Critical Role - C2E116 Under Timeless Ice

Episode Date: November 19, 2020

The Mighty Nein delve into their first of Eiselcross's excavation sites, hot on the heels of their mysterious quarry...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 voice actors sit around and play Dungeons & Dragons. We play Dungeons & Dragons! Just like that. Before we get into tonight's episode, we do have some announcements to get through, beginning with the first of our two sponsors, Cortex! Sam, if you don't mind. This episode is sponsored by Cortex, a brand new gaming toolset from our pals at Fandom, the D&D Beyond folks, that lets you create your own original game from hundreds of modular parts to best suit your world and play style. Modular.

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My god. You need the thrill. Great commercial read. Print it. Anyway, right now, fandom is giving away free copies of the main Cortex rule book on Twitter, twitter.com slash cortexrpg. So head over for a chance to get a copy or simply grab your own digital or physical copy right now at bit.ly slash cortexrpgcr.

Woo! Hey! Hey! Nice job, Pax Man. Good game. Physical copy. File early. Awesome. Thank you very much, Sam. And thank you, fandom friends and Cortex.

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It's perfect for family game night this fall season. So check it out at bit.ly, V-I-T dot L-Y slash CritRoleHocusPocus for more details. Can I just say that I watched that movie for the first time this Halloween season. Wait, for the first time? Oh man. I had never seen it. Did you? It's really good.

It's adorable. Sarah Jessica Parker is so good. She's so good at it. She's so adorable. We were just talking about this. She was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen in my life. My lucky rat's tail. She's so good, I love her. Why did we watch that?

With the Looney Tunes humor, too. She's like. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I still think she was better in Flight of the Navigator. But anyway. So we have a few other announcements we have here. We are excited to announce our next project Anyway. So, we have a few other announcements we have here. We are excited to announce our next project

with our friends at Dark Horse Comics, The Mighty Nein Origins. What? Dark Horse Origins! It's a series of hardcover graphic novels that explores the origin story of each member of the Mighty Nein. The first two volumes that are scheduled for release

are Jester Lavorre due in June, 2021, and Caleb Widogast in July of 2021. They're both available for pre-order now at your local game shops and other book retailers. And they're fantastic. We can't wait to be able to announce the creative team, help them put this together. And to learn more about the creative team

I'm talking about, go check out our announcement article at critrole.com. Marisha, you got an announcement as well? Oh, I do! I should really read these before we get started. I'm a professional! Oh man! Oh yeah, we're back for another episode of Narrative Telephone, round two, this Tuesday, November 17th, at 4 p.m. Pacific, and our storyteller is the one and the only Brian W. Foster. Buckle up for this one. The cabbage man.

Buckle up. It's special. Yeah. Yeah. It's a good word. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely.

Thank you, Marisha. Don't want, it's, I'd say, not safe for work. Not that any of us are at work. Yeah. It's a good word. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. Thank you, Marisha. Don't want, it's, I'd say not safe for work. Not that any of us are at work. No. Not safe for work. Not safe for work. Not safe for Zoom. Brian definitely kicked us down that alleyway.

Yeah. Thank you, Marisha. Thank you, Brian. And Laura, you have an announcement. Oh, I do. So you guys know our Vox Machina D20 set that we released before, but I'm excited to let you know that we're doing full sets of dice.

So right now, we have available a Vex set, a Grog set, and a Vax set. Yay! They're in the store. These are the pretty leather bags that they come in. They're lined up beautifully. They're so lovely. They're in the store. These are the pretty leather bags that they come in. They're lined up beautifully. They're so lovely. I love them. They're with our friends at Die Hard Dice. So yeah, go check them out. That's a good-looking set of dice. Natural 20.

Right out of the gate. The mug came up. Ooh, I got a 19 on mine. What the? Oh, I got a natural 20 on the Vax one. Tumbled bone and stone. These are weighted properly, we swear. They're correctly weighted. They're fancy, I love them.

You guys better not be using those dice tonight. You're already rolling way too high. I've always got a liner. All righty then. Thank you so much, Laura. Why, what happened tonight, Matt? Well, let's find out shortly, because with that, I believe we are done with our announcements.

And that's that, so let's go ahead and jump into tonight's episode of Critical Role. Okay. I'm sorry. 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 fouchions 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 Critical Roll the dice Critical Roll the dice Critical Roll the dice Critical Can you answer the call? Critical Role Can you answer the call? Dig in deep in your soul

As the legend unfolds, now it's your turn To Role And welcome back. So, last we left off, the Mighty Nein making their way north into the realm of Eiselcross, hired by Vesterogna of the Cerberus Assembly to help bring her and protect her towards the ruins of Aeor on the region of Fórin.

Unfortunately, Vess was murdered by the previous ally, or at least the body of the previous ally, Mollymauk, traveling with other individuals northward on a similar path. You discovered Vess's dead corpse, covered for it so nobody else would discover it as well, and made your rapid escape from Balan Post,

along with your scout Dagon Underthorn, who has been leading you through the icy, frigid realm towards the first location on the map which you've decided to explore. Dubbed A5 on the icy, frigid realm towards the first location on the map which you've decided to explore. Dubbed A5 on the map, it is one of the numerous early excavations of fallen Aeorian debris. And after making your way across some mysterious encounters, some strange weather, and making some allies

out of possible enemies in the shape of intelligent yeti, you discovered the outside of this excavation site. As you found a number of long frozen bodies left in the surrounding debris and ice and stone, you begin to approach the entrance to it. And so, picking up where we left off, as Dagen once more goes, All right, so I got you here.

That's what I'm being paid for. I'll just set up camp out here, and if I see anything strange, I'll, I don't know, shout loudly down the hall for you, but stay alive. For sure, but also don't feel like you need to just remain outside. If there is trouble, you'll come in, won't you?

Oh yeah, but I'm not going to go super deep in there. I don't know what kind of dangers are in, to be honest, I'm not being paid quite enough for that. Fair. Do we have any sort of communication rock or anything that we can give? We don't have anything like that in this campaign, do we? any sort of communication rock or anything that we can give? We don't have anything like that in this campaign, do we?

No earrings, not nothing. We just pierce his ear for no reason. Yeah. Hold still! But I can send him a message. Yeah, yeah, maybe like, well, I can send him a message unless we go farther than 150 feet away.

Which I think you might, yeah. All right, well, I'll send you a message right before we get 150 feet away. Which I think you might, yeah. All right, well, I'll send you a message right before we get 150 feet away. No, no. Yeah, and if things get real dangerous or you... A minute later. I don't know, if you find yourselves being suddenly attacked by a bunch of terrible beasts

that are climbing their way to the surface and you're not going to survive, if you could just let me know in advance so I can skedaddle, that would be great. I'll try to remember that before I die. I appreciate it. All right then, stay safe. I guess see you on the other side.

