Episode 3

Content Warning
Due to the nature of the improvisation, the content displayed within may be considered uncomfortable or triggering to some viewers. This includes: gore, body horror, themes of depression, dissociation, and anxiety.

Recap
''With Doc Berry's bag in hand, the Strings of Fate find themselves in another heated exchange with the O'Donogan Gang. The clock is ticking down in more ways than one... and our heroes are running out of time.''

Part 1
Bonnie drives the cart at top speed towards the road, but gang is in hot pursuit. Gunmen riding parallel to the cart fire wildly, injuring the party. Vincent casts Darkness behind them, and a few riders go tumbling. One of the gang member hops onto the carriage and tries to pull Renaer off - Vincent stabs at him, but it is Azzurum's Lightning Lure which ultimately dislodges him and sends him off the back of the wagon.

A rider pulls through to the front of the pack - a half-giant man with gray skin, short white hair, wearing no shirt so that his extremely muscular chest is exposed. Across his chest, he wear two bandoliers of ammo, and he wields two heavy handguns. He yells "I don't like when what's mine is taken from me!" and pulls two heavy guns. Turning back, Azzurum launches two Eldritch Blasts at the leader, knocking him off balance and causing his shots to go wide. One rider tries to throw a stick of dynamite towards the cart, but Lidara sends an arrow flying past the leader's head and hits the dynamite, causing it to explode. The leader is knocked off of his horse and taken out of the fight.

But the rest of the gang still pursues. Vincent causes one to drop his gun using Heat Metal. Another lights a stick of dynamite, and Azzurum commands him to flee - he does, still holding the dynamite. Bonnie tosses the reins to Renaer and hops over into the back to help with the fighting, and Renaer tries his best to keep the cart steady.

The last gang member hops into the wagon, and in a moment of fight or flight chooses "fight." He dumps his satchel of dynamite into the floor of the wagon and lights a match, intending to blow them all sky high. Azzurum desperately reaches for the power of wind (which he later confirms to the party is a skill he doesn't have, despite his air genasi heritage) and manages to channel it through a clap of his hands. The match goes dark, and the party rides to safety.

Behind them, the gang members are regrouping, but do not appear to be pursuing any longer.

Fight over, Bonnie takes control of the cart back from Renaer, and grips that this wasn't the plan, and that she hadn't gotten what she was told she was going to get from this trip. There is a part of her, however, that is slightly impressed with Lidara's skills in retrieving the bag.

As they ride, Azzurum is suddenly overtaken by a sharp pain in his veins, like something stabbing him from the inside - the parasite. Lidara, panicking, tells Bonnie to ride to Doc Berry's as quickly as possible, then starts to pat the sweat from his forehead and braid his hair to comfort him. His veins are bulging, a dark, sickly ink color.

Vincent goes through the doctor's bag, looking for something that might help. Inside, he finds a tuning fork. He recognizes it as a fork tuned to another plane and he raps it against his hand - while the sound rings out, Azzurum's pain lessens, but returns even stronger when the sound fades.

At last, they arrive at Doc Berry's. Bonnie, Renaer, and Lidara carry Azzurum inside while Vincent carries the bag.

Doc Berry rushes to their side and retrieves from the bag the tuning fork and a small hammer with a rose quartz face. He strikes the fork, and the sound relieves Azzurum from the pain. He continues to strike it in intervals, not letting the sound disappear, and the color in Azzurum's veins fade. He drifts off.

Doc Berry explains that the creature will be soothed by hearing the resonant frequency of its own plane, and if they keep this sound going for eight hours, the creature will return to that plane. If he stops, however, the creature will return with a vengeance.

Part 2
Lidara sits up with Doc Berry while Vincent, Renaer, and Bonnie rest in the waiting room. Doc Berry asks about the source of Azzurum's magic, and Lidara tells him that he's a warlock. Doc Berry is surprised by this information, and asks whether she knows what kind of being he might have bound himself to. Lidara tells him that it's none of her business, but that Azzurum isn't a bad guy. Doc Berry warns her that they should keep Azzurum's pact a secret while they travel in Ansyr, as people will assume that his pact is with a devil or some other dark force.

Meanwhile, Azzurum listens to the tuning fork in a trance, and the repetitive sound soon turns into the ringing sound of a hammer against an anvil. He remembers sitting in his adoptive father's smithy, watching him create a dagger. Azzurum had been asking for nearly a year now to see what he does and to have a weapon of his own, but his father always said no. Now, however, he had invited him to watch the process as he crafts a dagger.

Finish up, he passes the dagger to Azzurum, asking him what he thinks. Azzurum is able to point out a small flaw - nearly imperceptible. His father tells him that this dagger isn't his to keep, but its a model. He then says its time for Azzurum to learn the ins and outs of the forge. If he wants a dagger, he will have to make it himself. Azzurum is eager to get started, but his father insists they start from the beginning. He tells Azzurum that in the end, he is not trying to teach him to make a dagger - he is teaching him that there's beauty in making something with your own hands, and there's beauty in doing things the right and thorough way.

Two hours pass before Lidara hears noises from outside. She grabs Bonnie (Vincent and Renaer are still sleeping) and they look outside to see about 15 bandits at the entrance of town. At the center of the crowd is a muscular woman with the head of a bull (and the horns to match) with a double-barreled shot gun.

The minotaur woman shouts that this town has been a nuisance long enough, and that Denton's heart is broken by their poor hospitality. She demands that they give up the genasi and the bounty hunter, and for every hour they delay, she'll "add some persuasion." She then tosses a torch at a nearby house, lighting it on fire.

Bonnie and Lidara go back inside to wake Vincent and Renaer and plan for their next steps. There is some talk of Vincent keeping Azzurum and the doctor safe while the others fight, but Doc Berry volunteers that he knows another way out of this house. Beneath a crate in his bedroom is a tunnel, and they carry Azzurum down.

They follow the underground tunnel some way until they reach a large cellar room filled with torchlight, beneath the church. It's full of people - citizens of Goldstead - and a woman at the back is passing out weapons and shields. Vincent looks around, and asks what kind of operation they've stumbled into. Doc Berry waves down a dwarvish woman with dark brown skin, deep smile lines, and her curly hair pulled back. Lidara and Renaer recognize her as the general store owner, Crumbly. She welcomes them to The Resistance.

(She also introduces Bill from the barber shop, Morrigan from the stables, and says that Trilo, the gnomish bartender from the saloon, was also a member before he ran off.)

They make plans to fight, and decide that they need Azzurum's assistance. Doc Berry explains that he can stop the process and pick it up again later, but it will be very painful for Azzurum in the meantime. They decide that risk is worth it, and they prepare to fight.

The Strings of Fate

 * Azzurum Esen-Carr
 * Lidara Mormaer
 * Vincent Obra
 * Renaer Neverember

Returning

 * Bonnie O'Donogan
 * Doc Berry

Debut

 * Crumbly
 * Elliot Carr
 * Half-giant from O'Donogan Gang
 * Minotaur from O'Donogan Gang

Mentions

 * Trilo, the gnomish bartender (mention)
 * Bill from the barbershop (mention)
 * Morrigan from the stables (mention)
 * Denton O'Donogan