Critical Role - C2E101 Mysteries, Memories, and Music

Episode Date: July 16, 2020

The Mighty Nein explore the island village of Vo, uncovering strange mysteries about the island itself and its unusual inhabitants...Watch Critical Role live Thursdays at 7pm PT on https://www.twitch.tv/criticalrole

Hello, bees! This is Laura Bailey, here to welcome you to the Critical Role podcast. If you'd like to tune into the show as it airs, you can watch Critical Role Thursdays at 7 p.m. Pacific on twitch.tv slash criticalrole and youtube.com slash criticalrole. Our lovely Twitch subscribers can view the episode on demand right away. Or you can find it on YouTube Mondays at 12pm Pacific. And of course, for all you fantastic podcast listeners, Critical Role episodes hit feeds on Thursday mornings, a week after the episode first airs. With all that said, let's get into another episode of Critical Role. Hello, everybody, and welcome to tonight's episode of Critical Role,

where a bunch of us nerdy-ass voice actors sit around and play Dungeons & Dragons. We're pretty good! Yeah! We're good. Second episode back. Oh, I've missed this. Before we jump into tonight's episode, we do have some announcements to get through,

so bear with us for just a moment. First and foremost, no sponsor tonight, but Sam, you said you wanted to say something? Yeah, tonight I'm going to perform the most important ad of my career. I'm going to advertise myself. Oh. Because we have no sponsor, so instead,

I'm offering my services to the advertising world out there. Oh. You advertise. I do this every day. Advertisers, sponsors, products, companies, I'm ready for you. Send me your ideas. I will sell your shit for you. Doesn't matter if it's bad, I'll still sell it. I me your ideas. I will sell your shit for you. Doesn't matter if it's bad.

I'll still sell it. I don't care. I don't have any sort of shame. So just to demonstrate my skills, I'm going to take a kale chip. Everybody hates kale chips. Mmm. Amazing. So good, right? That's the kind of quality you can get

in Europe. In fact, I can even make up shitty songs. Ready? Set sail, set sail, set sail with Kael. Oh no, it's a whale. We're frail, we should bail. What's this? The Kael, the whale likes Kael. We won't be assailed thanks to Kael.

See, that took me six seconds to write. And I can turn out this shit all day for you. So please, please, when you're thinking of insincerity, think of Sam Riegel. Back to you, man. Thank you, Sam. Why do you do our stuff? Yeah.

Next up, Marisha, you had some announcements to make. Oh yes. Our next episode of Mighty Vibes will premiere tomorrow, July 10th, at 4 p.m. Pacific on our Twitch channel. As a reminder, all of our VODs are available on YouTube two days after, so you know, whenever you need to chill.

And you should check out the other Mighty Vibes if you haven't, they're great. Also join us next Tuesday, July 14th, at 7 p.m. Pacific for a brand new episode of All Work, No Play Unplugged. And this time, it's featuring me. I'll be joining Sam and Liam. Is that true? It was a good one.

It was great. It was, when we shot that episode, it was really good. I loved it when we talked about that thing. Yeah, so you can catch that VOD on Thursday, next Thursday. The future is off! Not this Thursday, which is... A place in time.

Uh-huh. Yeah, but the next Thursday. Got it, got it. Sure. That's some DARPA math. Uh-huh. Yeah, but the next Thursday. Got it, got it. Sure. Some DARPA math. Uh-huh. Gonna be the future soon. All righty. Oh man. Good job, Marisha.

Well done, well done. Good job, I think Colton dropped Liam. Laura and Taliesin, you guys had something to talk about, right? Well, I'll start it off. Yeah, please. Yeah, so we have been working with Omega Farland toys. Ooh!

For quite a while now, and I'm very happy to let you know that our figure, I don't want to say what it is yet, is available in the U.S. and the U.K. stores right now. Whoa. And it's never going to get made again, I don't want to say what it is yet. It's available in the U.S. and the U.K. stores right now. Whoa. And it's never going to get made again, so it's there. So I will show you all this. It's the box.

Can you guess who it is? Yeah, so this is our Molly Mock figure. It's freaking phenomenal box. Is that foil? The inside is... Oh, where's the thing? Oh no! He got away.

Where is the figure? Oh, you mean this thing? Yeah, yeah, the special, special figure. Oh yeah. Gorgeous. That's so true. I'm turning him, I'm turning him. Look. I mean, it's insane.

Too sexy. So yeah, Molly has his signature robe and tarot cards in his hand. You may notice his two scimitars, that's what they're called. Yeah, no, you're doing fine. Yeah. Are they, are they, they're removable!

Of course they are. Actually, in proper MacFarlane fashion, they are removable, and it does take about 30 minutes to get it out of the packaging, which is honestly all I ever want out of a MacFarlane toy figure. I want to sit there with an X-Acto knife

and tweezers going, goddammit. So it's very well packaged. And actually, the box art is so pretty. It's so beautiful, and Taliesin gave notes every single step of the way and just really like everything is based on canon and his ideas for what the character looks like. And it's just amazing.

Mom, may he reign. Thank you, Doing Farland Toys. Check out this limited edition. We got toys! This is all I ever wanted. Right here. So exciting. Holy shit.

I just had to traumatize our audience to get an action figure. I wouldn't have. Right here. So exciting. Holy crap. If we knew, I just had to traumatize our audience to get an action figure. I would have done it here. Jesus. That's all it took, the whole time. Awesome. Thank you for your pain, everybody. Well, cool. I think that is the end of our announcements. Oh no. Much shorter this week

than last week. And as such, I think it's time to go ahead and jump into tonight's episode of Critical Role. The adventure begins They were always beside you Your nerdy best friends And the DM to guide you And they rise from the flames for the battles ahead Villains beware, cause you're about to be dead

They got magic and flair They got falchions and cunning They don't see over there There's a monster incoming Inspiration is waiting Rise up, don't think twice Put your fate in your hands Take a chance, roll the dice

Can you answer the call? Digging deep in your soul As the legend unfolds And welcome back. SAM and LAURA say goodbye. And welcome back. So last we left off, the Mighty Nein, after helping aid the negotiation between the Kryn Dynasty and the Dwendalian Empire come to a momentary close, you separated yourselves to head around the island of Uruk-Hazel in the Inklaw Reef,

making your way towards Rumblecusp, where you had planned in the near future to hold Traveler Con. Woo! Along the way, you drew the attention of a dangerous entity in the sea, what turned out to be a dragon turtle, a massive, massive threat.

You managed to keep it at bay, fire towards it, only sustain a bit of damage to your hull before miraculously transforming it into a regular sea turtle and then eventually a sea slug, leaving it in your wake, literally, and heading a bit off course, taking a little more time on your travel, but eventually making your way to the island of Rumblecusp unscathed any further.

Upon planting yourself on the outskirts of the island and taking your ships to the shore, you left the rest of the crew there on the beach to keep an eye while you began to enter the jungle proper. There, within the tangled tree mass, what did I miss? No, no, no, I'm just thinking, I'm regretting leaving them on the shore.

We should have told them to hide or some shit. I'm sure it's fine. I forgot about them. Yeah. Anyway. Heading into the jungles, a short time in, you found yourselves being hunted. And as these creatures, these black panther-like beasts you've seen before

in the past, began to present themselves ready to pounce and attack, they themselves were assaulted by a small hunting party of two individuals in what appeared to be a semi-humanoid bear state. Upon killing one of these creatures and sending the others scattering, they began to prepare it for bringing back to their village, which you discovered exists in this island, a commune known as Vo.

And they were eager to tell you about it. They were excited to meet newcomers to the island and to show you the safest route back to the place that they call home. These individuals named Pono and Jaina carried the corpse of this displacer beast, and alongside you, you are brought to this makeshift driftwood patchwork village.

Some buildings looking much older than others. You can see the large bridge networks that connected different structures, held aloft at different points in the few trees that still remain in this clearing in the center of the Stunned's Jungle from Rumblecusp. People who lived here began to come out excitedly and whisper about the new arrivals

until eventually you were brought to bear and meet two of the three leaders of this village, one of which is a tall, lanky male orc figure with gray skin, bright smile, multiple tools hanging from his belt that clangle as he walks, his hair pulled back into braids into about the midpoint of his back,

and a half-elf woman that you saw being brought down by a cluster of moving vines from atop a structure higher up in the tree. This half-elf female, tan of skin, sun-bleached, long, wild hair with a leg made of vines, it looks like, steps down onto the ground and approaches before saying, Welcome. So, what brings you here?

The moment of silence comes over as everyone is now waiting with bated breath to hear what the newcomers have to say. Well, we were hoping to have a festival here. well, we were hoping to have a festival here we heard beautiful things about Rumblecusp and how tropical

and fabulous it was and we thought maybe we should just you know have a bunch of people worship a god over here that's not your god but it's our god named the Traveler the woman named Viridian turns People worship a god over here that's not your god, but is our god named the Traveler. The woman named Vridian turns and looks to Lukas, and he gives a quirky grin in her direction, and as she looks back towards you, I am curious about the ramifications

of bringing a god to an island that already is home to one. But we can certainly discuss the possibilities. But this is your reason for coming, you say? It is. Unfortunately, we didn't, we weren't aware that there was civilization on this island. I'm afraid none of us were familiar with Rumblecus prior to landing here. That's all right.

But good news is the Traveler is super cool and super likable, and everybody that meets him thinks he's really great, so I'm sure Vokodo will like him, too. Perhaps. Oh, we also got chased here by a giant turtle. I don't know if that's relevant, but it's all I've been thinking about for a while now. A giant turtle you said?

That was a giant turtle. A giant dragon turtle. Oh, that, yeah. It was kind of like a moving island. And it followed you here. No, yeah. It was like a moving island. And it followed you here. No, no! No, we gave chase. We got way away from it. It's definitely looking for us, but.

We gave it the slip. Yeah. You can see Vrdian think for a second, then turn and look off to one section of the village there, and there are a handful of individuals, like they're wearing some fishing-based attire. Which of you speak Elven? Anybody here speak Elven?

Cool. I think so. Oh, cool! Oh, good. Make it on bank. Okay, you got one. Do you still have tongues activated? Mm-hmm. That's not activated, but I have it. He has it prepared.

Okay. I speak Elvish. Yeah, so you hear Vrdian shout off to them, gather the fishers, go ahead and locate the beach where they arrived and keep an eye for anything untoward making its way. Vrdian turns the attention back. I apologize, we are but two of three here at the moment as the hunters are still returning

before the sun vanishes on the horizon. There is not much in the way of decisions we can make without a full quorum. But there is to be a meal tonight. We can prepare a place. If you're to stay, we can give you shelter to sleep and we can get to know each other over a roaring fire here safe in our village.

We would graciously accept your hospitality. Are you all right? Was that an anime gasp? I'm tired. I had to sneeze. It's good. It's good. It's good. Just in case, right? I'm afraid we've been quite rude, actually. We didn't introduce ourselves.

We are the Mighty Nein. We are a group of adventurers. You said safe. Is it become much more dangerous when the sun goes down? No, it's sometimes as dangerous, depending on where you go. The island itself is a strange collection, if you will.

You've come straight here, yes? Like, what do you mean? Like, from where? That's a very broad question. Because? No, we haven't come straight here. We were... We were actually just east of Uruk-Hazel

before arriving at this island, just west. Southeast, sorry. Here. All in the direction? We get around. Well, here on this island, Among the Vo, as it is the central focus of the world around us, it is home to many strange slivers

of different parts of the world as well that create this landmass. Beneath the trees, there are odd landmarks that claim shelter to other dangerous beasts that may be a surprise to find here on the ocean. A number of unnatural, dangerous denizens. We've lost many through the generations to some of these hazards and predators, but so long as the scouting and hunting parties

are keeping watch and I am able to defend this village, we endure under the light of our god. You said through the generations. Do you mind if we ask how long you've been on this island? I myself have only been for close to three decades, personally. But we've had at least 10 to 11 generations, I believe, since the village began.

And where were you before being on the island? It's interesting. There is something about this island that gives and takes away. By finding your destiny here and being a part of the important presence of Okoroh, and keeping these people safe, and gathering from the islands many rewards and boons.

It also takes from you the things that are less important in life. So many, if not most of us, don't quite recall where we were from. But in the long run, that's not as important anyway. Do you remember, like, any locations at all in general, or do you just not remember where you're from? Like, does anything exist outside of the island here?

I mean, the greater world of Exandria, yes. Nations, ruling parties, power ships? Continents. And you can see a lot of folks around there, and like Lukas as well, they're all racking their minds a bit, and there's a communal hint of cloudy confusion, and you gather rather rapidly that probably not.

Wow. Do you yourself remember why you came to this island? I do not. Many of us here have a hard time recalling. Some, it's by shipwreck. Some, it's by curiosity. Many of us here have a hard time recalling. Some it's by shipwreck, some it's by curiosity, some it's by fate. Most it's by fate. She looks and smiles and everyone agrees and nods.

But for whatever reasons, we come here. Some go, but most stay. So if you wanted to leave, you could leave. We're not keeping you here by any means. Who was the last person who left that you can remember? It's hard to recall. Mm-hmm. There's a sense of embarrassment, almost.

You get the idea based on the reactions, you especially, and you both being generally very insightful folk. These are questions or attempts at recollection that probably don't happen too often or haven't for a very long time, and so they're in the midst of preparing to answer and then realizing they don't have one. What was the level of sincerity on,

of course you can leave? It seems sincere. Okay. Best that you could tell. All right. With your ridiculous passive insight. Suck at the end. We're certainly interested in you assembling your quorum.

Not to be too forward, your deity, this Vokodo, are they a benevolent god? Are they interested in meeting outsiders, or is it more of an inner circle type of thing? I do not know. Those who come to Voh do meet at least once, but the path is treacherous, and the journey is one of acceptance on Vokodo's behalf,

not one that can be forced, necessarily. I myself make treks to and from the interior of the mountain to meet with Vkodo fairly often. And it's between these. What does Volkodo look like? Volkodo is the mountain, and yet is a projection of its essence within the mountain. You see fire and flame, but there is water.

There are caverns, woven plants, a place of life, brimming with creation within. In the midst of that is where Vokodo is. Do you think if your triumvirate would agree to our proposal that you would also need permission from Vokodo itself? That would be the only permission you require. Ah, got it. We have no issue, though I cannot confirm that

unless we are, of course, the quorum required. We await Terra before we can make such sweeping decisions. Sure, no, we function much the same. We make all our decisions together. And usually Caleb decides, though, because he's sort of the leader of the group. And you are Caleb, then? My name is Caleb Budagast, yes.

I'm curious to know, are you aware of any other peoples on this island? There are and have been some. We hate them. There have been some wandering, unscrupulous ships that have come to pry previously. Pirates, if you will.

Some attempted to use the island to stash materials. Sometimes they met a terrible end by the dangerous denizens of the island that they themselves were not prepared for and did not come to us for protection beforehand. Those that did survive or found us first, well, and Viridian points over to another side of the group over there, you can see there's three

individuals look pretty scrappy and scarred up based on the missing teeth and the rather intense demeanor. You can see they probably spent a harsh life at sea. And based on your experience, you can see some of the tattoos that mark elements of the symbols or older symbols of Darktoe. So. Oh, sorry.

Some stay. Oh, sorry. Yeah stay. Oh, sorry. Yeah, I was just curious, because you mentioned this island kind of containing slivers of land and from all over. Could you elaborate on what you mean by that? Hmm.

Well, What could you elaborate on what you mean by that? Hmm. Well... There are pockets of this island that provide different bounties. There is, for instance, the Winding Core, which is the most abundant home, where we mine from the very island itself the beautiful gems and diamonds and various gifts from the very island itself, the beautiful gems and diamonds and various gifts from the land that we can refine and thus bring to Vokodo

as part of the worship and love that we offer. There are other places, such as the Shaded Tangle, which lies along the path towards the entrance to Vokodo's Lair within the mountain itself. A cold place where color seems to be muted, where the mists grow cold. There is the ruin, far to the north, on the other side of the mountain. Structures strange,

and not from anywhere in Exandria that I've encountered or can recall. Ooh. That sounds interesting. To the northeast, there are the Heaven Falls, which is still a mystery to our people. Many strange locations, but there are many strange locations in Exandria, yes?

Yes, yes. It's the density here, as you grow closer to the core of this world, where everything begins to become a bit jumbled, if you will. How long would you say it would take to get to some of these places? Can you walk around the whole island in a day, or?

In a few days to reach the northern shore, based on being careful. It's about a seven to eight hour journey to the base of Rumblecusp itself and to the entrance to the lairs. A couple of days maybe to the Heavenfalls. It also depends on how many are going and under what means, because we want to remain safe and remain unseen.

Those beasts that Pono and Jaina helped Janna, Jaina? Jaina, I think. Jaina. Jaina, yeah. But Pono, right? I got to write that down right? Yeah. Pono! Are there more of those types of beasts out there, or are there all manner of dangerous creatures as well? Oh, there are more of those

and all manner of beasts, yes. This one's important. Yeah, go, go. Have you always been able to use vines like that? Was that the thing that was given to you here or what? What do you mean, like, use vines how? Many of us have different gifts. The children that grow up here sometimes discover ones of themselves.

Others come here with gifts, often uncertain as to their origins. But I've always known how to do this, just as they've always known how to embrace the animalistic nature, and points over towards Jaina and Pono as you pointed him out. So this place is like the Bermuda Triangle mixed with Professor Xavier's.

That's what we think we do! And the island from Lost. Island of Dr. Moreau. This is much better. Yeah. Well, we are certainly fortunate to have come across you for protection and for information. We are grateful and we'll do anything in our power to return the favor.

Do we need to go to Vokodo personally and ask permission? Or is that something you're going to do for us, or what? I would say if you had a chance to appeal to Vokodo, personally would go a long way. For me being but an intermediary, I worry there might be details lost in translation, as I myself do not fully understand the nature of what it is you ask.

