Beyond Heroes: Wildemount | Episode 2: Cathedral

“Be kind, sunshine!”

—Penelope

 

Watch Beyond Heroes: Wildemount | Episode 2: Cathedral

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The cast of Beyond Heroes, currently level 9:

  • Todd Kenreck as the Dungeon Master
  • Keen Dayeprath - Eladrin Eldritch Knight Fighter played by TJ Storm
  • Briv Steelmarrow - Half-Orc Oath of Heroism Paladin played by Adam Bradford
  • Penelope Half-Pint - Halfling Circle of Land Druid played by Hope LaVelle
  • Alyndra Alexandria Garanahil Sarrbarand, Lorekeeper of Rime Spiro, Kinscribe of Clan Monkeymouse, Daughter of Oblivion - High Elf Cleric 1/Wizard 8 played by Jen Kretchmer
  • Orkira Illdrex - Dragonborn Light Domain Cleric played by Lauren Urban
  • Freely - Halfling Lore Bard 3/Paladin 2/Sorcerer 2/Warlock 2 played by B. Dave Walters

Full Summary

Bricks, mortar and cobblestones crash all around our Heroes as the gargantuan purple worm slams through the back alley! The thick wall of thorns that Penelope has created tears into its skin leaving horrible wounds, but the creature is undaunted in its attack. As Orkira rushes over to Keen and asks for him to hand over the body of the drow wizard, Freely casts message up to the drow’s brother demanding the worm be called off if he wants to see his brother again. Toma is still incensed, but manages to command the rampaging worm to halt. For the second time in the day Orkira reaches into her pack to pull out a diamond to bring someone back to life, pausing for just a moment when she realizes that one is missing and this will be her last one, then casting revivify to bring Rasvan. As the drow begins to breathe again the cleric flies him up to his brother on the roof. She quickly explains how they were just defending themselves, how they are strangers in this city and don’t know what’s going on, and would like to just go their separate ways. Toma is surprised and a bit confused, and realizing the dragonborn is far from home he explains that they are in Rexxentrum, the capital city of the Dwendalian Empire, and he is here with the army from the nearby waring nation of Xhorhas. Thankful for the information but nervous and worried, Orkira suggests he takes his brother to safety and starts to leave, but the drow takes out a silver ring with a crimson gem in it to give to her. He says it’s for a favor should she ever need one, and then calls off the purple worm to return to his army.

The worm slowly starts to back up but is still blocking one way of the alley as a squad of Crownsguard show up from the other direction. They level crossbows at the Heroes ready to fire, so Alyndra casts hypnotic pattern to stun most of them as Freely calls for a retreat through one of the doors leading into a nearby building. Pulling open a door for his friends to find cover, Briv then rushes headlong into the group of guards. The magic metal that usually forms his armor begins to form, but instead of cover they create needle sized spikes that shoot out from his pores. They fly out to puncture and kill half the guards but leaving the half-orc momentarily defenseless. Orkira lands near Briv, confused at the renewed attack, and Briv admonishes her to use his distraction to get to safety. She’s upset over more death, and can’t resist clutching her holy symbol and casting spare the dying on one of the soldiers as it lights up the alley with Phoenix fire. Then she dashes through the door moments behind Alyndra, who can hear the sounds of crying from somewhere inside the building. The interior appears to be a bookshop, and the elf begins to search for whoever is in distress. The overcast skies make Freely call out to his druid friend, asking if she can make the sun come out to drive off the drow who are sensitive to sunlight, before he ducks inside. Penelope is still staring down the retreating worm, then taking her friend’s suggestion she casts daylight directly on the drow above them to make sure they all flee from the blinding light. Before she dashes inside to safety she notices her sunshine isn’t the only beam of light in the city, there is a second bright light piercing the clouds and illuminating a nearby building.

The Crownsguard who are still alive unload on Briv, screaming that the Heroes are “heretics” and “Cricks” as they pincushion the paladin with arrows. Keen realizes that the term is a derogatory reference to the dark elves whose armor makes a strange, cricket-like whistling noise, and that the guards believe they are with the invading army. With a misty step he appears nearby and tries to charm two of the soldiers into stopping their attack. Only one succumbs to his fey magic, the other angrily casting a spell causing poisonous gas to fill the alley. Briv and Keen choke on the poison but manage to disengage and run to the safety of the building.

Inside the library, Alyndra can see the wall is crumbling from the impact of the purple worm, debris injuring and pinning a small child as her parents struggle to free them. The Heroes all rush over to help lift the beam and heal the child, while Penelope summons a wall of stone to reinforce the failing wall as well as block the door they just came through. The family thank the Heroes and are anxious to flee and return to their home. However,there is still a raging battle outside and the rescued family asks for help getting across the street. As the group attempts to figure out the safest way to get the family to their home, Alyndra asks if there are any books worth saving as invading armies often destroy the history and knowledge of the ones they conquered. The family knows there’s a special room in the back that they think holds rare tomes as no one ever talks about the volumes there. Penelope takes off her cloak of elvenkind to give to the mother, Alyndra casts another hypnotic pattern into the street to stun anyone nearby, Orkira waits by the door with healing ready, and Keen runs with the family to usher them across the street. While the eladrin takes a crossbow bolt in the leg, he helps shield the family to make it safely to the other side. The wound is quickly closed with Orkira’s healing word, but on his run back a fireball explodes in the street! The eldritch knight is able to cast absorb elements in time to mitigate the fire, and limps back into the library on fire but alive.

