Critical Role & Sagas of Sundry - Vox Machina Ep. 73 - The Coming Storm

Episode Date: January 10, 2022

The countdown to the final battle with Thordak begins as secrets are revealed to the war council, and a possible site for the final encounter is chosen.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Tonight, we will sound you as spooky tail. I don't know what's gonna happen because you're just gonna continue the game that we normally play. We're welcome. I'm Matthew Mercer, the Dungeon Master. For those who don't recognize my costume, you're really confused,

especially if this is your first time tuning in. Sorry. I am not done your mask. like that for the rest of the evening, because I will have to order traffic after an hour. Yeah! I do want to give a quick thank you to Amazon for delaying all my orders, making me put together my costume last minute out of shit I found at Home Depot.

So thanks Amazon. It's fantastic. I appreciate it. All right, anyway, I guess we should probably go through everyone else to see the magnificent costumes around us. Well, let's go and start over here with our fantastic... I am Hottis! The Rakhata, and I cannot speak with my mouth hole. I have Chlorota, but the mask is currently on its way here

because I have nearly enough coffee, so on the break there will be a giant, a sweaty mask that is terrible. It's the worst thing. Half Choroda. Half Chlorota. There you go, perfect. Pallota rags.

I am Dr. Anna Ripley from Wildmount. You suck, Ripley. This is very heavy. This is a bludgeoning weapon. It's not a piercing weapon. Chris is like... Right hand to the Briya Woods. And Uber, Percy fan girl.

That's really. Cheers. Cheers. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Good guy. You should see him. All right, Liam.

Hi. I am. Tiriak. I make maps. Why are you having trouble picking that up? Oh, well, I was turned to stone recently, and I don't have two arms anymore. I have one. I can still roll dice though, and I have maps,

and I have a compass. I'm the least dangerous person at the tables. I'm not level one in anything, really, except maps. I'm level 15 in maps. I'm just happy to be here and be alive, mostly. We've been opening doors for him all night. Thank you, Lee. That's awesome. Laura.

I'm Lady Briarwood, the man I broke the world for. She broke it for me, baby. That's right. You should say you are. Oh, right. I'm Lord Briarwood. Nice. Yes.

Undead. Betrothed. That's right. More than betrothed. People who are in love, high five. That's just . We'd be representing the dead motherfuckers in this game. I'm not dead.

Are you not? Just inside. Just inside. Actually, me and you're the only dead ones. Yeah. Oh, what's wrong? No, I'm dead. You're dead.

You're dead. You're dead. You weren't undead. Exactly. I'm misunderstood. You're both dead. Spoilers. I'm dead. You're dead.

You're dead. I'm in another plane of resistance probably. You're having a real rough week right now. My arm's dead. You're the only person alive. Cheers. And you, of course. Part of me.

Hey. Hey. Hey. What? Cheers, Victor. Salute, bitches. Day, bitty! Yay!

Happy Halloween! Happy Halloween. Happy Halloween. Happy Halloween. Happy Halloween. Happy Halloween. Happy Halloween. Happy Halloween.

Oh. Oh. So that's it. That's the show. Yeah, thanks guys. We shall, let's get into our announcements for the evening. Yes. I need my hand to do that.

This is, by the way, this is pre-finger loss. Make sure to know there will be some purists out there. I'd be like, why is it? fingers in his right hand, Matt. You're so inaccurate to your own character. Wow. Wow. Yeah. Well. All right, so first and foremost, tonight's sponsored by Luke Crate. Lucrate! Lou Crate!

They're awesome. Get your math's off the table, too, that. Sorry. We've got an unboxing do here with their last month's theme here, but before we get to that, Sam, did you want to... I just wanted to say, guys, that this week's, this month's theme for Lucrate is magic, and I don't have much plans tonight, but I did learn to a magic trick. Oh, you know. I'm going to do a magic trick. It's the first magic trick I've ever done. And I don't have a deck of cards at home, so I'm going to use spell cards

instead. Just give it a little shuffle here. Oh, hey there, Cam. Please let something come out of your house. Talcin, can you just give it a shuffle? I'll give it a shuffle. I know. Leave him. Liam, do you want a shuffle leave? No, no. Just, just, we got to hear. We got 30 minutes. Wait, wait. No, yeah, yeah. Give it a shuffle. Yeah, let me shuffle that.

Guys, ready your wand. No, like a shuffle, man, like a shuffle. And get ready for November's enchanting theme magical, we've cast a powerful ancient spell to deliver you this 100% exclusive crate featuring bewitching items from Dr. Strange. Fantastic beasts. And where to find them? Big trouble and little sideline.

And more. Remember the promo links to the show. Lukecrate.com slash clinical roll. Marvel, the same slowly becomes Bill Cosby. Oh, God. You're saying, go. No, no, no, no. You can't take that back.

Too scary. Okay. I'm just going to show Talison here. Just going to show Talison that these are just, in fact, randomly shuffled cards. Can you please just give the card deck a little cut anywhere you'd like? Okay, I'm going to look at this half of the card deck, and it will tell me what's in the other half of the card deck. Oh, okay, okay, okay. I know Talison, by looking at that, that the fourth part,

card down is C Invisibility. The fourth card down is C. Invisibility. So one, two, three. So this card right here. Will be C invisibility. It's like Nicholas Gave. This is so exciting. This is, in fact, seeing as a . It is in fact C invisibility.

And the most magical part of this trick is that it makes me a quadruple threat. Actor, singer, professional lover of ladies and now professional magician. Thank you. Thank you. Good job. God. Remarkable.

I'm Nicholas Cage impersonator, too. This is really, it's really amazing. My mouth hurts so much right now. Oh, wax up in the hurt outside. Do not. Thank you so much, Sam. Thank you, Lou Cray.

These are from October. These are not the first. October. These are not the magic theme. No. No. This is what everyone should be getting this from all. You just use a plastic.

We already got that. Oh. Oh. What? Okay, that's the coolest. Are those Freddie Kruger chopsticks? Yes, I think. Yeah, it's actually pretty bad at.

Little cheebee leather face. You have. You know. Awesome. For the kids. You thought could never be cute. Leather face. Little leather face.

Wait, I got to see if this is actually usable or not. Got it. It's off. Good job. Well done. Oh, Camp Crystal Lake. This is going on a little bit. My son would love that.

Big fan of the movie. I'm going to wear this for my kids all the time. Regrettable supervillains. Oh, everyone's of regrettable supervillains. Too soon, guys, just too soon. It's just too soon. It's just too soon. It's just way too heavy.

Praying Mantis Man. In the Blue Puele Club. It was five seconds ago. Cat girl. Animal vegetable metalman. Oh, that makes me happy. These chopsticks are amazing. That's a really bad thing.

Wow. Yeah, the chopsticks are kind of like. I'm bettering myself. The chopsticks are awesome. Don't try to pick up metal dice with them because they're way too heavy. Don't eat metal dice. Don't eat metal dice.

Oh, the Walking Dead too. I call dibs on this next week. There you go. Well, guys, thank you very much, Lucreate. Thank you. Boshrae. You can go to lukerate.com com slash critical role.

Promo code. Critical role. Yeah. Beginners luck. That's right. Good job. That one's going to fail you every time that's a proper nacrimancer. That would have been impressed.

All right, next up. GM tips. The second episode just went up today on YouTube. If they got it, it plays with alpha, if you want to check that out. But the most recent episode deals with improvisation and dealing with the unexpected. I'm pretty excited about this new run. and you get to go a little more in depth with elements of running your own games at home, so sure check them out. Every week we'll have new ones coming up for the next six or some more

weeks. I can't remember how many episodes we did, but they're coming out for a while, so every week, new one coming. Alpha on, I think Tuesdays or Wednesdays, and then on Thursdays on Thursdays on YouTube, so check out that out, guys. Awesome. Let's see, next up here, we have, oh, Titanfall 2 came out. TIEG-FALL-THA-T-T-T-T! It's fun. I play Jack Cooper, your protagonist, and the sync-player campaign. It's basically a futuristic buddy cop film with the giant robot. You sound sexy in that man. Well, just saying. Thank you. You do.

It's how I like this entire game. That's a whole different time fall. Yeah, check it out. I'm really proud of it. I'm in there too. I've returned from the first game as Barker and I will yell at you if you are in my faction. Oh, nice. That's got some weight to it, son. Yeah. At least a D8.

It will be. And that was the end of TRIOX. And that was the end of Tyrion. I shot something else off. Oh, God. He was losing pieces. Tiltil's Batman episode three came out. Yay!

Really liked the way that's going. It's fun. There's some good stuff happening in that episode. Who is this Batman? Dre? I see next stuff. Our critical role Halloween costume contest finishes next week.

Halloween night is the last time to submit. So if you have a Halloween costume, if you haven't finished yet, get it finished, put up some photos with the hashtag critical costumes on Twitter. We will be judging those in the coming week and get to you guys prizes and awards and all the silliness that we can try and produce for you because we're excited.

So many good things are already out there. You guys have been crazy. Yeah. Wow. Can I enter the contest as this? I believe you already have. You can win all of your shirts back. Oh, shit.

Then I do not. I do not. Fantastic. Risha, there is the new Signal Boost episode. Oh, yeah, yeah. Both the Signal Boost Halloween episodes are out. and Chalice and I earn them. And you make a cameo in the latest episode.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's fun. It's dumb. Stair at a mirror. Yeah. Go watch for Halloween.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So we're talking about Tox Machina. Yes. We are super excited about this one. Starting November 15th and every Tuesday after on Alpha, we will finally get to introduce Talks Machina, which is our critical role talk show.

Who? Hosted by our amazing friend, Brian Wayne Foster. You can follow them at Brian Wayne Foster, something, something. It's like at Brian W. Foster. At Brian W. Foster. I think that's it. And you can also catch the Tox Machina page on Twitter at Tox Machina. You can also get early access if you go to alphainvite.com for early access to the page.

We're going to be on there. It's our chance to give like inside after the game. It'll be a weekly thing so we can answer questions that people might have. Talk about moments that happened, how it went well, how it didn't, how we suck. There will be a few of us on there every week. We might even have some guests and some segments. It's going to be awesome. It's something we've been wanting to do for a while. Yeah.

And Brian's are really awesome guys, so we're excited about it. Yeah, we're really, yeah. You guys are going to love him? He's great. Ryan is awesome. Yeah. I want my gun. It's not your gun.

All right, and I'm looking at this. That's all the major business announcements. The final announcement, those are we're paying attention to social media. Oh. Yeah, take the glove. Oh. Yeah, take it off.

Take that glove. You're so open that hand, man. That's no fake hand. That ring better be there if you lost it. He put a ring on it. Aww, applause, applause. I have that to look forward to in my later years. So excited.

Oh, God. Congratulations. I mean, he doesn't have to take it off. Guys, ready? You get a preview, you can wake up tomorrow. Are we going to do a critical rule themed wedding? Oh my God. No.

No. No. That's not going to be a thing. So we have already tender cake. But anyway. Although I still might have Travis Willingham as my flower girl doing with the dust or taste. Respect.

Oh my gosh. Perfection. So cute. Yeah. I'll start writing my floor. I'll start writing my best man's speech. It'll be a song. All the limericks in one.

Delivered in tiger. Yeah, the tiger makeup. No, no, a tiger outfit twice. Two different tigers. All right, on that note, let's go ahead and dive in to the night episode of Halloween. So, as we last left off, our band of adventurers, Vox Machina, were.

having a conversation. We're in the process of formulating their plan of attack against the Chroma Conclave, a group of chromatic dragons that had banded together and released and it bounded together under King, a great under King, a great, one massive-sized red dragon that sundered the Taldori countryside and currently sits on the main city of Amman as his throne. You have traversed multiple planes, you've gone across the entirety of the world and gathered these various artifacts. called the vestiges of divergence in preparation for this battle, honing your skills. And now you guys, after finally defeating your third member of the conclave, and

aligned with the fourth, Ryshan, you defeated Voragal, the white dragon over in the ruins of draconia and Wildmouth. And you're now returning after gathering the spoils of the fight, making your way to the next leg of your journey to the very, very fast approaching conflict with the Sindurkings himself. And that's where he began. Last we left off, in In the middle of a nearby frozen forest, Percival and Vex probably a fair distance of time apart, make your, no. That's later.

It's so hard, are you? Yeah, Matt. Jump the gun. Matt, I don't know how we're gonna do this. I gotta look right at you. It's really hard hours. Maybe just stare at his eyes. I'm gonna look at the torch over his right shoulder.

Okay. Yeah. It's in so many teeth. We gotta go shopping or drinking or something. Nothing serious for the love of Sarah Ray. So, as you guys reconvene towards the Scanlon's magnificent mansion to prepare the next look of your journey, what do you wish to do?

We're in the mansion right now? No, no, no. We're at the top of the ravine. We're preparing to go to a portal. Correct, you guys. All right, so you've gathered to go ahead and make a ring. Did you want to sleep before we went back to Whitestone? No.

No, we can go. Let's just go back to White Stone. Yeah, no. It's been eight hours. I've done my thing. Yes, for the, for bringing some of the farmland. Restoring. Yeah. Which as you complete the entirety of the spell,

you watch as the rest of the snow melt begins to turn to water and people have to see the land itself go more fertile and the crops begin to pop forward. like you'd begin to see when the ritual initiated itself. With the completion of the land cleansed, you are free to go to the next length of your journey. Oh, ha! Stop. I can't make eye contact. I'm so sorry.

It's okay. Get there. I think you look great, Matt. You look like Doc Brown exploded. I don't know what to do. You do. Just pat that. Top to pair on the down. Okay.

We do. Happy Halloween. 30 more minutes, and we'll settle down. Yeah, do you get immune to it? Do you, sorry? I would like to set the Death Walker's ward to Matthew's costume. All right, take a short rest. Thank you.

What is this? That's from Baslehem. All right, so. What else do you guys wish to do? What's the next step? I mean, we gotta go back to Whitestone right away. Is there anything else to do here? Was there anything to deliver, any piece of any body to take?

with us, we got everything. We have, we need to deliver Ripley's arm back in Oakville. That needs to happen. Sure. Kosholz in Vasselheim. Sure. We need to do something about him. He might be back. He might be on his way here with a terrible... He's a dick, he can take care of himself. Hopefully he won't just lose something on the Ravenites here.

All right, let's get out of here. They've been through so much. I mean, it's really just reconfirming his whole life view, so, you know. Hi. Hi. I'm drove. All right. Keelan, cast your thing and let's get the fuck out of here.