Well, it's pretty confusing, so I guess it would make sense that... What kind of stuff does Vokodo like? Gems, right? Gems, like... Sparkly, sparkly things. And are they of the benevolent variety or more wrathful as a deity?

Just like any creature, there is light and there is dark. Vokodo protects, and Vokodo is the beating heart and heat of this island. Vokodo keeps things that threaten the sway of life at bay, but Vokodo also, like all of us, requires sustenance, requires worship, requires something to maintain this good cause.

And in the past, though not in my time, when such things were put to the wayside, wrath could occur. I am caught on one particular word you used, sustenance. What is it that you tend to feed Vokodo? A figure of speech. Vokodo does not eat, but amasses the bounty. Benevolent for the last 30 years.

Pretty good track record. Well, it's going to be fine, because we'll bring some nice gifties, some shinies. I guess we're going to have to go to the Winding Cove and get some gems. We might have some on our person already. The Essence of Preciousness. The Essence of Preciousness?

Things that are precious. So it doesn't have to be locally sourced or anything? No, you carry amongst yourselves here an incredible plethora of precious things. And you look at yourselves and look around and you begin to really notice, everybody around you is wearing tattered clothing, leathers, skins, hide, rusted chain,

if any previous metal, and nothing else. No accessories, bare bones, basic attire. Even everything you see around, there's no decor that brings it beyond anything functional. And you now realize all of you, in the ways that you dress, and the armor and equipment and magical enchantments that you carry, very much stand out

like a sore thumb by comparison. And the cast detect magic really quickly? Uh-huh. Mm-hmm. Nothing, except for what's on you. If we stop and think about it, can we recall how long it took us to get from the beach to where we are now? Yeah, it took you roughly...

Precisely. Oh yeah. Precisely four hours, 36 minutes, and 13 seconds. Give or take a few seconds. No. Very impressive. Precisely. Not anymore. I don't like to let them feel bad, you know.

I'll touch it a little bit. I understand. Okay, so we haven't gotten hazy on how long we've been away from the beach. No. Well. Oh, sorry. No, go, Jessie. No, no. You too, you're like of a mind, it's amazing.

I know, well, yeah. Same way. I know, you know. How long did it take you to be here before you lost your memory? I think what she means is, I don't know, that's what she means. How long were you here before you started forgetting? That question is a trap, Jester.

This is when they eat our faces. Our faces. Our faces! There's a bit of an amused chuckle and then an inward furrowing to the brow. And then it relaxes once more and Viridian says, The taking of these unnecessary thoughts by the island, I do not think there is a science to it. Maybe it pertains to how much you give. It is a trade.

Maybe it's a slow, natural element, but I don't think it's a refined science. But you all are happy here, it seems. Well, and she opens her hands a bit and everyone around nods. They don't know any better. This is a very impressive village. This is just amazing.

Lucash says, like, Well, thank you very much. We take a lot of pride in you. Oh, you should. This is just amazing. Lucash says, Well, thank you very much. We take a lot of pride in you. Oh, you should. This is great. I wish I had something like this back at home. This is a lot. You could. Oh, well.

Appreciate the offer. Well, just stay a while. See if, no pressure, but this is a grand community filled with wonderful people. Where we are on the island, are we able to see down and in the direction of the beach that we left the ship at? Are we up on the side of the island at all?

Any kind of a... I mean, you're in a raised area, but the tree cover here, the jungle trees, go from like 100 to 200 or more feet up. Oh shit. And the canopy is extremely dense. The only reason that you knew this village was here is because Frumpkin had seen it through the clearing.

And even the clearing here, it's only elements of clearing, because there are still trees in the middle of this opening, but a lot of the lumber's been pulled out to build some of these structures and to establish this place as well as put up a perimeter fence in areas. So yeah, all you can view is the elements of the mountain

that manage to peek through in the afternoon light, and that's about it. Are there any children here? There are children. You see probably about a dozen or so children. Okay, that's good. They don't eat babies. I know, I thought maybe that's just like... The children are the old ones. They're precious.

Well, is there a place we can freshen up before Din Din? Ah, Lukash could probably take care of that. I'm going to continue shoring up the perimeter and looking for Tara's arrival. Sometimes her and her parties can bring a few stragglers, and we have to be prepared based on what attention they've drawn. But, Lukash, if you don't mind.

Oh, not to worry. Friends, Mighty Nein. Mm-hmm. Right. This way, please. Follow me. And Lukash leads you off through the village. People still follow from a distance

before slowly scattering off, going more about their business that they were already handling throughout the day. Eventually, you come to what looks to be a hollowed-out tree trunk. The tree is cut off about 60 feet up. Although looking at it, it may not have cut off more than it just fell.

Maybe it was old and diseased or burned at the top. Whatever it is, at about 50 feet up, it kind of angles off, and the interior is completely hollowed out. As you step inside, underneath where the roots are, there's this nice little wooden door that pushes in, and it's a very humble, if somewhat cramped for the seven of you, abode.

There's some basic furniture. Some of it looks like it was scavenged from a ship previously, based on the height and size of the stools. Some of it looks like it was scavenged from a ship previously, based on the height and size of the stools. Some of it looks to be fashioned here. There are four beds, and then what looks to be some cushions and basic blankets set up.

The blankets are a little old, but they're functional. And as you're led into it, you can see waiting off to the side, there's a family of dwarves that are just nodding to you and ushering you in. Was this your house?

It was, but we're happy to let you stay here for a while. We've got friends to shack up with. We're fine. We can have our own tent. We have tents. It's our honor, please. It's an honor to have. We have tents. It's our honor. Please, it's an honor to have you stay here tonight. What's your name? Too much.

It's fine, really, honestly. Don't worry about it. I'm Doran, this is my family, and we're all, we stay here most times. If anything, it would be nice to have a bit of a change of pace. Lukas, this is, of course, extremely generous. Is there anything that we can do to help

for the evening's festivities? I mean, we can be of service. Yeah, we're good cooks, and we have some spices and teas and things. Perhaps. We're good musicians, too. Mm-hmm. Hmm. Entertainment, I think, would be greatly appreciated.

We only have a few musicians in the island, and if I want to be completely honest, they're a little out of practice. So that would be wondrous. We have some performing bards among you. Yes, we have a band called, I think it's Yasha and the Orphan Makers? Is that what it is?

Well, yes, but we are short a member of. A flautist. Well, maybe you can just scream along with the music, because that's kind of what it sounded like anyway. I mean, it's just not the same. Well, we're not short a flautist, we're short a flout, a flute. Yeah, flautist is alive and well. Maybe they have something that you could play. We could definitely provide some entertainment to them.

Wonderful. Thank you. And for those who wish to help with the meal, I can introduce you to Enola, who handles the mass cooking for the village. The legs. That might be where I am best put to service, to be honest.

So I would love to see what it is, what everybody eats out here. I'm always excited by new food. Of course. Yeah, I'll join you, Cad. Excellent. Well, rest a while a bit. I'll come get you when it's necessary.

We're still waiting for the hunting parties to return before we can actually prepare the extent of tonight's meal. Oh, yes. I actually did have a question. Is it safe to be outside at night, or do you all generally stay indoors? We generally try and stay within the village. It's dangerous in some places, regardless of the time of day,

but there are some nocturnal predators that we prefer to stay within the protective arena of the village, both at the watch of Tara and the hunters upon their return, who keep an eye in shifts throughout the night, as well as Viridian and her sleepless talents of nature. Lukas, was Pono and Jaina part of Tara's hunting party, just on a separate area of the island?

Yes, there are multiple hunting parties, but Tara oversees and organizes them before they go out, as well as, when the night is done, calls them in and takes stock of what they managed to acquire and haul. Please extend our thanks. They actually came to our aid as we were being besieged upon by those terrible beasts.

Yes, I saw them guiding you into the village. They're good folk. A bit ornery, depending on the weather, but effective. Anyway, should you need anything, just let someone in the vicinity know you. Look for Lukash. In the meantime, rest, and I'll retrieve you when the night has begun its planning cycle.

Dinner around sundown? Yes. What time of day is it, Caleb? Oh, it's... You guys, because you did shave some time off, you arrived around 10 or so in the morning, traveled to the village, and arrival and getting situated here, now it's about two or three

in the afternoon, I'd say, give or take. So you have a handful of hours before sundown. Well, thank you, Lukas. Are we free to wander the village? Yes, I would recommend not wandering too far. Yeah, how far is no longer safe? With a treeline comes back. What's with the mist?

It's misty. Why is it misty? Because it is. It's always been misty. Is the mist dangerous? No, but some dangerous things use the mist to not be seen, so maybe steer clear of it.

Okay. All right. See you all very soon. Ah! Ooh, ah. Goodbye. Goodbye. Is this the thing we're doing now?

So, you guys. So, wow. This place is perfect for Traveler Con. This village? Don't you think? The village itself? What is the plan here? Yeah, we're going to need more than a week

to prepare for the arrival of all of your acolytes. Also, we can't have it here. They'll become villagers forever. Well, that would be great, because the Traveler really doesn't want that many followers. Yeah, but two things. One, we should find out what this Vokodo is, and two, is anybody else worried about the ship?

Yeah, a little bit. I think we should probably let them know that they are expecting visitors, and they should probably just hide. I feel like they're going to burn the ship. Why would they burn the ship? They seem nice enough. They say that nobody leaves,

but that also might be because they might not have the means to leave after they arrive. We didn't mention that we have any crew, did we? We didn't. Maybe we did. But beyond that, I can't remember. Oh, it's already started. Wait. What's your name again?

What's your face? I'm going to send a message to Orly before I forget who Orly is. Oh, actually, you know what? Caleb, no, do that. But Caleb, you have a lot of paper and writing implements, right? I am actually out of paper and need some.

Aw, man, I was going to ask you. You're always out of paper and writing implements, right? I am actually out of paper and need some. Aw, man, I was going to ask you something. You're always out of paper. We buy paper and then you're instantly out. I go through it quickly. What are you hoping it will work? It's like an inkjet. I was just thinking, maybe, in case we start losing our memories,

maybe we should write down a quick log of everything that's happened to us since we've been here. Oh, I mean, I'm already doing that. Ooh, that's a really, oh, that's right. But for real, or is that Marisha? No, Bo also really does that. Okay. And I've been, I will definitely. Can you be sure to let Bo know?

Yeah, I can take notes. I mean, it wasn't like walking and taking notes, but yeah. Don't forget anything. Well, I know, but what if you do forget something? No, but I don't. But what if it's supernatural? Your brain can still be affected by things. Well, why would you remember to find it

in a book then after that? Jesus, we should write a note to remind us to look in the book. Okay. All right, that'll be my first note. Look in this book. From our two clerics, do either of you have any experience with like-

Raid the Restoration! What? Diseases or- Raid the Restoration! Raider restoration. I almost got it that time. Do you have it prepared? Because I don't. Yeah, probably. Usually. I mean, yeah, it makes sense that,

Clay, you have it prepared. Yeah, I got it. Would that get rid of a loss of memory? A magical curse of? Possibly, maybe. And the Wild Mother has also given me the ability to remove a poison or cure a disease if this is a biological thing that this mist is doing,

so we could try that. This seems more spooky-ooky. This feels like... I agree. Like modified memory gone really wrong or something, you know? Yeah. Yeah, but what if maybe they wanted to forget? That's what I was just thinking.

What if? What if they came, something brought them here because they wanted to forget things from their former life? And they're convinced that this place is the center of the universe. I feel like eventually you're just going to believe that no matter what. Everybody that comes here stays.

Yeah, the percentages are just so high. Does that mean all of us came here because we wanted to forget? I think on the other end of it, I mean, they've got this Vokodo, who demands precious things, just not things of worth, but things that are precious. Yeah. And when you run out

of precious things, what are you left with to give? Yourself. Then yourself. Maybe that's what it takes. But it doesn't seem like most deities require material things. I'm not convinced this is a deity. Me neither.

I really want to meet him, though. Yes, we are going to have many questions unanswered until we find this avocado. What if it's just a giant avocado? That would be delicious. Like the kind you eat? Yeah. Avocado.

I'd never leave. Avocado. A giant avocad- I'm going to send a message to Orly before I forget that I said that I was going to send a message to Orly. Yes. Okay, let me see. Orly!

Avacol! We found, count this, Fjord. Count this. Count what? Sending a message. Orly! Oh! We found, count this. We found. Fjord, count this. No. Sorry.

A village. The people here could be crazy. Maybe you guys should hide. A village. The people here could be crazy. Maybe you guys should hide. Also, they might try to destroy ship. But we can't, I mean, they're not going to hide the ship. Well, no, I'm just saying, like, if they come and they're like, we're going to destroy the ship because nobody's around, then Orly and the crew

can come out and be like, fuck you! And then they can destroy the people. Orly and our crew? There's four people in all those wars. Marius is dead. Marius is so tough. They're dead. You do get a response from Orly.

Oh, that's right. He goes, appreciate me the heads up. Well, might well hidden. We'll keep an eye. We'll be on the turn. He just trails off. I love him.

Okay. Okay, so we just go to dinner. I love him. Okay. Okay, so we just go to dinner. I mean, what's the plan? We're going to, we already, what? What? I can give the villagers tarot card readings. I don't know what that's going to do. Is that what they're going to do for the next few hours?

They seem like they're living in the moment. They've given up all worldly possessions and their memories. They're just living for the now, so I don't know if they would care about their future. Their past and future is all in the volcano at the moment. What if every card they pull is just a volcano? I don't, I think they'll agree.

Do we remember how long he said it was to the... Yes! The Shaded Tangle, do we remember how long he said it was to get to that door? From here? He said eight hours to get to that. Eight hours to the volcano, and the shady thing leads to... I want to go to Heaven Falls.

Heaven Falls or the ruins. Both of those sound awesome. But those are further, and then the ruins are on the far north side. Yeah, and Heaven Falls is at the north, too, so we could hit up both. The ruins could also be like the ruins of an old hotel and convention center.

I know, like what if Heaven Falls is just like this beautiful, I mean, Heaven Falls, what if that's like the perfect place to go? I assumed we would be location scouting. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And find a proper place for your guests to arrive and stay, whether it's this village or somewhere else, and you want to get the lay of the land

before you talk with the big cheese. Yeah. I know, I got to tell them where to let everybody go. But that is an excellent point. This island is a lot bigger than we anticipated. How do we know how to direct people when they land? There could be beaches all around this island. Well, we say if we are going to Heaven Falls,

we go land on the north side of the beach. Yeah. Have Traveler disseminate? Yeah, how are you communicating this? Because I'm going to tell the Traveler, and he's going to tell everyone. I also can create some sort of a beacon for your fellow acolytes to come to.

Oh, so we can shoot up in the air or something? I can put something in. Like searchlights? Or we can make a bonfire, at least, with smoke coming up. Oh man, I put the banner at the other side. I have to go back and get the fucking banner. Just let that banner go. No, no, I have some stuff, too, that I should get. Maybe we can have Marius run it up to us. We could just sail around the island.

Marius, please. He would lose his memory in two seconds and be stuck here forever. Yeah, he does stuff. Well, as long as he brought the stuff. I can make you another banner as well. Oh. Marius still hasn't killed anyone, has he? Tough. I can make you another banner as well. Oh.

Marius still hasn't killed anyone, has he? No, he sucks, that's what I said. No, he's fine. I mean, plenty of reasonable people I know haven't killed anybody. Name one. Okay, that's a fair point. That's really sad. I know, yes.

We need to meet better people. I'm seriously worrying about a lot of decisions I made in life. Yes, but they were all bad. I mean, it's rough out there. What if we turn into giant birds and we just grab everyone and we fly and that way we don't have to walk across the island and we can get there super fast?

Grab everyone? You mean us? Grab us. Yeah. Yeah, that sounds good. Are we going to Wonder Twins this? Is that the plan? Or you could just go and come back before dinner, unless you wanted to also scope out the Shaded Tangle entrance.

Well. I'll also say I'm a little worried about eating the food. I know I am, too. Well, we're going to be, we volunteered to help cook, so we'll get a closer look. Is it because of gluten? I mean, that's a concern, but I'm pretty sure I'm fine. No. The avocado thing

makes no sense. International food can be quite rewarding. You should really give it a try. Considering that the only person who's eaten anything on this island so far Yeah, it was a little tough to eat, but I think I'm very excited to try the food of the land. Do you feel like it's going to give you the shits? Say again?

It was spicy, wasn't it? It was spicy, but I don't think it's going to go bad the further down it goes, you know? I think it's okay. I think the food's going to be very good. I worry that the food might be part of the problem. I don't have the tools right now to really know. Excuse me. There was a lot of nodding

and smiling in all the villagers. You notice that? Everyone that you were like, hey, are you happy? Are you lucky here? And they're just like, eh. No, they're not right in the head. They're nice people.

And then they were like, oh, we don't want not right in the head. They're nice people. And then they were like, oh, we don't want to move into your house. We can totally camp outside. And they were like, eh. They're nice. That's what nice people look like, Beau. Name one nice person. We just talked about how we only know people.

That's not real. We've killed all the nice people. It's unsettling. They don't know why they have come here. They don't remember where they came from. They have nothing on them except for rags. Yeah, I love nice, but I mean, you got to have boundaries. Yeah.

Okay, so what are we doing before dinner? Flying back and coming back? Or only a few going and the rest of us stay? Going, what, to the boat? I thought you said you were going to get supplies or some shit. I think he was talking about flying us across the island to go to the ruins. Oh, great, so we're just hanging out until dinner, then?

I think so. I think so. Are we just going to scope it out further? We're not going to go exploring in a few hours? I guess we could walk around the village, yeah? Yeah, let's do that. Yeah, let's walk around. We grab our hotel room keys and we head out to explore the resort.

Yeah, yeah. All right. We'll say for the purposes of the circumstance, you guys have spent a little bit of time in the house, just getting your bearings, like a short rest, kind of a way around there? A pretty short rest. If you needed it.

