Critical Role & Sagas of Sundry - Vox Machina Ep. 89 - Curious Tides

Episode Date: January 10, 2022

Keyleth completes her Aramente as the fate of Vax is decided!   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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What's that mean? What's that mean? I don't know. We entered on an interesting note. Yeah. You all hear with that heartbeat? Is it weird? Yeah. But before we get to that, let's go ahead and get to our opening announcements. First and foremost, our glorious returning sponsor for the evening are our friends at Luke Craig.

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It's actually really grossly. This is like, this looks unhappy. Travis, you got the clock ready. Two minutes. Can it be done? The answer is no. Ready? Three, two, one.

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We can't go. Oh, God. 30 seconds left. 30 seconds left. Work at work. Relax the throat. Oh, God. Oh, fuck.

He's gonna kill himself. Don't choke. Half left! 15 seconds! Oh, God! I can't do it! I can't do it! Don't look!

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Five years from now, your children will be able to Google this. I'm just going to remind you. If there was ever a moment in our show, that will be gift and show up on Giffy. That's it right there. Oh, my God. Thank you, Sam. And thank you, look great, for your fantastic sponsorship. I feel like we just passed into performance, aren't there?

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Consider us challenged and uncomfortable. That made my eyes water and not in a good way. Oh, God. Part of the back of my head. Thank you, Sam. about the game, well done. Yeah. Yeah, no, not even thinking a little bit about the game.

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All right, so last week we can mention this, I want to tell you guys again, thanks to Qualcomm Lionsgate and their new VR experience and the new upcoming Power Rangers movie, our friends at Nerdists are doing a circumstance where you can win a patron to L.A. to attend the movie premiere of Power Rangers as well as Google Pixel phones and Daydream Headset. It only has one more day, and we wanted to make sure that we let you guys know this for the last day they have going. So be sure to go to Nerdist.com slash Power Rangers giveaway, to learn more about this, and enter to win

if this sounds like an awesome thing to you. If one of you guys win, that's great, because then we just have more and more of our community winning everything, which is kind of our long-term plan. Yes! Check it out. Take over the world! Yay!

Okay, next up. Merch. Lord, do we have any updates on that? Okay, tell that. What the fuck are you thinking? What are you thinking? What are you thinking? What are you thinking?

Nine. Okay. Chuck, Chuck. Fuck it. All right. Okay. The distance on that are incredible. My hair.

Hold on, Marcia. Are you okay? Yeah. Are you okay? Are you okay? Why are we not talking about this? That sounded like something that happens when you're diseased. I could feel your glycage in spike.

Oh. Marisha, you were saying? Stabby you in the heart with an epic day. This Saturday, it's the two-year anniversary of the Twitch stream. Oh, wow. My half-time rise. And it's pleasant and not disgusting looking. It's a 24-hour Twitch stream. There's going to be a lot going on.

There's going to be Gather Your Party, AXYB special, there's going to be Game the Game, and... We're going to bearded men, not breaded men. I was very excited. No, bearded men. And we are going to be playing mansions of madness. Some of us here. I'm down. Yeah, like around 1 o'clock.

And this is not going to be charity stream benefiting 8-2-6 L.A. Yes, yeah, and the whole thing, it's going to be charity related. It's all going to go to 8-6 L.A. Our friends there since the beginning. Yeah. So looking forward to that.

Yeah. So donate, we're going to be taking donations is going to be great. Exactly. And tomorrow at noon, Pacific time, me and Darren DePaul are going to be guesting on Eric's TBD RPG, the Doctor Who RPG, from noon to 3 p.m. Tomorrow Pacific, and then we'll be... Oh my God, oh my God. And... Put him in the game so you can kill him. Okay, it's a good call. And it looks like we'll also be continuing that game on Saturday before the Manchin's a Madness stream from 11 to 1.

So I'll be here for five hours, again, on Saturday. But it's been a lot of fun, looking forward to it. I'm excited to go guest on there and play for a little bit. So hopefully see you guys tomorrow and Saturday. Let's see. So Laura, now you're... Oh, hey. Hi.

How's it going, guys? Good. We have... Touch my donuts. We have all of the normal, wonderful stuff still available in the store. The stuff that's out of stock actually has been removed, so that you don't get confused when you're looking for things. So we have, you know, our Gilmore shirt.

We got our Strong Jaws shirt. We got a, how do you want to do this shirt with a hoodie. We got baseball caps. We got patches. We got vinyl stickers, which I am still a really big fan of. They go on windshields, MacBooks, whatever you want. Pets. Pets.

Not recommended. You know, so yeah, check it out. If you want to wear your Critical Roald Goodie. You're like an Italian grandmother in Hoboken, New Jersey right now. Hey! Bada b'i! Bada b'em! Bada bada boom, there you go. Move it on?

Big Bada boom. The new Signal Boost came out with Jason Charles Miller as the host. Our friend who played Garthock for his temporary run during the initial conclave attack. Yes, it's part of the classic. Yes. And he did our theme music. He did the theme music for the show here. He's a very talented musician and a good friend of the show. And he can see his new run on Signal Boost as of this week.

New GM tips is out today. Tips is out today. Yeah. My second to last on the run at this time. This episode is more for the players and deals with creating and running characters that are against the normal tropes and the type that people generally fall into when creating a character in an RPG. So go check it out and see if any of it seems to resonate. This is now how he criticizes us now as he makes a web, he makes a little web video and sends it all to us instead of actually talking to us. Yeah, it's very passive aggressive.

It took the wall to figure it out, Tell us. But I'm glad you finally did. Also, Wednesday Club, Tellson. I actually, it turns out, have to record voiceover on occasion. So Wednesday Club is not going to be me this week, and I'll be talking to comic books to the engineer who will be mildly irritated with me. But instead, you guys, Matt Key is going to be hosting, and he's going to talk about his favorite thing in the world. Dr. Strange? His wife.

And Dr. Strange, but that's cool too. Oh, yeah. And Dr. Strange. And Dr. Strange. And Dr. Strange. Yeah. It's great. It's fun. Also, don't forget, we have Toxmachina live on Tuesday nights.

Yeah. 7 p.m. here on Twitch and Alpha, hosted by our fantastic Brian Foster. So check us out next week to discuss this episode when it comes up. Last two things. One, we mentioned it on Tox Machina, but one of our fantastic crew members, Ammendine, who is currently trying to legally find a way to stay in the country, currently put up a fundly. The fun folks here is part of the cast in the community put together or Fundly at Fundly.com slash we dash Love-A-M-M-D-D-I-N-E to raise money to help with her legal costs to try and keep her here working with us. The community's already been incredible. If you have any interest in helping support that, I recommend go check it out and give what little you can

because it all helps. And last one at least, we got a gift today. In the mail from a fantastic critter named Chris Coppola, who, as part of an anniversary present for Miaisha, built a treasure chest, like from scratch, like cut down the tree, trimmed, lathed, built a treasure chest. That's incredible. We thought it was for all of us, but then we realized it was just for Matt and Maria Cheshire. Sorry.

It's physically beautiful, but just the process that we saw outlined. that we saw outlined is it's beautiful. It's a beautiful gift. Chris, thank you tremendously from all of us. But most of me, Marisha. Yeah. I'm going to take a dumper in that box at your house the first opportunity I get.

Joe! Imagine the chest of dumping. That is absolutely brilliant and undeserved and very happy to find a very wonderful place in our home to fill it with awesome shit, so thank you, Chris. All right, I think that's the end of our announcements. That mean the case. No, no, no, no, no, no. Let's jump in to tonight's episode of Critical Role. And welcome back, everyone. So, picking up where we left off this last episode, Vox Machina,

had made their way west into the Osmit Sea to the islands of Ammon and the city of Vesra, the final stop in Kielith's long-running Arremente, to prove herself leader of her people of Zephyra. Here they were given a task as part of the Armente where they had to retrieve three lodestones within the rift to the water elemental plane, which as of late have been taken up residence by a Kraken. An ancient pet of the Titans, now freed and left to wander

to feed, grow, and apparently loom across that boundary. The party went in and, to an unfortunate vomiting episode underwater, drew the attention of the Cracken. Did you plan that? What? That you were almost vomiting today, and you vomited and ruined our lives?

I just planned to vomit every week. At least once. That's for the best, I think. However, drew the attention of the Cracken and a very, very intense battle ensued in which most of you managed to escape by the skin of your teeth. However, in the battle, Vax did fall.

His body left cold and lifeless beneath the waters. In a last minute urge of leadership, Keeleth reached out, grabbed the twins, and plane shifted back into the Primaterial Plain with Percival, Tarian, and Grog looking to escape. You managed to be vomited up with, apparently, almost no hit points left, and jump through the portal while flicking off the Cracken.

as if. Bill words, badass. And that was where we left off. So, before we get into this. Wait, what? There's a before? Vax. Oh.

You! No. As you feel the cold waters rush around you and your vision go dark, even as the unconsciousness takes you, your vision narrows and tunnels, until it's just nothing. And while you were floating before, the cold temperature begins to become warm. It's a familiar warmth. And as opposed to being in water, there is no resistance.

You're just in a dark space. You can look down and you can now see your hands. And you recall and you remember this. You've been here before. This is very reminiscent of your first journey into the blood pool, your first true communion with the Raven Queen. And the moment you make that realization, as you're looking at your hands,

you watch as something dull and white arises from the darkness below you, and you look down and see the massive porcelain mask of the Raven Queen emerge from the shadows. Tendrils of darkness just kind of spilling off at the edges in the corners. As you watch the stone face of the Raven Queen rise up to meet yours.

What seemed immense suddenly seems small. And as the shadow pulls away, you can see the tumbles of jet black hair, falling past the shoulders, the long raven feather woven gown that gathers and then vanishes into the impossible darkness behind her. The hand just kind of reach out and take you by the side to the head. You hear the voice, once again emanating, sourceless, ringing from all around you, it says, My champion, it seems you've stepped to return to me. But what is your destined thread to be?

Grog, as you come jumping through the portal and turn to flick off the crack, and you watch as one of its tendrils begins to, one of its final tentacles that's still there, pulls through, and begins to try and grab one of the sides of the rock, lodestone pillars, the other guardians, half more folk, have various individuals, rush forward and begin just stabbing at it, grabbing at it as it begins to get its beak snapping right at the interior of this portal.

You see it now starting to flex and the energy beginning to pulse, it's almost trying to force its way through a much smaller opening. Percival, Grog, Tarian. What are you guys doing? Oh, shit. Will you have to do stuff? Oh, shit. I'm still wet as a, I'm still underwater. Y'all are still underwater, yes.

Does this happen a lot? The guardians right now are just shouting. and screaming and stabbing at the one tentacle. Like a lot of that is just open mouth like, ah! Yeah, they're all just like, quick, push it back! They're all stabbing in it. The one tentacle finally snaps and withdraws inside.

We could just go, we could just leave. We could just fine. The mouth pulls back and now just the whole body shifts over and you see the one giant eye from one side of the crack and come peering through. I'm dragging Tyrion and you, if I can drag you as well, I'm just like, we're walking away. No, no, I'm all soft.

Let me throw it one more time at the eye. Yeah. Yeah, I throw the hammer at the eyeball. Okay, go ahead and make an attack. Okay, cool. Reckless. Reckless. Okay, so yeah, disadvantage underwater, but so it's one roll.

Oh, pause. 23. That'll hit. Nice. Go to roll damage. Oh, I meant two-handed. Oh, no, I'm throwing it. You're throwing it?

There it is. This connector is a little wonky. 20, well, one points of damage. I'm still enlarged, right? You are, yes. 25 points a day. 25. Whack, as you release the hammer, it goes Thor's style,

just head first, piercing through the water and into the open eye, the crack, and as it slams shut, you hear it, as it reels back, and the voice kind of pierces through the rift towards you and most of the people in the vicinity one more time saying, I'm coming soon enough. And as it pulls back, the remainder of the guardians,

go ahead and reach over, each putting hands on the lodestone, and shift them slightly in place, and you watch as the rift kind of crackles and then doesn't slam it entirely shut, but the image you had of the water elemental plane suddenly grows a little more opaque and difficult to make out the discerning details. And I managed to f-p... Yeah, you hammered us for... Well, we'll give something every once in a while. So, as you carrying the... Which you were...

He resuscitated me, I believe? Yes. Yes. So, conscious, horribly beaten, it seems that the Cracken has been beaten back, and currently the Lodstone is re-utilized to keep the Rift in check. Your uncertain as to whether or not the threat of the Cracken was an idle threat or whatever, this is plain, but regardless, that's the least to your worries. Did we all hear it? Hear what?

The Crackening. Because he mind speaks, right? It would have been- He brain talks. It would have been primarily to UGrog and some of the other Guardians nearby. Okay. That's good. Well, he was not happy in the end there, but he recognized true power, and he was sorry to see us go. As soon as the, as you've had this conversation, you turn and look to left and you see Durand there, who was ready, and goes, where's the rest of him? Where's the rest? Where's Kaileth? They, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they just.

They disappeared. They went away. Well, it's hoped that I know where they'd go in them, at the very least. Any idea where they went? Can we breathe some air? Please. All right, follow me. Follow me.

And he starts leading the swimming cavalcade of individuals that are leading up to the top of Vesra, back up through the area of torrent, through the various tubes and tunnels of the reef that leads towards the surface. of the Osmit Sea. Simultaneously, Kieliff, Vex, and the lifeless body of Vax, you apparate roughly 10 feet above the surface of the water on the outskirts of Vestra, tumble a bit, and splash into the foot, foot and a half shallow waters on the outskirts. As you all kind of get up for a minute and kind of think about your circumstance, Vex, you look down and you see your brother there kind of

face down in the water's floating. I flip him over and look him. Vax, wake up. Come on, come on, we have to get him out of this environment. Come on. Is there a cleric on the island? Yes. Before I do anything, I am gonna throw up a sky right

above the city. I start dragging his body. And that says, help cleric. That works. Look at the idea. Hold on to him. Get on. I'm going to,

turn into my giant raven form again. How big is that? It's like the giant eagle form. I just kind of modify it for style. Okay. So using the stats of a giant eagle, but you're going into a raven type form. Yeah. Black vendors. Good. All that coolness. Yeah. Still about branding. Yeah, 100%. Okay. And what are you doing? Got to be on message. Where are we going? I fly off towards

the center of the city towards where the entrance to the portal was, because I'm assuming there would be sages and clerics waiting there. Well, the portal is beneath the city. I know, but there was like a... There was the central chamber in the middle of the city, which is where it seemed, the base of where the social gathering seemed to occur in, the centerpiece was where Yvenda and many of the other keepers of the city seem to frequent. I'll head there.