Get on to Wadstone. Get on, getting on. I'm coming, boo. As you focus and touch the outside of the tree you watch as the small, familiar portal begins to tear its waste. through the outer bark of the nearby trunk. From there, as you reach through the magic creating this portal between you and White Stone, you hear the voice echo the distance, I hear you. And thus the temporary doorway between here and White Stone is open. The rest of you guys rush through with Kima and Pike and Toe. You make your way into White Stone itself.

At this point in time, it looks like it's fairly late in the afternoon. What's this little day here? It's an eight hours. We could move there. Actually, no, it'd be pretty early morning right here. Yep. So yeah, at this point, you step out, and the sky's just starting to come to light. You see the blue slowly transitioning into a light orange to a yellow as the sunrise is making its way over the mountain range that surrounds the outside of white stone.

You are met with a few wandering guards that just wanted to the town that acknowledge your presence, but it is your cause to what you wish to do now. what you wish to do now. Does the town, rar, does the town look like it's safe and intact? It seems like it hasn't suffered any sort of incursion or attack, yeah. We've only been gone for, what, 24 hours? No, like two days, because we slept there. About two days. I'm gonna go check in and see if I can find cash.

I also going to head towards the council. And we should drop off some of our spoils. Our loot. Where do we drop them off at? Castle? I would imagine the treasure room of some kind. There is a treasure vault, yeah, within the White Stone Castle. Oh, cool, yeah.

Let's go there. Totally knew about that place. All right. Pikes is just going to go and check in with the temple, and to make sure everything there is taken care of. The situated chemo leads with you guys towards the White Stone Castle. As you make your way up, you get to the very outside of the castle. At the time the sunrise finally breaks the mountain range and you see the sun coming in. What little bit of mist begins to slowly burn?

off in the surrounding forested area. The cold, kind of brisk morning air is immediately met with that warmth ray of sun hitting you. It's welcoming both to be returning to a place of comfort but also the transition into day itself is a very warm and welcoming experience. As you step towards the front, there are about four guards at the front gate. They step aside to let you in. As you step into the main foyer of the area, you already see a familiar sight. You see there waiting, arms crossed, leaning against the wall. Seekra Assoon. Scar is still on the face?

Yeah, still acid. Pock's scar across the right side, ruining the tattooed face. The mud rush of the castle seems relatively quiet in this time, as it is very early. She's the only one. He's the only one there? Within the actual foyer of the castle, yes, the main entrance area.

As you guys being to step inside, Seekerer assume steps in your direction. Steps in your direction and Kima at this point is already kind of taking a brisk walk in that direction and pointing outward towards Sikrosum. Now, I just grab Kima by the wrist. Just. You told me he had already made the creature. This is the...

At which point Sigrisum's hands rest on the Kima's shoulder, Kema's head whips around to face, Assume. Kim says, you need not worry. She hates that. She doesn't like it. Oh, no. He's going through the sheets. Oh, no.

Kimma's eyes blink for a moment. Oh, fuck. No, no, no, no, no. I sell my hands on Kima, right? Yeah. I count her with a six level to spell magic. Can I do that? You can certainly try.

Fuck. All right, so as you begin to... Oh, no, we're going to start a fight. That's going to start a fight. I just don't want her to fucking cast any shit on Kima. What if it was just to chill out, the spell? It's probably a charm-scrow. It was a memory spell, maybe.

Yeah. No, I don't want to fucking . It's not a counter spell, but you can try to cast it on her to see if it has any effect. Okay. All righty. So the DC spell. Okay.

So as you pull back and begin chanting to yourself, kind of clutching Kima, pulling her away from the sum, assumes grip leaves Kima's shoulder, and Kima is still kind of. shaking her head, kind of grogly, you finish the dispel magic, and you feel the strange, warm pulse of energy, kind of radiate briefly out from Kima's body. Kima turns to look at you and goes,

what's, why we, I'm sorry, I'm really kind of groggy there for a second. We've had a long day. Good to see you, assume, and some nods and says. Well, the pleasure is mine, glad to see you all made it back safe and sound. Yes, we did. You as well. So, we have a meeting set here in the next two hours to gather our information and best situate the next plan of action. You also have a friend waiting for you.

You're an armored kashar. Returned but a half day ago, apparently. Sleeping at the moment, should you be interested in waking him from his slumber and notifying him of his... Well, his service is no longer being needed. Do he return alone? He did, and rather proud with his findings. Oh, shit. Where are you off to now?

Oh, I'm here waiting for the meeting. Lovely. And who all's going to be a part of this meeting? As far as I know, it's going to be myself, Cassandra, Alora, and Drake. Good, Alora, we haven't seen her in forever. Have we? We did. We did.

Yes, we did. All right. Well then until the meeting? Until the meeting. Food should be ready. And the Zoom steps out into the sunshine and kind of closes his eyes. Takes a deep breath as the sun ray hits and looks over her shoulder. Smiles and continues to walk down the path in towards Whitestone itself. Kill right here, right now. No, no.

Kima kind of takes a couple steps. Well, I'm more tired than I expected after that fight. Then again, we did kill a dragon, and that is fantastic! We did, yeah. And you got a brilliant new sword. Which she pulls out and kind of shoo. You could see the arc of light kind of streak across the blade as she flings it in the air with incredible strength for a half-thing of her size. She kind of still marveled by it.

You know what? I'm not going to say, I'm going to go practice. And she goes and runs off down one of the hall. towards one of the castles. Hey, came up, came up. You don't like hear anything when you use that, do you? Like voices or, you know, like someone talking to you or all of them. She holds something up to her ear?

No. No, good, good, good. It's a beginner problem, but you're all quite advanced. Not worried about it. Enjoy. Thanks, Rock. Slapsed you on the shoulder with like an awkward glance and continues the excited steps forward into vanishing somewhere into the castle.

The sword is clean. Good job. Yeah. Dodged a bullet on that one. We should put that hide in the treasury. Hyde? The 140 pounds of dragon hide you're carrying right now? Oh, right. I'm dragging it like on a side behind me.

Yeah. Yeah. Right. Like a body in a carpet. Well, I'm off to deposit this hide. Good object work. Yeah. Boy, I need to sweat shoulders. Oh, there we go.

Get a little raw and old righty there. Keeleth grabs the backs as they kind of wander off and pulls them behind the rest of the crowd. Okay. Let's go. Where? Let's track Raichon. All right.

Let's track her. Let's just do it. Let's just do it right now. Let's kill her. We can do it. She doesn't, she's not, she won't expect any. We can find her. Pull her further away.

She didn't expect. Greetings, adventurers. Spring has sprung here in Los Angeles, and that means it's a brief period where it's only 75 degrees instead of 95 degrees. I'll take it. And that means I've been outside a lot more. Walking around, occasionally galloping after a toddler hopped up on juice boxes,

traveling a bit. You know the vibe. And after doing some spring cleaning, my wardrobe, I gotta say, looking a little bit sad. I want clothes that can keep up with me and my son, but updating my wardrobe every spring sounds pretty expensive. So that's why I wound up signing up for Fabletics as a VIP. It let me overhaul my springtime outfits without obliterating my bank account.

New VIPs unlock major savings on that first purchase, so trying new fits feels way more doable. When I signed up as a new VIP with Fabletics, I got 70 to 80% off everything. It made it easy to grab a few new pieces without overthinking it. And the quality really surprised me. Everything feels premium and soft and breathable, but you're not paying those premium prices. What I like most, though, is how versatile everything is. You've got stuff you can work out in, but also wear out.

There's matching sets, lightweight hoodies, joggers, teas, you name it. The kind of stuff you can throw on in the morning and not worry about later. When I'm at home, my favorite thing to pull on is the oversized hoodie. It's so comfy I could just live in it 24-7. It's perfect for walking my dog on like a chilly night. But what I'm out and about, I've really been loving the ribbed Johnny Collar Puller. low. It makes me look like I should be taking a high-powered meeting by the pool at the White Lotus, but hopefully with less murder involved. I don't know. It's insanely comfortable. I highly

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Quince.com slash critical role. You can't do it right now when she's armed. Kiela, I want to kill a dragon as much as you do. It's not about killing a dragon, it's about killing her. But we want it to work, we want her to die. And if you and I do it, it's not going to happen. Her being sick is still up here. We need the others.

I want to use both my arms to take her, but I can't take her by the arms. We need the others if I thought we could do it. Listen to me. I love you, and if you ask me again, I will go with you. you, but I don't think it will work. I think you and I will die. I think Rishan will spit on our bodies. You will not get what you want. And then Thorac won't die. No one will be happy. I understand. I just want this to be over. Okay? I'm just, I'm just, I'm... If you tell me to go in, I will go in. But, you know, there's strength with the others.

After this, if you tell me to go in, you say the word. It's not like I haven't tried to throw my life away already. You think I wouldn't do it for you? I just feel like it's very telling when Grog has more patience than I. Okay. Hey. I just don't want to wait so long that she gets the upper hand on us. The longer we wait, the more she learns about us, the more we're letting her in, the more we're revealing.

I feel like the longer we wait, the closer is her inevitable betrayal. Pulls her in and just touch foreheads. I don't think we're gonna be waiting for long. I really don't. Let's catch up with the others. Yeah. All right, the rest of you, what are you gonna up to? I pull Percy aside and say,

We can kill her right now. It's a tiger! Well. Oh, we gotta go to the treasury. We have to go to the treasury. And then what? Should we check in with? Who do we check in with?

Everyone, right? Gilmore and cash. You've got a couple hours? We have a couple hours, we need to talk to people, we need to find out where this meeting is being held, if it's being held downstairs, or if it's being held in the battle room. It won't be if Asume has anything to say about it.

Well, maybe he won't. And what is this meeting? I know that we have to have a conversation with, assume. And what is this about? This meeting may be the beginning of something very violent, or it may be the start of something. I don't know, but be prepared, perhaps, that this meeting may be a moment.

Be prepared. Don't think about it, don't plan, don't have any thoughts in your head. Improvise. You can't lie about anything. Do not lie to her about anything. And one of the ways we can lie best is by truthfully saying we have no plans

against her right now, because we have no plans against her right now. The more we talk, the more she will be able to perceive our deceptions, if we have any. Be very careful. This is going to be very dangerous. There's going to be a lot of improvisation. I just hate knowing that she's going to be able to hear all of our plans. Honestly, we should have assumed that they could hear all of our plans from the beginning. We are very good at being Spied on? Yes, well, we'd like to talk. And even if we do, even if we were to get rid of her, there's no sense in believing that they still don't know

everything we're doing. All right, well then we'll just see what he proposes and take it from there. Let's hope that we're downstairs. And if we're not downstairs, well, there's still options. Groggy finally caught up with the group. You finished to drop off your large amount of dragon hide in return. Holy shit, that skin weighs a ton.

Good thing I'm strong is, but what a miss. Is there a coldy place in the treasure? Wait, this hide has been, it's gonna be cured or smoked or something, whatever you do, stretched. That stays, right? It doesn't have to be kept cold.

I mean, it probably should be. Kept cold. Well, it probably should be tended to in a short amount of time, like in the next week or so before. Would it be an armor? or a blacksmith? Who works with dragon hide?

What's the old-fashioned word for the guy who does the hide stuff? A leather-off? A tanner? Thank you. Is there a tanner in Whitesone? One would assume we have a tanner. There are a few tanners, yeah. Is it super cold where I dropped off the hide?

Like, is it below ground? It's below ground. Yeah, it's not. A bit chilly. Comparably, Whitestone in general, is a pretty chilly place, so yeah. But not like a fake bake. We want a real tanner, right?

Okay, while they're talking about all this, can I stealth away? Yes, you can. Make a stealthy. Use luck. 20. What's that? 28. 28. Okay. Yeah, you vanish seemingly without anybody else noticing your disappearance. I would like to go as quickly as I can towards Gildon's house.

Okay. All right. So did we, are we, are we, oh. Look, it's 2016. Did we decide what we do about, right, right, right? We're going to assume. Yes. We're going to talk. We're going to listen, and we're going to be prepared for anything.

Okay, so we're not. Not just yet. Talk, we're going to listen. We're going to be prepared for anything. Was that last sound, the sound of, Seeker assumes, bells? It's open to interpretation. Okay.

After he dies, just sort of letting it all about out. It's worth your fancy. All right, great. I lean that way, but, you know, the work speaks for other people. The work speaks for itself, really. Fair enough. Fax is you rush down.

towards the homestead that Gilmore had made here in White Stone. Door is closed. There's a large pile out front of what looks to be ruined furniture that's just been kind of jammed into this collection. Presumably from the last encounter, they had been the incursion of assassins made their way in. But the doors closed and seemingly locked. A few moments passed, no response. That's him, that's magic. One more time.

But you find a gold coin. Eventually, you hear a little bit of rustling, and you hear a voice muffled from an upper floor say, couldn't have found it, I'll be right down. I'm so scared of this with that hair on your head. Yeah. You hear some footsteps and then eventually the door kind of, you hear the unlocking mechanism and the door swings open a little bit. You see morning robe, kind of, you know, chest open,

curly chest hair, kind of poking out a very groggy kind of bed head. Gilmore. Was the door, yes, can I help? Oh, good morning. I don't know what to do. Why did I do this? I don't know why. Hey, this is not fair.

Can I come in to talk quickly? I have to head back to the others. Do you like some tea? No, I don't even have time. I just want to talk to you. I like some tea. Come on him. Come on.

Come on. And he offers you to enter and gives you to one of the small chairs. And he kind of walks back in the the kitchen while kind of shouting over her shoulder. So, Axelot, please. Tell me what's on your mind? Um, you know we're getting closer to the end game here. I certainly hope so. It's taking a couple years off my life spent. We just killed another one of the dragons. Really? Yeah. How many is that now for you? Three? It is three.

Making a name for yourself. I'm proud of you. A few moments pass, and Salon Gilmore walks back out, clutching what looks to be a small tray with a few teacups. And as he's walking, he's kind of twirling his finger, and you can see a little spiral flame kind of encircling the tea kettle as it begins to heat up as he brings it over and says it down on the table. Kind of pulls this robe in and sits down across from you,

this kind of low slung tea table and takes a bit and tips it. Yes. So what brings you here this? this early in the morning. Brent. I think I might be dead in a couple of days. So I came here to apologize. If you think I have no feelings for you,

you're kidding yourself. I care for you very deeply. I have for a long time. And I don't think I've treated you fairly. But I wasn't playing games. Sean, it's been a little weird lately and I understand why, but I want you to know that I love you.

is a dear, dear friend, and I really don't think I'm going to be here in a few days, and I would hate to think that I would be... Shh! That's far too fatalistic from the facts of them that I know. Number one. Number two, you have nothing to apologize. Look, everything's on fire around us all the time. We all jump at whatever. A little bit of comfort finds its way before us. And at the same time, I appreciate your honest. And I am thankful for the connection that we do have.

