Critical Role - By Heart Alone | Exandria Unlimited: Divergence Episode 4

Episode Date: March 13, 2025

The group arrives in Vasselheim, where they find that audiences with both holy leaders and cruel lords await... Meet the Players!Game Master Brennan Lee Mulligan: https://www.instagram.com/brennanleemulligan/Matthew Mercer: http://instagram.com/matthewmercervoLiam O'Brien: http://instagram.com/voiceofobrienCelia Rose Gooding: https://www.instagram.com/celiargooding/Jasmine Don: https://www.instagram.com/birdclump/Alex Ward: https://www.instagram.com/alexanderward777/  BEACONWe’re excited to bring you even MORE with a Beacon membership! Start your 7-day free trial today at https://beacon.tv/join and get unparalleled access to the shows you love completely ad-free! You’ll receive NEW Beacon exclusive series, instant access to VODs & podcasts, live event pre-sales, merch discounts, & a private Discord. YOUTUBE MEMBERS / TWITCH SUBSCRIBERSTwitch Subscribers and YouTube Members gain instant access to VODs of our shows, moderated live chats, and custom emojis & badges:https://www.youtube.com/criticalrole/joinhttps://www.twitch.tv/criticalrole   Visual Effects by Christian Brown3D Modeling by Daniel Ehrli aka Axolote GamingMusical Theme by Colm McGuinnessCharacter art by Hannah Friederichs Due to the improv nature of RPG content on our channels, some themes and situations that occur in-game may be difficult for some to handle. If hearing discussions of certain episodes or scenes become uncomfortable, we strongly suggest taking a break or skipping that particular episode.Your health and well-being is important to us and Psycom has a great list of international mental health resources, in case it’s useful: http://bit.ly/PsycomResources

Hey there, Critter Podcast listeners. We have a special new membership service at Beacon.TV, where you can get early access to all new podcast episodes, including Critical Role for the first time ever. Beacon members also get things like live event pre-sales, merch discounts, access to a private community Discord, and new exclusive series like Critical Role Cooldown. Think of it as our digital Critical Role land.

Head on over to Beacon.tv to check it out for yourself and start a 7-day free trial. Thank you so much for your support, for being a podcast listener, and for being a part of our community. Hey there, Critters! We are so excited to share with you our brand new podcast from the world of Exandria, The Re-Slayer's Take.

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

George Primavera and Nick Williams, with the main cast including Jasmine Bular, Caroline Lux, and Jasmine Xiong. Listen to new episodes every Monday anywhere you stream podcasts, or become a Beacon member and listen to the podcast two weeks early and uninterrupted by ads. Hey there, friends.

It's Matthew Mercer, and it's my pleasure to introduce you to Exandria Unlimited Divergence, a brand new journey on the Critical Role Podcast Network. Divergence follows everyday folks picking up the pieces of their world in the wake of a cataclysmic war between the gods. As the dust settles, the mortals of Exandria discover how their world has been changed forever. New episodes drop on Thursdays at 7pm Pacific on Beacon, Twitch, and YouTube, with the VOD

uploaded to YouTube on Mondays at noon. Prefer your adventures in audio form? The podcast version arrives here on the Critical Role Podcast Network one week after the original broadcast. Or, if you want instant access to podcast content, become a Beacon subscriber and get access to the audio version right when it airs at 7pm Pacific on Thursdays. The calamity has ended, but Exandria's story is far from over. Enjoy! Enjoy. Hello and welcome to the final episode of Exandria Unlimited Divergence.

A tale that ends tonight, a time of passing from calamity to strange and new hope for the world that might be. Before we jump in, we have a few announcements. Matt, you want wanna come over here and take us away with some announcements? Let's do it! Travis. Yes?

I think you're up next on the announcements. Oh, yes. You guys, while we are recognizing our 10th anniversary throughout the year, next week actually officially marks 10 years of Critical Role. Oh my god. We're doing it. Now, whether you've been here since the very first stream

in 2015 or just now joining us for the very first time, we honestly couldn't be more grateful to have you along for this unbelievable adventure. And we are only here because of you. And we have been hard at work queuing up merch, live events, conventions, games, content, and really just a whole bucket of so much more to celebrate this amazing milestone with you. So thank you, thank you, thank you very much from the bottom of our hearts.

Yay! We did it! Speaking of content, we're very excited to announce a brand new podcast, you guys, coming exclusively to Beacon. This is the announcement? This is the announcement. Oh my god! It is time, it is time.

I'm so excited to announce Weird Kids. Weird Kids! I'm going to sing the jingle, I shouldn't do that. It's so good. The jingle's a bop, but we'll get there, we're good there. There's a story behind it. But you can join Ashley Johnson. Hey, that's me!

And Taliesin Jaffe. I'm the only one! As they sit down in a weekly podcast where they'll chat about being weird kids. Like growing up being weird kids, growing up being child actors. Yes, yes. And honestly, still being weird kids.

It was on there. Yeah. I know, it's good. You saw the flow. I did, I saw the flow and I took it. Very fair. They have lots of fun little segments. They'll even take field trips called Touching Grass

to explore weird things beyond the confines of our set. And it's so good. You guys, I actually can't wait for you to see the set. It's super cute. Great! So yeah, go check it out. It's fun. Congrats, guys. It's fun.

Yay! Thank you. It's real fun. It's so fun. We had a good time. Friendly reminder, this is the final episode of Divergence. Oh, yeah. You can join us next Thursday, March 13th, for one big Exandria wrap-up.

We'll be covering questions from, I mean, topics really from all three of our main campaigns, largely Bell's Hells, of course, but as well as all of our installments of Exandria Unlimited, and really any other type of lore building, world building, all of that jazz that's helped us explore and fall in love with Exandria

over the past 10 years. 10 years! Oh, wow, I think I'll come in for that. Oh, hey! Oh, yeah? 200 more years. 10 years! Oh, I think I'll come in for that. Oh, hey! Oh yeah? 600 more. Yeah.

Everyone's calendars. Speaking of 10 years. Yes, Laura? I have special 10-year anniversary merchandise. What you got? I don't even think I've shown you yet, Matt. No, I've not seen it. What is that?

This is our enamel pin, artist Sarah G. And it's you, Matt. Oh! What? It's you in front of the world. What? Oh dear. Isn't it so great? There's that. We must destroy him.

And then we also have, I'm so excited about this. This is our Critical Role Memories pullover hoodie, by our own Jordan Torrance. That's really cool. This is Critical Role, our tie-dye hoodies, which I love, so we had to make another one. And the back, the back, all of this text, which you can't see from this, it's all quotes from like 10 years worth of comics.

Oh! Yes! Are there dirty words on it? I don't know. It just says, all work and no play makes Marisha a dull girl over and over and over again. It's available right now in all our Critical Role shops. Check it out.

It looks great. I'm so excited. We're just getting started. Oh, I got one. Another way you can celebrate 10 years of Critical Role is with Stories Untold. Oh, it's so good. And it really is. It's an anthology featuring the perspectives

of 10 characters who fought alongside and against Vox Machina. I'm so proud of this book. It's a special collection. It features a foreword written by me. Hey! With stories by 10 contributors, including Abria Iyengar, Sam Maggs, and Martin Cahill.

Plus, a cover by Adrian Ibarra-Lugo. Stories Untold is now available wherever books are sold, because it's a book, in hardcover, ebooks, or audiobook formats. Additionally, our friends at Penguin Random House are running a sweepstakes where one lucky winner will receive a copy signed by all 10 contributors and the Critical Role cast.

Oh, wow. Yeah, that's cool. I did not agree to this. For more information on how to enter the sweepstakes and buy your very own copy of Stories Untooled, head to criticalrolebooks.com. Dot com! Fantastic. Did you go to that?

Thank you so much, Liam. I didn't. There it is. That's what it looks like. It looks like this, and there's words in it. There's definitely words in this. Awesome. Wait, now I think that there isn't.

There's definitely words. You shut your mouth. Are there backwards? There are backwards. It's in the backwards. I love it. Oh, we're such fools. I think that concludes our announcements, so Brennan, get back in the seat.

Ah! Woo-hoo! There he is. A lot of dice in there. That's a lot of dice. What's the line from Seven Samurai when he says he has a lot of swords, there. That's a lot of dice. What's the line from Seven Samurai when he says, he has a lot of swords, like eight swords in the ground, and then the guy goes, that's a lot of swords,

and he goes, I need to do a lot of killing. Yeah. That would be so good. Hell yes. Great. With that. My wallet. Let's go, hm?

Nothing, continue. Yep. With that, Let's go, hmm? Nothing continues. Yep. With that, let's go ahead and jump into tonight's episode of Exandria Unlimited Divergence. 🎵 🎵 L'amantur, nech lauantus, I'm not going to let you go. Rising up, its eastern side illuminated by the faintest early rays of dawn light, its western edge still lavender and indigo, the snow and stone facing the receding night in the west.

The mountain known as Heaven's Stare, here in the lands of Issylra, the city of Vasselheim. This city awakens in a new day, having seen the dawning of yet another age. Walls, the outer edge shattered and lay low, some by the blows of gods themselves, scatter here and yet the city stands. Vasselheim, the Dawn City.

It had seen the founding, the clashes of the Schism, the heights of the Age of Arcanum. In these streets, at one point, fell the footsteps of Vespin Chloras, who would call the calamity upon the world, and those long centuries of ruin would the Dawn City weather and survive. And now, yet again, another age comes

to this eternal place where mortals walk hand in hand, arm in arm, knowing that a new day has come to Exandria. Carts move hither and to, you see the muddy, unpaved streets. In some ways, the city hearkens back to all of the earlier ages of its long, long life. It's massive masonry blocks of stone.

The buildings of this place, all, even the ones that aren't temples, have a feeling of reverence, adoration. Everything here is built to last. Even the rubble has some solemnity and gravity to it here in this place. As you approach, having traveled for days across stormy seas,

all the way to the city of Seagate, and then some 30 miles inland to the city of Vasselheim. What are you feeling as you approach this place? place. Ero knows that he was brought here as a very, very small child before memory could hold, but seeing the outline of the city against the landscape is sending echoes to the back of his mind. Whisper of memory.

Phaedra's looking out at the city and it's, some part of it feels familiar, being back in the city again, I think. Yeah. It feels a little bit like home, but just so much bigger, so much older, and... Kind of for the first time, she's starting to think about what it means to, like, have a place, to have people that endure, who have existed for years before and who will continue to exist,

and that she just occupies a very tiny sliver of that moment in time that exists now. It's overwhelming. Garin's imagination had never really taken too much time to visualize what the city could have even looked like. It was just a distant myth that would never cross its path. Beholding its scale and scope, especially given the context of its survival over the past centuries. You can't help but be struck with awe, quiet awe. Big.

You're smart now, you can say more than that. What else am I supposed to say about that? No, you're right, that's fair. It is big. You finally have enough room to stretch. Yeah. Nia is looking at this city, realizing, or continuing to process the mission ahead of her.

She has a really grand task to let the people of the city know that change is here. And it isn't like what we could have possibly imagined. And there is incredible hardship ahead of us, but we have what we need. And Nia's just sort of working around her speech in her head while looking at this great city. Nia's a wanderer. She's been a lot of places, but she's never been to a place quite like this. Taking in the thousands upon thousands of people that call this place home. Seeing a city, seeing for the first time,

a structure that dwarfs Rybad Cold many times over. The vast neighborhoods and temples towering, a place that has been protected for so long by the Prime Deities. And you see a people, humans, elves, dwarves, vast and sundry peoples of Exandria, and a feeling here of panic,

but the kind of panic that precedes both hope and despair. Something is changing. As you walk in, I want everyone here to go ahead and give me a perception or an insight check, depending on what you're looking for in this moment. Good. Starting off all right. What do we got over here? 15. 15. One. Natural off all right. What do we got over here? 15. 15.

One. One. Natural 20, 26. What did we get over here? 16. 16. A measly 18. A measly 18. Fail. Unbelievable.

Nia, you are lost in thought. You are very much just dwelling on the task before you. As you walk in, Grryn'alin, the warrior that was a family friend of Eros, turns to you and says, Well, if need be, I can take you directly to Shadowbrook. That is where the High Priestess of the Moonweaver will be if you wish to speak with her.

Yeah. Yeah, that would be great. Thank you. I shall move and move swiftly. On that 16, was that perception or insight? Perception. What is Garin on the lookout for as you enter this new place?

I think he's, for one, I think he's gauging the general, and actually, you know what? I mean, it would be the same with perception or insight. It would be more of an insight, now that I think about it. They're both the same school. He'd be more interested in gauging the vibe of the populace, getting a feel for how much panic, tension, or comfort there exists amongst the people here

in these tail moments of the Calamity? Trying to look at the level of panic that are in the people here, what you see is a city that has, for the past several centuries, seen first and foremost to the defense of its relics, its people, its knowledge, those things gathered here. In some way, I think on that perception, Garan, you think of Lyanna's cash,

the mortal avatar of the Moonweaver who lived side by side with Nia for a mortal lifetime here in Exandria, the cache of things she hid at the bottom of the Stormpoint Mountains. This is that, times the effort of many of the Prime Deities in full force, and the vast cultures and learnings of Exandria,

knowing that if they could get here to the frozen north of Issylra, there'd be one place that they could be sure to hold onto that, and hold onto it they have dearly, through many assaults from the forces of the Betrayers. That being said, I think what you watch is a painful and panicked gear shift, where the highest priority has been the defense of self and the grooves of habit worn in by that. Now look at a city which may see advantage in turning its attention outward

for the first time. And there is fear in that, in a sense of if in combat you are on the ground holding your organs to not be kicked while you are down, and suddenly there is a pause and you realize after centuries, you need to put a palm on the ground and stand up. There is a moment of fear,

knowing that to press advantage and find true victory, you will have to make yourself vulnerable. On a 26, on a nat 20 insight. So smart. Crocus, what are you looking for in this place? I think Crocus is scanning the crowds as we walk through and trying to judge the general emotional sense of the crowd around him be that?

Are they... What is it like to walk down a street in this city? Is it dangerous? Is it scary? How is the vibe of this city? Is it a safe city? Is it a dangerous city? You believe that this is a safe city

for a certain type of person, but that this city has seen its darkest chapters unfold in this moment. You look around and do not see, for lack of a better word, there is not a lot of playfulness here. This is a place of worship. It is reverent.

There are certainly no open wizards walking around in this place. I think that you can feel that there is the sense of purpose that comes with this much faith collected in a place. Right. That for the purpose it serves, there is no safer place in Exandria.

For those outside that purpose, you walk in the shadow of great and mighty things. That gives some sense of unease, perhaps. Okay. What? On that 26 insight as well, I think, on a nat 20, you also look at Fiedra in this moment. And I think the orb hanging around that symbol

of the Knowing Mistress. See Phaedra. On that 20 insight, what does Crocus see on Phaedra's face? I think you see... I think normally, Phaedra, even when it's not true, she gives off the feeling of being completely on top of any situation that she walks into.

She's like instantly gets a read for stuff. And I think for the first time, you see Phaedra is looking around at this, just trying to put together the puzzle pieces of like, who are we here? What are we doing as part of this? And she is just lost and overwhelmed and trying not to show it, but yeah.

Featured on a 16. What are you looking for? I think I'm just going to do a little insight into how the rest of the people in the city are regarding us specifically, because we presumably look pretty obviously we're a bunch of travelers. We came in from out of town.

Yeah, if there's any sort of reaction to us as we pass through. You see that you're not getting a big reaction as travelers because travelers are pouring into the city. And you can see they're pouring in in a way that is actually blocking an almost equal force of people trying to pour out. I think you see some people, Crocus, you're nearby,

you see some people that appear to have hand wrappings and under some hand wrappings, some bloody knuckles, looks like unarmed combatants, speaking to each other, waiting for the tide of people flooding in to make their way out, because they're about to head out.

They look packed for a long, long journey somewhere. In the travelers that are rushing in, you see that the bigger emotion is felt by people flooding in who are similarly gawking. The ship that came from the southwest of Gwisar joined a lot of other ships. So your ship with Grynhollyn, there were many that were out looking for survivors.

And you see wagons from those ships coming in and recognize the other people that have escaped the Strife Emperor, which appears to be like a flood of people that headed for a coast anywhere, got picked up by ships. And on that, Sissi, you see a group of stragglers. Many of them look like maybe they haven't washed in weeks

because they've just been fleeing as fast as they can. In the back of that wagon is a figure that you look at for a second and narrow your eyes. The figure is almost monochromatic because he is so covered in dust and rubble, but underneath the dust and debris is a fine black velvet coat, and there is a little boy with a bandaged hand

in the back of a wagon, staring blankly ahead as a wagon moves into the city. Fuck. Grogus. You see those? The guy with the, that nice shirt and the kid? Yeah. With the hand? Uh-huh.

We need to fucking deal with them. that nice shirt in the kid with the hand. We need to fucking deal with them. He's the one who put that wound in his own child's hand. Okay. Nothing yet, but we keep an eye on him. Right. Yeah. On an 18, what is Ero looking for? Well, Ero, I don't know necessarily that Ero has

a mission in this place. He's largely here to serve as almost like a valet to Nia and to this group. But he hopes, he's certainly not any great orator almost like a valet to Nia and to this group. But he hopes, he's certainly not any great orator or leader, but he hopes that, depending on the circles Nia pulls us into, that all of us serve as an example for the thaw he's beginning

to perceive across this world. And I remember as a child, the numbers that would come into Seagate from Quasar and elsewhere was anemic. Not many would make it to us. Some would choose to finish their journey Quasar and elsewhere was anemic. Not many would make it to us. Some would choose to finish their journey and stay in the town where I was raised, and some would continue on here to this city,

but the sheer scale of travelers is just further proof that this world is not the one I have known for my entire life. And if I can impart that to any of the decision makers of this place, that's enough. They have looked inward for centuries. But if there's going to be new growth, I have to get out of their walled garden. Moving through the streets of Vasselheim,

you head towards the neighborhood of Shadowbrook, nearer to the base of the Heaven's Stair, massive staircase going up the mountains. You see a babbling series of brooks, this ice-cold, crystal-clear water collecting in these mirrored pools around a very small neighborhood of these stone buildings. And you see many of the buildings have these massive dolmen stones set over their doorways

with writings in Sylvan and Celestial on them. You see that there are small little public bird baths that are left with small offerings for the fey in this place, those friends of the Moonweaver. As Gwinnallan moves you through this place, those friends of the Moonweaver. As Gronalen moves you through this place, you see a truly panicked mob gathered around a massive stone temple that holds that crescent moon of the Moonweaver over it.

You see people are holding each other, some people are weeping, and you see that many of the people that are weeping as you approach appear to be clerics of the Moonweaver. Can you take a little bottle or vial of that crystal clear water? Yes. Cool, thank you.

And then can I look for, I'm seeing all these panicked people, I don't know if I necessarily want to disturb them yet. I would love to talk to a leader or a high priestess if possible. Yes. You move forward into the temple and you see Grenalin comes up and speaks with one of the guards there.

Turning around, it is rare to see a elven woman that shows any sign of aging. And perhaps it isn't aging, perhaps she just hasn't slept in a century. But with bags under her eyes and this beautiful wavy hair that flows out that is nonetheless not perfectly kempt in these silvery,

sort of like plum and silver wrappings of her hair, steps out and comes forward, tending to various people. She goes to one of the nearby warriors that holds a moon-shaped silver sickle as their soul weapon and just goes, We must attend to all that are here. An explanation is coming.

I've reached out to the Farseer, Volsting. You see someone comes up who has a symbol of the Knowing Mentor around them and says, My Lady Eldanwen, Volsting has fallen. He is terribly ill and requires some healing of some kind. And you see she says, Aye, aye, and looks to her hands

and holds them in prayer, speaking a prayer that she has spoken many times before, and nothing comes. You can see her shaking with a sense of panic. It's as good a time as ever to introduce myself. Be careful. Thank you, Karthus. Lady, hi.

My name is Rhaenya. I believe I have information you seek about our Moonweaver. She looks at you and says, I, um. I understand you have a large gathering of people you need to attend to. Is there a place we can speak privately, briefly?

She tries to very quickly flash the thing that Luz had, to be like, I'm valid, I swear. She looks to you and says, you are a member of our brethren, our sisterhood. What abbey or temple, what glade do you hail from? None. I am someone who's been given a gift and just now learning how to use it.

Self-taught. More or less. Go ahead and give me Persuasion with disadvantage. Okay. She didn't like my Moonweaver symbol? She didn't like my book? This place is crawling with Moonweaver symbols. They got Moonweaver symbols all over the place.