Okay. So you watch as the giant raven takes up. I'm holding onto her, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, so you're holding on the hem, and you're riding there. Okay, so you climb onto the back of the Giant Raven, clutching your brother in one arm, and as the wings pick up, you kind of use all the might

that you have to just hold on. You're used to flying under your own power, usually not somebody else's. But as the wings take off the sea breeze, thankfully is not too heavy that day. And as you coast in coming down, kind of dodging between the various buildings heading towards the central risen chamber. You can watch as the, on the upper, kind of third-tier

level of this, there's a single chamber that is open, and the outside wall is a series of pillars that makes up the structure. On the inside, you can see it dips down into three different, kind of sunken platforms, and in the center of there, there are a handful of small statues, there's incense being burned, and what looks to be a small altar of some kind. There are four figures there inside, all dressed in similar kind of blues and greens, aquas and whites. Most of them are just long robes with dangling shell-based jewelry and various smoothed-off stones that have been found, tossed and rounded by the elements through the years. And in the center of the chamber, in the process of lighting a few of these kind of, not

quite sure the material is, but they appear to be candles, as these are being. lit light candles. You see Yovenda is walking with their staff, kind of taking this long, burning tube and is currently setting them light as you approach. As the wings, they begin to like prepare for landing, the wind kicks up in front, and you see some of the other guardians kind of put their arm up and look up curiously. Some of them reaching back and preparing for whatever may be there. Yvenda's voice, however, rings out across the center of this chamber and says, stop! Stop! I know this one who approaches.

And as they all slowly back up, Juvenna kind of stumbles upward, sets aside her small hand-based wick to one of her servants and approaches the ravena as you begin to slink off the side of the bird. Please. Are there any clerics here? We do have some here of a healing-based nature. Yes, or do you, has he been hurt?

Please. He's dead. She slowly approaches and kind of reaches over and puts her hand on the forehead of Vax's corpse. Kind of runs with thumb along the cold skin. Racken claims another. No. No, he won't claim him. What can we do? The power that is at our disposal could perhaps bring him back, though his form may be different than you recall.

Drop my form. All right. The feathers scatter off as Kieluth is now returned to her half-elf image. Do you have means of traveling quickly? We have a friend who's a cleric. Can you get us to her there and back quickly? Or someone who can tree stride me there and bring her back. I'm exhausted or else I would do it myself.

Please. Please. I have not a means of travel, but we could reach out to someone. Yeah, yeah. All right, and she walks back to the altar, and you can see where there are a series of these statues that are kind of, there's four of them in the center, and there's one large statue in the center. And the center statue, it looks almost like long, petrified reef. It's white, it's porous. It looks like the long dead reef, but it's sort of, it looks like the long, dead reef, but it's

seems to swirl into tree like shape. It's this weird kind of merging of sea and forest-based imagery, and as each various portion of the tree outstretches, you see various bobbles are hanging from it. You see stones, necklaces, notes. Yvinda kind of sets her staff to the side, and her small, kind of slightly arched form begins to slowly crawl up the side of a tree,

and it looks a bit physically arduous for her, but nobody offers to help. You see this is something that she's done often and is kind of part of her job as the guardian here, investor of this street. Well, she does this. I come over the earpiece and I say, Grog, Percy, quick, get back up to the Central Tower, quick.

How do we even know they're alive? I'm trusting that they are. The distance of the earpiece, you can hear them, yes. We're on our way. Thank God, thank God. Is everyone still alive down there? Barely, yes, for the moment. Vax is down, so hurry?

We're on the way. As you're finishing this statement, you watch as Evenda's climbing down with one hand and has something cradled in her left arm, and she's like kind of, almost like slips for a minute and sets herself down back on both her feet and kind of rips her lower back. He'll get there one day.

Please, hurry. And she unfurls her arm, and you can see there's a conch shell, a small conch shell, but a conch shell. hot shell, but a hot shell. And she goes, whoever you're wishing to speak to, think of them, and whisper it into the shell. Mike. Greetings, adventurer. 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 seven 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 20, It's perfect for walking my dog on like a chilly night, but when I'm out and about, I've really been loving the ribbed Johnny Collar polo. 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 recommend it.

So shop now at fabletics.com slash critical role to get 70 to 80% off everything when you sign up as a new VIP. Take a quick style quiz and be sure to select Critical Role when prompted to unlock your 7% of everything. prompted to unlock your 70 to 80% off. This is a limited time offer, so don't wait. Again, that's fablatics.com slash critical role for 70 to 80% off everything as a new VIP. And now, onto the show. Greetings, adventurers.

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And since spring is here in Los Angeles, a brief period where it's 75 degrees instead of 95 degrees, I spruced up my wardrobe with a pair of the comfort stretch traveler five pocket pants and the hair heritage-washed denim shirt. Not only do they feel great, but I unequivocally look good as hell while wearing them. That's just science. So refresh your every day with luxury you'll actually use. Head to quince.com slash critical roll for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada too. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E dot com slash critical roll for free shipping and 365-day returns. Quince.com slash critical roll. If you can hear me, we need you now. In Vesra, please, it's facts.

How do we know if it worked? Yeah. Second that statement. She'll hear you. It's up to her, whether or not she can act. And she hints the conchover to one of the assistants, takes her staff back up. Now, we offer the service still. Should you not hear anything, we are more than willing to try and restore him to whatever form we can. How much time does, how long is too long? Let's just wait a little while longer and see if we hear anything from Pike.

She's very smart. She'll hear us. I'll brush his hair all of his face. While she does that, I start gathering the feathers and start laying them out as a bed around Vax and preparing the station. Okay, so the, the, the scattered remnants of your transformation,

the rape and feathers that were kind of shunted from your form, you begin to form a sort of bed-like place to set his body on it. Okay. While you guys are doing that, Durand finally breaks the surface of the water where you were originally brought down into the area of Torrent. And after you all hit the surface and breathe out, the bright midday sun is coming down.

The smell of sea air hits you. You hear the distant calling of various ocean shorebirds, and it's a welcome change of pace in the murky depths of the water elemental plane you've been facing for the past few moments. As soon as you emerge, Duren, it kind of steps up into the sand, turns around, shakes and kind of rustles his hair off. All right, well, that's the end of my watch. I don't know what to do. Could you point us in the direction of where your healers would be? But of healers, and he points over to the large ascending central structure in Vesera, the one

above where you guys had dinner the night before. He says, oh, that's your best bet there. Sorry, you've had to be more than I do. I spend most of my time on the outskirts, so we're down below. Right. Thank you for watching our backs in there. That was real heavy, but we have to be leaving you now. Oh, understood. Yeah.

Well, um, we'll be everything's okay. And he gives you like a a nod and steps over to the side and just watches you guys go as he goes and retrieves one of his one of his Rayburner sailing boards and just kind of watches with a look of intensity and worry in his brow as his kind of dark, dwarven complexion vanishes in the distance you guys approaching and rushing in towards the center of the city. As you begin to approach, you watch as Doty, who's been kind of waiting patiently off the side, kind of comes up to you and is holding the book out and starts just thumbing through page after page after page. Yes, Doty. Thank you. I'll review this all later. How many pages did you fill?

It goes past about 25 different pages and very, very tiny script that goes into detail about the tides going in by every small, each person that went in and out of the water, anything he saw in the further distance, various birds from the sky. He does have a few spatterings of white. bird excrement across the top of his armor. It seems as proud as an automaton code. Very well done, Doty. Thank you. I'll have much more to write tonight, so save some energy for that. Will you, will you carry me? It sweeps you up in a full-on Princess Carrie. Oh my God.

And begins running after Percival and Grog towards the center of Vesra. You guys reach the base of this. And there's all the kind of open stone pavilions where the central gathering areas, you can now see people are starting to look up curiously, coming out of their various homes and places, noticing all this commotion happening up in the top of the temple. You watch as there is a spattering of dark feathers up the top,

and you guys begin to ascend one of the two spiral staircases that ascends to the upper level of the temple. Eventually, you guys come to the surface, you're immediately greeted by one of the guards who's on guard, currently with one of their spears, and upon recognizing you kind of steps aside and lets you in, and that's where you guys watch as Keeleth and Vex are laying Vax down

onto a makeshift bed of black feathers. Am I there? You're there, you're still in Doty's arms. Doty down. What happened? What's going on? Is he dead? Yeah, this is what happens when you adventure.

You live with? Sure come. Sure come. Are there other options? I'm waiting for Pike. She'll come. Are there other options? Pike will come.

There are other options. But they're not good enough. Pike will come. I don't care what he looks like. I just want him back. Pike will come. I don't want to do this without Pike. Sure come. You've ended at this point.

to gather some of the servants and they're starting to take down certain bobbles and trinkets from the tree branches and setting them in a vicinity around. She does so, she says, she says, these represent protection of the waves. They take some small salts and kind of scatter them around. They're doing the best they can from a ceremonial standpoint to at least prepare a space. About 15 tense moments past as you all look out to the horizon. The sun now moving past its zenith and pushing into the afternoon portion of the day. The air is growing a little more hot. You find both the nerves, the stress, and the temperature of the room, all the light from the sun being reflected off

of the white stone, causing this kind of heated element to the interior, and you instinctually begin to sweat, and it's getting slightly uncomfortable. is what sounds like a distant rumble of thunder. Where is it coming from? You're not sure. It just sort of seemed directionless. Is anybody else startled by it? You guys all notice each other kind of reacting to the sound, and suddenly it happens again, but this time much closer.

Is this normal? What's happening? Juvenda's looking a bit awkwardly into the air. Um, normal no. But let us be cautious as she takes her staff, her little elderly gnomish form, kind of clutching it in front of her in an offensive standpoint. Don't let anything harm him. Yeah. I'm going to run to my room and get my things.

We have not had anything vaguely resembling a short rest at this point. No, no, no. Stop them very rapidly. The rest has been the 15 minutes of kind of waiting to hear anything happen. As soon as you start darting to leave, Percival, that rolling thunder sound hits with a small thunder crack. Right in the room, there's a flash. of light, there's a spiral burst of a looks like white, orange flame, and there you see dropped from about 10 feet in the air the golden astral form of pike with her extended

serenray wings that slowly retract and vanish from the form. As your gnomish friend kind of looks up her mostly corporeal form, eyes wide, glancing up at the rest of you. Actually, I know. Oh. You're mayor. Oh. I know I'm ready, right? As Pike, Ashley Johnson.

Hi. Hi. I wish it were better circumstances. Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. So Pike, the message came to you, and you immediately went to a frenzy. You were in the process of carrying a bunch of food along with other volunteers with an Imman getting it to some of the folks that lost their homes. And when the voice of Kieleth hit your ears, you immediately dropped what you were holding.

You found somebody to help to continue to leave this effort, immediately rushed off to find the nearest temple of Sarenrae in Iman, which still stands, slightly damaged, but it's still one of the buildings of the temple district. That's fine. There you sat in quiet prayer for never minutes, just imploring to Sera and to offer you some sort of guidance or way. and you felt something around you shift, like a push. Someone just kind of pushed you in the shoulders. And as your eyes opened, you weren't in the temple anymore. You were above a floor in a brighter, sunlit, unfamiliar place. And as you landed and caught yourself, you could see

you are in your astral form, much like in the White Stone experience. And you turn around and see surrounding you in the center of this open-air chamber, in the depths, or in the center of the center of the center of the of this expansive ocean, your friends, their eyes locking to you with a look of sudden joy and despair mingled. Oh, thanks, Sarah, Ray.

You heard, and I just run up and I was gonna give her a hug and then pat her astral form. I had a hugger. Hi. Pike, we need your help. Okay. Max, what's happening? It can you still do some sort of resurrection?

Yes. I- From here? Yeah? I think I can. I think I can. I may I will try. How is this gonna work with him? And the Raven Queen, what do you know? Vex, do you know anything? I know nothing.

Do you know anything, Pike? I don't know. I've never done anything quite like this before with. I mean, most of the time when you guys have been there for resurrections, I don't know. I don't know. We just have to try. Is there anything on his armor?

Like something we should be looking for? Like a tab or a button or a, no? I look. Any sort of message from the Raven Queen on his armor? Make an investigation. 20, that's five plus seven. 32. No, 22.

22. Oh, I thought you said. 22. I mean, most of the runic symbols and designs on here aren't formulated in a sentence structure or a language. You do see the roots of them. Some of them are draconic and root, but they've been changed.

as part of the enchantment of the armor. However, you do find like a small, kind of crumpled note on the inside of the armor. Can I pull it out? Yeah. What is it? It's up to you. Oh, I'm gonna open it.

Okay. Do you want to tell her what's... Oh, you want me to tell her. Or... It just has your name on it. No. It says, take these wings and fly. Oh. I just put it back in the armor.

There's nothing. Let's go get it. Okay. Can we start? He's been here for a while. I'm sorry to bring you into this like. No, no, no. It's okay. I would rather be here and I'm glad that you guys called me. Yeah. Okay. So because you're in your astral form, you don't have the reagents with you. However,

reagents can be provided by the party and you can rummage through and you require a diamond of at least 500 gold piece worth which you have at the disposal. So mark that off in the bag of holding or the bold amount there. You find it has already done a very good job of prepping this space. space for a ritual, not quite like the one you're used to, but a similar variation, hers being druidic-based magic, but you work with them over the next hour or so to take elements they've already prepared and kind of alter it to fit the ritual style that you're used to formulating and casting. As you finish preparation and your focus clutching onto your holy symbol around your chest, you feel the warmth of Sarenrae that brought you here

begin to swell around. You guys watch as the ritual continues, Pike's form begins to just emit more and more light. The interior of this temple, which is largely shaded by the roof of the temple, other than the sunlight coming in from the open walls of it, the whole interior begins to just grow brighter from Pike's presence. As the incantation begins to slowly drift from your lips and the magic begins to flare. The circle that was drawn around the body, the three parts of it, the tricorner section of this glyph awaits who wants to bring the first offering to the ritual, the first attempt to bring.

