Critical Role & Sagas of Sundry - Part 5: Dread in the Deep | Starter Kit: Phoenix Dawn Command

Episode Date: February 23, 2026

The Phoenixes encounter more danger among the ancient ruins, and awaken a powerful ancient spirit. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...

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Starting point is 00:01:25 We have to get down there now. They're going to go down there. We better go with them. Let's keep hitting magic orbs with axes and see what happens. I knew I liked you, chapter. Suddenly the ground shakes even harder and a huge chunk of the ceiling
Starting point is 00:01:35 starts falling down towards the three of you. Welcome back to your starter kit. I'm Keith Baker, the creator of Phoenix Don Command. In war, our phoenixes must not only battle the dread, they must protect the lives of those that dread seeks to destroy. Sometimes the second job significantly complicates the first. The tunnel is coming down on top of you. When we left off, you were down the tunnel away.
Starting point is 00:02:16 You're safe, but the rest of you, the tunnel is collapsing on top of you. There's an enormous piece of roof coming down. One of you, someone with enormous strength, is gonna have to try and catch this and shield the people who were there. I'm just saying one of you might be all about defending people. I'll do it.
Starting point is 00:02:36 All right. For the wing. As it comes crashing down to you, ice smashing against the floor, Adriah cringing next to you. Since she helps me with defense, can I like, can I like call out to her to like brace my back or something?
Starting point is 00:02:51 I'll give you a plus two for that. Cause she is actually, since you inspire her, get in there, she'll give you a plus two. You are athletic, that's five base, you have a seven base. And again, because this is a specialty, you can play any three cards, plus any traits. And what do I need to get to succeed?
Starting point is 00:03:08 Really high. This is, if you manage to completely Hold this thing off, it's gonna be very impressive. The better you do, the less it's gonna hurt people. I believe in you, Kronis. Okay. You can do that. Could I use my strength to help as well? Certainly, if you have a trait that applies to this,
Starting point is 00:03:23 you could spend that. I don't know if I do. I see too big to fail down there. Oh. That certainly seems like an applicable trait. Since you're assisting, I'm gonna give you three points. Because again, as you're trying to catch it, he leaps in to help, so you're up to a base of 10
Starting point is 00:03:39 without having played any cards. Okay. So I've got 10, and this would be based on grace since it's athletics, or it would be based on strength. Okay. But you can play grace because it's a specialty of yours. You can use either suit. Okay.
Starting point is 00:03:53 So any three cards. Oh, I got yeah. Okay, so we're gonna go four, and then I've got a four strength, then four grace. I'm gonna save this grace three, so I'm gonna do a grace two to make it an even twunt. All right, discard those and draw back up. The ceiling is collapsing, little chunks are falling all around,
Starting point is 00:04:15 and you can possibly catch them all. You do manage to catch this enormous slab of stone and earth that should have just crushed both you and Adria flat and you don't just catch it, you know, if you had some superhuman strength or something, you know that. Listen, man, somewhere. But just the fact that you caught this and shoved it aside was very impressive.
Starting point is 00:04:39 However, between all the lesser pieces and even the strain of catching it yourself, you take one wound from just the force of it. Now, do you want to take the wound or do you want to burn two sparks to not take the wound? I'm okay. Well, actually, yeah, okay, wait, yeah, I'm gonna spend on. Don't forget, you could just use this instead.
Starting point is 00:04:59 This gives you two sparks if you wanna just use this from the devoted bond. But does that hurt? It actually helps fire, it gives him his spark. Oh, yeah, okay. All right, so you just keep what you. Just keep what you've got. We burned this to give you two,
Starting point is 00:05:11 and you spent those two immediately, and you get it back. And I can use my bitter bond to draw two more cards, right? Yes, you can, because when other people are hurt, you feel their pain, and it makes you mad. All right, draw two parts. Do you some cards! Between the three of you, you have to share out two more wounds. Now, I'm just saying one of these wounds could go
Starting point is 00:05:31 to one of your buddies if you were a horrible person. I hope you're not that horrible person. I mean, you could just take them. Is he gonna buy you dinner? I hope so. You promised. Two wounds. I'll take one for sure.
