Critical Role - Bitterness and Dread | Exandria Unlimited: Calamity Episode 2

Episode Date: June 9, 2022

The Ring of Brass deepen their investigation into Vespin's inconceivable ritual while juggling their own profound desires and lofty ambitions... Meet the Players! Game Master Brennan Lee Mulligan: https://twitter.com/BrennanLM Luis Carazo: https://twitter.com/luiscarazo Aabria Iyengar: https://twitter.com/quiddie Marisha Ray: https://twitter.com/Marisha_Ray Sam Riegel: https://twitter.com/samriegel Travis Willingham: https://twitter.com/WillingBlam Lou Wilson: https://www.instagram.com/sweetlouzinho/ Original Music by Omar Fadel and Hexany Audio Main theme by Colm R. McGuinness Additional Music by Universal Production Music, Epidemic Sounds, and 5 Alarm Character art by Hannah Friederichs Stained glass art by Joanna Johnen Opening Title by Christian Brown GM Screen by Dog Might Minis by Iron Tusk Minis Due to the improv nature of RPG content on our channels, some themes and situations that occur in-game may be difficult for some to handle. If hearing discussions of certain episodes or scenes become uncomfortable, we strongly suggest taking a break or skipping that particular episode. Your health and well-being is important to us and Psycom has a great list of international mental health resources, in case it’s useful: http://bit.ly/PsycomResources Twitch subscribers gain instant access to VODs of our shows like Critical Role, Exandria Unlimited, and 4-Sided Dive. But don't worry: Twitch broadcasts will be uploaded to YouTube about 36 hours after airing live, with audio-only podcast versions of select shows on Spotify, iTunes, & Google Play following a week after the initial air date. Twitch subscribers also gain access to our official custom emote set and subscriber badges and the ability to post links in Twitch chat!

Hi, everyone. I'm Marisha Ray, and I am very excited to welcome you to Exandria Unlimited on the Critical Role Podcast Network. Exandria Unlimited airs Thursdays at 7 p.m. Pacific on Twitch and YouTube. If you would like to watch the video on demand, it is available immediately for Twitch channel subscribers and is uploaded to YouTube on Mondays at noon. Exandria Unlimited is, of course, also available in podcast form on Thursdays, a week after the original broadcast, right here on the Critical Role Podcast Network. All right, let's jump into Exandria Unlimited. Hello and welcome to Exandria Unlimited Calamity.

I'm your humble GM, Brennan Lee Mulligan. Hello and welcome to Exandria Unlimited Calamity. I'm your humble GM, Brennan Lee Mulligan. It's so wonderful to come back here for another episode of Calamity. Now, last week, I didn't talk very much at the top of the show. This week, I'm not going to make the same mistake. I'm going to talk a little bit longer

and give Marisha time before I throw to her for some announcements. So. Marisha, what's your announcements? Oh my goodness. Perfect throw. I'm getting hang of it. That's time to prepare. I am so excited, you guys, to announce A Familiar Problem,

which is a new one-page RPG from Darrington Press. Now, this is a game of magical familiars on a mission that was created by myself. What? I know. Alongside Honey Heist designer Grant Howitt. Let's go! Also Crash Pandas, he's the best.

Love you, Grant. In a familiar problem, you'll play as scrappy and stressed-out familiars, just really trying to get a grip on the chaotic lives that your adventuring party subjects you to. You try to make a difference any small way that you can, with what little abilities that you can, to prove that you're up to adventure, band together, and undertake a daring quest of your own. Now, you can find the game first at U.S. stores, participating in Free RPG Day on June 25th, internationally on July 23rd, and we'll release it

on a big scale later this year. Big scale! Big scale! Ooh! Big scale release, guys! Big scale release! They call me Big Scale! So stay tuned, but go to your friendly local game store first and support them and get some free RPGs and free RPGs.

You can learn more at DarringtonPress.com. In addition. Oh, wait, there's more? Announcement number two. Announcement number two. Announcement number two. Foresight Dive, you guys, it's back. Episode three airs this Tuesday, June 7th at 7 p.m. Pacific on Twitch and YouTube.

That is the first Tuesday of the month. Come listen to people talk and fuck around. That's it? It's in the calendar. It's great, it's in the calendar. Travis, for the merch announcement. Oh, I got to throw. I got to throw. You guys, it's 2022, calendar. A Travis for the merch announcement! I got a throw, I got a throw. You guys, it's 2022, which means we have a new Pride shirt. Hey!

Come celebrate Pride with our new It's Love That Makes People t-shirt. Aww! Isn't that dandy? Oh, I should really hold it up. God, Laura's going to kick my ass. Look at all the little dice and stuff. It's so cute, it's cool.

A portion of each of these sales go to our charity partners at Outright Action International, which is a nonprofit aimed at researching, documenting, defending, and advancing human rights for LGBTQIA plus people around the world. We love them. We've been working with them for years. And grab your new Pride shirt. Yay!

Ow! Well. Great announcements. Great. Really good announcements all around. For those of you coming back, this is episode two of Exandria Unlimited Calamity, a vision of an ancient past in the world of Exandria at the ending of the Age of Arcanum

and the beginning of something strange and horrifying. For those of you that want to come in and join us, again, this is episode number two. I suppose a little bit of a recap. Last week we met. Yeah, last week we met our wonderful heroes of Avalir in the Ring of Brass, the somewhat under the radar council of those who actually in the Ring of Brass, the somewhat under-the-radar council of those

who actually do the moving and shaking of the Flying City of Avalir. We move and we shake. We met the guildmaster of the Golden Scythe, Nydas O'Kiro. What's the name of my character? The Keeper of Scrolls, Pasha Por'Kor. Por'Kor.

First Knight of Avalir, Sir Xerxes Iliris. Xerxes! Herald of Avalir, Loquacious Seelie. Oh, hello, thank you. Architect Arcane, Laerryn Coromar Seelie. You're welcome. And Senior Sightwarden, Serrit Pinch Aggrupne. A'go!

Oh! and sear it pinch agrupne. No! No! On the eve of the Replenishment, which is the great holiday, once every seven years, after a long seven-year venture, the city of Avalir, traveling along Xandria's many ley lines, returns back to Cathmoira, its terrestrial sister city, and realites as the peak of the mountain

on its ancient base, where once it stood as a full mountain, and all of the magic that Avalir has stored up in its etheric net, all of the ether that the city has traded for and gathered and bartered for, is released into the continent of Domunas, where it creates a flourishing of crops and newfound magic and all sorts of wonders and replenishes the land.

We are on the eve of such a replenishment this very day. However, some strange tidings have come to the city as some artifacts, some debris, some things broken, corroded, and dispelled made their way aboard the city from its last port of call. You talking about Bolo? Bolo.

That's pretty rude, dude. Pretty rude, pretty rude. To call someone debris. If I get called debris, you are debris, my man. I don't think he's wrong. I don't mind. I don't mind. Why you call me this?

The important thing is this. The detritus of the ritual of Vespin Chloris. Look him up! They did a whole video about the guy and what he did in the history of Exandria. Literally, you can go look it up. It's an amazing video. It rules. It's very cool. Look him up! They did a whole video about the guy and what he did in the history of Exandria. Literally, you can go look it up. It's an amazing video.

It's rules. It's very cool. Made its way aboard Avalir, and something rotten within the heart of the city has begun to be exposed by our brave heroes. Only time will tell if they have caught it before it is too late. Without further ado, we return to Avalir and Exandria

in tonight's episode of Critical Role. Thank you. We'll see you next time. We return to exactly where we left off. There will be no skipping forward. The events of this night are all a little bit too critical, a little bit too close together. Important things happen in the span of a single breath here on the eve of the Replenishment. We return now to a small room off the side of the Grand Banquet Hall

in the Palazzo Porco, where Sarit Agrubnin crouches in a room with a disanimated scarecrow soaked with champagne, a mutilated dead body covered in carved runes and blood, and a cracked mirror in which you now only see your own reflection. Where do we find our intrepid sight warden in this moment, having just witnessed the screaming visage

of Vesp and Chloras? And I will clarify here in this moment, it is a face you recognize. Easily done at the Hawk's Nest, at the Hall of Eyes back in Cloudstone. Every senior Archmage, anyone in any terrestrial city, anywhere on Exandria that you have traveled has their image recorded and their arcane mark

written down to be recreated at a site warden's discretion with a minor illusion. So you, earlier today, when you were going into the room, had Vesp and Chloris' face animated with illusory magic in front of you to know the man by sight. Although I cannot say that you recognized him well in the mirror, given that most of the skin

of his face had been peeled off. Oh! He threw his hand against the mirror and shattered it, right? He dived forward. It could have been his hand or his head or something along those lines that shattered the mirror and shattered it, right? He dived forward. It could have been his hand or his head or something along those lines that shattered the mirror. And then disappeared.

Yeah, in the moment of its breaking, disappeared, and you were looking at a mirror again. I've repressed it since last session. I also forgot the scary part. Yeah. It was legitimately scary. Saret will stand there with his hawks still drawn at a ready position and say,

that's not something you see every day. Forgot. Perfect. I'll scan the room again. I'll holster the hawks, and seeing this mangled face next to the dum-da-dum-dum, the hummedas. I can't remember what it was.

I'll go through it again, because I never finished the investigation of the actual scarecrow. Right. You conclude your investigation there. You arrive at what you assume. Normally in a construct,

there would be some animating thing. There'd be some glyph or some point of interaction where there would be its heart, its engine, something central to animate the thing. You... go into the Hod Medad. Most of it is just fabric and a little bit of stuffing. There's something to pad out the clothing a little bit, because these are just for menial tasks.

At its center, there is a glyph with the emblem of the Golden Scythe on it. Oh, the Golden Scythe. Yeah, created by the Golden Scythe. And I think you would know, on your investigation check, actually, for this one, go ahead and give me an arcana check, if you'd be so kind. Yeah, that's the big numbers, kids.

Hang on. Here we go. 12. You have... Level 14. Level 14, yay. You, a 12 is enough for you to know that you are disturbed by the lack of animating material within this hodmedod.

I mean, you know that the Golden Scythe you are disturbed by the lack of animating material within this hodmedod. I mean, you know that the Golden Scythe has had to find some way to put a fleet of constructs out on the market. I mean, these hodmedods are not only created by the Golden Scythe, they are sold. People can buy them. You can get them in different colors.

You can customize them to whatever your house crest is. They sell these things. They're, and so as a result, you're wondering if it's like, there's no proprietary technology within it, but you're looking, it's like opening the hood of a car and looking in and just seeing a Toyota emblem and no engine. You're like, where's the thing that makes it go? It can't just be the logo.

So on a 12, you are mystified, but have the feeling that that being mystified is not due to you not understanding something, but rather you think that most people that create constructs would not understand. But it's easy enough, Nydas could probably explain it to you. It has the Golden Scythe logo on it. Cool. And as I check it,

there's nothing that I need to make safe. There's nothing that this thing was carrying in terms of a weapon, an explosive device that I would recognize. Nothing that feels like a security breach. Because I'm going to perform this on the corpse behind me as well. No security breach here.

Okay. But I'll say this. I don't think on that, even on a 12, I don't think you would be comfortable with the lack of a security breach. Meaning, if the engine's not here, it's somewhere. Yeah, yeah. Got it. Anything on the...

Anything on the body with the chunks of flesh missing? Runes in its pants. Let me ask this. with the chunks of flesh missing. Ruins in its pants. Let me ask this. So for this one, you can give me an investigation, but I'm going to tell you straight up that the biggest pressing thing about this is actually probably a medicine check. Ooh.

So if you get a super high investigation, I will give you some stuff. If you make a medicine check here, even a lower DC might produce more answers. I'll just do medicine check. Go for it. Okay. One, two, oh boy. Uh-oh.

Six. Call him Dr. Pinch. I think that you know enough. On a six, you know enough first aid. You know enough to triage a wound, right? As you, hands come down. Stop bleeding. That's not like pressure, yeah.

So you slit his throat. As you open the wound that you delivered to kill him, on the inside of his throat, it is riddled with growths. Growth? Growth. Growth. There are things on the inside of his throat that look dark, pinkish gray, mottled.

You're not a doctor, you'd have no words for these, a dark pinkish gray, mottled... You're not a doctor, you'd have no words for these, but things of flesh that are not supposed to be here are here. It looks like this being... Clearly, it was powerful enough to cast and hold concentration on an invisibility spell, but looking at this, there's something inside this man's body that should not be here. Uh-oh.

Uh-oh. Okay. I'm not going to like that, so I will stand up. I'll actually drag the body into the middle of the floor a little bit, even if it's leaving a trail. I'll exit the room, and I'm going to search immediately for Zerxus.

As you are preparing to exit the room, you hear a noise. A sending stone in your back pocket, in one of the secret compartments that you keep. A small sending stone is. Do you? Do you? I'll retrieve it.

As you hold it aloft and move it so that it can create noise, you hear a voice say, This is Talon to Wingspan. Talon to Wingspan. Yes. I am in position, and I am reporting that Egghead is preparing to break curfew

and sneak out of the house to go to a party. You said that she's not allowed to leave, but she's about to leave, and she has no idea that I'm here. She has no idea that I can see her. She's about to do it. Oh my god! This is Karr.

This is your son, Kyr. My son, yeah. This is your son, Kyr. He's using code names for you, himself, and your daughter that you have never heard before. They change a lot. The code names change a lot, depending on what he thinks is cooler that week. You are standing in a room with a dead body,

listening to your son describe your daughter about to head out to one of what would presumably be many parties happening on the eve of the Replenishment. Sure. Talon 2, this is wingspan. Say again, this is wingspan. Communication's a little shoddy.

Wow. Did you say Egghead is snuck out? Affirmative. I see her. She snuck downstairs into the kitchen and she got a bottle, normally reserved for wingspan and clear eye. And I saw her

take a swing from it, and then she made a face like it was really bad. Then she took another swing from it, and then made a face like it was even worse. I don't know what it's about, but I know she's up to no good. This is very good talent, too. Very good.

You are in no way to engage with Egghead. She's dealing in dark magic. I do it. Keep an eye, but keep your distance. I'll be, I look over my shoulder as I pour into the room. I'll be home when I can. I love you very much.

Is that... Oh, I love you too, Dad. Sorry, I thought we were still doing some things. No, no, Talon, too. Talon, too. Keep objective professionalism. No telling who could be watching. Copy that, Wingspan, and me too. Me too. Thanks, son. I'll be home later.

Okay. Do you know if Mom's supposed to come home tomorrow, or is she going to miss the whole replenishment? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I think she's going to try and make it back by tomorrow. Your mom's a very busy scientist, brilliant woman, as you know.

But she works at her own pace, but I'm sure if she can be here, she will be. Affirmative. We'll keep an eye in disguise, Pop. And I'll Weed-Span over and I'll tail Egghead and make sure that... No funny business. Okay, copy that talent, too.

Don't get too close and stay away from the evil, dark magic drinks that she's... Don't worry, Dad, I already collected a vial and I stored it in my evidence locker. Talon 2, where would this evidence locker be located? The evidence locker is in a secret compartment under my bed. No, it's in a different place.

Don't worry, nothing else is under my bed. I have to go. I got to go real quick, but I'll talk to you soon. All right, talk to you, Talon, too. Over and out. Over and out. It's actually just over, but you know what I'm saying. It's over. It's out.

It's a snitch. And you're a big fan of that. Yeah, my son's loyal. My son's loyal. You know who's loyal. That's what I'm saying. That was fucking amazing. Oh my god. This kid is way cooler than my kid. That kid didn't get sucked into any portals,

you know what I mean? Yes. Wow. A sobering moment. A sobering moment. Yeah. However, you are back in the room and you were about to leave the door.

I put the descending stone back in my pocket. Deep breath, exit the door, look for our first night. You exit. Patia, out on the floor, you're still holding court. You see Saret walking out towards the front entrance. Actually, I think I'll have both of you join, but we're going to wrap up what was happening outside as well.

Outside the palazzo, we just had both of you interact with Purvan Suul before his vanishing in some movement of divine magic and vanishing from the city of Avalir. I wanted to give you guys one last shot, each at an insight check against Purvan. Just to add some context, he told some pretty heavy stuff to you guys,

but I just wanted to see if there's any last. Little thing we can glean. Yes. I got a 24. A 16. But if I fail, I got a 24. But a 16. But if I fail, I can add another d4 to it. On a 16, I think you recall the main thing

that you recalled before that Zerxus recognized, which is the one thing that he was hinting at he would not say. Yep. The words, Betrayer Gods never left his lips. I'm absolutely fixating on that. I think that on a 16 insight, because that is very, that dwells within your mind,

why does Zerxus think he didn't say it? Because he's scared. Because he's a coward. There is something you recognize in Purvan that, as different as he feels he is from the mages of Avalir, he actually shares in common with them. I think Zerxus feels this way,

both of some of the archmages of the Septarion and beyond, and also this Champion of the Gods. Some ability that the mind, the heart, the mind, the heart, the soul are in control of what is real. And that if you do not speak it, it will not be. But some things are, regardless of if you are afraid to name them. On a 24 insight,

you've interviewed a lot of people and Purvan told you a great deal. More knowing the fact that the Prime Deities cannot see what is unfolding is pretty profound in and of itself. But Purvan was also speaking very cryptically. As a master interviewer, someone that's interviewed people a lot of times,

I think that your insight into Purvan, and if he was holding on to anything else, if you had a 24 insight, you don't think he was. Okay. In your experience, people that have actual secrets, people that are being really secretive, deflect. If they have something they don't want you to know, they start talking about something else. People that act cryptic are often concealing

not information, but the lack thereof. You think Purvan's carefully chosen words were not protecting dangerous knowledge, but were protecting pride. Something's going on, and he didn't know what it was and didn't have the ability to speak to it. That's at least from your experiences as a reporter, that when people are that guarded,

it's often because they're in free fall as well. Wow. Okay. Okay. As you enter back into the plateau, the four of you converge together. Based on what I just gathered, I know where Nydas went. You enter back into the plateau. The four of you converge together. Based on what I just gathered, I know where Nydas went.

Yeah. I'm going to come back and meet you here. I'm going to go get him. Now? And bring him, yes. Shouldn't we get as many of us together as possible first? So I'm going to go bring him. Where did he go? I'm going to telepathically conjure Tempus.

Oh! Tempus alights down here. Incredible. As Tempus alights, takes off with you into the air. I'll be back! Well, okay. I mean, all right. I think I'm actually going to just allow this to come down to a roll of the dice to see,

because Nydas was also heading out post-haste. Right. So we're going to let this be a roll of the dice. And Nydas also headed out a little while ago, prior to the conversation with Purva. Right, the small interaction you took off ahead of me. I think we're going to dress you.

There's no tread on this. We're just going to make this a straight up dexterity check. So a dexterity check from Zerxus and a dexterity check from Nydas. Okay, we'll make some puddles. Dex on dex. To see if I can find him?

Dex first! Yeah, to see if you can find him. Or rather to see if you can beat him to his destination and get and intercept him. Flat dex. Is it my griffins? Dex check or movement? Oh, this is actually just your, oh, actually, yeah, you can use Tempest, so you can use Tempest's dexterity if you prefer.

Flat dex? Flat dex, that's it. Oh, baby. Oh, you got this.pest, so you can use Tempest's dexterity if you prefer. Flat dex? Flat dex, that's it. Come on, baby. No. You got this. I don't want to get caught. You won. Let me see that boy. I got you.

You got this. This guy. Oh, what did you get? I rolled a one, so. Oh, thank God. I rolled a three. Yes! Well, I mean, it's a three total with my blood.

But mine's a total of seven. Okay, Well, I mean, it's a three total with my blood. But mine's a total of seven. Okay, you win. Oh, thank god. Yeah, that's what heavy plate'll get you. Yeah, yeah. Absolutely precious. My untreaded dress shoe beat your heavy plate.

