[SPEAKER_01]: Chester's chasm, a city reeling from the apocalyptic touch of the horseman's hooves.
[SPEAKER_01]: A banner was raised here, one that called these harbangers to ride together as they never had before, as they never would, again.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why don't you tell me?
[SPEAKER_00]: We see the sunlight land on Willowcapped, as though it knows it's only a visitor here.
[SPEAKER_00]: The clouds will come, the grey will come, but in this moment the light has arrived.
[SPEAKER_05]: Lord, I lay my hands upon him today.
[SPEAKER_05]: so that your light may flow through me and into him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Bet you a lot more than water now, huh?
[SPEAKER_01]: This is my purpose for now, whether it means my death or another's.
[SPEAKER_05]: The family is coming together, I see.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, I'm Rara, but that's enough about that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Join me on January 7th, 2026 as I become the guest GM for ever graceful day darken.
[SPEAKER_00]: A seven-part series produced by the table top till spinners network.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can find this prequel story on the All-Arfalts podcast feed, wherever you consume your podcasts.
[SPEAKER_03]: You're listening to what Tails yet told production.
[SPEAKER_03]: Viewer discretion is advised.
[SPEAKER_04]: Blood in the snow is a horror actual play series using the game hunt by Gidler R.P.G.S.
[SPEAKER_04]: The story is inspired by Gothic tales of monster hunting and vampirism, so be wary.
[SPEAKER_04]: In check the episode description for content warnings as well as a list of cast in crew.
[SPEAKER_02]: and so the winds of change blow through the forest surrounding the hidden city of Azirad.
[SPEAKER_02]: Years passed, and in that time, city of Azirad has grown, and the crimson castle still stands now covered in snow.
[SPEAKER_02]: As the winter of a new century, rolls in.
[SPEAKER_02]: The heavy wooden gate of the castle falls open, crunching the snow beneath it, revealing the moonlit silhouettes of blive, of vera, and swan, armed and ready.
[SPEAKER_02]: The light of three moons hits the sky, just like the night of that banquet so, so long ago, and as that light shines down upon you three.
[SPEAKER_07]: Shall I go first again?
[SPEAKER_02]: Sure.
[SPEAKER_07]: It's almost as if the white leather ensemble, the flowing ruffles, the golden buttons, everything, the lace-to-up boots, straps, and all sorts of places holding, carrying whatever secrets that they are.
[SPEAKER_07]: It's almost as if that banquet was when Swan decided that she peaked, actualized, ascended in form.
[SPEAKER_07]: She looks at herself in every moonlit pool of water, whatever that may be, and sees herself.
[SPEAKER_07]: sees a lourd of blood, an oath taker finally of the sacred blood.
[SPEAKER_07]: She still in her blood red, long hair braided to her back, her skin without the tan freckles, and more pale, almost as if
[SPEAKER_07]: She is intense, but she is stronger, and she is more beautiful than she's ever been.
[SPEAKER_03]: Life steps out into the moonlight, changed forever by the banquet.
[SPEAKER_03]: A mere doctor, physician, scientist turned into a knight, bound by an oath to the sky.
[SPEAKER_03]: covering the light armor that they wear, a leather fur-covered cape drapes over.
[SPEAKER_03]: His body still blanky, meek, with gauntlets that reach past their knees as the certain transformation has happened to him.
[SPEAKER_03]: with longer arms, clawed gauntlets, on their feet, their grieves, seem to have these retractable claws, for perhaps catching prey as they swoop from the sky.
[SPEAKER_03]: and the thing that is most striking is their once innocent face has changed.
[SPEAKER_03]: Their mouth stretched, giving a new meaning to smiling from ear to ear.
[SPEAKER_03]: They cover it.
[SPEAKER_03]: This new monstrous form with a helmet.
[SPEAKER_03]: With the form of a bat's face, not any kind of bat, but a vampire bat.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's hunched over, looking with shame.
[SPEAKER_03]: walking behind the proud and beautiful swan Akari and I seem next to them.
[SPEAKER_03]: Is that it here?
[SPEAKER_05]: Elvira was already a tall person before things changed, but she's much taller now.
