Critical Role - Branching Paths | Critical Role Campaign 4, Episode 5 Part 2

Episode Date: November 18, 2025

Part 2 Decisions are made about how to keep Occtis safe from his family while the Soldiers embark on a hunt for friend and foe alike... New Episodes Release Weekly on Thursdays.Learn more about Campaign 4 at https://critrole.com/campaign4/   GET MORE CAMPAIGN 4 WITH BEACONWe're excited to bring you even MORE Campaign 4 with a Beacon membership! Get access to exclusive shows like our behind-the-scenes Critical Role Cooldown and ask the Campaign 4 cast your burning questions directly through our LIVE monthly Fireside Chats.You'll also receive NEW Beacon exclusive series, instant ad-free access to VODs & podcasts, live event pre-sales, merch discounts, & a private Discord.Start your 7-day free trial today at https://beacon.tv/join and get unparalleled access to everything Critical Role! OFFICIAL CAMPAIGN 4 CASTGAME MASTER Brennan Lee MulliganLaura Bailey as ThimbleLuis Carazo as Azune NayarRobbie Daymond as Kattigan ValeAabria Iyengar as Thaisha LloyTaliesin Jaffe as Bolaire LathaliaAshley Johnson as VaelusMatthew Mercer as Sir Julien DavinosWhitney Moore as TyrannyLiam O’Brien as Halandil "Hal" FangMarisha Ray as Murray Mag’NessonSam Riegel as Wicander "Wick" HalovarAlexander Ward as Occtis TachonisTravis Willingham as Teor Pridesire CREDITSProduced by Maxwell James, Steve Failows, & Kyle ShireSet Designed by Shaun EllisProduction Designer: Noxweiler BerfCharacter Art by Loren HontanillaEdited by Taylor Burke and Emily "Stevie" StevensonCritical Role Announcement Playhouse Editor: Vinny CelestiOpening Title Editor: Paul FoyderOpening Title Colorist: Peter KoocheradisWindow Effects by Christian BrownGraphic Design by Aaron Monroy & Jordyn TorrenceCountdown Graphic by Daniel Jiménez VillalbaMiniatures Painted by Payton Keo LacebalOpening Title Theme by Neal AcreeCampaign 4 Key art by Hannah FriederichsAdditional Art & Design by Hannah Friederichs Episode QC by Catherine Zimmerman & Paula FloresAssistant Editor: Gianna GencarellaPost Production Coordinators: M Swing & Bryn HubbardClosed Caption Editing by Margaret Dill, Nikki Kindelberger, Courtney Knewtson, Danielle Lackie, Eleanor Smith-Dufresne & Alice TsoiPost Production Supervisor: Tal Levitas Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello again, it's Brennan Lee Mulligan, and you're listening to Part 2 of this episode of Critical Role. If you haven't checked out part one yet, pause this now and head over there first. What are you doing? Otherwise, let's jump right back into this adventure and the world of Aramon. How do you play this game? Folks, we are back and live. Um, Literally how. The book doesn't tell me what I should say

for a moment to moment. Adventure, you're on one. Help, help, help. Last we left off, someone was one shy of failing a skill check, but I'm getting a note from the judges, we're actually going to allow because guidance can be cast

on any willing creature. Is Cadogan veil a willing creature? Right in between the old. A little guidance, which no role necessary that gets you to the difficulty, class of 20, which you were trying to hit, which isn't enough to give you anybody stone cold, but it's enough to rule out some options following the tracks

from here. You've got Wolfrick sniffing out in the rain, in the early morning light. I will allow, there's a couple different roads that they could have taken here. And I will say that there's effectively two that you're able to rule out right away. The main road that diverges out from the Duvalmar Pass, right? So the DuLamar Pass is the big pass that runs east from Dolmachyar.

That road, you know, doesn't lead to Gormelais, doesn't lead to Timeney, the realm, the kingdom of Timony. you would be looking for probably two different roads or highways that go north. One of them is the Pilgrims Road, which is this ancient Dwarven Road that goes over the mountaintops to some ancient holy sites. That place has been largely abandoned since the goddess of the forge was defeated. There's not a lot of pilgrims running around anymore. Then there's the King's Highway. That's the main road that leads to Timmons Rock,

which is the capital city of Timmany. That is the fastest road to where you're going. It's a big old highway. It stretches off at the Duvalmar Pass. You know, it would peel off probably like two miles outside of town. That road would split. Does it have Pizza Hut Expresses and stuff? Yeah, it has like a shell.

You can grab some different. KFC and Taco Bell that's safe. You go in and you're like, Baskin Robbins Taco Bell, wait. This is a one-two punch people are asking for it? Okay, if you say so. I'll go to the gas there, too, yeah. So we followed the tracks to the point to where we're assuming this rain is going to wash them away. These are our two options.

I think you're two options. You follow the tracks long enough and you go, okay. Sid was running on foot. Kazimir and his gang were in carriages. We're in horses and carriages, which means that, yeah, they're faster, but the horses would have been faster, but they're not going with horses,

they're going with, since carriage was left behind. He couldn't be fired right. Yeah. So you in your head go, well, they're not gonna abandon their carriages. There's no way, like this is you on that 20 survival going like, no way they go to the Pilgrim's Road

with their carriages, even if they're chasing Sid, And also, Sid maybe doesn't even know about that Pilgrim's Road. You know about it because you've been traveling a lot, right? But Sid's been a city slicker for like 12 years, right? So you're able to rule out the Pilgrim's Road as an option. Basically, you're left with the King's Highway, or there is a forest, the DeHopjani Wood, which is a big alpine,

kind of like, almost like a conifer pine rainforest. It's like cool and misty and rainy. They're almost all the time. There are a lot of like vines and other plants there. It's like a cold weather high altitude rainforest. I don't handle cold weather. So on a 20, I can't give you tracks dead to rights, but I think that you are left with these.

You rule out a lot of options quickly and you go, there's the highway, which the carriages would have traveled on. So at minimum, Kazimir would have gone in that direction. If you travel in that direction, you'll be traveling on a big, open road, which will be fast, but also, I think, on a 20, you know, that's the road that anyone who's pursuing you guys would probably take that road as well. It doesn't mean that they'll be as fast as you or travel as lightly as you. And then there is the forest,

which normally would slow people down. It would not slow you down. If Casimir went that way, if Casimir basically made a choice that was, oh my God, they're definitely right behind me, I have to go somewhere that the carriages can't follow me. You mean Sid? Sorry, Sid, yes.

If Sid had to make that choice, that he would have been like, let me go somewhere that carriages won't follow. Have these two paths sort of like all roads lead to Rome kind of situation? Oh, okay. Yeah. The both of them would head towards Gormelais. It's basically, do you want to take the paths?

I think on that 20, basically it is dealer's choice between off the road and the dangers that that involves, but where at least nobody who's pursuing you will be able to move at your same pace. Or do you take the King's Highway, the dangers that that, both paths have danger to them. The dangers of the Kings Highway will be anyone pursuing you will be able to keep a pace with you. But also, you'll definitely have more opportunities to have other ways of tracking. People will have seen people.

There will be towns. There will be inns and taverns and things like that. I think immediately Wolfrick starts to rip off into the forest path and I just go and I hold them back. I turn to the group and I go, well, I don't have a dog. in this race, except for that one. Which way do we go? Now, are you a man of the wilds?

I will be fine in any scenario. Yep. I think I would prefer the highway. I mean, it feels like we would make better time, and possibly there could be inns or taverns where we could find out. find a nice warm bed to rest our heads at the end of the afternoons

and maybe have a nice home-cooked meal, a nice soup. Love soup. I will say that if we go to a place that favors more people, we need to get a story straight as to why we are with someone who your family tried to murder.

So my pitch is that we figure out a story because we are still very, much of the candescent creed, or else the candescent creed is very much against us. Of course, of course, yes, yes. Well, I mean, this is our, this is our protector, our assigned servant, our, our protector. I made a pledge towards you, but I also am not going to keep you from making horrible choices yourself. If you go on this road, as you are, you will stand out. Well, I think that that's a good story.

story. If you're okay playing that role, we can say that we have taken to the road to proselytize. Spread the good word, yes. Visit Stronghold south of here. Sid would have taken to Hopshiny, right? It depends. If he was being pursued, he would not have taken the road. Right. Maybe we can catch Sid before they do and help him out. Was he being pursued? Did anyone know of his... Of course he was being pursued by Kazimir! I was sort of late to this whole conversation and didn't...

I don't really know who Casimir is. We will make up any disadvantage that you put on us with our skill and expertise, but we have a decision to make. We have to decide if finding Casimir is the priority above Sid. Well, they're all discussing these ins and outs. What time of day is it? You've been traveling. You're now far enough outside of the city

that the sky is getting gray with sunlight as the heavy rains come down. Give me a perception check. For time of day. I am like you're so good. The sun is in sky. Is in sky. It must be super cloudy because that was a sick.

maybe. Looking out, I mean, you guys have already, you know, Teor, you were rescued from the bowels of a warlocks of a warlock's dungeon earlier today. Kattegan, you've been up since this morning. All of you've been traveling through the night. Shadow still hard. If you were, if you guys were to engage in a full, in like a full days travel right now, there'd probably be some, like, Constitution savings routes for, like, exhaustion and stuff like that.

