Critical Role & Sagas of Sundry - Vox Machina Ep. 41 - In Ruins

Episode Date: November 30, 2021

Vox Machina searches through the rubble of Emon, hoping to find their allies among the survivors. With special guest Jason Charles Miller!   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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returning from a harsh adventure in White Stone, having the Winter's Crest Festival, and then going and re-inspecting the death place of a blue dragon they once fought over a year ago, returned just in time for a series of chromatic dragons, white, black, red, and green, all attacking Imon at once. this union, pardon me, of extremely powerful dragons, just tore through the city with the red staying behind named Thorac, the Cinder King, basically housing himself Niemann and claiming himself, essentially ruler of that area. And the party fled to their keep, attempted to help a bunch of refugees inside, and then were immediately attacked by Voregol, the white dragon. A heavy battle commenced. That was ill in favor of your vizier.

victory until Thoradak himself knocked Vorgal out of the sky, claiming that there was better things to be done. So three of the four of this chroma conclave have now gone east while Thoradak sits in the middle of his new nesting place. You guys decided to try and help those who were in the keep at the time, those who survived that encounter on the outside of Grey Skull. However, Percy and Grog had a conversation about this magical, skull artifact they had acquired this new whispering in exchange for a wish if it got freedom. This led to a rather intense bit of conflict. Negotiation.

Yes. We are not yelling. Talking loudly. Thanks to the luck of the die seemed to avoid a unique circumstance. Whatever that might have been. However, the party in this tense scenario were then visited by a Dwarven elementalist named Drake, along with your old-time friend and guide, Allura Vysorin, who had sensed the connection to her teleportation circles here in Iman severed immediately. There was discussion about how this came about, who is to blame, and it appears that this

dragon has a history 15 years before of having conflict with Alora and her then party of adventurers, many who lost their life at a final battle, and they realized they were unable to actually defeat Thoradak hatched a plan to seal him within the elemental plane of fire and has managed to keep him there for 15 years until recently. And we left off with Alora suddenly sensing her connection to the Western sigil severed as well. God, I forgot about that. And that. Nothing like genocide to put you in the mood. Yeah. That is where we'll pick up.

What do? So, at this point, after Alora senses this shuns this shrew, She, her eyes go wide for a moment, and she kind of, you being there in front of her still, Keelith, after your guys, scrying which kind of grabs your shoulder and looks around the room. Who is left? Where is the council? Which allies can we draw to us in hopes of planning on next move? We don't know. We are scattered. For all we know, the council is lost. It could be all that's left. Well, we have to try and gather what information we can about who remains.

If anyone out there survives, any of our allies, we need to make sure that they're brought away from the center of this chaos. And hopefully we can reconvene and figure out a path of hoping to free our city of our entire land of this scourge. How do we even make contact with him? Thoradac is in the center of town. and perhaps skirting the center and hoping others have found their way towards the outskirts. I don't know. I... This is as far as I've gotten into the city, is your guys keep you. You have the better position on this. Where would anyone in the town go? Other places to hide? Are there... I think that they would lead the center of the city and move, at least to the edges, if not try, to get out.

Although that might be foolish. Check the harper, maybe. We know that Ryskell made secret passageways in different places. Oh, security tunnels. Yeah. Did we ever find out if we had, if we put one in us? Did we have one that leads into the town? We don't know. We don't know. Oh, we, didn't we have a tunnel made that goes under the wall? I think we did. I did, actually. Yeah.

But to put us a lead out of the city. doesn't lead out of the city. You haven't actually utilized it yet. Now, we've never used it, but they described it to us when they brought us here. First aid. Maybe we can sneak in. To the city?

Well, yeah. And go where? And go where. By the way, hi guys. Hi, how's it. Wait, who was with Gilmol? Gilmore disappeared. I didn't see where he went.

He was alone before it all happened. That's another place to check. What? Gilmore's. Gilmore's. If I'm thinking of where I would go if I didn't know what to do. That's smart. What places are left that have a teleportation circle? What about the Thieves Guild tunnels? Would anyone go there?

It depends on who knows. It's a way out of the city once again. The smugglers curbs. It's not a bad idea either. That was all through the... that bar. Through through the bar in the... Place. With a thing. With a thing. ...the thing. The connections I had at this time were within my tower, your keep, and the Lyceum, the Alabaster Lyceum, Lyceum has also been severed, though I know not what may remain there. That is also a place of great power, hence why it was probably a very operative target for their attack.

Allura. Yes. How far does your arcane connection reach? Can you feel when you lose connection to other cities? If I have a connection to the sigil, yes. I don't have much beyond the boundaries of Taudore. Vasselheim does not allow sigils for transportation. It's against their philosophy against embedded arcane intrusion.

If Westroon is under attack as well, I will make my way there in hopes of salvaging the lives that I can. But you're leaving? If Westrun is under attack now, and we know Thoradak is here, So that mean... His forces are divided. This is a takeover. For some reason, Thorac doesn't want to leave this city.

Why? This is the seat of power, right? We could potentially attack one of his subordinates, though. One of the other dragons in Westron. By themselves. But then he could just come and kill us? Well, then we'd teleport right back out. Okay.

Bad idea? Bad idea. How fast is he? Well, they just made it to Western several hundred miles away in all of 40 minutes. There's a lot of assumptions here. They move rather fast, and to be honest, I hate to inform you, but my single teleportation ability has been utilized for the day in getting here. Oh, yeah, I'm tapped out, too. Me too.

Lady Allura. What do you know of Marquette? You said that they successfully repulsed him? Four hundred years ago, yes, when he was younger. He's a much smaller dragon then. Yeah, he's ancient, Grog. He is ancient. Yes, Logan. The only thing I can think of, there are two bastions of knowledge

that hold inklings as to what could be the undoing of dragon kind, of powerful entities. There were battles of many such powerful entities long, long ago, back Back before the penance, before the historical wiping of civilization. Some of these books remain in Vasselheim, being the only city to have survived those times. A few have found their way in the Colbert Reserve, the library in Westron. If I could go and hope that this library still stands, stay out of sight, help who I can all on the way, and gather what bits of research I can and bring them back here, perhaps. We could reconvene as long as long as I can.

as you go and find who you can of our allies that survive. Within Emon. You can do that? Within Emon. Wait, you're going to let you go on your own? Well, she has Drake with her. Which of which Drake next to says, Damn right, she does. And I don't mean any offense, but two of us is about the same as you lot.

Say what? Trust me. And he gives you kind of this, this dwarven grin. It's both of his eyes kind of spark for a second with electricity. electricity. She kind of pushes them to say, goes, It's all right, Drake. For our mission, it's going to require more.

Success is guided on being subtle. Some of you excel at that, maybe not all, in speed. I believe we can handle this. You're better suited in combing large bits of territory in seeking the allies that may survive. Would you be leaving in the morning then, or can you go tonight? I should leave now. You're going to go on foot?

We have other means of transportation. Laura, if you're going to Western, and if you say is true, that we have two potential options for finding out how to defeat these dragons, should we be heading to Vasselheim? Maybe that's best where we're needed right now. If Vasselheim still stands, I, knowing its history,

that is one of the most fortified cities, No, the most, fortified city in our civilization. It's endured two great wars and has been the starting point of each cycle. I doubt even at the might that these dragons hold, they would have the gall or the foolish intent to attack such a place, especially the center of an entity such as Bahamat who stands against such creatures. I think Vassahem is going to definitely claim a key role in this attempt to save ourselves. Bahamish is a good guy. Yeah. For the most, yeah.

Cool. It's the city that was closest to Pyra. My people, my tribe. Oh, sorry. We could pull double duty. We could go and I can... Grog, not now. It's not the time. What of Whitestone? Is there any...

I mean mention any... It's funny. I have no connection to Whitestone. I did not have time arriving there to install a sigil. Did you learn anything of the anomaly beneath the castle that might be useful? She kind of... she shakes yourself from the current mindset and goes, well, me and Drake here, we spent the better part of two-day studying the structure underneath the city. It itself appears to be at least 600 years old, predating White Stone's course.

instruction. Unfortunately, both of our magics are thwarted in the proximity of this structure. Right. And any sort of rituals that we attempted or would have been able to attempt to discern its nature in the classic means would not be functional to its anti-magical properties. However, taking a few things of note, and we're taking our observations to reach for research facilities around the world, the world, one of which I intended to be the Cobalt Reserve before this happened. Interesting, thank you. So there was no, you didn't move it, you didn't do anything with it, it's still just sitting there.

It's like a hazard zone right now? Essentially, we've locked it off and it's on an intense guard. We spent a little bit of time experimenting with its properties and any sort of object of firm matter that was introduced to this object was then torn from our grasp, sundered it into many pieces, and then, vanished. Yeah. Maybe we can get Thoradak near the little orb. Yeah, yeah. I like it. For sure. Which is definitely what I was thinking. How do we do that? Well, it's part of the plan. Hey, big dragon, there's a snack over here. Take a boy. We could leave a trail of gold that leads to it. Goldilocks style. Or... Goldilocks?

That thing was also several hundred feet below ground. How are you going to get that dragon down? Does Thordak have any offspring? Not that I know of. Not anymore. I thought that the thought would be to actually remove it from the chamber and maybe make it portable. That could be really, really terrible. Do dragons have families?

They have like wives or loved ones? They have children. Chromatics especially, they, from what I understand my research. They do mate, but there is no family structure and there is no love between brethren, other than the continued existence of that bloodline. If a child of a dragon is slaughtered and one does find out, depending if it's their only brethren,

that could incite a sense of vengeance, depending on the color. But I know of no immediate children to Thordak. I have no knowledge of the other dragons of which attacked this day. We should ask him. We need to do as much research as we can. I've not seen Ford-Dak myself in 15 years, and I know not the state in which he's in

what power has now gained. Whatever information you can gather safely right now is going to guide us in the rest of this path and attempting to take this terrible creature down. But go back into the city to try to find council members and we succeed. What does that get us? What does that get us? A bunch of people who also don't know how to defeat the dragons. Right, but they're powerful people. They could help us. Politically? Both actually. Experience and warrior-wise.

What about a spy? Dragons want servitude, right? They, especially the Reds, see themselves as superior to all beings and will bend and have in the past bent small townships and civilizations to their whims and worship, yes. Which is based on what you're telling me, is part of what Fordak is attempting with this city now. So what if we say a shady piece of shit to go bend the knee and work on the inside? Listen, Jared is good, but I don't want to sacrifice him like that.

What about you, Scalman? He's so good at lying and being shady. Let's talk about you. Sucking up and groveling. What about Trinket? Freak it can't talk. Oh, that's right. Yeah, it's not a bad idea.

And I do have this, pulling the brooch off. This would mask your true nature somewhat. That's true! I am not going to go. Ancient giant red fuck-off dragon. They have mind control powers. They have influence. They have charisma beyond even mine.

You'll be his bitch. You'll be his bitch. Like trim his toenails, you'll get real buddy-buddy. Like, I'm the size of his toenails. Slave layer outfit with a chain around your neck. No, he's the lost guy. Oh, yeah, you see the little. You might be surprised, you might like it.

You got me like what? Dragons have to eat, right? Dragons eat. Dragons eat. They eat quite a bit. Yeah, so you poison like a cow, and then you're like, oh, Lord Therodoxin, here you go. Poison cow.

You're dead hero of the city. Something tells you. Something tells me I would end up his gimp. I, you're, your dementia door, you're super quick. This isn't a no-brainer. All right, that's the best plan ever. Let's just think about it, all right? We need to find Muriel.

We just did. We need to go in. All these are the next step. We need to see, we have sacrificed a lot to save Uriel before. We're not just going to leave him in the city. We need to find the tunnel under this keep, go in there, see who's left, and get them out. You know, speaking of spies. Does anyone else feel like this is fairly convenient timing?

Someone in that council had to have known this was happening. That's true. Everyone was gathered in one place? All of Klausov district was in one place. That's not a bad point. Someone knew. It was the perfect opportunity to strike. They took out the entire upper echelon of the city in one strike.

They waited for them all to be in one place. General Craig was here for a while. Brigg was here for a while before we discovered him. He had friends. He wouldn't have known this was coming, though. No, but he was one of them. He was one of them. He actually said, he had friends.

It's possible, but they might not have been working in conjunction with each other. They could have been on their own, all of them, altogether. I don't know. It does open the door to some definite possibilities. The timing was perfect. The timing was perfect. The timing was perfect. You know the best way to flush out something like that?

Something like that? Someone was a spy. Just keep thinking about it. I'll do it. I'll just go in. Well, what if we find a shady individual, like he was saying? What if we're...

Johnson and Scanlon, what if we find someone? That person will surely die. We'll probably right. We'll surely die. We're talking all right with. Okay, okay, okay. We have to, let's go find this tunnel that we take. Yeah, let's go play with that tunnel.

Getting the city. Find some people, Alora, you be safe. I will. And silent and swift, and you get back here as quickly as possible. What time is it? When was the last time we actually took a nap? Oh, it's been quite a while. You guys have been running since before the meeting

in the Cloud Top District. Which happened at nighttime, remember? Yeah. It happened. It happened. It was already morning the next day? No. It's like evening now for you guys.

What time approximately, like? After midnight? I'd say it's like after midnight, 1 a.m. Ah, fudge. I... Hot fudge. Hot fudge. Druid crafts, a little tulip, and handed to a Laura. She takes it... No, it's...

This isn't one of the... We need to be in contact. Well, if we go now, we have the benefit of darkness in the city. Hey, we're gonna go now without resting. I'm not saying that. I'm weighing our options. If we go now, we're going to... We can go under the cover of night, but we're going to be exhausted.

And dragons don't care about night. They can see perfectly fine. Yes, we've learned that much. Well, let's lie down and take a nap. What time? Wait, wait, wait, hang. Sleep as little as possible. That will actually get us around there. Short rest or a long rest? Long rest is eight hours. Should we sleep and get up in the morning and get it?

You think the brothels are often now? I mean, it might be like that. It will at least give everybody time to come around. Clearance sale. That's true. Clearance sale. I mean, can I sense Thoradak and figure out, I mean, is he just settling in that one spot? Is there anything else around or is it just him in the center being a dick and no other kind of movement of other things?

You took a while earlier to kind of concentrate and you kind of focus into that point again. Thoradak is this giant, oppressive force of Dragonkin in the center of the city, seemingly not moving. and not moving. And last week you said that Vex couldn't sense the other three. Correct. They went to hit the other cities, obviously. I still have one fifth level spell left. I can commune with nature and try and find out if a few people are still left in the city.

Before we go to sleep. Might as well. If we're not going out. Well, I can commune with nature. Oh, yeah. And try and find certain people. Should we, yeah. I go out into Pike and the Serenrae Temple.

Okay, so as you go to the temple, you can see the surviving 25 or so people that are all kind of lumped in. They're calmer right now, but see a lot of them are still just like consoling each other and talking. As soon as you walk in, like a couple of steps, step up and you're like, what's going on? Is everything all right? I'm sorry. They start crying. Sh, it's okay.