All the novelty shops on the way in. Yeah, there's a little rotating kiosk that has this fucking full. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You can get one with your name on it. A bunch of Moonwriters. Sean, Steve, Susan. So they're actually like, oh, you were homeschooled.

My son is named Bort. Yeah, my son is also Bort. Only a 14. Only a 14. Can I, I can't do anything. She looks at you and says, congratulations on finding the Path of the Moonweaver. I am very busy.

Can I, oh god, this is so much. I have that letter opener, right? Yeah. Can I slice my hand? You see her go, hello! Wait, wait, wait! And I'm going to close it, and then try and cast Cure Wounds on myself. And open my palm up and see that it is no longer cut.

And be like, and open my palm up and see that it is no longer cut. And be like, I understand you are overwhelmed. I'm here to help relieve some of that. I think you should listen. We've all witnessed miracles at the behest of this one. Please come with me. At once. And you see she turns,

she moves out into the street, and you see a group of moonweaver faithful gather around her, walking. Vasselheim is a bizarre mixture of highest reverence and deep humility. The streets are not paved here. They are muddy and filled with stones. And you see her walk.

The hem of her beautiful, deep plum purple with sparkles of gemstones or small flecks of iridescent things within it trails in the mud behind her, and she walks her boots muddy and dirty. Those gathered around her hold tattered pennants and banners of the Moonweaver, almost like she would be traveling in a carriage

or a palanquin in some greater imperial city. But here, just four of the faithful with pennants gather around her as she walks herself to this next place. She turns to you, going, Your name again, child? I'm sorry. Nia. You can call me Nia. Nia. I am Eldanwen. You wield a miracle.

Give me an insight check. Cha-cha! Please. Oh, not too bad. You said insight? Mm-hmm. Ge-ge-ge-ge-ge. Oh goodness, great. 21.

The relationship between faith and doubt is a complicated one. This is a woman who has wielded not just the magic of the Moonweaver, but some of the greatest magics of the Moonweaver, who now looks at her frail and faltering hands and cannot understand why the magic is not coming to her. And given the silence ringing behind her eyes,

this is a woman who feels a relationship to her goddess faltering, and given the choice to blame the goddess or herself, you can see is blaming herself in this moment and does not know what to make of that. Been there. You, um... I will try not to take up too much of your time. I, the Moonweaver, and you see Nia trying to explain

how her sister is the Moonweaver, but also not, and she takes the book that she'd been writing, her story, and puts it in her hands and says, When I am gone, you can read this and know this. The Moonweaver is not gone. Our gods are not gone. They are behind a gate to protect us from their siblings and the betrayers. It is... I understand that there has been a lessening of magic.

It is not because you have failed in any way. It is because we now have to find new ways to rebuild. My sister... You say your sister. Why, as dear a relationship as that is, I just have never heard. My sister's technically the Moonweaver. She means it quite literally.

Yes. Oh, show her the orb. You are a... Oh, I place the orb in her hands while it's still around my neck so that she can see what we saw. Huh. Quite literally. Yeah.

She turns to one of her attendants and says, Find Morgana and Rux right away. We should all meet. We need to see to Volsing. We need to see to the Farseer. And you see that she says, Would you come with me to the Runekeep? Yes, can my friends come?

Yes, yes, by all means. We all walk in the light of the, yeah, we all walk in the light. We follow you. Yeah. About told us. Fuck it, whatever. You see this, all that this woman's whole vibe is is that she should be sitting on a throne,

backlit by mystical light coming from another dimension and giving cryptic answers to the pointed questions of adventurers. And instead, she woke up a couple days ago and couldn't cast magic. And has been flopping like a fish on a dock kind of sense then, and her whole vibe is ruined. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. A woman with a ruined vibe, just walking, being like, okay, this, I guess, what, like, 19-year-old is telling me what time it is, or whatever, or I guess half-elf's so much older than that, but still young. A young woman is telling this ancient elven woman. Also very, like, still, she doesn't have a, Nia doesn't have an incredible grasp, truly,

on what has happened, what is happening, what is going to happen, what she should do. She is still like, still I think feeling the effects of that Nat one of like, I have the tools of a leader and the dreams of a survivor. She is feeling quite like, she's of that similar vibe of like, I have much more power than I thought I would ever need.

And is just trying to give all the helpful information to the people who she believes would utilize it better than herself. Walking with her, you approach an area within Vasselheim, this tall, blocky structure. You can see that around it, there are panels of stone turning on massive stone wheels and plinth.

Every square inch of this massive, blocky keep is covered head to toe in runes, vast and many, written large and then small. The lintels of the doors have runes some four inches tall, but then some molding, and that molding will have the little half-inch runes some four inches tall, but then some molding, and that molding will have the sort of little half-inch runes written along that,

but then on the ridges of that, even smaller, are written others in language upon language upon language, and you see within this holy site of the Knowing Mentor. As you walk within, the smell of incense is so strong and powerful here. You see, wearing heavy cloaked robes, the faithful of the Knowing Mentor walk inside this place. You see the runes alight, and I think,

actually, you can all look and see that as Crocus walks, his clawed footprints leave a little bit of glowing magic behind as they step on the rune covered, even the floors here are covered in runes. Moving forward, you enter a holy chamber, moving up a short staircase to rows of dormitories. And you see, in keeping with a cloistered order,

that the bedroom of what they call the Farseer is as humble as any of the Cloistered Order gathered here. There's no grand or palatial bedroom, but you walk inside and see two figures side by side. There is a half-orc, old, old half-orc man, big cowcatcher chin, two tusks coming up, but he looks frail. He looks sort of like he's wasting away.

You see that he has a kind of like multiple sort of stick and poke tattoos over him, and one of the tattoos written in runes, but the writing creates a hieroglyphic shape of an eye in the center of his forehead. And you see that he shakes, blankets piled on top of him, but is shaking under a disease. Next to him, you see a dwarven matriarch, priestess, warrior, smith, crafter,

a cube of a woman who she stands. She has this massive bearskin mantle over thick leather and scale armor. She is sitting on a small stool. The stool strains under the armor, giant stone hammer on an amulet around her neck. She has scars and injuries on her

that are far from cosmetic. There is an injury. She's missing about three or four teeth from the top and a little bit of the bone of her upper jaw. You can see the lip hangs down from an old injury here. She has seen battle. You look at some of the rubble out on the wall and you wonder if she was not in the direct line

of some of those blasts from earlier. And you see that there is an enormous, round steel shield next to her, that you see has a symbol on it of a cracked anvil. You see that she holds this old, this orc has these, she's very tall and gangly, has this long, frail hand, and she's got these squat, strong, blocky hands

that are grasping this old orc, and you can see that she's just pouring divine magic out of herself into the hand of the Farseer. As you enter with Eldan, into the hand of the Farseer. As you enter with Eldanwen, you see her speaking in, who here can speak Dwarven? Strangely.

Strangely. What she says over and over again is just going, I know I cannot hear you, but please hear me. I know I cannot hear you, but please hear me. I know I cannot hear you, but please hear me. I know I cannot hear you, but please hear me. As this healing magic pours out, Nia, sort of effortlessly, you can feel or tell

that the healing magic is entering over and over again, and it is not finding purchase. It is not finding what it needs to find in here. Okay. I look to Aldonwen to see if she's giving me a lead to enter this space. Yes, you see she enters and gives introduction. She says, Morgana, I am sorry

to disturb you. This is Rhaenya. And you see Morgana turns and goes, Rhaenya, I don't know you, my child. No, and I don't know you, but I have information about the availability or lack thereof of our gods. She looks at you and says, So it is true. And you see Eldan one says, My mistress's magic has left me.

And you see that Morgana turns to you and says, Strange are the tidings here. You see she steps up, placing the hand of the Farseer gently on his chest, and goes... She turns to you and goes, I am Morgana Thundershield. I am forge keeper of the Allfather here in Vassalheim.

You see that she looks to you and says, you bring tidings of what has befallen the Moonweaver. Yes. You see Eldanwen turns to you and says, our connection to the gods is the most precious thing that we have. And we have long sent our hearts out to We have long sent our hearts out to

our sisters and siblings in the followers of the Allhammer. our sisters and siblings in the followers of the Allhammer. And you see that Morgana looks down and says, And you see that Morgana looks down and says, Though our magic is availed to us, none of our order have heard, none in living memory have heard the Allhammer's voice. We feared him, dead, captured or worse when the gods war certainly there are mortal prices to pay

of course you see she looks to Elda and says but strange it is for for many years the followers of the moon weaver have joined us as well in being unable to hear For many years, the followers of the Moonweaver have joined us as well in being unable to hear

the words of reassurance of their goddess. And we fear the worst now that their magic has left them. It may have left some, but not all. Aldaemon speaks and says, Rhaenya is a cleric, newly forged, of the Moonweaver, who has her miracles at hand. And you see that Morgana sort of squints.

It... I... And I know this sounds ridiculous, but I am the mortal sister of the Moonweaver herself. Or a piece of her lived. She sort of hits that lived hard, lived within my sister. And before she left, she shared with me that I will have her magic as long as I continue to hold faith. And I'm continuing to hold faith.

So it is all very confusing. And Nia still is like, she worked on the speech on the ship and none of it is coming to her in this moment. But she just does what she always does and offers how she can be helpful. She has miracles on hand. I travel with my companions

and we all have different gifts, but I think I need to share Liana, the Moonweaver's message with the people, or at least the people of this order. The arrow has been hanging back for quite a while and speaks up from the rear. This young woman has crossed the Azmit Sea to carry the words of the Moonweaver from her very lips to you. Afraid from the clutches, the Strife Emperor himself

reclined out of the ash of southern Gwassar so that she might come and bring hope. The one who must bear witness. Yes. And I'm now a woman of faith. Never have been, but I cannot deny what I've seen and heard from this woman. Her power, her faith is undeniable. I walk. Eldanwyn looks to you, along with Morgana.

Actually, I was just, as we perfunctorily make these phrases, I gently tap the hearth's hammer at my side while looking towards Morgana. Mm-hmm. You tap the hammer at your side, looking at Morgana. You see she looks at you, smiles, gives a knowing nod as a member of the same faith. You see that Eldenwyn says,

I do not know. If the Moonweaver has spoken to you, she told you that she need leave this place. Yes. They all are. That cannot be. You see, Morgana looks up at you and goes, the Allhammer would not abandon this world.

They are not the same thing. It is a mercy, I swear. It, from what was shared with me, it is their influence, their presence on this world has allowed for great evil, despite the intentions of the gods. They are taking leave to protect us from them. It sounds ridiculous, I know.

But there are pockets of power available. I have one. I cannot imagine I'm the only person. Maybe of the Moonweaver, I'm the only. But there is work to be done. I cannot imagine I'm the only person. Maybe of the Moonweaver, I'm the only, but there is work to be done. Eldanwen, in this moment, I think you see Eldanwen

struggling mightily. Am I close enough to Eldenwin to take her hand? Yeah. I take her hand and I put my other hand over it. You are no longer meant to fare alone. There is power that I have that I am readily available to share with you if you remind yourself to keep faith in a god far away.

As the words, keep faith in a god far away, resound, you see her heart break and she collapses into you, all pride gone. These clerics are servants and they strive for humility, but in striving, there is that desire in the back of every cleric's mind to be the greatest servant. And the desire for that greatness

is itself sometimes an obstacle to the humility that is required to serve. You see here, as you hold her, that hubris collapses and gives way to true humility. She wipes a tear from her eyes. It has been my greatest honor to serve her and my life's greatest joy, to learn to share her miracles.

During the darkest hours of the Calamity, I always felt her at my side. To wield her magic was effortless. Perhaps it will be an even greater joy to learn to build it up again anew. And I would guess the faith, the devotion to rebuilding,

you will see something strong within yourself that you may have never known. This is an opportunity. Dare I say a boon? She smiles, and you hear a sudden from the bed as the Farseer awakens. Can you go to him? Yeah. She goes to him.

She tries to copy Morgana's, just takes his hand and tries to copy Morgana's, just takes his hand and tries to cure or heal or help or just keep him holding. Go ahead. You can pour that energy in there, but I'd also ask for a medicine check. You can do so with advantage as you pour actual healing magic into her.

Crocus goes over to the Moonweaver Priestess and just kind of picks her up under her feet and goes, Strength starts now. And I pick her up and make sure she's standing. She's standing again. And you see her looking

and you see her immediately for whatever disaster has befallen her and you see her looking, and you see her immediately for whatever disaster has befallen her station. It's mostly a disaster of people like to have a role, and she's been the one with all the answers. Instead, she looks at this young cleric, in a true sense, a prophet, a messenger of a divine truth,

and studies your hands to see how you are doing what you're doing. Learn to learn again. And walks away from her and goes to Aros. Mm-hmm. He looks at Krokus. Who are you? You said medicine?

Medicine, roll with advantage. Oh, I will! Entirely unreadable dice. I know, just math. 23. 23! Yes! There you go. 16.

No, I'm just looking at the die. It's pretty. Yeah. Nia never knew the world that Eldanwen knew. Eldanwen knew the height of Calamity and how to call a... She was a young elf at the outset of Calamity and has lived an entire long life in Vasselheim, wielding the magic of the Moonweaver, which those circumstances were at their worst.

She saw her god's physical face and felt the hand on her back every time. Every time she cast a Guidance cantrip, the presence of the divine was a known fact. And what does she see in this new world when a cleric has to call on the aid of the divine, not as just seeking intercession from a god. In other words, in all of the past centuries of Exandria, every divine spell was a direct intercession from a deity.

Now it's not. It's you. So what does she see in this moment as you go to heal the Farseer? She... The Farseer hasn't spoken at all. No, he's had a raspy breath. I think Nia just speaks to him of her dreams,

of the deals that her sister and herself made to find each other on the moon again one day. And she just talks of her dreams, talks of her hopes. She's very like bedside manner. Everything's going to be fine. One day my sister and I, we joked and, and laughed and shared and loved.

And even in those dark scary times our love carried us through. And she's just pouring as much love and feelings of safety and of just that hope that comes with knowing that there is joy in the future. That hope pours out of you. Anyone who wants to can make a religion check, if you would like to, that feels appropriate now.

I think, sorry. Yeah. I think, is the Farseer, is that another Nat Dwayne? Okay. Is the Farseer's eyes open or are his eyes closed? Oh, his eyes are open. She takes out the mirror, and I'm assuming he's lying on his back. She takes out the mirror, and I'm assuming he's lying on his back.

She takes out the mirror and tries to reflect her hand, holding his, so that he may see in this moon mirror that help is here, help is available, and joy is in the future. The Farseer looks into the mirror. What did we get for these religion checks? Oh, I'm pulling a Nettle of Hope from my fingernail. I rolled a six. Great.

Three. Three. We're only up to 18. 18. Or 11. 11. Phaedra, I think you're looking, as you've said, you're not a person of faith. And there's always been something about the direct intercession of the gods. Like, you something about the direct intercession of the gods.

Like, you lived under the direct intercession of the Strife Emperor for a long fucking time. I don't know how chuffed you are at the idea of the gods running around. And in fact, probably some part of you, if the goal is for the gods to all leave, hey, shit. It makes an interesting world. Mom and dad are going away for the weekend. Hey, shit. That makes an interesting world, you know? Mom and dad are going away for the weekend. Easy, Marla. But what you see here

is that in the center of Vasselheim, Nia works a miracle. And the miracle is that these spells of healing and of communion with the forces of nature and divinity in all the preceding ages of Exandria

were heartfelt requests from the followers of these divinities for their direct intercession. Nia, through and mediated by her love followers of these divinities for their direct intercession. Nia, through and mediated by her love of her sister, the Moonweaver, shows that that divine source lives in a mortal heart as well, and it's her belief that intercedes on her own behalf. That belief that there is a reunion coming on the moon,

far away in its shining silver light, that her and her sister will be reunited. And that, for the first time, does not need to be literal, does not need to feel the hand of the divine come crashing down. There is divinity in that belief itself, and that heals the Farseer. Go!

Looks into the mirror, his eyes focusing. Hi, there you are. Hi, I'm Rhaenya. Welcome back. A miracle made by hand. Thank you. Careful, careful now. She just rests the mirror on, he's on a bed of some kind, I'm assuming.

Yeah. Yeah, she just rests it on that and immediately puts her focus to him. The easy days are behind us. Yes. Oh no. But we can create easy days. It will be a long time in the doing, but I have nothing better to do with my time

than to make a better world. I'd like to show you something. Ferkis? You know how you put your, yeah. He walks over to the bed, ducks underneath the canopy, puts the orb in the hand of the man. He holds it in these frail old hands.

So that's how it all happened. I have just awoken from a deep and painful slumber. You should keep this. I was planning on it. It's not a gift. He looks and says, and says, Knowledge is a heady brew,

best consumed and shared in equal parts Knowledge is a heady brew, best consumed and shared in equal parts by all, and not hoarded by the very few at the expense of those with little. He looks, and as the Farseer, as this head of those devotees of the Knowing Mistress, he looks at Eldenwyn and looks at Morgana.

You see that you hear a sort of clopping of hooves outside, and you see that there's, out the window, a kobold, armored in platinum armor, riding a bighorn ram, disembarks a symbol of the platinum dragon over the symbol. You see he has, what to most people would be a spear, but to him is clearly a knight's lance that he places on the side of the bighorn ram.

And you see that as the Farseer begins speaking, and goes, Nothing. It seems my mistress has joined your sister. Those of my order, those closest to her all felt it. She has suffered an eternal injury, paid a great price in battle. I felt the wound and nearly died and would have followed, but for your intercession and the power of your faith. A word, let now, holds even greater weight as the new age dawns. Faith has flowed effortlessly as the gods have walked the world.

To wield their magic now will require, actually, some believing in things unseen and far removed. There is great work to be done. Okay. We will study with you, if we can, Rhaenya, to see how your magic is wielded, for the gods wish to give their gifts still, but their gifts cannot be handed freely. They must be sought by the pure of heart and those of strong conviction.

Also, their plan, their great plan, is in jeopardy. The last and great battles are soon to be fought far, far away. The final conflicts will unfold underneath the long and terrible shadow of Gordranas. That is where the final clashes will occur. But a great and hideous evil has been sealed

at great cost to my mistress. Now there is some chance. However, in her parting, she relayed to me a truth that the Moonweaver has relayed to you. He turns to Morgana and Eldanwen and says, The truth is as she says,

the gods are leaving. You see Eldanwen weeps and you see that Morgana just spits on the ground and crosses her arms, looking grumpy. Yeah. You all process differently. You see, walking in, this armored kobold walks in and says, yeah. So small.

He looks up at you and you see he looks up and says, brother. You see he speaks out and says, I am Rux Tallheart, paladin of the platinum dragon. Rux, you said? Rux, R-U-X. Thank you. As he looks around,

and you see that Morgana turns and says, Like ourselves, those followers of the Platinum Dragon have not heard from their god in many long years. And you see that Rux speaks and says, It troubles me not that I do not hear from him. If our hearts are true, we follow, in song or in silence. To defend the walls of Vasselheim has been an honor. You see that the Farseer speaks and goes,

And now the battle moves to Wildemount. You see that, looking out from this place, you see that the Farseer in the bed says, The battles that unfold in Wildemount will be great and terrible. Beings of raw divine energy will seek to make the last push against the Scaled Tyrant and the Lord of the Hells. However, there is a problem much thornier and more complex than simple clashing

of army on army. All of the gods must be found and leave this world in order for this gate to be sealed. Several of the prime deities are captured or missing. several of the prime deities are captured or missing. Even with the Lord of the Hells and the Scaled Tyrant defeated, if they are simply sealed away, Even with the Lord of the Hells and the Scaled Tyrant defeated,

if they are simply sealed away, then he gestures to the orb, one enterprising archmage need only snap his fingers and the Calamity is reborn anew. We must find these captured or banished deities somewhere. They are within Exandria. You see he... Looking out at you, he speaks and says, In your journeys, you do not come by any travelers

or possibilities. You see Morgana arches an eyebrow and says, Did you pass any massive sealed gateways between crystal obelisks that seem to have some god captured behind them? Like, half a dozen. You see she laughs and says, Some pragmatism, I think, is in order, certainly. We did cross paths with a few of the deities, if you can believe it, but not the ones you are seeking.

She wipes her brows and says, Eldamon looks and says, It has been a long, long day. Nia, would you stay here in Vasselheim for a time to help teach what we may learn? Your connection to your divinity may be a road for us to take to attempt to wield the magic of our own gods. Nia looks at Ero and

is trying to gauge. Nia would love to stay, Nia would love to help, but she is not alone, and she does not want to put her needs over the needs of the group and of the team. She says, I will stay for as long as I can, but I move with my party. I will stay for as long as I can, but I move with my party. Mm-hmm. I will stay for as long as I can. She nods. You see that Rox turns to you and says,

Well, long days of travel, bellies need filling. Mm, aye. We'll be happy to give you accommodations here in Vasselheim. Thank you. Let the wealth be shared, and food and drink, libations given. Libations.

