Into the Mirror 15–16, Old Friends - Sky

Part 1

Part 2

Watch on YouTube: Part 1 · Part 2

Lost in The Sands of Eternity, the land where the dead turn to sand, Flynry, Elianna, Toddleheim and Cerys find themselves face to face with the last man any of them wanted to see: the Arbiter, the very person who killed most of them. He is now dead himself and oddly eager to make friends. What follows is a tense negotiation, a tackle undone by time magic, a blood oath signed in a notebook, and a brutal ambush by a smooth-talking tiefling bandit named Sky that leaves the party fighting for their lives when the curtain drops.

The Story

A Familiar Face in the Library

The Arbiter woke from his illusion and looked out at the party with a wry smile that wrenched up his cheeks. “Yes, I can make good use of you.” He looked different from the last time they had seen him. For Flynry it had been a while. For the others, he had killed them not too long ago, a fact he seemed entirely oblivious to.

“Sorry, have we met?” he asked. Flynry was sure it was a trick, an illusion of the place. The Arbiter recognised Toddleheim and pointed at Elianna, then moved briskly on to business: where exactly were they? When Toddleheim offered “We’re off somewhere,” the Arbiter snapped back: “Everybody’s somewhere. Be more specific! Aren’t you a scholar?”

Asked for his last memory, he gave a breezy summary: “being in chains and… Serving the Grandmaster. I remember killing you and then I went to lunch and then moved on.” Elianna filled Cerys in plainly: “Well, he’s the one that killed us.” Flynry was less restrained. He called the Arbiter “a murderer, a thief, a liar, and the source of evil in my life,” and when Cerys asked whether they should just kill him, he said he’d certainly like to. The Arbiter only cocked his head. “Flynry. Ah, I see. You’ve done something with your hair. Are you still upset about the meteor, or…?” He pointed out that he had killed the others, not Flynry, and then dropped the real news: “I’m dead.” Flynry called it “the best news I’ve heard in years.”

The Arbiter’s Side of the Story

The Arbiter explained that he had been murdered in The Dread Fortress by someone who was presumably now holding the Grandmaster hostage, “or worse.” Flynry asked why he cared at all. The Arbiter answered: “I’ve known Elusia longer than any of you. A thousand years.” Flynry shot back that he had tried to overthrow her.

Then, with a demeaning “Let me tell you a story, children,” he gathered them round. Long ago he had rescued the Grandmaster from exile after her father’s death and brought her home to challenge her uncle, The Shadow King, a powerful mage who was siphoning the life force of The Void to become a god. Together they overthrew him, and Elusia killed him. The Arbiter called what came next a “small miscalculation.” Wasting the knowledge inside the Shadow King’s soul was unthinkable to him, so “I created the Box of Chaos to contain the soul of the Shadow King.” He siphoned its power, but the King’s intentions clouded his mind and whispered to him, and the “snake” slowly regained his form. “If you want my honest opinion, it was him that killed you, not me.” Toddleheim’s verdict: “A likely story.”

Flynry pressed him about Orin, whom he accused the Arbiter of obliterating. The Arbiter admitted he didn’t really know. He warned that the Shadow King had stolen his life force along with everything he had siphoned, and had become a god whom even the Arbiter probably couldn’t stop. He remembered dying in the throne room. He believed the King had rebuilt a body from the sacrifices made to the Box of Chaos: “An arm here, a leg there. Cryptocurrency.”

Trust, Tested

Elianna had spent the most time around the Dread Fortress and the Grandmaster, and she weighed the story carefully. It was factually true. He had helped overthrow the Shadow King, and he had served the Grandmaster as Arbiter ever since. She also knew the Grandmaster values honourable combat and welcomes a challenge, which is why she had kept him captive rather than executing him. “I still don’t trust him,” Elianna concluded. “And he’s always been a pain in the ass.”

She then lined up a tackle. Flynry saw it coming and sidestepped to clear the lane. Elianna barrelled into the roughly eight-foot Arbiter, sat on his chest and bashed his head with her book while Flynry stood laughing with his arms crossed. As the book came down, the Arbiter’s eyes flared with milky, void-white swirls, everyone seemed to blink, and Elianna was standing exactly where she had been before. “God, not here too!” she cried, stomping her foot. The Arbiter brushed himself off and suggested they talk first. If they wanted to fight afterwards, he’d “be more than happy to kill you again.”

Cerys found the common ground: they were all looking for the Grandmaster. The Arbiter introduced himself properly for the first time. “My name, let’s begin here, is Vythorn.” He wanted the Grandmaster safe, the Shadow King dead, “and I would like my power back.” Elianna flipped him off. “Yes,” said Vythorn, “you are Elusia’s type.”

Flynry had one more test. He unstrapped his sword, set it point-down before the Arbiter, and said: “Stare into this and tell me what you see. Lie and I’ll know.” Vythorn saw himself as the party remembered him, at his full power (“Little gray around the beard. Probably use a haircut.”). Flynry slung the sword back over his shoulder. “Nothing’s changed. It’s the same as it’s always been.” Toddleheim agreed to the alliance anyway, reasoning that Vythorn could probably kill them all again regardless: “Let’s watch each other’s backs.”

Signed in Blood

Flynry asked Cerys to swear that she was with the party and that Vythorn should always be considered their enemy. “Oh, swear. You know I’m a paladin, right?” she replied, and wanted something to seal it. Elianna, for whom contracts are everyday work, slammed down her little notebook and two pens: “Contract?” Flynry raised the stakes: a blood oath.

Cerys cut her hand and pressed it to the page. Flynry sliced his own and laid his mark over hers, leaving a bloody X. Cerys swore fealty to them all and promised not to turn if Vythorn tried to sway her. Flynry swore she would be under the crew’s protection “from now until the end of this quest.” Toddleheim signed as witness, with a pen, chuckling. “Did we just get blood married?” Flynry asked. “I will go down with this ship,” said Elianna. Vythorn called it a “great spectacle.”

