Critical Role - C2E104 The Ruined Sliver

Episode Date: August 6, 2020

Seeking answers, the Mighty Nein continue to delve into forbidden areas of Rumblecusp in order to learn more about their powerful foe...Watch Critical Role live Thursdays at 7pm PT on https://www.twitch.tv/criticalrole

Hi there, this is Matthew Mercer, resident Game Master here at Critical Role, to welcome you to this podcast version of the show. If you'd like to watch the stream as it airs, you can catch it Thursdays at 7pm Pacific on twitch.tv slash criticalrole or youtube.com slash criticalrole. Twitch subscribers can access the video on demand immediately after the broadcast and it also becomes available on YouTube Mondays at 12pm Pacific. Podcast episodes land right here on the Critical Role Podcast Network on Thursdays, a week after the initial broadcast. Okay, with that info dump out of the way, let's dive into the story.

Hello everyone, and welcome to tonight's episode of Critical Role, where a bunch of us nerdy-ass boys have to sit around and play Dungeons & Dragons. We are the Dungeons & Dragons! Before we jump into, why is this, every episode and it's still the most ridiculous thing. Before we jump into tonight's episode, we have some announcements to get through, beginning with the first of our two sponsors, Ravensburger.

Sam. We love Ravensburger so much that we've almost learned how to say their name. But no matter how you say it, their new game, Wonder Woman Challenge of the Amazon is a must-have. The Amazon tribe of warriors have lived in peace for centuries on Themyscira.

I think that's how you say that. But now enemies have invaded and it's up to you to defend the island against Ares, the cheetah, or Cersei. To celebrate their new game, Ravensburger, maybe, sent me a Wonder Woman's actual Golden Lariat of Truth. Whoa. What? That's amazing. Yeah, and tonight, I'm going to see if it works.

Get ready, Ash. Whoa! No. Phew, I'm so glad it didn't work. Yep, it did. Oh! Oh no! Oh, you got her on the first one. Don't do it!

Okay. Oh god. Ashley is now... Oh boy. You okay over there? Yeah. Stunts! Ashley is now in a trance of truth. Everything she says must be the truth. Let's test it out with an easy one.

Ashley, please state your name. Ashley Marsupial Bernadette Russell Crowe Von Chex Mix W. Johnson the 24th. Very truthful. It works. All right, Ashley, tell me about the new Wonder Woman game. It's a cooperative game for two to five players where you strategize, face foes,

and rise to beat the challenge of the Amazons together. Very truthful indeed. Whoa, whoa! Not for a little fun. Okay, let's play some Kiss, Marry, Kill. Between Brian Foster, Laura Bailey, and Matt Mercer, who would you rather kiss, who would you rather marry, and who would you rather kill?

Kiss Laura Bailey, marry Brian W. Foster, kill Sam Riegel. Oh. Harsh but fair. Okay, that was not one of the options, so that's weird. Let's just try it again. Kiss, marry, kill Marisha, Liam, and Taliesin this time. Kill Sam Riegel, drive the body to the Brown Mountain Dam

in the Angelus Forest, dump it in the creek behind the dam because no one ever looks there. Okay, okay, we're going to stop that right now. Yeah, maybe we should just wrap it up. The game includes five paintable Amazon miniatures, including Diana, and is available where games are sold in the U.S. Enter for your chance to win the game

at at rovinsburgerna on Twitter. They're giving away 10 copies right now, or buy yours at bit.ly slash WW challenge of the Amazons. And thanks to Rovinsburger. Back to you, Matt. Woo! Wow. Thank you, Sam, and, and thanks to Ravensburger. Back to you, Matt. Woo! Wow. Thank you, Sam, and thank you, Ravensburger. Sam shared that info, of course.

For supporting, yeah, of course. Second sponsor tonight, our returning friends since the beginning of this campaign at D&D Beyond. They actually just launched their new character app, which is pretty rad. It gives you the chance to track your characters from the palm of your hand, wherever you are. It's on your phone now, which is

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Wait, CR app. Wait, CR app? Yes. Does that spell crap? Crap? It totally does! Yes, it does. It's crop. Hoorah! My hat's off to you, dndbeyond. That was an excellent trolling of us.

Yep, yes. It's pretty great. Marisha, you had some announcements. Yes. Join us on Twitch on Tuesday, August 4th at 4 p.m. Pacific for mini primetime After Dark, which is a special one-off that we created with all of the mini painting

footage from when we were making mini primetime, because we shot like all those minis in their entirety. It's actually something that we wanted to do a really long time ago, but now thanks to quarantine, we had time to put it together. So yeah, it's super chill vibes, mini painting eye candy, and of course the VOD will be available on YouTube the following Thursday.

Yay! Nice! Yeah! I did it. I believe. Oh. I believe those are all the announcements we have tonight. Yeah, yeah, no big deal.

So let's go ahead and jump into tonight's episode of Critical Role. The Adventure Begins 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 Roll the dice Roll the dice Roll the dice Roll the dice Can you answer the call? Roll, critical, roll, critical, roll, critical Can you answer the call?

Digging deep in your soul As the legend unfolds Now it's your turn To roll We'll be right back. So, last we left off, the Mighty Nein upon arriving at Rumblecusp in hopes of setting up Travelocon in the next week or so. You've met some individuals.

You've discovered that the people that already exist here on the island have lost their memories, it seems, and have come to enjoy a rather simple life here in the village of Voh in the shadow of some sort of a fire god known as Vokodo. You, with the help of one of their druidic spiritual leaders, traveled to meet with this Vokodo, and seem to have suspicions that it's not a god, but some sort of malicious entity that is itself affecting and controlling this island, robbing memories and requiring those that live here to bring all their goods and precious things

as gifts to mine from the island and gift everything to this entity. You manage to make your way out after making some offerings to it. Pardon me. Through the use of a Greater Restoration spell, return the memories of the druid leader that you had traveling with you,

discovering that they were named Vilya, apparently from another continent known as Tal'Dorei. You then, together as a team, transformed some of you into birds and began to fly across the island for faster and mostly safer travel, making your way towards the eastern side where the Heaven's Falls exist.

A little bit of a bumpy landing, but nevertheless, you found yourselves searching the exterior of these falls and coming to a night's rest. The next morning, some of you did begin to lose your memory, but after cleansing these with spells, you begin to inspect the falls. Some pearls were found, some accidents were had,

but after briefly separating the falls themselves and discovering the illusion behind it, you found a cavern which held numerous, numerous boats and ships from all different ages. There, crowded and left in the shadows, as you began to inspect the interior of this cavern, Fjord, you noticed what looked to be the entrance to a torch-bloom-covered

subterranean water tunnel. Caduceus, you went to inspect it and found yourself suddenly affected by some sort of strange compulsion to find out what's at the end of these tunnels. I remember. You began swimming feverishly into it. Fjord, you attempted to stop him

through multiple grapples and spells thrown. I really tried. You were left blinded and kicked backward as Caduceus thus has vanished from your grasp, eyes left to darkness as you swam to the surface and shouted for aid. In a super macho voice. Yeah, straight up.

Oh! The rest of you guys hearing this gather towards Fjord to discover how best to deal with the recently vanished Caduceus. And that is where we left off. So as you all now begin to make your way towards Fjord, what are you doing? What's going on? What's happening?

What happened? Oh, did we not establish that at the end of the last game? I don't think so. I don't know, we don't. Caduceus was, it seems like he was compelled. He just kept swimming towards the creature. I think it's what happened last time. We have to go after him. Oh no, so he's now there by himself.

Point the way, point the way. Okay, okay, okay, okay, so. Are you not blind anymore, right? No, I can see. Okay. Somebody maybe not, maybe somebody made me not blind. You did. Holy shit! Whoa.

Somebody made me not blind. I think Vilya made him not blind. Vilya made him not blind. Yes. Yes, okay. You have fast monk shit, right? Yeah. Okay. You have fast wizard shit. In a pinch, yeah.

Okay, so in the water, who has the fastest speeds? Because we should send, like, two people after him. I can cast Freedom of Movement. I'm pretty sure. What does that mean? What does that do? What does that make your max speed in the water? Hold on, let me get to my spells. And that you can cast on a lot of people, right? Freedom of Movement, I can

cast on... He's just... Uh-huh. He's going. Yeah, he's just going. I'm ticking this away. Oh god, go! It's Vicious Retreat, and I'm swimming. How many times can you do that? For direction. I'm just going to cast it on you,

Freedom of Movement. What does it do? What does it do? I can only do it once, it's Concentration. No, it's not. No, me. Okay. His. She's swimming already! You get no penalty for water.

No penalty to movement. Move, action to move, step of the wind. Okay, so first, so you cast the spell. While you are swimming, you feel suddenly the resistance of the water give way and it is just pushing through air. However, you're able to grab handholds almost as you swim forward.

It's odd and you begin coasting through the water without resistance. So that takes away there, you are casting Expeditious Retreat. Okay. You have been moving double movement this whole time, heading through the tunnels, which at this point puts you at 120. So you guys get within,

both of you are giving chase here? Yeah, yeah. Okay. Fjord, you're not? I thought we all talked about deciding who had the fastest speed, but we're just doing shit, I guess. Well, she has a lot of speed.

So have fun. He's ticking down the clock, we don't have time to talk! Sure. It's been fun. Fjord, are you going to go in after them? No, these fucking yaggis could go. It's cool. They can't even see in the dark, they're humans! You can see.

I was trying to talk stuff out, but let's just shoot. He said he was talking about them. Aren't the plants phosphorescent? They are, it's easy to see once you go beneath the surface. Aren't the plants phosphorescent? They are, it's easy to see once you go beneath the surface. Which you can see, though it is dark beneath here. Enjoy my cooking.

I am shucking. I am going. All right. So how fast can you go in one round? 150 feet. Okay. Damn. Whoa, whoa. Monks. Yeah, because I cast Freedom of Movement, so she gets no water penalty. I feet. Okay. Damn. Whoa, whoa. Monks. Yeah, because I cast Freedom of Movement, so she gets no wider penalty.

I get no penalty. So you are? I can do 90, but that's halved, I don't have Freedom of Movement. Right, so 45. So you're trailing a little bit behind. Oh yeah. But you are, you will be catching up. Okay. And everyone else is staying behind?

We're going to swim up and not get close. I don't want to get within the range that we got before. Okay, so the rest of you guys keep an exterior radius. And my goal, I don't know what the tunnels look like, but if it's a straight shot and I can see a long way, I'm not going to go in. If it winds away and I can't see past the bend, I guess I'll...

It's a little windy. It's not like this continuous straight tunnel. Okay. I mean, someone should go in after them in case they both get mind controlled like Caduceus, right? If you save from it, because I've saved from it before, do I have to save from it again? Yes, you do. Okay.

So the two people that are going into that space, which would be Caleb and Beauregard, I need you both to make wisdom saving throws, please. All right, come on. I had a whole text story about this. Come on. Then go. I don't want to fuck this up. I need you both to make wisdom saving throws, please. All right, come on. I had a whole text story about this. Come on. Then go.

No, no. I don't want to fuck this up. I think you should go. I don't want to fuck this up. That wasn't the point. The point is to limit the number of people going after you. That's what we were doing. Just two people. Yeah, but you're the only person that can help any of them.

And everybody said I should stay back. I'm staying back. Jester, you should go. 17. 17, okay. Let's change the plan. Let's all go. Let's change the plan. 22. Okay, both of you guys feel this strange wave of influence pass over your mind and you push forward.

It does not take hold for effect. You blooms! Fuck you! Fuck you, Steve Bloom. No, I love you, Steve Bloom, but I'm Forge Bloom. So you get about 80 feet in there and you see it split in two different directions. You do not have sight on Caduceus. You're catching up now.

You're a little ways into the tunnel. Caduceus does move. Fjord! Fjord, which way? Can you hear me? We're so far away from him. Yeah. I go to the left. I mean, he can hear you because it is water, but it's very difficult to make out the language

at this distance, necessarily. Caduceus! Go ahead and make a perception check for me. Shit, balls and tits. You went left, though, right? Well, depending. Natural 20! Which is a total of?

Natural roll 20, 24! Yes. That's some good rolls. Bye! Paying attention, you look at the two different paths in front of you and you can see the torch blooms on the right-hand side are swaying slightly, like the recent water has been disturbed. So you go ahead and fall on that side. Dragon slayer shit right here.

You are just swimming as hard as you can without noticing Beauregard quickly enough, because you can, with the aid of that spell, immediately curve up and over, and you can see Caduceus up ahead. You can catch up without issue. You have gotten a little ways in. You reach that same intersection.

Oh, I see her. I would say you're far enough away from her where you can just catch enough of her ship as she exits that space. So you are able to follow the path she's taking. So Beauregard, you manage to catch up to Caduceus. What are you doing? Caduceus! Hey!

Whack! Ah! I'm cracking him over the head, Stunning Strike. Okay, go ahead and roll an attack. Okay. Sorry, Cad. With no disadvantage, because you have freedom of movement. Perfect, 23. I believe that, does that hit your armor class?

That does hit, yes. Wow. A Stunning Strike. Okay. Are you doing damage, or are you just, are you? Um... Yeah! All right, go ahead and roll damage for it. Why?

Cosbo. Yeah, roll damage. I'm okay with this. 10. Okay, so you take 10 points of bludgeoning damage, Caduceus, and I need you to roll a constitution saving throw. Roll low, please. Come on. Constitution saving throw?

Roll low. Low, low, low, low, low. That had been sucking. Legendary edge. 20. Fuck. Pop, pop! For cracking down on the Detroit of the Dead.

Stay down. You turn around and say, Hi. Hi. You're just getting pummeled in the water. 20 to hit. Oh yeah, that hits. All right, roll damage a second time.

I'm using my fist. Okay, eight damage and stunning strike. I will knock his ass unconscious. If you can. Another constitution saving throw. 14. Fail. Fail.

You fail. Your body suddenly, I've rolled in. Yeah. 14. A fail. You fail. Your body suddenly, I've rolled in. It tightens up, the muscles lock up and you're no longer swimming. You're veering a bit towards the torch bloom. I'm going to loop to the lifeguard vest hold and start kicking backwards and paddling

and dragging him out as quickly as I can. Okay, dragging him will have your movement. Have my movement, yeah. So move, action, step of the wind again. Okay. You, using your, okay, to get up to him to this point, because you're moving so fast, it took maybe about, with him going forward,

I'd say 50 more feet. So you have, at your double movement, you have another 50 feet to move backwards, now 25, and if you're using your bonus action, Step of the Wind, you can drag him back 50 feet. Awesome, I'll drag him back 50 feet. Okay, I need you to make a dexterity saving throw because you're now maneuvering you and him

as fast as you can backward through a tunnel that is surrounded in torch balloon. Okay, that's fine. Okay, 19. 19, okay. You manage to just barely maneuver past. There are moments where the orange glow gets very intense and you instinctually kick away

and manage to avoid going shoulder first into a batch of very thick, tangled torch bloom. Does Caleb see me yet? At this point, with you moving forward, you would be able to see her and Caduceus. You both are now meeting partway in the tunnel. Help, it's again. I pull Cat's Mint out of a deep pocket

and the cat's claw appears near them because it's 120 foot range. And I will just try to grab Caduceus and pull them both through. Like I'm working one of those things in an arcade where the claw goes down and grabs the stuffed animal and I will pull them through the tunnel. Both of them.

Well, they're connected right now, aren't they? They are, yes. We were like, okay. I'll grab Caduceus's body. Okay. How much, how far can you move your cat hand in one run? There is so much text on this spell. I think it's at least 60, if not 120.

That sounds familiar. That's familiar. So I should see 60 somewhere in this wall of text. Excuse me. Yeah, 60 feet. 60 feet, okay, because it is a magical creation. It does not deal with the resistance of the water. Are you holding onto that, or are you letting Caduceus go?

I'll let go. I'll let go, yeah. Okay. I'll let go. You let go of Caduceus. But then I'm going to start still swinging that direction, like playing goalie on the way back. Yeah, yeah. Got it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Got it, okay. So as you, exactly. As the mystical cat's claw appears and wraps its claws around Caduceus, Caduceus is still reeling from the impact and you holding yourself there, blocking any further transition into the tunnel. You guys are a little bit further in.

You've backtracked past the area where it split, so now it's just a singular tunnel and ahead it would split if you were to continue going again. Using the cat's claw, you watch as Caduceus' eyes wide around something that goes and gets yanked backward out through the tunnel, while you guys are both kind of standing there. From that distance, it's not quite to the entrance, but it's right at the cusp.

You guys can barely see in the torch bloom ahead, you see this mystical, large, familiar, orange-colored cat claw begin to visually appear from the upward arc that the tunnel began to take. Caduceus, you are, you stun and pull them back. That's not until your next turn, so you're stunned, so you can't do anything.

Yes, that's right! This is the end of your next turn. Hell no. Monks are the best. Darn it! Thank you. Okay, so that would now bring it back to Beauregard's turn. Okay, I'm going to follow the cat paw.

Okay, so after you've, Caleb, as you're there floating, Beauregard has been playing goalie, just starts off and follows afterward. You very easily catch up to Caduceus, who's now starting to rouse and begin to fight against the claw. There's not enough room for you to go past him. Still backstop, like he said.

I don't entirely know even which sport that's referencing, but that's what I'm doing. Still backstop. Like he said, I don't entirely know even which sport that's referencing, but that's what I'm doing. And Patient Defense? Yeah, just ring his bell if he starts acting up. Should I just punch him again, just for good measure? No. Just push him. It couldn't hurt. What are you going to do? Push him out. I'll just wait.

It could hurt. It's going to wait. Just keep dragging him. Are you holding an action, or are you? I'm going to Patient Defense. Okay, so you're. As we move away from you? Wait, is that the right call? It's up to you. Just keep moving forward. Okay. Just pushing.

I'll keep following, I'll keep following. Right, well, you're right there against him. There's not enough room to go around, so you have to wait until Caleb gets there. Can I push him? Can I just, like, is that doable? Right now, he's being held by an arcane force. Fuck it, crack.

I'm going to try and knock him again. Okay, go for it. Go for it. What a deal. He is still stunned, so you have advantage on the attack. I have to say. That's my partner. There we go, 26. Yeah, that hits. All right, go ahead and roll damage.

You're holding Caduceus while Beau is just pummeling him. I'm all for it. I rolled shitty, seven damage. Shouldn't have gone down that hole. Are you Stunning Strike? Yeah. All right. So mark another key point, make another constitution saving throw.

That would be five. Failed, you stunned again. Crap. Okay, that's my turn. I'm just going to wait for him to be drunk the fuck out of here. Caleb. Mm-hmm. I'll keep looking over my shoulder

to get out of the tunnel if I still can. Yep, and so you go ahead and swim in to catch up with them, and you get a little closer. Okay. Your Exhibitioner's Treat is gone because you're now concentrating on the- Yeah, of course. So you're moving slowly.

Still in the tunnels at this point? Yeah, you're still in the tunnel because you had to push the claw to move him basically ahead of you towards the exit. So you kind of lost, for the most part, sight of the exit, but you can just barely see where they are

as it kind of curves upward. Right. I would not let the claw get so far ahead of me that I can't obviously focus. Right, but it's just at that point where they're about to vanish, so. Yeah, okay. You can either continue to move the claw. No, I will wait. I'll keep moving towards it and pause the pause

as I approach it. Pause the pause. All right, so still stationary, unmoving, holding Caduceus, who is stunned. All of you, the rest of you, can just barely see this kind of, the familiar sight of the cat's claw there, and some movement and a little bit of air escape from some sort of strange distant impact.

Just let it come. Is he okay? Did you get him? Yeah, I did, yeah. I don't know if he's okay, to be totally honest. He's probably not. You hit him, didn't you? Yeah, a few times. But I had to. Are we out yet? I didn't have to.