I kneel down next to him and I take the feathers from behind my ear. and I start braiding them into his hair. I say you were always better at this than I was. But you gave me these feathers in one of my darkest hours to remind me of the beauty in the world. So I'm giving them back to you now because you take the beauty with you. We've done this so many times. We've brought so many of us back,

but this feels different, right? I feel as if I'm not speaking to that, I feel as if I'm speaking directly to her. Speak to him. No, no, he's at her sight, but it's being filtered through the Raven Queen. So these are my words to her. I'm here today because a bargain my brother made with you, so I know you like to make deals as much as I do.

He traded his life. He became your champion, and you spared mine. And what a striking champion he is. Long dark hair. Strong, lie the figure soaring over the land, and raven feathers and a dark vestige. He set pious in your honor, set soul after soul to you.

It would be ashamed to give that up, especially now. And I remember the book that I read. Especially now, as Orchus builds his forces against you, the demon prince of the undead seeks to claim your throne. You know this as when as I. We just recently killed one of his loyal servants in the under dark. Before my brother ever came to your service,

imagine what he could do now. So this is the deal I make with you. You send him back. Allow my brother to come home, and we will seek out Orcus. I will track him down, I will hunt him, and whatever pit he resides. And we will destroy,

your enemy, once and for all. What say you? Make a persuasion check. 25. Okay. The minute the words, what say you leave your lips, one third of the glyph vibrates to life, where the gold and the light of Sarenre's power

that the glyph initially emanates the light as it brightens becomes a purplish blue hue. So, Who wishes to be the next offering? I go up to him. I prop up his back and kind of set him up against my chest and whisper into his ear. Say, I know you can hear me.

I know you're still in there. I'm sure she can hear me too. Your sister is right. You've held up to your promise to her. You've made a promise to me. We have to settle down, live happily together, remember? He promised me Vesra, so I want to give you a little bit of light to follow in the darkness. And I find the scar on his back of my handprint, find it, and I cast daylight into his back, into the handprint,

and say, besides, you know I'm in love with you, right? You'll only do 20 add your wisdom. 20 total. 20 total? Yeah. As the daylight spell brightens and you, your instinct is to close your eyes, but you push against it. And you know this will temporarily burn into your retinas, but you're still holding that still, whispering into him. You can feel not just the tears of your emotion, but the instinctual pain

of the blinding light piercing the inside of your eyes, but you hold strong as you whispered to him. And as the final word leaves your lips, the second portion of the glyph grows a light and then transitions to that same purple blue color. At which point the daylight spell diminishes in a way that you weren't expecting, as opposed to being this bright, glowing, blasting beacon, it shrinks down to a small, condensed, gentle glow, and you're afraid to move your hand. Okay? There's the last offering. Do you think I should... Oh, no?

No. Yeah. All right. Yeah. All right. I'll go, do you. I'll go over to Vax. Is he on a race platform? No, actually. He's on the ground in a bed of black feathers and currently is propped up against Keeleth's chest. She's sitting behind him, so he's kind of like leaning back against her.

has her hand against his back. I'll stand over him. I told you before, no one kills you but me. And I think back to be an in Percy's workshop at Grace called Keep. And I say, I love you too. And I reach back and I slap the ever-loving fucking shit out of his dead face. Make an intimidation check.

Adding your strength, court. Oh, Jesus. 22. 22. Kieliff, it knocks him out of your grasp. The impact is so hard. Just keep my hand, keep my hand. Just come on.

Come on to the side. You're like, oh, God, you kind of pick him back up. Oh, geez. What birds, Keyleth? I just let out a, oh! The third and final portion of the circular glyph alights and then transitions to that purplish blue glow. The entire circle complete. God Jesus. Why is he taking a picture again? It always takes a picture. It always takes

a picture. It's a thing. The glyphs go dark, and so does the light of the outside. The entire central chamber goes dark. The light being crushed and squeezed from the vicinity. You watch as the air gets cold and a slight breeze picks up. And in the darkness around you, surrounded the lifeless body of Vax, all you see is your family and darkness. And there's a glowing little thread,

a bead in the sternum of Vax's lifeless corpse. And you watch as a hand suddenly appears from out of the darkness and reaches down and grasped the thread. And emerging from the darkness, you all see for the first time the white porcelain-mast face of the Raven Queen. 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 at its most cruel.

Your torch ticks down in real time. And when that flame dies, something else rises to finish the job. This is a brutal rules-light nightmare with a story that emerges organically based on the decisions that the characters make. This is what it felt like to play RPGs in the 80s, and man, it is so good to be back. Join the Glass Cannon podcast as we plunge into the Shadow Dark every Thursday night at 8 p.m. Eastern on YouTube.com slash the glass cannon with the podcast version dropping the next day. See what everybody's talking about and join us in the dark. Welcome to Mick Unplugged, the number one podcast for self-improvement and modern leadership. I'm Mick Hunt, your host, and I'm here to challenge your why in fuel.

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As she tugs on this small bead you watch as a bright white, thread begins to be drawn from the center of his chest. As it does, he lifts up like a puppet, just limply dangling from it. He's lifted out of your grasp and keel if he instinctually try and reach for him, but this spectacle is, you find yourself unable to move, whether it be by some other power or just the sheer awe of some sort of a presence here. As he's dangled up on this thread, she stops and holds him there. The mass kind of looks past all of you,

and without the mouth moving, a voice fills your minds. My champion has learned much. Great deeds in the service of fate. There is still much to be done before. My charge is complete in him. She releases the thread, and he drifts down onto his feet, arms and heads still limp, and slowly withdraws into his chest.

to his chest. We shall meet again, and I call to you to meet me beyond the divine gate. And as the mask withdraws into shadow and her form vanishes in a darkness, suddenly the light comes back in. You all kind of close your eyes and blink it, and the vision's gone, and you see all the servants around, still standing in the places they were, just looking intently at Vax, their own kind of eyes still wide open. And you watch as the limp standing form, you watch as the limp standing form there before you. The wings of black feathers slowly stretch out from his shoulders. And as they reach out and stretch and open, his head pulls back and takes a breath of living air into his lungs and his eyes blink open.

Do you feel? Loop my sister's head and then I looped Keeleth and I just pulled them in. Where are we? Bezra. Who are alive? Hey, that queen, she's pretty scary looking her. You're not kidding. That's pretty intense. Welcome to my last four months. Hey, Pike.

Hi, it's a pickle. Hi, Pike. She did it again. She fixed you. No. There is some physicality to her, as her divine form. It feels, Pike feels like she's there and she can be like held and touched, but it's like touching a warm, soft jello almost.

I go and I give me a big hug. A jellowy hug. Or like a big piece of cotton. Like, you know, it's softer and gives a bit. Kind of, yeah. Kind of, yeah. I take hold of the jello head. I press my head into it and say, thank you, sister. Of course, Vax. I give him a cotton candy kiss on his friend. Oh, man. She does so, and she releases your head.

Vax, you look at her face and you look up, and just behind her, you see the mask there, and the voice comes to your head. None of you see this, just Vaxon says, soon, I'll call for your purpose. for your purpose, in time. And it just fades, and you can now see the sea beyond the midday of Vesra now surrounding you. Hey, I feel like shit.

Hey, welcome to the club. Yeah, you punched your card. Yeah, all this life now is Kieleth. Which, by the way, your jaw is sore and you're pretty sure you're missing a tooth. Oh. Can't grow that back, bitch. Okay, yeah.

I try to reach my arms around him and fail. You fucking fucker, come here. Yeah, we'll come back. Don't be weird. You've met me right. That's true. Yeah. I'm really glad you're not dead. I'm really glad you're not dead.

Do you need to rest? Do you need to go lay down? Don't need to rest? I'm good. I turn to you vendor. Yeah, she's still kind of like, Well, I'm glad to see that this was a success. This was a success and that your friend could come and aid as well. Um, Grog, Terry.

Yes. The lodestones. Oh. Oh. Oh, yes. As well. I hereby present to you a loadstone that I got at the bottom of the sea. Good, yeah, good job, good job. Good work.

She kind of points over and the servants come up and collect the three of them and she goes, well, this is fine news. I was worried that we had a loss, and perhaps this endeavor was incomplete. However, it appears that you've both survived the encounter with the current scourge to the Vesra's rift. Pleated your heramenti, young Kilith. There will be a celebration tonight before we send you back to Zepra, where you will be formally crowned. by your father, Corle. Oh, that's happening tonight.

Oh, wow, this stuff moves fast, yeah. We'll celebrate this evening. You'll return at your leisure. But, um, and she kind of walks up to you and she can see the tears and she kind of reaches up with her, you know, wrinkled, you know, sun-wrecked, elderly gnomes skin, and reaches up and kind of rubs the tears from your face

and goes, it's all right. You've done well, and I'm sorry. For what? The Aramenta didn't used to be this dangerous. It's tradition, but our trial has changed. And while we grew confident in your confidence upon arrival, we should have been more attentive. This might not have happened. It was my negligence and proper planning that added to this.

Well, that may be the lesson learned as the lesson learned, this trial, but I think we've learned a lesson as well. And perhaps we need to adjust our trial, given the dangers of our recent elemental guardian. I think the landscape of the world has changed a lot recently, and I think the Araminti should reflect that. So I would be honored to provide any insight to help. Well, come back. Come back once. You've returned to your people and become the voice of the tempest. Then we'll alter however you see it. Anyway, glad you're awake. Taps you in the head with the staff. On God's.

Shit. How many people lose their lives on their Aramente? How many people complete it? Well, the Arremente is generally not a lethal experience. The Cracken only arrived this recent generation. And honestly, the only two who's had to take it with the Cracken's presence were Keeleth and her mother. Oh. What? I've been hoping to run a perception check through pretty much this entire conversation to make sure she's being completely honest about everything. Inside check you mean?

Yeah, look inside check. Check. Thirteen. Thirteen. Hard to read. Okay. She seems to be at the front. What do you mean?

Why? Why were we the only ones with the tools? Well, before the Cracken came to a rift, it was simply an excursion to gather the lodestones amongst errant elementals and other mild dangers within the plane. The Cracken had only been drawn. to the rift. Recently. Recently.

And unfortunately, Villia was the first to take the trial with it residing just beyond our door. How many people did you have with her? She went in with five. None returned. Two of which were our own. I'm sorry. That's the danger we face in these times

to exist amongst such ravaging elements. Mental force is a danger into itself, but that is the call. Ashari, by nature, is it not? Yes, it is. To safeguard the rest of civilization from these terrors. Anyway, enough dourness. It got rather cold here, and I think we'd use some warming heat of the sun, some food, and perhaps some rest for you.

Hits you again in the forehead. Other two. I'm alive. Do you mind if we take a brief respite amongst ourselves before we catch up with you and join in the festivities? But of course, it's a, and she kind of looks at the sun. It's about time for my sailing, so I'll see you here in the next hour or two. And she goes and two of her servants start leading her, you know, flanking her down the stairway. Katiake. She stops and turns, looking back at all of you and gives like a deep bow. Kaiti Tjong.

It's making her way down the stairs. Group hug, guys, group hug. Group hug. Come here, Terry. You too. Oh, me too. You too, Terry. Come here. Sure, sure.

This is natural. This is right. Who is that? Human contact. I don't know who is that. That guy. Who's that guy? What are you talking about? That's Terrian.

Oh, come now. You recognize me, Terry and Tery and Trey and Derrington, the brave, the bold. We both fell in battle, so I know exactly how you feel right now. Oh, I've read your book. I know you. I didn't think it was published yet. Not quite yet, but I'm sure people are already talking about it. How to do Terry? Well. Well. He did well. Doty take this down.

Which is, you look over, Doty has been faced away from the entire ritual and have been recording the various of weather elements and the surrounding. We just witnessed an amazing ritual. Did you not get any of that? No. No. Turns the book around and you can see it talks about cloud structures. It talks about a few children that were playing in the water below. Well, you are consistent.

I'll fill you in on the details of that later. But now, take this down. Plagged by an incompetent plan. and ambushed by a surprise from a kraken, we nevertheless stayed true to ourselves and to our bravery, found the lodestones, and despite nearly dying, came back to tell the tale, proving ourselves as heroes of Vesra and to each other.

I was aided by young Percival in my fight, abandoned by the antlers and the elves. And by the end of the fight, it was just me and the big guy, duking it out. I blacked out for a moment, but before I did, I'm sure he saw my bravery and was impressed. That's why he dragged me to safety and presented me to Percival for healing. That's enough for now. You forgot to mention the part where you vomited and blew our cover. Oh, that's right you did do that. Thank you. It's not, it's, this is the abridged, I don't

want to bore the readers with too much detail. It's so weird. I totally remember like Walking past you in trying to leave. Somehow I got to the Rift door, and I didn't get there on my own, so thank you. Thank you, big guy, for dragging me there. I appreciate it. Um, hi. Oh.

Who are you? Terry and Darrington. We passed briefly in Whitestone. Briefly, yes. Yes. I didn't realize you were still with my family. He's too. He's too fucking good.

I'll switch to. to gnome. Oh, it's fine. And say, oh, you're friendly with these people as well? Ah, yes. They've taken me in, and they're showing me the ropes of adventure, and we've already done quite a lot. We were on a boat that was attacked. Oh, wow.

And we almost died, but I destroyed the beast that was attacking us with a bit of magic. How did you destroy it? Do tell me. I have a lot of tricks, magical things that I... I think that you might even understand, because it seems that you are a magic user yourself. I dabble. The resurrection thing that you just did was amazing. I've never seen anything like it,

and it was quite astounding for someone who's not really here. Hello. Does actually hit the size of her face. Sorry, sorry. And they're speaking this whole time in Nome. Yeah, so like, By the way, how is my accent?

I haven't had a chance to practice gnome on an actual gnome in a long, long time since I was a war. It's terrible. Oh. But it's nice to be able to speak it. I apologize profusely for butchering your language. I learned it by books, and I've only, as I said, I've only had a chance to speak it once before to a gnome who, you knowem who, you know, visited my family's estate a long time ago. Oh. All gnomes know each other, so who was it? I didn't catch the fellow's name.

It was a fellow that narrows it down. Well, he was part of a performing troupe that my father hired to entertain us on New Year's Eve. And they came in, stayed a few days. I remember quite vividly, though, that they left in a hurry. Because something went on with one of the members of the troop and my father's handmaiden,

and he was very upset with it, and he chased them all off in the morning, and I didn't get to continue practicing with him. All I know is my father was so upset. Something happened in his room. He had to burn his bed sheets, and it was, I think he got a new bed. I don't know quite what happened,

but it was quite a different. a dramatic thing. I was only about 12 or 13 at the time. That sounds like somebody that I would love tremendously. Well, he had a sharp wit to him and not very attractive young man, but... He sounds very familiar. Like I said, us gnomes do know each other. That's amazing. Really? And is it true that you live hundreds of years and Thousands, even. Thousands.