Because you've been going hard. But on that sixth perception, I think you sort of peer off. Yeah, you see the beginning of the King's Highway, heading up north to Timney up there, and then you see the forest. I'm sort of thinking of the deep forest at night. And I think if there's anything, in Cadigan's mind, if there's anything frightening, it's not highwaymen. It's what's in the forest when the sun goes down.

So while I might naturally go that way, I would say... Someone's coming up. Oh, someone's coming up. Oh, someone's coming up. It's hard to tell, I know you... I roll the six. So true to form. You can't tell what time of day is, but...

Oh, okay. We are here to help each other, and so we'll go whichever way, whoever you are determined to find. Your pretty white outfits are gonna get really dirty. And I'm here to keep you alive. Thank you. I hope it won't come to that, and I don't foresee it will. I mean, we're just going to find your brother, and he'll be there, and there'll be a happy reunion of some sort, and then we can deal with my issues.

These people you saved me from that bisected my shadow, do you think they will not turn the world upside down looking for you and you? They will, and that's why we have to be really, really convincing that you're a good leader. I am a good leader. Yep. Time is very precious. We should use the cover of the jungle, even if it compromises your comforts.

This is tricky, so you're both for the jungle? Yeah. And obviously, we're two votes for the highway, so I guess it's up to you then. No, I'm, okay. Well, now that I know that the sun is coming up with my keen perception. Ah, horizon, line of sight.

change your eyes, which I don't think I've said to this point. Yeah, I'll just... The hawk screams in here. Yes, the sun is up. I'll just start... He's an absolutely unparalleled wilderness man. It's night, no morning. This is going to be rough,

campbelly. Katting is just going to start kicking a rock into the woods and walking into the woods. I'd like to take a little demon snooze on this horse. Okay. So we trot along. Taking a snooze on the horse will prove impossible. Impossible?

Yes. Okay. Sleeping on a moving horse will prove impossible. Okay. Shit. We're gonna have to camp out soon though. Okay, that's totally fine. What day of the week is it?

Lunar, Chasseur, victoire, four gear. No, too. Merlo, Savio. What day of the week is it? I would say that the day of the week it is. Well, we haven't even established what day of the week it is. When would they kill Fiazzi Fang, probably on a... It's the day in the week.

It's the day in the week, yeah. Is it forger yet? It's forger somewhere, baby. Today is, I'd say today is Smith's Day. Smith's Day. Smith's Day. I don't have that. Is that either?

Something else we should be aware of, these jungles are a different, it's a different terrain, but also Sid understands the difference between leading a trail, leaving a trail to find and leaving a message for those that know what to look for. Speed will not be necessary in the beginning. Oh, so we're just looking for clues and signs then. Potentially. Also, things that lead to death. All right, I can keep my eyes open for those things. I'm here to help, I'm here to help you. We're gonna try to keep a low profile. That's the plan.

You look like you can totally do that. Absolutely. You should cover yourself with mud and shit as soon as possible. Well, I'll use this cloak. That should probably do. We should do that. We should do that.

Listen to her. The second we get off this horse, I'm taking it. I'm rolling around. Oh, shit. I can't. Very well. As you guys sort of air to the side of probably the forest is the wise way for us to go,

you are looking at your steeds, your horses. You'll be able to travel with them through the forest, but you'll have to take a slow pace unless, of course, you want to leave them tied up at a hitch post outside and in somewhere and head out on foot. I already did. Yeah, I'm on foot.

Cool. This will be hard then. I'm just flying around. Yeah. Are we dismounting for real, Z's? You could trot slow, but I mean, yeah. Or my. Yeah.

I dismount and I put my knee. I get my hand. Oh, thank you. Yeah, okay. Thank you. Really good, really good. We just leave the horses here. We're gonna tie them up.

Take them tie them up somewhere. They get lonely. That's not even in. Oh. Will they get lonely? Well, yeah, I mean, they'll get dead. Tie them at an inn. You have money.

All right. Are there inns nearby? Yeah, I mean, we're at a crossroads, of course. Yeah, you guys are not too far. I think it's pretty effortless to find a place to tie up the horses and leave word here with an in-keep as you make your way into the forest. Also smart to say that your travel plans take you in the opposite direction the next day of which we are going.

Of course, yes, let's do that. Lovely. As you approach it in early in the morning, you hear a voice nearby. God damn it. You're exactly. I'll say that, yeah, you guys are preparing. You're getting your boots done up like, Tayor and Katagan Thimble, all you guys have done

like deep woods adventuring. It's a montage. It's a montage. But if you've ever been in like a big rainforest before, I think you're looking at like these beautiful gold brocade slippers that Wicander is wearing. And you know it's hard because you do have to stay in that. Of course.

That's all I brought. Yeah. As you walk the four horses up to this sort of roadside in, and again, it's very popularly around. You're only a few miles outside of a major city, but it's early, early light. You hear a voice from up on high, call out and go like, hi there friend, you're leaving us,

you're leaving your horses behind. I'm sorry, could you enunciate just a little bit better? Up above you, swinging, you see swinging, you see swinging from a gibbet, which is one of the sort of like steel birdcage things. You see that there is a. That's what's on Crocs.

What's that? Jibbitt. That's what they put on Crocs. It's the name for the back thing. No, it's for the little thing. That's called sport mode. Croc shoes have like this little plastic bullshipping. You'll learn in a couple years.

You'll get there. You'll get there. Got you'll be covered. Understood. So not that. High fantasy, high fantasy. You see, it is a cylindrical cage that criminals are kept in as they hang

from kind of a gallows. And you see that there is a broad, thick-necked, sort of orcish-looking man, but also has a thick, braided beard. It looks a little bit squabre. pretty short, looks out to you. Legs are sort of hanging out of the gibbet. He goes, hey, friend.

This is the prisoner, Tarry? Yeah. Oh, may the light reach you, friend. How are you this morning? It can't be. I'm all right. You want me to wake up the inn? Are you staying at the inn for the night?

We have business with the inn. I'm sorry, are you the concierge? Ha ha ha! In a manner of speaking. Oh, well, excellent. I suppose, ding, ding, ding, yes. We'd like to have some service here, yes. Splendid.

That's splendid. Well, so you'd like some service, eh? We'd like a place to tie up these horses for... You see that he reaches over. The gibbet next to him has a full skeleton in it. He reaches over, pulls out a sort of femur bone to reach and push the post of the gallows, to start swinging himself.

Like a bell, like a fucking bell. And he sort of hits, gets a good whack, twirls around and thunks his cage into the corner of the inn. You can see, makes like a thump against the wall and he says, Wake up customers! Thank you so much.

Well, you're a kind and lovely gentleman. And may I be ever so bold as to say, if you are a fan of the service I've provided, The crust of bread would go a long way. I don't have any bread, but. Ah, pity. You know what? I have, it's a symbol of the candescent creed.

We've got fruit leather. Oh, or that. You see, he says, well, I think I'll take a little bit of the fruit leather, but I am interested in seeing your symbol of the candestine cream. Well, we give these out at ceremonies and stuff. I'll take it, fly it up.

He looks up at you and takes it, He goes, Thimble. Wait, do I know? Give me a history check. Oh, God. Oh. Ten, you definitely recognize this guy. He's spent some time in Dolmachiar,

but he comes and goes. You think his first name is Abelang. Abelang? There you go. What the fuck did you do? You got a cut? I got caught, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. How long have you been in here?

How long have you been in here? I couldn't be more than a fortnight, but people are generous. Well, you're so charming. Oh, it's very kind of you to say. Yeah, we knocked over a caboose of a caravan bound for Timony and took some, you see, he looks at the Candassadac Creed, and he says, helped ourselves to some. some of the light.

But I don't mean to say that by means of offense. I'm a fan of your family's work. Thank you so much. See, our name carries great honor and weight around here. Your name? What's your name, friend? Fuck are you doing. Can I just say.

Stab him in the house. I'm so hungry. I'm starving. Would you like some fruit leather? I'd love so. You said that you helped yourself to some of them and I just whipped some delicious looking fruit leather out, my guy.

Thank you, my dear. You said that you're a fan of the candescent creed? May the light do, as he said. Yeah, I agree, I'm an aspirant also, so same wavelength. Lovely. So you're a devotee. Is that made challenging vis-à-vis

Oh, my being a demon? Yeah. No, it's super easy actually. This guy, he is helping me out so good and may the beam reach you and I feel. And you're Mr. Kandeson. I'm Nick Halevar. He's Nick.

She says, Nick Halevar. You're a member of the Halevar family. Wow. Wow. Yes. Schmann Rockefeller. Um, uh, give me a, also give me a deception. Natural 20. Oh!