[SPEAKER_05]: I would say probably somewhere around 7, 3, 7, 4.
[SPEAKER_05]: And with these changes, of course, had to come new armor.
[SPEAKER_05]: forged especially for her and her new broader, elongated form.
[SPEAKER_05]: It's the kind of thing that, you know, is mostly meant to scare people away from interacting in the first place.
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, the kind of thing, chain mail with, you know, there's
[SPEAKER_05]: skulls and bones hidden amongst the decorations of the armor, large shoulder palterins in the shape of human skulls.
[SPEAKER_05]: old tattered cloths draped across it in various ways to make it almost seem like an old kind of like torn musty cloths draped across it in ways to kind of almost give the feeling of an antique fireplace in an abandoned building and the core of the breastplate.
[SPEAKER_05]: there is a void there where light seems to just be absorbed into nothingness, but at the center of it, where armor and flesh and bone should be, there is a faint, bluish flame, and as always
[SPEAKER_05]: Whatever has changed about that doesn't matter to her.
[SPEAKER_05]: It doesn't stop her from doing her job.
[SPEAKER_02]: And as the three of you make your way down the hill and through the city of Ozorad, feet crunching in the snow, you see people in the streets on this winter night.
[SPEAKER_02]: see you over their shoulders in power, hide behind things.
[SPEAKER_02]: You'll see occasionally someone wave but for the most part, your present seems to unsettle a great many of the townsfolk.
[SPEAKER_02]: something that years ago, you might not have had to feel.
[SPEAKER_02]: You eventually find your way at the gates of Azeroth itself, where a woman with a dark skin, a wide-brembed hat,
[SPEAKER_02]: with a large point at the top standing in robes sees you approach.
[SPEAKER_02]: You see behind her there is some sort of a purplish energy flickering over the doors of the gate itself and she looks you all up and
[SPEAKER_02]: Uh, we've heard about the monster, and the forest.
[SPEAKER_02]: The people are getting scared.
[SPEAKER_02]: If the forest is being drained, it's going to go a haywire, the illusions.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm not sure what you'll be able to see out there.
[SPEAKER_02]: But if you can find this thing, you have to stop at those things.
[SPEAKER_02]: If they find this city, we can't keep this barrier up forever.
[SPEAKER_06]: And you needn't worry.
[SPEAKER_06]: We will find this monster for you.
[SPEAKER_06]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_02]: And she turns away from you all and goes... Sauseless!
[SPEAKER_02]: Lower the barrier for just a moment.
[SPEAKER_02]: San Luis Populi departs.
[SPEAKER_05]: Elvira turns to them and asks, how many people have died, still echoing from under the helm.
[SPEAKER_02]: As the mass of wooden gate slowly begins to creep open, creaking loudly, the...maid looks back to you.
[SPEAKER_02]: Four nights already haven't returned.
[SPEAKER_02]: Twelve civilians died passing through the forest.
[SPEAKER_02]: People running from the ruins of Aos after what happened just months ago.
[SPEAKER_02]: We hear their screams at night.
[SPEAKER_02]: When they attempt to go through the forest, whatever's out there makes them suffer.
[SPEAKER_02]: A.O.'
[SPEAKER_02]: 's fell, and if that forest falls, Ozerad will be hidden no more than it will fall too.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't want that for these people.
[SPEAKER_06]: It will not.
[SPEAKER_07]: If you could just promise me, perhaps, one thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Of course.
[SPEAKER_07]: Tell everyone to lighten up, enjoy a nice meal or anil.
[SPEAKER_07]: We will return with the monsters and trails if they would so like.
[SPEAKER_07]: It is not a problem.
[SPEAKER_07]: For a sanguice puppy lie.
[SPEAKER_03]: I hope you're right, confidence isn't really my strong suit, but when Swan does proclaim something like this, you can't believe that it will be true.
[SPEAKER_02]: And as those last words were spoken, the purple field that was flickering with the mages were struggling to hold open, momentarily drops, and the mage looks back to you all one last time and goes, return, and move away for you.
[SPEAKER_02]: And if you do bring that monster's head, we'll make sure to throw you all the finest
[SPEAKER_07]: I've prayed, now that I adore.
