Critical Role - Buried Truths | Critical Role | Campaign 4, Episode 23 Part 1

Episode Date: April 23, 2026

Part 1   Murray learns more than she bargained for while investigating the belongings of House Tachonis while Bolaire and Hal are caught in a crime they can't explain...   New Episodes Release Weekly on Thursdays. Learn more about Campaign 4 at https://critrole.com/campaign4/     GET MORE CAMPAIGN 4 WITH BEACON We'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 CAST GAME MASTER Brennan Lee Mulligan Laura Bailey as Thimble Luis Carazo as Azune Nayar Robbie Daymond as Kattigan Vale Aabria Iyengar as Thaisha Lloy Taliesin Jaffe as Bolaire Lathalia Ashley Johnson as Vaelus Matthew Mercer as Sir Julien Davinos Whitney Moore as Tyranny Liam O’Brien as Halandil "Hal" Fang Marisha Ray as Murray Mag’Nesson Sam Riegel as Wicander "Wick" Halovar Alexander Ward as Occtis Tachonis Travis Willingham as Teor Pridesire   CREDITS Produced by Maxwell James, Steve Failows, & Kyle Shire Set Designed by Shaun Ellis Production Designer: Noxweiler Berf Character Art by Loren Hontanilla Edited by Taylor Burke and Emily "Stevie" Stevenson Critical Role Announcement Playhouse Editor: Vinny Celesti Opening Title Editor: Paul Foyder Opening Title Colorist: Peter Koocheradis Window Effects by Christian Brown Graphic Design by Aaron Monroy & Jordyn Torrence Dol-Makjar art by Daniel Jiménez Villalba Miniatures Painted by Payton Keo Lacebal Opening Title Theme by Neal Acree Campaign 4 Key art by Hannah Friederichs Additional Art & Design by Hannah Friederichs   Episode QC by Catherine Zimmerman & Paula Flores Assistant Editor: Gianna Gencarella Post Production Coordinators: M Swing & Bryn Hubbard Closed Caption Editing by Margaret Dill, Nikki Kindelberger, Courtney Knewtson, Danielle Lackie, Eleanor Smith-Dufresne & Alice Tsoi Post Production Supervisor: Tal Levitas   HEALTH & WELL-BEING Due to the improv nature of Critical Role and other RPG content on our channels, some themes and situations that occur in-game may be difficult for some to handle. If 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 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Why, hello there. I'm Brennan Lee Mulligan, and welcome to Campaign 4 of Critical Role. Thank you for joining us on this journey as we explore Aramon, a world of fractured kingdoms, tumultuous rebellion, and sorcery that rises from the graveyard of the gods. You're listening to Part 1 of this adventure, with Part 2 arriving this upcoming Tuesday. Our episodes typically arrive on the Critical Role podcast network a week after our initial Thursday night streams, on Beacon, YouTube, and Twitch. But if you'd rather listen to a full podcast episode of Campaign 4, right when it airs, without any ads, consider becoming a Beacon member.

You'll receive access to exclusive content, discounts at all our online Critical Roel shops, pre-sales for live events, and so much more. Start your seven-day free trial today at beacon.tv. Now, without further ado, let's begin this episode of Critical Role. The Cavrosy Mountains. and the highway, stretching down all the way from the peaks

on the long road you have taken from Timney, you now look down the steep switchback of the highway towards the massive crossroads, where a train of wagons and those coming from the mountains have piled up at a busy crossroads, some turning to the east, headed towards Reese and Gertl

in the lands of the Einfaz, and others turning right, headed to Dolmachyar, and there hangs the sign. Dolmachiar, a mere five miles away. The city is soon to be in view, and as the sun sets over the mountains, we find Lord Wakanda Halovar of the Candescent Creed. God, God damn.

I didn't think you would be in the cold open. You see, yourselves gazing out, your companions have gone off to scout if there is perhaps some backroad or farmer's way. As you see, there are some soldiers down sort of monitoring the crossroads. The two of you are currently hidden in the wagon, along with a draped stone statue, which is the body of Telcidemir Pride Sire. Your companions farther afield, scouting for another way around here so you don't have to go through this highly monitored area, but you are probably no more than a few hours at this point from a return to Dolmachiar, city that holds many secrets,

many schemes, and one enormous captured angel. What now falls upon the minds of tyranny and in this moment. We're under this blanket with the stone body of Tayr's brother. And Wick, I know that you're nervous about going home, but you have to try to stop farting because we're under this blanket together, okay? Please lock it up.

I, it's the only way I can stop thinking about my sweaty palms, honestly. You're going through a lot. No, no, no, it's just we're so close that it's starting to feel real again. And, you know, I, there's so many different directions we could go when we get back there. What if we reach the city gates and were held under arrest

by guards or something? Or what if we see someone we know on the streets? What if someone calls my name and I turn around, because I forget I'm Nick now, I'm not Wick, you know? Well, let's go through this options one by one. If somebody searches the cart and finds us or tries to place us under arrest, I presume we've only been gone, what, like a week or so? Like, you still have pole in Dolmachiar.

You're still the chosen sion. So I think that there's a level of being able to talk your way out of pretty much anything, unless there's something that you haven't told me about how your family handles corporal punishment in your family. I don't know. The fact of the matter is, I don't know what they think of me right now. And frankly, I'd like to go,

it's a big family, you know this. Maybe there's some folks in there that are still good or don't know about these chained up angels and strange uses of filament and lies that they've been telling. Maybe I could speak to some of my family or some of the creed who, I still have good hearts.

But, but in order to do that, I need to keep in character. Back there, you effortlessly played Dr. Finger. You effortlessly fell into the role of Octus. I believed you. Maybe not everybody else did, but I was at least impressed with your commitment to the character, and I guess my question to you is,

is there some sort of action? acting exercise or how do you do it? How do you stay in character? What if I get nervous and my palms start sweating and I let out little toots? What can I do to focus myself? Well, again, you are basically royalty, so if you toot, no one's gonna,

I will take the blame, though that's part of the job, right? Of course, we've agreed to that. I think you need to talk to Hal, because he's the one who has the acting chops. I mean, I appreciate that you think I was doing a good job. But I, I think he was doing fantastic. I think he might be a good person to talk to. I mean, in your family, your mom seems like someone

who is not directly super evil. I don't know, do you want to go talk to your mom? She's sweet. How do you feel about confronting your grandma, Janessa? That's a no, okay. I let out a small toot. I'm on the sandwich. I instantly toot, institute.

The small sound of a miniature clarion trumpet. Do you think, do you think Teo's brother somehow can hear us? I feel like I'm gonna just take a little piece of cloth and sort of drape it over his face. I'm more worried about if he can smell us. I guess, yes, I would like to talk to my mother. I would like to talk to Hal. And I'd like to see who out there is still someone we can trust

and who isn't. But that's going to take subterfuge. Okay. And sneaky, sneakies, and acting skills. So you want to be really low-key about it? I think so at first, yes. Okay. Because last time we did a check-in, you were like,

fuck my family. Sorry, you were like, I don't like my family, and I'm going to burn this thing to the ground. No, no, no. I'd still like to do that, but at first I feel like we just need information. Okay. Right?

So just, just, um, just finding out who we can trust, who can help us in this quest. I still am very much of the, I feel like, I feel like we've changed a little bit on this little journey we've had. Oh yeah. Let me see your palms. They're really sticky. Why are they sticky?

I mean, they're sweaty, they're sweaty. Okay, they are a little sticky, but look, I see a callus. Look at that. I mean. Strong hands. No, no, I, let's not get ahead of our service. Yeah, you're grizzled. You've been, you've been to war, baby.

It's time. I think that you can, you can now leverage, and you know what, I think? I think that on the surface, when someone asks from your family, what we've been doing, grassroots outreach. We've been, we've been.

Spreading the word. Spreading the word. We've been, you know, getting temp checks, and everybody still loves the creed. And as far as anybody. Speaking of, I, I don't want to brag or anything, or maybe I should feel shame about this,

but we stopped at a creed temple on route, and I... I don't know if I should brag, but maybe I should feel ashamed. I've never been more excited in what you're about to say. I pulled a tyranny. I swiped something from a gentleman... You stole! Shut your face!

Shut your face! I stole, I pulled a tyranny. I stole these people. priestly orders and they have something. Your radiance. What are you gonna do about that? I have to figure out what they mean and what they say and what they seem to have some sort of magical aura.

Maybe someone, maybe someone could help us with that, someone who knows magical things. They're priestly orders, but they just seem normal on the surface, but I don't know. What do they say? Are they? These are essentially the documents

that anoint and establish the sort of humble mountain top chapel lux that you ran into on your return to Dolmakiar as a lux of the candestine creed. They are the Holy Orders, meaning they are, it's almost blasphemous to say this, but it's a bit like a diploma. It is a mark of station. It is a-

But there's nothing creepy or weird in the writing or in the words. Even for something like the Candescent Creed that wields tremendous magical power, it's weird to have, you walk into a normal chapel of the Candescent Creed, and there's not glowing magical artifacts everywhere. So why did these Orders have a small magical essence to them? Tyranny. Go ahead if you'd be so kind and give me either perception or if you'd like, give me Arcana. And if you want to cast any magic about it, feel free to do that. do that too. Cast any magic about it, huh?

Do you have any like detecty magic type stuff? Or? Mm. I don't have anything that detects magic. I could suggest to my dice to do a really good role. That's good. I try to suggest that to my dice all the time. I get a plus one in Arcana.

