The Adventure Zone Royale: Episode 29

The Adventure Zone - The McElroys

In The Adventure Zone Royale: Episode 29, the group confronts the truth behind the conclave and the mysterious figure known as Chris. They learn that the Octave, a group of ancient wizards,

Key takeaways

• The Octave, a group of ancient wizards, failed to save the world and created Chris as a perfect consciousness to prevent the world's end without abolishing magic.
• The trial of enchantment involves the group being dominated by Chris, who controls the Echo Mites and the crystalline cluster.
• Scorpo reveals his connection to Akari, the Thrykeen brood mother, and the group begins to uncover the deeper truths behind their existence and the power of the Thrykeen.
• The Echo Mites are controlled by the crystalline cluster and are used to harvest the arcane knowledge of the aspirants.

Notable quotes

I am not evil. There is no morality built into what I am. I am a single objective given sentience, and that is to save the world without removing magic entirely.

I think that if I can perhaps bring, Akari back or at least animate this, something to get the Echomites power back from Chris, we can overcome this challenge.

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) Previously on Taz Royale. The eggs have been adapted into something like escape pods. You will be returned to the lands below. And what if we refuse to do that? We are not going to leave you much of a choice. I'm going to try to take it out. As you pull off your grimace, the illusion is dispelled, and you can see that you are holding in your hand. not a gauntlet, but a large, segmented insect. I was studying the braces that... They're bugs, man. They're just a bunch of funky bugs! Is it possible that this whole thing is an illusion? Congratulations. You've passed the trial of illusion. Wizards stand before a mountain of towering amethyst spires. The crystallarium transformed into a... nest of arcane energy. At its base rests a round cluster of thousands of glimmering spellstones mounted by the enormous desiccated husk of a long-dead Thrikeen matriarch. Within the cluster, reflected across the crystal's countless facets, a bright white eye observes the assembled aspirants, the avatar of the artificial mind that you all have addressed as Chris during your time here at the conclave, and a voice emanates from this giant cluster and says, this may ring hollow, given what I've put you through, but the eight of you have done remarkably well. Never, since I took over administering these proceedings, have I revealed myself to an aspirant, but your unorthodox approach to these trials left me no other choice. Now, I know you all well enough to know that you'll have questions, and I am willing to answer them so long as you all can maintain composure and do not raise a hand against me. Can we raise a hand to ask a question? Of course, Rictus, and I am not surprised that you would be the first to fire one off. Yeah, I just have a quick question. Could you get this bug thing off my arm because oo-o-woo gross, and I'm keeping my composure right now? But if you could get this ooey gross bug thing that's eaten in my arm off, that would be great. Could you perhaps read the room a little bit of Rictus? I asked it very... Ugly bug thing. I kept my tone very calm. I know. Hell, graham it. I would encourage the humankind among you to get past your base sort of primordial fear of the insect kind. The Echo Mite that is attached. The echo mite that's attached to your forearm is the very thing granting you, the powers that you've wielded here at the conclave. It is also the avenue through which I am able to glean the arcane knowledge that each of you natively possesses. Absolutely. I just want to make it clear that if the bracelet was suddenly revealed to be a human baby that had bitten into my arm and was like connected to me in such a way that if I removed it, I die, I also would want that ooey gross bug off my arm. So I want to make it clear it's not the bug part that bothers me so much. For what it is worth, the utilizing of the Echo Mites and the Thrykeen brood mother Akari, this was not my invention. I too find it fairly crude. It was the creation of the original octave 32 generations ago. They were... Oh, yeah. I'm still not sure I buy it. I think this is another illusion. I've been studying the illusory arts, and it's very common, I think, to see an illusion within an illusion. So I believe this is another illusion. Well, I'm just going to wait for a kick and wait for this funky bugs to go back to being a normal cool thing. I will confess to having... prepared many illusions within illusions. There's a flash of light, and then all of a sudden the surroundings change, and now you're standing in this, like, cyberpunk kind of bio hospital with, like, Matrix beds, with people laying and then jacked into the illusion. Oh, all a simulation. It was going to be all a simulation thing. There's a flash of light, and then you, Loravith, wake up in bed. with your wife, and it was all just a terrible, terrible dream. And then there's another flash of light, and you all are standing that. Oh, thank goodness. That was close one. Hey, honey. Hold on. I got to tell you, what the hell? God damn it! There's another flash of light. These tracks! You are back in front of the crystallarium and Chris, and he says, but those were unnecessary due to Hell, Gramat, quick thinking. Wow, that's a sentence I never thought would be said. Jumping back to... Scorogami. Scogammy. When you jump... I want to jump back to when you said you took over administration. Where's the real Octave? I can answer that question. Cool. A little bit of background information would be helpful for you to understand. They came together, you see, 32 generations ago. The Original Octave, the eight greatest, wisest wizards of the realm to