Critical Role - Avowed One-Shot

Episode Date: February 25, 2025

This One-Shot is sponsored by Avowed. Go to https://www.xbox.com/Avowed to check out the game which is Available Now! Join Game Master Matthew Mercer for a special Avowed inspired one-shot as he guides players Marisha Ray, Travis Willingham, Anjali Bhimani, SungWon Cho, and Whitney Moore through the Living Lands and shadow-haunted shores. BEACONWe’re excited to bring you even MORE with a Beacon membership! Start your 7-day free trial today at https://beacon.tv/join and get unparalleled access to the shows you love completely ad-free! You’ll receive NEW Beacon exclusive series, instant access to VODs & podcasts, live event pre-sales, merch discounts, & a private Discord. YOUTUBE MEMBERS / TWITCH SUBSCRIBERSTwitch Subscribers and YouTube Members gain instant access to VODs of our shows, moderated live chats, and custom emojis & badges:https://www.youtube.com/criticalrole/joinhttps://www.twitch.tv/criticalrole   Art by Julie Dillon (@JulieDillonart)Graphics by Bryan Weiss 

Hey there, Critical Role podcast listeners. We have a special new membership service at beacon.tv, where you can get early access to all new podcast episodes, including Critical Role for the first time ever. Beacon members also get things like event pre-sales, merch discounts, access to a private community Discord, and new exclusive series like Critical Role Cooldown, where we riff after the show.

Think of it as our digital Critical Role land. Head on over to beacon.tv to check it out for yourself and start a seven-day free trial. Thank you so, so much for your support, for being a podcast listener, and for being a part of our community. Hey there, critters. We are so excited to share with you our brand new podcast from the world of Exandria, The Re-Slayer's Take.

In this audio adventure, you'll be guided through the wild continent of Isilra, home to some of the most dangerous creatures. Here, the Slayer's Take is the most notorious monster hunting group in the realm. But when previously slain creatures start returning from the grave, it's up to six misfit mercenaries to band together and re-slay these supernatural threats as the Re-Slayer's Take. So come follow along these audio escapades as the second coolest monster hunters this side of Exandria

battle a growing undead army of dangerous creatures. The party is led by a duo of game masters, George Primavera and Nick Williams, with the main cast

including Jasmine Bular, Caroline Lux, and Jasmine Shion. Listen to new episodes every Monday anywhere you stream podcasts, or become a Beacon member and listen to the podcast version of the show. If you'd like to watch the stream as it airs, you can catch it Thursdays at 7 p.m. Pacific on twitch.tv slash critical role or youtube.com slash critical role.

Twitch subscribers can access the video on demand immediately after the broadcast, and it also becomes available on YouTube Mondays at 12 p.m. Pacific. Podcast episodes land right here on the Critical Role podcast Network on Thursdays, a week after the initial broadcast. Okay, with that info dump out of the way, let's dive into the story. Hello, everyone, and welcome to a very special one-shot in collaboration with our friends at Xbox and Obsidian Entertainment and their new game, Avowed, which is out now!

You should buy it! It's in the same world of Pillars of Eternity and Pillars of Eternity 2, and I love it. And I'm super excited. You can check it out now at xbox.com slash avowed to learn more about it. And that being said, while you may recognize some of the places and characters explored tonight,

as inspired by elements from the Avowed game, we just want to emphasize for you all that the characters and events in this one shot are our own creations and are not official content. From Avowed, they are just simply inspired by it. But a big thank you to Xbox and Obsidian Entertainment for letting us play In Your World of Aeora. Before we jump in, let's get a quick round table

for some of our fantastic players here. We'll go ahead and start on this side. Marisha. Marisha Ray, our wonderful That's me, I'm Marisha Ray. playing as Marisha Ray. Hello. Hi. Hi. Yay.

Joining us, I guess for the first time, Sungwon Cho, thank you so much for coming. Yeah. My pleasure. Thank you. Hell yeah, buddy. Anjali Bhimani, thank you so much for coming along. Hey guys, it's good to see you. Oh no, I won't be doing that for a second. Do not worry.

Come back. I know, someday. Hey guys, it's good to see you. Oh no, I won't be doing that for a second. Do not worry. A commit. A commit. I know, someday. Someday, I promise. I promise. Travis. Travis. Travis Willingsome. Yeah. Willingsome. Travis Willingsome.

Hi, y'all. Travis Willingham, thank you for coming, buddy. And lovely Whitney Moore, thank you so much for joining us at the table. I'm a nice woman. I was allowed to be inside an airport. Oh! What does that mean?

I was due with that information. Okay! We're not going to unpack that at all. We do not have time. But bringing us back to Aeora, without further ado, let us indeed come into the world of Avowed. SAM and LAURA say hello to each other. Welcome to Aeora,

a vast and mysterious world of magic, politics, and discovery, where empires weave and row over their interests and the many gods have presided in ages past over the wheel, a cycle of rebirth the soul undertakes with each passing. The soul itself is a studied thing, a being's own essence,

and its mechanics themselves are studied across many lands within the field of animancy. Texts and great machines recovered from the ancient civilization known as the Anguithans pertain to and manipulated souls in ways that are still not fully understood. But such matters carry little interest where our story begins,

as a sizable prison ship recently set sail from the Adiran capital city of Highcrown, heading northward. This ship, the Dancing Umbridge, carries a cargo of numerous convicts of varying degrees of notoriety, shackled, then prepped into the ship for arrival to the Living Lands, the northern frontier island

where numerous settlements and foreign colonies now seek to expand and claim dominion over the region's diverse geography and bountiful resources. A rumor swirl of unnaturally abundant landscapes and uncovered relics belonging to prehistoric culture, and the pursuit of such interests requires labor. And well, no labor is cheaper than prisoners without choice.

Prisoners that now wait within the belly of the Dancing Umbridge, pushing onward across a choppy sea as a storm brews beyond. So here, deep below the deck, the dull swinging lantern barely lighting the interior of these barred cells, the strong sense of musky sweat and mildew, salt-soaked wood itself giving this awful mixture barred cells, the strong sense of musky sweat and mildew,

salt-soaked wood itself giving this awful mixture of smells that sting the senses, like an invisible mist that hangs in the air around you. The loud sounds of hard exterior rainfall hitting the hull of the ship, the undulating creaking of the wood with each shift of every heavy wave, causing you all to rock and push against the bars

and wood that surround you. Here, in the shadows of this ship, the many criminals sent on this adventure sit behind these bars, sliding with each of these heavy swings, a wooden cage filled with a unique mix of white-collar criminals, grifters, thugs, and some career crooks, all eager to be free

from this seaside rocking coffin. Travis, as we shift over to one of these two adjacent cells Travis, as we shift over to one of these two adjacent cells with about a set of bars between them. What do we see in front of us, and what are you doing? You see a human godlike sitting there, keeping to himself, almost appears cold, but it seems like it's tremors

from the violent shaking of the boat, not really handling himself very well. His skin looks almost charred or blackened, and you can see these little veins of what look like magma or kind of fire creeping up his neck and into his cheeks, down his arms. And there's like a low glowing flame beneath it. His eyes have sort of this like burning coals and blackened hollows behind them, and then these horns that protrude from his—down along his cheeks and up along his temples as well. But he's not a terribly imposing figure, and he actually looks fairly afraid and fearful of where he is, and he's constantly furtively moving his eyes

back and forth and just trying to get a bearing on his situation. All right. Now but a few days here, deep at sea, to this unknown location. You sit there, keeping to yourself, mostly hands wringing in your isolation, both here among the distant waters

and even amongst a foreign populace of folk more threatening than you by disposition, maybe not by visual appearance. But sharing the cell with you, Whitney, if you wouldn't mind describing who we see and what you're up to. Yes, I am an Aurillon, so about three feet tall, with the coloring of a Siamese cat, dark, all white except for dark on my hands about three feet tall, with the coloring of a Siamese cat,

dark, all white except for dark, on my hands and feet and ears and a little bit right on my nose. And I'm wearing a beautiful silk gown that has a really cinched waist and a bell skirt, and it is embroidered with beautiful green stems with pink flowers on it. It's really beautiful. They've got lace gloves on it.

I am humming to myself. Having not a nice time, but I am content, and I am fingering the hem of my dress where that seems like there's something, a thread that I'm pulling at. But humming, and I'm keeping to myself. All right.

As you hum and you pluck at that one thread, it begins to slowly unravel as it has been for some time, and as your lost and distant thought as the song swims through your mind, a heavy wave seems to billow on one side of the ship, and as it does, it lifts and rocks to one side, and you can't help but try and catch yourself before you slide and wham into the other bars

across the way as the ship rights itself. As you slam into the bars, the heavy sound of metal ringing behind you right into the back of you, Seung Hwan, your character on the opposite side of these bars feel the impact from behind, and who do we see react? So he's a big blue man. He's very handsomely dressed.

And I guess prior to getting run into, very relaxed, just sticking his finger in his ear, checking for wax blowing, and just clearly not too bothered by his current circumstance. When she runs into me, I'm just vaguely annoyed, but your character is fairly small, right?

Okay. Very small. I almost barely, because I'm built, and I barely notice it, and when I scoff, a little'm built and I barely notice it, and when I like to scoff, a little look of disdain, but I don't even acknowledge. Fair enough. As this ao mao glances over his shoulder, not terribly bothered, his head turns

to look about the rest of this cramped cell where not too far, Anjali, if you would describe who we see also sharing this space. Yes, so you see, sitting in the back corner, one leg folded under and one leg bent in front, you see a lithe elven woman who is, she has long white hair twisted up. You see some kind of golden stick, something,

that she's fashioned into a hairpin of some kind. You can't tell if it's a weapon, a stick, what it is, but it's in her hair. And she's wearing a fur-lined bolero and a high-low skirted leather bodice jacket thing. It's a technical term, stay out of my lane. And long, tall boots.

And as all of this has been happening, she's been eyeing both of these two very sweet characters across the way. She's been eyeing them and sharpening her nails against the stone, or against the stone of one of the walls. Okay. You notice that her nails are sharpened to a fine point. All right.

So even noticeably treated a little better in what you were able to bring along than some of the other prisoners on this. There is some difference in station, just easy at a glance to notice. But here, as you gather yourself and feel comfortable in the space, you feel the distant crack of rolling thunder

echo and billow through the muffled sound barrier that is the outside of the ship. As the movement of the waves make it continue to roll and undulate. The warden's heavy footsteps now being heard beginning to descend down below deck and into the interior of the chamber as you can glance over to the right

in the direction of the sound, not far from you on the other side, ears also perked up at what sounds like the warden giving some sort of an immediate walk or pass through. Marisha, would you describe who we see also in this chamber with these two? So you see a very stout dwarven woman. She looks like the rugged outdoorsy type.

She's covered in a bunch of scars. Face is a little bit worse for wear, a little gruff, little reddened cheeks from sunspots, from being out in the sun too much. She's got a fur pelt over top of her shoulders, sustainably sourced. And she's got some leathers all over the place, a little bit of some hides hanging from her belt,

and a big, wide-brimmed hat sits on top of her head, two braided ponytail or pigtails that hang down beside. She's having a very different experience from everybody else. You would almost think she's having a good time. Right before this warden came down, she was just like, Yeah!

Getting tossed around like a fresh pint of ale and drunkard stomach, let's go! Let's go! As you slam on the ground, all of you, your arms and armaments themselves confiscated and not certain where they were taken even before this trip, even if they made it to the boat. You have what was on you when you were set aside

for conviction and then quickly thrown onto this ship with what you had on your back. You slam your fist in the ground before another sound slams into the heavy wood door just beyond where the cell is. As around the corner, you see the dark outer shape, barely lit by the still hanging and squeaking metal of the lanterns that are still trying to recover

from the thrust of the ship from side to side. The outline of Warden Ranzano. You see a human man with a big, heavy square jaw with a big, bushy red beard that consumes most of it, though the mustache itself is cut down, except for a bit stubbly at the top. It's just this massive chin beard. Short, crew-cut red hair and a very intense look.

It looked to be the green eyes you've seen during the day before you took this trip, but it's hard to even tell, much beyond his really thick brow and this top-lit lighting. As he comes around, All right. Need you all to keep down. No more too much noise making around here.

We still got about a week's path on this. If any of you be causing any sort of trouble, any rowing down here, I'll strap you to the front of this bow until you right meet your face smile. Don't make any promises you can't keep. We can keep plenty of promises, missy. Food's coming around in about two hours.

He keeps on walking, moving past. You hear this like, ting, ting, ting, about 10 feet down. He's like, I threw that! I fucking threw that! Some of them are laughing around. There's a couple of chuckles, he comes over and slams into the bars and everything gets quiet and still. He's like,

You, Gen Four, want to go ahead and take a walk? Huh? You hear this, no, no, sorry. He goes, too bad, time, No, no, sir. He goes, Too bad. Time to take a hike, boy. Opens up the bars and you hear, like, No, no, no, no! The sound of chains dragging,

manacles being clamped onto somebody, and you see the shape of one of the prisoners and one of the other cells in this part of the deck being dragged out with the warden up to the deck. His whimpers vanish as the trapdoor closes on top. As that was happening, could I rush up to the bars and just try and see where the warden is pulling keys from

or anything like that on his person? Yeah, go ahead and roll perception for me. First roll, first roll. Natural 20. SAM and LAURA and SAM and LAURA and SAM and SAM and 20. Indeed. You see another guard that had been stationed on the far end of this hallway has joined him

as this commotion began to begin. So there's a secondary guard helping. It's not just the warden, but the warden indeed pushes past his cloak, and you see those heavy furs as well, soaked. He's been walking up on top of the deck to try and keep everything organized. So there's water dripping from the furs, but as he pulls back, you hear the jingling of metal.

And without issue, even here in the low light, your keen eyes see this ring that carries about probably a dozen and a half keys from it of different colors and metals. And he goes ahead and plucks past four down, enters it, and then enters the cell where this figure's drawn out. You see this is a poor, older dwarven fellow

who looks later in his years, who he's not fighting, he's just whimpering as he's dragged off, bald of head and long white curls. And both the guards grab an arm and pull him up onto the top of the deck and out of sight. Can we please keep it down across the way there? I really don't want to end up on the bow of the ship. See how hard he hit that wood?

The strong wood? What do you think, oak? It's good. I turn to Elabun and go, So they got you, too, huh? It seems they have. Huh. Yeah, well, I made a few too many slip-ups and yeah.

But it'll be fine. You two know each other or something? In passing, I suppose. We're acquainted. Family friends? Yeah, with the, what was the name of that family? The Tiryns. Yeah, yeah, Tiryns, yeah.

Anyway, we've had a few run-ins. Nice. Like, we've had a few run-ins. Nice. Like? Like? Definitely not. Not yet. Well, we're here another week, you know, so no strangers among thieves, right?

Are you looking? How am I watching? As much as I appreciate your daring do, I think perhaps our perceptive natures are a little bit more inclined to finding a way out of here before we enjoy each other's company. Yeah, she's got a real stick up her ass. Watch it or you'll have one up yours.

Promise. About this moment, a soft voice from across the way, in the shadow of the bars in the cell across the hall from you, just kind of, Is it anyone around here know where we're going? Anyone at all? You see, faintly through the shadow,

these two little hands curl around as this dirty blonde, Orlin, female, old, middle-age, blue eyes peer through from beneath. You can see a pale expression of fear on her face as she wears somewhat ragged-looking prison clothes that give you the sense that she's probably been waiting expression of fear on her face as she wears somewhat ragged-looking prison clothes that give you the sense that she's probably been waiting

in a cell back in the Enderian Empire for a while before joining this journey with the rest of you. Haven't you heard? I imagine they're going to take us where they take all these type of folks. Living lands. I don't know what that is.

You look like me. I'm not really someone who looks like me. We're going somewhere to do work, I believe. But don't worry, because patience is a virtue and adaptability is a virtue. So if you hang on and think nice thoughts, then you'll get through, and that's what I'm hanging on to, so have that.

Okay, okay. That's good to know, that's good to know. I'm Laiera. Laiera. My name is Lady Minette. It's so nice to meet you. You're a lady. I'm a lady, yes.

Wow. Hi, Laera, I'm Galen. That's very nice, by the way. Galen. I find it helps to hum along, to drown out the thoughts, so. And there's no dread if you hum over it. I beg to differ, there is a little bit of dread,

just maybe not for you. I'm sorry to speak out of tone. It's all right. Hey. Yes? You have to apologize. Oh. All right. Thank you. I understand that in polite society,

it's important to have manners, and I don't want to speak out of turn. I'm very sorry. No, we're not in polite society no more. Lady Mineta, are you a lady? I am, I am a lady. Just very much like Ilva, actually, right? Lady Ilva.

You went to parties, and you drank tea and are educated like me, right? I have many things, but definitely not a lady. Oh, forgive me. Yes, I am a lady, and I am adaptable, and I have strength of character. And so this is something that we will cross the bridge when we get to it.

Interesting. Do you have any skills? Yes, yes, I'm highly educated in magic. I was, my friend, Eleonora, whose family I joined at a young age, she wanted me to be taught all the things that she was taught, and so I was raised with education such as maths and literature,

and also I can shoot fire out of my hands. So I don't know, I don't typically do it very much, but yes, and I'm also very good at dice. Dice? Dice games, card games. Yes, you know, you have to, a lady must always have a rounded set of skills. That's what Eleonora said. So what's a fancy little girl like you doing here?

You steal a cookie from the cookie jar? No, I wasn't allowed to have cookies. Um, no. I, um, I'm here because of friendship. Oh dear. Well, my friend, Eleonora, she met me when I was a very little girl, and she was small as well, and I was on the streets, and she said,

Would you like to come home with me and be my pet? And she called me Minette, which I think means cat, and I think she said, I will give you beautiful dresses and hot meals, and you will be educated, and you will become a lady. And so she brought me up, and I owe her everything. And there was an accident. Forgive my imprudence, but I was reasonably more skilled at spells than she was, and she had an accident with a male suitor,

and I couldn't let anything happen to my friend, so I took the fall and I would do it again. I owe my entire life to Eleonora, and I regret nothing, and I am in this situation because I deserve to be, and I will handle it with grace. So, wait, wait, wait. Just so many questions. Yeah, there's a lot to unpack, to be honest.

No. So you are a cat that did something to support another creature? No, no, I'm... A cat that had someone else's better interest in mind. I'm sorry, I've never heard of anything like this. Unthinkable. I don't, this is not, I, what? Sometimes the most virtuous thing to do

is to understand one's place. I'm not a cat, although I do meow. And I... Sounds like you're kind of a cat. Cat? Yeah, looks like a cat, smells like a cat. What would you do for a hot meal?

Oh, many things. It depends on the meal. Right now, I'd meow. And much more than that. Eleonora is someone who's very, very dear to me, and her life was going in a direction that mine could never. I am very, very grateful to her

for what I've learned for her and the very, very many beautiful dresses that I received. For that, I take my piece, and I think she will come back for me. I think that she will. I think that she loves me. Oh. Well, thank gods we got a week on here, because it's going to take about a week

to uncode all that. Well, this is good, though. If Eleonora is very powerful, or has a lot of means or station, then maybe there would be an effort to free you and us. Trust me, if you're depending on love, there's no one coming. Well, what about you?

You look more nervous than a gingerbread man in a hot oven. Oh, well. Hi. What did you do? I did nothing. Okay, sure. No, no, I know that's probably said quite frequently, but I literally did nothing. I worked the books.

I work in accounting in an import-export business, and I... White-collar crime. I've... White collar crime. No, even that? Yeah. Well, maybe. I might've drawn outside of the lines a little bit in some accounting, but nothing that deserves this. I found some errors in the accounting of my company and when I brought them to the owner's attention,

he paid me a little extra to look the other way and to continue the business as it was, but I was working late, burning the candle at both ends one evening, and when I awoke, there was a struggle in the office, and when I turned the light, there were dead bodies everywhere. Someone had broken in and throttled the owner

and his wife was there and it was terrible, but as soon as I went out and tried to help them, I realized they were beyond saving and by raising my hand and flagging down help, I was pinned for this. Can I make whatever kind of roll would be made to try to see if anything about this is something that I would have heard of

among the families? Sure, yeah, make an intellect roll for me, if you don't mind. 18 plus six, so... 17, yes. Yeah, yeah. I'm sorry, 18 plus six. Did I say 17? I'm an Asian who can't do math, you guys.

There's only one of us. Only one of us, and it's me. 24. Very, very good, actually. The Opalescent Trading Company is known to do quite a bit of business on the eastern side of the Edirne Empire. Also between here and the Valiant Republic.

But they weren't a massive business, necessarily, but they were one of the smaller up-and-comers. Had been around for a while and were starting to really make their selves known, but word got around that there was some sort of a vengeful wiping out of their upper management. And there's currently investigations going into

a number of the competitive businesses, but currently, all you've heard is they arrested somebody involved with it. But I don't have any inkling that that business, that that crime had something to do with one of the criminal families that either he or I belong to. I would say that from what you can understand,

there were many families that had some toes dipped in, like they do in many of the trade businesses around here. But from what you've heard, no specific whispers about cause or blame. Then as you look at Galen, he looks like he's wearing dirty clothes, but it's actually very darkened, rust-colored, bloodstains on his shirt, on his pants, on his sleeves.

Yeah, yeah. It sounds like you were just trying to help. That's a virtue, and I'm sure wherever we're going, you can just explain that, right? No one's listened to me. They take one look at me and they assume the worst. I understand. I tried to help, but I think they've assumed the worst. I understand. I tried to help, but I think they've lacked evidence

or anyone else to point a finger at. Have you ever killed a man? Or anyone, for that matter. No, no, I've never even killed for food. Keep that to yourself. Where we're going, that's not a good thing. Right. Thank you.

I'll keep it to myself. Lady Ilva, have you killed someone? I'm not a lady. Have I killed someone? A massive shift in the ship suddenly causes you all to slide to one side. You grab out and try to hold onto the bar space. You can't embrace yourself.

Tessa! No, no, no, remember the paladin ship? The ship settles again and you hear another crack of distant thunder. You're like. Stillness takes again. Hey. I just thought of something.

Can all of you swim? Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Can you? Oh, yes. Laera? I learned a long time ago. Yeah.

Right. Have I ever killed anyone? Oh, that's an interesting question with several different answers. It depends on what you mean by killing someone. Feels like there should only be two answers. I don't know, feels like yes or no. Was I responsible for someone's death? Maybe.

I break several hearts here and there. But have I ever physically killed another person? A woman has to have her secrets. So yes, is what I'm gathering. I'm sorry. Sorry. Yeah, it feels like it would be a resounding no if it was anything else.

She's got a smile on her face. Absolutely got a smile on her face. Looking like Sweet Death. Fully got a smile on her face and continuing to sharpen her fingernails up against the stone. Are there any wardens nearby? Do I see anybody?

At the moment, no. You hear heavy footfalls above and there are people shifting around on deck, probably trying to hold the sails down in the midst of the storm, but nobody at the moment is present in the hall. But you do know that about every 10 or so minutes, the warden or one of the other guards

comes through to just check in on things. When we were brought in to the boat, did we see any dinghies or anything for abandoned ship? Did we see any extra boats? They don't give us those. Any eject pods? For their own people. You know what? Roll a perception check for me, if you don't mind.

Nope. That's an eight. The path you took into this ship was pretty direct. You were brought across the gangplank, onto the deck itself, and directly under to your cell. So even the quick glance you got, nothing that leads you to believe that there's any sort of life raft-based salvation.

Any way off this boat other than landing. Do we know how much longer this voyage is going to last? Make an intellect roll for me. Oh boy, my character's not good for that. Can I help? Come on, Vajra. 13 minus one, 12. Let's go, Big Blue. Okay, all right, Big Blue. 12.

I mean, you've heard of the Living Lands. You know it's to the north. You know it's a big island landmass and all sorts of weird rumors about it. But you're not a navigator. Yeah, I haven't really looked at a map, so you have no idea. Are there reports of dangerous,

do people die when they go there? Is there a reputation? You've heard things from people saying it is a rich land of possibility. It's a frontier, unused and unexploited. And you know that there are some colonies set up from many of the different major political players, both the Edirne Empire, the Valiant Republics,

from the Indriels from the Deadfire. There's all sort of figures that are of interest of this northern area, but also it is, in its own way, dangerous and unmapped. That's as much as you can gather, and that's just from hearing around from people discussing it through your life. No direct reports. you could gather, and that's just from hearing around from people discussing it through your life.

No direct reports. You do hear, though, a chuckle emerge from a cell, a little bit of an angle from across the way as a shattered figure leans against the bars, their shoulders pushing against it, their head pushing through carefully. A very thin, you see a pale elven head pushed through with a dark brown matted long hair

that covers one part of the face. Leans in. Sorry I couldn't help but listen in on your little conversations here, but little miss here is trying to be cheeky. I think she's killed many time. I think I know a few. You recognize that voice.

This pale elven man, you know it to be Medrin Gla- Glaqaiath. Can you spell that, please? Yeah. Medran Glaqaiath. G-L-A-C-Y-A-T-H. Of the Glaqaiath family. Like itself. This is one of the numerous competing criminal families, more of the western side of the Empire.

They don't work directly near the capital city. And he's a middle-high member of the family. He's not deeply important, but both of you make intelligence checks for me, or intellect intelligence checks for me real fast. 17. Nice. What does that say?

Which one? This one? I have my glasses over here. That's a 19. 19 plus six, 25. Okay. Woo! You both do know, as you keep tabs in your own ways on any of the adjacent criminal movements in your spectrums of interest,

the Golkiath criminal family, this Medrin figure was known to be a rising star within his particular circle, but recently became arrested and publicly humiliated and more or less disowned by the family. You don't know if that was to just push any of the blame away from tarnishing their business or keep eyes from prying too deep

into what they were doing, but he was definitely made a public example of before disappearing for a good two or three months from any sight, and then now, apparently, has been placed on a similar journey as to you. They're just collecting all of us, huh? That's Medrin Gola the, what the, what was it? Gla'kai is. Yeah, whatever.

Anyway, yeah. Yeah, yeah, I know what I got. My face falls a little bit, and for the first time, you see me not looking coy or holding anything back. Just eyes. Hello, Yvonne. Hello, Medjaren. So they've done to you what he's done to me, have they? Do you all know each other?

What is it with you? Has it been a long time? Yeah. That's a brutal, brutal fantasy. Look, let's all be terribly honest here. Some of us here have some skill, others maybe not so much, not least where we're going. So if we have a chance, we make landfall.

If any opportunity strikes, we have to know who's got our backs and who's going to be useful. After all, last I counted, there's more prisoners in this ship than there are guards. There are. I did the math. I can't do math, apparently, so we've already established that.