Oh, I can know what that word means now. The Farseer looks and says, There will be more to speak of. Thank you for saving my life. The knowledge you have gleaned and the path you have taken here provides some strand of hope for the battles yet to come in Exandria.

It is unending. And you see that Rux takes you guys out from the Farseer's Chamber and brings you over to a frigid, outdoor hall. You see people dressed in furs, and he comes over and says, Cloaks and furs? It's chilly here in Vasselheim,

especially for us scale types. Important to stay warm. Fine. He'll be fine. Ah! Yes, you will, brother. You are a mighty, mighty combatant, I can see. Tall and broad of shoulder.

Best in the business. You've got an imposing figure yourself. Small I am in stature, but it bothers me not. The smaller the man, the greater his share of bravery on the battlefield. The things I've seen my friend here do, I do believe it. Ah. Yeah.

And to what god are you devoted? Oh. You know, as such changing times, I'm sort of between deities at the moment. But I have faith in my companions. I have faith in Nia. I have seen all of the gods bestow wonderful gifts, both real, tangible gifts,

but gifts in many other ways, in my companions, and my faith lies with them. Exceptional. Is that the change bringer, or was it just? Yes. Ha ha! A cagey answer for a follower of the Changebringer. Oh, you got me. All hail the Changebringer.

All right. Snorts and big puffs of hot air come out of his nose. You see he says, very well, some stew for my friends. And you see that he walks off to go get some food. Garn's going to lean in and elbow Nia in the side a bit and be like, So, not too bad for your first time in Vasselheim, eh? Not bad at all.

Nia confides in this moment of, I have no idea what I'm doing. Here's the secret. Nobody ever does. Oh, that's good. That feels good. What are you going to put on a habit now? I mean, I'm guessing I have to.

I don't even know anything about the change. I guess you've got to figure it out. I do. Bad habit. I tell jokes. Welcome's a bad habit. I tell jokes. Welcome to the new world. Eros telling jokes. Eros doing bits now.

If this wasn't the change we thought was coming. Then yet it's here. Everyone's going to tell more jokes. It doesn't fix anything, but. Yeah, we laugh. That does good. I call it Eros humor. I'll be here all night.

Kill him. I'm so mad. Kill him, kill him now! As your laughter rings out, hearing the sound of your laughter, you hear behind you, Nia. Nia? Ring Nia? Whit Pan, turn. How does this possibly

keep happening? I know a lot of people. Well, you were told that two people did come to Vasselheim, and your mother and father rush through the crowd towards you. Push past as many bodies as are in between me and my parents,

and I just like, I don't push that hard. Yeah. On the table? push past as many bodies that are in between me and my parents. Perfect strip of balls. I don't push that hard. On the table. Just leaps into her father's arms, scoops her mother up as well, just holds them and is laughing, not weeping. She just laughs and laughs and laughs, probably cry laughs a little bit,

but there's no sadness here. There's only that weird, that like feeling of when confirmation bias turns into confirmation. She knew that this was going to happen. And so she just feels a sense of pride within herself of like, this is what happens when you never give up and just is held by her parents.

Your parents weeping. Your mother, an elven woman, you see that she has band after band around her like silvery white locks that go down to the middle of her back. Your father, a human man, grasps you and holds you both tight, lifts you up into his arms and portals you both around.

He's just weeping, weeping. He sees this, I can't believe it. I can't believe it. Just wait until I tell you what's happened. Lyanna found us and said that she was going to meet you at Torm's Hill. We have to talk about Lyanna.

These are my friends. Is she all right? Yes, she's... She's okay. She is not... And she can't get the words out. Your mother holds her. I was there when it happened.

She is the Moonweaver? Give me both your heads. I love this routine! Love this routine! I think while this is happening, too, the reunion here, looking at the hammer, looking at all this chaos, Garin looks over to a completely unrelated raven that's on the ground

eating a piece of trash and just goes, You did this, didn't you? Yeah! Ah! Ah! Um. Fuh-fuh-fuh-fuh-fuh. Okay.

Yeah, Crocus delivers that message, and I think Nia is just like, She's okay, she's well, she's fine, she's not here, but she's watching, and she got me here. She told me that you guys would be here, and I have power unlike I've ever seen, and I'm...

Your dad goes, Am I a god? No. Thank you. That is a fuck ton of a download for a mom and dad. Yeah. Yeah. And you see your mom's like, I'm so sad that I've lost my daughter, but my daughter's alive, but my other daughter,

but she's still, she kind of can't die. Wow, one of my daughters can't die. Can you die? Yes. Oh no! But I won't! Good. For a time, I hope. For a time!

You say that your dad, he's like, not for a time! Your dad goes, well that's the deal. Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, wow, wow. Wow, wow, wow. I, we, and Nia just sort of like info dumps, like I found Arrow, Arrow found me, Wow. Nia just info dumps. I found Ero. Ero found me.

I think right now she introduces Ero to her parents of, this is the man who kept me alive. He feels very awash in a feeling of satisfaction, but also awkwardness, and not sure what his place even is at this moment, where he has been trying to act like a protector, but now we're in the strongest city in the world, and she's with her mother and father,

and he just tries to set aside that wash of feelings. It's a pleasure to meet you both. Ah, they both hug you deeply. Just immediately, you are embraced. This very warm family. You see that the father, Casimir, is just weeping openly. Marcia, your mother, goes, Raised two good daughters.

Weeps and goes, I cannot thank you enough. There is a gratitude greater than any other that a parent holds for one that has seen their child through fire and torment to safety once again. We owe you everything. She's enriched my life. Gift is mine. Well, our home is your home forevermore,

and should you ever need a bed or a full belly, she says, please, come to our home. Come to our home! You have to see our home! I have to see your home. Are we still getting stew? Stew aplenty. And I think that in this moment, Everybody's still getting stew. Stew aplenty. I think that in this moment,

having arrived safely in Vasselheim, I will ask if there's anything you all do that night. You have been asked to stay here to show this manner of faith and prayer to the clerics of Vasselheim in this way. Yeah. But you journey with a group of people. And I think that as that night wears on,

you guys are eating and getting stew. That group of like, sort of like bloody hand-wrapping people, they head out that night headed for Wildemount. And I think you see Crocus, some of them like look at you with a nod of just familiarity as they see a fearsome unarmed combatant much like them,

as they prepare to head to Wildemount for the final, it seems like the Dawn City has gotten the memo and it is the great final clashes are going to happen and we need to head to Wildemount. I don't know what else goes on. For the rest of you, let me ask what you do either that very night or indeed if you wish to stay for some time,

you certainly have earned some rest. Yeah. But before I rest, I think I am going to try and find a certain velvet suit-wearing lord. Yes! See if I can find him. Just watch him for a little bit.

Oh, I was like, who? Ashton! Yes, I'm like, who? Ashton! Yes, my boss? I smash places with crocus. So I know. It's fine. Huh? She must have watched Elton John perform. You see,

so you go ahead and start to look for this lord. Go ahead and give me an investigation check, Phaedra. Did you bring me with you? Not great. Oh yeah, 100, I always, I'll always do this. Unless like otherwise noted. It's not great, it's a 12. 12. I think a 12. 12.

I think you search through it. I'm helping. Can I give it advantage? Yes, you can give it advantage. Go for it. Do it with advantage. I'll just roll this one again. That was worse. Worse. Still 12. I'll say this.

On a 12, I think that it takes you a while. Vasselheim's a big city. I think, for the most part, I think time unfolds here. Then we're going to move through time a little bit. Nia, there's busy work for you here, working with the other clerics.

Also, as time goes on, the followers of the Moonweaver have joined the Knowing Mistress. The Farseer communicates to you that the Knowing Mistress suffered a great and terrible injury somewhere in the world. Those followers now also need to learn this new way of not just asking for the direct intercession,

but really it's the power of their belief that is making that magic happen. It is a harder way of doing it. It's a harder way of wielding the magic. It is something that changes forever the nature of Exandria. And as time goes on, the other high priests of the Prime Deities here begin to understand

that this is going to be the new way it works, and that their gods are also going to go behind this gate. While we're out looking for this person, I'm walking with you. Can I talk to you about something? Yes, you've never asked me that before. How could I say no? I'd argue I wasn't capable.

That's fair. Why do I call you boss? Because you're my bodyguard. I am your boss. Same with, you know, Otto, Tavine, all the boys. That's not what I mean. You, for lack of a better term, hatched me.

I did. I was just a kid who won a dragon egg in a card game one day, and, you know, life is funny in that way. Yeah. You're the best, best victory prize I ever got. Hmm. I think you need to examine those words a little bit.

I know that might make me feel that you don't refer to me as your child, but as your bodyguard. Yeah. I, I don't have a mom or a dad.

I have you. And that's it. And I'm working for you. You call the rest of the group your boys. But I'm your bodyguard that's fucked up no Fedra for maybe the first time he read that you've seen her she's just completely speechless Speechless. I... I... I come down to my...

I reach your face. Yeah. I am so sorry, Crocus. Yeah. You know I love you. Yeah. And... You know I love you. Huh. And you are my world. You are everything to me. It's everything that I do. It's so that maybe one day you can have a better life, an easier one, a happier one. I don't know if that ever translated.

You may feel that way, but I, until now, didn't know anything. I didn't know how to articulate any of this, but you didn't teach me either. You know? I think maybe it's because I didn't know. I think... I'm not as smart as you think I am, or as I pretend to be.

But you're the smartest person I know. So? You need smarter friends. I needed a mom. Not to fight for a boss. He's going to start walking away. As Crocus departs, Phaedra, you are left in a muddy crossroad in a city of solemn, grave, and faithful people. Your heroic journey to get here has left you alone at this crossroads, searching for a lord in a velvet suit.

You have a tattoo of a roach on your body. You're, deep down, a criminal. You've had a whole life of double-crossing, being ruthless, blackmailing people, slitting throats that needed to be slit. Do you think any of these pious people in these city streets actually have a place for you when the new day comes?

Even Crocus is walking away from you right now. What are you feeling in this moment? day comes, even Crocus is walking away from you right now. What are you feeling in this moment? Fy'ra just stands still because it truly feels like the rest of the world is just going on and moving and changing in all these incredible ways. And Phaedra just stands there because it feels like her clock, the one that's been ticking inside her heart,

the one that's been keeping her going this whole time, for the first time, she feels like it's stopped. It's just stuck. There's no ticking. It's just stuck. There's no ticking. It's just silence. And standing there, watching everyone else pass her by on the streets, she feels just

invisible, almost. As you feel invisible, almost. As you feel invisible, you do fade into the shadows for a second. Give me perception check. Oh. That one. Ooh! You're a halfling. Oh, You're a halfling.

Oh, you're a halfling. Oh shit! Oh yeah! Oh, oh! Good looking out, good looking out. Thank you. Perception? Yeah. 14.

14. Better than 1. Better than that one. You hear a little sort of muffled from one of your pockets. Key? Is that you? Yeah, that's me! Okay.

Pull out the key. What are you? You've been walking around. Are you looking for somebody right now? Yeah. No, there's this guy, this real bad guy. I met him, I served him when I was back in Rybad Kol. I mean, I think he's a, he at least was, back when I knew him,

a devotee of the Betrayer Gods. Also, he stabbed his own son. Ew! Yeah. Ew! Crazy man. You see, it says, okay. Do you want to, if he's near a door... Yes. I can help you find him if you want.

If he's not near a door, then this just won't work, and I am sorry in advance. No, no, no. All right, you... All right. I love him. Key. Listen, world's full of doors. There's got to be... He's got to be near one, right right. I love him. Key, listen, world's full of doors. There's gotta be, he's gotta be near one, right?

Let's do this. Unless he's way outside, but people that dress in velvet don't like to sleep in fields. That's true. Okay, don't, this is a trickier one than just opening a door. Okay.

Look into the gem and give me a formal, do the thing. Okay. Dear, dear Key, it's Phaedra. Hello. Hi, Phaedra. I am formally requesting you to find this motherfucker that I know who stabbed his son. Please. Okay. Give me a little bit more,

give me a little more description about the guy because motherfucker's not super technical. Okay. And if we can get, if we can get a, if we can do wish instead of request, just for the whole pomp and circumstance. Okay, I, hello again, Key. Hi, Phaedra. Phaedra.

I, hello again, Key. Hi, Phaedra. Phaedra. I wish that I could find this elven, right? Or he was human. He was human. Oh, right, right, right. This human wearing a, he was covered in rubble, but he was wearing this black velvet suit. Find that specific motherfucker that I just described. He stabbed his own son, please.

Ruby light. You're looking through a keyhole. You see this key can look out of any keyhole in the city. And as you look through it, you see, sleeping in a bed somewhere near the city's entrance, this human lord is slumbering. It looks like his lady wife

has not made the journey to Vasselheim with them, but sleeping uncovered by any blanket or sheet, curled up in a fetal position on the floor at the foot of the bed, is the boy. So the father and the boy are both here in Vasselheim. And you look out the window and think you know the building. There is an open window to the icy air

that is coming in as the lord sleeps under many blankets and the boy shivers at the ground at the foot of the bed. I'm going to go over there. Hell yeah. I say, thank you so much, Ki. You know, it's just you and me now. What? It's just you and me. My boy.

I've abandoned my son! No! Fuck. Yeah. Damn! And I put the key back in my bag. Jesus Christ. Oh, Fy'ra's a fucked up person. Great. Honesty's important.

You slink over and see this stone building. Easy handholds in the blocks, the open window up above near the entrance to the city. You find it pretty easily. Okay. And I think that I can triangulate which specific room that he's in. Well, you see a couple of windows

and only one of them is open. I try to climb up to there and stealthily peek in. Hell yeah, go ahead and give me acrobatics. Difficulty 10. What do I add? Is it dex or strength? Dex plus proficiency. Oh, then in that case, 12.

Hell yeah. Yeah. You screw it up. Cr crouch in the windowsill. You look and see the rubble-covered boy at the foot of the bed, shivering, and the lord sleeping in his bed. Go ahead and give me a stealth check. Wait, I believe I got advantage on this because of Ki, right? Because of Ki, yes.

Of Mr. Ki. Absolutely. And I'll say, too, that got advantage on this because of Ki, right? Because of Ki, yes. Of Mr. Ki. Absolutely. And I'll say, too, that the Ki in this moment is actually gonna go to its awakened state. Ooh. Oh, shit, okay, okay, oh! The boy becomes a man. Oh, that's fun. That's fun, okay.

So you raised one. Sorry, so stalker. Oh! That's what it is, right? I think that I got? Yeah. Little two raised one. Sorry, so stealth. Oh! That's what it is, right? I think that I got. Little two, three, four thing. That is a... Oh fuck, I love Americans. 90, no, no, no, no, no.

That's a 23. 23, hell yeah. On a 23, you are in the room like a ghost. There's two sleeping people in here. You're silent as a whisper. I just get up real close to that lord who's sleeping. And I am going to use the bonus action

in the awakened state that the key is now in to transform it into a dagger. And... He has teeth. So-so-so-so-so. I'm going to hold it right against his throat and I'm going to say, Hey, wake up.

Roll initiative. Oh shit. Great, yeah. Wouldn't it be nice to have a room like this? Oh! Jasmine is regretting this, Phaedra is not. Initiative, that's a 17. 17, you're going to act first.

He is awake, and at the center of his pupils, a burning ember appears as an unholy light begins to gleam in his eyes. Crocus walked away. He walked away. And is sitting there the whole time going, and just arguing with himself as he wanders the streets. Mm-hmm.

And I think eventually goes, I've got to go find her. And turns around and starts to try and look for where they went. Give me perception or investigation. To be there within the first round, you got to give me a DC 20. Okay. You can do that.

No, but that is a 11. 11, okay, cool. You'll not be there. I won't be there. Deidre, what's up? I say, with my dagger just aimed right at his throat, I say, no, no, no, no, I'm just here to talk. I'm a devotee of the Strife Emperor. I know you.

I've seen you before. You're going to have to give me deception. And you know what? All for you, Damien. To keep this fair, he gets a plus six to his insight. I'm going to roll in front of the board, just to prove. I don't have any in front of the board. Just to prove.

I don't have any cut. Oh, that was almost a 14. He said it's a 14. You need to beat a 14 on the deception. You can do this. 13. Damn! Great.

You tell him to... Ooh, this is bad! So you tell him that you are a Servant of the Strife Emperor, and you get a 13 on your deception. He looks at you and goes, Servant of the Strife Emperor, eh? And is going to hold his hand.

I'm going to need you to make a wisdom saving throw. It's fine. It's great. It's not great. It's going to be fine. Not 20. Seven. Seven. Yeah. The lord begins to arise from his bed,

looking to you and saying, and you feel suddenly charmed by this man. You don't know why you were so creased at him. What's so bad about stabbing your child in the hand? He, after all, is such a lordly and regal man, deserving of respect, contrition, servitude. You see, he arises and says, I find the cold air benefits my constitution,

and yet perhaps I shall have to keep the windows shut, for this city is rife with fleas and cockroaches. May I have that key? What? My lord, what for? Because I'm going to slit your throat with it. If you can beat a 15, maybe round two is better for you. Absolutely not, it's an eight.

Eight. At the end of your turn, give me another wisdom saving throw. The difficulty is 15. Nope, five. Five. He is going to reach out. He takes the key from your hand, and he is going to make an attack roll.

In making an attack roll, he breaks the Charmed condition. But he is going to make an attack here. Your armor class is what? 13. He hits. How many hit points do you have? Seven. Okay.

He's going to roll damage with this. If he rolls a four, you're out. On a one, two, three, you have hit points remaining. Oh my god. He deals six points of damage to you. Cool, okay, okay, okay. As he slashes at you with the key. So!

That is going to be, you see that the boy wakes up, looking up horrified. It is your turn. Can I, so it says that I can, on a bonus action, I can transform it back into a key instead of a dagger. It is no longer in your possession. But it's not in my possession, so I can't do that. Okay, okay.

Cool. In that case. Just got to learn. I'm going to get killed for being here on the last episode. All right. What do you mean? It's the last episode. It's a hermit episode.

I just can't let this get on me. This is Vasselheim. I very quickly try to roll under the bed. Yeah. And take out my crossbow very quickly try to roll under the bed. Yeah. And take out my crossbow and just wait there, ready for him to use it.

Give me a DC 15 acrobatics. Okay. Or he's going to get an attack of opportunity. Oh shit. Ah, oh hey. Fuck, fuck, all right. Oh my god, what is it? Ha-ho, hey, ha-ha. Fuck, fuck, all right. Ooh. Oh my god, what is it? 15.

15 acrobatics? Yeah. Which is dex. 11. No! What? Your character sheet or the stat block? I'm using it, well, because the stats are different.

What about your level one with your skillsies? My stats are not that good. Use the one that's higher. Maybe it's higher. No, it's got to be higher! You have to hope. You have to have your hands if you believe. Remain hope!

Come on, come on. I believe in fairies. No! It's being poopy. It's being poopy. I'm looking at it right now. You add a plus three to acrobatics. Yeah, that's what I thought.

So an 11 crushing. Your armor class is a 13. Yes. He is attacking right now with a plus four. On a nine or higher, he's going to hit you and drop you. And I'll be clear, we are very much, I want to set expectations for the table. This may be the end of Phaedra's story in this room.

Yeah. And a hard lesson about choosing a diplomatic and virtuous path rather than embracing slitting this man's throat in the dark. On a nine or higher, he hits. That's a nat 20. No!

Oh my god. All right. But he does not deal your hit point total in damage. You rolled a one and a two on the dice. So I'm unconscious, but not dead. I'd say, okay. DC 10 perception. No. No.

No? Doesn't do it. I rolled a three. Oh my god. It looks very much like an eight for a second. It wasn't. It was a three. Alright. Vitra, you drop to the ground. Go ahead and give me your first death saving throw. What if the boy can't intervene? That's just a normal

d20, right? I rolled a different die. Nothing added.20, right? Roll a different die. Yes. Nothing added. Yeah, all right, I am going to roll a different die. You want a 10 or higher. Oh gosh. Seven. Seven.

That is a failure. The DC is not going to lower to five. It's going to stay at 10. No, that makes sense. Yeah. Succeed? Yeah. Okay. Standing over Phaedra's unconscious body, having failed her first death saving throw,

Crocus, you've searched for her and arrived at a window. And up above, you smell blood. You've searched for her and arrived at a window. And up above, you smell blood. Give me a DC 10 and athletics check. Okay. Athletics I'm good at. That was a 15 plus nine. 24. Yes!