We have a rule in the Mighty Nein. If we don't come back within seven days, you have to hold a funeral for all of us. How elaborate are you thinking? I mean, no. Pretty elaborate, I feel like. We gave you 1,000 gold, no. Pretty elaborate, I feel like. We gave you a thousand gold, right?

So at least a thousand gold worth of stuff. For sure, you have to sell us out to see if- How about I pay for the funeral out of the extra I was paid when we took this journey? That sounds good. Sound like a plan? That sounds good. Perfect. Yeah. I'm going to go ahead and cook up a meal.

Good luck. And he goes ahead and makes his way away from the initial alcove where you guys are currently standing at the precipice of the entrance to find a safer space to set up his small camp out of sight. I had C invisibility up when Mollymauk or Admin Profile or whoever was talking to Jester.

That's down now, right? It's been like an hour plus, right? I'd say it's probably, because you guys did begin looking through the bodies and stuff, and that was, I remember when you did that. I'd say, yeah, I'd say it's down by now. So now what?

I think we agreed we're going to enter, but be open to hearing a story before we kick shit off, yes? I mean, there's no surprise happening here, though. No. No. Yeah. Is there anything that we can do to surprise them? Like, they'll expect seven people

walking down a hallway. Should we make ourselves look like six or eight? Or should three of us hide or be invisible? I just have a weird feeling because Lucien could see me scrying. He can probably see if one of us is invisible or, you know, if we're disguised or something. Going to see through our usual bullshit.

Yeah, I feel like those nine eyes will flare up at different moments to activate something. I think, didn't you say when you were scrying, an eye lit up and then he turned and could see you? I can't remember. Maybe? Yes, but two of you can be, you know, worms or cockroaches.

They can't see through that, right? I think we save our tricks until we know what we need. Didn't you do that once before and the cockroach was a little, I don't know. I was a moth. A moth, yeah. And you weren't super with it, right? I don't know what you need. Didn't we do that once before and the cockroach was a little, I don't know. I was a moth. A moth, yeah. And you weren't super with it, right? I don't know what you're talking about. A little easily distracted.

Maybe not just yet. All right. I think you ate a curtain. Wait, what did the stone in the arch say? That had markings? Did we figure that out? What stone? Oh, I don't think we looked. Is this something else?

No, as the entrance to this, you can see there once was solid ice that had just sealed it off and has since been worked away. You saw signs of large chunks of ice and rock being chiseled and broken to expose the entrance that leads further down beneath the surface. But it doesn't look like there were any markings necessarily or script or writing or glyphs on it.

It's just the sign that this was a space that was intentionally dug and excavated to delve within. That's what that means. That's what I wrote down. That didn't make any sense. Translated, it says, days since last accident. I mean, possibly. So, did you make your way in?

I guess so. I think we're just going in and having a discussion. Is it super duper dark? There is no light inside there. I'll take out the Star Razor and say, Gala Svaar, and it'll put out that 20-foot. As it ignites the air around with bright divine light, you can see immediately in the first few steps

within the entrance, it pincers a little bit and it looks like it opens up into a smaller chamber, maybe no more than five feet within the interior. I come up right behind and I go, Gullisfar! Does it turn it off? No, unfortunately the wielder has to say the phrase. Too bad. That is pretty funny. That is very, very clever, though. I wielder has to say the phrase. Too bad.

That is pretty funny. That's very, very clever, though. I was just trying to see. I'm going to just power up a bolt with a spell. I'll voltaic bolt a spell, a bolt, just so it's ready to go. Okay. How long does it last?

It just says until I use it. Should be concentration. Oh, you're totally right. I don't do that. Okay. How long does it last? It just says until I use it. Should be concentration. Oh, you're totally right. I don't do that. And how many sets of footprints do we see going into the cave? A number of sets. There are fresher ones, you can see,

but there are older ones that come in and out. A lot of people have been through here and who knows how many sets have been wiped out by the weather and then been left behind in recent times. It's a smattering, but there you do see a number of sets that are at least within the last day or so. All right. Do you want me to scout ahead and check for things?

Trapeze and stuff? Yeah. And a marching order would be preferred. I guess I'll go first. Okay. Do you want me to scout ahead and check for things? Trapeze and stuff? Yeah. And a marching order would be preferred. I guess I'll go first. Okay. First. Walk in the park.

Who else is coming up after Veth? Nobody for at least 100 feet. Okay. So. I'll walk, I'll walk. If you're going to message Dagen, now is the time. Dagen! We're 150 feet away from you.

For us! All right, so. You go ahead and roll a stealth check as you enter into darkness. Do you have darkvision? I do. My stealth is 25. Okay. How many things have darkvision? I do. My stealth is 25.

Okay. Halflings have darkvision? Who, huh? Halflings have darkvision? Uh. Ooh, lovely. Let's see here. Racial traits.

Is that where it would be? Yep. It doesn't say it in racial traits. Uh-oh. Do I not have darkvision? I think you did. I think goblins did. Yeah, not as a halfling. Whoa! I didn't know they made characters

that didn't have darkvision. But seriously, don't all the characters have darkvision except for humans? All but two. A lot of them, a number of them do, yes. And even darkvision, you still humans? All but two. A lot of them, a number of them do, yes. And even darkvision, you still can see in pitch darkness, but it's considered very, very low light

and it's still very limited, so. I can't see shit! Do you want to borrow my goggles? Should I attune to them? I don't think so. What do we know? Hmm. Not a lot.

About 30 feet away on the precipice of an ice cliff, Dagen's going, I guess. It's been a while since this has been relevant. Oh, glad I got some pay up front. You guys got something on your mind? It's not. It's not. It's not?

I can wear them? Yeah, you can just put them on. They're just night vision goggles. All right, give me. Yeah, but I want them back. But I want them back. But I want them back. Oh, whoa!

That's weird. Will you acknowledge that you're going to give them back? Yeah, yeah. I got it. They don't make you look straight. They don't make you cross-eyed. That's the wall, Veth. This is how I do it.

All right, let's go. Roll a stealth check. You guys need to go see an optometrist. I'm going to do Blessing of the Trickster, him, her. Wow. Okay, you got it. That is a dainty ring. It is. It should be.

What is happening right now? Molly! All right, Blessing of the trickster, you see you have advantage on your stealth check. I already have. Which you would have already. But now you're blessed by the trickster. Oh, well. There you go. Never mind. So roll again?