Sorry, that was above table. Good. What can you do? Oh, you know, I'm just a dwarf with a land. Yeah, no, pretty good with a gun. Pretty good with a dagger. Pretty good with nature, kind of in general. Why the fuck are you down here with the rest of us, Riffraff?

Well, you see, I consider myself a conservationist of sorts, a little bit of an animal rights activist. You see, I was just happy and fine in my mountain, protecting my forest, trying to keep it from poachers and other type of people that want to exploit the land. And there's a lot of people who wander into my neck of the woods,

generally from the Valiant Republic, who have all sorts of interests in the exotic animal trade and trying to find the wildlife and use them for either any type of their criminal mischief or everything, from just being an accessory. All right. She's your team. Excuse me, sir.

Pardon me. We were engaged in conversation, and I don't understand why you interrupted and then assumed that we didn't already know that she clearly killed someone and was purposely withholding information. Lunges at the bar suddenly with a hand reaching out, but like, like.

And as he does, I just step in front of him with a hand up gently. Madryn. Be careful who you're talking to, miss. I'm not afraid of you. And what can you do? Wait. I can wait.

Ew. Another heavy wave impacts the side of the ship. This time it hits at a heavier angle than you expect. All of you slide, the lantern shake, one ends up slamming and breaking on the wall. You hear the shattering of glass clattering on the ground, and the flickers darken for a second as it eventually writes itself.

As it does, the whole room shakes. You all hear and the bars to your chamber ever so faintly open. I run up and look like I hold it closed, but put my fingers in between so that it looks closed, but I think it's open, I think it's open. I think it's open.

Did we just crash into, did it feel like we crashed into something? No, you're still rocking. Just a heavy, heavy wave hit. The storm's getting bad. Damn. Medrin was right. I'm saying this to them, but I'm looking at him. Medrin was right.

We have to take any opportunity we can. Get out here. Can I look both ways down the hall, just not opening the door any further and making it, it was squeaky when it swung, right? A little like,. And while he's doing that, can I run over, is there a key hole to the R bars, where R bars are?

So what you can see is each one of these has a very hefty metal latch lock on it. When the heavy impact hits, because you didn't pay attention each one of these has a very hefty metal latch lock on it. When the heavy impact hits, because you didn't pay attention until you got there and closed it, the lock that was on yours got pulled and broken and is now lying open on the ground in front of the bar. Kind of rusty and just old and shit.

So if there's one like that on our door, I'd like to run up to it and try to pick the lock. Like with your nails? Ooh! That's a little bit of a distraction. Have you seen these? I understand, I understand. Don't do them!

All right, go ahead and make a dexterity roll for me. This is a very difficult roll. I can't imagine why. And actually, you know what? I'd like to, instead of using both with nails, one hand with nails, and I'm going to pull the, you can grab onto the hilt here, and pull a long stiletto dagger out from there

with a very fine point and use both. Very cool. Yes or no? You say no. Make two dexterity checks for me. The first one is to see whether or not you're able to hide a dagger with yourself. Get out of this prison ship! That's why I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Because it was like a, it's more like a shiv, we'll pretend it's a shiv. We can say it was my dagger, it was a shiv. But I'll allow. I'll allow you to go ahead and roll to see if on the way and you're able to do something. 19 plus three is 22. Okay. I hit a gun on my head.

It's a lot of hair. Right, so this is not a stiletto. It is a hairpin, but it is made of harder metal than a natural hairpin, or a common hairpin is, because you do use it as a defensive weapon, being a woman of the realms that you wander in business. I swallowed a cannon. Yeah.

Yeah, roll a constitution check. And now I need you to roll a constitution check. Boom! And now I need you to roll a 22 to pick this lock. Oh no. You got it. You got it. Come on, you got it, you got it. That's funny. Yeah, it says 16.

So you move around and try and pick the lock with this as you can. These locks are built strong. The one that broke off there, just from the sheer force, and this one may have been probably the most kind of like salt, like sea salt worn over time, but this one's pretty sturdy, and it's not budging at this point.

Not by picking it, at least. And so the lock over there broke off? It broke off, yeah. So the door is basically open. Their door is open, yeah. Who's in there? Sorry, who's in there? Just the two of them.

Just the two of them, Okay, sorry. Yeah. Espinel, would you mind using your manly strength to help me? Sure, what do you got in mind? Break it. Okay. Hang on, hang on, let me, let me, I think I might have something

to help you out a little bit. Let me see. What do you got? I'm going to reach around through the bars and as I glide by, just like a bull reach around through the bars and glide by. Just a cool reach around. It's been too long. I cup the lock. No, and then I am going to.

That was too close to being a big green spit take. Can I cast Corrosive Siphon on the lock and try and weaken it a little bit by corroding it? I'll allow that. Okay. Yeah! So go ahead and spend the essence. Okay, which is four essence. Yep, as you clutch this lock and focus on it,

you take your particular connection with your time in nature as its guardian. Damn straight. To tap into the innate corrosive powers of time, of minerals, of how ore and metals can become pockmarked and drawn to dust and broken rust. And you focus your magic. The lock itself seems to tarnish,

and you hear the faint twisting and of metal straining against its form. It is weaker than it was. Eh, that's more useful a skill than saving bunnies. Don't you talk about bunnies like that. Can I, are the bars wide enough, the guy that lunged, he put his head and his arm through the bars?

Can you get your head through the bars and look left and right down the hallway? You cannot. The gentleman did so. His head was, he's a narrow, thin elf, and he barely fit through. You can probably get your head, but you can't get your full body through the bars.

Could you? I will look around, but I think that maybe we should come up with what we're going to do after we get the lockout, because there's a chance that it might make a sound, and I think maybe we should just know what we're going to do next. Run? I think maybe we should just know what we're going to do next. Um, run?

Um, oh, how do we? The warden had a ring of keys on him and I memorized which key he was using to open the other cell lock. And I bet if we work backwards from the end of the hallway, we could get each one of these cells open, but I don't know who's at either end. Well, you said so yourself, right?

There's more of us than there is of them. Maybe we wait for him to come back around on his rounds. You said so yourself, right? There's more of us than there is of them. Maybe we wait for him to come back around on his rounds. You said that. Maybe we wait for him to come back around on his rounds, and at the right moment, you open your already open cell door. That would require someone capable of great violence. Neither of us are violent. I'm going to break this lock.

All right, go ahead and make a might roll for me, please. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Oh no. Four plus six, 10. 10. Yolanda. You feel something move.

You're like, oh yeah, and you look down and one of your fingers has popped just out of its socket. You're like, oh no! Okay. You withdraw your hand. It stings. You pop it back in, trying to hold on. The numb feeling. Looks like brute forcing it.

That way, probably not going to work. Well, I'm shit out of ideas. So it seems like two pacifists on the ship are the ones that currently have the most freedom, and we may have to engage in violence. Or you could let us out of here when you get out. And we'll engage in the violence for you. Plenty of us will, though.

After all, there's a lot of cells here, and a lot of friends here that all got skills in their eyeboys. He looks off to the side, and you see two of their shadows shift as another thin-looking, lanky dwarf comes up to the side and you see two other shadows shift as another thin-looking, lanky dwarf comes up to the edge and goes, Oh yeah, yeah, we're ready.

Amazing. You see a female Aumao with brownish-red skin and this awesome tattoo across her face leaning against the bars, big old fists glancing over. Bring them here or crush them. Jesus. Okay. I think I'm in love with her.

I have two plans. One, if we can figure out who's on either end of the hall, we could try and rush them, or we could create a commotion and have them come back down here, open the door, push him towards the bars, and let that scary individual do whatever he does through the bar. I like that plan.

Between us, there are some people that I do not want to let out of this ship. They are very scary to me. Lady, I don't think you have a choice right now, darling. Okay. To be fair, I concur. You hear one of the trap doors to the upper deck of the ship shift open and the sound of heavy rain splattering at the upper deck of the ship shift open

and the sound of heavy rain splattering across the upper part of the ship immediately fills the interior of the hallway. You can hear muffled yells from across the upper deck, barely out of audible range to make out the words. There's definitely commotion aboard as a waterlogged guard begins to step down into the chamber, making his current pass through the hallway. Destruction. Destruction, yes.

Pardon me, sir. I have a question for you. The guard steps forward. Warden Ranzano again is coming through and goes, Oh, right, right. What can I possibly do you for? I just wanted to show you my curtsy. I'm not listening. I wanted to show you my curtsy. I'm not listening.

I wanted to show you something. Sees Medrin against the bars and slams against the metal. Medrin backs away and skittles to the back as does the two other figures that step up. It's like, I don't want to see you stepping up to the front again. I swear to god, it won't be just my fist.

This is the warden. This is the warden, yeah. Ron's honor? Yeah, Ron's honor. So, now my question is, my question is, What? When we arrive, when we arrive, will there be books for us to read?

No! No books! Warden, I just wanted to let you know, that gentleman has a weapon. His weapon. He made it onto the ship with a weapon, and I feel for my safety, as soon as he looks or turns away, can I rush, throw open the bar,

and I'm going to try and check him into the cell wall. Make a might check. Okay. Come on, man! Come on, beefy boy! Oh no! 16. Natural 20. Oh! You open the bar and rush towards it.

The warden turns around and goes, what the? Grabs you and slams you against the bars, puts his arm up against your throat and lifts you up against it. But he's outside. Yeah, he's outside against the bars now, in the middle of the hallway.

In the hallway, the bars, are they? Is his back on the other side? Can we touch this guy? His back is about four feet from where you are in the hall, outside, and pushing him against the other bars on the opposite side. So I have the guy's back against me. I'd like to take my, how far, can I hairpin him?

You what? Can I hairpin him? Am I too far? I think you're a bit far for that, unfortunately. Great. Fuck! I'm just going to throw my hands down and you see the crackling start to happen at the top of my fingertips, and I'm going to, it doesn't say here, and I don't know how this works,

but Jolting Touch, can I cast, is it a lightning bolt at him? It's a bolt at him and one other target. Do it! Is there wood anywhere? I don't want to hit another. Oh yeah, there's wood all across the space. Great, then can I hit him and some wood somewhere else? Because there's no people here that I don't want to come.

There's no other enemies. Here's what I'll say. We'll roll for it because he is wearing metal and there are metal bars behind them. So he's not dodging this because he's not even aware that you're attacking at this point. So go ahead and roll damage. Okay.

Just do it! God damn it, do it! Oh no! It's 1d12 minus one, and that's a one. So you try and reach through the bars and release this blast of jolting magical energy, and it arcs into the bars in front of you and dissipates into the bars of the cell, affecting no one.

You feel the light from your eyes begin to fade from the choking as you all begin to gather. I can get out. I jump. I jump my body onto the front of the guard and I stick my fingers right in his eyes. Yes!

So he's faced away and you jump up in front of him? Okay, make a dexterity check. She's a lady! Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa! I'm reaching around! I'm giving him a reach around! I'm giving you the reach around, let's go! Roll for reach around. Reach around, crew!

Reach around, crew! Dexterity? Oh my god. Honestly, yeah. Five plus three? He rolled an eight. She rolled an eight. So what does that mean? Rolled an eight?

All right, so you start gouging his eyes, he's like pulling back. As this happens, another meaty arm reaches through from the other side of the bar, there's the Amau woman there, grabs him by the back of the head and between where your head is and the bars, slams his head into the bars.

The guard, the warden, blood spatters out of his mouth. He goes,, grabs you by the side of the face and throws you back towards where you are. The both of you collide and slam into the bars. He pushes you off, but his eyes are hurt, at which point, another crack of thunder, the whole ship lists up. Heavy.

Slow motion seems to take over as it tips and tips and tips, and all of you begin to shift to one side as the world turns topsy-turvy. Lanterns out. Everything spins like you're in the middle of a dryer, and darkness and shadow takes you. Ooh!

We got to get out of here. The ship's going down. We got to get out. All of you are lost to darkness. Quiet, stillness, absence. Slowly, you begin to rouse from this shadow.

You pick up on one arm, and the majority of you are starting to find yourself again. You begin to feel a sense of body, of physicality, and you hurt everywhere. A soreness, an aching throb from head to toe takes over, and all of you have little to no light to make out your surroundings at this point.

You can smell the smell of fresh, soft rain, and what looks like little bits of gray light peeking through cracks in the splintered wooden debris that surround you. Your eyes begin to focus and you can see the semblance of metal bars bent and jagged, some of which now bear on them other prisoners. You all begin to rummage through the small spaces

that you can as you come to realize that you are all partially trapped within the confines of your wrecked prison ship. But you are not underwater. And you can hear the rain above. You think it's above. What do you do? So the ship's not taking on water?

It feels like it's still and shipwrecked. You don't know how much time has passed, but as you come to consciousness, the cell that was around you is now a crumpled space. space. Tight and broken, and you are all, I'd say the two of you are pretty close together, and you are all pretty close together.

So you're still in your same clusters, but you are very much, through some sheer luck, you are not crammed and crushed with the majority of the spaces around you. Can we see, in our cell, can we see any kind of opening in those bars? Or is it enough cracked open that the cell is no more a cell?

The cell is not really a cell anymore. But it is still kind of bent and closed. You'd have to try and push through to maneuver or try and move some of the debris if you want to. Can we find the body, I assume, of the warden, if he's unconscious or alive? You go ahead and move through

the remnants of the hallway. You can still see there's planks of wood and it's splintered up in places and part of the deck has collapsed and jammed into it. In fact, where the deck has collapsed in, you can see the wardens there, legs laid out in the ground, arms out to the side,

and the wood of the deck splintered into where his head would have fallen. Oh! Okay. Oh! Oh! Can I search for a key ring and just? Easy enough to find. Okay. He's not keeping up. Just let it go on.

Just let it keep going. Keep going. Keep going, keep going, keep going. Can I grab the key ring and limp my way back over and just say, I think we should try one of these, see if it'll help loosen your cell. You get to the cell and all the bars are tangled and right in the door that would have been the exit is now partially bent.

Do we all see each other? Like, we can make a counter for ourselves? However, because of the corrosion of the lock and the amount of stress that you had placed on it originally, the lock itself has broken off and the twisting of it. It's just about pushing the door open and it would maybe make enough room

to try and squeeze through. Oh, that's one way to crack an egg. All right, let me try to get this door. So I'm going to try to push it to give someone else enough room to get through. Let's go, Big Blue. Go ahead and roll a night. 13 plus six, 19.

Oh, yeah, without issue, you. As you shift out of the way, you feel and hear other parts of the debris shift and settle. Dust and bits of rain muck drip out of the ceiling, and you see where it shifts. A little more of the sky is now visible. This gray mid-daylight peeks through as droplets of water are now coming in

through the storm that is not as heavy as it was at the peak that apparently wrecked this. It seems the worst of the storm has passed, though it still probably rains outside. How long do you reckon we was unconscious? Tell me, do you think that me jamming my fingers into that man's eyes was necessary, considering that

the ship was wrecked shortly after that? No, but it was awesome. Let's see. It certainly saved my life, so for that, you have my thanks. Medrin. No response. Oh shit. Laera?

Hello? Hello? You hear a voice, but you cannot see where she is where you stand. I'm going to try and squeeze out of this cell using the gap that Hasbro has opened. Yeah, yeah. You clear enough space for the three of you can

square down. Now the five of you are in the remnant pocket of the hallway where all the many bent bars are and no real clear exit. You might be able to see the stairway that leads to where the deck would be is somewhat visible now that you've exposed some more of the light within.

Was that how we came down into this area as well? Like one entrance, one exit? Correct. Are all the cells relatively destroyed and open? Do we see any other prisoners? We heard Ly'ra. Yes. We don't hear Medrin.

You don't hear. Do you want to go inspect the cell? We do. I do. We care about life. No, I do. Not his, but maybe the other one. Make a perception check for me. 17 plus two, 19.

Great. As you head over to where the bent, feminine bars are, you glance in. The first thing you notice is nobody's moving. The second thing you notice is because there's nobody here. The other end of that cell that's partially collapsed in, you can see what looks like other bits of outer wood

have been shifted and pushed out. And it looks like there is an exposed opening to the outside that has been reclosed. You rolled pretty high. A large piece of wood has been placed against it to reclose the source of exterior light. Hmm. But we hear Lyra's voice,

but we don't see them anywhere. At the moment. Well, I'd say with that high enough roll there, too, you glance over and you can see Lyra's voice, but we don't see them anywhere. At the moment. Well, I'd say with that high enough roll there, too, you glance over and you can see Lyra, where the cell is, that cell is also partially collapsed. And at first glance, nobody survived that, but you see one piece of broken wood with a bit of stone that fell from something above

that crumbled, looks like some sort of a, looks like the edge of a cannon may have tumbled in with it that's holding against the wall. And you can see it trying, someone's trying to push it up, and you hear her voice like, Hello? I can't move my legs.

I'm going to run over and start pulling on it. Okay, so you push past the broken bars there, the door opens slightly at this point. You get in and you go ahead and make a might check for me. This is my lowest stat. But you see also, I think, you see in her face a completely different face.

You're like a face of worry, a face of concern. Yeah. Oh, 18 minus one, 17. 18 minus one. That matronly adrenaline rush hits your body like a mother whose child has fallen under something heavy. You reach down and Hulk pulse those mafia female arms. Do these look like hands that do manual labor?

Because they do. You shift it up and other parts of the debris crumble and fall to fill some of the space. But thankfully, Lyra's relatively small and pulls her legs up and reaches for your arm. And as you hold it up, she gets up onto her feet before she stumbles a bit. It looks like her ankle is pretty badly injured

from the impact, but she manages to pull out just in time for you to release it. And it re-crumples and settles. As other parts settle inward and crush that space where she previously had barely held herself. I'm going to hold her under her armpits, like I'm holding her up. Oh, thank you.

Are you all right? Can you walk? Slowly. Can one of you incredibly strapping young gentlemen help this lovely lady as we try to leave here? Of course, of course. Thank you. We need you, Lyra. A rising tide raises all ships.

Oh no. I'm so sorry. Tasteless. I'm sorry, I didn't. I like it. Too soon. I didn't mean to. So we haven't heard anything. There's still no sign of Medrin.

No, and there are, from what you can tell glancing through here, most of the other, and there are other prison cells throughout here, most of them up here crushed or empty as well in the immediate vicinity. As you begin to inspect the internal space here, you see signs of arms peeking out of crumpled debris.

You still only have the view of this one hallway right now, but the damage seems significant. And around the warden and any other areas around guards, were there boxes, storage lockers, anything that might've broken open that we could try and loot? Not in this hallway, but you can certainly search the wreckage.

Is there something, also, I want to check on the warden if he has any kind of a weapon or an other, something else besides the keys. Indeed, he does have a sword at his side that he keeps sheathed just in case. Nice. I'd like to pull that out and see.

Someone else is probably better using this than I am. I took fencing. Of course you did. I'm just going to turn to Hespero. Is that how you hold a sword? Is that not how you hold a sword? Yeah, that's exactly how you do it. That's very Sword in the Stone.

Oh god. No, no, no, no, no. Yeah, as you pull the sword up, it sticks into the wood. Hespero, I know there's no love lost between our families, but I should have you know that I no longer have an allegiance to family, Tyrion. Well, listen, we're all in this mess.

We just got to work together for now to get out of it. Although, he looks at Lyra, what are you going to contribute? Moral support? Will you cook? I can, yeah. We're going to need food. Fine.

Yeah, I can cook. Cooking, I've cooked before many times, I got you. Do I have a liver? Yeah. Make a perception check. Can I make one, too? I actually don't care, because I want to see if I want to cover for her.

That is, that was poor. A journey. That was poor, that was poor. I don't know. Dirty Tony. Oh, excellent. Dirty Tony. Oh, Secret Song!

Oh! Ooh! Secret Song is the secret song. We're all playing, we're playing along. I don't write any of these songs. That's all I got. I'm no Sam. All righty. The voice is in my head of stuff.

Indeed. You set her down and said, I can walk, I can walk. Just, you know, a can walk, I can walk. Just, you know, a bit of, got to tough it out, you know? Put some dirt in it. Can I, let me see if I can help you out.

I'm going to look over. Do I see just a broken stick or a splintered piece of wood? Oddly, nothing but splintered wood around you. Great. Great, I'm going to take a little splintered piece of wood, take one of my leather straps and strap it to her, make a little makeshift splint.

Great, yeah, you take a few minutes and splint out her leg, she steps up on it. Still see that twinge of pain, but definitely a lot more functional to follow than a person who's more stumbly than that. All right. I'm, uh. Thank you. Yeah.

I think I'm going to head on upstairs, see what else we can find. Yeah, I'll join you. All right. Should we all go? Yes. Yes. All right.

You all head towards where the stairs head up to the deck, and the trapdoor that normally is easy to press up has heavy weight pressed upon it, but with your all combined up, you push up and the rain begins to spill in to the opening as you step out into the free gray sky around you, taking the smell of fresh sea foam and the air of that recent storm

still settling on this island. You look around yourselves. You are now standing on the edge of the rocky shore of some isolated island. The ship itself didn't crash into, it crashed onto the rocks. Like it was lifted and then smashed onto a whole number of heavy, jagged, worn stones

that seemed to protrude from the surrounding surf. And the ship, indeed, as you get up to the deck, you can see half of the ship, and it is broken open and splintered, and surrounding you in all the water around is just a scattered smattering of what is now broken driftwood and bodies just floating up on the shore.

You can see the few guards that are on the deck right now are no longer living as well. And within, I get a quick glance here and listening around, there's no movement. There's no other voices. At the moment, you feel like your crew might be the only ones who survived that you know of. Our crew, the Reach Arounds?

The Reach Arounds, definitely. Definitely the Reach Around crew. Emerging narrative, baby. Are there any weapons in sight? Hell yeah, let's go. In sight, like immediate sight, no, but if you want to go ahead and search the contents of the ship, best you can with what's available to you,

I'd say go ahead and make a perception check or a resolve check, your choice. Is it for all of us to help search or just one? I'm going to let him go ahead and take one now. 13 plus three is 16. 16 is great. So with all of you at Hasbro's side, you begin to push through, figure out,

if these are where the prisoners are held, what are the parts of the ship that aren't accounted for that you can even get to? There's a mess area and storage below, but most of that is completely blocked off or missing from that side of the ship. However, you come off to where the side of the ship is and where a portion of it is crashed onto the jagged rocks.

There's a part that's a little lower than the others. Where that side of the ship is busted open, you see two prisoners, well, one and a half prisoners, Oh! smashed on the rocks, and around them, crates that are splintered open, and all manner of tools, weapons, armaments.

It looks like this is where the guard kept most of their equipment, or equipment that was confiscated. As you search through and gather things, you find bows, you find spears, you find shields, a couple of pistols, as well as clusters of ammunition. Pretty much what you may need for simple armaments for protection,

you can scavenge from what is smashed across the rocks here. Do I see a great hammer? You do. Oh, great. In fact, it's your great hammer. It looks like some of the things that were confiscated specialty were either being kept as trophies or maybe to be presented as some offering to work towards

when you were heading towards working your debt off in the Living Lands. But indeed, you lift up your old faithful hammer and feel solid in your grip. I'm looking for, it's going to be hard to find amidst all of this random splintered wood, but I'm looking for a particular long, gnarled piece of wood with a pointy end.

Could you make a perception or resolve check for me, please? Okay, Charlie, now's your time. Butcher! Okay, maybe not your time. You go sleep right now. That was a six. That was a six. Yeah.

This is a very scattered wreck. And in these particular circumstances, you do not see anything that matches what you're looking for. Look at this, it's a long, pointy stick with a gnarly thing on it. And a gun! I don't know how to use either of these.

Oh, it's my gun! Oh, there you go. I'll take this utility knife. Did he find my long, pointy stick? Is this yours? Yeah. Did he really? Oh, DM, are we letting this happen? Because I'd be very excited.

Emergent storytelling, Matt. I'll say what you plucked and found, you'd realize at the time was probably a sack of dried oats that it was in, and as you pull it free, a streak of red emerges with it, and you realize, oh, that was a prisoner. Oh!

But this is a familiar-looking branch. That's mine. Oh, wait, wait. I'm a criminal now. I should act like one. What will you give me for it? I won't kill you. That's yours.

No, you know, this is most fortuitous because we can start over. We can be whatever we want. We don't need weapons. We can just go explain that we are explorers, and I can contact Eleonora, and we don't have to do anything illegal or violent ever again.

I have this plan. As she's saying that, I'm going, as I'm taking up this doll. Yeah, exactly. Loading up, loading up on things. Great idea. I'm taking my, uh, another knife.

Start over now. Taking my hairpin dagger and twisting my hair back up again. Always a lady. Always a lady. Well, I do grab a spear because I am very small and it has reach, and I do grab a shield for self-defense. I do not intend to use it.

So there! So, bro, come at me, bro. You know, if we're bringing along Lyra, then I feel like we should find some food for Lyra to cook. On top of all the weapons, any type of provisions? Go ahead and make a perception or resolve check for me, if you don't mind. I'll do perception.

It's all right. 11. 11. You spend the better part of the next hour or so searching through the wreckage, finding other corpses of those that are aboard the ship before you begin to figure out by process of elimination that whatever place may have been the storage chamber

for the food that was being kept was likely on the other half of the ship that is not present. So you are now here with no provisions, some arms, and just your little troop standing amongst the broken rocks of the greater island that you only have the slight view of it just beyond a 15-foot rocky cliff.

Well, first things first. Shelter for warmth and food? Lady Sable, you're a woman of the woods. Yeah. What do you know about foraging? Oh. Pretty much everything. Although I will say, you know, I'm kind of used to

the foliage and the natural fauna from where I'm from, so this might be a little bit, a be a little bit taken getting some used to, but yeah, just stick with me. We'll be great. Yeah. Smarter than a shithouse rat. We're great. Yes.

I'm sure. Well, maybe we should look for some food then. I'm sure you can tell. Generally, what is poisonous? Bright colors or a smell? Just let's stir with the basics, let's find some fruit. Maybe some good greens and grasses.

Let's avoid mushrooms. Yeah, you don't want to fuck with that shit. So Lyra try it first. You know, she's a cook, right? Yeah, I'm a cook! That's a great point. Yeah. What time of day did you say? Is it still midday-ish?

I mean, it's hard to tell because the gray skies still keep the sunlight more or less even throughout the sky here, especially in the post-storm role. You know it's daytime, but you're not entirely certain if it's waxing, waning, coming towards its end or an early morning. One way or the other, we should find some shelter quickly.

We don't know what else is on this island or who else. Do we see any signs of life? Any signs of footprints? Or tracks leading away from where we are. Yeah, tracks. So as you clamber up the small stone rock slide trail that leads up to the edge of the cliff to get onto the actual island proper. You see now the expanse.