Oh! Soz who says, Nicholas Halev. That's me. Splendid. Yes. Well, uh, it's a pleasure. May I ask why you're depositing such fine steeds here at the Black Heron?

We're going on a little bit of a journey with my friend into the wilderness. In that way, we're going that. Stop! Stop! I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. We're friends with Thimble.

She is escorting us. We're going on an adventure. And we're going on an adventure. And we're here doing R&D basically to spread the word. And just, I'm so glad that you already have found the bean. Thimble's showing us around because... Truffle hunting. We're going truffle hunting in the woods.

You and Nick Halevar with Thimble are going truffle hunting in the DeHopshiny wood. It's part of the itinerary. Splendid. How much do I trust abs? Give me an inside check. Fucking zero! I mean, maybe we worked together.

What was that? Boy. Nope. God, I'm broke my fucking check. What is this, an insight? Insight. Ten. I mean, you don't know this guy that well. I don't really.

Yeah, travel hunting is gonna be swell. Splendid. How long are you gonna be in here for? Well, I've been told that I'm to remain in this jibbut until I am in the same condition as my silent friend. You just reached the skeleton next to him. That's a long time. You want help getting out?

I would be delighted for help getting out. Can I look at the lock? You take one look at it, yes, absolutely. It is extremely, the whole thing that makes it impossible to pick is that it's 15 feet in the air, and he doesn't have any tools. Who are the cops around here? What are the enforcers that would have put him in this job? Well, it sounds like this guy got grabbed by the Hale of Ars themselves.

It sounds like the same shit that's happening everywhere. You know, he looks around and says, We knocked over that caravan the night after we heard that they had grabbed the Aussie. If you're out here, I have to assume that he's made his way out from the jail. I am very sorry. There is very little warmth or comfort or comfort amongst thieves, but such that it was, it was always a pleasure to do business with Mr. Fang. Yeah.

I would love to be sprung from here. From this guy's position, elevated at these crossroads, does it look like he has a view of the Forest Inn and the King's Highway? Does it look like, I mean, if he's awake and he's checking shit out, does it look like he sees things? All he would have to do is sit here and watch. You can see, and you can see, as charming and glib as he is being, you can see the beginnings of a swelling in his legs from where they press

into the iron bars. Yeah, he's motivated. Yeah, look. Just to be sure, I get you out of here. You see anyone, we want that way, yeah? He nods and says, all I know is that Nick Halevar and his companions had to go find some truffles.

And I'll say this as well. If you give me a running or, as the case may be, a hobbling head start, I actually won't see which way you go. I'm gonna try to get him out. Go ahead and give me a thieves tools. All right, I like wiggle into the lock and look around and see. As we see Thimble doing that,

Cat and I will sort of involuntarily spread out in like opposite directions. Just create a scanning for a sure. What am I? How, what do I do here? This is, you can give me a sleight of hand for this one as well. Slide of hand, yeah. All right.

21. Thimble, removing a set, which for you are almost like small like staves. they're like strapped across your back, almost like camping gear, you whip out these prongs and- I'm in the lock. Yeah, just, it's, it's, you get your, get your hands in there and pry it open

and you hear a chunk as this thick, heavy hanging lock just falls, limp, and partially open, hanging by its hook that is now separated from the rest of the lock. You hear my wings, that was sick. You see Abelang just, reaches a hand through, pulls the undone lock out of the little clasp, moves the door open,

and just falls forward, badly hurting his, you can see his legs are fully numb. He's lost sensation in his legs. Falls, he is going to take two points of falling damage as he hits the ground. You see the door opens as an older orcish woman in a bonnet and a nightgown, opens the door having responded to him

waking up the inn and goes, good morning, is it? Never mind, and she closes the door and walks back. Abilene's just sitting on his ass on the ground. Yeah. You see my buddy over here? Mm-hmm. Did you see anyone that looked like him while you were hanging? Call odds or evens?

Evens. Five. I see he looks at you and he goes, He looks at you and he goes, looks like him. Can't say as I did, no. All right. Why? No reason.

He turns around, says, Can I ask, who are you looking for? People who are you looking for? People have betrayed this. He turns around and says, I didn't see any lion folk coming through this way. But I did see a number of carriages head up the King's Highway. They were moving with some mounted guards

that bore the symbol of House Taconas. And there were some riding in the driver's seat of the carriages that wore crow feathers in their cloaks. They tarried, the reason I remember them is they tarried here a long time. I can't be quite certain. It seemed as though, he shrugs, it seems as though they were confused about where to go. Got it. Abelang, can I ask something of you?

Of course, you're giving me fruit leather. It's good. It is. It's good. If you happen to see any representative of the candescent creed, will you make sure that they know that it was Nicander Halovar that put you in there and be very unclear

as to who got you out? If I am detained by a member of the candescent creed, I am to tell them that it was under the order of Nicander Halovar. Yes. That I was placed under. under arrest and leave ambiguous how I was freed from my position here.

And as he's rattling off that story, an ominous lion folk shadow sort of appears over his shoulder and puts a hand on it and a warm light comes out from under it and I'll use Leon hands to put five hit points, hopefully down into his seized up leg, and I'll put a gold coin in his pocket. Feeling his legs returned to him, go ahead and give me persuasion with advantage.

While she's rolling, Kattegan, ends over a tear and says, you changed. In the old days, you know. What? 16. 20. Not 20. That's all you need. And I take the gold coin back.

You're right, I forgot. I forgot myself. He, on a Nat 20 persuasion, you heal him that gold coin. You look and he says, I hope never to be taken into the custody of the candest creed again. But in my line of work, certain risks must be underd taken. I shall make certain that any mention of Lord Nikander or other hell of

ours are concurrent with the fact that they have only ever acted in the height of their family's propriety, no one doing anything untoward at all. Thank you for understanding, and I smack Wick right on the ass to get Stand up straight. We have a very strict disciplinarian here, and that's all of our understanding. He smiles and nods. He looks out, and you see, on that Nat 20, he smiles looking at all of you, and you can see just you've freed him, you've healed him, you've given him a gold coin. This is a banner morning. Beats some breadstrum. Should we invite him along with us?

You see, Abilene looks at you and goes and just says, if you are, you see, he says, if you are to head up the King's Highway, then he says, if you are to head up the King's Highway, you can use my name at the fiddle and drum. I don't know if that's where you're headed, but they'll give you a place to stay for a night if you're in need of rest. Somebody write that down. And he says, and if you are headed elsewhere into the wilderness for truffle hunting, up on the ridge, on the other side of Dahabshani, you may notice a small dwelling place, an observatory or lookout tower. The gentleman who lives there, albid,

is a friend who I have imposed on some time. He's a bit of an eccentric. He is an archonist, and he studies the weather and other things like that. But he is a small, very remote dwelling place if you need a friendly place to rest. You see, he looks around at some degree of haggardness amongst the group here and says, which you may.

But he says, I am always made more comfortable to be in the company of liars. And you see, he nods his head and turns around and says, by the way, these horses, they're for anybody? Sure. He unties them quickly, gets on one, farewell, and rides off. The beam reach you. And takes off four horses, Richard.

His day really turned around. Great day for that guy. He used to no thimble. Great. And also on that Nat 20, you guys actually have a little bit more than you have information about at least what was happening with Casimir. And a little bit of something up your sleeve for both of the directions you were considering. The sun is rising, however, and there is a broken lock and an unsprung gibbet here. We should get out of here.

Sure. Yeah. Yes. Which way are we going? Yeah, let's go, let's go. Was your brother of Woodsman? Yes. More than a street traveler, and he would know better.

Were we aware? Had we pieced it together that his acones were working with the crows? I don't think you had. I mean, or not. Yeah, I don't think you had at this point. So you knew that someone had paid, like you knew that that there's no

way someone could have given a crook like Casimir Gavendale the deed to a strong home. We knew he was selling it to someone, but we didn't know who it was too. Didn't know who it was. Like who has the ability to give like a street criminal from Dolmachiar land and title somewhere like it's candy? Yeah. Just for sabotaging Theasi's escape. Fuck. We left Ogdis.

He's gonna be in danger. I'm sure Hal will take care of him. Hell knows people, right? Yeah. Yeah. I sent him off with Julian. It... Yeah. I was young, but capable.

He can take care of himself, right? You have to. You gotta go after Sid. Can I just say, that was great back there. We were just bouncing off. You were horrible, you did so great. You did so good. You changed one letter in here.

Let me, can I just have a little, walk and talk. You're, we're walking. We're walking and talking. We're walking and talking. So you guys are headed for the woods, right? You're headed for the wilderness. Great.

You head off Wolfrick sort of bounding and leaping. And as you do, as you begin to head towards the wood, the day becomes a little bit brighter as you get farther away from the storm, arriving out into the wilderness. I'd love a, just for staying on track, I'd love another survival check. We can do the same role we did before. You're gonna shit to bed this time, Rodney? Oh.

Are you good me? Uh, what? You can get me? But we should, we should definitely both roll. Correct. This is a group check. Yeah, uh-huh. I'm gonna guide you.