Before Phaedra's second death saving throw, which on a nat one will end her life and her story, Crocus, you roar up the wall into the room to see this lord standing over her with a dab. Your turn. And just right into the wall. Go ahead and give me your attacks. That is a natural one.

Natural one, that is a miss. Second attack. Natural 20. Oh my god! Oh, balancer! Okay! Fjord just sees red. Absolutely just charges the guy, Sees red. Absolutely.

Just charges the guy, slips, like, takes up the rug in his feet and misses the first swat, and then is just going to head down, bulldoze straight into the wall to slam him into the wall. Go ahead and roll damage. That is... It's a crit. Roll double damage. Oh, right. That's three, five, ten points of damage crit. Roll double damage. Oh, right. That's three,

five, ten points of damage. Ten points of damage. Badly injured. As you slam into the wall with him, he's going to immediately take an attack against you. Actually, no. He's going to try to hit you with a spell. Go ahead and give me a wisdom saving throw. Oh, yeah. Well, I'm not bad, actually, anymore.

Yeah, right. Oh, thank god. Yours is probably higher than mine. Natural one. Whoops. He looks at you. I can only roll two numbers. He says, he says, easy, easy.

Look in my eyes. Look in my eyes. Let's discuss. I'm gonna do another death saving throw from a feature I do. On that one, this is the end. 18. 18, that's a success. Yeah.

Okay. Hope alive, keep hope alive. Listen to me. You know her on the ground. I will take my boy and leave you tend to her. That's it. He goes, scoops up the child, takes the key, says, I'll be gone.

That's it. He takes the child. You can also see the light fading out of his eyes as though you suspect he does not have any spell energy left. Shout out to two spell slots. And you see he grabs the child and slips out the door. You got an 18.

Crocus, it is your turn. All right, Crocus is going to, does the charm end now that he's gone? Oh, the charm ends, yes. Okay, he looks and sees Fy'ra on the ground, kind of pulls her out from under the bed, is going to attempt to stabilize her with a medicine check.

Okay, DC 10. That is, where is it, 18. 18. You wrap the wound careful, careful, as careful as you can. Fiedra. You swim in unconsciousness. You hear sounds, the Lord's voice in the stairs below, holding a child. My lord! My lord! I found it! I found the key! At last! Very good.

Find them. Find them as only a mortal can. The gate is almost finished, my humble servant. And that's where we're going to go to our break. Oh! Oh no! Oh no! It's so bad! It's so bad, once again!

Adria, you motherfucker! You just had to call him son one time! One time! Say, my boy! Love conquers all, and by definition, the absence of love dooms us all! Ah! See you after the break! Love conquers all, and by definition, the absence of love dooms us all! See you after the break! Greetings, adventurer. This is Liam O'Brien.

If you'd like to support the show, consider checking out our sweet, sweet Exandria Unlimited merch in the Critical Role shops. Links to all of our regional online stores can be found at critrole.com. We return now to Vasselheim. Things are looking pretty bad for old Veedramarrow. You dirty birdie. Crocus, you stabilize your friend. She is unconscious. Where do you go? Do you carry her with you or do you stay here?

Are you okay? She is unconscious. She's out. You're unconscious, Warr. Okay. Crocus' thought is that this person's going to go and they're going to leave this building. We're on the second floor, correct? Yeah.

I pick up Fjord in one arm. Cool. I go to the balcony, and I look down towards the front door to see if they've exited the building. You do not see anyone on the street. Okay. So then, I jump from the balcony, land on the street. Okay. So then, I jump from the balcony, land on the ground.

Yeah. And I look for the person. Give me an investigation check. Natural 19 with a plus one. Dirty 20. On a dirty 20, you are investigating for this person. You are looking as far and wide for what you can see. Their belongings are all left here.

You follow a trail of blood from the injury you gave that lord. That blood moves up into a center square where there's now foot traffic. It looks like he sprinted out as fast as he could. You are looking around, and as you realize how fresh these tracks are, this man has some method of becoming invisible.

Okay. Okay. Okay. But the child, or the child? He carried the child with him. So it would be invisible as well? Yeah. Okay. So then, I'm following the footprints,

but have I hit a point where the footprints are not there, or they are slowly extending? They go into a crowd of people. Okay. Do I have... Do I need to get I need to get higher I need to go up And Crocus has a

Has a desire He needs to move faster He needs to get higher He needs to go So he activates the girdle Hell yeah In an attempt to Not really still understanding how it works, in an attempt to maybe give himself some speed in this form that he takes when it is activated.

And he's going to try and get up to a higher vantage point to find this person, knowing that letting them go is a terrible idea. Hell yeah. You activate the girdle, leaping to the top of one of Vasselheim's buildings, searching around. You are formidable indeed. It is going to be a difficulty 25 perception check. You're trying to spot an invisible warlock

shuffling through the Streets of Aslan. I believe you can do that on a 19 or 20, correct? For 25. 25. It would be, for a perception check, I would have to, I mean, I'd have to get a natural 20. Natural 20. Just do it.

Make it happen. 16. 16. Searching with your eyes as fast as you can, you know that this villain is hiding somewhere in Vasselheim. The cold wind is tearing across you, and Pfeidra, in your arms, wrestles an unconsciousness.

Shit! And he's going to run and find his friends. We return to our friends. In lightning form, just as fast as he can travel. We return to our lightning form, heading as fast as you can. In the home of Casimir and Marza, I think we have Ero here as well, and Garan.

Are you out drinking somewhere? Garan's not drinking. I think Garan went out to honestly look for any information about if Uthdor still stands. He hasn't had any information about it inthdor still stands? He hasn't had any information about it in 100 years since he was plucked from it. Give me a perception or insight.

Meanwhile, Iroh's just playing Monopoly with Nioh's parents. 13. I have the Scotty Dog. Near to the Silver Talon's Reach, but with big, there are these big gates that, as a native New Yorker, would almost look like subway entrances, but are much larger and more civic, leading down to the neighborhood of Brightforge.

You can see that there are many of the subterranean devout entering in and out of this neighborhood. As you go and search for those, you see some large wagons pulled by these sturdy-looking donkeys that are being loaded up with tools and supplies and traveling. You see some dwarves that have

big, wide-brimmed hats on them. And as you walk up, you see one of them being like, right, that one's loaded up, move that out to the front, and step off to the side. You see that he has a little symbol of a shepherd's crook and a hammer crossed on his clothing as you walk up and see him

getting ready for this train that's packing out. Hey, excuse me. Sorry to bother you in the midst of your organization. Whereabouts do you hail, if you don't mind me asking? Where do I hail from? Well, friend, as a child, from far distant Gwessar, but perhaps more accurate now to say that I hail from Vasselheim.

Right, but where on Gwessar, if you don't mind me asking? Far off. I know, it's been... Roughly how young does this dwarf seem to look to me? He might be about 80 or 90 years old. Right. You know, a lot's changed in recent times. If you are from Vosar,

I'm curious, have you been to, or have you passed through the stronghold city of Uthdor? Uthdor. I remember it from young days. Left as swiftly as we could. It's to there we return. Or I should say I'm here to shepherd my brethren and their families back to the cliff keep mountains, to Uthdaw. Word has come to us that it has been freed, or rather rediscovered, long absent of the touch of the crawling king.

But now we return to relight the fires, light the halls, or rather they are I my journey will take me there for a spell to pay my regards and then elsewhere out throughout Gwizar right that's good to know I'm glad that his semblance of at least its people

still stand I'm glad that his semblance of at least its people is still standing. How soon do you plan to head out? Well, this wagon train is headed out on the morrow. I'll stay behind until the rest are done. It probably will be another two or three weeks before the main caravan heads out. Should there be... You fancy there might be space for an old stone carver in one of these wagons?

Brother, we have a space with your name on it. You just tell me what your name is. Garen. He squints his eyes like he's prying some long, dust-covered memory from a history he hasn't reached for in a long time. Garen Hearthart.

Hearthart? Well, Master Hearthart, we'll be saving your room. You'll be coming with the main caravan. Sit by my side if you like. Thank you, young stranger. What might I call you? with the main caravan. Sit by my side, if you like. Thank you, young stranger. What might I call you? Desmond. Desmond. To the Mimitary and the rebirth of Uhtor. The caravan prepares.

I think down here in Brightforge, too, you see that there is bright shining torches in front of a temple of the Allhammer. Just a beautiful temple underground, lit by braziers of bright burning fire. You can see people walking. There's a hall of writings of the early mothers and fathers of the Allhammer's faith here in this place. You see people going and touching various poems

and bits of poetry throughout the temple here. I think he approaches, more interested in the, initially the architecture and taking in the fine dwarven craftsmanship, old dwarven craftsmanship, old dwarven craftsmanship, older than where he's from, likely, and then looks to the people making their stops,

having their quiet communion in whatever ways they can in these strange times. Garnon looks at the hammer at his side and looks up to the iconography, the many symbols he's carved for generations of his old days that even he didn't pay too much mind to. And there's an urge, there's a pull to step into the temple proper.

But he stops himself, whether it's exhaustion or something else. Something keeps him from taking He dusts himself off and nods and goes to return to Nias, parents of Oda. You walk away from the temple and its congregants, its devotees, and as you walk, you see that the well-loved and adorned texts of ancient D dwarven prayers inside are replicated on the outside in tablets much less loved and dustier and muddier.

And you see that there's one on a base that has sort of like rubble and rock and dust on it. And you just sort of have this moment of looking at these ones that are much less well cared for and less well loved than the ones inside, but these ancient stone tablets. And you see that there's one in particular

that is written in this old, high dwarven script that is ancient mountain dwarven that you're looking at. And you look at it and realize that the stone, that is ancient mountain dwarven that you're looking at. You look at it and realize that the stone, on your stone cunning, this slab of stone is from Uthdor. It's been taken all the way from Uthdor across the sea and laid here at the base of the temple in Vassaline.

Hmm. It stops and inspects it, looks over the runes that are pressed into it, sees that it's, through age, travel, weathered or damaged, the rougher facets of its message worn, and he takes out his simple tool that he has on him worn. He takes out his simple tool that he has on him and stops a moment to go ahead and re-chisel

and leave crisp what its intended message was without a word. Nods, carries on. As you leave, having chiseled away here at this place, you, just focusing on the lettering, give me a perception check with disadvantage. Disadvantage 13.

As you step away, Disadvantage 13. As you step away, you see others who would have passed this stone 100 times see it now cared for, tended to. You see that one, there's a dwarven mother walking with a gaggle of young dwarven children that she's teaching as a small class, reading to those that cannot read themselves. She stops by and says,

I was marvelously tended to. Touching it there. Can any of you read this? And you see that one of the little children raises a hand, and she says, Doric, by all means. The gate is built by heart alone, though hearts be held by flesh and bone,

and flesh and bone by earth and stone. The door we make when luck we break Will bridge the waters roads to take The stones that stand to staunch the flood Freedom found by toil and blood By stone betrayed the seal is made The hand that holds the heart that prayed The stairs it shaped the debts it paid

The gate is shaped the the keystone laid. And on a 13, you don't see, much like a note left in a tall cave, the Hallows' Spell ringing out throughout the temple. He kneels down to the door before he takes his leave. A trick with even the strongest stone is in time, even the rain brings it low.

So it's our responsibility to give it a bit more clarity with each passing year. My strength lays low like the rock. It's you, and he touches his chest with the hammer, to pick back up where we left off and make sure others can read as you can. A sparkle in the eyes of this young dwarven child who feels a sense of pride at carrying something

from a long, distant past, brightly and restored into a new future. Locks his hammer on the side, tosses the boy's hair, gives a quiet nod to the mother and the other child, and nods and exits. You see, as you move from this place,

we go to Casimir and Marissa's home. If I may? Yeah. I think on the way, Aero asks if you'd mind making a slight detour as we pass the Temple of the Platinum Dragon. Hell yeah. Could we step in here? Of course. Just a moment.

And I... Do you want us to come? Actually, I think she'll tell her parents to wait out and she'll go in with you if you'll have her. Please. Nia tries to lock an arm and then walk in with you very proudly. Fates it.

As we walk in the vaulting arch of this place, it's like meeting your parents has me thinking of my own again. When we, our ship landed, and we landed at Seagate, Arrow didn't recognize much because much of Seagate went up in flames and was destroyed in his sight as the ship and his mother and other survivors fled

the day his father fell. So there wasn't much he could point at there, but here, as you guys, as the two of us stride up the center aisle of this massive place, it's vaulting dragon motifs towering over us. I've only been here once. In the city and here. I sat...

there. Let's go sit again. Here, I sat. There. Let's go sit again. Pulls him, trying to get him back in that seat. They sit down together. My mother, Kor, was as fearsome a warrior as you've ever seen with scales. A gold I can hardly begin to describe. They served the dragon.

My father was a priest, like the priests here. My youth was filled with language helping people dispossessed of homes and newly arrived from Gwisar. I tried to keep me raised right in the middle of this chaos that we've all been born into. Yeah. The life I led seems so antithetical to the one, well, to the example they set for me. I think so.

What will you do now? Now that we've found your parents and you have a calling, what will you do? I'll answer that calling until we decide where we go next. What will you do? Well, that's just it. I'm not sure. If you thought I was an edge in Torm's Hill,

I can't begin to tell you how out of place I feel in this city. You have had, or I've witnessed from you, an incredible talent of crafting a place for yourself from the earth. You've built shelters, built bonfires. You've always made a place for yourself. If one isn't handed to you.

I think she looks around. This place is waiting for you. This place? is waiting for you. This place. I'm not sure. Part of me feels like I should just leave with Garin. I swore I would get him to his place in this world, and I'm still looking for my own. I don't know. I would very much like to see you well and on your feet, and be well on your way.

But I just want to, I don't know, introduce the idea that I may need to move on. Okay, well, we'll move on. I... can't, won't see myself without you. If you leave for a time, that is fine, but... You don't have to be alone. If you choose to be all respected, but you do me no kindness by leaving. You're family to me, Ero.

I will never be alone, because you have touched me here. And whether I am with you or not, I carry that change inside. I feel like weeks ago, somebody said something about change is coming. I guess that person was right. Interesting. Well, whoever it was, it doesn't matter, but I...

I will allow this ass, it's fine. She laughs and laughs, and she just... puts her head on Arrow's shoulder. Just takes a deep, long breath. Sitting in this seat that he sat in years and years and years ago. Change is beautiful. Growth is beautiful. But stillness, permanence.

There's value in that, too. What a funny little life we mortals lead. I think here, in the Platinum Sanctuary, you depart, looking at the beautiful symbol here, the closest temple to that peak of Heaven's Stair. Leaving Silvertown's Reach together, you arrive, walking back towards your dwelling place, Garin on the way back from Brightforge, and suddenly discover your path intercepted by Crocus.

Now holds. Whoa, whoa. She's hurt. To my house. It's near. Quickly. We're near. Rushing into Casimir and Marza's house, they help you prepare, quickly moving to act.

And Phaedra, you are blanketed, medicine given. Go ahead and give me a medicine check. Yeah, I cast. Actually, I'll do it. Yeah, you can cast a spell, too. Cha-cha-cha-cha, cha-cha-cha. I'll give you a healing word. Go ahead and roll a d4 and add your wisdom modifier. Chambers, barristers, sort of.

What's going on? She's hurt. She was stabbed. What? By who? One of the men. Healing wound. That's cocked. Cha-cha-cha. From the what?

Three plus three, you said six? It's one, oh, it's 1d, sorry. Yeah, it's 1d4 plus three, six. Six. Feetra, you get six points of health back and you awaken. From Rybad Cole. Where is he? Where'd he go?

He got away. He who? Yeah. One of the nobles at Rybad Cole who was visiting. Was here? Yes. And he took my key. He has...

Why were you there? He was a cruel man. I saw him. He hurt his own child with no remorse. And I just, I thought there was something I needed to do to change him, to try and make things right for that little boy.

Your heart was in the right place so you betrayed my daughter. So you tried to kill his father? I wasn't going to kill him, I was trying. Well, it seems like he thought you were. I know. Focus. Where is this man now? I don't know.

I think he turned invisible and left. He's somewhere in the city. I couldn't find him afterwards. Is that the end of it? I don't think. Has her key. Can Nia... Is Nia aware of the power that lives within that mirror,

or has she just only seen it at its dormant state? Do you grab it? Yeah. Yeah. Nia goes to grab it, and she like... I was going to say she taps on it. She uses it, just sort of clears, wipes it, wipes it, wipes it, takes her, the satchel, Lucy's satchel, and just rubs over it so she can get a better view, and then holds it up, trying to like... The mirror goes to an awakened state. Perfect. Oh.

It glows. You now have access to the greater invisibility and the commune spell. So I'm going to take that vial of water from the pools earlier. Yeah. Because I need that in order to cast this spell. I'm going to set the mirror down, pour some of the water on the mirror,

and attempt to cast Commune. All of you see Catha, silvery white moon of Exandria. And you see that Exandria is not the only world that Catha shines on. Fairy light, dancing gardens, and there, suspended over a pool of water-like liquid glass,

your sister, your goddess, turns to you. Hey. I have just, no, I can only ask you three questions. My friend was hurt today by a man that we met, that she met, that Rabbi Cole. She, I want to know, is he still, is he still in this city? Is he still in Vasselheim?

The man, Lord Callister, Is he still in this city? Is he still in Vasselheim? The man, Lord Callister, is a servant of the Lord of the Hells, and he yet dwells within Vasselheim and will not leave. Has he used the key for anything? Has he used the key for anything. Has he used the key recently for anything? Yes, and he will use it again.

She holds up a finger to you. You are my sister. I would answer any question given to me, but the power you wield to reach across realms is vast and great. You may ask me any question you wish, and I will tell you as much as I can. Let your question, as she looks to the left and looks to the right,

be as broad as possible. These rules are brand new. and looks to the right. Be as broad as possible. These rules are brand new. Receives that. Then, I think she looks to Fy'ra for a question of, I would assume,

how we can get him easiest, or how do we stop it? But these aren't questions I'm asking just yet, because I'm assuming it's not just just Lyanna that can see this conversation happening between the two of them, or is it private? It's perfectly private, yeah. Okay.

I don't know, maybe where is he? He's here. He's in the, he's in the. Exactly? Where exactly is Lord? Calister. Calister. You see that she looks, digging down. A question that cannot be answered will not count against you.

Hidden as he is by one of the only gods whose sway over deception is as mighty as mine. Nia takes the mirror. it's night right now. I think Nia's trying to press this, she's trying to press her mirror even farther out of the awakened stake and into the exalted. And so she attempts to catch the moon in this. What's happening?

I guarantee you there is a reason why, but she's trying to get, because he's invisible, she's trying to get that true sight. You see she looks and says, You have done much, sister, already. I would like to do more. I know you would.

It's not as simple as wanting it. She kneels down and looks at you and says, There are gifts that the mirror can give, and they are gifts that you must make from your own belief and in her strength. May I answer a question unasked? Yes. You see, she says, I've got an answer in mind.

I would love it, if you don't mind. She looks at you and says, You must find Callister within the city. I know not what plans he executes here in the Dawn City for his master, but ever was the Lord of the Hells a capable infiltrator and manipulator of those of true faith.

His words always have been like honey. Clerics now reach across the Vale already. My sister, the Knowing Mistress, has heard from her Farseer, keeping in mind the lessons you have brought of this new way. Many other of my siblings will depart after these final battles are won.

There are some few weeks before you where you may search and attempt to find Lord Calistar, but a time of ultimate clash and conflict is coming, and a time then of fierce decision. We cannot seal the gate until we are all accounted for. I give you this deep and potent secret to share only with those you trust most of all, of how it came to be that the gods went missing.

More than a century ago, did the gods first wield the secret to make themselves manifest in mortal form. It was for a terrible task, a flying city at the height of mortal might to bring low over the frozen islands of the north. That city was brought low and the gods departed, but not all of the gods

who had entered mortal form departed then. In fact, some that had gone to exact this mission never arrived. It was there in Exandria during that height of the calamity that some had already begun the foundations of this divine gate, its argument made most forcefully by the Lawbearer andained until the very final moment, and when going, she did not even send herself, but rather an emissary of her coming,

made of stone and ice, to bear her will to that malevolent city. The platinum dragon stayed aloft in the skies. A third god there was that had begun work on the Divine Gate, the Allhammer had made himself in mortal form to lay the foundations of what would be the Divine Gate, claiming simply that the gate would,

what is made by the gods can be unmade by the gods, is what he said, And that something in mortal hands would serve as foundation to separate the worlds of divine and Exandria safely and for all good. I laid a concealing on the globe that the gods would never find a god in mortal form to buy my brother time to do his work. I hid them all.