Starting point is 00:05:45 Okay? Yeah. So each of you takes a wound. Adriah is shaking up, but she's like, but this isn't just a tremor. At this point, we come back with you and Tibbon. Tibbon says, I think I know what's going on, but I'm not entirely sure.
Starting point is 00:05:59 And I wouldn't like you to give me an arcane spread. Okay. You and him, you know, it's like you think putting your heads together. your heads together, you might be able to figure this out. Sure. You get a plus three from Tiven, so that's eight as your base. Okay. And you can play up to three cards, any three cards.
Starting point is 00:06:16 Okay. You might to hit 20 if you could, 15 would be okay. Let's do four, intellect, for grace, and what am I at now? 16. And again, you can burn a spark to, you know, to boost things. So if you got to 19, you could burn a spark to make it 20. Okay, so if I add another card and then Burness Park, I should be at 20, yeah?
Starting point is 00:06:39 That's right. Okay. All right. Wait, yeah. So you realize a few things here. It isn't so much an earthquake. As Tibben had said before, this is some sort of bridge to the dusk,
Starting point is 00:06:53 the same world you go to with the crucible. It's sort of turning in on itself. It's like they've sort of turned on, if you will, sort of really powerful gravity that's trying to pull it between worlds. That's some sort of system that has essentially an enchantment that has been activated in a way it's not supposed to function. As a person who's dabbled with warlocks and such, you would guess that there is a spirit
Starting point is 00:07:17 that should be governing or controlling these things that for some reason isn't. So it is definitely going to get worse, but it's not just a matter of, again, physical earthquakes, it is going to potentially just drop this whole thing out of this world in a violent and unpleasant way. You would guess that's a matter of hours at most. So being fast is a good idea. So discard the cards that you've used, draw three new cards to replace them.
Starting point is 00:07:44 And if anyone else, everyone else is back to what they were at. Now, here's the other problem. The tunnel behind you has now collapsed. Okay. So you could probably shift it. Maybe you are incredibly strong, both of you, that itself would probably take a couple of hours.
Starting point is 00:08:05 So- I think you gotta keep moving. If there's a way in, there's a way out. It was that way behind you? I was like, okay. Where there's an in, there's an out. There's an in and out. There's an in and out.
Starting point is 00:08:21 All right. Tradebark. Do you venture forward then? Yeah. Because you very quickly come to chapter. You have definitely been able to ascertain as you move forward, it becomes sharply colder. I'm just going to hold and wait for
Starting point is 00:08:37 my friends. As they approach, I'm gonna try to be as quiet still as possible. Do you reveal yourself or you just stay in-hidden? I'm gonna stay hidden. You don't even notice her. There's, it's dark, there's falling stuff. But what you notice is again, temperature sharply dropping, it immediately chills even you.
Starting point is 00:08:53 And both Adria and Tibbing, you just start shaking. I think we might need your fire again. Yeah, I was thinking about. So this is certainly something where fire would help. Do you want to extend your heat? Because you can just make, warm it up a rough. it means people are going to have to stick quite close to you. Yeah, right?
Starting point is 00:09:12 Yeah, I was thinking of being able to kind of, well, I guess steam doesn't work, but yeah, being able to maybe make my body like on fire, but very low. You can just radiate heat out, certainly. Yeah. Perfect. That's going to cost for now two sparks. Oh.
Starting point is 00:09:29 Remember that you can burn one of your health levels to get three more sparks. That's right. You can also get two from over here. So you can get more sparks if you're about to run out. Yeah, because I only have one left. Oh, do you only have one left? Oh, I have five.
Starting point is 00:09:41 Sorry, I forgot about. I have six left. Sorry. I really wanted to get one plate. Yeah, I forgot about this guy. Can she just take those now to do that? Sure, she wants. Yeah, and then just take this one.
Starting point is 00:09:50 Okay, so there's two. And it doesn't go very far. It only extends about 15 feet from her, so you have to stay close as you move forward. This is where you sort of have that sense of it's really the same thing that you're doing. doing in reverse of what's going on here. It is definitely a concentrated someone with very similar magic to your own is making it cold here.
Starting point is 00:10:19 All right, you venture forward. If you have to venture more than 15 feet away from her, it's gonna hurt. So continuing on, you've gone very deep below. You continue another 200 feet sort of curving around the ice is getting deeper, but you can still see now a few people scattered, trapped within it.