Okay. She's been rolling really well. I know, I know, just super great. What's you wrote? It's almost like history. A man of the words. Ten! Well, your rules better than me.

Hold on. Are you remembering that Wolfrick is helping you? Oh, I get the advantage. You get advantage. Oh my God, I'm not remembering. slightly better. 15. 15 keeps your bearings. You are traveling. I'm grieving. You are traveling through the woods. The day gets brighter as you get further away from the storms traveling along. Heading through the Dahopshiny wood, there's still a, you know, there's still a lot of mist hanging in the air.

the sunlight comes up. And on that 15, as you guys are traveling through, let me ask if you are, A, you're traveling pace, if you are traveling fast at a normal speed or slow. You'll obviously cover more ground the faster you go, but you start to accumulate disadvantages, such as disadvantage on survival checks, disadvantages on things like stealth checks.

And also, are you covering your tracks as you go? Are you anything like that as you are traveling? What is, what sort of pains are you taking? I would say one thing that at least Sid would be wise enough to keep somewhat of a visual distance with the road from the cover of the foliage so that if you hear something, you can stop, cover, retreat, attack to whatever you need to do.

So I would be looking for signs of Sid as we move and I think that would be. Well, we're also having a assumption now that he's not being directly pursued. so maybe time is not quite as urgent if there's a separation. So I would say medium pace and keep our, cover our tracks the best we can. Yeah. And I could do that from the rear if you're at the front.

Let me just say, I'll throw it out there. If we wanted to keep a faster pace, I have means of blessing us and making us. Means such as faith, imbues me with powers and I can pass them along to you. What powers? What powers? Yeah. Just a little boost here and there. That's all.

But, but I trust you, you are definitely the more survivalist, rugged types. Let's just gloss over the part where he still thinks that it is his faith that is giving him powers. Do we, do we need to move faster? And I'm swishing, I'm swishing my tail as I walk behind both of us. To like cover our tracks or just for... I mean, we're only as fast. I mean, we're only as fast as our slowest person, so. Who's that?

I don't. It's me. How many days' head start do they have? Do we know? You guys, they left the day before you, about a day's, about one day's head start. First 48, we can try. Yeah, a lot of ground in the day. Do her tail swishes look like they're covering anything, or do they look like tail swishes?

They're leaving tail swishes, fine. I have to be honest. At a normal, I'm going to need a group stealth check moving at a normal pace. All of you will be rolling with disadvantage. Disadvantage. I don't like the normal stealth. Normal stuff, disadvantage.

I'm going to get rid of my disadvantage. Lovely. Oh. Lovely. Nice. Yes. What do we get for stealth here? 11.

5. 5. 21. 21. 21. 21? 15. Okay, 21, 15.

Dirty 20 and natural 20s. Ooh, yay, I mean. 20, 21, and 15. That means actually your median roll is a 15. So I will say with the tail sweeping and all of that, it is actually, well, we got pretty low rolls over here. So I think the two candescence, it's like, like in other words, it's like,

you're looking at the tail sweeping and you're like, so you've disguised footprints with a broad sweeping motion, I'm going straight into the woods. Katagan's movie, like, not touching leaves, perspiration, undisturbed, blending into foliage, and then it's just, some type of animal that leaves that kind of track.

This guy literally glows, that's tough. But I think that as you guys are traveling, it's really that the three of you just bring yourselves to areas that won't slow your travel too much and will be impossible to leave tracks on. If you're traveling on smooth rock, If you're traveling on boulders and stuff like that, you're going to leave less tracks than if you're traveling on soft earth,

disturbing foliage, you know, anything like that. So peeling off through the wilderness as fast as you can, you keep your guidance. And I will ask for, we'll see if we get lucky here. Give me one more survivalism check in this first day of travel. You don't want to opt out of this one just to like, you know. No, I'm going to try. What's the difference does it make?

I don't just try to be good. One more survival. It's picking up. Picking up Kazimir's tracks, if they even exist here, would be finding tracks in the middle of the wood that you've stone cold lost, is another DC-25. So it's next to impossible, but it's a free roll. Oh, guide me.

Guise me, you have to guide you. Is that how it works? I'm guiding myself. I got it. I could have got up there. 14, 16. With the help? Did you guide yourself? I did not use the help.

16, it's 20. I did guide myself. It's 20, 15. That's actually 21, but it's impossible. Okay, wait, no, no, no. Okay, wait. Here's the thing. I rolled 23 and I have a bardic inspiration that I haven't used yet. Okay. From Hal.

It's true. Okay. Yeah. What number? Is that a a six or an eight? Is that a six or an eight? That is, from how, I believe it's a D6? So it's a D6? So, wait, you have a 23? You're going to get it anyway, I think. You might.

No, you can roll a one. Or a 24. Is that I'm rolling a six or an eight? All you gotta do is not fuck it up completely. Just don't roll one, right? If I don't roll one, I'm okay? The brain doesn't hear negatives. Just say roll in four.

Bubba boy, babo boy. You can do it. Yeah. You're gonna, it's so good? Three, I rolled a three. Three! Yay! You're redeemed.

Um, uh... You're good at, you're good at membranes now. Unbable. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. You see, on a 23 survival, you are looking around all for us. We're a little higher than in 23. That's 26.

26. 26. On a 26 survival, I think that you, as you're traveling, you're also feeding yourself off the lamp, which for Cadigan is an easy prospect to keep you guys fed and water. and water. It's just your first day of travel as well, but you can feel if you, you're getting to the point where it's going to be a level of exhaustion if you don't find somewhere to rest. On 23, I think, or so 26, you look down and see that there are a small series of cuped little

clovers, each clover with four leaves holding a little drop of dew. And as you look down at this area, you get a sudden sense that there is someone very close by in the water. And on a 26th survival, looking at the tall shapes all around you, you see just under the surface of the water is a fairy, hiding absolutely stock still, who makes eye contact with you on a 26th

and goes, are you in danger? No. Not right now. Okay. You see that what you are looking at is a naiad, a little water. She is a fairy. She is a, or yes, also called a Nixie sometimes.

It's a little spring or Brooke fairy. She's probably about seven inches tall, so almost twice as tall as you, but still quite tiny compared to everybody else. And you see her, standing in this little rainforest-y brooks, this like wellspring of water coming up. And she's hiding just under where the bird bowl

kind of creates that it's like casting light in all directions, so it's like a good hiding spot. But you see she just looks terrified. And you see on that 26, she goes, not twice in 24 hours, this is so crazy. Wait, who did you see? You see she looks around, sees you lean close, and she looks up, almost not trusting,

and reaches up and grabs your wrists and pulls you in water with her, and gets her mouth close to your face and goes, and covers your head in a little bubble under water. I'm Brooke Meadow. Are you in danger, those tall people? I can, I know, I know trees here that will kill them. Great, but I don't need them dead.

Just yet. No, they're actually friends. I know it's weird. They're big people that are, that are helping. Okay, okay. Wait, you said 24 hours, who did you see? You see she looks up its Hay-or and says, A lion

Like him? Yeah, came back in golden light Last afternoon It was struggling through the woods He was headed north from here But he Yes, tall, jet black fur Black mane, amber eyes

That's him. Yeah Did he seem insured? Was that? You said he was struggling, did he seem hurt? I couldn't tell. He looked frightened. Okay.

Okay. Okay. I'll be right back. Okay. Stay here. Are you going to... She goes, are you going to tell them about... She is making an insight check into you.

I'm not going to tell them about you. Oblivious to this, I'm going to dip in a chalice into the water nearby. Nearby and just get a sip of water to myself. Oh, no. Yummy angel blood! That's gonna make you feel so good. Oh, it's hot. Yeah, it is hot.

Have you been killing that this whole time? I packed it for the road, yes. You see that she looks up and says, okay, I trust you. I'm Thimball. I'm Brooke Meadow. Hi. Hi.

Um, I, uh, are you, are you looking for Hawthorne's Glade or no? No, but what it, no? Where's Hawthorne's Glade? Doesn't, I mean, I'm looking for it. I don't even mention it. I mean, I'm looking, I've been looking for it for a while. Give me deception. Oh no. Hawthorne's what?

Metro 20. There it is! There it is! There it is! She says, okay, you are looking for Hothans Square. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You can't bring big people there? Oh, I'm not gonna. Okay.

I want to ditch him. Ditch them, good. I hate them. Yeah. You see, she goes, she goes, okay, Hawtham's, you're on the right track. It's deep in the forest. It's about another day,

it's like another day or two north of here. And it's at the very edge. It's deep in the woods. before the imaginary line. Do I have any idea what she's talking about? You know, big people, they look at a forest and they're like, there's an imaginary line through there. A border. Yeah. Of course I know.

Yeah, yeah. So it's like that. It's around there. It's safe because they don't do there. Nobody goes by the imagination. The other freaks start sniffing around at all the little petals like over them in the near vicinity. See, Prickena goes, Oh, come here, come here.