So I'm gonna use my, I'm gonna use my demon smell and sniff out some. Oh, 19. 19 is very good. Something smells. Oh, you're farting. It's just we've had so many dried meats. You know, it's so, it's so, it.

Tyranny. You've been smelling it for a minute. So sorry, I pointed that scene. You smell a bit of brimstone. There is an unmistakable scent of, of sulfur. There's an unmistakable scent of a kind of that sharp, acidic iron taste

that's either being in a forge somewhere where metal is being worked or the taste of having blood in your mouth. Coming from the document or just around? As WIC produces the document, you begin to experience these senses, just looking at it. And it's a beautiful vellum, scroll, the ink, you can tell is a slightly altered, it's not raw filament, it's not pure filament, but it has a little bit in it. So there's a slight

gleam or glow to the golden text on the parchment. But you're smelling something foul, and you're smelling it, it's something you're attuned to rather than something that's overpowering. Like you look up at Wick's face and you can tell he's not sensing what you're sensing. You have not yet touched the document. If you wish to touch it, you can inspect it further and see if you can follow up. I wish to touch the document, and I will also say to WIC that I just remembered something. My sisters are probably close by. The scent of the pit of me also, the closer we get,

and just as you don't know what sort of reaction your family is going to have to your return, I don't know what is waiting for me. Grassroots outreach. That's my best. One of my, what am I rolling for to touch and see? As you take the document, we're going to keep that earlier 19.

You take the document and as you inspect it further, Wick, Tyranny's eyes go jet black. And as you look at it, Tyranny, you hear you hear the name of your father, your creator. Looking at the document before you,

there are words written here in old Obridimian. There are also the main body of the text is written in Linyani. You see that there is a large sort of segment of the scroll, but there's a lot of embossed letters, like every beginning of a sentence, it's like a purely filigreeed letter,

big and embossed and beautiful, lots of calligraphy. As you stare, some of the letters begin to change color and begin to bleed. Oh. They turn a deep, dark red, the letters begin to bleed, and staring forward, you don't believe you're looking at Holy Orders, you believe you're looking at a contract. And we'll dive into this further on another episode

of Critical Role. A contract. Hey everybody and welcome to tonight's Critical Role announcement playhouse. Before we get into our game tonight, we have some announcements to get through. Next up, a little chat about CRF. He just broke $200,000.

I know. Member of the Critical Roll Foundation, Cherry Group with me and Ashley Kirby, Winslow, please come out here and tell us a little bit about live action. Hi. Speaking of live auctions, yeah, uh-huh. The Critical Role Foundation is joining forces once more,

more with our friends at eBay Live for a cause that's close to all of our hearts. Yes. Join us April 22nd and 23rd for Shirts Off Sam's Back. Yes! An all night fight against cancer. Yes. Yeah. A 24-hour stream where Sam and Friends, you'll find out who, will be auctioning off shirts.

He's worn on Critical Role like these. Which will appear on screen. Oh. That's all right. We got it, we got it. We got it. You remember these? Like these.

Maybe. We haven't watched them yet. And these. This one? Why is that amazing? Yes. All will be available. And the stream will end.

And other stuff too. And other stuff too. Yes. The stream will triumphally end in a Darington Brigade one shot. one shot run by a sleep-deprived sand. I'm gonna stamp all night and then run a one shot. What could possibly go wrong? It's gonna be great. Hopefully.

All proceeds will go to our frids at HNC Living and Pablove. So tune in, enjoy the fun starting at 7 p.m. on April 22nd. Yeah, ending on April 23rd. Yeah. Awesome. Thank you so much, Kirby. Tellson, you got an announcement. Oh, Weird Kids!

Weird Kids is back with brand new episodes exclusively on Beacon starting May 5th. Look forward to new puppet companions. New puppet companions. Fascinating new topics and, of course, fantastic conversations from Ashley and I about growing up in Hollywood and our adventures beyond. In the meantime, you can find previous episodes every week on the Weird Kids YouTube channel and your favorite podcast platforms. And yeah, that's what we're doing. Awesome. Yeah, it's going to be awesome.

Thank you so much, Talison. Sam, you got an announcement. I do. I do. Hi, our next fireside chat will focus on all things titmouse animation. We invited the owner-president of titmouse animation and friend of critical role, Chris Pranowski, to the Tazoo.

He'll be answering your queries live alongside Josh Knapp, the GM of our new show, Draw Your Weapons. This is all happening live on April 27th at 7 p.m. Pacific, and will be available exclusively on Beacon. For those beans. Thanks. Check it out. Actually, Travis, you're up next.

Oh, yes. New in all the Critical Roll shops, oh, thank you, sir. Critical Roll wide leg joggers. These unisex wide leg joggers feature an embroidered stripe with the phrase is critical roll and is it Thursday yet from hip to toe.

These super cozy joggers are available in sizes extra small to six XL and they come with pockets, you guys. Draw string. They're actually really thick and cozy. Check them out now and all the critical roll online shops get yours today. Perfect. Thank you so much, Travis.

I believe that concludes our announcements. So let's go ahead and jump back into Arama. Schemers! So the sewers underneath Dolmachiar as our schemers walk forward, boots drenched in the sludge of the city, blades wet with blood. of crowkeepers and foul fay alike, having rescued Pentevereal grad student

Demidus blix from a certain death, or worse, at the hands of Crowkeeper, or if they had their way, house Toconis, that still desperately, we presume, searches for him. Schemers, you've had a fucking day. We've gotta go to work and he's got a paper due. He's got a paper. You have to do.

whatever you do. Our entire campaign is going to be 25 hours only. Yes, you and you alone are doing the Jack Bauer. Yeah, this is just one season of the pit. Oh my God, right. In those shows, I always want someone turn to camera and be like, every couple of years, I have like the craziest day.

You, after the events of the Ozzie's funeral, you all kicked into high gear, having chosen the Aviary at the Seven Stars Tavern as your de facto headquarters where using what chutzpah cleverness, strength of will or skill at arms you have, along with the pull you do have at various institutions of the city decided to try and do something about the sudden grasping clutch of power coming at the hands of the Chamber of Lords advisory, which is the institution that represents the will of the sundered houses here. in Dolmachiar.

Kicking into high gear, many plans went into work all at once, reaching out to Veron Kadorn and various other veterans of the Falcons Rebellion that you were friends with, making an attempt to use this program to get volunteers from the Penteveril to work at the Arkanade to give each of you more reason to be working together, trying to slow down this sudden switch of wings being initiated by House Quirmere, and how working as best you can after having won the deed entitled for the hallowed round to get Cotheri up on its feet. All of these political machinations, by the way, running parallel to whatever bizarre arcane machinations, the late Fiazzi Fang had as you looked at whatever the fuck this paint

was, what was this paint, and the humming magic underneath these murals. Well, there are a million things that work in the city all at once. You've got far too much on your plate. However, Demetis blix is rescued, having told you all about the attempted cover-up of the slaughter at the Palazzo de Vinos, which you are well aware of, having indeed created the illusion of true events, the illusion of the true events of the murder of Octus Taconas, though it didn't stick, and the slaughter of those vassals and, you know, men-at-arms of House Royce and Davinos at the lots of Divinos. Demetus told you all about horrifying things said by Ophelia Serrami, the ministrations of one trimus Taconas and different soldiers of the House Taconas that were there.

Various hints about a falcon being brought to Obramus Manor here in Dolmakia, certain things about someone saying that they wished, they wondered if an Argosian delegation was going to wish well to King Gus, who's now visiting from Timony. So much is going on, but what you do have is a rescued student who has proof positive of betrayal amongst the sundered houses. Now, can he be protected long enough? And can that be, who would you present that information? Exactly.

Right? Many, many questions, but you now walk through shadows together, having succeeded and how you walk out of the darkness, having fundamentally altered your life. You are an adventurer, just like your three companions. No longer, the version of you holding a baby, looking at your brother on a horse, is long gone as you exit the shadows.

Getting above ground, the question stands here of, will you journey together? Now the streets are much emptier, and you will certainly be seen traveling together if you head off in one direction. you see that Demidas is here with you. Where do you turn as you exit the sewers? Yes.

Quick point of clarification, because we haven't played since yesterday. I forgot a few details. Yeah, no one had to take a sudden and immediate multi-week break. I want to be really clear to everyone at home. Everyone at home, no one had a sudden multi-week break. It's been 24 hours.

So some of the details have fled me. Demetus blix, you said, has proof. Does Demetus have, is it just his account? Or I can't recall if there was physical, something that definitively proves that there is a cover-up from that gala. I believe you actually realize that, yeah, he only have his account.

There are things he can corroborate, but he doesn't have any physical evidence. We have been building a case. And we have physical proof. Some physical. We do have the ring at the very least, which we should not have. And you have what you were able to find doing your actual investigation.

Yes. Right? We have a half of a glyph that's been erased, but as I introduce it as evidence, along with the drawing of the Stone of Night Song. So I think what Demetis has, standing alone does not give us physical proof, but it does certainly help a lot the physical proof that we have manufactured or acquired. And that's Octus's Signet Ring that we have. It's Octus's Signet Ring.

it's a signet ring to House Taconas. You all feel a profound level of exhaustion sitting in. It is 2 o'clock in the morning. Stop trying to relate to me, Brennan. I'm so spent that the, in this moment, I'm like that exhaustion is catching up and I'm remembering that image of this kind of protector that seemed to step out of me as I cast a shield spell,

which is part of why I'm totally depleted. The meta-magic that required me to do that, and everything else that I've done has left me completely and entirely spent. I'm useless. Useless. Well, I am certainly a lot less useful if we were to run into any more trouble.