I hid them from myself. I hid them so well that none could find them in their divine essence. And it was at that exact moment that the Lord of the Hells worked a magic that interlaced with mine. The Lord of the Hells made it so, if you remember in my childhood, in mortal form, that I did not, any holiday, turn to you and say,

By the way, I'm the Moonweaver. Yeah, yeah, yeah, which would have been an insane thing to do. That was the curse of the Lord of the Hells. The curse that we should forget ourselves if we ever took that form. And when that curse was discovered, the platinum dragon charged into the mortal world,

knowing that my magic would prevent him from finding his brother as a god. And even at the risk of completely forgetting himself, he charged forward and those gathered there attempted to stop him and said, you'll lose your mind. You'll lose your knowledge of your divine self. And his response to them was,

if we ask faith of them, let us ask it of ourselves. And charged into the mortal world to save his brother. We cannot seal the gate without our lost siblings. And the betrayers search for them terribly with all their might. Okay. We have to find gods who do not know themselves to be gods. Thank you.

Nia rushes back into her house, or into the home of her parents. You feel the mirror stays in that awakened but not exalted state. Fair, thank you, I appreciate that. Puts the mirror back in her bag. Kisses it. Love you. And puts it back in her bag.

And shares this information with everyone. She trusts everyone in this room. So, shares everything that she has just been told from her sister. Is it your intention to share it just with your companions here, or any of the high clerics? In this moment, it is with my companions here. And she could not tell me where exactly this lord is.

Of course. But he's looking for the same folks we're looking for. He's looking for people who do not know themselves. I don't, we have to find, essentially, we have to find them before the Betrayer Gods find themselves. That doesn't help my immediate problem.

You know me. I am the last person to lose hope. He is invisible. I cannot find him. He has something that we need. He will not leave. That is what Lyanna said. So he will be in this city. I can't imagine he will stay invisible

forever, but he will not leave. He has the key. I do not know exactly where he is, but he is here. Crocus, if indeed some of these machinations are at the hand of this Lord of the Hills and is tied to this individual that nearly stole our very friend this night, then there's a good chance that both of these will dovetail anyway. So I need you to focus with us. We have no other path other than this right now. I will keep our eyes peeled.

Fine. Trust me, we all want to smash this man's head in as much as you do. Okay. All right, don't clench too much. It'll start bundling up. You all need to search for a servant of the Lord of the Hells who skulks invisibly

in the shadows of the City of the Gods. Thousands dwell within this place. Many thousands. So. If I hit a nat 20 on this perception, will you tell me where he is? Let's make this wager interesting. I'm going to give you guys one chance

to find this guy before it's too late. Love it. Lord Bailey would be so proud of you, by the way. I'm going to give you one chance to find this guy before it's too late. What I will say is, if you do it carefully, thoroughly, secretly, taking the time to not tip your hand

or let anybody know what you know, for I'll also say that you do not share with the clerics, and as you tell just your friends alone, you suddenly remember that the Lord of the Hells is a god of deception, and not knowing who exactly can be trusted. In a time when clerics have lost access to divine magic, it's possible that someone could claim to be very faithful and not be. That's why I've only told these people. Hell yeah.

I've not told any of the Hell yeah. I've not told any of the clerics. I'll tell them after we find him. And your parents. Well, my parents. I love my parents, I trust my parents. If my parents fuck me over, then my parents fuck me over. Roll initiative.

I will allow you all to make either investigation or perception checks, and if you do it thoroughly, taking your time, I will let you roll with advantage. This will be your one chance. I take my time, I light my incense, I drink some of that water, I get real calm and still. I honestly have my parents watch over me

because that gives me an extra feeling of protection. Do we sit and watch the building where you originally encountered them to see if they return? He has a child with him, so. Giving a description of the child. He may be invisible, but the child might not always be. Hey. He may be invisible, but the child might not always be.

Hey. I'll probably go back to Brightforge, a place where I have, being subterranean, it's an easy place for some folks, I think, maybe to hide if they're on their own. I'm just going to gently ask around about another old friend who also was displaced, a human and his son that I've come here to hope to reunite with if they have an eye out for him.

Hell yeah. If you want to do a different check than perception, or if you want to, I'll let you do perception or insight, if you're talking to people. Okay. Let's go through one by one. So arrows posted up outside the building. I'm going to watch people enter and exit,

and if I see anything that feels off, I will follow. Fiedra, what are you up to? Well, before all of this happens, I think as we're all coming out of Nia's family's house, I say, Crocus, wait. What? I... I have no words to express how sorry

I am to you. And I know you don't... There's nothing I can say to make this right. But you are my son. You have always been my son. And you always will be. And you're... Son, you have always been my son, and you always will be. And you're...

I'm so sorry that I have been... You're... I've been too much of a fool to say it, or to show it, or to even know it in my own heart. But if you can find it in you to forgive your mother, and you don't even have to forgive, but I do not want you to suffer because of your mother's foolishness.

I don't want you to, I want you to know that you are brilliant and talented, and you have such a big heart. And you are everything I could have ever dreamed of in a son and even more. And there's nothing I can do to make up for all the years that I have refused to see that. But I love you. And I'm sorry. And Phaedra just wraps her arms around and just starts sobbing in a way that you have never seen

her just fully lose control. And I just keep saying, I'm so sorry. I'm so, so, so sorry. It's okay, boss. Let's find your key. All right. Anyway, I'd like to roll an insight check. Oh! Yes, Fjord. All right. Anyway, I'd like to roll an insight check.

Yes, Fiedra. So you're talking to people in the town? I think what I am, hmm. I would like to think, I would say I, sort of like a you can't bullshit a bullshitter kind of logic, I am thinking if I were trying to do something fucking shady to stay out of sight, to be able to do bad things with impunity, where would I be going in this town?

Where would I be sticking to? I think that is what I'm going to do. You get into the mindset. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hell yeah, Crocus. I think Crocus has taken to... Batmanning around Vasselheim. I knew you were going to say it.

I knew you were going to say it. Where he's just on roofs, watching, and doing, trying to be his... Because he's so big. I am the knight. And he's so visible. Yeah. So I think the best way to take his time

and to not let on is to not be seen. Hell yeah. And then what do you do? How are you searching? Ooh, that's a good question. I think I am using my newfound station or title or her presence in this town to just be in spaces that normally truly like knocking on doors, getting in like looking at the back rooms

of taverns and kitchens. She's just going to everywhere that she believes would be a good place to hide. She's had to hide before. She's trying to find hidden places where one would be again. Amazing. You guys conduct your search. Go ahead and roll with advantage, all of you.

Ero, what did we get? This is perception. Or investigation. Oh, no. That's a 16 total for me. 16. 21. 21 from Fy'ra. 19. 19. Not great. Not great.

I can't even, you said perception or insight? Yeah. Insight's better. It's only a 15. 15. 12. 12. Fy'ra. On a 21,

you do not find them right away. Weeks pass, knowing that something terrible is afoot. It comes ever closer to the time when that dwarven caravan will make its way for Uth Torr. I think, Karin, even yourself, after all this time of searching and asking questions, you wonder if the Moonweaver's words could have been true. Would he really not leave

if there's a war happening in Gordranas? Why? Why? Your days are busy, filled with the need of clerics who need to be able to speak to you. Over time, others come to you. Suddenly the followers of the Changebringer can't hear, and the followers of the Dawnfather can't hear, and there's such a great need for you. You feel pulled in that direction. Crocus, night by night, you go and wonder if this skulking figure can be found on streets or highways in Arrow.

Though you are like stone, ever vigilant and watchful, that door is left cold and abandoned. Phaedra. There's one night That door is left cold and abandoned. Fiedra, there's one night, you overhear in a tavern someone talking about a beautiful ruby right in the center. Definitely get a little bit closer and

try and listen well it seemed I was most interested in talking about I said something rather funny about looking for near Shadowbrook looking for any chapels of the Moonweaver there and I asked him why he was looking for a door,

and he sort of smiled and took this key with a ruby in the center and said, Well, when you have a key, you end up looking for doors. Beats me as to why. All right. Then I'm going to quietly leave, and I am going to, presumably, I can find everyone? Yes. All right.

I think we got him. I heard two people in a tavern talking about this guy. He had my key, and he is at the Moonweaver Temple by Shade. Shadowbrook. Shadowbrook. Let's go. By Shadowbrook. He's looking for a door, specifically. Question. Yeah.

In the time that we've been here, in the weeks that we've spent, would we have had the capability of outfitting ourselves with just any sort of basic equipment? Basic equipment across the board. I think Garn, in this time, now that he's amongst others of his kin, has removed that terrible breastplate,

which still carries the stink of its former owners, and instead outfits himself with a proper suit of dwarven armor and gets a shield, leather straps, and straps it to his other arm, where it's just a solid fucking armored dwarven shield in this end that flexes. Hell yeah.

I don't buy anything. Yeah. Nia, I think she is decked out in the sickest moonweaver gear she can get her hands on. I think I would love, because she has a cute little fit, and I don't think she wants to fuck with that, but she has a, don't laugh at me, Alex,

a breastplate of some kind, a gleaming breastplate of the Moonweaver. She has this belt that she's had. I would love if she could have a, she still has her hand crossbow and her two daggers. I would love if she had some sort of sword of the Moonweaver. I think, breastplate, sword,

yeah, breastplate, sword. I think the crystal that she has. I'll say too, I think that during these weeks, Garin, your hearth's hammer moves to the awakened state. So I think Garin could probably give you a plus one Sword of the Moonweaver. I would love a plus one Sword of the Moonweaver. All right, let me go ahead and look

at some of these designs here. I've got an idea. Sketches it up for you. Yeah, sure. You can go ahead and spend a week to enchant you with, did you want a sword? Yeah, a sword. How's this work for you?

Makes it balanced, beautiful, comes to a fine, wide point with some tip there. Gorgeous. She'll be perfectly balanced for you. She's very carefully just feeling it, feeling the weight, figuring out exactly where she can place her shoulder and her back so that she can move with confidence.

And her mirror, she still, I think she has put the Lucis symbol of the Moonweaver, she's left it in her parents' home. But she has that mirror, she has a sort of, on her belt, she has a little holster for it, so that the glass can either face inward or outward, depending on how she decides to situate it. Gorgeous, awesome.

I have added a weapon and armor to your inventory. Thanks, bestie. I love it. Hell yes. Any of you can take any other basic equipment you would like and... Simple leather armor. Yes, me too.

Simple leather armor, great. Nope. Hell yeah. Crocus, please! It would bring my AC down if I did. Oh, okay. Crocus, yes! Monks.

Oh. Can't put these pythons in a cage. Yeah. I think I'm doing pretty good with an AC of 15. I'm fine. Okay. Oh, fierce, okay. Oh, gotcha, okay, gotcha, gotcha, gotcha.

Do you happen to know what the leather armor adds to your AC? It's leather. I'll add it to yours right now, Vietra. Oh, okay, cool. Just hit equip and it'll do it. Okay, but also, it is unreliable, so we'll see if I can actually access that. Great.

Does anyone still have those healing nuts from forever ago? I still got, like, yeah. I have two left. I haven't used any. I could've used that. I gave one to someone. Saving her life. Oh my gosh, yes. Forgot we had the nuts. Yes.

I'm not carrying any of the nuts. Are you kidding me? I'll take it. It's okay. As you gather, as Feature gives you the news that someone has gone towards specifically what sounded like an empty chapel in Shadowbrook, all of you begin to look at each other.

You become equipped. You've been looking for Callister for weeks now, unable to share the information because you don't know who can be trusted and you don't want anyone to know what you know. Outside of Marissa and Casimir's home, you hear light in the sky.

Fireworks. Oh, wow, wow, wow. The fireworks are so beautiful. You hear a horn flying out of the sky, You hear a horn. Flying out of the sky, a copper dragon buzzes Vasselheim and calls out, I bring news from across the sea! Godranus is fallen!

Godranus is fallen! Flies overhead, and all of you, in the depth of skullduggery and chaos, knowing something evil is afoot, watch as your job becomes that much harder as Vasselheim bursts into celebration. Oh boy. Do we trust this?

I'm asking the table here. Do we trust that or should we? I don't know. Can I roll to see? That's a massive dragon flying through the air. I don't know if I can even do a perception check on something like that, but can I see if he's being... Inside check?

Yeah, inside check. Inside check. Go to the inside check. I don't know, guys. I don't know about you, big flying guy. I don't know about you, big flying boy. Ha! Nothing. Hard to get a beat on. He's going pretty fast.

Yeah! That's fair, that's fair. Where's the draftsman going? Can I do an insight check on the fighter jets that fly over things? I mean, yeah. Yeah. I don't think that pilot's telling the truth.

Rattling as that is, Ero will focus on the chapel and the surrounding streets around it? Yes. Do I see anybody posted up, watching, hidden, anything like that, on our approach? Shot as we walk up. I'll say, hold on one second.

Sorry, give me that one more time, Liam. Is anybody spying around this place that will watch us slink up? You think you have excellent cover getting out of here. The streets are filling with people as word begins to spread. It looks like this dragon looks exhausted, landing on the base of the Heaven Stare,

the Mountain of the Heaven Stare, going to the Platinum Sanctuary. You see the dragon is partially injured. It looks like he flew here straight from Wildemount. People are beginning to celebrate because Gordranas was the stronghold of the Betrayers. And if this is true, if this is true, then the Betrayers are fallen and Exandria is free.

But of course they don't know what you know, which is that Exandria can't really be safe, not yet, because you and someone else in this city are both searching for the way to stop it. I would love you guys, so you guys, what do you do in this moment, knowing what you know about Shadowbrook? Aren't we rolling up on that chapel at this point?

Yeah. I think so. You guys head out and begin to roll. How do you approach? Still free. Yeah, presumably. Very still there. How many entrances are there on the outside of it? Shadowbrook as the neighborhood,

I think you look and see that there are a number of fallen chapels. Go ahead and give me perception or investigation as you approach here. I can't roll for she-o's. Same. Nat 20. Nat 20. Fiedra. Yeah.

Some part of you hears a voice down one of the passageways. No, I don't want to. hears a voice down one of the passageways. No, I don't want to. Don't make me grant that wish. Guys, guys, it's Mr. Key. I can hear him. He's down that way. Hell yeah.

When we find him, I will make myself noticeable. You all try and sneak up on him. Okay. Look at my armored, dwarven self. I'll do my best. Hell yes. He's got a big old sword now.

I don't know how. Go ahead and give me a group stealth check. Can I nod to Krokus and ahead and give me a group stealth check. Can I Nod to Krokus and part and go up a separate street concurrent? Yes. On my own, to try to converge, but from a different angle? Yes, you can. Yeah, I'm going to try to get a vantage point.

Natural 20 on stealth. There we go! Hell yes! There are the rolls. Bro! Different, two natural twos. Oh, it's There are the rolls. Bro! Different. Two natural twos. Oh, it's a 22, right? Yeah, well, that's my lucky number. Shit. 19.

19? 22. 22. So 19 is median. Oh, hey! Natural nine. Which brings it to a six. I love it. Skulking through shadows,

you hear the voice of Lord Callister speaking out. As he does so, you hear him say, My lord, celebration has broken out. You hear a voice distantly rumbling. You know what to do, Karista. Nia, you feel yourself sweating. There is something foul, that some divine sense within you.

You feel that suddenly everything is hot, except for the mirror at your side, which is cool like ice and reassuring to the touch. All of you sneaking forward. Phaedra, you're back. You're back in the kitchens. The coals are burning. It's Rybad Coal all over again.

Exactly where you started. Dark stone, hot fire. Something nearby is foul and wicked. Crocus on that nat 20 stealth, you are a shadow. Moving forward, do you feel like a monster? Or do you feel like something else? I think he's starting to understand that there is a part of him that will always be that,

and there is a place for that to be used to help people. And he's accepting that that is part of him, and now is an appropriate time to use that. You approach the door. I need everybody here to roll initiative. I touch us. Who got a match? All right, let's go, let's go.

He is the knight. Use the nighties. I am Crocus. I am Crocus. And initiative is add dex, right? Yeah. Gorgeous. Oh, cool! Uh-oh!

Hell! Hold on one second. Let me grab some minis off of this. A little pizza box. Hold on one second. Nobody look. Nobody look. Mushroom. Mushroom.

Mushroom, pepperoni. Chaga, sausage, and mushroom pizza. Pepperoni, red peppers, mushrooms, all the chives. Hell yes, okay. It's a good barbecue chow. Yeah. Here we go. A little cilantro, a little red onion.

Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. Careful now. We landed the plane, we're fine. Run. No! No! You see, peeking through this doorway right here, statue of the Moonweaver. Hey, sis!

Hey, sis! Hey, girl! And within, no longer invisible, Callister, his son. The boy! The little boy. Watch out, Alon. The key in his hand.

And I will need... What I will need now is all of you to tell me what you rolled for your initiative. What did we get here? Nine for me. Nine for Ero. What did we get here? Eight. Eight for Phaedra.

What did we get here? 18. 18 for Crocus. What did we get? What did we get right here. 18. 18 for Crocus. What did we get? What did we get right here? 11. 11, and what did we get here? Negative one.

Let's go! I start, what happened to the plan? The plan! Oh, damn, damn, damn. Hell yeah. I didn't even know that was possible. With a negative three dex it is. Oh, well, that'll do it, won't it? That, dude. I didn't even know that was possible. With a negative three dex, it is. Oh, well, that'll do it, won't it?

That'll do it, won't it? Hell yes. Ain't as bad as it used to be. You all arrive with a median stealth of 19. So all of you are clustered and unseen right around the doorway here. Where are your minis right now? Ooh, they would be here.

Hacker! I ate mine! Thank you. I ate mine. I went om, nom, nom, nom, nom, nom. Clustered at the doorway. By the way, I should say, darkness everywhere, except for right around the base here. Question about invisibility. Yes. Can you see it?

No, you can't. Is it real? I can only, like, if I, because Oldboy went invisible and his son was invisible as well. I can't imagine his son also has invisibility. If I cast it and I'm touching someone, do they also get invisibility

or is it just me until I let them go? His son was unconsciously being treated as an object. Got it. So you cannot pass it off to someone else. Okay. If everybody holds hands, we'll all be invisible. If only. Just knock each other out.

So we are going to move through. You guys technically have a surprise round. Having beat the initiative here. So Crocus, you are going to be first to act. Before I do anything, are we just going? Or is there, do we want to talk? I'm just asking the group.

I know what I have the instinct to do, but. I think we should just go. We would've talked this out on the day. Yeah, I heard the Lord of Hells. I mean, yeah. We know time is running out. We know that there's a ticking clock. I don't think there's...

Listen, I tried having a conversation with this guy and it didn't go well, so I think we just got to kill him. Two. Are we leaving him alive? The father or the son? I meant the father. The son, I assumed we weren't killing. I can't imagine there is. We saw what happened when we tried

to leave him alive the first time. I think, yeah, the time for that has passed. I think we should knock him out before he opens a gate of some kind, and then it becomes it's us versus him and all his little friends. Yeah. Okay. Crocus steps in the door.

Uses his action to activate the belt. Yes. Just... All this lightning, electricity starts, like, wreathing the doorframe as he's going through. Yes. Gets in the room and says, I couldn't get the taste of your blood out of my mouth. I needed to find you again.

And runs across the room and does the same thing, spins him around and just bonus action, lightning bolt. Incredible. Your Stormgirdle immediately moves to the exalted state. In doing that, he doesn't run, he flies straight at him because now I have a fly speed of 30. Incredible.

He just takes off on electricity and shoots across the room and slams into the guy like lightning. He, without needing to even see your attack roll, casts shield. He's like, I don't like this! So that is, he has to make a dex save of 15. He succeeds on the dex save. Okay, but then still take half damage from...

That is half of 18. He takes nine points of damage as lightning strikes him. Slamming him against the altar. Right up against him. And you see he is holding the key in his hand. That belongs to us. Incredible. Any bonus actions from you?

That was the bonus action because I have to activate the belt as an action. Gotcha, cool, cool, cool. Boom, bonus action. You fly into the room. Crocus, that is your turn. Nia, that's you. Oh, snap.

Okay. Nia is going to... I guess she's going to, because she has, oh gosh, so many things that Nia can do. She's going to get up in there. She's going to try and hide behind this pillar here and try and position her crossbow, her hand crossbow, to shoot him, to shoot the hand that has the key in it. Cool. So that he doesn't do anything next.