It's okay. Is everything all right? Are we safe here? Is this okay? You'll be all right. Everyone, calm down. We've had a rough day, and it's been hard on everyone,

but you should be safe here for the evening, hopefully. Everyone... Do better. Look, I'm trying on this whole leadership thing, okay? Make a persuasion check. Oh. At long.

Shh. Sorry. Surprisingly, I roll the one. First roll the night. Any little bit of hope works. Yeah, apparently. So, you know, the one man who stood up and the younger child to him kind of looks around and he tells her, go lay down.

Pretty well. Thank you again. I'm sorry for everyone else kind of, the room kind of nods in agreement, and you see like there's dirt and tear stain and all just happy to not be on fire right now. Are there any injuries in the room that we haven't attended to? There have been a few injuries. However, Pike has already taken time with Kieliff to see to them when they first arrived. Hey man, I was helping too. You were helping until you were pulled away for the five minutes.

Good job, Pike. And you do that. Good job, Pipe. The girls were being productive. And good job. Got to help the group. All right, so as you guys are having this conversation, Alura and Drake walked their way out to the courtyard,

And she kind of looks back to the rest of you and goes, Stay safe. If anything happens, find a way to let me know. I'll return as soon as I can with what I can find. Possibly who I can find. Wait. Secret. Don't forget to visit.

Gilmore's glory is good. That's not a real place, Travis. It doesn't exist. Who's Travis? I can't just hoping it out of character. Who are you talking to? Your working since. You probably.

I'm bored. Your sword. You're promoting Gilmors to your sword. You're promoting Gilmors to your sword. So go and roll for me. Okay. What? Yes.

Yes. Uh, uh, 24. Okay. So as you and Laura embrace, she steps back and gives a nod, looks out to everybody. I reach out and I just kind of grab her hand. Truly. for everything. Don't think me at most of all of this lies on my shoulders.

And you can see like she is holding it together best she can, but there is a crippling guilt in her just visual presence based on everything that's happening here. You know that there is a mutual understanding that while they do not, no one knows the true reason why all this is happening, to have a stake as to why it had happened and possibly may have been somewhat at fault. Now she nods, she looks to Drake, and Drake gives her a nod, and Miggins casting a spell. As his fingers kind of twirl in the air, these blue sparks kind of trail his fingertips.

As it draws this large kind of spiral of electrical energy that holds itself in place, it bursts out and encompasses both their bodies and their forms all of a sudden shrink down and shutter into these two kind of sparks of energy that then arc off. off, and you can see these two bolts of electricity now just coasting through the sky, bouncing off road, bouncing off rock, bouncing off a tree. The road is traveling via spark across the country. How the fuck do we get that ability? She's so cool. She's so fucking cool.

Do you think that was her? Do you think it was Drake? That was Drake. Drake has to. Oh, man, that's so cool. Should we go to sleep? Well, I'm doing my commune with nature's smell. I dropped out of meditation. All right. All righty. If only I had taken a dump in the middle of town, I could see what's going on right now.

Our hindsight is ten. Other number. Okay, three facts of your choice. As you sit in the temple quietly and connect yourself with the land and the foliage of the surrounding area of Iman. What are your questions? Do I sense Gilmore's presence? It is, what's the radius in this? Three miles.

A few miles. You do sense a presence. A presence. A very weak presence. Oh no. That could mean that he's far away or that he's dead. Can I focus in even harder and find where that presence is coming from more directly? The direction the best you can ascertain is it's in the direction of Avedar's promenonon.

His shop. That's where a shop is, yeah. Good to know. Okay. Last question. Do I sense your heel? Within your three mile range, you do not. Well.

Maybe he... You got to move it. With your, okay, when you're sensing things, does that mean you would sense if they were alive or you would just sense... You wouldn't sense them at all if they were dead? The questions were, are they in the city? Which direction are they? Okay.

essentially the answers that you get through the connection of nature. Okay, so they could be dead in the city and you would still sense them? That's possible. That's a good question. I don't know. It's hard to say. Could have gone to the harbor. He could have fled through tunnels that we don't know. He could have a teleportation circle. We should check his shop first. Yeah. Well, yeah. If Uriel farther away, it's kind of a...

Definitely look for him. I don't know. It's a moon point. Maybe he's dead, maybe he's gone. I don't know. I don't know. Yeah. It's kind of a moot point. We could show up. How about this? Let's find Kilmore. If he's alive or dead, then I'll answer a lot of questions. How's that? That's what the Cabbage opinion. I agree. Yes. And if he did not make it, we still go to his shop. Take your thing. Use whatever's left. We'll give him all with one. It's true. I agree. We go then. Seconded. It has been ransacked all right. Let's go phone that magic fuck off. So we're going to now?

Tonight. Sleep, mingo. I don't know, maybe we should. Or should we stealth in and see what we can see? I don't know. I feel like we need to rest, y'all. What's that rogue? How bad are we?

Right. You don't need to? I mean, I'm at 25. Oh. Oh, shit. Oh, yeah. I'm pretty low. And I'm almost out of dice.

We've had no good to anyone. You're right. You're right. because I'm okay. They're expecting, Thorax is expecting to sit on us like a bunch of eggs in a basket. We're fine for the night. We go tomorrow. Potentially. Yeah.

Okay. All right, you get to get a long rest. Quick. Yeah, a quick question. Where's the skull? You fucking... That was my question. I don't know. What are you talking about? Look, where the skull last? You expect me to remember those sorts of things?

I think... I remember. I... Either you have it or I have it. I don't remember. The last person to hold it was Vex. It was Vex. Okay, excellent.

I have a perfectly reasonable hiding place or if you like, you can take it. Yeah, your ass. Yes, I think it's reasonably well hidden at this moment. Where is it? I don't know well hidden. That will do. All right. You guys...

Find yourselves as best as you can resting for the evening. It is an evening of tossing and turning for a lot of you. Flashes of memories, Scanlan, you're plagued by the thought of your newly discovered daughter, being not far outside of the city when all this went down. Percy, you have flashes of the idea of Whitestone just recently saved and brought to freedom, being torn asunder by dragons not two weeks afterward. You are plagued by visions of the Pira, the moment that Thoradak must have torn through and the havoc that was wreaked afterward. Both of you can't help but think back to when you first

returned to Byrida in seeing the smoldering ruin that you now know to be the work of the Sinder King. Fifteen years before, and those words about what you were wondering if that was the last thing your mother saw. Grug, you want that skull. Pike, you, your thoughts go back to Vasselheim and the people there that you, out of necessity and need for friendship and to protect them left behind, knowing that they would be safe.

And now the uncertainty as to whether or not Vasselheim still stands and whether or not you left them to a fate that you could have protected them. That guilt rides on you as well. You guys complete your long rest. You restore full hit points, and you get back half of your hit dice. You can only get back half. So if you've spent more than half of your hit dice,

you're still at a, just so you guys are aware of that. Wait, what? You only restore half each night? Yes. Not half of what's missing, but clean. Just half. Yeah. So if you used like,

of your hit dice, you're only going to get back at level 12, six hit dice. Oh, okay, okay, okay. Good to know. I don't think you've used any. It is a gradual declining resource. Got it. It hasn't come up too much beforehand, but I want to make sure you guys were aware of that. Anyway, as you come to in the morning, you can smell, you're used to, you know, Lena cooking a very nice breakfast. You smell food being cooked, but it's much more basic, kind of, you know, for the masses, and as you eventually groggly find your way downstairs, There's, pardon the fun. You can see there is essentially a gruel pot and there is a soup line

and food is being served best of their capabilities to people that have taken refuge in gray skull keep. You are welcome to do as you please. We should head out. I'm ready. We're just going to march into the city? We're going to march under the city. We're going to check out that tunnel first. The tunnel just goes to the other side of the wall. We don't even know where the tunnel is. We need to find an entrance to said tunnel.

Yeah. The tunnel actually, and then when we get to the city, then we figure out what we do. Yeah. Good thinking. Yeah. So the tunnel has been installed to the back of the kitchen. There is a large pantry there, and the tunnel is a trap door that is currently set by the very, very back of the pantry.

Actually, not too dissimilar from the entrance to the clasp in the inn, the diamond nest in. However, it's much smaller and it's just a small, like, single person tunnel. You kind of have to go single file, and it's not very tall, you're going to have to almost crawl through at your height and everyone else has to hunch down except for you and Pike, you're fine. You guys are tiny enough. This is about a gnome-sized tunnel. Nice. And as you guys go into the Pam trailing, it's like, oh, oh, don't, I'm trying to, where's everyone going? And just sees you all kind of clown- card into the pantry.

I wanted before we left. I wanted to find Jared really fast. Okay. Jared is currently outside of the keep in the main courtyard area, crossboat with the ready, just keeping his eyes to the sky, mostly looking off in the direction of Yaman. I walk up and I hand him a bag of 300 gold, and I say this is far and away so much more than we asked you to do when we hired you.

I appreciate everything you're doing. Take care of the keep. Use this money to take care of the people here. Takes it, kind of throws a little near, catches it. I appreciate that. I take great pride in my work, and I assure you it will sooner die and let this place fall. And then I give him an additional hundred gold. What is going on over there? Who are you? Who are you? As you pass him, as you pass me the 100 Goldie puts his hand up and actually pushes your hand away and says, I appreciate the sentiment, but you've already done too much. You hired me for a reason. I'm doing my job. But your generosity is noted. He's a good one, guys.

Is his hair blowing in the wind as he rejects not a mouth? His hair's really short. I resist the urge to just mug down with him when I walk away. Go for it. What are you waiting for? All right. Yeah, you might die. You might die.

You guys. Hello. Look that big pouty bottom left. Go get that. Some of that Marquette. That sexy, sexy, ecstatic accent. That Aunt Karim Carmel skin. He's a tall dark.

Jared's a hot. All right, so. I just saw a hundred pictures drawn in an instant. Yeah. Good, good. Wait, you hear that? It's pins hidden the paper. It's fan fiction right now. So, as you guys make your way through the tunnel, and it is a long, very simple tunnel, the construction is solid. You don't feel as you walk through that any of it isn't worried of collapse. There's been no sufficient seismic activity or impact above ground to warrant that directly above the tunnel. And you continue to trudge ahead. It is pitch black.

Those of you with dark vision, probably take the forefront. Zero light vision. I'm on it. I go ahead and light up a hand. Okay. So you guys, I'll do like low light, dark vision, you're fine. Percy's the only one who really needs the aid in this. But as you continue forward,

for a good 25, 30 minutes or so, the tunnel comes to a comes to a small stop and there is a very simple rope ladder that leads upward. Okay? Who's going up first? Anything past that? The ladder just goes up and it goes into what looks like a small wooden slat. Like it's not even a door, it's just a, almost like a wood pallet. You see what you see.

You sneaky dick. Okay, and at the bottom of the ladder, because she's right behind me, you never cease to impress me. Okay. You go up, makes it well stealth turn? 25. All right. Good to know. So as you get up to the top, you feel the kind of the wooden slats on top. And as you push, there's not any weight to them. They just give away immediately. And as you push it aside, you can see you're in the inside of a small wooden structure. It is enclosed and a little bit of the morning light is kind of peeking through the space between the slats of wood.

Looking about the general size and height, it appears to be almost like an outhouse structure. But there is no actual outhouse here, or at least where there once was, has recently been converted to the exit of your tunnel. It smells like jerky. Right there we do. There is a door that leads out. I will crack at an inch and look through. There's a chain on the outside of the door that keeps it shut, with a big thick lock at the bottom.

Is there enough room to get my hand through to the other side? I'd say, yes, with your experience and your lithe form, you manage to just eek it through and you can get your wrist past, your wrist past, but anything beyond the mid-form. Mm-hmm. Double-chutment. And with that double joint, you get close. So yeah, you mean you can reach it.

All right, so I can feel a lock there. Yeah. All right, I'm going to one-hand pick this lock. Okay. Go ahead and roll. This is a difficult maneuver, even with your experience. Given that you can't actually see the front of the lock, you're having to literally feel your way through it. You got the shit.

You got the shit. It's like unclassmen of bra. Uh... How do you do that? That's... That's... 30? 30.

30. With a single moment, you're actually feeling with one thumb, you're feeling for the vibrations of each tumbler on the inside of the lock, and as each one progressively clicks, you eventually get to the fourth one before, and hangs open loosely within a matter of 40 seconds. You kind of wish other people had seen that happening, because that was pretty, pretty cool maneuver. But you know at least. Come on up.

It wasn't even locked. Oh. Be so modest. Can you... Oh no, we lost it Ashley. What do we do with that? Lost in Ashley? Say him?

Oh, no, we lost Ashley. Oh, I've got it, I've got it. So, as you all climb back up. Still, stels, everybody. I pass. I cast back. She said we turn into robots. Oh, gotcha.

Oh, gotcha. Pass without a tray's on us. Okay, good. Pass without a tray. Wait, wait, wait, how's Trink you going to climb up this rope, y'all? Polymorph. I do have polymorph. Oh, no.

We need to make them tinier anyway. tiny or anyway. Make him a little mouse? What do you want him to be? Oh. Shut up! Which for the record, Trigy going through this tunnel kind of looks like the cleaner and labyrinth. It fills the entire tunnel.

He's just like, hmm, having to pull his way through. It's okay. Static electricity slowly building. We slowly move into like a very small raccoon. So we still has... A wise cracking raccoon? Like he's got hands, he'd make him like a... I make him flat.

What about a wolverine or a badger? I have a question. HoneyBadhy doesn't get. HoneyBaddy doesn't get. What it was. If I polymorph trinket, can I then use Beescence to be able to like see through him? Would that be able to work?

What does Beescence do? Beescence lets me see through the eyes of beasts. You can do that with Trinket regardless. But does it stack with polymorph? Like, if he is polymorphed, I mean, I guess he's still a beast. If Bees sense is concentration, then not. You would lose one to do the other. Oh, right.

Is Polymore concentration? Yes, it is. Yeah. So one or the others. It's fine. He'll be with us. But if I like turned him to a bird, I can make him like an aerial scout, is what I was thinking. Like the lords in Game of Thrones?

Well, you can become one yourself. I'll... What are the hell? What are you doing? I'll make him a cute little... Gotta be cute. Like sewer rat or like... No!

Oh, you said a raccoon? Can I... Oh my god, make him something. Flying squirrel. Will he still get his armor? Can I make him a lemur? You can? But lemurs are slow, dude.

I am not. I am not slow. How about a red panda? Red panda. Red panda! That's cool. Wait, wait. Can a red panda climb a rope ladder?

Anybody? Red pandas are like raggoon. So, as she completes... As the rest of the party climbs their way up during Vex and Keelot's bickering over white form, Trinket, if you've ever seen a bear roll its eyes before, this is the moment, as it feels the entire time, she goes, with the Kill Me Now expression. Eventually, you decide on Red Panda. Yeah, it's a good breed. I like it. I like it. Okay. Okay. The mystical Red Panda from Wildmount. You extend your hand, and Trinket swarm,

flings into a small, temporarily elevated red panda, and falls to the ground. Oh, I love you. Oh, he's so cute. He's so cute. Runs up. I pick him up. Yeah. And I put him on me, like, tell him to hang on me. Doesn't wraps around your neck, kind of like the fox tail you already have there, and it's just kind of wrapped around. I've had his little head. And I go, I love him.

