During the final watch of the party’s long rest, Glad and Zechs share a quiet conversation about faith, the gods, and the found-family bond that holds their group together, until they are interrupted by a mysterious figure calling itself the Briar Envoy. The Envoy chastises them for failing to present themselves properly before the Queen and Court or offering an acceptable tribute. At Zechs’s warning through the Spies Murmur, the others wake and join the tense exchange, which ends only when the Envoy vanishes after giving them a single day to appear before the Court with a more fitting offering.
Not long after, a weary and familiar presence emerges: Hoshino, returned from his mission with The Journeyman and visibly drained. Zechs, too exhausted to question the timing, embraces him outright, and the rest of the group welcomes him with a mix of warmth and caution. Hoshino provides only brief details about his journey as the party updates him on their aliases for Uscana and their recent crash landing. With some quick planning, illusions, and camp breakdown, they set off toward their unavoidable detour.
At the Court, they're informed that they must board a lift to get where they need to go, in two separate trips, and Zechs, speaking Sylvan, takes the lead in coordinating. Brought before Queen Senestra, he and the group offer apologies and ask what tribute would satisfy her. She provides two equally grim options: retrieve a once-in-a-century Songbloom from the treants’ territory, or recover the mask of her former consort. After weighing both dangerous paths, the group chooses the option less likely to spark immediate war and sets off in search of the elusive Songbloom.
There's so much happening, and that's where we pick up…
Find out what happens next in this episode of the Medusa’s Cascade: Collateral Damage!
Theme Music is written and performed by Efflorescence
Mixed by Thomas Lapierre III
Title Card by Pierce Graphics
Check out the show at themedusascascade.com
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