What do we do with, and I gesture at all of the bloat that we have? I'm gonna do a quick scan. Do I see Timolo, the fortune-teller? Yes, Temelow is still posted up in Caravan Hill. You see that she's actually getting, but she's like putting her stuff away. It's become so late that it's sort of starting to be time for her to like pack up into her wagon

and lock the door and go to sleep. We're past midnight at this point? Yeah, past midnight. But there's still some amount of people. Yeah, some sort of loud drunks, a few places. You can see that the places that have lights on the outside are closed, and people are going off in search of places a little bit more like Pottersfield,

places that have doors and hidden areas where they're not gonna be able to make any noise that will disturb the neighbors. Is Timolo seen us? You can give me a stealth trick if you want her to avoid it, but if you want to catch her attention, you're able to. I feel like I recall, once again, I know this was just yesterday, but I feel like I remember giving her a nice little chunk of change, right?

For the information? Yes, I remember that like it was yesterday. Okay. I'm kind of watching her, if she happens to, if we meet eyes, I just wanna kind of, just see if she happens to see us come out. She makes eye contact with you as you exit, does a little sleight of hand of sort of fanning

the deck of cards from one hand into another, deposits it into a small velvet pouch by her side, and nods waiting to see if you want to close and engage with her. I don't want to engage with her, but I just return the nod and just take my index finger and move it over my mouth and just kind of give a light gesture to her

to say like, between you and me, quiet. She looks at you and you see with a cantrip that you developed in wizardry, but which has existed amongst the Faye for a time immemorial, you hit that message cantrip and she messages you telepathically and says, the roots of Dormakia have not known crows in quite some time.

This has been a city of magpies for quite a while. And she goes into her wagon, close to the door, and locks it. I don't acknowledge what she said, but I will respond with the message and just say, I trust you'll keep what you've seen here between you and me. You don't get a response. Fair.

I'm going to give our poor boy, Licks, my cloak so that we have some cover and it does have a hood, and I'm just going to keep a relatively bland face on a moment. You have a glamour going? I do. I hate it. but I do. As you give it to him, I think you make high time with Demetus who has sort of witnessed

what has like transpired here in this place and just looks up at you, folds the cloak. And he's a gnome so it's, you know, the like, your cloak sort of trails behind him. That's right, he's a tiny one. Well, yeah. You see that he, but as you put the cloak on him, he puts it over, you see that he sort of,

casts unseen servant, and a small gust of wind begins to sort of trail your cloak like a wedding dress behind him with the train on a long gown. And he says, thanks for letting me stay with you. I appreciate it. Oh, we're going to have a lot of work to do. And we're going to have to keep you safe. Got a good storage closet for the boy? I have a couch. He's not going to be able to stay in the city. Well, we can't get him out of the city.

Can we? I'm just saying we're gonna need a longer term plan than this. We need a proper safe house. Keep a look out for something that we can use for that. He's gifted, and we might need all hands. He's a child, Azune. He's right there. He knows he's a child.

I'm an adult. Your frontal lobe still isn't fully developed. You're still a kid. He's not that much. younger than me. Um, well, I don't want to be a bother to anybody. I'm really glad. I tried to get out of the city really fast, and I did it the wrong way, and every horrible thing happened. Could have been worse. Yeah, and you need a good night's rest before we can... Okay. We all need a good night's rest. Badly. Tomorrow, before we leave tonight, what's our plan for tomorrow?

Are you still trying to bury your brother tonight? Family's probably been waiting there a few hours, yeah. I can tend to that, though. Okay. Do you want me to come with you? Any of you were welcome. I wasn't at the Aussie's execution. And I was late to the wake, so I'll keep you company on the walk.

Late to the wait. Marie and Hal head out to the walk. together. Azune. I kind of linger with Voltaire and Demetus for a moment. Do you need an escort? I would not say no to one. And also, the poor boy has seen me at my most interesting, so he may decide to take a run for it. Then I'll escort Belair before going home. Who has the wealth of like magical gear? Yeah. I think I do.

Cool. As you guys walk and converse, I'm gonna go ahead and add a bunch of stuff to your inventory. Do do do do. It's dangerous to go alone. I changed my mind to go with Murray. I stab Murray.

Luding your friends. That's stupid. Lute that body. Lute that body. Yointho. It's fine. Oh, God. Shout out to Tom.

It's fine, then, all right? As you head off, you see that there is a sort of silence as Demitus goes, so you're, just like, just because we're just going to be roommates, you know, I like, look so, it's like something about me is like, I snore, or I've been told that I snore. You're like, do you have any, like, needs or do you, are you like, are you a demon? Do you, like, how does it, because you, because I noticed,

I noticed that you're a different body than previously. Yes, that's very complicated. Okay, better for me not to ask, I'm sorry. Well, I mean, it's just a lot. And I'm happy to answer quite a few questions after a bit of rest, but no, I'll say we don't have a lot of food back home, but there is a very nice place to get some food in the morning.

That's where I can go and pick something up and bring it back. Just, yes, I think everything will be fine, and I wouldn't. If you hear any strange noises coming from the cupboard, just we did have a bit of a rat problem at one point. I have nothing going on, it's fine. This is odd, I know.

I'm trying to make it. amusing and it's not. Hmm. I don't have any problems because you saved my life. So just, but like, I guess I was just safe is if I'm ever doing something that you feel like

it's going to make you want to kill me, take my body over. You Just let me know. I'll stop whatever I'm doing. Well, that's good because I do have a list. Is that a joke? Yeah, definitely. Okay, sorry.

Funny. Funny. I've never had to do this before. It's very odd. I have a sense of humor. Oh, I mean. Me neither. I should take you over.

I don't even bloody know. I was just speaking for myself. Hey, if you have a rat problem, I can make a bunch of you. can make a bunch of cats. Not real, the rats won't know. Oh, God. I will say no magic for just a little while, although I'm going to give you a pen paper in the morning

and you're going to write down as much as you can remember. Great. There will be coffee and tea and things to eat, and you will sit and not make noise, which I know is very difficult for you. Honestly, it's one of the things. things that I find most charming about you, but for just a moment,

we're going to have to be subtle. You see Demet sort of looks out blankly, kind of the adrenaline crash and the trauma is sort of hitting. So he goes, okay, no noise. And you see that his nose unfurls and goes, like a little party blower. He goes, that's my last one.

Last one, okay. As we get close, I get closer. I get nervous, I'm sorry. It's all right, I just have a migraine. Someone screaming in my head right now. Oh. Hold on.

At that, he gets truly quiet and just walks alongside you. Before I, as we get closer, before I leave you, and I'm kind of observing this, I stop you from leaving Boulogne. It's one thing I want to say to you before you. before we leave each other's night, and I step very close. And I'm just scanning every centimeter of your mask. I'm very hard to read.

I'm not trying to read you like that. I think I owe you an apology. The other day I looked at you and I didn't mean to try to fix, mend your face. I saw it made you uncomfortable and be stopped, but now I'm seeing this in a different way, and this, the nicks, the scratches, the marks that are on you.

That is the story of our life has happened to you. I would never want to erase that. You know, there's a philosophy amongst curators at museums. as a debate. When dealing with history and things that have survived history, things that are important, is when we show them to people,

do we make them pristine, or do we let them show where they've been? Do you leave, at what point do you leave graffiti on a wall because the graffiti is important? Do you clean a sword? clean a sword, or do you leave the stains on it, the nicks, and scratches? And they're perfectly reasonable arguments in both ways, and very few people are steadfast one way or the other. It tends to be in degrees. And the wisest of curators,

I feel, can listen to an artifact and see what it wants to present. and can see if it wants to show its glory or show its history and where it's been and its scars. Like veterans. Sometimes you want to pretend you're one thing and not another. I don't have much, but I have a face and I have a name. And that is why I have not given those two things up.

That is why I wear this. as opposed to hiding it, which I could. And I could have a fake name if I so desired, but no, these are mine. The scars are mine. And I appreciate that. It's better than an apology, delightful wisdom. I appreciate it.

Ballard, do you think of yourself as a thing or a person? I am a thing. Can you be both? No. But I can dream, and I can live in a dream, not a wish. I can be a story. And a story honestly is better than being a person.

Maybe. I think so from at least witnessing all of this. And until recently, it was just a better story every day. We'll see where we go. Take care of that kid. Get some rest. Thank you for everything. Of course, thank you too.

You had my back. Always. You're a good man. That's rare. Yeah. See you tomorrow. See you tomorrow. You part ways.

And as you get up to your apartment, Azuna, you have your long way back to your dwelling place. And Belair, getting into your apartment, you see quiet, Demetis looks up, and says, I know you said no magic, can I cast one ritual if that's okay? You asked, so sure. He begins to lay out a small ritual circle

doing this sort of wizardly magic. This, you can see, does not look like an illusion, but you can see that he's doing the spell very carefully. Pentevereal magic calls it and small creature appears in front of him, you see a tiny dappled chameleon walk out. And he goes, hi, you are, bud, hey. He resummonds is familiar.

Oh. And you see, he goes, this is Figman. Excellent name. Thanks. I call him Figman because he's not real, but he doesn't let that, get him down. Some of my favorite things aren't real. The cool thing about not being real,

is that you can kind of be whatever you want. I knew there was a reason why I liked you. Quick secret. I just thought you should know. Yes. I'm not real either. I don't know about that, because you're real nice. So is figment. Thanks.