[SPEAKER_05]: Have 12 graves ready for when we return?
[SPEAKER_07]: But then shall we 16?
[SPEAKER_05]: No.
[SPEAKER_02]: The night shall be in the crypt.
[SPEAKER_06]: Hmm, I forgot.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll send someone to dig the graves now.
[SPEAKER_02]: Let's be Ghost.
[SPEAKER_02]: And as you exit the gates of Azeroth, you look upon a clearing.
[SPEAKER_02]: The illusory forest is already playing tricks on you, the moment you step outside and you haven't even fully stepped into it.
[SPEAKER_02]: The scarlet grass seems to have a heartbeat that thuds and unison across the whole landscape.
[SPEAKER_02]: In the specs of dirt that escape the snow seemed to float around your boots as you march forward.
[SPEAKER_02]: On the other side of the clearing hundreds of feet away, you see the mass of ever-shifting trees that make up the forest proper.
[SPEAKER_02]: You hear the sound of a blood-curdling scream somewhere near the edge of the forest.
[SPEAKER_02]: The spotlight is yours, Knights.
[SPEAKER_02]: Go for it.
[SPEAKER_05]: I believe we all heard this scream, yes?
[SPEAKER_05]: Unfortunately.
[SPEAKER_06]: Into action so fast.
[SPEAKER_07]: I love when we get to go out.
[SPEAKER_03]: that me scutted, as the cape unfurls into bat wings, and I ascended to a sky.
[SPEAKER_03]: Do I see anything?
[SPEAKER_02]: As you fly up work into the sky and you all watch the silhouette of blive be illuminated by the largest moon, you,
[SPEAKER_02]: you blive can see all the way towards the edge of the forest what looks to be a sater who's trying his best.
[SPEAKER_02]: He looks a little bit bruised and battered already trying his best to crawl out of a brush.
[SPEAKER_02]: He seems to be looking over his shoulder as if something is chasing him.
[SPEAKER_03]: I descend immediately, and inform my compatriots of the situation.
[SPEAKER_03]: I say to them, they look like they are being chased.
[SPEAKER_03]: If we hurry, we might be able to save them.
[SPEAKER_07]: Do we have to hurry?
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, you can take your sweet times, Swad, while I try and do my best to keep the casualties at a low.
[SPEAKER_07]: Let's go.
[SPEAKER_05]: Elvira silently follows behind truly not in a rush for this sater is not within my jurisdiction.
[SPEAKER_07]: I don't rush either.
[SPEAKER_05]: That's coal.
[SPEAKER_03]: I do.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so, as you grow nearer,
[SPEAKER_02]: This is where we're going to start getting to the points, where the approaches are going to start pulling from your, you have five total for every single of the three approaches.
[SPEAKER_02]: And once you hit zero on them, you'll start facing consequences for trying to reuse them.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, considering you are leading the pack here alive, you are scooping in on this sater who's already panicking.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's already scared, and that's he looks up and he sees you coming on the horizon.
[SPEAKER_02]: You hear him screaming, how do you approach this scenario?
[SPEAKER_03]: I make haste, I make haste, and I try to get there as soon as I can.
[SPEAKER_02]: Alright, so you manage to swoop in and literally write as you arrive, you see rustling in the bushes.
[SPEAKER_02]: one-bush rustling, two, and then three.
[SPEAKER_02]: You've heard about these monsters from beyond that you're being sent out here to find.
[SPEAKER_02]: They have smaller ones, like almost like a hunting dog.
[SPEAKER_02]: No one's killed one of the big ones yet, but these ones.
[SPEAKER_02]: are all still dangerous.
[SPEAKER_02]: And you see one roll from outside of one of these bushes.
[SPEAKER_02]: You see finger and then finger and then finger and then finger and then finger and then finger and like a tumbleweed made of rolling hands just
[SPEAKER_02]: battering and bruising themselves as they force themselves to roll toward this man's feet.
[SPEAKER_02]: It emerges from one of the bushes, but then it flickers.
[SPEAKER_02]: As another one enters from another bush, as the illusory forest is beginning to warp the environment.