And yes, heartbreak comes, but heartbreak goes. It's a heart of life. It just means that I need to find somebody who's a little more my speed. That guy will be fast. You better be. Don't worry about it. Go, kill the dragon, another.

Kill two more. Kill six more, I don't care. Just know that you're coming back. I guess I need you and your friends to keep pimping out my name. Sure. Whoever gets you will be very lucky. You sure don't want any tea. I'm really nauseous right now. I almost didn't come here.

I'm glad you did. He takes your cup. Waste not want now. Now go, stop being uncomfortable in front of me. I need to get my morning situated. Goodbye. Goodbye. It stands there. Waves his hand, the door open.

opens on its own. He takes him by the shoulder real fast before you. He even turns you around and goes, till the next time, say it. You feel a little pat on your, back side on the way out. You're just kind of sits there holding his tea, watching you leave, and door slams behind you. Make your way back. I'm sorry I made you do that in that Skelcat Matt. Look, I don't have to look at this. I'm fine. I'm not saying, he gets to wear it. We're the ones who have to look at. From my perspective, this is easy. All I saw was a very handsome man. This is all training. It's a training in a thousand times gravity.

It's amazing. It totally is. Performing arts with the weights on. You've been doing this since the 80s, man. We need to find Kashar. Yeah, I set up. Before the meeting, yeah. To find Kashar. In fact. All right, asking around quickly, he is back in the room where he's been staying in White Stone. You go back to his door, it's closed. Cash? Are you sleeping? Down the door.

Cash. I'm going to jail the lock. Is it locked? It's not locked. I open it. Just a crack and look. I hope you're not naked. As you open it up, you know, there's no light on the inside, but the light that does come in as you kind of slowly open the door.

You can see he's halfway out of his armor. It's passed out, like on his back, on the bed, like, you know, just like one arm out, just snoring loudly. He was too tired to make it all the way. And he was just, okay. Should we just sleep? Or should we talk to him? I don't. He snores.

Wow. You know, my brother doesn't snore. No, I know. Ew. No, I mean, I don't. Not that I, just never. Don't worry about it. I love you, Tratton.

I thought I'd be the one of fuck out. Do I have stones, any, like, rocks or anything in my bag? Wait, you're gonna throw a rock at him? Just to see if he wakes up. We can't just poke him? That seems so weird. You're an archer. I don't want to kill him.

Why don't we just tap on his shoulder? It's true. I'll sneak in, tap a shoulder, come back out, see if he wakes up. Oh, that's all about idea. I don't want him to know that, you know. Yeah, that we did that. Sure.

I'll stand on the outside and look unsuspecting. I want to sneak in and just take off his little foot and then walk out. He still has his boots on. Shit. It's more of like his upper porch. so he got far away out and then that's back. I tickle his hands.

Okay, so you go bring his hand and then go back really fast to the doorway. Okay. You tickle his hand? No response. Fuck him. I flick his nose. As soon as you flick his nose and you start it back away, there's a blur of motion and suddenly he comes leaping out of the bed, grabs over and grabs his spear. His hand reaches for nothing in the air and slings it forward in your direction, just bypassing your face by a few inches, and he looks still halfway going, huh, ha, ha.

Oh, Cash, oh, hi. Fancy meeting you here. Yeah, it's my room. I keep doing that. I keep doing that. It's awkward. Um, hi. Hi. Hi.

Hi. You're awake. Oh, good. I was wondering if. Yeah, I hope we didn't, I hope you weren't sleeping. I hope I wasn't either. Sure. All right, I'm glad you're here. Yeah.

It took me a long-ass time to get here. And he kind of sits up in the bed, or sits down back on the bed, and reaches over and pulls up one of his packs and brings out a couple of rolls. Okay, so I talked to Vanessa. Yeah. I got two contracts here that we can take up for this. Okay. We've got one here and he pulls it out. He's like, this is four.

Two indigenous creatures to the region, we're talking about over by a wildmouth. Uh-huh. Purple Worm Matron. Ooh, that sounds big. Supposedly, shit's dangerous. Yeah. Careful. This one is for Storm Giant. This is a little harder to get a hold of apparently.

They tend to live up there. You know what, we should probably focus on the other one. Mm-hmm. Unless Vorigo is already dead. Yeah, wouldn't that be crazy? If he just was already doing it. What are we doing this contracts if he is? Yeah.

Just wondering. How about that? Get out of my room. No. Cash. Just get out. Cash. Get out of my room. Look. Your help has been not overlooked at all. Of my room. We should probably go. Do you want these back? Do you want this? I'm just going to set them down on the ground. You know, we can. Get out of my room. Um, um, by the way, you might want to get like a mouthguard as something as you snow a little. You leave them in silence and darkness. Out of my room! Kiliath, we should go.

Okay. We'll see you later. Kailanth. What? And I take around a corner. No! God, no. What?

Fast now? Did I miss something? No. You guys are like, pretty close and... I just... I don't know if that's weird. Why are you asking me? I don't know.

You're like, his sister kind of. He's not my twin brother. No, I know. This is true. How are things with you and back? Thanks for bringing it up. Is it good? I still worry if you care.

I care, yeah. You know, you say that? I just hugger. Yeah, and listen, okay. Sorry, sorry, that happens a lot. I'm very happy for you. Hey, thanks. We should go look at the treasury.

Okay, let's go look at the treasury. We should go victory shopping. Oh my God. Do you think he'd mind if we just, like, you know? I mean, we have so much money. We don't even need to do this. I mean, it's basically, our money, though, right? Yeah.

No, so kind of. Yeah. Okay. All right, so you guys wandered your way up. You know, Vex, I feel like you might be a bad or a good influence on me. I'm not sure, but I like it. It's all good. Okay.

Scanlon, Grog, first of all, what do you guys doing? Life is failing the Becknell test so hard right now. I mean, so bad. Sorry. Carry on. Tell us, tell us, tell us what I'm doing. They do it. Do we do it?

They are like 50% of... I had no, I did not see that coming. I did not see that coming. Carry on. We don't really need to like check in with anything. I have that open. Give me, do you have the gold? I mean, I have, yeah.

We should probably divvy it up, don't you think? No, no, no. It's like, it's really a lot to hold onto your person. No, but we should all replenish our personal amounts. You can have some pocket money, but... Yes, yes, yeah. How much do you want? You don't have it.

No, 5,000. We have... We have hundreds. You want 5,000? Do you have good credits? Do you have good credit? Do you have good credit? I have never misspent a single coin.

Can I have your last four pay stubs, please? There's two of them right here. That's so good enough for 5,000 gold. And Scria gives you 5,000 gold, which weighs roughly 100 pounds. It weighs more than you do. 5,000 gold is... It's probably about 1,000 because I can't count for 5,000. Yeah.

You just keep... I'm just giving it out until it's like larger than you in a pile. What are you going to do with that? All right, all right. I'm going to give some back. Are you really? Why don't you give me 10 platinum? No, absolutely. That's the same, it's the same.

10 platinum? 10 platinum. 10 platinum? He can carry 10. That's easy. Sure. Hold on, let me consult Blackstone. 10,000 or 10,000?

Don't do it. Yep. Stone Black says, it's all right. I am. I take the gold, I put it back in, and I'll give him. give him 10 platinum, which is actually six. So you get six platinum, which is roughly 60 gold. 137, 8, 9, 40, 10.

That's it? Excellent. And give me 500 gold as well. No. Of course, I need money. It's really heavy. How about I'll give you like 20 more platinum? Great, that sounds good.

And I'll give him four more. I'll give me 50 more platinum. 50? Yes. Great, I'll give you one more. Thank you. Perfect. I'm going to try and find Allura.

I'm going to leave them to their madness. I'm going to try and find Alura and Cassandra or anybody I can find in the castle. Okay. As you walk around, nobody else is supposed to be meeting has gathered yet. However, Cassandra is awake, and in the process of going through some papers, and she has her personal guard at her side and two guards at the door, and you can see she's kind of just getting herself prepared for the meeting.

As you enter the room, the door partially ajar, you can see her still down there, just currently thumbing through notes, her hair is still kind of in disarray, and pulled back haphazardly, she's wearing her morning gown, and without any look up, just goes, Percival.

Madge you arrived and still in one piece. Yes, and down one dragon. I have to tell you, I'm very impressed. Thank you. Two more to go. It's going to get a little heavier at this point. Indeed, that's largely what I'm meeting is about. What was that again? Sorry, I need to go fire some of my guards. They're making a nuisance continually.

Two more to go. I fear that it is possible that White Stone itself may eventually be the target of an attack. I feel it may be inevitable. That is actually what our meeting is about. Prevent that from happening. Just quickly to check, I would know what languages Cassandra spoke, correct? She would speak, what languages do you know? Elvin's Celestial Common.

She knows Elvin in common, she's not Celestial. That was more of your hobby. I figured that was kind of my guess, I just want to confirm. I hand her a small slip of paper that I've written in Elvin, B. prepared for anything today. Keep silent.

The war is over and both sides lost. Kingdoms were reduced to cinders and armies scattered like bones in the dust. Now the survivors claw to what's left of a broken world, praying the darkness chooses someone

else tonight, but in the shadow dark, the darkness always wins. This is old school adventuring and 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. 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 Rothers, 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. She gives me a very keen look, and you can see, Cassandra, as much as she is the healthiest you've seen her, physically, her eyes have dark circles over them. It looks like she's been very, um,

harried by just the events of these past few weeks, understandably so. Um, but she takes and looks over the sheet and goes, Well, very much. It should be an interesting meeting, then. I think so. I do think so. It's good to see you taking command.

It's good to see you, and I look forward to you sharing some of the burden soon. Yes. Right? Yes, quite possibly. Right? We will discuss whence the dragons are taken care of. Good. We will discuss, at the very least, relieving you of some of this burden.

Good. I know it's not fair. What's it always fair in this life? The wonders of lord's shipping lady, don't. I'm gonna run off and try to find Jarrett. Do you wish to come, anything else, I'm gonna bring this conversation? No, I'm fine with that. My last thing is I'm just going to quickly run and have a quick conversation

privately with, I assume we have some sort of royal jeweler of some kind or somebody else. who does some of the ornamental work for the... No one who lives on site, per se, but there are two individuals that your family generally used for various forms of dual crafts. I'm just going to write and send a letter off for that. Okay, no worries. Scanlan, are you going to do?

Looking for Jared? Just looking for Jared. Okay. You head outside of the main castle down to where the training barracks are for White Stone, and you can see Jared's already out there. The small kind of metallic platter on his lap, just scarfing up some food,

real fast. He's gotten his day started relatively early, and as soon as you approach, the mouth's already full. Hmm. Skadilin, it's good to see you. Good to see you too. What's you enjoying there? The usual gruel that you find in this city? Oh, I thought, might be something that meat-based, that you could have popped up a bit with your spice. Oh, well, trust me, I've used it on the eggs and it makes it bearable. This, um, Einstein is not known for its cuisine, uh, from what I can tell. Everything's gray and lax flavor. I'll invite you over to my house sometime.

Give you a proper chicken dinner. All right, I will happily take you up on the doctor. Thank you. Just wanted to check in on the task we talked about. The task? You know, the mission we discussed. What am I again? I don't want to talk about it out in the open,

But you know, there was some illicit... Oh! Items of medicine. Yes, I sent a request through someone I know. Sent a request. You're using other people? I trust you. I don't trust other people. I'm not going to leave the city right now to go find... Look, I have two people I know that might be able to get what you need.

But it's going to take time. I don't have time. When did you pick up this? I'm worried about you now, still. I'm trying to pick it up. Damn it. It's the most difficult habit to pick up. Listen, can I just confide on in you man to man one on one here?

Certainly. You're a fighter. You're a strapping young battle man, aren't you? I have been told this once or twice, yes. I just haven't felt myself recently. You know, we have these fights, and some of them are pretty epic, and there's monsters involved. involved and I'm usually on my game but lately I'm just feeling a little off. How do you cope

with that? Well, largely by not using illicit substances. Don't judge. I'm not judging. I'm not judging, I'm just worried about you. Like if you don't even have a habit, why would you look for this? The scandal I knew, the one that hired me, he knew how to deal with this issue. He got late. I don't really do that much anymore. Maybe that's why you're not feeling up to the task. That is a very fair point, Charis. I'm just saying. Look, and I do not mean to talk it up, turning, since his meal aside, but you are a man who

walks driven by his pelvis. Am I wrong? You're not wrong. Then what happens if the pelvis goes unused, grows bashful? Like a fine instrument, it can go untuned. Then? Leave a fine violin without playing it for many years. It could wither and rot until you need to replace some of the parts.

In a way, the same is true for my member. But the problem here, Jerich, is that I'm distracted. I'm distracted by things that haven't ever distracted me before. I've made a promise to someone to stay alive. I've never valued my own life before. When we get into the shit, I'm second-guessing things. I'm making stupid decisions that I wouldn't have otherwise made. Because suddenly you have purpose.

Exactly. Because you have a reason to come back. Yes. That's not a bad thing though. I just don't know how to harness that kind of stress. Do you have a keepsake of this reason to return, this person you to promise to. Do I have a keepsake?

I don't think so. Then you need to get yourself a keepsake. Well, she's not along, she's not around right now to get a keepsake from. Then something else that reminds you of them. Something you could look at in that moment where you're not so sure. How did you get so wise, Jay? Drink a lot, listen to people talk. They're not wiser than barquee's my friend, and I have been friends with many a barkey.

These are all good suggestions, but I'm a man of instinct, and my instinct. The instinct said that I needed to supplement my body with some extra liquid courage. So if you can please continue to look for me. I will continue searching and providing what you require. I've just heard that it can help people in moments of panic and stress. And I've watched it ruin lives near Catala swamp.

I can handle it. I can handle a lot of things. You are a strange, strange gnome. It takes one to know one. It does not work in this circumstance, but I applaud your attempt. It was good. It was good. I'll do it I can't. But don't forget, you have more than just one reason to stick around. I know that's what worries me. I'll think about what you said. Maybe I'll go have a toss and see if that helps too. Okay. Here, tell you what. Come here.

Yes. And he sucker punches you in the face. Just... You... Unexpently thought. fall back, you feel kind of the pulsing of the blood run into your cheek and your eyesight goes white for a second and he's just up, he goes, see, now you have to live to return the favor. You, that was clever. I will definitely get you back for that. Good. I look forward to it. Watch you back. I always do. Get me some drugs. Awesome. All right, so. Right.