I was misinformed. It's something you should know. Yes, I should. If you need to know anything, you should always ask me. I will. I will tell you all the truths. I was planning on doing at least one chapter in my book about the smaller races. And that would be an excellent, an excellent fitting addendum.

Well. Yeah. You are just delightful. Well, you are too. Pleasure to make your acquaintance. Okay. You can feel free to smoke this fool. It's fine. No, it's fine. He's a little bit of a twat, isn't he?

A little bit. I don't mind him, though. All right. All right. So, as you guys take a little bit of time to go ahead and rest, recover, converse, and bask in... Heal up a bit. Take a short rest.

Use your hit dice. Get your abilities back that do come back from a short rest. We're going to go ahead and take a quick break. We back here in a few minutes. Hold on to that backup character. Until later. Oh, until later. Okay. Okay.

I'm 98% believed and 2% bummed. I know. No, I know the feeling, man. I know. It may still come up. Yeah. What does that mean? We don't know what that means.

You can't say that shit. What? Raven Queen. Just kidding. Raven King. It's almost like future challenges in the story might involve more death, I don't know. I'm eating my feelings.

Yeah, I'll disappointed, but this works well. So we'll heal up now. Yeah, heal up now. We're gonna take a break. We'll be here in a few minutes, guys. Much love. We have another giveaway from our friends at Wormwood tonight. I don't know what we're giving away, because I was to give it. A dice tower. A dice tower. Oh, snap. You guys are getting a full scale, a dice tower. What is it?

It is wood. It is made of wood and it is a dice tower. We're running it up to you. And it's going to be free to the winner. So come on over to the Twitch chat and get involved over the break with the, the word is Raven, R-A-V-E-N. Go ahead and... Yeah, you are, Grog. Oh, oh snap. That is not a dice tower. It's a deck box. Sentinel box, which is still rad. They told me it wasn't, but however, oh, that's cool. It has like a small magnetic for minis or dice if you want. That's pretty rad actually. So, anyway, this, birds eye maple Sentinel deckbox is going to go to whoever the winner is. Type Raven to the chat room of Twitch to win. We'll have an announcement. When we come back, see you guys in a few minutes. Welcome back, everyone, to Critical Role.

Damn it. First and foremost, I want to mention that our fantastic Fundly to Amundeen is apparently already really close to its goal. Oh my God. So if you guys want to check out, it's fundly.com, F-U-N-D-L-Y.com, we-d-L-L-D-L-E.

If you can give anything, we're almost at the goal, which is awesome. Also, we have the winner in chat. Thank you, Sam. How you're still real? How you feeling, buddy? I know. We have the winner in chat of our fantastic deck box

from our friends at Wormwood. It is Steve Tharia. Steve Tharia, you're the winner. We're going to go ahead and sign that box and get it sent to you, that Sentinel box. Congratulations. We'll have more giveaways in future episodes. So if you didn't get it tonight, come back again and have another chance, which is awesome.

All right. So. Bringing us back in. You guys have had some time to recover. Gather your thoughts, gather your wits, and reflect on the recent near permanent loss of your champion of the Raven Queen, Vaxiland. You now currently sit wherever you'd like within the city of Vesra in preparation for an evening celebration. Is there anything you guys wish to do in the meantime? How much time has passed since I got brought back up there?

About an hour. About an hour? A little over an hour, I'd say. A little over an hour? Just up curiosity, did my wings shloop back in? Yes, they have retracted. Yeah. Are we all together? You guys are all together, if you want to be?

Can we be on the beach? Sure, yes. Is there a beach? Well, there are portions where the sand kind of breaks the surface. A lot of it is maybe a foot, foot and a half below the water before you start hitting the reef and the beach shelf drop off. But there are places where the sand rises above, and there are patches where you see a lot of the kids

kind of play around and leap off of. And there are beach elements closer to the islands and the outskirts of the city between the actual islands themselves. So yeah, there are beaches. I'm going to be crafting little seashell necklaces. There are hair bits for everybody. I'm working on a hair bit. Like it.

Like a hair bit or like a hair bit that goes like this. Yeah, like that with a little, yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. You know what, yeah. It's like we've had this conversation. Making a little bits for everybody. There you go.

As you're working on that, Vax, you do you notice in this time that you see one of your sister's feathers that's kind of carefully braided into your hair? All of, I only got two of them and they're both in his hair. There you go. Both of her sisters' feathers are braided into your hair. I have something for you all. I have presents. Presence? Mm-hmm.

Well, that's cool. Well, I had Gilmore help me out with a little something for if and when I completed the Haramante as a thank you. So I got them from him before we left. Granite, in hindsight, I'm never holding on to presents ever again, because we could all just, die any day. But, like we do. Like you do. Yeah, like, you're like you do.

But this time it worked out okay. And I pull out all the necklaces. These are from the dragons we've collected. They're dragon tooth necklaces. And I had Gilmore enchant a very simple enchant to each of them, so we won't have to focus or attune to it. If any one of us goes unconscious, unconscious, we're with you.

If anyone of us goes unconscious. Don't sweat the details. Thank you. The rest of them will start beating a little heartbeat. That a way we know if any one of us goes down, even if we can't see each other. So, grudge. It's wonderful. It's a little morbid and wonderful at the same time.

I love it. I know, but I've got it. That's so wonderful. I figure we all go unconscious so often. That's so thoughtful. Well, most of us do. Totally had this one made for Scanlan. Just hold up to it. I understand and that's fine. I think I should hold on to it. Yeah, just hold on to it. Don't do it. Don't give it to him.

But here's a flower, and I drew a crap, I'm a flower. Oh, what a bummer. Oh, I feel like somebody, we just got party invitations. It's like, oh, I ran out. I make sure Terry gets a little seashell crown. Thank you. This flower. I mean, you can, do you want to wear it? We do have to get them in here.

As you're staring at the flower and contemplating the awkwardness, you feel personal slowly put behind you and just put a little seashell crown on your head. Vong may he rain. Oh my God. Oh my God. Is there anyone else around, by the way? I want to check. Are we being listened to?

Is there anyone with an earshot? Make a perception. You know, maybe I should go ahead and just give us to Terry. I can always have Gilmore make another one. 16? You can always get it back for memory if he decides to leave our presents. There are folks wandering around and there are some people that are kind of just... Younger folk or people that are general denizens of Esra

that are just excited that all of a sudden these people came and apparently battle the crack and word has gotten around already. That, you know, the... Here, Terry. What? Just, um, you did, you did good. You're giving this to me. You did good here today.

You're giving this to me. At least for now. I can probably have an roommate. I dropped to my knees. My lady. Oh, geez. I cannot express to you what this means to be accepted as a full-fledged member of this team. We're going to try, I...

That would be it. I knew this day would come, I didn't think, so soon, but I suppose finding that loadstone and helping you on your Akapake was enough to... Just close my eyes. ...to win over your good graces. I've watched you in these last few battles, and you have been powerful. Thank you. Thank you.

I wasn't done. Powerful, confident. confident and enthralling. And I vow to use this to the betterment of our entire team to make sure that none of us fall in battle. Not me, not Percy, not you, not either of the elves, not short stuff or the big guy. Oh, you're so great.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Look what you do. I will cherish it all this. All right, thank you.

You're welcome. Thank you. You have just passed the final challenge of your Aramente. I think you're right. I wonder. I can't take it back from him now. Ever. Oh.

Crog will take it back. Oh, he's sketching me? Doty begins sketching me. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait till I find the light. Find the light. Drink it goes up and peas on Doty's leg. He's leg. I'm imagining a really simple etch-a-sketched drawing.

I don't want to move, I'll break the pose. Oh, trinket, that's not a tree. That's a robot. Oh dear. It'll come off. Don't worry. Doty does not seem the least perturbed by it. Keeleith, I've been thinking, what do you think the Aramente is supposed to teach?

I've been thinking about that about myself. about that a lot myself. I'm regretting that I hadn't been thinking about it until today. Well, they don't really tell you much. Just tell you to go back, go out into the world, and prove yourself a leader, with no real definition on what they think a leader should be.

Well, they tell you to go out, gather a group of friends, and then thrust yourself into a death-defying situation that is likely to get people killed. That is one way you could phrase it, yes. I'm, and I don't mean to worry you. Just be cautious. I don't, I have that nagging feeling and I'm hoping it's wrong. But I think it is possible that they feel you did not lose.

You did not learn the lesson of the Aramente. Well, that would be a discussion that I have with Corrin, with my father. What if the lesson is lost? Lesson is loss. What if you're supposed to go down there and watch people that you love die? We're not barbaric. We're not, no one wants to lose anyone on an Aramente. The thing that defines the worst leader a people could have is a lack of empathy. Do you think I'm not empathetic? I think that they make sure their leaders might, I think it's possible. I don't I'm nervous. I think it's possible that they make sure their leaders are empathetic by making sure they know pain.

Percy, do you not think that we have experienced ample amount of pain and loss over the course of this? I do. I just hope that it was enough. I'm just... You know me. It's not a blood sacrifice. It's... It's a tradition. It's meant to show us the world. And yes, it's flawed and I want to think it's flawed. And I want to think fix that? I, this is beautiful here and I look forward to leaving. And I'm very proud of you, but I will be on my guard just in case. I don't think my traditions really vary that much from yours, which could still be perceived as

old-fashioned, if you will. Every farm boy in Whitestone once you, once he's old enough to talk and work, names, an animal raises it and butchers it. You know, it's interesting, Percy. I've always looked at you and I as that opposites attract conundrum as my best friend. I feel like you are always the natural born leader who has been running away from it ever since I met you. and I'm the one who's not as naturally gifted, but is racing towards it faster than. I think I'm too cruel to lead.

Regardless, speaking of which, oh boy, Grog. Yes. I have something to say. In a moment of panic, I may have influenced your decision to save Terrian from the Cracken I instantly regretted it, not because of you, Terry, and I do apologize for that. I instantly regretted it. It was a poor decision. I fully apologize, and if you wish to keep my glasses, I totally understand.

And at the very least, if I have a swift punch in the face coming, I completely understand. I'm so sorry. And I wish I could say I would never do it again, but I honestly don't trust myself that much, but I am really, really sorry. and if anything had happened, I would have run into save you as best I could. You look so, like, constipated right now. I think you're going to punch me. How did you influence my decision? It's... I don't know. Sometimes I can just... I can just be unnaturally convincing.

Is that a bad thing? Well, in the wrong hands, which are my hands on occasion. I felt bad. I feel bad. I feel like I did, I was not a good, I feel like I made a poor decision and put you in peril and subverted your free will. Does that make, no. Small words. You do, Grog, recall, as you guys were swimming up to Vesra and you were kind of following after the path, you thought, why did I save Terrian? Yeah, what did I save Tyrion? Because I'm a jerk. That's why you saved Terrienne. because I can be a bad friend. What does that have to do with me?

I just am trying to be honest with you because I respect you and I would hate for you to think that I'm terrible at this. Are you all right, Percy? No, I'm not all right. I've made some bad decisions today and I'm terrible thoughts and I'm so tired. Terry?

Yes, sir. Are you glad you're alive? Extremely. Well, there you go. There you go. How about we just say I owe you one? I owe you one. I owe you one.

Although you said I say I owe you one. No, well you can say that too, but just know that I owe you one. I owe you one. How would that even work? We'd just be owing each other forever. Have some seashells and a skipping rock. I feel better.

That's all I needed. That's all I needed, I feel better. Don't worry. As God walks away with the skipping rock. Somewhere in the middle of all that serious talk, I've pulled my sister off to the side and had cajoled her into playing airship, you know, so we used to do this as kids.

I laid on my back and I lift her up in the air with my feet holding her up. I love this thing. And I'm kind of in pain, but I can kind of do it. How do you even have strength for this right now? I am ropey as fuck. We are almost even now. Well, we're twins, so you've died, I've died.

Oh, right, I thought you met in size. No, no, no. But you've died twice. Yes, I have. You are more ambitious than I am. We've always known that. Yeah. You know, we really need a break.

Yes, we do. I think we're going to hell soon, literally. But maybe after that, maybe we could take a break. I don't know if that's going to happen, dear. I sort of made a promise to your queen. Could you hear it on the other side? When we were trying to bring you back, I kind of sort of, and I come down off of his feet

and stand up. I kind of sort of promised her we would hunt down orchards. You do recall hearing those, as she says this, you remember now the various things that were said as the ritual kind of come into clarity. you realize the immensity of the offer that was given. I mean, I was trying to get you back. I know that it's really hard,

and we probably are going to have a very hard time finding August and killing him since he's like, you know, our god, I think, but, um, hey, you're here now. Whoa, whoa, whoa. I'm sorry. Hey, man, no judgment. It means you're just like me. Yeah, right?

Stupid decisions to bring the people you love back to your side. What the fuck else are you gonna do? Stupid to be a champion, stupid to kill Orcas. Stupid all around. Did you give a timeline? No, no, no, I just kind of said we'd go and do it. So it could be, you know, I just said we would do it. No, you know, in all seriousness,

I kept in waiting for something. I don't know what. But I'm not running towards it. I think we'll get there. Yeah. Yeah. I have a feeling she pulls our fate strings anyway. She'll make sure we get there.

Mine's connected to yours. Wherever you go, I go. Unless it's, you know. I start to cry a little bit. Aww. I'm glad you're back. I don't say anything. You hear what sounds like a whip crack of thunder.

As you glance over your shoulder and watch as Grog with the Titan Stone Knuckles skips a stone so hard that it shatters into multiple pieces upon making contact with the water. That was amazing. That was awesome. Is that a record? Yeah. It may be. Probably.

I write ten on a sheet of paper and hold it. What did you get that paper from? I have it in my back. I think you just hit Whitestone. I'm showing Pike the jewelry I'm bringing back, so since I can't give it to you now, I'm just modeling it. It's a little hand thing it's got from this guy. It's beautiful. Beautiful. I want it now.