The Book of Strange Things

Vythorn recognised their surroundings: the Sands of Eternity. In his illusion, he said, the books had kept turning to sand. Now he pulled one down and it held its shape. He traded barbs with Toddleheim, scholar against scholar. “Power, knowledge, call it whatever you want. Is it any different?” Toddleheim insisted it was: “One seeks to be knowledgeable… And one just seeks to rule. There’s a very big difference, scholar.”

Vythorn shared what he knew. The Sands had once sat beside the Living Plane, with open doors and trade, until about 2,000 years ago, when the doorways closed and the realm seemed to vanish, reachable only through mirrors. Elianna sensed he had not been entirely sure where his mirror would send them. They had been “a little bit of an experiment.” Cerys admitted she had been there longest and knew of no way out. Toddleheim found books describing the Sands themselves, with pictures of other cities and cultures, Mortaurios among them. The realm was bigger than they had imagined.

Once Cerys mentioned the king and queen of the land, and Flynry mentioned a device of “transversal,” Vythorn vanished into the stacks. He came back with a huge tome of special items, and on one page was The Orrery of Dreams, which the party was carrying. The book described an object crafted in the Sands with “an immense power capable of shaping reality.” Elianna set it on the table, glaring daggers and ready to tackle again. Vythorn did not touch it. He knelt beside it and read the inner ring: it was “some sort of key,” a piece of a larger machine that would not reach its full potential until brought to the right place. The pages on either side showed a small bronze-looking figurine and an ornate amulet set with a red gem, all bearing similar script. Flynry’s own blade was in there too, listed as the sword of truth, able “to look beyond the physical.” When Flynry asked “Viking… Thornbush” to carry the book, Vythorn corrected him with “It’s a large name for a small brain,” closed the tome with one hand, and made it disappear.

A Knock at the Door

Elianna felt a slow vibration in the floor and heard a man outside shouting orders. Flynry tried clicking the Orrery against his sword the way it had reacted in the dragon’s lair. Nothing happened. Through a crack in the only door, he spotted three figures on the sand. “Come on out! We know you’re in there.”

“Unless you’re scared,” Vythorn added, looking at Flynry. Flynry made a very obvious posture adjustment, lowered his voice, and called “Who is it?” through the door. The voice outside, a horned tiefling, replied that it was impolite to introduce himself to a door. “It’s impolite to arrive somewhere uninvited,” Flynry shot back. When Flynry suggested they look the party up in Mortaurios, Elianna groaned, “You just doxxed us.” The stranger claimed to be “a steward of this place, in a way,” and warned, “There’s only one way out of there. Trust me, I know.” Flynry declared they were “great in number and very powerful,” and Elianna shoved the Arbiter out first. “I don’t know why you all are such cowards,” he sighed.

Sky and His Raiders

“My name is Sky. These are my men. Their names aren’t important right now.” (Sky)

Sky was charming about the robbery. His crew had mouths to feed, it was “nothing personal,” and their need could only be satisfied by taking the party’s belongings. Elianna quietly shoved the Orrery down between her breasts. Flynry asked Vythorn to rewind time fifteen minutes. Multicoloured lightning crackled, a void orb swirled in Vythorn’s hand, and then it fizzled out. This place dampened magic. “If it’s our belongings you’re after,” Flynry announced, “you’ll find nothing but the edges of our blades.” Sky shrugged: “Get them, boys!”

Sky spun his glowing glaive and laid a curse of doubt over three of them. Flynry shrugged it off with a natural 20 and stood up “looking like Gaston,” but Toddleheim was caught. Vythorn touched Toddleheim’s shoulder and granted him a glimpse of the moments to come. Elianna dropped a bubble of silence over the raiders and warded Toddleheim. Flynry mistook the bubble for protection and roared a war cry into it; nothing came out, and the raiders just shrugged at each other.

Flynry and Cerys hammered the orc. Toddleheim blasted Sky with bolts of force. Then the slender raider stepped out of the silence and revealed himself as a wizard, sending an ethereal blade whipping through the whole party. Elianna’s first-ever attempt to snuff out a spell failed. Cerys dropped. The orc flew into a rage and cut Flynry down, then hit Vythorn too. From the ground, Flynry mused: “technically, Cerys, our oath was to the death, so… Yeah, I guess that’s it now.”

Sky stopped face to face with Toddleheim, twirling his glaive “like Prince Oberyn,” and offered a way out: “It does not have to be this way. You can simply give up any time.” Vythorn vanished in a thunderclap. Elianna washed healing over everyone, checking first that they weren’t dead (“If they were dead, they’d be sand,” the narration assured her), and Flynry and Cerys rose again. Flynry lit his sword with “Cerulean… flames the color of the sand” and struck Sky from behind. Sky shrugged off the fire and answered with hellfire of his own. Cerys landed a critical holy smite that left Sky barely standing.

Yes, It Does

Toddleheim gave Sky his answer. He walked up, said “Yes, it does,” and fired bolts of force. Sky snuffed out the spell. Elianna tried to snuff out Sky’s spell and failed, until Vythorn bent time to give her another chance. Even so, Toddleheim’s magic fizzled in his hand. And Sky, still holding his strike, reached out with his glaive toward Toddleheim. That is where the episode ends.

Notable Moments

• Elianna’s tackle-and-book-beating of the Arbiter was undone instantly by a flick of time magic: “God, not here too!”
• The blood oath, signed with Elianna’s work pens and witnessed by Toddleheim in plain ink, led to Flynry asking “Did we just get blood married?”
• The Arbiter finally told the party his name: Vythorn.
• Flynry bellowed an intimidating war cry into Elianna’s silence bubble, and the raiders just shrugged.
• The library’s tome revealed the Orrery of Dreams as a key to a larger machine, with a bronze figurine and a red-gemmed amulet as siblings.
• Elianna hid the reality-shaping Orrery between her breasts.