Not yet, because the claw hasn't moved since the last round before. We're shouting through the logs. Ah, I hit him! There you go. Although, if you're just using your action to move as well, because it's bonus action to move, all right. No, bonus, oh yes, bonus action to use the claw,

that's right. So you could actually swim 30 feet if you use your action and your movement to go 15, 15 underneath. That's true, the only thing I would be doing is moving the claw. Right, so you would be able to move the claw just beyond the entrance, if you'd like to, with your bonus. Yeah. So you guys watch

as it just pushes past the entranceway. The torch bloom themselves are about 10 feet from where Caduceus is now being held, and you can see him limp eyes lulling back in the head a little bit. A little bit of blood clouds starting to appear at one side of the jaw, and there's Beauregard behind going. Sorry.

You can say I'm sorry. As I catch up, the claw goes from this position to this position, and Caleb just starts doing this. And he just rolls this out, with the water dripping. Okay, Beauregard? I'll follow and come up to the surface, yeah. Okay. Is he still, like?

He's stunned until the end of your turn. So get him far away. Get him as far away from the blooms as we can, and we can hold onto him. So coming back to Caleb's next turn, you're no longer stunned, but it's not back to your turn yet. Nott, you be ready to shoot him.

I'm ready! We'll kill him if we have to. Explosive arrow! He watches the cat's claw every time. The cat's claw, much like a cat's claw machine, drags the soaking wet Caduceus out of the water and above the surface, and he's now dangling, wet, dripping,

and just shaking his head. You are in a lot of pain, your head is pounding. But the compulsion to swim towards the tunnel has passed. Oh! Shit! Fuck. That was crazy. That's really dangerous.

You shouldn't go anywhere near that. What the hell? Get him onto the deck of one of the ships. That's what I was waiting to do, yeah. I'm going to get him onto the nearest deck of a boat. Okay. That we can gather. That was my bad. Oh.

All righty. Wow. I mean, to be fair, it happened to us, too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We just weren't alone, and you know. Yeah, Buddy's sister. Oh yeah, Buddy's sister. Yeah, probably. I think it's more than that. I was with you and you blinded me twice.

Oh yeah. It was a bit overt. I mean, you know. You know? Yeah. That seemed to be the thing to do at the time. I understand. Not at all. The nearest ship to you you findyne, is a small,

looks like a fishing vessel called the Fiona, and you just go ahead and drag Caduceus up onto it. You guys gather up onto it there. Oh, I think I, well. Yeah, I'll fix this. Do you want me to fix you, Caduceus? I mean, I feel, well, I feel a little bad. I'm a little embarrassed, but.

We should take a rest. We should take a rest. Oh my god, we should take a rest. I think a rest would be a good idea. You know what we should do? Make tea. You know what we should do? What a kettle on.

We should have a feast. Oh, what kind of feast? A fancy one? A fancy feast. A hero's fancy feast. A hero's fancy feast. Cat food? Food. No, just a feast that's fancy. Where are we going to get a feast that's fancy

when we're in a bunch of old boats? I can make one! You're not a cook. No, I can make a magical one. And I even prepared for this a long time ago because I have a jeweled chalice. Do it. And that will help us.

Oh, it's going to help us do so many things. Let me tell you all about it when I find this spell. Wait, before you do this. I don't think we're going to go back in there anytime soon. We're not? Caleb huffs and heaves over to Beauregard because he's not an athlete and goes, and gives a weak little punch to our arms.

That's you. You do good work. Thank you. Thank you. What? Thank you. What? Would you guys rather we not go in again today and wait till tomorrow? I'm pretty apt. And we could go to the ruins, maybe.

Oh, maybe we just sit down for a little bit. Yeah, short rest at the minimum. Is it daytime? We have to, and we can check out all these ships. Oh yeah, we woke up and just walked in here. Yeah. It's like 10 in the morning. We were going to check out these boats and then, nope. Levensy's. Yeah.

I do want to get these boats. Still pre-noon. So then should we wait on the feast until we know, like, if we're going to do something else today? I feel like we should. I'm not really hungry. It lasts 24 hours. If we know we're going in, we should do it. If we know we're going to go in tomorrow morning,

we should do it. I just don't want to let it get too late again and then it's too late. What are we doing in the morning? I'd say breakfast in the morning, maybe. Well, remember, every time we sleep here. That's the other part. This will give us advantage

on all of our wisdom saving craft. Right, like if we were going to try to go to the ruins and gamble with another wake up. Yeah. I'd like more. We could kill him and then try. We could also. I like that idea. Because, you know, it's a mental thing, right?

So if we have the feast right before we go to bed, maybe it'll help the next morning as our wisdom saving throw that we were making. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's the thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So let's do it right before we go to bed. I'll have supper.

How about the rest with a snack, and then we tour the boat. You guys rest. I'm going to go start touring some boats. You've never hit me before. Are you all right, Caleb? Oh, you know. That's amazing. You're really good at that.

Swimming's not my strong suit. Yeah. You were really brave, Caleb. Well. I think I took his loot. We need the tall guy, so. Yes, we do. I'm going to sit. He's really good at healing. Is there a particular boat

that we should all sit on and check out? We're on the Fiona. Oh, yep. Maybe we can at least check this one out while we're sitting here. What's the biggest, fanciest looking boat? You mentioned it. Yeah, we were. The biggest boat that you came across is massive. It's much larger than the Ball Eater was.

It looked like, what you could see from just the glances you were swimming by when you first were inspecting, you could see the tips of a couple of ballistae that were set up on the deck. Or not on the deck, but inside the gun deck with the, some of them were open. Which leads you to believe it might have been here pre-canon technology.

I was going to ask if it looks the same as the boats of the day or how old it seems. I mean, boat technology doesn't advance dramatically. But decoration, flags, symbols. It seems, at least it was built in the last maybe 100 years or so is the best you can gather. You're not a master of ship architecture, necessarily. You, if you want to make a history check,

might be able to have a better view on that. Yeah, history. Rolled for that before in this campaign. 13. 13, okay. Looking at how well the ship has been kept in here, like the quality and shape that it's in, the construct of it, you gather it probably once

belonged to somebody, like a major, major shipping company out of Port Damali. And it was converted with defenses because it was carrying probably a lot of really, really nice goods. Ooh. But based on the fact that it's using older ballista, it's probably somewhere in the neighborhood

of 60 to 100 years old. Probably in the neighborhood of 60 to 100 years old and heavily in the neighborhood of 60 to 100 years old and heavily armed, probably. I'll tell you what, I don't know how we'd get it out of here yet, but I'd like to see the captain of that ship. Yeah. You do see the name of it, too. It's called Eden's Horizon.

Eden's Horizon. Does that mean anything to you, Fjord? Does that mean anything to me? Not specifically. Not specifically. Yes, Abso. 60 to 70 years old, you said, Fjord? Roughly. Wow.

That means Beau's been here that long? Wow. Seems so. At least it was built during that time. A properly kept ship could be on the water for quite a while. That's true. Maintained. Do you think there's still really fancy things on there?

Let's go find out. Yeah, I do. Should we finish a short rest here on Fjorda and then go? Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. So you complete your short rest, easy enough, so you guys go ahead and take that, spend your hit dice to heal up if you'd like, and get spells back or anything

that has a short rest recovery period. You want a short rest? Yes. Oh, hell yeah. I'm not killing it. You haven't done anything, so. Missed my, I missed my, my, I have done a bit. Three. Caduceus, while we're resting, there's no communicating with the Wildmother

to see if anyone is still on our tail from previous chases, is there? Not today. Okay. I mean, other than, I mean, sometimes you can just get lucky, but. We're just in such a unique pickle, I would hate for scouts of Uk'otoa to show up here. Uk'otoa. I mean, sometimes you can just get lucky, but... We're just in such a unique pickle, I would hate for, you know,

scouts of Uk'otoa to show up here. Uk'otoa. Jesus. I'm a... I'm a big believer in just dealing with what's in front of you until it's not there anymore, and then when you've got breathing room, look beyond the horizon.

I normally would agree with you, but the last time I did that, I got stabbed in the chest in the middle of my REM sleep. That's fair. That's never happened to me before. Yeah, that definitely, that'd leave a mark. Yeah, it did. Okay.

I suppose, I haven't used my, I haven't used my Hail Mary percentile roll today. You have not. You don't, you don't, not. No, I'm thinking if there's a big ask that would be amusing. Have her send somebody along to help us defeat. Guacamole. That feels like a different kind of ask

than you normally get out of something like this. Oh, really? I don't know how it works. I would love to know who we face and what he is and where he comes from. Mm, good. Roll high. Low. Low. Roll low.

Wait, what? Did you succeed? Let me, I got to look it up. If you rolled below your level. Below your level. I rolled a five. You did? You really did?

Is this divine intervention? Rolled a five. No way, this is going to work. I've been rolling so low, and finally it's paid off. Yep, yep, that's the zero, zero, five, yep, yep. That's... I'm so sorry, Matt. No, no, no, no. Holy shit. Okay. Okay.

Zero, zero is zero, right? Yeah, I had to double check, because I was like eight, nine, oh yeah. Oh my god. Okay. So while you all are resting and snacking and hearing the heavy dripping sound of water and streams breaking through from the pools above at the base of the volcanic mountain,

you sit here and quietly concentrate, close your eyes, finding that space of peace, that point of connection with nature and with the Wild Mother herself. You hear the droplets around, and then with each impact, there's an echo, and the echo gets louder. .

As the echoes begin to swirl, it becomes this low hum, this strange rhythmic beat. And as the beat comes through, you can feel your consciousness lifting. And it's not you expanding, but it's her. It's the Wild Mother. You can feel her arms taking you by the head and lifting you into a dark space.

In this dark space, as the echoes are surrounding you, the loud, swirling noise of water droplets hitting surfaces and rocks crumbling. You suddenly see a silver gossamer sky, swirls of strange clouds and sparkles, a familiar space. You've been here before, briefly. You stepped into a creature's mouth in a space like this.

And here you see, you sense something, you sense fear. You sense something fleeing, something desperately trying to escape. You sense whatever this Vokodo was and is, but was running, running from something. And as it crashes through the silver, it crashes through the silver. It crashes through the boundaries. It crashes into this island.

And the impact of it crashing drags shards of other places with it. And you see as it lands at the base of this volcano, the volcano changes it. And it changes the island that houses this volcano. The volcano changes it, and it changes the island that houses this volcano. You don't fully understand what this is, but you know it's not from here. It has origins somewhere in the Astral Sea,

and it came here to hide. From something in the Astral Sea. Astral Sea. And with that, you feel that sense of something looking upon you once more, that familiar, glaring, present, intrusive sense of Vokodo sensing you nearby, and the Wild Mother sets you back as to where you once were sitting,

knowing that to peer any further into places you shouldn't be looking would be unwise. Oh, oh, oh. And with that, she releases you. The droplets, the echoes subside, and once again, you're left there sitting on the deck of the ship, hearing as you take a deep breath and open your eyes once more

amongst your friends, chewing on their rations, bandaging their wounds, and preparing for whatever the next step of your journey may be. You okay, Caduceus? You look like you were having a daydream. I, uh... I know where he came from. Who? Codo.

What? How do you know that? I had a vision. You had a vision? Very nice cave. That's so fucking cool. You know where he came from? Where?

He escaped from the Astral Sea, being chased by something, something he fears. He's hiding from it. His escape shattered reality on this island. He's the reason why it's broken. And the volcano did something to him. He's been changed by it. He's afraid.

Wow. Not of us. You said he's hiding. Yes. Was he being chased? At one point, or at the very least, he was running. The Astral Sea. Is Vilya with us? Vilya is with you and is currently listening to this.

Is the Astral Sea where you were hunting this kraken? Or is that a different place? The Astral Sea, that's where we were in the Happy Fun Ball, wasn't it? I believe there was a moment of that, yes. Beau, for Beau now? Yes, you and Caleb both were conscious of the plane that you were stepping through

where you came upon the Astral Dreadnought, the large chained creature in the folding halls of Halas that you had stepped into its maw. Like you do. Like you do. No problem. So if he came from the Astral Sea, does that mean that like this spout of seawater that's coming in, there's another rift somewhere

on this island that leads there, maybe? Could be. Sounds like a few other rifts. Yikes. I think he broke the island. He broke through a barrier. And if he's hiding, does that mean that something bigger or worse is coming?

Or is looking for him? Maybe. Like maybe we could find whatever's looking for him and let him know where he is? He's been here for almost 25 years, at least, because of Velia. Best that you can tell, based on the information, if it's reliable, because it's hard to rely on memories of those who live here,

there have been many generations that have lived their time on the island. If that's true, he's been here for possibly a couple hundred years. Hiding very successfully. But at the very least, he's been here for 25 to 30, based on what Vilya was saying. This is useful.

Maybe we could send him back. That'd be cool. Let's just use, I have Banishment. I mean, I think it would probably work. Can you pick where he goes? Yeah, as do I. You send him back. As do you. Can you choose to send him to a specific place?

Banishment sends them to their home plane. Yeah. Yeah. Wherever that may be. For a minute. For a minute. And if you're in their home plane, whatever that may be. For a minute. For a minute. And if you're in their home plane, it shunts them to, I don't know if it's something you choose or if it's just a random. Once they go to their home plane,

they can't come back? If the spell lasts its duration, they get interrupted, they're there, they stay there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, you can lock them. You know their home plane, you can lock them there. So you and you and I could... Especially if we...

Take turns trying to... I could also maybe weaken him. We'd have to weaken his wisdom? Is that what it is? I think it's wisdom. I can do that, maybe. His wisdom. I bet he's hard to banish. Yeah, his charisma.

Ooh, I bet his charisma's pretty high. You might not even need to do that, though. You just threatened him with that. It might be enough to make a bargain or something. No? I think a bargain is possible. Someone threatens us, we normally, you know. Oh, we're real stupid, though.

That's true. Maybe we can offer him something he really wants. Maybe he's collecting all these things just in case. Maybe we could act. We could pretend to be the thing that's hunting him. Like we go to the cloakroom. What if I send him a message? We're like, we found you! We came from the Astral Sea.

We're a bunch of kobolds and a dragon. We're here to get you! Going to serve him papers. I could send him a message. Did you get an image of what it was that was hunting him? Did I get an image of what was hunting him? I don't think I did. You did not. We are also not entirely sure

he's not watching this conversation right now. Well. Well. Well, we've been calling him guacamole, so we're talking about him at all. It's possible we can, knowing that, we may be able to offer him something he really wants. It allows you to remain hidden, right? Like what? Safety.

Correct. That's why he's here. Although he had quite a lot of bling attached to him, so he might not be able to use everything on him. Right. Actually. Hmm. Huh. I have an idea, just in case,

I don't want to say it out loud, but I think maybe, maybe we have exactly the thing he wants. Which is? Do we need to do charades? We probably should. Sounds like three. The happy. Oh. We don't have itades? We probably should. Sounds like three. The happy.

Oh! We don't have it. We can get it. Oh, not today. No, but deals can be made. If you really want to hide, there's nowhere better to hide. Wait, who has that? We gave it to Yoda.

Yuzo. Yussa. Yussa. Yussa. I don't think he's going to give it back to us, though. Yuzu. Definitely not going to give it back to us, though. Yuzu. Definitely not going to give it back to, give it to an astral deity. Yeah, is he like a god? Is he actually a god, then?

Is he from like a long, long, long time ago? Wasn't there like a calamity or something? I think he's less of a god and more of a guru. What would I know about the astral plane? Would I know a decent amount? Make an arcana check. What? Mm-hmm.

Arcana check. No, you're just very excited. I'll give it to him, but let him hide inside of it. 16. 16. Do you want to? What you know of the Astral Sea, it is one of those boundary planes

that sits between many of the other realms. It is an amorphous realm where the will and the imagination has influence over the space around you. That's how you were able to will yourselves to fly and float in the time that you spent there. Some creatures that live there and have been there for an extended period of time,

or their species has been there for a long time, have learned to actually shape the amorphous matter and energy of it into actual structures and objects. This creature, if it hails from there, probably is a very psychic-oriented creature. And based on what Caduceus said, explains why whatever it did to try and break through to escape also took these shards of other places

and jammed it here was a very singular, dangerous little burst. And that's as much as you can really gather out of it. Based on how it looks, it definitely fits the somewhat tentacled, floaty type cosmic creature that you would assume some things there might look like, but that's as best as you can ascertain with that roll. A little bit of the Betelgeuse standard.

Mm-hmm. So we have two options. We should be looking at boats while we talk about this. Yeah, we face him or we check out the ruins first. We can find something of the Astral Sea that might be helpful. What do you think we'll find at the ruins?

I mean, given what we know about the island and given what we've seen here, possibly a rift to another place, right? Other than that, what do you really expect that we can have, that we can use? Well, the ruins were described to us as very otherworldly and unlike this place, so it could possibly lead us to answers

for what this thing is running from, its real story, and we also know that he didn't want us to find this place, which has shown us very probably a back door to his home and a new boat for you. For us.

For us. Yeah. Let's take a look at this thing. Were the ruins off limits as well? That is correct. They were. Were they off limits or were they just dangerous? No, they were off limits. Vokodo didn't like people.

Yes, and pretty much everyone within Vo was told not to go to the ruins, that it was too dangerous, and we were being protected by Vokodo from whatever resided there. Well, that's bullshit. There were T-rexes in the- This creature is manipulating all the people of Vo,

so he is using them, he's lying to them, and he doesn't want them to go there, which means we want to go there. Could be an item, a weapon, something we could use. Maybe one of the shards that broke through. Whatever's pissed off about him. Correct. The magic mirror to talk to pissed off people

in the Astral Sea. Is that something that you have seen previously? I mean, we were in that very, I had a vision with a lot of glass. There was a lot going on, I don't know. You've had a day. Yeah. Just think about it, if you had been taken and eaten by him, we would have never known all these things.

That would have been unfortunate, yeah. Yeah. Vilya, does anyone tell you what these buildings, what these ruins look like? At Heaven's Gate? From the? Heaven's Great? No, the ruins. That's a whole different thing. That's not right.

The Nikes. Different cult. Heaven Falls is where you are right now. The Ruins is where I think you're just going. Yes, the Ruins. Says, I've only gotten close enough to look overhead and I mean, some of them look, I mean, at least terrestrial, though old, but nothing I recognize.

Definitely ominous. Terrestrial. Mm. Well? I wonder if that's where he crashed. Here's what we have to weigh. We want to nip this in the bud, because obviously the clock is ticking on us being able to remember who we are, right?

But we also don't know what we are marching into. We just went to great trouble to bring you back so that we didn't go in unprepared. We could be more prepared. True. I say we go to the ruins. After spending some time here. We're going to look around the boats, right? Yeah, let's search the Fiona,

and then we'll make our way over to the... The Fiona's a fishing boat, but yeah, let's search the fancy one. We're going to search the fancy one. You don't want to search the Fiona at all? We're on the Fiona. Let's just go downstairs for ten minutes. We'll judge a book by its cover.

So as you guys finish your short rest. Sure. I would like you all. Oh no. We should have had a fee. To make an investigation. To reach under your chair. I'm so worried about this.

Can we guide ourselves to do a better? No, because you are not aware of this. Oh. Is this one of those things? This is for investigating the Fiona or all the other. This is just everyone make an investigation check. This is because the gnomes, the little garden gnomes have stolen our stuff again.

Shit. 30. Ooh! Got some mines in here. Jeez, please. 15. All right. 13, which is good for me. 21, 24.

Jesus! Ooh, these are sick! We found everything. You guys, yeah, it's great. On the fishing boat. Pick an item on your equipment list. It's all going missing still. And it's gone. I mean, keep tabs on it.

You had it, but it's gone. I haven't noticed anything's gone. Well, I haven't looked for any. Well, actually, I would have looked for my hat at this point. Yeah, your hat. Wow. Where'd your hat go? That's weird. How does he keep taking our stuff?

Ricochet. I haven't missed anything. No, I haven't missed anything. I haven't been looking for it. Who's talking right now? It could be unrelated. How is he taking our stuff? How is he taking our stuff?

Do you see? That's the thing, that's weird. Well, you don't know. My walk, my little cooking. He's from the astral plane. Yeah, he could probably just reach through and be like, mine now. He sees it, he thinks it, and wants it.