Yes. Okay. Sure. Slightly better than before. 29. 29, okay. So as you vanish into shadow, all of you wait for a moment, you make your way inside,

where it begins to open up slightly. It kind of, you enter a sort of kidney-shaped, slightly curved antechamber of natural rock and ice. It's about 15 feet wide, maybe 25, 30 feet long. And make a perception check for me. Oh, those are my specialty. Yeah. 12.

12. What you do see within this room are signs of an abandoned encampment. Small, but you can see there is an old frayed rope that is partially coiled in the ground and discarded at the side. You see heavy tools that have been pickaxes and elements that are used for simple excavation.

You see a pile of rags and burlap, it's like sacks and stuff.. Two different black soot-marked fire pits in here that currently are just in disuse. But it looks like this was a resting place or a temporary encampment, or a rotating encampment for those who were coming to excavate this location. And then the chamber continues on. You can see it goes deeper and deeper and becomes a steady decline into darkness below. And it pincers into about wide enough space

for single-file travel. And everyone else is like 30 feet behind me? Yeah, they're still by the entrance. So they're about 20, 30 feet. Let me just go look and see how, if those fire pits or whatever are recently used. All right, go make an investigation check for me. 23.

23? Looking at the fire pits, one of them looks like it hasn't been used in a while. One of them looks like the recent ashen soot in there puts it somewhere in the neighborhood of the past week or so. It could be a day ago, it could be a few days ago, but it's relatively recent.

Okay, I'll take some soot from there and just do this, get ready for battle. Oh yeah. Cool. Yeah. And I'll just message back to the friends. Okay, first room's clear. Nothing here, I'm going to keep going down. But come up and then I'll go down.

I don't know how to... Go! What was that? Just like that. Of all the movies you've seen, did you ever see? That was like Delray Mishad in choir. Okay, let's go.

That's what the SWAT teams do. That was the cutest thing I've ever seen. OSD is no longer going to take our support. We do not. Okay. Stop. Stop. La. Serpentine, Serpentine. There you go. All right, I'll continue down.

Okay, you all still staying outside? No, we're following her. 30 feet behind. Meet her where she is. So you follow in after Veth, and you two see this small encampment here with the scattered elements and piles of disused tools and rags and things that lead you to believe

that people stayed here at some point. And the tunnel continues on beyond that in a very thin, maybe six-foot tall, two and a half foot wide opening that itself looks partially broken into the ice and rock. Like, maybe at one point, one point itself was just sealed solid ice. Can I check to see if there's any markings on the walls, any codes, anything utilizing my cant,

my thief's cant kind of background? Perception? No, not good. Eight. Eight. That wouldn't be an good. Eight. Eight. That wouldn't be an investigation. Nope. Either way, either way, you don't see any markings.

You don't see any writing. You don't see any symbols. It looks like this is just simple, bare rock and ice. Okay, so nothing like directing miners or anything like that or any of activation? No. Miners or miners? That's miners. One second. One second.

Miner, miner. Miner, miner, miner. Can I go up and just put hands on the wall, just drag fingers across it and just make sure it's actually real? Yeah. So you work along one side and drag your fingers through, and as it does, you hear the grinding of ice crystals,

and then occasionally the slick elements of smoother ice, stone, it's all solid. Cold to the fingertips, but thankfully you have gloves. Before Veth takes off, I apparate Frumpkin and scooch Frumpkin into the hood of your cloak so that he crawls in a bit like a mink stole. It's warm. Like Sprinkles. Yeah.

Little weightier. Oh no. Little more healthy. Okay. Can I check the fire pit that has been used to see if there's anything in there other than ash? Sure, make an investigation check. I don't know why. Some old insects you can eat.

Guidance! Food. Ooh, just in time. You get an extra d4. I do. This would be, ooh, okay. 15. 15. You see within the ashes that remain here, some of it's wood-based burnt carbon.

Some of it is melted fats. It looks like with a lack of nearby timber, the abundance of timber is not available here. So you see there's various different materials that were used to start and maintain a fire. That's what you acquire from that. Beauregard, because you have a super high passive investigation,

you also glance over while she's looking at the fire pit, the pile of rags and burlap that rests off to the side. You can see some of it looks like long discarded bedroll elements. And you see what looks like the edge of a boot under it. They left their shoes here. Does this take your shoes off before we go any further?

Does this look like shaped, you know, like there's a body that goes with that boot? It's a large enough pile where a body could fit under it, but. All right. I'm just going to look at Veth and go towards the pile of clothes. You're going or do you want me to? I don't know. I'm just following.

I don't know your language. I'm going to go there, too. And then we go. I'm not going to do it. But before I pull anything off, can I poke my staff? Sure, you poke the boot and the boot shifts when you poke it.

Did you see that? Did you see that? Did you see that? Not on its own. Oh. But when you push it, you push it. It gives. I want to poke the... The bear.

The bear, I want to poke the mound. Okay. No reaction. Uncover that shit. Look and see what it is. You think he's dead? Yeah. Is that another military hand sign? Oh yeah. For, let's dig.

Watch all the, oh. Body. Doggy paddle, doggy paddle. Doggy paddle. General sense of tension here. Pulling back the scattered elements of forgotten and tossed aside material, you uncover indeed a frozen corpse. Oh, it's frozen.

It appears to be a rather tough-looking drow in heavy leather armor, his face aghast in terror with trails of frozen blood against his face, heading from his eyes, his ears, his nose, his mouth. Do we recognize him? You do not recognize this individual specifically, no. Dynasty-type attire?

Indeed. The blade by his side and the armor he's wearing does bear distinctly Kryn Dynasty design. Can I do a medicine check to see if, I mean, obviously this has to be within the last, if it's in the last week or if maybe this is much older? Make a medicine check for me. Gah, oh, I didn't say it beforehand. Gah, 24.

24. Yeah. Yes, in fact, this body, the elements of it that are currently cold are beginning to freeze over. Let you know that this is probably within the past few days. Oh. Can I inspect the body?

Any special markings? Any eyeball tattoos? Sure, make an investigation. I'm going to kneel down next to her with small flames in each hand and bring it close enough to start keeping the body up. Lying? Guidance!

Thank you. This is an investigation check, you said? Yep. Fucking shit. Okay. 18. 18. So looking at the... There aren't distinct wounds on the body between both of your checks.

It looks like the trauma was internal. And the wounds, or at least the pattern of bleeding is identical to how you found Vesterogna, but you do not see any eye-like markings in the body, nothing akin to what you found on hers. When we, I can't remember, when we were in the chamber with Avocado and we got the vision, did our ears bleed? Did our nose bleed with that?