[SPEAKER_02]: Can you stand?
[SPEAKER_02]: I...
[SPEAKER_02]: I fucked up my leg on the Florence.
[SPEAKER_02]: And you see that his right leg has already been gashed.
[SPEAKER_02]: And you don't think it was the thorns of this bush he's currently in just by looking at it.
[SPEAKER_02]: But perhaps his adrenaline is moving too fast to think about what could have possibly done it.
[SPEAKER_02]: His right leg is pretty maimed.
[SPEAKER_03]: Is there a way for me to be able to heal him?
[SPEAKER_07]: Do you have a sky thing?
[SPEAKER_03]: syringe thing a syringe thing yes power name heal range one if a heal two to any single night can I I will transfer that over yes I believe you can use that here um how do how is it look as you're attempting to heal this man
[SPEAKER_03]: I open up a small pouch with tools, syringes and scalples and sutures, and with a certain
[SPEAKER_03]: some of the cuts and bruises and with that manipulate the blood around the leg to create some form of hemorrhaging to turn it the leg.
[SPEAKER_02]: got you.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so you're manipulating the blood here in an attempt to ease this man's pain and give him, well, a leg to stand on.
[SPEAKER_02]: And as you're doing this, you can tell that you're already succeeding in handling the healing of this.
[SPEAKER_02]: You've been doing this for a long time.
[SPEAKER_02]: And as you're managing this, you see the third bush, the hands roll out like a tumbleweed of flesh approaching you.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's going to attempt to attack you while you're busy healing this man.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I would like for you to spend a haste to see if you can avoid it, but you could use a different one, but it will come with a slight consequence.
[SPEAKER_03]: whole attempt to use a haste.
[SPEAKER_03]: How do you dodge this thing?
[SPEAKER_03]: I, uh, while I have my pack open, I take one of the scalples and slash towards it to hopefully make it avoid me and give me an opening to roll away.
[SPEAKER_02]: Wonderful.
[SPEAKER_02]: So you slash at it towards the air and it literally as it was flying towards you as it sees the blade Come out and swing towards it.
[SPEAKER_02]: You see the fingers on the bottom half of this ball Grab onto the brush of one of the bushes and stop its momentum So it won't get slash buying you enough time to roll out of the way and as this is happening
[SPEAKER_02]: Elvira and Swan.
[SPEAKER_02]: This is around the time where you're starting to finally make it over here.
[SPEAKER_02]: And you're starting to see what, what, what fly the seeing, a downed sater who's currently getting medical treatment from blive, and railing balls of hands rolling out from the brush.
[SPEAKER_07]: Okay, um, I think very, I think just as kind of what I had a small, like, the wordless exchange, it's just sort of like, did I, would you let, no, okay?
[SPEAKER_07]: Um, so, uh, is by any chance any of, uh, the hands in a line, like a, like a, a line for each other, like, or like, in sort of an order.
[SPEAKER_02]: The ones that are a little bit deeper into the forest are in a little bit of a line that you'd have to like move a bit toward the left and line up.
[SPEAKER_07]: I have something called let loose.
[SPEAKER_07]: I'd like to hurl my spear like a lightning bolt through the air.
[SPEAKER_07]: My range is up to four.
[SPEAKER_07]: I can deal one harm to anything in every space this spear travels through.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so as you throw the spear and it cuts through the brush, you see it going towards these two roiling balls of hands and then it flickers.
[SPEAKER_02]: as the first illusion fades, and then it goes through the second one, and spears the second one straight into the tree.
[SPEAKER_02]: And you see the hands writhing, and you almost hear like a squealing, but it's not audible, it's in your head.
[SPEAKER_02]: It echoes, and it's unnatural, unnerving.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's psychic, it's boundary breaking.
[SPEAKER_02]: The squeals are never ending.
[SPEAKER_02]: Elvira, what do you love to you?
[SPEAKER_05]: I think Elvira decides to just walk over towards where this sater implied are.
[SPEAKER_02]: Alright, the one that had stopped itself on the bush.