You guys climb up. And as you emerge, you can see now, you're at the very, very back of an alleyway that is buttressed against the inside of the outer wall. So you're inside the city. You're in this small, very, very well kind of out of the way alleyway, this back alley that ends at your outhouse, as well as a secondary one next to you that appears to be functional based on. the smell. And there is just trash and junk back here. It's definitely one of the forgotten corners of Yaman. You have your map. We should chain this up. That's right.

Where's Gilmores again? Avadar's Promenade. To kind of the northeastern of the top district. Can we all stealth? Can we all stelf? He's up here. Wow. We have to cross the entire city. And we've got passed without a trace. But we could go along the wall. Let's do it. Yeah. Go along the outside of the city. Let's do it. Okay. Do we want to go through the outside wall? Do we want to go through the city or along the outside of the city? We're going to take the long way or direct path?

The long way, the slow way, careful way. Take the belt way. Stealth it. Stealthy. Stealthy. All right, everyone roll stealth, please. Not sure. You add 10, because you add 10.

Ashley, stealth is you as well, with disadvantage, but you add 10. Still there, Ashley? Oh, oh. Ashley! Suck again! I'm going to hang up on you. I still love you, but I'm going to hang up. All right, so call back in you guys, stealth check. This is 26.

39. 19. 25. 33. 23. 25. All right. You added 10?

What? Add 10 to it. Pass with out of choice. 35 then, I guess. 29, sorry. Okay. There we go. And 19 with the plus.

Yeah, I rolled shitty. Okay. Okay. Oh, man, it's digitally. There we go. Hi, Ashley. Sorry, Ashley. And she's here. Is she so muted?

Is she so muted? I forgot. Ashley rolled the four. She texted. Okay, she rolled the four. Got it. 14. 14. Okay.

So you guys step out of this alleyway, and the first thing that catches you is the visual. Chain back the house. Okay, so you chain it back to put the lock back on. As you step back out into the center of the first road you come across, the crossroads to this alleyway, you look up and you can see there are, even through the night, a good two dozen streams of smoke just billowing out from different parts of the city, where throughout the entire evening there's just been buildings burning, crumbling, or fires of an indeterminate origin throughout the city that are still spreading.

There's the perpetual smell of smoke and dust in the air, and you can see every night. now and then the wind will blow a bit and a little bit of ash will be thrown up in the air and kind of come to rest. Much of what you see around you is intact. The building is directly around you on this side. Everything seems intact, though there's very little signs of life on this immediate corner. It looks like either everyone's inside or this part of the city has been abandoned or people are just keeping out of the streets at this point. So what do you guys want to do? Go along the wall to the other side to get to Gilmores.

Okay. Sneaky. All right. You guys coast along the wall to the very southward side, charging up across the main gate, which as you can see now, there's normally a very heavy guard presence on the south gate to Amman. The gate is currently partially open, and you can see a bunch of the guards as well as a number of individuals in the city currently.

frozen in place in the midst of a sudden bit of chaos. You can see the guards with shields and pikes at the ready, screaming and looking up into the sky. Their final moment trapped now in that frozen, horrifying visage. You see people running, trying to make their way out of the gate and just couldn't quite get past in time, and the gate itself is a large sheet of ice that is frozen against it, that is slowly thawing.

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Muddy with all the moisture that's slowly melting away as the day progresses. And they're like the people in our keep. They're past the point of healing. You can certainly, Jack can inquire. They've been here for eight hours at least. They're gone. Yeah, leave it.

I want to see if cure wounds is... I'm going to just try. I assist. Okay. So you go up and you reach out and cast cure wounds on one of the frozen bodies. And then your hands touch it and you can feel the ice itself is still very cold of the touch, though it's damp and the moisture is gathering and dripping down off certain elbows and portions of the body that are the lowest. You complete the spell and you feel the warmth of the cure spell extended past your fingers. extended past your fingers with no sign of reaction or life within the body. This poor woman

apron on, looking over her shoulder, running, holding what looks like what little belonging she has is just there, her final moment, captured it. She stares off in the direction of where you assume Borugol swooped towards the South Gate before making their way towards Grey Skull Keep the night before. Let's go before we discovered. As you guys tread across the main thoroughfare, and it's the one point where you're kind of really inescapably out in the open, as you're taking a moment touching the corpse of this woman frozen in place.

Vex, you catch out of the corner of your eye what appears to be a figure stepping towards you in the center of the street. Wait, you see someone? As you notify the rest of the group, you guys look over and you can see now, stepping from one of the alleyways, there is a humanoid figure walking through the road, cloak, great behind in the back, hood up, wide shoulders,

and is not seemingly making any attempt to be unseen or really hiding their presence. This is somebody who is beelining it for your group in this moment. They're heading, he's heading towards us? Yes. He sees us? He's heading right towards you.

They got an air and say, stop. I, flame hands. Okay. Get him going. The figure kind of stops for a moment and pulls the hood back and you can see now revealed looking a humanoid, but the figures are more intense and thick, a very square jaw. The skin has a slight kind of grayish-green tint to it. It looks like one tooth underneath,

and this is a half-work individual, wearing black cloak and very simple set of leather armor. If our guests would like to step onto the stage. So just let you guys know we have a guest joining us. us this evening. We have the illustrious and talented Jason Charles Miller, who is in. Where's he going? You guys right there. Yeah, there you go. Come squeeze.

Jason's going to join us for this evening of gameplay. My first action will require me to get up, so. Okay, well, get low for the moment just like I can introduce you. So you get said, hey. Set out. So this is Jason. Jason's a voice actor, actually the voiced of Dris de Orden right now, if you want to pull points for the end of the other one.

You didn't know that? I didn't know that. I don't know that. Yeah, go ahead. That's pretty awesome. As well as the writer of our theme song, our critical role theme song, which we are working on a new intro right now. In the near future, we'll have that for you guys.

You can download it on iTunes. Yes, you can. So we'll have that coming up soon. But yeah, so Jason, thank you for joining us tonight. Thank you for having me. Hi, Jason. Hi, we'll give you the whole full ones over at the end of the show. But nevertheless, the half-work approaches, lowers his hood.

Okay, so I have a lot. actually start speaking in Thieves' Cant to Vex here. So I'm going to go whisper. Go for it. So as the orc lowers the hood begins to. Wait, why don't you make him come over here? Who were you talking about? The boy.

The person that can speak thieves can. I can speak Thieves can't too. All right. Well, I'm talking about. Thieves can't speak. What's up, Belty-Casser? Is there tiny tables? So suddenly the orc begins to utter a series of strange

which sounds like double talk and gibberish. I fear you. I'm reading his damn lips as he's doing it. All right, and you knowing Thebes can't pick up the details, so you can let her know as well. The rest of you see this orc, just speaking nonsense and a very brief reaction from the twins. He's just trying to get us to join us to join Scientology.

He's trying to get us to join Scientology. Our Theaton levels are awful charts right now. My Theaton levels at like 16 right now. You're a member of the clasp then? Yes. Oh. You're the first faces I recognize. I've been hiding here since the attack.

You recognize us? Why? How? From I'm a member of the clasp. You will make it. That's right. We were there recently. When you left. I don't know. I was on a mission up above ground when the attack happened.

I'm trying desperately to get back to see who is left. My name is Garthock. Garthock? Yes. We are Vox Machina. I'm the de facto leader. My name is Scanlon Shorthold. I know who you are and you're the first people I've made myself visible to. You're the first people that I recognize or even know that I could trust. How long, have you been through the city? How much has left? It is not. I... It is not. I It's undescribable. There is incredible destruction. Have you encountered any more survivors?

Which you have, as you walk through the city, you have noticed there are many survivors through the town. A lot of them have kept inside, but there are a number that are actually running through and looting the town. Ah, why are you? What was your name again?

Garthock. Garthock. What of the spirelings? What of the leaders of the class? All I know is what I'm. knew before the attack. We've come here looking for survivors. We don't intend to stay long. You're welcome to come with us. We were going to go. Are you one of the people looting? You said you saw other people doing the same.

I'm not a looter. I was on a classified mission above ground and now that is all gone to shit basically so I'm just trying to get back to our headquarters. Garthak, are you familiar with tunnels or secret passageways around the city at all? You could say yes, absolutely. Are we near any? We need to get across town and not be seen. We're trying to get to the Avedaras Permanagh. Wait. Show me your brand.

He reveals the back of the cloak. You do indeed see the brand of the clasp, the same one that you carry between the shoulder blades. Do you know each other? Do I... I know of. There are certain tunnels that traverse underneath Iman, specifically amongst the clasp. However, two of the locations to the south of the city, one in the graveyard district and one in the temple district, which you guys are just adjacent to right now. Those are the two that immediately come to mind.

The temple one that you are nearby seeking has been completely demolished and is unusable. There's the one to the graveyard district, there's one to the north of Abadar's promenade. That could possibly be a use to you. Those are the only ones that you, that come to mind that are nearby. Well, if we're heading that way, anyway, we stop by Gilmores and we do need to check in with the clasp anyway. Maybe.

They're going to be helpful. Are we open right now? You are. Can we fucking get inside somewhere? No offense. Gar-top, what of the fuck. Can we get inside, please? We need to go inside, please.

to get to Gilmore's Glory's goods. Do you know what that is? Yes. I can lead you there. Underground? I could if the temple entrance wasn't destroyed. I might be able to clear it out. You want to walk towards the temple? We're near the temple district now. We can take the tunnels under... But if the entrance to the tunnel is destroyed, it's best not to risk it.

And we're going to make a lot of noise clearing it out. Yes, true. Best a skirt. Building to building. into building. Are you okay with stealth? Oh wait, you know what? I'm a... I might be able to tunnel us to the closest tunnel system from right here. Do it then. Alright. I cast... How do you intend to do this? Work your fucking magic. Move

Earth. Okay. Six level. Whoa, you can using a six level spell that right now. Do we want to do it now? No. We're not near the entrance to the tunnel right now. No, I say we just stop it. I say we just start it. Are we all right? Yeah, save that. All right. We can save that for an emergency. I'll save it. Okay. It will take you, at the rate of which it moves Earth, it will take you probably a good hour to two hours to...

Get to the tunnels. To get to any sort of system that he may be referring to. All right, let's just walk. We'll walk faster. All right, so Garthlock, I can have you roll a stealth check to move alongside the rest of the group. Nice. That is noise. Whoa.

25. All right. Does he benefit from Pass Without a Trace? No, he arrived after the skulls cast. But as you guys can move forward, he also kind of dives into the shadows. In a very similar way that you've seen Vax do before, this orc definitely understands the resources of light and the absence of it. He's played some Assassin's Creed. He's just hitting y'all up in the shoulders for change.

All right, so. Is that a dice game? It's a band. They're very good. Exactly. So as you guys push forward, kind of heading towards the outskirts of the city, you do come across on the outer area of the Temple District, a humble neighborhood that has been completely reduced to Cinder's Nash. There is probably a good eight to ten buildings that are just piles of black, still burning wood, dust, and broken stone. You can see on the outskirts of some of the piles of rubble bodies lying in the street, the skin charred black and cracked as the face

and arms are curled up in those final moments of agony. You avert your gaze and continue pressing onward. You can see now many of these large temples in the center of the city, there are, you can see folks gathered to them and clustered in the inside. You can hear people shouting and folks trying to deal with this current circumstance but following the town. You continue to move out of the sight of those clusters of survivors that are going to their various deities for aid and comfort. You push further towards the center of the Temple District. You do catch out of the left the sound of breaking glass, specifically to you, Vex, in the distance. As you glance over and look, you can see four individuals climb out of a window with sacks

over their shoulders. They all kind of gesture to each other and go running off northward deeper into the city, carrying whatever goods they managed to acquire from the interior. And as you progress, you do notice that a lot of windows have been broken. You don't know from the inside or outside. Some may have been just from the impact of the attack. Some may have been from the individuals that have been moving from building the building. It's hard to say at this point. There's such disarray around you. As you skirt along the very far end of the temple district, you see a portion of the neighborhood now is in itself encased in ice, kind of like the individuals you saw at the South Cate.

This is another area where Voragal made its way through, and you can see another array of icy coffins, other individuals who were going to do escape or locked in place. You can see a small group of living Amman residents that are currently gathering the dead and trying to take them out of the open and possibly give them proper burial. Whether we'd be people to be able to be able to be able to be people. they know or not, but there is a look on each other's faces of just desolate acceptance of what has happened in trying to process this. Can I slink back to Vax? And I say, you still think that what was in the side of that skull is worse than all of this. It is probably equal to this. We've been burned before, Grog. This was going to happen whether we wanted it to or not. Okay. Big if, big man.

The clouds are beginning to gather up over the sky as you continue forward, and the little bit of sunshine that came through this morning is now covered in it looks like coming rain clouds, which may be a boon to those buildings that still burn, and possibly an annoyance to a giant fire-based red dragon in the center of the city, but nevertheless, the weather is quickly shifting. As you begin pushing it into Abadar's promenade, you can see the central bazaar before you, a memory of it, this sprawling landscape of multi-colored tents and carts and what was this bustling marketplace is all closed down and a portion of it appears to have been torn through. You can see broken bits of wood and wagon wheels tossed us under like apparently one of these dragons may have smashed into the center and just let loose its fury. You can see spatters of blood across elements of the ground, but no sign of a body as there are a few groups that are going around trying to gather what they can, but the places also pick clean. You notice that a lot of these tents and these carts are empty of any real valuables.

You're uncertain as to whether or not the proprietors took them themselves or they've been picked clean by looters. You begin to approach with a very, very nervous heart, the corner of the bazaar that leads to Gilmore's place. As you approach, the nervousness is met with the visual of a large stack of black smoke that rises from that direction. As you push through with increased haste towards that area of the bazaar, you see Gilmore's Glorious Goods, as well as two other adjacent buildings, completely destroyed, piles of rubble. and what you can see, what looks to be a group of about 10 individuals that are currently picking through the rubble and gathering what they can, moving over wood and brick. I stopped stealthing and I walk right into it and start shouting and get the fuck out of

here! Shh! Keep your voice down. As you do that, all of them kind of turn over and look at them and says, I get your own shit, all right? Move on now. Now. Now.

He kind of stops and looks about the other ones, the other guys all look at each other Look, we're all just trying to stay alive here, okay? I pull out my gun. You heard the man. Yeah, big sword comes out too. Firehands, don't test us. We've had a really shitty day. You've had a shitty day.

We've all had a shitty day. Well, let's make it all sorts more shitty, and he pulls a short sword from his side, and all the rest of them pull their blades out, and they say, Look, we saw this first. We're going to bring it to him and save ourselves. We'll save ourselves. The fucking gut you like a fish and take your innards out your mouth. I will not!

Stop! You will take it to him? Who's him? Thora Dac? They all kind of, with their weapons out, kind of tense their shoulders and say, There's only one way we're going to survive this. Listen, there's so much more available to you. Building's up that way.

