (gasps) Oh! Amethar! Oh, very good to see you.

0:55:44 Amethar: Are you okay?

0:55:52 Jadain: I'm all right, yes, I'm all right. This was an awful lot of shouting.

0:55:58 Brennan: You see he takes the crown off and puts it on the ground next to him.

0:56:03 Jadain: (sighs) Your mother and your sisters, they are strong-willed to be sure. Have very clear visions of the future of Candia. I wish I had that clarity. (chuckles)

0:56:19 Amethar: You're gonna fight, right, Dad?

0:56:24 Jadain: Fight your sisters and your mother?

0:56:26 Amethar: No, everyone's talking about how war's coming. You're gonna fight, right?

0:56:33 Jadain: No, no, no, no, no, Amethar. Remember, in sweetness there is strength so we will, we must remember, Candia is a sweet land, and war does not fit us. We are, we're at our best in times of peace and best not to act hastily or, you know, by acting too quickly we might make more enemies. And that's dreadful to consider. And yeah, the best path is the path of kindness and remembering to, you know- Lost track of what I'm saying. This crown is heavy. (laughs) Would you ever want to wear the crown?

0:57:48 Amethar: Oh, (chuckles) no. What? I mean, it's gonna be Rococoa, she's gonna be...

0:58:00 Jadain: Of course, no, your sister Rococoa, she is, like even if she had been born a commoner she probably would have barged in here and taken the crown for herself. If you did want it you could have it, you know.

0:58:15 Amethar: I don't want it. I'm a war guy, like Joren.

0:58:22 Jadain: Yes, your uncle Joren. Well, there may be a time for war guys soon. Sometimes I think about just leaving the crown here on the steps and walking off into the woods some night. I never asked for this responsibility. I never asked to make these decisions, you know. It's not fair. The world should be fair. The world should be sweet, that's what it should be.

0:59:02 Amethar: I mean, you're the king though, so you gotta be the king.

0:59:10 Brennan: (wind howling) Those words echo in your head. You guys watch as the last memories leave this room. As you leave and you rejoin your friends at the base of the mountain, you know that Liam can get you guys to Castle Manylicks no problem. Maybe like two or three days.

0:59:39 Theobald: Right, yeah. I think knowing that the Mold People are coming.

0:59:46 Saccharina: Yeah.

0:59:46 Theobald: Maybe we should just fill a few wagons and take what we can to Castle Manylicks.

0:59:50 Brennan: Mm-hmm, there's a nearby...

0:59:50 Saccharina: Although we should set up a series of booby traps to really fuck those guys up.

0:59:56 Ruby: Oh yeah.

0:59:56 Amethar: Sounds good.

0:59:59 Brennan: Awesome, I'm not even gonna make rolls for this. You guys are all 10th level characters. You have incredible resources at your disposal. There's a nearby village that you can get to very quickly, especially as some of you have abilities of like flight and teleportation and stuff like that. You get a bunch of wagons here, load up the biggest deal stuff. And you see that Gooey looks over at you, Saccharina, and says,

1:00:23 Gooey: If these Bulbians are on their way here, we don't have a chance to set an ambush. What if there was no door to this temple, Your Majesty, when they arrived?

1:00:40 Saccharina: You, are you implying that we explode it from inside?

1:00:47 Gooey: We can always come back to dig up the rest of the treasures later.

1:00:51 Saccharina: (sighs) I don't know how I feel about that. I've long revered this place and, (sighs) I don't know if I could call for the ruin of such an amazing place! I suppose as the queen I will consult my advisors. Cumulous.

1:01:12 Cumulous: Yes.

1:01:14 Saccharina: Do you think it wise to destroy this temple so that we may cover our footsteps and the Sanctus Putris will not be able to detect anything that we've done here?

1:01:31 Cumulous: We all know I like this stuff.

1:01:33 Saccharina: Me too, I, see? I'm in the same boat.

1:01:34 Cumulous: It's kind of all I'm about.

1:01:36 Saccharina: Yeah, I know, right?

1:01:40 Cumulous: But I think right now, we don't even really have to destroy the temple. We can destroy the entrance and...

1:01:46 Saccharina: Okay.

1:01:46 Cumulous: Slow them down enough.

1:01:48 Saccharina: I like that, yeah, let's just fuck up the...

1:01:50 Swifty: I'd love to blow it up! I don't know if I'm included in the advisors category, but...

1:01:54 Saccharina: Yeah, uh-huh, Swifty, yeah, we're gonna blow up the foyer and the mudroom.

1:01:58 Swifty: Yes, yes! Fuck the mudroom!

1:02:05 Brennan: You- With a single slam of the Winterscoop. (slamming resounds) (explosion rattling) The door collapses. You guys have three wagons full of hardy, very frost-covered meeps that begin to cart your wagons away from here. It is not all the vast treasures of Ancient Candia, but it's enough to outfit, you know, probably like 100 soldiers. It's got books and text, the most important, most dangerous tomes you guys got. So you scooped, you know, a little scoop of cream off the top, no pun intended, got it in the wagons and head out from there.

1:02:42 Ally: Cool.

1:02:46 Saccharina: We can go back and fix it.

1:02:46 Cumulous: Please.

1:02:50 Saccharina: One, honestly, it's gonna become a UNESCO protected site once I'm done with it.

1:02:56 Brennan: You all journey from the Ice Cream Temple to Castle Manylicks, it's three days through the freezing wilderness. Liam keeps you guys all alive. You arrive at, standing atop a mighty crag, Castle Manylicks the home of House Jawbreaker. You all get the wagons in. Jawbreaker, with the help of Saccharina's marauders and the Order of the Spinning Star has retaken and his castle is safe. And you see that also you see the flags of House Rocks flying, that those forces have arrived as well and clearly are not worried about Crusaders of any kind. It seems that they've joined up, they are reinforced, and the trumpets blare strange, Northern, these are not like the long, straight golden trumpets of Castle Candy, these are like curling mountain trumpets. (trumpet blaring) (trumpet blares) As you guys approach you see there's like, purple and pink-striped big horn rams up on the castle walls, sort of tattered banners, big stone mounds of the Sweetening Path. One tiny, little Bulbian church that been shuttered after the mission left it, and you arrive here. And as the gates open you see Liam, you're sort of leading in, you see that your older brother, Grash walks up and says,

1:04:20 Grash: Hey there Liam, did you get my letter?

1:04:22 Liam: Yeah, I did.

1:04:24 Grash: Well, I see he's still very much alive so clearly you're in for the ass whooping of a lifetime!

1:04:29 Liam: Yeah, well, ask if he's king. Grash looks over at Amethar, who just gives him A Look.

1:04:33 Liam: [threateningly] That's right.

1:04:33 Grash: Noted.

1:04:38 Liam: Yeah.

1:04:39 Grash: I should still whoop your ass anyway.

1:04:40 Liam: Yeah, you can fucking try. I'm a Gloom Stalker now, bitch!

1:04:43 Ally: And I shoot him.

1:04:44 Brennan: You shoot him in the shoulder and he goes. (screams)

1:04:47 Liam: Yeah!

1:04:48 Brennan: And you see that everyone screams and you see that he goes,

1:04:51 Grash: Liam is trying to kill me!

1:04:54 Brennan: And you hear a voice from a balcony saying,

1:04:54 Joren: Let it stand!

1:04:58 Brennan: And you look up and you see your dad salutes you.

1:05:02 Joren: You take that arrow.

1:05:04 Brennan: You see he says,

1:05:04 Joren: Grash, you leave the arrow in! If I see you take the arrow out, it's an ass beating.

1:05:12 Murph: Theo is fucking horrified.

1:05:14 Lou: Yeah, I think for the first time I'm like, this was my role model?

1:05:20 Zac: Cumulous goes,

1:05:20 Cumulous: That is absolutely badass.

1:05:25 Saccharina: Liam, will you be the head of my archers?

1:05:29 Liam: Look, queen, I would love to serve you, but I've recently decided maybe to be a seed guy than a war... I'm still figuring it out.

1:05:34 Saccharina: Okay.

1:05:40 Cumulous: You just shot that guy in the arm.

1:05:41 Liam: I know, look, I just, revenge is so tempting and it's just gonna keep tempting me.

1:05:47 Ruby: Look, we can just vengeance it out and then go back to being...

1:05:51 Liam: Controlled revenge?

1:05:51 Ruby: Yeah.

1:05:52 Liam: Revenge, it's like getting a tattoo. It just leads to the next one.

1:05:55 Theobald: Look, Liam, you could be a war guy to become a seed guy again.

