Critical Role & Sagas of Sundry - Part 6: Phoenix Ascendant | Starter Kit: Phoenix Dawn Command

Episode Date: March 2, 2026

The Phoenix Wing finds themselves in a pitched battle with a powerful ancient spirit, and must make a decision that will impact the future of the Empire. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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She is an elemental phoenix. Gave me the mask. And she turns to look at you. Welcome back to your starter kit. I'm Keith Baker, the creator of Phoenix Don Command. Success in a mission is measured in many ways, defeating the enemy, saving those in your care, even just escaping intact.

How will our phoenixes measure up as they complete their first mission against the dread? So the elemental phoenix turns to face you, you, again as I said, she's surrounded by the shroud of energy. Pass that around, everyone can take a look. Can we read the backside? Nope. Oh, I don't look like to see what it was.

I just wanted everyone to get a chance today. Oh, that is really cool. Scary looking. And she's not cute, she's our enemy. She turns towards you and immediately, the temperature drops even more sharply than before. Well, that's a lot of help. You just feel as her attention focuses on you,

cold happens. She raises her hands, but as she's doing this, you notice that again, it's like the person in there isn't really focusing on you. Her eyes aren't fixed on you. It's as if the shape around her is just moving her like a puppet. And then out towards all of you, a wave of cold comes.

This is an attack with a value of eight. However, Haley, you, again, this is your magic. So you are able to sort of catch that. You can protect yourself, you can protect him. And because he's shielded with you, you can pick one other person to be shielded from this attack. Yeah. Chapter.

Okay, so the two of you, attack with a value of eight. This is what's called an all or nothing attack, Either you hit eight and avoid it completely, otherwise it's gonna do whatever it's gonna do. Many attacks you wanna hit close, this is just give me an eight or don't bother. You draw a card again, because every time you're attacked,

you get to draw a card. Okay. What distinguishes those attacks? Like without you, like as the GM telling us, that's this kind of attack, is there a significant sign on the card? Absolutely, it's on the card. So it tells the Game Master what it means

is it something where it's just just a binary, often would be something like a spell effect, where either this freezes you solid or it does nothing at all. As opposed to if someone's trying to stab you with a sword, you get that, oh, I avoided most of it, but it still got me a little. So this is just a flat, it works or it doesn't.

Draw your card, and we'll start with you. You get to play two grace cards. Can you show me eight points? Not with the grace cards, but. I can help. Can I spend some sparks? No, you can. You can't spend sparks on defense,

only on attack or skills. So right now you're short, does someone else have a way to help? Could I use my noble card to give you three extra cards to the spread? Absolutely. I'll do that, so you get three cards. I have to discard this one. Do I draw them or just use what they have?

No, she just gives you three points. Oh, three points. Okay, great. So it puts you to 10, so you're fine, set those aside. Is there something you do to help? Yes, I'm noble. So I, that's the skill set I'm using. So I look at you and for the first time you can see that I'm not like afraid of you and you're shielding me as well with your fire.

And so I like join your elements together and we kind of create a shield. Feel the warmth. Alright, so again that warmth protects you. It's a bit of your old flame sort of comes back just to keep you warm. Now can you show me eight points? Can my skill specialties count towards this? Your skill specialties do not. They only count towards non-combat actions but you do have a plus.

but you do have a plus one defense coming from Adria. Okay, then yes I can. Let's see it. I'm gonna do my four grace card, and then I also have a three grace card, but then Adriah is giving me a plus one to my defense as well. Because she believes in you.

Yeah, she does. So again, this wave of cold, you feel like it was going to sort of chill you and slow you, but you're able to fight it off. You're just sheer determination, and somehow that determination helps Adriah as well. So discard those cards you do not draw back because we are in combat now.

Well, I actually, I get a card every time I make a defense spread. That is correct. Okay. Nice job. Thank you. But you don't draw back again. At this point, you only draw at the ends of your turns. And that is the question, who would like to go first? I mean, don't you have one million cards?