It is not a massive island, but indeed there are two hill, mountain-like topographical rises on the opposite end of the island, themselves covered in green trees, from what you can see, a lumber source here on the opposite end of the island, themselves covered in green trees, from what you can see, a lumber source here on the island. But between there and where you stand, beyond the low-hanging thick mists

that sit in the now windless region here, while the rain falls, the winds have halted and everything just sits still as the raindroplets still continue to fall, you see a lighthouse that stands up as the winds have halted and everything sits still as the rain droplets still continue to fall, you see a lighthouse that stands up into the center of this island, a beacon in the middle of this sea-full of space.

And it is, from what you can see, just ocean to the horizon on all sides before the fog takes it at the end of your periphery. How far are we from all the bodies? From all the bodies? Did we leave? Did we get far away? In order to see this, you had to climb away from the ship

about probably 50 or so feet. Can I retcon one thing? Sure. Can we grab some of the guards? Garb, just in case we run into people who are also part of the Adirn empire. Garbs. Garbs. The garbs? Can we get some of the guard garb?

You can indeed. You can gather some of the guard garb. I just want to grab it, just in case. Blah, blah, blahs, blah, blah. The garb-a-der-b-er-da-bra. So we have the garb-a-der-b-er-da-bra. Yes, you may. So yeah, there are standard issue breastplates

that are emblazoned with the symbology of the Adiran Empire, as well as cloaks, pauldrons. Just so at least one or two of us looks like they might, so that we can have both. Okay. Who would want to be wearing these recovered accoutrements? No. I have some. No, no.

I'll take some armor. Okay. So you go ahead and fix yourself on the light breastplate of one of the guards. A deershen empire. I'm not covering this up. I'm fixing my sights on someone who understands status, and so I am taking the Spear for self-defense,

but I'm hoping that Lighthouse, someone will understand, call for help, or we can use it as shelter, but I'm not putting anything on to suggest that I'm a violent person. No, no for help, or we can use it as shelter, but I'm not putting anything on to suggest that I'm a violent person. No, no, no, no, this would suggest that you were a guard of the Adiran Empire. Well, not in this, surely, no, no.

That's okay, I've got it covered, and if anyone spots us, I can say that I'm keeping an eye on you rapscallions and everything is in order. Or you're defending the guard for the ladies and also a guard for the ladies. Yeah. Sure. Yeah. Sure. Deception.

Deception, deception, deception. So it's one of you in prison, guard garb. Anybody else taking it? Anybody else want to wear a, wear something? I don't know, I look pretty good the way I am. Yeah, I'm fine. None of that shit fits you anyway. All right, so you have one guard

at Scored amongst you. Is there anything else? Is there anything that looks good that I could put on me? Nothing better than what you have on now. Oh god. I just don't want to. I'm just going to bring some.

Do we have any way of bringing it, just in case? I just want to have the option of putting it on if we need to be sneaky sneaky. It's healthy, sure. You mean, amongst the wreckage of the supplies that were scattered amongst the rocks, there are heavy sacks. Are there any coins or metals or something like that

that would speak to someone being an envoy of the Empire or a... Oh, like displaced, but not necessarily a prisoner? You could show that you have some coin. I mean, there's coin. You find it among some of the guards as well, yeah. Some of the...

I mean, like a thing of status, like a badge. Thank you. I would say there are markings on the Warden Ranzano's breastplate that do carry with them a symbol of higher rank within the rank and file of the guards that were brought on this prison ship. So if you want to bring that breastplate along, it has it emblazoned on it.

Let's do that. Okay. Maybe I'll throw that on your body. Okay. Now this lighthouse we're talking about, is it lit? Is the lantern lit? No, it's lit. The candela is not lit. It is dark.

It's not lit? It's dark. Good. It's dark. It is dark. Okay, interesting. SAM and LAURA, MATT, and LAURA, and LAURA. Do we see any signs of, like, I don't know if the Living Lands have any,

if the Adairan Empire has any kind of foothold here. So do we see anything that, any signs of that on the lighthouse? Any markings or anything? I mean, it's a good few miles from where you're standing. Like it's further in. And even then, you can only see

over some of the rocky hills and some of the tufts of trees that rise up, but you can see it's like, your depth perception on how far away it is from you right now is a little tough. If one of you wants to make a perception check to go ahead and go for it. 22. 22.

A couple things. As you try and get the best high point you can that's close to the cliff, you go up behind a cluster of trees and hole in one side and get the best vantage point, you notice, yeah, the lighthouse is a few miles off. Not a heavy walk, but you'll be able to get there with a short enough walk.

This is not a large island. And indeed, it is out in the middle of nowhere. You notice farther up north, there are signs barely, with a high enough roll like that, of almost another shipwreck, but long washed away, just a couple pieces of blanched driftwood

that there was a wreck here probably long before you arrived. Oh dear. You also noticed at the base of this lighthouse, which itself is not lit, there's a little, looks like a household near its base, and a number of tents and other shacks settled around it, like a very small settlement that is

haphazardly built around the base of this lighthouse, made of different materials. The house looks nice and well-made. The other smaller structures look like they're more function over aesthetic. The lighthouse, which is not lit, that seems like, I don't know, a problem. There was also remnants of another shipwreck farther off. The lighthouse is only a few miles away,

but there were signs of an encampment at the bottom of the lighthouse, sort of ramshackle, so I don't think we'll be entirely alone. Do they seem like soldiers or civilians? A few miles off, it's hard to tell, but I think it's fair to assume other people will be here. Sounds like shelter and food to me.

Shall we mosey? Yep. Let's get the molasses out our asses. Let's go. I love you so much. It makes me want to cry, except this isn't waterproof mascara. As you gather your still-aching selves,

cold and damp through the continuous, though gentler, rainfall. You begin to trek up the rocky hills of the outside cliffs, edges of the island, and in towards the central portion of this landmass. Because of your high perception roll, as you continue inward, you still don't see any signs of any liveliness

or shifting light or movement within the city from this far distance. But you do pick up the mists that sit around the walking landscape as you progress. Sitting still, occasionally, it's shifting in strange ways in the absence of wind that make you a little uncomfortable. I don't share that.

Okay. Ooh! Maybe he has a quen? Sneaky, sneaky boy. Well, I'm just a chicken shit. That's not real. That's my imagination. That's not a thing. A strange smell seems to spark

through a number of your noses. It's a mixture of... It's almost like an irony taste of blood mixed with a fresh rain. It's hard to describe. In our world, it would be like that spark of an electric fire or a little bit of burned ozone. And as this mist begins to swirl,

a light seems to almost flash and flicker amongst the mist before vanishing. Did you see that? Yes. I think we should take care and find someone who can help us and also have a backstory for as to how we are not criminals. A flash, and it sounds like the dropping of water,

almost like a small centralized storm. It's like a cluster in the middle of this mist with that light flickering. There's just a localized deluge as a little flickering of energy seems to spark through this one area as Lyra's like, Um, what's going on?

And begins to pull on the side of your arm to get closer to you. I tap her shoulder and I say, I don't think that we should talk to that over there. I think that that's not. Two more then begin to emerge from the storm as these what looked like strange anomalies of the elements in nature seem to be coalescing into some sort of will.

Three different points of some odd elemental nature congeal and converge on all of you. I need you to all roll initiative. Oh! Let's go! 15. Nice. All right, so you have 20 to 15.

Nine. Anybody above someone over here? All right, so we have Hasbro up first. All righty. 15 to 10. Cool! All righty. 15 to 10. Ooh. Cool. Oh, oh, oh! All right, 10 to five.

Nine. Ooh, rollies, both of you roll. Roll of your Twitter. Roll of your Twitter. Oh, you guys. All my dice are rolling. 15, seven. Nice.

All right, so we have Minette, followed by Sable. I had a seven. All righty. Galen. That passes to Galen. I had a two! We don't know. All righty.

So whatever these strange entities are begin to converge, there are flashes of energy and the deluge of water seems to be expressing and splashing out as energy arcs around it, like some sort of electric shock-type spark. You're up first, Hasbro. So they're, describe them again? They are? They're like strange clusters

of some sort of storm-like elemental energy that seem to congeal out of the surrounding mists in the rainfall and now begin to just rush towards your troop from three different points. Let's see if these fuckers bleed. I'm going to shoot one. Yes. Yes, you are. Yes. All right.

What else do you do with a pistol? So your pistol, as it's cocked already, flint, you aim it down and fire. It's going to attempt to dodge your strikes. Go ahead and roll off. 20. That's an 11, so it does not excessively dodge, but it does spend its four stamina to do so.

So go ahead and roll damage. All right. That is 15. 15 points of damage. Woo! The flash and explosion at the front of your pistol, some smoke spilling outward, and you watch as this strange entity flickers

from the blast and seems to momentarily almost discorporate before it recollects itself. They can be hurt. Yes! Oh, wow. Do you want to continue with your turn? I think, since it looked like it worked, he'll just go,

Ha! Okay. And he's just going to take another shot. Same one? Yeah. Let's go. So do I have to roll for hit again? It's going to also attempt to dodge this time successfully, so go ahead and roll to hit.

Nine. 24. The second shot, it shifts out of the way and seems to almost shift closer to you. You can feel some sort of inherent electrical energy that's sparking through the swirl of water, almost like some sort of ill-intent spirit has taken on the form

of the nearby elements to come upon you all. Does that finish your turn? I'm going to end my turn there. Okay, it now comes to the first of these entities. That's right after you. It is going to use Charged Shield. It's going to spend six of its stamina. All of you lose two stamina.

Ooh! It crackles in this field of staticky energy that filters out. I don't like that. And all of you feel the energy of your body grow just slightly more exhausted. And then it's going to spend its last five stamina to come after you since you just shot it. Makes sense.

Do you attempt to block or dodge? I don't think I can. I think that last little sucking of stamina blocked me, so. All right, so with that, you take, oh, that is eight points of damage, and you get one point of shock accumulation. Do I need to keep track of that, or? I'm keeping track of it for you.

So you feel as it hits you, your muscles spasm and you feel the energy through your body. It's going to finish its turn with that. Let's go ahead and take it two minute. Okay, are they all out in front of us? They're more or less surrounding you. Okay. I'm going to fight lightning with lightning.

And do Jolting Touch at, that's two targets within close range, so. Okay. Neither of them move to dodge or block. You release the two bolts and they are absorbed harmlessly into the two stones. Okay. Good to know, good to know.

This one's one, two, three, four. Okay, then. That can't be the gun, sorry. The magic lightning storm didn't work, but the gun did. Yeah. Are any of them within poking range? Yeah, they're converging, and there's one that rushed up towards Hasbro.

Going to move to poke. Okay, are you going to the one that he shot, or towards one of the ones that hasn't been moved yet? Towards one of the ones that has not been moved yet. Okay, that's quite closer to you. So the one that you tried to release one of your bolts towards and it absorbed, you think under your breath how frustrating it is.

Shielded, they're ready, you duck forward and try and spear it. So go ahead and spend your stamina, and it is going to attempt to dodge that as well. My spending, four stamina there. Rolling for that. Oh. Do I get anything for?

Maybe your hit bonus on your spear. Oh, 10. It rolled a nine, exactly. Yay! Wow. A natural four plus five. It had to dodge pretty high. So go ahead and roll damage on that. That's only 10.

One. One damage. Hey, it all adds up now. That is true. Do you want to continue to strike? You have quite a bit of stamina, I recall. Yes, I do. All right.

This will attempt to dodge again. Same, roll the nine. 13. Yeah, you hit again. So go ahead and roll damage a second time. 16 plus three. Oh, plus eight. Yep. Yeah. Da-da-da. One.

What the fuck? It all adds up to consistency. Tiny little, she's just a little guy. That's two spear strikes. She's just a little guy. Are you two spear strikes. Just a little guy. Are you going or are you calling it your turn? I'm going to call my turn. Okay, that finishes your go.

Sable, you're up next. Yee-haw! Oh god almighty. Sable starts to run up and you start to see this manic instability that probably got here here in the first place. She runs up, she takes the knives that she collected. Let's see if we can rob this lightning!

She jumps in one try and stab the lightning. Amazing. Let's go. All right, so you're going to go after the one that was shot or the one that was poked or the one that's been untouched. Let's go after the one that's been poked. Let's start with the poked one. You got it.

All right, it only has enough stamina to try and block, which is not as high as its dodge, so it's going to roll. Okay. That's a seven. It's going to roll? Okay, that's a 17 on the die. If that hits, go ahead and roll damage.

Plus five, so all right. Nine damage. Nine damage, nice. All righty. I'm going again! Let's go. Yep. It just doesn't even dodge.

It's out of stamina, so you just hit automatically. Ew, icky, a five. Okay, minus five points damage on that. All right, that's 14 damage on that turn. Are you going to keep going, or are you going to hold there? Um, um, um, um, um, um. How's it? Can I tell how it's looking? It's a circling, sparking storm elemental.

How far away am I from the one that was attacking Hasbro? About 10, 15 feet. It's not a quick, it's a quick jump. Okay, I'm going to dodge under this little ghost light. I'm going to head over to the other one and give it one more stabby stabby. What fur? Okay, the one that you shot.

Give it the what fur? The one that he... That also cannot dodge or block. It spends all its damage. Get it! So just damage, straight up. Oh, just damage. Yeah. I'm so used to that. That's okay, yeah. Six, baby! Let's go again! So when I've got a keen, that's plus two on that damage.

So that's a d6. So when you roll max damage on a dice, folks that know here, actually, I should probably go over some of the rules here since we're in combat for those who are watching. So everyone has stamina they can spend on their turn. It refills at the top of their turn. Any stamina they spend is based on the speed of their weapon.

And any stamina they want to try and defend with, they have to spend out of their turn in the reaction of attacks to either block or dodge, in which case it's a roll off. If you do not have any stamina left to block or dodge, attacks automatically hit and you just do straight damage. So you're doing damage directly unless your target has enough stamina to try and dodge or block. So this creature just takes damage immediately. If you roll your damage dice and any of them are max on the dice, that is a critical critical hit and you roll an additional die and they can continue to explode like that. Because your weapon has the keen feature,

it gets additional two damage each time that you do that. So that's 12 on this first one. Let's go one more time. And that's a one. Balance of nature. And so that is going to be 12 on the first one and five on the second one. So 17. You got it.

All right, so 17 on that. As you rush forward and slam into one that's next to you, as it's sparking up in your face, you have your pistol in your arm and reloading it, keeping the hammer at the side as you do. You watch as Sable rushes up and just stabs right into the center of it. You see the spiritual unleash flicker out

and it converges once more, sparks, but it's flashing and it's starting to show like it's barely holding on at this point. Ooh, stubborn little buggers, aren't they? I'm going to take the last of my turn to spend two essence to cast Arcane Veil on top of me to keep myself a little bit more protected. That's my turn. All right.

Finishing your turn, Tabor. The one rain blight, as they are called. Ooh! Rain blight. Rain blight. I wrote water ghost. That works, too. Water ghost. That's it. Very simple, though. Well done.

I mean, it's the Latin subtitle for it. Yeah. It's the Riley Coyote, like, you know, at the bottom. Italicized underneath. It's going to take its turn here. This is going to be the one, actually, this is the one that you stabbed and poked

and then you initially attacked before darting off. Since this one has a take from it, so it you initially attack before darting off. Since this one has a take from it, so it gets all its stamina back. Boo. It's going to move over towards you, since you're the one that struck hard, its ally, and it's going to attack you with a shock burst.

It is unblockable, so you would have to spend stamina to dodge. Ooh, I'll spend my last stamina to dodge. Dodge it, baby, dodge it. Last ones. All right, let's roll. Let's roll. Okay. 19.

11, so you manage to just duck out of the way as the spark emerges out, no impact. So that's going to be five on there. It's going to spend another five stamina to attack you again. All right, I can't block this one. You'll add a stamina. So the hit comes to you directly.

All right, it is. Ooh, that's going to be nine points of damage to you. Okay. And you take a bit of shock accumulation. Okay, I'm going to spend an essence to reduce that by a d6. Okay. With my arcane veil. Okay, that's four.

And then my armor has three damage reduction. So that's four, five, six, seven. So I only take two damage. Correct. Okay. All righty. Finishing that, rain blights go. Galen, you're up with Yulva on deck. I'll take out the bow that we salvaged from the crate

and I'll knock an arrow and let one fly at one of the creatures. Okay, there's the one that hasn't been touched, and then there's two that have taken, one that's taken a few hits, and one that's looking really hurt. I'll take the one that's taken a few hits. All right.

It does not have enough stamina to dodge or block, so just go ahead and roll damage. Amazing. That is d8, town. That's not an eight. Why, why, why? Here we go. Six, nine, 15 points of damage.

15 points of damage. The arrow strikes it and you see it flicker. It's also starting to have a hard time holding itself corporeal. The storm itself taking form and then drifting away before pulling itself back up. The sparks shooting off in odd directions. So the two of them look pretty hurt

from the best that you can gather from a water ghost. But one of them has been untouched up to this point. Oh gosh, that's sweet. You continue your turn? I'll take the last shot. I'll take one more on the one that hasn't been touched yet, just to try and cover some. All right, let's go. This one is going to attempt to dodge.

Okay. 15 plus six, 21. 21, roll the 14, so that hits. Go ahead and roll damage. Nice. Three, four, all seven, 14. 14 points of damage. 14 points of damage, all righty. Does that finish your go? It does.

All right. Yulva, you're up next. I saw what happened with her jolting touch, so instead of my frisky lightning fingers, I'm going to, that's what the kids are calling them these days. I'm going to reach out my hand and you see this long, magical staff appear in my hand.

I'm going to cast Parasitic Staff. Okay. So I will take away that four essence, and I am going to run after. Describe how you pluck this staff from the ether. Yes, so I hold this out to my hands, and you see, hold out my hand, and you see spiraling down

sort of a spiral of golden light, and then it corporealizes into my hand and I grab around it. You hold it in your hand. Exactly. It sparks and flashes with a violet black energy. Sorry. Let's try this one. And then I'm going to run after the one

that looks like it's super hurt and couldn't respond to that guy. And since it can't respond, I'm just going to do my 1d8. Let's do that. So spend that stamina and roll 1d8. Okay, so stamina. One, two, three.

Wait, one, two. How many stamina do I spend for the staff? Because it's essence, it's not stamina, right? Correct, well, it should have speed next to the staff's statistics under the spell. It doesn't. It says four essence, less one encounter, cool down three turns.

At the very bottom of the spell. Like I said, it says speed five. I was just testing you! And you passed. Like I said. So yeah, I'm going to go after this dude. Okay, well, that's three minus one, which is a two. So it takes two damage. Two damage, but I also regain five essence.

So I'm going to get back my essence. Ooh, interesting. You can't go above your maximum, can you? No. Oh, that's fine. That's fine. And then I would like to... Where, how far away is the one that's hitting the one that was relatively untouched?

Untouched is probably about, I'd say, 20 or so feet from where you're clustered. I'm going to continue to go after the weakened one, like the super weak one. All right, they can't die, so go for these tracks. That's better! Six minus one, five. Five points of damage.

So you take the staff, one impact. It seems to flicker off, almost like the arcing energy of it hits the staff and pushes it slightly off the way, just grazing it. You circle back, whack, and slam the staff in the middle of it. It seems to get stuck in the middle

of this flickering storm. As you focus your essence into it, energy detonates out from within and the blight just scatters off into nothing. The water hitting the ground harmlessly. One of them had been destroyed. Great, I'd like to use any of my remaining movement possibilities to get out of range,

away from any of these other guys, or hide behind him. Yeah, you can go ahead and try and shift. I want to push, okay. Behind Aspera. Now it's time for you to return the favor. I'm going to hide behind his back. I shot it twice, I don't know what he did.

Just protect me! The one that was just, or the one that was impacted by one strike, kind of in the distant one, seems to shift up quickly over and angrily towards your direction, but you move behind your friend. So it's going to focus now on you.

You have not had your turn yet. So you're still out of stamina? To dodge, or can you do that? I have one stamina left, so I got nothing. So these camp dodge. The first one's going to hit you for, that's a six and the die, that's an exploding run. That's going to be,

the other dice rolls are terrible, so that's nine points of damage. Okay. You do gain another point of shock accumulation. Great. And the last one is only three points of damage, but you gain a third point of shock accumulation. You are now affected by the shock status.

As the blasts hit you, your body is now rocked with electrical energy and the rest of you see arcing through Haspero's body. You are currently shocked, and at the start of your turn, something will happen. Oh boy. Which? Oh no. It's now your turn.

Hey, let's find out what happens. Oh no, oh I can't. Let's fuck around and find out. However, that rain blight did use pretty much all of its stamina, so it also cannot defend itself. Okay. Oh, by the way, the one that was destroyed, you watch as you scatter,

like it, I should've explained this, too, a bit of its essence seems to drop to the ground and almost two faintly glowing orbs of essence drift there. Oh. So the one that finished that round, the top of your round, you immediately take 1d8 damage from the shock.

That's three points of damage to you. Okay. Damn. And three points of damage to everyone who's directly around you. That's amazing. Which would be you two. Yeah. So both of you also take three points of damage.

Team Nige! Okay. And I can still, oh, well, I still have damage reduction by three points. Correct, so you take no damage. No damage, okay, great. All right. I should have gotten some armor. Armor's doing pretty good right now.

But one of your points of shock accumulation goes away. Now is the beginning of your turn. You, unfortunately, as you are shocked, you cannot move. Sure. However, you do have both blights nearby you, so you can still shoot at them at a distance, or if you wanted to shift into your hammer weapon,

they're both within melee range, because they did come after you. Okay. So I could hit either of them if I wanted to? Yes. Okay. How are they looking? One of them looks very hurt, and the other looks hurt. You know what?

But I like having a little bit of stamina left, just in case. So I'm going to stick with the gun. I'm going to stick with the gun for now. Okay. Didn't you get all your stamina back? Yeah, but my attack, my speed is pretty high. So I can only do a couple of those things,

or else I'll be basically a... There's a cost to switch, right? Gotcha, okay. So I'm going to keep my gun. What do you do when he hits you with that weapon? I'm going to go for the one that is more hurt-looking. Okay, all right. That one, neither of them can defend themselves right now,

because they expend all their stamina aggressively. So just go ahead and roll damage. Get it, get it, get it, let's go. Okay. Get it, get it, get it. Okay, so that is 13. 13 damage? Yeah. As you pull the gun back towards the one

that's directly in front of you, the first one that engaged you initially, and you had the first few shots off. You look in the center and see this spiritual glow, and for a split second, you see a flicker that almost has the faintest of humanoid outlines for a split second, and you aim for it and fire. As you do, it scatters off and is destroyed.

Same like dropping these little motes of essence that glide there on the ground where it was. Nice. Now... There's one more left. I know. I mean, as I always say, nothing beats a gun. I'm going to shoot the other one.

Because I'm going to be thinking so many of my life. Let's go! We're going to rain those through a gunfight'm probably rethinking so much of my life right now. Rethinking so much of my life. Let's go! The other one cannot defend itself because it's out of stamina, so just take the damage. Come on, six. That's what I'm hoping to know. That's still 19.

Whoa! Yeah, baby! 19 points of damage on that rain blade. It takes the impact from the blastier pistol. The second firing, it gets hit and shimmers for a second, then manages to hold itself present. It looks very hurt, but it's still currently aggressive. Then I wind my turn there.

That finishes your turn. The one that will be taking its next turn was destroyed, so it is up to you, Minit. Okay, it's time to poke. Yeah, that's what she said. I am going to spend, that's my one, two, three, four, whoa, ooh, one, two, three, four, five. I've got five.

Oh wait, no, it starts over, right? On the round? No, at the beginning of your round, all your stamina resets. Yeah. Okay, great, great, great, great, great, great, great. Okay. One, two, three, four, five. Okay, I'm going to poke with my spear.

All right, so it cannot defend itself, so go ahead and roll damage for your spear. Great. That's a d10, right? D10 minus one, I think. Minus one. That's this one. You got it. That's that one. I'm telling you. My, no, that's just devouring the dice.

She wants to make sure that you're aware. Ah, five. Five, all right. Five points of damage there. It's not a one, let's go! You stab it with the spear. Team, raise a round! It's odd.

You're stabbing something that doesn't have, or shouldn't have weight or matter to it, but as you stab it with the spear, you can feel some sort of resistance as it does, and as you do, you feel it dip and it has to readjust itself. It's very hurt. Whew.

Okay, I'm going to poke again. All righty. One, two, three. When these things take damage, do they make sound? Like, do they emit anything? Cool. All right, good. Ah! Ooh!

Thank you! Thank you. Should I not poke? No, definitely not. Are you striking again? I am. All right, go ahead and roll damage. Zero!

I got one final. You strike with the spear and it shifts out of the way and the spear takes an arc and your hand falls numb for a second and you have to pull back. No damage on that one. All right, I'm going to do it again.

All right. Get it! Get it, Tenangry! All right. I don't know where I got my hand. Three minus one. Two? All right, all right. That is enough. Every chip in the way.

Two is enough! You finally, all right. That is enough. Every chip in the way. Two is enough! Yay! You finally, frustratingly, stab, stab! This thing's not going down! You strike through. How do you want to do this? Describe how you defeat the creature. He's hard. He's hard as a thing. He's hard as a thing!

That's so funny. How do I do it? I'm peeking behind him in my mind, and I take both hands and I straddle, and I... Like a lady. Like a lady. Yes. As the spear strikes upward, sends out this sparking spray of electrical energy

that dissipates into the nearby atmosphere. The mist arcing out and separating for about 30 feet from where you all currently stand. And with that, the blights are no more. Just little motes of essence left around that drift before they slowly begin to, almost looks like they're about to vanish into the mist. No, no, no, no, no.

Grab those, grab those. You guys, I'm good. I don't know. So there are, so each of these drops two essence fragments. You can absorb those to restore two points of essence, if you'd like. Can we pocket them later?

Wait, two per orby? I don't need any of them. No, each one gives you essence back. I'll take, does anybody else need any? I'll take one. I don't use essence. You'll take one. I got mine back. I used a lot of essence with that corrosion spell, so I'll take what's left if no one else wants it.

So what, that's what, four? Yeah, it was a six total. We're left behind from the three blights. Oh, question, question, question. When we had the rest in the, when we were unconscious, did that count as a rest? So all our stamina and everything came back? I just want to make sure I did this right.

Yeah, everything there would recover. Okay, okay, okay. It's just essence that doesn't recover out of anything. Correct. Yeah. So I would actually be down four. I'd be down three because I got back five. Yeah. Down three essence. Do you need one of the ones that save a person?