[SPEAKER_02]: from being slashed by the scalpel is now like dropped into the bush and then rolled out of the bush and you see it move forward and like summer salting off of two of the hands that it is made of launches itself again rolling towards you through the air and now you're standing between
[SPEAKER_02]: I would like to ask you to spend haste or you could use another one with a consequence.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, I'll spend haste for that.
[SPEAKER_02]: Alright, how are you hastily reacting to this thing?
[SPEAKER_05]: I think it's along with this new body, Elvira has was already kind of faster than she probably should be for someone her size, but this new body is even faster and stronger.
[SPEAKER_05]: And so there's like
[SPEAKER_05]: almost at the perfect moment to be able to do so, takes her weapon, which is no longer the torch-topped quarterstaff, but now this
[SPEAKER_05]: sleek sigh.
[SPEAKER_05]: The actual like shaft of it is like this really dark wood carved with rooms that Elvira can't read.
[SPEAKER_05]: And this dark blade almost kind of vantublack in the way.
[SPEAKER_05]: Like you can't tell its depth.
[SPEAKER_05]: um just from looking at it from its profile and the speed at which she moves it it seems almost as if she went from standing with it lower to her side and then it goes from like being like to her side to almost she just lifted her hand into the air
[SPEAKER_05]: But really there's a full motion that has happened that the Sator most certainly can't see and whether the creature could perceive it or not doesn't really matter at this moment.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: So as you go ahead and you bring this blade out on whether or not this creature perceived it, you don't see any eyes on this thing.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: You're not sure how it perceives in the first place.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: And you were bringing this blade out with the intention of blocking it or with the intention of slashing it.
[SPEAKER_05]: Uh, with the intention of like slashing it, like just cutting it, clean them half, wonderful.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so you bring the blade up and slice it in half, it goes like right between fingers.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then it goes up through the body and through the weird mass of flesh, the all the hands are connected to.
[SPEAKER_02]: and it cuts the thing in half and bio of a strange is red but it's not quite as red as you're used to.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's almost deluded maybe a little bit closer to a pink.
[SPEAKER_02]: Just a
[SPEAKER_02]: See the trees above you begin to rustle as well and your spear is currently in the tree where you launched into the third hand ball thing.
[SPEAKER_02]: As this tree rustles above you
[SPEAKER_02]: I would like you to either spend haste or you can use another one at another cost.
[SPEAKER_07]: A question.
[SPEAKER_07]: If I use this haste am I able to get my spear back immediately?
[SPEAKER_07]: Swans priority may be more towards her spear so I would love to take a consequence if I can prioritize that rather than really getting out of the way if that makes sense.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_02]: We could still use haste for that because I'm still basing based on quickly reacting as you are essentially currently under attack and you are able to use that haste to get there if you wish.
[SPEAKER_02]: all right, so you spend some haste rolling out of the way of what was another, another strange being from a beyond, again shaped like a tumbleweed of hands falls down.
[SPEAKER_02]: And as it slams into the ground behind you, you see it leave a dent in the layer of snow.
[SPEAKER_02]: And you see it already tinting
[SPEAKER_02]: that it has accumulated just from paddling itself across the ground and lunging itself through the forest as of now, and you're moving toward your spirit to go grab it and pull it from the tree and the carcass of the other one you've already slain.
[SPEAKER_02]: You have successfully managed to do so, but how do you approach the situation now?
[SPEAKER_02]: Delish choice.
[SPEAKER_07]: then I will just I just sort of say into the air this one go after this.
[SPEAKER_07]: Okay so create create an advantage sort of open point for my teammate.
[SPEAKER_02]: So you point out a weak spot now that its intention is entirely on you.
[SPEAKER_02]: Belive and Elvira, you two hear this shout out as Swan calls that there's another one.
[SPEAKER_02]: Which of you two is going for it?
[SPEAKER_03]: I'll unfurl my wings again.
[SPEAKER_03]: And if I may use a valor, yes, to rise up above it and snatch it as my grieve's claws protrude from them.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I snatch it in the ground, grab it and then smash it again
[SPEAKER_02]: like a violent bird of prey you swoop down onto this thing, grabbing it within your talons, and you smash it to death into the ground.
[SPEAKER_02]: And as its body lays limp, you hear no more rustling.