Yeah, I want to, well, actually, I use a lot of from your defense, but I want to hit it with everything I got. You're stronger, too. All right. I want to hit it with everything I got. So here we have the torch. Let me tell you about this room. We have a few things in here.

There's a broken pillar. I told you there were various spires sort of set around the room. Like a broken pillar like that? Yep. Go grab it. Jason threw it at me. Snapped off.

So that is something that's lying on the ground that could be picked up. There are chunks of ice from where the whole thing has been shaking and you have just big chunks of ice. You have the cold itself, if you can somehow think of how that could be used in a positive way. You have the spire, the core that is there,

and you have that mysterious mask. Yeah. And who has that mysterious mask right now? I have it. Yeah, so you have it. So again, that is theoretically in play. I didn't put it on yet. I have it in my hand.

Oh, you're ready to put it on. All right. So starting with you, you see this floating elemental figure, again, just radiating pure, cold. you can see behind her on the core there's sort of letters continuing to be traced. And also, as she did that attack against you, one of the things is you realize there's a new voice,

but you don't understand what it's saying. It's going, that's not friendly. It doesn't sound friendly. It's radiating from the figure, but it's not, the human, mouth is not speaking. It is just coming from it and flooding the room. You're not particularly good with languages, but someone could try and figure out what this is. So the first thing I do is throw the mask on.

All right. So you put the mask on and you feel immediately this presence. It's sort of curious. You know, when I say curious, I mean literally like inquisitive, like trying, you know, it's puzzled by you and is trying to sort of reach out and connect. to you. Do you allow that? Do you sort of embrace that or you like, no, not like that idea? You know what? Yeah, I'll let it embrace me. That's going to take a little time to have an effect, but you feel this sort of presence just sort of moving into you. And that's happening. And go ahead and draw a card. You were using the frozen mask. Okay, great. Also, I feel like she's putting graffiti on the Cloud Spire,

by the way. That does actually appear to be what she's doing. Kids these days have no sense of respect for old things. Looking at this, I would just quickly point out, she has an eight defense, which is quite high. It's very hard to hurt her. And then she has counters with the value of four and a couple counters with the value of six. Yeah. So here's what I'm going to do.

I'm going to burn a wound. So you're basically pouring your power into a Grimclaw. So take a wound. That means you draw a card. So you got all the, you know, You are filled with energy. You're bursting with power.

And of course, any attack spread you make right now is gonna be at a plus seven. Yeah, yeah. So for my core cards, I'm gonna put out a four and a three. All right. Then I've got my terrifying card. So I yell out a blood-curdling, ice-melting scream. This will hopefully stun her.

But right now I'm at plus... You're at plus seven. Plus seven, plus... And then... So 15. So I'm at 15. So I'm at 15. All right, so let's take a look at that.

Here's the thing. 15. Again, once you're adding things to the 8. That's 14 right there. So you could take off one of the sixes. It's great. Or if you burned a spark to push it up to 16, you could take off two of the fours.

Burning that spark. All right, so you charge in a... Again, Grimclaw is burning, bright, strikes in, and the flame sort of interact with the purple, you'll crackle against the purple of the shroud. So you're not actually hitting her. You're just striking against the shroud. If you want to burn a spark, you can be terrifying about it.

Oh, I'm absolutely burning that spark because it's gonna hopefully stun her. And it is, whether it's the terrifying nature of you or just the sheer, the fact that you're striking her with a burning weapon against her cold, again, you feel it seems disjointed. For a moment it's almost like a figure drops a little, as if the shroud has sort of lost a bit of its grip on her.

One thing else that does happen though is especially as you strike her, the cold again washes over you, even with Paley's Shield, you lose a spark, just sort of again, it's sapping your energy. And discard those cards. So discard these guys. So I can attack again, right? You continue until you're out of cards,

or until you decide you're done. Now I know if I attack again, am I getting plus three with that again? You're always your game plus three and you're getting plus four. You have a plus seven to any attack you make, so you can definitely make another effective attack. The best I can do is another five.

So that's 12, I think, which is exactly enough. Another four, okay. So you are battering her, but then, are you done? Yes. Okay, draw up. Even as you're battering against the figure and you can see the, it's struggling to hold its shape, you see the elemental inside.