1:06:02 Saccharina: Also, I hatched Cinnamon from an egg, and isn't an egg sort of just like a human seed?

1:06:10 Liam: Yeah, so...

1:06:12 Cumulous: Isn't gardening waging war on the ground?

1:06:17 Liam: You guys, I don't like all these new philosophies, okay?

1:06:21 Brennan: You see the doors open. Spearia is there, your 33 other parents are there.

1:06:26 Ally: Yay!

1:06:26 Brennan: Joren welcomes you. Huge feast, music playing, big fires. Joren says,

1:06:31 Joren: To our new queen, Saccharina of the House of Frostwhip, long may she reign! Anybody who wants to get slammed down big style come and see me.

1:06:45 Saccharina: Finally, I've heard so much about it.

1:06:47 Theobald: To the queen. All To the queen!

1:06:48 Liam: Long may she reign!

1:06:52 Brennan: It is a fucking...

1:06:53 Emily: My poison taster tastes mine before I sip it.

1:06:56 Cumulous: I can taste it, I am immune to poison.

1:06:59 Ruby: So you won't be able to tell?

1:07:00 Cumulous: I don't know.

1:07:04 Murph: I also could but yeah.

1:07:08 Brennan: There are many days of feasting and merrymaking. The north of Candia is a wild fucking place. There's a lot of rooms with gumdrop bear fur rugs that smell of a lot of bodies doing a lot of stuff. There's like a thick mint, sage haze everywhere so everything's like smoky. It's all lit by burning coal and fires and smell of sweet. It's this big, pagan fucking castle.

1:07:38 Liam: Smells like home. Someone open a window, it smells like home.

1:07:44 Ruby: It's so cold outside.

1:07:44 Liam: I don't know.

1:07:47 Brennan: Within the first week of being here, you've lost track of time being on the run so long and finally you're safe again. And at the end of that week, Liam, it is your 18th Saints Day.

1:07:56 Ally: Whoa!

1:08:02 Brennan: The week of revelry ends and your dad comes over to you and says, (sighs)

1:08:08 Joren: Your older brothers that are still here are turds.

1:08:15 Liam: Thank you!

1:08:17 Joren: I got you armor.

1:08:17 Brennan: Then he hands you-

1:08:20 Liam: You remembered it was my birthday!

1:08:22 Joren: Yeah, I remembered.

1:08:23 Liam: Does it say Preston on it? [touched] It says Liam.

1:08:25 Joren: Mm, Liam, that's right. This is the Chillguard, it's a breastplate. Should keep your arms and legs free for jumping and scampering and doing all that. I remember, you're the one that's always outside. Liam is the one who's always outside.

1:08:40 Liam: Yes, that's me!

1:08:43 Brennan: He gives you a magic peppermint breastplate.

1:08:46 Ally: Sick.

1:08:48 Brennan: That raises your armor class to 16 so your armor class goes up.

1:08:52 Ally: Sick.

1:08:52 Murph: Nice.

1:08:53 Brennan: And you may also cast Shield once per long rest.

1:08:54 Murph: Whoa.

1:08:54 Ally: Fuck yes! Once per round?

1:08:58 Brennan: Once per long rest.

1:09:00 Ally: Oh, oh, got it, yeah.

1:09:00 Murph: That would be insane.

1:09:01 Ally: I was like, that's crazy.

1:09:02 Brennan: Raises your AC by 6.

1:09:02 Ally: 1, yeah, yeah.

1:09:05 Zac: Permanently.

1:09:05 Ally: Cool.

1:09:07 Siobhan: You're invincible and you can fly.

1:09:08 Ally: Fuck, yeah.

1:09:09 Brennan: You see he just looks at you and says,

1:09:11 Joren: Uh, obviously, you know, we're out of the Concord now, and you know, this whole ward business is over so you'll be back here at Castle Manylicks. And you know, you're not next in line so you do whatever you wish, but yeah, you're good out there and you did it, you know?

1:09:35 Liam: Thanks. I have been thinking though, you know, if I get married I don't come back, right? I just go live wherever.

1:09:46 Joren: Yeah, that's right.

1:09:50 Liam: I don't, I haven't found someone like me yet, but I think I might get married and I don't think I will come back here. (sighs) Everyone back here are turds, and you have like 60 sexual partners. You're not gonna miss me.

1:10:18 Joren: I have to have sex with about three people a day just to keep people happy. (Emily laughs)

1:10:25 Liam: Can I just tell you right now, I'm asexual. I'm not aromantic, I'm looking for a romantic partner, Dad. I'm nothing like you. Sex doesn't do it for me. Seems a little clinical, a little sweaty, everything's wet!

1:10:39 Joren: Yeah, no, it's good.

1:10:41 Liam: Who signs up for that?

1:10:42 Joren: It's great, you get wet.

1:10:42 Liam: Multiple sources of wet, no!

1:10:45 Joren: I love stuff to happen to my holes I don't know what's going on.

1:10:48 Liam: Not me! So I think I'm gonna find some sort of sweetie to snuggle and I'm gonna go back to being a seed guy.

1:10:57 Joren: Seed guy, war guy, you're my guy.

1:11:00 Liam: Aw.

1:11:00 Brennan: And he gives you a big hug.

1:11:02 Ally: I weep.

1:11:03 Brennan: You see he gives you a huge hug and he says,

1:11:06 Joren: Now, I gotta go fuck a couple people because it's been weeks.

1:11:07 Liam: Okay.

1:11:09 Joren: You know, we got 'em on rotation, it's just hard. You gotta really…

1:11:11 Liam: I saw that kind of chore wheel looking thing, but it wasn't chores, it was just names and positions.

1:11:16 Joren: As much as you are proud of your asexual identity, I'm very proud of my polyamorous identity.

1:11:21 Liam: Yeah, yeah, cool.

1:11:21 Joren: I do love my partners. I love all of them, the ones that I am wed to and the ones that are more casual, but it's logistical. It's not a fucking party, you know?

1:11:33 Liam: Okay.

1:11:33 Joren: If you're trying to...

1:11:35 Liam: Are you ever, yeah, okay.

1:11:36 Joren: You gotta take care of people, you know?

1:11:38 Liam: Okay.

1:11:39 Joren: It's about getting needs met. If you think the answers to life are gonna be solved by going poly, you're crazy.

1:11:42 Liam: Yeah.

1:11:44 Joren: 'Cause it's just, it's a different type of thing to navigate and it requires just as much respect and diligence if not more because you're trying to handle more people.

1:11:51 Liam: Yeah.

1:11:51 Joren: Yeah.

1:11:53 Liam: Yeah, it is all about respect.

1:11:53 Joren: It's about respect, it's about communication.

1:11:55 Liam: Yeah, totally.

1:11:56 Joren: All right, I'm gonna go polish Chin Seeker so I can smash some heads!

1:12:02 Liam: Was that a sexual thing or was that a war thing? I'm losing track.

1:12:11 Brennan: So the Crusaders in the Great Stone Candy Mountains have been driven out. There are still open Crusaders in the South, and it looks like the Ceresian forces, the Imperial forces have backed out which means that the Ceresian forces backed out with them based on a letter from the Duchess Primsy Coldbottle written to all of the lords and ladies and nobles of the Concord saying, the rumors are true that an heir other than Joren Jawbreaker is the rightful claimant to the throne of Candia which means that all nations invading Candia have broken the Concord and trials must be administered and a meeting in Comida of the Cornucopian Council must be held and people held accountable for what has happened and-

1:13:00 Ally: Fuck yeah, Primsy. (Emily sneezes)

1:13:01 Murph: Bless you.

1:13:01 Brennan: And so, bless you. So you see that Ceresia has withdrawn because of this and the Imperial forces- (Emily sneezes daintily)

1:13:09 Brennan: Bless you.

1:13:09 Lou: Double bless you.

1:13:10 Ally: They're so cute! Do you want a tissue?

1:13:11 Emily: No, I'm okay.

1:13:13 Brennan: But the crusade still stands because that's not a matter of nations. So there are like Vegetanian and Fructeran and Ceresian lords that have their people, you know that are attacking which is much less of a threat, but it does mean that there's still urgency that Southern Candia is burning. There are people attacking, and the forces of House Cruller are letting them do that. Very shortly thereafter, Saccharina, you have an official coronation. And an envoy from the Dairy Islands arrives and a diplomat from the Meat Lands arrives as well, both to witness this coronation and see that the claims of the heir are true. A huge ceremony is held. What's Saccharina's ceremony like at Castle Manylicks?