Starting point is 00:10:44 But definitely fewer than you were finding before. The voice is getting louder, and you do feel that it is saying, escape, getaway, time is limited, or restore. There is now that sort of an element that you sort of pick up, that it is saying, restore things or flee. Okay.
Starting point is 00:11:06 I telecommunicate, restore things are free. Just go out, out, out. But we needed it. And then hearing that, could I, I'm gonna take the damage and I'm gonna pull ahead and try to figure out where the sound's coming from. You take one wound. And you gain a card.
Starting point is 00:11:28 That's right. And you feel that pain. I mean, that's what happens, is that you suddenly sense you sort of the chill. overtaking her. I will say that Tibbon with you as well, even though he's shivering, he's afraid, what you came up with before when you looked at it, he's definitely said, but that's the thing, is if this somehow draws forces from the dusk, if we could harness that, if we could use it, who knows what we could create? So he's excited about this even though he is freezing and worried about dying. You venture forward, and one thing that happens,
Starting point is 00:12:06 is you stop your foot and you find a mask embedded in the ground made out of some sort of enamel or metal, just a relatively smooth mask to holes for eyes. Okay, I want to quickly try to do one of my skill sets on this, I'm assuming. Like, would it be observation or lore? Maybe lore? LOR is what's relevant here. Observation, you can find it, you can pick it up.
Starting point is 00:12:35 It is a mask. This is actually relevant. So go ahead and give me three cards. It can be any three cards plus five. So five on that. You want to hit 15. Okay. I can use this.
Starting point is 00:12:48 And then I can flip around and hit use this one, which puts me at 12. 12. And then I could use it. So I have to hit 15. But you can use any of your cards for this because it's your specialty. Okay. I'm going to use... intellect, and then I'm going to try,
Starting point is 00:13:08 I think I should try to use my grace and then burn one spark and add four, so I'm gonna try to get 20. All right, go ahead and do that. Okay. So, this is... What are you? I think they were right, I think she is crazy.
Starting point is 00:13:25 So here's the thing, is that what you've seen is the bodies of people fighting, but nothing that they were fighting. You don't know what happened here. The people of the North used to deal with spirits called the fallen folk. People aren't really sure what they are. They aren't sure if they're sort of remnants of a previous age, if they're essentially demons. But you recognize this.
Starting point is 00:13:49 One thing that really does define all the fallen is they have masks. And this is definitely a mask that belonged to a fallen spirit. That might be what people were fighting. That would go along with the idea that this is a spike into the dusk, that it may have been populated by spirits and that the humans who are in here were fighting the spirits which dissolved when they were defeated You're not sure exactly if this is connected to things, but it seems like it's good to keep around like if you were to try and do some sort of ritual It might connect you to the systems of the tower. I said before the purple energy didn't feel like it belonged here This does this does feel like it's tied to the voices like the voice that is speaking
Starting point is 00:14:34 is some sort of spirit similar to this. Okay, I tuck that away. Meanwhile, are you going to venture further down? Yes, I am. And I get to pull up because that was your check, right? Yes, you pull back up to six. Now, something bad is about to happen. Do you have any traits that will-
Starting point is 00:14:58 Supernatural senses? That is exactly what I'm looking for. I just pulled it. That is good too. Why me? So, as you creep forward, I'm going to creep forward. Suddenly, you realize, again, you're just very attuned to magic,
Starting point is 00:15:15 and it's even the voices, your old voices that you know, just something just tingles and warns you. Discard supernatural senses, if you're a new card to replace it. Okay. And you realize that it's actually the ice ahead of you, and it's the whole surface surrounding the thing just charged with powerful energy.
Starting point is 00:15:36 If you had taken a step further, it would have flowed through you and caused you a lot of damage. Okay, I delicately step back, and I quickly like tiptoe and rush back to them as quickly as possible. Do I take any more damage from the ice, the goal? If you stand out any longer, you would. If you go right back to them right now,
Starting point is 00:15:52 you'll be all right. And in fact, you don't have to go back to them because you're hidden, and your shrouded bond lets you just return to them instantly if you want. Oh, but I would have to burn a spark, right? Do you use that? You may burn one spark and you shouldn't appear next to them. So I'm gonna save my spot.