You see her just sort of almost shrivel slightly. And it strengthens. And what you realize, you realize, is again, this is what elementals do, is you can burn your life energy to generate power. You think whatever this is, it's using her. as a power source. Yeah.

That was the end of your turn, so you have to pass the torch to one of these three. I'm actually gonna pass it to our fellow elemental. All right. So the mask has been used. Okay. The others are available. And again, you still have the mask.

It will still be relevant. It's just it is no longer something that can be used to gain a card. Right, but there may, it feels like something's gonna happen. Something's going on. I'm still heating up everyone since the cold is so intense still at this point, yes? That is definitely true.

Okay. Basically, if she does that wave attack again, it would still be your shielding people. And again, you are still, if you were to turn off your shield completely, everyone would be in a lot of trouble. Yeah, and I don't want to do that. So don't die if you can avoid it. Yeah, I'm going to try.

Hey, guess what? I'm adding a detail for you guys, which is, these are the two remaining health levels of the elemental Phoenix. Okay. So that's just a random. Okay. Nope.

I wanna see if there's a way to use the chunk of ice. Mm-hmm. Since it won't completely have to take away, because I was thinking about using the chilling cold, but I feel like that might affect everybody and I might not have enough heat to do that, so. One possibility for you specifically, no one else could try this,

but you could say you want to use the chilling cold in that what you want to do is try and break it or something like that. So this is the sort of choice again of you could make a straight up, just attack against her, or you could make a fire-related skill spread to say, I'm going to try and stop this chilling cold. I was thinking about that because I feel like as an elemental

it would be easier that way, but I also feel like I don't want to use too much because I'm also thinking of everybody else in the room. So I'd rather try to use more of my physical attributes and my magical and give it to one thing. All right. If possible. Sure. I want to see and use my resourceful.

Okay, so what is the power of your resourceful card? It is, one intellect. When you use this card in a spread, draw two cards, place one of those cards back on the top of your deck. So go ahead and do that, just so you see what you have available. So choose one of those, and the other one goes back on top of the deck. Okay, so the two cards I got is Warlock and Call Lightning, which we tried that last time.

Both good. But it was a little bit of a different situation. So I will tell you one thing right away off of Warlock. which is that if you were to try and interact with the mask or the core itself, Warlock would definitely be worth five points and let you do more. So that would be a skill spread. That's what I'm saying is that is a very powerful card for interacting with these systems if you choose to do that.

Yeah, no, I think that's a better idea than using the call lightning, because that could be literally hit or miss at that point. Oh, that is true. You have a plan for what you want to do with it. Because if you don't, that would be where you could put it back on top of it. where you can put it back on top of your deck and wait and have it for next turn. I don't want to wait too long.

That's fine. So what do you want to do with it? What are you trying to do? Can I use the core still, even though I'm using? You can try, yeah. Yeah? Okay, so I see. Again, normally no one could, because they don't know what to do with it.

You can definitely sense that the spirit, the puppeteer is basically trying to activate what amounts to a self-destruct system. that graffiti she's put on it, is trying to destabilize it. Okay. So if you want, I would let you use Warlott to try and counter what that is, because that's going on right now and it's just getting worse. So if you want to try and break that, that inscription,

I would let you do that as a skill spread. Okay. Definitely in the arcane specialty. Sure. So again, that means you can use any cards. Okay. We also, you should draw one more card anyway because you did use the chunk of ice. So currently here's what we're sitting on.

You have resourceful. Okay. That's just worth one, but it gave you a bunch of other cards. Right. You have Warlock. That's five points towards doing this because it is absolutely what's letting you do this. Sure. You're up to six.

This is an arcane specialty up to 11. And you have your assistant. Yeah, which is plus three. So that's 14. 14. So you have 14 points. You can play up to three more cards. Okay.

So I'm going to do plus three, Grace. And- 17. Let's do plus two intellect. Okay, that's 19. Yes, I need... You've still got one more card you can't control. Yeah, so I can do another plus two degrees on top of that and keep you together.