Did you use up all of yours? I used five, but I can just use four if you want to take one. Yeah, let me take one. Do that. Okay. Thank you. With my useless lightning bolt in the ship. So rude that that didn't work. Frisky fingers sometimes, it's not for everyone.

True. So indeed, it seems odd dangers lurk upon this rock beyond just stormy sea wrecks. What would you like to do? Through that mist, is that mist in general still there? I mean, the mist still hangs across the entire island, but it looks like, at least where you had walked through a space where something else lurked within the mist

that came to awareness at your presence. Came to awareness at our presence, so there could be more. Any signs of tracks now that we're further up and in a little bit? Make a perception check for me, if you don't mind. Come on. 15. 15.

15. The rain here has washed away much, but between the bits of exposed stone, there are bits of hill and earth that still emerge between where the trees and roots still hold it. And you do see some heavy some heavy, muddy footprints, as well as some smaller footprints

that seem to be heading loosely in the same direction you're traveling, that hasn't been completely washed by the storm. Heavy like this guy heavy, or heavy like bigger? No, like this guy heavy. Like this guy over here. This way. Hey, this guy.

You can start talking like your family, okay? Is that all right? I'm just going to pick up on that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. When you hear your family, yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly. When you hear your family. Fuck my family. I'm a friend of yours now. That's it.

Shelter and food still lie that way. In that direction, yes. Is Laera still with us? Laera has been hiding on the ground through all of this encounter. Oh, baby. Are they gone? Did you cook us a meal yet?

I didn't think to bring a weapon when we were all doing that. I'm not a fighter. I was barely a burglar. What did you do? I'm not supposed to be here. Oh, burglar. Oh. Taking shit you're not supposed to.

Don't you know who wants to judge me? I've been listening to you all talk! Listen, she may be of use later. Just be gentle on her. She's small enough to carry. She better be a damn good cook, is all I'm saying. Speaking of which, if we just look around real quick, is there anything forgy available around where we are? Rabbit.

Make an intellect check for me. Because you have to be very smart to be a forager. That's a 12. 12? I mean, there's nettles and bush. Love eating bush. I mean. Thank you for saying it,

because I felt like someone had to. Reach around and love it. He loved being pushed. So sorry, Obsidian. Sorry, not sorry. There are some scavengeable berries, not enough to fill a belly, but enough to definitely chew on

and make you more frustrated that you're hungry. Oh great. They don't help with anyone's hit points. And they wouldn't heal anything. I'll say there's enough berries for someone to heal one hit point. Well, that's just sad. Can we give them to Lyra?

Give them to Lyra? She didn't do shit. I got shocked like 15 times. Fair. She hasn't cooked your shit. I got shocked like 15 times. Fair. She hasn't cooked that shit! Well, eat up. Might as well eat the berries. I take it. Yeah, I'm still hungry. Yeah.

But I heal one. You heal one hit point. Okay. Get that one. There we go. Make the loop. Something. Yeah. Gathering yourselves and your wherewithal, especially the signs of other hopefully recent life and this small, almost an outpost that seems to be surrounding the base

of this lighthouse of a darkened Candela, you pick yourselves up and continue trekking through the falling rain towards the semblance of some civilization and hope. And that's when we go and take a break. I'll be back here in a few minutes. We'll see you all shortly. Oh, hey there. Laura Bailey here to tell you all about the glorious goods we create inspired by our stories.

Our stores are filled with the basics like character character-inspired t-shirts, dice sets, and pins, as well as more specialty items like fancy jackets, puzzles featuring gorgeous artwork, the comfiest joggers and pajamas ever, and much, much more. There's also a few special items that support charity efforts, like our dedicated Critical Role Foundation merch. You can check And welcome back. So, as we left off, this troop of unlikely companions, survivors from the shipwreck of the prison ship that was carrying them to the Living Lands, caught up in a terrible storm,

have wrecked upon an unknown island to them, nor it seemed the path they were supposed to tread after battling with some of these strange elemental creatures, these rain blights upon the island, you've pushed through the mist towards the core of this rocky landmass, where a singular non-lit lighthouse

and a surrounding outpost of a homestead and a few makeshift shacks seem to await your arrival. As you begin to approach the outskirts of this, what would you like to do? As we're walking up the hill, I just want to get in pace a little bit with Lady Manette. Meow? Sorry. Hello. Bless you.

You know, I was going to ask about that. Do you meow because you were expected to meow? I. Or is that, like, do you like that? Sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off. Thank you for the question. I was playing a role, a critical role in the lives of the question. I was playing a role, a critical role,

in the lives of Lady Elenora. No, yeah, you were. And I'm sure you were. I was playing a part, yes, but, you know, the funny thing is I did enjoy it because I was cared for so wonderfully, and I was fed, and I was educated, and I slept at the foot of her bed,

and it was not where I come from, but I don't regret it. And I apologize in advance. It's a bit of a take at this point, but, you know, I'm doing my best. You're so good. So you understand your other damaged Orland companion

is hopping alongside you. You're not made to be a pet at the behest of other people. Yeah, what she said. No, let me be clear. I'm an equal. I am an orlan. I'm not a cat, but above all, I am a lady.

And that is the important part. Who sleeps at the foot of the bed. I am Eleonora's friend, and she will be coming for me. She will, as soon as I get in touch with this lighthouse keeper or wherever we go, there's going to be a nice, noble man or lady, and I will be able to contact my friend

and tell her that I am no longer in trouble, and none of us are, and how wonderful and fortuitous is that? Yeah. Look, I don't want to be the one to bust your biscuit can. Please don't. I feel like you should just have someone give you a reality check here.

She ain't coming to get you. She let you be the fall guy here, all right? It was. And that's not someone who looks at you as an equal. And I want you, just like what Lyra over here is saying. What I was saying. Yeah. To be able to understand that, recognize that you are a strong, independent, female Orlin,

and that you deserve better than that bullshit. Manette, sometimes people treat us less than people. Manette, sometimes people treat us less than people. It can happen to any of us. It happened to me. Lady Ilva and Lady Sable, I appreciate the counsel, and I will take it under consideration,

and I will return to you these words that trust and belief are virtues that I abide by, and if I don't have those, well, I might just fucking kill myself. So I don't know what I'll do, frankly. Don't, don't. We are alive and we survive. She's coming back for me and she's my friend.

All right, look. She's my friend. We'll just, you know, this might have escalated and it's fine. We should find some food. Yeah, I don't know. I am hungry. I'm getting pretty hungry. I think we should. It's fine. I think I'll unlock trauma in maybe a very untimely place and manner.

Smoothing my skirt. Oh, true. Frenetically. Just, you know, a little bit of an arrow over here. You know, it just seemed might be good to have some other influence from, you know. And some other friends. Yeah. I am very happy for your companionship.

We're smarter than the rest of them. I could hear that. As could I. You're right next to us, but also, you're not wrong. No, not the... I may be dumb, but I ain't deaf. Let's keep moving. That was loud.

Puts her arm around you, and you both continue inward towards the outpost. Approaching the outpost, you can see the cluster of wooden shack-like structures, some heavy tents that are arranged around the base as well, though some have since been blown over by the recent weather, and mostly a pile of tattered materials

that stand up amongst jagged sticks the recent weather and mostly a pile of tattered materials that stand up amongst jagged sticks pushing through like a collapsed circus. These temporary structures set up around the central home abode with the massive lighthouse there before you. Even, it's not hard to make out that the lighthouse is incomplete.

It looks like the majority of it is constructed, but its apex is only partially finished. Or at least, maybe partially crumbled. But you look amongst the structures as well, and the more you glance around, you can also see what looks like almost construction equipment, number of tools for moving earth and breaking stone.

That's the outer glance. From whatever distance we're at, can we tell? Again, I just want to get a sense of whether these seem like they are people connected to the Edirne Empire, or if these are, are they the soldier guys or are they the ash guys? Well, you don't make a perception check for me, sir. Bad dog!

This is a bad day. There are no bad dogs, only bad people. Four. Four. You, peering out beyond as the rest of your troop are approaching, see no signs of movement. The still wind itself not blowing any flaps free. There's no sound of the now still

and some crumpled tents moving and shifting with the elements. It is just a stagnant and still cluster of structures with no signs of life or movement. Something doesn't feel right. Yeah, nothing's different. You're very tall and perceptive. Do you see anything?

Uh, not beyond what you see. I wouldn't mind trying to get a little bit closer. If there is anyone in those tents, though, they would greatly outnumber us, so it might behoove us to try and attract their attention this way instead of doing the opposite. Maybe I could ask if they have any books that went really well last time.

Books, books, books, yes. I'll see what I, are we in a tree line? The tree line itself is broken and you're jumping from cluster to cluster to move, best you can, unseen. But as you reach the perimeter, yeah, do the best you can. But now that you've gotten close enough

to see these details, the rest of it is mostly just exposed rock and a bit of, looks like sea-friendly shrub, but it's an open walk to the rest of this cluster where the lighthouse currently stands. I could try and get a bit of a closer look if we didn't want to expose ourselves all at once.

You're the only one dressed as a soldier, and I don't know that this is, since we don't know if they're friendly to soldiers or other, I don't know that you're- I'll go with you, fuck it. As my prisoner. As your prisoner, yeah. Or vice versa, depending on what you discover. Yes, if it's scalawags like us, then I'm the bitch.

If it's guards, you da bitch. Debatable, but okay, I'm going with it. So the two of you are scouting ahead? Yes. All right. The rain turns to a drizzle, and eventually the drizzle begins to clear. The gray skies still carry above you, but it looks like the threat of rain

and perpetual waterlogged fates. But with that, the fog thickens, seeming to choke off your vision from the full perimeter of the island, now becoming obfuscated shadows at the periphery. But as the two of you approach, meaning to step into the boundary of the small encampment, this outpost, if you will,

you see all manner of signs of work here. You see, within some of these shacks that are set up, number of construction tools, excavation pickaxes. You see piles of heavy stone. Looks like worked rock or completely displaced rock. You see lanterns hanging on hooks outside of these structures, themselves unlit. The muddy trappings, the way this part of the land is,

it looks like a lot of the water and rain pushes what earth sits above it into this very faint caldera of where the lighthouse is built. And so the further in you go, the more it just becomes mud. As your foot falls, with each step, you come through here and you can see other foot tracks. You get a glance of recent movement

it would have to have been. It's also not too hard to see, amongst the mud here, four skeletal corpses that appear to be partially submerged in this mud. You see the occasional skull, half of it open its jaw, agape, peering out from you as its body is laid out, its arm sprawled.

You see another one that's partially collapsed over by the side of one of the collapsed tents, its ribcage sticking out from it. Looks like bits of cloth torn and weathered with the elements. You see four skeletal corpses, probably mostly skeletal. Shreds of elements of skin or what they once had.

Whoever was here was a long time ago. I mean, belonging to them ago. So there's no signs of recent activity? Make a perception check for me. Ha ha, four. Four. Most thing you can make out is as you turn, you see a little carrion bird

that's perched on one of the nearby corpses picking it with shreds of what it looks like. SAM and LAURA and SAM and LAURA and SAM Do you want it? Hungry. Just go ahead and roll. It's going to try and dodge. Get it, get it, get it, get it! I ended up with a 22. Rolled a 19, but that's not enough!

Go ahead and roll damage! Yes, dinner! Hot food! Oh, four balls, 11 points of damage. That's enough to kill a carrion bird. So I was like, just slumped against the arrow that now has stapled to the side of one of these shacks.

I killed... Vajra Live. Oh my god. So Hasbro just steps forward and goes, Necessary food. We'll see what Lyra can cook up with this later. See if she can pull her weight. But yeah, it looks like nobody's around here.

You see anything in the tents or anything? I'll look. Can I do a more in-depth search for anything dated? Yeah, if you want to make a perception or resolve, your call. Can we catch up to them now since we don't see them? If you'd like to, the rest of you want to follow them. Dirty 20. Yeah, baby.

Dirty 20. Looking around, a couple things. One, you see, indeed, it looks like Dirty 20. Yeah, baby. Dirty 20. Looking around, a couple things. One, you see, indeed, it looks like there are a number of places where workers would gather, building materials, stones that had been smoothed, that look like they were carried from elsewhere. They aren't made here on the island.

So there was, in the construction of this lighthouse, it looks like teams were coming here to build this as a means of extending safer travel across the ocean, possibly towards the Living Lands, your eventual destination. But they didn't seem to finish. You continue to pour through and find three other bodies. Glancing across them, from what you can see,

their decay indicates that they haven't died recently. They're not ancient corpses, per se. Even the weathering that you see in the surrounding structures here, the home feels older than the rest of the buildings. Some of these structures seem more recent, and there's more weathering on the homestead than some of the shacks.

You also see the bodies, there's no signs of violence. There's no broken bones or slash marks, and most of them aren't sprawled in scenes of violence, just collapse. And some are halfway submerged in the earth. What you can tell, it looks like, as the bodies have been here long enough, that the mud and the general elements

have begun to reclaim them. Oh yeah. The lanterns are all unlit, and there are canisters of lantern oil between two of the larger shacks. We'll grab some lanterns and lantern oil. Useful. You still? You also, as the rest of you approach, hear a whistle.

Coming from the other side of this gathered troop. Yes? Was that not you? No, no, that wasn't me. Was it the others? It wasn't us. We got it. Oh, we, no, that wasn't me. Was it the others? It wasn't us, we got it. Oh, you were here, that's right. That's all right.

It was us. And you see Medrin steps out from behind one of the far ends shacks near the household. And you see he has a satchel over his arm, has, thank you very much. Look at that, look at that keen delivery. Thank you, Parker. Aw, very cool. Thanks, Parker. Thank you.

Delicious. So cool. Oh, it's mine, I didn't even notice. Look at that magic. Thank you, guys. You see, has also scavenged arms from the guards, bladed his side, a little bit of a breastplate set on him. It's Medrond? Medrond, with a partially filled satchel over his arm.

Clark, hi. Yeah. You see the two other figures that you had saw in the prison falling alongside also with sacks over their arm. Then he says, Well, it's very good to see that you all survived. Likewise. Oh, you didn't think to maybe check up on us

before you decided to head out on your own? It was a tangled mess, same when you woke up, you know. Yeah, all right. Oh, excuse me for not truly encompassing the empathy that you hold for yourself. Well, you're excused. Yeah, apology accepted, I think, is what we mean to say. Absolutely, you're excused. Yeah, apology accepted, I think, is what we mean to say.

Absolutely, I hate this guy. I hate him. Well. Whistles again, and you see from two other, emerging from the household and from underneath one of the tents as it shifts, you see the muscular female aumoa that you saw with the brown burgundy skin emerge from under there,

as well as the lanky dwarf you can see that pulls out with this dagger and shield at the side. They all converge off to the side of Medrin. So you're all more or less in two semicircles facing each other. Are they trying to surround us? No, they're not aggressive, but they're certainly wary. Sure.

Are you the only ones who made it so far? As far as I know, this is all we've seen. No other survivors. It was a terrible accident. He shifts his shoulder a bit, and you can see part of his clothing is bloody. They've all sustained injuries, and they're like, you get the sense,

based on the sex they carry, they're scavenging as well, possibly looting. How many are there again? There's three of them. Just the three of them, okay. Says, My apologies, I've not introduced you to my little team here. This is Figrin, and motions over to the female Amaua. She holds aloft now,

looks like this massive excavation shovel that has wrapped some leather around the middle of it to make it into a makeshift weapon. He lifts it up and shrunk, sinks it into the bun, goes, How do you do? Damn. This here is El Santo. El Santo? shrunk, sinks it in the bun, goes, How do you do? Damn it. This here is Alcento. Alcento. He points to the dwarf.

He's like. Mm-mm. No. Not happening. No. Not happening. Now we've all got to stay together for survival, yeah? Yes. Yeah. Good, good.

Well, I guess if we're making introductions, that's Minette, that's Galen. Lady Minette. Lady Minette, sirree. That's Zilva, that's Hasbro, I'm Sable, and we're Team Reach Around. You've got a name. We recently adopted the name.

It was Hasbro's idea. Pretty good name, right? I like it, it's promising. We don't have a name. She gave one. It's good for morale. This one. He points over, and you see him smile as he points,

and you see Allyra's like, Oh no, this one. I guess it's good to keep the food close, eh? That's wildly inappropriate. Oh, because she's a chef? You heard, she's a cook? She's a chef? Yeah.

Yes. Wise with his resources, this one is, I can tell. I'm guessing there's a history between these two. Probably don't need to make a roll for that. You guessed that there's something there, yeah. All right. Predator Edward. Yeah.

Yeah, that's exactly. Nevertheless, whatever this is here, it was man and something didn't work out. That means they don't need what they left. Did you by any chance encounter a sort of water blight? Sorry, water ghost! A sort of lightning creature, water ghost.

A drippy little guy, that's what I call him. I saw some weirdness amongst the mist, but we actually dallied around and kept quick to our feet and just ran. You know, not fight us. Oh, right, we could have done that. I don't know if you've noticed, we're fucking stranded.

We need to get that working. So, anyone know how to work a lighthouse? Why'd you say it like that? Like there's an innuendo. It's all everything I say is an innuendo. God, I hate him. You should join Team Reach-A-Round. I think he'd fit right in.

I think Team Reach-A-Round's joined us. I mean, I think we could get it to work. I'm sure that we could get it to work one way or the other. There's plenty of lanterns and plenty of oil around. That's a start to make a fire. Grab materials, start planning yourself out there. Anything that's good and decent, bring it.

We're going to pile it here in the center. You two, go ahead and keep watch. Make sure nobody falls out of line. You two also watch us, make sure we don't fall out. All right, all right, you're barking out a lot of orders there, hound dog. Why don't you calm down, all right? No one appointed you team leader, all right?

All right. I'm going to go search around and keep an eye on them to see if they're out of line, and you can keep an eye on me to see if I'm out of line. Why don't we vote on who could be our team leader? Yes. That's good. Diplomatic, democratic, yes, yes, yes.

Fair is fair. Make a resolve check for me. For example! No! That is 11. Announce not a democracy. That is 11. Oddly failed with an eight. He goes like,

You know what? Fuck it, why not? All I got sounds fun to me. Let's see. Among amongst all of us here, who should be the leader? Isn't that right? Boys! You see over there, the other one goes, and lady,

who wants to be the leader amongst your trooper? Well, it's got to be either one of the smarties, I think, or, I don't know, one of the biggies. I vote for intellect. I vote for... Galen! Who is volunteering to be voted for? This isn't an open council. I'll volunteer, yeah.

All right. Whoever wants... Hasporo. Hasporo to lead our stranded, dying, shred of a team, raise your hand. Oh shit, I wasn't expecting that. It's all right, darling. I'm used to being the second hand.

Last four votes. Yeah. And by the rest of your lot, and he looks over at Lyra, and Lyra's like, you see the other hands put their hands up. He puts his hand up. That's four on four. All right. Which is funny, because you didn't vote,

but he voted for himself. Damn it! I don't feel like that works. No, I'm not that good at math, so does that seem funny to anybody? All right, fine. How about a diplomatic partnership? Sure.

Let's see what we can find. Quickly. I'm getting hungry. His head shifts his back, and they scatter amongst the ruins and start picking through things. You watch as Figrun takes that shovel and she moves aside one of the bodies,

pulling it out of the muck and slopping it onto its front where it breaks apart a little bit and starts sifting through it with a stick. They're essentially just looting the place. You said that there was some kind of a house? There is. There is a small abode that is older than the rest of the structures here

that is up against the side of the lighthouse. One of them came out of there, right? Yeah, it looked like Riven Elcendo, I think, was coming out of that one. Shall we? I'm going to go check out the house. He said it's attached to the lighthouse. Well, it's right next to it. Okay.

Yeah, if you want to check out the house, we could examine the lighthouse, see what progress has been made on its construction. I'll go with you to the house. Yeah, I do. I'll come with you to the little tiny house. And Laera, why don't you join us in the house?

Yeah, that's where I figured I'd have to cook, right? Speaking of that, got some grub for you. Oh yes! I killed! Ha! Our hands will never be clean. You made dinner, Calig. You simply made dinner.

Yes. I don't think Mandarin should hit any of that dead vulture, personally. To Pigeon. To Pigeon. dead vulture. Mm-mm. Personally. It's a pigeon. It's a big, fat pigeon. Carrion, badass pigeon. Carrion, pigeon. It's the worst kind of pigeon. Big, haunted pigeon.

Hoor! Leaf reduce! Works out! There's a pigeon that works out! It's that weird island in every RPG where we're like, it's regular monsters, but they're just bigger for no reason. Amazing. Gael and I will accompany you to the lighthouse. I think it might behoove us to have someone

with mental fortitude to aid you in your quest so you don't get scared. Yes. Yes, that's excellent thinking. They keep calling us dumbasses over there. I don't really appreciate that kind of talk. It's all right, darling. Being underestimated is a wonderful thing.

Exactly. We are all we need. What are we need? Team Lighthouse. It doesn't have quite the same ring to it. No, it doesn't. We'll workshop. That's okay, we'll workshop. All right, so the two of you head towards the lighthouse, right?

You come to the front doorway to it, and you can see there is a wooden door, metal trim for both physical load-bearing power to it, but it looks like one of the hinges is partially broken away, and it's partway open, dark on the inside. As you move it aside, you have to push hard

to push the muck out of the way that's built up on the outside of it. It looks like it hasn't been opened in a while. Immediately, there's that smell of wet muck and earth on the inside. You can see the stone staircase that immediately spirals up. You can see a stone staircase that immediately spirals up. And you can see a little bit of light above that,

daylight that is coming through the unfinished top of that lighthouse that just barely frames the edge of the steps as it spirals upward. There are wooden crates set off to the side that have themselves some bits of broken stone. Yeah, what do you want to do? Well, first of all, Galen, now that we're alone, I have something to tell you.

I'm all ears. You're innocent, correct? Yes. I think that once we find an established society, we just absolutely abandon the people we're making temporary alliances with. It's important for us. You're a numbers guy, right?

Yes. Yes. I just think that I don't personally want to be associated with criminals, and I think that it would be a good idea for us to think about an exit plan. That's all. That's all. Sure. Playing with percentages. Yes, exactly.

All right. They have been very useful, but I see a lot of reason in your thinking. I didn't come here to make friends. I came here because I was in jail with them. And that's all. Well said, my lady. Eloquence, first of all.

It's a virtue. Now that that's sorted, how does a lighthouse work? I thought you knew. Oh, you're the big smarty. You're the smarty. We're the big smarty! Big smarty! We're the ones with the intellect! I am too! I have resolve.

I assume you create a light and then something to reflect that light around. That's great, you're so smart. We have lanterns and lantern oil. Can we look around to see if there's anything mirrored that we could use a piece of glass? Yeah, check these crates on the bottom floor. Make a perception check, both of you.

Oh, jeez. Yeah. 21. 22. 22. You both. Which one of you goes up, and which one of you checks the floor? I go up.

All right. Check the floor. So as you trek up the stone, it is slick with the recent rain, and you have to put your hand on the wall to make sure you do it, because if you were to tumble down these stairs, it would be very bad. The railing hasn't been put in. It's pretty bare.

The fine details of it were probably the last thing to go in, and they haven't even finished the full construction. But you head up to the top, and you can see there's part of the wall. It looks like it may have been close to construction and something collapsed and they haven't repaired it yet. But there is a lens installed.

You get up at the top and there is an actual lighthouse like lamp and lens installed, but it is dirty as hell. And the actual hood of the lighthouse looks partially off-center, like whether it be through wind and weather, it's just been slowly pushed off to one side. It's mooring undone a little bit, but it looks like it could be a functional lighthouse

if it were to be properly oiled, ignited. You don't know how this works. Excellent. I take off my petticoat and I get to cleaning. All right, you start scrubbing it. You start checking it throughout here, the crates. There are some tools, most of them look empty. One of them looks like it contains

some actual sacks of rice and grain. And looking down with it in there, you check it and it is moldy. It is that gray and white fuzz that's fully ingrained itself. Yum. It's a rough fungus in there. The smell hits you and you're like,

you're going to catch yourself for a second. There's another crate. It's pushed off to the side and a cold wind seems to be coming through the lighthouse at this point. The wind is picking up a little bit as that fog is beginning to choke the center of the island. You reach over and look within the crate

and it tips a little bit to one side and you're like, what? You catch it and pull it up. The stones in there shift a bit. It's hard. Make a might check for me. Oh shit. Might it up. The stones in there shift a bit. It's hard. Make a might check for me. Oh shit. Might, coming up.

Seven. Seven. The rocks shift on the other side of this crate and it tumbles forward. Do you hold on or let go? Hold on. Hold on. It slams down.

It looks like part of the floor here actually was a hole or an opening, and the crate was on the side. Oh no! And as you shifted it, the weight shifted and the crate fell into this opening, and you held onto it. Ah, ah, ah! As it comes forward and tumbles about five, six feet,

and shatters onto this heavy, rough stone floor, lightless around. You have no sight. It is just this dark expanse where you have landed on your tailbone hard. Oh! Wow! I'm going to have to eat you!

I will stop! I will stop! I will stop! Yeah, as you slowly catch the wind back in your lungs. I don't stop, I don't stop. I don't stop. Yeah, as you slowly catch the wind back in your lungs. Ooh, we'll be right back. You just watched that like three days ago. I think she's actually hurt. Oh no. Classic, if you haven't seen it. Classic.

Go on. Did the lantern that I have with me, did that break as well on the fall? Roll a d20 for me. Ooh! On a 10-plus, it did not break. Five. Ooh!

Damn. Ruh-roh. Ah! Okay. Just pitch dark. Pitch dark. Hello? Hello, okay. Just pitch dark. Pitch dark. Hello? Hello, hello. Anybody there? There, there.

Egon! Can I hear him from up where I am? No. Make a perception check. Okay. With this one, by the way. Oh yeah, there you go. Come on.

Nine, 10, 11, 12. 12. Nope. Fuck. You're just cleaning. Nice. Shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh. I'll be humming. La la la la la la la la la la. Shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh. I'll be humming. La la la la la la la la la. I like the dark, I like the dark.

Cinderella over here. I like the dark. The forest animals flying. Yeah, exactly. She's in there, like, tweeting with the animals. La la la, my best friend. The whole entrance that I fell through is like six feet in the air? Five, six feet up, yeah. You could leap and catch and try and pull yourself up.

Take a couple steps forward into the dark. Okay. You find a rough stone wall and what feels like a wooden brace. Can I search my hands up the brace and see if there's a joist or a lantern or a hook or anything? No lantern or hook, but it seems to curl up to,

it's about a five and a half foot high ceiling eventually. As you move forward, it ducks down and it's like a tunnel, like an excavated tunnel. That's interesting. No need for me to do this on my own. Help, help! Try and climb out of there. Yeah, it takes you a few moments,

but eventually you do manage to climb her back up into the base of the lighthouse. Great. Lady! Yes? Yes? I have fallen and found a tunnel. Oh, okay.