Not with your time right here. We've already picked plenty clean from this pile. This is our third time back. It'd be your last time back if you're not careful. Is it worth your death? Bringing this to him, is it worth your death? Because you will die here. You know what? I think I'd send a better chance against a lot of you than we were with that thing. You just thought wrong. Step on and go find loot somewhere else. At least then you can present it to him and not die here. Don't be stupid. Make a persuasion check. Bax, please let me off the chain.

Oh, I rolled so poorly. Anybody want to assist me? It's a little late for that. You got a little. How about ten. Okay. You can see as he's kind of like holding his short sort to the side. It goes, you know, it may be stupid, but there are other stupid things in this town. Like walking in the middle of an ambush there. At which point, a dagger.

I got passive perception. I know. You instinctually move your head out of the way as it past you as you see another individual that was kind of like keeping load of the rubble, flung a dagger at you, and the rest of them pull their weapons ready and are about to enter a fray. I need everyone to roll initiative. Oh, fuck these assholes. This is everything I want. This is everything we need right now. It is. Therapeutic ass kicking. That's pretty good. They may win. Fuck that. They won't win. We're way more pissed off.

They work for a dragon. No. No. No, they're assholes who are just looters. This is just going to feel really good. Yeah. But they're innocent. It's going to be a two-no.

We're not going to kill them. They threw a knife at our head. Yeah, exactly. Goorthunk, did you lead us here? Did you know about this? No. I believe him. Inside check.

Can I inside check him? We literally just walked to where we were going. going. He led us precisely where we wanted to go. That's true. There's nothing clever about that track. Right, so placement guys. Where would you like to be on this one? Well, I suppose we'd be hanging back a bit. Well, no, you got up in their face, so you're... The three of us got up in their face. I was walking with backs. Yeah. I was hanging back a bit. I think Scanlon and Pike were towards the back. For sure. I rolled a beautiful initiative. I'm next to Percy.

I can't see him. I can't see you. And Vax, you were up here? Sure, why not? Because you were up in their face right there. Where is he? What am I? And I got Trinket on my back because he's a red hand-down.

Which one's Jason? That is, yeah, which one's Jason? Jason is... Garthlock. That's what I meant. Garthock. Garthock, I'm close. I'm getting it.

Garthock. Here. I had a... There's... Garthog, where do you want to be? Is he going to hit? I'm ready to... I'm ready to tangle.

All right. We'll put you over here kind of in the middle of the group being washed. Yeah. Nice. The rest of these thugs. We're all currently sitting over in this rubble. What do you think? Yes.

I don't know. What do you think, Wayne Thug? Party on Wayne Thug. Oh dear. Oh. Those walls. Look at that. All right.

Look at all that fancy. So, I would like... Should we be at all concerned about drawing attention to ourselves? Too late for that. No. I mean like giant fireballs or anything? Probably stay away from huge magical effects. Fireballs straight into the sky.

That's good. There you go, that's pretty perfect. All righty, so, initiatives 25 to 20 or high? 27, natural 20. Woof. Natural 27. 25. Percy.

20 to 15? 17. 17. All right. 15 to 10? What we got? 14. 12. All right. So we got two 12 to 14. And then 12 and 12? All right. And is Pike? Not able to. Pike is... I'll try. Pike rolled completely.

Pike fell down in some level for her. Pike's going last. Tres in an ankle. I figure she probably would have rolled last anyway, so we'll put Pike in last. Okay, so we'll put Mike in last. Yeah, I think she's, she said she was probably going to have to leave until the break when we could figure out the text. Gotcha.

Okay, no worries. Okay, top of the round, Vex, since you were the one who got the first attack and immediately reacting to it, you're up. What are you doing? Okay, I am going to cast Hunter's Mark on that motherfucker in front of me. Alrighty. And then I'm going to cast Conjabaraj. Chia! And all of them in front of me is like a big cone effect.

Okay. Okay, so, yeah, conjure barrage barrage. Your actions, that's your full thing. So at which direction are you doing it? Just towards all of the guys in front of me. I want to get as many of them in a cone as I can. Okay, you probably need to move this way or else you're going to hit your brother as well.

Oh, that's my brother. That's your brother right there. I can see what's happening now. Yeah, I move over and then I... And it's a 60 foot? It's 60 foot cone. Yeah, right there. So all four of them are affected.

Great. Right. So good. It's still on my back. He's a red panda. Yep. Until she breaks concentration. I throw it on my brother and I fire it and I shoot forward and that's it.

I don't have to like... Conjibrage, you just roll damage and they get the save. So I'm going to cast that at... Oh, it's already a third level. Okay. Yeah. 15? And then I add my type anything or it's just 15? It's just 15. It's just 15.

And then you add 1D6 for the one dude or hunter's mark. Do I add my bracers of archery though on that? Technically, you know what, sure, because it is technically I'll let it happen, let it happen, let's say that one, sure. 17 and additional six on that guy. Okay, what's your DC of your spells? 15. Do I add my spell attack bonus?

You don't have to roll to attack. This just happens and they have to try and save out of the way. I understand. 17 damage two. It does not. That is not true. Those two, he takes half there. I don't understand it.

It'll sink in a few episodes. There you go. It's fine. All right. Cool. All right, so as you release this spraying torrent of arrows down the way, it just fires outward. All of them all of a sudden kind of have to put their arms up to instinctually defend themselves with arrows

piercing bits of their armor and ricochet off. It's not horribly damaging but enough to sweep into all of them, and they all immediately look up angrily at each other, weapons that they're ready to go ahead and get vengeance. I take the rest of my movement to back up against a wall. Okay. Oof, right there. All right. Percy, you're up next.

All right. I'm going to hex the one that she kind of smarted. Oh, man. Fuck that guy. All right. Fuck that one guy in particular. Fuck that one guy in particular. And I'm going to, where am I?

Oh, there I am. I'm going to run towards that other wall to the left. This way? Yep. All the while taking a few shots at that bastard. As you're moving, you're like, Okay. Go forth.

So that's a... Oh, and sharpshooter shots, because that's funnier. So that's... But you're Percy. Yeah, so that's not... It's 14 to hit? 14 hits. One hit. Should I just roll all three shots?

Yeah, roll it three shots. That's 20, that hits. That hits. And 18, that hits. Yeah. So go ahead and roll damage for all three shots? That's... An additional 1d6 to each shot. Oh, yeah.

That's... Roll the 10? 27 points, 26 points plus one necrotic. All right. That's on the other end of things. Yeah. The exact opposite. Ironic.

17 points plus six necrotic. All right. And for my final roll. Um, I'm going on the sleeves. 25 points plus six necrotic. That guy's dead, right? That guy's.

All right, so as you go running by, each shot as it impacts the guy who's already dealing with the array of arrows in his chest, each shot that blows across his shoulders is followed by a plume of black-purple smoke that just blasts off each impact until it leaves a hole off this shoulder. This actually blows this arm off from the impact. It looks to be the third one, just plays the upper part of his head as he slinks back onto the rubber. I move my hex to the next guy. And I pointed him as I'm running. I move my hunter's mark to the next guy because the other one went to zero. That's a hateful age, yeah, right there.

All right. You have to use a bonus action to mark a new creature. Both you guys do. So those will be, those move over when you like to be. He just is blown off the map, essentially. I said when it went down to zero, I can just move it to the next person. If it targets up to your hit points, before this buttons, you can use a bonus action on subsequent turns of yours to mark a new creature.

I understand. Okay. I know. So many rules, guys. Take the thing. All right, it's their turn. You can't box me in. So, out the side, after that final shot, you hear a little guttural grunt off to your left,

as you see a dwarf with the giant hammer come rushing out from the close. How dare you! And come swinging off towards your direction there. All right. These guys here are going to move in. Both of these are going to run up to Grog being the larger there. Just sign your death. A guy comes up to Keyleth. These two come rushing around.

Oh shit, there's two more? I didn't see those guys. No, you didn't. I saw one of them, but I didn't see all of them. That guy can only get that far, so he's going to go and throw them. All right, so. They're going to get sneak attacks on me. Indeed. All right, so first and foremost, the dwarf comes up against you, Percy. That is going to be a 18 to hit.

My armor class is 18, so that does hit. And it's going to hit you again this time with this. with this giant thing. That's going to be a 15. So only one of the... I was about to say, can I take that first 18 and make it? No, I know what? I'll take the hit. Never mind. Okay. Never mind. You take five... Eight points of bludgeoning damage from the smack of the mace. Okay. All right.

Slap of the mace. Slap of the mace. Two guys against Grog now, their mace is out as well. They both, because they have packed tactics, they both have advantage on attacks against because they basically caught me. So with that, that's 19. Hits. Hits.

And the other one with advantage is an actual 20. Ouch. And you're not raging yet, so you take full damage. That's all right. 10 points of damage, bludging damage on the first hit. And the second one, that's going to be 15 points of bludgeoning damage. So a total 25 points of bludgeoning damage, as both them just whacking it with Mesa's from each side.

With the first round of attacks, now the second round of us they both take an attack twice. With advantage. That's a 21, which hits. And a 15. So you then take seven points of bloods and you're damage after that. Cool. That's those two. There's one against you, Max. Does he get advantage against you? Rolls a 17. I'm going to use uncanny. It does hit, but I'm going to use uncanny. No. Doesn't it? Because I got both daggers out, doesn't it? Oh, yeah, because you get bonus days. I have three armor classes depending on if my boots are on or if my daggers are in my hands.

Right. Okay, cool. Good enough. All right, so then leading up to that, there's one against you, Keyleth. That's going to be a 14 and a natural 20. Ooh. That is going to be 15 points of bludging damage against you. All right. As the mace, the swings past and catches you right across. right across the chin, the impact causes you to kind of, your head to snap for a second,

like a very minor moment of whiplash. As you look back and you can feel the blood kind of trickling down. Yeah. And then there's two against you. That's which both good advantage because the pack tactic, let's say 13, even with advantage. Second attack is 23. And then the other one, there's two attacks. 22. 17. 17 doesn't hit? Okay, so there's three attacks on you that hit. No, two attacks hit. Oh, two attacks. The third one would do this. That's... That's... Take nine points of bloodshiny damage and six points of bludgeoning damage.

Oh, he! And the one that's over here, there's nobody immediately around for it to pull its mace out. Instead, it pulls out its heavy crossbow lines up and aims at you, Scanlan. Oh, what? Who, me? Yeah. Oh, but I'm... Oh, so jubble. And that is a... And that is 21 to hit. That hits? You're so brawily.

No. You then suffer 10 points of piercing damage as the heavy cross-o bolt, shooke, sinks itself in your shoulder. And you're like, the armor takes the brunt of it, but you can still feel the pain of it piercing just about an inch through. That ends their go. Next up we have Keelith. All right, I am really pissed off at this guy who just decked me in the face.

So I'm going to cast call lightning. All righty. And can I reach out and the guy who hit me, can I reach out and grab him and just call it right into him? The conductor style. Yeah. Just like grab his face after he just punched me. Reach out and touch them. Okay.

So the minute you do that, the polymorph fades and Trinket turns into a full bear. Yeah. Who go? Even cooler. Totally meant to do that. You can, but no, wherever the bolt hits, it's everything within a five-foot area, so you can hit the bolt behind him? No. I want to.

You want to take it? I want to take it. All right. I'm pissed the fuck off. So as you put your hands up, the clouds that are already forming into a storm. I was just to say I get extra damage right. They begin to grow darker, directly above you, and as you bring your hands up, your flames kind of slowly drifting off your fingertips, you bring your hand down, and as you do, a bolt

of lightning comes streaking out of the sky. blasting right into the guy in front of you. Go ahead and roll damage. Is it four? Do I get an extra D10? Is that what did I get? Or an additional D10, yes. So four D10 lightning damage. Do I get anything extra because I'm holding onto him? Because I'm channeling it? I'll see no.

That's just kind of more. Fire damage? That would be an additional, that would be a different attack, unfortunately. Man. You're holding him. The flames are kind of looking up into his face. So it's a scary visual. 25 points. 25 points. damage. I did not make the save, I believe. rolled a 15. What's your DC in the spell?

18. Yeah. So the bolt comes down. I need you to go ahead and make a save against your own spell. Yep. I failed. Okay, so you also take that damage. Yeah. But it was cool. But it was cool. And I used my bonus action to go Minksy. Whoa! I like it. We ain't seen Minkie in a while. It has. It's been a while. It's been a while. As the guy is looking, you know, reeling from the impact, from the blast, he kind of pulls away, smoke off his chest. He gets his blade, his mace ready as he looks up and sees you, just whirr into this giant white saber-tooth tiger. I get a little bit of foam going, you know? I like that right before it, he just saw a giant bear appear.

Yeah, I know. Yeah, so they just got somehow weirder. This means I can finally use my gift from Mary. Hang on, I can use my Merry Christmas present. All right. That's Merry Christmas present. That ends. Gilles' turn.

Garthock, you're up. Great. I move up three over and take that one on. Over here? Keep going straight. No, no, the other way. Other way? No.

Okay, now, sorry. Up here? Yes. No, wait. Okay, I was gonna go. We have laser pointers at the table. Oh, here. Someone give him a laser pointer.

Sorry. Sorry, I had it and I was distracted. So, go on here. Oh, right here? Yes. Gotcha. Okay, so you rush up to there. And I flank, and I, since they're engaged, can I use my sneak attack?

Yeah, if you hit with the sneak attack. Great. Okay. So as you rush out very quickly, you see pulls out what looks to be a spear, like a short spear. But it's kind of curved crisp-like at the blade, and it's smaller than most short spears you've seen. It's like a custom piece of work. And you just kind of slides up and attempts to jam it into the thug in front of you. Get it.

You get it? You get it? 15. 15 hits. Go ahead and roll damage and sneak attack damage. Yeah, oh yeah. So let's see. We need some more the sixes.

All of the D6sies. Do I want me to do the sneak attack damage first or the weapon damage first or just add it all together? Just add it all together. And then add your modifier at the end. Yeah! I'm so excited. Rogger on deck, be ready. This is what life is about you guys.

This was the night that Marisha took somebody's eyes. I don't know. No, danger zone. 28. 28 points in image. Nice. All righty. So as the spear easily pierces past the armor and you can see the kind of haggard-looking woman and

look over in the spear itself is stuck in her midsection as you withdraw it and you can see a gout of blood pour out afterward, the wound itself leaving behind pretty nasty. My eyes widened and battle love. I mean, battle lust. His work jaw quivers the teeth exposed. Okay, is that your turn? Yes. You still have a bonus action if you wanted to disengage. Oh, yeah.

So I can disengage without attack of opportunity. You should hide. Right? If you use disengage and then move past, and you moved three spaces, you can disengage and move back four more spaces if you want to with your speed. Your call. Or you could stay there and lock them in place. You know what, I'm going to stay.

Okay, cool. Grog, you're up. I have taken a few hits from the sacrificial lamb that stands between backs and I. I unsheathed Craven Edge. Feeling the goosebumps fresh up my skin, and I look down on him, I say, please run, and I draw the blade across my hand, and I go into a frenzy brain. All righty. At which point, the blood touching the blade, it curves down the obsidian and then sinks into the actual weapon. It doesn't even have a moment to drip before the blade. The blade seems to absorb the blood that you let on it.