Starting point is 00:16:09 You can make it back. They're not that far back. Exactly, and run back, and then I just appear, like before you guys, like straddling a little bit. I punch her. Ah! Shhh! Oh!
Starting point is 00:16:20 Out of nowhere, you can't just do that. Listen, I found this, and then also, up ahead of us is supercharged ice. Be ready. This is a very dangerous place. Do you think that mask is... Some sort of... Greetings, adventurers.
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Starting point is 00:20:14 That's Q-U-I-N-C-E.com slash critical roll for free shipping and 365-day returns. Quince.com slash critical role. Weapon or something? I don't know if it's a weapon, but I do feel that if we hold on to it, it can only do good things right now, considering the fact that we're fighting against something that I think it wants to get rid of. Let's worry about the mask later. Well, what if it's a tool?
Starting point is 00:20:37 Does one of us need to put it on? Yeah. I don't think that's a good idea. Not yet. Okay. Trimmer shakes the building again. More ice falls around you, narrowly misses crushing Adria.
Starting point is 00:20:53 Oh, I thought you said. It crashes her. Oh, God! You just squashed her when you weren't looking. Good job, Carlos. On the other hand, again, you do feel the way this is going, you stay much longer, you're getting another major fall like that last one,
Starting point is 00:21:06 and it could be even worse. What are you doing? We gotta keep moving. So I am no longer hidden as well, right? We're no longer hidden. Okay. All right, she knows, you know, you can remember the exact spot that she can point to,
Starting point is 00:21:17 and you can definitely feel that energy as well. Now that she's called it out, it is something that has just imbued this with raw, aggressive power. You're not 100% sure what would happen if you touched it. But I kind of want to touch it. Or if you interacted with it in a magical way.
Starting point is 00:21:35 Wait, before you do that. Before you do that, can I use psychometry on the mask? Yes, you absolutely can. Before this happens. It's okay. Okay, that's two sparks though. You're okay about it.
Starting point is 00:21:45 We got some here, remember. I was like, when you were you taking them there? Use these. I'll use, I just want to save it for battle just in case. I'm gonna use my own. Because you can also bring these to draw two cards. I'm just, I'm gonna use that for now and just try to understand as I'm touching this mask,
Starting point is 00:21:57 the historian purpose of it. You got way too many cards. Just before we can have some? Yep. Killed this thing. Hand some strengths cards over here. What you realize is that this mask is tied to the builders of this place. That it was bound to a spirit that did fall defending the base from invaders.
Starting point is 00:22:15 But that it is tied, it is connected to the entire spire itself. In again, a vague mystical way, it's not like you can just put it on and automatically control everything. But you definitely feel like it is tied to the core systems. Okay. There is some purpose. Well, it basically was tied to a lesser spirit, but it is nonetheless connected to the broader spirit of the place. Okay.
Starting point is 00:22:41 Now, meanwhile, again, the tunnel is sort of collapsing behind you, and in fact, somebody has to take a wound. A big chunk of stone comes rolling down, and it's pale. If I have the untouchable trait for that, would I be able to use that or not? I will let you use that. Again, it's the same way that she used her supernatural senses. So yes, it rolls down and it should have crushed you, crushed you, but again, you dodge perfectly out of the way,
Starting point is 00:23:05 and so well done. Yeah, thank you. You shove Tiven on the ground. You can, it crushes Tiven. He's like paced, but he's not untouching. You still obeyed it. All right, so when it does roll past you, it rolls down into the stretch above you,
Starting point is 00:23:23 and the whole thing lights up, flares purple, and vaporizes the boulder. It just turns into powder and dust. But hey, that's, you know, nothing to worry about. Wait, what is the object emanating this power? It's just imbued into, you're not sure if it's the walls or the ice around the walls, but it's just the stretch of tunnel in front of you.
Starting point is 00:23:45 What to hell? Let us all write your book. While wearing the mask. Hold on, and I hand the mask over to you. Okay. And I'm gonna say you have two minutes to come up with a plan before there's another tremor. I hand the mask over to you, and I hand the mask over to you,
Starting point is 00:24:00 And I say, listen, I think they were going out fighting. You put that on and go fight whatever is down here and let us know. All right. I foolheartedly just slap the mask on. And I start walking towards the aura weapon drawn. You walk in and immediately it lights up and crackles around you.