1:14:05 Emily: What is it like? (sighs) Okay, I know I said I wanted a party at a bar, but I think that Saccharina is realizing she needs to put on a little more of a show to get some respect so I think it's very, very lavish, very drunken. There's a lot of fermented yak milk. And I think that, yeah, I think I like walk down the aisle like a bride and deep down inside, like, I'm so uncomfortable with it. And like every five minutes I'm like, going into the bathroom and just being like, oh God, oh God, oh God, oh God, oh God, and then just like leaving and looking as regal as I can.

1:14:45 Brennan: Mm-hmm, the ceremony is held. Your marauders cheer the loudest of anybody. You see Gooey screaming, Jon Bon (barks) like barking and howling of your insane mountain warriors and sailors and cutthroats.

1:14:59 Emily: Oh, I'm wearing a very fancy gown, but I am still wearing my plate mail over it.

1:15:03 Brennan: Hell yeah.

1:15:03 Siobhan: Cool.

1:15:06 Murph: I think Theo's trying to get everyone to do like a proper kneel.

1:15:08 Brennan: Yes.

1:15:11 Murph: Like drop the knee. Like, everybody's getting rowdy.

1:15:14 Theobald: Okay, let's do this, this is official now.

1:15:17 Zac: Cumulous is testing wine still.

1:15:17 Cumulous: Not sure. Who knows.

1:15:21 Brennan: And for the first time you are sworn in by Spearia Mentha who, even though she was like, she is the one who was married in the Bulbian church and technically is like an ordained Bulbian, she just straight up performs a Sweetening Path ceremony. There's no mention of the Bulb anywhere. It is a full pagan ritual.

1:15:38 Emily: Yeah, buddy.

1:15:42 Brennan: And it's like, just enough for the Dairy Islanders and the Meatlanders, the fact that Spearia is ordained in the Bulbian Church that it's like, hey, we'll sign our names on this. We saw it, it happened, it's legal.

1:15:56 Emily: And then I think once things get like really rowdy we probably light some Bulb Bibles on fire and shit.

1:16:02 Brennan: Hell yeah, hell yeah.

1:16:06 Ruby: Are we the bad guys? We're burning books. Feels like a slippery slope.

1:16:12 Liam: You know, I also didn't like this!

1:16:14 Theobald: The queen said to burn the books!

1:16:16 Cumulous: What are you talking about, Ruby? (ripping pages)

1:16:17 Liam: We're not burning all of them.

1:16:19 Ally: You get a temporary hit point.

1:16:22 Brennan: Ruby, as you say that you see that your mother, Caramelinda, looks and shakes her head. She's a devout Bulbian, she's looking at it and... (Siobhan sighs)

1:16:33 Brennan: The Duchess Primsy Coldbottle comes to you and says,

1:16:37 Primsy: Your Majesty, Queen Saccharina, it is a pleasure and an honor to swear to you as the new queen of Candia. As the duchess of the Dairy Islands can I just say that it is a delight to see something of a cousin on the throne of Candia,

1:16:50 Brennan: And winks at you.

1:16:52 Saccharina: (laughs) Thank you, I mean, honestly your support means the world and right back at you.

1:16:58 Emily: Curtsy to the duchess.

1:17:00 Primsy: Oh, that's very kind, I appreciate it. Well, the matter will need to be sorted and there is a great deal to discuss. The laws of the Concord are clear, and there must be some recompense for what has happened. We will…

1:17:18 Saccharina: Yes, I do expect that the Concord will see the injustices that were committed against Candia rectified.

1:17:30 Brennan: Primsy also goes over to you, Liam, at the thing and she says,

1:17:33 Primsy: Um, well, Count Freezyberg, the Master Liam Wilhelmina.

1:17:37 Liam: Hello, Duchess, hi.

1:17:41 Primsy: You look rather charming in your new armor.

1:17:46 Liam: Thank you, my dad got it for me, actually for my birthday. It's my birthday.

1:17:49 Primsy: That's lovely. Well, it's lovely to see you again, and thank you again for your brave heroics on the battle.

1:17:59 Liam: Yeah, thanks.

1:17:59 Primsy: Ships.

1:18:01 Liam: Yeah.

1:18:02 Primsy: Do you still have my favor from the tourney?

1:18:05 Liam: Yeah, yeah, totally. (chuckles) What?

1:18:13 Primsy: Oh, nothing, just, you know, it's good to see you.

1:18:16 Liam: Yeah, good to see you, too.

1:18:18 Primsy: Um, Annabelle and Sir Morris were mentioning that seeing as my previous husband was shot to the bottom of the sea by a magic dagger.

1:18:32 Liam: Mm-hmm.

1:18:32 Primsy: That I, and as a widow that my prospects were less than ideal.

1:18:40 Liam: Oh.

1:18:40 Primsy: And, um, you know, probably I would settle for a political marriage with, you know, someone from another country who might, you know, probably not a prince or anything, but maybe like a, you know, earl or maybe like a count.

1:19:00 Liam: That's so crazy 'cause I am a count.

1:19:03 Primsy: Really?

1:19:03 Liam: Um, yeah, I uh, I do think that ultimately we will have such a huge misunderstanding in what we want out of the relationship, and I will strive to maybe one day meet someone whose needs meet my own and there is-

1:19:20 Primsy: What sort of needs are you talking about?

1:19:22 Liam: It's honestly more like a lack of needs, but I am thinking about taking a political marriage. See, I, um, I just feel like most people are like, I'm so in love I'm going to bone that person and for me it's like, I'm so in love I'm gonna hug that person really tight and move on with my day.

1:19:49 Primsy: Well, I don't have a problem with that.

1:19:51 Liam: Oh, that's really cool, yeah. Yeah, I just, you know...

1:19:57 Primsy: Listen, you know, I was very sweet on Stilton and I like to kiss, but, you know, and I'm soon to be 17 and all of that should wait until I'm a woman and grown.

1:20:06 Liam: Hmm, interesting.

1:20:09 Primsy: But I, to be honest, I've been mortified since I've been here. [quietly] Everyone keeps talking about getting slammed down big style.

1:20:16 Liam: Yeah, it's a lot, and it's for those people, you know. That's what they wanna do, it's just not me, it's absolutely not.

1:20:23 Primsy: My head is a milk bottle, and if I were to be slammed down in any sort of meaningful way...

1:20:29 Liam: You'd die.

1:20:29 Primsy: I could die.

1:20:30 Liam: Yeah.

1:20:31 Primsy: So I'm not about that life.

1:20:33 Liam: Me neither, me neither.

1:20:34 Primsy: Would you like to hold hands and go on a walk?

1:20:36 Liam: I would love to. I would freaking love to!

1:20:40 Brennan: She holds your hand and goes on a walk with you.

1:20:43 Ally: Me and a milk bottle.

1:20:48 Siobhan: I would like to find my pops and say,

1:20:54 Ruby: And since Manta Ray's here I was thinking about getting Jet's name tattooed above my heart, and I was wondering if you would like to do that, too.

1:21:03 Amethar: Oh, let's make it double, Manta!

1:21:05 Manta Ray: Right there, sir.

1:21:06 Amethar: Two tattoos, stat.

1:21:08 Manta Ray: All right, you want it on like a little banner, you want it on a heart, do you want to do it on an anchor or do you want it on a…

1:21:12 Amethar: Oh, that's a good question.

1:21:14 Ruby: Oh my goodness, I feel like a banner.

1:21:18 Amethar: Make mine a dagger like stabbing me, like, through my heart.

1:21:19 Ruby: Oh no, that's really cool. Yeah, I want that, too.

1:21:22 Manta Ray: I could do a banner over a dagger.

1:21:23 Amethar: Oh, that's dope.

1:21:23 Ruby: Yes!

1:21:24 Amethar: Right, let's do it!

1:21:25 Ruby: Man, this is the daddy daughter special, I think.

1:21:28 Brennan: You guys get two tattoos from Manta Ray that both say Jet on them.

1:21:32 Cumulous: I'll get whatever tattoo you want me to get.

1:21:34 Ruby: Okay, no.

1:21:34 Amethar: Honestly, what do you want?

1:21:38 Cumulous: Hm, um, well...

1:21:41 Ruby: What about a magical weapon?

1:21:41 Cumulous: A magical weapon?

1:21:44 Amethar: Yeah, you want like a big ax?

1:21:45 Ruby: Picture of a magical weapon.

1:21:47 Cumulous: Can I get a big ax on my back?

1:21:48 Saccharina: Ooh, could I get a big ax on my back also?

1:21:52 Manta Ray: Right, yeah, I'll probably need some more ink if we're doing a full...

1:21:55 Amethar: Well, we'll find it.