[SPEAKER_02]: The sater looks up at you all and goes,
[SPEAKER_02]: I heard about it.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's safe there, I heard.
[SPEAKER_06]: Is this one allusory?
[SPEAKER_02]: What?
[SPEAKER_02]: No, no, no, I'm not an allusion, I'm real.
[SPEAKER_05]: Is there a way for us to tell?
[SPEAKER_02]: You can let the very least seed their hooves do seem to have weight in the snow.
[SPEAKER_02]: However, if that's enough proof for you all is more of a matter of personal choice.
[SPEAKER_05]: Stuck him, yes?
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, I wouldn't say Stuck him, but I was able to manipulate the blood.
[SPEAKER_03]: It doesn't seem to be an illusion.
[SPEAKER_03]: At least to my expertise.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_05]: The town you seek is nearby.
[SPEAKER_05]: And just like a point to the side, like in the direction.
[SPEAKER_05]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_05]: Before you go.
[SPEAKER_02]: Where were you from?
[SPEAKER_06]: Yes, it fell a year ago.
[SPEAKER_02]: I was a blacksmith, but my... the Trentus didn't live.
[SPEAKER_03]: This might be a bit much.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I know you've been through a quite traumatizing time, but in order for us to stop this,
[SPEAKER_03]: We might add and need to ask you, what did you see, what, what has befalling Aios?
[SPEAKER_03]: It came from the sky.
[SPEAKER_06]: The sky.
[SPEAKER_06]: Life.
[SPEAKER_06]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_02]: Great.
[SPEAKER_02]: Hail, monstrosity.
[SPEAKER_02]: Larger than biggest of towers.
[SPEAKER_02]: And Aios' beautiful city.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it ripped open its face.
[SPEAKER_02]: And these things emerged, we had no choice but to run, because the mages fell so fast.
[SPEAKER_02]: They didn't even know it hit them.
[SPEAKER_02]: And for the past year, I've just been going from town to town, and they keep on spreading and I'm not sure what the hell they're looking for.
[SPEAKER_03]: So you think how to that more than once?
[SPEAKER_03]: Was there?
[SPEAKER_03]: A sound, a smell that it brought, whether it appeared.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's the thing.
[SPEAKER_06]: There's nothing.
[SPEAKER_02]: They don't breathe.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't think they eat.
[SPEAKER_02]: They don't seem to speak.
[SPEAKER_02]: I've only seen blood drawn once, and it was now.
[SPEAKER_02]: And they look down at the halves of these creatures that you three have done away.
[SPEAKER_02]: But there's bigger ones than this.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I was running through the forest, I passed the waterfalls.
[SPEAKER_02]: And there was one of the... Kleedos, I suppose?
[SPEAKER_02]: Long live.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like I...
[SPEAKER_02]: Like a snake with a crooked smile, but no eyes to gaze upon me, and you can see just a haunted look, and be sunk in in tired eyes of this sater, I just ran, and these things followed me.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm lucky I bumped into you, look at that.
[SPEAKER_07]: I kneel down to the satire.
[SPEAKER_07]: You've been so brave, a year of running from the fall of your kingdom, sorcerers, monstrosities from the sky.
[SPEAKER_07]: You've given us much.
[SPEAKER_07]: Your blacksmithing gifts will not be lost on the crimson palace.
[SPEAKER_07]: In fact, they will not be lost to us right now.
[SPEAKER_07]: And I grab the shoulder and the face of this sater, almost ripping apart the two appendages to create myself a proper divot here.
[SPEAKER_07]: And I bite into the sater's neck.
[SPEAKER_07]: No, no.
[SPEAKER_02]: He squirms in your grasp as you bite into his neck.
[SPEAKER_06]: What does he smell like?
[SPEAKER_02]: Like mud, sweat, tears, and the hint of lavender, perhaps from a perfume, or someone he wants new.
[SPEAKER_07]: I enjoy him to the very last drop.
[SPEAKER_02]: And you, too, Elvira, and Blive, watch a swan or a cate, the vampire, just like the two of you.
[SPEAKER_02]: Bites and tears into the flesh of this man spilling blood into the snow.