You see, she goes, she goes, but yeah, I saw him. He came through here. Okay, great. Do you need anything? No, I'm good. I'm stationed here for a little while longer for people like you. Thank you.

You got it? It'll be safe there. Just the magic around it is strong, but they can't get in, but they know something's there. something's there. So just be really careful because there are there are dead things in the woods. Just try to get somewhere safe before night. How far away is the ridge, do you know? There's like a lookout tower, a little... Oh, but it's a big person up there. Yeah. Do you know how far away that is? Only a few hours. And you'd get there faster if you ditch them.

Okay. Great. Great. Be safe. You too. And let anyone else know. that there's safety. Oh, um, I'll look and see, uh, I pull out a button. She starts crying. Is this for me? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, it's wonderful. Yeah, you're welcome. You could use it like a plate.

Yeah. And then the holes could be where sauce comes out. It could be a hat. It could be a hat. You see she grabs your hands and just goes, we're gonna make it. We're gonna make it. And she smiles and goes back down into the well

and leaves you to emerge. I wish I had heard that cute ass exchange, but instead I'm just telling, Hey, I would never ask you your radiance to compromise your beliefs or to tell a lie. I know that you don't do that. I really can't. Can I say, as a demon,

I can impart a little wisdom and I can feel these questions. questions for you, what I need you to do, if you're okay with it, and really this is your idea. Do you remember your friend Hal? Yes, of course. Gifted actor. Yes, he trained me. You are playing a part of a very strict authoritarian

that is going around and acting on behalf of your family. All right. That's what you're doing. All right, so I am a Heelvar, I'm just out for blood. No, no, no, no, no, no. Out to find track you. You are doing exactly what your family is asking of you, which is to spread the good word.

And if you have to protect yourself along the way from people who work against the candescent creed, then you are doing that. That's the part. You don't need to lie and you don't need to do anything you don't want to do. It's a performance. It's a performance.

What happened in there? Where would you go? Underwater. Oh. I found some, uh, I found some fur. Some, some fur? Yeah, some black fur. Sid's.

Oh. He was going this way. It was stressed fur though. He looked like, it seemed like he might have been stressed. The fur was stressed? Yeah. Yeah. Did you have it?

Oh, it was water, it was waterlogged. You left it under the water. Yeah. But it was stressed and it was heading north. I just kind of share a glance, cat. You wanna give me insight and deception? We can make it mechanical if we want. Do I hear any of this?

Sure, yeah. Listen, guys. 16. Can we double roll again? Yeah, you can't roll. Sounds like bullshit. I would have seen a chunk of black for it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What did you get for insight?

17. 17, you're fine. Great. So Tayor, I think you see it. I do. Yeah. Stressed fur. Yeah, yeah, I can tell when you're stressed.

Yeah. What does my fur look like when it is stressed? Extra, you can't tell because you're not as close to it as I am. It's so big. You're closer to my fur than I am. Yeah, I can see it better. You smell stronger from my angle, too. Now you're getting personal.

personal. Well, we should definitely go in the direction of the fur that was stressed. Yeah. Thank you for this. You're welcome. And please thank whoever. Also, the fur told me that that lookout tower is only a few hours away. You got that from fur? I'm really talented.

Wow. Timble is full of surprises. I guess so. Mm-hmm. Well, let's go. Yeah. Would I have known the Hawthorne's Glade? Is that in the same direction that we're heading right now?

Okay. Yeah. She pointed north heading in the same direction. All right. As you guys strike out further into the woods. So with the confirmation that Sid did come through here, you're on the track for at least one of the people that you're pursuing, you continue on.

So the question is, do you strike out for Hawthorne's Glade or do you make for this lookout post on the ridge? you are about, the border of Timony is about 50 miles away. And you can travel, going at the pace that you're going. Normally, a person would be crawling through these woods, but with Cadigan, you're able to keep up at top speed. So you can travel about 24 miles. Yeah, dog. Nice. Let's go, baby.

Woo! I'm from the woods. Will we assume, like, any opening or safe space that the Glade would be a place where we could rest? Yeah. I think the issue with the Glade is you don't know, exactly where it is. And non-fairy folk are allowed in?

She said no, really. She said it was safe. She said it was safe. Which is a big ass no. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think big people are allowed there. The fur didn't tell us that though, right?

And also, have you heard of Brook Meadow before? Brookmeadow, the little fairy, the little Nixie. Oh, Brooke Meadow? Oh, that was the name, I'm so sorry. Hawthorne's Glade. Hawthorne's Glade, sorry. Have I heard of Hawthorne's Glade? Give me...

Yeah, give me an Arcana check. Or you actually, give me a history or investigation, whichever one you prefer. And like his news of it made it to your ears in the city? 21. You have heard of Hawthorne's Glade. Hawthorne's Glade is a name that you've heard, like, referred to,

you didn't know it was a specific place because there's people that talk about different rumors of it being in different places. Maybe that's one of the defenses of it is that people say it's in different directions. But you know that Hawthorne's Glade is of a type of place that is really wonderfully and tragically common,

which is after the doors of ferry closed, a lot of fairies had to find places to be safe. And so, you would imagine that Hawthorne's Clay deep in a rainforest like this, far away from a road, far away from anything else, is probably a place where fairies are being told to gather to stay safe. And, of course, you can stay safe from Big Folk, but you also understand that there's a bit of a,

the issue with that is big folk are dangerous, but also Big Folk do what they need to do to repel the undead. And so you're sort of picking your poison in a way. You're sort of going, do we go to the wilderness where like we're not near civilization, but then do we contend with what the struggles there might be? Right. It's a great valley.

So Hawthorne's Glade, you don't know exactly where it is, but you would know that it is, it's unclear whether, like if you bring big folk there, like you don't think it's gonna be something as severe as like kill on site. Like you know what I mean? It's not gonna be, it's not gonna be like, big full, bra, like it's gonna be,

it will be maybe something that gets you in a lot of trouble, or so, you know what I mean? Like it could be something like that. But the question is, do you gun it for that place that you know will have probably like a lot of relative safety and information that was in the direction Sid was going in? Or do you take this detour

to this lookout tower, which is definitely within striking distance and has the capability for rest, but it's off your path. What do you guys think? How long is a short rest? Is it like a disco nap, like a 30 minute snooze? It's an hour. It's an hour.

Getting a little, I mean, the lookout tower is only a few hours away. Okay, I'm just so cranky. Oh, you don't, you won't like her when she's cranky. No, go. Oh. I can certainly go to the tower and rest. But if this place is a resource for you, or perhaps for us, in a time of need, that would

be good to cement. I mean, I've been living among the big folk for a long time. This one's your call. Oh, fuck. I don't know where it is exactly, we could be wandering around. To the tower then. The rest will do wonders for our minds

as well as our hearts. Makes no sense. We got an expert of the woods here. You can get us there, right? Your dog and your dog? No. You can do it. Huh?

Absolutely. Yeah. I believe him. The ridge. Okay. You make your way for the ridge. Go ahead and give me one last survival check to make our way in our next stage there.

There's a DC 15. Who are that? 19. Lovely. 20. Fantastic. After all, we might be running from the ridge. We don't know.

This could be a big fucking trap. Lovely. Pulling up, you travel through the road. the rainforest. Now that you, I think you found signs that Sid is traveling here. You talked to Abilang, you got this like, this byword of a place that you can go for some safety and some rest. All of a sudden, I think, after the horrors, everything that happened in Dolmachiar, there's a certain degree of, oh, you get off of the vortices of power, and all of a sudden you're finding regular people who are just trying to live a life and are probably helpful and good.

And you are moving through this space, like through the rainforest. It's beautiful here. You see that, you know, stretching up on a limb up above you, you see there's some, like, striped forest cat that sort of yawns and spreads a pair of feathered wings off its back and flies off into the forest. Do you know him? No, we don't. I'm sorry. We don't all know each other.

Okay. I was so sorry. As you look up, I also wondered the same thing. You see there are vines with these sort of hanging, beautiful yellow flowers that sort of jay, the vine hangs down and the flowers curl back up and around and catch rainwater in them. And you can see that there are small hummingbirds, iridescent colors that are bathing in the flowers. And as you begin to move up, you get higher from this sort of saddle that the rainforests and

getting back up in altitude. Honestly, you cover like 80% of the distance in 90 minutes, and the next three hours of your trip are just getting up the ridge. Like getting a way out, uh, Wick, I'm gonna need you to give me a Constitution. Actually, we need everybody here to give me a Constitution saving three. Oh, boy. Difficulties 10. Right.

Come and save. 18. 17. 17. 17, great. 18, lovely. Come and save. 15.

17. 10 on the dot. Nobody takes a level of exhaustion. You guys have all been here before. Give me one more with disadvantage for your slippers. Natural 20. Oh, where's the well? I did say with disadvantage, originally.

Again, 15. 15. All right. Man, these slippers are out of control. They're very finely made. Honestly, as you look, you've been walking through so much moss in this very, like, wet rain forest.

rainforest that they're actually kind of cleaner than when they started. You got off the muddy highway, they look phenomenal. As you look up on the top of the ridge, you begin to see this sort of squat little structure. You can see that it's very much, it's made of stone, which is pretty impressive, but it's got a big conical, sort of thatched roof.