If you have any bugs, he loves to eat bugs. Oh, I think there's a few. I don't clean as often as I should in the kitchen. There's blankets over there. The couch is extremely comfortable, so untold. You see, he goes, great, quick, good, great, wanders off. Helen Murray, you ascend up above the rookery.

At the top of the rookery looking out, you can see that the River Brightbrook unfolds here. My little map in front of me. And you see up. above Bright Brook, there is a beautiful old orcish cemetery on the mountain side there. You see that there are a number of sort of headstones here that are kept in this place, and you can see that the headstones all are relatively newer druidic headstones that commemorate and honor the life the people here in their small prayers in Rungiani,

inviting them to see the world again as many times as they wish to come back in a new life and a new guise. The slant of the cemetery is it's almost at like a 45-degree angle, like the sort of soft soil or earth on this particular mountain side. You can see that there are a lot of stone kind of slabs over because it's hard to dig that deep into the rocky soil here in this space. Marie, you company him all the way up the mountainside? If it's all right with you, I don't want to introduce.

Well, I think we're breaking records for fast-tracking acquaintance to co-conspirator. But my brother believed in you. I believed in my brother. And right now I really need to reinforce that there is good in the world. And I choose to see the good in you that he saw. So thanks, pal. Give her a little whoop on the shoulder. God, I'm tired. Yeah.

Arriving at the cemetery, you see that the larger grounds are actually sort of behind an iron gate that's wrought here. You can see the handiwork of the Loy family and creating this kind of structure around this large cemetery. However, there is an older area,

a way up on top of promontory where your father is buried sort of outside of that main cemetery. And as you go to that outer promontory, you see that there's a small, humble little lantern, and you can see next to it, there are some figures under blankets that have fallen asleep here,

leaning against a headstone. You see there's a fresh-dug grave that is still open. There is a one that. wagon with a body wrapped on it, leaning against the back of the headstone. There are two young women, Shadia and Hero, who are sort of asleep, heads on each other's shoulders.

And you see seated on the back of the wagon, keeping watch but has fallen asleep on his fists is all good. So he sort of got like a little small, like a cane or cudgel in his... Very gently rest my hand on his forearm and say, quietly, what's good, all good. Keep him watch, keep in watch. Got the drop on me. I tried to do that as gently as possible.

No, it's all right. It's all right. It's all right. Thank you. Thank you for getting them here. Yeah, it's all, it's all right. Well, should we want to wake up the girls? Yeah, yeah. I'll drag this out.

I'll kneel down by Elodie, actually. Mm-hmm. And gently wrestle are awake. Sorry, hero. Well, Elity, oh, did he just get the girls? He just got the girls. Then then it's hero. Yeah.

You see, yeah, Olga just got the... You maybe were anticipating Elity being here, but you don't see her here right now. Okay. Um, hey dad. Hey. She gets up, Shadi gets a... Hey, dad.

Give you a hug, and you see, uh, Shai to his servant says, Oh, Professor Magnuson, hi. Starting to wonder if it's appropriate for me to be here. Of course it is. Of course it is. I just wanted to make sure your father, guy here safely, everything that's been going on. And Miss Magnuson was a good friend of your uncles.

So she didn't get a chance to give her goodbyes at the house. It got kind of crazy at the house. Yes, it did. My mom got drunk with a demon. Yes, yeah, yes, she did. She is set in her ways. You see Shoddy has shrugs. And you see that she reaches down

and takes out some little small beeswax candles and hands a little candle over it. And you see she looks up at her dad waiting for you to speak. Right. I wanted to least give you the opportunity. Did you have anything? I wanted to say, no pressure. Time to think about this.

I didn't go to the execution. I didn't go to the execution. And I am ashamed to say this because I knew deep down said how it was going to turn out. I didn't have hope. I didn't want to see that as the final moment. Imprinted on my brain of the eye. And that's something I've been wrestling with, a sense of betrayal, in not hoping, in not being an optimist, even though I was right. But I think the Aussie had hope, not in his own fate.

I think deep down his side he knew. He knew that his past was going to catch up to him one way or another. But he had hope in us, hope in his niece's nephew. He had hope in the people around him. That's a damn good legacy to leave into this world. I hope that maybe, maybe I can live up to that. We can live up to that. On his footsteps, just hopefully not to the grave.

Sorry, I think the exhaustion is getting to me. You go. Just draw my daughter's in and stand over his resting place. And even though it is well past midnight From the sparse lights throughout the city, I look out at the rookery below us, and I can see out in the dark just barely where the loy home rests, where the edge of the city goes to complete darkness, blanketing the hallowed round. You arranged the world over, but you were born of Dolmakia. Its forests sheltered you, its rocky climbs strengthened you, and its streets imparted you, and its streets imparting. done to you's lessons, hard-earned, hard of the rebellion. We welcome you.

Here may you keep your final watch. Give my two girls a tight, squeeze, and then drop my arms and pick up the shovel lying on the ground and go to the work, and my brother. Returning that embrace. Your daughter stand back. You take the shovel silently, All Good. takes one more. Body is interred. White sheet. All of the little glass gems, the bright and shiny, inexpensive jewelry that was given to him at his wake, small flowers adorning the wrapped

body as the soil of your homeland covers your brother. Once the soil is packed in. Marie runs her finger across the flickering candle, captures a little moat of light in her hand from her breath, gathers into gentle fireflies. It's great. You spend your time here in reverent silence, looking at the beauty of this place

where he is finally laid to rest. Fucker's got the best view in the city. Tell the sundered house is that. You remain here for as long as you need. Hell. As the impact hits you, there is no more work to be done. This last ritual completes it. And whatever feelings were not laid to rest here,

there will be no more ceremony to resolve. They will merely follow you into the waking days of the rest of your life. Shadia lays a hand. in between your shoulder blades, puts a head in your shoulder, tears stream with ease down her cheeks. Hero squeezes your hand in the wee hours of the morning, tears are shed, goodbyes are said, and you walk away as the last arcane fireflies descend and land on this grave,

under the bows of an old, hearty plain, overlooking the great city of Dolmachiar, whose fate rests in your hands. Morning comes the following day, and in so doing, we find ourselves looking at those of you who have much work before you. As this new day arrives, all of you are beyond exhausted, go ahead and take a long rest. Be so good. Yay. Goodbye temporary hit points.

Goodbye temporary hit points. I can see you most of all. Bring them back to me. I don't even remember where the button for this is. It's been so long. And whatever we got from aid is gone to. Mm-hmm. Um.

Yes. One of my abilities is after you finish a short or a long rest, you can play a song. that gifts to allies heroic inspiration. Yes. Might you DM consider our closing words to the Aussie? A short rest.

Sure, I will consider it. Give Murray a heroic inspiration. Murray, you have heroic inspiration. What is that a de-sex free? No. No, that's a D-20 re-roll. It's a re-roll. of any die.

A D20 re-roll. You also, I think, in this moment, you re-roll your portent as well. That's important. That's important. Important, important. It is finally the following day. Has all of you awakened.

This is a new camera. This is a new campaign. This is a new campaign. What did you get? I rolled my fuck me, fuck you die, and I got to fuck me. So that's a natural wine. Natural one is incredible. Yes, you can give it.

It's not bad. Yeah, you can really ruin somebody's day. In a seven, so this is more of a fuck you kind of a day. Yes. She woke up and chose violence. I woke up and it shows legit. Marie wakes up and she's like, Motherfuss.

Yeah. Incredible. Here. Goose. As you all awakened that day, you have had some wild adventures. However, there is a lot of, like, work ahead of you here because you've all sort of vanished the day before.

With some exceptions, like you did work at the Plaza de Vinos. What I would like to put before all of you is essentially like a skill check for going out and doing the things you have to do. You're a few days away from opening night of the play. I will go ahead and ask for a skill check for you basically going and doing your job. And I will allow you to add some D4 to the role. You may add one D4 to the role

if you extend the skill check over multiple days, meaning like it represents two days of effort or three days of effort rather than a single day of effort. Okay, got it. But that following morning, what do you guys get up to? Ha ha ha ha. I am. You have your standing meeting at the A.V.

Or like that evening, presumably. Yeah, so I owe Dean Cora my five student picks from these internship submissions. We established in previous games that Hero was not in that stack. Hero was not in that stack. I'm going to do that. a little bad. I'm gonna do a little baddie. Okay. And I would like to forge a submission form from Hero.

Hell yes. Because I want to put her forward. So I slip Hero in this pool despite Murray fully knowing that I don't think Hal would like this. Do you a forger? Do you have this power? Or are you just going for it. I'm just going. Okay. I'm just curious. Okay, I'm going to need, I do not believe you have this proficiency. I've been wrong in the past, but I don't believe you do. I don't believe I do. You do not. So this is going to be a flat dexterity check.

You do have a re-roll. I do have a re-roll. Before you could choose, the fuck me die. Destroy everything. And destroy, no. My decks is not great because I'm top heavy. It's just the image just happens. I love the idea of you holding a pen and being like, whoa. Whoa, whoa.

Okay. If a sneeze, it's over. Okay, that's not great. I'm gonna use my re-roll. All right, you copy that, copy that. It's worse. I have to use you. the re-roll, right?

Or yeah, I believe so, right? Or what has a real inspiration? You just read your re-roll immediately, and you must use the new role. Yep. Great. So that's a four. That's a four, great. You create a stunning forgery

of Hero Diamond's application. Great. Do you submit that along with sort of four others that feel fine? Yeah, great. I want very mid students. Great. You put them on Dean Cora's desk.