Can I will find, it was like daytime, right? Yeah, it's like early morning, maybe pushing around 9 o'clock. Since everybody's like doing like important shit, is there like a way I can find like a courtyard, like an open area? There are a couple of courtyards within the perimeter walls of the castle, yeah, they have like some small garden elements. If I get out there, there are there like a lot of guards like keeping an eye? Not within the courtyard, generally, no. Occasionally there'll be one patrolling, but... Can I pee in the courtyard?

By all means. Yeah, I just feel like. I really need to like mock the territory. I mean this is like home for us, right? And I peed all over Gray's Skull Keep. Like I just left little puddles that y'all didn't know about. It's really important, like other Goliaths come around.

They're like, nope, the wolf's here. I gotta go elsewhere. I just assumed it was shoddy masonry and it was everything was leaking. Nah, stealth, stelfroo, motherfuck. Can I? This is taking leap at all. Yeah, and there are a number of walls

to choose from. Varying heights, different levels of masonry. Like, it is, you have the veritable, pick of the litter. Can off on the highest wall with the most ornate decoration on it and just go slightly off left the way we member goes and just make a little box right there. Just a little waterfall on the white side. Certainly. You find the portion where the exterior wall has one little parapet joining portion with the exterior of the castle itself. There you can see the masonry is fine. The Stones themselves are clean cut and joined properly. There isn't a whole lot in the way of ornate craftsmanship

on the exterior, the castle or the walls, but you feel, as far as your interest, Grog, this is a good wall. It's pretty nice. And you mark your territory, expertly. And like a wide arcing, you know, not like the one shot, just like a nice upside-down frown. Yeah, like a Cylon eye beam.

That's it. Yeah, totally. All right. You do so with Gistow. Congratulations. Thank you. Home. Yay.

That's how Grog spells home. Stellar RP. Hell yeah. All else do you spell home. All right, unless there's anything else needs to be done. I'm not done with my errands. Can I go find Kynan? You can. Kynan, who is currently under the watch of Jared at the moment.

Yeah. Is this thing. You start walking towards that direction as Scanlan is leaving the direction as Scanlan is leaving the the exterior of the bear training ground. Hey buddy. Hi. You look a little rough. Right?

I'm fine. Just one of our employees punched me in the face. Which one? You don't want to know. It wasn't the cooking cook. You look really tense. You look out of character. He's lying.

Oh dear. Show them out of that. Go head back. We're going to have their meeting soon. Get your game face on, yeah? I will. I'll wash my face and get to it. All right.

How are you doing? I'm good. Yeah? Best I've been in a while. That's good to hear. It's been a while since we've had one of our depressing chats. It seems a little bit more chipper these days. Yeah, feeling.

Coming around to my perspective, are you? Can I make an inside check? Yeah, make an inside check. Seems full of shit. I mean. Okay. I'm gonna use luck. I got it.

That's your second luck. Who cares? This is a game. With my friends, I'm having fun. That is an 18. 18? Yeah. Are you deceiving him in any way?

No, not at all. So yeah, you feel just. But does he seem confident and happy, is what I wanted to know. As much as he would in the given thought situation, yeah. I'm in love. Really? Yeah.

Do I know the fellow? I'll tell you later, right? I want to hear details. Dirty, dirty details. Sweaty details. He is so hung. Yeah? Unbelievable.

Getting on which did it. Talk. Wow. Yeah. We guys. I'll tell you later. I got to run an error in. We gotta get this fucking meeting, yeah?

Oh yeah. I'll see you there. Game face on. Is this how they like talk themselves up? Like. Don't want me to just talk about their vagina than you're alone? Yep, that's it.

Talking about your goddamn allers, jeepers. Off I go. All right. Locker room talk. Locker room, talk. No. Campaign is over. No, the game is over. White Stone burns in the plane. All right, you make your way there.

Jared, you can see finishing a meal. Looks over to you, there's nobody else in the training area. It's still relatively early, it seems, and you see, actually, you do, with your perception, you do see back on the main stone building, you see a few individuals walking back and forth in front of one of the windows. front of one of the windows. Looks like things are just kind of starting up over there for the training of the day. Jared finished his meal, scarps up,

a last bit of an egg on the set of the plate. Hey! You're right? Yes. Hey, I don't want to interrupt. Kynan, the new guy, the new guy. Yes, yes, yes. Is he around?

Probably inside sleeping or waking. So, if I go in? Sure, this way. Just be a minute. Yeah, go forward. You just back down. You head inside and the door is not locked. You open up inside.

You can see. ten different individuals that are all in the process of waking up. They could smell coffee and very, very basic breakfast, meats being cooked. Some of them around tables talking, kind of hunch forward and laughing, and as soon as you walk in, a few of them kind of turns to look at you. Some don't recognize you, some do. You do see kind of in the far, far corner, sitting alone at one of the tables is kind of currently just kind of almost prison style, kind of guarding his food and eating by himself.

Right towards him. Are you fitting in? I mean, all right. Everyone here's even fine. Yeah, you're hanging back? I mean, as much as I need to, this is still a lot. Uh, Jared's been good, he's been watching. He's a good man.

I get it. We killed another dragon. Wow. Yeah. I don't want you to question your decision here, all right? No, no. I mean, I mean, This is, I don't have anything else right now, really. So what's the question?

There's no question. But if you could do me, I have two favors I want to ask. Okay. The first one is, after I leave here today, could you embrace these people? Yeah, I'm trying. Yeah, I know. And I know you have reservations,

and I know that you have, I know that you've got guilt. When I walk out of here, I want you to work on letting go of that. For real, leap of faith kind of shit. Just let go of it. I'll do my best. I know. Scratch that three favors. Looks out of the hill up for a second, and seemingly like, ah boy. Yeah. The second one, um, I don't even need to you to say anything about this,

but, uh, you know the white-haired guy I travel with? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. a sister and I don't want you to do anything other than keep an eye on her and keep a safe. Okay. We're uh... we're kind of going into the uh...

kind of going into the Lions Den soon, I think. And uh... you know, we'll probably come out of it. But um... Yeah, yeah. Just in case. She's got a lot of in her shoulders. She's got a lot on her shoulders, you know that.

as you know that, so just keep an eye on it. That's it. All right. And the last thing, you got those knives I gave you, right? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, hold on. I trust you. I need you to watch after one last thing for me, all right?

It's very important. I wake up Simon and I let him crawl down my arm. Do you see this guy? Yeah. He's been with me through a lot, and I don't want him at the bottom of a ditch. He's sure? I have never been more sure of anything in my life. I want you to have him, and I want you to take care of him.

Not. It'll be done, I promise. Kynum, I need you to believe in second chances. It's all I have keeping me going right now. He kind of reaches his hand up towards the snake, and Simon leaps from your hand to his, and swirls down his. arm and he kind of looks confused for a second as it wraps around his waist and then forms into the shape of the belt. He's now see a few other guys in the room. The room's

got a little quiet. They're all kind of over there watching what's happening. Like, what's going on? He notices the attention is like, I'll take it care of it. I believe it. I mean no offense. It's a lot of tension right now. Just a slap on his cheek. Remember everything I said, all right? Yeah. You're a good kid. You're a good kid. Wack. Same temple. See you later, all right? Definitely.

You head up. Okay. At this point in time, a number of pages have been sent throughout the city to gather those who have been wandering about White Stone as you were being called to the meeting in the second floor war room within the castle itself. Second floor? Same one where you met earlier with that. That'll do.

That'll do. All right. Yeah. You ready for anything? Are you ready for anything? Jesus Christ. Let's go, Krogering. Best of everything.

Before we walk in, I grab Grog. How do you do it? Do what? You're able to utilize your rage when necessary. How do you keep it suppressed when it's not needed? Ah, a good question. Please, enlighten me, Professor Grog. Right, it all comes down to one word really.

Yeah. Family. Right, before I was a part of this group, I had no family. If I took me in, I met all of you, and I had a purpose. Yeah. So before that, like, I would be down to fuck anything of it anytime, no problem. Sure. I still kinda am.

But I realized that if I fly off the handle too soon, it screws over my family and that's no good because I care about you most of you so for me you're gonna get yours it's coming

and I'm gonna help you and I'm gonna half-five you when it's done but until then you keep that shit tucked inside let it build and then when the time is right you let her have it and I'll throw you into the fray when the time was right.

Promise? Yeah, I'll promise. Deal. Deal. Oh shit, sorry, I'm so sorry. No, it's fine, it's fine, I appreciate it. Oh, yeah. It's good. She should really take one hit point of damage.

Sure, you take a hit point of damage. Oh, man, we're gonna ask questions about that later. No, it's cool, you make a really good story. My nut! Yeah, yeah, yeah. But listen, if at any time it gets to be too much, you just go. We got here.

Okay. I wanna let you guys down. Oh, well. Thanks, Grog. Okay, let's do this. All right, as you guys enter the war room, same as it was previously left. However, you are, you are brought with the image

of around the table an early morning, Alura, Gilmore, surprisingly, Drake, Thunderbrand, and Cassandra, as well as Assume, who's kind of standing behind most of them towards, leaning back to the window. They all kind of, the middle conversation turn and smile as you begin to walk in and see Gilmore, nods to everybody, gives an extra smile to you back. Cassandra is just kind of waiting for the Pleasantries to end. Allura comes up and kind of takes your hand each news again. It's wonderful to see that you've returned safely. I had many terrible thoughts that perhaps this meeting would not be as positive.

I'm very glad to know that I was wrong. That you brought Kima back to us as well. Pike is safe as well. So congratulations, I guess, are in order. Come sit these circumstances. Do press our timeline a bit. And you see there have been a number of other chairs already brought into the room prepared for you guys

to sit around together. Is there anyone sitting next to Raichon? No, actually. Rishon is not sitting, Rishon is standing, arms crossed, leaning against the window. I want to stay standing as well. Yeah, I move in my grade close to Raichon. Okay, as you approach, you can see,

assumes eyes kind of watch you, a small grin on the face, and a little bit of a nod. I give a nod back. Mm-hmm. I pull a chair out for assume, and I'm going to sit next. I'm going to offer him in the chair and sit and pull him out next to him for myself.

Soon. At which point, Cassandra gathers all your attention in the midst of this chaos. So, the excursion to Wild Mount went well. As far as I understand, you are now one more dragon slaying into this chaotic endeavor. So, well done. Tell me, how did this happen?

A deal was made with the locals. We brought the dragon to a pointed kill point, to a kill spot outside of the city. We summoned a creature, we watched the battle. With the gate scroll that we showed you actually. The gate scroll. There was a battle. and we felt it. More or less, how it went down.

It was a simple trap. It was elegant, and we barely survived. I pull out the Spire of Conflux. I hand it to her. We retrieved this in our spoils. You may recognize it as one of the messages that we spoke of earlier. Alexandra, kind of faces it, that looks quite important. Allura. Yes, I thought I was handing it to Allura. That's what it's remit for allure.

Yeah. See how this would be confusing. Yes. Nah. You look just like allura. Is everything okay? Have you been through some shit? It's been rough week.

You can moisturize. I almost did allure too. That would have been good too. Next Halloween. Fax is leading against the door to this chamber, by the way. All right. All right. It takes it.

This is a magnificent artifact. Well founded. Perhaps we'll take a look at it after the meeting together. Sure. Cassandra kept everyone's attention once more and motions to the guards. The door that you're leaning by gets closed as the guards step out, so it's only you guys in this conversation. So with another of the conclave fallen, retaliation is imminent.

With Fodak already infuriated at the death of Umbrasil, and we only caught but a glance of that anger. anger, thankfully, through the means of a Cholura and Yomor. A few others were able to cloak the city, I do not feel that will last the entirety of the time we would need to take a leisurely stroll for our next series of plans. I fear that less protected cities may be in the path of retaliation before it even finds its way to us.

Laura speaks out with this point. Thor-Dak is a creature of infinite And the slight such as this against the conglay will most likely trigger the destruction of even more innocence, both to satiate his anger and I'm certain to also draw us out. He is an intelligent one. As is the company he keeps. Also reached out to other members of the Archkaner Pansofical and hope that they will come to our aid. But given the recent death of Vorogal, I do not hope they arrive in time to be of any assistance. so we have to begin to gather our strengths, our allies. Honestly, I think we need to strike first. You do? Well, otherwise we wait for the fight to be on four decks turf.

That's unexpected. Just pop on over to him on then? Well, we need a plan first. We need to gather those we've called to arms. We need to assess what strengths we have in utilizing all of these things at our disposal. come up with an idea of how we're going to actually do this. Gilmore, steps in and goes,

if we are to strike, I agree. It should also be very, very soon. We've pushed the boundaries of being on his peripheral, even this long. You say that he knows your faces, correct? Yes. His gaze will now, surely, upon the seven of you, at the very least. It was inevitable. I assume steps forward at this point,

from the wall against a walk, kind of in front of you. Keelew and between Percy. The longer he remains as well, the more the landscape of Iman and the surrounding. Bladesham a shoreline begins to chirp, begins to boil with flame and toxic fume. He is scarring the surrounding land with his claws, his teeth, his flames, his roar, and those that follow in his shadow. His fear-mongering has risen a number under him, and a creature of such pride is eager to show that

if you fall in such fear and do as he says, there are awards, and I'm sure you've come across many weak-willed individuals in your travels that would be eager to jump the chance of working for any such a powerful and dangerous creature. Laura steps in at this point now and says, I believe it is partially his,

essence, but the expedited rate of this elemental transition around him is based on the sole anchor that we embedded within him to keep him in the fire elemental plane. This stone that resides at the center of his chest and belly. I believe the stone is somehow drawing elements of the essence of the fire and elemental plane itself into Iman. I mean, it's not unusual for the... for the presence of a red dragon over hundreds of years to begin to convert the scenery around,

but this speed and only see a connection between the enchantment that we had hoped would hold Thorntac at bay and the changes we're seeing in the center of Yaman and beyond. Now, it was never intended for him to leave that place, and I feel deeply responsible for many elements of the danger in now seeing this world. I only know that I will do whatever it takes on my end.

and to see that this comes to an end. Whatever sacrifice, whatever is necessary, I am at your disposal, but the responsibility of destruction is also our own. The longer we take, the more chance he will tear through Kaimal, he will tear through Western, who will tear through Daxio.

He will begin to burn everything that Tal'Dore is until we show our faces. I am curious what the Master of Secrets thinks. Assume. Assume is still kind of walking in a circle around the table. What do you propose we do? Well, before we get to that, let us discuss things we have at our disposal.

