“How do I remember everything and yet I’m still really confused?”

—Orkira

Watch Beyond Heroes: Wildemount | Episode 1: Convergence

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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

With a blinding flash of light and a thunderous explosion, six Heroes appear standing on a circle of ice, stunned and confused. They stand upon a cobblestone street in an unfamiliar city, and rain falls all around them, soaking them as they slowly return to consciousness. Penelope, Keen, Freely, Briv, Alyndra, and Orkira all glance around in shock as their memories are missing, not remembering who they are or who is around them! Keen’s glaive is out, dripping with blood, and he watches Penelope examine an earthworm trapped on top of the ice before she places it in her shrub cloak to be safe and warm. Freely is hanging from a sign on the side of a building, and reflexively uses his Divine Sense to examine his surroundings but only receives a strange feeling from a nearby alley. Alyndra has both her sword and hammer in hand in a defensive stance, her owl Grif on her shoulder, and she turns around to greet everyone. Briv begins to ask aloud all the same questions everyone has been wondering in their amnesia as he summons his armor from his pores. Orkira has been staring at flecks of diamonds that are disappearing from her hands, unsure why she feels so anguished, but is happy to hear she is not the only one confused and moves to help Freely down from the sign reading “The Broken Buttress Inn”.

Slowly the Heroes begin regaining their memories, recognizing themselves and each other, but it’s piecemeal and there are noticeable holes and gaps. Their ears are ringing from whatever just happened to them. Interested in getting out of the rain and finding information, Keen heads inside the nearby Inn. Freely is distracted by the unsettling feeling he received from something down the alley, and splits off to investigate. As Penelope moves to join him she is almost trampled by humans on horseback rushing down the road, prompting Orkira to usher everyone out of the middle of the street and following Freely.

A pale, gaunt figure is lying completely still in the alley. While he seems familiar, and Alyndra recognizes his face as the same one on a coin on her necklace, no one can quite recall his name. On closer examination Orkira sadly finds he is dead, prompting a short discussion about their situation. As they continue to work through their returning memories a shadow moves across the group. Above them a giant eagle soars past them through the air, and with inspired memories of her own abilities Penelope quickly wild shapes herself into a similar creature. Quickly Freely jumps onto her back, and the two take off into the air to exalt in a bit of a joyride as well as take a look at the massive city. They don’t get very far before a trio of armored griffons with riders on their backs head in their direction, and while Penelope thinks they must be friendly, Freely sends a message to Alyndra warning her of the situation.

Still in the alley standing over the dead body, Orkira thinks that it can’t be a coincidence that they all appeared nearby and recognize him, though as they continue to recover their memories the mysterious figure on the ground eludes details. Briv is uninterested in the corpse and heads inside the Broken Buttress Inn to join his eladrin friend, who has found it filled with older decorations indicating they've just missed some kind of festival. Asking the bartender details about what he has missed, Keen buys a drink and learns that it’s just after the Harvest's Rise festival as it’s now autumn. This inspires the eladrin to switch to his autumn form, and seeing the half-orc he is happy to share his drink with a friend. As the two buy each other drinks, they notice that the paladin is getting a lot of strange and uncomfortable looks. When asked, the bartender explains they are in the city of Rexxentrum—a place where orcs are uncommon.

Back in the alley Orkira tells Alyndra that she can revive the body on the ground, and feels like it’s important for her to do so. Though the spell will take an hour and requests the elf keep her company. Alyndra is happy to stand watch nearby, so the dragonborn kneels down next to the figure and spreads her wings to shield him from the rain. Taking out a diamond and her holy symbol, Orkira begins to cast raise dead. However, only moments into the spell the figure suddenly moves, pulling a flintlock pistol and placing it against the cleric’s temple. He demands to know know what's going on! Alyndra and Orkira try to reassure him that they were just trying to help as they believed he was dead, and the man angrily says he was just resting in the alley. He does admit that he doesn’t eat, sleep, breath, or have a pulse, and tries to swindle keeping the diamond for himself as payment for being bothered. Despite being threatened with the pistol, Orkira refuses to give up the diamond just because she was trying to help the man. He introduces himself as Avren, which feels familiar to both Heroes but neither can remember why. Hoping to get some answers to the predicament they've found themselves in, Orkira asks if he noticed anything strange or can help them figure out where they are or how they got here. Avren snarky suggests she go pray, that he’s busy sleeping off being drunk in an alley. This prompts Orkira to cast lesser restoration to sober him up, happily announcing how he should feel better and can now go get drunk again if he so desires. Angrily Avren storms off, though not before he deftly pickpockets one of the cleric’s diamonds.

Up in the sky Freely and the Penelope can hear explosions and the sound of troops, but before they can see details the griffon riders arrive and start to force the druid to land. Freely attempts to use charm person, but it fails to work on any of the guards and the two are brought to land. Inside the Inn both Briv and Keen can hear the sounds of battle as well and rush out to join the fray, believing that it is fate for them to arrive just as a battle has begun. The two notice their halfling friends being forced to the ground at the same time as in another direction they catch the odd sight of a man plummeting out of the sky at breakneck speed towards the streets below. As Orkira and Alyndra join them, the four head towards their friends. 