I... Oh, do I take my petticoat? Should I leave it? I take it with me. Fair. And I carefully descend. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12. She counts well.

13, 14, 15, 16. Math. Well done. I'm so proud of you. Well done. 123 steps later. What? 123? 123.

Hello. I fell into a hole, and there's a tunnel, and I broke our lamp. Oh. Okay, one thing at a time. There's a tunnel? Yes, in the ground, dark tunnel into the void, which I didn't want to do on my own.

No. Okay, well, good news. All of the fastenings for Lighthouse are up there. I was just, excuse my nakedness. I had to remove my petticoat, clean the glass. But it's all up there, and I think it's just a matter of finding more oil, because that was the oil in the lamp that broke, correct?

Yes. So why don't we return to our friends and see? Because there was certainly more than one lamp, if I recall. Oh, a number of lanterns throughout the- A number of. It's one of a number. Great.

Same. Wonderful. So let's find our friends. Remember, grit is a virtue. So let's get them. Not a virtue. And let's join our friends and tell them the good news.

Good. Good news. In the interim, the three of you have trekked into this household. The front door itself is already partially ajar from what looked like one of Medrin's compatriots had begun stepping through the interior. And as you step in, Medrin follows you a little bit

and then peels off before you enter the building proper and goes off and finds his own interest throughout the rest of the surrounding encampment. His two other compatriots also moved beyond sight. I'll say, I'll send out this point, is rummaging through another collapsed tent and pulling out bits of materials and tools and finding things and putting them in the bag.

But you enter this house. It's a small abode and it's barely furnished. It likely was home-built for what was to be the lighthouse keeper here. Though the interior definitely, while it's not furnished heavily, is covered in all sorts of strange equipment that does not befit, necessarily, a lighthouse keeper.

You can see weathered tripods and massive lensed equipment. You see delicate tools hung on haphazard screwed loops put into the wall. You see the extensions of excavation equipment and all manner of laid out strips of leather on small tables and counters with bits of flecks of broken, pale stone of different sizes

and areas where notes are kept, and some of it missing, some of it present. There's broken instruments on the ground with shattered glass that spread off to one side. All manner of strange, scientific or research-based equipment. Who is actively helming the investigation into this house? I feel like she let it, right?

Sure, yeah. I'll be that person. Okay. If you'd like to make a perception or resolve check, that's up to you. All right. Yeah, I should not be leading this anymore. My dice have abandoned me. All of them have abandoned me.

That was a four. A four. Glancing through the chambers here, minimal as they are, you can't quite figure out the threads behind what these might've been used for, but a few things also catch your eye. There is a small kitchen area in the back

that it looks like some of it's been open and empty, but others are closed. That is some hope for trying to have some supplies for liveliness. You do see in one of the, what would have been the bedroom, though the bed itself misses and has no present mattress on it, there is another small table set with what looks like a leather ledger, journal,

a number of other pieces of paper and sheets, and what looks to be another corpse that is lying on the ground, kind of arms back like this, its jaw hung open, and most of its skin either pulled, stretched, or missing. Oh, not skeletonized, though. I mean, most of its body is skeletal, but there are elements of strips of stretched,

mummified skin that still give some semblance of structure and tissue. Can I read some of these journals, stuff like that? Sure. Roll an... Well, you start reading through the notes from journals. You see within the first opening page, there is a name marked within, usually denoting the ownership of the journal.

It's in the name Eidea Colliate. And it is very much written in shorthand, scattered chunks of notes and language that at a first glance is tough to glean the purpose behind it. But if you want to roll an intellect roll for me to see if you can ascertain. Come on, kids. Let's go. Come on.

North of the 10. North of the 10. Come on, babies. I brought so many of you to this party. Show off. Show off for mama. That's better. Let's do an 18. Hey, hey, hey. Okay, 18. In reading through the notes of this journal,

a couple quick things you pick up. This idea looks to be a seeker of ancient history or lost culture. Their notes are more about connecting dots between historical excavations, referring to some sort of university, like a higher learning locale where they have connections and trying to more or less figure out parallels with some uncovered elements to this island.

You work out through the notes that when this lighthouse was being constructed, the team building it uncovered odd ruins within the heart of the island beneath the lighthouse. And thus the construction was halted before completion. Then Edea and her colleague, Dornilce, were called from the Empire to gather a team of researchers to investigate this ruin

and assess if a construction could be completed or if the site had significance to the Empire. You rolled really high. Entries also speak of unpredictable weather and harsh living conditions upon the island and a storm that sundered their long-moored ship against the shore before they could return to the mainland for more provisions.

Reading through the notes further, they speak about uncovering some of the depths of the ruins, as well as massive veins of Adra that dig into this island. You know Adra to be a particularly important and rare mineral across the entire world of Aeora. It is a greenish, luminescent stone that is believed in many cultures

to perhaps all be connected at the core of the world, or at the very least, it is tied to the very essence of the soul, the spirit. There are many different beliefs. A lot of the ancient Inguithan Empire and their technologies were based around the manipulation of Adra and the spirit as an energy source. Some people see the Adra as a creation or extension of the gods. But there are a number of significant mysteries around it

and a lot of technologies through the use and manipulation of Audra. But these veins were unique. For the deeper they plumbed into these ruins, they found the green became white. Spidered veins of white Adra, referred to as Adraban. An extremely rare form of white Adra that still isn't fully understood.

An incredible find by these notes, and likely why this ancient ruin was built here. Edea's instinct is that these ruins might be of the fabled godless of the Living Lands, but they speak, it's too early to confirm without comparison and research back to the Empire and hoping that their attempts to get the lighthouse functional again

and to call some sort of help or aid back to the island could help them continue their research. The further into it gets, more complaints about dwindling provisions of desperation and conflict within the research team. As these tensions rise, and Edea wants to push their efforts towards recovery and acquiring some sort of follow-up troop to save them,

Doniilce began to fall obsessive with these ruins, thinking that perhaps maybe the secret to that lied within them, within this Ahdra. If indeed it is all connected somewhere in the Core here, maybe through some unknown animancy or some sort of ancient power within, maybe these runes unlocked a way in which they could be saved.

But this tension continued to build. As the teams began to separate and grow more ornery and divided, with each passing week, the notes get more scarce and more concise and more frustrated and hopeless. Then begins to speak about Dornielsy wanting to tamper with the pillar

and wanting to stop them. While this is happening, you both also find what looks to be an odd skull that's set off to the side of the far back chamber by the kitchen. While this is happening, you both also find what looks to be an odd skull that's set off to the side of the far back chamber by the kitchen. It is larger than a human skull. It looks humanoid, kind of,

but it's big. It's a big skull. It's a big skull. Okay, yeah. It's a technical term. Yeah. What would you like to be doing within the rest of this house while your friend over here is in the process

of reading and studying this journal? Do any of the tools look familiar? Like, we would know what these tools were used for. Yeah, a lot of them are, well, the tools inside here. Make an intellect check for me. Oh boy. Come on, baby.

Eight? Oh man. Yeah, eight. Eight? Man, probably dentistry. This was supposed to be a teeth check. Yeah. For sure. Yeah. Matthew Mercer. Small implements, obviously for scraping plaque

and getting between those gums. Like, yeah, this. Do you think that this skull was maybe a practice skull for the dentists? Fuck, it might be. Yeah, yeah, that would make sense. I mean, it's a lot for one skull, but yeah, yeah, I could see that.

You know how doctors have those diagrams and stuff? Yeah. Maybe that's what this is. I think you're exactly right. I think you're exactly right. I'm not even sure. I'd like to come running back in and fill them in on everything.

I tell you everything that I read. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Let me see that journal. Oh my gods. This is Gator Hide. This is rare shit. Shut the fuck up! This is good leather.

I'm just going to turn around and walk outside to try and take a deep breath. Okay. And look for our other friends. You step out of the doorway, and right there, you see shoulder to shoulder, Figrun and El Senno are stepping up to the house, and look at you.

Figrun's like, You look spooked. Oh, not spooked. I'm intrigued. Have you been in the house? He looks over to Alceno and says, I mean, yeah, I look around, started, you know,

much of interest. I got some food, a couple things. What'd you find? Some papers. Do you read? Not in a judgy way. No. We found some more information that might be useful to us, but we need to reunite with all of our party before.

Excuse me. Bless you. Even though I can't see you, I bless you. We need to reunite with all of our party to figure out what to do about it. Can you find your Medrin? Yeah. We'll go find him. And you go ahead and both turn around.

You can see Figrun looks at you, looks inside the house a bit, grabs hold of her massive shovel and pulls it from the muck, and they both walk off back towards the cluster of structures. Yeah, well, you all trust that lot? It might not be a good idea to tell him whatever he found.

Why do you think I just stalled? I'm stalling until we find our party and we can have a better conversation. Lyra's trying to cook up, get the stove going. Keep cooking! Going through some cabinets, goes, Oh, I got this! And pulls out a small box

and what looks like a sack of some kind. He's like, Well, I got some meat! And does actually produce, amongst the kitchen here, one large piece of smoked meat that you can Oh, excellent. Someone can heal up. And a box of hardtack. Oh, excellent. Someone can heal up. Okay. And a box of hardtack. Oh, all right.

So you have two helpings of hardtack that can be used multiple times. I feel like we should eat some of that right now. Yeah, we need our tank to make some magic over here. I'm only down a couple of hit points. Yeah, me too. I feel like we should hang on to those. More for me.

Must be. I'll use one of these uses now. Okay. Get yourself. Because I'm hit pretty hard. Go for it. This is what it used. Four uses, regain two hits. I'll take one, why not? How far are our buddies?

Can I get, can I? They're like 20 feet, 25 feet away, walking away further. But they're sharp. No, no, I mean these buddies. Oh, them? Yeah. They're like 20 feet, 25 feet away, walking away further. No, no, I mean these buddies. Oh, them? Yeah. They're still going up the lighthouse. No, we came back. Well, this is happening simultaneously,

and the searching and cleaning and all these things take a little bit of time. So you're probably, at this point in time, probably just convening and about to start heading back. You, as you glance out and look, you also see on the table where all these little tools and implements are, those small little broken shards of stone,

are matching that description of that pale white that you read in the book. Upon a look, one particular piece that's about the size of a coin has the pale glow, a luminescent color to it. I'm just going to swipe it and pocket it. Okay. Grab that and a few other pieces that you can.

Literally grab them all, so there's a pile of stones. Three sizable bits of Audrabon that you can pocket real fast. The white kind? Yes, Audrabon. See? And is it known what the big difference is with Audrabon?

I know it's rare and stuff, but it's not like a thing. Rare, unpredictable. I would say you wouldn't know. You just know that from what places you've, the rare things that you've heard about, and you've seen it used mainly as jewelry for the elite. Oh. Especially in my business, where I've been doing a lot of. But you haven't delved too much

into the research of Audra specifically or its source. It's mainly just, in your circles, used as a sense of station. Okay. Adra and Audrabahn. Yeah. Okay. Well, Adra's used all throughout jewelry, but it's more common comparatively. Sure. But it's used because it's very resonant to spiritual energy, in essence.

And so a lot of animancy research and a lot of magical technology and development of animancy-based magic all surrounds the manipulation and usage of Audra. Okay. Your friends do approach as you pocket these things and you can smell food starting to begin to cook a little bit and you all come into the household.

Oh, Lady Ilva. starting to begin to cook a little bit, and you all come into the household. Oh, Lady Ilva. Sir Gellin was an absolute example of gallants and bravery. He discovered a hole and a tunnel. A tunnel. It's a tunnel. Okay, nice. A hole and a tunnel. Yes. Just the one.

Oh, and they're connected. And good news, the lighthouse is almost ready. I've cleaned the glass. A tunnel. In this tunnel, did you, by any chance, see any veins of green in the stone? No, no, it was pitch dark. How many lanterns do we have?

How many do we have? A number. Can we each grab one? Oh yeah, I'd say there are probably eight unbroken lanterns that are easily within a grasp distance of both the island and the surrounding structures. But as you're having this conversation in the house,

you see the approaching shapes of the two compatriots that you sent off, as well as the image of Medrin between them, walking forward. Iatchel of Mungan. He's coming towards us? He's walking towards you. I'm just going to lean my head out the door and be like, oh, I'm really sorry. Lady Minette is just a little bit indisposed right now.

I'm going to close it and lock the door. Ooh! Okay. All right. There is one other way in, which is the door you can see near the kitchen to the left. Ah, shit! I go over to that door and I close that door. Please don't come in, I'm having a feminine issue. She just said it's her lady time.

I'd appreciate some privacy, please. Thank you. All right, you have, in this moment, they appear to probably still approaching the house, but taken aback probably by closing and locking the door. What are you doing? Have you found anything? Talking to who?

Medrin. Oh, I just locked them out. You just shut the door on them. You locked them out? Oh, we're all inside and you locked them out. They're all locked out. I shut them out. Oh crap.

Right. Just figured we might want to get our story straight. Yeah, we don't fully trust that. No, of course not. I can make up something that was in these journals, but, and I don't know that either of them can read. We could say that the lighthouse is able to be repaired. We could outfit it, clean it,

supply a lantern, and get it up and working. And maybe while they're up there focused on that, we can slip down below. That's a great idea. Nott. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm all down for exploring. Very adventurous spirit.

But what do we think we're going to find down there? What are we going to gain? A golden corral. A golden corral. Let's go. I want a Bloomin' Onion, baby. I know that sounds like Steakhouse, but it's the first thing that comes to mind.

Everything else in this game. Whenever I go to Grimm's, I'm like, I wish I could have a blue one on me instead, yeah. I'd like to take this time to remind you that these are all our original things. These are not canon to the world of Aeora. No, there's no Aupac Steakhouse in the world of Aeora, just in case you were wondering.

I don't know, but it might be the only thing of value. That's more what I'm thinking of. Come on. You've done a certain amount of animancy. Aren't you intrigued? Yeah. No, of course. I mean, I don't know. I'm so confused.

I don't know exactly what you're telling me right now, but I'm into it. All right. I think Team Reach Around must get in the hole. Do we agree? Oh yeah. Always. Every hole is a goal. What are we going to tell Medrin to keep them okay?

We said we'll take them up to the top of the, to the lighthouse. All right. See if they can get it working because we don't know how to. Mm-hmm. And then see if we can slip in the hole. Oh, all right. You hear a voice outside be like,

What's this? Oh shit. That's all. Are there windows in this little situation? There are glass windows installed. It's outside the house and sounds further away than where you locked the door on them. It's not a voice we recognize. It sounds like Medrin.

Aw, aw. Can we look out the window? Actually, I'll go to the door that's on the opposite side from where the sound's coming from and I'll actually head outside around the house and just try and slice the pie and look around the corner at what that sound's coming from. You follow off to the side, and one of the structures,

the partially collapsed tent against the side of it that was on this side of the house, you see Medrin and his crew are gathered around the outside. They were going to go to the other side of the house and stopped to inspect this. And you see Medrin's moving aside some of the rubble and pulls something out from it.

And you see in his hand, this curved on one side and coming to a point on it, almost like this large teardrop-shaped massive chunk of that white stone material that's faintly glowing with the faintest bit of pinkish violet internal light almost veined through the core of it, looking at it. Valk slipped back inside and goes,

I think he found a giant bone. It's this long, white shard. Does it look like this? I pull out the white archer. Does it look like this? It does, doesn't it? Looks pretty close, yeah. It has to be bigger. Damn it.

You want to? Maybe while they're distracted with that, we can just go ahead and slip in. But that's what we're looking for. Well, maybe we can go far more. It would be a good time to go to the tunnel. Oh, fine. Fine.

Come on, Ilva. I just want it. It's shiny. Yeah, well, we can go to the tunnel, go in the hole, come back and get it. Yeah, they'll be looking for us. Yeah. Let's go. I'm going to write a note.

Be back soon. Going to do some repairs. Love, Aelva. Yeah. Heart. Yeah. Lai returns from the pot in the kitchen and goes. And then I draw a little picture of myself for them

because I don't know if they can read. Lai returns from the pot and is like, likely around five or so minutes, the birds should be ready. Oh. And is just stirring it. Mm-mm. Let's go. I love to Oh. And it's just stirring it. Mm-mm. Let's go.

We'll have to eat it when it's cold. Oh god, they're going to eat her. Hasbro looks longingly at the food as we're leaving now. All right. Oh yeah, you eat it normally. You exit the door and open it, unlatching it and then pulling it open, and right there occupying the front of the door

is Figrun. Pretty much shoulder to shoulder, their massive Ammau form. She's just standing in your way like a wall. Then peers her head down past the low, slung door top. Kind of, Where are you going? Well, she's feeling a little bit better,

so we thought we'd get her some air. It is not nice to slam doors in friendly faces. Apologies, she's a little bit shy when it comes to these particular lady experiences. She hasn't really been in a situation like this where we're quite a... All of us have to be- Are you hungry? Oh.

Always. Well, Laera has made a delicious meal, if you'd like to partake. Can you smell it? Yeah. Yes. Bosh, you hungry? She steps back and you see there's Alcina walking up and Medrin's about 30 feet back, walking,

holding this in front. You're seeing this shit, right? This is Ardrabond. I ain't ever seen Ardra like this, except in pebbles. Can you imagine the worth of this piece? Oh, let alone entire veins beneath this island, maybe? We should find them.

He's staring at the stone there for a second. Can you get us home? I don't know if you've noticed, but there's no commerce on this island. So it's actually arguably useless. It has no value until we can get to- Can I make a perception check as to what's going on with this?

He shushes you. Yeah, of course. I don't understand what? What is a Beowok? Beowok? This is Beowok? Beowok? This is Beowok. If anyone would make an intelligence roll. I would.

I'm not smart. She's smart. Roll good. That's one. 16? Can I read some of the? Beowok. Beowoks, you've, it's funny, it's jostled in your brain because of the recent resurfacing of things you've read,

passing books and things in your bored moments when business is a bit slow. Beowox are also referred to as spirit winds. They are terrible, magical storms that are said to shear the soul out of a person's body, often the cause of wayward souls to become attached to nearby elements and begin to just wander aimlessly, aggressively.

Not unlike the blights you had encountered before. Watergallons. You didn't throw watergalls. Medrin goes like, I see. Aagabond. It is a different Vagabond. Medrin goes like, I see. A gift, huh? Okay. Medrin.

It'll be a gift. Medrin, who are you talking to? The, uh... I'll come find you. Bind them and bring them. He takes the stone and begins putting it into his pouch. Did he say idea? He said idea, and he said,

bind them and bring them. As his two compatriots look at him. Yeah, the researcher. He watches Fjigrun, pulls the massive shovel out and palms it. As El Senno reaches down and pulls this dagger that's a little bit, like, crisp-like, shaped out of the side,

and they all look at you. Right. I need you all to roll. Yeah! There we go! I told you, he sucks. Oh, for me. All right.

That's what you did. Yes, you did. You called that shoot. 16. Nice, better rolls. Better rolls here. I, you did. You called that shooting. 16. Nice, better rolls. I thought it would happen a little bit later. We're going to have to make friends for now. All righty, 20 to 15? 16. 16.

Let's go, baby. Wait, you're at 14? I've been waiting to get this guy. 14. Hasbro's also worse. Okay. All right, go ahead and rollies. Rollies, let's do it. 13. 12. Four toes. Hasbro's also four toes. Okay. All right, go ahead and roll. Rollies, let's do it.

13. 12. All right. Hasbro, Sable. Oh, so it's Lady Hasbro, Sable? Yes. All righty, 15 to 10? 10.

10, all right. We have... 10 to five. Oh no. Five to one. One! Oh, right. That's all right, someone's got to bring up the rear. After all, this is Team Root Around.

All right, Medrin is up first. Oh! With you all clustered here in the doorway. No! Shit. Medrin steps forward. He's going to go ahead and, after placing the Audra piece into the satchel, wrings the hand forward and rushes up

and is going to cast Fan of Flames towards all of you. Ah! If you would like to block or dodge, that is your call here. I will dodge. I will block. I will also dodge. I will block.

All right, so all of you roll and add your number here. Cocked. Yeah! 20 for 26. Five. Natural 20, it's a dog paw, you guys. So, success? 16. 16, success, barely.

22. Success? 16. Success? Five. Five. All of you dart off to the side and lean against the inside of the walls of the house as flames burn past poor Hasbro, standing there. He's like, uh-oh.

Come here. Oh! Come on, baby! You didn't even get your meal! I had a little smoked meat, but I'm still hungry. That's going to be 12 points of damage upon you. I get to parry also. Ooh!

Oh, because you were blocking it. Yeah, yeah. Yes, you can. So we'll get into that in just a second. So, and you get two points of fire accumulation on Hasbro as the flames are now starting to catch onto your body. The singed smell of your hair burning, curled back, the pain kicking into you.

I don't know, it feels good to get the blood pumping a little. You get to parry immediately, you said, so. I also cast Fan of Flames, two. Well, parry, you get to make an attack with your weapon. I stab him with my spear. There you go, but on your turn, you cast a spell. Get it, lady, get it. So after the flames finish,

you immediately whip around the edge where you hit and try and actually stand up. Because of the spear, you immediately whip around the edge where you hit and try and, actually, because of the spear, you can stab from behind your friend. You can just stab from behind Hasbro. Stab from behind Hasbro. All right, so a free attack against Medrin. Go ahead and roll.

He's going to try and block. Oh, dodge, you know, he can dodge for three. All right. There is no zero, right? That's a 10. That's a 10. Okay, nine. There you go. Magic dice, come on. You have to hit for your speed.

Oh, a d20, a d20, yeah. Well, no, same thing. You have to roll to hit him because he's trying to dodge. The d20. So d20 plus three. Ah, shit. Good practice roll, though. Yep.

Nine. Nine, unfortunately, misses. He's quick and dodges off to the side and almost disappears from the open doorway, out of sight to all of you. He vanishes and now you're looking at an open door with his two other compatriots standing right there, waiting to go.

That's going to go ahead and let's... Yeah, Medwin's going to go ahead and hold course at the moment, having finished that round. That now brings us to Minette with Hasbro on deck. Okay, I cast Fana Flames, too. He's behind us now, but there's two in front. We are still clustered. The two in front, I cast Fana Flames.

Let's go. Let's go. All right. Since they have not gone yet, they're both. What, he's behind us? I'm confused. Alcindor's going to go ahead and try. Well, he ducked out of sight. You don't have sight currently on Missiles.

So he's behind them, but they're blocking us. They're here and he's gone-gone. Correct. We're back here. And everything's still taken, like, within the doorway. Correct, you're all inside the house still and there's the doorway. Medrin was standing, cast the flame,

and then Darga off to the side and is out of sight. Got it. These two compatriots are behind. As you step forward and cast Phantom Flame on the two of them, they're both going to try and dodge. All right, so go ahead and roll and add your intellect. That's 4d6 minus one. Plus my end time? Roll your d3.

Roll to see if you hit, because you're trying to dodge, yeah. Come on. Come on, baby! 11. Wait, wait, wait, plus 13. Yeah, you hit them both. They both rolled really poorly on their dodge.

Yes! So go ahead and roll damage on that. Okay, damage is 4d6 minus one. Hell yes. That's this one. That's the square, yes. Yeah, four of them. Six. Come on, big sixes. Five. Okay.

Five. 10. Six. That's a six, which explodes. Explodes! And two minus one. Okay, and one more because the six explodes. Six. It explodes again. It explodes again. Oh fuck. Yep. Two minus one. Okay, and one more because the six explodes. Six? It explodes again. It explodes again.

Oh fuck. Yep. Five. 29. Amazing! Oh! Darling! That is rough. So ladylike! So you dart forward.

This aggressive gout of burning fire emerges from your hand and just engulfs them both. A direct retort on the same level as Medrin's against your troop, although not as lucky in avoiding it. How many points of fire accumulation does it give them both?

Two. Woo-hoo! All right. They both get two points of fire. They're both on the verge of ignite. Fire is a virtue. Let's go, Sable. They both try to block it. They sizzling like a slab of pork in a skillet. The smoke.

She's got these shits right down somewhere. You can dig that. Come on. Is this just life in the Hall of the Dim? Is this just some Kentucky goodness? Yeah, for sure. My god. All right. That's nasty.

Free style thoughts. Free style thoughts, Caden Vermeer. That's nasty. Rhino baby. For self-help. Skating for men. That's your spell. Do you want to use any more of your stamina to attack? Free stuff. That, I'm going to, I have so much stamina, so I am going to stab, stab, stab, stab, stab.

All right, which one? Tall one or dwarf one? Tall one. Let's go. More reach. They're not going to try and block or dodge, so you just go ahead and roll damage. Get it, and that's... They're not going to try or they can't?

Because they're crispy! They're standing there. Uh-huh. Three! Three points of damage to Figrun, all righty. Any more on your turn, or? Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Yes!

One, two, three, four, five. And I'm going to, are they also not going to block again? Nope, go for it. Okay. Five, oh, four. Four, all righty. So after they're recovering from the flames, smoke from their burnt hide armor and guard cloaks they had put over their shoulder,

smoke billowing up, two spears stabs you back and they're like, Smoothing my skin. I finish your turn? And I cut you. All righty. With that, Hasbro, you are up with Sable on deck. So they're both got hit pretty good, correct?

They're both hurt. They're not looking hurt. They took some heavy damage. Okay, okay. But they're a little tougher, I think, than the average bear. And the Amaawa's name is Figrin? Figrin is the Amaawa, yeah. I look at her, I go,

you know, it's a shame because you're kind of my type. Does that, does she react at all? Make a resolve roll. Come on, baby, put on that charm! Let's go! Didn't reach her out. Baby! Okay. Let's go! That is 14. 14? What's your resolve?

She goes, 11 plus three, 14. Yeah, yeah. What kind of my type? You know what turns me on? Pain. Oh! Yeah, Oh! Okay. Okay. There you go.

This could be a win-win for you. So you know her? Oh my god. Not at all. I'm going to get to know her. Let's go. I'll pull out the Gravehammer then. That's what we all call it.

That's right. All right. Yeah! So do I have to roll for hit? Fjordrunn is going to attempt to block your hammer. Now this crushing, plus five to hit against blocking opponents, correct? Oh yeah, uh-oh. Get it, Ben.

I forgot about that. All right, yeah, so let's go ahead and roll. It's a 25. Ha! Shit. Just roll damage, yeah. She puts up the front of the metallic part of the shovel to try and block the blow, and the sheer heft and weight of the hammer,

as you bring it down, stepping out of the doorframe upon her, she can't even stop it, and just takes it straight to the front of the clavicle and chest. Okay. That's going to be 15. 15 points from one hit. Oh, crack!

