Episodes 23 & 24 - Campfire Accident

Episode 23
Matt: Hello and welcome to Celestial Expanse, a real play D&D podcast set in the Celestial Expanse universe, my name is Matthew, I'll be your DM for the night, and with me today for this special episode it is Ben who normally plays as Rell. Ben: Hello. Matt: Now you're probably wondering why we're starting this up as it is, instead of a normal episode. Unfortunately, Craig decided to not record all the episode, so the combat you guys were probably really looking forward to listening to didn't come through. So to help me do a bit of the storytelling is Ben with me, mostly to talk about how he nearly dies, as well as Z and the others. Wouldn't you agree Ben? Ben: Well, I mean, spoilers.

Episode 24
Matt: Hello and welcome to another episode of Celestial Expanse, a real play D&D podcast set in the Celestial Expanse universe, my name is Matthew, I'll be your DM for the night, and playing with us today is Ben as Rell... Ben: Hello. Matt: Jason as Theran... Jason: What up suckers. Matt: Rebecca as Martle... Rebecca: You went too fast for me to open up my puns, hold on - Natalia: I still haven't *inaudible* Rebecca: - just keep talking, hold on - Jason: Awwwwwww, we've been here for like 10 minutes! Rebecca: - wait, wait, wait, how do you know when the moon is going broke? When it's down to its last quarter. Matt: I was about ready to skip you, so I didn't have to hear puns. Rebecca: You can't escape them Matt. Puns are everywhere. Ben: They're everywhere. Rebecca: They're coming for you. Matt: Natalia as Z... Natalia: Ewo! Matt: And Boston as Juniper. Boston: I'd say something egg-citing, but I have an omelette right now. Rebecca: Womp womp. Natalia: It was original. It was original. Jason: Womp womp. Matt: One moment please. Boston: Is booted. Natalia: Psychic damage. Matt: Take 11 points of psychic damage right there Boston. Jason: Yup. We all take psychic damage. Boston: - my mental health status right now. Joke's on you. Jason: Joke's on you Jack. Matt: Alright, so how's everybody doing today? Boston: Lemme close my 50 tabs. Jason: Great. I have a little bit of deja vu today but I don't know why, but. Matt: Mmm. Rebecca: It's truly a mystery. Jason: It is. Natalia: Really. Honestly it is.

Episode Description
After Craig decided to go on vacation and lose all our audio for Episode 23, Ben and Matt do a story telling session and afterwards we follow the party onward where they soon encounter a nightmare.

Summary
Episode 23 begins with the crew suddenly surrounded by creature known as Spiral Stalkers, nearly 10 foot tall creatures that have several chitinous spikes coming out of humanoid-shaped bodies. Other than that, their only distinguishing features are their red eyes. Z charges in, but gets flanked. Every time the creatures attack or get hit, they go invisible, which makes the fight more difficult. Juniper wants to run away, but Z gets knocked out as she tries to flee from an invisible creature. Now Juniper and Rell are both freaking out. The creatures stun Theran with fear when he looks into their eyes, as if they are looking into his soul. Martle and Theran fight one creature while Juniper and Rell fight another. Juniper incautiously uses Fireball, including some of her party members in the blast. Rell manages to stun one, and the party hurt it badly. It starts screeching, and the rest of the creatures' eyes dilate and go to eat the injured one. This gives the rest of the party the chance to take them out, and they survive the attack, barely. The episode ends with them camping to recover.

Episode 24 opens with the crew camping at the site where most of them landed their havoc pods. Theran starts a conversation about fighting in a coordinated manner. He also asks Rell what's been up with him since the havoc pods. Rell tells them he's crashed on a planet before, and all his companions were eaten by monsters. Rell managed to survive until someone responded to their distress beacon. Theran asks Juniper about her usage of fireball, and says she was never taught to calculate the boundaries of her AOE spells. They talk tactics, and then Martle tells Juniper how this mission will help her find her sister and hurt the Inquisition, and to stop dragging her feet. They talk tragic backstories a little bit: both Martle and Juniper's birth parents were killed in front of them, and Martle was adopted by Theran's family. Z never knew her dad, and her mom died two years ago.

Everyone rests, and Martle has a dream. She's walking in darkness, and when it fades she finds she's in her village, on Horus. Everyone seems happy. She sees people who died, Lelia, and Eric. Eric is wearing villager clothes, and a ring. She looks down to see a ring on her own finger, and pulls it off. A voice behind her says that doesn't seem very nice, and she turns around to see Ashley. Ashley thought she was being a good matchmaker, but Martle says she has too many things going on to be engaged. Ashley offers to bring her family back, but Martle says that would be insulting. She doesn't want her family back where they died, she wants whoever killed them to be in an even worse place. Ashley says she can arrange that, if Martle does something for her. She wants something the crew lost at Parliament, and doesn't want to tell Martle why. When Martle presses her, she says it'll help her get rid of her enemies, and possibly some of Martle's. It would also help her bring the murderers Martle is seeking to justice. Martle asks the price, and Ashley says she'd have to take the lives of a lot of people of a particular race. If it helps, they are evil: the crystal creatures. Destroying them would require destroying the innocents they have gathered to reproduce. The innocents' souls have been sucked out, so they cannot be saved. Their souls must be destroyed. Martle says she's already turned down a deal for her own soul, and weighs the destruction of others'. When Ashley says it would help destroy a small portion of evil, Martle says it's not worth it. She'll find the device for herself, and find the people who murdered her family on her own, or with the help of her friends. Ashley looks disappointed, snaps her fingers, and disappears. Martle hears the fluttering of wings behind her, and when she turns to look, she sees black feathers on the ground.