Perfect. What else do you get up to that day? Before your check-in at the seven stars. For my check-in, I think I am, I think Murray does a lot in terms of making herself very seen in the Pentevril today. Popping in into a lot of classrooms, checking in, walking into the teacher's lounge kind of a thing. I think she's getting caught up on all of the work

that she's been missing, but I think she's like, she put on some red lipstick and she put on her power heels and she's like boss bitching around the Penteverell today to a point of where if anyone knew what she was actually doing like if you knew, it would almost seem borderline performative in the fact that she is like being that scene and she goes around her daily duties with just a good energy. Give me a prof- we don't have this in five years. I used to have it in 3.5 was called profession. But go ahead and just give me intelligence plus proficiency as you do your job and try to make

like show face. Okay. Profession check. Okay. 16. 16. Great. It seems like a good. good old day for Murray the Bursar, and you're running around doing your thing here. You do not run into Dean Quora at all today, which is a little bit frustrating because she was like, I need those on my desk, end of day. And now it's like, I don't have time to get to this

until the next week. And you're like, so what was the end of day about? If you don't look at it until next week, why didn't I have until next week? You know, but I know you out there feel my pain. So with that, you conclude your day, your day is showing face, you're doing a great job at the Penteverel.

You know, it's tense because people know that there's this big change with the Taconas and the cormoray, but seeing your face gives a lot of people hope and a good feeling, right? Although the news of Demetis' disappearance is kind of spreading through the school. as people wonder where he is. Like it's gone from being absent to being like,

where the fuck is he? Can I like, if I hear any type of like whispers about that, like students gossiping in the hall, I'm just like, he's got the flu and then keep going. Okay, yeah. Like if I hear anything, it's like he's a little sick. Yeah, do you wanna say that definitively, like you know that to be true?

Or are you saying it as like, I probably? Probably sick. Great, give me a deception check. That's cocked. Got. Very cocked. Okay, but, b'b, b'b, b, b, b, b, b, b, b, b, b, b, 15. 15, great.

For Azune, what are you getting up to this next day? I mean, I start my mornings. I'm very much to sticking to my routines. I get up in the same way. I wash up the same way. I put the, the arcane marshal get up on in the same order, and I go to the Falcons rest like I do every morning

and I just do a scan to see if Varon is there. You do a scan to see if Varon is there? Varen is not there this morning. Kind of expected him not to be. So I will try to leave him something. I'm going to take a torch that I have as part of my gear. I'm going to plant it near where I need. I know he goes to kind of do his remembrance,

and I'm gonna light a fire, and I'm going to control flames, put a couple images in it. A Falcon, and seven stars. Great. And the sun setting. Great, perfect. Hell, yes.

Go ahead and give me a profession check for just doing your rounds that day. Okay. Is this? This would be, I think, probably your spell casting ability plus your proficiency. Great.

Is this something that I can guidance myself on if I'm intentionally? Yeah, I think if you're intentionally doing it, you can do that. Okay. My guidance gives me a three. Plus my spell casting. That's a 25.

25, damn. 18 plus four plus three. You're just hitting your rounds that day. Following the Palazzo de Vino's. Lord Einfosson is not in today. He's not in today, so you have a lot more free reign. It seems like he's taken, like one of the problems of, you know, these grasping power-hungry maniacs is that the more you try to control everything,

the less time you have. Oh, right. You know, just like, bandwidth is real. So you can see, because of, you realize, because of the things you discovered yesterday at the Palazzo de Vino's, he can't have Revolutionary Guard, He needs to have Einfosson. Einfosson. Yeah.

Got it. What's that version? You were like, you know, pain with the dread. I was like, ha ha ha ha. That's crazy. No, am I, don't, don't, I just, don't look at me. Don't perceive me.

Oh, look at his map. Lieutenant Il Casare. Yeah. Is he, I just, as I'm doing my job, I just want to observe him, I just want to get a read on him. What is. demeanor is. Give me,

give me an inside check. Okay. Uh-oh. That is a nine. You've known this guy for a long time. Your opinion about him is the same as you read him last time. You don't suspect,

you suspect that he is not a hardliner or a zeal. He's not someone who's like, yes, the Ein Fawson, have to, ah. but he is someone who fundamentally has a low opinion of the people of Dolmachyar. He is someone for whom he is genuinely, you know, I don't think you get any new information from yesterday, essentially. The things you saw yesterday, which is that he doesn't like, he didn't, he had no care or regard for Misha Undragor because he fundamentally sees the revolutionary guard as the good,

guys and therefore Dolmachiar rather than being the city that he's protecting is the enemies arrayed against the Brethren Hall. Yeah. I think it also, I can't get out of my head the pain that he caused Howell and Murray and how he treated the Archonist, the Misha. Misha. I go about my day. Great. You about your day doing your Jeff Boller. Well, I'm going to head to the museum and begin the process of installing discord. It is the day to close the museum for the foreseeable future while the collections are, or at least the Lloyd Wing collection, is cataloged, referenced, and then brought to its new home. I do have, we have new people showing up, I believe.

sent us over a few? Or will they be sending? As soon as Dean Corr gets to it. Okay. It's on her desk, it's out of my hands. Well, in that case, the first order of business, if I show up, I'm going to be taking at least three people I trust. And I suppose Mr. Dunn, who normally does the archaeological work,

I'm going to need you to start in the North Corner section. We're going to be doing a curatorial referencing by hand, set up by battle and historical preference for these artifacts. Dr. Anazella, you'll be taking the west end of our section, and it'll be taxomic by object, type, and reference. If it doesn't have it, just wing it. Ms. Corella, educational subclasses for everything that's left over.

If you end up mixing and matching a bit, well, these things happen. I figure three different organizational systems that have nothing to do with each other should be delightfully fun. You'll each be getting some help coming in in the next couple days. They're young, impressionable, and we'll have no idea just how absolutely fucked this is gonna be.

And use your own handwriting. You don't have to be particularly clear. And oh, we're going to need to hide. Have we already dealt with the swords? You see a... see, this would be, I think this would be Rosadella. Okay, yes. Who says, we can, would you like us to,

and you see she looks to you and says, we're happy to make happen whatever needs to. We're going to be a little bit more cautious. I would like as quickly as possible to have all of the swords in individual crate set up against the wall right over there, and I point to where very, very near my little hidden office, and then all of our display pieces,

next of them properly labeled. Actually on second thought, make sure that those labels are very close to the same thing. Go ahead if you'd be so kind and give me a deception check. Or forgery, if you prefer. I don't know what my forgery is. I'm so curious.

Look, where would I find that? If it would be one of your proficiencies. Tools, alchemist supplies card. Callagraphers surprise? Yeah, calligraphers supply me. I would do calligraphers if you want. Yeah, calligraphers. Sure.

So that would be a D20 for. I believe this would be in, Intelligence plus proficiency. So this would be plus six. So which is the same as my deception, I believe. So come on, be cool. That is, oh, 15. 15.

You begin the process of creating this extremely elaborate cataloging system. As you shut the museum down, are you doing this basically in advance of the cormoray shutting it? Like you're shutting it down early essentially? We've shut it down that day. Everything is closed. Great.

Because we need to start the work. I want to make sure that I have cases so that I can personally switch the swords in a way that nobody else has to know where they are so that no one has to lie. So that I can move these around and play, you know, play the three cups in a ball game. Gorgeous. And I'm also going to start forging a document. Great. So. Incredible.

You want to give me that forgery check? Yeah, can I get a... No, I don't get a bonus for that. That's just a plus six, isn't it? Come on. Look it up. I need this. I need this.

I know. That's not bad. 14. 14. Great. For the 14 forgery check, you begin to forge a document. What do the document say? It's a document that it implies that in the event that the...

museum takes down the display, the swords go back to the Lloyd family. Since they are their property, this was on loan. Yes. So this was clearly doesn't belong to us. Yeah. So once I have that forged, I'm going to place it on my desk, and then I'm going to move the real swords. I'm going to package them and get them out of there, is my plan. Perfect.

Before switching. Before, actually, yeah, no switching. Everything's going to be in its proper. Flurry of activity, the Loy Wing is filled with robed archivists and an armada of index cards and ink. How? What are you up there to say? Well, I think I do, the only thing I can do when the world is so fucked,

which is throw myself entirely into my work. I go into full producer mode. So I let All Good sleep in because he was so hard at work last night, faithfully as ever. I tracked down Nveda Anza, Grand Dame of the Theater, who is directing Cothairai. I touch base with her, hear her concerns,

make suggestions, and I will tell her that the theater would be lost without her and give her a bardic inspiration in saying. so as that reverberates through the base of her skull. I will spend time with Ed R. Gorin, who is the first position in the theater's chorus to see how they are coming with their choreo. I will spend time with Lash, a young leading man

who's playing Merzat in the production and see where he is in his journey from yesterday, where he was struggling a bit. I will then double back to All Good and go over the books and make sure that sales are going, and that we're not falling behind or going into the red in all of that. And then I will probably close out the day by walking around the city for a few hours with Shadia,

putting up, pasting up slips advertisements for the first time for this play and touring the entire city. In doing so. And always, in between conversations with a hundred people, whenever there is a quiet moment, I am behind the smile and the comforting presence to so many others. I'm in the back of my mind thinking of Tysha out in the world, my son out in the world. I'm thinking of Azune in tears in my home in front of me. I am thinking of Murray, new ally and friend, cracking a bit on the hill in the night and fire. in the dark. I am thinking about a sword going through some

stranger's chest in the sewers underneath the city. I am thinking of a mask that is my friend and the distant echoing song of something very, very powerful and old. And I am thinking of thimble kneeling at my brother's side in my home, and I am thinking of my brother's thinking of my brother as the dirt covers his face. Those images, every time you get a quiet moment, so often as Shadia tumbles through a square, erupting in juggling balls and ribbons

as the rest of the Barker crew comes out, announcing to everybody, Cotheri, opening night of the hallowed round, come see the People's Amphitheater. It's a blast of fire. Revolution, betrayal, wonder, heroism, a tale for the ages! And you see just excitement, excitement, excitement, and images flash over and over again.