The hammer hits and she reaches up and grabs it and holds it and looks you in the face and goes, Yeah. More. Okay. I mean. I mean. If the lady asked. If the lady asked.

If the lady asked. Now, I don't want to kill her, but you know, she looks like she can take another hit. Oh yeah, she's starting to show a little wear. Okay. So I guess I got to give the lady what she asked for then. So do I have to roll for hit? Yes, she's going to try and block it again.

All right. 18. That's going to be 20 for her. So she does manage to block it. Okay. But she does not get her parry against you. Got it. She does not what? Does not get a chance to parry.

Oh, okay. Gotcha. So this time she catches your hammer now, and you're both pulled in close, like face to face. She just kisses your nose. I go back like, yeah. Hell yeah. Let the two of them have a moment. Does that finish your turn?

I will finish my turn there. All right, cool. Finishing that, Sable, you are up. All right. Sorry, one question. Yeah. Food. Can I eat this now?

Why not? Okay. Yeah. Because I feel like I'm going to eat it. Jerky. Can we eat it in the tramp style now? Yeah. Straight up. Just because my health is a little low. So I'll use this to heal. Love it.

All right. So good. Great. So I say, well, roll down the way, and she's got her back up against the wall. Where's Medron? Right now, you don't know if you're inside the building. Okay, right, because he went on the outside. But there's another door.

Can we get to the other door? Because if she is the, are they still blocking in and out of the door? Currently, yeah, they're all pushed there. You can try and squeeze through if you want to. I stepped out a bit with the hammer. So you can probably move out if you wanted to follow the path of Medrin.

Yeah, I'm going to go after Medrin. Okay. Yeah. You step out and move beyond the back of Hasbro, and about 30 feet away, you see Medrin is there holding the back of the satchel and is starting to run towards the lighthouse. Son of a bitch! Yeah.

Fuck that, I'm dexterous as fuck. I'm going after him. Okay, you dart and catch up as fast as you can. You're a quick little dwarf. What are you going to try and do? Am I melee with him? Roll a dexterity check for me. Okay.

You'll say you need a 15 or higher total to try and catch up to him. Plus five medics. Ooh, that's a two. Icky. No, no, no. Unfortunately, due to the mud and just the general speed of Medrin having a direct goal and a place to go,

you can't quite get within melee. Okay, that's fine. I'm going to pull out my gun! Yeah. Get it, get it! I'm going to, out my gun! Yeah. Get it, get it! As soon as I realize that I'm not going to make it, I steady sink down in my knees and try and aim, take a good shot.

Okay. Also, first, wait, first. Edrin is going to try and dodge. Arcane Veil. I'm going to do Arcane Veil really quick as well. Okay. Okay. Okay. Natural one.

Don't do that. Failed me. Failed me, Voto. You go to fire and the flint catches and it misfires slightly. I don't have to damage the weapon, but enough for smoke to off the side and you have to clear it. Goddamn. All right.

One more time. Another one? Not that one. Madryn has enough to go. Let's go. Oh, wait, wait, wait, one more time. Another one? Not that one. Madryn has enough to go. Let's go. Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on. Yeah, how much stamina? Yeah, I just marked my, one, two, three, four.

That was for my one, two, three, one, two, three, shit. No, I'm not going to do it. Okay. It's my pistol, I'm not as quick with it. Damn, that's it. All right, that finishes your go. It is now Figrin's turn. Figrin, who is very happily in the space where you are and focused now based on how you interacted with them,

is not going to go after any of your friends and is now just going to drill in. You really can't take that away from her. Yeah. She's going to go ahead and spend four essence to begin to charge. Uh-oh. And is going to take a swing with her massive shovel,

which acts as a greataxe in this instance. Oh yes. Do you have enough stamina to dodge? Okay, let's go! I'm glad you ate. Glad I ate the meat. Yeah. Yeah! Tell us, Matthew. Give us the objective.

Tell us what you rolled. Tell us, tell us. It's either really good or really bad. It's double ones. Yeah! That's still six points of damage to you. Still. Little love tap, all right, sure. But with the charge,

is going to be slamming into you and pushing both of you into the wall of the building. The wall cracks in and you watch as the structural front of it, where you both slam into, the cracks spider off to the side and part of the ceiling comes in a little bit and falls. And she... That is pretty sexy.

So am I up against the wall? You're up against the wall right now. Damn, that's hard. Damn. Right? Yeah. Right? He's fighting a different battle.

And she's going to save the rest of her stamina. So now you're both just going to, she's pressed up against the wall now. It's cracked in behind you and you're both just locked in. Oh, you'll need that stamina, baby. Should we all just take a moment to watch what's happening?

Everyone's like, I'm privacy. All right, finishing Figrin's turn. Ylva, you're up. Oh my! I want to go after Medrin as well. So I'd like to run outside and get, and I'd like to arcane veil, first of all. Okay. That's two of all. Okay.

That's two of these. And then I would like to pull out my wand, and as soon as I get within range of being able to see him, I would like to pull my wand at him and let magic hit him. All righty. That's what I would like to do. Let's see if I can. Medrin does not have the stamina at the moment to dodge it,

so just go ahead and roll damage. I like this game. I didn't like this game. This wasn't doing very well, was it? Ugh! That's what I'm talking about. Eight. Eight points of damage to Medrin.

All righty. And then I would like to just do the same thing again. You got it. Five. Five, all right, eight and five. Medrin, as you strike with your wand and sends off arcane bolts to arc and slam into Medrin as he's running away,

takes the hits and skids on one knee and slides into the mud before picking up his momentum and is continuing to run. Damn it. What are the chances I can catch up with him? Is he super duper duper duper freaking far at this point? I will say, it hasn't come back to his turn yet, but because you are all moving around,

roll a dexterity check for me to see if you can try and get up. That's a natural 20. No! Sure. Plus three. I'm a speedy little bitch. Hell yeah. You go ahead and dart past Sable

and get up into melee with Medrin, who glances over his shoulder and notices your approach and is still trying to run. What else do you do? I am, oh crap, I can't do a Strolling Touch. Fuck me. I'm going to try to trip him. Okay. If I can get up to melee,

I just want to stop him. I want to knock him over somehow. All right, so as you rush up, I'll say this will cost you two stamina. It's not going to be a damaging attack, but you're trying to slow his escape. Yeah. So I need you to roll a might check for me.

Wait, he has the bag hanging off his person? He has a satchel he's clutching as he's running. Yeah. It's what I was going to do. I'm going to grab for the satchel instead of try to trip him. I'm going to grab for the satchel. Okay, roll a might check.

Okay. Oh, a might? Wait, what was the other one? Might. Two stamina. Let's either knock him down or try and rip to trip him. I'm going to grab for the satchel. Okay, roll a might check. Okay. Oh, a might? Wait, what was the other one? Might. It's either knock him down or try and rip it from him. Okay. Oh no, that didn't happen. Dice answered. What was it?

The one. Oh yeah, no, that doesn't happen. Sorry. Damn it, I can't really try twice, can I? I mean, if you want to spend two more stamina, it's going to get harder each time. It's a higher bonus, but you can keep trying. Just so fucking frustrated.

Oh, can I shoot? Can I try with my wand to shoot it off his person? Like, can I aim with my magic? Dislodge it. Like a shot shooter. You know what? And shoot it off his bow. I'll allow you to, but I will say this will give him a free dodge. So it'll be your attack versus his dodge.

They're trying to, since it's a targeted shot. Oh, boy. Come on, Beacon. Don't fail me now. That's cocked, but it's a fucking 19. Roll again. That's also cocked. Let's roll over here.

Okay, 15 plus two. 17. 23. Fuck two, 17. 23. SAM and LAURA and LAURA and LAURA and LAURA Natural 17. You dart the wand and Medrin sees what you're doing and gets low to the ground and shrieks past, causes this explosion of mud and dirt to detonate

as he picks up again and just chuckles and continues into a run towards the lighthouse and shouting over his shoulder like, Please follow me! It's going to be fun! We have to stop. I'm just going to scream back to everybody. We have to stop him!

Are you going to keep going? Well, I've caught up to him, right? So I'm really close to him. I don't know that I want to be in melee with him. I'm going to, yeah, no, no. You got homegirl coming, right? Who's homegirl? I'm right to, yeah, no, no. You got homegirl coming, right? Who's homegirl?

I'm right behind you. Oh, you're right behind me? You're next? You're after me? Yeah, I just got fucking stuck in the mud. I mean, she's behind you geographically. Yeah. Oh, I got you. But not. You ran past me. She's right in front of you. Right, but he's the only dude

that he could come after. Well, he's not coming after me. Real fun. Fuck, I'm going to try one more time. I want to try to hit him one more time with the wand. Same thing. Hit the bag again? Yeah. Okay, he gets not coming after me. Real fucking. Fuck, I'm going to try one more time. I want to try to hit him one more time with the wand. Same thing. Hit the bag again? Yeah. Okay, he gets a higher bonus now. That's fine. Let's go.

I respect that. In Vegas, the house always wins. 17 plus two, 19? 20, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry, that would've been really cool. That would've been cool. Okay, it's not over yet,

if that's what you're trying to do. Yes. All right, cool. So I was like, I'm going to go. All right. Does that finish your turn? Yeah, I think so. I think I need to at least hang on to one block.

Okay, got it. All right, so finishing your row, it's now Alceno's turn. Seeing, hmm? Yes. No, yes, I'm done. Alceno sees you both running after Medrin and comes,

No, no, stay back here! And is going to go ahead and put his hand out, and as he does, he flings the stone. As the stone gets flung, you watch as cold evaporates around it and it speeds up. Because you were both charging after Medrin, you're in a line, and it's going to go ahead and attack you both with an enhanced Chill Blades

for four essence there. Do you both have stamina to dodge or block? I do. I do. I'm going to dodge. I'm going to block. All right. Fuck me. That's an eight.

17. Okay, nine plus seven is 16. 17. Four! Just miss it. Oh no! All right, so both of you take... Ooh, that's an eight, that explodes. It's 11.

13 damage to each of you. Okay. You both take two points of frost accumulation. I'll spend an essence for my Arcane Veil. I'll spend two essence for, I mean, I'll two. Yeah, I'll spend two essence. What did you say it was, 13? 13.

I will... Okay, I'll take the 10 hit points from that. Okay. I get seven back. Or wait, it'll be nine. Nine hit points. All right. I don't think so.

So both of you feel the ice crystallize and form around you. You feel yourselves shaking and mud on the ground itself, frozen around your ankles before you have to break your feet through. You're on the cusp of becoming frozen. Fuck.

Can I scream back at him out of turn? He's going to try to kill you, too! I'm right next to you, stop yelling! I'm yelling at the other dwarf! Galen, you're up. Oh! So Hasbro and Figurine are in the house, engaged in beautiful physical turmoil.

Yeah, right off to the side of the front door, now pushed into the partially damaged wall. Minette is just outside of the door and both of your other allies have run to the left-hand side of the exit and are chasing after. And Alcento is chasing them. Correct. Yeah, I'll make a break on Alcento and I will.

Alceno. What is it? Alceno. Alceno, thank you. Alceno. I also heard Alceno. I might've said Alcento, accidentally. But no, he's Alceno. Alceno, thank you. I also heard Alceno. I might've said Alcento, accidentally. But no, he's Alceno. That's on me.

I'll rush up behind him and... Do things. That stealth attack wouldn't work because he knows where we all are, right? He knows you're present and you wouldn't be coming from any place surprising to him, unfortunately. I'll take a very deft swing with the sword, and I'm going to try and aim it

right for the backside of his neck. Okay, so is this a standard attack or a power attack? What is a power attack? Oh, sorry, for those, it's in the rules breakdown, you can do a power attack by spending twice the stamina. Oh. Yeah, I'll do that. If you hit, it critically hits automatically,

so you add enough extra dive dice, and it takes away some of the target's stamina. No, no, no, I'll do a regular one. Okay, but you have that option if you ever want. That's great. That's a cool option. Is he going to try and block or dodge? He is, because he has stamina to do so. He's going to go ahead and attempt to block.

19, 21, 22, 23. because he has stamina to do so. He's going to attempt to block. 19, 21, 22, 23. Oh no, it's just plus two. 21. Five, so that definitely hits. Yes! Yeah, I don't roll like that a lot. That's cocked. That's cocked at 12, stop rolling on things.

That's a 12, that explodes. I get it. Nine, so 21 points of damage. Oh,, nine, so 21 points of damage. Oh, plus two, so 23 points of damage. 23 points of damage, nice! The blade carves down, and someone's like, . You!

Fuck! Is that really what he sounds like? I feel like the patchy beard opens up a little bit. It's very hurt. Fuck me. And I'll take another swing. Come on. All right. I'm going to try and use the last one here to block again.

14 points of damage. Five. 12. Yay! Shitty rolls. That is a nine plus two, 10, 11 points of damage. 11 points of damage onto El Senno. All righty.

My big boy. Heavy hits on him. All right. That's it. That finishes your turn. Back to the top of the round, Medrin's going to go. Medrin, seeing you all rushing forward, the two of you right on his heels, is going to go ahead and grab a piece of mud from the ground

and toss it over his shoulder. It's going to arc and land between the two of you. As it does, you watch as Vines emerge and wrap around the space there. Poop stream. He's going to go ahead and, so spending the essence there, is going to cast Tanglefoot between the two of you.

So basically, both of you, no damage, but in order to move at all on your turn, you have to spend four stamina. Brutal. Okay, okay. Put him on our turn. He's going to spend at all on your turn, you have to spend four stamina. Brutal! Okay, okay. Put him on our turn. He's going to spend the rest of his turn. He's just going to run.

He's just going to run and hold onto the rest of that stamina and just go charging in the intended path. So he's just now bolting as fast as he can, trying to weave. He's getting close to weaving through some of the structures heading towards the lighthouse. Finishing his turn, Minette's up with Hasbro on deck.

Sorry. I am, okay, so I'm going to, can I reach Medrin with my Jolting Touch? Jolting Touch? That actually would probably, if you were to full move, you could do so, you would then become in range of the Tanglefoot, however. I have to touch him physically for it?

No, but he took his turn to run even further and he was like twice a turn's distance from you. So we're in between him and you. Okay, I'm going to use Jolting Touch on Figaro and Alceno. That you can do. And that is four of my instincts. Alceno cannot dodge anymore, or block,

so you just roll damage for Alceno. However, no, Figaro's not going to block either. So just roll damage. Just 1d12, that's this one. Yarp. Esplodes! Minus one. But it explodes! It still explodes on a 12, though, so that's 11.

11. 10. Yeah! Wow! Dang! Senna's looking real bad. Doing good, doing good. The jolt comes out, and so that's 21 to both of them, that's great. So Figurine's holding it and he's like, Oh!

And yeah, this is as intimate as you've been in a minute. Alceno is looking really in a bad place and is starting to look over towards, Boss, boss! And is starting to look around, panicked for something to do. What do you want to do on your turn? Oh, right, I've got so much stamina.

I'm going to poke with my spear and I'm going to poke with my spear, and I'm going to poke at Arsinoe. All right, roll damage. Kill him. Come on, baby. Let's go, bitch. Wait. Take him down. Kill him. What if I just completely got lost?

That's a d10, right? Yeah, yes. Eight. Eight points of damage. Ah! He's pierced and holding on, falls to one knee, looking up at you. Blood from his lip, it's mixing with his patchy beard.

He's like. God, he's a fucking creep. I'm going to kill him. One, two, three, four, five. Yeah, come on. Let's go. Two damage. Two damage. Two damage. Stabbing it.

This time he catches it and deflects it a little bit, stabs it in the side. He grins at you. A little bit of blood and spittle sprays out a little bit and catches it out of your chin and you hate it. He's still holding on, barely. I'm going to go again. I'm going to go again.

I'm going to poke him. Okay! Come on, come on, kitty cat, let's go! I know you can do it. I want this for you so bad. I do, too. Five. How do you want to do this? Yeah!

Two times! Two hearty hearties! I'm done! I take the spear and I put my leg over it so I mount it on it, and I thrust it right into his fucking dick. Hell to kill! Hell to kill!

Oh, precise! Penetration is a virtue. Seemed unnecessarily vicious. Respect. He crumples over the front of it as you withdraw and falls to the ground to join the other corpses amongst the abandoned outpost. As he crumbles, a number of motes of essence. All the guys are like,

Oh! You're making some essence. So four motes of essence. All the guys are like, Oh! Make some essence. So this four motes of essence crumble out onto the ground. God, I need that so bad. All righty. Does that finish your turn? Can I get some essence?

Oh yeah, if you want to try and just take it in right now. Some Evan essence? Yes. Some Evan essence? Four motes of essence. Essence fragments, if you'd like to pull that in. Does anybody mind if I slurp it up? Slurp it up, baby. Slurp it up, baby. We're not close enough to ask.

Go for it, take it. Live a little, lady. So it heals four, right? Yeah, you get four essence back. Great. And a cutscene. And a cut. All right, that finishes your go.

Hasbro, you're up with Sable and Dec. Earlier, your character was like, we shouldn't get weapons, we shouldn't kill. You're just like, yeah! I'm not butchering. I'm learning a lot about myself on this journey. Such a pass. Discovery, I respect it.

So I look over, see her just fucking waste him and go, Yeah, looks like Ugg-O over there got caught. How long you know Medrin? Is she open to me asking this question? As you're this close up? Yeah. Good part of five years. How, I mean, we got a spot open on Team Reach Around

if you want to join up with us. Listen, I don't know, I'm not that good at math, but all goes gone. Numbers aren't looking too hot for you. Looks over as Miner's just running off and slipping through the muck and darting. Go ahead and roll resolve. Come on!

Come on! You said charm! Lyra's sitting there fucking stirring the pig all night above the table. So what just happened in five minutes? 17 plus three, 20. Oh shit! Oh hell yes. Nine.

Figurine goes, I like my chances with a good reach around. Yeah! Bam, bam, bam! Gives you a little forehead kiss, and then withdraws from pressing you against the edge of the building and hoists the shovel onto her shoulders. Is she down to make out a little bit?

You going for it, yeah? If she's down. She's down. Do I have to roll for that? How much stamina does she have? No, but you can spend a stamina if you want. I'll spend two stamina. Hell yeah!

You did it, you love it! I love it, I love it. Fucking hell! Big respect! Okay, so I'll say this interaction likely Yeah! I love it, I love it. I expect. Okay, so I'll say this interaction likely will take the majority of your turn, but you have turned Figrin, for the time being, onto your side. Hot big lady acquired!

Yes, yes! Worth it. It's so hot, she almost gets a third fire accumulation. Wow. Awesome, so that finishes your turn? It's so hot, she almost gets a third fire accumulation. Oh! Awesome, so that finishes your turn? All right. So what stamina, if any, do I have left? Stamina, I mean, I'd say you only spent

two stamina on the kiss. I'll say the conversation there, it's not about spending stamina, it's more just like that ends your turn because you've spent the turn talking and doing this thing. Right, but if I needed the stamina in case something else happens.

Correct, no, you get to keep that defensively. Okay. You only need to spend two. Oh, I just spend two, okay. Yeah, that's it. The chaos. The rest you get to keep to spend. It's not work. More sable? Sable.

All right. How far away has Medrin made it from me? He's probably 40 feet from you. Is that close or far? That would be considered far. Okay, I'm going to spend the movement to try and go after him. The stamina to move. Yeah, so.

And dart to him. Okay, to within melee, you mean? How far can I get? If you want to roll a dexterity check to try and get up to him. Okay. To within melee, you mean? How far can I get? If you want to roll a dexterity check to try and get up to him. I do. Okay. As far as I can get.

Yeah, baby! That's going to be 23. 23, you get up into melee with him. 22, but still pretty good. You're getting up as close as you can. He's about to dart between, basically cut away from other people's line sight. And what do you do?

I'm going to say, hey, that's a pretty cool trick. I know that one, too. And I'm going to take a mud cluster and drop it at his feet and also cast Tanglefoot on him. Okay. So that affects everything within close range to? Including me? That would be including me.

I'm not going to do that. Not going to do that. What did you hear? But. But that's good to know. So you can throw it ahead of him and just get him if you want to. Oh yeah, well, I mean, that's what I was trying to go for. Okay, yeah.

So I'm just saying if you're throwing it on him, yeah. So I'm just saying if you throw it on him, then it would affect you, but if you throw it beyond that, you can entangle him. Okay, so the vines also rip out of the ground. And begin to strike around and wrap around his legs and his arms. It's like.

Not a problem. Sure, and then I'm going to take my dagger and I'm going to, can I try and cut the satchel loose from his body? If you want to try. All right, he'll go ahead and try and dodge with that. Come on, baby. Natural 20.

Let's go! For a total of? For a total with my dagger, 25. 25, 23. Yeah! You rolled a natural 18. So you cut the satchel from the arm and it hits the ground with a heavy, cracking thud

and multiple things inside impact and shift around a bit. It falls. What else do you want to do in your turn? Can I grab the satchel from him? Can I grab it away? Take a stamina to do so, but yeah. All right, fine. I'm going to turn around.

I'm going to go, Ilva, catch! Oh dear. And try and throw it back to Ilva. Okay. I'm really sad at this. You try and chuck it backward, spend two stamina. Go on!

Do I have to catch it, per se? No, it just arcs over and then it tumbles back to where you are. Excellent. Did you spend the stamina to try and stick it from the other side? It says no! I did. I did, the four stamina.

Which is super annoying. I actually pick locks with them, but I'm not catching something. Hang on, let me make sure. I'm going to put a forge in it. I'm going to, he's probably, hmm. Hmm. Fuck it, Yolo.

I'm going to spend three more. I'm going to go again. I'm going to go again. And this time, I'm just going to attack him with the dagger. All righty. He's going to take it. He's going to take it. He's going to take it? Yeah. All right. Come on, give me a six.

That's a six! Yeah! Okay. So that's going to be 12 plus, 15. 15? Yeah. All righty. Total. Nice. All righty.

And then I'll stop. All right, that finishes you. It takes the. The red streak of blood in the back of his cloak. You see where you carve past and the armor splits a bit, and you can see where the wounds begin to grow red. He's like.

And just seems still singularly focused on the run. On the run? Does he not have, does he, does he, okay. He doesn't have the satchel. He doesn't have the satchel. Is that your turn? Was the thing in the satchel? Was the Audra, Audra, shit. The Audubon. The Audubon.

The Audubon. Did you see him not put it in the satchel? We saw him put it in the satchel. Yeah, you did. Okay. I'm going to finish this. All right, finishing Sable's go. Figrun is now currently just pulling away from your law and like,

So what does one do in the reach of arms? I'll show you later, but for now. Wait, what's going on out there? Your vision has just been like, Ooh, ooh, wee, wee, wee, boo? Your vision had just been like, and running for a lighthouse! Satchel down, satchel down! I turn to Vig and go, Go get Medrin. But he will. And takes the shovel over the head and begins running.

Not the fastest being, but nevertheless, takes the rest of the turn running and catches up to where you're wrapped, but does a wide berth, which also loses some ground to try and avoid the vines, but is trying to catch up to where you are. It's basically a bit behind the rest of the race. But that's going to finish their turn.

They're going to hold their stamina at that point. That brings us to Ylva. All right. So the satchel is at my feet? It is. But I can't necessarily move. I have to use some stamina to get free of the vines or something like that, or just to move?

To move it all from the vines, you have to spend stamina, and you can spend stamina to pick it up if you want to. I'd like to spend some, well, I want to, it's in the sack. I'd like to use my wand to open it up so that I'm not touching it, per se. Right, like poke through?

Like to open it up and, yeah, like to poke through. Okay, yeah, you poke through and you can see inside, indeed, that large piece of Audra Bon is there within the satchel, amongst other bits of recovered implements. Looks like some nice bits of decor, like a pocket watch. A looter's fine.

All I care about is this Audra Bon. And I know that I can, okay, cool. So, Yolo, as you said. I'm just going to pick up the Audrabahn and try to see what he was seeing in it. Okay. You lift it and look into it. Roll a resolve test for me, please.

12. 12. You look into it and it takes a moment to focus. Your eyes get blurry and you see that pulsing bit of violet light at its core of the white stone. And as it does, you feel like a, almost like a heartbeat is pulling you into it. And there you can see a flash of what looks like an Audra Pillar that rises up of this Audra Bon. It comes to a pointed apex, and there is within it this massive crack

and a gap in it. You see a glimpse of what looks like some sort of strange, blurred structure, carved stone, and what looks like other green Adra and normal rock itself, adorned with all manner of strange scrolling and designs. You hear a voice say, Come to me.

I will make them hurt. Come to me. And you feel this draw to the lighthouse that you cannot resist. You feel this is possibly dangerous, but you feel pain, you feel betrayal, you feel sorrow. You feel the sadness of someone lost and hurt, You feel the sadness of someone lost and hurt,

and they want to make others hurt. And you understand that feeling. And you can help with that feeling. You just have to get below the lighthouse. Mm-hmm. So this is just like, I'm mentally compelled. I don't have to. This turn. Is she okay?

Huh? I still have, I bet I've got a lot of stamina left. I know, and you spend some of it to run. I did. Yeah. Yeah. How much did I spend to run? Oh, I spend some of it. You spent four to move away from the vines.

I did move away from the vines. Okay, I thought I did not move away from the vines. I thought I just landed. You did, though. Okay. You look up from the stone and you I did move away from the vines. Okay, I thought I did not move away from the vines. I thought I just landed. You did though. Okay. You look up from the stone and you're running towards the lighthouse. Oh shit! That's fine.

That's fine. Have I caught up with Medrin? No. Make a dexterity check, actually. No, I did not catch up. You have not caught up. You're still quite a bit behind. What are you doing?

Is she in between me and him? Correct. I don't want him to get there first. I'm still going to shoot him. I'm going to shoot him with my wand. Okay. He's going to go ahead and attempt to dodge. It's not going to die.

16 plus two, 18? 12, that hits. Go ahead and roll damage. Six. Okay. Six damage on that. I'm going to do it again. All right, he is going to do a time to dodge. What is it? 18.

18, 19, just beats you. Okay. So the first one hits, and the second one, as you shoot it, he seems ready for it and leaps off to the side and now darts off between where two structures are off point, and he actually breaks away from your eye line at this point. Oh, crap. And is moved away from you and move further in

towards where this cluster of the outpost sits. Remember Tanglefoot. I know, but I'm talking narratively. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I can't see him. I'm going to continue running to try to catch up as far as I can with, if I used up three more stamina.