1:21:55 Ruby: We'll find it.

1:21:57 Manta Ray: That's right, oh great.

1:22:00 Brennan: Cool, you guys get a bunch of tats, sweet fucking party.

1:22:03 Murph: Theo is cringing so hard as the queen gets a full back stick and poke tattoo.

1:22:08 Saccharina: Yeah, yeah, I love the pain!

1:22:11 Lou: Amethar can't stop, he doesn't like that he is doing it, but can't stop imagining Primsy Coldbottle getting smacked down big style and just, her head shattering. It's just so gruesome.

1:22:28 Brennan: Yeah, you see, you know, Castle Manylicks has a lot going on and a lot of it is frightening. You guys, so, you know, being safe, healing, you're researching a bunch of stuff. There's a little bit of downtime here. Probably what we should cover is, the four things you guys decided on before were basically armies, allies, artifacts, and then attacking the castle, right? The artifacts you've got, you have summoned your allies to you. Your armies are all gathered. Basically what the deal is now is that there are still some Crusaders in the Great Stone Candy Mountains that make life a little bit tricky, and then there is this meeting happening potentially at Castle Candy. (dramatic instrumental music)

1:23:20 Brennan: You guys end up having a war council after the sort of week of festivities, Liam's Saints Day, the coronation. The attitude from your advisors is one of, Ceresia has retreated, but given how important the divvying up of Candia is, your other advisors are not holding up a lot of hope that Primsy's letters are going to get the job done rather than mostly stall people out. That without a Concordant Emperor or Empress there's not really a Concord. And that if it were just to disband, maybe the Meat Lands and the Dairy Islands would come to your aid, maybe they wouldn't, but certainly Vegetania, Ceresia, and Fructera are the vast majority of people in Calorum.

1:24:14 Murph: Hmm, question, so is the main Crusader Army at Castle Candy now or are they marching north?

1:24:26 Brennan: They are ransacking the Southlands and are pinned down in the Great Stone Candy Mountains. Before you guys showed up, remember like, Keradin and Grissini and a big Imperial and church force had besieged Castle Manylicks and were taking over. And basically what happened is once Ceresia withdrew and the Imperial forces withdrew along with it, the church, Keradin's church people were just left and they didn't leave. So you've got a couple, like, Bulbian Crusader armies that were like 1/3 of the original force still kinda scattered in the Great Stone Candy Mountains.

1:25:03 Murph: Got it.

1:25:05 Saccharina: Do you have allies in Vegetania?

1:25:07 Amethar: Um, not really. I mean, the way the war happened, I mean, mostly the Dairy Islands and Fructera were who I was with, Vegetania's-

1:25:22 Saccharina: But Fructera we can't trust right now.

1:25:24 Amethar: Of course.

1:25:24 Saccharina: Because of Plumbeline, right?

1:25:25 Amethar: Yeah.

1:25:25 Saccharina: Okay.

1:25:27 Theobald: Queen Saccharina, perhaps we could call upon our allies from the Dairy Islands and the Meat Lands to meet us here and help defend Castle Manylicks while a force and the rest of us go to retake Castle Candy?

1:25:46 Saccharina: I see, so you're saying sort of a distraction war while we ambush those meeting?

1:25:56 Theobald: I think a way to defend Castle Manylicks without losing too many of our own troops would be to get some Dairy Islanders here.

1:26:07 Saccharina: To be clear, is Cruller's, I remember Cruller was trying to orchestrate some sort of coup or some sort of new Concord. Do we know the timeline? Have we intercepted any missives, like if they're still doing that?

1:26:27 Brennan: If you guys would like to, you can go ahead and give me a group espionage check. So go ahead and either give me-

1:26:36 Siobhan: This game rules.

1:26:37 Brennan: So what I'm gonna ask you guys to do is give me either Stealth or I would say, you can give me either Stealth, Insight, or Perception and it'll be a little bit good if your group can clear a 15 and incredible if you can clear a 20.

1:26:56 Emily: Can Cinnamon give me advantage?

1:26:58 Brennan: I'm actually gonna say that you get advantage from the artifacts that were taken. And you see that there are two artifacts that are set up in Castle Manylicks, one of which is a crystal pool of milkshake that you can gaze into. And another is a swarm of white chocolate ravens that show up and you can send them over the countryside to...

1:27:24 Saccharina: (laughs) Fly my birdies, fly! (ravens cawing)

1:27:29 Siobhan: We're definitely the bad guys. Oh, wow!

1:27:32 Emily: I got two 15.

1:27:33 Murph: Jesus Christ, I got a 1.

1:27:33 Emily: 23.

1:27:35 Brennan: 23?

1:27:35 Siobhan: Yeah, I got a...

1:27:37 Zac: 22.

1:27:37 Ally: Nat 20, and I have plus 12 to that.

1:27:38 Siobhan: Jesus. (Brennan cheering)

1:27:41 Siobhan: Is that enough?

1:27:44 Saccharina: Master of arrows, what have you found?

1:27:46 Brennan: (laughs) Over the course of a couple of weeks the Witch Queen of Candia sits in her throne atop this tall tower in a pagan castle in the North of Candia sending fleets of ravens out and gazing into this pool of milkshake. You lead a contingent of peppermint rangers, and just like assassinate couriers. You shoot messenger ravens down out of the sky that are being, or like messenger owls out of the sky, Ceresian owls. You intercept supply lines, find things there. Who else got a 20 or above, Cumulous? Yeah, your Order is fully empowered again. You guys have all these tools at your disposal again. You start getting the teleportation grids back online. And you guys are just fucking ghosts in the night. Also, because there's a crusade on, you're still at war so your guys are not just going to Candia, you're dipping into Ceresia, into Fructera just like striking out into the night. (Zac snaps fingers) (Brennan laughs)

1:28:46 Emily: Can my ravens tell me if, like, if they see like magic waking up across the land?

1:28:53 Brennan: We're actually going to go to a scene. I think that this is probably, the people that rolled 20s were Saccharina.

1:28:58 Emily: 23.

1:28:59 Brennan: 23.

1:28:59 Emily: Not nat.

1:29:00 Brennan: This, and a nat 20 here. You guys arrive at a village, a rather large town in the southern area of the Great Stone Candy Mountains near toward where the lowlands start again. Your marauders have hit this place and you knew that there was an envoy of the Imperator here. Fires rise from the buildings around here as, 'cause the Crusaders either killed or drove out everyone that was here except for the people that were loyal to the Bulbian Church. You see that in the night with fires everywhere the doors of the church are opened. You have some peppermint rangers here. You're here with the Order of the Spinning Star. And your marauders, Gooey and Jon Bon are dragging clergy out of the Bulbian Church and throwing them on the ground in front of you. There's dead Crusaders all around here. And one of the priests is like, grabbed by the hair, brought up onto his knees. Blood is coming out of his eyes, and you see Jon Bon says,

1:30:06 Jon Bon: Produce the letter.

1:30:13 Brennan: You see he reaches in and takes something stamped from the Pontifex herself.

1:30:18 Saccharina: Thank you. (clears throat)

1:30:21 Brennan: You see that as he pulls the letter out his holy symbol of the Bulb shows. Cinnamon wrapped around your shoulder just goes. (snarls) And his eyes glow red as he sees the Bulb.

1:30:34 Emily: I grab the holy symbol then Create Bonfire on it.

1:30:39 Brennan: (fire roaring) As you do, you see that this Bulbian priest, a glow appears on his chest over his heart and you see that almost like dim spotlights, Cinnamon's eyes are trained on this priest's heart. (snarls) (epic instrumental music)

1:31:10 Saccharina: [sighs, clears throat, then says in a whisper] Okay. Go for it, baby.

1:31:17 Brennan: (snarls and mimics chomping) You see Cinnamon leaps on the priest, bites his throat out. Your marauders raise their axes and start beheading the priests here in front of the Bulbian Church. The villagers start screaming. Your marauders say,

1:31:30 Marauders: Let no one leave!

1:31:33 Brennan: They rush after the villagers.

1:31:35 Saccharina: No, save the villagers, they're fine.

1:31:37 Brennan: You see that they turn to you,

1:31:37 Marauders: Yes, my queen.

1:31:41 Brennan: The villagers turn to look at you as the fire rages around their town and you see there is a cracking and sundering of bone as Cinnamon wriggles. You see that Cinnamon devours this Bulbian priest's heart. As Cinnamon does so, you see that. (snarls and growls) And you could swear he's a little bigger than he was before.

1:32:05 Emily: [barely audible] Oh my God that is so fucked up. [normal] Um, I think I see this and I'm like, I think it's awesome, but I also take my Winterscoop staff and I cast Cone of Cold to put out the fires.