You do sense, and still, in this house, it hasn't really left you, and you guys haven't talked about it openly, but you all still feel that creeping sense that you're being watched. You know, you keep fucking saying that, DM. Is that something we should talk about? You don't have to if you don't want to, but.

I will say. Do you want to do your see invisibility thing, maybe? That would be so smart. Ooh, ooh. My what? Is that okay to drink? It's been here for a couple of weeks. I can see invisibility?

Yes, you can see invisibility. Sure. I'll summon the sword. All right. And I will cast See Invisibility. Whoa! Cool.

You do, and as your vision shimmers, that faint veil of silver gossamer that permeates the vicinity that would itself adhere to and bring prominently forth anything that is invisible, reveals nothing out of the ordinary. They're everywhere. What? What is? Beasts of incalculable size.

No, that can't fucking, there's nothing. Fine, fine. When we walk around the village, should I go invisible, just in case you want me to go scope something out that's behind the curtain or something? Yeah, that sounds great. We'll just say you're sleeping. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, you've got indigestion.

Yeah. Uh-huh. I ate some of the flowers. Just for fun, I'm going to burn a Divine Intervention. Okay, go for it. What's watching us? Nope. Nope. It's never going to happen, but it's always worth trying. True.

If you got a Commune spell later, you could always try that. Not till tomorrow. Do we see Doran as we're leaving? The dwarf whose family normally resides here? No, the family is no longer waiting outside of the abode. You guys have been left on your own, and there's nobody waiting for you when you exit.

Everyone's returned to their general routine. Are there? I do, however. Sorry. If I could get everyone, if you don't mind, to just make an investigation check for me. Eight investigation checks. I love it. Give me. Yeah.

What? Ooh. 25. Damn. 18. 21. Natural 20 plus 11. Whoa! 17. All right.

15, okay. 23. Wow. Not too bad. All right, cool. So you continue on. Wait, wait, wait, wait. That wasn't, we didn't get to see. Are there drawers? Are there cabinets in this house?

Is there a safe? What? What did they leave behind? It's basic furniture. There's no cabinets. There is a massive need for cabinetry here. Bedside, you know, hotels. Is there, you know? There is no Gideon's Bible. Gideon's Bible, yeah.

But like I said, there's a handful of really simple bed platforms, and there is a table and some stools, and that's primarily it. No other belongings. No decorations. Yeah, decorations. No decorations. Do it with two hands. No other sign that it feels like someone's home?

Does it just look like a crash pad? Kind of. Things may have been taken out. Is there a sense, maybe just in a discoloration of the walls or otherwise, that there was once furniture or things in here? You know how sometimes you get a little impression from things of being against the wall for too long and then you just kind of,

if there's anything that hints that this was once a more lavish home? Go ahead. Go ahead and make an investigation. All right. Come on, Cat. I'm going to boost this one because I would, this is something I would. How do you boost it? I'm investigation. All right. Come on, Cat. I'm going to boost this one, because I would, this is something I would.

How do you boost it? Guidance! Guidance. Didn't know if you were like, Whoa, witness. Whoa! All right, that's 22. Nice. No.

Best that you can tell, the only things that have been taken have been simple weapons or tools, things that might be considered a little bit of dust residue around the shapes of some things that were taken, but no art pieces, no pieces of furniture were removed. No pencil marks carved into door frames to signify their kids growing, nothing like that? Not in this particular abode, no.

Don't trust it. No, yeah, no. We're all that video gamer that can't leave the first level. Yeah. No plaster patches from nails in the wall for a Pink Floyd poster. Right, no, nothing like that. It's a from nails on the wall for a Pink Floyd poster. Just moving the curve. Nothing like that.

It's a tree. The chairs. We're at the base of the tree. Yeah, you guys are inside the hollowed out tree, getting ready to exit from what you were saying. And just the ceiling is just at the top of the... If you look up into the hollow, it just goes straight up and you can see where it breaks off the top.

And there are a couple of small, looks like almost shelf platforms above, about 20 or so feet up. Let's take a look at that. Oh, hell yeah. I send Frumpkin up. Oh, that'll do, too. Okay. Frumpkin heads up.

In the shelf units there, you can see there is a small wooden chest that is tucked into one of the little platforms there with a folded blanket. On the other platform, it's a little further up, you see what looks to be some jeweler's tools, like a small kit for jewel making and jewelry making. You totally found the hidden shit. It's a platformer. Yeah.

Yeah. Wow. Beauregard, there are some things up above. Would you like to do your monk thing you do? Yep. Dope monk shit coming up. Bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, wall climb. And what's your movement is? 50.

Yeah, that's enough to get there. Monks. So yeah, you run up one side and leap off the other one and ricocheting, parkouring, until eventually you grab one of the platforms and pull yourself up. There's just enough space to barely stand on it with your arms on the wall. Can I do that cool wedge myself thing?

Is it close enough? The other wall's not close enough to wedge yourself between at this point. You're having to jump off and to catch the edge to get up there, but the actual platform itself is thin based on the chest that's there, so you're having to straddle it a little bit

and push yourself against the wall. How big is the chest? Rumpkin lands on your head Dagon-style. There you go. Kit, Kit. Is it, can I push the chest off? That is one hit point, so. Is it heavy enough that I can push the chest off?

It's pretty light. Okay. Forward, catch. What? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. How big is this fucking chest you just threw at me? You said it was light-ish. It's light-ish, it's not full. 50 fucking feet in the air?

Yeah. Piece of shit. Yeah. Incoming! Go ahead and make a strength check for me. I'm not catching that. Okay. I'm getting out of the way. Okay. shit. Yeah. A found 800 flat. Go ahead and make a strength check for me. I'm not catching that. Okay. I'm getting out of the way. Okay. Yeah, it shatters in the ground.

Oh, okay. You throw it, you say Fjord, Fjord goes, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, and then just refuses to grab it. Yeah, come on. Can I try to grab it? Roll a dexterity saving throw for me. Okay. Come on. To see if you have just enough reflex timing.

Stick it out of a four story window and be like, here! Okay. Catch this air conditioner. You want a TV? This isn't a trap, so you don't have advantage on it. This isn't like a hazard. Oh, okay, so that was an 18 plus three, 21.

Okay, as you pull back your hands, diving almost between your legs and catching it right before it hits the ground, your knuckles crack into the ground. But only just from the... The weight of the floor. Yeah, the momentum of it hitting your hands, but you do prevent it from shattering on the floor.

Sorry, I think the gravity added to the weight. It's fine, I just didn't want to ruin the stuff. Would you get down here? What are you thinking? Wait, there's another, hang on. No, no, don't throw any more shit. Other platform. The other platform, yeah, and there's a little, looks like a collection on a stool,

similar to the stools down below, and it has a little leather, partially unrolled tool kit in there that has all sorts of small jeweler's tools. It's a jeweler's kit. Very similar to the one that I keep. Yeah. Any other jewels or anything else up here? Mm-mm, just that.

Does it look like it's been used? Is anybody watching us do this? Make a perception check. Something is. Well, you still have see invisible things as well. That's true. 16. 16. You don't notice anyone paying attention to you in the vicinity.

Yeah, are they coated in dust? Does it look like they've been used recently? No, but they're fairly rusted. They look old, but they've been used. You can see where the areas where they would mostly be used, the rust has been rubbed off of it. The ocean air, as it often does with iron and other metals like that,

has done some exterior damage to the areas that aren't put to most use, but it's a functional jewelers' kit. How did they get up here? When coming up the wall, did I notice any type of handholds or grooves, something that they could use? Yeah, there are. It's not smooth.

It's a rough, hollowed out interior of the trees. There are, and it's what you use to jump off and get yourself up there, which is the somewhat uneven interior of the tree bark. Doran's got moves, I think. I think he's got to be ripped under there, man. Well, but maybe it's not his. That's true.

I mean, I have a feeling that the families, maybe they're not allowed to have any materialistic things, right? They're not allowed to own anything. So maybe they just don't have assigned houses. They just sort of go around to each house as they, like, providing sexual favors for each other? Maybe, maybe, oh, maybe that's the thing here.

Is that a thing? That's a thing. I bring you jewels, you cut them up, and then we bone. Is that how it goes? Yeah, I've heard of it. You're surprisingly excited by your dick statues. Is there anything else up here? Nope.

Okay, no, does it go up any higher? Can I touch the? You're almost towards the top of where the tree itself is broken and it opens up into the sky. Get up there, see if it's still misty and shit. Can I shimmy my way up? I'd say you'd be able to.

Yeah, it's rough enough, and you're very well-practiced at this sort of thing. So you eventually leap off, grab, part of it starts to crack and pull back, and so you quickly leap and not put your full weight on that one side, and then eventually pull yourself up over where you can look beyond the peak

of the broken part of the tree itself. As you look down, you can see the village from a higher height. There are still trees that are taller around you, so you can't see above the canopy. This is not the tallest tree, and it's partially broken down, but you have a nice view of the village

from a slightly higher perspective, and it's kind of down, but you have a nice view of the village from a slightly higher perspective. And it's kind of cool, as simple as it is. It's beautiful, people are working together. It's simple but functional. You can see now that there is, on the northern side of the village, there are bonfires being set up. There's one large central one and there are smaller,

two smaller ones to each side of it. It looks like chairs and tables are being set up now, probably for the feast tonight. Just doing a quick scan of the people. Do I notice anyone who looks shifty or has been weird? They all look shifty. Make a perception check. Okay. I love that you are judging people by their looks.

I totally. Shifty, happy people everywhere. Totally profiling. Not holding hands, though. What was it? Perception? 14. 14. I mean, there isn't anybody in the corner with a long trench shirt going like,

oh, they'll never see me. Everyone seems to be, you know, they're from all over the map as far as backgrounds look. That's my next character. You have some people where their attire resembles aspects of almost like a Marquesian background. There are some folks that have some Dwendalian attire.

There's a handful of folks that look like they might have. I guess I mean more in their demeanor than their appearance. Right. Best that you can tell, most everyone is going about a daily routine. A lot of them are helping set up the meal for the evening. Okay. But nobody is hiding in the shadows

or having clandestine conversations in the unseen corners of the village. I'm going to scoop up the jeweler's kit on the way back down and head on down. Okay. Veth, do you want to safely take a look at this chest? Oh, yes, of course. Do we think it might be magical, or?

I'll check it for traps. Go for it. 26. 26, it is not trapped. I will unlock it. You go to it, and the lock is rusted and broken. You can just and it pulls off the wood. The wood just splinters.

Was it dusty at all? Or did it look like it's been opened recently? The toad doesn't allow locks. Okay. Ooh. Okay. You look inside and you. Blue ink. Shards of diamond glass into your eyes.

Ah! You look inside and there are two sets of pristine outfits, like really nice silk outfits, folded and placed in there. There is a mostly clean, if a little damp on the underside, child's doll. There's nothing creepier than that. Yeah. Are there any notes?

Are there any notes? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Are these grown-up attire? There are no notes. You do see, however, a silver pocket watch. Silver pocket watch, two outfits. Like, are they ceremonial attire? No, they look to be more middle to upper class. Nightgowns?

No, just clothes. Just clothes. The pocket watch and grave. On the backside of it, there are initials carved into it. BV. BV. Come on, baby days. Big van.

BV? Big Viridian. B period, V period? Correct. B period, V period? Correct. B period, V period. Does it work? Can I wind it up a bit? It is not currently working at the moment.

If you want to take a moment to wind it, you can try. Yeah, I'll do that. You tinker with it for a bit. Because you are proficient. Are you proficient with Tinker's Tools? I have Tinker's Tools. But you are not proficient with it. But you, go ahead and make a Tinker's Tools check for me. I don proficient with Tinker's Tools? I have Tinker's Tools. But you are not proficient with it. But you, go ahead and make a Tinker's Tools check. I have Thieves' Tools.

Oh, you do not have Tinker's Tools? No. Huh, okay, good to know. Just make an intelligence check for me. Three. You start messing with it a bit. I do have Tinker's Tools, I do have them. Okay. Jesus.

Okay. No, I don't. Add your proficiency bonus. You don't? Are you proficient with Tinker's Tools, or you just have them? No, I'm not proficient with them. Okay. Are you sure? Yes, because in here it says it's not under Tools, but over here in Equipment, I do have them.

Come on, reverse this. Okay, because you have the tinker's tools, you do not break the watch, but you do not get it functioning either. You fail to get it back to a state of actually keeping time. That might be a job for you for just. I know, I was thinking about that, right? Yeah, that might be right up your alley. Mending.

Oh, okay, you cast Mending on it. As you release your hand for a second, you see a faint swirl of greenish-blue energy around it before dissipating, and as it does, you hear, Ooh, you fixed it! The springs, the gears, it is now a functional pocket watch. The initials are still carved into it, right? Yes. Yeah, it doesn't change that.

And the doll, is it a human doll? Is it a Planet of the Apes sort of human doll? It is humanoid, but it is simple in its design. You can't tell if it was intended to be a human, an elf, a dwarf, whatever, you know, but it appears to be human. Appears to be female in the way that he has stringy, yarn-like hair.

There's a little mildewed on one leg, but ew. You're not planning on keeping that, are you? Keeping what? The pocket watch. No, I think we should find out whoever has the initials BV here. Right, but we put it back, right? We're not going to steal on our first day. I have a feeling whoever this belonged to

doesn't remember that they ever had it. What if they do? They don't, Fjord. Nobody remembers anything. She's right. She's right. I bet they knew they had to give all of their precious items away, and somebody here put this stuff in a box and said, I don't want to give this away.

Right, but what if they do remember? What if it's important to them? What if they do remember and I don't want to give this away. Right, but what if they do remember? What if it's important to them? What if they do remember and they don't want to speak up for fear of, I don't know, retribution or being outed or something? We shouldn't take it. What if someone hears the ticking sound

that follows us everywhere? We know the initials, we can put it back. It'd be a nice treat to open the box and they find it's working. It was pretty dusty, but sure. Not put it back. The trunk. Water's feeling honorable. Well, what kind of wood is it made out of?

The box? The box. Is the box local, or was it from somewhere else? Make a nature check. All right. I'm going to steal a pocket watch. At least I still have this from my dead parents. Ooh! Roll a slight hand for me.

14. 26. Yeah, no one notices. It feels like a darker cherry wood, which is not local to this space. All right, so this came here. This wasn't built here, this came here. And do we have any idea what the fancy clothes

look like they came from? I mean, do you want to pull them out and inspect? Yeah. Um. They're not done dallying in nature. There are elements that... What? Did you figure it out? Maybe.

What? But, I don't know what you should do. I don't need your face right now, but... I'll text you. They seem to be, best you can tell, somewhat... trying to see where specifically, my brain's a little wandering at the moment.

Concordesque. Definitely coastal, Suavein Island style, but it is upper class, which leads it to be one of the coastal cities of the Clovis Concord. You're unable to really... Make a history check for me. Okay. Okay.

18 plus 12 is 30. 30. Holy shit. I rolled an 18. Shit. I rolled an 18. Okay. It's not so much the style, more than you notice

that there is a stitched engraving on the inside of one of the shirts. This outfit was handcrafted by an extremely well-known crafter of finer silk clothing in Port Zune along the Menagerie Coast. Where we just were, like, not too long ago? You haven't been to Port Zune yet. Oh, we haven't.

It's, like, north of Port Tamale, right? Port Zune? Port Zune's northwest of Nicodranas. So, yes, it would be in that northwest. That north of, yeah, it's north. Yeah, we went up the coast. Okay, okay, okay. From its main, okay.

From its main, okay, so it's made for, okay. So this clothing source would have been along the Menagerie Coast, probably Portzou. Okay. Cool. I just texted you. This is me whispering. I'm just going to say it. Say it. What is Vandran's first name?

Oh, yeah. That is his first name. Yeah. What is his last name? What do you think? I call him, like, Williams? I've heard of people calling this guy Foster. I don't know. Yeah. I don't know if Vandran has a last name.

Maybe it was Baby Vandran, it's his baby. Big Vandran. Big Vandran. He has a name for Big Vandran. Wait, but you only know him by Vandran then? So you don't really know if it's his first or last name? Bartholomew Vandran. I guess that's true. Bartholomew?

Barry Vandran. Keep going. Bob. Bartholomew Vandryn. I guess that's true. Bartholomew? I only ever. Barry Vandryn. Keep going. Bob Vandryn. Bob Vandryn. Bobby Vandryn. Old BB. Beau Vandryn. Yeah, Vandryn's the only name I ever heard. Hmm.

So what else would you guys like to do? I think we should put all of this back for now. Are we going walking? Didn't we see him on an island and he was happy? Yeah. Mm-hmm. But what if he was happy just because he was forgetting? What if he's here? Shh.

Why? Why are you shushing? Huh? Why are you shushing? Because the DM's trying to talk. Oh, oh he is? Is the DM trying to talk? No, the he is? Is the DM trying to talk? No, the DM is asking what you guys want to do.

He's waiting for us to stop dicking around. We should make a choice. Put everything back and then head out. Let's go for a walk. That's a long way away. But let's put the candle back, you know? Let's just put the trunk. Put the candle back.

Takes a little bit to manage to replace the things that, or at least the chest. The chest, at the very least. The chest has been replaced. We know where it is. And these fancy clothes are one for a female and one for a male? Were they both for dude? Or were they both for men?

The styling, one of them appears to be very male and cut, the other one is ambiguous, you're uncertain. All right. Okay. Maybe Vandran got married and a wife. Maybe it's Bonnie Vandran. That's right. Bella Vandran. I like Bonnie. I don't know.

Let's walk around and see if we can meet somebody with a Amita BV somewhere in there. Yeah, we'll go look for a BV. I'm not a big fan of BV, but we'll... All right, so in the hours before dinner is to happen, what do you guys have to accomplish in the village? Should we just wander about and take in what we can, locate landmarks?