So that is 21. Does anyone have anything else they want to play? Just checking. Greetings adventurers. Spring has sprung here in Los Angeles and that means it's a brief period where it's only 75 degrees instead of 95 degrees. I'll take it. And that means I've been outside a lot more. Walking around, occasionally galloping after a toddler hopped up on juice boxes, traveling a bit. You know the vibe.

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Quince.com slash critical role. Have any instances. Your misspent youth was spent working with alien demon machinery at the heart. Naturally. I mean... Naturally. I had one of these in my basement.

I don't know about you. He was very paranoid, so I didn't deal with them directly, but, you know, I heard a lot about them. We've all been there. Here's the thing. If you could get to 25, it would have a much more dramatic effect. Certainly what you're doing right now

is gonna slow the thing down. If you get to 25, which would mean spending four sparks, you would break the enchantment and you'd get two right here if you wanted. I could do two and then I still have six here. Fair enough. Can she use both of those or just one? Well, no, only one. Oh, okay.

So you get two from there. You have to spend two of your own. So make yourself some change. C-A. You do manage to interface with it in part because of the traces of the elemental who was already working on it. You're sort of able to connect and counter what was being done there. So the rest of you see the flames looking around your hands

and the sort of words twisting around the core just burn away. That at least means that it's not going to collapse while this is all going on. doesn't mean all our troubles are over, but at least you don't have to worry about the ceiling collapsing on top of you while all this is going on. So good job.

Well, we all wanted to die, so this is unfortunate. I want our humans to die. I'll just take that back now. I think that said, I don't, maybe I don't care. Even you do have to spend one more spark just because of what's going on. So all right, what that put you to? I'm at two left.

Oh, you're so close to dad. Yeah. All right. You don't need me. What? You're the only person who got to go and die. Please do not die. That's like the first thing he said.

Now as a point, with the the puppeteer, normally it goes every two actions that you take. So this is when it would normally act, but because you stunned it, you got one more round. So pass that torch to one of them. All right. He told us the name of the enemy. I did.

You're next. Oh, thank you. Unt his card over here. What do we got? So you did the chunk of ice. I'm gonna say you didn't really use the chunk of ice. I think you used the core. Yeah, we'll just say, we'll leave the chunk of ice on hand

because I don't remember the chunk of ice playing a significant role in that last action. But the elemental is now released from the? No, it's just weak. All she did was she countered the sort of malevolent enchantment that she had put on the core. She's still there as strong as ever doing her stuff. I just feel like we're gonna kill her

and she's not the one who needs to die. That is a man on the person. Right now, you're not sure what to do physically other than hit her. Yeah, she'll come back. Oh, my God. You're welcome, girl. Unless she's on her last life. Yeah.

Oh, okay, wait. She asked her. She'll be fine. She seems to be uncount. You're not sure she's conscious, you know, she's sort of in a coma. I mean, the chances of her being in her last life is like, mm. I'm just wondering if there's a way to disconnect the puppeteers strings from her without continuing to attack the aura that's directly around her.

It certainly seems like there is a way, whether it is a way that you as an expert in all things war can do on your own is a good question. But it should seem like if it can attach to her, it can probably be disattached. Yeah, she's got a lot of health hit her. Yeah, I just, uh. Just trying to be considerate, you know.

I appreciate that. But hey, one in seven chance that she's not on her last life. She's not being very considerate. But that energy is coming from somewhere. You know what I mean? Can I just take, can I take my action to look around the rest of the space to try and find the entity that is controlling this energy? Certainly.

Now here's the thing. You are not a specialist in magic. Does one of your skill specialties or your traits sort of, do you feel, I mean, you can always try, but I'm saying, do you have a trait or a specialty that you're like, this is about war? What skill are you bringing to bear on trying to locate this? I mean, I do think it's tactical.