Or was it just a bad vision? It was just a bad vision. Okay. The sword next to his body, plain looking, I mean, not plain, it's obviously a Korean sword, but. I mean, it's a well-made, you know. I'll take it and I'll put it in a bag of holding. Okay.

And searching through his clothes, pockets, any notes, any messages, any ordinances? The blade left behind remains. Everything else in the body has been taken. Okay. Do you want to talk to him? I don't have that today. Why would I talk to him?

I thought we would have trouble today, so I packed for trouble. That's totally fine. Should we take his head? I mean, it couldn't hurt. Pull that back out, please. The sword? Yeah. Take out my axe. Is this fucked up?

No. What are you doing? What are you doing? Oh! What are you doing? You watch as Jester cleaves the head from the drow corpse. It rolls about three or four feet before coming to rest at your feet. Why did you do that?

Is this a thing that we do now? No, no, no, it's just so. We desecrate the body? Why? It's so the deuces can talk to him later. Oh, just clue us in first. Well, we were talking about it. I thought you had snapped and we were going to have to turn on you now. Hold on.

Casting decompose on everything but the head just to get it going. Whatever the hell is going to grow out here, but. Okay. Caleb, do something with this sword. What did you want? Well, it's holding two flames and I shake one out and then I cast Detect Magic on the sword.

Okay. The sword itself is inert. It is a mundane weapon. It is well-made, but it is a normal weapon. Okay. Does that do it? That does a full radius, though, to the Detect Magic. Anything else around that's Chloe? It is a mundane weapon. It is well-made, but it is a normal weapon. Does that do it? That does a full radius, though, to the tech magic. Correct. Anything else around that's Chloe?

Nothing else that catches your attention. What about the head that's on my toe? Not magical, but a little ghastly. It's frozen, it'll keep. Just dig it and put it in the bag or something. Don't we have a bag of colding? No, that was another person. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You do? Well, this. Oh, it's okay. Wait, what is that? That's not a thing that shattered? That's a new thing? I'll just rub it in. You can put multiple bodies in it? Takes a minute, though.

I mean, it can just be the corpse holder, you know? I just toss in the head. I put the flames out. No, no, no, no, we need that. Not in time. After catching it. Oh, good. Okay, I need a moment. So I need 10 minutes to put this on ice.

Ice, everybody freeze. I'll put down. I'll go scout ahead while you take your 10 minutes. So, you know. I'm go scout ahead while you take your 10 minutes. So, you know. I'm going to, before you head off, I'm just going to really quickly give you some resistance, just in case. Tap. Oh, thank you.

Tap resistance. I'm tapped. All righty. Okay. So you go to scout ahead, roll a stealth check for me. Still got for an hour. I always help. I know, but now you've got scout ahead, roll a stealth check for me. Still got for an hour. I always have advantage. I know, but now you've got it extra, extra.

Nevermind, I cast Guidance as concentration. It doesn't matter anyway. 30. Okay, so you continue on ahead. Yeah, that's 20 minutes. You do see, through this space, there's a shift in the ice patterns as the tunnel gets smaller and smaller. The ice seems to take on strange shapes around you,

the hanging icicles bending at odd angles, and it almost appears organic at a flash from time to time, giving you the faint sensation like you're stepping deeper and deeper into some massive creature's gullet. It makes you feel a little anxious and nervous. And as the tunnel tightens and tightens, you reach that point rather rapidly

where only one person at a time could pass through. You curve around and follow it down at the steady decline. At some points, it's slippery, and you have to put your hands up to keep yourself going and not begin to slide downward. The slick ice here will continue to be an issue depending on the steepness of the area ahead of you. But as you continue forward and forward down

for a good 100 or so feet, it comes to a wall. It ends at just a stone, sheer wall, where you can see there is a crack at the base of it. A little bit to the left, there is a large, heavy crack in the stone that heads from floor to ceiling, and where it meets the edge corner

of that stone wall to the floor, there is an opening where a person could probably squeeze through. Oh, it's that big? Squeeze through very uncomfortably. We're talking like the descent, you know, having to squeeze through. And you don't quite know how far it goes. Yeah.

I scritch Frumpkin and sort of say, wow, this would be a good job for you, but I can't command you, so I guess... Go! Wow. Shoot, go in the hole. Go in the hole. Go! Make an animal handling check.

That's great. Eight. Eight. Eight. Frumpkin runs through your legs and heads back to the rest of the group. All right, all right. He has rabies. Well.

I'll peek through the crack and see if I can see anything. First, aye, aye. I will peek through the crack and see if I can see anything. First, I'll check it for traps. I'll check the crack for traps. You got it. O'Don Johnson. O'Don Piano. 23 for traps.

What my eyes. Sorry. Oh, internet. Oh, classic internet. All right. But no, Frumpkin is waiting. Didn't go completely back, but is now just waiting at the edge

and letting you do your thing. Looking around the entrance here, you rolled a 15, you said? For traps, 23. Roughly 23 for traps. No traps visible around this. Then I'll peek my head through the crack and see if I can see anything.

Okay. Yeah. You glance through and the stone opening seems to progress for about five or six more feet. And then you just see darkness beyond that. No problem. No problem. No problem. Not a fall at all. I will take a piece of wire and send a message back.

I know that Caleb is otherwise occupied right now, so I will send a message to Caduceus. Mr. Clay. Oh, yeah. There's a void. There's a crack and a hole and a void that keeps going forever. One after the other or all together at once? What? Oh, hold on.

What? What? Oh no. Cassius just doesn't know how answering machines work. Hi, hi, it's me again. I can only hear. Hi, I can only hear you after I'm done talking and then that's it.

You get to say one thing, so say it now. Now. Okay, great. So there's a void. Should I keep going or should I wait for you? Now talk. I would wait if there's a void. Void sounds like a lot. You should wait.

What? Okay. What's going on? There's a void in the crack in the wall at the bottom of the sea. Trying to remember. It was a very confusing message. Oh, there's a void and a crack in a tunnel. That didn't say if it was all together or one at a time, but it's up ahead, and I told her to wait.

That's probably pretty smart. Yeah, it seems like a thing to do. So what's the marching order here? To meet up with Veth? Yes. Oh, right, we're going down the slippery shit. Yep, one at a time. I'll go.

All right, so Jester's up first. Who's after Jester? Do you have lights? I'll go after Jester. I can have lights. Who's after Fjord? It's pitch black down here, yeah. All right, Yasha after Fjord. I'll go after Yasha.

All righty. I'll turn on a light, too. Then Beau and Caleb, who's last? I will not go last. I'll go last. All righty. We will. So.