Give me a performance check if you'd be so kind. And I'll say there is a, will be a, you're trying to hit a 15, you'll get an added benefit if you hit a DC 20, and an extra added benefit if you hit a DC-25. It is, that is car. All good. Hard to put on a happy face?

I know, I thought it might be persuasion. I know it wasn't. It wasn't to perform. Is there anything I can do for myself? There's not. It's not. I'll remind you that you can add D4 to the role by adding on extra days, but that's up to you.

Well, I think I probably would be in producer mode. I don't know what's to come in this coming week. That's true. This is the whole week. I would say I would be doing all of this stuff for three days if I don't die. I also, I assume you would give me a list of some things you wanted from the museum before I locked it out.

And you, like, anything you want for the show, now is the time to ask. so that I can grab it now before it turns into a giant pile of something. I'll say, too, for those of you, if anything you guys do in this first day today, you know, like, now Murray, you have left these, that's on Cora's desk. You had the roles you had. But for Boler and How, if you don't want to submit that document yet, and if you don't want to sort of submit that role yet, we can roll again to add to that a little bit more tomorrow

and the next day. Yeah, because I would love to bring, I would love to bring as much stuff. that you need over as soon as possible. Well, because the total on this is a nine, which is awful. Yeah. And because he absolutely would be doing this for days I will hold off on.

So what do I like mark that nine in limbo? Mark that nine down for me. Mark that nine down for me. You'd be so kind. Or we can just take the nine right now and see what that results in. If you would like to roll a new roll tomorrow. This is somehow cruel.

This is so cruel. It's cruel. Break, break. Can he bleed? All right, well, let's look at it this way. What a fuck day yesterday was. Give me the night. Give me the night.

You're exhausted. This deed coming through, this would have been a good idea if the, you know, now almost three weeks ago that this all came through, you've been able to solely focus on this. the two weeks of the beginnings of rehearsals, you were at the Grey Tower and the Chamber of the Lord's Advisory every day trying to save your brother's life. This thing has been lost. It's lost.

The performances are great. Everything else is great, but everything you've seen in micro is working, but for it to all come together, oh, boy, doesn't feel good. The left hand does not know what the right hand is doing. and as the slips start to go up, you wonder if it's all going to come together in time. That night.

It's a mystery. At the seven stars, that evening, you guys all come together after a day's work and find yourselves upstairs, drinks and food in front of you again. I haven't put a morsel in my belly all day. Me neither. I've been eating.

I eat a lot. Watch food for the boy. He's busy composing, what I hope to be, is a delightful document for us. I actually suggested to him that he write it as a play. You might get the wheels moving a little more clearly. Tell him to put together a pitch. You know what always helps me though.

A little bit of larceny therapy and I pull out this. This small charm necklace. Yeah. Yes. That we got from the thieves Guild. And I'm only- From House Clares, my dog. I'm gonna look at this, I'm gonna cast.

Hey. Sorry, thank you. I'm gonna cast Identify as a ritual and figure out what this, this amulet is, that we yoinked. Incredible. If you want to take a moment to cast identify on all the loot you got,

we can call that what you are doing. We said the first hour of dinner is just you going over all this shit. Shake out the bag. Oh, wow. Stock up the ruins. That's a whole line of rituals. So we're like bringing you,

we're refilling your glass. We're fetching food for you because you're at work for an hour at the table here. I don't even have to eat. I'm just nervous eating through this. Oh. Like popcorn. Like cookie monster and you're just pressing

It goes in there. It goes in there. I have a mouth underneath this. Incredible. As you begin to research this stuff, you take the charm necklace first. As you identify it, you begin to pull the strands together. This necklace you can see is an ancient fairy charm.

But you can see a lot of why this stuff got left here in this sort of like rogue's meeting point. was a lot of this stuff was only going to be effective put to spellcasters, right? The charm necklace you can see, the jangling sort of fairy charms along it that are all these different sort of beast shapes, like a little deer,

like a small like ivory hind, and there's a little gray rabbit, a small red swallow, like all these little birds sort of around it and animals and things like that. The jangling charms have a place for a space, to be cast within it. The nature of the charm is that it has a function.

When attuned to, the charm will rattle and jangle if you are being scried on. If you are being divined on, if someone's using a spell on you, it will let you know that that is happening. Now, it's not as powerful as non-detection because it can't prevent it. However, the receptacle for a spell to go in here can accept an illusion spell

that can fool a particular type of divination. So in other words, though it cannot necessarily stop all divination, you could potentially put an illusion spell in here and if that illusion was like a change, like a disguised self spell, it might allow a divination to actually pull up the disguise, right, and read that as being truth. So you can load a little illusion in here

to fool certain kinds of divination magic. So like jamming the airwaves kind of a vibe. A little jamming the airwaves kind of vibe. But you have to pick the right code. Yes. To keep out malware. Yes, you have to kind of figure out what you think you're likely to get picked up on.

So for example, if the thing you were really worried about was like, oh, paladins are gonna use their divine sense to tell that I'm a fairy or a demon, you could put a change, a disguised self-spell of a normal person and they maybe would pick that up as that. And the charm would still jingles, to let you know that you were being divined against. Trip the firewall.

Trip the firewall. Okay. The four potions are four potions of healing. Four potions of healing. Four potions of healing. Very useful. And you have these small little pouches of gemstones. As you pulled them out,

Ms. Magnesson, you recognize these very, very well. You think these maybe got stolen from the Pentevereal. Okay. These are metamagic gems. All of them are, so first of all, number one, they're gems. They're quite expensive. You can do cool stuff with them. They're worth a lot.

Number two, they are consumables. They can be crushed as a, the gems can be crushed as a material component of a spell and have their energy consumed into the spell. The effects that they have are different and they are associated with various schools of magic. I'll go ahead and bring up what their effects are. The effects are very minor,

but the thing is you don't need an action to trigger them. It's part of the material component of a spell casting, essentially. So it adds a little bit more kick to a spell. Wow. You have to snort the jam though. Oh, okay. One more Ruby.

It runs out fast, though. That's six seconds. You're supposed to pulverizer first. What? That's so sorry. Did you say? I don't know. The, you can see that there are small number

here, da-da-da. One of the little satchels has three Vokers gems in them. A Vokers gem basically grants advantage on an evocation spell that has a single target. So if you're making an attack roll within evocation spell, this will give you advantage on that attack roll. And on the roll of a natural 20, the target is knocked back 15 feet. There is a pouch with two Viner's gems in it. These can be used in casting a divination spell. And if done so, you can advantage on your next initiative role before a long rest as sort of the gem adds this heightened level of awareness around you.

You see that there are several others of these gems, there are muters gems, mansers gems, Mancer's gems, jurors gems. I'll add the correct amounts into your inventory so we don't have to do all this accounting. So there's multiple of each? Multiple of each.

Oh, we get to do a little divvy. You get to do a divvy. I love a divvy. Yeah, it's getting the rural juror. The rural juror. The rural juror. Of these various ones, there are some that have a little bit flashier powers than others.

The jurors gem, for example, just gives you the advantage on the next saving throw before a long rest if you do it as part of an abjuration spell. The, probably the flashiest one of them would be the muters gem, which is,

if you use it as part of a transmutation spell that targets a single creature, if that creature either fails its saving throw or willingly allows itself to be affected by the spell, it gains one of the following until the end of your next turn, which is a climb or swim speed equal to its walking speed, a fly speed equal to half its walking speed, or its speed is reduced by half.

So all of these are basically add-ons to spells that you might want to cast. They're sprinkles for spells. And by putting them on there, there has to be a little bit of guesswork and what's going to be useful. However, you wonder if these were taken for their meta-magic effects, or... Just a pretty bag of gems? Just a pretty bag of gems. Because what you do see is you have these 40 blank spell slates.

Yes. This is the big ticket item because A, you think the reason these gems are here is because these gems, if you don't want to use them for their other abilities, can be ground up into the ink. And imbued onto these... spell gems, right? The way that the spell glyph, sort of the blank slates of the spell glyph's work, is they can only be imbued with spells that have a sort of range and area of self.

Misty step, see invisibility, things like that, right? Because the way it works is you don't even need to be a castor to use them. You can just break a spell glyph. So that gives you a very limited, like the glyph can't do anything like pick a target. it, right? You, it needs to be like no Foss, no must. It's a self-cast spell. When you break it, the spell goes into effect on the person who broke it, right? Whoa. I have an out-of-game

question that I'm going to put a, off-camera one, so I'm just putting it about how this works. Gotcha. Okay. These gems would probably go like one to one per spell level into putting a spell into these blank slates. So a more powerful spell would take more of these. gems going into it. And you still need someone capable of casting the spell. You need the spell slot to go into it. So we need the gems ground up, and that becomes part of the component that draws out the glyph.