I think war would come into play because it's like when you're trying to be tactical in war, you're not just like, no, just go fight, fight, fight. Like you want to weigh your options and look at, look at like cutting the head off the snake rather than plowing through like an entire army. If you could just kill the leader, you know what I mean. I'm going to just give this to you. That is sound. I'm saying rather than making you do a spread, you know, this is something where that is a basic, a logical thing. You do sort of study the environment. You're studying the battlefield. You do feel. it is the reverse, it is that this is the source of the energy. The next question you wonder is if it would be possible to somehow literally physically pull her out of it or disconnect her from it.

Yeah. That wouldn't be easy, but strength is a thing that you do. Can I, I want to use my misspent youth card and I want to try what you're talking about. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I want to try and use my miss bent youth card and the situation being pulling somebody out of like a dangerous situation. So tell me about a time. You went through all this crazy stuff and you're misspent, you tell me about a time

where something like this happened. My father didn't just treat me like that. He treated all my siblings the way you treated me. I couldn't take it, but any chance I could, even though I was weak, you know, I tried to get in the way or, you know, pull them out of the situation of his wrath or his blindness to what he was doing to his own

children, so. And furthermore, we did say he trained you to be fighting supernatural threats and things like that as well. So I think the two of these go together. It is both, you've literally tried to do something like this, and second, you have had some, you know, he tried to teach you how to fight demons or something like that. So I will give you five points for misspent youth, and you can also go ahead and

benefit from its special ability. Okay, which is, that's the draw card and- So draw two cards from my deck here. And then I'm gonna keep vengeful here in my hand and put this Grace 2 card back at the top of my deck. I'm gonna go ahead and say that this is somewhere between athletics and war. It's either the sort of pure physical aspect of it

or again, a calculated trying to sever the, one of those is gonna fit in here, so we'll give you the five points for having a specialty. So you're up to 10. Okay. Did you find something on the torch that you feel somehow applies to this? I could use, instead of trying to fit in,

physically pull her out, I could push her, forcefully push her out with one of the pillars. Sure. Just so that I'm not making direct contact with the energy. That actually is a very good idea. Okay. It's gonna hurt her, but she is a phoenix. You can tell she's got at least, you know,

so what I'm saying is you're probably not being gentle about it, but you can't be gentle and get this done. Yeah, I was saying more of like a battering ram more than a batter. Matter. So go ahead and draw another card for that. Okay. And now. And what, that adds five points to this?

That doesn't add anything extra, just gets you the card, but we're up to 10. It also means you won't get hurt. If you did do it physically, it was going to hurt you to be jumping through this. Right now, you have 10 points, and you can play up to three cards and any other traits that you feel applied to this. Okay. Well, I'm going to throw all my strength at it here. Let's see it.

So there's a three strength card, a two strength card, and an additional two strength card. I need to see at least 20. My vengeful's for a defense spread, my valiant's for an attack spread. So. Valiant, however, can apply to attack, but also I would just legitimately say

this is a valiant action. So I will certainly give you three points for valiant, which will put you to 20. And then I'll go ahead and use my spark to make sure that the entity comes after me. That is an excellent idea. So that is the thing. You're drawing its attention and that's critical

because that does mean you literally shove her away and is entirely focused on you. That works. Go ahead and discard all those and draw back up to your five. You just force it in like a battering ram, knock her body away from it, and the elemental falls to the ground. She is at the moment unconscious,

but she's definitely alive and may recover. And that does mean that right now, the puppeteer cannot heal. So because you have knocked her away. And I'm gonna take a step beyond that and say, I think the couple of that cold is dropping now that it has pushed her out. It's not just, it's not gone completely.

Oh, I thought you meant, it was getting colder. I was like, oh, it's getting warm. I'm saying it was using her. Right. It was using her and so again, it's not quite as focused on that. So that's the good news. Now, since you've drawn up, are you done? Because technically we should have had you confirm you were done

before we drew. Yeah, then let me not cheat and pass the torch. a torch. All right. Thank you. Now, before that happens though, the puppeteer was stunned, but now it is back and its attention is focused on you.