Pardon me. Do we want to rope this by the way or no? I will. Pardon me. Do we want to rope this, by the way, or no? As you all carefully make your way down the tunnel, which is a little tighter for the rest of you in comparison to Veth's first go, but you use the walls and you can find little finger holds to get yourself through. Occasionally, one of the icicle handholds snaps off

and you have to drop it. Elements are fragile. Some elements are actual stone and well solidified in the environment, but nevertheless, it's a little disconcerting, the variations to the topography. Frumpkin is still waiting back from Veth, and you can see Frumpkin's acting a little strange. This is like,

hair's standing up a little bit. I see this now. Yeah. Well, I ask in here, what is the matter? What has got you on edge? You get the sense that Frumpkin just senses strange, magical energies, and it's making him uncomfortable.

Uh-oh. Okay, go with her. Go with Veth. Go. MATT and LAURA:" Trots up next to Veth. So you are all now at the end of this tunnel. After making your way down the curved and descending slope, Veth, you watch as they all approach and you see Veth now there at the cracking opening

at the bottom of this large wall and just sitting there looking back at you all. What's the plan? I mean, I don't want to volunteer anyone's pet, but it seems like this is a job for a pet. What can you see? There's this crack, and through it, about six feet later, there's nothing.

It could be a fall. It could be gateway to the abyss. It could be just very dark. Caleb! Yeah, okay, okay. Can you send dancing lights down the little hole or something so we can see? I could do that. We could do either that, or we could send the cat in first to look.

I could put a light spell on the cat's tail. Ooh! Well, I really don't feel like we're going to surprise anyone, but perhaps we just let him go take a look. All right. Does he have darkvision? Cat? Probably not. Cats can see in the dark.

That seems, seems... Yeah, they're of the devil. They can take a look. Oh yeah. Don't piss off the internet, Travis. This is my domain. Rely on smell, perception check on smell. Doesn't say one way or the other.

I would put light on Frumpkin's tail. Let's do Frumpkin right now. Because you can see through Frumpkin, but you can't see through the darkness. Little golden globules float up through the party, and the Fey King returns as he enters the crack in the wall. All right, so as the globs, one by one, vanish into this small, squeezing tunnel,

Frumpkin heads on inside. And you're looking through Frumpkin, you said? I was about to, yeah. I put my hand behind me and grab onto Beau's shoulder. Okay. Watching Frumpkin slowly curl through this tunnel, it does come to an abrupt end, and there is about a three-foot drop into a new chamber.

And as the globes slowly begin to drift outward, like faintly glowing balloons that illuminate the immediate vicinity, you see a new chamber. Here, you emerge. Well, actually, you wouldn't know that because it's just Frumpkin. Shards of broken stone litter the floor in front of you.

You can see smooth shapes that are left jagged and broken. Things have either impacted or just been completely broken, thrown asunder across the floor here. You can see now the floor has a unique, intricately carved decorative patterns that resemble simple geometric fractals. But it is a very, very large chamber just from what little bit of light you have here

in the vicinity. You do not see any other walls immediately. You probably have to send the light out further and continue to explore. But as Frumpkin steps down and looks around, you don't see a ceiling yet. You don't see a wall to either side. It's just this weird, broken stone surface before you.

Does it look safe, Caleb? It's very big in here and there's stones everywhere, but I need more of a look around. I don't think Vormkyn's too far away. I tell him telepathically to hook to the left and start going along the perimeter. Probably get the ropes out. Okay. Yeah.

Is there a big drop or was it? No, he jumped down three or four feet. Yeah. That's it. Just a little drop. As Frumpkin curves around the left side of the chamber, roughly 15 or so feet later, comes to a corner. And you could see there is a, what looks to be another wall,

though it is a little smoother and the designs are different, and a little more disparate comparison to the floor. And also looking to the left, the same pattern that's on the floor is on the wall behind Frumpkin, the wall where you pass through and out of. Heading along that side,

Frumpkin heads on for about 50 or so feet, walking the perimeter. You can now see similar designs, similar patterns, but the broken bits of stone also now throw in elements of shattered furniture. You can see stone sculptures that themselves are in seven, eight different pieces, and then hundreds of small bits

just thrown around in the vicinity. Before you go any further, do the patterns mean anything to me? Are they at all resembling dunamantic patterns or anything that I've encountered? Make an arcana check. Yeah. Natural 20. Ooh. Okay an arcana check. Yeah. Natural 20. Ooh.

Okay. Let's go. The patterns you gathered, nothing Dunamantic about them. There are elements to them that remind you of simple, like rudimentary glyphs. We're talking beginning of school, when you're first learning to write, copy, and understand spellcraft.

But these are not functional. They're artistic interpretations. They are implicitly made to be decorative. But related to talkingane glyphs. Like if you were to see the letter M, but there was so much unique scrolling and design work around the M that it just becomes this beautiful piece of art

that is based on an M. There is a decoration inside that is meant to emulate and embellish and revere the arcane. That worries me, but okay. I mean, that tracks. That tracks. I mean, it's a magic city. Magic city.

Can we go? Is it safe? Should we go? I will send him further. All right. Make a perception check with him. Oh, one. Sometimes it's just about expression and storytelling. Why not use paint?

Continuing on for another 50 or 60 feet comes to another corner. And this. What shape are we talking about? So you're entering and there is a wall behind and a floor, flat. Flat, okay. And then eventually there was a corner here in which the surface area changed,

but the wall here and the floor is the same pattern. And then the corner hits here and there's another edge to it. You can now see the opposite wall, about 60 or so feet beyond where you first came into the chamber. And there, the floor pattern continues again on this side. Okay.

Looking for other passages out of here, doors. Indeed. Above. And Frumpkin goes around, is seeing nothing. Nothing, yeah. I think we're going to have to go in. I don't see anything immediately. I got it. Looks like ruins, old ruins.

Can we fit through the crack, or is it? You can, very uncomfortably, but it's doable. Does there look like any sign that Molly and co. have been through here? That this is the direction that they went? You can check the ground if you'd like to. Investigation or perception, your choice. Why not?

Not ruling great at all tonight. 19. 19, still pretty decent. Unfortunately, you don't see anything that specifically says Molly's crew or Molly, but you do see a number of footprints going in and out, some of different ages, some that might have been your groups at this point,

since you've all been in here waiting. Just can't quite see anything that definitively tells you that. Cool. All right. I say we run a rope. Run a rope? And you go first, put a little weight on it so that if somebody gets stuck, they can pull

their way through. Oh, smart. And then the last person will just take it with them. Yeah. Sure. Who's got rope? Uh, uh, Fjord? Give me a rope? Oh, Fjord, give me a rope. Oh! Oh!