I don't know if that will go well. It will all be beautiful. Does it sink through slowly through the yellow? I'm kidding it all. As the afternoon comes to a close and the sun slowly sets in the distant ocean horizon, the lights begin to brighten anew, to usher in the evening scape of Vesra. A similar gathering of the people of Vesra,

that you celebrated with the evening before comes to life, even more vibrant and excited at the tale of an ornamente completed. As this is transpiring, you guys are brought in, food is prepared. I'm in my fancy clothes, by the way. Okay, yeah, fair enough. You guys, for whatever you can, as you guys... Seashall bras. I'm in the Death Walkers Ward. With salt-crusted on it.

Yeah. It's a little soggy and damp. Yeah. As you guys are getting ready and brought into this, and people are beginning to come up and congratulate you and meeting, like bringing their kids up to kind of shake the hands of the future voice of the Tempest. You watch as a group of figures appears in the outskirts of the light in this central meeting area.

You glance over and watch this all of some the nervousness kicks in and everyone kind of turns and looks as they're kind of dipping into the light. You see Captain Adela and the crew going, Okay, so we've been waiting for quite a while, and it looks like you're having a party without us. So, mind if we join in? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, come on. I told you. Poor.

Toss a drink. Yeah, and the rest of the crew comes in of the Drenceladis. What about the prisoner? Is she still on board? Yeah. Oh yeah, no, we're leaving that fucker on the ship. We're not taking him here. All right.

So, everything went fine, ice buff. Pachy, pacy. Great. Fantastic. Going back soon then, huh? Yes. Yes. Great, first light of the morning. Let's get back. Are you in a rush? No, but I mean, the longer we're here, the more time we spend out wandering amongst the reef with these people. She kind of glances around, and as you look around, you do see a very sort of comparably bohemian lifestyle. of Water Ashari.

Not quite that level. What's your definition of Bohemia? Yeah. I'm talking about like... Like... Like Venet? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Like Venice Beach. It's very Venice Beach. Like, like Labyrinth Muppets made, like the creepy head labyrinth mouk. Like the creepy head labyrinth. But yeah. But yeah, so, you know, drinks or had, the party celebrates, and then eventually Yvenda kind of begins to approach, and everyone kind of gets quiet and she walks up towards you, Kieleth, and reaches out to take your hand, or both of your hands with hers.

In completing the trial of the Water Ashari, I am parton to you now. A gift. Something I, as far as I understand, I've only been around long enough to learn. But seeing the strength that you hold, perhaps you can wield this as well. Okay. As she takes her hand, she folds them over each other, and she encloses them in her tiny, gnomish grasp. Close your eyes. As you close your eyes and you can hear the hush, people salancing each other and shh around.

of a form of one who protects the elements is malleable. You can transcend this particular form and become the beasts of nature. Can become the creatures of the elements that we safeguard. However, those who've mastered the journey that you have, they can become so much more. Now walk with me and she tugs on your hand. Keep your eyes closed, but walk with me.

And you guys watch as she backs up and leads Kieleth out of the pavilion, out into the darkness in the center of the main thoroughfare of Vesra. The crowd kind of slowly wanders along if you guys want to shuffle with. She leads Kieleth out, eyes still closed. And as soon as people start closing in, she goes,

and the guards kind of hold people back and leave a wide berth around. Now, Kieleth. You've encountered many beasts, many dangerous and powerful creatures from all walks of the plains. Pick one. What do you see in your mind? I think of the Garistro, Yank. Imagine what it's like to be filled with strength. To be filled with the power. Envision the horns, the snarl.

The barrel-like fists. And you guys watch as Kila's form suddenly because you guys watch this Kila's form, suddenly begins to shift and grow. And where once was a half-alfa-keleth, you now see towering above this tiny gnome, eyes still close, a massive goristro. No fucking way. Well, that's disconcerting.

And everyone goes, and as our hands leave yours, you feel something shift and change, and you hear the slightly more distant voice of Yvina say, now open your eyes. And you look down. No. Is she stuck like that? No, no, she's fine. This is under her control. This incantation is yours. Now, be what you wish. Use these creatures.

I turn into a beholder. You watch as all her body shifts and becomes a meaty mass with a singular eye and many eye stalks, and you watch as everyone takes two steps back. You can not do not well. What is this? What is this? What the fuck? Are you serious? What is this? I'm a golden god! Your shape is yours to change, Kiela. I change into an adult dragon,

bronze dragon, adult bronze dragon. You watch as the beholder that's looking around excitedly suddenly shifts and grows two large, broad's wings, claws emerge and the head extends. Oh dear. The hat is really hot. But like, that's really big. How? I do a victory lab. How is possible?

Can she like do the stuff in the Can you, are you like, is she like a dragon for real? Does anybody? You event it turns to you as you're shouting this. Everyone's kind of watching her fly over. You can see the little bit of light that glows from the city occasionally reflect off the metallic underbody of the dragon as it kind of circles overhead

in the dark night sky. You event it turns to you and goes, oh yes. Don't worry. These forms are hers to control. I turn, the Brass Dragons have like fire breath, right? Do you have fire breath? I'm pretty sure. No. Very, very, very.

I do, uh, into the air. I just go, I'm gonna slip real fast, see what happens. You kill everyone. You kill everyone. Does it? Yes, please.

Not again! Yes, it is fire breath. So, whereas you watch as she flies off, she shoots force, with this burning hot, bright jet of singular focused fire. Not a, you know, an apalm-level Red Dragon, you know, cone breath, but a singular focused beam of burning fire that just lights up all of Vests around.

You see the hundreds of the denizens around go, oh, as their faces glow against the dark sky around you. I feel far less nervous about this orchard thing now. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. That's insane. Yvend is just looking up and smiling, clasping her hands together.

Who needs a fucking magic carpet now? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I come back down and I come down and I'm like, Can't you talk as a dragon? Can't you talk? Oh, that's right. She's not being able to fucking jump. She's gesturing that I'm already climbing on.

Oh, she can train you to a dragon, but she's like, yeah. Can I, if I said to her, she's just a stupid, she's going to do. If I satir, she feels like a drag. Yeah. You feel the hard scales across her hide. So I can talk? Yeah. Guys, check it out.

I like the idea that she's just like your regular ass voice coming out of it. I'm like, oh, guys! Yeah, well, that's . Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, it's so ferngully so quickly. It's keeps one very fring gulley. It's resonating. It kind of quakes the sand on the ground near her when she speaks. What is this?

What is this? This is amazing, Kimet. This is. This is. We should have completed your Aramente a lot sooner. Yeah. You want to go for a ride? Yes.

Okay, all right. I pick up the half-elves. And Pike wanted to go to. Ted Pike. Don't let the jello. There's always room for jello. Okay, as the tinier folks step on to the back of Keeleth Dragon, they take off into the sky.

you watch as a bunch of the children now begin to try and line up now. And the parents are like, I'm clearly moving ahead of them to the front of the fucking line. As Gras forces himself in the front of the line. Like, Paul, as a child, just pushes them back. Or like old school, just like, out of the way. And I totally spend the next hour giving joy rides to anyone who wants to. And most of the folks of Vester begin to start giving in to it,

and taking dragon rides from Kielith over the night sky. Oh, yeah. Wow. Wow. Holy shit. That's pretty fucking sick. Yeah. In fact, I'll go look at the logistics of this, but after that crack in battle, most everybody leveled up on that.

So I'll send that out from an I-V email to you guys. Sweet. So that just has shape change, right? You know, you have shape change as one of a possible ninth level spell. What is shape change? You can just become anything? It's a ninth level spell. I can change into anything that's a challenge rating of my level or lower.

Once? Wait. For an hour. Dragons are your level? Adult dragons, sorry. Not an ancient. Okay, yeah. Wow, still, adult dragon is like right on dark.

Guys, we've been playing this campaign for a while. I wasn't sure if I was ever gonna get here. Yeah, it's for an hour and I can keep shape changing into different things for an hour. You can whip those beholder eyes of people? Yes, I can. Oh my gosh. And you can do all the things that they can do.

Is it at will or is it a random role for which I does what? It's like beast shape, so I keep my intellect, my wisdom, and my charisma, but I take on their physical stats and their abilities. And same thing, like you drop the shapes hit points and then it reverts back to you? You don't get legendary actions or layer actions, but you get all the rest of the abilities and physical attributes. I'd say that's pretty good. Strawberry home, the raw berry! To Springsteen. Oh, man.

To Springsteen. Holy cow. So eventually as you feel the spell begin to dissipate, the shape change coming to an end, you bring the last cluster of children, Am Grog, who's ridden now seven times. Weee. As the night draws to a close. As the spell fades, I just give Grog a big hug and just kind of cry and tears of joy and see. to his chest for a little bit.

Yeah. And yeah, reverting back to your form. The party comes to an end. Yvenda comes up to you as you come back to a good forum and says, I'm proud of you. Thank you. No. Truly.

Return to your people, victorious. You achieved what your mother could not. And her memory lives on in you. Thank you. She turns. That's, thanks. That's all. Good night.

She begins to walk off with their staff. You guys are able to rest for the evening. Prepare yourselves for the following day's journey, however you wish that to be. So you get a little bit of it's a long rest back. So you get half of your hit dice back. You are healed the full, you get your spells. You're good.

It was such a great party. You have so much fun, Doug. Yeah, I've rode the dragon all night. That was great. That's true. That's true. I see Percy really quirk. Are you still concerned?

Yeah, well, yes. Congratulations. Wouldn't be you. No. We're concerned. No. And thank you for not being. Somebody has to be all right. I mean, I'm fine.

I mean, I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm fine. You wouldn't be here without you or the others. You know that, right? I do. I can't do this alone, and I... To answer your question from yesterday, I think the problem of this Aramente is that it shows you the components of what you need to be a leader.

But being a leader could take a lifetime to master, if you even can master such a thing. There's a lot still to go. This isn't the end. I know. And I hope you stay with me. I will to the end. I need you. I need you too.

But we're not all going to make it. That's at least go home for now. Is that okay? Is that enough for now? It certainly is. I'm happy to try. Things are only going to get more complicated. Congratulations. That's very impressive. I feel like if once you can turn,

to a dragon, things only get more complicated. That's, yeah. I will thankfully never know. All right, let's go. She left our room to go find him. I start to suit up, and I'm looking in a full-length mirror at the new fucking crack and beak gouges down the front of me.

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Oh, good morning. Oh, it's like real late, right? I don't know, is it? You haven't quite gotten to bed yet. Oh, it's late evening. Oh, good evening. He's definitely fighting Archdupe Goofy, didn't it? I have not been that close to death ever before,

but I feel like in a way I learned something from the experience. What? That's fair. Tell me, I saw you up there fighting. You were brave and strong. Yep. We were duking it out, you and me, till the very end of that fight, and, well, as one seasoned warrior to another, do you have any tips, any notes for me, any thoughts to improve my warfare skills? Should I move more?

Should I think of cool one-liners to yell out as I hit my enemies? Oh yeah, that always helps, right? Someone like you, I would probably stay on the outside. You got a little in the crunch zone, right? You seem to have like a good range on your weapons. Well, yes, but my rod is best at close-up action. Most rods are good close-up, but, you know, if you can stay on the outside with it, maybe you'll have better success. But I wanted to give you something. Oh. Yeah. It's like a last resort, right? Because you went like, eh, and it was not good. No. So I want to give you a magic. egg and I reach it in a bag of holding and I take out a basilisk egg that I have no fucking idea how old it is. But it's in there, there are six of them. It's old. This egg is very, very special.

Oh my God. You see it. It's about this big and the outside of it has this very kind of layered stone look to it, almost like it like, you know, when plates shift and you watch old sediment stone stick out. and you can see the different types of stone layers geologically. It's that kind of a texture down the side of it. It's like a dark gray, almost blue color. This egg comes from a very ancient magical beast. If you will find yourself in a dire need,

like in that last fight, if you break it and consume its contents, you will be granted immense power. Really? Indeed. But only in times of great need. I trust, I don't have to emphasize how important that is. Frog, make a deception. Shit! Come on me, welcome.

However this goes, I'm so proud of you. 15. Make an insight check. Eight. You used a mind fist. This is a mighty gift. Adding it to my gift. Adding it to my. to my atheist. Basilisk.

I don't know what it is. It's just an egg. It's a magical egg. It's a magical egg of power to be consumed. It's like a kind of egg. Kind of, yeah. Except it's full of sulfur as shit. I imagine that Pike and I have been introducing Pike

to the whole crew since you like to sail so much. Yeah. Hey crew. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. You're welcome. Okay.

Is Doty, Dottie, his robot around? The robot stays with him when he's told otherwise not to, so it's hanging with him. If you're, we introduced the crew, I mean, they're all your ilk. They're all, you know, salty, sarcastic folk. Captain Adela and Yuc had, you know, they're all kind of taken it back by your,

strangely, not really physically their form, but after a bit of trading some tales about, you know, a few interesting at sea endeavors, you guys get along swimmingly and yeah. It's a fast friendship between you and Captain Adela. Fantastic. She's fucking cool. She seems rare. So what are you doing? Okay. I'm going to go over to Terry. Okay. Tarian.

Tarian. After you granted this majestic egg as you're walking back to your homestead, the glowing gnome approaches you. Oh, hello. Hello again. I have a request of your robot, your doty, am I saying this right? My personal manservant. Your personal man servant. Could he draw some things for me?

In gnome I say. Absolutely, my lady, whatever you would request. You are a milady. We totally call them. Continue. And in common, I say back, thank you so much. Doty, would you mind drawing portraits for me? Looks back to you, Terry.

Do whatever the young lady asks. Pulls the book out. Could you draw some portraits? of this group, of Grog, of Vax and Vex, Keylet and Percy. Just a little bit of a note here. He doesn't know who any of those people are. Okay.

So the people that I point to, could you just draw each of them, please? Everyone's kind of scattered to the four winds right now. Shit. I'm there. I'll help you point them out to them out to them. Yeah. Yeah. You point out to where they're all staying and they're

probably walking away. Yeah, we'll walk away. When you're all done, just bring them to me. Is there any particular style you'd like them to be drawn in? Just as realistic as possible. Realism. Realism. And I say thank you in nomage.

In nome. I say you're welcome. No. Waiting for it. Okay. That's all. So as you all go to rest for the evening, Pike, the granted presence here through Sarah and Ray's will begins to withdraw her strength through the divine gate to keep you in this seemingly drained.

You sense that you'll be returning back to Iman until you're retrieved by your allies here. Okay. So you will only have a short time. As the rest of you guys go to rest for the evening and you all go to sleep, Percy, Keelith, Vax, Vex, and Grog, and you guys may roll perception checks. I got this all night. Don't fuck me, Gil.