It envelops you. Oh, no. Now, that's not a... Why? Now, the good news is... Don't be mad at me. Yeah. The good news is that it can't fully connect to you

the way it did for her. It's not that simple, but it is trying to. Ain't got no magic. But it is, now, pass me your card. Oh, sorry. your Duran card right up there. Oh. I haven't actually laid this all out

because there's just one person, you know, you're all around there. But right now, it's surrounding you. And it is going to be a all or nothing attack with a value of 12. This is it trying to connect to you. So first off, draw a card, you're being attacked. Now, you can play any two cards in defense.

Obviously, without some traits working here, you're not gonna hit 12. But let's start and see what you can get, and don't forget that Adriya gives you a plus one. Oh yeah, plus one to defense. Okay. Now, if you don't have cards that you like, I will point out the other thing you can do

with the last bit of energy and the devoted bond is to draw two more cards. Would you like to do that? Yeah, don't know. This is a pretty serious thing to avoid it if you can. So shuffle your deck and draw new cards. And since she's being attacked by our entity or the smoke, the companion is not affected by that?

That is correct. Okay. Um, Miss Bent, youth is back. That's good. Excuse me, excuse me, life points. Pardon me, and Valiant is back. What the heck? Both of those are pretty solid.

All right. All right. So starting off, what do you have that aren't traits? What are your two base cards that you can put into this? So I'm gonna start with my four strength here, or yeah, my four strength, and then I'm gonna do my three grace here. So that's gonna be seven.

All right, now hold there for a moment. I'm just gonna ask, this is crucial. You know, we've deprived it of its host. It's trying to connect to her, and if it can, you're gonna have a whole new set of problems. Does anyone else happen to have a trade on hand that would help her? It doesn't look like, you know, looks like to a certain degree,

well, what do you have over there? The trait card I have is call Lightning right now. Can you think the way that Colleen Lightning would help her not get possessed? I mean, the only thing I could think of was electrocuting her, but I don't think that, you think that will work? I would throw it out there.

I would say it would cause her damage, but I do think that it would actually, the shock of it. Sorry. So what I say, we know I have more lives. That's true, that's true. I have health left. We don't know where she was standing.

So I feel more comfortable you doing that to me than doing it to somebody, we don't know where they stand. And it doesn't affect her companion either? Ugh. Well, I'm in, I'm kind of enclosed in the energy. Well, I know. So go ahead and take a wound. It's happening.

Yes, it's happening. I called it. But I will add that value. I'll call it. You can't. Yes. Which if it's a trait, could be important. Do I draw a card?

Because I got a tech. No. No, it's just an automatic. So you're eight. Adriah gives you a plus one, making it a nine. Do you have three traits that you feel apply to trying to resist horrible alien possession? The call lightning only gave me at one? It was just a little boost, but it also made other things.

also made other things possible. So there's secondary effects. But look at your traits. Thank you. Do you have three that you feel? I mean, I just use these, so I feel like they still apply. There's nothing wrong with using them again. Absolutely.

The same exact situation is still going on. I think my misspent youth is still irrelevant, because it's, again, I'm trying to put myself in a position of pain so that somebody else doesn't have to be. Yep. And valiance. Still very valiant. For the same reasons.

And then vengeful. Because it seems honorable, but I'm doing it at a place of like proving myself and showing my father that I can be stronger than he thought I could be and and I could be stronger than him. And do you have absolute conviction there as well? I do, but that's for other people. Oh, it doesn't matter. I mean, it still applies as a trade.

It is still something you possess. And because this is the big thing, I'm just going to use it here. So here's what happens. All of that works. So hold the absolute conviction for just a moment. So again, you feel it trying to connect you, trying to struggle with you, using both, again, her shock sort of jolts you. At the same time, you are just determined.