Memorable Quotes

• The Arbiter: “I remember killing you and then I went to lunch and then moved on.”
• The Arbiter: “Flynry. Ah, I see. You’ve done something with your hair. Are you still upset about the meteor, or…?”
• Flynry: “The best news I’ve heard in years.”
• The Arbiter: “Rebuild a body, I think using the sacrifices to the Box of Chaos. An arm here, a leg there. Cryptocurrency.”
• Elianna: “I still don’t trust him. And he’s always been a pain in the ass.”
• Toddleheim: “One seeks to be knowledgeable… And one just seeks to rule. There’s a very big difference, scholar.”
• Sky: “Your tricks aren’t going to work. Just come out and we can talk. I don’t mean you any harm. Not to say I won’t harm you, though.”
• Flynry: “Well, I don’t think we used it at all. I think it used us.”

Who and What Appears

Characters

Vythorn / the Arbiter (Mudcat)

• Situation: Dead and in the Sands of Eternity. He was murdered in the Dread Fortress (“I died in the throne room”) by the Shadow King, whom he believes is now holding the Grandmaster hostage “or worse.” He had been stuck in an illusion in the library where books kept turning to sand.
• Last memories: being in chains serving the Grandmaster, killing the party, then “lunch.”
• His account of the past:
  • He rescued the exiled Elusia after her father’s death and brought her home to challenge her uncle, the Shadow King.
  • He then created the Box of Chaos to hold the Shadow King’s soul, siphoned its power, and was clouded and whispered to by it.
  • He claims the King, not he, killed the party, and says he doesn’t know whether he obliterated Orin.
• His relationship with Elusia: says he has known her “a thousand years.” Per Elianna’s knowledge (Mudcat’s narration), she named him Arbiter 700 years ago and he has served her for 700 years.
• Stated aims: Grandmaster safe, Shadow King dead, “my power back.”
• Size and power: about 8 ft tall. Weaker here than before. Can still rewind a moment in time (undoing Elianna’s tackle) and grant Fortune’s Favor and Chronal Shift rerolls. Cannot do large time reversal in the dampened area outside the library. Casts thunder step.
• Other actions: made the tome disappear “into” his keeping. Says he did not know for sure where the mirror would send the party.

Flynry (BdTeej)

• History: Has known the Arbiter longer than the others; the Arbiter says he “didn’t kill” him. He blames the Arbiter for killing his friends, betraying all he knew, and “my loss.” The Arbiter mentions “the meteor” and a new hairstyle.
• Time in the Sands: has been in the Sands a long and painful time.
• Gear: carries the sword of truth, which shows Vythorn his true (full-power) self and can ignite with cerulean, sand-colored flame.
• Character: strong, showy and prickly. Fights hand-to-hand with Flurry of Blows. Swore the party’s protection to Cerys in a blood oath. Downed by the orc, healed back up.

Elianna (ParallaxStella)

• Background: Close to the Grandmaster and familiar with the Dread Fortress and its history. Contracts are part of her daily routine.
• Tools: carries a notebook and two pens, and a book she used to bash the Arbiter.
• Actions: tackled the Arbiter; carries the Orrery, which she hid in her cleavage. Casts Silence, Sanctuary, thaumaturgy, Counterspell, Mass Cure Wounds and Toll the Dead. Flipped off the Arbiter.

Toddleheim (“Toddleheim the Great”, Ahnubyss)

• Character: A scholar. Distinguishes knowledge from the desire to rule. Witnessed the blood oath.
• Discoveries: found the books on the Sands, including Moratorios and other cities, and found the sword of truth’s entry.
• In the fight: baned, warded, and counterspelled while answering Sky’s offer.

Cerys (Miss_Magitek; the YouTube cast says Locket)

• Background: A “traveler of these realms” who helped bring the others here. Has been in the Sands longer than the rest and believed there was no way out. Knows of the king (who has an ailment) and the queen.
• The oath: a paladin who admits, perhaps only to the table, that she is an oath breaker paladin. Swore a blood oath of fealty to the party against Vythorn.
• In the fight: knocked unconscious by Steel Wind Strike, healed, then scored a smiting critical on Sky.

Sky

• Appearance: a horned tiefling leader of outlander raiders, with a spinning, glowing glaive.
• Magic: casts Bane, Hellish Rebuke and Counterspell. Resistant to fire.
• Claims: calls himself “a steward of this place, in a way” and says “There’s only one way out of there.”
• Motive: robs travelers to feed “mouths” and mentions going “back home.” Offered Toddleheim surrender.
• Status: barely standing at the end.

The orc raider: has a greatsword and rages. Downed Flynry, hit Vythorn, and shrugged off Toll the Dead.

The wizard raider: slender, possibly a dragonborn or “lizard man.” Cast Steel Wind Strike on the whole party.

Elusia, the Grandmaster: Named to Cerys for the first time. Per Elianna, she welcomes challenge and honorable combat, which is why she kept the Arbiter alive. Vythorn: “you are Elusia’s type.”

The Shadow King: the Grandmaster’s uncle and a mage who siphoned the Void’s life force. Killed by Elusia, his soul held in the Box of Chaos. He influenced the Arbiter and rebuilt a body from sacrifices to the Box. Now “a god.”

The queen and the king of the Sands: The king has an ailment. The queen sent the party to the library and wants the Orrery so her mages can open a doorway. The players find her “shady” (table talk).

Orin: someone the Arbiter is said to have “obliterated.” Not otherwise explained.

Places

• The library (Sands of Eternity): a large building with one large door. Holds mundane books and books of other planes, the Sands themselves, and a tome of special items.
• The Sands of Eternity:
  • Once adjacent to the Living Plane, with doors and trade.
  • Cut off about 2000 years ago; reachable only through mirrors since.
  • Has multiple cities and cultures, with outlanders roaming.
  • The area outside the library dampens some magic.
• Moratorios / Mortorios: a city of the Sands and the party’s base. Likely the “walled city” Sky mentions (inferred from 1:15:15 and 1:11:15).
• The Dread Fortress and its throne room: where the Arbiter was murdered.
• The Living Plane / land of the living.
• The dragon’s lair: earlier, where the Orrery and sword first reacted.