Yeah! It's 50 feet of rope. Oh, it's very heavy. 50 feet of rope is like 100 pounds. It's like one and a half, but yeah, sure. No, it's heavy, you're right. I'm sorry. Relates too much to this conversation.

All right, I will defy everyone's advice and I will turn invisible. Okay. And carry the rope in. All right. So you squeeze through and for you, for Veth, you can get onto your hands and knees and make your way through without much of an issue,

holding the rope as you go invisible. The ones that'll have the biggest issue getting here will be probably Yasha and Caduceus, and even Fjord to an extent. It's not a huge challenge, but it does make you feel a little claustrophobic in having to push through this six, seven foot period where you are having to exhale at certain points

to force your body through the next few inches. Oh god. But one by one, with the rope's aid, you all eventually make your way into this chamber. Just getting vague flashbacks to when someone followed us into a place and let us open a thing for them. We did all of the work for them?

Absolutely. They really should make this bigger. You know what I mean? It's like if they already made an entrance, they should carve out a bigger one. I agree. This is stupid. Lazy. Is there any way we can put an alarm or something on this

so we know if someone? Yeah, we could do that. But I send the four globules spiraling slowly up into the room, and I want to get a better picture of the jungle we're in. Go ahead and make a perception check for me. Aye, aye, aye,i yi yi. 20.

Okay. So, you can now see that fractal pattern that you recognized along the floor, the wall behind you, the wall on the opposite end, and now the ceiling above you. It continues. And the more disparate pattern and marble-like texture is on the wall to the left and the wall to the right.

You do see two different openings that exit this chamber. On the opposite wall, and it's fit against the far right side, and it's coming out at an angle, just an opening. And then on the ceiling, you see another similar arched opening that is affixed to where the ceiling and the far right wall meet. Does it look like we are in a room

that's been turned on its side? That's exactly what it looks like. You also see on the far right wall, Does it look like we are in a room that's been turned on its side? That's exactly what it looks like. You also see on the far right wall, there is a large stone circular structure that looks like it's splintered and broken, and numerous pieces of the shattered stonework that you see all across the floor

appears to have originated from mostly whatever was once there, whether it be a fountain or an art piece or numerous art pieces. All the things that you see scattered across the floor here that aren't just broken structural pieces of stone and other materials are bits of shale and shattered pottery and elements of wooden furniture

that is long either frozen over or left dried and forgotten amongst the rest of the debris. But you do see around the room, beyond just those elements, what you now recognize to be a sideways doorway on the opposite wall and then one on the ceiling. How high up is that ceiling? Roughly 40, 45 feet.

Okay. Can we get any type of idea of what this room once was? Make an intelligence check. Okay. Guide. Not, I'm rolling horribly. Nine. Nine.

Nine. It's hard to tell. I mean, based on the size of it, it's not incredibly massive, but where it would be, the ceiling would be high. It seems to be well decorated and there's intricacy to the interior. So whatever it was used for,

there was definitely a... It was intentionally aesthetically pleasing. What kind of furniture is still left unbroken or recognizable, other than a couple chairs? It looks like splintered elements of a table or a bench of some kind. There's not a lot of wood. Most of it's stone or clay.

The two exits in the room, the foot traffic that we've been seeing outside of this room, majority of it heading to either of those two exits? You can go ahead and check if you'd like. I'd like to. Make an investigation check. The room is still cold. It's not as cold as the previous entrance

in the exterior of this, but the interior of this chamber itself, while you do see an element of ice in some places, it seems to have gotten warmer since you've entered. There's a stone table. 25 on the foot traffic. There are elements of a broken stone table in 17 different pieces.

I'd like to find a couple pieces, not touch them, but I want to look to see if they're stained at all or off-color. Okay. I have a hunch. Okay, while you're doing that, you rolled a what? 25. 25. You're hard-pressed to find specific footprints

since there is no dirt or sediment here, but you see some patterns of movement through the debris where, plainly, things that should have been left undisturbed have been moved. It's hard to tell exactly which ones have been most recently turned, but there has been traffic to the previous doorway and back, as well as some areas where you can see

a lot of the local debris has been broken into smaller pieces from an impact from above. So there's been traffic to both. Okay. We can just levitate up. I can levitate up if you want. With a rope and hook it on and we can all climb up. Sure, should we check the one

that we can see down here first? Can I see? That one seems more interesting. I agree. By the way, I'm over here. Nothing stained that you can tell. The stone chunks that you can find have themselves intricate carvings, not quite as intricate as the walls

that you see around here and of a different design. It's more just for aesthetics, grooves and... No weird stains or anything? No sign that anything weird was used on the... Shine a black light on me. Not to that degree that you can discover. Not funny. Can I, this is so stupid,

but I'm going to go over and... Does my foot stick to the floor of the wall? Like, you know, maybe we can, if we, maybe. Yeah. We can start walking. Yeah, maybe it's like a foot. So you walk over, put your foot on the wall, and then go to lift your other foot,

and there's no purchase there. You kind of catch yourself. It's a good idea, but. That would have been gangbusters. Yeah. That would have been cool. All right, so help me out on the layout of this room. So we're in a room that looks like it was turned on its side. Correct. The wall behind us,

two on our left. Which is the ceiling. The wall behind us is the ceiling. A mostly cube-looking chamber on its side. You have an entrance across the way and an entrance above. Okay, so one in front of us and one above us. Correct. I feel like the one above us is the way to go. To the back and to the left and the right

are just flat walls. Correct. And the doorway that's relatively level with us is sealed or open? It's open. They're both archways on the sides. They're just open. There's no door. So the upstairs one would theoretically be the one that was going down, maybe? Right?

No, I think it went like this. It was like this, so it would go, I don't know. They both would have been leveled, right? Like, so if this was here. Yeah. And then the room is now like this. Uh-huh. The door is lying down. So it was just a horizontal doorway in front of us.

And the hole that we crawled in from is in the ceiling? It's on the wall behind you to the view feet. It wasn't intentionally. No, I'm walking over to the one that is lying on its side just because it's easy

and I'm going to PR into whatever is next. Okay, it's about, this one that you see is about 10 feet off the ground so you would have to climb up a little bit to look through it. Or send it.

Are you guys talking about the floor ceiling or the ceiling right there? I lift Caleb up on my shoulders. All right, I'm on top of Jester's shoulders, so walk me over. I'm pushing him up so that he can look through the doorway. Okay. He does it.