Incredible. So we actually are going to move. So Nydas, you take off. You're off in Tempest, flying as fast as you can, but you get to the scythe really quickly. I'm actually going to say, on that dexterity check, you just grab a porter. You just, boom, dimension door straight to the scythe.

You walk in. You are back in the central warehouse. There's a bunch of confetti on the floor. There's a couple little bits of popcorn and stuff from food carts that went out. It's like a ghost town in here now because everything is out on the street. This is like put on a show, right?

As you do, you land here and see, off in a corner, talking to a couple of different stevedores, essentially, that there is Alessander, who looks up. As it has become night, you see that he actually has a small little candle lit on the top of his conical hat to light his way. You see he turns around and says,

Good, Master. Hello. I wasn't expecting you back so soon. Alistair, a moment, please. Oh, very well. One minute, my friends. Oh, well, it was incredible. The Sphinx improvised an entire monologue sort of talking about the glory of Avalir.

He's only been here for one day. I was very touched, actually. Did people applaud? I mean, was it like a slow, did he do it along the route, or did he stop at one point and kind of like? He lost the crowd in the middle, but he. I mean, that's going to happen, you know. But he got to the end and roared really loud.

Well, there it is. And people just remember the end, you know, they don't remember the middle. Of course. Well, I'm glad it was a success. Ascender, I need four automatons right now. Yelmurster, I truly loathe to be this person. Impossible. Alessandra, Alessandra.

It is the eve of the replenishment. Everything is spoken for, my lord. Well, can we allocate, can we shift four over right now? I can find some off duty. Well, first of all, Yes, yes. Well, would hodmedards do? Do I know if hodmedards would do? No, this is quite complicated. Ah.

Alessandra, I appreciate the thought, but we need more. We need better. Alessandra. Carol Elks? Colossi? You know that those will not even fit in the... Got it. You see he looked...

Give me either Arcana or History yourself. Great. Happily. Because there's stuff that Alessandr is not going to bring up because he just doesn't have the bravery to bring it up. 21 arcana. There are automata that you guys are working on,

that you're building under contract for the city that are prototypes, that are not, that literally you're going to use the month on the ground to make active, but they are ready to go right now. Yes. Alessandra, I've had a thought. Can you requisition, in your special way,

four of the prototypes we've been working on for the city. I'll take them this evening, and we'll likely have them back on the morrow, if not the following day. He looks at you and says, you want me to go and activate the taxman? Yes. The taxman? Cool.

Come on. That's a fucking code name. You see. It makes me nervous when you write things down. You see, he says, My lord, I can activate them, but these are supposed to be completely mint-preserved

for trials during the- Of course, of course, of course, of course, Alessandra. This will be the first time they have been... Yes, Alessandra, I understand. But you have to understand, we are on the precipice of something truly magnificent. And this is... We will find a way to refurbish them

in such a way that no one ever notices Alessandra. It will not be a problem. And if it is, that is on me. I will carry that weight. Guildmaster, I cannot fathom the weight you already carry. I hope you are all right, my friend, and know what you are doing.

I know exactly what I'm doing. So please, activate them. I've already dallied enough. He walks with you into a chamber that leads into a sunken subterranean area, and he arrives at, warehouse is inappropriate, you can't see the other end of this room.

It stretches into the city for maybe a quarter of a mile. You see fleets of arcane engines, all keyed to emblems. You see the arcane equivalent of server banks, upon which all of the engines that do not exist in the bodies of these constructs are all kept here in the headquarters of the Golden Scythe. You see Alessandra walk up to four of them so new

that some tools still rest on an artificer's workbench nearby. Pfft. Quickly moving from the Chamber of Engines, you walk back up to an area of the warehouse. Completely dark. Alessandr, the candle on his hat lights, and you see, hulking at about 12 feet tall,

massive steel constructs step up. They look brutish and hulking, but you know that the engines that power their cognition, not sentient, but their perception, their reflexes, their instincts, their ability to follow out, complex will, is top of the line and state-of-the-art.

Another testament to your genius. And those blades on their back, sheathed, you know what those can do, too. Killed, master. What's thy bidding, sire? What would be the quickest way to the Arcane Heart that doesn't involve me marching for 12-foot automaton through the center of the city?

You could pull a porter. Great. A porter steps in, and Alisandre looks up. A porter steps in and Alessandra looks up. This porter is a young, thatch-haired girl. She's got the bellhop uniform on, looks up. You see Alessandra looks at her as she walks to the automatons and creates the gate

for you to go down to the Meridian Labyrinth. You see he looks at you and casts the Message Cantrip in reference to this porter. Should I put the young porter on Archmage Por'co's list of friends with bad memory? Yes. Of course. Yes. She'll see to it.

Y'all are evil. Yes. She'll see to it. Uh. Wow. Y'all are evil. What are you talking about? What are you talking about? He don't know. He don't know. He doesn't know. You don't get it. You don't understand. You don't understand what we're working on, okay? I'm an innocent reporter.

I'm an innocent reporter, goddammit. I love Richard. Cool. And you vanish into the Meridian Labyrinth. Back up. So Xerxes, you are flying straight there right now, but we're actually going to jump back to the Palazzo real quick

with Loquatius, Saret, and Patia all together. And then he just got on his Pegasus, or whatever it is called, and flew away. Oh! But anyway, this Purvan fellow seemed all sorts of out of sorts, and it seems to be pretty heavy, whatever's going on. What did you find?

Is anybody trying to sneak a listen, stay close, act like they're not eavesdropping? Do whatever you want to do to find out. Give me perception checks. Ooh! Don't try and sneak a look. It means maybe. 25.

I would say that anybody trying to sneak up would have to be invisible, but even that wouldn't fucking work. So I think you might want to, I think that with that 25, you probably move the conversation back to the Ivy table. Okay. Yeah. Cool.

I turn and I announce to the room, another round on the poor co's. You see everyone cheers and laughs and makes merry. Hey, to the poor co's! You see the one guy who cheered Avalir before says, The poor co's more like the party co's! Yes! Yes!

Throws another down the hatch. Love that guy, great energy. So generous of you. Great energy. To not charge your guests for the round of drinks. The drunker they are, the less they'll notice. The less drunk. Let's go. So we get back to the table.

Mm-hmm. I'll say, Guard your faces. Don't give anything away with your expressions. My face turns into your face. Oh, that's fucking cool! I steal myself. Right down to the teeth.

God, it's uncanny. Teeth? No, I don't have any teeth. I'm just joking. Right down to the teeth. God, it's uncanny. You have teeth? No, I don't have any teeth. All inside is just big, flat, white teeth. Just big ass molars and a beak. Breaking all the rules. That's so gross. I'm afraid the game is afoot.

The rats are already inside the fucking... I went to go investigate. The Hamidoth fell in the room. As I was doing that, I became aware of an invisible force that was behind me. I spun and struck down an individual. He's sealed in the room. He was covered with runes carved into his body,

pieces of his flesh missing. You killed someone at Patia's party? I did. No one important, okay? He was covered with runes carved into his body, pieces of his flesh missing. You killed someone at Patia's party? I did. No one important, okay? I wouldn't repeat that mistake. I'm sure his mother thought that he was important. Look, Patia, it wouldn't be a first. It's true.

As I was doing that, I spun and saw a figure in the mirror. I saw Vespin Cloris, or at least an augmented visage of him, and he turned and looked and said that we would never make the Wild Mother's embrace. The mirror shattered and he left.

Now, I haven't had any fucking champagne tonight, before you ask, but I think this situation requires a higher level of our attention. He said we wouldn't make the Wildmother's Embrace, which you interpret to mean landfall. Yeah, totally. Which is in a few hours.

Yes. So we've got Pervvan, works for a god, says bad, bad things are coming from bad, bad gods. Soon. This man, Vespin Chloris, says, we won't even make it to land. My ex-wife ran off to do something. Well, I see one clear

way forward. We have to tell no one of this, do nothing. We have to tell no one of this, do nothing. I will make the normal announcement I will make the normal announcement as we get closer to the replenishment and make sure that everyone is happy and secure and feels like everything's normal,

and we'll just ignore it for now. You can tell people on your own. and make sure that everyone is happy and secure and feels like everything's normal and we'll just ignore it for now. You can tell people on your end and work on it or whatever, do whatever research and investigating you have to do, but for now, we just make sure that everyone stays calm and do nothing. Do you agree?

Oh! I'm to a sense. Do you agree? I'm to a sense. I do agree that panic never solves any problems. We should maintain a level of control of the population, but I don't like this many coincidences. It's a decision that we all need to make together. Laerryn left. Xerxes also left. Laerryn took the bow, correct?

Yes. And Nydas? Nydas is off doing his thing. I don't even know where he went. We need to alert- I think I know what Nydas is up to. If what you say is true, the fate of Avalir could lay in the hands of Laerryn.

And as Patia says that, we move deep underneath the Meridian Labyrinth. Underneath the Meridian Labyrinth. Your loving ex-wife. Your loving ex-wife. Deep within the Meridian Labyrinth lies the heart of Avalir.

Once known as the Apparatus Arcane, this crystal engine lifted Avalir by the command of Ymir Por'co into the sky 292 years ago. Now, they named it the Apparatus Arcane because at that time it was the only one. But since then, there have been many, many more. There are the Registry of the Porter's Guild.

There are, in addition to that, there are the Codex of Keys, the Helm of Avalir, the Ley Rudder, which connects to the Navigator's Guild. However, we are in a room just off of the Ley Rudder, and we see a quite fascinating new machine. and we see a quite fascinating new machine. Aabria, I'd actually love if you could describe

the engine that now we behold and the chamber that we see. Is it a fuck machine? Oh! It started off as a fuck machine. It's a swing. That's right. It's a big swing.

Cut a hole in it. Well, I like that. It starts with this big central pendulum that swings back and forth, that is generating and holding this massive miasma of ether and arcane energy. There's a circle of batteries that I've requisitioned and built

and each of them glows with a slightly different shade of green that are kind of feeding into this pendulum and in the center underneath it is just this massive platform and there are runes inscribed

into it, but it seems like if you look really closely, you know like when you draw on paper and there's like papers underneath and you can kind of see the imprint of other ones, she's been trying lots of different ones to try to figure out the right array to move in a new direction.

She's worked really hard on the Arboreal Calix, but she needs to go in a different trajectory and hasn't figured it out yet. I love it. I'll say one thing, by the way. I don't think you would have worked very hard on the Arboreal Calix. That is actually a different,

but there's a... The machine in front of you, so this attaches to the Ley Rudder, which I think that you've done a tremendous amount of work on in order to make this machine possible. I think also somewhere in this room, there is a small token, not something that is of mechanical significance,

a small token of an old friend. A gift given to you long ago. A... locket. Simple ore inscribed with runes to be filled with something of safekeeping to remind you that the long years could part you, that friendship would win out in the end.

What do you remember of your old friend, Evandrin, as you look at this locket? That's it. Despite the sort of suffusion of warm memories and good feelings that attended him handing me that locket, all she can remember is those last few days before everything broke bad and the panic of not knowing how to help him and not

knowing how responsible she was as he began to fade. So it's that burst of joy and then the creeping guilt. The memory of your friend becoming translucent, incorporeal, and fading, such that when the time came to enter, there were no remains.

You behold this work in front of you. I have a question. Yes. Is this what's being dug into what was formerly the heart that the Drish are? Okay, cool, cool, cool. Yeah. to what was formerly the heart that the Drish are. Okay, cool, cool, cool. Yeah. This is what you now behold is an engine that you have named, and I'll let you say its name.

Flux Capacitor. Flux Capacitor. However, as you prepare this here, Dweomer is here with you. Callum is not. Callum is out working on a bunch of Eldritch battery stuff. There's a lot of work for the Replenishment that needs to happen.

But you hear approaching footsteps, some of them quite heavy. Well, this area that's been dug into and dug out, there are a bunch of the run-down automatons that I needed replacing. So the moment I hear footsteps, I'm going to cast Animate Objects on them and set them up as a guard behind me.

Awesome. These constructs come back into being, momentarily animated simply by the word of command from the city's architect, Arcane. They leap back to action. Literally, I think you blast Aether from a receptacle on your own wrist and give them the momentary life

that their initial construction no longer can. And as they stand back up, you see Nydas Okira approach with automata you have never seen before. Your Eminence, I bring exactly what you asked for. Those are new. Yes. So much is being used in the name of the replenishment that I had to tap into a stock that we were waiting to reveal or start to release

into the city upon rising again. But for you, an exception can always be made. Thank you. Dweomer looks to you, on her unflinching, warforged face. Your eminence, the automata present within the chamber do not bear the glyph of the Armor Arcane. Oh, interesting.

Who made these? You guys did. Oh, we did, of course. The Golden Scythe. You bypassed entirely. Well, I wasn't going to let bureaucracy slow us down. Incredible. I have several questions about what their purpose is.

They're so big. This can only be. What are the blades on the back for? This can only be discussed later. Understood, sure. Is it possible? Are we, is it going to happen? Do you have everything you need?

You said it while you were leaving, and I just, I couldn't. Do you actually have all that you require? I think just with a quick flash, I'm going to drop Rari's telepathic bond. Yes. If only, and I go and run and grab the papers. There's tonight, in the next day,

this is my best chance. The source is correct. Yes, yes. You spoke about that earlier. So it has to be now. This comes every 120 years. I might be alive to see the next chance at this, but they won't. Evandrin wouldn't have lived to see it.

I don't think Quay would have either, so it has to be now. I have to prove that it was worth it. Yes, and you will. Yeah. You will. We have a bit of metal, I have. I have a destination. We're going to move the entire city.

Well, it is truly a blessing that you came to me, that you have allowed me to be part of this. This is everything I wanted as the Dragon of Avalir. I just run up and hug him. Thank you. I haven't had anyone to talk to you about this. You embrace, under the impervious gaze You embrace, under the impervious gaze of the four massive constructs surrounding you,

Dweomer steps up and grabs the corroded bow and displays it to you. Okay. There's enough energy. We've siphoned off so much from this last trip. It's got to be worth it. It will be.

Will you say? Of course. Okay. It would be my honor. The taxmen step in. Dweomer gives them their instructions. They take the bow from you, and you see that one of them gazes down at it, walks over to another engine,

puts their hands doing the birth of Bia's automata, too, and you see its gauntleted steel hand animate a part so that its hand splays open and a raw vent of arcane power goes into an engine. Dweomer inserts the bow into the top and it begins to spin as golden light spills out of an opening in the top, and it begins to spin as golden light spills out of an opening

in the top of a stone dome. The corrosion peels off the bow. Pure gold shining brighter than the sun. You see that one of the tax men, its chest begins to come apart, and another tax man just steps up and grasps its shoulders from behind. And it begins to fuse into its brethren in front of it

as the engine speeds up. Dweomer steps over to you and rushes towards the engine in the center of the room. The astral Leia Wright. What? Yes. She begins to interact. She begins to interact with Glyphs.

And you see in a corner a tiny model of the Ley Rutter, a just ever so small recreation of the machine in the anterior chamber. And above the engine, you see , light fills the chamber. Dwey Armor says, Architect Arcane,

we are reading a signature. 0.504, 0.508, 0.512, 0.516, 0.530, 0.548. And you see that the Leia Rudder in your hand surrounds you. Light. Energy. One of the three ley lines that converges on ancient Toramunda, on Kathmoira, which you are an hour or two away from being directly over.

Ley lines are invisible. It's pure energy of Exandria that flows, the veins of magic, the stuff of creation. Nydas, you behold as the spirit itself of the world is rendered visible and realize you are standing in the bloodstream of the cosmos. Ignitus just hands up, tears falling down his face.

It's beautiful! It's truly incredible! I'm going to move my arcane ward over him in that moment. What the fuck? The dream of a cabin boy deckhand The dream of a cabin boy deckhand taken aboard a pirate ship to look at a flying city and to say, one day,

I could be at the helm of a great working of magic. You watch the beating heart of your world flow magically through this room. Vroom. As the bow finishes spinning, a rod of pure gold slides into the light and the stone dome

closes. The spinning stops and the engine pulses, mirroring the heartbeat of your world. Silvery white light with a feeling of warmth, heartbeat, that matches the feeling of being inside the Cradle of Life. The miniature lay rudder in your hand,

the engine of the anterior chamber just outside that the navigators use to pilot the city around Exandria. A small little gem lights up on its exterior, and the new engine that you have created, the astral laywright mirrors that gem. Boom! It's a mediocre mind that tries to replicate what's already been.

We're going to go somewhere new now. Yes. All of us. Yes. As you say that, Laryn, you feel the miniature model in your hand lift off, and begin to travel.

It's traveling in the same direction as your city. And as it travels, you see two more gems light up on the lay right. And another two, and then four more. And the trajectory of the lay rudder, your little miniature train, this nothing more than a toy, really, stops moving sideways.

It moves up at a diagonal. But what a strange diagonal. And as it moves, it becomes translucent and fades, vanishing from this plane. You see the gems on the lay right. Mm-hmm. Beep. Mm. Mm. Beep, beep. And a signal of recognition.

Somewhere beyond this realm, your toy is safe and in one piece. It was worth it. I go over and grab the locket. It was worth it. Hi. Well, I'm speechless. I mean, my role is concluded.

I mean, you are our pilot now. I mean, whatever you need, when you're ready to share this with everyone, I mean, the fact that this is coming with the Replenishment, it's all perfect. It's just perfect. We can finish the Repl replenishment as expected. Yes.

And during the celebrations, during that month, we'll take care of all the business. Of course. And then we will tell them that the next departure will not be across Exandria, but to New Plains. Anywhere we want to go. Everywhere. The closest I can see it now.

SAM and LAURA, both, Fuck. I'm both green. Okay, hold on. That's probably fine. Okay, that's your own rule? Yeah. I don't think I'm done here, so. Dweomer looks.

You just used up about 8% of the city's energy sending that toy extra planer. Fuck. Fuck. As you look at the readings, this is a nightmare. You look and Duemra says,

My lady, something unusual. You look at your energy grid, look at the readout of where everything's going. The Arboreal Calix, which is an ancillary engine of the Ley Rutter. The actual sending of the toy took about a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of energy. It was actually more efficient

than you were planning on it being, but something about what you just did, the Arboreal Calix sucked up almost 8% of the city's energy. Goddamn it. Can I try to figure out what's going on with the Calix? Piece of shit. Give me an arcana check.

Fuck, that's a bad roll. Yeah, but you're arcane and stuff. Yeah, not enough. 16. 16. So first of all, what is Nydas seeing in this moment as you are? The siren is going, we just had our beautiful envisioning the future moment,

now there's just a big red light going off. I think Nydus is just kind of like, just insight check on Laren to know what the vibe. Give me an insight check, and if you want to deception, you can. Of course I do. That was almost a natural one. 13.

Versus me? Yeah. Nah, 18. I am in a dead panic now. It was the immediate flip from this is it. She was about to get emotional and calm to oh no. It's very obvious that she's dealing with something that she doesn't have parameters for, and any sort of digression into anything bad

is giving her worst casecase scenario vibes immediately. You look at this. Duilm returns to you, Nydas, actually, and says, Guildmaster, the issue is not with any of the technology present in the Leywright. There is simply an energy concern within the Etheric Net. You look, and so on a 16, I can tell you, even if you, honestly,

it's fitting that you rolled a 16 because the Arboreal Calix is, of the pieces of technology in the city, one of the ones you hate the most. Yeah. It is an engine that is part of the Drashari Tithe. So essentially, I see all these confused faces.

Everyone. The Drashari Tithe. The Drashari Tithe. I love it. Everyone's got secrets, but man, does Laerryn have secrets. I don't think I have any secrets! Sam, I know that's not true. Yeah, but they're fun secrets. On a 16, here's what you know, right?