What? We're bonding. The matchman in heaven. I would like to use reckless attack as I take my three attacks at this piece of shit. Well, it's a bonus action to rage. So you get two attacks this turn. Two attacks this turn. But reckless attack it up, man.

That is a 19. That hits. Is a great weapon master? Yes. And that is not great. That's an 11. Eleven still hits. hits.

Oh! That's very well armored. Loser. Loser, 11 AC. Looser. Looser of your 11 AC. It's a 22. The first one.

Just keep going. You've got to kill it. It's better. Oh, 19 on the second one. Okay. And they both have to make the DC. Both against the same individual? Yeah, same guy.

Makes the first save with the 19. Fails the second one. So the first save for the 19. The first strike just streaks across, and you can see cuts a huge gash across the upper body as the kind of burly looking looter glances back at you, brings up a short sword and is about to go in for the pierce, at which point you kick her away from you, about a foot, and draw the blade around, and this time you run the blade right into her torso, piercing her through it. She looks up you, you can see her skin go pale as her strength is drawn into the blade.

You get to add a point to your strength. What? How long does that last? What? It last until your next short rest. That's cool. Yep. Don't rest ever.

So yeah, your strength is not 18, so add a plus one to your attack and damage going forward. The sword's bad. Yeah, to hit and damage with your attacks. But you pull the blade out and she just crumbles to the ground. So every person you hit it makes it better and better and better. Can I look over my shoulder to the guy at the left? I'm like, you're next.

You very much can. You can see the visual of this presentation seems to have shaken their resolve, though not enough for the point where they're backing down yet. If anything, the desperation kicks in. All right, that ends your turn, Grog. You stand there? Stay there. All right. Scanlan, you're up. Okay, so the guy next to Percy is the dwarf? Correct. Okay. I will hand cone it up, and I will cast Dominate Person on him.

Okay. And I will try to bend him. to bend him to my will. That is a failed save and a half. Okay. We'll save for the purposes of that. Use the blue one. So, yeah, as a bonus action, each turn,

you can just basically tell him what to do. Okay, I will tell him to just. 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 brood 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. Look, there are a lot of celebrity interview podcasts out there, but there's only one Happy, Sad, Confused. I'm Josh Horowitz, and yeah, I'm the host of the show, so I'm a little biased, but truly Happy, Sad, Confused is the place for nerdy and intimate conversations with all your favorite. actors and filmmakers. From Andrew Garfield and Scarlett Johansson to Christopher Nolan, casting what ifs, backstage stories, and much more. Listen to HappySak and Fused on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Walk over to me and start emptying his pockets of anything he's looted. The door face goes limp and drops the mason of the ground and looks over towards you, the eyes glazed over and goes,

Certainly, master. It would be my pleasure. And begins to like rifle through the pocket. So that's, okay. Do you want to move anywhere? No, I'll stay there to accept my treasure. All right, back zero. Okay, so I'm going to take a dagger of life stealing and I'm going to stab the person closer to you, yeah? So that is 23. It's. So we'll do that first. That is 11. No, that's 10.

10. 10. And then I'm going to use Disengage in my bonus action. And I'm going to pivot, roll around grog along the south side of him and spin around and stick the keen dagger into the neck of the guy behind him. I'm used luck. That's better. And that is 24. Alrighty, that is. Sneak attack. This is 11. Cloth this.

11. So wait, is this with your, do you click your boots of haste on this? No. So two attacks. You get two attacks, we used your bonus action to disengage, which would have been your second attack. Oh, then I'm out. Yeah. All right, then I'm out.

Okay. So you move over there? Yeah, I'll use disengage, and I'm going to back up against scroll. Okay, right there? Yeah. All right. You're still in, you know, come out with that person. Back to back.

Just like back to back right now looking around. We'll see you buddies. Not really. Pike, your turn. Okay, does anybody need healing? Not yet. Fuck somebody up. Time for attack.

Yeah. How, where's, am I close to the guy with the crossbow? Or can I be within... Crossbow? Crossbow. Can I get up close to the guy with the crossbow? You're about 20, 30 feet from him. from him.

Okay, I'd like to move up a little bit because I'm going to guidebole him. Oh yeah. All right. I'm going to do it at a second level. Second level guiding bullets. First I will roll for... All righty. So yeah, roll go.

What did you roll a hit? With your spell attack modifier? I rolled 14. 14 hits. Oh, no, without the spell. Yeah. That hits. So go ahead and roll 5D6 radiant damage on him.

Fuck. Guy, it goes pretty sick. Nice. 21. 21. You put the jane 21.

Nice. 21. Nice. So as you rush forward, you keeping your mace to the side, you put the shield down and the holy symbol itself kind of drifts off you for a moment and you just kind of focus for a second. Without having to even put your hands on it, a beam of divine energy just bursts forward, slamming into the crossbow, wielding individual, and it seems to surround their torso, kind of causing them to glow up. causing them to glow like a giant beacon that says,

hit me! They kind of look down at this tiny armored gnome that just knocked half their life out of their body with a bit of confusion, worry, and respect in a weird way. Well done, Nob. Yeah. Okay, is that in your turn? Can I try to intimidate him to tell him to drop his bow?

As a bonus action, I'll let you do that, sure. All right. Drop your bow! All right, go and roll, intimidate check. Which I don't think I have any of that. Let me see. This is going to be hilarious. Eleven. As you shout, the individual kind of gives you a keen look and almost chuckles to himself,

like, silly nose. It was a joke, it was a joke. It puts the crossbow up, aiming it right towards the between the eyes. Oh, no. All right. That ends your turn. Vex you're out. Awesome. As my bonus action, I'm going to cast hail of thorns. So my next attack that hits turns into a poof.

Yes. Okay. So I'm going to do that, and then I'm going to cast, I'm going to shoot, oh shit. Can I shoot through the guy in front of me or to the guy with the bolt? Um. Is that too hard? You can, you could, I'd say. You're a disadvantage already because you're a melee with two individuals, so all your attacks are disadvantaged right now. No. Balls. You could try and move away and... But they would hit me.

They would attack you. I'm going to move back five feet. Okay, so you jump back that way? Yeah. All right, there's two of them that swings at you. That's a natural two, so no. That is a natural eight? That's just 13, no, misses you.

Fuck both of you as I back up and then I shoot, all right, then I shoot the arrow at the guy in the middle of the two. Right there? Yeah. All right, go for it. Okay. That is 13 to hit 22, just a lie. 22 to hit. That hits.

Okay. So that means I'm casting that at third level. So that's 3D 10 of damage. Right. Right. That's just my first attack. All right. Where's my other 10?

And 3D10 against the first one? Come on. That's 7, 8, 9. Eight, nine. Nine, all righty. Do I do that for each person or that's it? No, you didn't roll a D10 and they have to make a deck saving throw to try and not take that. So just roll a D10.

Fail. That's 10. Fail. They all fail. Did more damage to the guys around them than that actual one. Nice. And then I'm going to move Trinket around. Oh.

Around. I'm going to, no, he's going to move up and attack the guy in front of him. You've done a bonus and an action. and an action. Yeah, so I get to Cassie. Oh, I see. So, and you get your one attack as part of the attack action. Right.

I see. Okay, gotcha. So I wanted to drink it to do his Beastial Fury. Okay, to move up now and do that to this? Yeah, he's going to bea still fury and claw that motherfucker. Okay, this guy right there? Furious. That. This one?

No, the other one. All right. So as the bear that just appears now, rears back, you fire an arrow that explodes into a burst of sharpened wooden bits. wooden bits, as they all can reel from the impact. The bear just, and Trinket rushes forward on this giant paws before releasing a torrent of claw strikes against one of the unsuspecting thugs. That's 14. 14 hits. And then 2D4 plus seven. Correct. You two attacks the Trinket, by the way.

Oh, sweet. Because Trinket attacks twice when it does speak. That's 11 on the first. damage. And 13 on the second. Okay. So Trinket runs forward and one claw just tears the face off the jaw and hinge. The other person, the friend of the side looks horrified as Trinket then bears down with the secondary claw and just takes the remainder of the head off the shoulders. Oh! Bear claw.

Wait, oh, nice. They loved him. Very nice. Very nice. Oh, Trinket. How long those claws? All right, that ends your turn. Worst done ever. Is that crossbow assholes still standing?

The crossbow? The guy who just laughed at our little known. Okay. I've just noticed that my guy just kind of hit me and then started acting weird, so take a second, look around. I'm going to see that little laugh with the crossbow coming up and just Indiana Jones that shit.

Okay. Are you putting your hex on some of him? I'm putting my hex on him first. Okay, so bonus action to do that. So, sharpshooter shot to that guy. Go for it. Don't hit Pike. I'm not going to hit Pike.

She's right in the middle. Only if it's a one. It's okay. It's okay. Out of curiosity, I'm trying to remember what's my, what's my fuck up number for my misfire number for that guy? Your pistol? It's one.

It's one, I thought. No, pistol is the most basic one. It's one. This is the one you can. But you rebuilt it though. I did. be that terrible. So now it's fine. It's normal. Oh, okay. Yeah. So. Before you reconstructed it to try and fix the mistake and remove that additional attachment, it would have been

probably. Okay. I was just checking because I could have just rolled really poorly. Ten. Ten misses, unfortunately. Okay, wait. Wait. Can I have guided strike? Well, it's the guy with the guiding bolt, right? Sorry. Guided strike. Yeah, this is the guy with guiding bolt, so you have advantage on that attack, I'm pretty sure. Oh, so I'm going to roll it again. Thank you, Pike. Thank you, Pike. You're welcome. You're welcome. You're welcome. You're saying. I don't know what happened. Okay, 10. So that means. Okay, so that one, quits. And now you're out of bullets from that weapon.

I know, so I'm going to reload and fire again. Okay, so it's your second and third attack. Go for it. Oh my God. Don't hit fight. I have advantage though, right? Don't hit fight. Just take use it ever. I think you do. Hold on. Let me see. There you go. That's better.

Hold on. It doesn't matter. I re-rolled it. The next attack. No, it does not have advantage. So that one I missed as well, probably. War God's blessing. That one touched his ground. So, war God's blessing. Yeah, it adds 10 to his role.

Tump, down, attack roll. Okay, so now it becomes a 20. What is War God's Blessing? So War God's Blessing is one of her cleric abilities since she chose the war domain after going at sea for a while. The specifics of it, just so you guys are aware of it, and why it's so useful. It's something I forget about a lot.

Oh, yay. She can basically, as a reaction, grant plus 10 to an attack roll. Whoa. Yeah, that hit then. So good and all damage on that one. So as you're about to aim, Pike looks over and sees you've got to take the shot and just concentrates for a moment, and the front of the barrel begins to glow with divine light as you fire. The bullet itself actually is white-hot as it leaves the barrel.

This is such a confused gun. I know. Okay. That's not bad. Kill it. Kill him. That's 20 plus 5 necrotic. Okay. The impact of the divine enchanted bullet hit,

the current dark energy hexed individual and in the blast of light versus dark, the upper torso of the thug is incinerated. It is just ash. With the waist below visible as it slumps over, no longer visible. Yeah. And I'm just going to start walking my way towards the, towards Keylet's special friend. Yeah, about there. About there? Okay. I'm not running. I'm walking. All right. The Shelfare turn.

The dwarf now, moves over. Of course, and begins just taking all of its weapons. It throws its mace down. It throws its crossbow at your feet. Spence its entire turn emptying its pouch and handing you. What gold and gems are everything is it gathered? This is the best thing ever. Why do you not doing everything with a big boarvish smile underneath its crusty beard?

Thank you. You're doing a good service. Make him shave. That is mean. I know. These two rush up. This one is going to attack in Keelith. All right, so the one attacking Keelith now.

That's the one attacking you, Keelith. That's why you transform into Minksey. That's going to be, what's your AC? As a tiger? Or no, I keep my AC, right? Or do I take the tiger's AC? It should be in your ability or wild shape ability. I think, I'm pretty sure you take it at the creature. Then 11.

11, then it hits. then it hits. Yeah. Just making sure that's the case right now real fast as we go over to this point. I know I keep all of my brain stats, but they use all my physical stats. Correct. Yeah, you, uh... But I don't remember.

Yeah, you gain the AC of the creature as well, it looks like. Okay, so 11. Oh, no, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Where is it? Twelve. Twelve. It's actually the AC. See?

Really? First one misses, second one hits. Oh, cool. Okay. Cool. So you do take 11 points of bludgeoning damage as the maze swings out and smacks into the side of your shoulder. Feel the impact, but it's nothing too harsh.

There are two of them now that are trying to go against Grog, being the angry one that just bisected their ally. They have advantage on you because they're both impact tactics. That's a first attack is a 23. That hits. Second one is a natural 20. Sorry. Third attack, advantage is 15.

Misses. And the fourth and final one is a 17. Misses. So a hit in a natural 20. And a credible. Okay. So that is nine reduced to five against you. And then 12 reduced to six.

So you take 11 points of bludgeoning damage between the two of them, just trying to beat on this furious, angry Goli. I have an individual. And then there's the one over here that's attacking Trinket now, because it's right in front. You just saw him. Trinket ripped somebody else's spice on. And in doing so, it swings out with a 13, I'm pretty sure, misses Trinkett's face. Oh, yeah, it does.

Because he's got armor. So as it swings out kind of shaken by the, by what it just so happened to its friend, and then takes that anger and turns around rolling a 23, which I'm pretty sure hits. The Mace slams into the side of Trinket's armor with a resounding... founding, the actual echo of the metal impact, audible in the immediate vicinity, dealing a total of seven points of bludgeoning damage to trink it. He's resistant to bludgeoning damage. Because of his armor. Yep, so that would make it for it.

Nice. All right, that ends their turn. Cilett. It's good. Okay, really pissed off in the sky still. I'm going to concentrate and bring down a bolt of lightning kind of in front of him. Right there? Yeah, yeah.

Dragon's can see bolts of lightning. It's also a clouty day. All right, all right. Second ball of lightning strikes the ground behind the guy in front of you. He rolled a 20, so he did make a save, I'm pretty sure, against you. Bastards. So gun roll, well, 40, 10, he takes half damage. So, okay.

Six, ten. A twenty, one point, so ten. Ten points of damage, is it. And then I'm going to do an attack on him. GER. You have to use your action to pull the bolt down, though? I thought it was a bonus. It should say in the spell.

To call. I'll double check. I thought I could do that with call lightning. Call lightning. On each of your turns, you can use your action to call it down. So yeah. The bolt's what you got. Okay, that's fine.

Okay. However, the individual now is twice hit by lightning and is looking extremely rough and barely standing. standing on his two feet. Steaming. Is that your turn? I can't do anything else, can I? Garthock, you're up. Garthock.

Garthock attacks the one attacking Trinket. Okay. And I can sneak attack, right? Yeah. Oh yeah, it's currently distracted between you and by a bear. What are you going to do? What are you going to do?

Oh, wow. Goolies. Roll first. Spare ready. Oh, yeah. That's the first part. I'm so excited. What if you miss?

He won't miss. 13. He's Garthock. 13 does hit. Yes. You're that piece of shit. Jesus. That's hot.