Z also has a dream. She walks out of darkness onto the planet Mercy, where she last saw her mother before she passed away from her disease. As she walks, she hears a lullaby her mother used to sing, and goes towards the sound. She finds Ashley, who stops humming when Z reaches her. Z asks, "Aren't you dead?" and Ashley says that's a simplified way to describe it. She chooses to look like someone Z recognizes. She compliments Z's mother's lullaby, and Z grows angry, saying she has no right to it, and brandishes her axes. Ashley makes her axes disappear, and Z asks who she is. Her eyes turn unnaturally black, and Z senses a wrongness. Ashley says her soul couldn't handle it. Ashley says she wants the Allforge. She also wants the crew to completely destroy all the creatures they will soon encounter, as well as a crystal structure she shows Z. It houses thousands of innocent souls, and is used to help create the crystal creatures. Z doesn't trust Ashley, but Ashley says she helps maintain balance necessary for life. In return for the favor, Ashley offers Z her mother's soul, scratching a nail across it and making her scream. Z charges Ashley, but passes through her harmlessly. Z says she doesn't have right to it, but Ashley says souls are her domain. Z objects to the destruction of thousands of innocent souls, but Ashley tells her they'll be in torment otherwise. Ashley says Z has time to think, and when she accepts Ashley's offer, she should say her name. Then Z wakes up.

In Theran's dream, he also walks out of darkness into the village of Horus. Everyone is alive and happy. Lelia is wearing a ring. Theran asks where her husband is, and Lelia says he's here. Theran sees he's wearing a ring, and when he looks up, everyone is gone. Ashley walks up and tells him the same thing as Z. Theran asks, if she's powerful enough to be in his dream, why can't she get it herself? She says she's only allowed to interfere with mortal matters to a certain extent before certain entities take issue. She points at the ring on Theran's finger and says she can make that happen. Theran says she can't make one person love another, and she says she can, with her control of souls. Theran disagrees, saying he'd know the difference even if Lelia didn't. Theran asks where the device is, and Ashley says all she knows is that it is hidden, and her former allies decided to keep it for themselves, too stupid and primitive to realize how dangerous it would be in their hands. They are very near the Eye, the center of the galaxy, looking for Lelia. They think she knows too much. If Ashley gets the device, they will die. Theran doesn't agree to a deal, to Ashley's disappointment. She disappears, he hears the flutter of wings, and he sees black feathers on the ground behind him before he wakes up.

In Rell's dream, he finds himself witnessing the first battle his monk party had with the monsters after they crash landed. Just before the first person is killed, the scene freezes, and Ashley walks up. She tells him she can bring back his friends, and pulls several balls of light out of her pocket. They talk, and he recognizes them as his friends. She tells them they're the souls of his friends, and she can bring them back. She tells him she wants the Allforge back, and wants them to destroy the crystal structure, which they'll find in the cave where the elf they're hunting is hiding. She tells him the nature of the crystal pillar, and he agrees it should be destroyed. He agrees to her deal. She promises once he fulfills his side of the bargain, he'll have his friends back, alive and well.

Juniper walks out of darkness into the library of the orphanage where she grew up. A woman is sitting reading a table, humming a song Arula used to hum while reading. The woman invites Juniper to sit next to her, and when she does, she finds it's Ashley. Ashley offers her Arula back, if Juniper gets her the device and destroys the crystal structure, which houses innocent, pure souls that never had a chance to live their lives. Juniper is confused about how Ashley knows about Arula's death, and Ashley tells her she can be anywhere and anyone, and is choosing to be Ashley because she's familiar. She takes out Arula's soul, and Juniper hears her crying and calling out for her. Ashley promises Juniper Arula will be back the way Juniper remembers her, before she was shot. Juniper agrees to the deal.

Everyone wakes up at different times, fully rested. They talk about their dreams, and the deal not-Ashley offered each of them. Z says she told not-Ashley to shove it, and Rell says he agreed. Juniper defends Rell's decision, but avoids saying whether she agreed to the deal. The episode ends with them walking towards the quarry.

Memorable Quotes
Matt: In space, nobody can hear you scream. Ben: Especially when you lose the audio. Aaaaaahhhhhh! Matt: And you're out of the podcast.

Z: How are you two related? Martle: I'm adopted. Z: Right. Okay. Theran: It's weird, isn't it? We look a lot alike. Martle: Oh, yes, we're practically identical. Z: Ah, yeah. The egos. I see it.

Martle: I don't want my family to be pulled back into this terrible place that killed them. I want the person who killed them to be pulled into an even worse place.

Ashley: You don't want to know what I am. Your soul could not handle it.

Ashley: I help keep things in balance. Without me, there'd be no life. Z: I don't know, you smell more like death to me.

Trivia

 * Matt rolled a crit on the invisible spiral stalker's attack of opportunity on Z, knocking her out.
 * Rell got down to 1 hp during the combat with the spiral stalkers.