The Replenishment. Avalir travels the ley lines of Exandria, trading with cities and civilizations all over the world, collecting gold and resources and magic, right? Especially magic. Aether, raw magical substance, which is, obviously the beings of this world don't use the term spell slots,

but that concept of the magical potential held within beings, magical objects, things like that, that exists in this world, the understanding that raw magical power is there. And Avalir has this ability to extract and hold aether. That's not an accident. Way, way back in history, when Toromunda was a single city

and Ymir Por'co and the mages of Old Avalir wanted to, found out that the mountain was filled with brumestone and wanted to take it up, that city, Toramunda, had been founded by the Gau Drashari, an ancient order of druids that tended the holy sites of the history of Toramunda, or actually the mountain itself, Mount Igora,

the ancestral mountain. This was very significant. It was a place where the Dawnfather and the Wildmother defeated two of the greatest primordials of Domunas back during the Schism and sealed them away under the earth and was part of the ending battles of that Schism. It was a place where elemental magic permeated throughout, which the druids tended to.

Some of the earliest Gau Drashari were Genasi. And also that elemental permeation is what attracted a lot of wizards here after Tortamunda was founded. When the wizards came and said, Hey, can we take the top half of this mountain and have a cool flying city? The original druids were like, No, you may not.

And the replenishment was the concession of those wizards. It's not, you know, in the modern day, modern day being in this ancient prequel series that we're doing, but in the modern day of the Age of Arcanum, the replenishment is sold by the Archmages of Avalir as being a great act of charity. It's not a great act of charity.

It was an obligation to the Druids of Toramunda, something that they said they would do to justify taking the top of the mountain. And the replenishment does renew the crops and bring back magic. There were also, in your knowledge, a bunch of important things the druids wanted to do with that magic.

Now, cynical minds might say, that's the druids' cut for letting the top of the mountain go. But the druids also said that there were really important things they wanted to do with that magic. So the Drashari Pact, also known as the Pact of Crown and Throne,

was the original agreement between the wizards and the druids. Crown and Throne became Avalir, the City of Crowns, and Cathmoir, the City of Thrones. It was all about how they would apportion this magic. So you've been building up the Etheric Net for a long time. 25% of the city's ether is spoken for from that pact. So you've got 75% to play with.

25% has to go to these things that were part of the original agreements. So the reason you don't know a lot about the Arboreal Calix is that that's your utilities bill. You've just always needed to send a certain percentage of stuff there. But when you look at it, you see that that Calix alone

is more than 50% of the tithe. Like, that engine is speed. This one engine that you know doesn't do anything that you know to be useful takes up a double-digit percentage of your entire city's reserves of magic. And as you are looking at the energy structure, you see that it flared up

when you did this thing with your layrite, and it sucked up a lot of energy as you did that. And the last thing I'll say is, Oh my god. When you look for... When you look for a... How do I put this? As you are looking for an instruction manual, something,

because you never had to interact with it before. Being an old piece of junk, at least it's reliable. It never needs maintenance. It's just something that sits there, sucking, taking up hard drive space and sucking up juice, being a piece of machinery that you don't particularly like, but there's no instruction manual.

You're looking through your own spellbook, your records preserved here in crystal memory within your engines, and everything built by mages comes with incredibly explicit and precise detail about what they were thinking, why they built it, what they wanted it to do. This one says,

This is the amount of energy that you must apportion to the Arboreal Calix during the Replenishment. End of list. Right. Okay. Okay. I would like to pinch whatever cable is running to the Calix. Is there any way for me to bottleneck that?

I just don't want it to take any more of my precious, precious energy. And that might be a bad thing, but I don't know. It's old technology and it's probably fine. Give me another Arcana check. Makes me madder. Can I give a help action? Will you allow that? Yeah, you're proficient in Arcana.

Oh, thank god. That was a natural one. Oh! Okay, 27. Incredible. Thank you so much. You just see that she's fully panicking herself. I think I just come and lay a gentle hand on your shoulder. On a 27, Arcana check.

Yeah. Yeah, there's stuff you could do here. It's not as simple as pinching a cable. This thing is really tapped into the roots of the city. You also know that the lack of a manual... I'm going to say on our 27 arcana, you don't get the technical answer that you're looking for, but I'm going to do some quick math.

How do you represent it? Beep boop. Hold on one second. Yeah, this sounds about right. The Arboreal Calix isn't as old as the city. It's 119 years old. 119 years old is the date of the last replenishment. 119 years old is the date of the last replenishment.

It's a replenishment when the Drashari Pact was updated, which was a big deal back in the day. It's a replenishment when the Drashari Pact was updated, which was a big deal back in the day. Now, this is stuff that's not going to be in your documents. This is going to be up, honestly, probably not, Patia would have more about it in her library, but it's honestly outside of both of your home courts. This is magisterium stuff. This is magical law. So you would have to find a way

on the eve of the replenishment to bust into the librarian magisterium stuff. This is magical law. So you would have to find a way on the eve of the Replenishment to bust into the Librarian Magisterium to find out how this was updated. But you do see a record that this engine was built 119 years ago, which I will point out on a 27, some quick math on our master architect's part, is the first Replenishment

after the Ascension of the Raven Queen. Oh. Fuck. Okay, we have to go get more. I need yarn. Go say. I know. We have to go find the Magisters. I need to know where it's taking my energy.

Your Eminence, it is the Eve of the Replenishment, and of course we could make it happen, but is there a chance that this can wait? No? No. Fantastic. I will make phone calls and connections, and we will make things work and happen.

I'd like to get all my sending stone, and put a call in. Well, I think, I mean, I feel like we should probably just go find Patia. Yeah, yeah. So you two are going to go find Patia. Who are you leaving here with the astral laywright? Which again, miraculously works.

It worked. You know that the thing you have dreamed of is possible. I felt the heartbeat of the cosmos. Yes. I think you're doing better. I was about to give her a call. She turned off her fucking radio. I turned off the CB radio. You can, you can.

I was happy to have that. Send your text, girl. So, yeah, I think you each go to your ring of masks and play Charged at the same time. I want to go to Xerxes really briefly, who flies to, and then we will bring the party back together, but Xerxes really briefly. Uh-huh. Who flies to, and then we will bring the party back together. But Xerxes,

you arrive at Excelsior Plaza, where you see the Herald's Tome. It is a revel here. You see that people are partying and laughing. Huge, major images. You see that there's a bunch of professional bards casting huge illusions and music playing in the square. People are drinking and making merry.

Life is good here. Life is good. You see that there is the headquarters of the Golden Scythe, the vault and everything else. So I am arriving to where? To where you think Nydas would be. I'll say you just walk in and see Alisandre Kyrus there, who you recognize as one of Nydas' most trusted. You see he goes,

Oh, sir, illu-ray, it's a pleasure to see you. Yes, yes, yes, pleasure, pleasure. Where's Nydas? I need to speak to him right away. Oh, he, um... Oh, he, well, he, funny story. He, uh... Give me an insight check. Yeah!

Alexander's persuasion isn't plus 16. 20. What if his little light isn't up, though? Yeah, exactly, his little candle. Yeah, his little head candle. Look over here. You watch a man whose whole job is keeping account ledgers

feel suddenly very frightened. None of you doing anything, but you know the look people give when they feel like they're about to be in trouble. Yes, and he goes like, Well, it's very funny, you know, the guild. I completely encroach in his space and I put my hand on his shoulder

and I give a gentle tap, actually. Yeah. And I say, my friend, there's no time for this. It's urgent business. The First Knight of Avalir is asking you, where's Nydas? Give me, and I'll leave it totally up to you. You can give persuasion or intimidation.

And the intimidation would not go wrong. It's not like you're intimidating him, like, I'm going to hurt you, but it is, there is like, there is a pressure from above coming down. So either one of those. I'm not the kind of person to try to scare somebody. I think it's a persuasion. Okay, go for it.

Gallant. 29. Damn. Wow, natty 19. He looks at you, and you see he goes, First Knight, the Guildmaster Rokiro is with the Architect Arcane within the Meridian Labyrinth.

How long ago did he leave here? You see, he- Snitches in this city. Can nobody keep a damn secret? On a 29 persuasion, no, they cannot. You see he says, the Guildmaster is within the Meridian Labyrinth. He has taken a porter there, but the young lady, I believe, has already recused herself to other guild business.

And I leave. You see he says, First Knight, I should warn you of something. I'm already gone. I'm already jumping back onto Tempest. You see he says, First Knight, I should warn you of something. I'm already gone. I'm already jumping back onto Tempest. You take up, yeah. I jump back onto Tempest and I go, I soar up above the city

to get a bird's eye view and to try to process some of this stuff that is happening, the stuff with Pervin and trying to find Nydas. I look down at the festivities and all that chaos that I had just seen on the ground, just to take a moment away from it, and I take a breath.

Then I head over there and as I mutter to myself, I hate this place. I go to where he told me where Nydas was. How dare you? You fly to the Meridian Labyrinth. The Meridian Labyrinth is... I'm going to ask you for an investigation check, if you'd be so kind.

It's called a labyrinth, not a hallway. Mm-hmm. I think at this point, too, I know that I'm heading into territory that's above. Okay. Yeah. A, five. Oh no! So here's the issue, right?

Five is not great. So legitimately, five is not great. So legitimately, five is not great. But legitimately, here's the thing. You are able to walk through the Meridian Labyrinth. Like, you do not get lost on a five. This would probably repel and entrap you, but you wear the emblem of your station. And the truth is, as much as Laerryn likes to keep secrets,

I imagine she also doesn't want the city's biggest warrior to not be able to come protect her very delicate machinery in case shit pops off. She talks a lot of shit and has given you very detailed maps. Don't come down here, it's dangerous, but also if I'm in trouble, please come help.

So you are joined at the gate that will lead back to Patia's. You find them in a antechamber. I don't think you're near the heart right now. I think you are probably a good pace out from the heart. But Nydas and Laerryn, question, which of the automata do you bring, if any? Or do you leave them to safeguard

or continue working in the heart? I want to leave everything up here. If Dweomer is capable of, then of course. I trust her. You turn to leave and see the silvery Aeormaton nod farewell and look up as these four massive steely constructs without any facial movement gaze down at her. She says,

All will be well. My lady, may I offer you my most sincere congratulations on the realization of something that has never been. Thank you. We'll be back soon. You walk out and you hear the footsteps, the thudding footsteps of Zerxus in full plate, and you guys arrive at the gate

that will lead back to Patience. Hey. Oh. Hi. Brother. Go ahead. You came to find us? Yes, I've been looking for you. What do you need? I couldn't find you. Brother. Go ahead. You came to find us. Yes, I've been looking for you. What do you need? I couldn't find you. Yes.

We need to come together. What's... Huh? Do I get a sense of any of this? Yeah, I look like a kid. Oh, it could absolutely be deceptions and an insight right here. A million percent. Can I roll with disadvantage?

Oh, it's a natural one. That's fine. All right, there it is. I'm not even there and I can feel the shittiness. It just screams. An eight. Insight check? Insight. I'm still clutching Evandrin's Locket.

Deception? Deception. 30. Oh my god! Okay, so on an eight, so on an eight, you see poorly concealed tear lines on Laerryn's face, like she didn't get them all. And she is clutching a locket that you know

was given to her by Evandrin, your husband. You know that she and your husband were dear, dear friends prior to his return to Avalir and becoming First Knight prior to you. However, I will say this. As you notice, oh, Laerryn is in a state of deep emotion and probably multiple of them.

Before you can get a beat on any of them and do your intense First Knight grilling, a fucking juggernaut of a 30 deception check comes wheeling in. And I'm going to say, the force of Nydas' personality completely directs the rest of this scene as Nydas moves in. What does Nydas do as you hear that from Zerxus?

Zerxus, I'm sure there are many things that we need to come together and speak about. Laerryn and I needed to come down to collect a few items before heading back up to meet everyone. I deeply apologize to the group. No need, no need, no need. I understand, I understand. There's a lot.

We all have many responsibilities. Yes. Wow. And it's time for us to come together, Laerryn. Yeah. And I approach Laerryn, and I just, I catch the little bit that you have missed. Thanks. Are you all right?

Yeah. Hey, look at me. I'm here for you, no matter what you need. Thank you. I need to talk to you. Let's get everybody together. There's a lot to talk about and we're running out of time. Laerryn.

Another First Knight of Avalir in this very chamber once told you, I'm here for you, no matter what you need. Yeah. You move through the gate and the party assembles at the Palazzo Porco. Nydas just has this sunburn where the lightning is going through his fingers. Just.

The glorious! Just looking into Chernobyl. I think you're the first person in history to shout that at a magical phenomenon and live. Right? It's glorious! Oh, I'm totally fine. Okay, great.

It's funny because I feel like, as you were describing it, I was like, oh, it doesn't seem like it would be that loud. But it's funny because then you realize in all those scenes, it probably isn't that loud. We hear musical score, but for them, it's probably just like, oh shit, it's bright. It's so bright.

Yeah, exactly. Everyone's just yelling because it's like, oh, the visual is loud! Yeah, you're shouting over your own soundtrack. Yeah, exactly, yeah, yeah. Incredible. You arrive back. Now, so question to Patia. Do you think you would go to the IV table?

Or are you, like, the party's still very much going on. I would say, as a time check for all of you, it's probably about 10 p.m. right now, right? So, you know, you're still not even over Cathmoíra yet. There's time to do stuff. But traveling and doing stuff and talking and all this has taken a little bit of time, right? Do you think you go to the Ivy Table

or are you joining somewhere more private? Yes, I think at this point it has escalated and I want something even more secret, private. So I kind of like, a question to you as well, DM. When the 8% of energy was sucked to teleport a little toy boat to another dimension. You're not rude.

I don't like to lose that. I get it. Very rude. But that's what I do. Did we sense that? Was there a little dip in the lights? Was there, you know? Yeah.

I would say everybody everybody here give me either an arcana or a perception? High DC, high DC. One more than the other. Arcana or perception. Hang on, hang on, hang on, what's higher? One of them. Oh, it's a dirty 19.

Dirty 19. I mean, it's a natural 19 for a 32. God, roads are wild! 32, and then? 26 for Arcana. 26. 15. 15. 14. 14.

For you. My head's in the air. Sorry. So on a 20. He can see in ultraviolet, that's why. Oh my god! This is the future! There is no obvious blip.

The lights don't go out or anything like that. However, the Eyes of Avalir undergo a rigorous training to just feel magical auras and presences. And a couple feathers on the back of your neck stand up, like you just walked into someone's aura, right? On a 30, what? Two. 32.

On a 32, this accompanies feelings. This is the exact feeling you get when the city arrives at the intersection of two or more ley lines and switches directions. But you know you're coming up on an intersection, but it's like, not yet. So it's the feel of a big spell engine kicking up hits you.

And you don't know what that could be. Another event in a long list of things that are a little fucked tonight. Somebody salty. I'm just saying. Do you want a cracker? I think you want a cracker! Oh no!

No! Excuse me. Do you have a cracker? Have we moved into the double ivy room? Yes, right here. As we walk up, I flick my fingers a little bit and trace a little arcane symbol. You see the lights dim a little bit in the foyer and some colored lights start to fill the room

and dancing spectral, almost like fireflies, and a wonderful dancing water show starts happening in the middle from the gardens, once again, further to put on a show to get people to look over there. Yes. Love it. Nice. As we slink away once everybody,

I can sense that there's no eyes really tracking us. Yes, truly you have ensorcelled everybody here. The show is so captivating. And you all adjourn to the ivy table with everyone totally enamored of the spectacle of the evening. You have safety, security, and silence, and are reunited.

Laerryn, we did it. We did it. The Astral Layrite is up, it's functional, and it works. It works. What really? You saw this. With your own eyes, you saw this.

What's that thing? This is the first I've heard of this. Yeah. What's that thing? Yes, what is this? Oh god, where to begin? Can we move things along? It's 10 and the beverage ball starts

in about a half an hour, and it's something that I'd really like to get to. It's... You don't go to the beverage ball? What? Oh, it's... In my early days, yes. Some of the elite mages get together

and they surprise each other. They turn, they bring chalices that have all been enchanted and they can all turn one liquid into another liquid and they just trade them and surprise each other with what drink is it going to be? Is it going to be mayonnaise? I'm trying to tell you that I've mastered interplanar travel for our entire city, and you're going to talk about a fucking juice bar?

I can be late. What is this? What is this interplanar travel thing? What's the next great moment in Avalir's history, is what it is. The bow. The bow. That was the last piece. I needed something from another plane.

It's attuned and it's attenuated, and it works! There's a problem with the energy. I need to speak to some... You, your site warden, you work for the Magisterium. I need to talk to them. I need to know what, why they changed something. The Arboreal Calix came recently.

It's 120 years old. It's new and it's pulling my energy. Can you just back up and dumb this down for us? You know, when you talk like this, I lose track so easily. Just please, simpler words. Could I try and recite to you what it sounds like you've said,

that you have secretly developed a way for Avalir to travel to another plane. Yes. The entire city. As a city. Yes. Why? Because it's stupid to waste your time trying to become a god so you can ascend to another plane. If we can just all go there, then there's no gods.

It's the only thing that truly separates us from them. They're not special. What's wrong with this plane? Why can't we just be here? Nothing, but why are we limited to this plane? Why can't we just be here? Nothing, but why are we limited to this plane? That! This plane's great. Everyone's happy and successful and-

Bored. Look at this distraction that they entertain themselves with. I think it's lovely. Did you see the fondue? I did. I saw it all. Promise of Avalir was of exploration and knowledge gathering and growth, and I have dedicated my life.

I've sacrificed so much. Others have sacrificed so much so that we could do more and learn more and not- What do you expect to find if we were to go there? I don't know. Knowledge. Did you know about this? What plane? Yes.

Any. Speaking from experience, other planes aren't that great. I know you're from the Feywild, but we could... Imagine the immense amount of resources, knowledge, power, progression. We are simply limited here.

The only thing that makes the gods what they are is that they have access to a whole another realm of arcane potential. I have it on good authority that Aeor is working on a weapon, something deeply destructive. I will not allow them to supersede us in any way. You knew about this as well?

Yes. Yes, I did. And you? Of course. Am I the only one who didn't know about this? I didn't know about that. I didn't know. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to keep this from you. It's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. It's also much more glorious to boast when you've achieved something,

rather than watching it fail and disappointing others. Just be careful not to boast so soon. An achievement like this, once you start to tell people about it, then it's going to make us a target. Absolutely. Yeah. You have seemed distracted of late. I commend you on escaping my eye.

Thanks. I, again, I'm sorry. I, this is my life's work. And it worked. Worked? You mean you know it will work? No. I have sent an object

into another plane. I came here. There's a problem only with, the Arboreal Calix takes its tithe, that stupid bit of energy we owe to the druids down in Cathwira, but it took more. And I don't know, I just have this feeling that either it's taking energy

for someone or something that we don't know or I wasn't privy to, which is bullshit, or it's some sort of stopgap to prevent someone else from attempting apotheosis. The Magissaria was quite loyal to their long-withstanding handshakes, for people are long gone. Yeah.

Shuffled off of this plane. What good is loyalty to a dead person? That. This can't be a coincidence. We need to catch you up. Hold on, did I miss something? Too many coincidences. Lots of them, yes. I felt something, an arcane pulse.

It's not my thing. But Vesp and Cloris, the Archmage who disappeared in Vassalheim, presented himself to me in a private room through a mirror and said that we would not make it to the Wildmother's Embrace. When? I was gone for like 20 fucking minutes. You're always gone at the most important times.

Okay, listen. Do you want to do this right now? This seems like it's just- My wings reach around, and it just pulls. Let me go! Okay, it's not. All I'm saying is, you're so focused on your own thing, as magnificent and monumental as it might be,

but there's something going on in the city right now that actually matters to people, and you're just concerned with your invention. Again, whether it works or not. I go over and I pull a goblet off of the shelf behind a little mini bar in this room, and I walk over and I say, Here, it makes whatever cocktail you want.

Oh. I'm going to kill him. It's more of a Cosmo. I understand. Perhaps before we do that, though, I'm going to need help in connecting the dots. Yes, yes. I'm a bit concerned that this was able to succeed. Congratulations. Thank you.

