Beyond Heroes: Wildemount | Episode 9: Lost Boys

“Now I am slightly miffed. Though I am in my spring, it is a burning spring. It smells like horse meat, and I am out of cheese. I walk forward.” 

—Keen

 

Watch Beyond Heroes: Wildemount | Episode 9: Lost Boys

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The cast of Beyond Heroes, Penelope is level 11 while the rest are level 10:

Full Summary

A grateful Orkira Illdrex, once again alive and whole, suggests her friends leave Rexxentrum as quickly as possible before anything else bad can happen. Keen suggests they go after Killian to seek revenge, asking if they should burn him to ash and prevent him from ever causing such pain again. While Orkira would love to go along with her friend’s suggestion, she recognizes that Killian might be too powerful to confront and would rather take their win and leave. Realizing that Freely is still acting as lookout near the cart, Orkira calls out for him to join the group inside the mausoleum. The halfling is overjoyed to dash inside, tackling the dragonborn with a hug, then asking if she remembers anything now that she is alive. The cleric confirms she remembers a lot of new information, including some of what the interrogator had planned, and that Freely’s gut instinct about the situation was correct that it was a trap.

As much as the Heroes would like to leave immediately, the sun has gone down and leaving at night might be a problem as many cities close their gates after dark. Additionally as happy and relieved as Orkira is to be alive again, she is suffering from the effects of being raised from the dead. Her muscles tremble and her whole body is obviously frail and weak with shaking hands and wings. Despite the morbid accommodations, the decision is made for Alyndra to create her tiny hut inside the mausoleum where they should be safe and undisturbed. As Keen collects supplies from the cart to cook a hearty dinner, Freely takes some time to leave little offerings for any of the newly buried soldiers, while Briv is happy to then eat them all. Penelope finds a quiet part of the cemetery to be alone for a moment and pray to the Traveler, thanking her new friend for his suggestions about lying and gleefully promising to do more fun tricks and pranks. Once Alyndra is reassured that Orkira just needs time and rest to recover from her ordeal, she settles down to study her dunamancy book. Orkira takes one last moment to reach out to the Phoenix and offer a bevy of thanks before falling into an exhausted slumber.

In the middle of the night while he is alone, Freely activates the ring again to talk to Toma. He relays that they succeeded in bringing Orkira back to life, expresses his sincerest thanks for the horses and other items, and while they’re still missing details they now know the duplicate was sent to hurt the people of Xhorhas. Toma is thankful for the updated information.

The next morning Keen has gathered flowers from around the graveyard to fill the mausoleum with color and life, and as the group enjoy breakfast Orkira fills them in on what she now remembers happened to them before they arrived in Wildemount. The Heroes had become engaged in a fearsome battle on a glacier, but the creature they were fighting had attacked from below the ice to cover them in a strange slime. The creature fed on their memories, draining them and causing the friends to start attacking each other. In an attempt to get away before they killed each other Alyndra had used the cubic gate, and that’s why they arrived in Rexxentrum on a circle of ice having lost some of their memories. Hearing the story does not jostle anyone else's memories, and the group ponder finding enough diamond dust to be able to cast greater restoration on everyone.

The discussion turns to what the group would like to do next once they leave the city. Some are interested in returning to the dungeon they left behind to plunder it for possible information and treasure. Others suggest returning to Hupperdook to have a second chance to enjoy a night of celebration. Eventually they decide on the dungeon first as it’s on the way to the gnomish party city and head out to the horses and wagon. Unwilling to take any chances on being discovered, Orkira once again uses the ring of invisibility while Alyndra casts nondetection on her to avoid being noticed or tracked. The rest of the Heroes put back on their Crownsguard uniforms and head out of Rexxentrum. Before Briv can cause any suspicion Alyndra uses her portent to fix his outfit, while Keen is too caught up in his optimism to keep from singing. Fortunately Freely inspires the eladrin’s performance enough to make his joy infectious, eliciting smiles from passing guards. Only Penelope keeps her composure, once again masterfully lying to those at the gate and ensuring the group leaves without question.

As the Heroes travel through the forest, Freely worries that someone else might be a simulacrum, but Alyndra reassures that they would know by now as that person would be unable to heal or regain spent energy. She cautions everyone to keep track of any removed body parts, prompting Freely to grab the bag of devouring that still holds his severed arm and the cursed sword. However as he examines the bag he can feel that both the limb and the weapon are gone, and physically appears to be empty from the outside.This is a bothersome revelation, but no one wants to open the bag to investigate further as they don’t trust it to be safe.