Oh, we go, Gil? Yeah, that's not bad. You got to try Gill. No, no, I'm going that one. I'm negating that. Roll Gil. You don't get to negate that one. I'm negating it, roll Gil.

Nineteen that one. No, I'm going with my first one. You don't get him to get my role. I did not roll. Wow. I'm going with my first roll because he's a jerk. All right, his first one. 27.

Jerk. Okay. Sure. Your friends all rolled with Gil. Throughout the evening, at some point in the night, Gil has his bummer. Each of you individually wakes up in the wee hours as a sound rouses you from your slumbers.

you glance over in one of the nearby open windowed walls, you see a large metallic man shape appear, and just start feverishly sketching while staring at you. Oh, one by one, by one, by one. I was our baby, like, he likes to watch. That was Terry's fucking automaton. I'm not dreaming. Yeah, I'm not dreaming.

Yeah. Does anyone try to talk to the automaton? I think we just stay perfectly still. And try and lift our chin and push forward. It looks like a good angle at least. I slowly pull the sheet a little higher. I pull the sheet a little lower. And only continue sketching, adjusting to the new positions.

Who's an adjacent piece of paper next to and keeps going. Yeah. Keeps taping them on. All right. So the... Is he done? The...

I will say... I'm just afraid I'm gonna just... I will say for the sake of the narrative of this, the energy will carry you through to the morning. So upon everyone waking and gathering again before heading off and however you wish, the crew is by their boats to return to the ship. return to the ship. Huvenda is waiting to see you off. And as you all begin to gather, you watch Pike as she approaches her form flickering in the familiar visual of a temporary time before she has to return. Oh, no. It's okay.

As you approach to speak to everybody, suddenly from the side, Doty seemed to just slam into view like some weird hype man. A hype man. And immediately just like, yeah, yeah. Hands you a metallic fist fill of pages torn out of the tone. Thank you so much. And then runs off towards Terry and. Terry, come here.

Who me? Yes, you. Couldn't be. Hello. Hello. So I figured you would have a little bit of an easier time if you know the names of the people. that you're spending time with.

I had him make you some, I don't know, maybe some flashcards. So, I take out to Quill. I'll hold up a photo. Who is this? What you see before you is a very beautifully realistically drawn image of a female half-elven druid and a male half-open rogue paladin, both clutching bench sheets going, .

That's amazing. In the same drawing. Yeah. Oh. But how did, I mean, they would have had to have been. I didn't realize he was going to draw them in their sleep. So let's just... Please go through every picture.

I... so many more questions than answers. One of those two was dead yesterday, and yet... They still found time to. Well, the one on the left is, I lovingly refer to her as antlers. She is the most powerful and leader of the group. All those things are true, but take this, this quilt. Now, next to her picture, please write Keyleth.

Doty, you heard her. No, no, no, no, no. Do you stop when she says no. You are going to write it down. Do you know how to write? Of course I know how to write. I'm an educated man. Oh God, does he know how to write?

In what language? What language do you prefer? I prefer Noam when I'm with you. Oh, old Adam's die hard. Yeah, yeah. It's good practice. Little paper. Okay.

So write down. Keele. Odd vowel sounds in your weird language. Okay, Keelef. The man laying next to her. Mm-hmm. Do you know his name? Little elf boy.

I would never say that again. His name is Vax. With a B, like Bax? With a V, as in, as in, Vagina. Vagina. It's mona from heaven. It's mana from heaven.

Got it? X. All right. Next up. You know what, that one sounds familiar. I feel like he's introduced himself to me. Okay. Next up, who's this? This is another pair. This one Less shy. It appears to be a human male looking confused, glasses pressed up above the top of the forehead, and a half-elven dark-haired female on top, glancing back with a don't you fucking dare expression.

Oh. Oh well. Yes or no, you're learning so much. May I for a moment? Sure. Do you think this is up? Or? You could have it any way you like it. Oh my god. I've read about that.

All right. Just looking at the faces then. Who do you think they are? The happy one is Little Elf Girl. I would definitely not ever say that to her. All right. All right, what's her real name? Her name is Vex.

All right. Vex. And do you know that her and Vax are twin brother and sister? I could tell by the bone structure and the contempt. Oh! Now. Next to her, what is his name? Percival Fredrikstein von Musil Corolla, Derolo, the third. Well done.

Almost, almost. Kowalski, Dorola the third. Close enough. Percival, Frederikstein, von Mussel. Muclix. So close. You do it. The Kowalski Kowalski Dirolo.

That all depends on how much whiskey. That's fair. That's a whiskey-based pronunciation. That one I'm gonna do in common. And you know what? I'll just abbreviate the middle part. That's okay. P dot dot, dot, de rollo.

Right, two more to go. Who's this? Okay. Let's see, of the... All right, so there is, there is There is one of, this one is Pike in hernomeish form, still wearing her armor in her astral form, just kind of looking like she realized she didn't phrase it properly when she made the request and being the last one sketched at that moment, her expression says, oh no.

You. Before I answer. Answer. Honest word. Just a quick process question here. In the other images there was some revelry, some intercourse happening. Is that, now that I'm a full-fledged member, do I get to partake? Is this how it works with everyone? Or is it just certain members?

Is it a hierarchy? Is it some sort of a cultish thing where you have to prove yourself sexually and in battle? Or how does that work? Or is it, am I misreading this? You know, I think you should just continue to try to explore that. Because it would just be great just to see what happens. You never know, Terry. You just never know.

All right. I would never tell you no. No! My name is my face. I would never tell you no to not try with the people of the group. So you're saying that membership has its privileges? May haps. Oh my God.

Oh, God. Do you know my name? Daughter of Sarah and Ray, I'm guessing. No, it's Pike. Pike. And last but certainly not least. Whoa. Oh, boy.

Nari- Don't he? She said realism. Realism. Really? And there in a classic Michelangelo style pose, knee cock to the side, the beard fluffed, the rippling scarred muscles, and the obvious half-giant side of Grog Strong Draw before you on the page.

That is not a picture of Goliath and a half-ling, I mean, how does he walk? With confidence and pride. Pick a leg. Yes. Wow. Wow. I know. That is just, that is primal. You took some artistic liberties with this one. Oh, made it smaller. All right, I've been taking to calling him Jumbo or the big guy.

Okay. And it seems that I was correct. This is Grog. So, say that again. Grog. Grog. And that is my very best friend. You know, I have learned that he is a confident ally

and a friend to me as well. And I will do my best to protect him in battle in your absence. Well, thank you. That is very, very kind of you. So before I leave, my request is that you look at these every night before bed until you learn them. I love him on the pike.

Can you, in this form, can you see me all the time? Yes. I will. So I will know if you're not looking at your flashcards every night. This is so stupid. This is Dungeons and Dragons, hey? This is amazing. Dungeons and Dragons!

My lady, I swear it by my name. I will do so as you request. Thank you for saving one of my allies today and wherever you are in the world know that we are fighting the good fight and I will keep your friends safe. Your friends. Greg? Nope. Vox. Vox. Kiko. Kiko works. Percival, Frederickstein, von Musil, Kowalski-Darolo, Lippon. I realized that was off of memory, so I'm going to let it slack.

I have a few more nights of studying to do. You do. Okay. It was wonderful to spend time with you. I'm going to just, I'm going to go back over here. All right. Goodbye. Surf trovels. Surf trovels. Surf trurvals.

I did not expect it did. I have not expected it to go that far. I have a fresh new set of six-packed ads after the last ten minutes. Seriously. All right, Chad, as you guys gather. Sorry, that went a little bit longer than us. No, no, you know, in Doty being literal, it led to all of that joy. Holy shit.

So, as you guys all gather on the beaches in the late morning of Vesera, Adela and her crew are waiting at the boats to return to the ship. And Yuvenda and a few other folks there, you see Duran, you see Yulon, the little boy that met you when you first got here, and a few of the other folks that you kind of met out the evening all waiting. And as you approach, Yvenda kind of nods. And it has been an absolute pleasure to have you, Vox Machina, at the same time. sides of Kyrrith, to come and spend time with our people to celebrate the completion of a difficult

journey. I would request, before you leave, to please return the goggles and neck pieces that we lent you. Oh, yeah. Sure. It's like an IMAX theater. Kind of, and they go and call the pieces from you as you go around. Yes. Thank you for flying star. And best of luck in your future journeys. If we, the Ashari of Vesra, can be evade to you in

future. Please, let us know. Thank you for everything. I'm sure we'll be in contact soon. Kaitiake. Kaitiake. And they turn around and start walking their way back to Senator Vesra, kind of some of the kids looking over their shoulders, kind of waiting to see what you guys do. And Della's waiting there at the ship. All right, so, what's the plan? I mean, I totally could tree stride us anywhere, but I kind of want to take the boat again. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We're getting all our money's worth out of the money. Yeah, we paid a lot.

Yeah. What we got to do? To Amman for now. Well, Hojers is going to come for Pickle and I at some point, but we need to do a little more homework this time. Where can we study? The Cobalt Reserve is it still standing at all in Amon? Are there any books left? Got to go to the library.

Yeah. We also haven't looked at any of the findings from Rishan's cave. Oh, yeah. Not yet. Lots of books to read. Real exciting. Mm-hmm. Well, let's at least get back to Amman. It's the main port town.

Yeah. It's a starting point. It's a starting point. We can also have them start looking at the books while we're away, telling us whether they find anything of value. That's true. Probably need to start studying Orcas as well. Why?

Uh... Orcas. Orcas. After all that under... after all that undersea struggle. Oh, those killer whales. Yeah. Know our allies. Yeah.

There'll be time on the ship. Let's take our time before the orcas. At this point, Pike begins to flicker. No. It's okay. I'll see you guys very soon. Back home. Back home.

Jello shot. We're heading to Amman, so we'll see you there, okay? Okay. I'll see you. Wait, quick squeeze. Quick squeeze. And she finishes near grass. It'll be fine.

It's not enough. It'll be just fine. I feel like I want to see. Let him sleep it off. Let them sleep it off. You guys make your way onto the ship. Kavanilla on the helm. The boat turns around.

It navigates the thin pathway between these exterior. exterior reefs and eventually to the open seas of Osmit. I am, if you're interested, Adela, because I'm feeling pretty spiffy. And she's holding the, the witch, like, you worry me already. Okay, all right, I can control the winds and give us like forward facing winds for a solid hour if you want.

You want it? I want to turn this into a speedboat, you know? See how fast it goes? I don't know what this means. I've just seen other sailors do it, so... A lot of countries, it means one thing. Especially when sailors do it. Be my guest. Okay. I cast fifth level control winds. I'm gonna do just a solid gust behind us for a good hour. Okay. And with this consistently used, you guys can cut about half of the travel time back to Amman.

Nice. So what normally would be depending on whether like five, six, seven days, you get there in three. Nice. Through the use of that and your general control weather abilities and stuff like that. It's pretty fantastic. Thinking in the back of your head as you travel that while you have completed your Armenti, it is not done. You still have to return to complete your Armente. You guys eventually find your way coming into the docks on the western side of Iman. The city still still in the throes of rebuilding, restructuring, it's busy people of returning and flocking to the streets. It's very warm and welcoming to come back to a city that is coming to life again,

where the grim reality post-Thordax fall has not been replaced with, it seems to be a vibrant, buzzing energy of recovery and moving forward. This still is the central city of Taldorei, and the people who have returned to this are bringing it back as soon as they can to the splendor it once held,

being the jewel city of this continent. You guys, after docking, Adela and the crew, which I can't recall, did you pay them in advance? Mm-hmm. Great. No, I'm sure I did, I marked it down. I'm pretty sure you did. Oh, no, we did it, because we had just decided.

Oh, we had decided on 150 gold per day. So we went back quicker than we thought. So three days back, five days there, and then how many days were we in? Technically two, one, two nights in a restaurant. So ten. So just over a thousand gold, that's good. Yeah, that's not too good. I'll take care of it. Are you going to write her an IOU? No, I'll pay her in gold. Oh. Terrian, really? I hired you all. It's only the right thing, Vex.

Wow. Thank you, Tarian. I'm a man of my word. I'm gonna stand by your side as you pay her. There's Captain Adelaus there with her crew behind her. It's been an absolute pleasure. Should you require our assistance again, you know where to find us, and if not, we're busy making money else, fuck off. $1,500. $1,500. She takes the coin first from you. Plus 150 tip.

Takes that. Pans it to one of her first maid. Plus 200 for any damages to your ship? It was quite damaged. Potses it off to her first mate again, and you can see the first mate is kind of the cheapest, maushi gentleman who's currently in the process of counting all the coins that come in. He's like the onboard accountant.

And he's just like, pretend if you made that. Well, good. Wonderful. Thank you so much for your patronage. patronage. Wish you all have fun farewell. Now? Thank you. Terrian. Thank you. It's a pleasure doing business with you.

All right. You guys head into the city, and with each street corner, there's another building with a roof that's being re-roofed. You can see walls being re-stoned and structured. You can see carts being brought in from the docks, as trade has now begun and new within the city. And there is a semblance of cold culture, life and society, continuing to still reemerge and spread with each visit to the city.

And it's very heartwarming and hearkening to the good that you've done through the struggles and challenges leading up to this time. I'm sorry, old man. Who's in charge here these days? In charge of what? The city. Who's running things? The council. They're doing all right. I think so.

Okay. Everything's steady as she goes? I mean, my houses and ruins, and I haven't seen my grandchildren, but... Wow. Oh, Jesus! Well, that was English. Oh, Jesus. Can I? Could I?

See it. Sure thing I ever. Sure thing, grandfather. Who dred you? And he just wanders off. Can I just pull keyleth aside as we come on land and just say, I was very impressed with you. For a long time I've harbored a bit of doubt, I'm sorry to say.

And when you brought us away from the Kraken, I was very angry and very fearful, but you've proven yourself so much. And I want to say I'm sorry. There is no need for an apology. You being there means everything. I believe in you. That means a lot coming from you

because I think you're just the coolest. I'm sorry if I ever put you or your brother in harm's way or anyone else. We all did it willingly. He especially. What now? Well, we still have some things to take care of. We have a crown to get on your head.

I can't believe you're going to be royalty. Royalty, royalty. Rule of royalty. It's a strong word. It's a lot. It's a big word. Well, you're pretty cool yourself. Oh, well. All grand mistress, night watt.