Congratulations. Okay. But the timing of it, mixed with our approach and Vespin making himself known, does that not strike any of you as... No, that's horrifying. I thought he didn't exist anymore. And the warning that came with the Matron of Ravens champion.

Oh, the guy with the dog? Yeah. Vavon. It was a wolf. He was like, Ooh, bad things are coming. Ah, your naivete. So not just bad things, bad god things. And your dreams.

We cannot forget that as well. Who else knows of your accomplishment? Who else knows of your secret project? Yeah, who else have you told besides me and us? We truly meant no disrespect. You are the literal mouthpiece of the city. I can keep a secret. You can barely keep your dick in your pants.

I'm not convinced you were going to keep a world-changing technological achievement. You have no idea. Fucking secret. You have no idea what secrets I've kept for you. Sure, sure. Be vague and I'll just be a faker. We have other things to do right now. Sam, I'd like a deception check.

Deception. 32. Oh! Oh my god! Yeah. Wow. We rolled a two on the dice. Here's what I'd like to know.

Plus. Hold on one second. Luis. Yes? Give me an insight check. Oh god. 10. Remember, I have my ring as well. Ooh, shit, everyone's got stuff to know stuff. Everyone's got stuff to know stuff.

Deception check. This deception check was not necessarily for a lie, but rather just for something else. You... I will say this, too. At the ivy table, Sarah, you see the hallway that leads off to that small chamber where that body was left.

As you guys begin to put the pieces of this all together, it's very challenging because there's so much going on in the Replenishment, even under the best of this all together. It's very challenging because there's so much going on in the Replenishment, even under the best of circumstances. With the addition of Sir Ilerez's dream, with the completion of the Astral Layrite, and the finding that

this, against all odds, this apogee solstice, this particular convening of the spheres would see the possibility of a shift in the ley lines themselves, make the impossible possible for one precious moment. There is the matter of this infernal body in the other room of Vesp and Chloras,

the connection with the strange dream, the arrival of Purvan. All of this is leading up to something. And then there are other things that haven't yet had a piece of yarn put to them yet. The shuddering of the Hall of Prophecy, strange, myla's friend showing up and asking for a favor that you shouldn't have known about it.

Now, the Ring of Silver taking an active interest in this case. Adler's a big city. There's a lot going on that's a problem, even without all being a conspiracy, but there is much at stake here. As the six of you sit at this table, coming into an awareness both of this revelation

and then this very disturbing new information, you have time, as strange as that sounds, the Apogee Solstice will occur tomorrow. Whatever you're going to do needs to happen within the next 24 hours. That's your window of opportunity. And again, if you miss that, it's important to say, if you miss that window,

it doesn't mean it never happens. It just means that it goes back from being possible to theoretical. Jeez, in 24 hours? 24 hours. Possible to theoretical. Bren. Yeah. I was just going to say,

would I know just from my history with the library behind me, any more strange instances on when the ley lines and the planes are this closely aligned. Give me a history check with advantage. With advantage. Fuck, I'm just fucked to my knee. Oh no! I thought that's what that sound was.

It's just pure death and rage right now in your head. Hit the edge of the table. 22! You remember the first time someone explained Apogee Solstices to you. It's a woman that you knew as a child. You don't remember her name anymore because nobody does. Oh my god. You are fucking kidding me.

You learned it from her? That's right, that's right. We learned it from watching you, Mom. Mom? Mom? Mom? Shh. No. A beautiful woman with raven hair who is one of the greatest wizards you ever met once told you

what was possible on a given apogee solstice. Sure. The last time these solstices, there was an apogee solstice. There was some shifting of the ley lines of Exandria. Ley lines, again, for those here, I think you would all know this, they move around the meridian of Exandria.

They are terrestrial by nature. They're the lifeblood of the magic of the world. To create a, and even hearing the name of the engine, an astral leywright, something that could take something truly of the world and move it to another dimension. But it all comes together when Laerryn's talking about what's possible because at an Apogee Solstice,

if the ley lines are shifting. Anything's possible. Anything's possible. The woman who told it to you mentioned it because there was a... She said she was working on something that in a few years' time might become possible. Apogee solstices occur about every 120 years. 20 years, okay.

Well, it seems we need to come to a consensus with regard to what is important and what needs to be done, and what, of course, we can move to when we feel comfortable and have time to do so. The Vespin Chlora situation seems, is, of course, upsetting, but I'm not incredibly sure or clear

on what we can do about it. Sure, I can see that position. My concern, again, only looking on the outside from the knowledge that you've gleaned, is that the timing of it, this person trying to replicate what the Matron of Ravens was trying to do, and you creating a device

that is taking advantage of this laywright, I would have. I declare, I made the laywright. I'm taking advantage of the solstice. The solstice. Yes. Thank you. Right. I mean, I'm not a human. I listened. That.

I also have a small nitpick here for Loquatius and Xerxes. As Sarendra has just said, Vespin recreated the matron's ritual. You know that's not true. He didn't recreate the matron's ritual. No. Oh, yes. It's a slightly different ritual.

Right. But ritually, the thing. This is the time for people to make something happen and we cannot be foolish enough to think that you're the only person that had the idea to, at this very time, take advantage of the magical energies and the thin veil between these realities.

Others are doing that as well, and we've been warned about Vespin and what he's done. We know that it has to do with the Betrayers. I want to celebrate as much as the two of you, but I also don't want your moment to be spoiled because we have been unawares of interested parties coming in and taking us out from underneath, both of you. And they're coming.

They tried to take you out. They're here. Okay. So we know that something is amiss, and we know that something is coming for us, and we know that other cities are creating weapons. I congratulate you for your beautiful achievement, and I share that ambition and that wonder about those planes and that exploration,

but I'm put off by this so-called champion of the Matron of Ravens, who's come here to warn us and couldn't even utter the words of the betrayers because he was scared. That is precisely why I kneel to know god. Because the second you kneel to one of them, you kneel to them all. Something is here, it wants to threaten us, but we are the Ring of Brass.

So gather your wits, gather your courage, gather your strength, and do the job that you know you need to do because this city needs us. Zerxus, can I implore you to set a guard outside of this room, and can I show the rest of the Ring of Brass this room? As you say that, Zerxus is continuing this monologue, and you can start to feel it.

You start to feel his blood boiling, and all of a sudden, each one of you start to feel almost a simmering of your own blood, as if it starts to, like, if passion and rage could be contagious, which I believe it absolutely is, you're starting to feel it invade you and start to simmer and make your blood boil.

Then it expands out of you a little bit and you see this cosmic dust start to swirl around you as you gain 19 temporary hit points. I'd like to use this as my inspiring leader, baby. We love inspiring leaders! I my Inspiring Leader, baby. We love Inspiring Leaders! I take it. 19, 19. That's 114 temp HP. Damn.

That is almost, that is 114 temp HP amongst six people. And if it's coming, I say let it come. You were saying, sir? I would like to get your eyes on this room, the body. You have the knowledge of the arcane that I do not. I would like to also go back to my offices at Cloudstone,

re-examine Vespin's room, his items, see if there was anything else that we missed and maybe I can bring those items to you. Not just the bow, but perhaps something we didn't pay close enough attention to. Okay. I'll help you however I can. Can I lead them over to the room and ask for a guard?

You go to the room. You guys can absolutely just get a guard posted to this room. Patia has people that can be posted up. You guys enter into the room. See this dead body, see the cracked mirror. I'm going to let, you may roll arcana, you may roll history, you may roll perception,

investigation, whatever you want to roll. The best results will come from a religion check. Hmm. Great. Cool. A plus three? Is this all of us? All of you. You're all in the room. Also just saying, handled that with a melee weapon.

I didn't need a new one. I just rolled a natural 20 for my religion check. Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Ah! For all my religion check. Oh! I did it. First of us each. Oh my god!

In the desert! Let's roll! Let's go! You can't be slow. Magic fingers. How do you mean realness? Halli daddy! Mom. So. Thanks, Kyle.

Oh. Holy shit. One sec here. Do the rest of us need to roll anything? Yeah. I know. Can we just coast on that? Can we coast on that 920? Yeah, I mean, it's 20.

Let's ride that! Save the rollings! I just want to admire the wet work. Ooh, ah. Right across the net. A million percent. So. Oh god, oh god, fire.

Oh god. Oh god. Oh god, fire. Oh god. Oh god. Oh god, no. Oh god, no. Too tired. So you all enter the room. Everyone starts looking. There's stuff to glean here. You can read some of this infernal.

The mages of this place can find different stuff. Zerxus. Orange irises and bloodshot eyes. You look into the eyes of a dead man. Runes everywhere. You hear in your mind, it's not a comforting feeling. Nobody likes to feel like they're dreaming

when they're wide awake. Oh god, is there my godranas? You see the infernal on his body and you see the exposed injury. You're a healer. I am. You know how you have Lay on Hands. You know what it... Yes.

You're one of the only people here that can cure disease. So you know that if this man was still alive, that his body would be riddled with tumorous growths all throughout. They're coming from the things that he has carved into his flesh, infernal runes. Clerics have fallen out of vogue here in Avalir. What does it mean to draw power from a deity?

It's complicated. What is the clerical version of a wizard's study? We all know that clerics draw their power from their gods, but if the gods want power, why wouldn't they just grant their most powerful spells to any and all of their followers? Why are some clerics stronger than others? It's not arcana, it's not history,

it's their wisdom. As clerics grow in a deeper understanding of the facet of reality manifested by their deity, they become more aware and attuned to those forces within the world and can wield greater magics. There is a limit to what is safe to grant a follower. But now, what if you weren't worried

about keeping your followers safe? You look into this man's eyes and a term floods into your mind. It's a term in Infernal. It means puppet. It's a human so devoted to you that it's not even worth magically dominating them

or charming them anymore. They just let you into their soul. And dominating them or charming them anymore. They just let you into their soul. And the word is Knauf. Knauf. It's a word that hasn't been spoken on Exandria since the foundations of this world. The sense the foundations of this world.

The man you are looking at became a cleric of a betrayer. And he became a cleric of a Betrayer, looking at the speed of these growths, maybe a little over two weeks ago. What would you do if you came back to the world after a long time away, and nobody worshiped you, do if you came back to the world after a long time away

and nobody worshiped you and you needed to make some moves real quick. This is a mortal man that was forced to understand things that he was not ready for because his master didn't need a servant. He just needed a puppet. Oh my god. Love of the trick. Wow. As Zerxus is processing all of this

and seeing the wasted person devoted to who he was following and seeing the wasted person devoted to who he was following and consumed by that devotion and consumed by that devotion that was taken advantage of, he just kneels and traces the wounds with his finger he just kneels and traces the wounds with his finger and just spends a moment on those tumors traces the wounds with his finger

and just spends a moment on those tumors and takes a closer look. Is there anything about that? Nothing is more familiar to me beyond what's been described. I've not seen this like this before. This is all unfamiliar. I'm going to point out the runes This is all unfamiliar. I'm going to point out the runes to those that are of an arcane understanding.

I don't know if it's worth copying them down or understanding them better, but this is what I see has happened here, and I explain to them what I saw. I've already copied them better, but this is what I see has happened here, and I explain to them what I saw. I've already copied them down, and you see thin, yes, thin wisps of light pour out of the runes and into the orb that is constantly floating around Patia.

Very troubling. Two weeks ago is when Vespin Chloras attempted his ritual, correct? So you could? Correct. He succeeded. We need to proceed as though he was successful. He was successful.

He succeeded with what? Bringing? Bringing? What? Not ascending. Bringing back? Some sort of betrayer god. Yes. They were locked away. I don't even know what the betrayer gods are.

Do we have a running tally of these fellows? Yes. What are they for us? Are they, they're like? They're betrayers. Yeah, they're just like a, like, from history. Yeah. From history, well, they've been sealed away. Okay, great.

I mean, you live in an age where the prime deities walk Exandria openly and they're brethren. I mean, the schism is your creation myth. They're not creation myth, but the myth following the creation, you know that what happened was there was a time in which the prime deities in a world of strife and chaos

sought to give divine magic to their children, to mortals. And the primordials that had existed in the world, the elemental titans that had existed in the world prior to the arrival of the deities, who, before the schism, there was not a distinction between prime deity and betrayer. No betrayal had happened. There were just the gods and the primordials.

The gods fractured when divine magic was granted to mortals. The Primordials rose up to correct that imbalance and the Betrayers joined the Primordials against the cause of mortals. In an effort to rule out the hope that Vespin did not somehow manually manipulate access for a Betrayer god, do we know in history, are there any instances

of one of these gods breaking through into this plane, even if for a short time before being pushed back? One, a single, an instance, an incursion. I'm going to improvise an important piece of canon right now. Yeah. Yeah. No. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Or so much so that it's rare. The Prime Deities were so thorough in sealing the Betrayer Gods away that the Betrayer Gods were not able to grant spells. The Betrayer Gods, the worship of them was completely fruitless.

Yeah, nothing. You got nothing, even if you wanted to. There's one more thing I want to do with this body. I'm going to trace again with my finger the runes. Don't touch it. And as I'm touching it, I'm going to, on occasion, infuse it with divine energy. I'm going to spend a point of Lay on Hands on occasion, not to heal the body, but to connect.

What are you worried about? You're down there making the entrance. As I trace all of those rooms. You connect. I don't know what it means for someone to become as lost as this man was to do what he did, to seek for who he sought for.

But you're a man with a lot of questions. I think that you understand what it's like to feel lost. The eyes close, and this body, at least, knows more rest now than it did in life. I have an amendment. Gross. I am of two minds. If we are amongst ourselves to admit that a Vespin Chloris succeeded in interacting with a Betrayer God.

It seems fitting that we either confirm this possibility by revisiting your reconstructed site, or we seek out some greater understanding of Xerxes's dreams by finding a prophet or better understanding what is going on with the Hall of Prophecy. Yes, I agree. I admit I am not wholly ready

to give myself over to this idea and would like to better understand wholly ready to give myself over to this idea and would like to better understand what exactly we are potentially dealing with before we start making decisions from a place of truth. Just one, you know I don't have opinions, I just report. But just a theory to toss out, as you were talking, and you were talking, it's just a wild theory, I could be possibly totally wrong,

but the Betrayer Gods can't come through. They're locked out. They can't get in here. They're stuck out, right? So, and we know that this lady became the matron of ravens. Yes. So, and Vespin did the same thing. So this Betrayer God that Vespin has awoken or whatever

wouldn't have to make the journey from lands beyond to get here because Vespin would be the Betrayer God. He would be here already. Doesn't have to go through any gate or anything because he's gone through this ritual that makes him a god. It's possible. We would know.

We would know if he had ascended, though. We knew when the Matron of Ravens. How did we know? Thought we had a feeling. We were like, Oh, that's one more. In the blink of an eye, anyone who was standing in a temple to the previous god of death

watched all of the names of that god be erased from the stone in front of them at the moment of her ascension. But there is no knowing of the Betrayer Gods, so there would be no one who knew if ascension. But there is no knowing of the Betrayer Gods, so there would be no one who knew if they changed. Except here we have evidence of someone who was drawing upon their power and was receiving it,

so the line of that is established here. Loquatius, you're the one extra planar person here. Give me an insight check. On myself? I'm self-inciting? No, I think you're inciting the world. Ooh. I fucking love inciting the world.

22, but if I fail, I can add a d4. I love the offer every time. Here you go. But if I fail? Roll a d, you won't fail, because you're on a gradient, so roll the d4 for me. Hit that. Okay, 24. 24.

You're sitting here, you're talking about did this ritual work or not, right? All of your friends, you have powerful friends here in this room who have very specific functions within the city. Right now, for being not human, you're thinking about human nature.

You're thinking about the nature of all beings. The gods are impossible to fathom, sure, but if they have wars, if they squabble and bicker with each other, how inhuman can they be? If there is a puppet here, it's indicative of a conspiracy. And a conspiracy exists to accomplish something

that has not happened yet. So I think that when you're saying, like, the ritual, something happened, I think on that insight, that powerful insight check, you're pulling on the right thread. Something happened, perhaps something terrible, but the apocalypse, if the apocalypse happened, you'd notice it.

Something is at work, but not finished. That is what your opinion is, as you try to put the pieces together. Sarit is right. An infernal cultist came to the Palace of the Keeper of Scrolls in Avalir. But that cultist came to do something, which means that something needed to happen.

As he is saying that. Charmingly. Charmingly. A lot snaps into place for Patia as well. How the fuck did this motherfucker get in? Yeah. Is there something I can do to check? How did he?

I'm assuming that I would have so many things set up in terms of warning signs, breach points, zones of truth, you name it. You have divining stones. Divining stones. You go back through a divining stone effortlessly and look through. Yeah.

Looking at my smart home. Looking at your smart home. iPad. Just on the nest. Just on the nest? Yeah, I'm looking at all the recams. Yeah, right? Ahadmadad walked down this hallway.

It was not in the livery of the Golden Scythe. It walked down this hallway and never came back out. It never came back for the whole party up to this current moment as you're recording. You do a quick scan of the hallway. There's no hodmedod anywhere, but you see just the corner

from where one of your divine instincts can catch it, the hodmedod opening the door to this room. Right. That hodmedod had come as a porter carrying a gift of Dean Lacrytia Hollow. Wait, wait, wait, wait. The walk sign is on. Carrying a gift of Dean.

So when Lacrytia Hollow showed up, she had a hodmedod with her carrying a gift. That hodmedod put the gift down, and being a hodmedod that no one would care to follow or look at that much, wandered off, walked into this room, and that's the last you see of it. And you're in this room and it's not in here,

but there was an invisible cultist in here. And that was the one, because I caught it out of the corner of my eye when I was doing my detect thoughts and it went. No, different one. Different one. That one's still disanimated. That one's the same. If Invisibility is a second-level spell

and Disguise Self is a first-level spell, that cultist was disguised as a hodmedod and walked in here. Then when he got into the room, cast Invisibility on himself and was waiting for the right moment. But the right moment never came because he got his throat slit by the senior sight warden.

We got got by cantrips, baby. We got got by cantrips! You hate to see it. Fundamentals, you guys. Fundamentals. Wow. So Dean Hollow. They have the fundamentals. Just think about all the shit you've gotten away with as third-level characters, you know what I'm saying? It's under Patia's list.

Where is Dean Hollow? Where is? So I'm going to go over. Necromancy art mage of the Ring of Silver. Yes, I'm saying? It's under Patia's list. Where is Dean Hollow? Where is, so I'm going to go over. Necromancy art mage of the Ring of Silver. Yes, I'm going to go. She was one who brought in, she came with Purvan. Yeah. Or she had invited Purvan

and then openly mocked him in the, in sort of like in the. This thing. And we all applauded. Because it was pretty dope. Some solid don'ts. All right. All right. I'm going to go over. I'm imagining this room,

I'm adding shit to canon as we go, has one of those big panorama windows CEOs have in their upstairs offices, looking over their warehouse, looking at their worker minions. I imagine I have that in the house, and I'm looking over down into the foyer area. Can I see, can I clock Dean?

You see, there was a woman, Madara Glyph was talking with her all night, but you don't see Cresha Hollow anywhere here. Well, we can go talk to who was talking to her and ask where she went. How does our telepathic link work? Any of us can jump in and send a message, or just you can hit any of us?

Oh, yeah, I'll bring that shit back up. Rari's telepathic bond. Cool. Everyone can talk to everyone, and you can silence them. Over any distance. Any distance! It's a good spell. It's a really good spell.

Is that an hour, or is that more than that? It's an hour, but I can ritually cast it again and again and again. Solid. Okay. Let's maybe keep that up. So wait, okay. This is above the table, Marisha talking to Diem. The one that I saw, the Hamadaad that went, boof.

That just- That was one of, that was a different one. That was one of Nydas'. So basically what happened is that one disanimated for reasons you still don't understand, but happened is that one disanimated for reasons you still don't understand, but you heard that one saying Gordranas over and over again.