Starting point is 00:24:22 Tendrils of energy are sparking into you. The mask does seem to be sort of resisting this. You can see it's not quite hitting him. as hard as it should, you still do take a wound. Okay. And worse than that, there is no defense. I mean, he is walking through a field of fire. But also it is trying to dig its way into you.
Starting point is 00:24:46 So add that to your discord pile. Yeah. We were doing so well. You realize it's about 15 feet. You get to the other side. Oh, you cold. That is an issue. You are in fact cold.
Starting point is 00:25:00 If you want to burn a spark, you could extend it under 10 feet. I will totally do that. Burn that spark. So you're on the other side of it. What are you doing? Is it still actively? So it's those, it's, as I said, it's sort of flared up.
Starting point is 00:25:16 You crossed it, it was extremely painful, and now it's flared down again, but there's still sort of tingles of it flowing through your system. Could I throw the mask back to them? Yes, you could. And then they each come through. I'm a clutz. You look a little sick on the other side there.
Starting point is 00:25:30 Yeah, I don't feel great, but I made it through. Better than nothing. Can I try? I'll have to go last. How low is the ceiling? The ceiling is actually about 15 feet. How tall am I? 10?
Starting point is 00:25:44 How? With the five foot arm span? I'm gonna put on the mask, I'm gonna make a run, and like, it's 15 feet, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah, I'm like running, like, running arms outstretched towards you to grab my hand and pull me through as quickly as possible. I give him a warning.
Starting point is 00:25:59 No. There's no time. All right. No time. So you're gonna take one wound. There's no way to get across without that, but because you're going so fast, I'm gonna give you a chance to avoid that affliction.
Starting point is 00:26:09 Okay. And that is, pick a hand. If you get the one, the empty, 50. If you get the empty hand. No amy's, no amy, no amy. All right. All right. So you don't pick up the affliction.
Starting point is 00:26:23 Okay, I misinterpret. Again, you get that. So I've got that bad thing. He kind of catches me. Yep. Yes. Thank you. across.
Starting point is 00:26:31 Okay. Take that mask. I throw it through again. I'm sad you didn't snowboard on your book, but... It's for special occasions. Yes, that's true. You don't want to overuse your book. There's still two on the other side.
Starting point is 00:26:42 Could I, if there's a large rock nearby, could I try to use my superhuman strength to throw it into the ceiling to bring down some rubble that we could walk across? That sounds like an excellent idea. Now, this is a good example of something that normally, I would probably say, eh, probably not. And probably not. But you have superhuman strength. This is a feat of amazing phoenixness that a normal person could not pull off.
Starting point is 00:27:08 And in fact, because you have superhuman strength, go ahead and discard it and draw a new card to replace it, I am going to just go ahead and say, yes, that works. Sweet. But it does cause more of the ceiling to collapse. You can't entirely avoid that. And so again, between the two of you,
Starting point is 00:27:29 or your buddies, one of you is gonna have to take a wound. I can take it. Okay, and it's up to you. You can burn two sparks and not take a hit. Um, yeah, I'll do that. Okay, so the good thing about that is very well done because the thing is you could have all done the mask trick, but that was not gonna work for your buddies.
Starting point is 00:27:47 No, not for the aliens. So they certainly would have died along the way. So congratulations, well done. So you've made your way across, but you did just perform this amazing feat of strength. you know, basically collapsing part of the ceiling. How old are you again? You look like you're 18.
Starting point is 00:28:04 So this was a pretty amazing thing to happen. And as soon as you get across, you're wanting to press forward, but Adria just stops and just, how did you do that? What was that? We're all phoenixes. All of us can do crazy shit like that.
Starting point is 00:28:25 But how? I mean, why you? Why you? Well, I went through the crucible and I came out the other side. Why are you here? Why are you doing this? All of us are here because we die and we face things no one should have to face and we went through trials. No one should have to endure and we did it because the rest of the world needs us.
Starting point is 00:28:49 That's why all of us are here. You guys might think we're crazy, but we're here to make every place on this, map, a better place. She seems moved by that. Does anyone else have anything they want to add to that? That is the kind of thing where normally I'd say, make a grace spread to impress someone. But that was just good.