Now returned to her halfling form, Penelope is overjoyed to have had a wonderful flight and celebrates with Freely even as the Rexxentrum guards demand to know who they are and what business they have. The two talk about going for a flight, being distracted by explosions, and ask the guards why they would accost two travels while there’s an attack going on. The guards are annoyed but release them, admonishing the druid to not be turning into other creatures, and then take off as the rest of the Heroes arrive. Everyone is happy to reunite, now with mostly intact memories, however there is still a several day gap between their first encounter with the gloomstalker and the moment they appeared in Rexxentrum.

While no one knows what the battle is about or how they can help, the group decide to check on the figure they saw fall to the streets to see if they can offer some aid. As they dash through the hot rain and foggy streets, weaving their way through the panicked crowds, Orkira is gratified to once again feel her connection to the Phoenix on the Elemental Plane of Fire, though there’s a strange feeling as if some other presence is between her and her god. Offering up a quick prayer she asks if the elemental knows what happened to them, but feels that the Phoenix is confused by the question and does not answer. Many of the locals are gawking at the mutated dragonborn, and while Orkira is used to being stared at in this way, she’s bothered to see some of them kneel as they take hold of a holy symbol to Bahamut. The dragonborn recognizes Bahamut as the Platinum Dragon, patron god of good dragons, but is reluctant to get involved with these reverent people. 

Pausing for a moment to try and get their bearings, they see another motley group rushing in the other direction. A battle is taking place! The Heroes attempt to figure out where the fighting is, and suddenly feel the ground rumble beneath their feat. It churns and splits apart as a massive purple worm ridden by three dark elves bursts from below! The riders appear pleased with the chaos and destruction around them, and two jump off to head towards the Heroes. Looking into her cloak at the earthworm she rescued earlier, Penelope makes sure it is not related to this new foe, while Orkira reaches out two clawed hands to cast death ward on both halflings. Alyndra is quick to cast banishment, sending the purple worm and the remaining rider into another plane.

The two drow remaining are clearly brothers, calling each other Toma and Rasvan, and eagerly engage the Heroes as the soldier seems to shift and create shadowy duplicates of themselves for protection. Freely is just as eager to jump into battle and casts compelled duel on the soldier as Briv also charges forward to smite the attackers. Maintaining her concentration on keeping the worm's banishment banished, Alyndra casts toll the dead to do her own damage. Thinking that her halfling friend is outnumbered, Penelope tries to figure out which is the real drow and attempts to cast heat metal on them, but the spell fails to take hold. Orkira wants to flee but her friends are engaged, so she casts faerie fire and manages to light up the wizard with little red embers.

Rasvan begins to cast a spell, causing Alyndra to attempt to counterspell him. However the drow reacts with his own counterspell in a epic moment of dueling wizards. A ball of blackness appears above Briv, Penelope and Orkira and begins to suck them into its crushing force, causing horrific damage. The wizard than calls out smug words of encouragement to his brother Toma, who slashes into Freely with his fiery sword. The halfling is strangely intent, filled with an angry fury instead of his usual joyful presence. While most of the Heroes notice this dark shift in Freely's demeanor, the fight demands everyone's attention. Keen is focused on the drow mage, and marches forward to cut this forsaken down in three quick slashes. As his brother falls dead, the soldier is consumed with sorrow and rage. He shouts in horror for Rasvan, dropping his weapon and ignoring Freely who continues to try and battle him. Recognizing that this drow is no longer a threat, Briv strides forward to manacle him and take his prisoner, but Freely looks wild and compelled to keep trying to kill him. Penelope places herself between her friend and the drow, begging him to stop his attacks. That prompts Freely to pause long enough to hear Briv urging him to cease his bloodlust, and Alyndra calling out that they should evacuate before the banished creatures return. While he’s still clearly out of sorts and filled with rage, Freely agrees to stop his attack.

In the brief moments they have Orkira casts cure wounds on Alyndra, then asks if she should try and bring the slain brother back to life even as Keen moves to take the body. The eladrin is surprised to see no symbols of Lolth on Rasvan. Freely casts friends on Toma and demands to know why they should let him live, but the despondent drow doesn’t care to beg for his life. When asked why they are attacking the city, Toma realizes that the Heroes must not be natives to Rexxentrum and states that it’s because it’s the capital of the Dwendalian Empire. The whole time he keeps his eyes locked on Keen, his gaze filled with hate for the one who killed his brother.

Before anything else can be done the banishment ends and the purple worm reappears! As it thrashes and attacks the group flee into a nearby alley, just as Toma disappears into purple mist. The gaping maw tears into Alyndra, though she is able to roll out of the mouth before she is swallowed. It strikes out with its stinger and gravely wounds Freely, but Briv is quick to scoop the halfling up and use lay on hands to heal him. Desperate to keep the worm at bay, Penelope pulls out her white staff to slam down on the ground and casts wall of thorns directly in its path! As it starts to crash through her barrier Alyndra looks up just in time to see Toma with the other drow that was banished, and manages to counterspell his fireball!

….and next time we’ll return to the purple worm taking ALL THE WALL OF THORNS DAMAGE! Join us February 5th at 2pm PT on www.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!