This was a private one of Lycretia's. And putting that together in your head, you're like, now, you don't know if Lycretia knew or not, but a hodmedod in her employ walked in with a gift, put the gift on the table, walked down a hallway without being ordered to, opened a door, let itself in a room.

Where's the gift? Where's the gift? What gift did she bring? Where's the receiving room? Yeah, where's the, is there a big table with gifts? Is there a registry? Like a wedding? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I brought you a curate. We need to go see if that gift is an actual gift

or if it's something that's going to go boom. I made a donation on your behalf. Thank you. I haven't done it yet, but I'm going to. I also don't think it's important, but I point out to Nydas the core of the hobbitod that just has the glyph that looks like it's missing. You don't put your proprietary technology.

You have a technology that keeps their engines in there. We keep the engines. The energy is stored at the scythe and fed out. I learn more every day. Of course. How difficult is it, Nydas, to tamper with one of your hodmedats. Someone would have to be in the guild hall.

Someone would have to be in the guild hall. But I mean, once again, just the coincidences, which I hate them. Yeah. But just had this little infiltrator. Yes, master of the Sphinx. The guild hall is relatively empty.

It was not the Sphinx who did majestically during the Parade of Peace. The guild hall is relatively empty at this current time, but I was just there before meeting up with Laerryn, and my man, Alessandra, is there and did not mention any sort of tampering or the like. Let's go find this gift. Yes.

Let's go find this hollow. Great. And see what we can see. Let's go from there. All right. Incredible. There is much that you have all discussed doing. Finding hollow, finding the gift.

You have mentioned the Hall of Prophecy is returning to Cloudstone. There is much to do in precious little time. So much to do. I know. As all of you stand from your seats at the ivy table, outside, you hear You don't have to do this. Boom!

Oh! You knew! The fireworks extravaganza has begun! I better use that as well. The fireworks extravaganza! I love the fireworks extravaganza the extravaganza started and that's where we're going to take our break folks we'll come back after the break

this mini series is too stressful I'm canceling it thank you for listening to Critical Role to dive deeper into the lore and characters of the campaign, check out Foresighted Dive, our monthly talk show that features a roundtable discussion between four guests with a host chosen by rolling the dice. Foresighted Dive features questions curated by our production team,

evergreen fan-submitted questions pulled from the Tower of Inquiry, and plenty of hijinks and party games as well. Watch Foresighted Dive the first Tuesday of every month at 7pm Pacific on twitch.tv slash Critical Role and youtube.com slash Critical Role, with the VOD available on YouTube the very next day. And of course, each episode releases right here on the Critical Role Podcast Network one week after the initial broadcast. There'll be plenty more to dive into later, but for right now, let's get back to the adventure. Wesley Snipes tax evasion.

We had to have caught it on camera. It was so late. It was so late in the game. We had to have caught it on camera. It was so late. It was so late in the game. Folks, we're coming back to Exanthra Unlimited Calamity after the break. We return now to the Palazzo Porco, where the Ring of Brass stands up from the ivy table. I'm trying to play it long. I love it. I think it's great.

You stand. There think it's great. You stand. There is much to do. Many of the cards held by those assembled here are now on the table. The Astral Layrite is functional and it has one chance and one chance alone to work, and that is today. And the ritual of the Archmage Vespin Chloras

appears to have done something terrible. You stand up from this place. You want to investigate the gift of Dean Hollow, Lacrytia Hollow. Yes, yes. I think me and Laerryn are tagging along. And quick stop at the gift table. Long, beautifully wrapped gift, very stylish.

As is the fashion for necromancers, it's a velvet black box with a lovely black ribbon on it. The most goth of presents. The most goth of gifts. It's quite long. It's quite elongated. You open it up and you see there's a small- Is it trapped? Is it a bomb? Is it anything like that? It's quite long, it's quite elongated. You open it up and you see there's a small. Is it trapped? Is it a bomb?

Is it anything like that? You don't detect any magic on it at all. No magic, okay. But your cousin is dead. You detect no magic on it whatsoever. You open it up for For this enormous box, you see there's a velvet raised stand that's the whole length of the box.

In the center, in a depression shaped for it, there's a small vial of a clear liquid. It's quite small, less than a mouthful. There's a note attached to it. Read it. The note says, When the time comes, this will be the easier way out. All things end.

Lives, stories, even ages. What? Do you read that out loud? Because I am for sure opening other gifts. I don't read it out loud. That's why I don't read it. I fold it, and I just make eye contact with Laerryn. We have enough of a bond that you just see me look at you.

Necromancers have such a penchant for the dramatic. So poetic. We should have a conversation. Mm-hmm. Anyone who wants to give me a medicine check. Natural 20. Let's go. Oh!

Girls got it. The reason you did not detect magic is that the faintly sweet, incredibly deadly poison within the vial is non-magical. We need to have a conversation. I'm going to drop the vial. Drop it? Yeah, so it shatters. Oh, okay.

What if it's aroma activated? Then we all die here, baby. And it smells like juicy fruit. 50-foot square foot. Oh, roll! I was just being radical! I immediately turn with the freshly shattered glass behind me,

thanks to Laerryn, badass, and I scan. Do I see Lacrytia Hollow at all? Probably not. No roll necessary. You do not see Lacrytia Hollow. You see Medara Glyph, who was speaking to her earlier,

which you know is the Valedictine Abjura, your underling at the Abjuration Guild. Go shake her down! I immediately bring my orb in front of me. It widens a little bit, scrying. I'm looking for that bitch. Let's go. You get your orb and scry.

Most people wouldn't recognize what this is, but as someone who has a ring of mind shielding, you know exactly what it is. She's got mind shielding. Okay. I should have known that. We all have those. We didn't collect the mind shielding rings before the party started? Everyone's got one.

This one isn't a key party, all right. Everyone drop your mind shielding rings. It's not fair to protect your mind. It's not fair. Put it in the fist bowl. You'll have a better experience if you don't. All right. Yeah, she's currently missing in action. Do you think Madara has any information?

She's your assistant. You tell me. I don't pay attention to people dumber than me. That is incredibly fair. Let's go talk to her. Madara is standing there going like, Incredibly fair. Let's go talk to her. Madara is standing there going like, it's of course lovely.

I mean, the last, and sees both of you walking straight towards her, and you see she swallows a full gulp of air into her stomach, just at both of your power and station. And goes, Keep back of Kvicka Starr Kane, hello! Follow me? Yep. You lead, I'm going to be behind her

in just the most stressful sandwich she's ever been in. She follows and says, you go to a little private corner, whatever to wit. We don't need to make small talk. Yep. Where's the Grisha Hollow? Ah, so, I'm sweating. I do a little cantrip gust to cool her down.

She says, La Grisha Hollow. Oh, the dean was speaking to me. She was speaking to me earlier, prior to Sir Illores coming over, that she had invited the champion Pervon Sewell to the gathering, which I thought very strange because she then quite grievously, you know,

made the guest uncomfortable, which is fine. I agree that, you know, the age of the gods is over. But I think she wanted to make apologies to him because I saw her whisper to Magister Cormorant and say that she was going to follow him. And then I saw, well, what did I see? Give me an arcana check.

Oh no. Fuck. I just want to assist you on this. Yeah. Oh no. What is she trying to do? What are you doing, bitch? Yeah. Have done to her. 25. 25?

25 lets you know that you should be casting Detect Thoughts right now. Okay, that's... Yeah, Detect Thoughts. Let's do it. As she goes there, leave it to... Well, it's hard to tell who cast it,

but you know it wasn't an enchanter because this modify memory was sloppy and it was done very fast. Madara saw Lycretia cast a spell and either Lycretia or somebody else quickly, in the midst of a party, modified her memory to forget it. But you see, she says, yes, I think Lycretia wanted to apologize

to the champion, Purvan. I probe deeper to take thoughts. I don't give a fuck right now. She knows. On a 25, you burrow deeper into the memory and you get to a memory that Madara can no longer access. You see Lycretia go invisible to follow Purvan out of the room.

You see Magister Cormorant turn, who was also one of the people speaking, and you see Cormorant says, Oh, Valedictine, can I speak with you for a moment and put a hand on her neck and begin to tap a somatic component to a modified memory spell on her neck. Wow. As she goes in, you look at Madara's eyes looking out,

and you see in her memory a bit of magic, some kind of dangerous spell, something crackling, something that you recognize is about to break invisibility. Like the invisibility that Lacrytia cast on herself was low level, the kind of thing that an attack or a spell gets rid of, right? The invisibility was about to fade

because Lacrytia was about to do something deadly. Then you see and hear Pervon as Loquatius and Zerxus run out. Because they ran out, Lycretia killed the spell. Stopped. Damn, they were going to do the shot. I saved someone's life today. Oh my.

Don't tell him. Please don't tell him. I was there, too, and I said champion, which stopped him. Yes! Then you watch as Lacrytia, in the memory, well, now you're past the memory, but you remember the interaction that Zerxus and Loquatius described,

which was their presence in front of Purrvon Sual up until the moment that he vanished because they did not leave his side until he teleported away from the city. You guys changed canon. You guys saved the future of Exandria. We are the heroes. No one taught him.

It's been a great mini campaign. That's what we played for, right? Oh my god. So Madara is standing in front of you and goes, Sorry, I can't be more helpful, but then there's a moment and then Magister Cormorant became quite distracted, once again, in her memories.

You see Madara speaking, and Cormorant literally reacts like someone tapped his shoulder, but you didn't see anyone tap his shoulder. And you see that it's like, and then he left quite abruptly as well, the Magister. I believe he... He said something about having to attend to some business

in his offices, which is strange, on an evening such as this, a wonderful gathering, a party. But, you know, Magister Cormorant is free to do as he wishes. Have I done anything to give offense or anything? Not knowing what you're discovering, you definitely see Laerryn about to rip into her because I have no idea. I just think she's incompetent.

Well, actually, you've been getting drunk at a party, and there's something bigger happening. What is your whole deal? What is the point of you? Valedictine, you are a representative of the Abjura, and I find, frankly, all of your behavior tonight specifically to be a zombie. Go home, Adora. of your behavior tonight specifically to be a zombie.

Go home, Adora. Oh. I am very sorry. Happy replenishment. She wordlessly turns and walks out of here. So why did we let her leave and not take her to the magisters? I've got everything I need to know. Magister Comerance are a part of this.

He seems to be in cahoots, as they say, with the dean. I take the sphere in front of my face in between me and Laerryn, and you just see a projection in the sphere of the memory that I pulled from her mind, and play it back. I might have to admit that I was needlessly harsh to a subordinate. No.

Her dress was atrocious. Did you see that? It was bad. And honestly, if you can get a Modify memory cast on you, what kind of wizard are you anyway? She should be more careful. Truly. She deserves the night off.

Ugh. You guys can make up with her tomorrow, I'm sure. Give me a perception check with advantage. Call it a DC 15. Oh, oh, well. Both bad. All that's bad. 12.

Yeah. Cool. Two and a five. So you have what you have from Madara. The rest of the Ring of Brass. So you've looked at the gift, you've talked to Madara. The party moves on, but time is of the essence. It's getting closer to midnight. I do jump on to our walkie-talkies and inform everybody.

Magister Cormorant has something to do with this and word on the street is he can be found in his offices. I'm right across the lobby from you. I can see, hi, I'm over here. Hi. Oh, and you're still here? Yeah, I'm still here. I'm waiting with that anyway. Weren't you doing something

else useful? But are you going to go do that? Are you going to go take care of that cormorant thing? I would love to go to the Magisterium. I'm tapping into our group chat through the telepathic bond. Because you downloaded that into our group. Everyone can hear this. Great.

So what's our next move? We're about to go. We were planning on heading to the Hall of Prophecy to see if we might consult with regard to Zerxus's visions. Isn't it closed? We're going to see if we can open it. Okay.

If not, I had intentions of scrying on one of the prophets, or the oracles I might be familiar with, that we might just go to them directly. Good. I was going to go check out my records on Vespin Chloris, just to see if we could glean

any more historical information about him. Are you coming with, or are you going to go to your place? 100% knowledge is the key. I feel like the more we can learn about the man before whatever he did took place, it may serve as well. So I'm off to the tome, to the Herald's Tome. All of you head off. The Hall of Prophecy, the Herald's Tome,

the Magisterium, the Ring of Brass, on a night where you should have been reveling till sunrise. Should be drunk! Hey, there's only six people in this town who work and you're looking at them. You have a Xerox machine at the Herald's Tome, right? We can get into some trouble for her.

We can't say that word, Xerox. It's copyrighted. Oh. We have a photocopy. Photocopy. And Cormorant would be at the Magisterial? Yeah, that's where his office is. That's where he was going there, right?

Yeah, he said he was going to his offices. Speaker of the Fourth. Yes, Speaker of the Fourth. Cool. You... head off. I'm going to go ahead and say that... Oh, this is, you know what?

I'll say here, I'm going to roll one, two, three, four, five, six. See who we cut to? I know. Back to back. Back to back. Incredible. We're going to follow you guys to the Herald's Tome.

So. Did you roll a five or a six? I rolled a six. I thought it was a five. I have, I would assume, records at the Herald's Tome of any notable figures. We keep records and also recordings, audio and visual of notable people from around the world,

in case we need to use them in upcoming stories. But also, sometimes we prerecord stories that might not be time sensitive. So with your blessing, Brennan, I bring him to the room where we keep all of these prerecorded crystal shards that have these messages and information on them. Nobody's here, though, because everyone's out partying.

So I'm trying to make my way and figure out the filing system. I haven't done this in years. Usually I have assistants who do this for me. So I pick up one thing and put it in, and it's a recording of me saying, It is with a heavy heart that I must report the death of Eldamir the Wise.

His reign was long and he was a high, and then I take it out. That will be run someday, obviously. Oh man. Then I stick in something else and it's a prerecorded advertisement. Come to Mulligan's Tavern! The third best ale in Avalir, but the first best for making friends.

Then I take it out. You know what, I'll take it. I don't even drink, so that actually works for me. I'm looking for anything that I can find on this man. As you guys walk in, you again have this incredible chamber. It's a circular chamber with all these crystals stored throughout.

These beautiful, everything in here is gold and brass. There are a bunch of little stands that project three-dimensional illusory recordings. This is a whole group of bards that work at the Tome. Illusion magic is second nature, so it illusory recordings. I mean, this is a whole group of bards that work at the Tome. Illusion magic is second nature, so it's these amazing recordings. Let me ask this.

As you get here, you have so much stuff. I will ask for either history checks or investigation checks. As you walk in, it's also the strange, there's a little bit of a being in the Herald's Tome at night. Empty cubicles, empty workspaces, and the lights are all off.

You're inside and... I would also just say, out of habit, I do my normal thing, which is to investigate a space, look for things that may not be there, use the Unhearing Eye, and just check it because it's after hours, but also if we're on a specific trail, who knows who might else be.

Yeah. Certainly, please look around. I must admit, I have been here on occasion after hours, sometimes accompanied with, you know, other people. Make it a private chat! Oh. Oh, yeah. God! Sorry, sorry, sorry.

Like Peaks, somehow they turned the tele- Can you mute your microphones, please? Thank you. But yeah, so there could be some people wandering about or finding hard surfaces to lay down on or something. Just for the room and the space, anything that might be there, or visual or non-visual, 23 investigation.

Ooh, my history is terrible. It's only a nine. Cool. You're looking through. But I can roll that d4. Yeah, roll the d4. That's cocked. Oh, it added four.

That's a 13. 13. You start pulling a lot of stuff. I'm going to say, on that investigation check, you grab a bunch of, we're going to go with that very high investigation check. So history, you're having a hard time remembering stuff. So with that investigation, you basically just pull everything.

It's like, okay, we can't narrow this down. We got to pull it all. So we're going to be here for a minute, you know, like running through it. As you do, you also find something that's not about Vespin Chloras at all, but you find something about the Herald's Tome.

But we'll talk about Vespin first. Oh my god! I know! What? I don't even know where we are. The jig is up. I got your number. This is it. You get a bunch of stuff that I made up

and didn't tell you. Okay, okay. Okay. Oh man. That's what you speak infernal, don't you? Yeah. So here's the thing. I've been calling him Betrayer God for years

and no one's been listening. Oshkosh. Oshkosh, B'gosh. So here's been listening. Oshkosh. Oshkosh, because. So here's the deal. You pull a name. Right away, the reporter that got the most stuff on Vespin that actually went out and hustled and talked to him, this interview is like,

this series of interviews is like eight or nine years old. It's a much younger Vespin. You recognize the reporter's name, Elena Tuvaris. You find a bunch of interviews. There's some stuff that Vespin actually said that was printed, that actually made it into some of the Herald's Chum. That's the easiest stuff to find.

He talked a big game, even back in the day, about the Matron's Ritual. He never made reference to himself, but he said it's a matter of time before someone recreates the ritual. He said, anything that is achieved, he says, it goes against every virtue of this age to believe that something that is achievable by one

is not, at least in theory, achievable by all. And he went on to say, again, arrogance and hubris is a staple of the age. He said that it was his belief that a future ritual would not dethrone a prime deity. He said, after all, why would we wish to remove a force from this world that, while archaic, and not necessarily where our vision of the future comes from, are nonetheless largely benevolent.

Would it not make more sense to attempt to dethrone and remove something more nefarious from existence? And he, so that's what you printed because it was of magical interest to the Archmages of Avalir, right? But there's a lot of other stuff that he said and did. You get an actual recording, which is one of the original things

that Elena Tuvaris actually recorded, right? You put that in. It's a recording of an interview with a cleric of Vasselheim that is giving a comment about art mages attempting to recreate the Matron's Ritual. And of course, this was taken at a gala about nine years ago in Vasselheim. You see that the gala is clearly in Vasselheim.

You can see the city outside the window. Behind this cleric who's speaking, there are three people talking. Vespin Cloris, Lacrytia Hollow, and Loras of the Weaver's Mask. Mother. He was so cool.

Cool guys don't do bad things! Oh, she left. As this is cropping up here, do any of you have the ability to read lips or at least can make an attempt? Yes. Yes. Of course we do!

As long as it's a language that I speak. Yes, they are speaking common, absolutely. Who doesn't have lips? I'm going to manipulate the playback of this interview and blow it up and enhance. So you see the Herald himself goes, enhance, enhance, enhance.

Again, you are finding a breakthrough that might, this city is full of every arcane tome in the world, and the thing that might, this city is full of every arcane tome in the world, and the thing that might save Exandria is in the back of some B-roll footage of commentary. Tycho's still on there. It's like a shot of them pouring champagne flutes or something. Yeah, exactly.

You zoom in. Thankfully for the future of Avalir, you see that you are catching profiles at an angle of Loras. You notice Loras' mask on the side of his face and Dean Hollow. So Vespin is with his back against the window speaking and you have a full view of his face and are able to gather what he's saying.

Reading his lips, you see him talking and he's saying. Reading his lips, you see him talking, and he's clearly reacting to something that Loras has just said. You see he's being very cavalier and says, Well, of course, Loras, that's your opinion, and you're more than entitled to it. I don't take such a limited view

of what is possible in an Age of Wonders. Obviously, if it were impossible, it wouldn't have already happened once. We're talking about how to improve on existing technology. The Matron's Breakthrough already opened the door for all of us. Look, you should know why these things are challenging. You, it's your fault in a way.

And you see Laura says something you can't see because you can't get a good eye on his lips. He's like, Oh, come now. You haven't read the pact. You know what the Gaujrashari are about. You see that he then says, You see that there's a momentary confusion.

You see there's a moment of confusion and he says, he looks at both of them and says, the City of Crowns bears the Tree of Names. He says, the City of Crowns bears the Tree of Names and says, oh, am I saying something you don't know? Maybe if you took a little less time flying that city and a little bit more time cracking the books, you'd know this.

And he finishes his drink and walks away. City of Crowns. City of Crowns is the one on the ground, right, Catherine? Oh no, that's us. That's us. We're the Crowns. The City of Crowns bears the crown. But the Tree of Names.