[SPEAKER_05]: How do you react, as you see this?
[SPEAKER_05]: The moment swan does it, Elvira knows what is happening and what's going to happen.
[SPEAKER_05]: And so I think goes to the remains, because the creatures that we kill, the hand creatures, they're like bodies are still here, right?
[SPEAKER_05]: Yes, Elvira is going to start collecting them and is going to take a like a pelting knife that she carries on her and using skills and techniques that she has learned as a part of her oath is going to
[SPEAKER_05]: Skin them and fashion them into like a large bag, essentially using the skins of these hand creatures.
[SPEAKER_03]: Narlay, I reflect a swan in a very aggressive stance.
[SPEAKER_03]: You just had to save your hunger.
[SPEAKER_03]: You could have saved it for the beasts.
[SPEAKER_03]: This person was safe.
[SPEAKER_07]: They were not amongst the people, or the bodies that they were expecting to cause a pain that we can do.
[SPEAKER_03]: Why not, a life?
[SPEAKER_03]: We have more than enough at the city.
[SPEAKER_07]: Blithe, I'm sure I have mentioned often how much more beautiful you have become after the banquet.
[SPEAKER_07]: Patronize me.
[SPEAKER_03]: Why are you saying that?
[SPEAKER_07]: and do not misunderstand.
[SPEAKER_07]: This is all for such a greater purpose.
[SPEAKER_07]: Then just this one life, we have no need for blacksmiths.
[SPEAKER_07]: With everything we need, let us continue.
[SPEAKER_03]: I wish that this new beauty you came across didn't only reflect outside, but with it.
[SPEAKER_03]: I take the remains, I set them aside by a tree, clean the body up as much as I can, and
[SPEAKER_03]: drips down.
[SPEAKER_03]: It is wiped away by a gauntlet leaving a smear of blood.
[SPEAKER_02]: And as the corpses of these strange hand creatures are collected, and the body of the sater is set aside, left over drops of blood from the tearing that occurred earlier,
[SPEAKER_02]: and as you three go deeper into the forest.
[SPEAKER_02]: that blood begins to grow.
[SPEAKER_02]: In the forest, gains a heartbeat.
[SPEAKER_02]: The trees begin to shift as you know, they are want to do.
[SPEAKER_02]: The illusory forest comes to life, but the thing that may strike you as unusual for those of you who venture here often is that there's a menacing intent this time.
[SPEAKER_02]: because the forest is under attack and it's just assuming that you are part of the problem.
[SPEAKER_02]: You see vines and leaves and branches begin to move around you as you go deeper and deeper into the forest and you begin to eventually see some that face through you as illusions are want to do, but eventually
[SPEAKER_02]: One of you does feel a vine nearly grab around your ankle and then eventually you see the eyes of glowing creatures in the night staring down at you.
[SPEAKER_02]: You're not sure which ones are and are not real.
[SPEAKER_02]: The forest is beginning to attack you all.
[SPEAKER_02]: How do you all like to approach the problem of carrying forward through this madness?
[SPEAKER_05]: Find the heart of it.
[SPEAKER_05]: Is there a way that we can like, I guess, like determine the path towards the heart from here?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, if you look around, eventually you've heard the tales of Azerad have a mention that there's rooms written on the trees, a little bit higher up in the air, that guide you toward the center tree of the entire forest, a huge massive one that makes up what would be considered the heart.
[SPEAKER_02]: You just have to follow it.
[SPEAKER_05]: Then I think what Elvira is going to do is I'm going to take my my siph and I'm going to I'm going to use my ability for the sword which is what we've kind of reflavered this as to cut through an obstacle in the forest when you do so there is always collateral damage.
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm going to raise my siph and I think as I do like
[SPEAKER_05]: the light, like the ambient lighting from around us starts to get like absorbed into this vanta black blade.
[SPEAKER_05]: Almost as if like a cloud were passing over the moon in front of us, but just like localized in this area.
[SPEAKER_05]: And I raise my sight and with my
[SPEAKER_05]: already very large and like long arms.