Yeah, absolutely. Because I knew it. Keep an eye on your bracers, Beau. I am going to watch them. I made it myself. You don't have any braces. I'm so sorry. No, I know you do, but you don't have them. I don't know, I don't.

I do not love these. I do not have bracers. They're really shitty. What's on the boat? What's on the boat? Who wants to check through the Fiona? I'll do it. Fjord, you should go check.

You know boats. Yes, I do. I'll go with you, because I'm good with this. You'd rather both make individual investigation checks or one of you can make it with advantage? I don't need him. Oh shit, okay. I have my own.

I've never been through one. You can do your own. Oh, okay, you don't want to do it twice? No, you do your own. Okay. If I roll higher than you, this will be, ooh. It's not going to be higher, 19. 20 seconds. Yeah. You guys take a moment, it's not an extensive ship,

so I'd say about 20 or so minutes, you do a pretty thorough pass of the immediate visible regions of the ship. It's pickling. Like, anything of worth is gone. Sure. You see there's some basic equipment, there's some nets, you can see what looks to be

maybe some building supplies, but it's all very basic, very, very, things that aren't worth anything. Fishing nets or hempen rope nets? Fishing nets. Okay. All of us are missing something? No. No, just the people who failed that roll.

Understood. I'd like to make my way over to the Eden's Horizon. Yeah. Okay. And yeah, look for stuff, but I want to see how sound, see if there's damage on the inside. Okay. It's a big ship. Okay. Yeah, I'll help, too. Yeah, we'll all go over it, let's be honest.

Okay. So make an investigation check. With Yasha's help, you can take it with advantage, or you can roll individually, Yasha. Up to you. Okay. That is a 28. Nice. Looking over, the ship is in very good shape.

There's some very minor damage. It looks like mostly scuffs on the sides of the hull that you envisioned probably occurred when it was wedging its way into this cavern originally. The ship is wide enough where it would just barely fit, but it looks like there have been some elements of the perimeter rock through the illusion where it scraped along the hull,

but it's fairly superficial. It could probably use some fixing. The rest of the ship, aside from the ballista weapons, which are just these long iron rods with points at the end that can be loaded in, anything of worth is picked clean. Except for the boat. This is our ticket out of here. Well, maybe. Are there sails?

Have they been rotted away? No, the sails are still there. They're kept up. The sails. Wouldn't this boat be really slow? I feel like, shouldn't we look for a fast ship? It depends on what we want the mission to be. Speed or defense and attack. I feel like we can make that decision at a future point.

Can I make my way up to the highest point so that I can see the rest of the ships? From my time in Port Damali, do I recognize any of the ships? Any names that I recognize? I mean, you see a number of ships, there's, just getting the names nearby, you see there's one called the Mistral,

that's a decent sailing ship. You see one called the Sea Banshee, that's more of a long ship that looks to be not from around the Menagerie Coast, at the very least. There's one called the Drunken Mariner, that's another fishing vessel. There's a Kingfisher, which looks to be another sailing ship, this one looks to be maybe, it does have some elements of it

that look like it's seen some wartime, or at least seen some battles. It has some visible damage, and you can see where the repairs were kind of done, not for aesthetic reasons, but for sheer purpose. None of them catch your attention as anything you've seen in Port Damali. No Tide's Breath, right? No, no Tide's Breath. But the Eden's Horizon is definitely the largest ship. It would be the equivalent of

between a galley and a sailing ship. So with the size of the sails there, it would travel at pace with probably the ball eater, if not slightly slower, but it is larger and can carry more and has the opportunity, if upgraded, to have more firepower. Cool.

I like it. Yeah, that sounds cool. I really feel like we're not going to outrun a dragon turtle. And we're probably going to have a lot of people who want to leave if everything goes to plan. See a crew. Yeah. Yeah.

I'm sure they'd get more than just one ship up and running at that point. Sure. But yeah. Plus, you could totally rename it to the Eden's Bal-Rizen. And it's like a spiritual successor. Yeah. Or the Bal-Rizen? I don't know,

it doesn't have the same ring to it. I don't know, I'm't have the same ring to it. I don't know, I'm just, it's the first thing that came to my head. I'll think about it. We can totally workshop it. Yeah. All righty. It's a tough one. You got some more

ball names over there? I'm working on it. You know, I did give the ball up. It's actually with Caleb. I know, and honestly, like, Fjord, he's not with Yggdrasil anymore. Yggdrasil, Y's actually with Caleb. I know. And honestly, like, Fjord, he's not with Uk'oto anymore. Uk'oto. Uk'oto. So it doesn't have the same ring to it, you know?

I've got an idea for the name, actually. If we do commandeer this ship, I just... DM, the name of the ship, it's not just crudely painted on. I assume it's like in letters in letters that are nailed to the side or something like that? Painted. On this, it's actually loosely scrolled in. It's been carved into a large piece of wood

that has been applied to the exterior. So if we took that wood and chopped it up a bit, rearranged some of the letters. No. No, no, it's all good. It would spell nine heroes. Oh. With a Z at the end. Oh.

Like an Xbox gamer tag. Yes, yes, a gamer tag. Wow. Like N-I-N-E or N-E-I-N. That's up to us. Oh, that's wonderful. All right. I am both impressed and a little embarrassed. Mountain Dew logo.

We have an extra. And for you, Jester, there's an extra D at the end that you can do whatever you want with. That's wonderful! Nine heroes-ed. Did you do that in your head? Nine heroes. No, I've been working on that for a while.

That's lovely. Now I really want this ship. All right. So I guess our last thing to decide is ruins or ruins, right? Ruins. Worth the night? Heroes feast beforehand and then ruins? Definitely. Can we transport there? Do you guys have your magic ease?

Can you get us there? Can you turn into a fly thingy? Well, yeah, we can fly again today. After that rest we've taken, I can go ahead and continue to take that form at least twice more before I have to rest again. Perfect. Three, four hours of flying? How long?

Someone else can obviously fly with Vilya. It's quite exhilarating. I don't want to hog the experience. That's all yours. I mean, you know, I just want to. It looked like you had a hoot up there. Yeah, it looked like you were having fun. Yeah, yes.

How do we get out of here without being catapulted into the heavens? Oh, well, I could open up, I could control water again. Yeah, that opened a doorway, but we still lost a couple of our fighting women to the sky. Ooh, ooh, ooh, what if we just embrace it?

And just use that as a lunch. Polymorph as we go. Have you... Oh. Even Ciri knows that's a bad idea. That's a bad idea, yeah. I love it, let's do it. Well, isn't water dripping from above?

But those are little holes. We saw those, right? Yeah, but I don't know if they're big enough for us to go through. But if it's volcanic and it's like a porous rock, could we try and make them bigger? Plus the roof? That seems, I mean, like, those holes are tiny, right? Volcanic rock can be pretty brittle.

Blow up the roof? Yeah. I feel like. Like hit on the nine heroes? Let's not mess up the camp. I was just trying to think of an alternative. Launching pad, launching pad! Okay. Fire hydrant. Ilya answers your question,

because I can maintain my forms for about six or so hours, so. Straight? But I mean, is that how long it will take to fly there? No, for flying from here to the ruin. Oh, here, map. Which you have over there. Right there. Thanks.

Watch out, cookie. Oh god. Oh no. No, it's fine. I have it in my notes here somewhere. Oh, watch your face, watch your eyes. Is the X where the ruins are? Yeah, but you love me. The X up top is where the, yeah,

in that little path there. Oh, yeah, oh, yeah, yeah. So we're going here and we're over here. Okay, so like. Correct, so that would go a quarter way. It's from here to here. Four inches? Three and a half.

Three and a half. Flight? Of flight, it would be about... Ah! Sorry. Sorry. I'll say a little over three hours. Okay. Looks like a little over three hours. Oh god. I'm Professor X.

Yeah. Well, here's the thing. If I control the water to get out of here, I can't do three hours worth of polymorph and do a hero's feast. That's why we have to use the water. We have to use it to go, or else I won't be able to do it. I can only do three polymorphs.

I've got a terrible idea. Oh, you want to hear it, okay. If you turn into a big bird, a big bird, a big bird, and one at a time catch us as we come up and then place us back down on the top of the fountain and then wait for the next one and catch us, I mean, that's only a little crazy.

And if, who has feather fall? I do. Oh, so, and if she misses, you can... Yeah, so you're the first one out. You're the net. So just for clarification, we're talking about riding the spigot up to the upper level and then just walking around?

Yeah. Is that what you were talking about? Well, we can fly from there. I think what we should do is we should do the polymorphs now, snatch up everybody that's riding, run full force, fly full force to the waterfall. That way we launch kind of through it and up. Yeah.

That way we don't risk coming back. In bird form, we're shooting up into the sky. It's going to be look so epic and rock. Oh my gosh, it would be so much fun to. Don't you think the flying creatures will separate from the ones they're carrying? Probably not. No, hold on really tight. Probably not, you're right.

I think I'm just confused as to why we need to do that. Filia looks noticeably, extremely nervous. Take a normal takeoff. Lafayette Nata! Just think about it in slow motion. I mean, I'm here for it. I just want to know if there's a reason. I don't mean to interject into your group conversation

and plotting things. You really should. I've spent quite a bit of time in various bird and avian forms. Yeah. Water and flight with feathers that could absorb liquid tend to not go together as well. Well, but. If you want to elevate, if you're limited

on your capabilities of maintaining your form, we could hike around the mountain a bit to the north until we can get within a two-hour flight distance and take us directly to the ruin. Or we could fly from here, land, and then hike the rest of the way towards the ruin. You have to choose, kind of, are you ready to spend everything you have to get there?

Or if you're trying to conserve, do we want to brave? I just want to be able to do Heroes' Fest. Well, then we want to brave a bit of the mountain or brave a bit of the approach to the ruin. Well. Or we could all just jump out through the thing at the same time. It is really fun. And I could cast Feather Fall on most of us.

It's like raging waters. It's great fun. Look, if you're looking for fun in this, I'm not going to stop you from that. I just think combining it with the use of a flight-based feathered creature would be not optimal. Yeah, maybe we wait till the creature's flying after we've already gone out and up. Try it out for a bit. Okay, okay.

So out and up. Even though that's very cool, but just in case. Wait, what did you just say? I agree. Yeah. No, maybe not waiting to fly. Right, until after we shoot up. And then you all can get a ride. Okay. Are we all holding hands

and going into the geyser? Is that what we're doing? Oh jeez louise. We can try to see if we can. Is the idea to link hands and get thrown willy nilly into the sky and then have some of us turn into birds while I am cartwheeling into the heavens? I don't know.

Yeah. Caleb, you taught me feather fall. Yeah, I thought. We could all join hands. We all spring up together. You and me cast feather fall on everyone. I don't have that prepared today. Yeah, you do.

We'll be fine. I believe in you. Here today. Yeah, you do. We'll be fine. I believe in you! Here's the other thing, though. I mean, I'm not brilliant with mathematics or physics or stuff, but I feel like if we're on the inside and it shoots us up, we're not going to make it through the waterfall, so it's just going to shoot us up

and we're going to catch the edge of the ceiling. Or out. Well, don't we go out? Away from the cliff. Or out. Well, don't we have to go out? Away from the cliff. Or out. Right, and then up? What could possibly go wrong? The idea that you think you can predict. We'll definitely get to where we need to go, for sure. I am pretty good with math,

and the idea that you think you can predict the direction you are going to be thrown into the sky by jumping into a geyser is ludicrous. But the thing is, if we all hold hands and then we can have a contest, whoever lets go loses. She convinced me. She convinced me, it changed my mind.

It's high stakes Red Rover. Okay, okay, forget it. We can hike for a dollar, if it means saving all of our lives. It's a hike for an hour. The important stuff. Just imagine. The important stuff. Just imagine Matt killing all of us goldfish.

We're all goldfish. We're all going to go goldfish? Matt is engaged with us. No, what's the worst that could happen? I'm down for whatever you want to do. Which means his daughter starts swimming towards the geyser. So Jester dives in and starts heading towards the geyser.

Do you guys follow suit? Nope. Sure. I've got ten minutes of this stupid spell, you guys better get over here. Yeah, we're coming, we're coming. Wait, what spell? I'm going to cast Control Water on the geyser and open it up. Oh, okay.

Flying over. All right. Swimming over. So we're just exiting the cave in a safe and orderly manner? Okay, okay. As much as possible. I'm going to control the water

a little bit below the surface so it maybe gives more of a gap for people to swim through. Okay, now that you see the width of the cavern, you can safely put the water off to the side. So easy enough for you to do. You watch as Jester from this side divides the singular upward waterfall geyser

and leaves kind of an open doorway, a pathway out into the lagoon itself. And you all, one by one, swim your way through safely without having to make any saves. And you're now out into the bright day sunlight, a blue, nearly cloudless sky. And as you look up, you can see along the mountain in the nearby jungle that mist still hangs.

But you're now all outside of the cavern safely, and what would you like to do? A plan so simple it just might work. So fly now, walk later? What safer do you think? Well, the mountain is treacherous in its own right. I don't know what creatures might be living on the northeastern side of it, if at all, and it is at some points crumbly

and a bit of a fall could occur. As far as the exterior of the ruin, I do not know what lies there. I've avoided it since I've been here. Let's fly now and walk towards the ruin. Yeah. I agree. That way we can know what we're approaching as we're.

Yeah. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. We can do it stealthily. All right. I like that. Very well. When he watches, Vilya suddenly leaps from the water and wings shoot out. Oh god, be ready for it. She's now flying above, waiting.

I'm not going first. Am I going first? No, you're going with her. Which I think is first. I think that is running the same. I thought we were going to talk about this first, though, before we did this. The time for talking is over. I really don't know if that's ever true.

Callback. Do you want to do parchment? Parchment, boulder shears? Boulder, parchment shears? Who am I doing it with? Me, I'm fine. Yasha and Beau. Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, ready?

Wait, wait, all three of us are going? Three waves, three waves! How do you do? Wait, please. I mean, maybe it should just be just you two. No, no, no, no! Three waves, three waves. Okay, okay.

Uh, uh, uh. Uh. Wait. Wait. It's been a long week. Oh god! That's why it doesn't work with three people. We're going to have to do it again.

I know three ways that it's not how you accommodate them. How have you all survived Level 12? Nyak, nyak, nyah, nyah. Oh no. There's no way that happens twice. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a good show. It's a good show.

One, two, three. Yes, are we? All right. That means you're going with her? Yeah. Yeah, go, right? That's how this game works. Ah!

As millions of talents grasp you in the water and pull you from the lagoon, you guys watch as Fjord because it just crests off, ocean dripping from below. Well worth it. I'm going to fuck you guys. All right, so what's the flight marching order here?

Oh my god. Mixing it up, I transform and grab the lesbians and take off. All righty. All right, apparently we're together. Yeah. All right. Yasha, I'm flying. I'm really flying.

I'm going to turn into a light blue owl today. All right. A light blue owl. I was going to say you're doing it, Peter, but that's the wrong way to do it. I'm very tired. Wait, no. I'm tired now. All right, so a bright blue. A light blue.

Light blue, which bird? Giant owl. Giant owl. Bangarang. Although, yeah, fuck it. I said it. Sure. Oh my god. I might not get on my back.

Okay. Caduceus? All right. All right. I'm doing the thing. All right. So. I'm going to hold my hands while I fly.

I'm going to hold my feet like this, so Caduceus can just sit in my hand and let his feet dangle. That's much more fun. Enjoy some tea. Yes. There you go. That's adorable. I have chai. All right. So as the three birds coast

along the eastern side of the mountain, you can see the little wisps of cloud that are above, just the little elements, little pockets of condensation in the atmosphere shooting by as you make your way around the eastern side of the island and over the volcanic edge. You can see the blackened smoke still rising, still thick and angry as it was the night before.

As the first hour passes. It's so dumb. I'm so sorry. They're aftershocked. I'm sorry. Oh yeah. It's only one of us. We're the worst.

Oh, we're loopy. Okay, keep going. Come to Critical Role for epic adventure. Oh no! No! Oh no! This is the problem! Oh.

We better start the show over. Yeah, I know, you guys. We've got to start from the beginning. It's the only way. Oh. Actually, yeah, as you guys are heading, as you head your way through the atmosphere, three, two regular apples and one light blue one,

we're going to go to break. That's something to matter. Give us a moment to cool down. We'll see you guys back here in a few minutes. Stay tuned. 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 characterired T-shirts, dice sets and pins,

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And welcome back. So, everyone, as you make your way, as we left off, flying, some as birds, some as passengers, through the sky, over the mountainous regions of the volcano of Rumblecusp, heading across the northern edge, you come to the end of the hour-long

first length of the journey in which those who are using the spell must re-up. So Jester and Caleb, I take it you spend another slot? Are you able to spend another slot? Yes, I'll spend a fifth level. All righty. Oh yeah, two, yes. Okay. Oh yeah.

We get two hours of it. This is my last time I can cast it, okay, goodbye. Okay. The brief stop on what looks to be a somewhat shaky, but semi-safe place to take a moment. You all take a rest, except for you. Vilya just keeps you up there. Just blood trickling down your neck. Vilya!

You recast and then lift off once more. As you take on this next leg of the journey, you can begin to see from above what you assume is where the ruin resides. The thick, dense jungle ahead of you eventually gives way. You can see the trees begin to turn brown The thick, dense jungle ahead of you eventually gives way. You can see the trees begin to turn brown and then begin to fall in.

There is a region, a heavy, or not heavy, a wide grove where the jungle has just died away and is now fallen and rotting vegetation into gray, dusty, rock-filled emptiness. and rotting vegetation into gray, dusty, rock-filled emptiness. You can see this texture to it at this distance. You're not quite sure what the landscape is,

other than the change in color. Any folks who also want to make a perception check, just in the general vicinity of the island around you? Dinosaur check. Dinosaur check. Are we still airborne? You're still airborne, yes. So we're at it. Oh, so we get advantage on our check.

You have advantage, but you have to use the modifier from your... Yes, which is nine, yo. Oh, I rolled a third one. Sure. 25. 25? Not worth mentioning. Natural 20.

What, what? Beau again. Your third one tonight? Second one. Second one. It's on a perception check, too. Your fifth one tonight. Okay. My eighth one tonight. Whoa, god. Monks are OP.

So Beauregard and Owl Jester, looking down below, you do see, as you're moving ahead, covered mostly by the canopy, but on the northwestern side of where the mountain reaches the jungle, you can barely make out what looks like some sort of a chasm, or a crack in the floor of the jungle that snakes through.

You can see areas where some trees have slightly fallen in, and it just is this darkened crevasse. Is it far off of where we're flying? Correct, it's far off from where you're flying, but you do notice, just mark that as you're continuing forward. Okay.

Towards the end of the second hour, you are getting closer to the point where you can start making out some details in the middle of this grayed space where the ruin supposedly resides, but you're not going to be able to make it. You're going to have to stop about, say, about three or so miles beyond the boundary.

30 or 30? Three. Oh, okay. Beyond the boundary. 30 or 30? Three. Oh, okay. Beyond the boundary there. So eventually, you begin to crest lower and lower. With your perception checks, you do see in the middle of this, while the area is gray, there was once a jungle here,

or at least elements of it, that has just fallen in and petrified, rotted and then petrified. So a lot of the wood elements you can see look sagged and partially sunken in and then dried, almost like they were frozen and then left to gray. You see a number of broken buildings, maybe a small village, a very small village of some kind

that is dilapidated. You can see structures that are mostly intact and some that are just the bare bones exterior, the corners and the bare remnants of where they once stood. There is a singular obelisk-like spire you see emerging from the center of that region. Too far to make out the details of it, but there is something, a larger central structure

that rises up in the center at an almost slight angle. Anything in the air above it? Not that you can make out at this moment. It's at a slight, it's like... A very faint angle. But the mists that permeate the jungle across the entire island do continue into this space. And the mists are now met with a heavy fog,

a fog layer that you can, that's why you can just make out the various details at this point. It is a fog-shrouded region. Oh no. And you are coming down into the canopy. You begin to reach the point where you're going to have to slow down a bit.

