WRITTEN RECAP
Episode Forty-Six begins inside a place that, according to everything the heroes knew about the world, should not exist.
The Dragoon’s Oath Bastion has somehow returned to history.
Ash Riven remembers it.
Old records now seem to remember it.
And the party has already discovered that this is not the only thing the world has suddenly decided was always there.
Unfortunately, before anyone can investigate what that means, twelve armored statues come to life.
The chamber is known as the Hall of Lowered Spears. Ancient warriors kneel throughout the room, each holding a spear toward the floor.
Then the voices begin.
Protect the truth.
Protect the world.
Obey the gods.
The statues rise.
The Old Dudes respond in the traditional manner.
Violence.
Eth throws himself into the fight with the increasingly concerning combination of rage, reckless attacks, sneak attacks and Gambit’s Fang.
Sspaa works from the edges, using his bow and eventually discovering that his Shadow Silk Robe can teleport him directly behind an enemy.
This is very exciting until everyone points out that teleportation abilities are traditionally useful for escaping danger rather than arriving directly in the middle of it.
Drachen decides twelve heavily armored enemies are an excellent reason to animate ten small objects.
The spell works.
Sort of.
A small army of animated objects floods the battlefield, becoming affectionately known as the teapots whether or not any of them are actually teapots.
They do not hit particularly often.
They are, however, very good at giving the enemy something else to attack.
Hayben wades into the armored guardians with Ash Riven, while Umeren provides magic and support from behind the front line.
Between fireballs, blades, arrows, animated household goods and a considerable amount of experimentation with newly automated character abilities, the twelve guardians eventually fall.
The party has defeated the Hall of Lowered Spears.
More importantly, now they can actually look at the statues.
They are wearing ancient versions of Steelwind Dragoon armor.
That immediately matters to Hayben.
But there is something stranger.
The statues’ eyes have been destroyed.
Not during the fight.
Someone deliberately smashed them out beforehand.
The same guardians that awakened saying they must protect the truth have been made unable to see it.
That feels less like vandalism and more like a message.
The party continues exploring.
Eth examines a nearby door and successfully discovers a trap: a glass container filled with caustic liquid positioned to shatter if the door is opened.
Finding the trap goes very well.
Disarming it goes less well.
The container breaks.
Acid bursts outward.
Eth manages to avoid breathing in enough of it to suffer any serious harm, proving once again that identifying a trap and successfully doing something about it are two completely different skills.
Beyond the door is a command chamber.
Maps cover a large central table.
But these are not normal military maps.
Routes lead toward graves, ruined temples and other strange locations. Several places are marked with the image of an eye crossed by a spear.
A blinded eye.
The symbol is becoming difficult to ignore.
Two more armored guardians appear beside the table.
Then a voice comes from somewhere else in the room.
The party does not belong here.
They must leave.
Or be destroyed.
Nobody leaves.
This turns out to be slightly more dangerous than the previous fight because the armored guardians are not alone.
An invisible spellcaster is in the chamber.
The unseen mage begins blasting the party while the Helmed Horrors hold the front.
Cold magic tears through the group.
Defensive spells appear.
Counterspells interrupt attacks.
For several moments, the party is fighting someone they cannot even see.
Umeren finally finds the answer.
Detect Magic.
He moves into the chamber and senses the magical aura of an invisible creature nearby.
They still cannot see the enemy normally.
But now they know where he is.
That is enough.
Hayben charges through the defenses.
Drachen unleashes Steel Wind Strike through the chamber.
Eth and Sspaa keep pressure on the remaining guardians.
The mage attempts to protect himself with shields and counterspells, but eventually the defenses fail.
The chamber goes quiet.
And this time the real treasure is not gold.
It is information.
Among the papers is a map of the region surrounding Riverhaven.
Most of it looks correct.
One location does not.
The map marks a place called Godfell.
The party knows the area.
They have been there.
There is nothing there.
Just open pasture.
Yet this old map insists something important once occupied that spot.
It is another piece of geography that apparently existed in one version of history and disappeared from another.
Then they find the witness list.