The Tree of Names. The Tree of Names! Does that ring any bells in either of our domes? If any of you can hit a high DC history check right now. Come on. No problem. I'm pretty sure, I'm no expert. I think he said Tree of Gnomes, actually.

Yeah, I think it was Gnomes. You look up gnomes, I'll look up tree of names. It was the Keebler elves the whole time. Wow! What's your, is your history mod? My history's not great, it's only four. That's better than mine, I'll give you advantage. He had the big teeth, but I swear to god.

How about I give you inspiration? You want to give me inspiration? And then I'll also roll. Oh, yeah. Oh yeah, go for it. I will inspire you by telling you it's probably gnomes. What about that?

Is that a six? That's a d10 on top. Oh! Level 14. Level 14, okay, okay. Not great. Natural 20. Oh! Woo!

Oh! Oh! Rolled a d10, too, just in case. Woo! Damn. For a 31. That's an eight plus three. Breaking that map. Holy crap.

So good. Sorry, Brennan! Brennan's face got sad. You have to tell us. You wanted it to be a fun map that we went and looked up later, but now you have to tell us. That's great, I'm so proud of you.

Fuck, dude. These dice are nasty. As Loquatius Seelye says, Tree of Gnomes to you. You see. You're in a fucking suit. Tree of Names. Tree of Names. You remember in your training,

the Eyes of Avalir, the Tree of Names was given as one of the central artifacts of Avalir, something that the Eyes of Avalir must eternally guard. If its name were ever to be mentioned, that was an immediate indication that something terrible was, that anyone talking about it

is talking about something incredibly profoundly important to the significance and safety of Avalir. However, that's a very old piece of training for the Eyes of Avalir, which is itself a very old organization. The Tree of Names, I got to honor a nat 20. Yes.

The Tree of Names doesn't get talked about as much anymore because it was protected 120 years ago by the Arboreal Calix. Yes! Sorry. Cool. Damn. Really? The name, the Tree of Names, was protected? Or the tree itself was protected by the Arboreal Cortex? It was built over it or around it?

Built over and around it. Wow. That tree is fucking important if it's not the core of something important. There was a tree in my dream in the palm of the Betrayer God. You're right. And as Evandrin approached it, he knelt

and the blossoms from the tree caught wind and fell on him. And that's what caused him. I think that's what made him sick. At least, if there's any truth to the dream that I had, then it has something to do with Evandrin, and that tree has something to do with these betrayers. There's obviously a connection.

We're all seeing that. Oh, interesting. Are we saying this on the group chat? I am saying that on the group chat. We will when we're done with our investigation, for sure. I'm going to say that you do say that on the group chat. As you do, so this is huge because the thing at the center of the Arboreal Calix,

you saw Vespin Choris talking about, with clear knowledge, in relation to rituals of ascension and godhood. He was speaking to Loras and Lacrytia Hollow about it in this party in Vasselheim nine years ago. But he's saying the City of Crowns, which is Avalir, bears the core of the Arboreal Calix. Bears the Tree of Names. Yes. In the fucking city. The City of Arboreal Calix. Bears the Tree of Names. Yes. In the fucking city.

So that's very critical. Immediately upon hearing it, you go, yeah, Arboreal Calix is a wizard name. The Tree of Names, that's something older. That's something older. Arboreal. Like Arbor. Arbor, yeah. Yeah, he said it. To us earlier. That's something old. Arboreal. Like arbor. Arbor, yeah. Yeah, he said it.

To us earlier. Yes, he did. Yes, and it's been there the whole time! Oh, it's a fun little Easter egg. Ooh. Now. Oh, cool. Nasty.

So. It's real nasty. It's real nasty. Thank you all for that nat 20. I swear to god. I love the stink. I swear to god. I love the stink. I swear to god. Now.

Ooh. Now, what I will say is this. Saren, as you hear over your telepathic bond, you hear Zerxus talk about the dream, Evandrin, his husband the previous first night. You look, and the clue you notice that has nothing to do with the records you pulled

is that you see the rest of this file, this gilded box that has rows of gilded placards within it. It's all of the work of Elena Tuvaris, this reporter. At the back of it, you see a compartment labeled Evandrin Alterra, and it is empty. Can I... Ooh. I'll bring Loquatius's attention to it.

This is odd, don't you think? What is? The fact that it's empty? Yeah. Former First Knight, a man of great import, high esteem, all missing. Who has access to these files besides you and... Well, Elena, the reporter who gathered this stuff.

She doesn't work here anymore. Where is she? I don't honestly know. I dismissed her a number of years ago, and I haven't heard from her since. I don't even know if she's still in Avalir. You wouldn't know where these files could be. She could have taken them with her or destroyed them,

or they could have been misplaced. I'll give it another look. I don't know. On the I don't know, does my ring do anything? I'm going to need Loquatius to roll a deception check. Oh my god! What? It's a 30.

Oh my god. So now what's going to happen is this. That's a 30. It's a 30 deception from Loquatius. Yeah. My god. Your crowd brows are just so enchanting. I swear!

Now, so that's going to, that's not that there's anything untoward happening here, but that is above what the Ring of Honor will detect. So this comes down to the Instance of Cerrit alone. Wow. I'm actually going to ask, I think rolls, I just, yeah, I'm going to need you to roll insight and I'm going to need you to tell me

if you get 30 or higher. A 30 insight? What do you need to roll on the die to beat 30? He can't do that. He can't. Why couldn't he? He's a rogue. He's a rogue. There's a whole bunch of stuff you can do. I'm just trying to see.

Oh god, he's stacking all his shit. Yeah, inspire him to do it. Remember, the ring gives you advantage. I was just checking. The ring gives you advantage on detecting this. To break a 30, I need a 17 or higher. You can do it. You got two chances. Come on.

Nope. No. Yes! 23. Oh my god. So! 23. Oh my god! So stressed out. Holy shit. You bitch!

You used the wrong die! Our secrets were fun! So you observe that. You have Loquatius' answer, and Loquatius' possible disgruntled reporter cleared this out. And obviously, this is probably, you know, she was sloppy in her work. What was her name again? Elaina Tavares, but she was sloppy in her work, and this was yet another example

of why she had to be dismissed. It would occur to Quay as well that you have lots of crystals on Evandrin Alterra. This is just Elaina's file box. So other lots of crystals on Evandrin Alterra. This is just Elena's file box. So other reporters that reported on Evandrin's stories and his accomplishments, there's plenty of those. Yes, so if you want to know other facts about Evandrin, we can go diving.

I don't think that's pressing information right now. I'm sorry, it's been such a late night. You said you think she's still in the city or she's left? I have, I don't know where she is, do I? I think you, would Loquatius have kept up with former employees, do you think? If she's still in the biz,

I would absolutely know. Actually, just give me a history check. I'll just let you know. She's still in the biz. On IMDb? Sure, I check people out. Actually, just give me a history check. I'll just let you know. What's her IMDB? On IMDB? Sure, I check people out. Yeah, just history, yeah. 19. 19? Yeah, her family's in the city.

She's not a reporter anymore. The city is so dominated by the Herald's Tome that if you get fired from there, there's not competition to go to. Sure. So you think that she's working as a clerk or a scribe somewhere in the city? Okay, there you go.

Okay. Maybe I'll follow up with her if everything else runs dry. I'm sure. Please do, and please tell me what happened to those files. They belong to us. I agree. It's probably nothing. Stop.

I look so stressed out. You! I swear to god. Let me be very clear, I love this man. You know what happens to those files. My X is a G, and I love this. Oh man, this is like a movable force. I'm like, here's this force, movable object. Fucking incredible.

A changeling media personality and an Eric Hokre detective. Wow. Incredible. All right. a changeling media personality, and an Eric Hocra detective. Wow. Incredible. All right. Stop, stop! Stop! He's literally feeling himself.

For sure. Oh my god. I'm feeling myself. Incredible. We report all that over the airwaves What is that? Incredible. So. We report all that over the airwaves to our friends. Mm-hmm. What are you guys up to? Well, let's find out.

We move from here to the... We move from here to the Magisterium. You arrive in the Magisterium. As you arrive, you walk through vast doors leading to grand, sweeping double staircases that go up to a massive parliament, a circular structure of various thrones.

The thrones all surrounding the High Thrones, the Eight Thrones. You see there is the Seventh Throne of Gwisaria Lucered, and there is the Throne of the Fourth, which is Micah Cormorant's throne. It is dark as well here in the Magisterium as you approach. The private offices of the Magisters,

again, of which there are 380. It is a massive, massive chamber. The building is an enormous civic complex. Where would you travel as you arrive at the Magisterium, Patia and Laerryn? Laerryn is caught just a moment with envy and contempt that the Court of Workings is four people

in a sweat box, and there's 380 assholes that get very little done, and this place slaps, and she's mad, and has forgotten temporarily why she's here. What the fuck? What the fuck? Inefficiency is the game. It's all about the pageantry.

Yeah. Cormorant, we need to find... We need to talk to him, figure out what's going on, but I also need to find out any information I can on the construction and purpose of the Arboreal Calix. It's siphoning energy, and I don't know why. And I don't like when I don't know things. As I walk, you can just hear

Patia's heeled boots that she has on just echo through the hall with each clack, with every step. The question is, do we just walk right up to his office, the Magister's, or is there a more strategic approach here? From what we know from before and what we just heard, he's much more of a threat.

So I would caution. We should be stealthy. I don't think this is a conversation. I don't think so either. Do we see any signs of life, any lanterns lit, any noise from any holes? Not in the chamber. You approach the offices,

walk into the marble staircase. Clack, clack, clack, clack, clack. You see Magister Cormorant's office. Door is closed. It's a door of beautiful, polished, deep red wood with a bright gold knob and a placard that gives the name and station. with a bright gold knob and a placard that gives the name and station, Magister Micah Cormorant of the Fourth Throne.

Door is shut. Can see any lights on, any shadows? You see no lights on inside. Nothing? Nothing. I don't trust it. I don't trust it. I don't either. So I open the door. Now, as you attempt to open the door,

the door is locked. Okay. How authoritative do the assembled wizards feel like being. I hate restraint. Do you happen to have a knock spell handy? I can do you one better. I summon Construct.

What's the biggest, dumbest statue in here? It's mine now. I'll have it, thanks. Yeah, thanks. A statue of a spell knight behind you in the wall. We answer the call of the architect. Open the door. The door is blasted off its hinges

and scatters into a darkened office. I'm going to need perception checks from each of you. Real quick, I just pressed a digitation and turned on all the lanterns. That's smart. Lights come on. Wait, did you say perception? Mm-hmm. God, my perception.

I've got good perception. This is balls. 15 total. 23. Architect Arcane, as your construct smashed the door in, you heard something in here. Oh! Show yourself. Roll initiative. She's going to.

Oh! Yeah! Yeah, yeah, yeah! Roll initiative. She's going to die. Yeah! Roll initiative. Roll initiative. Roll initiative. Yeah, yeah, yeah! Let's go, let's go. Hold on, let's do this.

Oh my god, I'm getting a big one! Oh no! Oh my god, that is good. Oh my god! I'm glad we got a big one. Go! Oh my goodness! Excited, going too. I'm glad we got a big guy. Girl! Oh my goodness! Excited way too fast.

Beautiful, here we go. Look at the guy! Here's the Magister's office. Oh, he's so cute! Here we go. Now I have to grab a couple more things. Whoa, look at this. Is this a Brennan Mulligan map?

This is a wonderful Matt Mercer map. Oh! We hung out all morning this morning. Matt is a true wizard. I can only say, Matt, thank you so, so much. And also, Rick Perry, I miss you. Oh! This is your opportunity to say

Matt Mercer, and that's okay. Matt Mercer! Okay. It's a brand. Okay, it is wizard time. We have the beautiful Patia and Laerry. Oh, look at that! You're so cute! Oh my god, I haven't seen her in ages!

So cute. Look at you, though, in your signature purple. Too bad they're about to be a district. Look at us. Together, we look like a blue raspberry Pop-Tart. Oh, look at us! Just purple and teal. Yay! Okay. All right.

Make sure they have their construct. Yes, yes, yes. Yeah, where's my big boy? They need it. We're going to get the big boy. Where's my lovely gentleman? Ah! Here's our friend. Oh, look at him, he's great!

Amazing. Son of a bet. I hate this. Son of a bet. Ow. I mean, everyone on the telepathic bond knows that this is happening. Yes. Yeah, yeah, I'm immediately clocking that. Thank god I want a griffin. We're just in the sky

on a griffin? We are. That's all this craziness? I love this. We just keep being like, should we land? No, we have to go. Holy crap. Oh man. Summon Construct is cool.

Yeah, that was fucking dope. That was so cool. Nice job. Unbelievable. Oh, I love it. It feels so right in the Age of Arcanum game to roll initiative and throw a map down for two wizards in beautiful evening gowns. Coming in. The past.

Champagne flute still in hand, by the way. We could have just walked into a room like a farmer. That has its hand to us. Not yet. Holy moly. Not yet. I'm so racial. Ahmed does that to me. He gives me lots of anxiety and adrenaline. I swear. Well. Ahmed does that to me.

Gives me lots of anxiety and adrenaline. I swear. Well, it is tough being separate. I'm so scared. I know. I know you guys are okay. I know you guys are okay. All right, well. I just wish I was there to give you bardic

or cast Blur. We'll do anything. Anything. We don't see anything, though. Do we see anything? You don't see anything right now. We're going to grab a... This bad boy's made of stoner metal. Oh, this bad boy here?

Stone. Stoner metal. Stone metal. Stoner metal. So you have your stuff there. I assume you're holding concentration, correct? Yes. Okay, copy that. So concentration, bada boom. Bada boom. Amazing. Bada bing, bada boom.

What did we roll for initiative? 18. Bada boom. Amazing. Bada bing, bada boom. What did we roll for initiative? 18. 18 for Patia. 42. Five. Did you say five? Yeah. Okay. Wizard! Did you say five?

Wizard! 18 for Patia, and then? Five. Five, okay. And your construct is acting directly after me. Got to be that. What's in there? Your construct is acting directly after me. Got to be that. So. What's in there? Exactly.

I don't see an opponent. Mm-hmm. I don't know. Unless the opponent is their own anxiety. Wow, they have to play themselves. The opponent is the Calamity. It's a cat that just knocked something over. So first to act is going to be Patia.

The door has exploded off. You've walked into Magister Cormorant's office. There are tables, fireplaces. You see some teleportation deuses here for porting around the city. And there are some papers. There's a chest in the corner. Other documents are around.

But you are first to act as Laerryn says, show yourself. Nothing has happened yet, but you feel a crackling of arcane energy and Laerryn's certainty that there is someone in this chamber. Do I sense a spell being cast? I think, yeah. I think that what you can sense is

you feel the familiar rush of arcane energy. You feel a surge of something moving in the direction of conflict. Moving in the direction of conflict. But you have the jump on whoever's in here. Like a construct smashing a door across a room will certainly make whatever force's in here. A construct smashing a door across a room will certainly make whatever force is in here,

but you cannot see anything at present. Okay, let me look at something. Mm. Mm. Mm-mm. This one's a little bit, I'm going to let Diem rule here. Yeah, go for it. Is this a situation where a Counterspell would count?

The ruling on, I believe, Counterspell is you attempt to interrupt a creature in the process of casting a spell. You need to be able to see it. You attempt to interrupt a creature. I don't think you need to be able to see it. Shut attempted to interrupt a creature. I don't think you need to be able to see it. Shut up. Cool. That's why DM ruling here.

I am going to double check that because that's very important. Going to go to the full spell. There is nothing. Go, go. No, I'm just nervous. In your chair. In your chair. Tell me I'm going to look at it.

I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to. I think that you are in the clear. It does not, there's nothing, there's a range of 60 feet, but there is nothing here that says you need line of sight. So I just sense the direction that the energy is coming from

and crack my wrists and just dispel. It's almost like a little mental nuclear blast that pulses outward and shields Laerryn and I. Sorry, I have such bad news, and it's coming on behalf of Jeremy Crawford, who lets us know that Counterspell requires you to see the spellcaster you're countering. Okay, copy that.

Instead. Thanks, Jeremy. Thank you, Jeremy. Until then, it's everything. Okay, copy that. Instead. Thanks, Jeremy. Thank you, Jeremy. Then it's everything. Germany is watching this right now. Germany. Requires sight. I thought I remembered. It's not in the script.

It's in the portion of the player's handbook on Twitter. So it's not in the PHB, but yes. Okay, how about this inst... Mm, wait, wait, let me, sorry. No, no, you're good. Not within magical effect within range. Okay, okay. If I can feel the direction that it's coming from,

I'm assuming he must be invisible or something like that. This just says choose one creature, object, or magical effect within range. Can I dispel magic and try and blast him with Dispel? What does Germany think of that? I love wizards being like, I don't like your magic. I would like it to stop.

Yeah. Unfortunately, no. Choose one creature, object, or magical effect within range. So because you cannot detect it. Okay. Damn. What I will say. Okay. Yes. Go ahead. I was going to say,

there are ways for you to know where someone is without having to see them. Sure. Some cologne. I mean. Don't worry. I could always do yet another Detect Thoughts or Detect Magic. Ah, dead hoes in the corner.s or Detect Magic. Ah, dead holes in the corner. I'll Detect Magic. How about that?

Amazing. As this is happening, what is Patia going through as you are in here? You're reaching down for, hold on one second. So. Amazing. You cast Detect Magic.

Boom. I'm going to say, because there is a spell specifically called Sea Invisibility, this is going to give you a direction, right? Actually, I'll go ahead and ask for a perception check here. See Invisibility. Oh my god.

My perception checks have been bad. 10. On a 10 perception check, you cast Detect Magic. You can detect a powerful illusion in the room. You know that something is hidden in here. You immediately get the feeling of it being to your left, and it's towards the left side of the room,

as you feel in that direction. So, you feel something over there that is some kind of illusory presence, but you can't detect the exact square that it's on. Okay. Okay. I just, my brain, Patia's brain

is moving 1,000 miles a minute as I'm trying to clock everything, and I turn and I just shout to Laerryn, west side of the room. Copy shout to Laerryn, west side of the room. Copy that. Laerryn. Yeah? You act next. Oh, it doesn't go.

Question, and I'm assuming the answer is no. Is there any universe in which our invisible foe is within 10 feet of this big boy? This invisible foe is not within 10 feet of this big boy. Totally fine. Then this is going to be a, to whom it may concern, I'm going to cast Fireball. Yes!

That's what I would have done. Hey, you know what? If I have a direction, I know how to get a concentration check. Yeah. Hell yeah, go ahead and roll damage. Or actually, so sorry. Dex save against a 20.

Damn. Amazing. 20? Level 14. Let me ask a question to you. Ferocious. So you go ahead and drop a fireball. As you drop a fireball, you get hit with a Counterspell. Bumps.

Boom. Of course. Your construct can go. Yeah, okay. And it's a high enough Counterspell where it just kills the fireball. Well, fireball's third-level. Right. This was technically upcast to four.

Oh, was it? Yeah. I'll go ahead and roll in that case. I'll be very fair-minded. It's fine, don't worry about it. No, no, no, no, no, I'll go ahead and roll. We'll leave it up to the dice. Make a roll, make a roll. Make him roll. Make him roll.

While we still can. Hell yes. Here we go. Okay, I'm going to roll this in front of the board, actually, because I like that and that feels fun to me. It feels fun to you? Feels fun to me to roll in front of the board. It feels fun to you? Feels fun to me to roll in front of the board. It feels fun to you?

Our friend here needs. Ooh! Get out of here! You want to have fun? Our friend here needs an 11 or higher to overcome your fireball. A 10 fails by one! I thought it was on a 12.

Oh my god. I saw it rolling on that. Go ahead and roll damage. All right. See, there you go. Still need a dex save from him. You got to make him roll. Yeah.

Jesus. Make a good shift. Okay, let's play a beautiful game. Those are all real good. These are very good. Let's play a beautiful game. Let us play a beautiful game. Is that correct? Yeah.