You're going to start whipping towards the top edges of the trees. I mean, Vilya can keep this up, but you guys have to land eventually. And so after a moment, you all slowly begin to circle and then make your way safely through the canopy amongst the high ends of the trees and then down, touching onto the soft jungle floor.

You can hear the sound of the insects and other creatures around you, the bird calls, and other clicking creatures that live in the area. The soft floor meets your feet, and both of you revert back to your forms, and you are gingerly placed down by Vili before she returns to her humanoid self. How you doing, Fjord?

Great, I am ready for more. It's sad to be on the ground. The air is where I belong. Would you like to ride on my shoulders? No. But thank you. You're welcome. So, the spire, you all saw that on the way in?

Yeah, it looks promising. It could be something. It's a word. Interesting, isn't it? Yeah. Where would it have come from, like a building? Well, at an angle, and with everything around it dead,

like a crater, almost. I have a feeling, yeah. It's the shard. I think this is where he crash-landed. Or a projectile or something. Yeah, when I throw a ball of flame, it looks a little bit like that afterwards. It's true.

A little bit. It could be crash-landed and then shards from other dimensions scattered like fallout, like debris. This could be ground zero. Anything like the vision I had, or was it too odd? You didn't see any specifics other than shards of different locations within this realm and beyond being dragged through when this entity punctured beyond the Astral Sea and landed here. But you did not pick up specifics to the outside details. And underfoot, it's just dead earthen, no moisture.

Once you're there, you haven't quite reached the perimeter. You guys are still a ways in the jungle. We're in jungle right now. Yeah. Gotcha. Are you moving full pace? Are you moving through stealthily? What do you apply? We should be quiet.

Okay, it is around noon at this time, with the travel you've made, or you're approaching noon, so you've made some decent time with the flight. Like a medium pace. I wish it was nighttime already so that I could sleep and get my spells back. Sorry.

Yeah, medium pace. Okay, so not stealthy, just going casually. Stealthy is slow. We should be stealthy. We're trying to get three miles. We're trying to get to the jungle line, right? To the clearing? Yeah, once we start to lose tree cover, I mean, I know there is a lot of fog,

but the closer we get, maybe we could slow it. Totally. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Roll a cut? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. What is the marching order, if you don't mind? I'll go first. I'll go first. Yeah, I'll be behind Veth. Road's going to road, right?

Veth and Beauregard. Expert perception, yep. Yeah. I will be behind Caleb after Caduceus. Negative. Caleb after Caduceus. And it isn't to be behind you. Veth and Beauregard. Expert perception, yep. Yeah. We'll be behind Caleb after Caduceus. Negative. Caleb after Caduceus. And it doesn't have to be a single file. I have Beauregard and Caduceus shoulder to shoulder. Oh, well then I will take five or 10 feet out to the side so I have a clear line of sight ahead of me.

Right there? Yeah. Okay. I'll follow behind that. All right. I'll be in the back, I suppose. Yeah, I'll stay in the back with Fjord. Okay, Vilya will be up in the center with you, Jester. Okay. Sword's in the back.

All right. I want to see him. Pushing through the sweltering jungle, the insects are thick, reminiscent of the mosquitoes that had pursued you when you first made it through. Vilya, however, as they arrive, you watch, she puts her hand up

and creates this gust of wind that blows them back. pursued you when you first made it through. Vilya, however, as they arrive, you watch as she puts her hand up and creates this gust of wind that blows them back. And as you press forward, she steps a little bit further up and begins to create this wind gust barrier to the front that keeps any of the insects from flying close enough to you, now that she's aware that it's an issue. You push forth through the jungle,

pushing past the various heavy vines and tangles. She points out a few other danger spots or familiar bits of carnivorous vegetation. The similar blood-colored vines that you approached when you first arrived on the island are fairly thick in some elements of this region. But let's see, who's guiding this primarily? Who's the one who's taking point on this?

Is that you, Veth? I guess so. Make a survival check for me, if you don't mind. That's me. I'm in the lead. Natural 20. A total of? 21.

There we go. Oh shit. Easy enough. Thankfully, you were taking stock while you were descending towards the jungle and in the brief moment before you broke the canopy, you paid attention to as many landmark trees and the general direction you had to continue to go based on the direction of the sun,

in a way that would make Caleb proud. And with that, you press on without veering from the path, taking the shortest route possible. You begin to notice the coloration of the jungle around you begin to shift. You can see the vines are beginning to sag, the branches are beginning to slightly bow. You can see the thick, lush foliage

beginning to curl at the edges, begin to brown. The ground itself gives off this sweet, musky smell of rotting vegetation. And as you continue forward, it begins to wither. Wait, wait, before we go fully into the dead stuff, I'm going to use my charm of plant command. Okay. And...

I forget. It's not like, oh, that isn't like Speak With Plants, is it? Speak With Plants is you can talk to them. Yeah, is that basically the same? Oh, that is what it is. That is what it is, yeah. Speak With Plants. Yep. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm going to talk to a tree.

Okay, you walk up to one that's still living, though it's starting to wither a little bit. Oh. Scream. How are you feeling? Are you okay? Not really. What happened to you? Love the tree.

Ah, it's been like this for a while. It's kind of been like this for a while. It's icky. Yeah, it looks like it feels icky. Yeah. Oh man, do you, you don't remember what it was that caused this? How many rings have you gotten since it happened? I haven't looked. Uh. How many rings have you gotten since it happened? Oh my goodness.

I haven't looked. Shit. It's Cad Spruces. Yeah. Ah. Wow. Good one. No.

It's a rough place around here. Yeah. I'm one of the lucky ones. Yeah, it looks like if you'd have been a little bit further in, oof, bad news bears. You're telling me. Some of the others are losing their minds. Oh, really? Like how?

Like their minds are being lost. Wow. What would make you feel better, do you know? I could move back a little bit more. Yeah, that would be great. I'll see what I can do about that, okay? That's very swell, thank you. You're welcome.

Hmm, you don't remember how long you've been like this at all? I mean, I don't know. Better part of half a century, maybe. That's a long time. Try to get it fixed for you, okay? I appreciate that. That's real nice. All right. Okay. Well, see you around. Bye.

Bye. Ooh. Poor guy. Not very chipper? No, he sounds like he is just real, you know, almost drunk, but like, just, ugh, like, fatigued. Just a sad thing. Treated? Yeah.

What does that sound like? Kind of like a deuces. Yeah. He said it could have been like, like around 50 years that he's been like this. Wow. Oh. So 25 and now potentially 50. Makes you think. Generations.

I mean, the tracks, yeah. The information that we know. Plus trees we know now have units of measurement. Yeah, who fucking knew that? Yeah. I mean, it makes sense. Seasons. Huh?

Sure, seasons. The sun. Yeah, and they grow rings. You know? If you lost all your hair every year, I mean, you could probably keep count. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Do you? No, no, of course. I mean, I can keep count. I mean, to be fair, I didn't mean to keep count. What the hell? Yeah, no, you got me there. Do you know if, is there a way we can just move this tree back a few?

Vilyud, can we move this tree back a little bit? Um. We can try. You have, Vilyud, can we move this tree back a little bit? Um... We can try. But just aren't we trying to be a tad bit low impact? Well, it's just he's, okay, but he sounded really sad. If we solve the crisis on the island, this won't be a problem at all. Good point, Vilyud. That is true.

That is true. You're sure about that? No, but I'm also like, it's a tree, you know? Hey, man, he was talking to me, just like you're talking to me right now, Veth. I don't mean to be heartless. It's just that. Just because he can't, you know,

talk to everybody or get up and walk around doesn't mean he's any less of a person. No, he is not a person. He is not a person. He's not a person. All I'm saying is, I bet if you talk to each of these trees, they would have their own tree story, their own tree past and their own tree family.

Yeah! And I think that, as sad as that is, it's better to concentrate on all of them as a whole rather than that one tree. That's true. If we moved him back, then all the other trees next to him would be really sad that they didn't get chosen to be pushed back, right? Yeah.

This is complicated. Every tree has a story. I just start walking towards the... Okay, so you guys are progressing in the same order then? Yes. Yeah. Same medium pace? Yeah. It's starting to get a little weird.

You're starting to... Slow it down and be warier and listen for any kind of threat. Eyes peeled. All right, so two of you who are taking point, go ahead and roll perception checks. And once we finish that, I would like a group stealth check as you guys are slowing to a stealthy pace.

All right, perception. I guess, oh, you guys are doing perception? Just two. I did well. I did well as well. 25. 26. Ooh.

Ooh. All right. So you guys are keeping a pretty, pretty intense look as you progress forward. Everybody, please make a stealth check. Wait, I'm going to cast Pass Without a Trace on us. Ooh! Come on, my baby. And I'm going to Bless for.

That's good. Thank you. Blessing of the Trickster, not like Bless, Bless. Blessing of the Trickster, which is what? Advantage on stealth checks. Oh. Blessing of the trickster. So stealth checks, Fjord. 27.

Did you add 10? Yes. 21. 20. 39. Yeah. 17. 28. 39. Yeah. 17. Girl!

28. 25. Okay, Anvilia rolled okay. Yep. Pressing forward slowly. Hold Abbot die hard. Yeah. Evergreen.

The canopy begins to have larger holes. You can see where trees have fallen and left open sky. As you push forward further, the canopy eventually begins to fall away. Caduceus and Caleb, you begin to see some movement in the canopies as well. You see some of the leaves shake and shift heavily. You glance over and you see one of the trees seems to have partially uprooted itself and then step forward. Its body is gnarled and the spreading gray color

is winding through its trunk and up through its bark, branches themselves, some hang in this awful withered limb-like appearance, while other parts appear semi-healthy. You can see it, erratically, begin to step around this large, living, awakened tree-like creature. As it steps a few times, it stops, and then shakes and twitches.

Ooh, I don't like it. Right as it does that, you hear this clicking sound begin to come from deep within a resonant hollow within its trunk. As it does, two other trees shake. I think we've got a problem. They begin to shimmy slightly to follow it before they both stop and come to rest for a moment.

Gently swaying, though no breeze finds it, they gently sway. Does it look like they noticed us? Nope. Oh! Every tree has a story. Some are bad. They do not know your present.

You all feel pretty well hidden at the moment. What would you like to do? Are they just standing in our path? There's one that's a little ways to the left of you, and there's two other ones that are about 100 or so feet from it, different directions. You could try and do a wide circle around, or you could brave going between.

Do they make clicking noises consistently, even if they're not moving? It's not consistent. Okay. It goes this eerie quiet for a while, and you can hear some of the leaves swaying a bit. You can hear some, actually at this point, the creature sounds have stopped. The sounds of the various bugs, birds, other calls that you're used to in the jungle have

gone silent. It's just quiet. Then about every 30 seconds to every two minutes, you hear nearby or distant. Oh boy. Do they blend in with other trees' remains around them? Somewhat. And they vary as well, but there is definitely kind of a visible sickness to them. Caduceus, have you ever seen anything like this? Just for shits and giggles,

I'm going to burn in Eyes of the Grave to see if these are undead constructs. Undead trees? Okay. You can stealth to get close enough to sense for it. 60 feet. Yeah. There is an undead essence to them. These trees are no longer living.

Zombie trees. Zombie fucking trees! What? That's new. I recommend we try and just avoid these things. They can't be very fast. If we created a diversion, we could probably just run past them.

They can be very fast. You're talking about the trees. They're made of wood, they're dead. Some zombies are really fast. Did you say 28 trees later? We don't know how fast they can move. That's a lot of assumptions. We really should try to go around, yeah?

Yeah, yeah, go around, go around. Parts don't have legs and they're very fast. That is really smart. Haven't you ever noticed? Yeah. Ships, ships are made of wood. Okay, that's great discussion. Oh, no, no, no.

What else is fast? The danger. Squirrels are very fast. They have legs. Oh, that's fair. Fish are very fast. They don't have legs. No, they're hard to catch.

Snakes? All right, let's go. Okay. So you guys begin to take a wide circle around these three and you make your way around the outer edge, carefully, quietly moving along. You manage to scoot past the third one to the far right to curve around the path.

As you push past one of the other trees, you hear very loudly, directly above you, Oh. Freeze. Yep it! The roots begin to pull out of the dry ground. You can see elements of the cracked earth begin to rise and splinter with it,

and as it does, they fall into the sinkhole left behind as one of what looks to be six thick roots begin to pull their way up, and it begins to shift forward. You all quietly move around and keep from touching or being bowled over by them. I need everyone to make a dexterity saving throw. Ooh, snap guns.

Dex save, okay. Does Pass Without Trace give us any? Nope. It does not. Pop. Advantage. Advantage? I get advantage on that. Four, eight. Seven? Eight.

16. I rolled a one, but I will use Ring of Evasion to succeed anyway. All right, you got it. 24. 24. Yasha? You do get advantage on it because you can see it. I know, I rolled the same thing.

10. 10, okay. 19. Great. 22. 22, and Vilya. In this extra quiet, almost group dance-like series of maneuvers.

You all, making eye contact, begin to duck and weave and shift between hanging roots and falling bits of vegetation, low-hanging branches, as it steps through and around you. and begins shifting westward, leaving you all there, the hairs in the back of your neck stood up, sweat pouring down the back of your neck,

and you all slowly begin to continue your path northward towards the outer circle. Did it seem like they have eyes? Do you see? You don't see any eyes. Like any kind of facial features at all? No. And it's only when they start moving that your brain begins to look for humanoid-like shifting.

And that's in the way the branches sway. It would be a creature with dozens of arms and multiple legs with a tall, thin body with a hanging, sagging hair that would be the leaves and bits of vines hanging off of it. But once they stop moving and hold still, then it becomes another tree in the vicinity. But they all were wearing underwear.

Every single one of them. Big fans of MeUndies. Yeah. MeUndies. Yeah. MeUndies. Pressing forward eventually, the canopy ends. All forest cover is now gone, as all the trees before you have fallen, and it is just a sea of fallen, overlapping, and rotting trunks and dead vegetation.

Just this textured graveyard of nature before you. And the mist begins to form into the fog, and you can just barely make out the darkened shape of that spire in the center of it. You're still moving forward stealthily? Yeah. Sure feels counter to logic to move towards the thing that's radiating death.

Yeah, but that's what we, I mean, that's what we're here. I'm just stating the obvious. Also, we're going to want to check out any of those buildings that are between us and it. Are there buildings? I thought there were remnants of buildings. And what you could see from that distance, there were shapes that looked like structures

or parts of structures, but from the distance and the... Only because you rolled so fucking high. From a distance. But with the fog as well, you could make out no detail. Maybe. Just the shadows of the shapes. There's no detail.

God is watching! So are you continuing at a medium pace or at a stealthy pace? Stealthy pace. All right, all right. So you begin to move forward. Punched over, creeping. You are now at this point in the journey,

walking the miles there at a stealthy pace. You are now in the early afternoon, so you're getting around two o'clock. And how much further does it feel like we're going? Are we going to camp here? No, we just don't want to be here when the sun goes down. Two o'clock. And how much further does it feel like we're going? Are we going to camp here? No, we just don't want to be here when the sun goes down, I think.

How are we going to? How much further? You can get there at this pace, about an hour, hour and a half. No problem. Okay. Okay. We may have to retreat a little faster than we came in, but. Correct. Okay. We may have to retreat a little faster than we came in, but. Correct. Okay.

Now, going forward, because of the fallen trees, there are plenty of places where you can move and try and find ways to obfuscate yourself from being just out in the open, and the fog does help, but it is a blue sky above, and it is an odd thing to see a blue sky with just small little puffs of cloud. It is a odd thing to see a blue sky with just small little puffs of cloud. It is a beautiful tropical day,

and then it just comes down into this thick fog. But you move forward. I will say, pushing onward at a stealthy pace, nothing seems to broach you on your journey, nothing interrupts you, and eventually you begin to see the shapes arriving, these outer structures, these buildings, these skeletons of homes begin to come into your vision.

Homes? Yep. You can see some appear to be collapsed abodes, buildings of pale stone. There's going to be so many dead people. If anybody here is proficient in history, go ahead and make a history check.

One of us? Two of us. 16. 16? 17. 17, okay. Looking at these buildings, what elements you can make out, they are not of Dwendalian make, they are not of Concordian make, nor are not of Dwendalian make, they are not of Concordian make, nor are they of Dynasty make. So the Clovis Concord.

Oh, yes. So these elements of it remind you of Rosohna, or at least the ruins on the outside of Rosohna in the Ghostlands. That's the closest thing you can equate them towards. There are similarities to that heavy, heavy ruined area that resides beyond the city of the Dynasty.

And that's all you know on that. What similarity? It's also a wasteland. What's the heavy ruined area like? What? It was up north of Xhorhas, and it was a also a wasteland. What's the heavy ruined area? What? It was up north of Xhorhas and it was like a barren wasteland. It's where we were chasing you and Obann. The barbed field area? I'm going to keep

Ice Peel, too, for any kind of writing, even if I don't... Okay, make a perception check. Okay. 18. Okay. 18. Okay. Now, as you guys continue onward, this order got messed up here, so I'm relearning everything.

The air itself is growing cold, similar to that first strange pocket of the jungle that you encountered when Vilya was leading you towards the mountain, but colder still, the closer you travel through these ruins. You notice sheets of ice forming on the edge of some of these stone structures. You begin to see your breath merge

with the mist and fog around you. It is quite cold the mist and fog around you. It is quite cold the further and further you move towards the center. And as you step into this broken element of the remnants of some fallen structure, parts of stone and possibly what were once upper floors now scattered into broken rock around you, the shape begins to emerge of the center spire.

You notice it is a tower. It is a built tower. Part of one. The tower itself is not angled, but only part of the tower is here. You can see where it would be built, this kind of perfect, continuously, kind of, what was I looking for?

Every layer of this tower grows smaller and taller as it goes, this kind of escalation of structure, but it looks sheared at a perfect angle, like it was carved from top to bottom perfectly, like some god had cut it with an ax, and as such, it is just at an odd angle. The slices have been taken away. So it's not leaning.

It's straight. It's not leaning. It's just been diagonally bisected. And it's only part of a tower, meaning there is a much larger tower, and this is just a small section of it that's been carved away. It's a little slice of the abyssal plain. Is the line sharp or jagged?

The line, from what you can see from this far, it looks pretty sharp. You and you, Caduceus and Beauregard, hear what you think are almost whispers. Voices. You hear that? Eyes of the Grave. Okay.

Part of it, as you first hear them, some of it seems to be common. Some of it is another language. Anyone here understand or speak Infernal? Yes. Yes, get it, tiefling, yes. You do not hear the whispers yet, unfortunately. But if you point it out to her,

she can begin to listen and. Does anyone else hear that? Hear what? Just like a. You begin to hear Muppets in common, phrases that resemble... Your warmth is ours. Uh-oh. What is ours? Your warmth. Your warmth.

Mm-mm. Ooh. Oryx demands our return. What did it? Oryx? Oryx? Oryx demands our return. Orox? Orox? Orox demands our return. Orox? Orox. That's names. How would one spell such a name? O-R-A-C-S.

O-R-A-C-S. You, Jester, pick up in Infernal, broken and taken. Displaced, we suffer. We suffer. Shit. As you guys stand in the midst of these ruins

and you use Eyes of the Grave, there, there, there, there, you are surrounded by five. What's going on? Do you want to talk or do you want to make this ugly? I think we should talk. We have things to offer you. More than warmth.

You begin to see out of the fog, as they swirl, you see a face, and it's gone. In the fog? In the fog. Oh, creepy. fog as they swirl. You see a face and it's gone. In the fog? In the fog. Oh, creepy. Another hand and profile of a woman's face vanishes in the mist around you. Ahead of you, towards where the base of the tower's shape is, something from the shadows seems to emerge.

You watch as darkened, billowing black clouds of lightless mist begin to unfold and roll out as tendrils. As something rises from it, you can see a humanoid form, its shoulders coming to these hooked points. Tattered bits of shroud and black sackcloth hang from the edges of its wrists. You see what looks almost like a blade dangling from one hand, and a skeletal face

folds up from the inside of it. Can I speak infernal to it? If you'd like to. I'm going to speak infernal and say, let us get you home. Good question. Tell him, fuck Focotto. I'm going to go ahead and ask you guys to roll initiative. Oh! No!