It looks very lopsided. It's not an easy place to build, so the effort that went into building it was not perfect and it's sort of been this imperfect little, hovel or hutch coming out of the thraw of the thatched roof is an enormous brass telescope that is looking up towards the sky. You see that there is a yard that has some guinea fowl around it. The guinea fowl are very stressfully just pecking at like seeds and some feed right around a cliff's edge that just drops like 85 feet straight down. You see there's a goat tied up on a rope. It's one of these things that you see very, like, hermody, eccentric people that just have so much stuff out in the yard. It's like a cart and something's getting fixed and this is a shed and I'm

using the shed to build this other shed. That shed's not done yet. You know, like all of life scrap metal art. Scrap metal art. Yes. And you do see, actually, Turing as you approach, that there is some sort of art that is around or like arcane sculpture almost. And you guys look up and you see that there is a banner, this beautiful banner that is very tattered. It looks like it's been up for a long, long time. And it has these words in hand-painted block letters that say something in no-mish.

I don't know if anyone here speaks no-mish or not. But you look up and see this beautiful, colorful banner. You see that there are small little, like wooden, almost like milk crates that are packed with straw on either side of the door that have a number of well-wrapped these little conical things. I'll need anyone here to give me a DC-10

Arcona-check to see if they know what these are. 16. 16. Thimble, these are fireworks. They're small, decorated. They look almost like party poppers, but they're sort of gathered and clustered out here. You see they look a little bit like

water damaged or other stuff like that, hanging in these little milk crates. As you approach, you see that one of the main goat that's tied up turns to look at you. Are you approaching stealthily or no? I think what's worth inside of it, yeah, because the hackles up, right, just in case. Go ahead and give me a group stealth check.

Oh my God. Seven here? Six. Ten. Natural one. Natural one. 12. Okay.

As you all approach, as you all approach, you see that there is. Ooh, fireworks. You pass by something thimble. And the second, I actually think anyone that wants to give me a perception check. Stealth check has failed, for sure. Give me your perception check. For sure. Pretty good.

16. Mm-hmm. 17. What? As you pass by, on a 17 perception, Tyranny, you suddenly smell something sizzling. A boulder nearby you has wire tied around it. It's very hard to notice things like this

because there's just so much junk everywhere. Tied around a boulder is a piece of copper wire that is affixing a cold iron nail to the back of a boulder. And you see that nail turns red hot. And you see that the goat swivels around to look right at you. As we're pushing. He goes,

maha, blah. Something's happening. The goat turns, the goat turns to look at you. I'm going to fly straight up. You fly straight up. The goat,

on its rope, and it's got about like a 20, 25 foot length of rope, it walks over to the side of the fast roof of the cottage. And the cottage is totally circular. Walks up. walks straight up the mortar wall

magically, appears to have the ability to walk up a vertical surface, gets up to the top, and you see it rears up and hits something under the straw, and you can hear a non-magical of some kind of horn attached to a bag in the roof that it does as some kind of alarm. Uh-oh.

It goes, pah-oh, and you hear, you're chickens sort of come out of the front door. As a much older, gnomish man walks out, deep brown skin, eyebrows that look like hats made of fur, just huge, these fucking intense, very, look, adorable, spherical nose, long white mustache. He comes out and goes, hello, travelers. Oh, I see you've triggered my alarm for demons. Oh, I am so sorry. That's quite all right. You don't seem to be killing me.

No, no, not my intent at all. Could, but won't. Thank you. We are friends of Abelang. Friends of Abelang, how well, that old scamp is responsible for all of this. And he points to a couple of enormous barrels of chicken feed.

You just see that are like, he's like way the fuck out here in the boonies. Good man. He says, I'm always happy to help him. It's always possible to take this little old telescope and peer on down to see what's going on the highways and byways, helpful for smugglers. I'm confessing to being a criminal. Why am I doing that? Welcome.

You're among like-minded people. It's important to be honest, especially when you are engaged in crime. It is important to be honest. You're totally right. I feel the same way. What may I call you, fine, sir? You may call me Wick Halevar. I am here on a mission from my family, and I'm doing nothing wrong.

Splendid. Splendid. And your name, Madden. Hi, my name is Tyranny. I hold out of enchant. It gives you a kiss on the hand. I'm Obed, Mourne, and I'm a friend of Abelang's.

Welcome. It's a good thing you got here. What time it's getting to be afternoon? Not safe to be out in the forest when the sun goes down. Cat always knows the time. They call me Mr. Time Guy. Do they call you Mr. Time Guy? No, that's his name.

That's his name to all of us. We don't know each other. Just out of conscience, can I sort of palm a little thing on my belt and use Channel Divinity just to put out a 60-foot vibe of Fay, celestial undead around me. You get fiend off of tyranny, you get Faye off a thimble, and you do not receive anything undead.

You get a couple of pings off of magical items and stuff that's around it. It looks like the defenses this guy has set up in his own home, but nothing else that would worry or concern you here. He says, well, a friend of Abilang is a friend of mine, Lord knows I'd be high and dry without his help. So by all means, please.

How do you know Mr. Howell? We freed him from a gibbet. That also itself. It's up in a cage. I'm very glad you did. Now, he's enough of a fast talker that I wouldn't be surprised if he was able to last a couple months or years up there, but the legs would go eventually.

Well, by all means, It's not three-star accommodations by any means. We don't mean to be in imposition. We simply need some more thrust before we're on our way. Safe from the undead? Yes. We all of the deadfall traps are reset. So anything that would come up that was undead would,

you know, we'd have a rock fall. You never really safe from the undead. And I'm half naked in the creek that runs. by just like starting to walk no wash like washing myself in the creek that feeds the the land um you see he looks out and says ah the bathing creek that's our drinking one i've got cats too you got a man you see you see he looks out and you see he says oh you've brought a wolf with you oh yeah he's good uh he's currently chasing your grouse around, but not in a murdery way,

just in kind of a playful way. You see, he goes, well, all right, be careful around those grass. There's a false ledge on the other side of the cliff, and they often evade predators by going there and just falling over the edge, and wow. Wolfrick runs right back into the water. I'll put out some fresh straw for you all.

And your business is your own, but if there's any help I can be, feel free to ask. You see he goes inside, he says, Everyone come in. I'm sorry that it's not, well, my friend Thimble, you'll have an easy time in here. For everyone else, I'm afraid you'll have to stoop down a little bit. And you see he goes in, and indeed, it's not like, you know, it's a larger cottage for him,

but all of you still have to kind of get all the way down onto your knee to get through the door. But within it's large enough and the dome comes up that if you're not standing next to the wall, you can actually stand up at your full height inside. You see that he puts out some straw and things like that. You see, it's all one big room. There's a central pillar, which is a small like wooden spiral staircase,

which is just sort of planks spiraling up the pole in the center that goes up to this like platform that you can see clearly has the observatory and stuff down here. You see there's a bunch of beds that are all made. The beds are all too small for all of you, but he puts out some straw on the floor. and he starts to get blankets, and you see that he goes over to get some actually like big folk-sized blankets from nearby, and says, does porridge sound nice? It's most of what I have.

Porridge is great. Sounds so nice. Thank you. Do you have anything? No, that's so nice. We love charity. Thank you. We do. We love charity. And only a few mouths.

We will stay outside and aid and the defense of your own in any way that we can. Oh, that's very, very nice. I appreciate it. Might I inquire, you said telescope? Do you stare into the heavens with it? I stare into the clouds with it. We're close enough to the storm rack that it's been challenging to get any good views of the stars. But we had a nice sunny day today, didn't we?

It tends to pierce through the clouds, the sun does. But once it cools off, we tend to get a lot of fog and mist. But the clouds are actually what I'm studying. Oh, how so? How so? I've been, I study the movements of the clouds and the weather to determine if the barrow dell of the storm rack is diminishing or remaining the same or getting worse.

And? Cool. It's getting worse. But that's only one man's opinion. Do you ever use your telescope to spy on people, looking windows? I do, I would do that. No, not windows, but the roads, yes, the roads.

What's the craziest thing you've seen? Have you seen anything lately? What's the strangest thing I saw? Ooh, there was a tree fall that separated a wagon at the end of a, actually, a hail of our family gathering. And the wagon was separated and I think some bandit. came out of the woods to knock it over. Yeah, yeah.

The old three-four. Well, you don't ever like watch people kiss? Do you ever watch people kiss? Oh, that's so kind. I am a widower and I'm, I've promised, so. Oh, that's so sweet. You were in love? I was. I still am. What was her name?

Gisavi. Justavi. She was my wife. my wife for many, many years, and I think of her every day. It's a hobby. Kat again, now it's going to walk outside and go take a look out on there. Yeah, took a shit off the top of the tower. Oh, that false way.