1:32:26 Brennan: (wind whooshing) You see that the fires begin to go out, the villagers look at their saved village. These are like, Candian villagers who were just conquered by these Crusaders, but they are also looking, you see many of them wear Bulbian symbols, symbols of the Bulb and are looking at these slaughtered priests that also just took part in conquering and occupying their village and just gaze in horror.

1:32:51 Saccharina: Many of you went to the Bulb to be saved, but hopefully today you'll remember what really saved you.

1:32:58 Brennan: (snarls and roars) Fire and Cinnamon looks at the rest of the clergy's bodies around the ground. (Cinnamon growling)

1:33:07 Emily: Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God! (laughs) Uh… I let him do it.

1:33:20 Brennan: (growling and chewing) The villagers watch as the fires extinguish and the only light left in the dim night of the village is the glow from behind Cinnamon's jaws as he eats and eats and eats. (hands rubbing swiftly) You guys arrive after many weeks of this.

1:33:43 Ally: Was there anything in that letter that you got?

1:33:44 Emily: Oh yeah.

1:33:44 Brennan: Oh yes, the letter.

1:33:46 Emily: Oh, right, the letter. I undo Create Bonfire and just chuck the holy symbol over my shoulder. (clears throat)

1:33:54 Brennan: In the letter is word from the Pontifex to Sir Keradin to arrive to protect and accompany her to Castle Candy. She says, the meeting will take place at Castle Candy on the 13th day of Highharvest. This is right now 28th day of Harvestdawn, so you have a little over two weeks.

1:34:21 Saccharina: Master of arrows, your carrot will be at Castle Candy on the 13th of Highharvest if you wish to take a break from gardening.

1:34:34 Liam: I will probably do that.

1:34:37 Brennan: (chuckles) You have your date. You know that they will all be there.

1:34:44 Ruby: Let's plant that carrot in the soil.

1:34:47 Liam: No, 'cause then he would flourish.

1:34:48 Ruby: Fuck.

1:34:48 Liam: Let's put that carrot in a hot car.

1:34:52 Ruby: Ah.

1:34:55 Liam: 'Cause you forgot about...

1:34:55 Theobald: Garbage disposal.

1:34:56 Liam: Yes!

1:34:56 Ruby: Yes, there we go.

1:34:58 Emily: Right, right, right.

1:34:58 Ally: Ooh, I wish I could make all my arrows become a garbage disposal.

1:35:01 Siobhan: That would be sick.

1:35:04 Brennan: At the war council after you get this information you guys meet back up again at Castle Manylicks. Gooey comes to you before the war council and says,

1:35:14 Gooey: Uh, Your Majesty, there's a rumor that some of the Crusaders have fled to Port Syrup and are waiting for extraction by the church. I'd be happy to go and take care of it.

1:35:25 Saccharina: Yes, I dispatch you to do so.

1:35:28 Brennan: This is about...

1:35:29 Saccharina: How are things going with Theo?

1:35:29 Brennan: She says, uh… [to Murph] how are things going with Theo?

1:35:33 Murph: I feel like we're kind of, I feel like Theo, like, in this sexually charged castle is actively avoiding Gooey in like a way that, just like, try to be so professional so he literally, but he's such a hang-around that he's just out of, like within earshot of the Queen basically at all times and then when Gooey leaves, just walks up.

1:35:58 Brennan: Cool, you see that Gooey's like,

1:35:58 Gooey: (sighs) Your Majesty... He's being weird, I don't get it, it's...

1:36:06 Saccharina: He is being weird. I'll order him to stop being weird.

1:36:08 Gooey: Don't order him to fuck me.

1:36:09 Saccharina: Okay, I won't, I won't.

1:36:09 Gooey: That's not.

1:36:10 Saccharina: No, no, no, no, no, no.

1:36:10 Gooey: I hate that, yeah.

1:36:12 Saccharina: Not to fuck you, just to stop being weird.

1:36:14 Gooey: To stop being weird, I appreciate that. It's just like, look...

1:36:15 Saccharina: What if I order him to follow his heart?

1:36:19 Gooey: That's beautiful.

1:36:19 Saccharina: Yeah, I'll do that.

1:36:20 Liam: Can I ask you a question?

1:36:20 Gooey: Yes.

1:36:24 Liam: Would it be good? Would a gummy bear and chocolate be good?

1:36:31 Saccharina: Yeah, haven't you ever had a movie popcorn salad?

1:36:34 Liam: No, what, what is that?

1:36:36 Saccharina: It's just where you put, it's like where you put a bunch of candy together in with popcorn.

1:36:40 Liam: Okay, that's good, I like that.

1:36:47 Brennan: So Gooey says,

1:36:47 Cumulous: Are we joining the Ceresian?

1:36:53 Liam: Hey.

1:36:54 Saccharina: Only the ones that are willing to do a movie popcorn snack.

1:36:55 Liam: Okay.

1:36:58 Brennan: Gooey says,

1:36:58 Gooey: We can go and root the Crusaders out from Port Syrup.

1:37:03 Brennan: And this is about three days after finding the letter in the village and you see she says,

1:37:11 Gooey: And I'd also be happy to take your sweet, rambunctious son along with us.

1:37:17 Brennan: And you see that she, Cinnamon is about the size of a horse now. (Ally whistles)

1:37:26 Saccharina: I… I believe there will be many more Bulbian hearts for him. I think we're just gonna stick around here and practice some tricks.

1:37:44 Gooey: As you wish, Your Majesty.

1:37:47 Brennan: You see that Cinnamon looks up at you with sad little eyes. Or not at, he looks eye to eye with you and you see he looks at Gooey going away and goes (snorts softly) as little bits of smoke come out of his nostrils.

1:38:02 Saccharina: Wait.

1:38:05 Gooey: Your Majesty?

1:38:08 Saccharina: (sighs) Give the boy what he wants.

1:38:11 Brennan: (snorts and snarls) You see he nuzzles up against you and snorts a little bit of ash and cinnamon on you.

1:38:16 Saccharina: I've never had the love of family before and I can't say no to you!

1:38:21 Brennan: You see Gooey takes the chain off his neck. He flaps his wings and she says,

1:38:26 Gooey: Well, we'll take a teleportation circle, but Cinnamon, I think you know what to do.

1:38:31 Brennan: And he (screams and mimics wind howling) takes off into the sky to fly west to Port Syrup. (Emily sighs)

1:38:39 Brennan: You guys have your little war council now knowing the information that you know about the 13th day of Highharvest.

1:38:46 Cumulous: What if we spread misinformation about the status of Castle Manylicks and we made it seem as though we were being attacked by the Meatlanders and then we just abandoned the castle and attacked King Candy at full force?

1:39:07 Saccharina: Yes, I had a similar thought, staging some sort of military distraction.

1:39:14 Theobald: The only problem with that is that that would make them reinforce Castle Candy even more.

1:39:20 Saccharina: Ah, yes, if they thought that the Meatlanders...

1:39:23 Theobald: We could, though, do something like that and it would be, without even dragging the Meatlanders into it, we could pretend that there's more conflict between House Jawbreaker and the new queen.

1:39:37 Saccharina: That's one way, we could also...

1:39:39 Liam: Wow, yeah. (dramatic instrumental music)

1:39:41 Saccharina: We could also spread a false information that we have a,  that we've planned an assault on somewhere in Ceresia.

1:39:54 Theobald: That might just lead to, the Ceresians, it sounds like, already have reason to maybe not attack us.

1:39:59 Brennan: You actually know that the Ceresians are holding about 40 miles of Candian territory in Gumdrop Pass which is the main pass from Ceresia into Candia so they've, they're still technically invading, but they like, you know what I mean?

1:40:14 Murph: Yeah.

1:40:14 Brennan: They withdrew their troops, but Gumdrop Pass is such an important strategic location that they couldn't give it all the way up.

1:40:24 Saccharina: I know that we all have those who are disloyal to us so I do not think it would be hard to get that information in a way that felt authentic.

1:40:41 Theobald: We have this dragon. There'll be rumors just by seeing Cinnamon.

1:40:44 Saccharina: Sending the dragon, yeah, yes. (epic instrumental music)

1:40:55 Ruby: We're gonna kill them all, right? I know I keep saying it, but...

1:40:59 Saccharina: I mean, honestly that's definitely my plan.

1:41:02 Amethar: Great.

1:41:02 Ruby: Okay, great.

1:41:03 Saccharina: Yeah, I'm like, trying to keep the bloodlust at bay a little bit, but when I go there I'm gonna just fully unleash it.