You've done your running for the turn. I've done my running for the turn. Did she run past me? No. Okay. I'm just going to scream ahead to Sable, We have to stop him! He can't get there first! You've said this so many times! What? I don't...

I think that's all I can do at this point. Fuck. All right. Yes, that's all I can do. All right. Finishing your go, that brings us to Galen. If I step out after watching Ba-ba-ba-ba, El Cento go down, can I see? Can I just eat some essence? We're watching El Cento go down. Can I see? Can I just eat some essence?

I mean, eat some algebra at the end of my turn? Yeah, yeah. Can I see Medrin in the distance at all? I'll say where you are now. Timing-wise, he's just darting off to the side. Vines still wrapped around his foot and he's trying to leap to break away from them. I'll say you have one, yeah,

this one moment if you're trying to do something. Yeah, I'll try and hit an arrow using marksmanship action. I'll allow it. Is he going to try and block or dodge? He has enough stamina to try and block one and he is out of stamina. Or dodge. 17. 21. Dang it.

Natural 16 on that one. This guy. It's a quick one. Tough- This guy. He's a quick one. Tough-working guy. He's very good. When I have time to shoot another arrow, he wraps around the corner. No, you do. I mean, it's your turn still, so.

Great, I'll try one more. He cannot block or dodge this one, so he just takes the damage. Get it! Finish him! Sweep the leg. Eight, which explodes. Yeah! Nice. Another eight, which explodes.

Oh my god! The four, 16 plus six, 22 plus seven is 29. 29 damage. Oh, that's a rough hit. Oh, darting out of the way, the arrow sticks through the back of the shoulder blades and protrudes from the front of the shoulder.

The sheer impact from that causes him, as he's trying to jump away from the vines, it's him tumbling in the air and the vines grabbing him, pulling him back to the ground and he slams into it and is almost drawn back by a foot. He's like, You bitch! It's me.

Did that finish your turn? Yeah, I'll take off running after them. Okay, cool. So you're still behind the others, but you're rushing them. Yeah, fair enough. Okay, got it. Now it's going to bring in Demedrin's turn. Gets his stamina back.

But I have to get there. He's going to go ahead and cast Tanglefoot again. He's going to pee while she's running. The two of you. Again? Yep. But I can dodge. Oh, I can't dodge this? No, it's just about spending stamina. Are we close, and we're close enough to each other

that it can hit both of us? Because I thought she was near him, but I was not. Right, but it hits things in the area around it. He casts it between the two of you. Gotcha, yeah. It's a little, like, very close range there. So the vines disappear from the other thing, apparate between the two of you, Megan wrapping around.

He will spend four stamina to break free, and then dart around the corner, injured, dropping blood splatters, and disappears from sight. Damn. Finishing his go, Minnette. He's gone. He's out of your sight.

He's now duck He's out of your sight. He's now ducked between buildings. And Alceno's dead, and Figaroona's now part of our team. Correct. So is the fight over? Right now, at this point, it's more of a chase than a fight. All right, I run.

I'm going to run. Okay. So we'll save it for the purposes of narrative brevity here. You all now begin to press forward, and as you do, pulling away from the vines and such, trying to get back in the line of sight of where Medrin is,

he's then now ducking and weaving between alleys in these tents and stuff. Each time you move over to try and catch up with him, he manages to just get out of your sight and vision until eventually, you're not quite sure where he is, and you have a sense that he's likely, if not at the lighthouse, in the lighthouse, right as you begin to approach its exterior.

Where did you say that tunnel was? It's on the bottom floor behind a box that fell and crashed. There's just a hole in the ground. He found it with his butt. Put a pin in that. I fill them in, the ones that haven't been filled in, on what I read about Dornelcy.

Make a resolve check, Tori, please. Like I said, I make a resolve check. Fight the rock! Fight it, fight it. He's really, I don't think anyone can fight the rock. He's persuasive. Dwayne Johnson is. No, I make a resolve check. Fight the rock! Fight it, fight it. He's really good. I don't think anyone can fight the rock. He's persuasive. Dwayne Johnson is. No, I fail. A fail?

You all get to the lighthouse, and before you have a chance to express what you've said, as you all, what do we do? You watch as Ylva just jumps into the hole. You grab the lantern and vanish into the tunnel. While I do that, I'm going to go pee. Ah! I'm going to pee in the hole. Go do it. She goes all the way into the tunnel. And while I do that, I'm going to go pee. What? I'm going to pee in the hole.

She goes all the way in the hole. I guess we're just going in the hole. Should one of us try and get the lighthouse going? We don't have any lan- Or did we take those? We had a lot, apparently. There was a number of them. There's plenty of oil canisters,

and there are lanterns that you likely had with you ready to go, like, affixed to your belt or ready to come along. So you have light sources with you that you'd prepped. Not enough to light a lighthouse on. You'd have to bring the big canisters up there and try and figure out how to light it. I feel like the lighthouse can wait.

Let's just go after it, right? He's right. It's not going anywhere. Let's go. All right, let's go. Sigrun puts out the flames, and you do as well. You no longer have the fire accumulation. We get her stamina back? Yeah, you get her stamina back,

and the frost eventually melts off from the spells that are there. Figurine, fairly hurt, but still at your side and ready. I never saw myself as a turncoat, so instead I will will say opportunist. I like the way you think. You want to share some hardtack?

I thought you'd never ask. Lady and the Tramp it. That's actually a good idea. Can I Lady and the Tramp the hardtack? Of course you can. Why would I say no to that? How much do you have of the hardtack? So I have four uses. They do two health each. Okay. You want to tramp the hard attack? Of course you can. Why would I say no to that? How much do you have of the hard attack?

So I have four uses, they do two health each. Okay. So. You're a booster, see? No, I'll just do it once. Okay. Figured I'm going to take two of them for an additional plus four,

because Figured I'm just taking some hits. All right, you know what? How's our health? The one in the tunnel. Uh, as an ally, I'd say it's probably, that's like 30 hit points at the moment, or 30 health. Anyone else hungry? We've never been hit.

I have no damage. No. Show off. Team life! I've been pushing this whole time. Neither of you need anything? I'm good, I just feel like I need to. I definitely do, but I don't think I'm close enough to hit you guys.

No, you're out. Oh, no, that's right. You're mind-controlled. You jumped in the hole. Yeah. Yep. You fell for the hole. I do, guys. Who doesn't want to jump in the hole? I'll take two bites. She takes two bites. Sure, sounds good.

So more health for me. Let's do it. All righty. All right. This is done. So you all take a minute. All right. This is done. So you all take a minute. Ilva has vanished into the shadows below with her lantern. You can hear their footsteps

vanish into the tunnel below. She's running dead ahead, no lantern. No, she has a lantern. Oh, fuck. You all have lanterns. We have a good number. A good number of lanterns. Several. It's actually tied onto our belt. We're all running with lanterns. We have a good number. A good number of lanterns. Yes. Several.

It's actually tied onto our belt. We're all running with lanterns. Well, she's running in heels. We can catch her. Yeah. You've never seen me running in heels. Do we know for sure that Medrin ran in there, or are we just guessing?

You don't know for sure? Yeah. Sure, sure. Makes sense. What after? Okay. You all delve down and begin to hodl off your lanterns as you begin to keep up as best you can.

You'll be hearing the distant rapping of her footfalls upon the stone. The tunnel begins to descend in an occasional drop down, and has a gradual angle, but then has these drop-offs and four-foot, five-foot falls. The braces themselves built up into it,

some more ramshackle than others, but enough to see that there was intent of excavation building down. You begin to see, as you pass by, these glowing, soft, exposed elements of green ardor that give off a faint luminescence, that occasionally exposed from the edges of the rock wall, so looking almost smooth.

It's not like a jagged geode. It has a smoothed, extending texture to it. You continue down below, and more of the green ardor begins to greet you as the stone begins to come lesser and less until it feels like there is now appearances of worked stone, almost like walkways and walls, elements of an outer structure that begin to appear

as these odd twisting veins of Adra also now begin to carry their own veins of white, faint, pinkish energy within the Audra Ban itself, a fractal of Audra within itself. You push down, immediately coming upon, on the outside of what looks like some sort of large gateway

that is partially open, you see a skeletal corpse, face down on the ground, arms sprawled out in front, legs behind it, facing the direction where you're coming from. Trying to flee the direction or going forward? Facing you as you approach it. You see this, but continue to run ahead. Roll another resolve.

Best for me, if you don't mind. Nope. You just dart past the corpse and through the gate. It's an 11. Yulva! What the fuck? Who the fuck, Yulva? I really don't want him to get there first.

I want to win. As we approach the skeletal remains, is it wearing anything that we recognize? Not that you recognize. It's wearing standard clothing because it isn't exposed to the elements. It isn't as weathered as the surface is. The outfit it's wearing, it's like a long coat,

it looks like. You know, like front pockets. It's got normal pants on, work boots of some kind. It's like dirt on the elbows and the edges. Yeah. Anything on it? Can we do a quick search of the corpse? Yeah, go ahead and make a perception

or resolve test of your choice. Okay. 12. 12. Pouring through. The only thing of real note that you find is a pocket watch. And with on it, as you look on the inside,

the lid clamps open, it looks cracked. And there's an engraving on the inside that says, Dornielsi. Mm-hmm. Okay. Alceno is with us still? Alceno is dead. I mean, Figuron?

Big Lady is with you. Big Lady is with you. Big Lady is with you. Lady Figurine. Did Medrin say anything about the stones that are all around and why he's running? Not at all. He's acting kind of strange today. Particularly last five minutes.

Good. I did get to fill you guys in in the house, though, right? I talked to you. Yeah, you filled in. We were told, yeah, yeah. So that pocket watch saying is familiar? It's one of the researchers, I think, that Ilvet was talking about. I'm going to cuckoo for cuckoo pups.

Well, don't let her get away. Let's keep going. Yeah, we're still running. We're still going. All right, you dart past him through the opening here. It's within, you smell the scent of decay mingled with an odd, I want to say ashen scent. The chamber interior here, as you step in, it's a baleful cavern

of rising large stone columns that surround the perimeter of a cylindrical opening. It looks like most of it is uncovered, though there is dirt and stone that still obfuscates some of the peak of the inside of this chamber. You can see all intricate carving along these massive pillars.

The green and white Audra veins seem to twist through the walls in a way that feels intentional. Which leads you to believe that the structure was built around the pattern of the Audra and not the other way around. And all of the white Audra veins, the Audrabahn veins still pulse

with that white-purple light. You can see levels of wooden scaffolding built into this chamber, which insinuates that whatever these researchers were, they had set up shop within this room and were studying what's within. And there are some chairs and small tables and platforms set around here that gives you

the vibes of an unbothered excavation site. Beyond the several skeletal corpses, also in untouched attire, that appear to be scattered throughout the floor, like something had just stolen their flesh in about an instant, and they dropped where they stood. What also catches your attention is in the center of this chamber,

between all these columns, is one raw, rising mass of white Audrabahn that rises up to a point about 15 or so feet in the center of this cylindrical chamber. You can see among it this one massive crack that rides about four feet down from the top of it. And you see among one of the secondary levels of scaffolding, Medrin stands there looking up. Adia, voice of hate and promise,

I've brought you the gifts that you asked for and gestures to all of you, where you are clambering up the scaffolding after him. What do the rest of you do? You know, we could obviously go back and just close up the hole, fix the lighthouse. You know that lighthouse you were fixing? Yeah.

We'll add you in. I think that's something we want to do. Yeah. I don't know, what do we do? How far away is Amedrin? He's probably about 25, 30 feet up on the scaffolding, which has a makeshift ladder affixed to it. So far enough away where you couldn't get to him in one turn.

What about an arrow? An arrow could definitely do so. It's about this time, too, that the Audrabahn column itself pulses, and you feel in the room a similar spark, that same taste that you felt in the mists earlier, but that bloody iron taste is so much stronger. It's like someone had filled your mouth

with battery-charged pennies, and that begins to turn into a horrible, strange, electric burning smell that mingles then with a sweet decay. There is an essence of tragedy and fury. The emotions within you feel almost plucked and brimmed sourcelessly. tragedy and fury. The emotions within you feel almost plucked and brimmed sourcelessly.

You feel shades of betrayal in your past you haven't thought of in a while seem to brim from nowhere. As you all feel that overwhelming, almost a nausea take over, you watch as something emerges from the central white crystal. A spectral female form just

drifts out of the crystal and floats in the air. Its tattered blue hair in front of its face, its arms hanging limp. The chamber grows frightfully cold. And the air seems to take up a sourceless gust around you. You, with your high intellect, roll. Roll for me, roll your intellect. It is a high intellect, it might not be a high roll.

There we go, 18. 18. You've heard myths of things like this. The term used is Cain Gula, which translates loosely to blood mother. Horrific spirits who perish under violent, unjust ends and are unable or unwilling to move beyond the Shroud. And as this thought comes to your mind,

you hear this voice, the same voice that reached out to you within that crystal fill the chamber. I call the Beor. The same voice that reached out to you within that crystal filled the chamber. I call the Beor. That which took me shall now feed my fury. You will join me in its binding. The hair pulls back and you watch as her eyes, piercing, glowing red, hate her jaw,

seems to stretch and distend as she screams, I need you all to roll initiative. Oh! Yes! Welcome, Mother! Scary lady! Aw, man! Yeah, that's a one.

That was an excellent sexy sound. I shit my pants. 18. I feel like we'll use this one because it's a bloody battle. She's a blood mother, makes a bloody die. She's really brave. Yes. She's a little lady now. it's her bloody life. She's really brave. Yes.

She's a little lady. She's a little lady. She had her first kill. I am 18 as well. Second. All right, so, sorry, 20 to 15? 18. 18. Roll ease. Roll ease. Roll ease. Nine.

Wait, is this a nine or a six? Nine. Well, mine's a two, so you go first. Okay. Oh shit, yes. Let's go, Minette. Minette. All right. So brave. Uh-huh. Have fun with us, get it over here.

Yeah. All right, and then followed by Ylva. All righty. And that's all to make 15. All right, 15 to 10? 13. 14. 14, all right, we got seven. Roll these if you don't mind, Marisha.

Oh! Figaro. Nine. Figaro's going before you. Okay. All right, and then... Figaroons going before you. Okay. Then we have Sable. Sable. All right, and then 10 to five? That's all of you, right?

Yeah. Eh? Oh, no, no, no. One. One, that's right. That's what it was, yeah. Barg. Where are you? Uh, I'm right after you. As this entity begins to screech outward,

the wind picking up within, the whole interior of it shifting in color as the magic begins to sparkle and change around you. This is a tomb now, and you may forever be lost in here, but you picking up your bravery. Minette, you go first, what do you do? Stop!

Don't do whatever you're going to do. Let's talk. Like, ladies, I'm going to fuck. That's one option. You work for me. Yeah. Yeah. We've learned.

I'm going to fuck this ghost. You know? I'm going to fuck this ghost. You know? I'm going to cast Fan of Flames also. This is cooldown one turn. That doesn't roll over from last time. It just means you can cast it every turn if you want to. Oh, right. So you can choose one or two.

Between Medrin and this entity, you can't get both, so you can choose one or two. Between Medrin and this entity, you can't get both, so you can choose one or the other. Okay. I'm going to cast it at the lady. Oh! Let's see if she takes spell damage. Adia, or the Cairngula, will attempt to block this flame, so go ahead and roll

and add your intellect. 13. 15. Fuck! Dear. You release the flame, and as the flames curl around, they almost arc around and do not even impact the strange, dark spirit. Well, I'm out of ideas.

Is anyone, no one's within spear range, are they? You can move. Can I poke her? You have a pretty decent range on that. She's high up, though. You'd have to climb up onto some of the scaffolding and it's on each side. There's the one, though. You'd have to climb up onto some of the scaffolding. And it's on each side. There's the one that has Medrin and Yurk,

and you watch as Ylva is climbing up currently. The other scaffolding is a little higher, but you're going to have to roll to try and get up there. Do you want to try that? Yeah, fuck it. All right, let's go. Go ahead. And I'll say roll Might or Dexterity, your call. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

A little radical. Fuck. Seven. You get mowsed to the way up. One of the rung that you're holding on just snaps off of the wooden ladder and you fall back. You try and catch, but it's too late,

and you plummet, taking one point of damage. All right. Not too bad, but you are unable to get to the top there this turn. The first time you've gotten it. I know, my first damage. Damage by ladder. Is that your turn? Yes.

All righty, Ylva. Make a resolve check for me, please. Come on, Ylva! For the love of god, come on! Snap out of it, Leola! I'm going to go back to these blood dice. These have been doomed. You just got to beat a 15. 15. Come on!

16! That'll do it. Yay! In this moment, when the spirit appears and that connection that held in you, when you held the audra in your hand, you look up towards it and you feel the urge to turn your spellcraft against your friends to make this a grand sacrifice

in the name of the Beowak. In that moment, you push through and that influence leaves your mind and you are in control of yourself. What do you do? Excellent. I kill my friends. I mean, respect people's good vibes. I don't know.

Now I'm pissed. I'm going to go out of here. Can I use, can I hit Medrin and Adia with Jolting Touch? Because you're already climbing because of the control here. You can move to Medrin, yes. And if you arranged attack, you could go after. I have Jolting Touch, so can it hit both of them

is what I mean, because it's- You could probably do that, yeah. Yeah, that's what I'd like to do. All righty. Yes, that's what I'd like to do. All right, great. So with that, Medrin is going to attempt to dodge, and so is the King Ghula.

So go ahead and roll. Natural 20! Yeah, let's go! Or a total of? What do I add? Intellect. Intellect? Oh, 26. Yeah, neither of them dodged on that one. Yo!

Yo, you can't do it! That's great. All right, so she's so pissed because she has been so eager to exact revenge on the people that put her in the position that got her into this prison, including her fucking husband, that the fact that this revenge got turned against her and her friends fills her with such a fury

that she just lashes out as hard as she possibly can with her brainpower. I love that. 1d12. All right, so go ahead and roll 1d12 for each of them. Or just roll it once and they both take the damage. Nine minus one, eight. Eight damage to each Medrin and Cain Gula.

Your burst of electrical energy shocks into both of them. The spirit takes the hit. And Medrin looks back at you and gives you that look of like, I thought you were on our team, and grins. I would like to use my wand. One, two, three, and attack. Fuck, between the two of them, oh so bad.

Can I make any kind of roll to be able to tell if the pillar is a source of power for... Because I remember reading that we had to get to the, that they were, what is his name? Doremer, the guy with the D, was dying to protect the pillar. Dornielle C. Dornielle C, that guy.

Is there anything I can roll to see if that's a thing? Perception check. You don't want to speak. Intellect. This will take you a stamina, just to take a moment and peer over to ascertain information. You sure you don't want that to be an intellect?

Well, these could be two things back to back, depending on what you see and what you can ascertain information. You sure you don't want that to be an intellect? Well, these could be two things back to back, depending on what you see and what you can ascertain. Gotcha, okay. Come on. 14 plus, what is it, perception? Perception. 16. 16, it's not bad. So from the lower ground, you see this crack

at the top of the pillars. You stand up on the scaffolding. What you do see is the top of the crack is actually a missing chunk of Audra. That's a good, like, you know, it's higher than the scaffolding you're on, and it's probably a good 12 to 15-foot gap from where the scaffolding is to where that is,

but there is an actual gap at the top of that pillar. That shit you have. Yeah. It's clearly that shit I have. Oh, fuck me. Is she going to do it? She's got to! Come on! YOLO! That was what you said, right? I'm going to try to get to however I can get to that part of the pillar.

Okay. It is a 15-foot gap from the top of that scaffolding where you are to where that is. I can't reach that. So you can run, and then I want you to make a dexterity or might check. Dexterity. 19 plus three, 21. Plus three is great. 21?

I'm going to roll to see where the pull is at. 24. Oh! This is a very difficult, from where you're standing, it's a very difficult roll. So the bonus for the dice is a plus 10. Oh, wow. Plus 10. Okay, all right.

So what is it? But it's variable. Yeah, yeah. As opposed to a solid number, but it's a tough one. So what you do is you see this and you run past Medred and leap holding it in the air and you miss it by about a foot, strike the pillar, bounce off of it, and fall back about 15 feet

onto the base of the chamber, hitting for six points of damage. Damn. Where's the chunk of ardor that I had? It falls from your grasp and skids about three feet from where you are and is now just on the floor of the chamber. How many stamina was that run?

Because I had to run to jump? How many stamina did that cost me? Oh, I'll say one stamina. Each one of these little motions or just spending a thing, since you already ran up to there. We have to get this in there. We have to.

I don't know. And I'm just shaking off everything and I think I'm going to call that my turn. What's gotten into you? Okay. It is Cain Gula's turn. That thing! You're crazier than a possum in a hen house.

What? What's the matter with you? I don't even know what that means. The Arnottor is so crazy. But yeah, but you're like, someone get this piece into the pillar! Stop it! The Cangula, the spirit of Edea that is now in the middle of this chamber, shrieking,

is going to spend four stamina to wail. This horrible screeching wail rings out the chamber, echoing and shimmering. The whole sound of it doesn't hit your ears, it hits your spirit. All of you need to roll resolve. Resolve. Including Figrin, which, but the two does not make it.

13. Ooh. 13 again. 12.rin, which, but the two does not make it. 13. Ooh. 13 again. 12. Okay, 13, 12. 21. 11. 21. 21. 20. Oh, pinkies. All right, anyone under 15, which would be you, you, and you.

Okay, I'm marking all of this here. You are all, you are unable to dodge or block until Eidea's next turn. Okay. Big farts. Big farts. Eidea is then going to spin its head towards you, Ylva, as you are the one that tried to leap in the direction of that,

as you're on the ground, sitting up, it does this screaming yell, you grab your ears and manage to pull out of the way, you get back up to your knees and glance up, and it's going to go ahead and use its corrupting stare at you for three essence. Is this blockable or dodgeable? You managed to roll high on your resolve, right?

Yeah, you're not. So you actually can attempt to dodge it. It is not blockable. Okay. It is an unblockable strike. Okay. I keep losing my coat. Oh god. Sorry.

What the fuck is that? Oh, that's a big no! We didn't know. That didn't happen. I'm going down. Okay, so you take two points of poison accumulation as the stair hits you, and you feel like your body wither from the inside. You take, from the strike... Can't be my girlish figure, though.

That's a natural 12 on the 12-sided dice. Oh no! So 16 plus. You guys! 18 points of damage and two points of poison accumulation. I am so close. You're on the cusp of becoming poisoned. And I'm so close to going down.

Oh no. With that, Edea is now going to shift over towards the ground. You're the one who tried to climb up. You're probably the closest, never seen it at the door. It's going to shift over towards the ground. You're the one who tried to climb up. You're probably the closest, never noticed near the door. It's going to rush towards you

and it's going to go ahead and try and strike at you with its claw. This is unblockable, so you can only dodge it if you have the stamina to dodge. I do have the stamina to dodge. Let's go. Go ahead and roll off. Let me do that. Oh, did I lose any stamina for trying to climb?

Oh, but you cannot dodge because you were affected by the whale. I was going to not be a fucking narc, but isn't that? No, that is true. Yeah. So. I just take it. So you take. Hey, we finally got hit.

You take 11 points of damage as she reaches out and claws her spirit into your body and seems to pull out almost like a shard of your soul. You watch as energy seems to shriek out of you past the claws. Also, I need you to roll a constitution for me. Okay. Damn.

Nine. Nine, you are also weakened, which means any attacks you make against the spirit, she can block or dodge for free. Until the next turn. Ooh, nasty business. I don't like it. I don't like it. I don't like it. I don't like it.

And she's going to hold the rest of her turn. At that point, finishing Edea's turn, Galen, you're up with Figrin on deck. So it's real bad. I'm going to take out my bow, all notch and arrow, aiming at Medrin, and I'm going to pull it back as far as I can to make a power attack and shoot.

Power attack, all righty. Come on, baby, come on. All right, so this is Medrin. Yes. Medrin's going to go ahead and spend three stamina to try and dodge. 12, 18. Natural three for an eight. Yay! Nice.

That hits. Power! Oof, that's rough three for an eight. Yay! Nice. That hits. Power! Oof, that's rough. 2d8. Oh, but one of them, the first one of them crits? Is that how it works? It's a free crit, so you just roll an additional damage die. Okay, great.

3d8, 8, 15. Meek! 20, 20 total points of damage. 20 points of damage. That's a heavy hit. Medrin, who's a heavy hit. Medrin, who's healed up a little bit since the battle, with some of the scavenge, who they found,

still hurt, though, takes the arrow and falls and curls over onto the top of the scaffolding to basically get out of your view from where you're standing, but took a heavy hit. Since it was a power attack, and it's a two-handed weapon that does five points of stamina damage to him, he is out of stamina currently.

He cannot dodge or block at the moment. I have some stamina left over. Could I use some stamina to start climbing the scaffolding? You haven't moved yet, so you can try and climb the scaffolding to get up there, to get up to him and make a dexterity check to see if you can get up there. Yeah, let's do it.

And burn two stamina or a stamina? Burn a stamina to do so. Awesome. 19. 19's enough. You need to beat a 15. So you put the arrow or the bow over one shoulder and climb up real fast, get to the top, pull it off over the side, and you can see Medrin's

on the ground trying to pull the arrow from his chest without noticing you right there. Glances over the shoulder just as he heals your, or he hears your feet hit the top of the scaffolding. The scaffolding shakes. They're not very sturdy bits of scaffolding. As it shakes a little bit, you get your bow at the ready and you can make another strike if you want to. If you have the stamina.

I don't, but I'm up. But you're up. I'm up there. Yep, all righty. That finishes your go. Figrin is going to go ahead and try and clamber after you. Actually, no, currently he's more focused on the spirit, because that's scarier to Figgren. And he's like,

The state was not expecting this today. Looks over at you. Ghost? Yeah, fuck that ghost. Fuck that ghost! And she's going to go ahead and, she's going to go ahead and spend the last of her essence to charge against it,

which means she's going to try and attack. Speed seven, can do one attack. That's three. Natural one. Oh, no. Figuring that sucks. No, you're good. Girl. But that's okay. She's going to save four stamina Natural one. No! Figurine, that sucks. Big girl. But that's okay.

She's going to save four stamina to try and protect herself for the coming turn. They finish this Figurine's turn. Sable, you're up. Um, okay. Ilva seems not crazy anymore, right? Maybe. She said she wasn't crazy,

so I'm going to trust my bitch. I'm going to run over, I'm going to grab the big teardrop thing of Audrabahn. Okay. I'm going to grab it. I'm going to look up. I'm real short. I'm a dwarf. Hasbro.