Starting point is 00:29:16 I kind of look to her in Tibbon, right? And I say, hey, if you believe us at least, with the way that you brought us down here, maybe even you guys, if your intent is clear. would also one day become phoenixes. So. We're not threatening you to be clear. Right.
Starting point is 00:29:35 I'm not saying of that. You might become a phoenix sooner than you think. Frankly, that is a good point. You have to say, these are people who are willing to risk death to try and help people. That's the kind of thing that could make a phoenix. You might not be wrong on that. Which means now I need to kill them.
Starting point is 00:29:53 Oh, no. But she, as I said, She, as I said, seems truly moved and says, I've heard the stories, I didn't really believe them. If we get out of this, I will make sure everyone at the Imperial Library knows that this is real. Wait, you work at the Imperial Library? In Farnance, that's why we're here.
Starting point is 00:30:12 You didn't say you worked at a library. What? I'm a huge fat, which, what's that you? Library. So in Farnance, but you know, Farnance is the Grand Library. You work at the Grand Library. I have to say, you probably, you know, you work in a small line.
Starting point is 00:30:28 Yes. You farmans was the dream. Oh my gosh. I am just enamored right now. We probably lose a few minutes here to some just absolute library nerdy. I like pull out the mask. So you work on the numerically base system as well. It's point zero.
Starting point is 00:30:45 Well, you know, I mean, the numerical system actually that was about a hundred years ago where we replaced it. Oh, wow. I am so... We could frame it at any moment. I am so cold right now, but I'm just going to take my flat. I'm just gonna take my flames back in. Deal with that. I died yesterday.
Starting point is 00:31:01 Did you know that? Anybody see that? I died and came back to life. That actually is a point that Timon said, but wait a second, wouldn't you on fire? Yeah, well, I'm not on fire anymore. Things happen when you go through the crucible again. Tibbon does try and pull everyone together.
Starting point is 00:31:15 This is fascinating. I myself love a decimal system as much as the next person. But I just have to say, we are looking this entire thing. could collapse into the dusk at any moment. What do you know about this mask, Tibbons? I mean, obviously, you were able to pass over that path. You hurt. So this is a little bit.
Starting point is 00:31:41 This is fascinating actually, and this is a thing that actually, as he's talking about it, it makes sense to you too, because you are a warlock. The warlock tradition is dealing with the fallen. And it's one of these things where you know the fallen have masks. but you've never really, no one knows why, it's just what they do, they wear masks.
Starting point is 00:32:00 It's just a garb, I have no idea what it does. What you feel, now that you're really looking at this, taking the information she's given you, is that the mask is in some way, like the basic nature of the spirit is somehow imprinted on the mask. Like, it is the mask, and it's just that it's pulled into it somehow
Starting point is 00:32:17 and been sort of not stored there. You don't know if you could pull it out, but it's fundamentally connected to it. And if you guys can figure that out, go for it. Yeah, I was like, I'm relaying all the information, but like if you guys want to tinker with it, you can, but that's all I know.
Starting point is 00:32:30 Wait, so there's a human soul trapped in that mask? You don't think it's human. I think it's just something. Oh, great. Perfect. I didn't bring it up in the first place. This is a point, though. I mean, these are all just things you're sort of thinking of right now,
Starting point is 00:32:46 but if you could get this back to Dong Command, it is something that could actually be, again, we're all just looking for any information we can or any ideas on the desk. I don't think that's a good idea. I heard it's calling out to me to be restored. So I think that as much of a lure as it might be as an artifact to bring back to elders,
Starting point is 00:33:06 I just don't. I think the natural landscape of this land needs this back. If something has a home, it should just stay there. And as you come to that touching conclusion that even alien demon masks need a home, Once again, there is a massive tremor. Worse than before, you hear more of the tunnel starting to collapse. You feel more waves of little rubble coming towards you.
Starting point is 00:33:37 And it might be a good idea if you start moving down that tunnel pretty quickly. Let's do it. All right. Also even alien demon masks need a home. That should actually be on the outside of the box. It's going to be my t-shirt. Next metal band. All right.
Starting point is 00:33:53 Trouble ahead, ready to move. Let's do it. Let's do this. Let's keep pressing down. We're pressing down. It gets even colder. Now, I'm going to say one more spark to maintain the field. Okay, I was going to grab from that.