Woo! This frightening combat is sponsored by Dwarven Forge. Get ready to journey out into the wild lands. Dwarven Forge. Get ready to journey out into the wild lands. Dwarven Forge's eighth terrain Kickstarter launching Sunday, August 9th. Join the mailing list, dwarvenforge.com slash wildlands. What the fuck? Whoa! Look at that.

That's a big tower. That's way bigger than I thought it was. Yeah. So is it from the actual sea, or is it from one of the layers of hell? I think a layer of hell. Is this like a slice of dis? A piece of hell got sheared away.

Yeah, this is a slice of the city of dis or something, right? Yeah. This is just one side of a tower. 100%. Yeah. And everybody that was in it is here. Is here and pissed off. Well, okay, wait. Oryx.

Who's Oryx? It's Dr. Seuss' character. I want to see. Like, make a history check. Yeah, yeah, wait. Oryx. Who's Oryx? It's Dr. Seuss' character. I want to see. Like, make a history check. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Can any of us do that before initiative? I'll allow it. 21. Okay, okay, okay. Hang on, that was my initiative.

Okay. 19. 19 does not ring a bell. No. 21. 21 either? 21. 21 doesn't do it? Deep knowledge. Nope.

Nope. Hidden mysteries. Old magic. What about Skaro? Ooh, that's it, backwards? Yeah. Definitely. Everyone talks backwards in Hell. That's right. Why does that sound familiar?

Right. Skaro? It sounds like Orcus, Horn of Orcus, but. Yeah, maybe it's a horn. Or that's a little bit. Yeah. But the, the. 25 to 20. Do you remember? 22.

22. No, I don't think so. Oh, 21. Okay. 21! 20 to 15. 17. Okay. 21! 20 to 15. 17. 17. Oh, nice. Boom. Need magic.

15 to 10. 13. 13. Shit. 10 to five. Uh-oh. Five to one, three? Four. Okay.

All right, top of the round. Actually, because I can do this now. Foggy foggies. Yes! Foggy! Oh, I've been missing this. Been a while. Light up my body with that smoke, bitch. It's warm and cold at the same time.

Oh, bless it be. I don't think I have anything to try and negotiate with these people. Why would you negotiate? They're so angry. They're so mad. I think that maybe they're part of the people looking for Vokodo. I don't know. Well, that's the thing.

Can you banish one of them back to their plane? Fight Vokodo with us? Well, no, I can't do shit, because I don't have any fourth or fifth levels. Do you have Turn Undead? Why not? Why'd you get rid of him? That's fine. All righty, so top of the round is Beauregard.

As you can now see all these shapes coming out of the mist around you, what are you going to do? Oh my god, look at that. It's so dope. Okay. It's so awesome. Is there a big baddie up in front of me that I'm seeing? Is that a big baddie in front of me that I'm seeing? Is that a big baddie?

Who looks the beefiest? This is the one that you saw that evoked these black tendrils of shadow amongst the mist and fog. Oh my god. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Yeah, let's go for him, I guess. Where does he point to when we get mad? What else do I got?

We'll hold initiative. Yeah, but they haven't done anything towards us. She just asked a question, they haven't answered. Nice. It's true. Kids. These are hellspawn that are going to fuck our shit up. It's up to you, Beau, go for it.

Every tree has a story. Those trees would to you, Beau, go for it. Every tree has a story. Those trees would fucking murder us, and you know it. I'm going to fucking punch this guy in his face. Don't ghost punch yet. Will you finger indicate again where the race, not the main dude, one, two. There, there, there, and there. Okay, so five total. Beauregard, what do you do?

Punch him in his face! Ghost punch. Ghost punch! Moving straight through? Last time I tried to negotiate with the spooky thing, it fucking didn't work. That was hardly a negotiation. Yeah, it was, but. You mocked it from behind it. But it didn't work, am I right? It didn't work.

I'm going to punch it in the face. Ooh! That's how I negotiate. I try to empathize, and I'm done empathizing with ghosts. Oh. He's scary. He's scary. Go for it, Beauregard.

Okay. The Red Sand Pastor did not want to negotiate. Pop. Pop. That first pop is a 26. That. That first pop is a 26. That hits. Second pop is a 17. Both hit.

Okay. Using my fists to punch with ghosts. Whoops. First one is eight damage. Eight damage? Second one is also eight damage, 16 total. Stunning strike on that first one. There you go.

For my second, I should have stunning strike on the first. That'd be a stun. 17? Ghost? Save. Save, okay. Stunning strike on the second. Okay. Pop pop. You can stun a ghost? And you stun, that's mine.

That is a 20. Apparently not. Apparently not. Seven pound out, yeah. Two key points. So can stun a ghost. And you stun, that's my grade. That is a 20. Apparently not. Apparently not. Seven pot out, yeah. Two key points. This is your first two strikes. I think the answer is no. Oh, Luria blows.

All right, two more strikes, go for it. Is it landing, are you hitting him? I'm hitting him. Yeah, she, monks can punch ghosts at a certain level. She is doing it. Fists are magic. Key, fists, wrapping, key. Okay, a pop pop.

Yikes, yikes! A one and a two! Oh no. So 11 and 12. Both miss. So the first two strikes, you could see the shaded undead spectral creature looking over and talking to Jester, an infernal.

You rush up and punch it twice as both impacts hit its chest. You see the mist around it swirl and the shadow spikes for a second. The inside of its dark socket suddenly burned bright red and it back towards you. You swing two more times and it moves around each fist. I'm just going to say, fuck Vokodo, am I right?

See, they can't be negotiated with. Veth, it's your turn. Well, I guess my options are limited. So I will. No, you can try and talk to it. So I will take a few steps to my left. All right. Two, three. Well, you know what?

I'll fire first, then I'll step. So I will take out a bit of fur, rub it on my bolt, and cast Bernardo's Voltaic Bolt. All righty. Then I will fire my bolt at the creature that's engaged with Beauregard. I rub some fur on the bolt. Throw one. Oh no! So it shoots me. Yes.

Oh no! Yeah, so it's not just six points of damage, it's 4d6. Correct, because you shot yourself with your own spell. Oh my god. Not a great start. You loved it. 11 points of damage. Good, good, good. That's the side effect of it not working?

If I roll a one with this particular weapon, it will misfire. It misfires. And I also just made it way more powerful. Yes, yes. It's beautiful. Cool, cool, cool. Good spell. Yeah, that was great.

So yeah. Long for Don't Roll. Cell phone. I don't know what to do now. I guess I'll act like you're dead. I'll hide. Nope. I've got nothing. I'm a tactical retreat. Tact'll hide. Nope. I've got nothing.

I'm a tactical retreat. Tactical retreat, I'm going backwards. You're going backwards? Into the one that's behind you? No, between the two that are behind us. Straight into the building? Right over here? Yeah, yeah.

Oh boy. Full movement? Great spot. Sure. Splitting the enemy. There you go. What are you doing? Yeah, yeah, yeah, go in the tower, go in the tower. All righty.

I feel like there's an off switch to this nightmare. All right, that ends Veth's turn. The other spectral creatures are next. Just the only ones on the map, right? Yeah. Oh, darn. Yeah, why did you, ah, no. So. This one is going to go ahead and move up to Yasha.

This one's going to move up to Fjord. This one is going to go ahead and move up to Beauregard. And this one is going to go ahead and move up to Caduceus. I need Yasha, Fjord, Beauregard, and Caduceus to all make charisma saving throws. Oh, fuck it. Good. Charisma? Fuck, fuck it. Not good. Charisma? Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

20. Oh no. Ooh, okay, okay. 16. Nine. Okay. And Yasha? Ooh, that's a cool job. What'd you do? What'd you do?

I rolled a four, and I get a minus one, so a three. Okay. Gonna have to turn undead real quick. So. Help. Why did I roll that? Why are you taking them away? Who are you taking? They're possessed. Oh, fuck!

No way. As two of these creatures suddenly jump into Yasha's torso and she tenses as it vanishes inside, her whole body tenses and pulls back and then. Oh no. I'm such an empty shell of a person. Caduceus, you try and resist, but before you can go for the symbol of the Wild Mother,

you see it leaps into your throat and goes through your mouth and for a second, you tense and pull back before your arms go limp to the side. And you stand there. And your consciousness is removed, and you're now watching yourself puppeted from within. This is adding to Yasha's complex.

Both Beauregard and Fjord, you do manage to shunt them off, resist their attempt to push into your body, and as such, they shriek and represent themselves. All righty. So, that ends their go. It's now Caduceus and Yasha's turn. Oh no. With that and Yasha's turn. Oh no.

With that, Yasha turns around towards you, Jester. Yep. And Caduceus is going to go ahead and turn towards Vilya. I need you to go ahead and make an attack with your Blight Staff. Gotcha. Blight? Blight?

That's a 12. A 12? That misses. I'm not good with my stick. So as you turn around and swing your Blightstaff towards Vilya, you watch, she pulls back and two of the vines from her leg whip out and deflect it off to the side. No impact. Yasha, I need you to make two attacks against Jester.

No, Yasha, fight it. Is this something you're going to make saves against, or do we have to hit you? Fight it! We'll find out. I don't know. We'll use the same dice. Okay, good. Let's see, let's see, let's see.

16. No. Okay, second attack. That one's a little better. That's 19. 19 is my armor. So go ahead and roll your damage. Okay.

You just punched her, right? Looking at you dead in the eyes as it's happening. Yeah. Yeah. I rolled Snake Eyes. So. Oh, good! Six total. Oh wait, I'm so sorry. That seems low.

It does. It does, doesn't it? You're not raging. You're not raging. I'm not raging. Correct. So six points of damage. Six points of damage. All right. So as Yasha's just like dead stare,

slamming the blade into you, you're pushing off the shield and one gets you on the edge of the shoulder, impact pain, you look back up and it's still that dead expression in her face. My heart's going into it. You can kill. All right, finishing their go, it is now the shadow creature's turn.

Oh. Cool. Shadow creature. The red piercing eyes angrily stare at Beauregard, who came fist first toward it. It is going to go ahead and attempt to take its blade and swing towards you with one strike. Ooh, that's a 25 to hit.

Ooh. That hits, yep. Wow. Take 11 points of slashing damage. As well as... Nope, okay. 15 points of necrotic damage. So wait, hang on, hang on, hang on.

Wait, wait. 11 and then 15. Correct. So 26 total. And then with its other hand, it's going to attempt to push. Oh, that's a. 20, does that hit? No, it does not. Does not. 21 is my armor class. With its other hand, Push. 20, does that hit? No, it does not. Does not.

21 is my armor class. With its other hand, as it pulls back, you watch black energy swirl around the forearm, and it thrusts it forward to try and reach into your chest. Oh, what? I've seen this! As you do, you just deflect it out of the way. No purchase found. What does that do? Damn.

Maybe because there's no heart to grab. And with that, it's going to attempt to shift back. You do get an attack of opportunity on it. Ooh! Pop. Go for it. Pop. 24. 24 hits. Go ahead and roll damage.

And Sentinel, he is not moving. Correct, so he is not able to merge with the terrain. 11 damage. Oh, nice. All righty. And nope, keep going. Okay, that finishes his go. So now, as two of your allies have been possessed,

the two other ghostly creatures themselves still wandering through the mists themselves, haunting around you, the shadow creature itself trading blows with Beauregard, its eyes now burning red with anger, it is Jester's turn. I'm going to look at Yasha, and I'm going to hold up my Symbol of the Traveler

and say, oh, help me right now, and I'm going to hold up my Symbol of the Traveler and say, oh, help me right now, and I'm going to cast Turn Undead. Okay. And at this level, what does that do? Destroy Undead. At what CR? Challenge rating. Destroy Undead is

level two or lower, destroys. Okay, it does not destroy. So that's wisdom saves? Yes. You've got it. So for Yasha, that is a fail. Caduceus, that is a fail. Oh, god. The one next to Beauregard is a fail.

The one that is currently next to Fjord is a fail. Does that mean they all die? No, that means they have to flee. Flee from Jester. Okay, okay. So, you watch as, it's not their turn yet, but immediately, the two that had taken possession of your friends are shunted out of the bodies

of your allies and now, you see them now reeling as Jester stands there clutching her symbol. You've seen the burst of divine, resonant, Wild Mother energy radiate from Caduceus on a few occasions like this. For Jester, it's unique. You, for a brief second, watch as if these faint shadows of a green-cloaked figure appear next to the ghosts

and tap them on the shoulders and go, boom. And all the ghosts go, begin to flee, preparing themselves to run from Jester, who now you can see this shimmering green cloak around her as well, almost like she herself is within this spectral image of the Traveler himself. So, now finish, that's your action.

You still have your movement and bonus, if you like. That's so cool. Okay, who got hurt? I guess for my bonus action, is anybody hurt? Beau. Yeah. Beau. I'm okay, though, but I'll take it. I don't know if I, I don't think I have it.

I may not show myself in the face. Prepared, hold on, hold on. Oh, I do. but I'll take it. I don't know if I have it prepared. Hold on, hold on. Oh, I do. It's not that much, but I'm going to cast Healing Word at Beau. Fuck yes. So that's a 1d4, sorry. No, I'll take it.

Oh, that's four plus five, so nine points. Yes. Yep. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Dope. All righty. So that finishes your turn, Jester. Are you going to stay put or are you going to move? I'm going to stay where I am.

All right, finishing Jester's go, that brings us to Fjord. Caleb, you're on deck. Yeah, I'm going to summon the sword and ignite it. All right. And I'm going to takemon the Sword and ignite it. All right. And I'm going to take two swipes against the ghostly shit fuck that's right behind me. All righty.

That's a 30 to hit. That hits. Okay, and second one is also a 30 to hit, both the 19. Damn! Which is crazy. Yeah, did the main one have to make a save against me? The big shadow guy? Big one is, no, it is within radius, so yeah, he will make one as well.

He does a 18. He succeeds. He does it. 17. 17. That's 26. Plus! 28, 30. 30 total points of slashing damage.

Very nice. As the blade lights up and you strike twice against it, you watch as it carves through parts of its spectral form. It shivers and shakes and shrieks as it begins to pull away. I believe it does get to make a save against your thing. Turn Undead, it does? I think when it takes damage.

Yeah, when it takes damage. Oh, really? It succeeds. So that one is no longer fleeing right there. Shit. It's okay. But it is worth it. Did we call that out and I just wasn't listening? Okay. That's just how Turn Undead works. Got it.

With my bonus action, can I cast Hexblade's Curse on the shadow creature? Yes, you may. Yeah. Now you watch, normally you're used to seeing the curse apparate through nearby shadow. This creature is made of what seems to be pure shadow. And instead, you see these faint, glowing,

green-like tendrils that form into vines, but still very dark and kind of almost oil-slicked vines that begin to tear up and wrap around it. And that is essentially the apparition of your Hexblade's Curse, the Wild Mother now focusing your attention and the blessing of your weapon upon that entity. That finish your go? It does.

All right. Caleb, you're up. Yeah, so we've had a lot of experience with people being possessed or taken over, and I don't know the nature of these things, but rather than letting them take over me and really hurting somebody, I'm just going to unload Disintegrate now

into the creature in front of Beauregard. Okay. So, lodestone comes out, dust flies through the air, and here come all the d6s. So it's a dexterity saving throw? Yeah. Okay. Wow, that is? Yeah. Okay.

Wow, that is a 21. Ah. 80 total, so 40. So 40 points of ease. 80? Eight zero. Whoa. That's points of ease. 80? Zero. Wow. That's amazing. Whoa.

So as you aim your ray, it strikes it, and you can see where the green tethers that wrap around it for the, has to play its curse, the impact causes the shadow itself to turn gray and ashy. Parts of its body almost seem to become physical, and then crumble away as it recoils in severe pain. That's a pretty heavy hit on it. Yeah. And then I will use my movement to go crawl up on the stones diagonally from Caleb.

Yeah. Up onto the rock, even. There you go. And cower. Okay. Cowering done. All right, at this point, you still hear the voices encircling the space saying things like, Left here hungry. Never returning. I've taken.

Beau, it's your turn. Okay. These poor souls. Yeah, it's your turn. Okay. These poor souls. Yeah, real sorry, man. Pop pop. She works so bad. De-bomacy. I do.

That's good, that's good, pop pop. Did I get a good pop? Yeah, that's good, that's good. 16 and 21? The 21 hits. Okay, okay, okay, okay. By the end of the campaign, Marisha only says pop. Pop pop pop.

It means like, it's Smurf. You know what I mean? Snurf, snurf, snurf. 18, or sorry, sorry, eight, eight damage. Eight points of damage already. Stoning Strike. All right. I hope it's cocked.

21. Damn! This guy's rolling really high on these saves. Natural 18 on that one. Look at the smile on that. Look at these ki points. Damn! I'm so used to Stoning Strike wrecking my guys, and it's like, when they roll high, I'm like,

yeah, that's right, you showed that monk. Don't let her get away with this. Um. Is this your first hit? Patient defense, huh? Patient defense? Yeah. Okay, you got it. All right, so you go into a defensive stance.

That ends your go. Veth, you're up. Great. Redo. Going to cast Renato's Voltaic Bolt. You can do it. Let's do it, let's do it. Come on. Please. Rev up my old, get the static electricity going.

Going to run over towards that post over there and slide and fire as I disappear behind it at the big boss. You got it. Oh no! 16? 16, just missing you. Oh!

Just missed you. It was the slide that did it. Yeah. Goddamn it! Sorry, buddy. It's all good. You don't get a bonus attack? The bonus is charging it up.

Oh! Yeah, all right, that finishes Veth's go. You have to rub it really fast with the fur to give it a static charge. I could carry a balloon around. None of the ghosts recharge their possession ability. Oh, that's good. They have to run anyway.

I know, but there's a chance to see if they recharge it. It's going to flee 40 feet and hover up to here. Probably good now. Damn it. Over to this direction. This one's going to hit his head. We've got something to hit.

You do get an attack of opportunity against it. No, but don't hit it, don't hit it! That's the one that Fjord already tagged, isn't it? The one he's got in his hand now, yeah. Are you taking it out? How are you going to tell Yasha not to hit something? That's right, because you hit it. That's all she does.

I know. And this one does over to here. Oh, good, see, there's one still there. The one that's right there is going to use its, okay. So the ghost that's next to you, if you strike it, it turns back to you and you see this younger warrior female in spectral form, this thick, hooked armor look at you and

and the body shifts into this terrifying, demonic scream. Its whole body stretches into this nightmarish scenario. Plus it's not very angry. Yeah, straight up. All right, I need everybody to make a wisdom saving throw, please. Wis-save? Oh boy. Yes, everyone within 60 feet. Sorry! Oh no!

Which is everybody. Low roll. Oh boy. 17. Except for maybe Veth, who's hiding behind that and doesn't see it, so you're fine. You're fine, Veth, you don't see it. Okay, so my seven won't come into play? Correct. Because your placement,

you would not be able to see this creature. Awesome. 17. 17. 28. 28. A seven. A seven. Yasha?

Five. Wow. 28, I don't know what happened. 18. What is wrong with you? I am rolling shitty. Wow. Oh! 28. I don't know what happened. 18. What is wrong with you? I am rolling shitty. Okay. But you always do.

Most, even as close as you are, you've seen some shit, and this isn't much. And most of you guys see this, and it's scary, but you're confident. You have more pressing matters to get to, except for Caleb and Yasha. You are frightened for the next minute. See ya.

I was already halfway there. For one minute? Yes. Does that mean, it doesn't mean you have to flee, right? Does that mean you have to flee, or does that mean you just can't get closer to it? You cannot get closer to it actively, and while it's within your line of sight,

you have disadvantage on attacks, ability checks, stuff like that. On it or on everything? On anything. As long as it's within your line of sight, you have disadvantage on attacks, ability checks, stuff like that. On it or on everything? On anything, as long as it's within the line of sight, you're scared and you can't do things very well. If you turn your back to it? You are shuffling it the whole way.