Let the dice hit the floor. 20. 20 points. 20. All right, so if you take the spear and jam it into the abdomen of this looter here who, the sheer force of it from the strength is your muscles push in, lifts him and slams him against the wall, and you're partially pinned him against the stonework there. He reaches over and slams down on your hand repeatedly until eventually you withdraw and leave him back on his feet. He's looking rough, but he's definitely

still holding his own. Can I use my cunning action with my hand crossbow, or? Well, you can use a bonus action to fire with your hand crossbow at him if you want to. Yeah. All right, it's with this advantage because you are in melee with him, so go ahead and roll twice and take the lower of the two. This will be sick, though, if you get it. If you get it, yeah. Those are stinky dice. I know.

11. 11 just hit. This is AC. All right, so go ahead and roll damage with the hand crossbone. One D6 plus whatever. Right in the base. Quick job. Six.

Six. Six points of damage. As you pulled the spear out, you reach to your side and over the arm, pull the hand cross by out. Fire. It goes right to his left. eye socket as you can. Yes! Grubble.

With that, you kind of set the spear to the side and lock in the next bolt for your hand crossbow. I like the scarlet guy. Staying there? Yeah. All right, that ends your turn. Grog, you're up. The poor bastard that's closest to you to my upper right ear, that little fox's going to get great weapon mastered relentless attacks. Okay, all three? All three.

Go for it. Six, dice, better. 14? Hits. Yeah. I'll just take that one. It could have been in 20, though. You're next one.

Yeah, roll again. You never know if it's going. Fenty! No! Which as a note, you at your level have brutal critical, so when you crit, you do two additional dice on top of it. Oh, gee. So you roll, double it, and then do two additional dice. That's one of your barbarian.

I just don't know if it's ever happened. I have one additional damage dice on that. You do, you're this last level of 13. What? Oh, Jesus. This guy's gonna be a puddle of good. Another natural 20! Oh!

Wait, does he get two more? Yeah, yeah. Wow. This guy's been a big. It's not. It's an extra hit. Extra attack. Okay.

Last frame of bullying. Okay, so first roll, hold on, first roll damage for the first attack against this one. Me, the sword are vivant, man. Right. Roll damage in the first one. You're playing jazz, Matt. Yeah, that's the same. Bravo. Bravo. 18, 28.

28. 28, okay. Which fails save. You get another plus one to your strength. Wow. Oh my God. Just the strength, right? Yeah. It's not, you have to go up to two.

Exactly. Second attack, which is the critical. So roll the dice, double that. Add your modifier and then add 2D12 to that. That's a lot of math. 13. Just round up to 60. Roll another dice.

That's a six. Just trained in D12's. He's learning math. 39, 44. What? Okay. And failed to save again. It's another plus one of your strength.

So now it goes up two. That keeps happening? Yep. So as you, the first two attacks, just cut off the right arm of that individual. Using that momentum, you bring it around and just bisect them in the midsection. As that happens, you can see the blood turns from red to black as the blade kind of drinks it up and you can feel your muscles pulse with energy.

Yes. It just kind of falls back onto the ground. So now you can check the other guy because you killed him. Yeah. I've created on the third one. The third one, the third crit goes to the next guy. So go ahead and roll damage on that. 22. 32. 32. Okay. Okay. And because you were, and now you get your additional attack because of the great weapon master from the guy who killed. Oh, my Lord. What?

What? Barbarians, man. This is why we keep you around? It hits. Barbarians, crit, man. Things dying. That's why this attack is so good with them. Like, they take the penalty to their AC.

24 points of damage. 24 points of damage. 24 points of damage because it's great weapon master. Failed save. All right, they made the last one. Oh, plus two, 36 points. So yeah. So there you go.

So you get another plus one of your strength. strength. However, this time you take the blade and the first attack, you jam it into their abdomen like this. As you're looking at you kind of grasping at your shoulders, your eyes just completely covered in bloodlust, the foam at the corner of your mouth. You then put all of your strength at the bottom of it and completely cut upward the body. Oh, good. Oh, good. Ha, ha ha ha ha ha ha.

Oh my god. I'm a little bit more happy about it. Oh man, I'm coming back as a barbarian if I die. Wow. All right, Scanlon, you're up. Oh, there's more people? There's one guy over here by Keyleth. Currently, it's just like, hasn't even noticed what's going on because he got hit with lightning twice and is being attacked by a giant tiger.

All right. I guess I'll just try to intimidate him to stop and I'll say, I'll turn to him and say, say, you there, idiot, you're not going to win. You should not fight anymore because you're going to die. And that's it. That's all I got. Intimidation. Chetka. Worst intimidation ever. And yet the conviction behind the words, the heart behind each stuttered moment of that second. Could have helped. Yeah. You know what?

I'll sing to him to intimidate him. Would that help? If you want to, go for it. Sure. I will sing, some people call me a gnome cowboy. Some people call me the gangster alone. Nobody calls him a gangster boy. Some people call me Reese, because I'm a hitter.

I'm a winner. I'm a bedroom shitter. I play my music on my shawm. Woo! Nice. Which, right with the guitar, you hear the clinging of weapons to the ground as the other remaining thug looks around, sees the mess that you have made of all of his various compadres, and immediately just drops to the ground, hand over his head going, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. We shouldn't have taken him hostage. I want to just kill him. Oh, don't worry. I still kill him. And as my bonus action, I tell the dwarf to start collecting. protecting all the stuff from all the other people as well. Certainly. Right away. See, he makes his save. He does not.

Seath then walks over and starts looting the corpses of his friends for you. I help him out. That's dark. That's dark. That's dark. All right, so there's the one guy who's like on the ground now hands over his head. Is he the only one left? Yeah.

Yeah, he's the only one left. And the dwarf who is looting things now. I stay in minxie form and just kind of like, stay on them, just growling at them. Okay. I actually, you know what, instead of looting, I'm gonna... Slowly, the rain begins to hit. As the storm finds what's coming down,

kind of elevated by the druid spells that brought the moisture to gather over this section. You walk over to him. I'm actually gonna start using perception to look for any sign of Gilmore in the rubble or... Gilmore, use your dragon perception. This would be more of an investigation check as you begin to pour over the rubble yourself to kind of gather it.

Bless you. Where's our, um. I leave him to you, old. Where's the meat? It was my turn on initiative, so I want to walk over to him. Okay. Natural 20 on investigation. Oh!

Oh, that's gonna be good. That's good. All right. So you walk over, so she's investigating it, you go ahead and you walk over to him. He's like, I just, I'm. No, I lift him up. And I'm leading him off around the corner of a building.

I pace along as Minksy. Okay. Garthartha, do you anything? I go with them. Okay. So the half work kind of saunders up next to the tiger, and you guys kind of disappear around the corner of one of the nearby buildings.

You just start cleaning my spear in front of them. I pace, kind of just pace around in front of them. I lead him in front of them against the wire. I'm going to join the rocks in the rubble. Look. Look. What do you want? Nothing.

Oh, you're knocking them out? Wow. You take him off the side of the head and he just crumbles into a pile there in the alley. Pick up some shit from the ground and just sort of prop it up against him, a couple of pieces. Not bury him, just hide him a bit. Okay. And I walk back to the group and I start picking shit up around where my sister is. I go back, I guess.

I was useful. I thought we were going to interrogate him. Me too. He was too much as intimidation. Luters? Maybe he saw Gilmold something. But he was bringing stuff back and forth to. Well, he's still there.

We got a dwarf. We still got a dwarf. And we do have a dwarf that's mind controlled right now. That's probably the best. That's shirnly who's looting the bodies. Don't touch anything I'm investigating. As you are going through the rebel, you can see a lot of the rubble has been moved over and there. You see remnants of shattered glass.

glass cases and shelves and a lot of the things that you had previously seen within Gilmore's glorious goods, largely picked over and left behind. Many books lie tattered and burned and destroyed as part of the attack. You get the sense here that most anything that was of use or worth has been taken already. And what the people here were gathering, this was what he mentioned is third time back. They were basically picking up what remnants they could, which were pieces of broken objects, elements of gold that were left behind, but most of the contents of the store have been ransacked and taken. Can I specifically look for the beaded curtain he emerges from? Yes, actually. And as you guys go towards the beaded curtain, you can see it.

It's torn apart under a big piece of rock. You push aside and with help of Grog and a few other individuals. You guys move some of the rocks out of the way as to where the bedroom is, and it's completely destroyed. destroyed. There's no sign of Gilmore or anybody else here, and as the rain's starting to come down a little heavier, and you all kind of get that sense of horror washing over you, Vex, you notice, looking underneath where the shattered remains of his foot of his bed are, there is a, what looks to be a smooth piece of stone with a handle. And a barrel of lube. I rush over to it.

Okay. And, oh, can I detect traps now? Well, you can technically detect traps wherever you wanted to try. Oh. All right. You get into sight for it. So if you want to, go for it. Go ahead and make a perception check.

26. 26. Do you take a moment inspected? You follow the edge, and yes, it is indeed what looks to be a false door made of this kind of stone tile that comprise the floor of the room, and it is a hatch. It is a hatch. It is not. I start pushing on the bed and call for Grog and say, Help me with this! Oh, run over.

I help. There's a door. I hear a yelling and wonder up as well. Okay. Still in Minxie, pace over. The dwarf comes running up with you guys as well. Still kind of. Did he get everything?

I mean, did he loot everything? Are we? What did he? He comes up with all the various coin purses, which interestingly enough, are mostly other than a few copper. It seems like whatever they've stolen is not on them currently. They gave it to the dragon. What? Holes. They gave it to him. The dragon.

The dragon. Him, whatever that is. Did we ask? No. Well, he's still fucking out. Ask a happy dwarf, stand out. Hey. O, dwarf. Hey. Who have you been collecting swag for?

The dragon. Okay. As long as we give him, what's important? and what's worth, he'll keep us alive, even protect us. He told you this. Where are you taking it to? Oh. To the center of town, which I've never been before, the cloud top itself.

I mean, what stands is very pretty. The gates to it are just open. Aye. And the dragon just sits there in the open, collecting his bounty. There's lines, folks lined up bringing all they have to him. That's great. That's great. So if this is your third trip back, the first two you already took it to him, or did you take it somewhere else?

Well, we've put it all in a place so that then we could take it to him. Take us to that place. All right, he turns around, starts walking away. Sorry. Yeah, that's fine. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, not yet. We're still... But wait, just tell us where it is.

How about that? How about you just tell us where it is? Oh. Right now. Suddenly. And he explains about a 15-minute walk from here. there is a well that is in between four buildings and kind of an alley cross section. All of it's been actually put into the well, which has been kind of hollowed out, or all the water's been repressed with dirt, and it's just been filled with all their, everything they've

gathered. He's going to save eventually. He's going to break your mind control. Maybe you should just knock him out right now. Knock him out or? At which point, he turns around going, ugh. Knock him out. No. You know, go ahead and roll, we'll attack. It's just going to be a city of people. Surprise because he currently was not aware of the situation.

Surprise, no advantage, all right, that's better. 22. Yeah, that hits. Go ahead and roll. Okay, yeah. Let's, okay, hey, okay. Okay, okay. Okay, okay.

That's what's 13 and 16. That's still spinning. 26. 26 stock. 26. Did you double that from the surprise? Because he wasn't even paired. No, so, okay.

It's enough. If you double it, as long as you go over 40, he's down. Yeah, so he just goes out, a little dwarf in pile. He's out. Tie him up. I don't want him waking up and running back to the dragon. You know, you solved that. I understand that, grog.

Maybe we should just tie him up. Tie him up. Tie him up. Tie him up and tie him up to a big stone. So you can't get up and run even if you... Okay, so you guys take a moment to go ahead and... Time him in a little bow. A little dwarf and bow.

Okay. You find a large piece of broken stone that was part of the building's base floor structure and you tie it around in multiple ways where he's going to have a hard time getting out, especially in his current mind space when he comes to consciousness. The rain's still pouring down. He's soaked and kind of like... No. All right.

Yes. You guys gather around the hidden hatch before Gimwar's room, and we're going to go and take a quick bathroom break. So as Liam here brings up our wondrous pike, we'll go ahead and hop back into the game just a minute, but I do want to say two things. One, we have this evening's winner for our giveaway. So a big congratulations to one of my favorite recent chat room names. Congrats to Jar full of Farts.

You are our giveaway winner. I love you, internet. Wow. All right me to say these sentences. It's a wonderful experience. Jarpful of parts. Also want to give a shout out to the friend of the show who's been helping a stream on their end as well, hosting us on their channel, and we've had good back and forth. Rated E with Elspeth has been really awesome supporter of the show.

Go check her out, give her a follow if you had the opportunity. Thank you very much, by the way, for helping support us. So, yay. Yay! All right, so getting back in here, as the next, The rain now continues to pour down from above the open clouded the sky of Amman. You reach down and pull open the false latch and top of this open, this kind of open hidden compartment beneath the remnants of Gilmore's room. You look down into a dark, low-lit interior and

what appears to be a figure who rushes up very, very quickly and stops. and you hear a voice from within the darkness just out of view from your position that says, whoever you are, leave. Run away, I swear I'll kill you. Sherry. Sherry?

Sherry? You look down and it doesn't appear to be Sherry. It's just a woman frazzled hair. You can't make out the details of her expression, but she's just holding this blade in front. Don't attack. Sherry, it's us. Did you work in?

We're looking for Gilmore. You pass her shoulder. Sherry. And you see Sherry now approaches her hair frazzled. She looks like she's covered in soot and actually has suffered some minor burns on part of her arm and side of her face a little bit and she kind of steps into a little bit of light that's in the bottom of the shaft and looks up and goes, oh my God. Come in quick, please. And she ushers you down into this area. I drop minksy form. Okay.

As you guys all head down inside, this is a relatively small chamber, maybe 20 feet by 20 feet. There's a couple of small chairs, and there is a few metal rods that are bolted into the stonework leading down as a ladder that you can climb down. This is obviously a hidden compartment that Gilmore uses to go up and down. You get a better view now. It is Sherry there. Trinket, unfortunately, at this moment, cannot make his way down into this. So it kind of looks at you, hmm. Looks around. Stay and guard the unconscious fucks. And sets into a defensive position, now looking out of the rest. If they start to wake up, sit on them.

Or kill them. Or kill them if necessary. Gives a nod and stands there in the pouring rain, just soaking through Trinket, the armor, tinn-t-ding-tinn-ticking off the armor. Just staying there keeping guard. As you all climb down, you notice, Sherry, next to Sherry, you see a very frazzled and harrowed looking, the woman who is holding the dagger in front. Her clothing is very, very nice, though currently torn and filthy. This is Empress Saldda Taldorei.