All right, so as you both make your way over to the edge, you lock your arms onto the outer rim of this archway and pull yourself and look in. There is no light in the next chamber, if you'd like to move your globules. Oh yeah, I'll bring the globule. Oh, I grab hold of Jester's horns. Ow!

And bring the globules over. More sensitive than you think. Vroom, vroom. Vroom. Moped. All right. I take off. A leader out of that room.

So looking into this next area. I can't take this long. There's a brief hallway that continues on that is broken and shifted. So whatever this chamber you're in right now, it looks like it dislodged, and is at a different angle than the next chamber ahead of you.

Interesting. The next one looks to be mostly righted, but it still kind of begins to go to a decline. It's like an odd angle and downward.

Okay. And any doors or archways of any kind along its path? Make a perception check. Disappears into darkness. Nope. That is 25.

25, dang. All right, looking in, this is a larger chamber. As the globules make their way in, you immediately can see the glittering around you of numerous ice crystals everywhere. The floor, the wall, the ceilings. The temperature is much colder in this room. And you can see along all surfaces, it is

just a coating of ice. You can see some elements of jagged rising crystal that has just been building up over time. Some small, actually the entire ceiling as you look up itself is covered in icicles. It looks almost like just row after row after row of teeth as they all kind of ominously make their way down from this high ceiling. Glancing inside, you can see what looks to be four stone braziers, almost, like five feet tall, that sit in the middle of the chamber.

And then as it slides down to the very, very bottom of the opposite edge, as you will the lights to make their way further in, you can see what looks to be a set of double doors on the opposite end. Different coloration, but also themselves glittering a little bit from the nearby light with ice that is coated the vicinity. Okay, so long, icy path, lots of icicles coming down,

four stone braziers in the center, and then it keeps slanting downward to seal double doors. Do you see footprints, Caleb? Do I see footprints is a great question. From your angle here, looking up into the tunnel, you'd have to get closer to really inspect the floor. You don't see anything at this distance. We, this, you know, I just wanted to take a peek in here.

Maybe we want to figure out, Fjord, you were poking around underneath the hole in the ceiling? The wall door. The wall door. Which one is that? The one in the ceiling. The other one. The wall door. The door, the wall door. Which one is that? The one in the ceiling. The other one. The door way. The one that's not this. That is in the ceiling.

The one that's 40 feet in the air? No! Wait, yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. So we could go in here, but you seemed interested in the one above us.

So maybe we want to- I was just generally interested in the structure of this fucking hamster cage. So I'm just trying to get my bearings. Well, I think we should take a peek into both and make our decision after we've peeked into both. So I relay everything that I just saw, but let's work on the harder to reach.

Can you float up, Veth? I could. Yes, I can. Anyone else prefer to? That would use a spell. Yeah, it's okay. I could also use my boots if you don't want to go alone. If you can do that without using a spell slot.

Yeah. Yeah, sure. We'll kick the end of the rope. Yeah, of course. Okay. Is this a situation where my movement would be useful? I can only do it once a day. Oh, okay, okay. Oh, I didn be useful. I can only do it once a day. Run up the wall. Oh, okay, okay. Oh, I didn't need to do that.

My wall and... Technically. Walls and water. Technically, the door would be. Your movement. My unarmored movement that I have as a monk. It's, unfortunately, because the doorway is not flush against the wall, it's flush against the ceiling,

you would run up the wall and then have no way of running across the ceiling to get there. The way that gravity and physics work. Just didn't know if there was a chandelier for me to swing on, you know? Not really, unfortunately. Okay. Once there's a rope, though, you can.

That's true. So what's doing what? Who's doing what? I take the rope from Caduceus and say, look at me, I'm Yasha. And I use the boots of, the Stormrider boots to launch myself up through the hole. Okay, how far can it take you? Very far, 90 feet.

Yeah, so you guys watch as Caleb, like an electric rocket, suddenly just shakes off. There's a circle of dust that goes around the base, kind of clearing out a circle of dust that goes around the base, kind of clearing out a lot of the shards of nearby rock and shale just kind of shoot out from the sides, leaving this little circle of cleaned floor beneath him. As you rocket upward.

Coming through. Oh, thanks. It's about 40 or so feet up. You go through and then quickly realize the next ceiling is shorter. It's only about 25 feet. I'm in control of distance. Correct. It's not 90 feet splat.

Right, no, I know. Okay. I'm letting you know. That'd be cool. You realize you have to, you realize as you go upward to slow and you would have to arc a little bit so you don't plummet back through the entrance you came with. So you do so. Land with a bit of a heavy hit,

kind of catch yourself on your knees and look within the surrounding chamber around you. It is dark up in here. You wait a moment to go ahead and bring the lights up. Up in here. Yeah. Up in here. You are met with a partially collapsed chamber,

about 60 or so feet from side to side, and then 30 feet wide across, and only about 25 feet above. It looks like what would have been a wall or a ceiling here has collapsed in at an angle, and a majority of this room is under rubble on the opposite side. It would have been larger, but now much of it room is under rubble on the opposite side. It would have been larger,

but now much of it is just under debris. Large 10, 15, 20-foot slabs of stone are partially broken and over and blocking any sort of other exit on the opposite side of the room. And if you look behind you on the other end, you can see other elements of broken stone and other pieces of furniture. Actually more furniture in here than there was

in the room you just came from, but also similarly shattered and scattered all across the ground. This room also does contain a similar glitter of just a general sheet of ice over everything. And as you exhale a bit into the low light and your breath clouds around you, you can see there's odd striations

in some of the ice and certain edges. And there are a lot of these tall stalagmites that seem to have risen up and gathered from stalactites that are reaching down and haven't quite connected in the middle in certain places. But some of these are extremely long. Have some left in the middle? I would say maybe two of them, but many have just like been,

haven't found enough moisture at a certain point. So I will find a column of ice, the thickest I can find, to start tying the rope tight so that the others can climb up. And while I'm doing that, I'm looking around for any possible exit out of this chamber that I made.

You guys watch as the rope gets pulled up and then you get the signal that it's been tied taut. And who's going to climb up first? Hurry up, Slowpokes. Is that, is up, is this the way we want to go? We're doing this? Yeah, we're going this way. All right, so Fjord's climbing up. Make a perception check while you're doing that.

Perception check, that is 15. 15, okay. You do not see any signs of exits or egress from this chamber. That odd striation, once again, catches your eye and you look to the edges of these icy corners and it looks textured, almost like some sort of material.

Some pattern material is heavily bundled in some of these corner regions. Underneath the ice? Not within ice, but hidden below it, like it was part of this chamber to begin with? Possibly, yeah. Yeah. Detect magic. You get up. Is that a SWAT team signal, Travis, that you were doing?