Everybody their name. See if there's any community buildings, get a lay of the land, and then head in at some point to help cook. Okay, okay. And I also want to just talk to the Traveler while I'm walking. I know he's probably busy,

and he's not going to come and say hi or anything, but just so you know, this place is really creepy. I mean, it's not super creepy. There's some weird stuff going on, and there's already another god here. So, but we're checking out some places called like falls or heaven falls. Anyway, you should come talk to me

because I just want to get your input. So come over whenever you get a chance. Okay. That's all. As you're walking, one of the villagers kind of saddles up next to you. Jester. Yeah?

Walking alongside you with this intense crimped red hair and green eyes, and just follows and steps next to you and goes, Another god you say? That's all kinds of fun. Yeah. That's all kinds of fun. Yeah. And it's like, I can't tell if it's actually a real god or like, is this really the Traveler?

No, it's not. You're being duped by one of the denizens of this weird village. I don't know. I don't know what this god here is like. It feels like somebody's watching us all the time. I feel like he's around us in the mist. Do we see anyone next to Jester? No, you see Jester talking to herself right now.

Which is not that unusual. Let it happen, let it happen. Yeah, yeah, yeah, in the mountain. There's like, they say he's a god, and I think they sacrificed to him. Anyway, everybody that comes here forgets why they're here. Oh.

Well, we absolutely have to meet them. I know! Well, do you promise to introduce me? Of course, we're going. Good, let me know when. Okay. And he breaks off, and you look back to the rest of the group and back,

and he's gone. The rest of the group is just standing, group watching her. Good talk. Yeah. Okay. You said you're asking around people's names? Yeah. It's not specific. I'm invisible for all of them.

Okay. Is there a specific, as opposed to us role-playing you asking 50 people what their names are individually, is there a specific goal in mind for this? Make with the NPCs, Matthew. Let me bring up babynames.com and I'll just run through them all for you. I can find a voice for each,

but I figure for the sake of brevity. Could I look for someone that might embody a member of the hunting party and ask them to describe what Terra looks like? Just pretend that we're looking for them? Yeah, no worries. You do actually, heading back to where the bonfires are, you can see both Pono and Jaina are in the process

of taking the corpse of this displacer beast and they are skinning it and they are preparing it on what looks to be a large metal rod, not like a spit to put through it, but to hang it from, over the bonfire itself to be cooked. And there was a larger one to the left as well that's being prepared. But as you guys approach, you can see a opponent's like,

Oh, it's good to see all of you. Well, glad you're staying for dinner at the very least. I think this will be a good meal. I'm excited to see if we can safely say we outdid the five-person team. So what can we do for you? I was actually wondering, we're looking forward to meeting

the third of your tribunal, this Terra. What do they look like? Oh, Terra. She's a mighty tall one, not unlike your friend there a bit. Oh, did he? I was going to, okay. No, we're just using her for reference. Oh, you need me? I was going to, okay. No, we're just using you for reference. Oh, yeah, that happens.

A towering and intimidating lass, but keen of eye, sarcastic wit, and ready to throw down if anyone looks at her wrong. I gather. I wanted to thank you again for coming to our aid out in the wilderness. If you need anything from us, you have us at your back. Great, and he puts a large sharpened blade in your hand

and goes, help me cut a flank off this. It's okay. So Fjord's now helping them butcher the displacer beast and prepare it for cooking. What are the rest of you doing? I'm going to take a seat by one of the bonfires and pull out my spell book and set it on the ground and put one globule of light floating just above it for light.

And I pull out the wand that was gifted to me by Kalyana and I just take it and jam it into the ground standing up. And I just start taking notes and spending some time designing. You got it. All right. Any fails? I'm going to go into the kitchens

and see if they need any help. Okay. The kitchen is also mentioned in closed space, but not too far from where the bonfires are, kind of to the northwest area. There are some stone slabs that are set up where you can see they're taking various gathered herbs.

There are clusters of thick, subterranean swamp root, almost, which seems like it shouldn't grow naturally on an island with this sort of a biome, but nevertheless, here they have it. You can see them in the process of cutting it up. People are preparing

things to use in the cooking and the flavoring process of whatever the dinner is going to be. So as you arrive, you can see there's one figure there is this squat, muscular-looking humanoid woman in her 50s or so, hair's thinning a bit, has a really intense smile, these very bright teeth that looks towards you and goes, Oh, I'm Enola, and you are a tall one.

What's your plan? What are you doing? Oh, thank you. Caduceus Clay. I was trying to just be useful. I'm usually cooking for my friends anyway when we're on the road, and I figure. You can be useful. I'm happy to be useful. That you can. Come here, come here. All right.

So she begins to give you the overview of their process of preparing these different spices and salts and additional vegetation to be brought along with the meat-based meal. This is all new to me, I assume, this stuff. Some of it is. A lot of it is adjacent to other experience and knowledge you have. It's just through the filter of what's

scavengeable here on this island. What was her name again, by the way? Anola. Anola. Which you've heard before, Anola is the one that prepares the meals primarily. So she's the head chef, if that's what you'd call it, here in the middle of this commune. This is really, really interesting.

What would you call this? This is like these flavors are putting this together this way, it, really interesting. What would you call this? This is like these flavors are putting this together this way. It's really fascinating. We call it delicious. Yeah. Where did you learn to cook? You know, I just always kind of knew how. That's fair, okay. It's called a knack.

Calling it a knack, all right. Oh boy. The rest of you? Everett? I'm going to sit down and offer my services out to any villagers that would like a portrait of themselves. Just drawings available. Caricature artist.

Caricature artist, while dinners are being prepared. Chili's. Free tattoo. Immediately, a crowd of about 10 people come rushing to you, and two children that all excitedly get, you know, really revved up to the idea of a portrait. And one by one, you start making the portraits. Are you giving them to them or just showing it to them?

I'm going to give it to them. Okay, with each one you give, are you doing them really well? Are you doing them goofy? What's your intent? I'm going to, if I- Big head, little body? Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's got to be. Big head, little body? Uh-huh. Some of them I'll do characters, and then some of them I'll do,

if I like them, I'm going to do a really nice, pretty, realistic drawing. Okay. We haven't seen a mirror here, have we? Had that same thought. That you've seen, no. I'm going to ask them their names as they come up for the portraits. Okay. You should ask if they have a favorite hobby, too,

so you can like, if they like, Yes, I'm going to ask them what they do. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, you know. Yeah. Always a fan of his. Definitely. I love humbling myself before Vokodo.

I'm a fan of that, too. There are canos in the background. Yeah, a lot of canos in the background. It's just a bunch of them. They give you their names. It's a fun little conversation. They all seem to be genuinely enthralled in asking you questions.

All of them are like, they're here. The portrait's fun, and they're excited about it, but they're also just excited to talk to you, and a lot of them are asking, like, where are you from? What brought you here? It's a lot of just general enthusiasm for having new blood in the village.

I make sure a little drawing of a dick is on every single picture. Okay. And except for the kids. They get a happy bean. They get a happy bean. They get the Traveler. Like a little tiny traveler.

You got it. So shaped like a dick. Yeah. Like wearing a cloak. But not so blatant, you know? Right. That's so true. I make sure every single person

gets a blessing upon them. All righty. Any BVs? Any BVs? Any BVs? Any BVs? No BVs, no. In fact, everyone's given us just a first name.

There's no surnames. Well, but I'm going to, what's your last name, though? Just the name. The next person's like, the same, just a name. Any B names? In this group, no. Our perfect plan is being foiled! I mean, it was a good plan. Yeah. Really good plan.

I am enjoying the practice, though, on these drawings. Tiny box. Yasha, you should play some music for them. Well, I was going to see if I could go somewhere off to the side a little bit, somewhere in private, where I could make sure that the harp is tuned and warm up my fingers a little bit. Oh. Yeah. I thought you were going to go look for a BM.

Easy enough to do. You take the time, you tune it to the best of your ability with the experience you have practicing on your own time without direct tutelage, more of just figuring it out as you go. Okay. So you feel pretty warmed up as you could imagine you could be

for such a circumstance. Okay. All right. Nott, are you doing anything? I'm going to. I'm invisible. Oh, you're invisible, just wondering. I'm just hanging around Jester unless Beau does something more interesting, then I'll go with her. Beau, what are you doing anything? I'm going to. I'm invisible. Oh, you're invisible, just wondering. I'm just hanging around Jester unless Beau does something more interesting, then I'll go with her.

Beau, what are you doing? First, I go over and I try and punch the globule of light that Caleb produced, because I've never done it. I've never touched it. Is it like, can I punch it? Does it go away? 10d12.

This is the most Stove Cat moment I've ever seen. Make a constitution statement. No, you punch it and it reacts faintly. It shimmers a bit as your fist goes through, but it is a material. It's like punching a light sunbeam, where your fist warms slightly while it's in the sunbeam, but you don't sense anything beyond

just that slight change in temperature. I take out one of those bottle rockets and I hold the wick in the globule. Has anything happened? No. That was interesting. That would've been cool. That would've been cool. Are you amusing yourself? Yeah. Yeah.

A little bored. I think I'm going to go give this to a kid. I'll be right back. Is there a kid? There are a number of kids around, yeah. Okay, I want to just, is there an approachable, inviting-looking kid? Yeah, you see one kid, probably, appears to be human, maybe no older than seven.

Perfect. He's just running by with a stick in one hand, his feet are muddy beneath the knees, there's a little bit of smear of dirt on the side of the face. Uh-huh. He runs by and sees you, looking at him and stops and looks at you. Hey, I have a big stick, too.

Check mine out. That's pretty cool. Yeah, you want to hold it? Yeah. Can I hold your stick? Sure. Okay, I trade you. Cool. Thanks, Caesar.

No, no, no, no, come here, come here, come here. What? I mean, that's mine, you can't take it. Okay, I trade you. Cool. Thanks, Caesar. No, no, no, no, come here, come here, come here. What? I mean, that's mine, you can't take it. Okay. I can show you cool stuff with it, though. Like what? Do you know how to fight? Yeah.

Here, give it back. I'll trade you back, here's your stick. Yeah, there we go. And I do a little twirl behind my back. That's cool. Yeah. He tempts it and immediately breaks the stick and hits his leg and is like,

yeah. Yeah, it was pretty good. What's your job on this island? I take care of keeping the monsters away. Really? Yeah. Yeah. Awesome, you're like a guard, working patrol. Yeah. What's your name? Treese.

How long have you, were you born here, Treese? Yeah. That's awesome. What is the goal of your village? Do you know? Do you have a mission? He's like, he wipes the snot from under his nose. What's your social-economical contribution? You're a kid, what's the purpose of life?

He drives us to the couch. He stares at you blankly a bit and goes, I don't know, fight monsters and make that thing happy? And he points to the mountain. What do you give to make that thing happy? I don't really give anything, but Mom and Dad make stuff to give. Oh, like what?

Like they make carvings and sculpt things. That's cool. Do you want to go ahead? I have a friend whose family, they all go down to the big mouth to mine. Oh yeah? Yeah. How often do people not come back? Not to bring up a downer subject. I should probably get going.

Hey, you want to light this bottle rocket? You want to see it explode? You're going to offer him a lollipop to help him get in the van? Yeah. Okay, here, come here. I light the baller rocket. And you see four Evolves and turn around and go, Ah! Ah! Oh no.

The person goes running for a bell. Oh, you don't have to. They stop. It's cool. He's like, That's so cool, do you have more of those? I do. Here. And I give him six. Just, hey, don't do anything too bad with them

and make sure that you're not holding them when they go off and don't point them at other children or your parents. But anybody else, I can. Yeah. Cool. Totally, man. What's your name? I'm Beau. I was going to try and think of something cool,? I'm Beau. I was going to try and think of something cool, but I'm Beau.

Beau's pretty cool. You can go with that. Thanks, trees. Thanks. Okay, bye. I never know how to end conversations with kids. Bye, trees. Bye. And he just runs off, staring at the bottle rocket, super excited. You have a 12 pack of beer. Hey, Veth. Veth, can at the bottle rocket, super excited. Give him a 12-pack of beer.

Hey, Veth. What? Veth, can you hear me? Yeah. Yeah. Do you want to go snoop around in the kitchen, see what they might have in the back? Sure, yeah, sure. Okay, I'm going to go distract people. Are you going to go fuck with some more kids?

I mean, I could also do that. No, let's go to the kitchen. Okay, yeah. And I go meet up with Caduceus. Okay. I was half expecting you to say your name was Jester. Oh, fucking hell! That's what I should have done. I was watching, I was waiting.

All right, you go to the kitchen, things being prepared, you do see another hunting party arrive. This is a larger hunting party. Unlike the dual team of Pono and Jaina, you see five folks arriving, along with a figure that resembles the description that you had received of Tara,

who is a firbolg, taller than Caduceus, female, very long, lanky arms and legs, but very muscular and taut, in a hide, leather-based hunting outfit with a longbow strapped across the shoulder and the back. Yee! She's older. She definitely, in the face, you can see there's a hardness

and age to it. The fur across the body is a blue-gray color, shoulder-length white hair, like a mop, that that cuts off and tangles a bit towards there. Pretty intense. But what catches your eye immediately after is what they're dragging in. You see, brought to the other bonfire, two large-scaled beasts, lizard-like,

but probably eight to nine feet from nose to tail. You see elements of feather at certain edges of the limbs. You can see clawed arms that fall into one side and large, spindly, muscular legs that keep it in a jaw of teeth. You've never seen a creature like this. What the Sam hell? I'm still butchering with Pono and Jaina, right?

Yeah. What is that? They look up and Jaina goes, Oh, fucking hell, really? And the hunting party waves over and they go, Have we been outdone? You could say that. It's fine, it's whatever. And they get back to cutting.

What was the thing that they are bringing in? I don't even know what it's called. Oh. You don't know what it's called? No. Oh. The rest of the party, who's with Tara? That's Garenet and his crew. There's two other hunting parties that are out.

I don't know if they're going to come back. Garenet? Garenet is her right-hand man. Sons of bitches. They grumble and go back to cutting. Why do they care who gets the biggest? I think it's just some good natured competitiveness. Is it?

I think so. Strange beasts in these woods. I feel like we're in one of those villages in a video game where you've run through every single question tree. Yeah. Just, good luck on your mission going forward. Trying to find a bathroom.

Good luck on yours. I hear there's creatures on the edge of the wood. Thank you. What are they called? I hear them. Can I see any of the other Mighty Nein where I'm butchering and I can see this? Yeah, you can see Caduceus and Beauregard

that are currently in the process of preparing the non-meat elements of tonight's meal. Caduceus, Beau, will you join me in greeting Tara and the rest of the hunting party? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I'll be right back. Unless you're doing something important, Beau? No. I mean, yeah, but, you know.

Fine. Okay. Veth. Yeah,, yeah, but, you know, fine. Okay. Veth. Yeah, oh yeah, sorry, I was dozing off there for a second. No, no, do you want to come here and stay? Yeah, I'll come with you, yeah, sure. Oh, that's weird. No.

I didn't know Veth was here. Shh. Um, hello, hello. You see as they're now taking one of these creatures and tying its arms and legs upside down, kind of cross over this large bar similar to the one that they were kind of briefly putting the displacer beast on

before they started butchering it. And the woman turns around and looks at your crew. Wow, that's crazy. What do you call that? This here is one of the many dangerous beasts, long-lost beasts on the north side of the island. I got to learn just not to do that. Yeah, it's amazing.

Make sure I look up the actual pronunciation for it here. It's the Deinonychus is what it's known as. Deinonychus? It's a fucking Deinonychus. Avonelon. Yep. I wanted to introduce ourselves. I know we may seem like strange faces.

We were actually saved in the forest by Pono and Jaina. We heard there are some new arrivals. I assume that's you all, Ot? That's us. Just a few of us, at least. Well, welcome to Vohm. Happy to have you. Very impressive, thank you. Caduceus Clay. Caduceus, you are?

Beau. Beau. I'm Fjord. Fjord. I am Tara. What are you good at? Will nobody speak all at the same time? I think you can just say, I don't know. It seems to be the normal answer to everything around here. Well, technically, we speak all at the same time. I think you can just say, I don't know. It seems to be the normal answer to everything around here. Well, technically, we're good at fighting and killing people,

but that kind of feels like maybe something you shouldn't lead with. We're good at killing people. I can't really remember. Just people? No, no, no, like bad things that need to be killed. So, like, monster things. We're fair hunters. Yeah. I have some skill with sailing on the open waters. Caduceus is actually a very talented cook.

Cook? Healer? Yeah, yeah, that too. Good, good. Make an excellent tea. We could use more muscle on the hunting teams. That's good to know. Oh, we actually just stopped for a visit. We're not actually planning on joining the community.

We were actually just done a great favor by some of your hunting party. All right. We don't plan to be staying very long. Understood. Yeah. With that change, just let me know. We could always use some more hands out. Of course.

Well, it sounds like we'll be staying for dinner. We wanted to introduce ourselves. You'll greet the rest of our party later. We're at your service. Good. We'll talk at dinner. I'll go back to chopping. Thanks for your hospitality.

She just walks back over towards where they're stringing up the beasts and helping her team out. Oh, she's tough. She's tough. Yeah, she's like worn leather. Yeah. Uh-huh. I like her. It's a rough whiskey's tough, yeah. She's got worn leather. Yeah. I like her. It's a rough whiskey.

Yeah, yeah. Cool, cool, cool, cool. I make a copy. I'm going to go cut up this displacivation. Yeah, I'm going to go make sure stuff isn't poisoned. Have you ever seen a Deinonychus before? No. That feels like Paleolithic, like a different time.

What did you say? Like, you know, before the Earth, No, that feels like Paleolithic, like a different time. What did you say? Like, you know, before the Earth, before Exandria was like Exandria. Make a history or nature check, your choice. Almost like the land before time? Time, yeah, yeah, exactly. A history check.

And the time before land. Natural 20. Oh! Give me that, give me that, give me that! Where has this been for the last three years? I don't know. So 32. Yeah, okay.