Oh, what? Who? Who? Who? Empress Salda Taldoree, the wife of Urea. The wife of Uriel? Oh, formerly bad now good. Empress, is Uriel down here? Did you make it out? She puts her blade away. The children. She looks over her shoulder. the children, and she kind of puts her hand at the side, and you can see in the back

room, which now you can see there is a teleportation circle that is just slowly lit on the bottom of the floor within this room. What was her first name again? Impress what? Salda. Asalda. Salda. S-A-L-D-A. She mentioned that she looks over, and you can see her three kids, Odessa, Ilya and

Greene, two daughters and son are all kind of sitting in the corner kind of talking to each other. They look like how children deal in these type of situations. They're talking and playing games and trying to distract themselves. But as soon as you guys all walk in, they kind of look over quietly and just their faces, writing up at the arrival of somebody new. And they recognize you as you begin to step into the low light of the chamber. Salter then puts her hand down and says, I don't believe my husband made it, but we're alive. Did you see him for? No. And she kind of looks over into the far corner. You can see what was

This looked like, you know, amongst the pile of rags and stuff, there was one long pile of kind of dark, crushed velvet blue in the corner with a small puddle of crimson under it. It says, he saved us. And glancing over in the corner, you can now see the shape of what looks to be Gilmore slumped in the corner, arm draped over his midsection, head down to the side in the center of that pool. I run right over, I run over. Is he awake? Is he alive? I've got my hand under his chin, is he alive? You reach over and touch Gilmore's face, and it is cold with sweat. It's fever sweat. There is a very, very strong fever in his body, and there's just beads of sweat down the face.

And as you look down, you can see where the arm is holding, there is just blood soaked into the robe. You can see parts of the robe right now are currently elements of it are burned, charred. You can see what looked parts scraped away and Gilmore's looking pretty you know that feeling when you hear one interesting thing and suddenly you want to know more.

Well that's the idea behind my podcast, something you should know. Every episode starts with a question you've probably never thought to ask. Like why people do or don't like you? Why certain habits stick? Or what everyday advice is actually wrong?

I'm Mike Carruthers and I talk with scientists, authors, and experts, and I keep it practical, surprising, and fun to listen to. If you've got a curious brain, come try one episode of something you should know. On the podcast app you're listening to right now. Oh, please, not that music. That music gives me nightmares from my childhood. Could we get something a little bit lighter? Some lighter music here. Are you a fan of True Crime TV shows? And what about Unsolved Mysteries, the show that jumped started all of our love of true crime?

I'm Ellen Marsh And I'm Joey Taranto And we host I Think Not A True Crime comedy podcast covering some of the wildest stories from your favorite true crime campy TV shows All the way to Fun Self Mysteries

Baby, you will laugh, you will cry You'll think about true crime in a whole new way And you'll also ask yourself Who gave these people mics? New episodes of I Think Not are released Every Wednesday with bonus episodes Out every Thursday on Patreon

And every Monday You can listen to our True Crime run down where we go over the top true crime headlines of the week so come and join us wherever you listen to your podcast. Mike Pike Pike. Pike. Keith, Kilith, come over here. Mike, what are you doing? Okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna cure wounds. It's gonna be all right. I am yeah. It's here. It's gonna be all right. It's gonna be all right.

Um. Gil. Is there any consciousness? I can try and assist you, Pike, with your wounds. That's all I have right now. That's all I can do too. I can help me assist, but. How is he, yeah, is he conscious? No, unconscious and-

He's unconscious? Unconscious and looking. Fating fast. Can you, like, greater, I mean, what's like the best cure you can do, Pike? Hurry, Pike. Okay, okay, okay. You guys can both make medicine checks to try and put him in a-

Stabilize him, yeah. Yeah, to try and put him in a position where he would be more so- I can, I can, I can, I can use a sixth level and just heal. Just use the spell heal? Yeah. And I did a 16 on my medicine check to her with her 22.

Okay. So you guys take a moment and you kind of go and you dress the wounds best you can and put them in a position where Pike, as you bring forward, you grab your holy symbol and clutching it between both your hands very tightly, you kneel down in front of the slowly fading body of Gilmore. You can see the shiver occasionally, instinctually, and instinctually, and it's unconsciousness and you reach out and touch him. And as you do, the warm light of Seren ray fills your torso, travels through your arms and into the body of Gilmore. His arms fall to his side limp as the warmth kind of swells up and into the torso. For

the second, as the outside of the robe that you saw torn open opens up, you can see now the hideous gash that is currently torn through his abdomen, as the warmth kind of spreads through the body and the light. shows the horrible, jagged nature of this wound. The wound stitches itself up and you can see it closed leaving but the tiniest of scar across. The blood itself still, you know, all still caked into the material, but the wound is now closed. As you pull your hands back, you can see Gilmore's body, which is from the sheer power of the heel spell has kind of actually been elevated a few inches off the ground and then clatters to the ground as the

spell finishes. And you can see shivers for a second and kind of curls over. I just pull him into my lap. No longer. At this point, Sherry and Cynthia goes, is he all right? Is he all right? She kind of pulls out her glasses, put him on. I think so. I think so. Who's this one? What is he doing here? He's with us. He's fine. He's a friend. He fought with us. He's not corrupted by the dragon's influence. I know your name, Oka Sir. It's really cool. I'm Garthock. Yep. Yep. I bow. I bow.

She kind of gives you a sideways glance and keep your distance. I don't trust you yet. She turns back around towards Gilmore as you're holding him there. The children, another point, are very quiet and kind of sitting at his foot as you all gather around this corner. A minute passes in silence. Another minute passes. Smoving his hair out. His body is The stillness is maintained, but you can still feel the heartbeat, and you can feel the pulse of blood through the body just from holding the shoulders. And then from that silence here. And the mouth opens, and the eyes begin to lull open, and the irises begin to try and find some point of focus. And Gilmore slowly lulls the head back up and looks into your face and smiles instinctually.

Little blood at the corner of his mouth just looks up at you. But it's always what I assumed I'd see in my last moments. Strangely enough, I'm pretty sure I've had worse. No offense, darling, but you look like shit. We can't have that, can we? He lifts his hand and kind of begins to try and cast a spell. You can see a bit of arcane, press the tititation, begin to try and muster, and he kind of coughs and the magic sputters and faiths. Give it time.

Give it time. So either we're all... Dead or we're all alive. I'd like an answer. Alive. Good. I was hoping you'd say that. Yeah. I was so worried about you all.

I went back for you. What? We were so worried about you. I'm glad you came here. I'm sorry. When they attacked, my instinct was to grab the children. Not who I could, but Uriel pushed me away. he was trying to get others out of the fray. Did you see him fall?

I didn't see him far, but I went back, and I found him fallen. His body. What was left of him? He brought back Salda, the children. I brought back Assum, and that an abrasive dragon girl. I don't know where they are right now.

And Salda chimes in and goes, They both, actually, they left. They went topsoil to try and find out the survivors. I told them not, I told them to stay, but they're assumably off in the city somewhere trying to make sense of all this. Trying to collect people that I keep. You've kind of turned it into a safe haven. Well, that's kind of you. That's good of you. That's probably one of the only safe places in the city right now. I mean, I can cast cure wounds on him to try to help out at all. Will it help? I mean, you know more than I won't. I, whatever you're fine, Angel of Sownrighted, I think will hold me fine for now. He smiles

and gives a very, very half-hearted wing towards Pike. Thank you. Welcome. Thank you dearly. You've certainly earned your name today. I could have saved more. I couldn't find you. I looked. I'm so sorry. Oh, no, I, you. You were hard to find. I figured you would be taken care of yourself. I went to the dragon just in case you had decided to be your usual foolish selves and run into hell itself.

Perhaps send a spy and try to trick him. That would have been stupid, huh? Yes, very... Gilmore, we called for you. I'm sorry we didn't wait. No, I'm glad you didn't. You may not be here. Did you see any others from the council? Anyone else? Well, then he kind of leans forward and kind of sits up out of your lap for a second to look at the rest of you.

And the, uh, there are quite a few dead, unfortunately. Brom Goldhand didn't make it. Most of the guards are gone. Half, if not more, of the Cloutop District. It's been killed by the poisonous fume that took the entire area, so suddenly. Poisonous fume? from the initial dragon attack. We've been staying here for safety's sake.

I don't know how long I've been out. Could we perhaps make our way towards your place as well? Be smart. Be more wise. Is there any point to searching for more council members or allies before we go? Anyone that was alive that you saw? I mean, there were many that were alive

by the time I returned. They were all kneeling before the beast. It's very interesting that when given the face of death before you, how quickly folks are willing to stay alive at whatever cost of morality and sense of society. I don't blame them. I mean, what other alternative is there, but to stay alive and hope that others come

and save them from this burden. He coughs up a little blood and kind of wipes it from his chin. Does the Crimson King have the Sinder King? Does he have mind control abilities or is he just super impressive? I think it's more that he's very persuasive with his threat of how many did not fare this attack. I did get a good look at him before he, well, he's ripped the heart out of this city.

Let's go. Everything's gone. When you saw him, did you see anything important? Didn't notice. In his chest where the scales of a dragon usually are uniform, there was an obfuscation source. There was something different about his armor. It was hard to make out the details in how fast we had a duel. I've never told a dragon before.

I never have I ruled a dragon before. I've ruled a dragon now. I've fared quite well. Oh, I did not. I survived longer than I hoped and got out when I could. A weak spot. Yeah, did it look like scarring from a previous fight?

I didn't get a very good look, but it looked like there was a different material, something smooth and jagged, something that pulsed with power. That doesn't sound super good. I didn't get a terribly good look, nor do I understand the nature of whatever it was, but it's the beginning of something.

Something to start thinking about. What do you mean? Does anyone have any water, a bit parched? We've got better than that, we've got a potion. And honestly, if we're gonna be moving about on the streets, I'd like you to not fall open like a can of baked beans if you don't mind. I'm not going to lie, I'm quite touched by your concern, Grog. It's flattering.

And he starts trying to stand up, and as he does, Sherry rushes forward and grabs him and goes, I'm under two. I'm helping him up. Pick him, get him up, and he's kind of propping himself up. He's, what little strength he has, he's keeping himself up, and keeping a smile through it all. Even in this we can state, he's still trying to present the best of himself that he can. All right. Gilmore, before we go, one more crazy question. You're not a dragon, are you?

Oh, I wish I was. That would have made this whole endeavor a little easier on my part. But if you find a way for me to become a dragon, that would be second. sexy. I'm sorry. I'm Should we teleport or is there tunnels or how do we go? Can I have like just a little bit of time before we...

Oh, with Garthock. Well, I actually... Oh, with Gilmore. Oh, up top. You know, I'll like be right back. You're gonna go up there. Just for a second. You all by yourself?

I mean, if you guys want to join, if anybody wants to come with me, but I'm a stealth like a motherfucker. I mean, it seemed like we were heading out. Are we heading out? I propose a plan. Let's get them back to the secret passage. I think we should. The reason, one of the reasons why a government

allows something like the clasp to exist in a city like this is because it is a shadow infrastructure that will survive an attack like this. It is an infrastructure designed Grog. It's a bunch of people who are really good at making money when everything's working. And when everything stops working, they get very angry and want to make everything work again.

Yeah, I understand that. So, we have a group of people who are well organized with everything to gain by this dragon leaving. They're ready, they're prepared, they're probably more prepared than anybody else would be. And they might be willing to help us. They have tunnels. They have tunnels, they have men, they have spies, they have everything we need. Please tell me if I'm wrong here. You couldn't be more right. They might be the friends that we need at this moment. I take it you're one of these underlings. I can't speak for the group, but I am a member, yes.

Would they listen to you? I'm sure they would. They don't like us very much. A lot of us didn't like more death either. So more people like you than you may know. Hmm, all right. Where do you wanna go? I wanna go get that fucking well full of fucking loot. That's- magical items, gold.

Who knows what could be in there they could help us? Wait, wait, wait, wait. You wanna go steal from Thorback? The dragon? No, no, it's not he's, remember. They never gave it to him. They gathered a bunch of shit and they hit it in a well. Right, but I'm assuming under his instruction.

No, they were going to get it all together and give it to him, but they never gave it to him. They were keeping it away in one place. So, a small group goes and gets the gold and the rest of us get Gilmore and the family to the secret passage. The last time we took a dragon's gold, five of them showed up. This is not what I didn't know about the gold. I thought they said people are. Do you think the dragon knows everything that's going on right now? He's not like magic dragon.

I'm the spy here. If you're scared, then just you know. I'm going to go with Gilmold. I'm going to go get the gold. I would agree with getting the gold. Ah. Well? I'll go with the family.

Give me the bag of holding, then. Where am I going to put all the gold? She's got a point. Do you all remember the last time I told you something was a terrible idea? I've got the bag of holding. It was a few days ago. It was every time. It's all the time, really.

Right. This is probably another one of those times. Has to pass without a bad idea. I don't think it's a terrible idea. I'm coming to. Scanlan. Vax. I'll come.

Wait, no, I should probably go. I'll watch after. I don't want to go, but I'm not leaving you. And I hoist Gilmore onto Keith. We've got you. Hello. Vax. I'm not happy.

Why are we getting gold? Don't be pity about it. I'm not leaving you. You go get some magic shit. Yeah, go. Just go, go. This is a terrible idea. I'm gonna get your shit back for you. Remember the last time we went somewhere to go get a big pile of shit? Thank you. Because, uh, well, I'm gonna need it to renovate this place a little. Right? He's a, he's a fan of it. That's gonna trace all three of us. Stealth like a motherfucker.

Who's three? Us three? Me three? Yes, us three. Just stealth out. It's like a 15 minute walk. 15-minute wall. You all, we were flanked here at Gilmore's Goods. What makes you think that they're not going to have a ton of people sitting there watching that well? I'm going to look out for that shit this time. Yeah, that, right. That's worked well in the past.

The area where they're going where the well is, is that closer to one of the entrances to the class? The one you're going towards is in the direction. It's a little bit past where you're going, so you'd have to double back to the entrance, but it is totally a way to do it. No, we're all going to the same place. See, look at this. I'm going to stay separate than the group so I can stealth a little bit better, but cool. Twins out in front.

And stealthing a little bit. That's a lot of trace on all of us then. So stealth checks from all those that are heading towards the well? Are we all heading towards the well to jump down in the clasp, or is anybody going back to the where's the keep right now? The well is farther or the clasp entrance is farther? The clasp entrance is closer. Yes, closer, the well is further.

So you actually go past the well. Hang on. Hang on. We're all going to the clasp entrance. That's up to you guys. Which is in the same direction as our keep, because we have a crippled guy. Yeah, we wanted to get the family and Gilmore back to the keep. Get them back to the keep. Can't you just tree shoot us then? Tree shoot them there?

I don't want to use that in case we need to tree shoot us to Vasselheim or somewhere. Let's hold that off. We're going to the clasp entrance, right, to go to the tunnels and all the network of shit that we don't understand because there'll be allies and the people that are going to stealth the head. Not necessarily. I don't think we should bring me children into the class. This was my thoughts as we take everybody who's down here. We get them back to the castle.

In the meantime, you get the treasure. Once the treasure is gotten and they're back in the keep, we get together and find the clasp. Perfect plan. Let's go. Let's go. I grab Vax's hand and kind of pull him back as they kind of pace away. Okay.

So as you guys all find your way, outside of the remnants of Gilmore's facility, the three children in Saldah, kind of staying very close. She keeps the children right at her side, with their arms around and protectively. Sherry is at her side as well with her blade out just in case, and they're kind of forming the circle around the remnants of the Tal'Dore family. As those of you continue to push forward before you disappear, Kiela, grabs some police. We're splitting off? Yeah.