If you turn your back to it, does that count? No, within line of sight means that, in theory, if you were to just turn it to there, you know it's there. You have to get behind a wall or something to be like, which really keeps ghosts from getting to you. That finishes their ghosts as they all fled. That brings us to Caduceus and Yasha.

So. All right. First thing I'm going to do, just for fun, let's see how this works. Yasha, your sword's magic, right? I'm going to walk up behind, as far away from that creepy guy as possible, and I'm just going to tap Beau on the shoulder.

Okay. I'm going to say, you've got this, you're fine. And I'm going to cast, where did it go? Holy Weapon. Okay. Hey, that sounds helpful. Let's just add 2d8 radiant damage to everything you do. Where did it go? Holy Weapon? Oh, hey. That was helping. Let's just add 2d8 radiant damage to everything you do. There you go. Everything you do.

Now I'm going to kind of back, move me, the rest of my movement towards the problem ghost. That's about as close as you can get there or there. I don't want to quite be in the group, so like a little. About there? Yeah, that's good. Okay, fair enough.

There you go. It's your action, it's your movement. Yeah, I'll just really quickly look at other options. I don't know if you have much, you can't cast another spell as a bonus. No, the only other thing I'm saving for later. Yasha, you're up. Okay, I would like to rage.

All right, you rage. I would like to rage. Actually, hold on. Wait, sorry. I'm so sorry, one second. Which makes the fear go away. That's a berserker barbarian thing. If that was a bonus action,

I think holy weapon's a bonus action. Is holy weapon a bonus action? Oh shit. Yeah, it's a bonus action. So think holy weapon's a bonus action. Is holy weapon a bonus action? Oh shit. Yeah, it's a bonus action. So can I still cast a cantrip? You can, yeah. So I'm going to attack that ghost. All right, with?

With a sacred flame. Sacred flame, is that dexterity? It's dexterity. I'm going to attack that ghost. That is a fail with an eight. So, let's find some stuff. You do a lot of damage with your cantrips, too. Yeah, yeah, this is going to hurt him.

This is going to hurt. That's a... 22 radiant damage. 22 radiant damage, fuck off. Blasting at the ghost, you can see now now it's flickering in and out. It's on the cusp of just completely vanishing from this realm and any realm beyond. Scoot, scoot.

Ghost. I think you're getting possums off the front porch. Yasha, you're up. Okay, I'm going to attack it. Got one. Attack what? Oh, you piece of shit. It was on such a good one and then it...

Well, you cannot attack it because it is not next to you and you cannot move closer to it to give it that name. So you can go attack the shadow guy. Because I'm scared of this one. Yes, you're scared of the ghost in front of you. Okay. I'm going to run away from it then. I'm going to go attack the other one, but since I already rolled a first attack.

So you move up this way? Yeah. You got it. So you run, dodging behind them, get your blade ready. It's still an eyeline, so you do have disadvantage on your attacks. Okay. But if you're going to take your,

oh, you already rolled, so. Wasn't any better. Okay. Do you have a way to get rid of your fear? Do you have a way to get rid of your fear? I rolled that for disadvantage. It's already rolled once, but I'll take the first one, which was 13.

13 is a miss. Don't forget, you have reckless attacks. That's a big variant thing, too. I know it's been a while. So if I have disadvantage, then that'll just give me a single roll. But it's too late now, just for future reference. Okay, second attack.

Okay. Okay, second attack. Okay. Okay, disadvantage, so. Okay, 18? 18 does hit. Okay! Yay! Every little thing she kills is magic. That's not true.

Everything she kills just turns me on. That might not true. Everything she kills just turns me on. That might be true. Okay, I'm going to try Savage Attacker, see if I get something better. That's the same. Okay. Okay, 15 total. 15 damage.

All righty. As you swing by and strike, the first swing goes wide, turns back, the skull spinning around. You can see the red trail left behind briefly as it spins its head in your direction, it fades behind it. There's a slight drag behind the movement of its piercing, coal-like red angry eyes. And with that, you take a second strike,

reeling back, and it does manage to find its way into the middle of this spectral wraith-like creature, and as it cuts through, it shrieks. You can see, once again, this is now starting to look very hurt. This is turning quite quickly. That finishes your go, Yasha?

Yeah. It's now this entity's turn. It's going to go ahead and take a swing at you, Beauregard, because you have now Glowing Holy Fist, and that scares the fuck out of it. Bring it, bitch. All right, you did take your Patient Defense, right?

Yes, I did. So it's disadvantage on strikes. Oh, that would be a 14. Yes. With the sword, it swings towards you, you dodge out of the way, and it's going now for its necrotic hand that's spinning up with that dark energy and it's going to push towards your chest with a disadvantage. That's a 16. Miss.

You just duck out of the way. This creature's hurt and it's swinging wildly at you and it just cannot find its mark on you. Can I use my... No, I haven't hit with Flurry of Blows. I can't use my preternatural counter. Correct, you cannot. Never mind, okay.

Miss! Okay. Miss, miss. All right, that finishes its turn. It is now Jester, Fjord, you're up. I love that you're doing the last dragon right now. Okay, I'm going to assume that Beau can handle the big guy, and I'm going to turn around, and I'm going to assume that Beau can handle the big guy, and I'm going to turn around, and I'm going to

cast a first-level guiding bolt at the spirit behind Fjord so it doesn't possess him. You got it. Oh. So that is... That's a thing. 22. That hits.

Okay. I can take care of the big guy, too. Beau's going to go before you, so that's why I just figured. Sure, you can. Kill it. But you're here, too. I'm here for moral support. Yeah, yeah.

16 points of radiant damage. Radiant damage. Yasha, are you watching? I'm watching. You blast that ghost with radiant spearing energy as it hits it, screams, and then just vanishes into the mist. Be free.

As it's destroyed, the central wraith figure just screams out in anger. Those near it, you can see the eyes burn now twice as bright. It's now giving off red light from the front of its face. It is furious at the destruction of one of its allies. Oops. And it seems like the shadows around it grow darker

and it grows a little larger in anger. Oops. Good to know. Powerful? Probably, yeah. Probably. Good safety check. So Jester, still your not do that. Powerful? Probably, yeah. Good safety tip. So Jester, still your turn.

Okay. For my bonus action, I'm going to turn around, back to Beau, and I'm going to give her another healing word and say, get better, Beau! Thanks, Jess. There you go. Staying put?

Get good. Get good! Yeah, that's seven more points. Fuck. Yes. Are you staying put or are you? Yes, sir. All right, so finish the gestures, go. Fjord, you're up, Caleb, you're on deck. I'm going to use my, make sure I say it right,

my relentless hex to magically teleport up to 30 feet next to my Hexblade's Curse, so I'm going to appear behind him. Out of the shadows and the green tendrils that you left there, you watch as this giant, angry wraith creature with this blackened rune blade in one hand and this kind of swirly necrotic energy that is currently shouting in anger

for just emerges behind it. Do I have advantage on this because my peoples are flanking him? Technically, none of you are flanking. Flanking is directly across. So squares, man. You could have bamfed directly behind him. You could move here. I'll do it so I can do that.

You got it. And I will take two swings with the Star Razor. Go for it. With advantage. I like spooky sword. Flank, flank. Spooky sword is cool. That's a 22 to hit. That hits.

Okay. Man, do I have some shit I can do. And I will dump a 5th-level Divine Smite. Like, ooh! That sounds brutal. I can burn my bow. Oh. This is a 2 with 11.

So they try and crowd out. Divine Smites, or whatever they're called. 30, 32, and then Divine Smite is how many? 48 radiant. Yeah. What is Divine, how many Divine Smite? Oh boy. 5d8. And you can just do that. I'm just going to roll for Vily and Nishping, it's my bad.

Oops! Vily's just standing there like, wow, this is back. Well, you know what, we'll get to that. Yeah, 5d8. Whoa, you know what, we'll get to that. We'll get to that. Yeah, 5d8. Whoa, it is 5d8? Mm-hmm. Holy moly.

Sweet Christmas. It is undead. Seven. So an extra d8? 11. Or he just gets double damage? No, no, no, there is an actual, you do additional damage. 22. 22, 26. It's 6d8 No, no, no, there is an actually do additional damage. 22, 22, 26.

It's 68 because it does undead. Oh. Undead and fiends get an additional d8. Nine, I mean, that's a six. Nine, it's an eight. It's a six. It's a six. That is 65 points of damage. Oh my god!

How do you want to do that? Yay! I'll pop up opposite of my ladies and be like, let's wreck this. As the blade strikes down, you watch as the fog separates and a single beam of sunlight seems to carve through from the open sky as the Wildmother's wrath comes through,

channeled into your blade, and as it carves into this being of shadow, it doesn't even have a chance to screech. You watch as the shadow folds, curls inward, and then is gone. There, left in the ground, there is a slight crater as you hear the crackly impact sound of stone that was cast to the side,

and a little series of red coal burning lights where the eyes once were the creature just slowly nature's metal streaks of smoke and vanish. Christ, what the fuck? All the other ghosts immediately flee. Whoa. Yasha, were you watching?

I saw all of it. You guys were all amazing. It was so great. Yeah, it was great, yeah. Remember that time that I got possessed yet again? Aw. Are you okay? We got to work on your wisdom saves. We got to figure out a way to make your brain,

maybe we can make you a tinfoil hat. Can I use Divine Defense to see within 60 feet if there are any more Celestial fiends or undeads around us? Sure. And as you do that, you concentrate and focus, and there are none. The whispers have ceased. Looks like some of the local,

the mist remains, but it looks like some of the fog in the vicinity begins to slightly dissipate. Do we kill the bad guy in the town? Why don't we check out what's in that town? Yeah, as soon as it seems like the danger has passed, eyes on the obelisk. I found it! Your eye? I found it!

There was a pebble in my crossbow. It was making it shoot crazy. Is that I found it! There was a pebble in my crossbow. It was making it shoot crazy. Is that what it was? It was a pebble. I took it out. Should be fine now. Sorry about that, everybody. It's okay, Nott. Veth, I'm sorry.

No, it's fine. You have a lot of ash and dirt on your tush, on your butt side from what you did. I was sitting there trying to fix it. Yeah. All right. So you're going to glow for an hour, by the way. Oh, that was pretty. Oh, this lasts for an hour? Yep. Yeah. All right. You're going to glow for an hour, by the way.

Oh, this lasts for an hour? Yep. Oh, hell yeah. Eyes on the tower. Let's get a light on the tower. Okay, you can see Vilya looks a bit shaken by this and goes, Oh, you're certainly capable. You're not wrong. Vilya? Did you just not want to fight with us?

I was going to try and talk to them. Oh. But that option went away quickly. When you killed them. Dispatched them. Dispatched. You know, now they can. Gave them an opportunity to return. Yeah, they could maybe be back on the plane.

They were already dead. No, but they kind of were already dead. She's not wrong, though. We could have learned more about how they got here or what they wanted from this place. Well, maybe we still will. I mean, it feels like it's clear where they came from and what they wanted, though, right?

They did say, uh. What would you have said? I would have asked if they had reason to perhaps join our side, or? That's more or less what I said when I said fuck Vokodo, am I right? Next time say fuck Vokodo before you punch them in the face. Well, it was, you know.

What if they couldn't leave this area? What if this was like part of their realm and this was as far as their reach would go? That's very possible. That's true. You just don't know. That's true. Because you punched it in would go. That's very possible. That's true. You just don't know. That's true. Because you punched it in the face.

Well. Just kidding. To be fair, none of you really stopped either. Yeah, well, at that point, he was already attacking Beau. I can't defend somebody that's attacking me. I was firing warning shots. Directly into your own face. To show them that we could attack them, but we weren't. Make a deception check.

Ooh, 17 minus two, so 15. 15. Vilya looks at you and goes, Uh-huh. Into your face. Caleb is already ascending those stairs and casting Detect Magic during that squabble. Okay.

As you begin to make your way up to what looks to be an entrance to this one sliver, this fragment of tower, this strange open portion, you don't detect any magic, but you begin to see writing on the inside of the walls, a language that you don't necessarily understand. Well, I know Celestial and Sylvan, but I pull out my book because I don't understand it,

and I turn to the page for Comprehend Languages, and I begin the process of casting that. Okay, and that will take you ten minutes? Ten minutes, yeah. Okay. What are the rest of you doing while Caleb's doing that? Searching the tower. Well, all of it. Oh yeah. Let's take a look at least at the ground floor,

see if it's safe. How tall, how many floors up does it seem to go? Before it carves off, it looks like seven. Whoa. Also, stairs are probably missing. There is that. Looks like seven. Whoa. Also, stairs are probably missing. There is that. But we could see how far we can go.

Let's take a look. Yeah. Beau can climb up the side of it. That's kind of what I was thinking, too. Well, get after it. All right, Charles Morales. Yeah, race you to the top. I'll go to the outside and see how far I can get. That's not a fair race. No one else can do that.

Climb me. It's fair to me. Woo! Okay. So as you sit and begin studying, they begin stepping around you, Caleb, and making their way into the interior of the tower. Beauregard begins parkouring up the side. As you come around the edge, Beauregard, you can see the portion of the tower that was facing you and somewhat this side is the outer wall. Once you come around the edge, it is open. It is just the portions of floor that remain just coming to an end with loose bricks

dangling off the edge. Once again, it looks like it was just carved out and it's like a slice of cake. Yeah. Two topical. Right there, yeah, fair enough. Everything is cake a slice of cake. Yeah. Too topical. But there, yeah, fair enough. Everything is cake. Everything's cake. That'll be an old meme by the time this comes out. So,

from best you can tell, it's much taller than it is thick. And as far as interior substance of it, the architecture is gorgeous, if ominous. And once again, calling back to the ruins on the outside of Rosohna, some of the larger, ruined, what looked like citadels from the Calamity Days of Xhorhas, reminiscent in structure and design to that. A lot of angular, pointed and jagged

archways over doors and passages. The stairs themselves seem to be very finely hewn stone with older, now mold-soaked velvets and ceremonial materials placed on walls as tapestries and such that have just rotted over time. now mold-soaked velvets and ceremonial materials placed on walls as tapestries and such that have just rotted over time. Everything here is of black stone and obsidian,

two elements of darkened iron that have now rusted over and added a brown and red tint to where certain areas and certain elements of the structure are joined together by the metal. As you ascend, you see the main chamber, the base chamber, which is the largest part, and just the corner of it, because as soon as you step up past Caleb

through the staircase that leads into that area, there's light, there is no back wall. It just opens up into the rest of the surrounding area, the ruin, and there are no other structures beyond this tower. Everything that you walked by, whatever portion of a city or village that you walked through, it looks like that ended

along with the line of whatever ended this tower. And down on the ground, is there a rift? Is there a line? No rift. It's just like someone took a portion of a ruined village and a corner of a tower somewhere and just shunted it here. And it is more of a tower than a stair-stepping pyramid structure? Correct, it is more of a tower than stair-stepping pyramid structure?

Correct, it is a tower. There's just some layers as far as it gets thinner towards the top. But the floor that is here, you can see it being very well crafted. The stonework is beautiful, and you do see a handful of what looks to be stone sarcophagi.

On the ground floor? On the ground floor, you see two present here. You want to check out the graves? Check out for traps. I'll hop down there, too. Okay, I'll go check for traps. I heard it's dangerous to open random sarcophagi. You heard that? Somewhere. That's weird's dangerous to open random sarcophagi. You heard that?

Somewhere. That's weird. In a song or something? Yeah. Is there anything written on? I'd love to check the notes. There is. Also an infernal. Ah! Oh! I can read that.

Okay. So as you approach one of the two, and they're both fairly well made, though the detail doesn't change between the two of them. They're fairly similar in shape, design. They both say, Retainers to the Lord. And there are, would look to be where names would be placed.

There are no names there. Like they are left nameless, but just given the title of retainers to the Lord. Retainers to the Lord, like Oryx? You mean like... Like teeth retainers? Like is this where he keeps his? No, no.

Are there symbols anywhere? Make a perception check. So this is from hell? If this is from hell, they don't bury their dead. They're in dead land. Why would they bury or entomb? Retainers. What does that mean? Well, you're smart. Caleb, you're smart. Bury or entomb? Retainers. What does that mean? Well, you're smart. Caleb, you're smart.

Retainers could be helpers of the Lord, right? Yeah. Yeah. Like a servant or an underling. Perhaps these are retainer containers. Or something that you put away to be used later. Like? Yasha, what'd you roll? 22. 22, nice.

You see symbols across the top of each of these stone tablets, as well as the archway on the inside. Once you walk past and enter this base floor, looking back over the archway, there's a similar symbol. It is a long, dark blade, you can see with a couple of runes around the base of it. Very similar to the one that was being wielded by the shadow spectral creature that you defeated outside.

I mean, the Beauregard. Retainer? Yeah. You've climbed up, look onto the second floor, and loosely over one of these and hanging off the edge, not quite falling, but it's on that teetering edge of the stone, it's just starting to fall and crumble, you see a very large, very gorgeous,

adorned black metal sarcophagus. On the second floor. On the second floor. So three total sarcophagi? Two on the bottom floor, and the larger, more ornate one on the second. I wonder if we can go up. And it doesn't look disturbed at all? It's perfectly closed?

From what you can see, yeah. It's just slightly tilted because the floor that it rests upon is broken off at that same angle, and it looks like over time it's starting to bow, and whether through general weathering or other elements, it's starting to crumble a bit. Are there any more up higher? That's what I'm going to look for. I'm going to keep going. Okay, you climb up.

The two more floors above, you see two more identical sarcophaguses to the ones on the bottom floor that are loosely overlapping where the large one is, but those are the last you see. On the two floors above, they're too small. Similar design, but the floor space gets smaller

with each one as the pointed sliver of it comes to its apex, and it just looks like you're catching the edges of rooms, uncertain of what may have been within the larger structure. And once again, this would be the corner of a much larger tower. So this is just a small section of a massive structure wherever it may have come from.

Seems to match up to the numbers on the ground. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, but it was normally used at some point later. So one big one and four ghost tiny ones? Yeah. We're definitely opening them, yes? I mean, yeah. We should open one of the smaller ones first?

I think so. They're a bit. After checking for traps. Sure, sure, sure. Back down to the ground floor with them and relay what I saw. Okay. Have my 10 minutes gone by at this point?

At this point, I'd say yeah. Okay. What am I looking at on the outside of the building? You see statements that essentially equate to the one of 12 here to guard for all of time. That's primarily what you get across from just the entryway. Okay. That's primarily what you get across from just the entryway.

Okay. Okay. Well, so whatever this is. Does that jostle anything in his noodle from reading? Make a history check. 25 or 100? 27. Oh my god.

No. Oh, wow. Deep shit. Ancient knowledge. Yeah, that's deep shit. Ancient knowledge. Wait, did you ask what language it is? It's probably Infernal. It's Infernal. At this point, yeah. While Jester walked by,

could totally read it and Caleb's like, Oh, did you want to read that? Yeah. Sorry. Shall we check one for traps? One of the smallies? We've got Beau here. All right, for traps? One of the smallies? We've got Beau here. All right, I'll check one of the small tombs for traps. They haven't been opened yet.

Not the point you can tell. I'll check one for traps. What am I doing? Investigation? Investigation. 21. 21 does not appear to be trapped. Does it appear to be magic? I can't tell that.

Maybe we wait for the wizard to get in here. Caleb has now joined the rest of you as you've slowly made your way through looking for any other inscriptions. I heard Fjord say that, and I will instantly cast Detect Magic. Okay. Re-ep it.

Nothing magical catches your attention from either of these sarcophagi. All right, let's Re-up it. Nothing magical catches your attention from either of these sarcophagi. All right, let's try to open it. Who's going to be the one to push it open? My mage hand can only do like five pounds, so. We'll push it open. And we're doing one of the basic ones, right? Yeah. Yeah.

I'll hold my hand out, get ready to heal Yasha, whatever. Yeah, yeah. You're good. I'll push it open. Okay, you push open. Immediately, this smell of very, very old, dusty decay gets to your nose, but it has been, it's just brief, because whatever's been sealed in here

has been finished rotting just brief, because whatever's been sealed in here has been finished rotting for a very long time. You look down, and as the scent passes, you can see the skeletal remains of a figure in robes and what looks like faint bits of armor that is just left there, this blackened metal armor. Long rotted. Does the armor look like the ghosts that we saw?

