Brigid and Smyte escape out of the frying pan and into the fire, as they are followed through the portal into the jungles of Veridantes by Dean Flae Chantris, disguised as an old woman. After putting down Pyre (Brigid’s All-Fire spirit) with just one word, she displays her terrifying command of enchantment magic by controlling those who escaped the Omnimalum’s clutches— including Smyte. She’s only stopped when High Priestess Cardamom Wildspice, adopted mother of Brigid and de facto leader of the jungle, arrives to intimidate Flae back to the Empire.

Knowing this is a temporary fix, Brigid, Smyte and all of the newly-dubbed acolytes meet with the Zuhaitz Zendaria, the circle of elders that oversees the Veridantes. Desperate to shelter the refugees and open up an evacuation portal for those at risk in the capital, our heroes request the council allow them to retrieve an artifact known as the Planestone, which could be used to create a permanent portal. Unfortunately, they are unable to convince the majority. With a split council, they are permitted only to shelter those who have already arrived, and future evacuations are put on the back-burner. Disappointed, Brigid takes the council’s decision as personal failure, but Smyte is there for her.

Cardamom approaches the group about secretly sending Brigid on a mission to retrieve the Planestone, employing an “ask for their forgiveness, not their permission” perspective. After a touching goodbye with Smyte, who leaves for the capital and more evacuations, Brigid and her mother head south to find this powerful object.

INTERLUDE: The Ballad of Baba & Brigid

Brigid joins Hexblood spores druid Baba Reishii of the Fungal Forest to travel the Sanguisore mountains to the Pale Waste, where stands a ruined city known only as Phaserot. Weathering the oppressive magic, the two druids fight off hordes of teleporting undead to retrieve a yellow Planestone, then return home to the Veridantes.

END INTERLUDE

Back in the under-city of the Socket, Gorgonzola flees with the help of her new golden dragon friend, NP, and everyone’s favorite mage, Marfin. Teleporting back into his office, Zola is finally fully honest with Marfin about her journey up to that point. The mage is able to offer his caring guidance to both her and NP, who could go north with Zola but decides to stay behind and train with the crown (which once belonged to her mother, a dragon named Elithea who was slain in the Malediction). Zola meets back up with Smyte and fellow Order member Kittle Moonsong-McGreeby to break into the Erudite Study and find the rumored hidden library.

Inside, Zola learns many secrets of this world, including but not limited to:

Feyfall was created by Mystra, the goddess of magic, who herself formed when magic willed itself into conscious form. She wanted to see her world and walk amongst her creations, but the other inhabitants of the Outer Planes began to flock there, leading to the cataclysm known as The Malediction. The Malediction ended with Mystra sacrificing herself to save the Weave, with both sides agreeing to a tenuous peace. They would not interfere directly with the Material Plane, and thus would avoid an inevitable war that would tear them all apart.

Zola also learns that the Shard she holds is a form of spell shard, a crystal or stone created as a by-product of powerful magic. Their creation, the presence of wild magic sorcerers (like Scram), aberrations like Paragon, and abuse of magic like the Auric army all signal that magical conditions are nearing Malediction levels, spelling disaster for all of Feyfall. The gang escapes the library, tailed by Quince’s half-brother Neil, and Zola and Smyte promise to reunite after Zola’s journey north to track down her mother, her people, and more answers about her role as the Stregarede.

Zola hopes to inform Marfin of the situation, but is held up when Smyte returns after… saying goodbye already? He insists on guiding her on her journey, acting strangely as they enter inside and catch glimpse of the evil academic, Dean Flae Chantris, speaking with Marfin. Zola is forced to plan a much quicker escape than expected, and matters become even worse when “Smyte” reveals himself to be the resurrected Trick, now doubly obsessed with retrieving the Shard for their employer. Marfin banishes Trick momentarily so Zola can teleport to the Dwarven city of Balderheim. She begins her long journey northward, unsure of how the mage will fare without her.

In Balderheim, Zola meets her guide, Erzaleri Grabräuber: a duergar or pale dwarf warrior and storyteller who claims to be of noble blood. Zola also meets… THE SHARD, who has been awakened by the powerful energy used in the Socket a day or so before. With the mind of a child and the powers of a mage, the little trouble-mite proves to be a constant form of chaos in a very strict city. Though Zola manages to keep their existence under wraps, she and Erza (who has been granted unsuspected, unwanted wild magic powers by the Shard) are forced to hastily flee the city after attracting the attention of Omnimalum agents, lead by her nemesis: Pleabo Underpaddle.

In the cavern tunnels of the Ouroboros mountains, Erza and Zola fight their way through forces of the Chromatica, lead by the dragon lords, Frigiditch and Anacra. Overcoming their initial uncomfortable relationship to become friends, Zola and Erza traverse the peaks to raid Anacra’s hoard, Avarici, the location where Erza’s family’s mythical lost hammer is rumored to be. After escaping Frigiditch’s lair (by accidentally shooting her in the butt), Zola prepares for their heist by re-attuning herself to the Tusk. Although she is successful in connecting to it, she finds herself suddenly possessed, seeing an illusion of the Shard in trouble. Zola panics and throws the bag of holding over the Shard, accidentally causing a tiny magical cataclysm and opening up a portal to the Astral Sea, which swallows everything but her, Erza, and Stilton.

Devastated by the Shard’s loss, Zola opens up to Erza and the two resolve to finish finding her ancestor’s hammer. Knowing time is short, the party takes a quick jaunt through the Elemental Plane of Fire, meeting Charlotte Amira and the Warriors of the Fallen Flame. Zola frets over a worrying stone call from the Cicirose, whose voice is cut off by the sound of a cannon before she and Erza help the Warriors with a sacred task: removing a cult of salamanders who worship Anacra from the sacred Mystral temple known as the Creatorforge, utilizing the fiery portal Anacra had created between the Plane of Fire and his own hoard.

However, in the process of liberating this cathedral to the goddess of magic, Zola… dies.

She is once again thrown into the Astral Sea and summoned to meet with Gruumsh, the orc creator-god. In exchange for her life, Zola is forced to promise that she will help him acquire the Shard and help him return to the Material Plane to conquer all. With this promise, Zola returns in time to save her friends, her eye now red and searing with the reminder that her life belongs to a god. Erza and Zola part ways with the Fallen Flame, diving back into their own plane, and straight into Anacra’s hoard.

The unimpeded search for Erza’s hammer is short as Anacra returns to revel in his spoils. Erza and Zola sneak around and locate Erza’s hammer while Anacra sleeps, but one small slip wakes the ugly red dragon, who is eager to see what new collectibles have entered his den. The monster reveals that the hammer they found is actually a weapon he had forged centuries ago to corrupt the dwarves, and the stories about Era’s ancestors were true: her great great grandpappy may have been a noble, but he was the one who brought discord to the dwarves. Horrified, Erza is possessed with the greed of the hammer, and Zola must help her overcome her burden of shame. Under the guise of fighting for his amusement, the two use Erza’s newfound ability to Stoneshape and hide in the rafters, causing Anacra to attack and collapse his own massive hoard.

Zola and Erza make a daring escape from the collapsing city as Frigiditch’s forces close in, inciting a civil dragon war. Our hero, free of the Chromatica and their tyrannical leader, looks north, towards where she knows her family is… somewhere.

And that’s where we end Arc VI of Try Not To Die! Join us at Chapter Sixty-Nine to hear Arc V, or continue on to the next recap!