Items

• The Orrery of Dreams:
  • Crafted in the Sands; “immense power capable of shaping reality.” Believed by the queen to open a doorway between planes.
  • Its inside-ring script names it a key, part of a larger machine.
  • It did not react to the sword this time, and saying the city’s name near it did nothing.
• The sword of truth: Flynry’s sword, sand-made, “the ability to look beyond the physical.” Ignites in cerulean flame.
• The tome of special items: shows the Orrery, a bronze-like figurine and a red-gemmed ornate amulet, all sharing script and able to interact. Vythorn took it and made it vanish.
• Elianna’s notebook: holds the blood oath, a bloody X, and Toddleheim’s witness signature.
• The Box of Chaos: as described by Vythorn.

Lore statements

• The Arbiter created the Box of Chaos to keep the Shadow King’s knowledge, and was influenced by it.
• The Shadow King rebuilt his body from sacrifices to the Box of Chaos.
• The Sands of Eternity’s history and the 2000-year closure.
• In the Sands, “If they were dead, they’d be sand” (Mudcat, 1:48:18): the dead here crumble to sand.
• Books in the Arbiter’s illusion turned to sand until he was freed.

Full Round-by-Round

Every beat of the episode, with timestamps (click to expand)

Part 15, “Old Friends”: the Arbiter in the library

Meeting the Arbiter

1. 0:00:00 The Arbiter wakes from his illusion. The party stares into the face of the Arbiter.
   • He looks different from the last time they saw him.
   • For Flynry it has been some time since they met. For the rest, he killed them not too long ago.
   • He wears a wry smile that wrenches up his cheeks: “Yes, I can make good use of you.”
   • He takes in the library and starts scheming.
2. 0:00:45 Recognition. The Arbiter asks, “Sorry, have we met?”
   • Flynry suspects a trick: “This is a trick. This is an illusion of this place.”
   • The Arbiter recognizes Toddleheim (“him and, well, just him”) and points at Elianna as well.
3. 0:01:55 Where are they? The Arbiter: “What matters is you’re here, and now we can get to work. What is this place?”
   • Flynry: “Looks like a library to me.” The Arbiter: “No library I’ve ever seen.”
   • Mudcat notes the Arbiter is “oblivious to the fact that he already murdered you guys once.”
   • Toddleheim: “We’re off somewhere.” The Arbiter: “Everybody’s somewhere. Be more specific! Aren’t you a scholar?”
4. 0:03:13 What he remembers. Elianna asks for the last thing he remembers.
   • The Arbiter: “being in chains and… Serving the Grandmaster. I remember killing you and then I went to lunch and then moved on.”
   • His eyes widen: “You have to tell me where we are right now. I have to get back to the Grandmaster.”
5. 0:04:07 Cerys is lost. She asks what is going on.
   • Elianna: “Well, he’s the one that killed us.”
   • Cerys: “Killed you essentially to bring you here… And it looks like you’re dead now too, I guess. Welcome.”
6. 0:04:43 Flynry’s accusation. “He’s also a murderer, a thief, a liar, and the source of evil in my life.” The Arbiter: “Sorry, do I know you?”
   • Cerys suggests they work together and asks Flynry why he’s being so dramatic.
   • Flynry: “Because this man is the reason that I’m in this mess in the first place. This has killed my friends, has betrayed everything that I’ve known, has been the source of my pain, my anguish. My loss!” He stands defeated, thinking of the time he arrived here.
7. 0:06:01 Kill him? Cerys: “So do we kill him then?” Flynry: “I certainly would like to.”
8. 0:06:07 “The meteor.” The Arbiter cocks his head: “Flynry. Ah, I see. You’ve done something with your hair. Are you still upset about the meteor, or…?”
   • Someone (likely Flynry) says “I’m long past the meteor.”
   • The Arbiter points out that he killed the others, not Flynry, and doesn’t see why Flynry is so sour with him. The speaker split is unclear.
   • Flynry: “I’m sure she’s happy to be rid of you.” The Arbiter: “You don’t understand. I’m dead.” Flynry: “The best news I’ve heard in years.”

The Arbiter’s story

9. 0:07:08 Why he cares. The Arbiter: “I was murdered in the Dread Fortress by somebody now who is presumably holding the Grandmaster hostage, or worse.” Flynry asks why he cares.
   • The Arbiter: “I’ve known Elusia longer than any of you. A thousand years.”
   • Flynry: “And you tried to overthrow her, have her killed.”
   • Flynry: “In a tournament that came down to the last fight, one death determined whether or not you stand here before us supposedly remorseful, or whether you would remain reigning over a stolen kingdom, spitting on her corpse.”
10. 0:08:08 “Let me tell you a story, children.” Demeaning, he gathers them round.
    • “Many years ago, I rescued the Grandmaster. She had been exiled after the death of her father. I brought her home to challenge her uncle, a man known as the Shadow King.”
    • The Shadow King was “a very powerful mage. Bent on bolstering his own power, becoming a god. He was siphoning the life force from the void.” Together they overthrew him, and Elusia killed him.
11. 0:09:30 The “small miscalculation”: the Box of Chaos. “Knowledge is the most significant source of power in all of the universes. And a knowledge contained within the soul of the Shadow King would be a waste.”
    • “I created the Box of Chaos to contain the soul of the Shadow King.”
    • “Snake was playing me the entire time, slowly regaining his form.” He doesn’t know how.
    • He siphoned the King’s power “for a time, use it for the good,” but “his intentions clouded my mind.”
    • Flynry: “Sounds like a dose of your own medicine to me.”
    • The Arbiter: “if you want my honest opinion, it was him that killed you, not me. I wasn’t even in control of my faculties.”
    • Toddleheim: “A likely story.”
12. 0:11:11 Orin. Flynry: “I assume it was your lack of faculties that… obliterated Orin?”
    • The Arbiter: “Let me level with you, I don’t really know.”
    • “The power I was siphoning from the Box of Chaos was… intoxicating in some ways, and other ways… it whispered to me.”
    • He believed he was serving the Void, “whether that’s the truth or not, I don’t know. Doesn’t matter at this point, we’re all dead… What I do care about is saving the Grandmaster.”
13. 0:12:17 Why not leave it to them? Flynry: “Why not entrust us to save the Grandmaster? Tell us what you know… and return you to the sand here and now.”
    • The Arbiter: “if these folks here couldn’t even defeat me, then how do you expect to defeat the Shadow King?”
    • “His power has grown. Exponentially, he siphoned off my own life force, along with the power I stole from him and amplified the knowledge I increased over the years, now his, at his command. He is a god. Not even I am most likely going to be able to stop him. Not in my current state, anyway.”