41 points of fire damage. Good job! Whoosh! 41 points. Good job! So this dude's got to make a DC 20 constitution save? Yeah, no thanks. He's keeping shit up.

Let's be fair, he still has to make the dex save to not take half damage. Oh, he quite failed the dex save. Okay, cool. I was just trying to be nice. I hit a nat one back here on that dex save. Oh, okay. Okay, we're going to roll again.

This is a 19 or 20 on the die, or he drops Concentration. 14. 14. Not going to get the job done. You lay down this fireball, and Magister Micah Cormorant appears. Oh, he's up in this bitch! He's up in this bitch!

You see he has a bunch of incredible evoker arcano-tech gear as you deal how much? 44? 41. 41? Wow. Hachi machi. Hachi machi. So, Patia, you walk in, clock the direction, and the Arctic Arcane,

it's been a minute. Look, they think I'm just constantly holding concentration on stuff that keeps the city afloat. I get very mad! A perfect casting of fireball, such that the summoning of it, it's so spherical. What a round ball of fire.

Technically perfect, as everything Laerryn does is. Magister appears horrifically burned and screaming as greater invisibility drops. Your construct may act, unless you have a bonus action. Oh god, what would a bonus action even be? No, that's fine. I feel good with that. I'm just going to have my big boy move forward.

That's cool, big boy. All right, as the construct goes up and makes two slam attacks. I want the plus 12 to hit. 18. 18 definitely hits. He's already burned his reaction on a Counterspell. Cool.

18 and 19. A d8 plus four. What is a d8? Oh god, I'm so nervous. Seven, eight. Let's see, 16 plus 26 points of bludgeoning damage. Whoa! What? Whoa!

Yes. What does he add to smack? It's a d8 plus four plus a spell's level of bludgeoning damage. Brennan's Grip. Yeah, per slam attacking, it does two. Magister Cormorant appears on the verge of casting Chain Lightning,

and instead you burn him half to death, and your construct punches his chest so hard that it breaks all of his ribs, smashes his heart and organs into the wall behind him, and he is dead. Oh! That's it? That's all she wrote, folks, 66 hit points. Let's go!

Oh my god. Damn it. Thank you. Fucking cute. Holy fuck. Patia's like. Thank you so much. You want to bring him back up to talk to him?

I don't have healing magic. I don't either. Why don't we take him to Zerxus? Damn! Oh no. Oh no. Hey, problems are getting solved quick over here. That was a very nice map.

Shit. Was that the big bad of the whole four-episode arc? That we just killed it? We're fine and we did it. Oh, did we need to? I jump over our walkies and I go, Hello, yes, Brasswing, Brassring. We accidentally killed the Magister.

It wasn't an accident. Which Magister? Cormorant. Wait, were you able to speak to him? Yeah, get meaningful information and intel out of him? That's what Zerxus is for. Zerxus! Did you kill him or just knock him unconscious? No, he's dead.

Okay. Here we go. Look, I can cast Mending on his chest. I've tried that once, it doesn't work. It doesn't. Hey, some fights are about verisimilitude. This was one shady evoker. Those guys have 66 hit points and an armor class of 15.

Oh, an evoker? Anyone can cast Fireball, bitch. We're not special. Roll higher than a two on your initiative. And that's really the end of the story. That's really what it comes down to. Wow. Speaker of the Fourth. Yeah, Speaker of the Fourth means he was

a representative for? Speaker of the House, almost. Yeah, so there's eight different people that represent basically entire magisterial bodies. He represented the fourth such voting body. Got it. So, Cormorant is dead. However, you're in his office, you're in his chambers.

The construct stands guard here, but there's plenty to go over here if you'd like. I still have that Detect Magic up, technically. So. Detect Magic, you scan over. Give me an Arcana check with advantage. With Detect Magic, you scan over. Give me an Arcana check with advantage with Detect Magic up. Uh-huh.

Mm-hmm. 29. 29. These teleportation deuses in here have been tampered with. The seal has been broken on them in terms of their registry with the Porter's Guild. So he's been doing it rogue off the record? Rogue off the record.

Can I see where he's been teleporting to with these? Are they attuned to a certain place? You lean down and see that there is a bit of illusory magic, which I won't even make you use a full Dispel magic. It's effortless for you to dispel it. Boom. One of the runes written in Draconic,

which is a very classical, easy language to do arcane writing in, is not Draconic. There's an infernal rune carved hastily into the dais, hidden by an illusion. And you don't think he's been leaving. You think he's been inviting people in. Oh. I think we found our leak.

As you say this, go ahead. If you have any other investigations, if there's any other divination you want to cast, you can look at his documents. There's a bunch of stuff in here. I want to look for files. I'm looking for. Let him into the Magisterium.

Mm-hmm. Yo, of all the places for entry. It's bad here. That's right under our nose. You hear Zerxus go through the comms again and just ask, so how dead is he? Dead? Third-degree burns all over his body.

It's at about 80% and his torso is completely crushed. Got it, okay. Well, is this yet? You have to forgive me. I assume the construct was not like, all right, let's just think he died. Well, I didn't know what killed him. I just know he died.

I mean, if his mouth is still there, that's all we need, right? That's right. Grab the mouth, please. His vital organs are against the wall. Cast any magic about it you want to cast and give me any checks you want to give me. I'm going to make an investigation check.

That's going to be an amount. Yeah, okay. 22 to look for any files. I would love to say that I'm looking broadly about Vespid and his stuff. I'm looking for my stuff. Hell yeah. Looking through the files here,

what you see is that the stuff that the late Magister Cormorant was interested in was your stuff. You see he's already pulled history and records all about the Arboreal Calix, all about the Gau Drashari, the Pact of Crown and Throne. All that stuff's in his office already.

You can see that there was research going on here. You see a lot of this is about magical law. So it's about the nature of the pact. You see that there is a scroll pulled from the Librarium Magisterium, not your library. This is the Library of Magical Law. You see, you find a letter composed on ancient, 100-year-old birch bark.

Maybe even, you know, like, and you see the script is this beautiful, silvery ink on birch bark. Um, and the letter portends of a conversation. You can infer what it must be responding to. In effect, in many more words, the letter says, Honorable Magister,

your assurances are taken in the most generous spirit possible. I do not distrust you, the person, for all people are children of Exandria. But what I distrust is enchantment, the enchantment of a people and of their ways. The wizards of Avalir have proven time and again

that they do not see limitation. They do not see the limitation of a city that will be born aloft into the sky, nor do they see risk. I wish that I could trust you. I wish that my order could trust you. I wish that we could, in good faith, tell you of the tree's purpose. Sorrow fills my heart,

for even if you kept your word, the wizard behind you, if they knew the nature of the tree, I can only imagine would see all that they could do with it and not what they could do for it. I implore you, the endless skies of Exandria are yours.

The wonders of your imagination are your only master. Please, simply tend for this tree wonders of your imagination are your only master. Please simply tend for this tree and do not ask again. We cannot trust you with its secrets. Head druid of the Gau Drashari, the Temple of Toramunda. Damn. That's old.

You date this letter to probably around the time the Arboreal Calix was created, and you see records here that after the Matron's Ascension, basically the city landed a year after that, and the druids all came aboard Avalir and said, we need to update. We need to go. And you find records here in this place. Prior to that, the Tree of Names stood alone

in the Chamber of the Calix. You see here the other bits of history having to do with Toramunda, having to do with old Mount Igora. You see there's an ancient piece of ritual about the Emperor Raushan and the Empress Kamort, which are the primordials that the Dawnfather and the Wild Mother defeated at Mount Egora

and sealed away. You see early druidic prayer scrolls, essentially, to the ancient base of the mountain. All of that is unveiled to you. It's all here in Cormorant's office. With what time I have, I just Mage Hand out all of these scrolls and you see this similar silvery strand

sucking the text out of the scrolls, making a copy as it zips into my sphere, with just each one we come across. I'm copying and pasting. The paper clip shows up and says, Do you want to keep it? Okay, are you? So you're trying to steal some scrolls.

I think just the letter on the birch is the only thing that Laerryn would hold onto, and she is devastated. He wasn't worthy enough. Yeah. He wasn't. But we are. Yeah.

We have to be. Our tenacity far exceeds the Magister's. You're right. Those who are privileged, those who are given everything, do not know how to fight. You are, as ever, correct.

Give me one last either Investigation or Arcana with advantage. Two is terrible. Two twice, so a 12. Oh no! Copy that. No! No!

No! No! Disgraceful. Amazing, cool. Oh no. We are going to depart from the Magisterium. You have found what you came to find.

If you wish to have this construct carry Cormorant's, wrap up Cormorant's body in a rug and carry it behind you. You want this corpse? Hmm. I'm just saying you're over it. It's useful. Yeah. Oh yeah. Mm-hmm.

Are you reaching out to me again? Yes. Do I have to do the Professor Hicks? I don't know, I just was doing that because you guys were doing it. Yeah. Of course it happened. Eagle's not here.

There's nothing I can do for that guy. By the time I get there, he'll be two dead. But we can take him to the oracles, which is where we're heading. If we get in and we find one, maybe they can raise him. Or speak with him. Or speak with him.

Yeah, I'm worried about the optics of walking with the body. I am also worried about the optics of walking with the body. Maybe just sort of put him in a closet somewhere? Yeah. You see that the construct wraps up the body and goes to hide it somewhere

that you will be able to come later in the evening. My god. You can feel the palpable joy of a construct. Lots of statues wait hundreds of years and never get woken up by the Architect Arcane. This guy's like, we did it, baby, yes! It's us, this was our day! Yes, wizard woke me up!

I'm going to call him Scrabbles. Oh, nice. Scrabbles? I've been named. Stone tears. You... As we leave, I'm just like, hey, just remember, every magister sucks, and I'm your only friend. Bye.

We move to the Hall of Prophecy. Yeah! Let's go. We're flying there. Flying there. You guys get there quick. Ooh, kitty. Um. Ooh. Ooh.

The Hall of the Oracles. An order of clerics dedicated to accessing a connection to the divine without the use of gods. The oracles of this place long ago found a way of manifesting a connection to the divine, but their lives are challenging. They live partially in hermitage.

It requires great preparation for one of the prophets here and to actually be able to deliver prophecy and divination to people, it takes a lot out of them. You arrive at this colossal marble building. Tempest, your griffon, lands. You move inside. As you walk into the space, you see a familiar friend of yours, Zerxus,

a young woman that you know, Sephira, walk out. You see that the doors close behind her. You see that there are a number of spellguard here, a number of high arch-cept guard here. Safire steps out and says, I saw the approaching light of Tempus. Zerxus, it's good to see you, my friend. As it is good to see you.

Guildmaster Okiro. Oracle. It is a pleasure see you. Guildmaster Okiro. Oracle. It is a pleasure and an honor. It has been some time since last we saw you. I have never taken offense. I've always taken you for a man comfortable writing his own fate. Of course.

There is, yes, very much so. How can I be of assistance? The hall has been closed, I'm afraid. It has been. We wanted to inquire about the nature of your clothes. Ah. We've been told that this is rather irregular. Is it not? Yes.

Quite. Can I make an insight check? Make an insight check for Yes, quite. Can I make an insight check? Make an insight check for me, yeah. SAM and LAURA, in the background. Free diarrhea. I don't like this pausing. Excuse me. That's only a 16.

No, I'll make a deception check. You get to count that one. Troubled. Well, I'll make a deception check. Oop. You have to count that one. Mm! Troubled. Very troubled. Bloodshot Eye says this woman has been crying a lot. Oh. Ah. The guardians of the Archsept

have been spoken to. They've been asked by Loras of the Weaver's Mask to not allow any entrance. Has he given you entrance to enter? He has. Yes, yes. Give me the deception check, baby. Come on, man.

Hold on, hold on, hold on. That's the extent of the lie? That's it? Yeah, he has. He's the extent of the lie. That's it, he has. He's the dragon! How did you know? Deception. Deception. Come over. The wall!

26. Oh! Woo-hoo! Pretty good, pretty good. She says, Oh. Incredible. The arch, you see that the warriors behind say, Field Master, is this so you have been given leave to come?

Of course. It is key to the replenishment and our aims. We are all in Congress around our shared goal. Loras, Zerxus, myself. Even you know Nydas. Listen, man, you've been keeping 10,000 plates spinning, and even you are like, I'm way out on a limb on this one.

I'm way the fuck out here on this one. Woo! Just the way you like it. We have goals, and we're all good goals! He actually said, he's my best friend. He actually said that I'm the best at magic he's ever seen. That's why he sent me down here,

because he's like, you got to go check this out, my guy. You're the best guy I know. So what you see on this incredible deception is effectively, this shouldn't work. All you did, first of all, she said the thing you needed to say to get in, and then you repeated it, and they come in. Even the warriors here, no insight necessary.

Zerxus, you look at the warriors here. You monitor every group of warriors here. You know these guys are the high sept guardians. They are powerful eldritch knights, all of them. This is, you know, like, they're the real deal. They look nervous and unfocused as they stand guard here. Something is not right.

You walk in with Sephira, and she says... As we're walking in, I do want to communicate to Zerxus about, she seems distraught. I see. The eyes. Something. I'm going to, as we start to walk by,

I'm going to slow down and get closer to her and lean in, and I'm going to tell her, Safire, we've known each other for a long time. We studied together many years ago. You can tell me anything. I want you to know that you can rely on me. Is there anything we should know? Best you come with me.

Wide marble passages framed in torchlight. Most places here glow with arcane alchemical light. This is lit by fire. Even in marble, this place is trying to attach to something primal. Disconnected from the ground, they're trying to reach through. Moving through this place,

you feel a sense of fire flickering. It feels like you're walking underwater, almost, as it dapples the marble walls. There's something here where it echoes and feels full and empty at once, a contradiction. This place is more philosophical, more divine. It's very outside the normal, lucid environs of Avalir.

Sofyra walks through. I'm very glad Loras sent you. His instructions were not very clear and there's just very few of us left. Or left. Who has he tasked you with here? To close the hall. Well, he only took over yesterday.

He stepped in. He stepped in after Volusia of the Heart's Emblem. Yes, she's stepping down, I've heard. I'm just going to put a gentle hand on her shoulder and tell her, just to reassure her. That's one way of putting it. Oh wow. Is she here, or what's left of her?

She's left happily forever. Ooh. What caused that? She looks over. You see, over near one of the teleportation deuses that are the inner city, the ones you've been using to get around, you see that there is a scar of soot

on the ground in a circle. You see. What? Okay. No way. She looks and says, that's where she broke her staff across her knee and renounced magic forever.

Whoa. Whoa. It has been a troubled time here at the Hall of Prophecy. Is there somewhere to sit nearby that I can, like, I'm just trying to put her more at ease. And what is the general people in our space? It is empty in here. It's the three of you, literally. Got it. This is a place

that would normally be an entry hall for people to come and wait and hear these oracular visions. Yeah. You know. The best you got is these little steps up on this teleportation dais. So she goes and sits aside that, and you're looking at this ring of soot

where a mage sundered their own arcane focus, potentially. Volucia was a member of the Ring of Gold, one of the 14 apprentices. She was Loras' counterpart. She said, about two weeks ago. She was so loud. About two weeks ago,

there's no other way to put it. Oracles started going mad. They started going mad. How many? One at first. She's still here. Karwen. She went first and hard.

She started speaking false prophecies, babbling. Her oracular vision failed. And at first, we attempted to heal her ourselves. Healing is what we study here at the Hall of Prophecy. And we did our best to reach out to her. Everyone who tried to heal her went mad, too. Mm. And what's happened to them? Are they here?

They're all still here. We've kept them here. As we were over Gwisar, traveling on our way to Domunas, we reached out. We reached out to the Ahj-To-Thirj at first and just asked if there was, we reached out to the Chair of Divination,

which is the closest, the school that we interact with the most. They immediately conferred with the Ring of Gold. Volucia came and for the past little over a week was helping us try to understand this. There were still enough of us who felt safe and whole, and we were able to perform our tasks. Then a few days ago,

a few days ago, we thought Karwen might be well enough to come back out, and we let her take a walk. She turned to the other oracles and, Zerxus, it's just me. It's just me. You're the last one? Yes. The rest are being kept safe.

Because they've all lost their minds? Safe from themselves. What did, what was it exactly that caused Valyria to renounce magic? I don't know. It was an argument she had with her contemporary. Laura, Loras? Yes. So they were arguing,

give me an insight check. You got it. 18. 18. You want to give me an insight check as well? Yeah. Beat me. No. Almost, though. It was almost a 20, but a seven. She says,

I don't remember. They were speaking to each other. All I remember her saying is, if these gifts harm us, then we should not accept them. Can I? Oh, go ahead. She said that to Loras?

Yes. While she was working on what she came here to help you investigate, was she keeping any notes anywhere? She was the most able to soothe Karwen. She was the most able to soothe Karwen. Karwen is safe right now. She is better than she was when we tried to have her come walk and rejoin us.

Volucia worked on creating a circle of runes that we've moved Karwen's bed into. She's able to speak, but on the day she left, before that, I remember we found Karwin in one of the bathing rooms. I can take one of you there. It would be better if,

it's probably for the best if you don't both speak with Karwen. We found that it is much more helpful for there to just be one person in the room with her. Let me go. I'll go. I'm going to think to the channel. I'm just going to update everybody on what's happening. I think that the business that we have here

is going to take a little while longer. If you find that you have accomplished your tasks, feel free to come and join us. We could use some arcane eyes on these circles as well. I'm going to put my arcane eyes to the soot marks. Give me an Arcana Chain. Come on, Lou. Here it is. Come on, big brother.

This is it. Big money. Oh, we'll take it. 24. Ooh, fast. 24. Staff was, you see it, a staff was sundered here. She broke her staff, she broke her arcane focus. It would not have been a magical item.

It would have just been a staff that she had been using as her arcane focus. Broke it and removed her ability to perform magic. There's no way, emotionally, to describe the weight of what you're seeing. It is, especially for someone who loves magic as much as Nydas, it's probably nauseating to consider.

How? Yeah. Yeah. Telepathically, I just send across, is she still alive, Val? We haven't gotten any confirmation. Volusia left Avalir. Left Avalir. That was what we were told, so she is alive.

Right. You think. You think. What has left me. No one leaves Avalir. No one leaves Avalir. No one leaves Avalir. We have. Hold on. We can leave. Just why would you?

Correct. That's what I'm saying. Um. So you're going to examine? Yeah, I'll stay in the entry chamber, keep an eye out, those sorts of things. You see that Safire leads you to Karwen's chamber. You see that Safire looks and says,

If there's anything else you'd like to look at, I can show you the... The bathing chamber, perhaps? Yes, yes, yes, yes. Well. Let's go take a bath. Yay! Your boy's going to get comfy.

What's up? Oh, I'll be in the hot tub. No way. Just fully watch this woman have an emotional breakdown and be like, this is too much. A lot happened here in the last couple hours. Let's throw some Epsom salt in here, I swear. This is too much.

I've had enough. She takes you to the bathing chambers. Give me an investigation check. Something I'm not good at. Yeah, she takes you to Karwen's chamber. Oh! Thank god, a dirty 20. Yay! Ooh, a dirty 20 is great!

You walk in as Sophira is talking. You see that she starts saying, We brought Karwen here. She was in good spirits. She was even able to laugh a little. We told her that she had been delivering false prophecies and she laughed and said, Well, I suppose I'm as bad an oracle

as I was a weaver's apprentice. We laughed and, you know, she... You look and see the mirrors over the washing basins. There's a big crack in one. Of course. We're going to go to the chamber with Karwen. As we start walking,

I ask her, what sorts of prophecies was she speaking about? Do you recall any names, anything at all? I can go pull the, it was written down. Everything she said was written down. I'll go grab it at once. Then she goes off with you to go look at the bathing chamber.