You are a very studied individual in eclectic things. In The Cobalt Soul, you had less interest in modern day politics, more interest in books about weird things that had drawings and pictures. That's why I took deep speech. Exactly. Yeah. But during this time, you came across

myths and stories about beasts very similar to the ones that you saw strung up here. Things that were said to exist during the time of the Titans, things that were largely wiped out, except for supposedly in some far reaches of Exandria might still exist of all manner of size and demeanor. Most people seem to say that elements of them

might reside still within the Shattered Teeth, but few have been able to provide proof. And this is your first time you've ever seen something very similar to what you studied firsthand. Oh, yeah, they're like boogeymen, like big fish stories, like you're not entirely sure if they even exist, you know? That's not helpful at all.

I mean, this shit is ancient, whatever that thing is, that's all I'm saying. Oh, you mean as if it's not supposed to exist anymore. Yeah, kind of. But it does. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like pre-calamity. Oh yeah, very pre-calamity.

Way pre-calamity time. Like way. We got to get up to the north side. Like a lost creature. Hi, Fjord, I'm here too. Oh, I know, I can see. I can see invisibility. Oh, I forgot.

Still? Couldn't catch you, well, for an hour. It's past by now. Fuck. Well, then I'm no longer invisible, either. Well, you can keep it up if you had more spell slots, but. I do. We got to go to the north side. Yeah, we got to go to the north side. The north side, bro, that's where it's at, Rip Curl.

Let's go north shore. North shore. First thing tomorrow morning. So, that's where it's at, Rip Curl. Let's go north, Shiloh. North shore. First thing tomorrow morning. So, what's the plan? Are you guys, anything else you want to accomplish or do you want to move on to dinner? I think we're just waiting for dinner. Anything suspicious about this food at all?

Is it, does it? What, you mean while you're in the kitchen? Yeah, I'm just going to, I'm watching to see if there's any spices being added to anything. What's the health inspector grade on this? There seems to be one ingredient that's in everything, like, you know, like way too much nutmeg on everything. Sure. Make a perception check.

That's a thing. That's cocked. The Stinking Rhodes. Uh, bad for me, but you know. 17. I mean, beyond the fact that a lot of the flavor concoctions that are being produced here, a lot of the crushed minerals that have been recovered

and mingled here are high in sodium, beyond that, nothing that catches your attention is dubious. Just monsters. So much salt. All right. Eventually, the sun does begin to set. The coloration of the sky takes its characteristic oranges and purple hues. The temperature still, you know,

not as warm as you'd expect for the location and temperate region that the island is amongst the Suvayne Islands. The mist remains on the outskirts of the city. Doesn't seem to swell or get any larger or more dense with the temperature dropping. It just exists. But people begin to gather as the bonfires ignite,

as the actual meals begin to cook, the creatures are set up to be charred and prepared. The large bonfire itself, just a beacon, the center of the social space here at the end of the day, is lit. The heat is immense, even from this distance, but people gather around, and you can watch as people grab stools and stumps and whatever sort of sitting arrangement they have. They bring their own plates, which are a weird mix of old china that looks chipped or broken in places to just wooden plates that have been carved

from whatever they could find locally to thick fronds they go ahead and place food on. But everyone eventually comes through and starts gathering meals and finding a place to sit, everything looking in the direction of this bonfire. And there at the very south part of the bonfire, you can see there are seven stools set up in a semicircle and three large chairs facing the north side of it,

their backs to the bonfire. You guys are instructed to go ahead and gather whatever you wish from the veritable smorgasbord of food that has been prepared for you with the aid of Caduceus and Beauregard, as much as you wanted to aid. Mostly Caduceus. I threw in some salt.

I was that person. You monster. You think that's salt? It needed more salt. There's already just so much. Full of cinnamon? You're using seawater to boil everything. Yeah, right. Yeah.

Yeah. Instant puckered lips. Why there are no old people, they're all just drying up. But eventually, you're led to your seats there at the base, that small circle of stools. The trio eventually come and sit as well as Lukash, Viridian, and Tara all meet you

with their respective meals. Sit down and nod. Viridian takes the first bit of the conversation. Thank you all for joining us, and it is a pleasure to have you among us for the time that we do. I'm sure you have questions, and we have questions as well. So as we eat, let us share what we need of each other,

what we hope to learn from each other. When can we meet Vokodo? As soon as you need. We could leave tomorrow, if you'd like. I could guide you to the mountain entrance and introduce you. I think perhaps we should explore a bit more beforehand to get a better sense of the island.

Well, perhaps we should please the caretaker of the island first. I mean, what if he doesn't want us to have it here and then, you know? Right, we should better Better to know that now. Exactly. So we can go find another island. Yeah.

Let's do it. Tomorrow, then. Yeah, sure. Let's go see him. Yes, we don't have any, we should bring a gift. Sure, yeah. Does, like, Vokado tell you what you need when you get there, or does, are you supposed to just guess up when?

We gather amongst the village crafts and acquired materials, minerals, anything that we find is of precious origin, whether it be personal or just a treasure in its own social right. We gather and I bring it with myself to meet with Bokoro and provide it to him within his lair.

We probably have a list. Does he want everything valuable that we have, or is it just a couple of things? You carry many valuable things, but that is up to you to give, not me. Okay. Maybe if we each gave one item, that would be nice. Do you think we could do that?

We can look at what we have, sure. What about right now? I mean, you know, I don't want to go through my bag right now. You don't want to empty out your purse on the floor. Sure. Maybe we'll just see what happens when we're there, right? It's not like we would need anything extra

beyond what we have on ourselves. How often do you bring these tithes to Vokoto? Well, I generally make a trip to the mountains interior about once every week or two. I was a few days out from my regular journey, but at your necessary intent to meet, I will move my timeline up a bit. We will gather early in the morning and collect,

and then we will be on our way. Have you ever missed a visit? Are there repercussions if you do not bring a gift? I have not missed a visit since I've been to the island. Some gifts have been larger than others, and as any individual that requires a showing of faith, frustration can be felt, but Vokodo is a kind and understanding god

who merely wishes us to improve upon that we may have failed to provide. And how is his frustrations manifested? By lessening the protections in the village for a time. Right. Right. Hmm. So you'll maybe randomly get swarmed by beasts, and it's like, uh-oh,

Valkorio's having a bad week. Possibly. But I am well-versed in bending this surrounding space to my will. Is that possibly what happened to the ruins? The ruins. I know not when the ruins arrived or where they once came from,

but they don't feel like anything we've constructed in previous generations. Oh my god, we got to get the fuck over there. Oh, I want to see. Should we go there first? I mean, we could just wait till it's the normal trip, not ruin the rhythm of what seems to be a

clockwork system here. It takes a couple days to get over there, right? We should check in with the desk and explore. You have eight days from today, so roughly a little over seven days until Traveler Con. And it takes how many days? Keep going north, go to the ruins. Yeah, great.

Or go, let's stop by Vokodo on the way. That's assuming that anything happens after we meet Vokodo. It's going to go great. Let's stop by Vokodo on the way. That's assuming that anything happens after we meet Vokodo. It's going to go great. We're charming. Jester's a holy person. Yeah, when we have a god on our side. We're going to give great gifts. I've got a diamond that I'm willing to part with.

You can see the three of them lean in and go like, a diamond? It's not, you know, it's just, yeah, I have a diamond. You shouldn't put it with your diamond. Yeah, you should keep that. We kind of need the diamond. Couldn't set it out loud. There are such gems that we bring

from within the island itself, and such diamonds are allotted and sought after by Vokodo, but diamonds from beyond, those in particular draw his interest. You would be quick to gain his favor. I'll give up the diamond. It's a 50 gold diamond. I can't do anything. Oh, okay.

Do you usually make the trip alone when you go, or do you go in a group? I do because it's safest. I have means of traversing independently that are much safer than bringing others with me. Can you go through the canopies with your vines? I have other means. Can you go below the ground with your vines?

How do you do it? How did you make that rhyme? We'll see tomorrow. My connection with nature allows me the capabilities of calling upon its protection and powers in the vicinity, but I also have learned how to become such creatures that call nature its home.

Did you learn that when you came here or were you like that already? It's just something I always knew how to do. Answer any memory-based question. Hmm. Can you go through trees? I can. Understand, I know the memory lapses are challenging,

but those of us of the Vo'odh, I understand. I know the memory lapses are challenging, but those of us of the Void, we were chosen by Vokodo to come here. These false pasts were stripped away from us and allowed us to find our true purpose in this island. So, as confusing as it may be, and occasionally frustrating, it is for the best. Have you ever seen any precious gemstones or jewels

that resemble something like this? And I'll use Minor Image to conjure an image of the cloven crystal, the eye. Yeah, they look over it. Not in particular, no, but it is a beautiful example. Have you ever heard of Uk'otoa? Uk'otoa. Uk'otoa. Uk'otoa.

They all think for a moment. Like showing a horse a cart. Kind of, yeah. I don't suppose the Tal'Dorei Council rings a bell. Fri'jan goes, Tal'Dorei. And trails off. In a far distance, you hear, No! They're running low. Well then, fine.

We'll set out in the morning to the volcano. And can we just wear this? Don't have to, like, dress in cloaks or robes or anything? No, no, no. Bring yourselves as you are. And we shouldn't, like... Like, these bracers are very expensive and very dope, and I'm very attached to them.

Should I, like, hide them? He's not going to see them and be like, I want that. Vokodo does not take things from you. He accepts what's given. Okay, but if he sees this and then he sees what I'm giving him, is he going to be like,

that's a little weak compared to what's going on here and I'm going to judge you for that. Is he going to be like that? I don't know. I have going to judge you for that. Is he going to be like that? I don't know. I have not encountered such a circumstance before. I'm not too worried about that. I feel like this is how this works is eventually. I love these bracers.

No, no, I think the idea is you're the best. He probably has already seen the bracers, Beau. Huh? He's probably already seen the bracers. Yeah, he's a god. Hello. And do you have gemstones all over your bracers? Well, they're very intricate and very well crafted. I don't know about that,

but no, I don't think he'll be interested. I think they're very well crafted. Thank you. You're welcome. Okay. I was just curious. What do you want to ask us? So by what fates have you been brought here? Beyond you've said you were chased

by some dragon turtle type creature, and you come here to hold an event for your god, this Traveler, you say. What sort of event are you looking for? Well, it's like, have you ever heard of a convention? You know, when people of similar interests get together and they're like,

hey, let's talk, let's hang out, let's get to know each other. Oh, yeah, that is what Vo is. And Tara's like, that's very good. Basically, you're having VoCon and I want to host TravelerCon. Temporarily. Lukash goes, And how many individuals are you expecting?

See, that's a really good question, because I can't remember. I think the island is affecting me. But, you know, I have no clue, honestly. But it could be, it's a manageable number. It's a manageable number, and you know what? It's probably even less because of all of the

travel that's involved and the turtle dragon and all that stuff, so. Destination convection, challenging to get to. Exactly, it's like, you know, who really wants to be there? Who can make it? And then we'll find out. Well, unless there are any arguments here

amongst the other two at the council, now that we're all present, once we have the approval of Vokodo, I do not see why we wouldn't be able to aid you and accept these travelers of the Traveler, if you will, into Voh itself. Everybody that worships the traveler is super helpful. They really just want to come in and not cause any trouble

and just help as much as possible. Roll a deception check. Just had to fucking pour it off. Mine! Mine! You can see, like, Lukash kind of nods. Tara kind of sitting there, arms crossed, is like, At the very least, we're very helpful and are always happy to help clean up.

Viridian's kind of looking at you with a, At the very least. Interesting. Well, in the event that Vokodo does not see such a union as fit, do not take offense. I'm sure there are other places of which to hold such an event. Sure, like Heaven's Falls.

Or the ruins. I cannot vouch for those as being safe locations for such an event. The Heaven Falls protects the ocean entrance to the interior of Okoto's lair. Oh! And is not meant to be passed by any mortal soul.

Oh. So Heaven's Falls is like a water passage into the center of the volcano? Oh, or is it like a molten lava passage? Or a waterfall? You watch as she twirls her finger and Viridian mutters beneath her breath and you see in the dirt these small flower stems

begin to grow together to form this mountain, a small version from a cusp. That's cool. Then as she spins her finger again, this wind begins to blow around it to create this pattern that looks like a small version from a cusp. That's cool. And then as she spins her finger again, this wind begins to blow around it to create this pattern that looks like a little water around the island. She goes, on the side of the island

where the inlet makes its way to the rock's heart. And as she brings her finger upward, you can see the sand begins to flow upward up the mountain. That is where the waterfall lies, not down, but up. The water cascades towards the sky before curling into the mountain itself.

What? I feel like I need to see that. We're not allowed to go there? Because I really want to see that. You are welcome to go see it, but to traverse the falls is forbidden. Oh. What if this place really... What if this place really is the center of the world?

It could be. I mean, I believe you, obviously, but what if it really is? That's on the northwestern side of the island? Northeastern side. Northeastern side. We could just stay? I believe you said that, yeah. You did say that, I just wrote it down wrong. The ruin I cannot vouch for.

We don't go there. The northern side of the island is mostly untraveled, dangerous. The scattering of worlds that create this island tend to be a bit more volatile. Would you say it's haunted, these ruins? Ghosts, spirits, cries? Oh, there are spirits throughout the island,

but up there is all manner of strange other beasts. Oh fuck, we got to go, man. Let's go, let's go to your end. Damn it! Any dangerous plants to look out for? Numerous, but I'll be guiding you guys to the mountain, so I'll be able to warn you of any known dangers ahead.

Speaking of ghosts, what do you all do with your dead? When there's a solemn moment where they all look at each other, those that are lost to us are given rights under Vokodo himself. Much like the flames that give birth to fertile land and to allow new forests to grow upon those that were old, they are interred to ash, as the god would have decreed. Okay, standard. Yeah. Nothing weird about that. No, it's fine. You know what would be weird?

Is if they put them in the ground and then they made tea out of them. That would be so fucking weird. Nothing weird about that. It's a little strange. Do you want some? He's got dead people tea. I do. Yeah.

I quite enjoy it. I'm okay, thank you. Lukash is like, I shall try something for me. All right, that's no problem, hold on. The adventurist, Terry goes, Lukasch is like, what, I'm curious. It's got a little kick, this is good.

That'll wake you up. Ah. Yeah. There's the dead person. It's more of a trailing aftertaste, interesting. Had a lot to say. The meal is delicious, especially given the somewhat seemingly basic lifestyle that is kept here.

It is vibrant in its flavors. Are there any other elements of the conversation you want to ask about or inquire? How does the feeling that we're being watched feel? Worse, less? As you guys are in this conversation and you take a moment to think to that thought, you feel the hairs in the back of your neck

stand up a little bit and you can't help yourself, but looking over your shoulder back toward the side of the bonfire, there's nothing there, but it hasn't lessened. I don't like this. It's great. Running Eyes of the Grave again. Great play. Okay.

Yeah, I'll do the Divine Sense as well. Same time, same time! Okay, Divine Sense. Both of you focus that same creeping, sourceless presence somewhere, somewhere, but neither of your extended sense are able to grasp at anything. Does Caleb have the same sense as well?

Does which one? Does Caleb feel the exact same thing the others do? Yes. We all do. You all do. Like, every one of you individually. You haven't really discussed it out loud, but all of you have this weird presence that you can't shake.

Do you guys feel like something's watching you? Yeah, totally. I feel like this is a conversation for once we're in the bubble. Yeah, I'm going to pull out my sketchbook and I'm going to write on the page, who the hell is watching us? Question mark, question mark.

Trying to talk to the Traveler. Gotcha. Also, Caleb does not eat any of the food. I slip one of the beads of nourishment to myself at some point and pretend to drink a few times. You got it. Okay. I tried to do that, but then as I of the food, I slip one of the beads of nourishment to myself at some point and pretend to drink a few times. You got it. Okay. I tried to do that, but then as I smelled the food, I gave in and ate the food.

Okay. It is very tasty. True to life. I just want to go to sleep and talk tomorrow. Yeah, we want to get going in the morning, early. I'm going to take out my harp and place it a little bit by the fire. All right. As soon as I see her pull out the harp,

I'm going to cast, I'm going to go up and put my hand on her shoulder and say, I can't wait to hear this. I've been practicing, so I think, yeah, hopefully it will sound okay, but, you know, have dessert and have some tea and talk and stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm going to cast Enhance Abilities on you.

I'm not going to tell her I'm casting Enhance Abilities, but I'm going to cast Enhance Abilities for charisma. Okay. And as a thank you for this lovely meal, we'd like to introduce Yasha to perform a lovely after meal song. Yeah. Okay. Get it.

Applause begins to climb as everyone around there, and now the full village in presence here, which mostly people come to sit since you had come down beforehand, you look around you and there's close to a hundred people all sitting and all looking directly in your direction. And they all just start clapping. It becomes this rousing applause,

all focused start clapping. It becomes this rousing applause, all focused on you. Oh, well. I'm still learning, but... Free bird! Start playing. Okay. Go and make performance check for me, with advantage. With advantage? Yeah. Okay. Something. Go make performance check for me, with advantage.

With advantage? Yeah. Yeah. Caleb casts Major Image and silent lightning starts to go behind her. Okay, okay. What does Enhance Ability do? It gives you an advantage. It gives you

advantage on that, yeah. Okay, got it. Okay, so that would be performance. I get a minus two. 17. Hey! It gives you advantage. It gives you advantage on that, yeah. Okay, got it. Okay, so that would be performance. I get a minus two. 17. Hey! Nice! Pretty good. Not bad.

So as you begin to pluck, the first couple come off at a strange, discordant row and you shake your head a bit in frustration and concentrate, take a deep breath and then continue once more. I want to play something sort of a little sad, but also just beautiful and light and a nice after dinner. Just something nice and light, but a little sad.