Looks pretty identical. Leather or metal? Metal. We should open the big one. That was for the shadow creature. Absolutely. Well, I mean, that armor's pretty cool, right? You want to wear that?

Nasty or right? It's considered half plate. What is it? Considered half plate. Half plate. I know what that means. I don't think it's not magical armor or anything like that. You don't get a magical essence from the armor. It has beautiful scrolling.

It looks more ornamental or ceremonial than anything really meant to be brought into battle. It doesn't have any war scars on it or anything. These are designed for the burial and entombment of these corpses. One more small one or the big one? Big one. I just want to get within range of the big one

before my spell. Well, we got to go up a floor. Yeah, there are no stairs that go to the second floor, by the way, much like a forge, so any sort of entranceway to the upper floors apparently exist elsewhere in this larger structure that are not present, so you're going to have to climb. Well, you can give the rope to Beau.

You can climb up and then just toss it down so he can have the aid of a rope. That's easy enough to do. It'll take you a little bit of time. Avelia just walks over and takes a gust of wind, takes a leap and parkours off the wall and gets up to the second floor. Oh, that's cool. Okay.

All right. Take the rope, anchor it to a pillar nearby. Oh, that's a wall. Okay. All right. Take the rope, anchor it to a pillar nearby. Yeah, Vilya helps you situate it. Eventually, you guys all make it to the second floor, and there you can see the large sarcophagus at its odd, precarious angle. Checking for traps. All right.

21. 21, does not appear to be trapped. And is there any magical read on it from the last few minutes of my detect magic? No, there is not. Okay. All right. I open this one, too?

Sure. Back up again. In the corner. No weapons with these, right? Guard. No weapons in the sarcophagus? The ones that you saw below? The one that you opened? No. I bet there's one in this one.

Come on, big weapon. Okay, I'm just going to one hand on my blade and then one hand and try to push it open. Okay. Give myself a, no, I can't. I'm not going to do that. Carry on. Okay, make a strength check for me. Okay.

My muscles. I'm going to guide her. You got this, Yasha. Okay. Natural 20. I'm going to guide her. You got this, Yajra. Okay. Natural 20. Oh, get on out. Okay. So you push the lid

relatively easily, actually. It shifts back. As it does, the weight shifts on the sarcophagus and it begins to lift up on that side. With a natural 20, yes. You catch it, but you are locked in place, and the floor, like, you're now in the process where now you can't pull it back up,

but you're keeping it from toppling, and this thing weighs a lot, so you can't move, and you don't know how long you have. I'm going to go up and hold Yasha around the waist and pull back as well. I need you to make a strength check with disadvantage, because this is now two of you pulling back what equates to maybe close to a 10 and a half

of stone in there. Do you want to just peek in and peek in? I will pull out Cat's Ire and bring the hand down to the other side of the sarcophagus and push up. Okay, well, hold on. It's going to take a second to cast that spell. You go ahead and roll your check. Disadvantage.

Saving throw or just a check? Just a check. A seven. Seven. Okay. You go to help her and Yasha, as you're holding it, it goes. The whole sarcophagus peers off the edge. The stones crack and break,

and you see it begin to tumble. You do create Cat's Eye. I need you to go ahead and just roll a straight dexterity check for me. This is to see if you can. Not great. That is a seven. Straight dexterity. Cat's paw appears as you rush towards the edge

to make eye contact with the sarcophagus to try and catch it, and as the cat's paw swoops, it meets air. As the sarcophagus slams into the ground, breaks into three pieces, and dust fills the space around it. We broke our loot. I walk over to the edge and the claw floats down and I just sort of.

Yeah. Kitty litter. Anything? Anything good? Okay. Far away. It's about 20 feet below you. You push apart some of the pieces. You look and see what is a ruined corpse in what looks like a black burial shroud

over very, very intricate looking metallic armor. It is busted. That's what you see. Okay. Good times, guys. Oops. Can we pull the busted looking armor out? Yeah, let's go down there. Yeah, let's go down. We'll go down and look at it. Maybe we can flip over the sarcophagus and see if there's any,

I mean the lid, and see if there's any writing on the inside of it. Sometimes they have those things, right? If it's in, yeah. In the storybooks. All right. You guys make your way down there to it. The lid itself is broken in six pieces. The sarcophagus fell 20 feet and then just hit hard floor in stone and busted. Make an investigation check for me.

Who? Jester? Okay. 18. 18, okay. Piecing some of it together, you do see what looks on the top a sculpture of what looked to be a knight of some kind in the same armor as the corpse, the tattered corpse is adorned in,

wearing a small kind of pointed crown on it. It doesn't look regal by any means, but it represents station and importance. Clutching blade to its chest that goes down to the length of its body. Similar design as to the symbols you saw on the other sarcophagi, as well as the entranceway there. You see a name in Infernal that is carved across

a chiseled ribbon that stretches across from one elbow to the other of where it's holding the sword in front. It says, Lord Kioro. C-I-R, C-I-O-R-O is what it would be, Kioro. C-I-R-O. C-I-O-R-O, Kioro. C-I-O-R-O. Damn it.

So wait, it's just broken into a million pieces, right? This creature? The sarcophagus. The sarcophagus is busted and the corpse inside has been heavily damaged by the process of the sarcophagus being destroyed. What does the armor look like, even though it's been probably dented and?

In similar ceremonial way to the other ones. It's the armor itself, it's full plate. It's like a full, awesome suit of full plate. Really intricately carved with designs and runes. You could see the inside of it probably had a lot of old herbs and things that were placed around the corpse when it was buried, but all that's been also scattered and thrown askew in the space around it.

What about its blade? I feel like he would have been buried with his sword. You do find the hilt and handle of a blade. Hilt and handle? Okay. Did you guys check this for magic as well? Is his skull still intact and everything? Nope.

Aw. Skull is crushed. Can it be put back together so we can talk to it? Goddamn. Once it's done, it's done. I feel like we could've. Can't mend a skull? I feel like we could've banished him.

And he would've gone back to his home plane. I'm feeling really guilty right now. The corpse? The ghost. Oh. The shadow creature. Yeah. He probably would've been real happy. So there's. You're still sad about that tree, aren't you?

Did we look at it, see if the Filton Handle is magical? I'm a big believer in always keeping a sword healthy. I didn't get a read from the outside of the sarcophagus. Oh, that's right, I would read. You scanned this one, too? There's no lead or anything. Okay. Can we grab it? Make an arcana check.

Oh, we're grabbing it. Nope. 12. Rolled a two. Okay. Yeah, you... It just looks like a busted blade. I'm going to take it. Okay. Take a look at it in a little bit. All right. Yeah.

Are there any skulls or anything that we can talk to? I'm going to take it. Okay. Take a look at it in a little bit. All right. Yeah. Are there any skulls or anything that we can talk to? I say we open sarcophagus. Well, we're on the ground floor again, so might as well talk to the one we uncovered. Well, there's a first one. I know there are runes and designs on it. Did it look like it at one time was capable of magic

or more just ornate? Just ornate and ornamental. Battle of the Marble. Damn. No, that's played over. Let's check box number three for now. Yeah, we're going to bother with every single one of them. We're going to do our due diligence.

And we'll take one of them with us. Sorry, Yasha. Oh, I, that's, I, that's... I should have moved it in or something. Do we have room in the bag for this armor? I don't know. I just feel like if this was from somewhere else and it's decorative armor,

if we could find someone talented enough to repair it, it might be worth something or a trade of interest to someone at some point. If you want to take it. Is that all right? I feel like. I think it's fine. I actually. For some reason, I feel like the body itself is more important

than the armor. Yeah, and it's kind of destroyed. Caduceus? What does this tell us about the questions we have for our purpose here? I don't know. This doesn't teach us anything new about Vokoto. This doesn't teach us anything new about Vokodo. This just seems like another

slice of the multiverse. Yeah, it just feels like it reaffirms what we already know. Yeah, a slice of onion. We could ask him questions. He would be able to tell us where he's from, what happened, how he got here. But this tower looks like it was just cut from whatever

reality it was in. I mean, we can ask and we can learn and get more further confirmation. Let's do it, let's ask. Do you have Speak with the Dead? I can tomorrow. I can tomorrow. Might as well take a skull with us or something.

Yeah, my thought. How late in the day is it now? At this point, it's mid-afternoon. Okay. It'd be like three to four o'clock-ish, 3.30. Do we need to mend this crushed skull? I don't know if I can mend this. It seems like it's in a bunch of pieces, this skull,

or is it just cracked? Let me... There's a single break or tear in an object. Yeah, I just didn't know if it was like... Yeah, now that skull is... Yeah. Let's try one of the retainers. Yeah.

Let's open the other retainer box, that's what I said. Sure, yeah. Well, we got the first one, it's already open, right? Let's check, no sense leaving one closed. And then there's two more on the third level? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Oh, one and then one. All right. Oh, maybe go to the top then.

Let's just do this one right here. It's all the same, yeah. Yeah. I think he was the big boy. Did you just mind opening it up? Yeah. One's open. So you open the other sarcophagus right there? Yeah, the third one. Did you just mind opening it up? Yeah. One's open. So you open the other sarcophagus right there? Yeah, the third one.

Okay. Getting it done. You push it open, and you see another similar corpse dressed in the same burial vestments as the other retainer. Make a... Uh-oh. No way. Make a charisma saving throw. Of course, the one that we don't check.

Oh wait, you just opened it? And it's you again! I'm sure it's fine. Maybe you'll just be scared. Maybe you'll just be scared. Please, please make it. 16. Oh, thank god. 16, okay. As you lean in,

from the corpse that is there, the skeleton, you watch suddenly the ghostly visage, one of the ghosts that was in the battle before, emerges from the body and reaches towards you and you push back and it shrinks back into the corpse. You get the sense that the three ghosts that fled may have fled to their sarcophagus. Oh, they went to their home.

Oh, so maybe we can send this one home. Why do we care about this one? This is a ghost that we punched in the face. Ask it questions. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They can't do it anymore. Well, now I can't take its head. He's in it. Good. Go take the other dead head. Nice. I'm going to walk over to the box we just opened.

We feel a little bad about that. I don't suppose you'd want to talk. We feel like I got off into the wrong foot. No response? No. What if we can send you home? No response. Yasha?

I was just going to say what he said. Can we see the volcano peering up over the mist in the distance from here? Right now, the fog that surrounds this space is still too thick to look beyond the horizon to see the mountain from where you are. You'd have to get some, actually, if you climb up towards the tower,

you might be able to have a vantage point to see, but from where you're, you'd have to get some, actually, if you climb up towards the tower, you might be able to have a vantage point to see, but from where you're standing now, you would not be able to. You want me to go? Yeah. And our history buffs don't know anything about the name. I can't get up there right now.

Or Sioreo or whatever. Kiara, Kioro? Yeah, do we recognize you? You can make a history check if you want to. Another history check? It'd have a history check if you want to. It'd have to be like 50. Come on. Come on. Big money!

Boom. Yeah, 21. I don't think that's weaker than his. Yeah. All right, I'll climb the tower, see if the volcano is still mad at us. You know what, I'll send Frumpkin up with you. Okay. You both head up. He'll land on your shoulder.

Okay. Lancing over, you can see the smoke is still billowing, not more intense, not less intense, but consistent with the recent mild fury you seem to sense from the Vokodo entity that exists deep within. Is there anything we missed between here and there? In the landscape, as it stands out?

Not that you're aware of at the moment, not from where you stand. I'd like to see the rest of this village on our way out. Fuck! Any of the other buildings. What? Oryx, Skario. I don't know what else we can learn

from any of this. Circle up! Huddle up! Come on, guys! Share our brains here! Mind meld! Come on! What are we missing? Because right now, Vokodo just sounds like he's actually warning us about dangerous areas. I mean, besides the thing that was hiding the ship.

What would he not want someone to see here? I know, he's hiding something. Why would he bring this piece here? Maybe he gets to choose. How close was that crack in the earth that we saw to the ruins? Was it a whole other area? It was quite far. It was a whole other area.

And if you ask Vily about that, she actually confirms that that crack is... Where is it? I have it here. He doesn't necessarily have to be hiding anything. It's actually part of the Winding Core. The Winding Core? That chasm runs from that northwestern side underneath the mountain and then peaks out

on the southern, southeast side, which is where most of our mining is done. Where's the Winding Core start? What entrance is she talking about? The chasm that was seen earlier. We flew over a thing. Yeah, Beauregard and Owl Jester spotted a crack in the earth.

I mean, if I was trying to pass as a god, I'd be like, yeah, I'm going to give you a cookie for this one and say, don't go to where you might die, because that's going to make me look like I'm an empathetic god. Vokodo seemed pretty emphatic about not coming here in the same way that he was saying to not go to Heaven's Fall.

Right, but you can be hiding something at Heaven's Fall, but then use don't go here because it's dangerous at the ruins. That's true. As a way to mask that you're hiding anything at all at one location. Or there was evidence here that proved that he is not what he says he is.

What if what he was fleeing from was whatever god these people were serving? These people aren't from the Astral whatever sea. The Astral Sea is kind of, I mean, everything's weird. The Astral Sea is kind of like, it's like the packing peanuts in between other planes. What if he'd gone into another plane and he pissed off something else?

What, you pack things? Maybe Vokodo had the ability to punch through the Astral Plane. They're cheap. We should change our perspective. You and Frumpkin should go up to the top. See if it looks different from up there. We're down here.

I did. Yeah, that happened. Didn't I? Yeah. You guys looked up in that area. I'm paying attention. Is there a? Still just mad. There's nothing below the ground floor of the tower. There's no doors on the bottom.

There's no... Make an investigation check. Oh. If I were Vokodo, on the run from something, this thing was here, why would I not want anyone to go here? 12, wait, no, yes, 12. 12, okay.

Don't really find anything. Passive investigation on Beauregard is very high. As part of this discussion and piecing things together, you begin to think, if a creature had punched through and dragged other pieces away from their homes, whatever was dragged along and misplaced

would be very angry that it was misplaced. If something was very angry that it was misplaced, it would be prone to be an enemy of the thing that brought it here. Maybe Vokodo didn't want anyone to make friends with or allies with the spirits that were displaced.

We could have teamed up. But... Punch it in the face and then throw it off the balcony. The leader has been destroyed. The Lord vanquished, the spirit scattered. It is not my fault. No, it's not your fault. Punched it in the face. It is not your fault.

It went at me and, you know. Yeah, when you think about it, it's gross. There was very little attempt to speak with, beseech, and communicate with these creatures, and the path of wanton destruction was chosen instead. Wanton destruction. That feels so blown out of proportion of what actually happened.

It's fine. No, I know, I know. I'm just, you gather with your investigation that perhaps an opportunity to make some allies here has passed. Cool, cool, cool, cool. It's okay. We gave it a shot. Where else are we not supposed to go on the island?

That's pretty much it. That's pretty much it. That's pretty much it. So that spire that we were seeing, that's the tower. That's the tower right now, yeah. Okay, we've checked off all the boxes. We know what we have to do now. We sleep, we feast, we kill Vokodo.

No allies to help. We don't need them. They just get in the way. I tried to empathize with ghosts before. The only thing we haven't done is checked out the Winding Core. I mean, it's just a mine, though. What are we going to get? Just a mine

that we haven't checked out? It's not just a mine. Okay, wait, hold on, hold on. It is in its own way a sliver, but with the Underdark. Ah. But pissed off but with the Underdark. Ah. But pissed off things from the Underdark that might be mad that it got drugged? Is that true? We don't go that deep.

Well, you also haven't been yourself for 25 years. That's true. Is it on the way? But there are beings down there? There are all sorts of horrible things down there. What is it, Yasha? Maybe they're looking to get Stephen. This, explain how this looks.

It looks familiar to the architecture that was like around... Around Rosohna. Like around in the Barbed Fields area? South of the Barbed Fields. There's an area called the Ghostlands that surrounds Rosohna, which is where a bunch of ruins from the final battles of the Calamity remain.

It's similar to those, though not quite. Like where all those shards were? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Like broken, well, there's also fires. Well, there's the barbed fields, the large pointed barbs. These are just, it was just ruins and buildings from what was once the central city

of the Betrayer Gods during the Calamity that was then destroyed and left to ruin. Okay. It was an ice cream scoop of another dimension, if I'm right. Yeah. that was then destroyed and left to ruin. It was an ice cream scoop of another dimension, by the way. Yeah. I mean, we don't need to go shopping in the place with all the terrible creatures. I think that the terrible creatures will be much harder to reason with

than sentient beings here. I think you might be right. And the Underdark, that's this plane. It's just a fissure into the earth. It's not like Hokuto has harmed whatever is down there that we know of. It's not part of this. You know what?

Let's not be too down on Buck. All right. She's fine. But also, look, we can't. I feel like no one said that until you did just now. I'm just saying we shouldn't be. Drag her. Right. So once again, bringing up a point that no one said.

Then we're all in agreement. Here's the point. Here's the point. Here's the point. The thing that we just met and would have allied ourself with, we killed it in 18 seconds. Right. It couldn't have helped us that much anyway.

We're much more powerful than it. We don't need it. Let's go fucking kill Vokodo. I said, fuck Vokodo. I'm just going to stand by that. And no one else said anything. I did too. I said I could, and he said how,

and then we attacked him. Well, no one said anything afterwards. Sure. Anyway, not a big deal. Okay, everyone seems to be making it a big deal. No, it's not a big deal, Beau. The DM just making it a big deal. No, it's not a big deal, Beau. The DM just made it a big deal. We're saying it's not a big deal.

I was clarifying because there was some confusion as to what may have transpired here. We're talking about it so much because it's so not a big deal. Not a big deal. You shit the bed, but we can clean the sheets. Beau, no, no shitting happened. It is fine. Here's the thing. No shitting. That makes a really good point.. Beau, no. No shitting happened. It is fine.

Here's the thing. No shitting. That makes a really good point. Fuck you, Beth. We totally beat it. Super duper easy. I didn't even have any of my high-level spells. Neither did Caduceus.

And Vilya, she didn't do anything. So when she goes in against Vokodo with us, she'll be fighting. It's like we got a free ally with Velia. Look, sometimes in the heat... I feel like you're just as upset and you're trying to make it better. I'm not upset at all.

I can tell, Jester. I'm not. I'm not. I'm trying to defend you. Hindsight is 20-20, especially in 2020. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Okay?

Sometimes you kill a horse that you did not need to kill. 2020 was 2,000 in 2020. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Okay? Sometimes you kill a horse that you did not need to kill. 2020 was 2,000 years ago. Sometimes you throw a knife into the back of a friendly Nothic's head. You could have had a friendly story for you to know, you don't know. These are strange hypotheticals.

Oh, that's a deep cut. That's good. That's true. Nothic feels pretty fresh to me. What horse? What horse? What horse did we kill? We?

It was no we who killed a horse, I killed a horse. Oh. Lesson learned. Not that there needed to be a lesson. There's no lesson. No lessons were learned. There's no lesson to be learned. No lessons were learned. Nothing learned. Tomorrow, be learned! No lessons were learned. Nothing learned! Tomorrow we kill Vokodo.

God, you fucked up. At dawn. We're probably safe to camp here, though. Do we want to get partway in the camp? You all seem to act like the first punch stopped a possible conversation. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Any of you had a chance to have any sort of interaction with these things that battle, but it all went in.

Our friends were possessed pretty fast and they were attacking us. Yeah, totally. I just want to say, our track record with ghosts hasn't been great. Well, that's fair. I've tried. That's not totally true, Beau,

because I did read porn to some and they liked it. That is correct. I don't remember that. It's rare you find horny ghosts. How did you forget that? Oh, I don't think Caduceus was with us at that point. What are we doing next? At dawn, we kill Vokodo.

Or do we head back to the beach? I say, were Caduceus with you guys when you did that? What? Oh, he was. Caduceus was with you. Oh, okay, you remember. I know. Maybe you were just distracted. Oh, okay, you remember. I know. Maybe you were just distracted. I may have just tried not to pay attention. Are we actually weighing sleeping in a dome out here?