Hell yeah. Yeah. I'll say, go ahead and give me the attack with, you can give me the attack straight if it won't do any damage and just knocks the key out of his hand, or you can roll with disadvantage and do and just knocks the key out of his hand, or you can roll with disadvantage and do damage and knock the key out. Let's tell an interesting story.

I'll try and do damage. Okay, here we go. Yeah. Ha! Natural one. Gorgeous, stunning, gorgeous. That's what happens when you do that. That's an interesting story. Bolt goes out.

You fire the bolt. It was a one and a 17. I should have just let it roll straight. That's what I get for trying to be straight. Brittle. That is going to be Aero, your turn. Oh jeez, we're there already? So I'll charge in because it's going down.

Yeah. I'm going to do a pivot around, like spin as I walk to see if there's anyone in the corners that I don't see coming in. How far is your darkvision? That's a great question. I think it's... I don't like that you asked that.

Yeah. Don't like that! It's 60 feet. Oh god, thanks. Well, then you see the devil right behind you. The devil? Oh! Oh! You see the god of the skinned devil. See it?

See it? See what? See it? Sharp turn from Brennan here. We've already published the works. We can't change the things. Published the works? No works. Goodbye.

You see that. You see perched up on this boulder in darkness an imp. I also have 60 feet. And you see a horned, cloaked figure in the darkness over here, all within sight of your darkvision. You are surrounded. Right.

Okay, so I was heading to back up Crocus, but spinning and seeing an enemy just past Nia, I course correct immediately and move on an angle this way past Nia to gain focus from that opponent there. And I will... Scimitar flashes out right from my belt and will attempt to jam into his ribs.

Charging forward. I did spend an entire week making a fool of myself. Charging forward in darkness. I can be decorative. The shield in your hand, your mother's shield, moves into an exalted state. Oh. Where am I? Then, so the shield is shining,

the dragon emblazoned on the front of it glows with a light of its own, and I will use a bonus action as I lash out with the scimitar. The shield goes up in front of Nia, and as a bonus action, I will grant her a plus three to her AC until the start of my next turn

or until you leave my side. Thanks, Steve. And that is a 17 to hit. 17 hits. Okay. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. What? What's happening?

What did I miss? Hold on. Oh, don't do that. Not a strong hit. That is just a three total. Three damage, bam. Scimitar slashes out. You deal three points of damage.

Okay. And hold my ground. You hold your ground, standing there. That is Eros' turn. Fiedra, that's you. All right. Is Lord Callister currently grappled? He's not in the top of the tower. We're within five,

not grappling. We're within five feet of each other. We're just up against each other. Like, we're fighting. Okay. But you see he's holding the key in his hand. I'm going to just stay at the doorway, like using the doorway half as cover, and I am busting out the condemner, baby. And I fire it at him.

As you pull this crossbow out, what are you feeling in this moment? I am feeling that I am not going to let this fucker touch my son. You hold it aloft. That's your son. The condemner moves into an exalted state. Go ahead and take your attack.

Exalted? Well then, well then. A bunch of first-level characters with exalted vestiges is what I'm interested in. Wow, I rolled really bad. Like Bilbo with the One Ring. You know, that's what I want to see. Yeah. Oh, remember, you're attacking from darkness, though.

Yes. So you have advantage. As advantage, oh, oh. Oh, oh. Oh, oh. He's wreathed in light, you are not. You're starting to rub up. Okay, wait.

This is breaking my brain. So the increase to attack and damage rolls is plus three. Yeah. Instead of plus one, which means that I get a plus... Oh my god, five plus three, plus eight to attack? Is that correct? Plus eight to attack, yeah. Then I get an 18. 18 exactly hits. Yes, okay.

Okay, so then I roll one d10, right? That is a five and then plus three, and then plus, oh, actually, no, instead of doing that, instead of doing that, I'm going to cast Hold Person. You're going to cast Hold Person on him? Hell yeah. Okay, sick. Which is a save DC 15.

Save DC 15. Wisdom run. Is it? Yes, I believe so, yeah. I just have to choose my prepared spell. Okay. I'm going to do that now. I'm doing it right now.

Cool. Our dear Lord Callister, what's the difficulty on that, does it it right now. Hmm? I'm doing it right now. Cool. Our dear Lord Callister, what's the difficulty on that, does it say? 15. 15. Our dear Lord Callister has to roll a 15 or higher. Okay. Okay. Do it, you won't. You won't.

You remember when you were 16? That's a 16. Ah! Ah! That's brutal. I got to shut up. I got to shut the fuck up. You cast Hold Person.

Wait, no! No, no, no! If I get to Exalted, it's Exalted, right? So then it says the save DC for the weapons Hold Person increases to 17. What are you doing? I was looking at the other one! It's 15 if it's awakened, but 17 if it's exalted. Unbelievable! Yeah! So, Phaedra, you hold him in sight of the Contemper.

You hold him in sight of the Contemper. He, looking at Corvus, wheels around, sees your eyes. Mm-hmm, and I say, stop fidgeting. Oh! So good! He freezes. He's going to kick when he stabbed you. As he says that, you see that he

screams from within a paralyzed throat, and you can tell he's maddened, feeling illusorily the feet of thousands of roaches traveling over his skin as he is frozen there. You have your movement left. He is frozen and cannot, the key is in a hand. You could absolutely snatch it out of his hand

if you wanted to. I don't know if I could make it over there because if I'm at the doorway, I have a movement of 35. Can I make it over there and grab the key? You're in the doorway. Five, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35. Yeah, then I do that. You rush up, snatch the key out of his hand.

And the key, immediately back in your possession, goes, Oh god! Mr. Key! Thank you so much! Oh, Mr. Key! Thank you so much! Oh, Mr. Key! Thank you so much! Oh! He was bad!

I know, I know! Um. Uh, da-da-da. You have a better relationship with a key. Damn, damn. That is Fiedra's turn. The little, the sad little rust boy looks up at you, the bandaged hand. He looks up at you in the soft light

of the Moonweaver's glow and just goes, Servant? Hi again. Hi. Listen, I don't think I can make this right for you, but I'm going to try my best, okay? Okay. I wouldn't help me if I was you.

But I will. Oh. Oh, and that is going to be Garen's turn. Oh, okay. Don't have a reason to yet. Matt's different from Garen. Yeah, yeah. I said something you want to share.

Matt? Punctuation is important. Yeah. Garen, that is your turn. I get a turn! You get a turn! Yeah! I didn't know if I was too far off initiative to ever go.

Reminder, this is the surprise round, so you guys are, it's bad out here. So Garn's going to go ahead and enter the chamber. No. About that far. Yeah. And then fall over. No, he's going to fall in the room. Yeah, you know. Like a loud noise. He goes,

He, given the circumstances as they are, with his darkvision, I would ask, does he also see the worst around him, or is he? Yeah, darkvision, you can immediately see that you're surrounded. Okay, then you're focused on that guy. Seeing the devil on that side, and he doesn't quite have the full power to get into the fray, he's going to charge forward to this pillar and be like,

You know, I've lot more practice breaking stone than people. And he's going to go ahead and, with the hearth's hammer in his hand, try and strike the base of the pillar at the proper angle on the opposite side to see if I can cause it to fall onto the distant delta. Okay, your hammer moves into an exalted state. So the issue here is these pillars have a hardness of 10 and then also have, let me just see here,

I believe they have 25 hit points each. Okay. So if you can't do more than 10 damage, you do no damage at all. Great. In the awakened state, I ignore hardness with the hammer, and then deal double damage against objects and structures, as well as an additional 2d6 force damage

when attacking objects or structures. So this is what I'm good at. Breaking fucking stone! Okay. Go ahead, make your attack roll. Its armor class is eight. Natural 20. Like I said!

Oh yeah! Let's fucking go! Dice tell the story! Oh my god! Unbelievable. So Matt, on that 20, that's a critical hit. Yeah. Double damage!

So that's going to be the normal hammer damage. It's plus three, plus your strength modifier. It is also double the normal 1d8, and it's 3d6 doubled. So that's 2d8 plus 6d6 plus three plus your strength modifier. Correct. Don't you, well, you're not exalted.

You're awake. You're not exalted. No, no, you're exalted. You're exalted. Oh, okay, amazing. But not level one. Not level one in NPC stat blocks still. Great roll in some cases. Okay, amazing. But not level one. Not level one in NPC stat blocks still. Great roll in some cases. But we'll get there, we'll get there. That's eight, 13, 23,

27 plus seven. That's going to be 34 points of damage doubled because it's a structure. Yeah, yeah, yeah! Quadruple, right? Yeah. I don't know if this has ever been said before about a piece of terrain. Matt, how do you want to do this?

So I think he jumps in, sees it, eyes it, looks down at the base of the hammer, and is like, you know, for being as old as the city is, kind of show the craftsmanship. Is going to swing back and crack it at the base with all the might that he has in his arm. As it hits it, the symbol of the allhammer on the side of it emblazons, and it's almost like the hammer hits once, and then some other force

pushes it a second time from behind. As it does, the force energy cracks out from that edge as it begins to fall and dislodges perfectly, where it takes the entirety of the pillar down in the intended motion without taking a section of the ceiling with it. All of you witness a feat of strength that you've never seen before. I witness old man. Old man strength!

This pillar, no roll necessary, crushes and destroys this devil immediately. This hallowed stone absolutely bypassing any protections it has against mundane stone. Crushed. I have protection from stone. I'll say, on a nat 20, this dude also gets partially covered over here.

Yeah! And is just as the stone falls. Gar, an incredible turn. Holy shit. That's my turn! It takes me a minute to get there. What you got there? Unbelievable. You see, as you do that, you sunder that pillar. Boom! Through gritted teeth, the paralyzed Lord

Callister's eyes dart to you and calls up and says, The dwarf! Kill the dwarf! And leaping from the top of this, an imp is going to fly across the room, right to Garin, and is going to attack you. Here we go. What is your armor class? 14. He misses. Yes! The, da-da-da. 14. He misses! Yes! The...

You see this devil right here barks out a command. Gleaming in red light. Another devil appears. Another devil appears. Preparing to surge forward. They are going to take... Yeah, don't do this. They are going to take running starts.

We'll go with this one first. This one is going to attack Nia. What is your armor class currently? 19. 19? Mm-hmm. That is a miss. 19, you said?

Yes. So normally it would be 16? Normally it's 14, but I get plus... Plus... Oh, sorry. Yeah. The mirror becomes exalted in this moment. Oh, then I get... then actually my AC is 20. Your AC is 20.

Because I have 14, and then... You've got plus three for me right now. Yeah, plus three, so... So it's three plus three. Yeah, six. Yeah, so it's 20. 20. Exactly.

So, this one just rolled an 18. Aw. So you see, it comes for you. And you see the mirror shines, winces back, and is out of the way from Ero's shield. Cling! And is ineffective. These ones are going to rush across as fast as possible,

both heeding Callister's command and rushing for the dwarf. Armor class? Alistair's command and rushing for the dwarf. Boom. Boom. Armor class? Oh, 14. That's a miss. God, I'm rolling like trash. That's a hit. There.

I may have one on the floor that's like, something in there has to hit me! Stop trying to hit me and hit me! I said you know what, let the man roll. I'm going to need a constitution saving throw. Yeah, is it? Is this for poison? No, this is a bleeding wound.

Oh yeah, I'll take it. That's bad. That's going to be, wait, no, I misheard that. Use the Dwarven Dice. That's going to be a 21, actually. You do not receive a bleeding wound, but you do take six points of damage. I'll take that.

Charging failed. Hold Person, does that give him another saving throw at the end of his next turn, right? It does not save, but sure, probably. I believe so. I believe so. I just need to look up the whole person. End of each of its turns, the target can make another wisdom saving throw. Yes.

So he misses his turn, he'll make another wisdom saving throw. He's got a roll of 17 or higher on the die? Yes. Good grief. Do it in front of the board, keep me honest. That's a four. Callister does not make it.

Still frozen there. Clutch. Absolutely clutch. These vestiges coming in handy. Liana's long life of mortal work paying off. Thanks, Suze. After Calistar's turn, Crocus, that's going to be you. Crocus right up against the Lord.

Seeing him tense and still able to give commands even though he's held, says, I think you need to stop talking. And is going to take one hand and grab the bottom jaw, just like putting fingers in his mouth as a strike, so making an attack roll to jam his hand in his mouth. Yeah. Yeah. That's an 18 plus 8, so I think that hits. Yeah.

And then that's gonna be 1d6. That's 9 points of damage. 9 points of damage. Lightning damage. 9 points of lightning damage. Doesn't make everything's read than lightning. Gotcha. And then grabs and...

Right into the mouth, shoots a bolt of lightning into his mouth. That's a dex save, right? DC 15. And he's held, so disadvantage, he rolls a nat 1. Okay. So that's... That's... Yes. That's 10, 13, 10, 11, 12, 13 points of lightning damage. Hell yeah.

Crocus, how do you want to do this? So as he jams the fingers in his mouth and he pulls, he grabs the top and he pulls open his mouth, looks him in the eye and goes, Never touch my mother again. It just splits him directly in half down with a lightning bolt and pulls both sides apart.

Full Godzilla. Lord Callister is no more. Yeah. Problem solved, guys. Problem solved. And then just like one lizard eye flicks at the kid, looks at him and just goes, Don't move.

As you say, don't move. Crocus, that is your turn. Nia, that is you. Oh, sorry, I do have movement still. Yes, yes, can we just move? I fly straight up in the air and hover and look around, finding where I need to go. It says I can hover.

Yeah, right. It looks like Garin is beset on all sides by devils at the moment, but Nia also is being beset. Oh, thank you, Galia. But you see that Nia is also in the corner with Aero fighting this devil off there. Conrad is being attacked, just because.

What the fuck? I'm just having a weird storm moment. Just lightning everywhere. Do you know what happens to a devil in the rain? Same thing that happens to every other devil. Or writing. There's a happens to every other devil. Or writing. There's a devil behind me, yes. Actually, no, first things first.

I am going to cast Guidance on Arrow. Cool. And that is one action. I think that's my, I don't. That's your action, yeah. Where's my bonus actions? Bonus action, your healing word. Oh! Bonus action. But I don't know who's injured. No one, I don't. That's your action, yeah. Where's my bonus actions? Bonus action, Healing Word. Oh! Bonus action.

I don't know who's injured. No one, I don't think I'll take it. Garn's injured, yeah. Oh, then I'll cast Healing Word on my friend Garn. I'll take it. 1d4 plus your modifier. And my modifier, where are you spellcasting modifier? Oh, plus three.

No, oh, modifier, oh, your spell attack. Yeah, my attack is five, my modifier is three. Woo! I'm not going to keep that. Six! That's exactly what I was down. Yay! Ooh, sweetening!

Thank you, love. Of course. Can I move at all, or is that everything I can do? Because I still have movement. You have movement, yeah. Cool. I am going to get the, I don't want to leave. I'll keep within reaching distance of arrow

just in case things go south, but I want to get, actually would it be helpful to sort of flank him for any fighting he has to do? You could flank that devil. Yeah, I'm going to flank him. And that way he won't get an attack of opportunity on you. Yeah, I'll flank him for any fighting. You could flank that devil. Yeah, I'm going to flank him. And that way, he won't get an attack of opportunity on you. Yeah, I'll flank him. Great. So you have your sword, mirror at your side.

You're armored, you're ready. You get into position, healing word, Guidance on arrow, and that immediately moves into Arrow's turn. Okay. Yeah. I feel a surge of the Moonweaver through my friend, touching my shoulder, and the scimitar spins once in my hand, and the devil looks over his shoulder at Nia, so I take that as a chance to strike. That is a 17-plus stuff, so it hits. 17 plus three is 20.

Hell yeah. Oh, no, first, I have bonus action. His eyes glint gold. Hunter's Mark. Hunter's Mark, yes. So that is four plus one is five, and the Hunter's Mark, total of 11 points of damage. Ooh! Nice, nice, nice.

Sword slashes across, shield up, with your Hunter's Mark on this devil right there, who snarls out and looks at you. As Callister dies, you see his eyes dart over your shoulder to Garen. And you see that something ripples in his eyes, like a deep red light. We end it here.

Forever. We certainly do. He's got your Hunter's Mark on him. And we're going to move from Eir of Phaedra. That is your turn. All right. I am going to pull out Mr. Key, and I am going to say, Mr. Key, this is Phaedra. I formally request invisibility, please. And I am using the awakened to turn invisible. Incredible.

The key goes to its exalted state. And looks at you and immediately, for free, so you, as an action, you make yourself invisible. We will go ahead and make you invisible here. But you also, I think, see that the key goes, looks at you and goes, please, please, please hide, Miss Phaedra! And then looks and says,

look, the bad man, he can't explain it. He just got ripped in half by your son. Is that your son? Yeah. And he goes, the boy, the little boy, we got to get him through the door, the main door. Why? That's the only thing that's gonna send these devils home.

Okay. Insight check the key. Give me an insight check with advantage. Okay. This key is fully anthropomorphic in my mind. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And smile. It's like Mr. DNA. Yeah.

Nat 20. Nat 20? Yeah. You said advantage, right? Yeah, Nat 20. Advantage, Nat 20. Yeah. Why don't you just do what you're fucking told? Nat 20. Nat 20? Yeah. You said advantage, right? Yeah. Nat 20? Yeah. Why don't you just do what you're fucking told? Key!

I fucking trusted you. Why don't you make your third wish? The door blasts open. Oh shit. And standing behind it, you behold, imprisoned in his realm, the Lord of the Hells. Oh shit.

Are you fucking kidding me? Yes! I would say that you're all first level, but actually one of you is still challenge rating 1.8. Yeah. Oh god! Are you fucking kidding me? Krogus just spins around in the air

and looks behind him, just, fuck. You see he looks out. All of you see that door, boom, behind this. However, Nia, you see the Moonweaver's statue seals this back area. This whole space becomes a liminal fire space. It's like a threshold between realms. Past the statue of the Moonweaver,

that temple is within the boundaries of the Nine Hells. But she, that statue alone in her temple, with her cleric here, is holding it at bay. And you sense that the Lord of the Hells can neither pass past it, nor send magic past it, nor do anything like that. But the Lord of the Hells witnesses you on a nat 20 fucking insight! Wow!

Unbelievable! Oh my god! You see? Mr. Key fucking insight! Wow! Unbelievable. Oh my god. You see. Mr. Key! That key sucks! Mr. Key! It was so cool! I'm so mad! Mr. Key's bad. So we've got dimensional bleed overlap? Dimensional bleed overlap happening

in the back of the temple. Oh my god. As it is happening, you see, by the way, the Lord of the Hells, a vision of horror, unending horror, pain, torment, but also bleeding from so many injuries. The Lord of the Hells is freshly banished to his realm, though it may not be something

that your characters would know. The wounds he bears marks that the final battle of the Calamity has just been lost by this horned god. He reaches out to you, Phaedra, going, Come on, you little bug! Don't you want to be somebody? Don't you want to make your third wish? I'll give you everything. You want your mommy and your daddy back. You want to be the big kitchen boss? A little throat-slitting, murdering fuck like you. You're gonna be by my side sooner or later. This little sunlit world is gonna spit you out.

There's no home for you in a world that's not burning. I don't care. There's no home for you in a world that's not burning! I don't care. I have been abandoned. I have been treated with cruelty. I almost died, and I made it through, and we made it through, because we make our own change. Then you'll die here with the rest. Boy, to me!

And puts up his hand, and you will take your turn, but you can tell that he is going to legendary action at the end of your turn, and the little boy in front of you, the child of Lord Callister, looks to you and says, They made me. I don't have a soul. I'm just supposed to be home for something greater. And he begins to lift off the ground as the Lord of the Hells is summiting to Matt's no-he-man.

Yeah. Yeah. It's unrelief-y about a boy that doesn't react when he gets stabbed in the hand. I want, what? I need to know what I don't know right now. Thedra, it is your turn before that legendary action unfolds.

Oh my god. Is, well, I already took my action, though, because turning invisible was my action. Yes, turning invisible is my action, though, because turning invisible was my action. Yes, turning invisible is your action. So I think all I can find. You have movement and a bonus action. You have movement and a bonus action. And a bonus action.

Is he, is the Lord of the Hells through the doorway to hell, or is he still on the hell side of the door? Much like when centuries ago, doorway to hell or is he still, he's still on the hell side of the door? Much like when centuries ago, a door was opened for him by Vespin Chloris. You sense that he is merely at the threshold. Your nat 20 insight did not open the door.

What it did was undo the illusion. And in all the ages of Exandria, what few mortals can claim to have undone a lie of the father of lies? Fiedra Marrow is at the very top of that list. So he is not through the door. Rather, the door, to put it bluntly, has been made clear and truthful by you. Your insight through the door, rather the door, to put it bluntly, has been made clear and truthful by you.