The information we have, and from that, we can garnish a plan. I'm a master of secrets. I'm not a master of warmongering and attack. I get up and I walk up. to the window and I look out the window. We're not going to be safe here for much longer, that much is certain. So we will need to move quickly. And Drake speaks up at first time it goes.

I need not to mention that slippery green, Drake is still out there somewhere. We have no idea where it is. There are two members of the conclave remaining. Well, I mean, out. Um, brother, yeah, too. Do you think perhaps, perhaps it's best to skip one in hope for the element of surprise. Maybe he thinks we're going to finish off his generals before we come to him. It may be a brief, brief moment of surprise, if anything.

Maybe he's expecting us to kill one more, not go for the main prize. It's cut off the head of the king. Maybe. So, Thorac, from what I understand, is extremely powerful and influential. that Rishon dragon is a mere pittance in comparison, a small, exponential, at, a pawn, if you will, on the battlefield.

I certainly hope so. And if that's the case, then I think you're right. Go for the king first. But we must do so with eyes all about us because the last thing we need is to be flanked by that beast in the center of our attack. Exactly, we don't want to deal with two ancient dragons. Can we lure it somewhere else, perhaps?

Everywhere fucking was. How Laura speaks up at this point, look up, I know that Fordax hate for me still burns, hence by the reason they went directly for my tower when they first arrived at him on. The one trump card we do have, in this is me. What, do you want to offer yourself as bait?

If need be. I'm not saying that's the right plan, but I'm saying that is one thing we can perhaps utilize in our plan. and our strategy. Is this hate for you? Mm. Oh.

I think the main... She have seen them away. There was a ship in Trachonia. Nor-Northan ship of some kind. I still feel that there may be some sort of weapon inside it that may prove useful. It was a ship that had been dragged there by the White Dragon. It's been bothering me.

And then, of course, we have whatever it is that we have downstairs. I'm not saying that we should use it, but it is powerful. I don't know how we would use it. We can't move it, can we? We can't touch it. You more pops up against this. Exactly.

I'm pouring over that thing for a number of weeks until we had to build this barrier, and be totally honest, I am sick of it. You've got nothing. Well, we understand it's a siphon. It's bringing the energy of the nexus somewhere. We just don't know where the other end of it is. Or if it's even functioning properly. Yeah.

Allora, do you still feel the connection with the Solstone that's inside of Thorac? Well, I have no personal connection with it. I just know that I was the architect of its enchantment and the rules of which sealed it within Tholdek. You built it. You must know of some way to disable it. Or a weakness.

Yeah. We designed it to have no weakness. The intent was to keep him there indefinitely. I mean, Assume, you said you have friends back in Imman still that have been gathering intel. Assume he said that, actually, and I was hoping that as part of our plan today, we could even go and retrieve some of this information. Perhaps they could teach us more about this soul, anchor you, continuously talk about it. How can we retrieve this information without going to him on?

I think he's speaking of God. Oh, we would have to go to a month. Is there any way to not do that? Perhaps not going on? The Soulstone has been broken and abused before. I have a feeling there's someone, someone who might have an idea on how to disable it. I really don't, I don't, and I have no idea.

Well, Raichon was the one who busted out Thorlack in the first place out in the fire plane. So I would assume that Reishan has some idea on how to. Oh. You think? She lived amongst my people for years. I'd be like Raichon would only know how to open over portal.

I have a lot of feelings about Raichon. Cassandra, speaks to Mrs. Well, you've been abroad. You've been gaining. Arms and allies from what you've told me, across Exxandria. Yes. Let us consolidate our options, our strengths, and plot the downfall of the conclave, best we can. I'm no master strategist, but we do have allies

that we can call upon and weapons and men and arms and troops. However, taking the fight to Thorac in Amman seems foolhard. party at best. Is there, I suppose this is where the intelligence could come into play, but is there some other place where we could go and try to take back from Thorac to lure him away from Iman? Assume steps in the conversation and goes, The thing with that plan is Thorac has amassed thousands of lizard folk in Iman at this point that follow his whim. From the nearby mountain ranges, many from the storm crest that abortion him the entire time that he was gone.

Wyvern riders originally aided in taking the city that you met, as did I, but since other allies have found their way to the Cinder King's sway, last that I checked, seemed that there were a number of allies that he brought over from his time in the fire plane as well. What? Fire giants in the service of the dragon now walk the seats.

So if we go into Iman, we're facing fire giants, lizard people, And that's before we get to Thorac, the syndic. As well as a landscape that's slowly being turned into a hellish plane. That's what we're discussing today. Does Thorac covet any other territory or city or town, Baselheim, here, anywhere that we can lure him to?

Anything he has nostalgic feelings about? Glitual. Anything that would piss him off. You were lucky to draw a creature of such infinitesimal experience and intelligence as a white dragon away from its home roost, I would be greatly surprised if you would pull a great, powerful, intelligent, ancient red dragon

from its home turf advantage. So your prediction is that we have to slog our way through the outskirts of Amman to fight him on his home turf. Is that about the size of it? That's one way. What if... What's another?

Distract his allies and go straight for the heart. You have allies like Allura just said all throughout the world. This is true. We have the herd, bigger coax to wear wolves. The Ravanites would help. Everyone who we ask, everyone who we send in there, we're sending in to go death. This is war. Yeah, but it's either death now, we're sending ourselves into a little later. So are we talking about sending everyone we know and everything we have on the about school?

for a full frontal attack. For a full end, there's no way. While we bamf into the dragon's ladder or something. Yeah, we create a massive fucking cluster fuck on the edge of his periphery and we go for the center. How long did it take you, Allora, to create that heart? Well, the design and the development and enchantment and have it powerful enough to anchor itself

anchor itself with the soul of a dragon of Fordak's strength, uh, at a part of six months. It's probably got a week or two. And that was with a dozen other hands helping me. Most of the Orcanophanophano, was that my side for that, and we don't have that kind of time. Well, we take a day or two and we amass every heavy fucking header we have. And we do this. What other choice do we have?

I just keep thinking back to Oman, where we watched half of our friends die in a second. A lot of us are going to die. Sandra sits up a little bit in the sickness. If we are smart about this, we can minimize the casualties far more now than they would be a week, two weeks a month, a year from now. I agree. What of White's done? We put the city at great risk. How much risk are we willing to take? Percy everywhere is at great risk right now.

It's true. We should leave White Stone. Even getting to Amman, aren't we exposing ourselves to detection and attack? We are for a day. We're going to march several armies across the entire continent to get there. It'll take days. We're going to take a day or two. We're going to figure out how to get who we have to where we need.

We're not doing this tomorrow. In a couple of days, three days, four days of the most. It's not ideal, but that's what we have to do. We can at least move people to you. to, you know, is that town that we established? Outside of Western. Not Meg. There's Western and Kaimel are the two where you move.

Western is close-ish, right, Iman? They're both, Western's a little bit further than Kaimel is. Kamel is where you sent a lot of the Western refugees. Right. But they're just town's right. I feel like. We can at least assemble there from all the different territories and then meet up, form a plan, and then march from there.

March on Amon. I got excited. We gather our forces, Thorac will notice. Yeah, we've got to do a lot of recon before then, but I think he's got a good point, right? We've got to have like a staging point. Cassandra turns, looks over to assume that goes, Recon, actually. Anything else, assume you may have in regards to what we can expect there?

Assuma is still kind of slowly walking on the peripheral of the meeting table. I can tell you that most of the city's wealth and resources, as well as caches of sealed arcane relics and weaponry, long held by the Lyceum or the arms of Imman, have been stolen and thrown atop the Victory Horde of Thorac. Most who are plotting this rebellion within the city are doing so with scraps. That's why the clasp has been so instrumental in the removal of many of the oppressed folk within the city. Also, the fiery marks of Thoradig's presence that have drawn fire in molten rock across the city, as well as the outskirts of the city walls, scar the landscape and fill the sky with sulfurous clouds and black smoke. The good news is that smoke

can be utilized should someone have some control over the elements to be a screen. However, with The cloud top district once stood, there is now but a heated cauldron of glowing stone and clay. Hundreds of gifts and statues left in Thoradak's image littered the outer area, while a massive cavern dives beneath the central region of the district. Now this cavern, as we've watched it,

we believe it to be the location of Thorac's treasure hoard, as well as the occasional sleeping place of a massive drake we speak of. Thorac is also showing rather intense size of physical change, since being released from his prison. But his size still remains enormous. By comparison, his eyes now burn, now burn, with a searing white light. Burning stars in the sky. His jaw ever dribbles, burning liquid that blackens the ground it touches. The gaps between scales appear

to flare brightly with each breath, like a star engine beneath the scales. Sorry. Yes, yeah. Good soon, yeah. Yeah. Sorry. Do you think it's overtaking him? I have no idea.

Allura. The Lurna goes. If the anchor was indeed removed from the fire elemental plane, then Thordak would have had his soul torn from his body. That is how the anchor worked. So you don't think he actually even fully separated from the plane? He just brought the plane with him. Or at least, maybe a piece. I wasn't there. I don't know the ritual that brought him over. brought him over. Maybe then we were looking at this wrong way. Maybe we go at this

through the fire plane. Maybe there's something still there. A way to suffer his connection to the fireplane maybe? Oh, there are things for a second was... We've got an easy door in. We'd try, but the enchantment itself, we don't have enough information. It wasn't bound to a specific place in the plane. It was bound to the plane itself. I don't know how you'd sever it from the other side. The other side, we'd to go there. Yeah. That's called thinking outside the circle.

But then once we're there, what do we do? And we don't even know where to look. I mean, we can at least talk to the Ashari there. They might know the fire. Is there like nothing friendly in the fire plane? It's as least as big as Taldore. I mean, it's another dimension. It's huge.

It's huge. But many people know the whereabouts. There are still locations and destinations within the fire plane. It's navigatable. Maybe all the evil things in the fire plane have gone right now. They're with Thorndack. I assume kind of steps forward at the table. He puts his little halfling hands on the edge and goes,

Well, it's a shame that we don't have any information about. This ritual, that freedom from the plane. That is a shame. Yeah, no. For only we knew the whereabouts. I'll see if my compatriots can gather information. can gather information, but in the meantime, we'll do the best we can to gather similar information. Well, we know we don't have a lot of time, but that we maybe want to table this and think on it.

I would like. Well, at the very least, should we send out some letters, just alerting our allies that... Shit's going down. Shit's going down. It's time to start stocking up and getting ready to move. Drake sits forward. Yes. I think it's a fine plan of action. Reach out to all those that you've brought in. Hopefully, we can get a few of our friends in this as well.

Airship ever arrive. They all kind of look at each other a bit confused. No. Did anyone see an airship flying around? And Cassandra goes, no, there hasn't been an airship here, no. Are we expecting one? Mm-hmm. Good to know.

City is invisible, so. Yes, they won't see us if they come. If we see an airship, do you wish us to flag it down? That would be good. You'd trust it. Yes. They are a rarity. All right.

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What? No? Soon. We have one other possible option in front of us. Show them the medal. No, thank you. You're not going to show them the medal? Not that, no, not that.

Please don't whip that out. No, no, not the cube. We have another ally that we have spoken of. I, uh, it's tenuous ally at best. Maybe we shouldn't discuss until we're 100% sure. about it. I just think maybe, like, because we don't know about it. That's a big maybe, yeah. On the other continent we were given. Yeah, they're very busy though. Something special.

Yeah, it's so far away. It's really far away and, you know, and then as we were leaving the people that we talked to about it, we're like, fine, I guess, I just slowly, to your people and want to aim. Yeah, yeah, we'll just reach out. I slowly walk around the table. Stupid idea. Just really. Thinking hard about it. And I stab speaker, I soon three times. on the back with my sword. Oh shit. Oh, let's fucking do this shit!

Let's do it! Let's do it! Oh, shit! But we need to know the ritual! Too late, he did it. Oh, yeah! See, no! Yeah! Go ahead and roll.

That's a surprise attack. I know it is. Three percent of tip points. Why? We're in crazy costumes. Check out the brain on brides. We've got a Laura and Gilmall. It wasn't me.

And Drake, right me. We have a lot of people in the room. Oh, God. Yes, it's gonna be like Alice in Wonderland. Roll the first attack. We're in advantage. We're in a room. We're in a room.

White Stone's about to be destroyed. And Reishon's about to leave. Oh man, he's not even making you roll stuff, motherfucker. Well, why would he doesn't? Because I would and Reisch and Hottis did on me. That's different. That's not. That's, uh, 20's 29.

Okay. As you pull the blade out of the hill to go ahead and begin to strike, you're a quick individual. You're also in the presence of an entity that does not trust anyone or anything. Shit. You take the blade and swing out in the direction of Sikirassum, and where you're your your blade strikes, it shimmers through the image. And there's a flash and Assume is suddenly four feet away from the position where Assume was standing. At which point everyone in the room stands up immediately and is like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Cassandra goes over rushes and puts her hand towards you

and Assume is kind of taking a few steps back and it's like, No tricks in here. No tricks in here if we're really going to do this. There's this moment of extreme quiet. attention as Alora is looking at you, looking at Assume, looking around, and there's like this kind of slow connecting moment of realization throughout the rooms. Everyone's eyes go wide. If we're really going to do this, no tricks in here. And with that, we're going to take a break.

Yes! Yes! Yes! Amazing! I'm into it! Don't trust a man who just kissed somebody. He's hot! That's a man who's saying, fuck it. Back pedal, back pedal, back pedal, back pedal. Welcome back, everyone, to critical roll. So when we last left off, Clorota over here, which is all marveled at the actual. Oh, my.

You're sucking death. It was me all along. Oh, my God. Are you going to leave that on the whole? Oh, hell no, I can't see. Well, I hear a thing. This is all apparently on. Oh, I'm so short-lived.

Three seconds of costume. That's all you said. Three seconds. It's really uncomfortable. You can't put this part off? Just the helmet, just the helmet. Yeah, come on. We're the dunce helmet.

I had my arm behind my back for two hours. Why would you do that? Commitment. I have so many guns in my belt and no one can even see them, and I'm still committed. I painted my entire potty. Yes. What is wrong with you, people?

That's good. You're good now. I'm, I mean, like, I can't really claim sanity. I just did something mind-bendingly stupid. You now look like one of your own bullets. Yes. There you go. You have a very Merlin from Excalibur thing going on right now.

A dream to stop. A nightmare to others. Oh, like lightning, yes. We need more green lights in here to really get the effect. Go see, go see Excalbert. Not right now. Right now, but like tomorrow. All right, so bringing it back in. Wow.

