S11E17 - Nun Down, Darkness Rising

The episode resumes with the angel and Mon unconscious on the temple grounds.

Still invisible, Ike rips open the dead priest, cuts out his heart, and drops it into his shoulder bag. The dark voice in his head encourages him in his progress towards the dark side.

Meanwhile, Soto catches Mon’s mastiff, knocks it unconscious, and drags Mon back to the temple grounds.

Brand and Ike feel a pang of guilt and stabilize them. Then arrows start flying from the forest. The heroes retreat into the temple, free Jinu, Klik, and Klak from their hanging cages, and search the building for another way out as Helka’s helper escapes.

With no better exit and Helka’s arrows waiting in the dark, Ike and Nemo turn invisible while Brand, then Soto, draw her fire.

Then Nemo and Soto get close to her and do most of the work, taking Helka down but keeping her alive. Then the heroes return to the temple and loot it, uncovering confidential sisterhood records, magic items, a manual for lonely young boys, and a religious relic called Memoirs of Jasper Starling.

Mon wakes up still bound, and Brand casts zone of truth to interrogate him. The bounty hunter courageously says he will not stop until he returns Lyra to her noble family in Amsalion. Lyra is disappointed by this. When the party argues over what to do with him, Mon tries to run. Soto drops him down again with a flurry of blows, and then Lyra, casting speak with animals, convinces the mastiff, who introduces himself as Rufus, to carry him away and never come back.

While the others loot, Ike tries to transplant the priest’s heart into the unconscious angel. It fails. He arranges the body to look as if the angel is only sleeping. His friends wouldn’t understand that he’s practicing to do the same to Nemo and save him from Asmodeus. He also takes the angel’s armor off and leaves it in a pile in case Brand is interested in swapping armor, which, as soon as they leave the temple minutes later, he does.

The heroes leave with a barrel of whale oil and a letter from Sister Gloria to Sister Helka blaming them for crimes they did not commit, including setting the Ironwound forest on fire. Then they rush to the ships and set sail. Before leaving, Ike asks Jinu to stay behind. He shows him what he did to the angel’s body and Jinu gives him feedback on how to do it properly next time, but Jinu does tell him that heart surgery is not something he can learn in an afternoon.

On the way back to the ship, Jinu tells Ike that he’s leaving the group because the necromancer says things are getting too scary for him.

Pietro realizes Augur has been missing all day. Nemo searches the boat and finds him unconscious, his tail burned, and positioned so the new ship’s magic engine would have killed him when it started.

The next day, Brand and Lyra put Ike inside a zone of truth and interrogate him. The puppet does not lie but he refuses to answer some questions.

Later that day, Jinu tells Nemo that he’s leaving at the next stop. Nemo completely understands and wishes him the best.

After identifying their new magic items, the party turns to the harder question: what to do with the cursed ship, and where to sail next. Ike suggests sailing to Arcene, to Lyra’s hometown, but she sternly refuses.

They also discuss what to do about the ship: they know that as soon as they switch the engine on, they will be affected by the ship’s cursed magic. They consider sailing as far as possible with the oil they have and then abandon the galleon to not get cursed, and continue with their existing boat, but Paco complains about the party changing the agreement they made just the day before.

While the debate continues, Paquito screams, “Boat in sight!”