Here's my pitch. Okay. I get on your shoulders. Minette gets on my pitch. Okay. I get on your shoulders. Minette gets on my shoulders. Human tower, put it back. Ghost, not mad no more. I agree. Do we know what's going to happen if we put that shit in there?

Nope, it could arguably get worse. Okay. All right. Excellent. I'm going to scooch it up, run over, and start climbing the top of the scaffolding and wait for the team maneuver. Okay, so it is a 15-foot gap to this pillar, so you get to the top of the scaffolding.

To get to the top from where you were standing at the bottom, roll a dexterity check to see if you can get up there for your full turn. Okay, 15. 15's exactly what you needed. Great. You clamber up there without issue. You step next to and move past where Galen is

and near where Medrin's currently on the ground and getting himself more prepped and ready. Indeed, there's a little bit of a five-foot runway, and then there is the distance to the top of this pillar. And did I run past Medrin? I did, right? You're just up against Medrin with this. Yeah.

Yep! And I'm just down. Medrin cannot block her dodge because that power attack knocked out all of his stamina. So go for it. Yes! Ooh, okay, and wait. So with power attack, making an attack, you're going to choose to spend

double the stamina cost of the attack to make it a power attack. Additional damage die. And if damage is the opponent, they're going to lose the stamina. Right, he has no stamina at the moment. So he can't block it. Which means you can't block or dodge. So your attacks just do damage.

They just do damage. So even if I do a power attack, it's all the same for me, because it's 1d6. So whatever, I'll just do three for right now to just do a power attack, it's all the same for me because it's 1d6. So whatever, I'll just do three for right now to just do a regular attack. Let's go. Doesn't make too much of a difference. Six? Nope, that's a one. Five damage. Five damage, all righty.

I'll do it one more time. Why not? See what happens. Jesus, one again. So another five damage. Another five damage. Medrin's turning it up and you just come over and he's like, Oh my god! What are you doing? Come on! Stabby, stabby, stabby.

All right, does that finish your turn? I'm going to scurry away and then wait. Okay. Medrin finally pulls away from your dagger and you're right there at the, there's a five-foot rock in the scaffolding. Medrin's right in front of you and Gaeon's behind you and he's like,

You fuckers! with a five-foot rock in the scaffolding. Medrin's right in front of you, and Galen's behind you, and he's like, You fuckers! Unleashes Phantom Flames, the improved Phantom Flames, on you all. So with that, do either of you have stamina to try and dodge or block? I will dodge. Let's go. Come on, Caleb.

Need to be to 18. 18, okay. Negative, negative. Oh, natural one. Damn, that is my third one in a row. All right, so both of you. Damn. Didn't roll any max dice on this, though.

That's going to be 13 points of damage to each of you, and both of you get two points of fire accumulation. Okay. So you are now both starting to burn. The flames are starting to burn, and one more bit of that, and you both ignite. With that, Medrin, who is pissed at you for just coming over and shanking him as he's getting up,

is going to pull out his blade and come and attack you. Oh, he does have all the stamina back here. So with that, are you dodging or? I will. Or blocking? Do you have stamina to do so? I do, I have four stamina left. Up to you. I'll block, just in case.

Let's go. Yeah, 20 total. 15, you beat it. So the first goes wide. Pissed is going to spend four more stamina to attack you again. I'll let it happen. You can't dodge it, so I only have to roll for that.

That will be. One stamina left. That is going to be 10 points of damage to you. The first one, you manage to just get out of the way. He flips it around in his hand and then back slices you with the blade that shanks you into the chest. Ah! Okay.

Yeah, and that's going to go ahead and end his turn. Haspero, you're up. So is she in position to do this maneuver? She is right at the edge, about five foot of a runway, holding onto this otter. By the way, end of your turn, make a resolve check for me. Oh, because I'm holding it?

Yeah. But I'm not looking at it. No, but you've been holding it for a moment. Oh, I see. Come on, come on, baby. Come on. Come on. I'm holding it, but I'm not, come on, come on, baby. Come on. I'm holding it, but I'm not looking at it. Ooh, okay, okay. 18. Yeah. Whew. Unaffected.

Okay. I don't want to let no ghost rocks get in my head. So I'm still on the ground, so I got to get up there. You do, yeah. So what do I spend for that, one stamina? Spend one stamina and roll dexterity for me. Okay. You got it, you got it, you got it.

Oh no. That's a five. Five. So you spend a second, you get partway up, because this isn't the other one, which is very, very tall, that you were trying to get at the top of. This one is halfway up.

You do get to the top of it, but you don't get to the edge of where she is. So you managed to get to where it is. You're halfway to position. And I don't have any more movement I can do. I'll say in this instance, because it's cinematic and fun, if you want to spend three stamina,

I'll let you close that distance. I will do it. Okay. So then, she has it, she's not corrupted. We could potentially go for it now. If you wanted to spend another three stamina to take it from her and attempt to make that leap.

Well, I was going to get on his shoulders. Oh, okay. That was the thing. And then, unless, if we can make it, awesome. If not, then Minette can do a little circus pyramid. Gotcha, okay. So what you're doing is you're now going to send the rest want, then Minette can do a little circus pyramid. Gotcha. Okay. So what you're doing is you're now going to send the rest of us to get into position. Sure.

Then you're going to hold your turn or? Hmm. What do you think? Well, if I can just go for a little shoulder ride, then I can wait for Minette and maybe she can get up there and do the deed. Because how does this work in terms of turn order? But doesn't, what's her face go, bad guy? Because Minette's going to go at the start of the next round. Minette's going to go

at the start of next turn. But when does the bad guy go? After you. So it's going to be Hasbro and then it's going to go Minette. Oh, oh. So either I can hold or, I mean, I should maybe attack Medrin, right? Or something? Am I able to get

on his shoulders? Is he able to whip me up now? On your turn, you can. On my turn. But that's so far away. I mean, I can try and hand it off to you real quick, if you think you can do a little like... Do it. Yeah, vertical.

What do I need to roll, might? This would be a might roll, I think. That's everything. That's your, all right. How much stamina would I need to do that? I'll put this at five stamina. Five stamina! You're more or less attacking the pillar.

I believe in you. I could take a shot and then go for it. I think I'm going to do it because it's just funny. So... And Medrin isn't within sight? Medrin is, yeah, maybe 15 feet from you. I'm going to shoot him with a gun.

Yeah, shoot him with a gun! No problem. I'm going to shoot him with a gun. Is he... He doesn't have any stamina. He doesn't have any stamina, right? He does because he's had his turn since, so he got the stamina back.

So he has enough to try and dodge once. Okay. So you will spend that, so let's go ahead and roll. Let's see what we got. I'm going to roll this out. Two. Oh no! That's a two.

A two. What? What's your bonus? My bonus? What do you mean? To hit with your gun. Uh, I only have keen. Oh, sorry, to hit should be plus one. One plus one, two. Oh, I see, I see.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he does, unfortunately, dodge. So you go to fire with the gun, pistol. You go to shoot, there's a cloud of smoke, and he's already ducking out of the way, spinning off to the side, embracing himself on the edge of the wall. The scaffolding, now, with all of you standing on it, is like, it's rocking precariously.

This is a slippery son of a bitch. By design. I don't know if I like this guy. But he's out of stamina. All right. Take that. I'm just going play some, but. By design. I'm not this guy. But he's out of stamina. All right. Take that. I'm just going to go for it. Come on! Let's play some, baby! Okay, what's your might bonus?

Plus six. Plus six? Get it, Big Blue! All right, the DC on this is a 20, so you have to roll a 14 or higher to try and accomplish this. Yeah, go, go, go. I love it, let's go.

No! 18. Yes! Get it! You run. You push off of this. The rest of you feel the scaffolding. I'm going to go ahead and... 15 on that.

The scaffolding holds. Oh! If I'd rolled under a 10, the scaffolding would have collapsed. Oh, okay. But you leap full on like Michael Jordan. Yeah. Yeah, slam dunk!

Slam it into that missing chunk of the crystal pillar. As you do, putting all your weight behind it, it hits and slides in. As it does, the crystal seems to glow from within, that purple light pulsing outward. It seems to spread and fill the chamber with bright white light. As you all have to withdraw

from the pain of it on your eyes, you then hold onto the top, slide from the top, and plummet 15 feet to the ground. Oh! The windshield slide? Yeah. For three points of damage. Okay, all right. As you hit the ground, this Audra Bonne pillar is just bright within the room,

and you see Edea, the Kangaroo, like, as it lights up, this beam of light emerges from it. The rock above seems to crack away. It burns and carves some beam of burning light up through the ceiling of the chamber. Is that your turn? Yeah. Okay.

That's going to bring us back to Minit. That ruled. Yeah, I was so sick. Don't even know if it was a good thing, but worth it. I know, right? The Ghostbusters reactors. Yeah. How close?

We're still fighting Medrin, right? Still fighting Medrin and Edea. So she's still there. Oh, she's still there. That didn't fuck her up. All right. You have removed some of her abilities. Oh, okay. Okay. Well, then I'm going to spend for essence, which is one, two, three, four.

That's all of my essence. I've got one left, so I hope this works. I'm going to use Jolting Touch on the two of them. Okay, let's go. So let's see here. You were weakened, so Eidea gets to block for free from you. And Medrin has no stamina, so Medrin just takes it.

Go ahead and roll for Eidea. What, for damage or for? Yeah, to hit, so roll and add your inflect. Fuck. Four? Four, unfortunately, misses the spirit of Edea. However, Medrin cannot dodge and is standing up on the side.

You can just barely see where the shaking scaffolding is and you do strike him, so he takes the damage. Go ahead and roll that. Mm-hmm. Six. Six takes the damage. Go ahead and roll that. Mm-hmm. Six. Six points of damage. Magic is knocked to the back and falls back onto Muneen. He's like, breathing deep, and his eyes,

now seeing what's happening with the spirit, you see him shake something out of his mind, and now there's panic in his eyes. The drive and the will of whatever brought him here and continued to push on is gone, and now it's panic in his eyes. The drive and the will of whatever brought him here and continued to push on is gone, and now it's just survival instinct and looking for an escape route. Ooh, okay.

The spirit is still screeching and wailing and furious at what's occurred. What do you want to do with your turn? Am I in poking range? You are. It flew down and struck you. Its turn to now focus on the chamber, but it's right next to you still. I am going to way through this? You are. It flew down and struck you its turn to now focus on the chamber, but it's right next to you still. I am going to try to poke her.

Okay, she gets to dodge and block you for free. She still gets to block a fuck. Just forever? Oh, until her next turn. Just because she struck you and weakened you. Okay. Oh my god. Let's go. Is there a roll to hit?

Plus what? Intellect? Next to your spear, I should say, plus. Oh shit, I've not been adding that. Oh well, six anyways. Six? Yeah. Dotted out of the way, unfortunately. Want to keep going or?

Yeah, let me, one, two, three, four, five. Yes, keep going. Eight. Eight. 16. Goddamn it! You guys have not been on your side. I know, I'm going to go again. Let's go, roll again. Come on! Five.

Come on! Big money. 16. Eight. Yes! Go ahead and roll damage. Yay, finally! Punk! Sticky. Roll damage. Okay. Good damage, roll damage. Puck! Sticky. Roll the damage. Good damage, good damage.

Three. Three points to hate, all adds up. All adds up. And I'm going to go use the litter box. That's right. Yes. I used to shit in the litter box. All right, that finishes your turn. Ilva, you're up. Oh crap.

With Adia coming up next. Am I close enough to use a Jolting Touch on the two baddies? I'd say so, yeah. Crap, but I have 10 health, so I could Arcane Veil and use the wand. Do it. At this point, she's so angry

and she knows she fucked up, so she's not even worried about her own self-preservation. She just wants them to go, so Jolting Touch. So I roll to hit, I'm assuming, because I'm assuming they're both going to try to. She's going to spend three or four to try and dodge your attack. And that's plus intellect, right?

Medrin cannot. So go ahead and roll, add your intellect. 18 plus six, so 24. She rolled a 20 total, so that hits. Excellent. So go ahead and roll damage, and they both take it. Big money. Cut. 11 minus one, 10.

10 points, actually. Okay. The shock arcs off, hits the spirit. She pulls back and it damages her. It arcs off of her and strikes up to Medrin as it impacts. How do you want to do this? Yeah! Just with severe fury in her eyes,

especially at being taken by him, she takes out all of the vengeance that she wishes she was able to take out on the people who wronged her. And as she's staring at him, she just watches him as she sends the lightning bolt through him and into Edea? Mm-hmm. That's her name? Yep.

And sends her, but watches him as he hopefully just and falls. So you watch as he's seeing all this happening, the panic in his eyes. He gets up and starts sprinting towards the edge of the scaffolding to try and leap down and over the rest of you out the exit. As he runs,

he slows down and steps up to the edge of the scaffolding where there's burned hole in his torso. He looks over and slowly tips forward, smacking hard into the stone floor, no longer moving. Yes! I am going to use some stamina to fire at Edea from my wand. Edea.

Edea! Wand. 19 plus two, 21. Well, Edea doesn't have any stamina to dodge you. Oh, fantastic. I wasted a roll for nothing. That's a great roll. Can I save that for later? No, no, you can't. My wand is 1d6 plus three.

I wish I could do that. Six damage. All righty. And then I would like to use three more stamina to do it again. Let's go. Seven damage. All righty. I would like to use three more stamina to do it again. Let's go. Seven damage. All right. I would like to use three more stamina to do it again. Come on. All righty.

Four damage. All righty. Oh no. I would like to use three more stamina to go again. There's no tomorrow! Let's go. There is no tomorrow, and I have so few hit points left or health points left. Five plus three, eight damage. Eight damage, all righty.

A lot of hits. Does that finish your turn? Because you're just one strike after one strike, just blasting into the spirit. I would like to, if there is any possibility of using, because I can't block with two stamina or dodge with two stamina, can I use two stamina to just roll behind something?

Because I've been, if there's any possibility of me getting behind. I mean, you haven't moved. You're on the scaffolding still. Ugh, so there's no way to hide. Hang off? Well, no. You leapt to try and get in there, so you're actually still on the ground, right?

Right, I've been doing this from the ground. So you can try and move behind one of the pillars as part of your movement. Yeah, let me try to get behind something so that it can't move. Okay. You don't have to spend stamina for that. You just move behind it because you haven't moved this turn. I'd like to do that. All right.

That finishes your go? Yes. All right, top of the round. Brings us back to Edea, who is furious, has lost the weakened ability of her strikes, so that is gone. Is going to go ahead and Corrupting Stare you at the top of the round. You can't stare at me, I'm hiding. She can move to follow you.

I don't see you, I don't see you, I don't see you! I closed my eyes, so I can't see you! You can't stare at me! Do you have enough stamina to block her dog? I don't. So you take... I'm going down, kids. That's going to be 19 points of damage. I am down.

Oh no! All righty. So when you go to zero health, go ahead and roll and add your resolve. Roll a 20? Roll a d20? Yes, correct. You're going to pick that one? The blood dice have been very good. Now that I've said that, please deliver, kids.

Please deliver. Is it plus anything? Plus your resolve. 16 plus two, 18? All right, you remain standing at one hit point. Oh! Just barely. Push through. Throw her some hardtack.

Ah! Nope. However. I have a biscuit! You do take a third point of poison. Oh crap! You are now poisoned. So now that means you cannot dodge, and at the start of your next turn, you take 1d8 poison damage. No, so I'm going to potentially go down right away.

So she is going to swoop up to you as you stand on your feet and strike at you with an attack. You cannot dodge because you are poisoned, so you immediately take 2d8 damage, which takes you down, make another resolve roll. Oh my god. Oh my god.

Hot. Yep. Yep. Yep. 15 plus two, 17. 17? You barely hold on. Wow.

I'm not dead yet! I think I'll go for a walk! Well, let's see, no, it was 15 originally. It goes up two every time, so 17. You barely hold on. Furious is going to make another strike on you. She's out for you. Down she goes. Oh, no, I'm rolling. You can't even take damage.

You go down again, make another resolve roll. That's 19, you. Down she goes. Oh, no, I'm rolling. You can't even take damage. Down I go again. You go down again, make another resolve roll. This is now a 19. You got this. 14. Blood draw for three. Nope. You are now unconscious. If you aren't stabilized by the beginning of your next turn, you will be dead.

We didn't use all that heart attack for happy snuggle time, did we? Bam! Well, I don't know. Yeah, I don't have power. You don't have any more? You used it all up? Does anybody have anything?

All right, well, you know. Then Adia's going to shift back out of the chamber. Like,. And is going to spend four more stamina to try and wail. I need all of you players to make a resolve roll. Resolve roll! Jeez louise! It's like it's a boss or something.

18. 18, you're fine. 15. 22. Nope, six. All of you avoided except for you. So Sable, you are unable to block or dodge until Kangula's next turn. Okay.

And she is focused intensely on you for vengeance. All right, that's going to finish her turn. Galen, you're up. Am I able to get within a sword's strike distance of our floating Shrieking Lady? She's down towards the ground at the moment, floating up above. You can try and leap off of the scaffolding

and strike on the way down. You have to roll a dexterity check to do so. Yeah, let's do that. All right, so roll a dexterity check. Not too hard, it's a 10. Oh, great. Oh, that's a seven. I know.

Total seven? Yep. You're a little bit short, Oh! Total seven? Yep. Oops. Ah! You're a little bit short, and you do like face plant on the ground. You do take six points of damage. No! From the impact, but you do get up and you're able to approach. This is more or less to see if you avoid the damage from it.

So. Yeah, I'll take a strike with the sword. All right. Is she going to block her down? She doesn't have this damage, or two. Oh, she doesn't. Oh, that's a 12, which explodes. Yep. Let's go.

Six, 18, plus two is 20 for the first strike. You don't have to, well, is that plus two is 20 for the first strike. You don't have to, well, is that going to be 20? It is. Sorry. See, it's catching. It happens always. Be a 12. Not a 12.

Damn. That's six points of damage for the first one. All right, six points of damage. And then I'll burn another four for another strike. Five, eight points of damage. All righty. One, two, three, four, and one more swipe with the sword,

because why the fuck not? To be a bitch! Also eight points of damage. Eight points of damage. Three heavy strikes. Your ankle's aching. You may have sprained or broken something, but you're still swinging away with this blade.

Swing away. Still swinging. Swing away. Swing away. With each impact, the light's getting brighter from the Audra, and the spirit seems to be diminishing with each blow. Some heavy hits on it. Does that finish your turn? It does.

All right, at the end of your roll, Galen, it is now Figrin's turn, who has been praying for this moment out of the spirits and range, is going to go ahead and regain the stamina. I got this, babe. I do got this. He's going to go ahead and spend

seven stamina to strike this time. Doesn't even have to roll to hit, because Ydia cannot strike. That's going to be 2d8 plus four. One's an eight, that explodes. Yeah! That's 13. 14 plus four. Oh, plus another four on a crit.

So that's 32 points of damage. Ooh! How do you want to do this in PC? Let's go, NPCs! That is the end of Figrin's stamina. That Figrin takes a one heavy strike, a heavy hit. That's amazing. A massive blow that sends a spirit like,

straightening out, and it goes through the pillar and emerges to the other side. The jaw is getting more open and crooked. Avenge me. Figrin begins to take a few steps back. Babe, I'm scared. I got you, babe. Finishing your suit, Sable, you're up.

So I can't block or dodge until? Until the end of the Kangol is next turn. So you know what that means. All damage all day, baby. Can the spear block or dodge? No, also out of stamina. We're just rolling damage here, guys. First attack. Let me just make sure.

One, two, three, first attack. That's going to be seven damage. All righty. Second attack. Seven damage. Third attack. Five damage, not great. Fourth attack. Give me a six. Five. Nine damage great. Fourth attack. Give me a six.

Five. Nine damage. All righty. That's my turn. Fantastic. Once again, you're all swarming in now on the spirit, almost ping-ponging between your weapons as you all begin to fill the chamber around.

The spirit tries to escape one and falls right into the clutches of another, just being knocked between each of these flurry of blows on all sides. That finishes the go. The spirits start to flicker, and you can see it, the tether, this weird ephemeral bind that holds it

to the Audra Pillars starting to break and pull apart. All right, so finishing, Sable to go, Haspel, you're up. Am I within striking distance? You can move to get striking distance if you want to. How much? Actually, no. Yeah, because you're on the ground after the fall. Get up, yeah, you totally, you can move up to it, yeah.

I'm going to switch to the Great Hammer. Let's go! All right, spend a stamina to switch it, let's go. Okay. That is a great hammer. Let's go. I'm going to do a Great Hammer Strike. So she cannot dodge. She cannot block or dodge. Come on. Come on, baby.

That is 13. 13 points of damage? Yes. How do you want to do this? Yes! Avenge me! So I look at her and I go, going to be totally honest, I don't really know what's going on.

But my homie, Eva, she said some stuff about you're a researcher or something, but anyway, Figrin, this is for you, babe. Boom! Figrin! This is for you, babe! Not a swing that quakes the chamber with its pullback and quakes it even harder with the impact. As you slam it down, the blast hits the spirit

and you hear the one final echoing scream. Yeah! As the hammer cracks the ground, the central of the chamber itself caving in, Dragon Ball Z style. You see rocks and stones get thrown in the air around it before they drop from the sheer blast. You see cracks in the nearby walls,

like, slightly not enough to make it dangerous, but enough to show that that was fucking hard hit. As the bits of the spirit energy scatter and the barely visible tether to the Adra fades. You all sit around and breathe heavy. Split-second moment on your turn before you lose your friend, Ilja. Or Ilva, what do you do?

Okay, Medrin died while I was peeing, right? Yeah. Did he drop any food? You can go and attempt to quickly inspect. Did he drop any food? You can go and attempt to quickly inspect. Did he drop any essence also? Oh, he did drop essence. He dropped eight essence. Can I hulp, hulp, hulp, hulp, hulp?

Sure. Or can I force that down my friend's throat? I mean, you can, but that doesn't really. That doesn't do anything. Food? Food heal her? If you have food that could functionally, you could force her to eat. Okay. There's pigeon downside! It's going to take a lot of stamina

to force an unconscious friend to eat food, but it's not impossible. Okay, I am going to see if Medrin, he healed himself with some food, so I'm assuming he's got snackies. All right, so here's what we're going to do. You want to use your movement partially to rush over to Medrin's he healed himself with some food, so I have a feeling he's got snackies. All right, so here's what we're going to do. You want to use your movement partially to rush over to Medrin's singed corpse.

I need you to roll a perception check or a resolve check to try and push through his body to see if you can find anything that still remains that is edible. Perception or what? Resolve. Resolve. Fuck yeah, resolve. Yeah, that's right. Ha-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la.

Pew! Oh no. Seven. Total of seven? Right, that's right. Seven. Total of seven? Day up. No food on his body. Fuck! He healed a bit because he ate it all. Can I? I get her shoes. Is there any other way to heal my friend?

Can I give her a speech? Can I talk to her? I don't want you to die! The last thing you could do is try and stabilize her slipping into death, but since you used movement to search his body in the middle of this rush, you can try and spend, I'll say, the rest of your stamina to try and remove any bits of cloth that you might have,

any semblance of remnant healing interests that you might conceive. This will be an intellect roll. I never put down my petticoat. I still have it with me, so. Wait, so you've been fighting naked this whole time? No, a petticoat goes underneath. Okay, so make sure.

You silly boy. This person hasn't had any knickers on. So everyone can see all her naughty bits from she was on the scaffold. That's what I was like. Yeah, it's a view. Meow. Meow indeed.

So you put the petticoat under your arm, you rush over and are going to attempt to essentially triage your friend where the poison is corrupting into the body. Yeah. I need you to roll an intellect check to see if you can logic out and remember anything about solving this.

This is going to be... Can I use one of yours? Which one do you want, 20? This is going to be a 16. use one of yours? Which one are you going to do? A 120? This is going to be a 16. Come on, this is a roll. I'm going to roll like shit all night. I know. I'm grieving you.

For my friend. 16 total. Exactly? Holy shit, that's a 14 on the die! Yay! Are you fucking kidding me? Oh, thank you so much! When it counts.

My friend, ladies don't die. I'm taking a picture of that shit. Very unladylike to die. Not dying is a virtue, after all. In the faintest of gentle moments, you wait for your friend to cross the threshold, but her breath never stops,

and then it grows stronger until eventually her eyes open. You're alive, Ylva! Very ladylike indeed. Please don't be mad. All of my underwear is in your open wounds. But I think it helped. Won't be the first time. Nope, no.

Hopefully the last. You know, I think there's some really good pigeon stew waiting back at the lighthouse for us. I'm so sorry. I thought exacting revenge was what I needed. But it only caused so much pain and so much trouble and I'm sorry. It's okay.

Yeah. We're Team Reach Around. Team Reach Around? Yeah. What goes around, comes around. As you pick up your arms and march outside of the blazing chamber, you crawl through the subterranean tunnels back to where the base of the lighthouse remains.

It is here that you see the lighthouse is partially crumbled, for the base of this pillar and its beam of energy has torn through it. So while the lighthouse remains no beacon for salvation, the beam of light that seems to climb into the sky should be enough to get someone's attention. With a glimmer of hope of being saved by any passing ship,

you smell the delicious scent of freshly cooked, odd carrion seabird in a nearby kitchen. As your new interesting lady friend slaps you on the ass. You all look at each other with a smile and a nod and continue to where dinner is waiting. That's where we're going to go ahead and finish. Yay!

Yay! The day is here! Oh, oh, oh! That's the moment, guys. Woo! That was oh, oh! That was fun, y'all. Thanks for coming along for that. Yeah! Aw! Yeah, thank you, man.

That was so cool. That was fun. Weird and perfect. I love it, I love it. I just do not. Yeah. But no, really appreciate y'all for coming. Friends, old and new, this has been so fun.

And thank you again to our friends at Xbox and Obsidi Entertainment for letting us play in the world of Avowed tonight. And thank you all for joining us for that. A reminder that while you may have recognized the spaces and characters explored tonight as inspired by elements from Avowed and its universe, we want to emphasize that these characters and events

in this one shot were our own creations, as if you couldn't tell. And are not official content, as if you couldn't tell, And our non-official content, as if you couldn't tell, from the Avowed game. They were only inspired by it. But I'm going to put up a recipe for carrion, pigeon. I'm going to find one for us and make a delicious dinner for us in celebration. I love that plan.

And when we get out of the hospital, we can thank you again for joining us. But all that being done, go check out Avowed. It's a great game. It's out now. Some people at the table are in it. So check it out at xbox.com slash avowed for more info. Thank you all so much.

We love you. Good night. Yay! Thank you so much for joining us on this adventure. To help new listeners discover the show, please give us a rating and review on whatever podcasting app you're listening on. Until next time, is it Thursday yet?