Elianna tests the story

14. 0:13:24 What Elianna knows. Flynry asks Elianna, who spent the most time with him recently, if any of it is true. She rolls insight (24) and history (13).
    • From being around the Dread Fortress and close to the Grandmaster, she knows the story is factually true: he helped the Grandmaster overthrow her uncle and save the Void.
    • That was when the Grandmaster named him the Arbiter, “700 years” ago. Despite the recent conflict, he has served her for 700 years (Mudcat’s narration).
    • She also knows the Grandmaster “would welcome the challenge” and values “deciding things in honorable combat.” That is why she kept him around (held captive) rather than executing him.
    • Elianna relays that the first part is true, but “she does have her reasons. I still don’t trust him. And he’s always been a pain in the ass.”
15. 0:16:58 An apology, sort of. The Arbiter: “What if I said I was sorry, would that help any here?” “No.” “Good, because I wasn’t probably going to.”
16. 0:17:30 The throne room. Asked what happened to the Grandmaster, he is “a little fuzzy.” The Shadow King’s influence “seeped into my mind.”
    • “I remember now… I died in the throne room.”
    • “He somehow has been able to… Rebuild a body, I think using the sacrifices to the Box of Chaos. An arm here, a leg there. Cryptocurrency.” He is “very powerful now.”
17. 0:18:18 Size. Mudcat: the Arbiter is about 8 feet tall. “Him and the Grandmaster are both pretty large in stature.”

The tackle

18. 0:18:35 Elianna tackles the Arbiter. Flynry sees her line up and sidesteps to open the lane.
    • She wins strength against his athletics (12 vs 9), sprints and tackles him. She sits on his chest bashing his head with her book.
    • Flynry stands with arms crossed, laughing. Mudcat later notes “He’s also not as strong here as he used to be.”
19. 0:20:24 Time rewinds. As the book comes down, the Arbiter’s eyes flare with milky, void-white swirls. Everyone seems to blink.
    • Elianna is back where she stood before the tackle, and he is upright again: he has shifted time.
    • Elianna: “God, not here too!” She stomps her foot.
    • The Arbiter brushes himself off: “Maybe we could just talk first. If you want to fight, then we could do it after. Be more than happy to kill you again."

"My name is Vythorn”

20. 0:21:17 Truce talks. Cerys looks for common ground: they’re all looking for this Grandmaster.
    • The Arbiter: “Maybe we’ve gotten off on the wrong foot. I killed you. You have said some terrible things about me… I let it go.”
    • “My name, let’s begin here, is Vythorn.” Elianna’s player asks for the spelling: V-y-t-h-o-r-n.
21. 0:22:18 His aims. “We have a common interest. I want to see the Grandmaster brought to safety, and I would like to see the Shadow King dead. Um, and I would like my power back.”
    • Elianna flips him off. Vythorn: “Yes, you are Elusia’s type.”

Flynry’s test: the sword

22. 0:23:38 The condition. Flynry unstraps his sword, walks slowly to the Arbiter and sets it point-down in front of him: “Stare into this and tell me what you see. Lie and I’ll know.” Cerys: “Oh, good. Good idea.”
23. 0:24:15 What Vythorn sees. “I don’t understand. I see myself.”
    • “Not bad, honestly. Little gray around the beard. Probably use a haircut.”
    • He sees himself as the party remembers him, with his full power.
    • Flynry slings the sword back and tells Toddleheim: “Nothing’s changed. It’s the same as it’s always been.”
24. 0:25:29 Toddleheim agrees to work with him. “Well, we’re in a bit of a pickle here. We still need to get home… Plus, with the skill he’s just shown, he could probably kill us all again anyway. Let’s watch each other’s backs.” Vythorn: “Agreed.”
    • Elianna agrees too: “I want all of what he wants, except for the last part, him getting power.”

The blood oath

25. 0:26:12 Flynry asks Cerys to swear. Cerys gives her name. Flynry: swear “that you are with us, and that he is ultimately never to be trusted, and should always be considered our enemy, although we may have a common goal.”
    • Cerys: “Oh, swear. You know I’m a paladin, right?” She wants something to seal it.
26. 0:27:05 The contract. Elianna slams down her little notebook with two pens: “Contract?” Flynry: “Contract. A blood oath.” Cerys: “A blood oath?” Flynry: “Unless you think that’s too much for you.”
    • Toddleheim (heard as “Donahoe”) stands in the back stroking his beard and smirking.
    • Elianna is excited; contracts are part of her normal daily work.
27. 0:28:30 The signing. Cerys cuts her hand and seals it on Elianna’s paper. Flynry slices his own and lays his mark over hers, leaving a bloody X on the page.
    • Cerys: “So I swear fealty to you all. And if this one tries to get me to turn on you, I will not.”
    • Flynry: “I swear that you now will be under this crew’s protection in dangerous and perilous times from now until the end of this quest.”
28. 0:29:49 The witness. Elianna takes the book to Toddleheim to sign as witness.
    • Flynry: “Did we just get blood married?” Elianna: “I will go down with this ship.”
    • Toddleheim: “With blood, I assume.” He signs his name with a pen, chuckling. Elianna snaps the book closed: “All done.”
    • Vythorn: “Well, that was exciting. Great spectacle here.”