[SPEAKER_05]: I bring my siphon down and it's almost as if like the reach that this has is its scores of these trees just carving a path through the forest and getting these branches away from us.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, as you use this ability, first off, this is going to count as your strike back against the forest quest as a night.
[SPEAKER_02]: Nice.
[SPEAKER_02]: Congratulations.
[SPEAKER_02]: But also, you pull out this blade, and as these trees begin to approach a swan and blive, you watch as this blade goes over your head with how much taller the shoulder,
[SPEAKER_02]: of Elvira is from the ground, compared to you.
[SPEAKER_02]: It just goes right over all of your heads, slicing a clear pathway away from just the circle around you and leading a little bit forward in the front of you and that tree with the guiding room with a direction, pointing toward the heart of the forest, stand ahead of you, the path is clear and you can run.
[SPEAKER_03]: I take flight, not above the canopy, but within the forest, to avoid like vines or roots that might try to impede my movement.
[SPEAKER_03]: Gotcha.
[SPEAKER_02]: Alright, so as the three of you rushed through the forest with blive, soaring overhead, weaving between the trunks of the trees, the forest begins to continue working and eventually
[SPEAKER_02]: The two of you on the ground, what you feel is the ground at a certain point as you go past the landmark tree.
[SPEAKER_02]: The ground almost feels like it lifts below you.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the forest begins to...
[SPEAKER_02]: fade away as the sky takes over and belive you from above them are looking down at them writing what appears to be a large massive gargantuan bat made that is being projected by this illusion as you now all feel as though you yourselves are flying through the sky toward the heart of the tree.
[UNKNOWN]: Well
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, how what do you what do you all do?
[SPEAKER_02]: Is this is happening?
[SPEAKER_07]: How are you feel almost to throw up or fall down or something like it is so disorienting?
[SPEAKER_02]: As the two of you are on this giant back creature, I would like
[SPEAKER_02]: both of you to spend one valor as it begins to thrash.
[SPEAKER_02]: Attempting to knock you off of it as the forest has this one last stunt to try to stop you.
[SPEAKER_02]: And as that is happening,
[SPEAKER_02]: a bat-like creature.
[SPEAKER_02]: You can see that as it thrashes around, it's now nose-dive, nose-dived out of the sky, and the wind is rushing past your compatriots on its back.
[SPEAKER_02]: They're managing to hold onto its fur, but you can tell that at the angle that it's going down,
[SPEAKER_02]: It's going to crash into a cliff, and you're not sure if that cliff is allusory or not.
[SPEAKER_02]: What do you do?
[SPEAKER_02]: How do you approach this problem?
[SPEAKER_02]: Your choice.
[SPEAKER_03]: Hmm.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_03]: I am going to use my guy to try and figure out a time where I can bring this bat down where it falls short of the cliff.
[SPEAKER_03]: in the event that my fellow knights can't escape the back of it.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I want to kind of time it and try to take this bat down by flying underneath it and taking my claws and severing its belly.
[SPEAKER_03]: just slashing at it open.
[SPEAKER_02]: Alright, so you fly down, waiting perfectly, waiting for the correct angle, the correct moment, the exact second.
[SPEAKER_02]: You don't know if that cliff is allusier or not.
[SPEAKER_02]: You don't even know what the hell you're looking at right now, but you know that you can make one perfect surgical movement with that claw, severing this potentially illusory bat stomach.
[SPEAKER_02]: and it completely loses control of its body.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it doesn't slam into this cliff.
[SPEAKER_02]: Instead, comes down to a skidding stop and you all feel suddenly the forest come back and you're no longer in the sky tumbling.
[SPEAKER_02]: You have all the blive collapsed into a mound of snow.
[SPEAKER_03]: I look at my hand and is there blood, there is not, now I just slowly approach them.
[SPEAKER_02]: As you three pull yourselves out with a snow and reconvene, you're in a different part of the forest now, a little bit closer to the heart of the forest that you seek.
[SPEAKER_02]: This is going to be a long night.
[SPEAKER_04]: Blood in the snow features Oliander as Game Master.
[SPEAKER_04]: Kendrick has Elvira Gibral, Fabian Lele as Blife, and Josephine as Swan Arcade, with editing and sound design by Oliander.