Yeah. And someone that knows that spell. To be able to draw it into. And then someone with the actual proficiency. Like, you probably need someone with proficiency in calligraphers supplies, grinding up these gems into a special magical ink. And then you need someone who can cast the spell. knows a spell.

Crap. So, Deweyth, is it correct to infer that these bag of gems they got and then they realized, oh, they're metamagic gems, so they're not really useful for what we need? A bunch of rogues would have no use for these metamagic gems. Because they can't do anything on their own to add them to a spell of your cast. But like, we could make, we could put spells into these, into these and then give them to people who can't cast. Correct.

So, like, anybody could use them if they're just willing to, to, snap the cookie in half. Yeah. All right. All right. That's good. That's awesome. That's really awesome. That's good. That's good. We'll talk on the break. Yeah, we'll talk on break. Talk on the break. I got some thoughts. I have, yeah, and so just so I'm sure,

these gems can only do what those gems say they can do, or can we use that and have that help us craft a spell that we know onto a glyph. Oh yeah, and it's any spell we know. Any spell we know? That's a self. Any spell you know that is a range or area of self. Okay.

Can be put into one of these glyphs. Using the dust from these gems. Yes. So no, you lose the range attack against an enemy. It doesn't work. Yeah. This is just a pf. Yep.

Cool. Cool. But then the gems, if we grind up the gems, they would use their metamagic components. Got it. Right? Correct. So basically, you think,

you happen to know that these gems are very useful to spell casters, to these rogues, the gems are just useful because you can make the spell ink out of them and make these glyphs. Got it. Right? They're not using them for their innate properties. They're using them for the raw magic, getting broken down.

They want to chop, shop them into making these spell glyphs. They need more steps in order to be able to use it at all. Yes. Okay. Okay. At the end of the hour, there's a bunch of plates of empty food and Murray, you're like,

zzzz, zz, with all the new magic items that you guys have. in this moment. Oh, this is, what a pallet. Right. Right. I'll say, too, you are looking at in front of you, yes, there's all this magic. These gems can do some cool shit.

That could be the difference between life and death, some of these, like, little additive effects on normal spellcasting. You're also looking at thousands of gold pieces worth of value. Yeah. Between the gems and the charm and the blanks and everything else like that. and especially when talking about like this sort of like, like fired Revolutionary Guard, people with that. So there's, there is perhaps the greatest magic of all

is feeding people. Yeah, his funds, yeah. Okay. Offensive amounts of money. It is. So we have some thinking to do about how we utilize this newfound resource. We'll talk at the break.

Speaking of these spell glyphs, Do we have another meeting with Orris Bladen in the works? That's probably getting late for that, but something to think about for the next day, perhaps. Yeah, I think we should definitely take a little factory tour. Mm-hmm. For the hand and wheel. And is there a merchants, is there a guild?

A merchant's guild? I suppose that's something, if I don't know, it's something to ask him. Because they have a dog in this fight. That's upcoming. If I don't know it, then Elodie would. Okay. I have a list. You have a list?

I always have a list. That's very good. But before I get into the list of ideas that I have for what we might do next, I'd love to hear what your thoughts are. Well, the show was important. I would love a list of what you would like from the museum before everything goes to chaos.

I'm happy to grab anything you need, anything. The paperwork no longer really matters at this point. And we have that box that has been gnawing at the back of my head. I was almost gonna hope that you would bring it here. I can do that. I can definitely do that.

That sounds dangerous and reckless and probably the best option now. The box. Yeah, I mean, I don't think, yeah, how's the museum these days? Is it safe to do anything like that? Your place? I'm currently calling it the circumlocution wing.

It's a disaster. It is incomprehensible, pure chaos and madness. It's just delightful. Anything dangerous is being very well hidden in a sea of poorly written paperwork. Sounds like a beautiful piece of abstract art. It is the... abstract art of hiding value.

Did the cormorais give you any type of timeline? Did they push a deadline on you? They said very, very fast. They didn't say anything specific, although they did say money is no object. And so I'm using the speed at which we're moving things forward as a general disguise for just creating chaos. The faster they do it, the more it's a mess.

I'm just encouraging it. Is there any use? and squeezing a little bit more gold from that stone? Oh, yes. Anything you can think of, that's really not my specialty, but you clearly are conscious of the best ways of getting a little more coin out of a stone? Yeah, well, you know, it's my father used to always say. Money isn't everything, but it sure shit helps.

I really like your father. Yes. Also, at some point, I have to go over plans for the gala. Yes. Oh, the gala! I'd nearly forgotten it. When's the gala? I feel like it's five or six to.

Like we were around a week away from the show opening, and a day or two has passed, right? Yeah, how much did you want it close to the show? I think it would be the night. It would be two days before. Two days before? give the troop time to then focus back in. Thankfully, we've already had plans.

It's five days away? Five days away. At least we're not starting to scrap. My plan was to have Agala at the Lyceum to celebrate and ensure city's faith in what we're doing. Get all the right people in the right place. How much do you want to know about any machinations that I'm putting forward?

There is something to be said about legitimate ignorance, or would you like to be informed of things that if someone did ask you, it would become a problem? I think we're past that, Bel Air. We're never, ever passed dealing with the truth. So that's why I asked. I think to Belair's point, if anyone wanted to try and push you or peek into your mind or anything, do you want to,

do you want to have that burden? added to an already expanding collection of them. I don't think any of us want this onus on us, but this onus has come. Very well, then. In for a copper. Eyes wide open. I'm going to steal the swords tonight. Quietly. And my plan is to hide them in your proper room at the theater.

in a corner, in a pile, underneath whatever other junk I can find on the way home. Yes. We could do that. That's good. We can do that. Prop foils are just getting so intricate these days. It's honestly impressive. Thankfully, one's already broken. And by the very nature, they do not show up under magical, magical search, as far as I know. But if they were to show up, if someone does any kind of scan, that is a sanctioned place for magic to appear. but we might need to mask the nature of the magic of the blades. Or by the very nature, they're not magic. Well, then that solves that.

It's complicated. They are very complicated. I've forged some paperwork to make them legitimately disappear. And the trick will be making sure they can't steal them. And you happen to own a very nice needle stack for us to hide a bunch of very expensive needles. Okay. Sorry, above table. I'm thinking of which one is the cover? of Christ. Oh.

We are there. I mean, we're literally hiding the world's most basic ass swords in a room full of basic ass shit. So yeah, it's gonna be the one real Hamlet skull in a pile of fake Hamlet skulls. So that is to happen tonight. I was hoping to add it to whatever pile of things I'm grabbing for you.

And again, if you think, if anyone thinks of anything, they want me to steal from the museum now. Borrow. Are we adding the casket to the to-do list for the evening? Apparently we are. Yeah. Okay. You want to bring you here? You want to go get it real quick? Or should we go to your place?

I think one big pile of things would be easier just to get a small card loaded with everything because legitimately taking it to the theater is the appropriate place. And then we can take the, I can just take that over here once we're finished. Unless you want us to do this at the theater. theater. You just meet you there. Well, above table, to make sure I'm following, there's the Hall Round, which is massive,

and there are now a few buildings built into the sides of that ring where things were restored, but there's also the rookery, which is the smaller theater, which still operates, not right now, because we're so focused on this large production, but there is still a humble theater where the, where, where dance rooms and magical theatrical arcana

are studied and practiced as well as like our main prop room. I like the rookery. People are less likely to wander into it right now. And as silly as it sounds, I like the... Theatrics of it all. Yeah, I was trying to think of a better way to put it. But yes, I love the theatrics of it.

It really, a good story is always more likely to survive. Is this something that we said to do tonight to set it up? Move it there, get it set up, and then deal with it tomorrow? The faster, the better is my feeling. I don't want to be too unusual, although we will be having people work very late at the museum. Later than normal. Okay. It's closed.

They know they need to get it done, and people are more prone to mistakes the longer they work. Yeah. All right. All right. Who wants to go help Buller move invaluable weaponry that sundered the shapers and are completely irreplaceable across town? How do you make that sound like more fun than it is? I mean. We have to make it seem as normal as possible. I don't know if an Arcane Marshall accompanying them is a good idea.

Fair. No, it should feel like a normal transatlantic. of props. It should feel like normal transfer of props. It should feel like wheeling your grandma out to the park to get some fresh air. Do you want to come make a list? There's a prop. I can start.

Never met my grandma. No. I can start and then you can rummage. Well, we are the theater people. Uh, Hal and Bolair, it sounds like you're going to make your way to the Arknot. We are going to. Azuni and I will meet you at the Rookery. Brilliant.

So as they head off, are you guys staying here or are you headed to the Mercury right away? I think we'll maybe, as per usual, wait 30 minutes. Yeah. Make it not seem like we're not all in at once. Margarita. Margarita. Margarita, one more round?

One more round. Sure. All right. I will, while, when it's just a two of us, I will produce the candle that was a part of the ceremony. Oh. And I'll just plop it right on the table. I don't think we should burn it, but you seem to have a way to peer into things that have yet come.

And I'm curious to see if there's a way for you to somehow peer into what would happen if that thing were to burn all the way. Maybe not today, maybe not right now, but it's just something I want to put to you. I mean, we got the time. Might as well. Okay. What happens if this were to burn?

How can I help? you peer into a possible future. Honestly, it's kind of like vibes based, so I kind of don't even know what to tell you how you could ever help me. But you know what, just sit down with me, sit across from me and just like, give me good energy or something.