I have to go. I have to go. I don't wait. Vax, Vax, listen to me. I just pull away and go. No, Vax. Cont- God, fucking you. As Vax quite literally disappears from your sight

after a few steps, vanishing into the shadow of the rebel. I go through to my earring. Vax, talk her out of it. This is not the time to be looting for treasure that's only ever brought us grief. Talk her out. out of it. 29, 39 on stealth for me. Okay. So wait, who's...

28. Plus 10? We're just taking the kids home. All right. That would be... Trinkets going with you guys, by the way. 42. 42?

I'm driving the yellow submarine. You're coming with us? Garthog. Yeah, with the kids back to the keep. With the kids. I'll pass, I cast, pass without a trace on us, on team, back to the keep. Yeah.

Have you guys roll stealth check as well. Oh, wait a second. Okay, and you're heading with them to the- Well, in what direction is the keep? The keep is southward. It's away from the entrance to the class. See, Garthock's dilemma is his first priority. Is a great book.

Yeah. Do what you gotta do. Do what you gonna do, Garthog? Do what you gonna do, Garthog? From Torbats. Garthock's dilemma is his first mission. Don't tell us, just do it. He's got to go towards the class.

He's got to go towards the class. because that's what he's trying to be sure they're still alive. As you guys divide, Garthock still stands there for a second, kind of looking back and forth, conflicted by this. Vex, you pick up on this as you're walking away. I have to go, I have to find the class, but it's my number one priority. It's why I sought you guys out in the first place. We understand. We've got the kids.

Okay. I'll meet you. Where do you want us to meet you? Can you tell us where the entrance is? Do we know where the entrance is? Which entrance? The entrance that I know exists is in the same direction as the treasure, so I will travel with you until we get to the entrance, which hopefully is there and not destroyed.

You better fucking stout like a motherfucker. Ready. S like an M. 14. Plus 10. 24. Are we all rolling stealth? Yeah.

Yeah, everyone is. Plus 10. What is. Pike? Pike. Yep. I rolled a 16. Yes!

Yes! That was a disadvantage, too. Nice, well played. 25. 31. All righty. So as you guys split off in the rain, occasionally you hear the slam of something heavy echoing in the distance in the cloud top and a guttural yell of frustration. I'm keeping my eye out for any kind of anything in front of us.

Right. You're not sure what... what or why anything's happening, but twice during your journey northward of this, you hear like a low growl or roar and there's like a flash of fire from over the wall. You don't know what happened. As you guys push darting through the alleys to the team that's going for the interest of the class, you lead them into a trap, boo-ya! Yes, my fucker! That would be amazing.

They're waiting to trap you for three hours! You lead them into a wine cellar that is locked over with a series of chains. You go forward and you know where there are two triggers for two traps that are part of that entrance. You go ahead and definitely disable both traps through hidden mechanisms. You go ahead and pull on one of the chains and it extends magically as you pull on it almost an infinite, or at least for a period of time. You find the right link, you activated, keeping this all kind of hidden to yourself because it's what you're trained to do, and the chain disables itself and breaks into three different pieces. You then open up the two parts of the

cellar and lead them down into what looks like a regular wine cellar. It's very dark, there's almost no light down there other than what's pouring in through this entrance. It looks like most of the wine bottles here have been taken out. It's empty other than a few small, small, small, bottles that are set up in this vast kind of crisscross of wooden racks. And you go ahead and walk over to one of the barrels and lift up at the top of what looks to be like a heavy, heavy whiskey barrel. Pulling off the top of the barrel, the barrel itself does not move as he's wrestling with it as he does. He climbs into and kind of stops for a second. It looks around showing you guys that this barrel itself is actually a chute ladder that leads downward into a subterneying bay.

Now is all that shit up top going to be open for us when we come back? back? I can wait for you here or maybe come with you and get some of that treasure. It's going to be a while, you know, we got to get the treasure and then go back to the cave and then come back. You can come with us. You can come with us. I mean it's up to you. I know you need to talk to the clasp. So if you need to talk to them and let them know we're on our way. Enough treasure to go around. I can come with us. I can definitely let them know. It's up to you. I'm relieved that it's there and not destroyed. Okay. So you guys, not knowing where the entrance is, you make your way back out, you kind of close the cellar and make your way

towards where this dwarf's general description of the well is. I want you to make an investigation check. All of us? All of you. 27. Natural 20. Yes. You're not with us. Oh, I thought he said everybody. Sorry, everybody in that group. So congratulations. Oh, no. You'll discover something. I escort the kids. Eskervid he's walking. You said Koonree. I'm a champ at babysitting. Oh, kid export. You've had a Percy game today. You can just a lot of 20s. 14. 14, 27, 19. 11.

11. All right, so you guys take about 20 minutes kind of wandering the area, unable to find really which destination this is, partially because a lot of the sections here are partially destroyed or at least are unfamiliar to you. You've not spent a lot of time in this northern area of Iman. Scanlan, you kind of dart off for a second, seeing a similar crossroads between alleys and you find a well that very much appears to be it. You know it's yours because there's a, it looks to be a number of copper and gold coins

that are kind of scattered around the base of the well. This is it? I look around, can I perceive anything for any people around anything? Traps, man. Make perception check. Yeah. Natural 20. That's true.

All right. Damn, guys. You glance about and nobody is here. Other than the sound of the rain that is still kind of smashed down from outside, there doesn't appear to be any individual within visual range right now. Max, can you scan for dragons, please? I rolled a 22-foot traps. Okay.

No traps from what you can tell. As you look over the edge of the well, you can see where the dirt has been packed in and kind of given a false kind of, or a somewhat muddy bottom to the well, which once held water. And around the edges, you can see where there are a couple of discarded shovels kind of thrown to this side. and chunks of the earth that have been kind of shoved in there to give it some sort of bottom. You also see there's maybe about 20, 30 or so haphazard coins in the bottom. What?

Empty. Oh! Dix! You're talking about the dragons? No, whoever the fuck came and took all the fucking gawkins. The dragons came and got it. Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. Can I take one of the shovels and move some of the dirt to see if maybe it's deeper than it looks?

You go ahead and move some of the dirt and you find a couple of Moriord coins. reward coins, a total of 35 gold. It can be really taken from it. Can I see any signs of dragon claws or dragon slobber or anything? There are none around you. And you gather just from the sheer immensity that is the cinder king, that if you were to come down here and retrieve this gold himself, most of the adjacent buildings in the well would be ruined. These people put a bunch of gold there and then someone else came and took it. Someone else he came and took it? Well, allegedly a bunch of gold.

Maybe that's all they found. That's your fucking people from the clasp, isn't it? Can I use the tracking to see if it looks like anybody's been here? Make it a wisdom, travel check. 19. There are a number of footprints, actually, relatively recent that all... Is that 17 or 11? That's 11?

Okay, yeah. Yeah, okay. So, looking about, you see the tracks pushing northward. There's about four fresh sets of prints, fresher than the others you've seen around it. seen around it. And the trail of coins that kind of follow that for about 10, 15 feet, you can tell that they were taken in haste. You gather just by the way it set up that perhaps somebody else had found this cache before you did. I never thought. When we came up out of the fucking trapdoor, where was the people still

unconscious? Yeah, they were still unconscious. Oh, okay. Let's follow the tracks. They're fresh. Are we really going to scrabble about in the mud for coin today. Well, we've come this far. Simon. I'm very easily swayed. I'm a great leader.

I should go back to the keep. You're right. You're right. But if Vex could somehow convince us, I'd be open to it. The reason I wanted to come get all of this gold is because I thought there could be a lot of Gilmore's magical items were probably put in here. People don't realize what they have. I just thought it could help us a lot. I understand it was not a bad idea, but this place has been cleared out.

What if it's just like one or two people that came and stole everything and we could totally take them? And they're like a hundred, a hundred yards away. They're like right up the alley, like right there. Can I just stelt the head just a little bit and just see? Yeah, okay. Where's this? Go. You start the head, and at this point, you're, you follow the tracks. They go to the road, and they're all fall in the alleys as well.

You can see from the point. I'm sorry, one second. You know, you're very charming, but you're a fucking weirdo, and I climb up after my sister, stealthily. Okay. All right. I just shrug. I think he was talking to you.

Okay. And what do you do? I'm going back to my trap door. Okay. So guard, you just separate from the group and head back to the clasp. Thank you for coming. It's been a great day killing with you. I hope our paths cross again, perhaps in the catacombs.

I will let the clasp know that you're coming. Tell them whenever they see, Scanlon Short Hall to open the door. They stealthed, so I don't know where they went, do I? Roll perception check. I got a natural 20 on my stealth. Oh! I got a nine on perception. You have no.

clue. Can I look at the tracks? I can't read tracks. Go ahead and make a wisdom survival check just for the hell of it. Nope. Can I perception check with the way? Three. Three.

Okay. You begin following a set of tracks that you think it's pretty much pretty close to theirs. Pike, you're with everyone else bringing the rest of them back to the keep. You're with the other half of the group. Go with me, Pied. You're babysitting. You guys are babysitting the family and Gilmore getting him back to the keep. Gilmore getting him back to the keep.

Oh, wait, why did I stealth check? To stealth with them to get out of the city. And we'll get to you guys in just a minute. Oh, I feel I was going with them. Do I even know how to get home from here? Based on that check, you get really discombobulated in the center of the rainy midday of M. I was going to be right back, Scanlan. You don't know that a hand shoots out of the darkness and grabs Scanlan by the nose and tugs him.

Okay. All right. All right, you guys continue along and following the tracks a little bit, they lead westward and curve down a few more alleys heading towards the north entrance to the cloud top. Ah, shit. Fuck it. They're taking it to the fucking dragon. Dicks. Do you continue to follow or you head back? No, we're fucking go back. Okay.

Will you tell me how to get back? Hey. Could you say that again with your nose pinched? Will you tell me how to go back? We'll get back. What happened to... Where's Gorthok? Garthawk. Garthawk.

Where is he? Garthock told me he was going back to his clasp entrance. Our paths will cross again. He also said that you were kind of weird. Oh, well, I am. I'm going to start walking back to the feet. Okay, you guys make great back. The rest of you, you make your way

further south, kind of retracing the path you took here, since you already know kind of what's there. You do reach a certain point where, as you push down one of the alleys, a few individuals come out, kind of blades at the ready, and be just like, hey, drop your stuff, give us what you've got. And then, uh, at which, at which point Kielis just socks one on the jaw,

as, as Sherry pulls out a wand and blasts one of the nearby pieces of stone off the wall, with a bolt of lightning. Gilmore, who like steps onto his feet and carries his weight for a second, just raises his hands up. And as he does, you can see, uh, arcane bolts,

just whee-whis-whipping around him in this almost molecule-like electron pattern. As he goes, do gentlemen seriously wish to start this ruckus? They all go, no, and they slowly back away and then dart around the corner as fast as they can. You hear their feet spattering against the mud. Keith goes, yeah, you better run! Way to tell him, Keithie. Well done. Well done. As Gilmore lowers his hands, he kind of begins to fall forward. And we grab it.

You grab me and catch him, and he's like, oh. That's a drop your sword. Kind of, yeah, actually. That's the last of me. That's all I've got. Take me home. Yeah. We're almost home.

Almost home. It kind of pinches your cheek grog. Oh, shit. You guys continue through the path. As you make your way through the the groups of the dead that you passed before, a lot of them have since been taken off the street, and you can see now graves are being dug right outside of the gate as you find the south gate. Do you want to just walk through the fields,

or do you want to use the same path you took into the secret path into the keep? I think the fields would be my vote. What? You're not there. No one's noticing us at this point. There's too much going on. Out of the city is, I think, the secret is. Why wouldn't we take the secret passage? It's here, right? No. As soon as you say secret passage, Gren, the little boy, is... Did you say secret passage?

I did. It's not really a secret passage. I've never seen the secret passage before. Can we see the secret passage? Yeah. You can see Saldah for the first time since you've seen her smiles a little bit. Can't disappoint the children. Yeah.

Fine. Secret passage it is. Okay. All right. With you guys, don't forget. Okay, we have to get it. Triggett's been keeping guard through the mud behind you. Let the kids ride drink it. As a relatively stealthy bear would try.

Okay. Oh. Nice. As you make your way through the secret passage, successfully finding your way back to Grey Skull Keep, you climb up back into the kitchen, and there you can see Elena and Irvin, who are both, you can sweaty, their stains soaking through their outfits, they've been working around the clock to make sure that

everyone who's currently helped with them to keep is being cared for and fed, and their faces immediately light up as you all start pulling out of the pantry again. She's like, oh, so glad to see all of you. I wasn't sure if you'd come back. Are we there? Yeah. They're getting there first before the rest of you. And she kind of runs up and kind of embraces each of you, kind of wipes your brow. I'll have food soon. It's okay, it's okay.

And she kind of goes over and sees, and she's, and the children you got children with you. Well, a few more, Willis. We don't know whose they are, but the kids get really shy, suddenly, and kind of quiet and kind of hide behind Saul, and she goes, it's all right, we'll take them. Where should we take them? Where should we go?

Lead on, I don't, I've never been here before. You can put them in my room. Yeah, mine. Yeah, we'll put them up. I can sleep in my workshop. I think we've pulled a lot of our beds down. I think a lot of our rooms are filled. Yeah, most of the beds, most of your rooms are...

We'll find a... A place for you, just get comfortable for right now. It's a little cramped. I'm sorry. It's not the castle top. You saw where we were. We'll take anything at this point. Gilmore comes in and kind of looks around. You know I'm not gonna lie. Who's wanted to see the place? Perhaps a door is in order. Tomorrow. Tomorrow.

Tomorrow. He kind of hangs his head and you make your way into the rest of race. I find a bed. Where's like the nearest bed? The nearest bed would be one of the beds that you guys moved into Serranra's temple. Is there someone on it? There's someone sitting on it, but as soon as you bring someone who looks as as braced as he is, yeah. They get up and leave and you lay Gilmore down.

Come on my helmet, really hurts. What? After a short time of getting them established with Grey Skull Keep, the rest of Oxmachina arrives. The rain now pouring heavily outside. Looking pack, you can see some of the smoke has lessened. It's helping put out some of the fires and the remaining piles of burning wood that were once buildings within Imman. Keyleth runs up to Vax and gives him a hug. You're okay. You're okay. You...

You did it? Did you talk to her out of it? Yeah, yeah, Keele. He talked to me out of it. I walk past. Thank you. And I walk away. Okay. As you guys get everyone situated in the keep, Your mind begins to turn to what the next step is in preparing for whatever the next step you want to be. And we'll go ahead and finish tonight's game at that point. The world of Sonic the Hedgehog has been thrust into a not-so-dark, not-so-stormy, hard-boiled detective story that probably nobody saw coming.

Follow Sonic and the Intrepid Chaotic's detective agency as they take on their big... 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. Well, if that's all, I can just dispose of you. Wait, what? All will be revealed in. Sonic the Hedgehog presents the case. Ciotics case files. Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts. When the chaotic are on the case.

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