What's it called? Whatever. Not helping. Regardless. Great hunt. Kiela, I'm glad my brother found you. I'm glad we all found you. I'm glad I found you guys. Love, love. We learned a lot from you, so thank you.

Winked at me again. As you guys make your way through the city towards the temple district of Iman, you find your way to the temple of Sarah and Ray, and as you begin to step on the outside, the door's already open and knowingly awaiting, Pike steps out with a smile to greet you. No. It's okay. I just disappeared because I, because it was, I was in the shimmery. I was the cotton candy. You didn't hurt me at all. I like cotton candy. Yeah, but I wasn't, that was a, I shouldn't say, I was, I wasn't like that then. Oh, okay. I'm sorry if I hurt you.

No, you didn't at all. Okay. I didn't even feel it. Well, you're really getting strong. I just disappeared. Yeah? You disappeared. Hello, everybody. I was like, now, now, there we are. Now you can wear it.

He made all his room, yes. Ooh. It fits, good. I was like, He spent like the entire time on the boat braiding macrame. It was crazy. I've only got the medium glasses right now. Yes, yes. He's getting into beating, it's odd. It's interesting. I give him a big hug. Everybody needs a hobby. No, it's great. Macromay might be mine. Like, like, Pacer's up and gives you a big hug. Stress relief. I give him a big hug.

Thank you. Hello, Terry. Hello, Pike, in the flesh this time. Mm-hmm. I hope that you see that I've been doing as you asked every night. Can I... Is such a? Go for it.

Did we hear him say that? Under his breath, yeah. Okay. I know, right? Natural timing. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah, telling the truth, straight up.

straight up. There is a look of genuine awe and fear in his eyes when he looks at you. I'm very proud of you. You need to continue until you know it by heart. I think I've learned their first names at least. I know. You have. I know. Well, what do we now, fellows? To the keep?

Yeah, you want to see where we live? Stop by the library. Sure, yes. Yeah, just go to Grace Gold. I'll give you a place to put down your things for a bit. Do you have the papers with you that you pulled from Raichon? Have the North Worth On the House? They're in the Beggle.

I'll have you researched those. We'll go do a bit of that. All right. So you guys make your way back to Grace Gold. I'll show you the other workshop. Oh, there's something I'm going to take. Oh, good. I actually never talk to you about that.

Much to your joy. Some of your original servants have returned from White Stone. Wow! You do see within there, Lena and Irwin. Holy shit! I was so worried about them! Lainna greets you as you called when she's like, Oh goodness me, it's been so long.

All of you, welcome, it's so good to see you. Oh, as you were wondering about it, we're all just keeping it down over there in Whitestone, but it's so nice to be back. This place, it needs some work. need some work. Please don't be judging. I'm trying to clean his bits. I can't. And the place looks pretty good based on the last time you saw it, but there's still like a scatherer. She looks generally nervous. Her hair's kind of racked. You're doing a great job.

We're all a bit of a work in progress. It's fine, dear. That's very fair. Oh, and Shuron, and Erwin comes up, you see him, you know, the very, very old halfling male with his long gray ponytail. Oh my God. And it is great to see all of you once more. Irwin. Oh, did you're still alive? How did you manage?

Natural causes might, you know. It's what's very possible, yeah. Can I insight check him? Yes, you may. 19. No, is that a natural 20? It's a natural 20. Yeah, Bill! He's dead.

He's dead. He's dead. He has consumption. He's maybe like a... He's maybe like a... Guys, use the code loot crate to get 10% off. I know. I don't trust your facial

cranes anymore. I couldn't know you. Well, I reach and I grab the dwarven thrower. Welcome back, you should have a bitch. And I'll crush you into Jam. I must say, I greatly appreciate you all being so quick. Quick in getting us out of that whole dragon mess. I was rightfully frightened for my life.

Anyway, I need to continue making your bets. And he slowly begins shuffling off towards the stairway. I love him. That. He's too good for us. That is unexpected. Yes, he's still alive. So this is your house?

Yes. This is where we would have dinner. It's more of a summer home. And that's a giant portrait of one of our members who you haven't met. He made it writing on a unicorn. Yeah. It's great.

Really? Oh, you should show him. Oh, no, we're going to get there, but I figured we give him the full tool. Are we going to tell him the fucking name or what? Yeah, it's Gray's Gold Keep. Oh, that's a really cool name. I know.

I know. Wow. That's excellent. It's excellent. I have you lived here very long because there's... Well, it's on and all this. It's a... Summer home, really.

We've been a vacation from it for a while. You might want to consider different keepers of this place. It seems a bit... They were fucking dragons, Terry. All right. You're right. You're right. But if you have any input on decor or otherwise, we would be interested, so...

Lots of murals, lots of tapestries. Oh, I would assume. Most of the murals are one of our friends, but yeah. Yeah. We'll vary it up a bit. I don't know how long we're staying here, but you can have my old room. You got a room.

Where will you sleep? In my old room. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

That's best. All right. All right. Go on. What's got? It's good coffee today. It's just a second time polymachino has come up in our cave? Tarian and the two guards in Singor are really confused.

All right. And I'll definitely, I'll show him the downstairs. And any time you want to use the workshop downstairs, it's a bit thin at the moment. Most of the tools have been stolen. been stolen. Well, we'll have to go in town and buy some replacements for you. You can make shit, though. What can you make? Anything I set my mind to, if I have enough raw materials. Oh.

Yes. Hats? Sure. Do you need a hat? Invisibility? Sure, I've done that before. I've given you invisibility coins. Do you have a specialty? Do you do clothing or anything alchemic? Teleportation? I don't think I can do that, but anything that that combines a little bit of magic with a little bit of engineering I can probably manage.

What about a beard trimmer? A beard trimmer? Yes. He's looking at all shaggy. Yes, he's changed. Sure, that seems like an easy, an easy thing to do. You seem pretty clean shaven, though. Yeah, I don't grow thick.

It's pretty sparse, actually. What? Whoopsy. Oh. Dirty. birds. I go to the library. Wait, where you going? I want to go to the library. Yeah, beer trimmer. I'm on it. I need a beer trimmer. I'm on it. Feel free to re-stock whatever's missing. Keelith and I, I think, at the very least,

and maybe anybody else who wants to go upstairs and start pouring through the wonderful private nooks and crannies of the library, please. How are you going to do that, by the way? Nooks and crannies. Yeah, like, doesn't it require reading? I've got, though they're not very good, are they? No, they're not, are they? Do I have any spare glasses? What do you need? I think I need the glasses.

What's you got? Hmm. You already got his ascot, don't you? Yep. Let me think about that for a moment. Carry on. Yep. Grog, did you steal Percy's glasses?

He actually gave him to me. Yeah, but I found out from facts that when you like trade, you get something in return, and last time I got a title. Yep. Yeah, I'm the graham dupe-bah-bibink of all-de-da-da-da-dial. That sounds fun. Director. DURG-DURG-DURG.

It's a top-secret title, and it comes with all the land and money and a bunch of short names. bunch of short names. Lansombeware. I don't know. Probably, probably a little. I always knew you were royalty. It's proficiency plus decks.

Yeah. You never remember. Well, no, it's probably good now. Let's see, 18. You just didn't roll one. Yeah, you're fine. Yeah, you produce a, with what little materials you have there, all material stuff, you happily do so.

I have made a tiny pinwheel. Oh. spins, and it's made of metal. I do a little gus cantrip to blow it. And I put it on your lapel, or your little strap that counts as a, I just put it in a belt loop. That's the cutest thing. Am I a fucking child?

Now you know if there's wind blowing. This is what I had, I'm really like, I'll give the glasses back when I'm done with them. This is a rental child. Because of my high office, I will forgive this offense. Come back when you're serious. cloak of smashing, title, whatever. I'm sure you're very small. You'll think of something. You want another title.

I'll keep this as a deposit, though. Give them another title. All right, so you guys go to the library. What are you looking for specifically? What are we doing? Reza's it on, like HOTUS and like the nine hells. Investigation check. Or his. All of it. I'm also going to see that. Ooh.

26. Which one are we doing? Investigation. I'm just going to help with the spines of books at this point. Yeah, I'll do the reading for Percy until he gets his glasses back. There you go. You're hard pressed to find anything in your library that gets very specific. There are mythological mentions of the Nine Hells, of multiple layers, of demon princes.

But the books that you have at your disposal, large. speak about them like a fairy tale, or talk about historical mentions of them to the history of Exandria, of the betrayer gods, and the old age of Arcannum days, but nothing specifically about the hells. So even with the research, you just don't have those books in the keep. You gotta go somewhere better.

That's a line. It's in the library there. There's a library here, the Cobalt Reserve. It was just kind of smashed, but I wonder if there's still books there. The Cobalt Reserve is in West. Just kidding, it's in Western. But it is essentially the largest collection of the most dense and sacred books on the continent. Hey, I was just wrong about, yeah, the city, that's it.

Shit, all right. What do you think? Well, I don't think we should go charging into the nine hells like we did in the ocean. When you put it like that, yeah. Should we go to Western? Yeah. Maybe not today. today. We just got here. But yeah.

That's where we'll go to. Yeah? Yeah? Tait. Tait? Aye. We're reading papers from Raichon. Also, yeah, going to Roshans. Okay, so you're pulling out some of the notes you'd gathered. What languages do you guys speak?

I speak primordial. Speakerie. Esperanto. Well. Kerry, do you read you speak about it. High school Spanish. Which is I know. Primorial, druidic, Sylvan, Elvin.

Common, celestial elven. Right. Draconic. Abyssal. You cannot read. The language you've, Percival, you recognize the script. A lot of them are written in Abyssal. All right.

I can read Abyssal. We read Abyssal, we started in school. Right, so do you go and call their help? Who reads Abyssal? Who reads it all? This is all out of focus. Oh, do you need help reading a book, Percival? Do you need help?

Because we both speak Abyssal. You both speak Abissile? You both speak a Bissile? Go Elysian. That's cool. Not steal. They were a gift. Excuse me, but this is a once in a lifetime moment for me.

Are you enjoying yourself? This is my gift to you. Welcome, happy rebirth day. Thank you, Fred. Have a seat. Let me translate for you. And a very merry on birthday to you as well. I'm glad I let grog hit you because I know it hurt more.

All right, so you glanced through the some of the notes that were gathered, a lot of them appear to be almost gibberish in the formula, the order of words. They don't make sense, or at least from the whole you. In abyssal, the verb goes on the end of the sentence, which is different than in common. You might not have known that. You do make up some of them are historical discussions on the roots of powerful magic. elements during the founding, they mentioned a few times. They speak of the original Titans. They speak of a lot. It's a lot of very simerilian-type dense, scattered notes. Some of the books

that you pull are specifically arcane spellbooks, but they're also written in abyssal. And as neither of you are practitioners of arcane magic, you have no idea what they say. You just recognize them to be sort of spell marking. Oh, that's some bullshit. There is the one large drunk leather tome that is still locked on the side. Right. That one feels, is like super scary looking though, right? Of all the books, it looks like probably the premium book of Opasha's collection.

Does it have like, you know, like a writing on the cover? Do you need writing on the cover? It has no writing on the cover. It is just a dark black, a dark black, level. dark black leather bound tome roughly that big. That looks like it's weathered, scratched in places. It has kind of like a, think a deep, metallic cornered trim bits to it.

But Gilmore looked at that. Ooh, that's awesome. I had Gilmore look at that and he said it was scary. He said whoever decides to read it should be strong of will. That was his warning. Right. How's your will? Yeah, Locke on a book is one of those like universal

universal titles that make sense in any language. Question. Yes. What would will? Wisdom, is that wisdom? Let's like wisdom modifier. Generally, like wisdom saving throw. That's generally the kind of will power test elements.

Did John say to read it or to open it? He said whoever read it had to be careful. Do I see any kind of trap to the lock on? Investigation. What are we going there? Whoa. I would just check. I'm not sure.

You should read it. That's fine. Pikes should read it. Perception, he said, 22. Pikes got crazy wisdom. We should make her look at it. 22. It does not appear to be trapped.

It is locked, though. Okay. I will. Do we want to crack this shit open now? I mean, maybe Pike should look at it. Yeah, I'm not gonna fucking read it. I'm just going to open it for Pike. Wait for zero.

You didn't detect any traps? I didn't, it seems alright. Can I do detect magic on it? Sorry. It's already been notified. Gilmore looked at it. Can we know it? Identify on the lock or something?

On the book? That's essentially what Gilmore did. It's not a magical item with abilities or powers. It just has a magical essence to it and it's ancient. We should have Pike, look at this. Pike, look at this. Well, I'm gonna try to unlock. Wait, wait, I just wanted to, oh God.

Make a lockpicking chat. Do you want, does there anything you want to do, Pike before I pick up for you? It's just a dark book. I found it in Raichon, well, in... Opash's slash Thorax later. Slash Rosh's later. Just a locked book of unspeakable evil.

Yeah. Yeah, it's not good. Gilmore said to be careful of it. It's made from blood. Do you think, do you fellows think that it will explode or something bad when we open it? Oh God, that's all. Take over someone's mind or something. Why don't we have Doty open it?

What's your wheel pike? What's dokey's wheel? How, it would be, it doesn't matter. It would be considered to save it. You would add your saving for wisdom. We'll find out. Oh. Can I assist Pike in some way since we're both wise as fuck?

You guys could both attempt to read it together and you both have to possibly be tested. That's your call. My saving through modifiers plus a lot. So hold on a minute. What do we do? Hold on a minute. I'm gonna unlock it. I'm not even going to open it. I'm just going to unlock it. So I get between everybody in the book.

Close your eyes as soon as you unlock it. Uh, okay. Okay. That is, that's fine. That's 26. It opens. Okay, hold on, hold on. The latch opens, not the-

Hold on. Keyleth, Pike, effects, come here. I'm gonna step, I'm in the doorway, man. I can do it. We can do it together. I cast, bless on Pickle, on Keyleth, and my twins far away, so I guess on myself. And then I step behind.

And then I step behind the girls. Okay. And watch. All right. He's doing what? Oh, no. Look at face. Um.

Um. Oh, no. What's that face? What's that face? Three people reading a book. It doesn't get any more intent. This is easy. Let's not turn this into burying the shoe box.

It's just a book. What's just read it? Should we have Jody look at it? We wouldn't be able to tell. That didn't work out. much more powerful than Doty Eggo's like. Yeah, do it. Do it. Do it. I mean, do it if you want to. I'm standing the doorway.