I'm going to go to light it as I'm in your field of view. And in that moment right before I light it, I'm gonna stop. See if the dominoes that might follow happen in her mind. Are you going to cast Identify here? Yeah, you know what? Let's do, let me first do an Identify. Great. And then I will determine off that Identify if it makes sense to do an augury.

Yeah. Awesome. Identify first. Identify first. This is a powerful sorceress artifact. this candle is rendered from the fat of Taconas family members. Lord Durden, all right. Holy Lord Durden.

Okay. It is rendered from the fat of Taconas family members, and it seeks to command the spirits of the freshly dead to speed on a number of different spirits different spell effects. I am going to- It's like a catalyst. I am going-

To speed up the effect, you said? I'm going to need an archa-check from you, and if you want to parlay that into an augury, you can. Okay. Oh. Yeah, you know what? Yeah. Light that lipo can-

Why not? Speed of the effects of like recently dead stuff. Basically, this is a candle. On the Identify, which is fairly done, This turns people, what would normally take thoughtful human sacrifice can be reckless slaughter, and this candle makes up the difference. It takes the freshly dead. In other words, well, we have to be like on an altar with a knife moving through it and this,

and you're prepared, we've washed you in some weird necromantic oils. Now people could be run down in a street. on a castle wall at a palazzo. And this candle renders those deaths as being performed as essentially part of a ritual, that their fresh spirits are transmuted. It is a, if you had to think of a name for this, a candle of slaughter would probably be the name for it.

You render, you renders a good pun by the way, well done. It is. Like I heard it happen, I'm like, well done, all right. I can't tell if that was, yeah. This is one of the most heinously evil magic items you've ever seen. You're like this is something

normally like you've been carrying it around in your pocket. It's beautiful to look at. It's black and silver and it's finally wrought. You would never know from holding it that it is made of human fat. This is one of the most horrifying necromanic because it just looks like a candle

sitting there. Now I'm recognizing why you had that look in your face right before I said I was going to do this, Brennan. I'm so excited. You have this slash look in your face. I'm like, ha. Okay, horrifying. Necromantic. And what it feels like is whatever the fat

that it is created from, the purpose of the candle is this fat was rendered potentially from Taconis bodies naturally from, like, naturally from like how they would be prepared on a natural death. Like you don't think this stuff made from the family members was made due to reckless slaughter.

but it's that the remains of the family members await to transmute reckless slaughter into the energy of powerful magic working, right? So not like souls of people that have been slaughtered have been somehow absorbed into this candle. This is going to be a triggering effect. The carefully lovingly rendered fat of Toccona's family members

is made into a candle to then take the reckless slaughter of others and turn it into. to the working of magic. They did a slow, laborious process so that later they could do something instantly. Yes. So they can massacre a lot of people, use this candle.

Mm-hmm. Kind of- It's a big red button. It's a big red, yeah, and then I'm guessing, this is all above table, I'm guessing, I'm guessing, make it appear like a strategic, meaningful sacrifice to then take those souls and enslave them in their ghost army. that's being slowly built in another realm.

I'm guessing. Holy, yeah. Whoa. Right? This is a Mauritius conjection. Yeah, hot, hot. Let's grant. Or maybe pop up to start fighting.

Yeah, undead shit. Okay. All right, so. I will say two here. Yes. The mending that you cast to reconstitute this, you believe, I think, on the identify, this thing,

no longer has that magical potential. Like, Azune's mending was not enough to recreate the magic of the candle, but it was enough to let you cast identify on it. Does that make sense? Like, this is not, otherwise, they would just make one of these and be mending it all the time, right?

So like, that initial, it has been used. It's been used. It's been used. Yes, okay, so that event that, that's occurred. Yes. It burning at the Plata de Venus means it was used at the Plata de Venus. All right. Whoa, my brain, my no-taker brain.

That's already happened. That means that like, fucking Lord DeVino's, like, Julian's dad is probably like, stuck somewhere being a soldier for the Togodontas. Yeah, for all soldier of undead. Yeah, fully indentured into the afterlife. For all eternity. So, I just feel the need to give a little bit of a disclaimer.

before I pry further into this. I am getting a very strong, very heinous, necromatic energy from this. Okay. Necromantic energy from this. From what I'm gathering, it seems that there is properties built into this candle that manipulate and affect the souls of the dead

to a malicious, degree. It's given me a little bit of the hebe-jeebies. I'm not gonna lie. I, it's almost as if the Taconist family have rendered an entire sacrificial process into a lovely shade of purple in a nice little stick candle. And that, that's been done already. It's been used. I'm, I can you? I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. It's like the essence of the magic is only what's remaining. So the peak of its magical abilities has been spent and used. What I'm trying to say is if I had to extrapolate, which admittedly I am doing,

finding this in the center of the Devinos estate after a massacre had occurred. Now we know what just, now we know where they, Or at least we think we know where they are. Yeah, I think their souls have been enslaved, entrapped, indentured in their next life for whatever machinations the Taconas have going on. Does this make sense?

Yes, that makes sense for that to be what their present is. Can you look into this and see what the future might be? I can certainly try. And I put my hand on your shoulder, and I conjure I utter that word. Murray kind of massages the muscles surrounding her throat a little bit

as she can feel her digestive system tensing up. I think this is going to be ugly. All right, she takes the quill at the tip of her finger. She draws that line cutting into the fabric of reality. It creates almost like a flat sound wave with no hum, only silence. She grabs the sound wave in front, brings it closer to the candle,

in a sense to try and find the reverberations emanating from this lifeless source. Azuni can probably ever so slightly sense peaks in valleys. in the string as if it is starting to pick up a home. And Murray's eyes go white as she taps in and casts augury. What is the question you are posing with your augury? What knowledge do you seek?

And as a reminder, augury tends to ask if some proposed future event would be ruinous or yield for it would be beneficial. I think she just hears Azune's in this liminal space that she puts herself in in this purgatory of time. She just hears Azune's voice as he already asked the question. What happens when you burn this candle all the way down to the wick? If this was.

And Murray is smart enough to know where there's one, there are probably many. How many candles are burned? and what happens when the wick is extinguished and the fuel is run out of the wax. Give me an Arcona check. I will allow the use of augury in this novel way to allow you to make this role with advantage.

And what I just flavored was casting guidance. Great, so you have a D4 to this. You're rolling with advantage. You have a D4. I'm not gonna lie, because this is beyond the use of a typical augury, but it's fucking awesome. We're gonna make it. I'm gonna make it quite high.

15 will be whispers of an answer. 20 will be a glimpse of the truth. 25 gets you the whole hog. Let's go. You're rolling Arcana, you have guidance. You're rolling with advantage. Make me believe in magic. My Padman died.

That's not a roll, that's not a roll. I just dropped it. D4, D4, D4. And a D4. You wanna roll D4 first? Let's roll a D4 first. That's always fun. Let's go four.

Four. Four. What do you add to Arcana? So my Arcana is plus eight. So we're already sitting at plus 12. 12. You just need one of these die to be a 13 or higher. 13 or higher.

13 or higher. I'm gonna roll in front. Come up, baby. See. Oh. What is it? What is it? The highest is an 11.

Okay. That's fuck. But that's still, what is that? 23. 23. 12. Yeah. 23.

23. Okay, with it 23. Images flicker in and out of control. You are asking about what happens if this candle burns. This candle is burnt. It cannot burn again, even reconstituted as it is by Azune,

its magic is spent. You get an image. One other such candle exists. Oh. The dead. Dead bodies of the House Taconas are not easy to come by. It's not a resource that they have an endless amount of. And it appears they have used many throughout the history

of the house. There were many of these at one point that all got spent throughout the Shaper's War. And when the House to Connoes was fighting on behalf of Tonsul, the god of the sun. Yeah. They needed armies. Look throughout on of 23 images you see spread wide, flying across endless night, landing in front of a golden orchard,

raising aloft a hand, severing, trees wither, dying, approaching a shape. You see an image of all of the fairies of the golden orchard, withering and dying. An angel's face turns hollow white eyes. The face of Octus Taconas looks right at you. You, you, uh, look in here and see. This candle did not burn all the way to the wick. Uh, or did not burn all, you know, it had burned down, right? It was melted, but there was enough left that it was not fully consumed.

Something in its ritual went wrong. You hear the howls of Tacona's spirits spurring on. Their first task of this spell was to travel a great distance. It was to make up for distance of a ritual that was not happening where it was supposed to. There was something that was being added to like a hum. Marie, you get an insight. Magic can work across great distances. Frequencies can travel vast distances,

and you see yet another insight into a fabric or weaving of magic across the face of Aramon, and you see the howl of an ancient spirit across the tenurable reaches. Last thing you see, which is not the full truth, you can't get the full plan here. Something went wrong, and a backup plan was triggered. Their first thing, the thing this was supposed to do, failed. But something else has been kicked into gear to make. make up for it. They wanted to do this the quick and powerful way. Instead, they will have to go the long way around, but they are going there right now. You see rows and rows of sarcophagi. You see stone statues posed, looking out but with a strange visage of horror across all their faces. And all of the statue's eyes glow white, and you see ships sailing into the mist as a voice calls out from darkness.

Raise high the white banners in death. And that's where we'll take our bro. Spoopy. Spoopy. You had to poke the candle. I had to poke the candle. Hell yeah. I will see you all after the break.

And that's where we'll leave our story for now. Part two of this episode of Campaign 4 drops this Tuesday. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you soon for more Critical Role.