Freely is curious about what details Orkira now knows about the trap Killian had tried to create. Orkira remembers that the simulacrum had been given orders to go to Xhorhas and summon the Phoenix to cause a massive amount of death and destruction. She also remembers overhearing part of a conversation indicating that even if she had never made it across the border, just the attempt would make the Krynn believe the Empire had attempted something nefarious. They were being used in a complicated political game, one where no one is sure about the motive. Orkira admits that she was tempted by Keen’s suggestion about extracting revenge on Killian, as if the plan had worked she would have been responsible for killing a lot of innocent people, but in the end that would have been a bad idea. 

Several miles along their journey the group are stopped by the road being blocked with a few large downed trees. Examining the area and destroyed pines, Penelope can see the trees have been physically pushed over and covered in claw marks, and casting commune with nature she reaches out with her druid senses. All around her she can hear breathing and the stomping of feet, but before she can react a creature leaps out from the side of the road and attacks Briv. It’s a full blooded orc in a wild frenzy, a metal sword sticking out of their arm resembling the same metal bones the paladin has. They sneer with a mouth full of steel teeth, their skin blotchy with patches that appear to be grafted on. More are rushing out of the surrounding treeline, so Penelope casts wind wall to keep the rest at bay as Briv takes out his own metal blade to slash into the creature. Even after several vicious slashes the orc is still alive, their wounds healing unnaturally fast. There are still six orcs fighting the wall of wind, so Freely casts faerie fire on the group while Keen casts mirror image and prepares for the onslaught.

Disturbed by these creatures, Orkira takes a moment to examine the one engaged with Briv to try and figure out if there is anything she can do to help these orcs. Whatever flesh was grafted on is not orc flesh, it’s covered in pus and boils, and appears to be nothing more than a mindless beast. Calling out what little she’s gathered about the creatures, Orkira then dashes forward to cast death ward on Penelope. Alyndra casts storm sphere to bludgeon with wind and blast with lightning, causing deep enough wounds to clearly see the bones made of the same metal inside Briv. Acknowledging that there is no way to save these creatures, Briv destroys the one near him with a mighty smite. Another orc breaks through the wind wall, so Freely jumps up to grapple the creature to bring it to a halt. 

As Penelope continues to concentrate on the wall of wind, both Orkira and Keen move to protect her from attack. Keen readies his glaive for any creatures that break through the wall, while Orkira delights in being able to cast spiritual weapon again to attack the one grappled by Freely then hits it with a sacred flame. After her storm sphere once again rocks the attackers, Alyndra casts toll the dead and watches as the necrotic damage digs into the flesh. When several orcs finally force their way through the wind, Briv and Keen fall on them with vicious weapon attacks.

Cutting through the battle and wilderness is the sound of eladrin pipes. The orcs that are still alive suddenly stop attacking and turn to flee back into the forest as if called by the whistle. There is a moment of confusion about why eladrin would somehow be in control of these creatures, and Penelope lets the wind wall drop so the orcs can retreat. Unwilling to let them run away without answers, Freely dashes off in pursuit with Keen, Briv and Orkira right behind. Briefly left behind, Alyndra and Penelope share a moment of frustration before the druid wildshapes into a giant eagle to carry the wizard off after everyone else.

The woods around Freely, Keen and Briv suddenly erupt in flames as a fireball detonates! The half-orc takes most of the damage, using lay on hands to heal his own wounds, while the halfling and the eladrin manage to dodge away from much of the blast. This brings the group to a halt, allowing Orkira time to catch up and cast death ward on Freely before flying up into the air to take a look around. As Briv and Freely shout out asking to speak to whoever is attacking them, Grif swoops forward and spots two figures; a tall, thin man in eladrin chainmail carved with ghastly twisted faces, and the other in rotting robes and hood with thin fingers and yellow fingernails.

Looking through her familiar’s eyes, Alyndra recognizes the hag they encountered several days earlier. It looks up with a laugh, calling out a greeting and mentioning it’s been so long since they’ve seen each other as her laugh echos across the forest. As everyone realizes what they are facing, Freely is first to attack with a long distance eldritch blast, and while his strike is true the hag only snickers. She gleefully informs them that it’s been much longer than two days since she last saw them, and even longer for the man standing beside her. She calls him Furian, the same name as the young drow with the other orphans in Hupperdook. Keen is shocked and confused, but Freely resumes his charge forward. The hag is gleeful to continue their fight, and with a raised hand the forest fills with seawater. Penelope transforms out of her giant eagle to land and cast control water, pushing the sea back with an explosion.

Furian takes off his helmet to reveal his scarred face and calls out to Keen, “You let her get me.”

What has happened to the drow child that Keen befriended just a day ago?! Find out more on April 1st 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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