Yeah, it's not terribly intricate, but it is still beautiful. Haunting, but beautiful. As the song begins to flow through, everyone's mood begins to shift. It falls quiet. You can hear a single person breathe as everyone's leaning forward.

Yasha, as she begins to get into the sense of the song, storytelling through the harp itself, her eyes begin to close, and that's when the silent lightning begins to arc behind her, causing these little flashes of blue backlighting across her shoulders and her hair and the sides of the harp. You watch as the flames of the bonfire

almost seem to die down slightly, as you watch it Viridian. I'm bringing them down. Yeah, Viridian's doing the same, actually, as well. The bonfire flames begin to fade a bit as now the central focus is Yasha's performance. With each pluck resonating and echoing and growing louder, the movements become more fluid.

And for a woman who is so known amongst you for the volumetric rage and forceful brutality, there is an unexpected grace to the movements, the gentle shifting of the wrist, the swaying with each progressive pull, and as the eyes are still closed and the lightning is still flashing, you see Yasha in a vulnerable light you've not really seen before.

In a healing light. As the song comes to a close, and the, what some people would call the spirit that takes over, whatever it is that muses within you that brought this song through in this moment, this very briefly stressful moment, you can't believe you did that.

As the lightning fades. I put it in my bag and I walk straight to the tree. Yasha just runs away from the dinner. Your friend is very talented. Yes, she is. She is? Mm. Yep, we knew that. I mean, we've seen that like 100 times by now.

Well, it is a joyous change of pace. Music is not something we get too often on this island. Why not? No musicians amongst you? We do, but they're terrible. Well, glad to brighten your evening. Very much so. The crotch goes, well, I'm closing out for the evening. I'm a bit full and I'm getting the sleepies.

Have a good night, folks. He stands up and makes his way off. Tara quietly stands without a word and gives a nod and leaves. Verdeen says, Make sure to get some rest. We have quite a trek tomorrow. And not the safest one, either, so be at your best.

See you in the morning. Until then. What time are we leaving? Well, if you can, shortly after sunrise would be preferable. Tight, tight, tight, tight, tight. Certainly. I'll see you then.

Vridian stands up and makes her way off. The crowd's now starting to disperse a bit. People are starting to leave to their abodes here in the village of Voh. Yasha played really good. That was, that was. Good? That was amazing. Yasha's still gone, by the way.

Let's get somewhere safe. Well, are we going to stay in Doran's house? I'd say, yeah. Put the bubble around it? I'd say. Is that possible? I want to talk, if that's all right. Yeah. Okay, so you guys all head back to the hollowed out tree?

Yeah, I will throw up the dome inside of it, the same color as the tree wood around it, and I will have Frumpkin sit up high and stay awake the entire night and watch. Everyone's heading back? I'm going to send a message to Yasha, because I don't know where she went. Okay. She says, Yasha, because I don't know where she went. Okay.

Yasha? You played so good. We're all heading back to the treehouse. Come back. You pooping? Yasha, come back. Hey. I'm already here in the treehouse.

Oh. Well, I didn't know that. I'll see you guys in just a moment. You heard that just as you're opening the door. She's right there talking to you. It's that weird moment where you're both on the phone, but you both went to the same room. It's that weird, weird, weird.

It's like a delay. Like in my head, and then also from coming towards the door and opening it. I've never done it before. I've never done it before. Hard to get a ley line out here. It's all very, yeah. Yeah, it's too real. Stupid.

So we're safe. Well. Yeah, he's made the dome. The door is closed. We'll say you complete the ritual to form the dome, which encompasses the majority of the interior of the floor here. The tree itself is pretty thick. You only have maybe about a 15,

a little over 15-foot diameter in this interior space. So the dome fills most of it. You have a diamond that you're going to offer tomorrow. It's just a small diamond, it's like a stud. It's a big diamond. It's a 50-gold diamond. We have platinum and gold and stuff. I don't want to give up platinum. I don't care about this stupid god anyway.

Well, yeah, but we've got to give him something worthy enough to get permission for your convention. I mean, don't you want that? Well, yeah, but I'm just going to, like, the Traveler's going to come, he's going to talk to Avocado, and then he's going to be like, hey, man, I'm a god, you're a god.

Yeah, but shouldn't we get on the right foot? I feel like if we just give a little bit of something nice up front, it could go a long way. What if Avocado really is a god, though, and the Traveler's like, ooh. I don't know. Well, if he is a god, I don't know that he or they would appreciate you calling him Avocado,

but maybe we should just, you know, be a good representative for the Traveler I appreciate you calling him Avocado, but maybe we should just, you know, be a good representative for the Traveler and then let the Traveler do his, you know, thing. You want to be a good representative for the Traveler, Fjord? Do I? Yeah, is that what you want?

Is that what you want us to be? An ambassador, one would say. Also, if, you know, Avocado is a real god, then maybe he won't be threatened by the Traveler, you know? Because. He shouldn't be, right? Yeah. Well, he should be, because the Traveler is still pretty amazing

and very powerful, so. Well, but you know, you hope someone is secure in themselves for our benefit, right? Well, you know. I mean, I... Do we want a god fight? We don't want a god fight. Hey, Yasha. Only one of them is a god, right? Maybe.

Well, what, no. What if... What if they're both not real gods? Then they're definitely going to fight. Oh man. What if they just get along? What if they're like, hey man. Yeah, we are putting the cart before the horse.

True. We just figure out what we're dealing with before we even bring the Traveler into it. Why don't you guys ask the Wild Mother how she feels about the Traveler? I mean, I can't do it right now, but I've never gotten the sense that it was a particular problem.

I mean, you know, you know you've got a weird little cult going, and that's okay. To be fair, I'm in a weird little cult. I mean, there's nothing unusual or wrong about that. It's, you know, all a god is really is a cult with a franchise. So.

I mean, sorry, got a little, but. But you know, to that point, you know, what isn't a cult if you're following? I'm not helping. I mean. Speaking of cults, this shit is creepy. You know where we are now. This shit is weird.

Can we talk weird? There's a bunch of weird stuff going on. The memory thing. Now that we're in the bubble, are we still getting the, like, there's something watching vibe? Ooh. Make a perception check. Okay. Ooh.

Just plan all along, man. 19. As they're all having this conversation, you withdraw and then focus on the surroundings and... Yeah? That still sinking feeling in your chest, that sense that something is here. This has been since we got here.

Seriously. Since we got off the beach. I look at my sketchbook. Has the Traveler written anything back to me? Like a Ouija board? No, not in the... I'm going to hold my pen right at the bottom. Oh, okay. That would be probably more the category

of a Commune spell or something to that degree. I'm going to cast a Commune spell. I will cast Mage Hand and start moving. Is there a stain or something? Do a sleight of hand check for me. Okay. Ooh, ooh, 17. 17.

Passive Precision. Yeah, no, what do you draw in Jester's notebook? What did she ask earlier in the book? You don't know what I wrote. You don't know. Okay, I'll just write... And you're drawing with another hand. And you're a lefty. Oh god, it's going to be awful.

With my right hand holding your left hand, I will write, Go on and kiss him tomorrow, Jester. Fjord is ready for you. You're writing all of that? Well, I'm abbreviating some of it. It looks like a two-year-old wrote it with the other hand.

Did you ask what is watching us? Yes. You're getting distracted, Traveler. I don't. I'm going to spend 10 minutes in Cast Commune. Okay. Does anyone have an empty slot for their equipment slot? You're welcome.

It's all for you. Anybody have an equipment slot they need filled? There you are. Yeah, I do. I have an empty slot. What do you need? Need someplace to put your stuff. I have a thing that you might, if you want to, I have a thing I'm not using that I was... You're not using?

Why do I even talk to Laura Bane? I feel you, man. Somebody has to set the bar. Against the new hair color, the red is the cool one. How much of your brain is just euphemism? Like, just... Okay. What do you have?

So much. I have a charmm of Plant Command necklace, or it's like on a thread that will give you three times a day. It will let you not only speak with a plant and have them understand it, but they'll talk to you, too, and get an advantage on charisma checks

to influence their behavior, demeanor, and attitude. Yes, I want that! That sounds amazing! All right, so I'm going to, since I'm not using it anyway. Sure. Yeah, I'm going to throw you, so that you can attune to it tonight, so. Beautiful.

I'm going to, how do I? What does it look like, Cadices? It is a fist-sized charm that is made from a bundle of dried plant stems wrapped in silver thread, hung on a leather thong. Yeah. A leather thong. Hung on a leather thong, thank you.

It is typically worn around the neck or attached to a belt. Or over your junk. Or across the junk. In your slot. To make it a more pleasant. It's good to be back. It's like a match cup, essentially. Oh my god. Oh my god, that's amazing.

Okay. So if you look up charm of plant command. Okay. I'm removing mine, it's gone. I'm going to add that in a second after I do my commune. Yeah, do your thing and then catch up my shit. So you, after acquiring your Charm of Plane Command, you excitedly take a moment to concentrate

and reach out your thoughts towards the Traveler. Eventually, as everyone else is talking, their voices get a little muffled, that kind of, you know, almost Peanuts adult. And you just hear the voice over your shoulder once more. You rang. What the hell is watching us?

You know the community, they're generally answering your questions. Yeah, I know! Is it Vokodo that's watching us? From what I can gather, it's quite an observant creature everywhere on the island. Is he actually a god? Sure. Mm. Not feeling a god-type presence from the island.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Do you think there's people here are being influenced by him to stay. You see out of the corner of your eye, the travel's waiting for the set and standing there goes, Ah. I'd say there's certainly some sort of strange influence

and they're certainly staying. Yeah. I have so many other questions. Well. Smoke bomb. Well. I don't know. It's my fault. Jester, did the Traveler confirm what he wrote before? Oh, I forgot to ask him about it in my three questions. Hmm.

Must be true. How did you know what he wrote before? I was invisible and I saw over your shoulder. You were not invisible, you were sitting right there. I was super invisible. You didn't see me over there. I can do that sometimes. What did he write?

We can't know. I'll tell you later. Okay. Well, night, Nytol. Before we go to sleep, I propose a quick ritual that we should adopt while we're on the island before we go to sleep and when we wake up. My name is Caduceus Clay. I am from the Savalir Wood in the Blooming Grove.

My father's name is Cornelius. My mother's name is Constance. I say just say your name, where you're from, and one thing about your past. Ooh, that's good. Just for now. You go, Beau. My name is Beauregard Lionett. I, that's good. Just for now. You go, Beau. My name is Beauregard Lionett.

I'm from Comorta. My father's name is Thoreau. And I have a little brother named TJ. Right. My name is Fjord. I'm from Port Damali. I never knew my parents, but my former captain was Vandran.

My name is Jester Lavor. My mom is the Ruby of the Sea. That's the name of it. And... my dad sweats a lot. My name is Caleb Widogast. I was not born with the name Caleb Widogast. My parents are Una and Leofric.

My name is Veth Bernato, and I'm an alcoholic. And my husband's name is Yeza, my son's name is Luc, and I'm from Felderwyn. And your parents' names? What do I mean? Oh, I don't remember. It's good, because I remember. You remember my parents' names? Yes. Oh, I know it.

It's Travis and Laura. No. No, it's Travis and Ashley. That is your dad's name. It was Travis and Ashley? But Laura works, too. Laura Ashley. It was Travis and Ashley, is that what I said when I made that shit up?

Okay. My name is Yasha Nydoran. I am from the southern wastes of Xhorhas, and I don't know who my parents are, so. But you're white. Yes, I was married to a woman named Zoala. I assume it'll just be like a roll check, but yeah. Yeah, see you all.

Hey, also, guess what? The Traveler basically confirmed that Vokodo is not actually a god. Really? Got nothing to worry about then. Okay. That almost makes me more nervous. Yeah, could be it. We'll give him some stuff,

then we'll go hiking and find some dinosaurs. Okay, but did he give any indication on this creepy feeling, just like, He said he thinks it's the thing, whatever it is. He thinks it's the thing, that it's Avocado. Yeah. Too much Avocado. Avocado's watching us at all times.

Yeah. Maybe we should, since he can see us all the time, maybe we should call him Guacamole instead. Mm. Oh, he doesn't know his name. That's good, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Kokomo.

Good old guac. Wee! Jamaica. Ooh, I want to take it. De Largo, Montego. All righty. Has anyone noticed? Okay, sorry. I know we all want to go to bed. I know we all want to go to bed.

Fuck, keep going back. You know what, I'll think about this. No, no, no, wait. I'm going to write a little bit. I'm going to write a little bit. I just need to think. I need to think. I need to think. I'm going to just journal. I'm going to journal. Okay.

Sivadee, I'm going to, I'll talk. We'll talk, we'll talk. to the sound of a soft distance scat. Yeah, Caleb takes a while to go to sleep and watches the others nod off and listens to Beau quietly scatting in the corner. And just sort of twirls that same wand from Caliana and just watches the group, like taps the wand on his forehead lightly as he watches and listens.

Okay. And eventually goes to sleep. Okay. They get ASMR. SAM and LAURA, SAM and LAURA, Wait, do the... Oh yeah, we can hear it. It's good stuff. Jester lets out a little toot

after she goes to sleep. Just a teeny one. That was cute. A little tiefling toot? Yeah. All righty. Sleep takes you all. Night's rest has had long rest.

And as the morning comes and consciousness finally calls you back to the world of the waking, we're going to break. Whoa! Because we went long. We hadn't done that yet. No, we haven't had a break yet. I was talking about, you don't have to pee like crazy? No. I have to pee we hadn't done that yet. No, we haven't had a break yet. You don't have to pee

like crazy? No. I have to pee. Well, journal some more. Indeed. It's all good. We don't have any

announcements. We're going to go straight to break. We'll see you guys here shortly. Oh, hey there. Laura Bailey here to tell you all about the

glorious goods we create inspired by our stories. Our stores are filled with the basics like character inspired t-shirts, dice sets, and pins, as well as more specialty items like fancy jackets, puzzles featuring gorgeous artwork, the comfiest joggers and pajamas ever, and much, much more. There's also a few special items that support charity efforts, like our dedicated Critical Role Foundation merch. You can check We'll be right back. So, Mighty Nein. So happy.

After a night's rest, the morning comes. You awaken refreshed. I need you all to roll an investigation check for me, please. Oh, what? In the bubble? We rolled so well before! I know, I think he's hiding this check that's going to make us forget shit. Okay. 21.

Okay. Which is really good for me. Ooh, not as good. Four. Four, okay. 24. All right. 18. Okay. Eight. Okay. 10.

Okay. 19. All right. Caduceus Yasha Jester, pick an item in your inventory. Oh no. I knew it! Those fuckers are just going to steal shit. No, they can't. They can come in the bubble. No one can come in the bubble unless they're burrowing them up from below.

Or it's the god thing. Or, or I still. Compelling you to give it to them. Yeah. Anything? What do we pick? Pick an object in your inventory. Just something that you have. Just anything.

Anything. Like a bedroll. Yeah. Yeah. A ball bearing, do you have a screw? You can't choose a single ball bearing, it would be your ball bearing. You got a troll dick there you want to get rid of? Some tinderbox.

Ooh! Tinderbox? Aw. I have a blanket. I'm going to get rid of my blanket. A pop of blanket! Well, you don't know what's happening to it. I'm just saying. So tinderbox. Yeah, a blanket. A blanket, okay.

Jester? I have a bottle of hair oil. Okay. Oh, from the crazy-ass shop? Mm-hmm. Yeah. That thing's nasty. Okay. So you all wake up, you all gather your things, and your morning has begun.

What do you want to do? We want to, of course, go find Viridian. Memory check first thing in the morning. We don't obviously want to go around, just as a... Oh, yeah. Bugger all in it. Yeah. Hey, Bod. Yeah, it. Yeah. Hey, bud.

Yeah, hey. Yeah. SAM and MATT and SAM and SAM. SAM, participate. Oh, sorry, what? It's happening. It's already happening. Well, it's just, I just can't remember what we were doing today.

We all recite the memory thing. We're doing that again? Yeah, because we woke up. Not really. Just checking to make sure you're fine. Checking to make sure it worked. Yeah, and none of you have any memory lapse issues. Should we make our way out to try and find it? Yasha, the blanket that you generally keep

is just one element of comfort amongst the harsh interiors. You don't know where it is, you can't find it. What? What's the matter? element of comfort amongst the harsh interiors. You don't know where it is, you can't find it. What? I had a... What's the matter? Is your whoopee gone? My whoopee? Wow.

Yeah. What's my whoopee? You know, your bunkie, your binky, your blankie. Yeah. Yeah, it's gone. And I'm British. I don't remember how I used to speak. Oh god. This island. This island.

Does weird shit to you. You can look for it if you want to make a perception check. Yeah, I'm going to, thank god. Let's. You see, is it here? What color was it? It's just black. Is it this one?

Black blankets. No. Is it this one? That's mine. 19. 19. You take a little bit of time in the house and you end up finding it tucked under one of the beds. Oh. You just lost track of it.

It's weird. Okay. What the fuck? Maybe you moved in the one of the beds. Oh. You just lost track of it. Oh. It's weird. Okay. What the fuck? Maybe you moved in the middle of your sleep. Out of the bubble? Hmm, yeah. What the? Sometimes you walk in your sleepwalker.

We need to stay up. You get called to storms and things. Wouldn't you have been alerted if I walked out of the bubble? No. Just no one can come in except for all of you. I ask, I don't say anything, but I ask Frumpkin if anyone was monkeying about in here in the night.

Roll a perception check for Frumpkin. Okay. 19. 19. 19. Whoa. Best of Frumpkin's knowledge. There wasn't any sort of movement or anything strange untoward. What the fuck? And did any of the nine leave the bubble at nighttime?

No. Okay. Can I, as I get my blanket from under the bed, can I search under the bed? Yeah, you look under it. It's fairly empty. It's a large bit of dust, some dirt. You do find a large dead beetle. It's been dead for a while. I'll eat it. Okay.