Your insight through the key, the ruby light comes out from the center of the key, this cursed artifact, and you are looking at the Lord of the Hells, who needs either your permission as the holder of the key or needs the boy to come through. You sense that he is trying to escape the fate that has just been wrought by the prime deities in the continent of Wildemount.

Okay. I'm trying to figure this out because it says as a bonus action. Okay, so in the Exalted State, the key opens a magical doorway, right? As a, yeah. Am I capable, am I like, can I tell if that is how this current doorway

that I'm looking at to hell was created? Was with the key? It looks like, it looks like this door was being created with the key. Which means that the opening lasts until the key. It looks like this door was being created with the key. Which means that the opening lasts until the key is passed through to the other side, at which point it disappears, right? Yes. Yes. Oh, giving the key.

I know, but I'm trying to... How else am I going to fucking close the thing? Getting the kid. Yeah. Getting the kid? Okay. Or just keeping the kid from the door. Okay. Cause if he can't, he can't pass through unless he has a key, either the Mr. Key

or that baby boy key. All right, all right, all right, okay. And in that case, I'm just gonna, okay. Forget all that, all of that. I just need to take my movement, I think. And I'm gonna just try and get cover. Hell yeah.

Probably off to this side, like underneath that little thing. Fuck, that's kind of all I can do. You can grab the boy. Wait, should I grab the boy? I suppose, because he's right now, maybe you could make sure he doesn't float over to- Grab his hand and try and hold onto him.

Can I try to do that? Because he's floating in the air, right? Oh, I can still reach him? You could jump. I'll try. I'll try. Give me a DC 10 acrobatics check. Oh, acrobatics, is that plus dex?

That's plus dex, yeah. Okay, I feel a little bit better than that. 14. 14. So you see, you use your turn. You have the key. You are invisible. you jump up, the boy becomes invisible as well.

What's good for the goose is good for the gander. You grab the boy. I got no soul, I count as an object. Oh! Duh! So you grab him and he vanishes into invisibility with you as you hit the deck. And the legendary action coming at the end of your turn, even the Lord of the Hells is bound by the rules

of the game he exists in, and he cannot target what he cannot see. You see he uses legendary action instead to his eyes glow red. And he looks out. Where are you? Fy'ra, that is your turn. Keeping it fun!

Keeping it fun! Incredible. Oh my god. You see Timothy, in invisibility, looks at you and goes. The baby's name is Timothy. Timothy, he goes, Why are you being so nice to me?

I, listen, this isn't about, kind of is not about you in this particular moment, Cain. Cain. Take me, devil! No! You're the worst. Incredible.

What the fuck? You see, Zero maternal instinct. It's not about you, Cain! You're a worst! Incredible. Where am I at? You see? Zero maternal instinct. It's not about you, kid! You're a fucking MacGuffin! Go on, it is your turn. Oh gosh. All right. Of these devils that are converging, which one looks to be the most dangerous?

The one with the big wings over there? Probably the one with the big wings over there, yeah. I got to focus on keeping their attention. So I'm going to, is the one over there within wings over there, yeah. Yeah. I got to focus on keeping their attention. So I'm going to, is the one over there within melee with me, or is? You can move, right now, the only one you're in melee with actually. The imp? Is the imp, yeah.

All right, I'm going to shift around to almost get a little bit, more or less facing back to back with Eros. Yeah. And see if I can get behind the winged one, also possibly leaving you open if you wanted to come in and attack. If you're not distracted with trying to

come up with this kit. Yeah, I don't know where they went. Nah, they just went in. I'm going to swing as I come around the backside of him, shield up on this and try and guard from the imp, and then just try and crack at the back of the shoulders. Great. Imp's going to get an attack of opportunity, misses.

Go ahead and take your attack. That's going to be a 24 to hit. 24 hits! Go ahead and roll damage. That's going to be 18 points of damage. Woo, doctor! Boom! With the hearth's hammer, boom!

Into the side of that devil. Shrieking out in pain and misery. Garin, you move with your back to the pillar behind you. We go to the top of the order. The imp is going to fly. Does the imp have any means of seeing invisibility? As the voice from beyond says, Bring the boy to me!

The imp cannot see invisibility, so it's going to stay on the previous command from the other devil and go for Garin. That is going to hit. Da-da-da. I'm going to need a constitution saving throw from you and you're in a roll with advantage. All right.

Advantage, that's going to be 17. 17, you take no poison damage. Oh, sorry. You take five points of piercing damage. And then you take half, which you'll half again, I think. So that's seven, half to three, half to one poison damage. All right. And now these other devils are going to go. This one is going to

wheel around on Nia. Rude. Very rude, how very rude. What's your armor class? 20. Ooh, she, oh no. But minus, because you're no longer side by side with Eirah. Mm-hmm. Minus three.

Oh! 17. 17. Give me a constitution saving throw. Beep. God. Constitution. Okay, all right, all right. Hmm. Seven.

Seven. Seven. So you take seven points of damage. Gorgeous. And you are poisoned for one minute. So you have disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks. While poisoned in this way, you cannot regain hit points. Okay.

Okay. Sure. Yeah. Can't regain hit points. I just, all I need is three. Sure. Yeah. Can't regain hit points. All I need is three. So. I can't even regain hit points magically? Not magically. Gorgeous. Stunned.

Shit. I'm coming for you, Liana! This one's going to turn on Garin. This one's going to rush. The fuck? None of them can see Fy'ra or the boy. Two attacks on Garin. Armor class is? 14. Give me a constitution saving throw. Okay. That's going to be a 30. That saves.

You take four points of damage. Okay. What are you at? I'm at three. And one of them's going to take two attacks against Aero. Progress! We need guidance.

I'm coming. That doesn't help for this. Constitution saving throw. Ugh! 20. 20 saves. You take six points of damage. Jeez.

You see that, looking around, Krokus, that is your turn. Okay, so Krokus up in the air, looking around, Crocus, that is your turn. So Crocus up in the air sees all of the devils converge around his friends. He saw Feadra go invisible. Yeah. But does not know where they are. Assuming they went to get the kid.

Yes. And says, boss, get the kid outside. And then rockets from where he is in the air straight at that winged devil's back. Cool. On the ground there and is going to slam him to the ground with a dropping attack. Hell yeah. You can roll with advantage.

Okay. Good, because one of them was a one. That's a 19 to hit. 19 hits. Okay. That is 10 points of lightning damage. Hell yeah. And then as he lands all four limbs,

slamming the devil to the ground, he's going to bite the devil on the ground and shock him with a lightning bolt through. Go for it. And so he has to make a dex 15 save. Fails the save. Okay. Okay, so nine, 10, 11 points of lightning damage. Badly injured. This is the one that Garin had wheeled around

and hit with the hammer. Now badly, badly injured here. Ah! I forgot to add my plus three to my save, my constitution here. What?! Escape. I forgot to add my plus three to my save, my constitution save. Do you remember what you rolled? Yeah, it's still looking at me. It was an eight, now an 11.

11 doesn't do it. All right, worth the shot. Yeah, it's worth trying to. Yeah. Get the boy out of here. The crow, because that's you. Nia, it is your turn. I am going to cast Greater Invisibility on myself.

And yeah, because of my mirror, I can do it without expending a spell slot. I'm going to cast Greater Invisibility on myself. and then I can't really do, yeah, I'm just gonna cast greater invisibility on myself and then take my sword and try and get at one of these devil guys. Does greater invisibility in action? Hm? Yeah. Oh, greater invisibility is an action,

then bonus action, can't cast healing word on myself because that'll do nothing. Does anybody, I mean, Garn's still over. Yeah, no, that's my last spell slot I have. So I will use it. Yeah, I'm gonna use it to cast Healing Word on Garn. Hell yeah, go for it. 1d4 plus your wisdom modifier.

My wisdom modifier. It's plus three again. It's plus three, plus three, so it's plus, is it modifier and wisdom? No, just your modifier is your wisdom. Oh! Yeah. That's how that works, huh? That's all good.

Seven. I'll take that, thank you. What's Garnet? He's at 10. The end of your turn. At the end of your turn, Nia. Yeah. You, greater inter-erase ability, incredibly potent spell.

The devil, looking at you disappear, turns around as the figure in flame in another world calls out. You can see your sister's face in the statue. You see that the Lord of the Hells says, The boy, fight! And the devil out here goes, Does anyone here speak Infernal?

I barely speak Infernal. Uh, the devil chatters in Infernal, pointing to Garin, and the shattered half of the temple, this dwarf just knocked a pillar down at the temple, and you see that the Lord of the Hells turns his gaze to you, Garin, and goes, Garin, Garin,

throws out his hand. I'm going to need you to make a strength saving throw. I think Garin at this moment, too, who has seen the face of a god once, seen a distant walking god of another that brought terror, but has never really made eye contact with one, especially one filled with malice. And while his old man confidence has been at this point,

and that moment has just dropped everything and sees if he can muster his strength, that's going to be a 19. A 19. A 19 is incredible and it is not enough. I'm going to say, for the Lord of the Hells, nah. No. You enter the Restrained condition.

Oh! Yeesh. Five, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30. You're a sturdy fellow. It's not often you get picked up. You begin to move up into the air, much like Timothy, as the Lord of the Hells speaks in an infernal.

SAM and SAMSHAGOS and SAMSHAGOS as the Lord of the Hells speaks in an infernal. Gryffindor. Gryffindor. I thought it was Gryffindor. And you see a hungry, ravenous smile. Can I retort? Yes. In Dwarven. Cretan. Thristadakthalt. The stones rumble.

It's Dwarven four, get fucked. Absolute disrespect, almost sacred disrespect. Aero, it is your turn. Oh jeez. Man, oh man, oh man, oh man, oh man, oh man, oh man. I'm going to, I see Nia vanish completely, but I don't hear any footsteps, so I'm going to try to finish this thing off

while it's still in front of me. Still flanking, even though she's invisible? Yes, still flanking, yeah, yeah, yeah. Good, so that's a 17 to hit. 17 hits. With a hex, or not hex, so that's a 17 to hit. 17 hits. With the hex, or not hex, a hundred's mark, so that's four plus 10 total. 10 total, and this is one you've hit

a couple times before. Yes. Hold on one second, let me find this guy. How do you want to do this? Thank god. The scimitar, it's turned towards Nia, and the scimitar you see just split through out of its chest, stopping four or five inches away from you, and then like a lever, the sword just smashes it

into the wall on the side, and then you see him say, he yells, stay safe, and he's gonna run around this column and try to get, I guess, in between where Fiedra and Krokus are, and he's yelling up to Garin. Just need to be close. Hell yeah. You rush up towards Garin. As you are running, give me a... Phaedra's turn is immediately after you. You've taken your action.

We're gonna come to the end of you running because you have movement left. As you run, Phaedra, we're gonna do your turn here for a second. You're here with Timothy. What are you going to do? I don't have a clear line through this doorway. Through this doorway, right?

Because people are blocking me. I'm going to... It's bad out here. Yeah, it's bad. It's so bad! It's... Who's that right next to me? That's Timothy. No, no, no, on the other side?

That's Ero. Oh, that's Ero, okay. Well, I just wanted to make sure that was it. No, no, no, on the other side? That's Aero. Oh, that's Aero, okay. Well, I just wanted to make sure that was it. I'm a golden devil! Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm going to grab Timothy and I'm going to run over for cover down here, basically, kind of where all this rubble is, where Garen knocked everything over.

You've got a star in doom one day. You rush over with the boy. Uh-huh. And then we're there in relative cover. Without letting go of him, I say, I say, listen, you don't have to do this. You don't have to go with him. You don't have to live at the bidding of those

who want to make you suffer. As you look at him, you see in his eyes a familiarity. There's always been something wrong with me. I know exactly how you feel. He looks at you, hearing those words that you suddenly see for all of the hardship you have passed through

and all of the struggles you have had, all of the things you have passed through, and all of the struggles you have had, all of the things you have done that you are aware kind and compassionate people do not do, in this moment, the weight of that life brings truth to your words. As this boy realizes, you mean what you say. You look down. That ruby light in that key, that key, Nia's sister took it

and hid it away for a reason. You found it deep in those vaults, hidden away up in the mountains. You look down at that ruby, and you see deep within it, something small, sleeping, curled up like a ball, like Timothy was. This key, if you keep it,

will serve you for the rest of your life and make you the richest woman in Exandria. You also feel in this moment, with the tip of one of Condemner's barbed bolts, that you could break that ruby right now, in which case you will lead a life of poverty, ignominy, and striving, along with the rest of Exandria, to scratch a life out from a rubble-strewn

and ash-covered world. I look at the sleeping child inside the ruby, and I say to Timothy, if I have a soul, then you must have one, too. Is this yours? Is this you? He looks in the key, and his eyes start to water. What is that? The Lord of the Hell's eyes flash to you.

Oh! How?! the Lord of the Hell's eyes flash to you. SAM and SAM and LAURA, HELLO! Deidre, what do you do? I think she's doing invisibility. That was probably true sight at a certain point. When he switched his legendary action to activate his true sight. I think he could, yeah.

I was like, I think he could. Yeah, I was like, there's no way he can't see invisibility at this point. Well, if he's bound by the rules of the game. That's true, that's true. Cosmodels! I say, I say, I say, Timothy. If I tell you that you have the power

to be good, to change this world for the better, to rise above all of this darkness and all of this hate that made you, would you take that charge? And would you do good? And I need you to answer me truthfully. You see that Timothy looks as Garn, floating in the air, the Lord of the Hells, prepares the very end of this turn. As Garn, floating in the air,

the Lord of the Hells prepares, the very end of this turn, having activated this, he's reaching out for you with some fucking something. He looks and goes, Timothy looks at you in answer to your question, and you can hear the stirring of that part of him within the ruby as he goes i don't know if i know how but i can promise i try did i take that key

maybe this is a mistake but I don't think it is. Now I'm just going to press it to his heart. Mm-hmm. And then I'm going to say, then that is a soul. The ruby shatters. Timothy breathes in. Immediately, his face is flushed with emotion.

You see in the images of ruby light extending from the key, the Lord and Lady Callister engaged in acts better left undescribed. Oh, he's going to the amulet now. Creating a child so that, as the War of Calamity unfolded and things looked more and more dire for the Lord of the Hells,

that a mortal vessel, its soul suspended, would be prepared for him to walk the world behind the gate in mortal form until such time as his true power could be restored. But he wasn't counting on the fucking roach gang. Damn roach gang. No! Fire, Phaedra, you have restored the soul

and condemned yourself to a hard fucking life. Nothing new. It's better down here. You can mark off the infiltrator's key and add Timothy to your inventory. Oh! I got a slash one Timothy! Incredible.

Does he counter his awakened state now? Yes, Timothy enters exalted state. I haven't exalted Timothy! You're all fucked up! Incredible! Just a being of pure childhood. Yeah. Unbelievable.

Fiedra, that is your turn. Aro, your movement. Did you want to end up right down here? Yeah, I mean, I don't have any more gas in the can to do anything. I just want to get as close to my friend as I can to try to save his ass. Yeah. Satan.

Hell yeah. At the end of your turn, as you're grabbing him, go ahead, give me either, give me an attack roll, essentially, to try and grab Garin as he's moving through the air here. Okay, like an unarmed strike, should we call it? 22. 22! to try and grab Garin as he's moving through the air here. Okay. Like an unarmed strike, should we call it? Yeah, call it. 22.

22! You grab Garin. You can tell that something is, a legendary action is coming at the end of your turn. As this unfolds here in this moment, you can choose, as you grab Garin, where you want to be positioned as you bring him close to the ground.

Well, I would say, I don't know how the economy's going to work here. I still have my bonus action, which, if that matters, but I will both yank. I got him by the scruff of one leg and I'll yank him down while lifting my mother's shield up in front of his chest and face. Hell yeah.

You pull him. The Lord of the Hells with legendary action, lifting Garn up, seeing this happen with Timothy, changes course, summons a bolt of fire into his hand and prepares to obliterate Garin here in this space. You grab him, move in front of him, shield up. Shield, shoulder, back, torso. This is going to be a firebolt cantrip cast by a lord of the hells.

No. A cantrip. Yeah! It's a legendary action. I have leather armor, though. That's true. Take that! That is a hit.

How many hit points do you have? Seven. Is that max for you or no? No. Okay. You are about to go down. We are going to determine. There is a possibility that you only go down. If he rolls four ones, you could stay up,

but there is also a possibility, given the math of this moment, that this may be your last act in Exandria. Seven. Plus... plus... Seven plus 13 is 20. Nine. You're down.

You have 11 more hit points before your hit point maximum is reached past zero hit points. Seven. 10. Tent. Striding forward, you pull Gorn down. What is Arrow feeling in this moment? After a lifetime of running, scraping,

and frequent solitude. Push and pull between being on his own and returning to life and others. He's just grateful that he found his way again He's just grateful that he found his way again before it was too late. He's just grateful that he found his way again before it was too late.

He's just grateful that he found his way again before it was too late. And as, I guess, the two of us sink down on the ground with my weight. Only Garin hears him say, Thank you for getting me out of Rybad. Thank you for setting me free. A bolt of fire aimed for Garin streaks. You hold your shield aloft. You got Nia to Torm's Hill. You got the word of the Moonweaver to Vasselheim.

You saw the Lord of the Hells want for something in this dwarf. And you will serve, guide, and protect until your last. Fire strikes arrow in the chest. And he falls. Final moments, Golden scales, glittering as though they could never truly burn. As Erow falls, as Erow falls, the Lord of the Hells cackles, to see you all unmade. This is my greatest joy to watch you suffer.

He arises. Garin, it's your turn. Garin's seen a lot of death. And he's very good at compartmentalization at this point in his elder years. So the pragmatist he is, he takes this moment in, this flash, this loss, kicks the shield off of his one arm, slides it down into the now unused shield from Eros' arm, brings that up, and backs up shoulder to shoulder with Crocus. It's time to go. Yeah. Let's get out of here. He's going to go ahead and, backing up further,

swing around and try and smash this devil that's blocking part of that path out of the way to continue to try and open the way for the rest of these folks. Hell yeah. You step towards this devil here, back-to-back with Crocus, arrow on the ground. Garin, go ahead and you can take flanking here and roll with advantage. That's going to be a 19. and roll with advantage. That's going to be a 19. That hits, go ahead and roll damage.

Not great, but still an 11 points of damage. This one had been hit many times before. Wheeling around, bringing the hammer down, right between the wings, crushing the spine. This devil falls to the floor here. Before the Lord of the Hells, you see that this devil has fallen. There's one in the doorway here that continues,

but the rest all throughout, that one falls under your hammer. He's not even looking at the devil at this point. He's still even looking at the devil at this point. He's still looking out, processing the memory of that last flash of Eros's faith, and uses the rest of his movement to continue to move up to where the other devil is to draw its attention.

Great. You use the rest of your movement, surge forward to this place here. As you do, the imp is going to turn to attack. You have Honor's Last Stand. You have a Vestige of the Platinum Dragon, also in its exalted state. What's your current armor class?

Right now, it would be 17. 17. That is a miss from the imp. Hit, I need a constitution saving throw. That's going to be a 19. You take no bleeding wound, but you do take six points of damage. Okay.

Here we go. This one lashes out and attacks you as well. That's actually, you've just killed the last one. This is the last one left. Crocus, that is going to be your turn. Crocus, seeing Garin start walking, he looks down at Eros, picks him up. Got 23 strength now, it shouldn't be a problem.

Yeah. I pick him up and he looks at the Lord of the Hells, and in Draconic, that Eros taught him, says, . Says. that Erow taught him, says,. Says. Change is coming, and you are not that change. And takes him out, and takes, use his fly speed to fly with Erow in his arms,

slamming down, standing on top of the imp. Hell yeah. Go ahead and make your attack roll. Okay. That's a 17 to hit. That hits, go ahead and roll damage. That is 12 points of lightning damage. Destroy.

We leave now. Crocus and Garin, one devil remains in your path. Nia, that is your turn. Nia's had a hard few days. She called Arrow family today. And then he died. She called her sister family. She died. Ish. Called Lou's family. She died.

Nia's still so greatly invisible. Picks up her mirror. Looks at it. Puts it back. Decides to, before she leaves and follows her friends, to cast Major Image. To attempt to provide the illusion that this statue of the Moon Weaver has come to life. She has it turn around

and face the Lord of the Hells. I don't know if she can make it speak or talk. I don't know if that's within her ability. Yeah, I can move it. Yeah, it can make different sounds as if to carry on a conversation. She has her sister raise her hand and point to the Lord of the Hells and says, Do not fall victim to your folly. You will not,

you cannot, and you have not won. And she... I think she wants the statue to slap this lord of the hells. I think she, I just want, I want her to smack him. I don't know if he's going to feel it.