He's a man of the wilderness. He's not rude. He's going to go just scan the perimeter outside. I'm going to fly all around. house, just looking at all of the trash keys, all the little things, looking at the windowsills, looking at the telescope, looking at all of everything. You take it all in. It's, give me an investigation check if you'd be so kind.

I do so with advantage, because you're spending plenty of time doing it. That is a 20. You're looking all around. As you look in the upstairs area, you see that it's his work area, but there's also what looks like a beautiful green and gold toy chest that you see is just brimming with small little, I say mechanical, but it really is sort of like little wooden clappers and like rolling animals.

There's like deer and goats that have like little wheels for legs and things like that. I get on one of them and use my wings to push it forward. Oh, no, no, no, no. That's so cute. Oh, I'm another dimension. You do it. They're an inscription on the bottom.

A beautiful chest of toys, and you see that there are, you're looking around and you also see that there are a lot of, like, it's pretty packed with furniture, downstairs and upstairs as well. And there's a lot of things that are, like, armwares or wardrobes or chests and things like that that are pushed to the side

and sealed up and kind of stacked on each other and looks sort of like cared for. He gets a big thing of porridge going and saying, so again, your business is your own, but you're headed through the adoptiony, yes? Yes, we're trying to find another lion folk with darker, stressed out fur. I don't know if you spied any from your telescope.

Oh, it's quite hard to see into the woods itself if that's where he was traveling. I think so. I'm not sure. But headed for Timony, headed for the north. Yes, yes, right? Yes. We're allowed to say that, yes. On the road, though, we said it.

Did you see a large caravan of carriages, crows, feathers? I had taken a look the day before last. Yeah, it would have been around then. And yes, there were carriages, a caravan with some Taconas guards. Yeah, that might have been them. Yes, they were making their way up north along the King's Way. How far had they gotten from what you could see?

Well, they had headed up. He says, we have a few little hours of light left. You wouldn't mind giving me a hand, would you? You see, and he walks up the little spiral staircase to go up and get his telescope. and says, it might be wise to take a look, we'll see. I'll fly and land on his shoulder and he says, oh, thank you, my friend. And he'll go ahead and take the help action from you.

It's so wholesome. I don't trust any of the shit. It's so wholesome. I'm so suspicious. It's just a nice man. With fireworks in the front yard? What are those for? Where are the bodies, Robbie?

Where are the bodies? You see, you see he looks out and as he swiveled the telescope around, he looks out and says, looking through and says, all right. Well, it's possible there's about a half a day's trek that's actually on the other side of a ridge of peaks that I wouldn't be able to see from here.

it's very likely if they're traveling at a normal pace that they would be behind that. But if they're headed north, it's very possible that you see he sort of swiveled the telescope again looking out. He goes, hmm, King's banners. That's interesting.

And I look into the telescope and I don't think I can see anything. You see that there are, and you look out, and you see he focuses in, focuses in, and you see it's so, through this massive brass telescope. It's so distant.

Just these little ants on a road line. And it's sort of the thing that even a minor swivel of the telescope in his hands makes everything blurry in something you're looking at a rock that's like you can see the fucking microscopic structure, but then you look at your back. And you see this little waving set of banners that are just like three little red dots

on a white field. And you see he says, the Hounds of Timeney. That'll be the looks like the king's banner. What direction are they heading? Give them a minute and we'll see. You see that he looks out and says, you're looking for a single lion's fault, but taking some interest in the coming and goings

of wagons and carriages and things like that. Weird, huh? Well, I just quite enjoy a woman possess. of ambition and cunning and that, well, I like anyone who's keeping track of who's coming and who's going. It's all I do up here. And you see that he looks out and says,

South, headed on the road south. Great. Maybe by the time we leave we'll be able to spot the other carriages coming out the other side of the ridge. I would think so. If you get out bright and early after resting for the night, You'll, if you're traveling with seasoned rangers and those that know the wilderness,

obviously it's faster to travel by road, but the road takes a winding path and the forest goes straight through if you're headed for Timeney. Great. Who are the toys for? Well, they are four, I suppose, my grandchildren, should I ever be lucky enough to get any?

But they were my daughters. And they still are, but they, you know, being grown, they seem to have very little use for them. You give visitors very often? Yes, you know, from smugglers and ne'er-do-wells, and from some wonderful venerated druids of the old path who are working with on. What I really do is study the Barrowdale.

Wink, wink, that's my, but I moonlight as a criminal, so. But, no, I don't get too many. It's been quiet for quite some time. Did I notice any metal toys up there where they all just, where they wouldn't? I think you see a couple, you think see a couple little, Metallic ones, yeah, there's like a little. Can I look, are there any metal,

they were for his daughter, but are there any metal like toy soldiers? You had that 20 investigation check, right? You see that, looking over, there actually are some metal toy soldiers, but they're kept separately from the other toys. They're kept in a drawer of a desk. You see like a little drawer that has some like little spears of some metallic looking tin soldiers.

Yeah. Um. Hey Albit, do you have any, um? I'm gonna fly down and like kind of clutter through them looking. I want to look for a little toy soldier sword. Uh, yes. Oh, he started looking for a toy soldier's. He says, you're looking for a toy soldiers?

Well, I'm looking for, and I pull out my needles. You know, I couldn't even cut off a guy's balls with these. What are they pins? Yeah. Good for stabbing. Not so much for slicing. Are you in need of some weaponry? Got any little things?

Well, you are quite weary with the travel of a long day. You see he comes back down to the rest of you, except for Cadigan who's outside. As he comes down and says, you are quite weary. You're in need of porridge and some rest. But if you are in need of some toy weaponry, I might be able to help you.

My daughters, when they were young, were, How do I put this? Maniacs. They were fearsome and they wished for glory and combat. So their minds were ever fixated on the toys of war. And in such it was that as a doting father, and must need supply them. So if you're looking for some toy weaponry

that packs a little bit more of a wallop, I'd be excited to see what I'd be excited to see I can rustle up. I would love that. Very well. Well, dinner's served. I'll go get your companion from out there. Maybe he's bathing in the creek again.

He did that so fast after arriving. I don't think he said hello. You see. Always looking out for our dead. As I was sort of peering out, is there anything to be concerned about in the media area? Does this feel like a safe space

says he sort of looks the perimeter over. Yeah, give me whatever skill check you want to associate with that, and if you want to use magic about it, you can as well. Okay, pretty good. 17. 17, got it.

On a 17, you're way high up on the ridge, and you're kind of giving this place a B-plus in your head. You know, like, as you're looking out, but as you see he puts some bowls of pori, out in front of the four of you. For you see, he puts a, what looks, is an egg cup filled with porridge. You see, he walks out to see you and says,

my very cleanly friend, dinner is served. And if you'd like, I can try to supply some beef tack or some venison for your Lupine friend. Nice. And you see, you'd have to downgrade your B-plus. as he goes and lights a little beacon lantern on top of his, that's like hanging from the roof that's visible from the forest below,

which just sort of is announcing the presence of this place up on the ridge. Right. I'd appreciate it. Hmm? I'd appreciate the food. Thank you. Of course, right inside.

I'll just, I'll be right here. And you see that he goes out and takes out a small satchel, and you see goes up to the banner, the gnomish banner hanging over the house, and you see that he's brushing the fireworks, and he goes in and starts to set about the banner, and you can see that he gets out a small,

he just sees the tiniest little tear, and you see he starts stitching a little tear in the banner overhead as you walk into the house. Oh yeah. You don't think he was like letting people know that we were here. I don't know what he was in night. No, he's a guy.

He's a nice guy. Fire out. He seems like he understands keeping a low profile. What he's doing, he's been safe out here for a long time. That's true. I don't love it. If anybody's keeping an eye on him, if he does it every night, it might be weird if he does it. You're so good.

God! We're so lucky. It's so crazy. What do you talk about? Oh, you're right. Discussing this. He's gonna give me a sword. Apparently has his daughter's, uh...

Toys still, and he uses telescope to spy on the King's Road and also to study clouds. I'm crouching it. I'm just shoveling gruel. I'm not touching. You're part of the middle. Last time I had food or drink, I ended up on a hook. You're gonna be hungry. I'm gonna grab the... I'll be fine.

I'll grab the venison straps and kind of look. We're pretty high up, right? Are we in the tower space? Yeah, for sure. Wilfrick's still down there and I'm just going to look down to him and throw the venison down. He's going to scoop it up and just sort of look at him and it's not my head and he's just going to disappear off into the forest. Yeah.

Wolfrick does? Yeah. Takes off. You guys finish up your dinner and some of you guys have been asking for a rest for a while. Some of us have. Yeah, some of us have. But this is potentially, like as the sun is setting, you guys see that like a, There's every possibility for actually, like, a long rest.

You're fully getting your hit points and abilities and everything like that back. That's nice. With that, with Wolfrick gone, does anyone else do anything before settling down? I take my blanket and I just settle it at the foot of Wicks bed and I curl up like a cat there at the feet. I'll take off my cloak and sort of just drape it on her

so she has a little extra warmth. And I'll curl up as best I can. It's not that different. It's the same. We're doing the same stuff. Yes, I mean, so far. Everyone we've met has been helpful, nice, honest. This sweet man, the, the criminal.

