Ep 25 recap here
Before jumping into the recap, a few quick announcements:
We unveiled our new character art this episode! Check out our VoD on Youtube when that goes up if you want to see it in-action, but we’ll also be officially posting the art on our Instagram
We kicked off a new mini-series this week, Ryuutama: A Journey’s Tale! We’re working on organizing a Q&A with Andy Kitkowski, the translator for the english edition, later in the series, so let us know if you have any questions you want to throw in during our shows on Thursady @ 5:30pm pst
This episode marked the climax of our Summons End arc. Last episode, the party fought their way to the center of the Wet Markets[1] and began the Counter Ritual[2], only to see everything go pear shaped. Just as Ethren[3] finished the ritual, the Dark Side of the Blood Mother’s[4] soul seemed to fly into him - twisting him into a perverted entity of darkness.
The Northern Redwood District, where it all went down
While it hurt the party to do so, they quickly took up arms even as another band of Tarinous[5] careened into the Market stalls ringing the ritual area. The 3 sides clashed, but before long it seemed victory had been secured and they had triumphed.
This sense of victory was short lived though - Lysta healed Ethren just enough to wake him up, but, upon regaining consciousness, he warned the party that things would soon get much worse.
Lysta - former mentee of Ethren and lover of nature
And this prophecy proved true - not 10 seconds later the world seemed to fall away in a massive sink hole that became a magma-lined crater 100ft deep. At the same moment, The Blood Mother showed her true form - emerging from Ethren’s limp body, growing wings, and taking flight. Finally, to make matters even worse, Brandon[6] and Borrai[7] emerged from the After Crypts - tombs from the Wild Wars that lie beneath Aquilla - even as 4 Quove[8] emerged from nearby fissures to join the fray.
This fight posed much more dire a threat - the party had been forcibly split in two, leaving Pyotr and Lysta to fight the Blood Mother alone as Milo and Ymitri faced down the Quove and Rhea stood isolated - right in Borrai’s path.
Things moved fast - Lysta kept the Blood Mother grounded through sheer force of will as Pyotr wrapped a grappling hook around her - tethering her to the ground. Rhea leapt across the 20 ft chasm, risking death to help rejoin and back up her compatriots - followed seconds later by Milo taking a much riskier jump with much lower bonuses that might have spelled his death, had he not pulled out a well-timed natural 20. The Blood mother took flight and cut the line, leaving Pyotr dangling by just a few inches of rope 25ft above the ground. Ymitri took a few nasty hits from the Quove - which he now fought alone - just before the Blood Mother used his own blood against him to inflict grievous wounds using crystallized blood shards
Despite the chaos, though, the party persevered. Ymitri managed to take care of most of the Quove and Borrai, even though the effort brought him within a shred of his life. The Blood Mother seemed to be on the ropes. Brandon demonstrated a change of heart - pleading his case after a flurry of blows from Rhea and making it clear he intended to fight for them moving forward.
Ymitri - the ruffian sorcerer with a mysterious past and ominous heritage
But they weren’t out of the woods yet. The Blood Mother - realizing her plight - flew over the chasm that had opened up. She threatened the party with Ethren’s life - he dangled from her like a marionette from a puppet master - and made it clear that if they took her life, she’d take him with her.
Things looked dark, but Lysta had a plan. Pyotr called for everyone to hold their attack, even as Lysta sent Aldmïr - her Leshy companion - with a rope to tie around the Blood Mother. While Milo jumped the gun - missing with an acid flask meant to take down the Blood Mother before the rope had been affixed - Pyotr and Lysta both took their last shots. The Blood Mother would obviously cut the grapple if she got a chance - so it all came down to one roll…
And they succeeded! The blood mother got taken out in the last wave of attacks, and fell to the ground, caught before slamming into the bottom of the sink hole by the rope, and ending the threat that had been hanging over the city once and for all!
Ethren was quickly revived by Lysta, and it quickly became clear what happened: While Ethren had called for the Blood Mother’s soul to split in two, he hadn’t expected the dark half to attack him specifically. He had been overpowered in the moment, and succumbed to her influence. With the battle finished, though, he had been freed from her influence - and was his old self again. To make things better - it seemed Brandon’s change of heart was genuine - potentially brought about by the light side of the Blood Mother’s soul.
Not everything would end happily though. While Ethren had been brought back from the brink, and the party had a new ally, they would find out their troubles weren’t quite over when they returned to the Warehouse. While they had left Anananke[9], Satina[10], and Sasha[11] there, they arrived only to find it empty….
[1] The Wet Markets: Markets at the center of the Northern Redwood District in Aquilla
[2] The Counter Ritual: The Twisted Fang[12] aimed to bring the Blood Mother into Unatowa through a ritual that The Despicable Six intended to counter with a divinely inspired counter-ritual (ep 21, summary)
[3] Ethren: Lysta’s former mentor and current love-interest. He arrived after a plea sent to the Hallowed Reynir in order to help with The Blood Tides[13] and The Twisted Fang more broadly.
[4] The Blood Mother: Also known as Vallast the Fate Fisher, et al, she’s an ancient god that had been trapped in an interdimensional prison after the conclusion of the Wild Wars. While the Towan gods had thought they were finished with this nightmare - fearing her so much as to often refuse to talk about her directly to their followers - the Twisted Fang found a way to siphon small bits of her soul into Unatowa using the Malleficum Ichthys ritual, which would eventually act as a magnet bringing the rest of her soul over to Unatowa.
[5] Tarinous: Aquilla’s privatized police force
[6] Brandon: Ymitri’s former friend who had become a mage for The Twisted Fang in recent years. He and the party clashed previously, getting captured temporarily in episode 15 only to escape in episode 23 While Ymitri and Rhea had previously tried hard to convince Brandon to see the error of his ways, things seemed hopeless until the events of this episode
[7] Borrai: One of the youngest members of the Twisted Fang who had undertaken the Malleficum Ichthys to take on part of the Blood Mother’s soul. The party met him way back in episode 3, where he gave a much-weaker party a harrowing counter alongside a few Quove (RIP Buttons & Crusty 😢)
[8] Quve: Wolf-like Ash’kin[14]. You can play as them during our stream-games “How to End the World”
[9] Anananke: A mysterious soothsayer who had visited the party back in episode 21 (summary) after sending them a series of mysterious messages influencing their actions. She claims to be “watching the fire” - e.g. monitoring events around Unatowa as they unfold, and subtly influencing them to ensure the world doesn’t come to ruin. She visited the party, however, after it became clear that something in the area had been elluding her view - and that it was tied intimately with the Despicable Six.
[10] Satina: A childhood friend of Ymitri’s, and a fixture of the series from the start - given she was a kinda-sorta roommate of Ymitri’s and Rhea’s from back before they were forced to live in the Warehouse.
[11] Sasha: Pyotr’s adoptive daughter and the party sassafras. Pyotr’s made it clear over the years that he cares deeply for Sasha, and will do anything to protect her - even if it means his or anyone else’s life.
[12] The Twisted Fang: The shadowy group of Ash’kin sympathizers. They’ve been working both to bring the Blood Mother into Unatowa, as well as to release Unatowa from the grasp of Ur’Goth and give it over to Achnikor - the creator and evil God of all Ash’kin.
[13] The Blood Tides: The phenomenon that brought the troubles afoot to the party’s attention. Whenever the Twisted Fang would carry out the Malleficum Ichthys ritual, the Blood Tides would come in - turning the bay waters to blood and asphyxiating much of the fish population.
[14] Ash’kin: The evil counterpart to Towans, birthed by the Dragon tyrant Achnikor