The Sands of Eternity

30. 0:30:38 He knows the place. Vythorn: “I know this place. We’re in the Sands of Eternity.” He seems almost excited.
    • The players debate how much to tell him. Toddleheim: “We have to show him the orrery. And the queen.”
    • Cerys: “Just know that I’m a traveler of these realms, and I helped get them here. … We’ve been trying to find a way back.” Vythorn: “To the living plane?”
31. 0:32:12 His illusion. Toddleheim asks about it.
    • “It wasn’t much different than you’re seeing before you. Except these damn books kept turning to sand.” He pulls one, and this time it doesn’t turn to sand. “I’m something of a reader.”
32. 0:32:52 Scholar against scholar. Vythorn: “You should understand, you’re a fellow scholar.” Toddleheim: “Indeed, I’m not quite as obsessed with gaining power.”
    • Vythorn: “Power, knowledge, call it whatever you want. Is it any different?”
    • Toddleheim: “Oh, yes. One seeks to be knowledgeable… the machinations of the universe, even. And one just seeks to rule. There’s a very big difference, scholar.”
    • Vythorn: “Perhaps the Shadow King’s aim is to rule, but I have no aims to rule.”
    • Toddleheim: “And that knowledge ended me up in this wonderful place.”
33. 0:34:05 Lore: the Sands’ history.
    • “the Sands of Eternity was once adjacent to the Living Plane.” The door was regularly opened by those who lived there, people came and went, and there was trade.
    • “That all ended some 2000 years ago, maybe? The doorways closed and the realm itself seemed to have vanished. Other than the connections through the mirrors.”
    • Since then, the living have been unable to come here. Some scholars theorize it was destroyed.
34. 0:35:44 An experiment. On an insight check, Elianna (15) gets the sense that he wasn’t 100% sure where he was sending them through the mirror. They were “a little bit of an experiment.” Cerys: “Thanks. Wow. I get it.”
    • Vythorn: “presumably there’s a way to open the door. How long have you been here?”
    • Flynry quietly hangs his head; it is a painful thing to think about.
    • Cerys: “I can tell you I’ve been here longer than the rest of them. And as far as I know, There’s no way out.”

The library’s books

35. 0:37:39 Reading. Everyone searches the books.
    • Most are mundane: histories, science and legal documents, much like a normal library.
    • Others describe animals and planes foreign to them.
36. 0:39:10 Toddleheim’s find. He finds books on the Sands of Eternity itself, with pictures of cities, Moratorios among them.
    • There are other cities, peoples and cultures, so the place is bigger than they imagined. Maybe “you just have to know how to navigate the sands.”
    • A second look (a poor roll) only confirms the sands were once connected to other planes.
    • Vythorn finds nothing beyond what he already knew.
37. 0:41:48 Vythorn asks Cerys for a scholar. She looks to Flynry.
    • Flynry has a realization: the goal is to get back, and what happens to the people here is of no consequence. He gives her a nod.
    • Cerys: “There is a king and queen of these lands. … the king is affected by an ailment, but the queen at least can maybe help… She’s the one that kind of sent us on our way to try to look here.”
    • Vythorn: “we don’t have a lot of time. If you knew the Shadow King like I know him, then you would know that the Grandmaster is not safe, and neither is the Void.” “I will follow your lead then.”

The Orrery of Dreams

38. 0:44:39 The device. Flynry: “Royalty mentioned a device… capable of creating opportunities for transversal.” Vythorn turns his head very slowly: “What sort of device?”
39. 0:45:17 The tome of special items. With an idea of what to look for, he vanishes behind a shelf amid shuffling and flipping.
    • He returns with a huge tome and slams it on a table. It describes “a number of items with special properties in this place”: mundane-looking scientific artifacts, statues and the like.
    • He flips past a page showing the Orrery of Dreams, and Cerys asks him to hold it.
40. 0:47:17 Cerys comes clean. “Look, it’s true, we haven’t been the most forthcoming with you… cryptic.” Vythorn: “Shocking.” Cerys: “This item is what we’re looking for.”
41. 0:47:53 What the book says.
    • The Orrery is a very powerful item crafted within the Sands of Eternity, with “an immense power capable of shaping reality.”
    • It says nothing specific about doorways. Vythorn: “Is there something you know that I don’t?”
42. 0:49:11 What the queen told them (recap).
    • The queen said the Orrery could open a doorway between the planes. Her mages would decipher it so she, and hopefully everyone else, could go through.
    • It was unknown how many could pass, and their knowledge of it was “fractured.”
    • When it collided with Flynry’s sword, it transported them here, “conveniently” to the Arbiter.
43. 0:50:27 Who holds it. Elianna has it; she moves her bag behind her.
    • Cerys: “We have it right now. It’s what we use to get us here.”
    • Flynry: “Well, I don’t think we used it at all. I think it used us.”
    • Vythorn: “It brought you here. Yes. To me.” Elianna: “No, to a library.”
    • Cerys: “it’s kind of interesting that the thing brought us to this library to meet this arbiter of yours. Maybe there’s some sort of fate play here.”
44. 0:52:08 Showing it to Vythorn. Vythorn asks to examine it.
    • Toddleheim fears this is where they die again; at the queen’s court, others could step in if he betrays them.
    • The players also find the queen “kind of shady.” Flynry’s player jokes she and the Arbiter would form a secret handshake.
    • Elianna sets the Orrery on the table, shooting daggers at the Arbiter and ready to tackle again.
    • He doesn’t touch it. He kneels way down beside it and studies the rings.
45. 0:54:27 The inside ring. “There’s some mumbo-jumbo about the truth and some cryptic flowery words, but written here on the inside ring…”
    • “It does speak of this is some sort of key. It’s a piece of a larger machine… it’s a part of a whole.”
    • “I don’t believe it will be its full potential until we bring it to the right place or find the right mechanism that unlocks it.”
    • Elianna: “We literally just got here and had to deal with you.”
46. 0:55:54 The neighbouring pages. Flynry studies the pages before and after the Orrery.
    • Some items in the book were created together and can interact with each other.
    • Before: a small statue or figurine, perhaps cast bronze.
    • After: a very ornate amulet with a gem of red hue.
    • All of the objects bear similar script, like the Orrery’s, which might be readable with the actual item.
47. 0:58:07 The sword of truth. Toddleheim looks for Flynry’s sword and finds it.
    • It is listed as “the sword of truth” (Mudcat: “which, you know, you aptly named it”). It is one of these sand-made objects.
    • It “has the ability to look beyond the physical… to gaze beyond what is apparent or what can be seen with the naked eye.”
    • Mudcat’s “race cars” and Flynry’s “transform into a truck” are table jokes.
48. 1:00:09 Vythorn keeps the book. Flynry: “I think we need to take this book with us.”
    • He fumbles the name (“Viking… Thornbush”): “You’re big enough to carry this book.”
    • Vythorn: “Don’t worry, it’s Vythorn. It’s a large name for a small brain.”
    • He closes the tome with one hand and it disappears. “I’ll keep on to it.”