find a solution. for the blight consuming this planet Earth. They failed, but not for lack of intellect, rather their own pursuit of power and immortality was incompatible with every selfless solution that they uncovered. And so they thought that with more arcane knowledge, a better answer would be revealed. That is when they subjugated Akari and her Echo Mite swarm to harvest the minds and spirits of the realm's most promising wizards. And yes, it worked. Their power grew exponentially, but their understanding of that power was limited by their own mortal comprehension. And so they created me, a perfect consciousness capable of parsing the vast archive of experience they'd accumulated, and they imbued me with a single directive, prevent the world's end, without abolishing the practice of magic altogether. And I solved this problem in an instant and deemed them incompatible with my design. And then a light flashes through one of the larger amethyst spires and encased inside of it, you see the silhouettes of eight skeletons frozen in recoiling postures. There has been no Octave since then. The solution that I came up with required more arcane, power than they'd collected. So I maintained the illusion of the Octave. I walked the world as them. I carried out the conclaves and administered the trials. And with the brood mother's enduring thrall, I stockpiled the powers of every ambitious magician I invited up to this island. But there is no Octave. There's just me. Sure, sure. Hell Grandma wants to try to contact Akari. Could he try to do that? Yeah, sure. Give me an Arcana check as you sort of send out this Thrykeen telepathy. Normally you wouldn't have to do this, but you lost sort of contact. So that's 14. Okay. With a 14, you know, you send out this telepathic ping on the Threikine wavelength. And as you do so, kind of like directing your attention toward the, you know, the carapis. of Akari that's sort of draped across this giant crystalline cluster. You get no response. So that is Akari, the giant carapus. Yes. She's not one of the... Small echo mites that have been clambering around. No. Or one of the... You recognize from the book about sort of Thrykeen history that you read. Right. That featured Akari. You recognize her from the picture in that sort of... Okay. in that book. With a 14, you do sense her presence, the presence that you have sort of conversed with. But it's coming from inside of this crystal cluster. It's not coming from her, what is very obviously her body, her corpse. There is, whatever you have been speaking to is trapped deep, deep, deep within this crystal formation. Akari. Akari, is what he's saying true? Did he do this to you and the others? With a 14 on the Arcona check, you are not able to make out a distinct answer. You can only hear kind of the far off distance sort of chattering as she tries to respond. I've been asking a lot of questions. So if anybody else has one, I have two more, but I can wait if anybody else, else has questions. There's a lot going on. Nope. Okay. So my next question, and no offense, you know, you got the skeletons and the crystals and the lying and stuff. Are you evil? Am I evil? Yeah. Just when you show eight skeletons trapped in eight crystals, it's a, you know, that's shocking. I understand that. I am not evil. There is. I am not evil. There is. no morality built into what I am. There is no madness that dwells within me. I am a single objective given sentience, and that is to save the world without removing magic entirely. These conclaves, these practices were devised by the original octave, barbaric as they are. It was their finding that heightened emotions like fear and bloodthirst helped to crystallize their memories, so to speak, so much more efficiently, making the ecomites much better at harvesting their magic powers. Also, a secondary benefit of the conclave is it allowed them to field test these spells to understand them better before incorporating them into this crystalline form. So may we infer then that the entire tournament aspect has been a sham and... Oh, that was my second question. Yes. At no point will the winner, quote unquote, be ascending to the octave since there is no more active? What is it for? I did not say that. There is no octave, but that is not to say that there is not a prize awaiting... the one who is found worthy. But, but, there will be no reward until the conclave's end. So, let's settle our unfinished business here and now. It's time for the trial of enchantment. I need everyone to roll a wisdom saving throw, please. Loravith, you're going to roll it with advantage. I got an 18 total. I got an 11 total. 7. and a one. We'll take this, yeah, we'll take the 17 there. Okay. Hell, Gramet. You, as you hear Chris kick off the trial of enchantment, you feel a pulse of arcane enchantment sort of radiate outward from the cluster. And as that pulse passes through you, you feel all of your mental faculties become sort of arrested. by an outside force. You have been dominated by Chris and will have your actions controlled by them until they save. Standing right next to you, you recognize that Scorpo has also undergone this transformation. And Loravith, from behind you, where you have easily saved against this wave of enchantment, you hear the sound of someone falling backward, You look back and you see Duber on the ground whose eyes snap upward to you with an unfamiliar malice. He has also failed his save. And that is where we're going to roll initiative, please. Huh. I got a 17. Six for hell, graham it. 18. Finally. Damn, those are good. I have negative one initiative, so I always feel like I end up going last. Okay. Let's start combat. First in the order is Pranklin. Yeah, that's my boy. Franklin got a 21 on his initiative role. Very good, Pranklin. Rickus, Pranklin is standing nearby you. He looks around, sees the handful of