So, as your blade swings through and passes through the form of Cicra-Sum, it shimmers and then darts back. into the corner of the room. I immediately sheath and do the, No more tricks. If we're going to do this, we need everybody to know what's on the table. At which point, everyone who stood up and kind of held up the chaos, I see the all the faces going off in realization,

assume goes from a defensive position, and then stands up again, crosses the arms. We're either going to win or were not. Correct. I was hoping you were going to take care of that. care of that. We're working on that plan as we speak. But pardon me if I take a few, how do you say, careful backups in case one would take a blade and stab at an ally, supposedly. You know damn well that we're not allies. You know damn well that this is a tenuous relationship, and you know that neither of us trusts the other.

At which point, Alura puts her hand down, goes, I'm sorry, what the hell is going on here? We'll get there. I would hope that you wouldn't trust us. And I would hope that you would understand that we don't trust you, but we need to make a real plan now. As the attention stores, as the Gilmore kind of puts a spinger up. Pardon my momentary ignorance.

Would you like me to cleanse the room? I'm just hoping for a conversation to start that I promised I wouldn't start myself. I'm trying to keep to the letter of my word. It might help if Gilmore were to make sure everyone is on the up and up in this room. Seeker Assume, do you have an opinion on how you would like to proceed?

Seeker Assume takes a few steps towards you, just casually, looks up to you, and goes to patch you on the shoulder, his illusory hand passing through your form. I'm quite comfortable where I am right now. Let us continue this conversation. The floor is yours if you wish to tell everyone what the real plan is.

Very well, since my hand has been forced. Hello. Hello, hello, hello. Seeker assume is still back in the moment dealing with the difficulty of preparing the current circumstance we're discussing. I am Raisham, member of the conclave, and up until recently tenuous ally with Thoracus and King,

who is now considered a mutual thorn in all of our science. So I've made an agreement with your Vox Machina for quite some time. And together, using our combined strengths, we slew Vorogov, the frigid doom over in Wildnacht. We've returned to reconvene. I provided nothing but honest upfront

and necessarily vital information to your victory. So. I will confirm everything but quite some time to the room. I've just been staring at Allura. Allure this whole time is, you see her fingers are like twitching her arms, tense, and there's just this very, very faint air that's like blowing her hair just ever so slightly, where there's no wind in the air. She's on edge right now, and it's just looking to you guys for guidance, like, are we doing this?

Cassandra, who stood up immediately is, for the first time in a long time, since Whitestone reclaimed, Cassandra now resembles more her age. than she ever did. She has a look of her face like she's far out of her depth. And understanding the circumstance, there's legitimate fear in her face, and she's kind of looking at Percival, with that look of what have you done? Now we can have a real conversation about what's going on. We have an ally on the inside, albeit an untrustworthy one, you'll pardon that, but there's every possibility that this is an elaborate trap. And I respect her intelligence far

too much to try and pretend otherwise. You understand certainly what I mean. Having this on the table, we now know that there's every possibility that the Red Dragon knows everything. There's every possibility that we're walking into a trap, or there's every possibility that we have an insatiably powerful ally. It is a terrible risk. Or an insatiably power.

powerful enemy. Still a terrible risk. Terrible risk. Either way, we can now ask about the ritual. So, why don't you inform the room on how you utilized an entire race of people to break the ritual? Everyone's still standing at this point,

kind of looking. Cassandra slowly sits down, but it's still kind of looking, between Reishon and Percival. He watches Assoom's form, steps towards the center of the room, the flash of green kind of flaring in the eyes with a smile. So the anchor that you speak up was indeed removed from the fire elemental plane. We discovered that it was indestructible.

So good on you, Laura. Well created. We tried many different ways of rending it, crushing, sending it elsewhere without the enchantment, tearing Thoradak with it to no avail. So, I, in trying to find a way to bring Thoradak through, we need to bring the soul anger and the fire elemental plane with it. The one place where such research could be gathered promptly,

fully, was the pirate. Now, mind you, it was not my intent for such destruction to reign upon them, but I spent many years with it. I got to know them. I never find people. And in that time, I learned the ways of temporal travel between the dimensions,

the details that allowed me to see the fabric of the fire plane, to where we could encase a bit of it within the sole anchor itself. This, once we had managed to crack that essence, I was able to, from a distance using the Allies on the other end. Thorac had found friendship with some of the ousted fire giants. They found comfort outside of the ordnation under the shadow of the fire dragon.

In using their deep, rich, blooded past, in forging, making, they were able to convert the soul anchor to something that housed the essence of the fireplay. We didn't have a means of creating a whole large enough to bring both through without destroying both in the process. And as such, we waited for the right time. The winter's crest. Oh, bitch. To Sam Mayer.

But we called this the ember seed. The ember seed resides in the center of this hard stone. That is what is causing for that. It is what is driving him mad. That is what is drawing the very land around Eamon to a fiery eruption. It is also what keeps his soul on this plane. What keeps his soul on this plane? It keeps his soap intact at this bar.

Destroy the stone. If it can be destroyed. In theory. But we've tried. Believe me, we've tried. And you just kept the soul and the stone inside of him? to remove, we destroy him as well, as the archaicent and sophical sofit. So yes, both came through, waited for the winter's crest, had enough power and understanding of the ritual to open the entirety of the tear,

and Thorac screamed through flames in his wake, and he laid ways to your people. You used me. You used us. And my fear that I had originally appears to be true. A lot of this is my fault. I'm willing to accept my onus. The fact that you can't shows all the kind of person that you are. My promise still stands.

And I'm thinking it might come sooner rather than later. You do understand that without my aid, you will not succeed. I understand that there. that without your aid, none of this would have fucking happened in the first place. Yes, and there are quite a few in this room that fall in that category. She looks to all of us can accept our part in this matter, except for you. Oh, I accept my part in this matter as well. You don't think I feel duped by this?

You don't think I... Have many things I wish to tear from the very corpse of that entity. You think I don't want to see him burn as much as you do, as vengeance that burns within me? And then what would you do if you actually got what you want? All of us want. I pull out the staff, the spire of conflicts. You know, there are always many solutions to many problems. You think Thoradak is the only solution to yours. This staff was burning. was birthed from the head of Malora, the same goddess who gave you that curse.

But if you wanted me instead, me and this staff, maybe I can help you more than Thoradak can. Are you saying you understand the way to remove this? But you know the secret to burning this wretched disease from my form? I'm saying I might be your best chance at salvation. And I'm pretty sure this staff is the closest living relic that we have in existence to the God who granted you your curse. Thorac is no God. That was your first stupid mistake. I think if I might translate, my friend here is trying to relate. If you fuck this up, Percy, I swear to God.

Is that perhaps when the dust has settled, your salvation may either be. found in the withering corpse or cackling smile of a creature that you are subservent to who will take great delight in your destruction, or perhaps in those that you have aided who will feel grateful. It's up to you, Raishon. And I will advise her to take no revenge until all Kant's are on the table. Yeah. Clearly you are the type of person who looks for answers and other people.

You are clearly unaware of accepting any fault or any result of your actions. So why don't you start fresh? Do you really want Thorac to have another sway over you, another gift, another favor that he's given you, that he is going to hold over you for all of eternity? Do you really want that? You're stronger than that. That's why we're working to watch him all. Are we?

If you need not my help, just let me know. Oh no, Rishon. We don't need your help. Let me say that right now. This all just depends on what you want out of the end of the deal. I wish to be given unfettered, unbodied, unboggled, un-washed control over the courts upon his death to extract the information I need and

will leave your very sphere of existence and understanding until the end of your days. What happens if we say no to that? Well, we'll find another way. Spoiler alert, we're saying no to that. Unfettered I'm fine with is just unwatched. Then watch. Watch for all. I care. It would be Greek to you anyway. It's already left. You're here.

Yeah, I'll walk over around the table towards you soon. And I try and poke her in the shoulder, him. Just got us to the point. This is the deal that we are offered. This is the deal that's on the table. We are in a tenuous position of power. You can stop poking, Graeme. You're not here.

Crazy. Give it one more. Give it one more good, puck. How do we get in contact with you when we know when we move and how? How do I? What is your next step for your journey? That is the question now that everything's on the table. I'm sorry to shock everyone.

I was hoping not to be the cause of it. I was hoping that it was time for everything to be on the table. But this is actually what we are dealing with. This is the complexity. This is the battlefield. Right, so we have to rally our forces to us and we have to do some really smart recon. Do we make her a part of that or no?

No, the further we, honestly, the most, the more distance that we keep, the better at this point. Right, from her actually. Yes. She will probably even be, I imagine, in our way on occasion if we make our way to the, No one has any mistake. She's lying to our faces. She is not telling us what she wants or what she wants to do. Assume what you have a whole plan. Shut the fuck up. You've been droning on for an hour. Shut the fuck up. You're not telling us what you want.

You fucking shitbag. If you're free- If you print company. Yeah. Does anyone really believe that this is all going to be fixed if we work with her? I say we take... A recess. Gather our thoughts. Raishan, my offer still stands.

If you want to come and find me, I know you know how. Maybe we can commune with Malora together. You cannot comprehend the magics that you even speak of. It's cute. Look, I agree. Distance these evade to us at the moment. If anything, I should probably cut off the end.

information of Orgel's fall. I should speak with the cinder king and still establish my allegiance from his perspective. Can you cut off that information? I would imagine that would be far too much. Cut it off? No, but I can attempt to guide the fury, if you will. Will he know it was us? Oh, I can guarantee it. Can you keep him from attacking Whitestone? Good time, maybe. Can you guide his fury in a way that would be beneficial to the plan? If I knew what the plan was, yeah. Well, I think it's a...

You were saying ideally if we could get him away? I don't think we're going to be able to get him away, but... We're going to do recomb. I thought you were smart. And we're going to send out word to gather our forces at where. What if he knew where we were? We don't know yet. Let's find out. Let's pick a place.

What if... What if? What if you knew where we were? What if we found a place? We pick our battleground. He discovers where we are hiding. Rishan rides us out. And Rishan discovers this information.

Certainly with you in the good gracious of the Sender King. Roshan takes more than things. You are searching for us right now, are you not? I am indeed. I thought that he's been using us as the attack. He's not going to leave his nest. So what if we kill you? What do you mean?

Very clear. How does Thorac know you're alive? Because I check in every now and then you remind him. What if he sends you out? Can you kill us? And you never come back. He'd be forced to have to be the one to leave the battlefield. If he knew where you were headed.

You're a clever girl. I'm sure you can make a ruse to make you look convincingly dead. You wouldn't even have to tell us where you were hiding. You could just hide. And we could ready. ourselves. That is an idea. Hmm.

Take your recess. I'll take mine. Maybe some, maybe something to this plot. And we can all assume that when we exit this room, that our tenuous alliance is still that, correct? I hope that there's no more errant blade-poker. Now that I know your tricks. We do it to everyone.

Don't worry. We actually do now as I think about it. how I think about it. It's not alone here. Allura, how does this sit with you? Alora, who's now looking at sitting right now, just listening to everything with her hands crossed, and it kind of shakes her head and goes,

perfectly honest, this bothers me a great deal, but the White Stone still stands, does speak volumes of the least. It does. The cards being in our favor. Not the first devil I've made a deal with. No. Doesn't always turn out well, firstful. Doesn't always turn out terribly either.

Regardless, I have a lot to think about. As do we all. And Laura slowly turns the head and looks up probably for the first time since she sat down to the illusory Rishon's Assoon. Assume lives then? Indeed he does. Indeed he does.

Can I do an inside check? Go for it. Does she know if Assume is up to something no good? 25, I think, when we go to check that? 25. 25? Okay. It's hard to read the demeanor of Reischon in general.

It's this kind of middle ground of neutral expression with a half-cock grin and this information flows at this consistent rate of being just generally difficult to read. The beat of hesitation is meant for emphasis more than than covering, that makes any sense. So it seems to have an honesty to it if you could read any honesty from Nightshan. Rachel, now that we know you or you, do you have to continue the ruse of being assumed?

Can you bring him here? I can certainly bring him here if you like. However, he is doing quite a lot of good with the clasp in Brom and Tollfur underneath him on right now and they've managed to save many lives and continue to do so. Maybe you could just pop him over then, just for a little bit. Well. You're quite powerful.

What do you have need for a soon? I want to hear what's going on with the clasp. I want to see for myself that he's alive. We're actually going to have to have a conversation with the glass because we're going to purge the city once the dragon is gone. Why don't you go see him yourself? No, I don't go right. I want to see him here.

We'll feel a little better here. It would go a long way to earning some. We'll make your choice. Either I intercept him, begin to work towards Thorax's ruse and set a space that convinces him that perhaps I've fallen to your hands, or I go retrieve your friend from him on. I'm not your errand boy, and we have limited time here,

which is more important. You are our errand boy. We are your vessel to what it is you want. You need us. busy and do it quickly. After all, you're very powerful, but that changes day by day, doesn't it? So, in monies. Very well. Back in the day. Where can we in a day? We will start figuring out and discussing a place for the final battle. We will find a place that is advantageous.

Your input, if you feel the urge to give it, was always welcome, at least to me. It's going to be very difficult. to pry the cinder king from his nest. Your supposed death will go far for that. If anything, but I have no guarantees. As long as everything is on the up and up, and as long as we do not catch you in a deep deceit, we will make sure that the plan moves in the direction

it is meant to. One day, then. One day. In the image just going to send a soon to us. So, Allura, just so it's clear, Seeger soon is Raichan. And has been since Reishan's appearance in Whitestone. And we didn't know until just 48 hours ago, Tom's?

Now, can we maybe make sure that everybody in the room is who they say they are? Go stab everyone. Well, that time. I feel. It's usually that everyone kind of pulls back of the table. Don't worry. I'm a dragon to a.

What? Ty, larkin. Larkin. There he is. I apologize. I didn't know what else to do. You thought you were gonna stab him. Yes, you did.

That was not a play. Yeah, let's be real about it. Yeah, you shifted this. No tricks in this room. No tricks. I've told no lies in this room. Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

with. I have told, I tell that creature no lies, ever. That is a green dragon. There is no tricking it, there's no deceiving it, there is just telling as much truth as you can get away with. As you're talking, you feel a tug on your right arm. And you look over and you see Cassandra is kind of come over your side and is pulling on your sleeve

with a very intense look in her eye. Percival, I can watch White Stone. I can get the people fed, I can keep the people armed, I can organize the day to day. I can't keep it safe from that. Which is why I would ask everyone to please not antagonize it. I don't know what you've dragged us into in this, but I need you to pull us out of it.

I can't do this. I've moved the battle. That is the best that I know how. How long have you known? Two days. Not long, Cassandra. Two days. We were divorced. The day before we left to kill the White Dragon. It's the time. It's the time. And if we had told any of you, your life would have been at danger.