1:41:10 Liam: Yeah.

1:41:10 Amethar: Great.

1:41:12 Ruby: Do we want to go as an army or do we want to go as a small force? We all know the castle better than everybody there except maybe Cruller.

1:41:20 Saccharina: From fighting alongside all of you I feel as though a carefully plotted assassination may be in our advantage.

1:41:37 Cumulous: We were able to sneak out of the castle, do you think that we could sneak back in?

1:41:40 Amethar: I mean, if we use their teleportation circles and slip, you know, through the same way that, Theo, you made it out, we could probably get deep inside the castle with a small force.

1:41:52 Cumulous: And have a bigger force attack the outside or something.

1:41:54 Liam: Mm-hmm, have a wave, we're the first wave and then we have...

1:41:57 Theobald: I think that's the move is if about 1/3 of their forces are still down by Castle Candy that means we should bring people with us, but we could sneak in as a small group on the castle.

1:42:11 Amethar: Itself.

1:42:11 Theobald: And that way if there's fighting outside and fighting inside they can't bring too many people into...

1:42:17 Amethar: Exactly.

1:42:18 Brennan: You see that Snickersnack speaks up and says,

1:42:20 Snickersnack: Um, my Lord Cumulous, uh, the standing stones within days' travel of Castle Candy have been destroyed. The Crusaders have done their work there. So a teleportation could move us throughout the Great Stone Candy Mountains, perhaps some places in the West Cake still, but to make it all the way to Castle Candy speedily the teleportation stones are not available to us.

1:42:52 Brennan: You see that Manta Ray speaks up and says,

1:42:56 Manta Ray: Right well, Annabelle is headed with her new fleet of ships to Port Syrup and would be there in a few days' time. There's a, if you're looking for a fast way to get to Castle Candy, a few Dairy ships going up that way could probably sneak by, maybe no more than two or three, but if you are talking about a small force to just take the castle back, it could be enough.

1:43:22 Liam: That's great.

1:43:22 Theobald: All right.

1:43:23 Saccharina: I definitely want to send my ravens to explore if there are many encampments around Castle Candy or not. Like if it feels like there's a military presence there or.

1:43:35 Theobald: That's a good idea.

1:43:37 Saccharina: Just to make sure that we're not trying to sneak up on an entire army.

1:43:39 Brennan: Gotcha. Go ahead an give me an Insight check or Perception.

1:43:43 Emily: Okay.

1:43:46 Murph: Can I help?

1:43:46 Brennan: Sure, yeah, yeah, yeah.

1:43:51 Emily: Okay, 14.

1:43:51 Brennan: 14. Yes, it's hard to tell because again, it's not a unified army. There's a lot of Crusaders. If this were an army that was completely unified you'd be really fucked. Because it's sort of a Crusade with a bunch of lords that are basically coming here to, like, loot Candia, destroy religious artifacts and relics, it's possible that there's not a clear chain of command so that if you were able to hit Castle Candy fast enough and slyly enough with a fighting force you could potentially take it back while those people were there. But the risk is, if you don't take it back fast enough the Crusaders around don't have the response time of an army, but if you weren't able to take it back fast enough they would eventually be alerted and close in on the castle.

1:44:46 Emily: How long would it take for a dragon to fly from where we're talking about dispatching Cinnamon to Castle Candy?

1:44:54 Brennan: Oh, a dragon flying over land could get there in no time.

1:44:57 Emily: Okay, so we have backup if it goes terribly.

1:45:00 Theobald: We could also, we're talking about spreading misinformation. It doesn't even necessarily have to be misinformation. We could just send troops south hoping that that'll draw out some of theirs to meet us in the middle.

1:45:09 Saccharina: Yes, I agree.

1:45:10 Theobald: And then we go.

1:45:12 Brennan: You see that Joren says,

1:45:12 Joren: Where are you thinking? Where will we send troops to? Send a larger force?

1:45:18 Theobald: Make it look like we're sending a large force to Castle Candy and draw out people to meet in the middle. Leave enough people here obviously to defend your castle, but do you get what I'm saying?

1:45:26 Saccharina: Oh, yeah, yeah.

1:45:29 Theobald: Make it look like we're planning on waging a slow war, that we're not doing that to, you know, assassinate the people, the powers that be.

1:45:37 Ruby: Yeah, maybe we send an army to a place where we would have an obvious advantage so it looks like that's our big play.

1:45:45 Theobald: Like we're planning to do a siege or something?

1:45:48 Ruby: Right, or even like, we have the upper land.

1:45:53 Theobald: Yeah.

1:45:53 Saccharina: Yeah.

1:45:54 Ally: Can I investigate the seed to see if maybe I would know when is the right time to...

1:45:57 Brennan: Mm-hmm, yeah. Give me an Investigation.

1:46:03 Ally: That is 15.

1:46:06 Brennan: It doesn't appear that there's a right time right now. It seems like this is a very powerful magical thing, but right now it doesn't seem like, you know, but what's interesting is it does seem kind of like a seed in terms of like, maybe planting it would be the right thing to do, but you don't know. It's weird 'cause that place you got it from was such a place of dreams and thoughts and ideas that you're like, do I plant it in the ground or plant it in my mind? You know, like, it's confusing to, even with a 15, it's still confusing to Liam. But you don't think it needs to happen right now. You think you can wait on it until a moment where it seems like the thing you must do.

1:46:43 Ally: Okay, yeah, cool.

1:46:46 Brennan: Awesome, you see that Joren looks up and says,

1:46:51 Joren: Well, yeah, well I mean, we can send up an army just marching straight south out of the mountains. We can send an army to the east to try to take Gumdrop Pass and try to make it seem like we're trying to block them in. We could send one to Port Syrup and try to bolster the port, whatever you think.

1:47:10 Saccharina: I wonder if...

1:47:10 Theobald: What do you think?

1:47:15 Saccharina: I like the idea of staging an invasion on Castle Candy, but far away.

1:47:20 Amethar: Mm-hmm.

1:47:23 Saccharina: And sussing out their troops and distracting them north of the castle while we enter from the Cola River.

1:47:29 Theobald: They'll likely send troops north because they'll be afraid of our troops getting near the Pontifex.

1:47:34 Amethar: Exactly.

1:47:36 Saccharina: Exactly.

1:47:36 Brennan: Joren nods. And you see that Primsy speaks up and says,

1:47:41 Primsy: I think it high time that I write to Lord Cruller and say that I, on behalf of the Dairy Islands would like to recognize House Cruller as the rightful rulers of Candia.

1:47:58 Saccharina: Primsy.

1:47:58 Cumulous: So that he's not expecting any sort of siege?

1:47:59 Primsy: Or so that he is...

1:48:01 Saccharina: That is good.

1:48:01 Primsy: Or so that he is...

1:48:02 Amethar: He's kind to Dairy Island ships and all that.

1:48:03 Saccharina: That is good.

1:48:03 Primsy: So that he is expecting three Dairy Island ships bearing the duchess to Castle Candy.

1:48:10 Saccharina: We got a shark amongst us, yes, I love it!

1:48:13 Primsy: Oh, you've been awful sweet, Your Majesty. (Emily and Brennan laughing)

1:48:19 Brennan: She nods and curtsies. Yeah, she's a fucking baller.

1:48:20 Emily: Great.

1:48:24 Brennan: You all get ready to head out and meet Annabelle at Port Syrup who's coming with some Dairy Island ships. You guys arrive at Port Syrup. This is the 10th day of Highharvest. You have three days before you need to be at Castle Candy. You arrive at Port Syrup and see the joyous port city reduced to rubble. The Bulbian churches that did not ring out when Amethar first landed here are utterly destroyed. And the city is surviving. (sinister instrumental music)

1:49:18 Brennan: You know, there's not like active open flames. The flames have been put out by this point. But you see the population of the city walking in the shadow of war. The people look terrified. There is no clamor from the marketplace. There is no cry of gulls. The smell of ash burning puts a dim silence over the city as the Dairy ships stand in the harbor. You see that Gooey walks up to you, the marauders salute and bow,

1:50:02 Marauders: All hail queen Saccharina, all hail! (pounding and grunting)

1:50:08 Saccharina: Okay, love the spirit, guys!

1:50:13 Brennan: (growling) A shadow is cast over the buildings. A towering, bright red cinnamon head. (pounding) And a dragon the size of a house (snarls) slinks his long neck on the ground and like a dog pushing his head forward on a rug moves a head the size of a carriage so that his nose rests in front of you and (snorts softly) puffs of smoke.