I don't really care. I think Nia just craves the satisfaction. In this moment, she reaches to a place of a revenge that she once denied herself capable of. And she wants her sister to smack this fucking lord. If that's allowed. As you reach to the mirror and hold this aloft, it is capable of great illusion. The Moonweaver's domain is that of trickery, a domain that she shares with the Lord of the Hells.

You wish to hear those words spoken, Folly, that this is not the change that is coming here. And you reach for this illusion. What cold comfort it can be. The illusion of the Lord of the Hells is that of deception and manipulation, and untruth spoken to achieve an end. Bedevil a mind, break a heart.

The trickery of the Moonweaver is made clear to you in this moment, for as the statue turns in illusion, the illusion is a dream. There is an illusion that we all share, which is the dream we have of a world that does not exist, but might. That illusion is more precious than gold,

and as dear as kin and home. For as the illusion takes hold, and Phaedra restores the soul of the boy here, and the key shatters, Lord Callister lies dead, the Lord of the Hells rearing up. The moon weaver turns, and the words you most wished to hear, that you dreamed into being with your mirror,

you hear, truly spoken. This is no illusion. The fire vanishes, and wreathed in moonlight, the statue takes the form of your sister. The Lord of the Hells, eyes wide. You! You had left!

You had left this world! The gate! She raises an eyebrow, turns back to you, and goes, I lied. And smacks him into the bottom of the pit of hell. Turns to you. You got to tell the truth about lying. You got to tell the truth about lying.

She comes out of invisibility, places a kiss on her hand, sets it to the ground, looking at her sister, and follows her friends out. The chapel restored. Phaedra, you lead the boy. Crocus, you hold Ero's body. This last devil vanishes with his master in flame.

Yeah. Let's get out of here. And you all depart from this place and return Ero's body, Timothy, beside you. The rubble of the chapel, the fallen bodies, the flames of devils, this ritual, the final failsafe of the Lord of the Hells to skirt the destiny written for him across 300 years of calamity. That failsafe is foiled. His doom sealed. As overhead, dragon's wings the size of and a line of light breathed out across the stars begins to cover the world in divine protection.

You look as you exit the chapel, rubble and ruin behind you. It is yet just one more place that must be rebuilt. As you exit the chapel, rubble and ruin behind you, it is yet just one more place that must be rebuilt, cleaned and cared for in the days to come. Around you, there are celebrations, cheering, that seem to occur as if slowed in time with what you have just witnessed below. We move into the final chapters of our story here.

And I will ask what it is you do in Vasselheim, the night that the Lord of the Hells and the Betrayers last laid eyes on Exandria. Where do you think he would want to be? With his wife. think he would want to be? With his wife. Okay. I'll keep him until we can get back. Okay. Liam.

In the months and years that follow, In the months and years that follow, choose whichever time you wish for, where is Arrow's final resting place? I think that Nia had it exactly right. High in the mountains, in a healing peak in Gwassar, near a lock hidden in the mountains, blessed by the Moonweaver herself. Erow returns to the soil alongside Dunaya from a point in his life where he was eminently happy.

Snowgrave Pass. By those brave enough to tread it, for it is a far hike at the base of the Stormpoint Mountains, is known by all those rangers and wanderers who have ever found it to be one of the most beautiful sights in all of Hwassar. And, Liam, I'll ask you to step away from the table, and, Liam, I'll ask you to step away from the table,

if we can. Thank you for playing. And what of Fiedra's days after Divergence in the new dawn of Exandria? In the New World, Fiedra eventually returns back to Gwisar, back to the countryside, where all the other survivors from Torm's Hill have started to build their lives.

She reunites with Otto and Taveen, hopefully. I'm hoping. Mm-hmm. They gleefully, the first day you see them back in Torm's Hill bringing word, because word has to be spread. You see that Taveen goes, Boss!

Runs over Torm's Hill. Now has multiple structures and buildings. Otto goes, You made it! I did. I missed you guys. I really did. Mushy. I know, I know.

Stop it! Come here! Give him a big hug. Crocus, do you come with me? Do you return with me? Do you return with me? Before we leave Vassalot. Hey, what are you going to do with Timothy? That's a good question.

I feel like we... Is Timothy a little bit out of his mind? Timothy is in the celebration of Vasselheim, just seated, eating snacks and sweets, and looking around. He's full of life and energy, making up almost for lost time, and looks up, shell-shocked

and not sure how to make eye contact with other people, but seems like he knows that there are other people that have seen horrifying things and chosen kindness and stays close by to Phaedra. I think... I think you have a second chance to be someone's mom. Don't fuck it up. I'll do my best.

He will travel back to at least Hormuzel with you. And he's going to have an amazing older brother. Maybe. At least, Torm's held with you. And he's going to have an amazing older brother. Mm. Mm, maybe. Then, yeah, I guess I adopted Timothy. I guess, yeah. Yeah. You adopt Timothy. Timothy grows up. You make him wait until he's at least 12

to get the roach tattoo. I do it myself, because I don't trust anyone else, and I do it to make sure. The first time you see him intimidate someone that pushes around, they go like, hey, that little shrimp who's got a roach tattoo, and he turns around and goes,

I was born to be a home for the devil. And I'm like, that's my voice! Your voice! That's my voice! That's my boy! That's my boy! In the back like this. You spend long days tending to, I think, if it makes sense, I think you end up somewhere far.

Torm's Hill is a wonderful place, but there's lots of other places to travel to. And you get word one day of some strange marauders up in the northeast of Gwassar. And one of them mentions that one of the leaders of them has a roach tattoo on the back of his neck. Yep. Oh, yeah. Okay. And I think you end up in some swampland up there

where, taking a helmet off, Timothy's maybe 14 or 15 at this point. See, there's some place up there where suddenly one of these marauders, as people are trying to make civilization happen again, takes off a helmet. Fiedra. F? Yeah.

Oh my god. So we're thinking about starting a horde. And sort of laying waste to the countryside. What do you think about that? Kev. Yeah. Come on. Is that not what we're doing? I'm just sick of all this. We're in a new world.

Look around you. Just feel the sunlight on your face. I know. I know we've been through a lot, but the world's plenty shitty enough without us adding to it, I think. God. Maybe you're right.

It is nice and sunny out, isn't it? You see next to Kefkadriel, a marauder goes, You speak insanity. Let us kill the halfling woman. And you see Kefkadkadriel grabs that guy's head and slits his throat. Yeah. I want to be different.

That's a great point. You know, these swamps are not a bad place to go swimming, hang out, not a bad place to check out. Yeah. Hang out. Not a bad place to check out. Yeah. Yeah. Let's be nice. Yeah. Yeah. It's fun. It's a good plan.

I really like how you think. Freaky guy! Freaky guy! And Fiedra, once again, finding those that knew a crueler world and showing them that you don't have to throw all the lessons away, but you don't have to live in that world forever. I give him a hug.

Give him a hug. Yeah. He goes, You're a freak. And returns the embrace. Sure, Jeff. Sure, yeah. Jasmine. Thank you. I'll ask you to step away from the table.

All right. I love you both. My son. Shit. This way. Jasmine, come back. Oh, Jasmine, come back. Wait. Before you leave. Yes. When we do get back to Torms Hill.

Mm-hmm. So, I'm going to go. Mm-hmm. I'm going to go figure out who I am not with you. But I will send word, and we'll see each other again. Of course. You will always have me to come back to whenever you're ready. Okay. Whatever you do out there, you're going to do great.

Don't let them do anything dumb. I'll see you. And he gives her a hug. Oh, I give him a big old hug. And so, and then,. Oh, I give him a big old hug. And so... And then, thank you, Jester. And then now I leave. At my behest, you can leave.

Thank you. He then travels for a while on his own. He's learned from Eros how to travel in the wilderness and how to take care of himself. And I think he eventually makes his way up towards Wildemount. And finds a monastery there and starts training.

Crocus. One whom. Krokus, one whom a crueler world had dubbed a monster, Krokus, one whom a crueler world had dubbed a monster, who began this story muzzled like a beast in the back of a wagon, to be sent to die in the back of a wagon, to be sent to die on the front lines of a tyrant's war, finds peace and wisdom, the orb of an ancient world in his tender care.

Years from then, when monks of the Cobalt Soul defend the wisdom and secrets of this place among the many whose devotion, wisdom, and guidance shaped the early roots of that order, as Crocus's monastery bear proud and noble beginning. Thanks, Alex. Thank you. monastery bear proud and noble beginning. Thanks, Alex. Thank you.

Nia finds a moment to go and visit Ero's resting place. She doesn't stay for very long. She has a job to do. After all, she picks up a stone and turns it over and over in her hand, as she saw him do many times. And heads back to Vasselheim to go be a good cleric and teach people that no matter how lonely they feel, they're never alone. And yeah, she just does her cleric shit for as long as she can. She throws herself into her work,

dedicating all of it to her lost friends and her family and her sister. She does great work, as she knew she would. It takes you a long time getting lost in your work. You teach the clerics of the Dawnfather how to love a sunrise that is not guided by their god's hand.

You teach the clerics of the Wild Mother how to hear the mother's voice, not as it once rang out, but in the birds and swaying trees of every forest. It takes more work this way. But that work makes love appear. Many years into that service, as a cleric of the Moonweaver,

a familiar voice rings out in the marketplace. Nia. Nia turns. Her locks are a little longer. They finally touch her shoulders. Her cloak that was once in blues and browns and greens are now whites and silvers and navies. She looks older, wiser, has been through much. Trying not to wear the grief as heavy as she does

in the lonely hours of the night. She turns to whoever calls her. Heading back to the home of your parents, your father, human, starting to get some salt and pepper in his beard. Mm-hmm. You see the face of a water genasi You see the face of a water genasi that you saw many years ago in Torm's Hill.

Nia. Un? Un Detra. It's been a long time. Right. Crazy to see you here. Oh my gosh, hi. The Dawn City felt like the appropriate place to make pilgrimage to.

I can't believe you're here. I thought, well, you saved my life, and then I've, yeah. You were, she looks at herself. You were quite rude to my friend back there. Rude to me. I forgave you, but clearly I was on the right path. She looks and goes,

yeah, you've done, I'd say, extremely well for yourself as a person of faith. You see that she, even hearing the venom in her own words, puts her head down. I knew that I hurt you in that moment. I've seen so many strange things since then that it feels strange to have held onto that, but I feel like I want you to know

I wish I could take it back. Not because it didn't come from a genuine place, but because I didn't want to hurt you or insult you or give you pause. I appreciate you saying that, thank you. If it makes you feel any better, it didn't change my path. I'm glad.

God, I've thought for years about what I would say to you if I saw you again. You've thought about me for years? Hey! Okay. She looks and says, Were you ever curious about why I was such an asshole to you?

When I had the time, when I wasn't reconnecting with my sister who's a god and sort of teaching people how to be hopeful and full of love and really just changing sort of the course of faith and everything, when I had time, yeah. But I don't have a lot of time. I'm very, very busy. Yes. Very busy. Yes, I wondered often.

My mother and father were disciples of the Moonweaver. They were discovered by servants of the Strife Emperor, and they were killed. Not an uncommon story. Painful one, nonetheless. The sadness I felt was not only that their faith hurt them, was not only that their faith hurt them, but that for all of their devotion,

they never heard her. Their prayers were never answered. And when they died, it felt like they died for nothing, and... I know. She thinks of her golden friend. Faith cannot protect us from fate. Faith is the fate molder. I'm sorry for the loss of your parents. I'm sorry for the loss, she

thinks of her sister, of the gods from this place. But just as my fallen friends watch me, guide me, your parents do the same for you. Oh. I appreciate your kindness. It is unending. Would you object to walking in the company of a faithless wanderer who's turned her back on the gods? For a spell.

A spell's all we get. I have plenty of spells. Magic, magic, magic, magic, magic. Yeah, we walk arm in arm, and I'm going to introduce her to my parents? Not in that way of like, this is the person I'm seeing, but just like,

my mother's priest of the Moonweaver. I think I have some people who can help widen your scope of what you believe faith is capable of. I'm game. It's a new world. Magic, magic, magic. You walk from this place and serve.

Thanks, Elia. Hey, Matt. What's up, Brennan? Where does Garin end up? I think he doesn't rest that first night. I think he doesn't rest that first night. I think once everyone else lets the exhaustion take them, he's a man who toils through emotion.

He's toiled through the absence of it for the better part of a century, so he begins to look for a piece of stone. And I think he misses Desmond and the return troop to Gwizar because he's working it. He wants to get it perfect. It's been a long time since he's really done something artistically. He for so long. He's only just begun to build things again for himself. And so he spends the coming weeks toiling over

a memorial statue for Eru. And as they begin rebuilding this temple to the Moonweaver, I think they return to finish elements of construction to find a statue that they didn't place there. And the exhausted dwarf that sits at its base passed out. And probably utilizing the Fabrication spell, Fabricate spell that he now has because of his hammer, the last little piece of it is holding aloft the Honor's Last Stand shield and melding it into the statue

so that it cannot be easily taken, but only given under the sight of whatever god, the Moonweaver likely. See whoever's fit to wield it again. Then he begins his trek back to Gwisar on his own, looking, probably looking for and asking around for Desmond, doesn't even have a last name,

the only survivor he's met of Uhtur and its destruction. Traveling through free lands, your statue built, the hearth's hammer at your side, your age getting to you. God, how long have you been alive for? It's hard to remember. Someone says, Dismond? Hey, hey, any... I remember. Someone says, Desmond?

Hey, hey, any... Desmond, Jaggenstrike. Sure. Yeah, Kraghammer. You look at, yeah, you say, you know Desmond. Hey, hey. You meet Desmond, who is of the family Jaggenstrike.

Hi. Clan Jaggenstrike. And you participate in the founding of Kraghammer. There is much work to do. And of those Shepherds of the Stone, to which Desmond belongs, celebrating Kraghammer, just like your dream, tankards of ale

pushed into the chest, dwarves clapping on the back. It seemed like it would never happen again. How could it, after all that darkness, how could light find a way back to this world? The laughter of dwarven children running. You see Desmond talking as you have this moment of sitting, knowing a moment's rest finally, back here in what once was Uth Tor,

this new community rising up. As you feel a sense of pride and accomplishment, a hand claps on your back and Desmond, one of the new lords of Kraghammer, says, Garen, Garen! Hi, Desmond. Friend, you're one of the most gifted masons we know. Listen, there's an area.

Dwarves have scattered across Gwisar, and we're looking for family records Stonework, runes around wherever we can find them Are you familiar with Cattall Bay? I know of it, have not been There's rumours that merchants have brought some dwarves That have made it all the way out there to some far off land There's a town with some dwarves in it

A family that fled as far as they could, ended up in some godforsaken swamp out there by the bay. But if you were to head out there and warn them or give them some guidance back, I think there's... We're sending out some shepherds of the stone to help with rebuilding. I am so tired.

You, Garan, as the Allhammer is my witness, this will be the last favor I ask of you. They're trying to build a town in the middle of the swamp. There's a little town out there called Bend, and they're just trying to make something happen there. And I know that you know enough about masonry to know how to build something,

at least that will serve as some kind of foundation. I guess I got one more journey and then he claps his shoulder and says, Let me just... Let me finish my current project before I go. Yeah, of course, Gar. When I come back, I got some ideas. I think maybe more than one slab.

Ooh! Let me go deeper. Ho ho ho, a little deeper, eh? Let me write that down, a little deeper. He turns around and then exhales. The years have caught up with him. And he grabs his supplies. He gets prepared for one last journey. As he finishes off his last little project here

at the beginnings of Kraghammer, the sunlight behind him at the opening that exits the cliff keep, he finishes chiseling in the arch of stones that greet those that enter the city. Where it reads in Dwarvish, The gate is built by heart alone, though hearts be held by flesh and bone, And flesh and bone by earth and stone

The door we make, windlock we break Will bridge the waters Roads to take The stones that stand to staunch the flood Have read and found by toil and blood By stone betrayed The seal is made Blood, freedom found by toil and blood. By stone betrayed, the seal is made. The hand that holds the heart that prayed,

the stairs it shaped, the debts it paid. The gate is shaped, The keystone light. In departing from this hallowed stone, a blessing left on Kraghammer forever. You arrive in some godforsaken corner of Gwizar, a bug-filled swamp. in some godforsaken corner of Gwisar, a bug-filled swamp. You see Fiedra again, and nearby,

there's some criminal element in this corner of the world that you feel like will be hard to expunge from this place. There's just rogues abound in this corner of Gwassar. But you find your way there, and I think a day comes where you find dwarven families, inform them that Kraghammer, that the glory of old Uth Tor is found again in Kraghammer.

They thank you. And the denizens here could use a hand, the community they have in the swamp. They're trying to build some little farm walls to help sheep from wandering off into the swamp somewhere. There's a day where a family has asked for your help. There's an opening in the farm wall where they're asking for a gate to be built

so they can get their livestock in and out without having to take them the long way around. I think you're building a gate into the side of the wall there. And you hear over by the thing, there's someone else from Vasselheim nearby who appears to be some sort of expositor going like, It's the name of this town?

Sorry, we're trying, the maps are all higgledy-piggledy. It's still Ben. It's always been Ben. Still Ben, thank you. No, it's... You see a figure walking down the road. You know his face very well. You've carved it in the past. Liam, could you come on out?

Hold on. Bye. Hello, Gar. I don't understand. It's good to see you in the flesh once again. He stands up. Claps him on the side of the face and gets real close, looking at his sunken, wrinkled eyes. I haven't the words. The arrow looks very similar to the last time you saw him. He is wearing simple robes, and his scales are clean and shine.

I searched for you for quite some time. It took my whole entire mortal life to remember who I was. And transparent golden wings flare out behind his back and vanish away. And now it's time for you to do the same, my brother. Gotcha. You feel his clawed golden hand rest on your cheek and turn you slowly back.

I know it's a lot. Breathe it in. Oh. It's time, my friend. You're right. It is. It is. Our wars and squabbling have hurt our children. It is not right.

It is not just. It is time we entrust our children to be stewards of this world that you created. I look forward to seeing what they can make now that we've given them a nudge. You know... There's something I liked about this. Maybe one day we'll try it again. Let's not go just yet.

Come with me. And your vision blurs, and you find yourself seated on top of a gargantuan, massive, golden dragon yourself seated on top of a gargantuan, massive golden dragon soaring through the skies of Exandria, crashing through a cloud and breaking out over a massive valley nestled next to Torm's Hill.

Mountains and peaks ringing it in. The dragon banks to the side and dives into another cloud, and we shoot out over a volcano bubbling with lava on an island in the middle of a white-capped ocean. Then over tundra and ice and fallen ruins. Over a city with a smoldering crater boiling at its center. Islands moving in the sea, obscured by mists. You ride on the platinum dragon's back, seeing a world shaped by your hand. How marvelous that those steps were laid

in that snowy peak in Snowgrave Pass. How marvelous to remember where Torm, Torm, your child, your great-great-great-great-great- great-grandson, where did he hide that ale and beef? Those voices as you drifted off to sleep, telling you that they were grateful, telling you that they were scared, asking you to shape something for them so that they might have the tools

to know that they were heroes. A valley for free folk, mountains and peaks shaped by the loving hands of the Allhammer. What a world he made. We lose track of time sailing through all of your creations. And after a time, we pass through another bank of clouds, and your vision obscures and returns. And you stand in that same spot of work, and your vision obscures and returns.

And you stand in that same spot of work. And Ero now looks exactly the way he did the moment you met him in a prison all those years ago, filthy and bedraggled and covered in dust, your friend and brother and kin, all of your works and deeds have served as prologue to this moment. A humble life in service of the good shall serve as keystone to this gate.

And I nod down at this gate that you've been building. And I step through ahead of you five or six feet and turn around. There's only one thing left to do, my friend. He goes, As old as his visage is, there is a quiet, ageless strength and assurance to his movement as he carefully places the final keystone, locking in that solid final piece of the communal design and necessary gate to protect all that we've witnessed and all that we've witnessed

and all that we've created. And he drops that hammer, which sinks with a heavy impact as he steps through to join you, clasping your shoulder. Two brothers, from eternity until forever, stride past the gate into the great beyond, knowing that Exandria is in good hands, ever loved and cherished by all who will come from this day until the final days of creation. May they be far, far removed.

Stories abound, adventures unfold, the watchful gaze of the gods giving light to those who use their stories to find the way. Thanks for watching. And is it Thursday yet? yet.