You've resisted this before, you won't let it happen again, you have put everything into this to protect the others. And here's what I would say is this is up to you. You've resisted it, but with your absolute conviction, you could do the reverse. You could actually connect to it, and if you're willing to burn your last two health levels, you could pull it down into the crucible with you and just basically would mean you would die, but you would consume the puppeteer in the process. Two Good & Co coffee creamers are made with farm fresh cream, real milk, and contain three

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You're going to do it. All right. So flip your two health levels. You see it surrounding her. You see the tendrils trying to connect. You shock her, which again just resolves you. and then what is your last sort of action? I think as I'm trying to fight it myself,

I'm kind of closed in like this and trying to do it, but then when I get the help from Pele, I think it opens me up and I just start screaming and my muscles are bulging and my veins are popping out and I'm just like, you're coming with me! And as she is doing that, again, her body literally starts to burn and dissolve, but it just implodes and it pulls it in,

and they're both gone. The cold immediately just starts fading. You know, the temperature starts rising. The elemental is, she's unconscious, she's pretty shaken, but she is alive, and she's at least hundreds, maybe thousands of years old, so she's gonna be, that's gonna be very interesting. But, pass me your,

skill card. So we didn't do this with Pire because it happened quickly, but I do just want to say you have the shrouded bond, which means you feel her knowledge flowing into her. Just steal all your stuff. And in addition, you can pick one of the other players because you still have some sparks. Who would you connect to? I'm sorry. Haley? All right. Because she helped me. So she was with me in my final. So you feel that connection and she's still there. and she's still there sort of with her.

You feel her knowledge flowing into her, you feel her spirit being with you, it seems like everything is good, the tremors have stopped, and then Pyer speaks, but he says words that the two of you don't understand. It's just coming from him, because he's still wearing the mask. I knew.

But you understand. Exactly like that. Totally. And the thing is, you don't, right? You don't understand the words, but you hear it in your mind, the way you've always heard these voices. And you realize it is the spirit of this place.

And it says, what do you wish of me? What do you wish of me? It's scary all over. Terrifying. Can I do a lore check? Because I feel like this is really important. I don't want to mess up anything. Absolutely.

So this is a lore check that gives you a base of five. And again, because it is a specialty of yours, you guys have been pretty good about just using your specialties, that means you can use any three cards. Seeing that most present danger is gone, I will burn through three intellect for grace. And because it's a skill, I'm allowed to use another one of my graces. So that puts me up to five plus seven, that's 12,

and then I'm going to do 15 and hope that helps. More than 15 would help more if you could hit, but 20 is the next tier. You would have to burn a lot of sparks to get that. I just start sparking like a glitter cannon of fireworks. So this is about, again, you have this talent within you. You have this talent within you. This is a thing that helps you speak to spirits.

So you pour that energy in and it's a little like your psychometry. You just have a sort of moment of connection. And you realize, you sort of sense the purpose of this place that this is a place that was used to create fallen spirits. fallen spirits, that it would basically draw the spirits out of the dusk and create soldiers or servants, and that whatever those other people were, they were trying to shut this down because it essentially was being used by their enemies. So you feel there is a chance if you were to bargain with this spirit that it might produce fallen spirits for you. On the other hand, dealing with fallen,

as Pele can tell you, is a dangerous thing. Do you want to try to employ mysterious Fonlin spirits to fight the dread? Okay. I kind of like, because I'm already on the ground and take a knee and I look up to it, just breathing heavily after being exhausted from this. And then I say, I want you to protect this location

with any force you can, but never leave. What does he say? I'm gonna let you make that decision. Is that acceptable to you, Spirit? That is acceptable. To me, the spirit. I shall stay here and protect this place. I keep my head low,

because you're horrifying me right now with your body and your hammer. With that, the mask falls from your face. You catch it before it hits the ground, but again, that humming this happens, increases and vibrates and behind you, the core of the cloud. Spire glows with brilliant red energy that flows forward into the mask and it just

floats forward from your hand as this shape takes shape it sort of looks like a humanoid figure just made of red mist and energy flowing there it bows to you and says I will honor our agreement I will hold this place and keep it safe should you wish to return we will discuss what happens then Now I have much that must be done. It raises its hand and as the ice is melting, you see from those I said there were basins with liquid, the mist flows up from them and you see other spirits taking shape.

