We return to the tale with Brigid, Keeper of the All-Fire, in the midst of a major evacuation of oppressed citizens of the Auraelian Empire. When the evacuation goes awry, Brigid leaps through the portal between the Jungle of the Veridantes and the Temple of the Wild in the capital, finding Smyte Altrui (aka Landscorcher) fending off the forces of the Golden Fist with High Priest Moss Peacewillow. Thinking quickly, Brigid uses a Sending Stone to call Gorgonzola, who is warning the kingdom of the North of the impending Orcish invasion, and the Auraelian Empire’s eventual march to their gates.

Zola wastes no time using the Conjuration Shard to teleport to the Temple of the Wild in Auraelia, just as the Empire’s new Golden Automatons (known as the Auric Army) break through the barricade. With the help of Brigid, Smyte and Moss, they repel the invasion for the time being before escaping into the sewers below. Knowing they need Marfin to handle the growing number of threats, they head to his Magnificent Magical Menagerie, only to find it guarded by Empire operants, and abandoned by Marfin and the Quicklings. They head inside to find a blank map and a strange pocket-watch which displays how fast time is moving on the Material Plane versus the user’s current plane. On the back of the map, a note from Marfin acknowledges (with disapproval) that they must be here to look for him. He pleads with them to instead focus their efforts on finding NP, who is being pursued by the Omnimalum’s forces, and Elithia’s golden crown. Lastly, Marfin’s note warns them that the wicked arch mage Dean Flae Chantris is on their tail.

Throughout their travels, the trio discover many secrets of Marfin. The mage is far older than they can have imagined, and in his centuries of life has had at least two children, set up a multitude of different branches of his shop, connected to multiple planes across the multiverse, and created dozens of demi-planes which ranged in purpose from rooms in a mansion, to private apartments, to testing grounds for powerful spells, to traps designed to ensnare and destroy. They learn all of this while escaping a hulking construct that Marfin has taken ownership of, known as The Inevitable, having accidentally activated it while looking through treasure. They believe to have accomplished one of their goals, finding NP after encountering her while trudging through the horrors of a demiplane known as The Pit, but it isn’t long before Zola confronts the imposter privately… on the Plane of Cheese, of course. Zola forces “NP” to reveal her true identity: Trick. The rogue has been trapped in the mansion since Zola last saw her, and after spying their entry to the pit, attempted to deceive them into giving over the Shard in exchange for NP’s golden crown. Zola tells Trick her trade is impossible (since the Shard’s astral whereabout are unknown) and takes NP’s crown back by force. Trick retreats, their escape hidden.

Further into their travels, they discover that Marfin has a door leading to the tower of Nulla, Voidmaker and legendary necromancer from Malediction times. Finding her trapped in a box in Deathbright Tower, the group is forced to free her in order to learn more about her interactions with Limburger and Marfin. After confirming Limburger’s story, that he had bested her and stolen the spell shard known as the Gem Undying, Nulla reveals that she was once a student of Marfin— making the mage over two thousand years old. Give or take. Slowly but surely, they begin to piece together who Marfin really is, and how he became who he is today. Unfortunately, they have to flee before they can learn more, returning to their search for NP thanks to Brigid’s clutch use of Plane Shift.

To stay alive in Marfin’s mansion, they have to bypass several guardians, like a pit fiend named Lux, and an abeloth named Jibber Jabber; they find and are joined by Bobby, the raccoon familiar of Trick; and they see many tributes to heroes Marfin has known in the past. They’re eventually lead to finding a former lover and current potion-maker of Marfin’s, Minerva Mansbane, who is able to finally lead them to the locked lab where they know to find Marfin. Though the puzzle of entering Marfin’s lab delays them, they discover that the timepiece is the key.

Upon entering the mad mage’s study, they see him unconscious on the floor— however, before they can help him, they are finally caught by Dean Flae Chantris, Pleabo Underpaddle, a slew of Omnimalum agents, and worst of all, Trick, now working for their enemies. Flae reveals that through using the Omni Malum as scouting forces, she has learned many of the rooms in Marfin’s mansion, manipulating key people like Minerva to ensure she could track Zola and use her to unlock the lab for her. Flae offers them a trade: their lives, and Marfin’s life, for the crown they’ve stolen back from Trick. Our heroes hesitate, knowing Flae will use the golden crown as a spell-casting focus to command the Auric Army and dominate Emaralia for good. They attempt to convince the Omnimalum agents that Flae’s goals are selfish and not in the pursuit of their boss, Paragon’s ascension, but the mage flexes her control of enchantment magic, forcing her minions to fight.