Shouting outside

49. 1:02:30 The rumble. Elianna rolls a natural 20 on perception.
    • She feels a slow vibration in the floor, not violent shaking.
    • She hears a man shouting outside, not for help but a command, as if at somebody.
    • Toddleheim guesses giant sandworms.
    • Elianna: “Something’s happening and there are people outside and we have to go.” Flynry: “Perhaps they can help us.” Cerys: “They might be outlanders, and they’re not friendly.”
    • (Part 15 likely ends around here; inferred from the YouTube length.)

Part 16, “Sky”

Trying to leave

50. 1:04:22 Orrery and sword. Trusting Cerys’s talk of fate, Flynry touches the Orrery and his sword together again. Nothing happens.
    • In the dragon’s lair they had spun and whirled, and the sword had glowed blue-greenish. Now there is no interaction.
    • He clicks them together faster (“This was different the first time”), gives up and hands the Orrery to Elianna.
51. 1:05:28 The city’s name. Toddleheim recalls that saying the city’s name might take them back.
    • The only entrance is the door they came in by.
52. 1:05:55 Through the crack. Flynry peeks and sees three figures on the sand a short way off. The man shouts: “Come on out! We know you’re in there.”
    • Flynry: “Turns out that they’re looking for us. Or rather him, more likely.” Vythorn: “Hey, I just got here.”
    • Flynry starts pulling books off the shelf, mimicking Vythorn.
53. 1:07:00 “Unless you’re scared.” Vythorn: “maybe we should just answer the door. Unless you’re scared,” looking at Flynry.
    • Flynry makes a very obvious posture adjustment and goes to the door: “Who is it?” His voice gets lower.
    • The leader: “It’s impolite to introduce myself with a door and a face.”
    • Flynry: “It’s impolite to arrive somewhere uninvited.”
    • Leader: “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize this was your home. Is it yours?” Flynry: “It’s no one’s.”
54. 1:08:08 The three figures. A leader, an orcish figure, and a slender one that may be a dragonborn (Flynry calls it “a lizard man”).
    • Cerys knows outlanders travel in groups but not this group’s numbers. She advises letting them in with weapons ready, because “they usually can’t be trusted.”
    • The leader, a tiefling, turns his horned head: “Your tricks aren’t going to work. Just come out and we can talk. I don’t mean you any harm. Not to say I won’t harm you, though.”
55. 1:11:15 “You can find us in Mortorios.” Flynry: “Look, we don’t know you, and we’ve had our fair share of unfortunate run-ins for today. If you want to speak with us, you can find us in Mortorios.”
    • He is only saying it, not trying to open a portal. Elianna: “You just doxxed us.” Flynry: “It’s a bigger city than one building.”
    • Cerys walks to the Orrery and says “Mortorius.” Nothing happens.
    • Flynry tries once more: “You can find us in… Wartorios!”
56. 1:12:17 The inscription in the mirror. Elianna re-reads the Orrery; there’s nothing new.
    • She holds it up to Flynry’s sword to see if the inscriptions change in the reflection: “They look backwards to you.” The result is unclear in the audio.
57. 1:13:16 The steward. The leader: “There’s only one way out of there. Trust me, I know.”
    • Flynry: “That’s a very curious thing to say.”
    • Elianna: “Maybe he’s the librarian?” Flynry relays the question.
    • Leader: “Well, I have no interest in books, but I am a steward of this place, in a way.”
58. 1:13:43 Opening the door. Flynry: “I’m opening the door now, but mind you, we are great in number and very powerful.”
    • Elianna shoves the Arbiter out in front. He rolls his eyes: “I don’t know why you all are such cowards.”
    • He opens a door that is large even for him and walks out onto the sand. The others follow.

Sky

60. 1:14:42 Sky introduces himself. The tiefling: “Hello, friends. Let me introduce myself. My name is Sky. These are my men. Their names aren’t important right now.”
    • “But what is important is, well, we’re in need. We have a terrible need. Unfortunately, that need is only satisfied by taking your belongings.”
    • “Nothing personal, I assure you. But we do have some mouths to feed… you can get back to the walled city, and I can get back, uh, we can get back home as well.”
61. 1:15:41 Elianna hides the Orrery. Standing behind the Arbiter, she shoves the Orrery down between her breasts. The table jokes about it (see Table talk).
62. 1:16:30 Vythorn tries to rewind time. Flynry: “Can’t you do some of that time travel snap business you did back to us in the library? Take us back about 15 minutes before these idiots arrived.” Vythorn: “Unfortunately. Well, let me try.”
    • Multicolored electricity crackles around his body, his eyes flash, and a swirling void orb forms in his hand. Then it flickers and goes out.
    • Vythorn: “it seems that we’re in a place that dampens certain magical properties.”
    • He looks around for the Orrery and can’t see it. He glances at Toddleheim and Elianna: “we may be limited in some capacity here.”
    • He can still spark smaller magic, just not reverse time here.
    • Flynry: “So he’s able to stop his own face from being booked in, but not, you know, get us out of imminent real danger… Thanks.” Vythorn: “It seems my power is limited for the moment.”
63. 1:18:46 Refusal. Vythorn: “Maybe you just give him your weapons. We move on. I don’t really have time for this.”
    • Flynry: “If it’s our belongings you’re after, you’ll find nothing but the edges of our blades.”
    • Sky: “That’s unfortunate, but if it can’t be helped… Get them, boys!”