Crunchy. Hey, waste not, want not, right? But that's about it. Nothing beyond that. That's amazing. That's fucking weird. You know what? You were so overcome by the majesty of your performance that you just did some weird things last night.

It was a really fantastic performance. Well, thank you. I don't feel like I, I feel like that doesn't usually happen that well, so that was kind of nice. I don't know why that happened. It was beautiful. But I was just feeling.

You're just really talented, Yasha. You're growing into it. Yeah, well, I'm practicing, that's for sure, you know? Trying to get better at it, at least. It shows. I guess practice makes perfect. Mm-hmm. Okay.

Did you take her blanket? Did I take her blanket? Yeah, were you doing high jams? Why would I have taken her blanket? Well, you are a tricksy. It's a blanket. That's boring, that's a boring trick. Let's go.

Yeah, let's go see our non-god. I don't know where this creature is, for fuck's sake. People, choose some shit to give to this guy, all right? I don't want to get there in hem and haw. I've got a couple of gold rings. I've got a few things. Okay, same, okay. I still might take off my bracers and like,

no, I don't want to take off my bracers. I'll give him gold rings. Great. No. Do you think he wants his pearl necklace, too? Well, don't see, just see how much he wants. Why are you going to give him? This island freaks me out.

I'm overthinking it. I'm sorry. He's just a dude pretending to be a god. Let's just figure this out. Not that there's anything wrong with that. No. No. All right. We'll go meet our guide. Not that there's anything wrong with that. No.

All right. All right. We'll go meet our guide. Easy enough to do. As you guys exit the village, it's early enough, it's maybe 30 minutes past the sunrise. Not everyone's awake. Some people are beginning their day a little bleary-eyed and moving materials from one part of the village to the other,

gathering some things, starting to poke around the remnants of the bonfires from the night before to prep it for whenever the next large fire might be. But there, not far from the exterior of where you stayed the night, you do find Viridian waiting with a little pack over her shoulder that's made of vines and some heavy leaves

all kind of woven together. I just whisper to everybody else, from here on out, we should refer to Vokodo as guacamole, just because we don't want to, like, you know, piss off her. I'm not sure that's a better thing. Not to offend anybody. Right, right.

Just guacamole. While we're gone, do you think we should ask one of the villagers to maybe run down to the beach and get some of our stuff for us? Not to offend anybody. Yeah, right, right. Just squawk them. Yeah, yeah. While we're gone, do you think we should ask one of the villagers to maybe run down to the beach and get some of our stuff for us? No? No? No? No? Okay.

On we go. They're dead. I wonder if we should check in. We could do it while we walk. Yeah. All right. This way, then. You have everything you need. Is it just our party and you? Anyone else?

Yes. Wonderful. The more folk, the least useful it is to have such a large party. Of course. Honestly, this is even more than would be easier. I would normally just fly straight there, but. Fly, that's what you do, you fly.

Yes. But. Whatever. Onward. And with that, Viridian leads you out on the northwestern side of the village, breaking the outer tree line into the dense jungle itself. Now, you guys push in for a short time before you begin to realize the jungle itself

beginning to grow darker, even more dense. The smells of the vegetation and humid air shifting to an even colder, almost metallic scent. Unnatural. Like a wet iron type smell to the air. No more than probably an hour into this journey or so, Viridian puts a hand up for a bit and points and goes, those vines there,

the ones with the somewhat ruddy texture towards the bottom points, and you see across the multiple types of vine tangles around there and large branches that are reaching and jamming and intertwining with each other, you see some vines of a thinner variety that, as opposed to winding around, they dangle straight, almost like curtains,

but they turn reddish as they get closer and closer to the tip. She points them out. She says, avoid those. Like, keep a distance. They are carnivorous. And as you glance up, you can see there's a lot of the moss, the thick, dark moss

that grows up in these parts of the trees. On these vines, the moss looks less like moss and you now get to see it as it looks like strips of decaying flesh. And occasionally in some of these knots and tangles, you can see a bone protruding or remnants of some sort of decaying creature's remnants. Wow.

Used the same word twice in the same phrase. Improvisation. But the mist itself seems to be taking on this iron-like taste as you continue to push forward. Does it feel like the bloody remains are contributing to that irony taste, or does that feel separate? There's similarities in that taste, but it's not blood.

You know the taste of blood very well. You've tasted a lot of your own in the past, but it's different. This is a sharper and more more unnatural scent. Does the presence, the watching, does it feel stronger? It feels unchanged. Okay.

As you begin to continue, you can see the moisture in the surrounding mist growing thicker. The tree trunks themselves are now growing slick with the liquid in the air. You can see drops of condensed moisture falling from branches and overhead areas. It is not a rainy day, but occasionally, there is enough moisture falling from the boughs above

that it feels almost like a gentle drizzle. You can see now, as the ground begins to roll with the terrain, there are little pools beginning to form, dark pools of liquid. At this point, Vroodin once again places a hand up into the air to keep you all at bay and goes, Now, some of these pools contain just liquid, but there are some creatures that reside beneath them and exude a sticky substance

to attempt to trap you. Try your best to avoid touching the pools of liquid. Understood? Yeah, yeah. Wait, what, I wasn't listening? Don't touch the pools of liquid. Where? On the floor. All of these around us, there's some things living.

Maybe listen a little better. I'm sorry, I was just really checking out my awesome charm is all. Okay. Understood. You watch as Virdian's body contorts into a small spiral before there is a shift of greenish-brown energy and suddenly wings

come out and where once there's Virdian, there is now an owl that goes and lands on an upper branch to watch all of you. And it's just keeping an eye. Oh. Well, that's convenient. Are we supposed to keep going? I believe in the direction that she flew. You might imagine so.

All right. Do you guys begin? First off, what is the marching order, if you don't mind? Nobody. Who's good in the Outer Doors? The Outer Door? I'm always good to go up front somewhere. I'll go right behind. Keep the perception high.

Matthew going on the front. And Beauregard up front, who's back? I'll go behind Beau. I'll go behind Fjord. I'll take the caboose. Yasha, the caboose. Iceman will be the caboose. Allasha, the caboose. Ice man will be the caboose. All right.

Vanilla ice. Danger zone. So I have Caleb and Veth right in front of Yasha for the batter? Sure. Okay, it doesn't have to be single file, so I'm doing this like two, two, two, one. Now you guys all begin to carefully,

nimbly as you can, follow the path of the roots and the base of trees to avoid any of the slushy, earthy ground or the water pits themselves. And there's quite a bit of this. And you can watch as you continue, these pools get larger and eventually begin to completely envelop

and fill the spaces between the trees, these troughs where the roots themselves create the outer crown or the rim before the pool itself forms. And it is black, brackish, and in some cases, almost like a slick, oily surface. I need everyone to make a dexterity saving throw. Before we enter into this,

I would love to cast a spell before we all enter. I'm going to cast, if that's all right. Where are we? Saw you around here somewhere. What was that sound? What a cool sound. I don't know what it was, but it was really cool. Was it you?

Say it's sexy. I had it, hold on. I'm just playing with it was, but it was really cool. Is it you? It's sexy. I had it. I'm just playing with it. Did you do that with your mouth? Oh. Yeah, it was sexy. Oh, that's cool. What are you guessing? Apparently, I got rid of it.

I didn't think I did, but. Ah. Well, never mind, then. Never mind. Dexterity saving throws? Yes, remember, buddy, as you're all just independently traversing the space. 19. 19. 17. 17.

Jester? 16. Veth? 24. 17. All right, Lucius? Four. He's sleeping. Voregrond? 21.

Sorry. Nailed it. I put it in the wrong place. That'll do it. Sorry. All right. All of you managed to, for the most part, keep it pretty solid going through. Caduceus, at one point, you do step up onto one ridge of a root,

and it's a bit slicker than you expect with the momentum that you're pushing forward on. As you do, you catch yourself, but your foot can't help but sploosh beneath the surface. Roll a d6 for me. Shit. Six. Six.

Your foot breaks the surface. Oh, for god's sake. Uh-oh. And will not withdraw. Oh. Can I try to, wait, where are you? No, you're in the front. He's in the front.

Got a problem. Immediately, it begins to pull you under. I'm getting pulled, please help. What? Help. Can we grab ahold of him and try to pull? One of you can, you have to try and make a strength saving throw to pull yourself out.

If you're helping, you can give him an advantage on the check. I will help him. Or you can both roll independently, up to you. My strength sucks. I'm going to roll individually. Okay, go for it. This is a save or just a check? A check.

That was real bad. What'd you roll? Five. Five. Caduceus. I rolled a four. Okay. You grab, but Caduceus, whatever energy is now pulling him,

his stronger and stronger force, and you feel Caduceus, your other leg now trying to keep yourself up gets pulled in, and you're now slowly being sucked in past your knees. I cast Control Water. Yeah. Okay. This is not water.

Is there any water in it? It is a liquid, but it is not running or clear water. This is a thick, tar-like substance. So I would say it would not have, it would have mostly a very minor effect. What are you attempting to do? Like part water. Roll a wisdom check for me.

Just roll a d20, add your wisdom check for me. Just roll a d20, add your wisdom modifier. Okay. 18? 18, okay. I will say the liquid begins to pull apart slightly, but it's too thick for you to free Caduceus. You are still finding yourself drawn in, and you guys are watching, it's draining.

The actual surface is draining downward. Can I run up and try to grab him? You will in a moment. Okay. Because the immediate action, the first attempt on this for him to escape has already transpired. As it's funneling in and it separates,

you now see the source of this, as there is a large, multi-mandibled mouth embedded in the ground beneath this that apparently may have been the source of this thick, tarry excretion. And you watch its teeth clutching upward, like independently moving mandibles, trying to pull Caduceus' legs into its mouth, watch its teeth clutching upward, independently moving mandibles,

trying to pull Caduceus' legs into its mouth, which Caduceus, you do suffer 19 points of piercing damage as you're now beginning to be pulled into its mouth. Okay. It's like a swamp antlion, just pulling him in. It's horribly painful,

and you're now up to your upper thighs. Let me know when I have an action. You do now, and Yasha, you can run up and help, too. I cast Spirit Guardians. Okay. What form of guardians are you? It's my standard. It's my... The beetles?

The beetles? Yeah, the beetles. Okay. As you're like, erring pulled in, you suddenly pull your hands up and release the divine energy of the Wildmother's Guidance swirling above you, and from that this humming mass of angry, divine beetles begin to swarm and bite down towards this creature.

They're plunging into this liquid, unscathed by it, due to their divine nature and immaterial. Yasha, you rush up. Based on the parting of this, which revealed the creature, I'll say you'll get advantage on attempting to break him free. So make a strength check for me with advantage. Come on, Yasha. With advantage. Anyone? Yeah.

With advantage, okay. Anyone want to assist in any way, please? She's cocked. She's Yasha, she's got me. Yeah, okay. 21. 21. As it begins to yank him into the maw by about the waist, you rush forward and grab both of his arms,

hulsing over the shoulder, and then run the opposite direction, yanking. You feel the teeth tearing across the outside of your armor, but you pull your legs free, and with one giant heave, you both slap onto the large root there at the base of the tree, free of any of the nearby liquid, though the lower half of Caduceus itself is just

icky black slimed. Oh, this is real gross. Oh, this is real gross. Are you okay? That thing did suffer a little bit of damage, though. It did, and as it swirls, go ahead and roll damage. 11 points of radiant damage. Okay, as the damage hits it, you watch the beetle swarm in and actually shoot into the side of its open mouth.

As they peer into the interior of the creature, you watch its mandibles begin to roil in pain before it begins to vomit up this tar-like substance, begins to bubble and fill until eventually that little pool now returns to its surface level before you fell in. Okay, so we definitely don't want to I don't like that.

Don't touch the lava. If we had walk on water, would that work on this shit? It's not water. I know, but it's liquid, isn't it? It's not walk on liquid, though. You don't know? Want me to try?

No, no, no. You do have a ring that allows you to do that if you want to try with my ring? No, no, no. You do have a ring that allows you to do that if you want to try. Oh. Don't you do that. I won't try. Sure. I'm okay. Okay.

Raised eyebrows means no. Sure. Press on. His walk on water says walk across any liquid surface. That includes mud and things of the like. Can I, I might ask 10 minutes before we move on, just to get my bearings, if that's okay? Sure. Take a breather.

I'm just going to take a breather. I'm just going to quickly heal myself. Casting Healing Self on myself, I don't get the bonus from the, it's only when I take a short rest that I get the bonus from the necklace, right? For which one? For the from the, it's only when I take a short rest that I get the bonus from the necklace, right? For which one?

For the wound closure. I believe, how's it specified? Whenever you roll hit die to regain hit points, double the number of hit points. Correct, that's only if you're taking a short rest to use your hit dice to heal up. But you can do that if you want to, but.

Short rest is an awful long time. It's about an hour, yeah. Yeah, I'll just take the 10 minutes and take the heal, and lose the spell. Okay, what are you casting? Where'd it go? Sorry, everything's all over the place. Prayer of Healing?

Oh wait, not Prayer, what's the one that's the other 10 minute one, sorry. Why am I having issues finding this? Sorry. I'm curious. I think prayer of healing is the 10-minute heal that you have. For everybody, though. Correct. I don't think you have a 10-minute self-heal, do you? I thought I did. Maybe I don't.

Okay, I'll just do a... It's been a few months. We're still getting. I know, I'm trying to remember how all of this works. It's all good. I'll do, where'd it go? Cure Wounds is the base one. Cure Wounds, as soon as I can find it. There we are. All right.

I'll do, yeah, Cure Wounds at level two is what I'll do. You didn't prepare it. Okay. Yeah, that's the one. So we don't actually, this is just six seconds. We don't need 10 minutes. Okay, so go ahead and heal yourself up. The rest of you can gather yourself. The owl lands in the branch right above and kind of.

All right. Yeah, we're just giving it a moment. Jesus. Yeah, this is terrible. That was crazy. Caleb uses his transmuter's ability and I get my little free polymorph and I turn into a giant owl and join our guide on the bench. Up under the branch.

I was actually going to, yeah, I'm super down for a hike into jungle treks, but is there a way we could speed this up? Don't know between the two of us if we could carry everyone. As a giant owl, we can carry two people each, probably. As a giant owl? I think that's what we did before.

I'm pretty sure. One in each claw. Yeah. I'd say so. Is Viridian a giant owl, or just a regular owl? Just an owl. You're going to have one odd person out. Correct, yeah, you can carry, at most,

two people of standard size as a giant owl, yeah. Okay. Viridian, do you have a bigger owl variety, kind of like what he's doing? Can you do that, too? You know, so we can just... The owl, like... The head rotates back and forth as a no. We could do that, too, you know, so we can, like, just... Yeah, we'll kind of like... Fuck.

The head rotates back and forth as a no. Let's huff it, this is a beautiful place. Yeah. I'm excited. Just avoid the pools. I start walking. Yeah. I'll join Fjord up at the top, the front. The greens are in charge.

Yeah. Oh wait, I'm not green anymore. Now at the front? No. You'll always be green to me. All right, and we have Caleb as an owl. Okay, I'm going to, well, don't want to last 10 minutes. I'm going to use my charge

on my thingy. Okay. Charm of plant command. And I'm going to talk to the plants. All right. And I'm going to say, hey, you trees, can you guys, you know,

like move some branches to make it easier for us to not step in this tar stuff? That'd be really great. We're just trying to get over there. Go ahead and make a persuasion check. But it's a command. It's just, you can plants? No.

Yeah, I think you can charm, like, you have to still ask. I do? But you have advantage still ask. Oh, I do? But you have advantage. And they can talk back. Okay. Can they be sassy? Depends on what you roll. What am I rolling?

Persuasion with advantage? You're trying to convince the local trees to passage. Yeah, trees. The local trees. With advantage? Yes. Okay. Hey, local trees to passage. Trees. The local trees. With advantage? Yes. Okay. Hey, local trees.

Guidance. Can I do that? No, I can't, because I'm already casting another spell. Yeah. Fuck! Guidance. Like your yarmulke guidance? Next time I'll give you guidance. 15. 15, okay.

The trees, the ones that are local to you. The local ones. Ah. In the immediate presence, go. You talk to your local tree today. It's good to know your local tree. Not much I can do as a tree, but I'll try. And one of the ones next to it goes like,

Yeah, I'll help out. Yeah, it says the spell doesn't enable plants to uproot themselves and move about, but they can freely move branches, tendrils, and stuff. Yeah. So some of the branches that are about 10 or so feet above you begin to shift a bit to open up. To help us, maybe we can grab onto them

and make it easier to walk? Do you want to try and climb up through the trees? Well, no, so we can hold onto the lower branches and that way we can have something to hold on to. Okay, yeah. All right, yeah. So some of the branches, I would say, will come down a bit and angle in a direction that'll give you more of a handhold.

Yeah. So, cool. As Keyleth, I don't think I ever had a conversation with plants that successful. They were fucking dicks to me all the way through. Sun Tree won. Sun Tree was fine. Sun Tree was the best. All the other ones were like, I'm a plant, I don't. Well, no, you completely averted an entire encounter to me all the way through. Sun Tree. Sun Tree was fine. Sun Tree was the best. All the other ones were like, I'm a plant, I don't.

No, you completely averted an entire encounter with plant-based monsters by telling it to just go away and it went, okay. That was a good moment. It's selective memory. The downside is, I don't know, man. You have a lot of forest to traverse. I know.

And you only really conversed with the trees in that vicinity. So what I'll do is, because you guys, for the next leg of this journey, you all have to make another dexterity saving throw. Great. Oh shit. I'll say, because of your aid, I'm adjusting the DC accordingly.

Okay. Advantage. So we should roll? We should roll right now? Yes, someone should roll a dexterity saving throw. Oh, come on. 15, okay. Caduceus? You got big feet. Six. Six?