You go into the room with Karwen. You walk in and you see a circle of white runes a circle of white runes gathered around a small and humble bed, a wash basin, a small chest of clothes that have all been collected in a bizarre room, compressed,

and all of the furniture that would be up against the walls instead compressed into the center of a circle. Wow. You see sleeping in the bed is a young woman, dark skin, curly dark hair, asleep. She looks restful. Give me an insight check.

Mm. Come on, baby. Ooh, 24. She, for whatever it's worth to you, you were expecting to see someone ravaged by some affliction. Yeah. You see a strong, healthy-looking woman deep in rest.

I'm going to. I'm going to... I'm going to get closer. I want to get a closer look, and I want to see what is... You know, just investigate anything that's underneath it. Did they make a magic circle or something around there? Yeah, there's a magic circle around the bed, yeah.

You walk up to- Is it pulsing or anything? You walk in to look under the bed. Nothing is pulsing. You see there's an object under the bed, though, centered under the bed. Uh-huh. It's a small hand mirror. I'm going to check. I'm going to check.

It's a mirror, guys. It's fine. I'm going to check. I'm going to check. I'm going to check. Five check. It's a mirror, guys, it's fine. Woof! Woof! Woof! It makes sense. I'm going to... That's what he's saying. I'm going to... I want to get a good look at it.

I'm going to walk around. Yeah. And take a good look from every angle. Look around to see if there's any other mirrors, because I know mirrors are a thing now, in this place. That is true. And if I don't notice anything out of the ordinary, then I'm going to go to her, whatever side,

maybe if she's sleeping on her side, I'm going to go to the side of the bed that her face is facing, so it could be turned to me. Mm-hmm. And if I don't notice anything from that little walk around, I'm going to very gently call her name. You do notice something in your walk around. Okay.

As you are moving through the space here, you walk around a corner of the bed. As you get beside the... As you get beside... Could I activate something? Yeah, go for it. Divine Sense. Yeah! Dog! Sorry. I'm so nervous.

So I reach out instinctively and I touch, I have tucked inside of my armor, I pull out a stone, a necklace. And there's two. One is a name stone. It's essentially like a dog collar. It's given to the First Knights. I have one that's mine, and I have another one that's Evandrin's

that I kept with me. I pull them both out and I hold them in my hands just because out of impulse. And I activate Divine Sense from that. The edge of the chamber on the far wall, you walk around the headboard of the bed, again, everything is compressed into this magical circle. You look at the edge of the room.

Illusory or not, this place has a lot of association with water, a lot of water feeling in this place. You see there is a wall that has a stream of water pouring down it, very slight, making almost no noise, almost like those slate fountains that just have a sheet of water coming down them. You look into it. You activate your divine sense.

You've never detected anything fiendish before. Or at least maybe you thought you did, but it was nothing compared to this. It was nothing compared to this. It was nothing compared to this. In the reflection of the bed, in the wall of water coming down the dark stone, lights reflecting, Karwin is not in the bed. You see a horned figure in red

bleeding and dying in the bed. The last time you saw this figure was the size of a mountain. But... MATT and MATT, as they breathe in, MATT and MATT, as they breathe in, MATT and MATT, as they breathe in, Does it look at me? It doesn't appear able to. It looks like it is dying, grievously injured. Mm-mm, I'm approaching.

Do you approach the wall, or do you approach Karwin in the bed? Well, so the... My divine sense didn't ping the bed. I'm just seeing this be revealed. It pinged the wall. Oh yes. Karwin has a slight celestial presence

just due to being an oracle. The fiendish presence in the reflection overpowers everything. Hmm. Fuck. Fuck. Bro. Hi. I'm going to face that water,

where that peen came from. Show yourself. I can't, I can't, I can't, I can't. Show yourself. Come on, Barry. I'm trying. Is that coming from the wall or coming from? That's coming from the wall. It's coming from the wall or coming from? That's coming from the wall. It's coming from the reflection.

Hmm. I am. I approach it. Zerxus. You know me. I know you well. You saved me. I'm walking towards that.

Yeah, you have reached the wall. I put my hand on it. Does Zerxus want to go through? Ah! He goes through. Oh! You are in another... time.

Another... realm. This is why you can leave your buddy. This is why we have buddies. Everyone was insistent that Taravay is better with one. He's taking a bath. He's why we have buddies. Everyone was insistent that Tearaway is better with water. He's taking a bath. He's scrubbing his bum.

So Fy'ra, please come out. I can't get the bottom of my feet. You see, you walk through. Silver mist. A bed soaked with blood. You smell the smell of blood, but you see a wheezing, rasping devil. Same one. Same one.

Now your size. Now the size of a man. Hmm. It's all right. I'm sorry. Sorry. I can't really die. So you don't, I'm not in danger right now. It just hurts, that's all. What's happened to you?

Well, you came in before the Dawnfather could destroy it. Well, you came in before the Dawnfather could destroy it. So that was real? It's all been real. It's all been real. I get closer. You know me.

Then who are you? Betrayer. Sinner. Most unclean. I am the lord of the hells. I don't believe in the gods. Lately, I don't much either. Give me your hand. He puts a blood-soaked hand in your hand.

It feels weak. It feels... I heal him. I cast Cure Wounds on him. Shall I roll it or does it matter? It removes him from the dying condition. It removes him from making death saves. The Lord of Hells. The Lord of Hells?

The name they gave you. Or the name you gave yourself? When you get to the table and there's not much left but scraps, you take what you're given. Why are you here? I don't know. I don't know.

I left where I was, and now I'm here. I'm scanning his entire body, his face. I'm looking for... Yeah. Let me know what you want to do. If you want to give me an insight check, you can. If you want to, if you're just doing a divine sense.

He is registering as fiendish to you. I'm looking for the traces of what he's endured on his face, you know? Like I'm expecting broken. And I know? I'm expecting broken, and I feel like I'm just seeing hurt and bewildered. He seems hurt and bewildered. You know people well enough.

Not everyone shows you how broken they are when they're first meeting you. Right. I take his hand again, and I look him in the eyes, and I say, What have they done to you? I want to know everything. You look, and for the first time,

now that he is no longer writhing in pain, this man is beautiful. He... bears in passing almost a resemblance, if it can be said, to Evandrin. Oh, why'd you do that? I knew you were going to say that.

What does that mean, though? I can't help, but his name just falls out of my mouth. Evandrin? What the fuck? Can't help, but his name just falls out of my mouth. Evandrin? What the fuck? I don't look the same to everybody. They said before it all went wrong,

they said I was the most beautiful of them all. You were. But as well you know, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and so I sometimes look like the most beautiful face that mortals have seen. Oh my god. Why does he look like me?

He looks at you and says, Evandrin. That's the name you just said. Yeah. That was your love, yes? It was. Why do you remind me of him? Only you could answer that. I never know who I'm going to look like to people.

Is this a trick? Are you playing with me? People often think I'm tricking them and I never have anything to say to that. What can you say to someone when they think that you're always going to trick them? I promise. I don't know Evandrin,

but he must have been a very good man because he's not in my realm. Let's get you cleaned up. What? I have known only darkness for so long, and even before that, no one has shown me kindness. That's going to change, and that's a damn shame. This is your home.

Don't you forget that. You belong here. He sits up in the bed, and there are bedclothes here, there is fabric. If you wish to dress his wounds and clean him up in the bed. There are bedclothes here, there is fabric. If you wish to dress his wounds and clean him up, you can. I will do so with the utmost care. You do so with the utmost care.

As you do so, he smiles. He says, Well, while you're cleaning up a god of darkness and fire, is there anything I can do to repay the favor? This is not Exandria yet. I don't know where I am. Not where I was, but I'm not home yet. You're in between

and you are coming, is that it? Someone has done something. Someone has broken you out of wherever you once were. The door opened. Yes, that's true. And you walked through it? Oh, the door opened more explosively than I can say. It opened and we all tumbled out. It was not a kind place behind that door.

And the, for lack of a better word, pressure behind it was enormous. It was a place made to teach us a lesson. It was your punishment. Do you remember what you've done and why they sent you there? We came to a young world.

We came to a young world. We came to a world of raw, elemental wonder wonder of chaos and exultant passion of energy, vaster and more potent than anything we had beheld in the cosmos. We came here and we began to shape

what we could, what we dreamed. The Primordials were here when we arrived. The Primordials were here when we arrived. It was their world first. We arrived and we began to shape. We offered our creations. I saw... Will you do something for me, please?

Yes. Will you kneel with me? I will. I want to hear everything. He kneels with you. I cast Ceremony. You cast Ceremony with him. Marriage?

Atonement. You begin to cast Atonement. As you begin to cast it, you see he looks, and I believe the casting time of Ceremony is? Is an hour. Is an hour. You begin to cast Atonement. As you cast this spell, you focus in.

He kneels with you and he says, We started to make our creations. I did as I thought I must. I was a celestial. I was a celestial of light. They were creating truth and love and honor.

They were creating courage and mortal beings. They were creating choices and... Many of the gods spoke first. Many of the gods spoke first and long, and it was a long time before I spoke, and much had already been said, and I thought to help. I had seen the gifts of love and courage and truth and honor and sacrifice, and I said,

These are the greatest gifts we could create, and we must make them matter. I said, These will matter because, in their absence, we will know deceit, and in their absence, we will know deceit, and in their absence, we will know betrayal. In the absence of love, there will be viciousness. I thought I was expanding on a creation. I thought I was making something

that would make the earlier work more. More. that would make the earlier work more... more. And then years passed and time passed and the gifts I had made, mortals called them evil, said that they were wicked, said that they were wrong. And I said, well, yes, but that is the point, is it not? And they hated me,

and none said prayers to my name. I turned to my kin and my brethren and I said, does this strike you as fair? None of them spoke. None of them said a word in my defense. All were happy to watch as my gifts were not seen for what I intended them to be. And then

the others decided to grant even more. The others decided to grant even more. Many of us were already hated. Many of us already were seen as something worse, something abominable, but those stories, those things that shaped that, they were aided or egged on

or pushed forward by the others. And in that time of pain and sorrow, they then stepped forward and gave more gifts. They gave magic. The Primordials, they were giving the ability to shape reality to the things that they had used their ability to shape reality to shape. We had already lent on the hospitality

of the Primordials enough. We had lent on it enough! And we stepped in and said, the game has gone on too far. The Primordials rose up against them, and the Prime Deities, as they called themselves, stepped in to fight them, to double down on their overreach.

Our promises were to the Primordials, and we were called betrayers! I lay my hand on his chest. Easy. I have been burning for so long. They used you. They did. And I'm sorry for that.

I can help you. You say you know me. When the time comes and you step from this void into our world, don't you forget me. Don't you forget the kindness that we're capable of, because we're your children, too. We are made of the same stuff that what you initially created. We come from the same thing.

And if you remember the stories as well as you seem to, then you know that at some point, you turned your pain on us. They used you, and then you used us to get back at them. I have a son that's not of my blood, but that is my son. I met Evandrin when he was just an infant,

and I held that boy in my arms, and I fell in love with him. I am his father, but he is not of my blood. And in that same way, we are your children. Please remember that. Don't take your pain out on us. Spare us.

And I will help you. I will help you confront those that did this to you. I don't give my word lightly. You have my word on this, Xerxes Ilerez. Not for all the ages of the world will I forget you. You are not... I see faults in people. I know what they have done wrong.

You want to know your fault, Zerxus. You are very trusting. You say that I am being used. You are very trusting. You say that I am being used. You, my friend, are being used. By you. I am the father of lies you are being lied to,

and not by any god. I turn around and look back through the portal that I walked through. As you begin to go back through the portal. I'm not moving just yet, I just turned. You turn to look. You see out there, you look back out through the portal, you see your body is on the ground next to the bed,

and your eyes are rolled back in your head. You're having a vision. You recognize, like, oh, when I walked towards the water, that was me ejecting from my body. You realize, oh, I am an oracle. I am fully one of the people of this hall. This is me, right? You see...

He, you look out into the room and you see the Lord of the Hells goes, Is that it out there? That's the world? Yes, it is. Where, what part of Exandria are we in? Maybe it's all changed since the last time I was there. I don't know.

I won't lie to you. It's called Avalir. Avalir. Avalir, flying over Domunas, yes? Yes. Is Domunas still beautiful? Parts of it, yes. Aspects of it.

I always said, we were supposed to take credit for it all equally. Domunas was my favorite. But I always said, on the face of Exandria, Domunas was the smile. It truly is. It is. There is nothing like it.

I have to leave you. I'm going back. What became of Evandrin? I don't quite know. Some sort of illness that was beyond my reach took him. The vision I had with you showed him walking towards a tree. him the vision I had with you, showed him walking towards a tree.

There are some less than kind workings of magic on some trees of old. He was spitting up something that became intangible. I felt him fading when I picked him up, desperately trying to find some sort of a cure that was nowhere to be found. It wasn't from anything from this world that I could understand.

Nobody could help. MATT and MATT say, Ah. Hmm. Why was he in the dream? Connection. His spirit was somehow near. I don't know how to describe it. Did you ever try, after his passing, to bring him back? I tried to stop it from happening,

and I never found him, really, when he passed. But I did everything I could to stop it. Great and many are the powers of mortals to stop poisons, diseases, afflictions, and curses. I know. Nobody would help. I know that city had some way of bringing him back. I know that city had some way of bringing him back.

How could they not? There are few you can trust. Very few. I don't know much. I have been away for quite some time, but of my domain, I am certain. I am the father of lies, and there are many lies in the city you call home.

I don't call this city home. The Lord of the Hells feels the impact of that. He looks at you, and... You have done me a great service, and you have given me your trust, but I understand that mortals will always have a part of their soul that recoils from me. It is the nature of the gifts I gave them.

Then you made me wrong. He puts a hand on your shoulder and interrupts your casting of Atonement. And instead casts a spell on you and puts a protection from evil and good on you. That will protect you from myself, from Celestials, from Fae. Thank you.

You see he... You see... Did you take a bath? And I just want to... You see that I'm fine. I did take a bath. And I just want to, you see that he says, Time for that will come later. And you have work

in Exandria, in the mortal realm. I am trapped in a space in between. Something Exandria in the mortal realm. I am trapped in a space in between. Something... There's a poison. There is a poison in your city. And I think you know the shape of it. I give him a nod. As I innately start to feel like my time here is up,

I start to step away from him and I walk towards the portal. As I start to step through it, I turn around and I say to step through it, I turn around, and I say to him, Come find me. I go through. You walk through. You leave. You come back into your body on the floor

with the tight muscles of someone who has been spasming in a state of religious ecstasy. Oh. Stand up out in the chamber, of religious ecstasy. And stand up out in the chamber, because you have been occupied for a moment. Sofyra approaches you. Guildmaster Nydas,

this was the first. This is fun. This is fun. This is fun! The promise of the premise. You see that you... Comes over and says, This was the first prophecy that Karwen gave around two weeks ago.

We wrote it down. This was the first prophecy that was a false prophecy, that we knew that she had gone mad. Do you have a telecommunications device next to you? Do you have a telecommunications device next to you? Sure, I do. Oh. I'm going to go ahead and send this to you because I want you to read this.

You want me to read it? I want you. Allowed? Allowed. Let's go. I love it. Mm-hmm. Do I have a sense of how much time has passed? As you awaken, a bit. Okay. You've been here for a minute.

Okay. Okay. I feel like I need a cigarette and I don't smoke. So, Oh. Okay. I feel like I need a cigarette and I don't smoke. So, Fy'ra places this and says, this was the first prophecy that let us know that she was matched and her prophecies have become false. CVS Pharmacy,

Lu, remember to text OK to update your purpose. No, no, no, no. Not $1. Is this it? Yes, yes, yes. This is the one I just got. Get your booster shots. Get your booster shots. No, it should be there.

Oh, I got it. You got it. Good, good, good. I'll apply, too, to cancel. The stars are leaving us. Our hands cannot reach. The limbs of the tree can no longer scribe the name of our deliverance. We will soon be as broken as our promises. Avalir shall fall.

All shall fall. And from our folly will the hands that forged the world banish themselves from the broken things they have made. This was deemed false. Yes. In that? Oh, we spoke to a member of the Octothurge and we delivered it and said,

this is the prophecy. The Guildmaster of the Guild of Divination decreed that it was false. Because it obviously can't be true. Mm-hmm. Because it obviously can't be true. Obviously. That was the right decision, wasn't it? Something went wrong.

They all went mad. Yeah. I think it is best that we continue to consider that false. Continue to? That is false. I misspoke. Guildmaster, is everything all right? Yes, of course. I'm sure as soon as Zerxus leaves, we'll be on our way. Everything that Loras wanted us to take care of

seems to have been handled. Zerxus begins to march up the corridor, and you see Nydas here. It is now, as you are all wrapping up your business, it's about one o'clock in the morning. Whew. You get a, as you're leaving the Magisterium, you get a ping on your

ring of masks As you're leaving the Magisterium, you get a ping on your ring of masks from Akami Rowe, the Helm's Woman of Avalir. Oh. Hold on. Can I fire it up and look off? Akami, Architect Arcane! Great news, we are in position over Cathmoira, all is well.

We are now at the intersection of all three ley lines. As of this moment, descent has begun. Hooray, descent! Nothing of note to report? No, I don't think there's anything of note to report. So, you know, at this point, the entire process is automated. We've begun the protocol,

so the brumestone Enchantment is working. The Ley Rudder, I went to go and deactivate the Ley Rudder because we don't need it anymore, but there's a block that had your signature on it, so the Ley Rudder is still active? Yeah, go ahead and leave that active. Don't worry about it.

It's pulling a negligible amount of power. We're fine. This is good. Thank you. All right, well, I'm going to stay here just in case. Obviously, the whole rest of the process is automated, but just in case anything. Nope. Mask goes neutral. What the fuck?

Okay, a bad thing. We have to go to the hell now. What happened? Now. Oh. Now. What happens? Now. Now! All right. Can I port us? You guys can assemble portals.

Do you communicate that over the telepathic bond? Over the helm? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Did this man talk to a god? You don't know yet that this man talked to a god. Well then, in that case, the helm is the most important thing. So that gets communicated over the telepathic bond. The Helm's Woman was just attacked.

We meet now. So all of you hear this and begin to sprint towards the helm, which is off in Dawn's Ledge. You head to the neighborhood of Dawn's Ledge. As you begin to convene on that, flying, teleporting, moving in as fast as possible, you begin to move through the streets.

You begin to approach the Helm. You see the building up ahead of you. All of you convene again here in this moment. You hear far of an excelsior plaza still. Now the fireworks extravaganza is dying down. You see that you still hear revelry and applause, and you can see, you feel the hum of now three ley lines converging in one,

and the city is descending. You can feel, you actually see now clouds on the horizon, like slowly rising up as the city begins to descend. You walk through this neighborhood, and as you are walking, you hear a voice speak out. Ah, the Ring of Brass. And Lacrytia Hollow looks at you.

Says. Looks at us? She's. She's in front of us? Not just her. You look around at the rooftops around you. I'm going to need everyone here to roll initiative. Oh my god. And that's all for this episode of Exile Unlimited Calamity. Tune in next week.

Oh my god! And we'll see. We're going to kill this one. We're going to kill this one. What did you do? What did you do? What is happening? I don't know. I spent the whole time going, like, oh no, maybe I blew up the closet. What did you do? What did you do? What is happening? I don't know.

I spent the whole time going like, oh no, maybe I blew up the closet. You did it! Amazing. We can all take turns causing the apocalypse together. We all had hands in this crucifixion. I remember, is it Thursday yet? Is it Thursday yet?

Huh. It's Thursday now, but now it's going to be the next Thursday is the next show, and we want to know if it's Thursday yet. Fuck! Does that all take? And that concludes this episode.

This is Travis Willingham, and thank you for listening to Exandria Unlimited on the Critical Role Podcast Network. If you've enjoyed the show, please leave us a review on the podcast app of your choice. Your review, after all, might motivate a new listener to join the adventure. There are unlimited stories to be told, and we can't wait to keep telling them. Until next time, is it Thursday yet?