There's nothing to hurt us. I think maybe on the top floor. Well, the top floor is very teeny. We don't think that the little specter that was in the sarcophagus is going to gain power by resting and then come up through the floor and in the middle of the night. It's possible. That's a good point.

But then back that way are those walking bloody tree things. That's true. Do you think we can ally with the bloody trees? But if we, hmm. But we could throw the dome up there so the tree would be able to. I mean, if we save that one. Should we talk to the walkie-talkies?

They lost their minds, though, so. I just want to make it right, guys. No, no we save that one. Should we talk to the walkie-talkies? They lost their minds, though, so. I just want to make it right, guys. No, no, no. Okay. You'll get your chance. I'll find you some allies. We all, we all, we all didn't make the right decisions here, maybe. I made your hands glow.

It's not like you offered to restart a war between two nations. That would be crazy! Wow, who would do such a thing? Yeah. All the fucking... What? You offered what?

Maybe, you know, it's still light outside. We can try making our way back. Make our way back. What was that? What time is it? Today? We can't fly. It's about 3.30, 4 o'clock in the afternoon. Yeah, so let's take some time to start making our way so there's less to travel tomorrow.

And honestly, the less spells we have to expend getting back to the beach tomorrow, the more we can do in the room. Honestly, we either camp here, which we don't need to do, or we just try to sneak back several hours on foot and park it in the jungle somewhere. Okay. Yeah, that sounds right. I'm into that.

All right. There's nothing else to see around here? I think we did it. I think we saw it. They do have a Dole Whip around the corner. There's an decrepit, enslaved ape somewhere around here. I know. Good.

That's what would have soothed their spirits. The Dole Whip. Hard apple. Well. All right. I hunger. You gather yourselves and begin to make your trek back the same path, the direction you were previously traveling. Yeah, we know that one. Okay.

A few hours journey, you make your way back to the edge of the jungle itself, where it begins to rise back up in its somewhat diseased state. You guys going stealthily from that point? Yeah. Sure. All right, everyone make a group stealth check for me, please. Right. I'm going to say.

No pass without a trace, I'm going to say. Well, hold on, let me look. I might have some left. You got it. Pass without a trace. Yeah. Sure. All right. Round the tables. A natural 20. Fuck you, Veth!

Can't even hear you. You're so stealthy. Aggressive stealth. To a total of, what's the total? Oh, 29. I mean, I know. Dang it. 23. 23. Well, plus 10 for Yasha. Come on, come on.

Was that plus 10? Oh, plus 10, 39. 39, all righty. Rogue stealth. 23. 23? 39. 18.

Nice. Nice. With plus 10. Veth and Beauregard, both equally vanishing into another campaign. So Veth knew exactly when she heard me. Yasha? 18.

Just through the trees. Exactly. Caleb? 15. 15, okay. 17. I just fart right in her path. 17. Hold up, there's danger.

She's so stealthy, she cups it and throws it back. Ow! Look at how Duke ends. Okay. Through this stealth fart duel, you do manage to quietly make your way beyond the boundaries of the dangerous animated trees that wander through this portion of the diseased forest,

eventually making your way deeper into the jungle, coming about the time dusk hits towards the northern base of the Mountain of Rumblecusp. You can continue your journey or you could bed down here. You could, if you wanted to, continue and get more distance across the mountainside. bed down here. You could, if you wanted to, continue and get more distance across the mountainside into the evening, you're welcome to,

or you could stop now. Would we make it all the way back to the boats? Probably not, right? You could if you traveled throughout the entire night. No. You could make part of the way there before midnight hits. Four hours of travel across the mountain range will get you a fair distance.

If we sleep here and we fly in the morning, is it going to be just an hour of flight? No, it would still be two hours from where you are. If you continue on for the mountain for a bit, you may be able to cut one hour off of that flight. Try and do that. Seems worth it. Save a spell. Yeah. I still have spells to burn. Not a lot of them, but I have a couple.

Okay. And plus, are we going back to where the ships are to the rear entrance, or are we going to try and go and turn Tara as well and add one to our number before we fight Pocoto? That's a good point. The hunting leader. We could try to do that.

I don't have the ability to do that. Do you have any greater restoration left? You couldn't get to Voh tonight. We couldn't get to Voh tonight. Voh's on the opposite side of the mountain from you. We couldn't get to Voh tonight. I have one left, if we had to. But not, I mean, not tonight.

No. How many of those fancy bowls you got for Heroes' Feast? Could we have Tara meet us? Meet us at Heaven Falls? At Heaven Falls? Ooh, the place where she, they, he, she? I can't remember. For a bowl. She. Tara?

She. Is? She. Is not supposed to go? Would she do that? She could come close, maybe? Just to the edge of something? Velia, could maybe, could you snag her and fly her to us? Tara's a prickly sort.

You'd have to be mighty convincing to get her to break rank from whatever she's in the middle of doing to walk out on a limb towards a place that Vokodo vehemently warns not to go near. It's possible. I'm just saying it's challenging. We might have to lie to her.

Send a message saying that Hey, Tara, Viridian needs your help. No, not Viridian, Viridian, yeah. Viridian needs your help. You can try it. And then, just to game this out, we're lying to Tara to get her to come to a place where she's not supposed to be when she gets there.

We're like, ha ha, we lied! But seriously, we need your help, right? No, no, no, well, Velia would go up and be like, I'm still Viridian, and then she would shake her hand and be like, I'm so glad you came, I need your help, but she would cast Greater Restoration when she shook her hand, and then Daryl would be totally free of it, and she would help us.

Takes about six seconds for Greater Restoration to take hold, and it was one thing to get you to sit still, I don't know if it'll be. I can't say that I'm a great liar, but I can try. Is Tara a magic user? No, not that I know of. Does Tara ever? Maybe on a small scale. Does she ever move alone as a hunting leader,

or does she usually travel with a troop? She travels with a troop. Best to survive that way. And if you are talking about sending a message, we need to word that one very carefully so that she doesn't come with a whole party. Yeah. Because we cannot handle that.

Yeah, maybe not worth the risk. Just to get one. I don't know how we would get just her. It's got to be one, otherwise it's a negative, not a positive. Big bad problem. Well, we get her, then we kill all of her friends, and then we turn her. There it is.

Yeah. Kidding. Oh, yeah. Maybe without Tara, then? And if so, are we taking that second entrance into Vokodo's lair? It still pulled us towards, I'm assuming, it. Yeah, but maybe from a different direction.

But it wasn't anticipating? Maybe it'll go above him or something. And it fights in water. There's no way to get him out unless we can collapse a volcano somehow. No one can do that. You can't do that, can you? Volcano. I don't believe I can. My apologies.

You can't make the ground shake or anything? Not to that scale, no. Made a leg out of bones. Heals up a bit for what you're asking. It's fair. So now, Tara, we just go in, lean and mean? I've got a bone. Heals up a bit for what you're asking. It's fair. So now, Tara, we just go in, lean and mean? Is that what we're saying?

I think that's right. We could try to coax it out. I mean, I did manage to, I mean, something managed to piss it off. So maybe if we got close. I just feel like we're slower in the water, that's where it is. The influence is deeper down there.

Its lair might be trapped and protected. It's its home turf. We could send it a message when we get close, maybe? Talk some shit. Vilya, do you know any reason why Vokodo would have a reason to come out? I've never ever seen him emerge from his lair. Also, when angered,

we've already seen the volcano, Stoked. If we're really angered, who knows if that thing would blow or not? Is Vo directly beneath, down below? Would be in a path of a full eruption, yes. And Vilya responds to that with, while my life was robbed for me for that time,

and these people in this village are not truly my family. I'm still responsible for them to a degree. They're still good people. They're still trying to live and be happy. I would not want to put them in harm's way. Do you think fighting Vokodo would activate a volcano that would endanger them on the outside

if we were fighting underneath? I don't... Not if you were to finish the job. Boy. Yeah. I think he's holding the cards. I think we have to go to the source because he's holding the town hostage.

So flipping him the double birds from outside is just going to get people burned in magma. and go to the source, because he's holding the town hostage. So flipping him the double birds from outside is just going to get people burned in magma. I think we just need to pick our place to camp and prepare ourselves the best we can and do what we do best, improvise. Okay. Just throwing it out there, we could go in from both directions. Just thinking that.

Oh, that's interesting. It'd be nice to have more people, of course. It'd be nice to know where that second entrance actually goes. Yeah. And if there are all those weaving tunnels, where do those go? Yeah, not all of them connect to the main chamber.

There's no way. There's almost no way to explore it, though, without one of us being like, and going towards them. Yeah. Unless you want to and we're out. I mean, I'm always ready, yeah. I know that about you. Yeah. We could also tie a line,

just as an early warning if someone starts to go. Oh, right. Like we've done before. We're all kind of tethered. Yeah. Yeah. That's a good idea. If you were tethered and you were in that state, Joran, do you think you would cut that rope? I think I'd try,

if we weren't going the way I wanted to go. We take all of our weapons away. I honestly don't have anything to cut it at the moment, anyway. We go naked. It would give us an opportunity to see that someone was trying to leave, though. Bind all of our hands and teeth

so we can't cut or bite anything. It's weird, I feel like we know so much more information about this enemy than we normally do, and yet I still have no idea how to fight it. We know none of his weaknesses. We know he's greedy. Don't exactly know what he is. We know that if we shift him into another dimension,

we could possibly hold him there. He doesn't want to go back. He was running from something. We know he's greedy and we know he's afraid. We do have a lot of cool stuff. So if someone wanted to go through the front door with an offering, that could maybe distract it while the others go through the back door.

Take my sword. We don't know how long that back door is going to take, though. True. Or where it lets out. We have means of communication. We can send messages to each other when we're in place.

That comes with a charm chance, though. That's the fucking great part. I mean, I think it all does. Yeah. And the only person that could probably get us through the original tunnels would be Caleb. He's the only one that would remember how to navigate.

Or Frumpkin, but only to a distance, right? To explore those tunnels? You mean the front door tunnels? He could draw a map. Any tunnels Frumpkin could go through, but I'm unaware if Vokodo's mojo would work on a fey creature. but I'm unaware if Vokodo's mojo would work on a fey creature.

Vilya also knows the way. A map's not a bad idea. We could. I just don't think we should split the party. It's a risk. Seems weird to be given a second entrance, though, and not utilize it. Yeah, I think we should just go in the back. We should be given a second entrance, though, and not utilize it. Yeah, I think we should just go in the back.

We should. We can send my cat octopus ahead, just to take a look. It might not work, but it is definitely worth the effort. By then, we'll have our chance. Are we still walking or are we camping right now? I think we're walking. You guys are deciding whether or not

you're taking the Mountain Pass or camping here at the base of the Volcanic. Long conversation. We're walking to the thing. Along the journey here, but you're deciding that stuff. Just one more question for Viridian Vilya. Has anyone else ever given an offering to Vokodo with you from the village?

No, it's primarily just been me, because the path is too dangerous for me to travel with more than just myself. So Terra doesn't know how to get there. No one else knows how to get there. I mean, Terra was here before I was, but... How did they do the offerings without you?

They had the previous spiritual guardian that would go ahead and make the offerings before they passed away. Oh, they just died of old age or something? They had an accident. What kind of accident? What was that? They never came back from their trip. Oh, that kind.

They didn't like the offering. Well, we found their body during one of my journeys when we were looking for them, and it looks like the island took them. Hmm. Those vines that I warned you about? Hmm. It's the links.

It's an interesting point, though. Vokodo is comfortable around Vilya. So Vilya could go in the front door with an offering? Distract. I could. Vilya would still be the front door with an offering. Distract. I could. Vilya would still be susceptible to the pull, though. Well, yeah, but that's fine. I'm fairly strong of will.

It's a gamble. And I could hope to, and have probably the history to keep him engaged in conversation. I don't know if I could keep him entirely distracted. He senses, it seems, most anything on this island. Not to mention, well, the eyes. And the pull wears off once you're there, correct? It's just the- Yeah.

It seems so, yes. Do we still have the same feeling of being watched right now? As you take a moment to pull back and just look for that sensation indeed, yes. Mountain pass? Mountain pass, sure. I can be down the way. Viliot goes to the front,

we go to the back after Heroes' Feast. Unless we come up with something better over text this week. Wouldn't he sense us? I mean, yeah. You know, wouldn't, isn't he always going to know where we are? I can try asking the Traveler.

Maybe I can use divine intervention the way you did. And I mean, that's a long shot. It's never worked for me. I wonder if the Traveler could. That's what faith is, right? Yeah, totally. I wonder if the Traveler could put out the volcano so it doesn't erupt.

Well, yeah, but what if the Traveler could shroud us? Keep him from being able to see us. It's always worth going for the smaller miracle. Yeah. Does that seem like a smaller one? Yeah. I think so. I mean, volcanoes a lot. Volcanoes a lot.

That's an interesting idea. Okay, go ahead and roll. What is that? What was that? This is me. Winging it. Well, no, this is me going, given the circumstances, given Traveler Con's arrival, given the idea, I was going to give advantage on the roll.

So you could, I don't really have advantage on a perception or a percentile value, but we're doing it here. It's still a long shot, though. It's a long shot. Yeah. Chance is a chance. No. Okay. I wonder what it would have been if it hadn't fallen.

No. Worthy attempt, worthy attempt. I see that sword hilt when you get a second. I have it. I'm just going to run Detect Magic over it really quick, just to... Not magic, unfortunately. Does it have any kind of runes or anything on it?

Language. It does have some language. Infernal? Yeah, actually. So you go ahead and look into it, and it looks like this blade was the blade of the Lord, and as part of the interring of the Lord, and as part of the interring of the body, the blade was destroyed to gift the power of the blade to the spirit.

Oh. That's cool. Did we take the armor, too? No, the armor was left. Darn. With that, though, is there, we know Vokodo is greedy. It was definitely a thing about giving it as a gift. Is there something any of you magic users can do

where you can infuse a trap onto an item or something? Ooh! I've never done it before, but. Do you have a thing? Yeah, maybe. If that's part of Vilya's offering. I've never done it before, but. You do have a thing? Yeah, maybe. If that's part of Vilya's offering. You can imbue an item with sunlight, right? So I can imbue an item with a lot of things.

I can, what is it, the ward? I know what you're talking about. Yeah, the ward. Me? Are you talking to me? No, I'm talking to you. Oh. Yeah. Jester. You can put a thimble on something that explodes, right? Yeah, can't remember what level it is.

It's pretty big. It's either fifth or sixth. Let me see here. That could kind of be our cue, if you're able to hand off a couple of grenades to it. Yeah. When we hear the bomb goes off, if you're able to hand off a couple of grenades to it. Yeah. When we hear the bomb goes off, we go in, finish it off. Yeah, what is the fucking?

I think it's called Glyph of Warding. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's what it is. Oh, I'm not looking, am I? Third level. It's third level, that's it? Correct, but at higher levels, you can cast it at higher levels to do more damage.

And you can set when, like, the parameters around which it... Correct. It lasts until dispelled or triggered. It takes an hour to cast. So in theory, you could cast it the night before. On a good item. Depending on how many third-level slots you have on multiple items. On multiple items.

Hand it over, plant a bunch of grenades on it, trigger it when we're ready. Or any spell, third level or lower. Yeah. But if you choose an object, that object must remain in its place. If the object is moved more than 10 feet from where you cast the spell, the glyph is broken.

Oh. So you have to be real creative in how you'd move that item. You put it on an item. If it's moved more than 10 feet in this dimension. Fuck. But then, okay. That'll be an experiment for another day. Yeah.

It could go in a pocket, little pocket dimension. Doesn't Caleb have those? Pull it up, but then as soon as he grabs, does it trigger once it's moved 10 feet? When it's moved 10 feet from where it is, it's triggered. But if you cast the spell and then we're like, for say, seal it in amber. Yeah, put it in amber. Technically, it's not being moved from where it is, it's triggered. But if you cast the spell and then we're like, for say, seal it in amber. Yeah, put it in amber.

Technically, it's not being moved from where. Give it to it, if it yanks it, then it's going to explode. That's pretty interesting. Oh, Vokoto, here we present to you these five gifts to you. Here you go. And we're just going to back up. The only question is, is he listening to us right now? But it is a fine idea and worth trying all the same. Well, that's why we've been calling him Guacavoli

this whole time and he definitely doesn't know who we're talking about. Who are they talking about? Vilya does speak up on this and says, it's interesting. Whenever I visit, he often asks about the goings-on within the village and around. So I don't know if he hears what we say.

He just knows where we are. Okay. That's my assumption based on all the time I've been, because he has asked questions that if he were indeed listening in, he would know the answer. Okay, that's good. Oh, well, we've been scouting.

He has sight. We've been scouting for places to have the event. Obviously. And we've at least found a sword hilt so far to give. Yeah. So. But if he senses where we are, then he'll know that we're coming up far to give. Yeah. So. But if he senses where we are,

then he'll know that we're coming up the back door? Yeah. Yeah. Maybe. Unless you're extremely distracting. Uh, I can't tell you, I don't know. It's worth a shot. But this is an excellent idea,

and it might make it worth it to enter the front door now. And we just all put a glyph for as many glyphs as we can on items? And we still need to think things through and be ready for a head-to-head battle in case this does not work, and it very well might not. Probably won't, but worth trying. He did say that these gifts were good for now, that they were initial gifts and that he anticipated us returning anyway.

So it's not going to seem shifty, I wouldn't think. We come back and report our findings and tell them we were going to have Traveler Con with a new offering. Also takes diamond to do it. Yikes. Powdered diamond. Powdered? 200 gold worth. Well, we can do it.

Well, I can powder it if you have one. I have one. I think I'm a little nervous about powdering diamond. How do you mean? Diamond is a very useful component for something goes really wrong. We don't have a lot. I think we should take the lesson from today

and just try and talk to Vokodo. Let's learn from Beau's mistake. I cast Blindness. Ah! I don't know! Make a constitution saving throw. No! Yeah. That's not dead.

Oh, constitution, that's worse. 15. 15. You go blind. What did we learn now? I'm fine. Yeah. There's a time and place, and the time for talking, sadly, has definitely passed. You're still talking.

Just trying to teach. Mm-hmm. There we are. And it fades. Oh! Thank you. I miss my Pacifics. That's fine. Doesn't do a crazy ton of damage. No, I think they're better.

Unless you did it at a high level, and then that's wasting a... I'd rather just, no, depends on if you use a bunch of, I mean, depending on how many third on if you, depends on if you use a bunch of, I mean, depending on how many third-level slots you have the night before. Yeah, but it takes a 200, a diamond worth 200 gold each time.

What about a good case of La Fanata? Could we get a nice gilded case or box full of powder with a glyph on it? I mean, I can paint a really beautiful gilded box. Yeah. Hey! I can paint a lot of treasure. Upon close inspection, he would know,

but it would look like something amazing before that. Maybe there's some powder in the boats? Picked clean, right? I think. Our boat's gone. Veth has a lot of. But I have two bombs. I have a fluffernutter and I have a depth charge.

I don't think they're going to do. I think this is going to be a lot of magic and a lot, maybe light. Since there's so much shadow. I don't know. Not fire. But hey, if we're going to deliver an item, might as well have it full of black powder. Just gives us one more weapon in the fight, I suppose.

Sure. We can work on that when we camp tonight. Yeah, it wasn't nothing when we used it against the Hydra. Sure. Yeah. What do I have? We still walk around. We'll always have to decide now. To be continued. As you guys continue to discuss and plot your plans

for whatever may come in the morrow, you precariously hike alongside the volcano's edge, the northeastern and eastern edge in the dark of night, and we'll pick up there next week. Scratching their heads as we go. I am ready. We have some interesting plots and plans to do. D&D! Yeah.

Coming up with all the answers on the fly. Oh yeah. All righty, we'll pick answers on the fly. Oh, yeah. All righty. We'll pick up there next week. Thank you guys so much for joining us. I hope you had fun with this cast as much as we do. I love you. We love you very much. And is it Thursday yet?

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