There are other masks that are coming together. And now there's a dozen of these masked spirits moving around, clearing the ice away. Some of them are moving up the tunnels and starting to employ sort of crimson energy melting away and clearing a path. So can I take Adria and the other companion and kind of keep them protected away from the spirits

because this is a pretty intense scene. Yes. Kevin is sort of in shock in a good way. He's just, this is amazing. It's a miracle. I can't wait to tell Foreign Man's about this. I'm like, exactly what I thought was going to happen. Adria is still sort of stunned but amazed

by what you have accomplished. The spirits, as soon as they are clearing a path, the lead spirit turns to you again and says, I will honor our agreement. Now go. Okay. I'll be back. Now, now, again, as you see this coming together,

and when you do finally emerge, you can see the cracks in the spire, this red energy is flowing through and solidifying. The power is starting to settle now. It's still flowing through it, but the voices have quieted. You feel that beyond this, what you have accomplished here,

it was perhaps a good decision not to unleash. You still don't know what these things are. Taking a little more time to figure it out and decide what you want to do. Smartest person in the room, you guys, I just pulled it, so. Is definitely wise. At the same time, this place is now here,

You can certainly return if in the future you do have an idea what you want to do with it. And beyond that, you have definitely learned just a tremendous amount about the old kingdoms and the fallen. Tiven is again going to spend the next few months writing a whole thesis at the library, which you know, might even change the decimal system. They might take a comeback because you're so dead to you.

Oh, I grab some of the ash from our fallen Phoenix, sweep it up as we- And as we walk out, I start to sprinkle it behind me just kind of as an honor to her death in the cave. Now, it is the case again looking to the aftermath that because you saved Adria and Tibbon, they're going to return to the empire singing your praises. So that's going to be a very positive thing for Don Command. Now, coming back to Kronas, one of the questions I also have is you died, you're going to return. What kind of death do you think that was?

Did you die for others? Did you die for duty? Yeah, I definitely think it was very, very different from my first death, which was kind of, for her, a big way, shameful. But this seemed much more purposeful and intentional and valiant and selfless, so. I would agree with that.

I think it's probably devoted or elemental, but that's something that you could think about as you went forward, and you'd, of course, be choosing the power for your talent. So that's all what the future would hold, but you will come back stronger to reunite with the wing and fight the dread once more. So congratulations everyone.

Thank you so much. Yeah. Do her actions. We free train jump. That's the end of our mission. I hope you've enjoyed watching and learning with us. I'm Keith Baker. Thanks for watching Starter Kit, Phoenix Don Command.

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Bring your AT&T or T mobile bill to a Verizon store today and we'll give you a better deal on the best network. A better deal. No surprises. That's Verizon. Best network based on root metrics, best overall mobile network performance U.S. second half 2025. All rights reserved. It must provide a recent consumer mobile bill in the name of the person who gave me the deal. Additional terms, conditions, and restrictions apply. The war is over and both sides lost. Kingdoms were reduced to cinders, an army scattered like bones in the dust. Now the survivors claw to what's left of a broken world, praying the darkness chooses someone else tonight.

But in the shadow dark, the darkness always wins. This is old school adventuring at its most cruel. Your torch ticks down in real time. And when that flame dies, something else rises to finish the job. This is a brutal rules-light nightmare with a story that emerges organically based on the decisions that the characters make. This is what it felt like to play RPGs in the 80s, and man, it is so good to be back. Join the Glass Cannon podcast as we plunge into the Shadow Dark every Thursday night at 8 p.m. Eastern on YouTube.com slash the Glass Cannon with the podcast version dropping the next day. See what everybody's talking about and join us in the dark.

The world of Sonic the Hedgehog has been thrust into a not-so-dark, not-so-stormy, hard-boiled detective story that probably not. Nobody saw coming. Follow Sonic and the Intrepid Chaotic's detective agency as they take on their biggest case yet. This high-flying action-packed adventure will take them across the world, fighting for every quill they can fight. It's one heck of a tale, which is good, because this story might be the only thing that can save their lives. Oh, well, if that's all, I can just dispose of you.

Wait, what? All will be revealed in. Sonic the Hedgehog presents the Chaotics Case Files. Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts. When the Chaotics are on the case.