Starting point is 00:34:08 Okay. So in that case, you get one back. Yay! Cool. Do I draw another card? Did that kind of a second action? Yes. As I say, any time you are down, unless you're in combat, you always draw right back up.
Starting point is 00:34:17 You press forward as quickly as you can. You can hear behind you, again, more rubble falling from the sky, stones are tumbling down falling beyond you, but you finally enter a vast chamber. It's leveled out. This must be the base of the cloud spire. Looking forward where the cloud spire was descending, you see that it's now focused inward and there's actually a core of brilliant red energy surrounded by floating sigils carved in the air. Ahead of you, there's altars arranged in a circle around the edges of the room. There's smaller spires just sort of coming out of the ground. Some that seem
Starting point is 00:35:00 like they might have objects placed on top of them but you can't make them out as they're covered in ice. There's a few basins that might be filled with liquid if they weren't frozen. The cold is absolutely chilling. If it were not for the energy that you are pouring out to the people around you, it would freeze, certainly the mortals would freeze solid instantly. But there is a figure floating in the air. by the heart of this. She's got her back to you. She's tracing symbols around the core of the Cloud Spire.
Starting point is 00:35:32 It is a woman wearing unfamiliar clothing. She is completely surrounded by a nimbus of purple energy. You said this place was steps from the water. We just haven't found the steps yet. How much did we save? Enough. Enough to get lost! Get lost.
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Starting point is 00:36:36 Now through May 10th. Exclusion supplies, see Home Depot.com slash price match for details. Give me the mask. I don't put it on yet. All right, you've got the mask. I got it at the ready. What are you doing? And as she does this trace, again, the tremors shake the building.
Starting point is 00:37:00 And I would like you to go ahead and give me an arcane spread. Okay. You don't have, do you have warlock by any chance? No. I also think you only have four cards. Oh, cool. Oh, killer instincts is what I got.
Starting point is 00:37:15 All right. Ooh. So go ahead and give me an arcane spread. Tibbon is shivering and shaking next to you, but he's like, What is she doing? So he's trying to help you. Okay. So you have a base of eight.
Starting point is 00:37:29 Okay. And you can use three cards. I definitely want to use Killer Instinct, for sure. What's the number I'm trying to get to? Higher than 15, preferably 20. So what was that? Three, Grace, one. And Killer Instincts?
Starting point is 00:37:44 Now, Killer Instincts, is there a thing that makes it relevant here, or you're just throwing it in as a one? I wanted to use it because I was going to use my killer instincts to keep Timna alive, but also see if there is a way for me to throw my Naginata at her. Okay. And see if it will either kill her or if at least try to get her attention so she can stop doing this.
Starting point is 00:38:10 So you're evaluating her with an eye to how could I neutralize this threat. I'll give you three points for that, and that is a bonus card. So you can still play another card on top of that. So you're currently sitting at Yeah, that will help her too. Yes, please. Oh, cool. Okay, so.
Starting point is 00:38:26 So, Commander, okay. You hold onto it, so keep with him, but it's plus three. Okay. And are you just, how are you convening this? Are you just like, you can do this? Yeah, exactly. I'm like, I'm giving you.
Starting point is 00:38:38 Focus. Thank you for your support. So again, we're at two, five, eight, 11, plus eight from Tibbon and your own score, 19. And you can play one more. Yeah, so there you go, 21. All right, here's what you realize. You realize that what she is doing is destabilizing this.
Starting point is 00:38:58 Okay. That her actions, she is basically, this is a center of powerful enchantment, and she's trying to unravel it. But there's a couple other things you realize. You could throw the Naganada at her, but you're quite sure that that aura around her would act as a defense.
Starting point is 00:39:17 That's not to say it couldn't be done, but you are again certain that it's not as simple, is that there's something else. You feel a connection to her that you can't quite explain, and you realize that she is an elemental phoenix. I knew it. And you realize at that moment that she is aware of you. And she turns to look at you, and that's where we're gonna stop.
Starting point is 00:39:46 We'll find out how you deal with all of this in the next episode of Starter Kit. I need to know. Next time on Starter Kit. I want to hit her with everything I got. You're coming with me. You're bursting with power. You are scary all over.
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