I would have assumed that a criminal. would be horrible, but he helped us a great deal. And then Thimble found this piece of stressful fur in the forest that was extremely knowledgeable somehow. I mean, we've had good fortune, but I think it's because we have positive spirits, we have honesty on our side, and I've been thinking, all this nonsense with my family,

it's what the scripture said, from the Ember Eternallis, Chapter 10, Alice chapter 10, and ye shall be tested, the blind priest said, through lies and dimness. Even your kin will turn against you, but the light will bear the truth. This is some sort of test, and we will come through it. Yes. Everyone is here to help us, and you just keep your chin up and keep on doing what you're doing, and it's going to be great, and we're going to have a really good time. Well. Okay, good night. All right.

I think Kat and I would take up old habits and probably take watch rotation, even though we're in this house with defenses and everything else, we're still being pursued. Yeah. I'm gonna find a little bit of fabric and fold it. Are the windows here curved or are they straight? I think the windows here, such that there are windows.

There's only one downstairs, and then there's one upstairs, and then the big telescope sort of like that swivels up through, like has that opening in the roof. But it has a straight window sill, yeah. Okay, I'll take my fabric up to the high window. Okay. And set it up to make a little bed on the window sill.

You get a lovely little bed on the window sill, and this is, the last time you were asleep, was on the Ozzie's chest. Yeah. I'm just going to stay awake for a long time, my knees up to my chin, looking out. Wick, as you drift off to sleep, sleeping for the first time in your life on a straw on the floor,

Tyranny, you curled up at the foot of this, like, straw mattress. Thimble, you look out in the distance, Tayor and Cadigan, you guys are taking watch. Each of you guys give me a perception check. And who's taking first watch and who's taking second? I'll take a second. Okay. 16.

16, okay. Can I? Can I, I know this is weird. Can I take this at disadvantage? Sure. Because at some point on our shift, I got into that toy box and I pulled out a doll, just a doll. And to take with me, I feel weird about taking it to the watch. But during my watch, I'm just sort of distracted by this doll and I'm playing with it.

And I'm not at my best. So can I take this at disadvantage? Yeah, absolutely. You might not need it. Yeah. Perception? It's still not bad. You've been distracted. It's a 10. 10.

Pretty bad. For that second watch, you, I think, well, we'll talk about the first watch for us. Teor, you're up. Where are you up keeping watch? I would be outside of the house. Door to the front cracked, so I could hear just fine. But I think it would be a, a correct. perimeter walk. It wouldn't be a stationary watch.

It would just be checking all of walking around, just pausing, listening, sniffing the air, all that sorts of stuff, looking for light in the dark. Yeah. And you got a 16? 16. I think in that first watch, you look out, you see Thimble in the upper window, just sort of looking out the window, having a hard time getting to sleep. In that earlier part of the night,

you see that one last time the little old gnomish man walks out, walks out of his front door, looks over at you, and sort of acknowledges that you're out here patrolling, and you see goes over, he's like sort of final things he's doing, as he, like, ushers the little hens back into a coop that he locks up as it's getting dark. And you see he goes over one last time and, flexibly, you can see these, like, agitated.

Goes over, adjusts the banner again, and looks at the little hanging light. It goes, and fixes it so the candle's a little more straight, like in the little hanging beacon lantern. Looks at it, looks out at the valley. Looks at it. I don't mean to pry. I do not read Gnomish.

Oh, well, not at all. It's hardly the language of the world. Yes, it's Gnomish writing. It seems well tended to. Could I pry ask what it says? Well, it says welcome home. Welcome home. For your daughters?

Yes, for all three of them. For, you see, he looks out and goes, how dare you. This is trauma, right? This is just years of trauma coming to the surface. You look at him and see, you see he says, Sarah. Sarah Bell, Demuriel, and Elinadale.

What was the second one? Demuriel. Demureal. Oh. What's the last one? Arabele? Arabele's last? Sarah Bell.

Oh, that was the first. No, it was last. Sarah Bell, Demireel, and Alonadale. Ray? Ray? Yep. Alonadale Ray. Yep.

She's not going back. going back. You see that he looks at. Yeah, he looks at you and says, yes, the writing says, welcome home. And the exclamation mark, you can find to either side of the door. And you see he points at the fireworks in the crates. in the crates.

How long has it been since you last saw your three daughters? Well, it's been about 15 years, two months, 17 days. You love them very much, I can tell. Well, thank you for sharing your home with us. It is a rare thing to put faith in someone who values the efforts of those that have lost near and dear to themselves as well. Well. My brother is who we are searching for.

My kin. there is no distance too great for family. I've often thought if I would travel from this place in search of them with my terrible back and awful knees. than the thought of not being here if they were to return and need me. If Josavi were here, it would be very different. I, I sort of, I had sort of,

prepared in my mind how I would weather knowing that something awful had happened. Do you know what I mean? That if I knew that they were not coming home, if I knew that they were not coming home, if I knew that they were not coming home. But every day, the hope diminishes but does not vanish. And therefore, we have to keep the banner tended to, because the thought that may be tossed aside by storms or left somewhere else that one of them might come home and not find it welcome, I cannot bear.

I reach into a pouch on my hip and pull out my banner in the hand. I know exactly what do you mean. He walks up and reaches up at his full height to pat your mighty forearm. He goes, My daughters would have loved you. they heard the cry. The falcons cry stretches far and white. Oh yes.

That's why I kept those terrible tin soldiers in a drawer. I don't know why I let them play with them. But then again, Isn't that what you want? Brave young girls, go out and face the problems of the world head on? Yes. Yes, it is. You inspired those closest to you to go out to make change. I will tell you that as we go from this place, if any of our ears catch word of the names you have taught us this night,

we will be sure that they know that their father is waiting for them and that the visit is long overdue. Oh, that's very kind. I'll be ready. I'll be ready. And you see that he pats you again and looks out and goes, we'll get you all rested up

and packed on your way. I appreciate you asking and for not thinking me crazy. for having kept it up for these long years. Who would think such a thing that outward appearances? You go a little bad in the mountains, but it's a mad world.

And you see that he walks inside, and at the end of that watch, I think, Kattegan, you awake. looking at this doll as the sun rises and you are still waiting. Give me one last perception check if you'd be so kind. 18. As the dawn creeps in the last moments of night down in the forest. On that 18, you feel like you can hear something far away like a whisper.

like a whisper on the wind or a moan. Suspicion creeps up your spine that this may be the last warm place before you head into true danger. There are things down there in the forest looking for light and warmth. I took my watch on the highest point of the house.

And instead of patrolling like Tayor Wood on the grounds, I was glassing like you were hunting, just sort of looking everywhere. Distracted by this doll, and I'd been turning over in my hands and, you know, tattered old wood. And as I've been holding it and watching, I sort of, it's beautifully carved in the front

and I turn it over and sort of slide the back of the clock. cloth down at the end of the watch as the sun comes up, and you can just see rot and termite-ridden portions of it, and the entire hollow back of this doll has been eaten out from years of being set aside and forgotten. And he looks at it one last time and just hucks it off the edge of that drop behind the chicken coop, and heads back inside to wake everyone up at the end of watch.

The next day, as arisen, as you go to wake everybody up. I am up. I am up, and I am crouched on Wick's chest. I'm a double on my chest, is I explained. And I'm staring at him, and I'm staring at him. And I go, don't move, don't move, don't move, don't move. You can't move, you can't move, you can't move, you can. What's that?

Good morning. Oh, hello. You can move now. Sleep, I'm having a horrible dream. I was having a horrible dream. No, I have to sleep. Terribly. I'm itchy. I think I'm allergic to hay.

I slept like two hours that I'm all dressed ready for the day. Yes. It begins the new, invoked thy banner. Ring the bells. And that's all for this episode. A critical role. We'll see you next week and a new episode.

Oh my God. That's the most frightening thing. Oh, my God. I need a year as soon as we're out of here. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. What is that? Is that TidePod 2?

I have no idea. You don't know where it's from? I'm sure it's probably that. I don't know. He never reveals his sources. It's from the Internet. It's from the Internet. Never reveals his sources.

I love it. Oh, my God. Yes, I believe that that is from the sequel to the Tide Pod, CEOs sketch. Shot in deep lockdown. Unbelievable. Well, and again, marvelous, incredible. That really threw me for a loop. But not so much of a loop that I'm not going to say, is it Thursday. Yes. Thanks for listening to this episode of Critical Role. If you're enjoying this story, consider leaving a review on your podcast platform of choice. We're always looking for new critters to share our adventures with, and your review may help a new batch of wayward souls

find their way to Aramon, Exandria, and beyond. Or if you want to hear what the cast discussed after the episode, head to beacon.tv and check out our exclusive show Critical Roll Cooldown. You'll be right there at the table immediately after we say, is it Thursday yet, and experience our cast's post-show reactions. We'll see you next time. Thank you.