1:50:52 Saccharina: I missed you, too. (Cinnamon inhales and exhales sharply and growls)

1:50:57 Liam: Is there a way to, like, cast Invisibility on this dragon? Or like, make it so that we don't...

1:51:04 Ruby: I mean, Invisibility isn't size dependent. It's just a creature.

1:51:07 Saccharina: Oh, I was going to dispatch Cinnamon to the-

1:51:09 Emily: We're like in private right now, right?

1:51:13 Brennan: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

1:51:14 Saccharina: I was going to dispatch Cinnamon with the fake.

1:51:18 Amethar: To make it that much more of a threat.

1:51:19 Emily: Yeah, yeah.

1:51:20 Cumulous: He can also go burn up that Ceresian line.

1:51:25 Saccharina: Yeah.

1:51:25 Theobald: You could also just have him kind of lie in wait in the mountains nearby and have him swoop in if things get super dire.

1:51:34 Saccharina: Yeah, he's just got like a real fighting spirit and I feel like if I do that he's just gonna follow us. I feel like I need to give him something to do.

1:51:42 Liam: Okay, cool, I like him being in the dispatch, that's cool.

1:51:45 Saccharina: Because then he'll be close to us so he can save us if need be.

1:51:48 Theobald: Yes, I think we need him close, that's what I'm saying.

1:51:50 Saccharina: Are you worried that I'm putting him in danger?

1:51:54 Murph: (sighs) Um, I look at Cinnamon. Cinnamon doesn't seem, does Cinnamon seem like Cinnamon could be in danger?

1:52:02 Brennan: Does Cinnamon seem like he could be in danger? No. (laughs)

1:52:05 Murph: Okay.

1:52:08 Brennan: Here in the ruins of Port Syrup, no. Cinnamon does not look like he's in danger. He looks fucking fine.

1:52:14 Emily: I take out some dragon nip and lay it around so he can roll around in it.

1:52:17 Brennan: (mimics Cinnamon snorting) Rolls around.

1:52:21 Siobhan: Can I talk to Annabelle?

1:52:23 Brennan: Annabelle is in the harbor so you head to the harbor. Amethar, what are you up to right now?

1:52:28 Lou: I mean, I think I'm just like wandering around this, just sacked city.

1:52:34 Brennan: You walk around the sacked city looking at the ruined churches and... (gentle instrumental music)

1:52:45 Brennan: You see that there is, you know, these are the churches that specifically didn't ring out for you when you came as a statement of disavowal of you as an oath breaker. The only thing that dimmed your arrival in the happy city of Port Syrup which was a loyalist, pro House of Rocks city, there is a ruined church that the spires have come down and the central area is collapsed, but the door and gate is still there, warped and buckled in by the force of a blast of fire. And the smell of death and cinnamon echoes off of it. You see that there is an incinerated body with its hand against the church door and a weapon fused into what remains of a skeletal hand as though it was holding the door shut and standing in front of it as it faced something. You look at the armor and see that through the, it's covered, you can't tell what kind of armor it is. It's covered in ash and soot and cinnamon, but there's something about it that looks familiar to you.

1:54:00 Lou: Can I investigate?

1:54:04 Brennan: You rub your hand across the armor and it reveals a burnt and corroded cheese. This is Morris Brie's armor.

1:54:15 Siobhan: Fuck.

1:54:15 Emily: There were cheese crusaders?

1:54:17 Zac: Morris Brie was sent-

1:54:17 Ally: No.

1:54:18 Emily: He was just an innocent victim.

1:54:20 Brennan: Morris Brie was the Dairy Islander knight that you guys left in charge of Port Syrup, is the one that challenged Liam to a duel. And Liam asked if he was Bulbian and he said, of course.

1:54:33 Lou: Can I pick, can I take it off of him?

1:54:37 Brennan: Yeah, you pick him up. His remains are still within the armor, his helm fused here, his bones, in the blast of fire that killed him he had his armor turned into his coffin.

1:54:50 Lou: Yeah, I think I hold it. Is there, do I get the sense that anyone is still inside?

1:55:02 Brennan: It looks like the church collapsed and anyone that was inside or anything like that, it's been left. You look at why this body is still here and you realize that is was just, you were able to pry it off and probably no one else was strong enough because it had fused partially to the door and the stone beneath it.

1:55:17 Lou: Got it. Yeah, I think I just sit next to it and just sit.

1:55:31 Brennan: Mm-hmm.

1:55:33 Emily: Can I talk to Sir Theobald?

1:55:33 Brennan: Yeah, absolutely.

1:55:36 Saccharina: Um, (clears throat) Sir Theobald, I require your council.

1:55:41 Theobald: Yes, my queen.

1:55:41 Saccharina: Okay, sorry, just a formality.

1:55:44 Theobald: Right.

1:55:47 Saccharina: I trust you enough to tell you my weaknesses which I do not trust everyone enough to do that with. Cinnamon is the first creature in my entire life who has ever freely and immediately loved me. Everyone else I have had to fight tooth and nail to prove myself to, but Cinnamon just loved me for no reason just because I existed. (soft instrumental music)

1:56:39 Saccharina: I will have a very difficult time saying no to him, and I want to say to you that just, look out for me, my… I don't necessarily, I don't know what to do about, I don't know that my love for him is stable or rational.

1:57:15 Theobald: If, (clears throat) if I can speak freely, um, I will say that it does not seem like Cinnamon saved Port Syrup but-

1:57:36 Saccharina: Yes.

1:57:36 Theobald: Destroyed it before the crusaders could have it and that's...

1:57:42 Saccharina: That is also my concern, and that is why I speak to you now.

1:57:54 Theobald: I think if we are to use Cinnamon to our advantage then I don't think it something that we can take lightly, that it's something that can be sent off as if it's a footman holding a spear.

1:58:23 Saccharina: Yes, I think even though I love him, I really can't control him.

1:58:29 Theobald: Well, yes, he's new to this world and you are his mother. You have to discipline him and make sure he, this is, you have a great responsibility.

1:58:46 Saccharina: Are you telling me to ground him? Are you telling me to ground him?

1:58:49 Theobald: I think he might need to be grounded.

1:58:51 Saccharina: I just, I don't know if I can ground him. I'll, no allowance.

1:58:56 Brennan: I think when Theobald says discipline, perhaps not right away but maybe moments after the conversation ends Saccharina remembers all of the ways in which she was disciplined as well. (Emily sighs heavily)

1:59:13 Brennan: Ruby, you go to the docks and you find Annabelle Cheddar sort of looking around at the chaos and devastation but also kind of, you can see her compartmentalizing and looking at that and then also realizing that she's about to go off to war and doesn't have time to deal with this.

1:59:29 Ruby: Annabelle, I think you're really cool, you, you also lost your titles, your lands, your power. How did you, I guess what I'm asking... this is bad, right? I'm not just blinded by this, I don't know, jealousy or anger or...

2:00:02 Brennan: You see that she puts a hand on your shoulder and says,

2:00:05 Annabelle: Ruby, I'm sorry, I'm not sure what you're asking me. Is the world bad, is this bad, what do you mean? The sack of the city? Aye 'tis bad, aye, you're not wrong. My father, the Prince Tarthur Cheddar told me that he would disown me of my title and the throne of Lacramor, my future as the princess of the Dairy Islands unless I wed and produced an heir. I had no interest in doing that, so I chose to be a captain, take my ship, my crew into the open sea. (calm instrumental music)

2:00:52 Annabelle: I was not willing to be less than free and so I gave up power and I think in a way I gave up responsibility as well.

2:01:05 Brennan: She looks around and says,

2:01:08 Annabelle: I could have lived a life of misery and perhaps the Dairy Islands would have recovered more from the war if I had. How do you see those scales though? Your freedom on one side and your joy versus the world and I'll never know if it was the right choice, but I do know that if I am to be free and to look to the horizon with clear eyes, then I need to reckon with this truth. The things I didn't decide were as much my decisions as the things I did, and what I turned my back on was my responsibility, too, even as I left them behind. So I'll take my freedom, but I won't take it without reckoning what it cost. I need to speak with your father.

2:02:17 Ruby: Okay, I'll tell him.

2:02:17 Brennan: She nods. The rest of you guys get ready to get into the ships, sail down the river. Amethar.

2:02:25 Lou: Mm-hmm?

2:02:27 Brennan: Annabelle comes up to you. Where do you think you are on the ship?

2:02:30 Lou: The helm, or, that's the front?

2:02:32 Brennan: Up on the prow, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, you're up in the prow.

2:02:34 Lou: The prow.