Okay, all right, all right. If you want to read it, I'll kind of go like over your shoulder and be on the ready in case anything bad happens. The cover of a book, in a way, the cover of a book is kind of like a door. A little bit. So we're facing a door. Okay. All right. I'm going to take my question. quill.

Okay. And I'm just gonna like peek it open, just like a little bit. Okay, you peek it open? Anything happens? No, just the top creaks open. Bikini Island. Let's just flip it over. The top of the tone flips open.

A couple pages go like kind of stuck to it and then fall back into place. Fall back into place, what, why? Well, it's just open. The pages kind of like curl back in, almost like they were stuck to the Nothing weird. Nothing weird. Just air. A little bit of a dust kind of like off the bottom of it.

The pages are old. You see a little bit of text drawn on it. What does it say? What does it look like? What languages do you know type? Shosh. Nomish, common, under dark, under common, dwarfish. You do not recognize the text. I can't read it.

Is it abyssal? It is abyssal. Ah, fuck. You are the only ones who can speak abyssal. Oh no. Time to die. I'll do it. Let me see, how wise are you?

Okay, all right, hang on, hang on, hang on. You're not even as wise as I am. Who wants to read it? That's very subjective. I'll enhance your abilities. And Hans does not really help the saving throws, just as you know. Just ability checks.

If it's an ability check, it'll help. Bless myself. So you know. Can I do anything else? It's up to you. Turn it's a dragon. So I said that. I just eat the book.

I'm gonna go out and try and get it. I'm gonna cast on her. Okay. Are you reading? Yeah. I cast Enhanceability on her and give her, I think it's Owls' Wisdom. Sure, all right. So, I run over, I give you a quick guess.

I say, if you turn evil, it's still cool. Just see. All right. So, Vex. Yeah. You begin to glance through the pages and the words kind of form around you, and you get a ways into it. And it's interesting. This is a personal notebook. It's a tome, but this is written by Opash.

This is a girdle. Yeah. This is, this goes into Opash's history on Marquette during the age of Archonum. A lot of the terrible experiments that he was currently working on that dealt with rending and capturing the soul. capturing servants and people that wandered the desert and had a series of caverns across the continent that were his to use, where he kept these individuals trapped in gems or glass menagerie-type structures, where he would come back at his whim and just destroy soul, soul shatter them, corrupt them,

forge them into things, feed on them. He was fascinated with the never-ending essence of existence existence and how to manipulate and make it his own. And so it goes into that. It goes into the people that didn't understand. Welcome to Mick Unplugged, the number one podcast for self-improvement and modern leadership. I'm Mick Hunt, your host, and I'm here to challenge your why and fuel your because. This is where leaders, entrepreneurs, and go-getters come to level up.

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listen to your podcast. Adam and Marquette, how he was driven out, the trials that were put against him, his banishment to the island, and then him learning about the facet of this island. There's something about the metal here, something very long, something very ancient about this island that becomes this kind of black hole of arcane projection. Astro projection is not possible from the island he discovered as he attempted that. And travel magics that go to or from the island have a very difficult. ability to escape it, if not get very messed up in the process. However, it talks about how when he was banished there, he discovered the indigenous people and those that lived on nearby islands that would go from ship, they would take small ships from island to island, and there was a trade route there. He convinced and corrupted them to come and work for him.

And such, he brought the entire civilization from these multiple islands to then come and live on this island under him, and then he reaved them all to become his experiments to continue here on this island. And you get a sense reading through that the masses of people that you saw within that giant chasm that were clawing at you as you passed, those were all the people that used to live on these islands.

Oh my gosh. Weird. You then also discover a few different chapters, one that mentions finding a near-dead dragon that washes on shore. a red dragon on the cusp of death. And what a great gift this is to discover now to toy with the soul of an ancient entity like this.

And it speaks about years and years of enslaving this red dragon and torturing and extracting information and manipulating and making it his own toy. And then began to pull together research that it read elsewhere of the continuation of a dragon's soul. of being able to take the spirit of a dragon and make it indestructible and to live from body to body. And if he could find a way to correct this

to work for himself, it wouldn't be, his power would continue without the binds of lichdom that a lot of other type magics would eventually be bound to. The philactory element through a dragon transition would be a lot easier to maintain. and his hope in doing so. It began to speak of a ritual, one that involved this ancient, ancient entity,

a dragon called Guthal the Ever Fed, a mighty black dragon that was instilled with necromantic power that terrorized the world during the age of Arcannon in its first millennium. Githul had used ritualistic aid, forbidden rights, and sacrifice of its own life force to be born again. as this never dying, new form of un-life,

referred to as a dracolage. Ooh! However, the last few notes in Opaasha's hand end, abruptly, and a new handwriting in Draconic begins. Which I also read. Which you also read. These notes are less, less, poetic and kind of speaking to itself in the way that Opash was by himself and he

did something to converse with and he chose his words, this is a much more direct trying to piece together parts of an equation. And you start seeing references to Germant Saurt. You see references to being the king that rises from the ashes, as being the, you begin to realize these are the words of Thorac. This was the moment that Thorac overtook Opash, destroyed him, and made the layer his own. This history then goes into Thoradak's interest in trying to find power to take this ritual unto himself and thus become an undying entity. The notes finish with the intent of Thorac going north to seek out mages, to seek out

things he can bind to his will and bring them back to make this ritual happen. And that's the last passage you see. And you begin to realize that the knowledge that Thorac had and was holding from Raishan was the knowledge of this ritual that would probably be what would enable her to bypass the curse. Oh my gosh. Much she had. But he killed her.

But she killed her. This could have been so much worse. Yes, I also need you to make a wisdom saving time. Oh, snikies. Can I, um, what is blessed you? Can I also cast Beacon of Hope on her? I can spray. Don't buy Miguel.

What's Beacon of Hope do? Beacon of Hope gives you advantage on wisdom saving throws. Okay. Oh, it's tight. So Beacon of Hope is against. It's already good. Roll a D4 and at it. Is a saving throw?

Saving three is 21, plus 2, plus 2, 23. Okay. It gives you advantage on wisdom checks. Okay, not saving throws. Not saving throws. So as you're reading through this, you guys watch as vexed his attention. Wait, 18, 19, 20.

25, 25. 25, okay. Oh, no, that's a 16. I'm sorry, I was right, it was 24. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm a dick. As you are reading through this and go through, you watch as she turns the page faster and faster, and her eyes unblinkingly are just scanning the pages

with rapid pace. And Vex, you feel this kind of cold essence begin to curl through your shoulders and into the back of the neck. And right as you finish the last bit of notes before Thorac, you feel something trying to reach for the back of your mind. Cold fingers, 10, 20, an endless support. of grasping fingers reach for the back of your mind,

and you just shrug it off and pull yourself away from the book, and the cold fades. I shut the book. You all right? Great. Bad story? I tell them everything I read. Super fast, because I'm like a speed reader, Snow Big Dale.

You were reading for like 25 minutes, actually. Oh, shit. Well, it was a big journal. It was amazing. And Anastasia Steele fell in love with her. fell in love with Christian Gray just like that? Amazing. Jesus Christ, knockout. Wow, now I can feel the fingers in the back of my head.

All the rest you, but we'll just make a wisdom saving throw. Damn it. I know Laura read that. I read most of it and then I just threw the book away. Pike, can we destroy this thing? That was, well, actually what I was going to see if we should. Should we destroy this thing? I feel like maybe, I mean. The knowledge exists now. It's outside the book. And if the book was, there's something in there.

Can we have Doty copy down everything that you just said? Oh, oh, actually. Not like exact transcriptions just so that we keep the knowledge. Transcription of the story. I mean, sure, he can record what. but her report is, if you'd like, sure, yes. That would be in downy, right. Dirty walks over to one of the nearby shelves

and finds one of the books that is only partially written and tears all the pages that have taken to know. No, that was. That's something. And just begins transcribing from memory what you just said to. High school notes. No, that was a sea captain's journal.

It's okay, it doesn't matter this. It's not that expensive. The pages, he didn't burn them. I mean, we can just. Are we doing that now? We can help him. No, no, no, no. No, no.

No. I mean, should we destroy, destroy this? I think so. It's magical of some sort? I mean, it certainly felt like something was trying to reach through. It doesn't set well with me. And what good does it do the world to know how to bring back souls as the undead? It seems kind of dark.

Do you lot have some sort of a vault here or something? Do it? You didn't have a maze. I'm not here. We're doing white. Even if there is a vault, all the vault is, it's the one place in any city where everyone knows something valuable is kept. A magical vault somewhere you can send this thing to be far away? Well, we have a bag of holding.

Oh, we know what? We could like sit it into the plane where Craven edges and we'll take the sword out and put the book in its place. I don't know what that is. I don't know what that is. Terrible things. We could throw it into the black spinny thing under white stone or... or we could just give it to Allura. We were also going to the Colbaugh Reserve anyway. We could see I'm sure they have some sort of library special secret book vault.

I would feel all right with that. Let's keep it in the bag of holding for the time being. Let's relock it. Definitely. Relock it, relock it. I vote we take it to the Cobalt Reserve. I concur. I concur.

I concur. I concur. Either that or Vasselheim. Vasselheim. One of the two will have options, I'm sure. I feel that the Colbott Reserve will probably have some sort of situation for books like this. Okay. That seems reasonable. All right.

So what's the next step? We're going to go to West Run, right? Did we go through all of the papers that Reishon and everything have for the most part? All those notes seem to pertain to that book, and once you had the information from Vex, it kind of connected all the dots. A lot of these were notes regarding this ritual, trying to find to find ways to break the chain of the life-death cycle and obsession with the alteration and harvesting of souls and spiritual energy for the use of powering

arcane experimentation. So not good stuff. He mentioned going north and looking for other powerful entities and objects to bind with. And then Rishan thought it would be a good idea to settle down in Whitestone. Before we killed Risham, didn't she She said...

Righthan said she was from Wildland. Right, and she said that she had found what she needed. No, Raichan actually was from... South? She was south of Tal'Doree. She went? Yes. She had an interest in White Stone, which makes me wonder what the spinning black orb of death has to do with all of this.

Because I'm still not convinced that it doesn't have some sort of play in everything. It's just a spinning black orb of death sitting underneath my family home. My family home, this, no, it's nothing weird. I'm well aware that's terrible. I don't know why you're staring at me like that. Yes, I think about it a lot. I'm just, you know. I just don't know what to do about it.

Well, we can, well not me, but smart people can devote more attention to it now that there's not five great dragons trying to tear the world apart. Will help. Right. What time is it? At this time, you guys traveling to the city,

getting here, the research, I'd say it's getting close to the, pretty close to the dusk, I have another like hour or so before the sun sets. You all want to rest, take the night off, head to Western in the morning. Sure, yeah. Back to the keep. Back to the keep. We are in the keep. We are in the keep. Stay in the keep. Has Iman come back enough to have shops open for business or anything? Yeah, I mean, not everything was destroyed. There are shops that are open. and there are people running business here.

I mean, the number of the districts got damaged and some buildings have to be rebuilt, but it is still a functional city, though to a lesser degree right now. You know, before we. I don't want to waste time, but everything I do, I have to buy. Well, we can shop in the morning on the way out. Yeah.

Not in a huge rush. I'm at your disposal. We'll shop in the morning. We'll shop in a morning in the morning and then head out to Western. They'll have shops there too, just not as many. Brunch. Frunch? That's only brunch.

Please. Please. Please. No chicken. As the sun sets across the Tal'Dorei sky, you all settle in for the evening. To rest, contemplate the return of your ally. Your next venture in researching the path before you is Vox Machina. You to return soon to finish Aramente to your people.

and see what lies ahead of you by the threads of fate wielded by the Raven Queen. At dawn you brunch, and until then, we'll return next week in the next episode of Critical Roe. Yeah. Oh, you still alive for the time. I really want brunch right now. I just want brunch so badly.

I know. Donuts. Don't miss. Yeah. Well, guys, thank you for watching. Congratulations to our winner earlier. Thank you again. Loop Crave for being awesome sponsor.

So great. Awesome. What's up? We did make it for Almond D. We made it for Almond D. You guys are amazing. So we're gonna go ahead and get her all the best legal work that we can to try and keep her in our space. So thank you guys so much for being so generous and helping out with that tremendously.

Tremendously means a lot. Both to her and all of us here at Geekin's Endry. So thank you. Some of us, I'll be returning tomorrow at noon for Eric's TVDRP, Dr. Who, which will be fun with Darren DePaul. Dr. Hume, I'm sorry, you're right. And then all of us will be here on Saturday for the 24-hour two-year anniversary stream for 8-6 L.A. Many of us. Many of us will be here on Saturday. Definitely, Matt Talosson and maybe others.

Hey, you don't have to DM the mansions for once. That's true, because the new edition. Apple will do it for you. It's wonderful. I was the keeper almost every time for years. Big surprise, right? You did actually, which I said it. Which I said most. A few, it's a few though.

If we bring the expansion, you can still be Ash Campit too. Oh, hell yeah. Who can't Ash Camp Pete? Ash Camp Pete is the best. Anyway, guys, awesome work. Ashley, we love having you. Yes, oh, Ashley, Johnny. Don't go back. I know, I don't want to. I'm so close. I'm so close.

I have about like three and a half to four weeks, and then I'll be home. Yay! Yay! Can you do the stifie things with us next week? Don't. No pressure. I'm allowed.

I don't like here. Production hurts. I always hope so, but sometimes that's proved to be a little bit more difficult for some reason this season. Because they made your part so big this. I know. So talented. So, don't know.

Amazing. Stupid in in in a habit. It's just, you know, time change in days. I know. I love being here, though. No, no, we miss you. Soon, so soon. We'll be back soon.

So soon. All right, guys. We have an EMT and a stomach pump on hand for Sam for after the show. Oh my gosh. How's your tummy? I ate a lot of sugar and caffeine at the beginning of this show. There's Big League Chee.

There's Big League Chew on the floor. There is Big League Chew on the floor. a little bit of Bigley Chew. That is disgusting. I'm probably in my lower intestine. Wait, wait. Oh, wait. Wow, that went through fast.

No, no, Talison. For him. Oh. I'm never eating Biggly Chew again. Good, then something positive has come out of it. It was purple flavor. Purple flavor. That's not supposed to be purple.

Guys, thank you so much. We'll see you next week. Love to you all, and is it Thursday yet? Good night, guys. Yeah.