This was the best way I knew to keep her from destroying this city outright. Things are changing quickly. It was the best way I kept it from telling the Red Dragon. where we are. In the short term it worked for our benefit. And the longer that we can keep her a tenuous ally, the longer White Stone will stand. When she does come back with Assume,

this plan that we started in on, it's a good one. I think so. We convince, well, we have Raichon convinced Thordak that we're amassing forces in Kaimel or something. Thodak sends Rishon to get us. to get us, we kill Rajshan. And then Thorac comes to check on her dead body. We send word of a dead dragon.

How can that plan fail? I'm not the only one who thinks she's more dangerous than he is at this point. Yes. I think if we give her access to Thorac's body afterwards, we're asking for a lot of people. Which is why if Kilith can figure out a way to cure her on this disease. It takes a big card off the table. I got 24 hours. I have ideas.

We have more than that because it's going to take quite a while. That's just how long we have to have a plan. What if... Question. What if we do actually just... Hi Sean. When we fake that we're killing her, what if we kill her?

Just actually killing her. She's going to be expecting that and it will not work. Yeah, she's super slippery. She just totally like pervaded Percy's sneak stabby stab. Stabby, Stab. Are you not? Is there anyone... Suspect it and it will not work. Oh yeah, no.

Allura, Dre. 20. For perception? For perception? Yeah, I said, is anyone around and I rolled a 20? You guys are still in the war room. I know. You know what I'm talking about, though.

You know what I'm talking about. There it is, it's right there. Right, right. Yeah, invisible fucking Lark and Dwarf dragons. You don't see anybody else around it. All right, that's a 20. Here's what I'm... Should we continue this conversation downstairs?

First, is everybody who... Who they say they are, please. Oh yeah, Alura. Let's just go down. Let's just go down. I like your sage real quick and make sure everybody's on the open up. Allura. That was Gilmore was going to talk, please.

I mean, this makes sense. As soon was the one that requested we not move the war room down to the... So why don't we move the war room now? I think that would be the best, yes. Let us all adjourned to the new space at the Ziggurat. That should at least keep things honest. Yeah. Hopefully.

It's the closest we have. Picks her robes up and... Your beard might go away. No. No. It's in there. There's not great. It's not there.

I mean, for science, right? Let's go. Did you have a beard? You look really good without a beard, Grog. I've always thought so. You shut up, you. We go down, I don't care. Yeah, let's go.

All right. You guys make your way down to the Zagra. The guards come and start carrying chairs and other elements of the war room. Eventually, you're all led down to the tunnels, which have been a little more refined and given an actual more comfortable path, past the now defunct Weistone refinery

that the Briar Woods had originally established. You entered the Ziggurat room. It has more lighting to it than it previously did. A number of torches now line the walls and sconces that are lit as the guards progress upward. You can see the reflection to the green glass-like white stone material that permeates the outside of the ziggurat and partially up, not right by it, but partially upward. There's a small wooden platform that's kind of been

where the main base operations for research and study is here. You see a number of desks set out. It's been built along the side of the large pyramid-type structure, and eventually you all adjourn up into that space. As you go up there, you all feel a significant, as you enter a a significant drop in enchantment. All of your magical items, all of everything just gradually fades in this space. So Grog, you actually feel your musculature, the Titanstone gauntlets themselves.

The effect begins to, and then completely fade back to your classic Grog-like strength. I feel totally fine. Are the walls still like... Flesh? Oh, do you want to go to the top of the Ziggurat and check? Oh. Oh, it's not like.

Not yet, after the meeting. I figured they have like a clean-up crew down there. Is that still? It's a guy with like on a scaffold with a scrubber. It's just going, ew, ew, ew, ew. They're really clean, naked bodies now. Brush cleaning out the fingernails. At this point, they're looking around everyone who has journeyed with you towards this new meeting place,

Ziggurat, is of the same physicality they were at the meeting room. Any illusions would have been cast aside or dispelled at this point. seem to not be present. So everyone is, by all intents and purposes, who they say. Okay. And this also means it would probably be impossible to scry in this room.

Yes. The Lord nods. Yes, actually. Yes. Excellent. This is where all talk must happen now. Where it should have been happening. So now you know what we've been dealing with for the past.

Certainly two hours. She did help with the death of that dragon. In fact, I doubt we would have survived without her aid. She could have very easily left us there to die. It's true. She actually revealed her entire form during the battle, which is quite diseased. At least it appeared diseased.

She's definitely not as strong as the others, but far more clever. And she knows where we are and what our plans are. and every inch of this place, including this thing. Well, then, what do you presume we do? We don't really have a choice. We have to work with her to some extent. We can make it hard for her, and we can be assholes to her

and go tell her to get assumed for us. But other than that, we have to work with her. What's the benefit of working with her? Because if we don't, she can destroy White Stone whenever she feels like it. What if we tell her we're going to fake her death, and then we kill her for real? That's fine if she ever gets close enough for us to kill her. She's not going to. She evaded it really easy.

Why would she need to come face to face with us in that plan ever? She could say, I'm gonna go meet them in Kaimel. Oh, I died. Our best bet is maybe, hopefully enough of us still have our strength, maybe at the end if she has been ravaged by the Red Dragon. I agree. And then we try to defeat her after that. I agree.

plays the finish line. That's it. But we have to beat her to it. If she gets a hold of that stone. That's what she wants. I hope is to break the stone. If we draw Thorac to us, we can't break the stone. We can.

Only because no one has. If we draw Thorac to us, at least we control the battlefield. She could still be lying and wait to pounce on his body the second we kill it. If, at least we have to hope that she's actually going to fight with us. She's done it once.

We don't know that she's going to do it again. We don't know. They mentioned moving the stone that shouldn't have been able to have been moved, correct? They moved it inside of Thorac, and then Thorac left with the stone in him, right? Yes, which I don't think should have been possible. Right. So how did they do it? Because I'm also looking in another thing that is supposedly immovable.

Supposedly. Supposedly. Supposedly. Supposedly. Nothing is supposed. Are you suggesting we put the vortex of Doom inside one of us? Kind of, yeah. We don't know how to move it. I was not a thing.

I was thinking of putting... Alora immediately puts her hands. It was no, no, no. There's got to be a way to move it. To do what with? This is an absence of magic. It is a void of magic. It is a maw that devours magic.

The enchantment that you put within Thoradak is pure magic. And you've been working on it for magic. months and you are smarter than us. Right. Well. No way to transport it, none at all. It could be the only thing that could break the stone. Think about it.

If we could get that stone next to the vortex. Right, so what? We take a few wooden two by fours and push it along. Look, everything, everything I know, everything I've studied, everything I've spent my entire life working for is useless. Near that. This is a temple to Aune, right?

It was. The goddess of knowledge? The only person I know of who rightly worship Aune was Brom. Brom. Of the clasp? Arbiter Brom. Arbeta Brom. He was of the council with us.

And he is in Amon, potentially? According to Rishan. Brom was with Tofur. What holds of that? It's a shame we can't open just a giant door and push it down here. What did you just say? We can't do it. Say it again?

It's a shame we can't open a giant door and just push the dragon in here. We couldn't do it. It won't work. Because of that side of the door won't open by its very nature. No door can be open to this room. No one can get in or out without simply walking. We couldn't have used the gate scroll in here. I'm trying to even conceive of a machine that could move this, but I don't understand.

why it's here in the first place. I don't think the secrets of defeating Thorac is moving this thing. It's a shame we couldn't. How close. We have a line in the sand of how close we can get to this thing. Magically, correct.

This way. She leads you back down the ziggurat out to the entrance where you guys enter this large chamber and a, I'd say, 20 or so meters back into the, you could see there is a specific wooden support beam that is structured within this tunnel, and on that beam, elements of it are painted black. She goes, this is the perimeter in which the siphon devours magic. What? How big is it? How big is it, roughly?

What is the perimeter? Give a take, half mile? Damn, it's really big. What? And it's encased in stone. Yeah? Kind of, right? Were we in case in white stone? Right?

I've got a terrible idea. Tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me. What happens to magical creatures when they enter the circle? Have we experimented at all to find out what would happen to a magical creature? A creature who's very essence is magic. I don't know. There's no humane way. to do this. Sure there is. Kinky, get a fake creature in here.

Yeah, it's what I was thinking, send them in. Oh yeah, they died and they just kind of go right back to their plane. No, I think they just died. And even if they do go back to their plane, they may not be able to and they may just wither and actually die. I just wanted to put that on the table. Are you trying to make me feel better about doing this? I'm just trying to, I don't want to lie to you about this. I've been practicing intense levels of honesty, if not telling the whole truth. Sidebar, do we have all the vestiges that the Spinks told us about? No. No.

What else is there? There's one in the fire plane. The Don Martyr. Hey. The Don Martyr. The place of Don Martyr. Yeah. The place of Don Martyr.

I know I'm like the smartest one in the group, but we don't know what the fuck we're talking about with this little sphere. Why don't we go find that less vestige and see what it turns up? I don't know if we have a lot of time. We have time. In a day, in a day she returns, it will take us time. it will take us time to, we chose a place, we move our forces in there. We have days where she can be looking for us,

and then when she disappears, it's gonna take a day or two for him to really find out. It will be about three to four days before anything actually happens. What are we doing going after this vestige? Can any of us even use it? Pike. Okay. Keep in mind.

I'm not much for poetry, but it seems sort of poetic that Thoradak came from the fire plane, and the last vestige we're looking for is in the fire. Also, we might be able to find some information on the stone. The fire plane isn't just like Dallas. Isn't it like that? It actually is quite like Dallas. I think it's a very reasonable comparison.

It's a horrible place where we could all die. Yes. So is the farewell. We're risking our hides for something that might benefit one of us, maybe. Unless we've all of my... We've all of my... There's also all of my people there. It's basically all of our choices.

We could go in with the rushes of the fire rush that are there. We can meet up with Sarkonis. The only of the, is the whole Ziggurat encased in white stone? Zygdegroard itself is, it's built from stone, and then the upper exterior of it is covered in this green glass-like substance that is distilled white stone residual. I have a plan.

It would take a little bit of time, but it's vicious. What? Probably wouldn't work. Well, let's find out what happens to a creature inside here before. Like a regular creature, a thing. Okay, I actually do have conjure woodland beings. That's not a magic creature, though. That's a woodland being.

No, one of the beings can be like fake creatures, really? Mm-hmm. Something small. Do it. Just a fairy? Oh my God, do it. Okay. What about that?

that, that is? Third level. Wait, if you like conjure them outside and walk in, is you gonna go, and disappear? Potentially. A fourth level you mean. Sorry, fourth level. Yeah, and she can create some fake creatures, yeah.

What do you summon? What makes sense? We're on one side of the line. What's gonna squeal? I'll summon a, a little, a little, like a pop star. A little pixie. Oh, I'm so sorry.

Whoa, a little, whoa, whoa, a little Pixie. A little Pixie, a little Pixie. Oh, a little Pixie. Hey, little Pixie. This may be, by the way, how we deal with Risham. Okay. So you conjure a Pixie? I got a plan.

Sure, and I send her in. Fixie, flies in. You can use to fly in. Nothing happens. Pixie's fine. Pixies in fine. Fixie's not a magical creature, I guess. Isn't it there?

has magic, maybe, isn't a magical being. Can you make the pixie do something? Try and have the pixie do something magical. Yeah, I have them, can't they cast, like, confusion or something like that? What can they cast, they can cast something. Polymorph? Polymort.

Do you have, like, very best to something? They can cast confusions. They can cast polymorph, they can cast things like that. To try and, hey, try and polymorph me. The pixie turns around and nothing happens. Nothing? Pixie was confused. What? Sorry.

That's all right, you did very well. Touch the old. How do you feel? Yeah. Talks the old. Technically with rain. This pixie. Touch it.

Also for the purposes of this, sure, you, there was some very basic communication here. The pixie is. Tinkerville. Yeah. It's, it's, Sylvan is the language that it speaks. is the language that it speaks.

So it's, you can, it is close enough to Elvish that those who speak Elvish can, like, interpret elements of it. I know Sylvan. So I, yeah, you understand it. Hey, how you feel? A little queasy, that's all. Queasy, yeah. It's weird.

Hmm. Hey, will you do me a favor and don't hold it, don't, you know, hold it against me? Just do it. Just do it. We could touch that black orb? Don't touch that. No, no, no, no, no, no, don't do that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, go, do it. She met what she said. Go do it. I mean, she's only listening to her, so it's like, yeah, it doesn't matter where person is. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, how can you go on? Do it, fucking do it. Why would you do that?

You'd like that. You don't know where it goes. That's right, I don't know. No, you know what she's talking about. It's Esperanto. You don't speak still, but. I've already done my dumb stuff for the day. Stop, stop, stop.

All right, so yeah. You would have been so bad. You float, you will, you continue to walk as the, as the Pixie floats up towards the top of the zigarot. You get at the top of the top of the, notice that no, all the bodies have been removed, it's been cleaned up.

It's just an empty pyramid thing now? Yeah, it's just like a reflection. Now with the walls that kind of encased, almost like a small coliseum. I'm imagining the fact of that. And there it is the general spinning black marble. Pixie approaches and like, touch it and you watch the Pixie just go,

and it's gone. Hmm. Still as we expected, yeah. Well, hold on, wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. That picture's got me.

She's coming back. He's got interstellar. Hey, Laura, how many things did you throw in the orb? You see you're kind of in the back, kind of leaning into the wall. Like she's seen this a hundred times, like, oh, many things. Chairs, outfits, pieces of stone, metals. We've put all kinds of things.

Any animals? Anything alive? No, nothing living. What was the biggest thing you put in there? Your desk chair. Cassandra said it would be all right. Yes. Have you a tipped box around it? Just encapsulated it completely?

We tried, and upon moving it, once it contacted, it did not move with the box, it just crushed and absorbed the box itself. So, I have an interesting request, which may end up being too complicated, I'm not sure. Probably. Can we build a teleportation signal? not sigil directly above it outside of its range?

Given the better part of the year, yeah. We're worth of a thought. So you're saying there's a chance. Can we build one in the hallway leading to this room? A temporary one, as in like a... Like a spell. Like a brief spell, yes, I can do that now. It's the permanent installation of one takes,

as long as we can remember what point at which, as long as we have some way of knowing what point at which that we can re-enter this room, then we at least have a way of having it chase us into its range. Oh man. Or better still if we run one way and it runs the other. Have you been in contact?

Have you attempted to scry or do a locate object spell and anything that you've thrown in? Yes, but unfortunately there's been no way of connecting anything that goes through, it just vanishes. I think that's a fucking terrible idea. Yeah, fire plane. It's a good last, it's a terrible idea.