Again. Yasha? 22. 22. 11. 11, wow. Do I skip this as an owl? Great. Yes, you don't have to wear it as an 22. 11. 11, wow. Do I skip this as an owl? Great. Yes, you don't have to roll as an owl. 15. 15, okay. Fjord? Six.

Six. Ooh, doctor. Okay, I need both Fjord and Caduceus to roll a d6 for me. Okay. Don't roll a six. Four. Okay. Three. Three. Fjord. Mm-hmm?

As you're all making your way through, holding onto the branches for a bit, the branches eventually give way and you're having to do a little more of the walk, walk, walk, walk, leap, catch, land on the other root, move alongside the tree trunk itself a bit, move along this root, see where there's a little bit of earth here,

there's a heavy pull here, skirt that edge, and then leap this pull across to this root, see where there's a little bit of earth here, there's a heavy pool here, skirt that edge, and then leap this pool across to this root, and you go and jump onto one of the roots, and the root crumbles beneath your weight. As it does, you fall down, and to catch yourself instinctually, your front foot right into one of these ponds. Uh-oh.

You pull the foot out. That's just water. Oh. Just brackish water. Okay. A little water to log in that boot, but beyond that, the pull's just. You can now see the ripples from the impact. Oh, that could have been way worse.

Yes. As you say that, Caduceus is currently tightrope walking along one of the edges of one of the roots before he just, this fucker, just slips into the tar, and this is the second familiar space where all of a sudden you slip in once more. No! And you're stuck.

I immediately cast, goddammit, I'm going to cast Bless on myself, Bless on you, and who else is next to me? Next to you would be, it's Beau, Jester, Veth. And Bless on Jester. Help, it's again. As Caduceus meets the Oh no, I try to reach out and grab him out of the way.

Okay. I got him. All right, so you're both trying to get to him. Help, it's again. Do I get my initial pull out one more time? You do. Okay. 2020. I say that all the time. Help, it's again.

2020! Okay, it's a dex save or? No, this is strength. Strength check. Strength check. They put someone on this shirt. 20, 20! Okay, it's a dex save or? No, it's a strength. Strength check, strength check. They put someone on this shirt. Okay, 15. Elbits again. You just gave up. No bonus for me.

Yeah. Ah! No. Oh, poor Jester. Yeah, Jester, as you're pulling and pulling, he's still being dragged down into the muck beneath it. You did not part the water here, so you do pulling and pulling, he's still being dragged down into the muck beneath. You did not part the water here,

so you do not know what's beneath there visually, but you know what's beneath there. You watch as Caduceus, the pain begins to set in, as the crushing and biting begins to hit. Hello, MacFarlane? Start working on the next one. I thought it was a save. You take 11 points of piercing damage.

Oh no. As you are being pulled into the snake creature's mouth. Can we try that? You can go ahead and try again. Okay, okay. So now Yasha and Jester, you can both make checks instead of Caduceus making his own check. Since you're both now two of them.

Sorry, 18. 18? Mine's less than my first time. Okay. Between the two of you, Yasha mainly being the savior in this point, but between the two of you, you each grab an arm and Yank Caduceus out a second time.

You don't quite fall as deep into this one quagmire, but the frustration's definitely filled in. I'm not built for this. Not built for this. Well'm not built for this. Well, that's the other foot gone. This is the first time I've been in nature and gone, this is gross. Oh, no. This is just, it's in my boots.

Oh, no. It's in my boots. It's just in my boots and I can smell it. How much damage did you take, Caduceus? I am 12 points of damage down. I don't know if I have any healing spells prepared. Of course not. I'm... Oh, wait.

I have Healing Word. That, I mean... I'm going to cast Healing Word on him. Oh my gosh. Get better! Okay. Oh, it's again, the Mylar balloon of spells. Eight points.

Thank you. Hey, that's pretty good. Look at that. I'm over, I'm triple digits again. That's all I really want. My boots are disgusting. Triple digits, wow. Yeah. Live that dream.

Maybe, hey, maybe Caleb? Maybe you should just pick up Caduceus. You can carry at least Caduceus. Yeah, that's true. I would've commented on some humility issues here, but that's gone now after the second one. I just don't want that to happen again. Caleb is starting to pull him up.

Yeah, and Caduceus stands there, shoulders slumped for a minute before the giant owl just picks him up and lifts him out. Much like a trio out of the Swamp of Sadness. Not even with dignity, like not the shoulders, taking him sideways.

The wrong side of the flop hair, so it's, taking him sideways. The wrong side of the flop hair, so it's all in my face. Love it so much. I give up. All righty. You continue on for another hour or so, carefully making your way through. Make your way through. Diddly-doo.

Do-do-do. The temperature begins to grow colder and colder still. Oh, I'm cold. Weird. To the point where you begin to be able to see your breath visibly in the air, which seems very uncharacteristic based on the location of this island. The Shaded Tangle. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, cold and gray.

You also begin to notice, particularly, oh no, you're in the middle of. You don't notice anything. Beauregard and Caleb. Learn your owl form. What's your passive perception? I don't know what passive perception is, but the wisdom is just a plus one, so probably not.

Okay, no, so it would be Beauregard. Okay. You also notice the sound of any local birds, bugs. Gone. It is silent. It is still. sound of any local birds, bugs, gone. It is silent. It is still. Like, noticeably, one side was like, ooh, can hear some birds, and then a quick... Well, as you're walking, you notice your breath

and the cold, so you also stop for a second and listen around, and this is the first time you realize that there is no other noise in the area. The colors, the plant life around you has become steadily more and more muted and unsaturated as you continue. The greens have become grays. It's almost like everything went to a partway to monochrome.

Does that remind us of? You guys, do you see me? Oh. Care of life. Actually, DM, if it plays in later, I have Keen Hearing and Sight advantage on perception checks. Okay. It matters later. Well, not at this moment, necessarily, but. On that note, does it remind us of Xhorhas?

Does it look like Xhorhas? No, it's too... It doesn't resemble the wastes, necessarily. The temperature, the loss of color, it feels supernatural, as opposed to just a barren location, if that makes sense. The fuck is this, man? Weird.

Like someone put a black and white filter over it? Instagram filter? Yeah. Or at least between the black pools, the trees themselves, their bark turning more and more gray, the plant life that does exist around here itself becoming a little less vibrant of color, becoming going more to like muted, very dark greens to almost black coloration at times. The landscape itself just seems to progressively

become more and more of a monochromatic scheme. Does it... Does it look like the same plant life? The color of it has just changed, or does it look like a different type of plant? It looks similar, though a lot of it looks a lot less healthy. A little more withered, hanging. Even the moss itself seems a bit dried

and cracked in places, which is strange for it being so moist in the vicinity. Still thick forest? Still thick forest, but just... Unhealthy. Unhealthy and off. Can we see through the canopy more? You glance up and you can see breaks in it above, but there are still a tangled mess of branches and vines and leaves up above.

You can see, though, at this distance, it's hard to see what color they would be in comparison to what's down here below. Occasionally, you can still peek through and see the blue sky above, but it's still pretty dense. I'm going to use my necklace. Oh, jeez. I am so glad I gave that to you.

All righty. I'm going to just touch one of the trees and say, are you guys sad? I mean, what's happening? Is this guy draining you of all your life force? What's happening here? Why do you look so drab? Oh. What's happening here? Why do you look so drab? The tree responds with,

There's something about this land that just is devoid of light and life. For a long time now, myself and those around me just feel drained and sallow. Do I get to keep talking to it? Sure. How long has it been like this?

Decades. The plants have a better memory than the people. Yeah. Maybe. Do you know what the source is? Do you know where it's coming from? Not since it's been like this. It's just like this.

That sucks for you. It does. Can you help us get through this area and not step in any bad things? Is Jester talking to fucking trees now? I don't know, I can't tell if she's talking to a Traveler or a tree. Maybe we can help you.

How would you help me? I don't know, maybe we can get rid of the thing that's causing you to get drained of your life force. What? Okay. I mean, I don't know, I'm going to try. Are you helping trees, Jester? Thank you. You're welcome. Everyone should help you. Can you try to help us get through this area

without stepping in water? I don't know how. Oh, you can lower your branches down. Should the branches lower a little bit? Which conversation are we supposed to be in? Spread the word around. Lower branches. Thanks.

Okay. Are you talking to the trees now? These poor guys, they just, they feel so drab and sallow. I mean, yeah. They also look so drab and sallow. Is it because there's... Oh, I didn't see you there. Freaky. They also look so grab and see. Is it because there's no? Oh, I didn't see you there. No, I didn't see you.

Freaky. I forgot I blend in with the surroundings. This is great camouflage on me. I don't know what I was going to say. Is it because there's just no sun coming down here? No, they said that it feels like something is keeping them from being able to have life. Like it's keeping them feeling terrible.

You know, just because Caduceus talks to plants and he gave you a gift doesn't mean you have to try and imitate him, pretend that they talk back. Yeah, not to be callous or anything, but do we really care? Come on, let's just go. Well, what if, you know, I mean, what if this, what if this guacamole is really bad?

And maybe by bringing the Traveler here and all of his worshipers, maybe we can get rid of this guacamole. There's a fair chance for that, but we have to figure out what it is first. Sure. Let's go. Beauregard. I'm not trying to be like Caduceus, I just,

you know, it's cool that I can talk to plants now. While they're having this conversation, and up in one of the higher boughs, you can see there's a regular owl and a much larger owl, who's currently one claw clasped onto the base of the branch, the other one clutching a semi-limb Caduceus who's just given in. But you also hear

another sound, kind of a little ways past the direction you're going and a little further south. Sounds like a silent sobbing. Oh, creepy. That is fucking creepy. I'm sure it's fine. Past the direction we're going.

And a little bit to the south, just like a... Eh. Caduceus, are you okay, man? Is that you? What? I'm what? What? No, nope, nope, nope. What is it, Beau? You hear that? It's like crying. But like old man sobbing, like sad old man sobbing.

I mean, is it the trees? Are you hearing? Old person's crying. There's nothing sadder than that. Hang on, hang on. just give me a moment. I'm going to move towards that direction. Okay. Oh, you? What, are you kidding me?

I can go pretty fast, just hang on. Are there still pools around us, by the way? Looking for pools. Yeah, looking for pools. Just a little bit, just a little bit. I'm not going to go far. Make a perception check. Why is it always a perception check?

No, 21. No, 21. 21, okay. You deftly leap from bottom of tree trunk to tree branch to swing off one branch and then catch yourself. You come to this one patch around the pools where you can see this trunk about eight or nine feet off the ground that is itself heavily moss-covered and has large holes in the side.

And you can hear that hollow sobbing coming from that direction of that. And as soon as you stand there and look at it, the sobbing stops. And you see within the darkness of this hollow in the tree, you see something reflected, like two little points of reflection in there just for a second.

Uh-uh. Nope! Okay. It stops crying. Yeah. I take a few steps back. Anything? Not at the moment, no. I turn my back. Anything?

Not at the moment, no. I look back real quick. Okay. Is it still there? Just assume. You just see the darkness and the hollow. Reach your hand in. Just kidding, don't do that. Flash Gordon.

I keep my eyes towards the thing, take a few more steps back, take out a ball bearing. Throw it at the crying thing. Throw it, throw it at it. Whatever you do, don't give your other teammates a chance to help out. I'm making my way back. I'm making my way back.

Okay. Making my way back. While I throw it and see what happens. Okay. I'm being cautiously curious. Okay. While I throw it and see what happens. Okay. I'm being cautiously curious. Okay, you throw the wall bearing. You missed. Nothing. Take a few more steps back.

Can I see the owls? You can see them a little bit, yeah, you're not too far off. What are you doing? There's a thing. What doing? There's a thing. What thing? There's a, I don't know, I can't see him. How far away are you?

What happened to your Miles Morales thing? I have no idea. No, it's not far, it's just ahead. It's just ahead. There's, I can see eyes in the hollow of a tree, and it's sad. I don't know if I'm crying, because maybe it wants some trouble.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I like your sad. That's a good idea. I walk towards it a little bit and I go, MATT and LAURA and LAURA and LAURA and LAURA and LAURA MATT and LAURA and LAURA and LAURA and LAURA and LAURA and LAURA Oh my god, you're mocking it. You walk towards it and start sobbing in return? Yeah. Okay. Like Yasha's advice. How far are you from it? God, you're mocking it. You walk towards it and start sobbing in return? Yeah.

Okay. I'd like Yasha's advice. How far are you from it? Are you trying to get to hear you? Just where I was when I first saw its eyes. It saw me. Like 30, 40 feet? Yeah, sure, I don't know, you didn't tell me. Right, well, you didn't tell me

how close you were going to get, so how far off were you? 30 feet, sounds great. All right, so you get up to the edge there, avoiding the pools. I remember Beau. And you start making the sad sobbing sound a little bit. You see another glimmer of two He's alone, I'm sure. Feeds in the shack. Yep. Great, great, great.

Fuck! It's fucking ridiculous. So much to be sad about. It's true, though. You look back at it after making the look up and there's nothing in the hall. It's just dark again. No sobbing sound.

I take out one of my pocket bacon. I got some pocket bacon and I throw it towards the front of the hollow. 40 feet to the hollow? Yeah, 30. 30 feet. I'm good at throwing. Look, if anybody can throw bacon accurately, it'd be her.

30 feet. Oh! It's your crispy, motherfuckers! All right. It's like a year old bacon. Yeah, it's a really old bacon. Roll a d20, add your dex save. Oh god. Or your dex mod of fire.

My dex mod? Yeah, don't call anyone over to help. Well, I alerted the owls and you. I'm keeping sort keeping in contact. Did we hear that? 20 total. Okay, yeah, the bacon. Comes to rest.

In the hole? Are you throwing it into the hole or just on the ground in front of you? In front of it, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, just on the ground there. And I keep looking at the hole. Yeah. Caduceus!

Caleb! We're super far away from you. 100 feet away from you. Yeah. How far away are we? To go off the beaten path to follow the sound, you're probably about 80 feet away from everyone else. Although I do have the keen hearing, so maybe. So roll a perception check with advantage.

Caleb! As a giant owl. 18. 18. You do hear Beauregard calling towards you. Okay, owl's hooting. I start flying towards the sound. Yeah. I think something's happening. The Owl of Rydian begins to follow as well,

as you guys scoot down. I guess we're going where the owls go. Yeah, yeah, let's follow the owls. I just keep looking. I feel like're going where the owls go. Yeah, yeah, let's follow the owls. I just keep looking. I just keep looking at the hole. I feel like the communication is seriously lacking. Yes! What? Just!

I keep looking. Talking to trees, we're doing okay. What's happening? What's happening over here? Hey, Beau! There's a thing, there's a, shh, shh, shh. You guys all approach and cluster. Beau staring at this one hollow tree in the middle of this.

We read Beau's body language and fan out a bit? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Everybody cry. Everybody cry. What do you mean cry? Why? Why is there a cry? Everybody, just follow my lead. You all start sobbing loudly in the direction.

Most of you start sobbing loudly. I'm in the middle of this shit. I've cried enough today. As you're being held by the owl? Yeah. Why are we crying? Because we're empathizing. Yeah.

Do you place Caduceus on the ground? I don't know what you're doing! Would you like that? I'll tug on that. Sure, and I will into my human form on the ground. You return back in human form. As of the grave on this thing. Okay, as everyone is surrounding this central hollow

and some of you sobbing openly towards it, it still just seems dark and shadowy in that hollow. Caduceus, you go ahead as you're focusing on this and you concentrate on the eyes of the grave. Nothing from the hollow, but near Beau. Oh shit. How near Beau? Like right where Beau is.

Cool. Turn Undead. Okay. What do you mean where Beau is? Well, what is it? What is it, though? I don't know. I'm just hitting a spell because something's near Beau that's slightly. What's the DC? Unturn Undead. Mm-hmm.

Can't believe I'm doing this. Let's see how this goes. I didn't know you were actually doing it. It's a 19, so I think I might beat your DC. Yeah. Yeah, it's my spell DC, it's a 17. So yeah, so you send something there and you immediately concentrate and this very faint wave, this rippling wave of radiant energy

comes off Caduceus in a radius. And I turn, there's something behind you. Huh? I can still see it. Well, as you turn and look, Beauregard, right behind you on the opposite end of where Caduceus is, you turn and look right into the face of what you see is this hood-shrouded humanoid body,

long arms beneath this brown, tattered robe. Where the eyes are, you see these black, gem-like shines and these sunken sockets. The skin itself is this dark gray, rubbery texture. There's no nose. Does it look like the same sheen of eyes that I saw? Yes. Okay. But its mouth is this large, open, dragging,

gaping, black, void maw. Just going. Is there a piece of bacon stuck in it? There is not. But we're going to come back to that. No! No! Dang it.

I want to fight the bacon monster witch! I know, but it's already been three hours. It's still a little late if you do it that way. We really should not have fucked around quite as much. No! It was fucking around is what you guys do best. Are you kidding me? I talk to the tree.

They have listened to me. Oh my god, what the fuck is creepy thing? I thought maybe if it was a sad ghost, you know, like a moaning Myrtle situation, maybe we could listen to. Wait, wait, wasn't there some other creepy creature that was crying before that we, in the Wastes? Oh yeah, the hollows. Yeah, it was a moaning thing.

That was also creepy. That was very creepy. I've already burned a turn undead on this thing. Where the big tree was, yeah. This looks humanoid, but its limbs are very long and stretched. Like I said, it has that hood, and the mouth is this elongated, dragging jaw.

Nope. No, no. Oh, also, eyes is 60 feet, so if there's anything even on the periphery of that, it's a 60-foot circle, so. The barb feels? Yeah, that's, right now, that's accurate. Yeah, that's where it was. Well, we'll pick up on that. So excited, this is where I'm good at.

Oh my god. Thank god. Did you say its mouth was like a black void? Yeah, it was just like this open. And it had no nose? Yeah. So the bacon probably went. I'll show you a picture next time. But anyway, we'll see where this goes next episode

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