In the back room of the building Alyndra and Freely examine what they have been told are rare books, while Briv keeps a close eye out for trouble. As a cleric of Oghma, it is Alyndra’s duty to preserve knowledge, and she knows that the stories of those who are conquered are often the first things destroyed. So she and Freely set to work looking for histories, children’s books, and other culturally important tomes. However they quickly discover this secret room is not for important or rare documents but is a storehouse of naughty books. Titles like Tusk Love, Where the River Goes, Zemnian Nights, In The Bellies of Dragons, The Daring Trials and Tribulations of Sir Taryon Darrington, and many books filled with dirty drawings, indicate that this is more pornography than history. She does still collect some of the books as folklore, and casting detect magic she does find some fake spell books that include a few real spells that she collects.

Freshly healed, Keen finds an atlas filled with maps as Orkira fills them in on the names of the locations she received from Toma. The group agrees that staying in the bookstore is a bad idea, but with the size of the city and the conflict as well as their lack of general knowledge no one is sure where to go that would be safe. Penelope remembers the second ray of light she saw shining down on the city and suggests they head there, while Keen believes that might be a center point for fighting and wants to go to the outskirts of the city to help those in more poor districts. Briv and Freely mull over the idea of just charging through the walls, while Alyndra remembers they still have a Cubic Gate however it will take them to another plane of existence. Nothing seems like a safe or effective idea, when suddenly they notice most of the explosions and ringing bells have stopped and the battle noises have died off. 

Antsy to see what’s going on, Freely sneaks outside to take a look around. While the area is mostly clear, the halfling notices a dark elf in a third story window watching the street nearby. Freely sends a message to Keen about what’s going and heads for the building. Everyone is worried about splitting up, and Briv heads outside to follow but is suddenly hit with a magic missile from that same drow. He retreats as Freely sneaks into the building and heads upstairs, finding the lone sniper overlooking the street. In an attempt to reason with the drow, Freely stays behind cover and calls out that he’s not an enemy and just wants to talk. The drow is not interested, summoning a blade from shadow and plunging it deep into the Freely’s chest! Wounded but undaunted Freely summons his strength and shoves the drow through the open window to crash onto the cobblestones below!

Hearing the thud of the body landing prompts Alyndra to send Grif out to scout the area as Freely digs through the dead drow’s equipment. The tiny owl can see that the fighting has stopped, the purple worms are all gone, and all the drow have retreated. However there are massive casualties to the Crownsguard, a dozen dead for every drow.  As Freely finds several vials of alchemist's fire, a vile of poison, and a sending stone, Alyndra uses her familiar to send him a message about what she has seen. Freely returns to give the found items to the wizard, while Keen collects a Crownsguard body to take with them to return to the local soldiers. Everyone is tired and injured, and with the fighting apparently over the group take a short rest inside the library to bind their wounds before moving on. Penelope takes some time to cast skywrite, creating bright white clouds that spell out “Be excellent to each other” as a beacon of hope, and Orkira sits next to her to enjoy the first nice thing they have seen since they arrived in Wildemount. Searching through some of the books she’s gathered, Alyndra learns that the Dwendalian Empire is hostile towards some of the more monstrous races like orcs, explaining the strange looks Briv garnered earlier.

Feeling a bit more rested the group finally heads towards the source of the light, discovering it is a massive cathedral to Pelor and was the site of an especially bloody conflict. All of the clergy have been slaughtered, and the bodies are scattered among soldiers, cultists, and the disturbing sight of demons. As Freely dashes inside to investigate the fiends, Orkira sadly notices that there are no clerics of Pelor left to tend to the dead. The dragonborn was once a cleric of Pelor a very long time ago before switching to worshiping the Phoenix, but she still remembers the rites that these deceased would have wanted. She quietly begins to administer the required prayers to Pelor over those she can identify as priests. But before she can do very much a voice calls out, “That’s her, she’s the one! That’s the heathen I saw!” Freely manages to duck under a pew to hide, only to watch as dozens of Crownsguard raise their weapons towards Orkira and start to surround the rest of his friends outside!

The war may be over but our Heroes are still in danger! Find out what happens next on Wednesday February 12th at 2pm PT on twitch.tv/dndbeyond!


  

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Lauren "Oboe" Urban is the Community Manager for D&D Beyond, as well as a professional classical musician on oboe and English Horn. When she's not playing a Bard in real life she's a prolific Dungeon Master and player on a variety of livestreams and podcasts. She lives in Seattle, Washington with her husband Luke where they spend their free time playing video games and drinking tea. The best way to keep up with Lauren's busy schedule is to follow her on Twitter @OboeLauren!

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