It is extensive.
Citizens.
Soldiers.
Priests.
Children.
Names upon names belonging to people someone considered witnesses to something important.
One name produces an especially disturbing reaction.
It feels familiar.
Not familiar in the ordinary sense.
The memory simply appears.
A priest from centuries ago.
A man associated with an institution called the Clarification of Spiritual Safety.
The party did not previously know him.
Now, somehow, they remember him.
That is becoming a familiar problem.
Somebody has been cutting things out of history.
And pieces are beginning to grow back.
There is still another way deeper into the Bastion.
A staircase descends toward powerful magic.
Drachen’s spectral mind has already sensed something deeply wrong below.
Umeren reaches out with his own connection to the dead and detects multiple undead spirits.
At least five.
There is also a ritual chamber.
And whatever waits there feels considerably worse than what the party has already fought.
For once, everyone makes the sensible choice.
They go somewhere else first.
Another chamber lies to the north.
Inside, kneeling stone figures face a blank wall.
Their mouths have been removed.
Before them stands a ghostly priest.
He is screaming.
At least, he appears to be.
No sound comes from him.
Around the edges of the room are four more spirits, ordinary people wearing blindfolds, wandering helplessly through tiny spaces as though they have forgotten where they are.
Drachen sends an illusion toward the screaming spirit.
The moment it enters the area watched by the statues, the magic disappears.
Something in this room is suppressing more than sound.
Umeren tries Turn Undead.
What happens is not what anyone expects.
Instead of simply driving the spirits away, names come into his mind.
He speaks them.
One by one.
And when their names are spoken, three of the wandering spirits disappear.
Not destroyed.
Freed.
The fourth remains.
It looks at Umeren almost accusingly.
Why did you not say my name?
Then it attacks.
Eth handles that problem with significantly less theological subtlety and destroys it.
The central spirit never reacts.
He simply continues screaming in absolute silence.
When members of the party enter the area watched by the statues, they discover why.
All sound disappears.
Footsteps.
Voices.
Even the sound of their own breathing.
The statues are enforcing magical silence.
Drachen attempts to dispel it and fails.
Umeren tries next.
This time the magic breaks.
The statues slowly turn their faces away.
Sound floods back into the chamber.
For the first time in perhaps centuries, the ghost hears his own scream.
He stops.
Then he falls to his knees.
And finally, he speaks.
The priest tells them that long ago he attempted to confess what he knew.
Instead, he was seized by an organization the party has encountered before.
The Redacted Choir.
His confession was erased.
He was imprisoned.
Eventually, he was killed because he refused to let one particular piece of knowledge disappear.
A name.
They had been told the old name could destroy the world.
Perhaps it could.
But instead of risking anyone remembering it, the people responsible erased the name.
Erased the witnesses.
And erased the god.
The priest gives the name back to the world.
Thyrais.
A god whose existence someone had gone to extraordinary lengths to remove from history.
Before finally passing on, the spirit offers the party answers.
They ask about the ritual chamber below.
There are guardians there.
Guardians placed around what the priest calls a crime.
What crime?
His answer is only one word.
Remembrance.
They also ask about the mysterious Aegis Observatory that recently appeared in Riverhaven’s records despite nobody remembering it before.
According to the priest, it stands in Riverhaven’s temple district.
Or perhaps, more accurately, it stands there now.
With his questions answered and his forbidden truth finally spoken, the priest is released.
The party is left inside the impossible Bastion with a witness list, a map containing a place that should not exist, a newly restored god’s name and a ritual chamber still waiting below.
They have learned something important about what is happening to Riverhaven.
History is not simply being forgotten.
It was edited.
People were silenced.
Witnesses were removed.
Names were taken away.
And now, piece by piece, the things that were erased are returning.
The party barricades themselves inside the chamber and settles in for a long rest before confronting whatever guards the ritual below.
For the moment, the Bastion is quiet.
But one thing has already changed.
A forgotten name has been spoken again.
Thyrais.
And somewhere beyond the walls of the Bastion, the world may have just remembered that he existed.