2:02:35 Brennan: The prow of the ship. She walks up to you. You're alone up here, it's just you and Annabelle. She looks at you and says,

2:02:43 Annabelle: Your Majesty, I know we have...

2:02:47 Amethar: Uh, yeah.

2:02:50 Annabelle: Amethar, I know we have, much has changed and there's now bigger fish to fry so to speak.

2:02:57 Amethar: Yeah.

2:03:02 Annabelle: We found, well, we found Catherine Ghee.

2:03:08 Amethar: Oh, oh.

2:03:10 Annabelle: Or I should say, Amethar, we found where she is buried.

2:03:18 Amethar: Oh, um, well, where was she?

2:03:23 Annabelle: (sighs) She was in a small grave on the Isle of Crumble off in the far West. She's buried there in a small graveyard of a Bulbian church and there was a, we weren't sure. Her name was there, but Catherine Ghee's a rather common name so we checked in with the church and there was a Father Belford Buttercream who had noted her death there in the ledger. She passed away many long years ago actually. She passed away,

2:04:03 Brennan: You see she opens a scroll and looks at it and says,

2:04:05 Annabelle: She passed away on the 12th day of Harvestdusk, 1196.

2:04:14 Amethar: Um, hey, thank you so much for doing that. I think I'm, that's important to know.

2:04:28 Annabelle: She was not a woman of letters, but Father Buttercream had some writings on her and her confiding in him. And she was taken with illness later in life after giving your daughter away. And she had become quite scared, I think, of retribution from your family or, she had become quite religious and notes about her daughter and such, but she was not a woman of letters so left nothing behind. I'm sorry for your loss, as strange as it may sound. And I know it's been almost 20 years, but...

2:05:23 Amethar: Thank you. I should go tell Saccharina.

2:05:26 Annabelle: Mm.

2:05:32 Brennan: You walk away and you find Saccharina on one of the ships.

2:05:37 Amethar: Hey.

2:05:37 Saccharina: Hm, Amethar. Have we business to attend to?

2:05:43 Amethar: Yeah, is now a good time?

2:05:47 Saccharina: I was in, yeah, no, that's good, yeah.

2:05:50 Amethar: Okay. I just found out from Annabelle that your mother is dead. (somber instrumental music)

2:06:02 Amethar: And has been for some time.

2:06:06 Saccharina: Oh...

2:06:09 Amethar: Um...

2:06:11 Saccharina: (sighs sadly) I guess that's really weird to hear because I guess I just assumed she had been. Can I ask you something?

2:06:34 Amethar: Yeah.

2:06:38 Saccharina: Who sent all those people to threaten her?

2:06:45 Amethar: [shakes his head in shock] I'm sorry?

2:06:48 Saccharina: When I was a child she lived in a constant fear because messengers from Candia threatened her.

2:06:57 Amethar: What?

2:06:57 Saccharina: That if she ever tried to contact you they would silence her with weapons.

2:07:02 Amethar: What, no, no, I sent people to find her, to… It was, I didn't, that's not, that’s not, that’s not what I wanted...

2:07:19 Emily: Can I cast Detect Thoughts on him to see if he's?

2:07:21 Brennan: Give me a Wisdom save, Lou.

2:07:21 Lou: Okay. Uh… 14?

2:07:28 Brennan: Doesn't pass, what's Amethar thinking?

2:07:31 Emily: Yeah, I wanna know if he, like...

2:07:34 Lou: I don't remember...

2:07:35 Brennan: You never sent anyone to threaten her.

2:07:37 Lou: I wanted to find her.

2:07:37 Brennan: Find her. All of Candia's vast resources were bent on finding her either to, for you, just to see her again.

2:07:49 Lou: Yeah.

2:07:49 Brennan: You, as dumb and young as you were, were very much in love. And you're feeling all that. You're feeling like you loved Catherine Ghee and you tried to find her and couldn't.

2:08:02 Saccharina: You tried to find her?

2:08:02 Amethar: Yes. I couldn't leave Castle Candia because all of my sisters had died and I had to take their place, but, I mean, your mother was the only woman I ever loved. And after the war I did everything I could within reason, still honoring my sisters, to find her.

2:08:33 Saccharina: Oh...

2:08:34 Amethar: I had no idea that they had intimidated or threatened her. And if I had, oh, the things I woulda done.

2:08:50 Saccharina: Oh, well, um, I guess I'm sorry for your loss as well then.

2:08:59 Amethar: Hey, I'm sorry.

2:09:06 Saccharina: For what?

2:09:09 Amethar: For everything. When I look at you, I get so confused. Like, I have like 1,000 thoughts at once and I can't pick which one I wanna say. And some of them are good and some of them are bad, but the life you've had, it just feels like another one of the many things I messed up. And I'm not good at this. I'm sorry.

2:10:08 Saccharina: It's okay, it means a lot that you tried to find her. [slowly] I… I didn't know... that.

2:10:31 Brennan: Amethar leaves and you feel his mind move out of your Detect Thoughts and detect again all of the feelings of Amethar's life, the role his sisters played in it, and just the weeks and months and years of messengers returning with no word or ability to know who they were looking for and also not knowing why they were going because all their young king would tell them was, there's a peasant in the Dairy Islands that I need to find.

2:11:10 Emily: In that Detect Thoughts, did I detect any affection for Saccharina or did I detect hatred for Saccharina, or did I detect nothing? That's also fine if I didn't.

2:11:22 Lou: There's a very small part of wanting to love her. Brennan nods.

2:11:33 Emily: Wanting to love her, thank you.

2:11:37 Brennan: You walk away. Where does Amethar go after that?

2:11:41 Lou: I go to whatever my quarters are and I, is the Lady Caramelinda there?

2:11:50 Brennan: Yeah, she is.

2:11:50 Lou: And I sit with her.

2:11:54 Caramelinda: I saw you speaking to Annabelle up on the front. What's going on?

2:11:58 Amethar: My wife's, my wife's dead.

2:12:07 Caramelinda: (sighs) Well, I suppose I'm sorry to hear that. She sounds like she was, well, I don't know anything about her.

2:12:17 Amethar: Yeah.

2:12:19 Caramelinda: I'm sorry that a person that you loved is gone. How did she die?

2:12:26 Amethar: Illness, got sick.

2:12:33 Caramelinda: Has she been dead long, was she?

2:12:35 Amethar: 20 years, long time.

2:12:39 Caramelinda: What did you say, Amethar? (dramatic instrumental music)

2:12:42 Amethar: 20, 20 years.

2:12:45 Caramelinda: Amethar, when did she die?

2:12:45 Amethar: Uh, 1196.

2:12:51 Emily: [jaw drops] Oh my god.

2:12:51 Caramelinda: What day of 1196?

2:12:54 Amethar: Oh, fuck, I'm not good with...

2:12:57 Caramelinda: What day, Amethar?

2:12:57 Amethar: It was like the 12th day of Harvestdawn or some...

2:13:02 Caramelinda: Harvestdawn?

2:13:03 Brennan: You see she says,

2:13:03 Caramelinda: The 12th day of Harvestdusk.

2:13:06 Amethar: Well, Caramelinda, what's happening?

2:13:10 Caramelinda: [whispering] Amethar, we were wed on the 17th day of Harvestdusk, 1196.

2:13:23 Amethar: I'm sorry, I'm not a smart guy, I'm having a real hard...

2:13:26 Caramelinda: [slams her fist] You are not an adulterer! You are not an oath-breaker! I will tell you what you are, Amethar! You are the King of Candia!

2:13:43 Amethar: Oh...

2:13:44 Brennan: And that's all for this week on "A Crown of Candy."

2:13:48 Lou: Wha?

2:13:49 Brennan: Tune in next week for the thrilling conclusion.

2:13:51 Siobhan: Bastard no more! (Brennan and Emily laughing)

2:13:53 Ally: Wow! (clapping) [NEXT EPISODE - Episode 16: For Candia! (Part 1)] [NEXT TIME ON DIMENSION 20] (alarm blares) (epic instrumental music) (men screaming)

2:14:04 Ruby: I think she's dangerous.

2:14:05 Caramelinda: There is always a potential that certain problems can solve themselves.

2:14:10 Theobald: For Candia! (shouts) (wind howling) (explosion)

2:14:14 Manta Ray: Let's get Amethar his home back, shall we? (grunts and screams)

2:14:18 Swifty: We gotta kill all those motherfuckers. All you gotta do is give me the word. [dragon roaring and snarling]

2:14:23 Vegetanian: Dragon! Transcribed by Kyber Bonsai and Tillie the Paladin Edited by Kyber Bonsai, Tillie the Paladin, gluegunshots, solsys