Though the trio doesn’t hold back their attacks, Smyte is killed in the battle when Flae uses Power Word Kill, and Pleabo escapes with the crown. Heartbroken by their devastating loss, Zola brutally slays Flae while Brigid revives the unconscious Marfin with a Greater Restoration, restoring a piece of his sanity. With Marfin weak but finally awake, Brigid attempts to revivify Smyte twice, using the deceased Dean’s Enchantment diamond, as well as the Lioniel diamond Zola had retrieved for Marfin all those months ago. But both attempts fail, and Smyte is gone.

Marfin quickly casts Gentle Repose on him, delaying any natural decay, but Zola and Brigid turn on Marfin, demanding to know for what they’ve just lost their closest ally and friend. Why did Smyte have to die despite all he’d done to better the world? Why is Marfin no friend to magic? Marfin confesses that the situation is “all his fault,” and uses Zola’s own spell, Recap, to show her why.

Transported through time to pre-Malediction Feyfall, Zola sees the story of Marfin’s life as a young boy named Fin in a simple fishing village on Edgefall Island. In a parallel to the children’s book Zola had found at the Erudite Study in Auraelia, Fin (aka the boy in the book) met Mystra in the woods. Mystra showed him magic, and he fell in love with this power wielded by the gods. He offered her friendship in exchange for knowledge, and as time passed and he learned the arcane arts, the two became closer. When he was well-practiced enough, Mystra asked if they could meet his people, desiring to live life amongst other mortals. Realizing this can bring safety and security to his village, Fin agreed. They became leaders and teachers of a growing nation and religion, leading them to grow closer and closer, eventually becoming a bit more than friends. Mortals from all over flocked to become students, and soon magic became so commonplace that it began to be dangerous. Gods, fiends and other powerful entities felt threatened by their subjects suddenly gaining such power, and wars began to rage across all of Feyfall. Folks like Nulla pushed the boundaries of magic, causing arcane disasters and Wild Magic surges, nearly leading to Fin’s death if it weren’t for Mystra stepping in. All of this was too much for the goddess of magic, who had only desired to share her gifts and become close with those she loved, the world she made and desired to be a part of. When Fin found her in the temple they created, Dweomerhamm, Mystra expressed her despair at the situation and rebuffed his attempts to apologize. His actions spoke louder than any words he could say, and they said that he didn’t even know who she was. Revealing her true form, Mystra attempted to rip her heart out of her chest and destroy it, causing arcane calamities across the globe, with the hopes of unraveling the Weave and ending magic once and for all. But Fin managed to cast Time Stop at the last second, scattering him, the Shards of her heart, and the destruction she brought throughout space-time. He awoke with scattered memories, a Marred version of the Fin he once was. Over the centuries, Marfin continued to pursue his love of magic, despite not knowing where the feelings came from, creating his Magnificent Menagerie, his stores, and taking on students like Zola: his newest student who now understands the truth of this world and the nature of the Shard.

Before they can discuss further, a rumble shakes the lab and the mansion, and they realize that the Inveitable’s rampage through the Magnificent Mansion has caused a temporal planar collapse. The imbalance of the planes operating at different speeds could potentially lead to the destruction of all the rooms and pathways between them created by Marfin. Realizing this could mean the deaths of thousands of innocents within the mansion, the party enters into the final plane inside the timepiece, where the temporal engine of the space has been the entire time. With Trick’s help, the three stabilize the engine together, though it is unclear what the temporal effects could be. Marfin offers to banishes them all back to the Material Plane, and Brigid, thinking of her mother’s powerful healing abilities, asks if they can go to her home in Eldergreen Haven…

And that is where we ended our sixth arc! We’ll be back soon with Chapter Ninety-Four, and the seventh— AND FINAL— arc of Try Not To Die.