Fight: Sky’s raiders, round 1

64. 1:20:46 Sky acts first. He spins his glaive, which sparks and glows. He points it at Flynry and casts Bane on Flynry, Vythorn and Toddleheim.
    • Flynry rolls a natural 20 on the save and “stands up looking like Gaston.” He is immune to the effect if it is recast.
    • Vythorn also saves. Toddleheim is baned.
    • Sky then just stands holding his glaive, waiting for his minions to start.
65. 1:22:55 Vythorn helps Toddleheim. Standing behind him, Vythorn puts a hand on his shoulder and casts Fortune’s Favor. It is limited time magic: Toddleheim sees fragments of events about to unfold and can reroll one roll.
    • Asked if he’ll “Obliterate,” he doesn’t even use a bonus action. He just steps to the side. Cerys: “Typical.”
66. 1:25:12 Elianna’s turn.
    • She casts Silence, a 20-ft sphere around the raiders.
    • She casts Sanctuary on Toddleheim. Flynry: “You’re living large right now, bro.”
67. 1:27:43 Flynry shouts into the silence.
    • He takes position at the front. He doesn’t realize what Elianna cast; he thinks the semi-transparent bubble is protection.
    • Feeling strong after the Bane save, he yells to intimidate them, but it comes out as nothing. The raiders look at each other and shrug.
    • Elianna: “Flynry, I cast silence, just letting you know.”
68. 1:28:52 Flynry attacks the orc. He runs at the orc with the big sword.
    • One greatsword strike lands and one misses.
    • He follows with a Flurry of Blows, two unarmed strikes, both landing. “He’s kind of beefy.”
69. 1:31:01 Cerys attacks. She checks: there has been no long rest since the dragon. Flynry: “That dragon messed us up.”
    • She charges the same orc. One strike lands as a glancing blow, with a Divine Smite; the second misses as he dodges aside.
70. 1:33:13 Toddleheim the Great.
    • He considers Acid Splash but there are too many friends nearby (“Oh, it hurts so much! My skin!”).
    • He fires a 5th-level magic missile at Sky for a big hit, then a fire bolt at Sky that lands for little.
    • Mudcat: “At least it looked cool.” Flynry: “Thanks for the explosion.”
71. 1:36:40 The wizard: Steel Wind Strike. The slender raider, now revealed as a wizard, steps out of the silence zone.
    • He conjures a magical ethereal blade that whips around the battlefield at five targets.
    • Elianna tries her first-ever reaction, Counterspell. It needs a natural 20 in Mudcat’s roll-off and fails. Mudcat: “at a third level, you wouldn’t have dispelled it.”
    • Sanctuary’s save: the wizard passes, so the strike on Toddleheim stands. Flynry: “You want all of your main characters to die in a stupid fight against bandits.”
    • Everyone is hit for heavy damage. Cerys drops unconscious.
72. 1:42:33 The orc raider rages. He looks at Flynry and smiles: “It’s not going to take much.”
    • He becomes resistant to physical damage, swings his greatsword and Flynry goes down.
    • He then runs at Vythorn and hits him too.
    • Flynry, from the ground: “Well, I mean, you know, technically, Cerys, our oath was to the death, so… Yeah, I guess that’s it now.”
    • Elianna: “Just sleeping, you’re just sleeping. That didn’t last long.” Flynry: “So much left to explore… So much left unsaid.”
73. 1:44:25 Sky’s offer. Sky charges and stops at the edge of the silence zone, face to face with Toddleheim.
    • He spins the glaive “like Prince Oberyn,” flipping it around showily.
    • “It does not have to be this way. You can simply give up any time.” He holds his action to hear Toddleheim’s answer. Elianna: “Plot armor, let’s go!”
74. 1:45:36 Vythorn’s thunder step. Not super happy, he moves between the two raiders.
    • Off-colored lightning flashes and his eyes shine. He vanishes in an upcast thunder step with a thunderous roar.
    • Both raiders save and take half damage. He pops up elsewhere.
    • Flynry: Cerys and he, unconscious, want “to be up and just hacking and slashing.”

Round 2

75. 1:47:37 Elianna’s Mass Cure Wounds. She casts it at 5th level on everyone in range: “they’re not dead, right?”
    • Mudcat: “If they were dead, they’d be sand.”
    • Flynry and Cerys are back up.
76. 1:51:23 Toll the Dead. As a bonus cantrip she casts Toll the Dead “on that motherfucker,” the orc.
    • He rolls a natural 20 on the save; as a seasoned fighter, he shrugs it off. Toddleheim’s player: “I’m already dead.”
77. 1:52:03 Flynry’s flaming sword. “Wow. I’m still feeling like shit, but boy, it’s better than being unconscious. Thank you.”
    • He ignites the sword: “Cerulean, you know, flames the color of the sand.”
    • He sneaks up on Sky, whose back is turned while he shows off, and gains advantage.
    • Sky dips his head out of the way without even looking. After a proficiency fix, both greatsword strikes land with fire.
    • Sky is resistant to the fire. He turns, smirks and casts Hellish Rebuke: the sword’s fire ignites with fire magic around his body and erupts back at Flynry, who mostly dodges.
    • Flynry finishes with another Flurry of Blows, both landing.
    • “And now he turns and kills me, but Cerys, it’s up to you.”
78. 1:57:04 Cerys’s critical smite. One miss, then a natural 20, with a Divine Smite at 3rd level. Sky is left barely standing. Cerys: “We believe in you, Toddleheim.”
79. 1:59:23 Toddleheim answers Sky. Mudcat reminds him of Sky’s offer.
    • Toddleheim: “Fuck it, we’re full sending it.” He walks up to Sky: “Yes, it does,” and casts a 4th-level magic missile.
80. 2:00:18 Counterspell duel.
    • Sky counterspells with his reaction. Flynry’s player: “These dudes are like raid bosses.”
    • Elianna tries to counterspell the counterspell and fails the roll.
    • Vythorn uses a reaction, “Chronal Shift,” to let her reroll. She sees events play out in her mind, outside time, with the Arbiter influencing her.
    • Mudcat then has Toddleheim roll (21). Narration: “As you raise your hand, Vythorn raises his to help Elianna. Elianna’s magic, unaffected. He raises his, and whatever the magic in your hand just gets fizzled out… counterspelling you.”
81. 2:03:39 Cliffhanger. “And then, Sky, holding an action, is going to reach out with his glaive and attack you” (Toddleheim). The file ends here.