I mean, last ditch effort. What are you talking about? We can't lure a dragon into a teleportation circle big enough to get a dragon through and then somehow assume that the dragon's going to keep running into the room with no magic. And then what are we also going to assume that it's not going to jump into the crazy Vecna circle and become a ninth

level of hell after that? We have no idea. That's a terrible idea. I'm vetoing it. I thought that. The serial shiller has a point. That idea is not great. You're waiting to find a time to say it, haven't you?

I don't understand the joke. Nope. Just quickly got to my head. Yes, Grog, do you have a point? Fireplane. Fireplane. All right. If we are going to do the fireplane,

if that is going to happen, then we cannot go until preparations start getting made for the place at which we're going to have this confrontation. We need to pick a point, preferably far from here. Is there a ruined city? Is there... What, for us to lure Raichan slash Thoraxis? What about Fort Daxia?

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has broken movie and TV news every single week. That's because I ask all the questions I want to to know, and more importantly, you want to know. Casting what ifs, backstage stories, acting pet peeves, and much more. So whether you're into superheroes, prestige TV, or just the coolest actors and directors alive, you're going to learn something in every episode. Listen to Happy Say I Confused on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. The world of Sonic the Hedgehog has been thrust into a not-so-dark, not-so-dark, not-so-dark, 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 biggest case yet.

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What is Kaimal? Kaimal's east of it. The INC Bridge, yeah. But Kaimals filled with civilians. Fort Daxio has an army gathering there already, right? Well, Fort Daxia has a piece of an army. Most of it went to Singorn, and we haven't heard since. Fort Daxio at least does have soldiers already.

Singorn is gathering their forces as well. Yes. Have you reached out to Singon, let them know this was going to happen. You mentioned that they were coming to our. We have. We need to reach out to the resources we have and call them in. Yes. Everyone, I think is Fort Daxio where this confrontation is going to happen?

We haven't been to Fort Daxio. We should probably go check it out. But everyone wants to go to the fire plane, get some armor. We go to Fort Daxio to start everything up. While they prepare, we can maybe make a trip to the fire plane while things are prepared. They will not need us to organize the armies and gather forces.

It's really frustrating. I feel like we have all the pieces here. No. Figure it out. I just can't figure it out. We have all the pieces buried underneath every civilian. Have you thrown any, I'm really obsessed on the sigelow thing, have you thrown any white stone into the...

No, don't do that. Don't do that. I'm sure they already have. We have. You know, it's gonna be fine, Keir. After we kill Thorac and Raichan becomes super powerful, Ryshan will come here and get the Vecna Orb, and unleash all sorts of hells on the world, and then we'll know what it was. I mean, that's basically what's gonna happen. That's a good plan.

That's a very good plan. Yeah, I mean, we can't really... We can't really do anything about it. Which is why it's frustrating, because I feel like we can beat her to the fucking punch. Yeah, I think Thorac's kind of a fucking meathead and we should just take care of right shot ahead of time. I am, you already know how I feel.

I think you're mad to think that we're thinking back. I think that you're mad to think that we're actually going to see her again before the final competition. Yeah, we're not gonna see her. I think she's going to stay far, far away. She knows. I took that shot specifically to see where she was

sitting and see where we were sitting with us. You took that shot specifically to stab her three times in the back. If it had worked, it also worked that we found out she wasn't there. Yes, yeah, yeah. Yes, yes. Revisionist history, yes, I understand. I thought you were practicing honesty.

That's like saying I farted because my stomach hurt and then I found out it stunked well. I was aware it could go horribly wrong. I was aware it could go horribly wrong, which was why I was prepared to say something. There's a master plan, we understand. But yes. All right.

I'm not saying it was the best plan. Cool, Fort Daxio then, check it out. Let's gather forces at Fort, does anybody else have anything to say to this? We basically don't have a plan. We're just going somewhere until we come up with a plan. We're sending word out to all of our entire. We're preparing all of our forces at Fort Daxio. Cassano says, if Fort Daxio is to be the place where this is to go down, and that would be the place we'll send our allies.

Okay. Jesus, let's put all of our bags and eggs in one basket. What else are we saving them for? What are we saving them for? This is it. This is the omelet. Like, where do we want our allies far away from the Red Dragon?

You all don't feel like we are stepping into every trap that Rishon is late. What else can we do? Kill Rishon first. You can't heal the disease. We can't control this all. It doesn't matter. There's nothing else we can do.

We just need her to believe that I can cure her disease. Let's be honest. Rishon wants Thorak dead. Sure. That's her end game as well. That's the only thing. So that's the only thing. Are you saying?

Now Ryshaw could have us all dead right now. Are you saying you want Ryshong to go with you one-on-one so you can do the Malora thing and then maybe you take her out and you want a shot at it before we try anything else? Because I'll grant you that. I could try this as what I was trying to bait her into. You're not- She's not going to show up.

She's not baitable. I'll lor just bring her to make. I've done plenty of research on these, and I mean no offense to you, Keeleith, but you convincing an entity that exists on deception through deception to believe you in that regard. And based on that conversation, she already seems to see through that ruse.

I would not recommend it. Any chance to the gate spell? No, it's far beyond Mikey. Barbeon, yeah. Yeah, rare spell that. Yeah. I'm not mad in thinking that trusting this creature is the only option available at this point.

I say trust. Walking in this direction, this is the only direction available at the moment. Every, any attempt, Any attempt to counter her at this point leads to our destruction. She has us. Yeah. No, we got that.

So does anybody want to do anything else before we go to Daxio? The only thing else that we can do before we go to Daxio is to send word to our allies. I think we should grab cash. Send him out to make him out. Oh my God. Quick list of who we need to. list of who we need to contact.

We need to. Ravanites. Faye wild wolves. Singon. Singon. Zara, Cash. Your people. Keema.

Allura, you. Wolves are under the plane. Herd is wandering. Germant. That's by flute. Toot-toot-toots, yes. How, like that? Wait, what about our, our brotherhood of,

what do we belong to? Not the clasp, the Slayers take. Slayers take. We can get back. We have money, we can hire them. We have 100,000 gold. You want to hire them to, oh. That's true.

We could take out a contract against the Red Dragon. Sure. That's true. We can take it too, well. We can hire them to kill a Red Dragon. Yeah. But we can do that money when we're dead, nothing. We are sending everyone we know into one centralized location.

Do we really feel like that's a good idea? Yes. Really? Really. We're building a trap. Where would you put them? We didn't talk about throwing everyone we loved into the frying pan.

That was not the trap. What do you think that we were making allegiances for? Just to hang out with them? It's not that. We need them to fight and die for us. I'm down for the cause of the war, just not when it's a stupid fucking plan. We're gonna be there too.

We're just asking everyone to meet in one location. Well, we're talking about building an army and then doing what with them? To kill the general. And then doing what? They're just going to be sitting there. They're going to be sitting ducks. People will die.

We're going to make tactical decisions about where to place everyone in and around the fort when the pregnant of the house. I've accepted that people are going to die. Yes. I've accepted that. I do not condone sending people to their slaughter when we don't have a goddamn plan. What's your counter proposal?

Because I feel like we're making a plan. I just don't think that it's smart to put every potential ally we know in one spot to, can we not divide it up? Can we not? We'll leave Gilmore here. Find places nearby? Well, they will be. They won't all just be in the floor.

They're not going to be sitting in the same place. Everyone's going to be placed. Once we get there and survey the area, we can come up with a comfortable plan. You can make some caverns for them to hide in. We ought to have a comfortable. We're going to also create ways of making sure the dragon can't take flight. We're going to make sure that everyone has a purpose and a place. It will not be just a giant swath of people ready to die.

We're just getting them in the right county. We just need everybody in the city. But we also know that Rishan knows everything that we're going to do. Not right now. She doesn't know Fort Daxia. She doesn't know any of that. She doesn't know Fort Daxia. And honestly, she's going to have to know,

because she's going to have to send them. There's just nothing we can do about that. I don't trust that she doesn't know anything. I'm going to assume that she knows everything. That's a good assumption. All right. Even so, there's nothing that she's not going to know because she is what is luring him out.

All the same. And if we fought him here, she already knows where we are. already knows where we are. Right now, she knows where we are. She knows everybody that's here. I go behind Kiela and stab three times. Is this happening? Are we doing this? No. No. I'm so excited. Yeah. I would so lose. Bring it! She's on edge, all right? We have to play this the way we have to play it. It's dangerous, but we have to assume that she will not, most likely not, betray us till the end.

Right now somewhere, there's a man on an airship going. Do you see it yet? They're keeping an eye out at this point, all right? Beingo. We have to assume that she's not going, she has not portrayed where we are yet, which would have been so simple. It would have been so simple just to raise this city to the ground. Look at what we did with Ripley. We walked into every tree. that she sat with us blindly. We got cocky, we got bold. We fell for all of that.

We have to fight eventually. I know. We're not trying to be cocky about it. We're trying to set up an army. And might I point out, Keelit, that Rishon wanted us to go to Imman and face Thorac and we are already not following that plan.

This is true. That is the other option is to go. There. We can count on her to be duplicity. to be duplicitous. We gather forces. We take out Thorac. We'll figure out how we're going to do it. We're not saying throw every spaghetti at the wall. We figure that out. And we talk about the real enemy. It's a fort. We prepare the fort. It is what a fort is for. And if the opportunity arrives to take out Raichon, then we do it beforehand. If not,

immediately after Thorac is dead. And we know we're walking in. We could all be dead. We could all be dead. But at that point. Why are we not dead right now? Explain to me why we are not dead right now. I honestly don't know. Because this fight is going to happen.

That is why we are not dead right now. It's the only possible explanation that I can conceive of is that this fight is inevitable. Once this fight has happened, oh, we're dead. After this fight, I have no doubt that that we are in great. After this fight, that won't be enough people to bring us back anymore.

Thank you. This is everything. But this fight, this first fight is going to happen. We need our forces and we need them prepared and we need them not marching into a city. We need them in a city holding siege, preparing to tackle, to grapple and to subdue as best we can, to be difficult to find, to be surrounding.

We need all of these things and we cannot do any of these things unless we bring him to a place where all of our power is. Let's go check out Fort Daxi. Hey! Hey! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Isn't it interesting that we all feel the need to convince her no matter what? I'm just pointing that out.

Well, I don't know how we're going to get the king out of the castle, but... We need to figure out if Fort Daxia is the place to send everyone, all right? We've got to fucking check it out. Let's just like put one foot in front of the other first. Let's go buy some black powder. some black powder. How do we get there? This is the time. You don't know of any trees there. Can you s'all? I can scratch.

Ironically, any town where you go to buy black powder, it's always him. It's really interesting. I don't know why. And he's in 16 bits every time. Do we know anyone in Daxio? Can you scry there to find a tree? I can, I mean, I can scry there regardless and find a tree, yes. Does the rest of the council approve of this ridiculous plan? Yes, I approve. This non-splan. I mean, I know, I, yes, I mean, I don't know anyone at the moment. Ryskell was the only one, or Ryskell was when I knew the connection there and his father

Mikhail is in Singhorn. Do you think that they will be agreeable to this plan? Who are those who are there most likely. You know, I'll give you a written and she pulls out a small little side-scort, perhaps. It's like scribbling a note says, this is a decree from the council. We'll have to listen to it. She finishes writing it, it rolls it up.

So, now reach your disposal. It's not the army, it's the reserves, the rest are. Any powers that you can think of, let them know where we are heading. Do not let them know the plan, but let them know that if there are forces to gather, they are gathering in that direction. And don't share our carefully crafted plan with anyone.

The details are so precise and exact, you must keep them so great. The more precise details you have in a war plan is the more things that will inevitably go wrong in the first ten seconds. Certainly. How about we go to Daxio and then you guys can catch up with an airship that arrives in the next couple of days? We'll do that, and then we're meeting you with Daxio, correct? Please. Yeah, Daxio, Daxio, Daxio. Daxio.

Daxio. Daxio. Very well. Daxia it is. Daxia. We'll see you soon. On the morrow. We plan.

Be pleased. Be pleased. Beep. Beep. Good day. Good day. And with that, we'll finish the night session. Picking up here for Daxi next week.

Oh, man. Well, yeah, it's like 1030. Oh, yeah. Oh, it's like that. Oh, such a dumb fuck ending. I know, that was a sluck-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-dd-dd. Gerd-durk, good-berkdurk, Dirk.

Sorry guys. I tried to stab a dragon. I swear I tried. No, no, we know you did. I tried to end the game. I thought the game could totally have been ended right there. You got that gunslinger sneak attack times 10 damage. That was a green dragon.

Hi, man, I did the math on what that could have done. It could have been nasty. Had it been a less tricksy dragon maybe? It had been less trixie dragon. That would have been. Matt, you got a little something right. Not here or here. Yeah, it's right there.

They just don't, they don't even. You got it. You got it. You got it. I can enjoy this for a little, but it is. We should have them walk down the street to take that on how long it takes. I'm just thinking. I'm so going to go to a 7-Eleven right now and just happens like asking me a black tar on our way.

Like those YouTube videos or social experiments. What you need? What you need? Yeah. Cheeseburgers, Cobble Fry. Flayfish. Animal fish. Flayfish.

Playfish. Playfish. Oh, man. All right, we'll be back next to we pick up. Hey. Whatever the hell your final plan is going to be for this. This is a great plan. I am behind this plan, 100%.

Oh. 20%. I am so excited. One percent behind this plan. 20 percent. Thank you, L'Kre. Thank you, L'K. on this plane. I'm excited for the countdown to Thorac that we are now embarking on.

Gee Belize. Maybe there'll be time to run to the fire plane really quick. I was going to say, sorry for being a pain on the ass, I'm being convinced there. No. It takes a lot for me to sacrifice all my people when like a fourth place have already been sacrificed. No, we're going to go to the fire plane and get them and then we'll pick up an object and then we'll fight a dragon. It'll be great. It's cool. I have an internal timer and if you don't meet it, I'm going to kill all your people. Don't. You know the glasses make that, like, weirdly threatening. I love the glasses.

It's a real look, man. It's all right. It's a real look, man. Natural born killers. Exactly. Well, cool, guys. Thank you so much. Everyone is awesome.

Happy Halloween, everyone. Happy Halloween. Critical costumes. Poo-phew! Yeah, go knock on strangers' doors and get candy from them. Do it. Race of Blades. It's good for Mary.

It's good for America. It can't have it like once. There I go. It actually didn't even have to once. It was totally inflated. Yeah, okay, okay. Rest well. We'll see you next week and

is it 30 yet. Aww. Bye.