Just climbing a rope. Oh, cool. Go, go. Go, go, go, go, go, go. So detecting magic, you do not get any specific magical auras localized around you, but there is a general film in the air in general. There's just a faint, ever-present magical aura that fills all space around you.

And it's making patterns in the ice, almost like when you put a speaker next to water, is it that type of a thing where you can almost see the? At the distance where he is right now, towards the entrance, that's kind of what it looks like, but it's still kind of low light. Oh, sorry. Those are at the far edges of the chamber. Come on.

What do you see? Milk the cow. Milk the cow. Milk the cow. There you go. I'm out there. All right. I'm going to wait until everyone's up. Are we all going up? Yeah, okay. We all fit in here?

Yeah, you'd all fit in here. Okay, is it like being in an attic? Certain edges, because it is a slanted ceiling and it was partial collapse, and the chamber is, because of that, smaller than it was originally built to be. But you all fit in here with various levels of comfort. And the floor, since it is a lot of broken rock,

you can't all be clustered together in one spot. You have to separate out a little bit and make your way into a more open pocket to feel comfortable. Make your move. Are we going this way, or are we just checking it out? I'm looking around, seeing if we can decide. You were poking about about and it looked like

there was movement beneath this archway, in the ceiling, is what Matt told you. He did? Yeah. Movement? Movement? No, earlier, people asked if we could tell where people had been and you described that it looked like there was scattered stuff underneath the whole thing. Signs of individuals dropping down from above.

Can we see an exit in this room? Any cracks like there was in that stone that we all s- If you'd like to follow up, make a perception check as well. Yeah, I'll assist you. Guidance! Whoa. Oh, natural 20!

Nice. Never mind, we're good. Guidance. Whoa. Oh, natural 20! Nice. Never mind, we're good. Guidance. Glancing around, you don't yet see what looks to be another opening, crack, tunnel. This chamber, as soon as you threw its collapse, for the most part, locked off. But you do catch that same strided bunches beneath the ice in the corners.

And it reminds you of finely wound silk. And you look past some of the tall stalagmites, some clear, some clouded with imperfections and the moisture that have gathered with other elements that may have been brought forth or just gradually dripped through the ceiling with the water that gathered and froze over. And you see some look almost like they're attached at odd angles,

like tall angled limbs. Are they spiders? And you see what looks to be a, up until this point, very well hidden, mostly translucent and white arachnid beast, about 12 feet from side to side. What? 12? Under the ice or?

Or out, just hiding on the ice? Clustered in between all the stalagmites in the corner. We're alive, we're in a nest. We're in the spider nest. Watching us? Yeah, just watching. Wasn't people jumping down from here? It was spider, yeah, but should we go? We should go, right?

Just pretend like you didn't see it. Just pretend and just, oh, there's nothing in here. Perhaps we should head out there. Such a boring room. I don't want to fight this thing in here, so why don head out now? Such a boring room. I don't want to fight this thing in here, so why don't we move really fast so we can fight it down there?

Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go. One by one, you all begin to descend the rope. I'll go last so I can, no, what am I doing? Beau, go last so you can jump out. I'll go last. Okay. Grab the rope. As you all begin rushing down, rushing down, you keep an eye over at it.

Doesn't appear to be moving or reacting to any of you. Just staring at it the whole time. Untie the rope, jump down. Okay. Is there a way to seal that off? I have Stone Shape prepared. I could try to do that. It's not a bad idea.

Why do we just keep going through the other door? There is no other door up there. Yeah,'t look like it didn't come after us. Yeah, why didn't it come after us? That was weird. What's wrong with us? Did it look like it was looking at us? You watched it for the time that you noticed it and before the fear, it didn't seem to react or move.

It was just facing loosely your direction, hunched there in the back corner. Frozen, still. Was it alive? It didn't move. Maybe it was some sort of ice automaton, or maybe it was not, maybe it was dormant. Maybe it doesn't eat things unless they fall into its web. And we saw those striations and other icicles other than just up there, correct?

No, that's the first two we've seen. That was the first we'd seen them. But we haven't seen a web, right? No webs? No. Just frozen webs. Have we seen frozen webs? That's what those things were. Frozen egg sacs, maybe?

Tightly wound silk. Silk, right. Silk? There you go. But it seemed like some of the ice, oh no, the icicles, the bent icicles were the limbs. Were the limbs of the spider. Well. Why didn't it come after us? Maybe it was nice.

Maybe it was friendly and just lonely. Yeah, maybe we just didn't attack it, so it's fine. Yeah, but it wasn't moving. Let's check out the other room. Yeah! Let's do that. With eyes on our six. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yep.

Yeah, in fact, I'm just going to walk backwards while we walked that direction. Okay, keeping an eye up there. See if it follows. Okay, so keeping an eye out, you all make your way towards the other exit of the chamber where you had previously looked for. Okay.

Think I should seal it? Be prepared to feel it. Seal something. I'll seal it. 12 feet across. That's a big boy. That's a big boy. Big boy.

I guess we'll go into the other chamber? Well, should we seal it? Can you just seal it that easy, 40 feet in the air? Look, I don't use this spell very often. Yeah, take a quick gander, because that could be, you know, smart. I'll climb into the other chamber while she's sealing. You get snatched by the other fucking one.

Is the doorway big enough for the spider to get out of? You didn't get quite a look at the entire spider's body. It's possible. Probably. Spiders can crawl through little spots. They can get weird with their legs. Mm-hmm. What's it say?

You know? Yeah. I have to touch it. You have to touch the stone. So I'd have to get up there and touch it in order to shape the stone. And then what happens? Can you close off a doorway, like an archway? I can touch a stone

no more than five feet in any dimension and form it into any shape that suits my purpose. Five feet in any dimension? Five feet in any dimension. So I could... The archway is is two people wide? No, was it that big? The archway was about,

let's see, about eight foot tall in its actual size and about six feet wide. So it'd be about the size to let comfortably a person or two people walk through, yeah. So I could seal it to where there was only a foot of space in the doorway? Yeah. I mean, it might be able to fit through still, I don't know.

Does it cost a valuable spell for you? Do you want to do it? Well, it's a spell, but I can try it. But I have to be up 40 feet in the eye to get up there. What level spell? Fourth. I cast Fly on you. But now you used the spell, four?

Mm-hmm. Ah cast Fly on you. But now you use the spell, Fjord! Mm-hmm. Ah, I fly up. So Jester, you now, for the, how long does it last? 10 minutes. 10 minutes you can fly. As long as he maintains concentration. Yeah, the sword pulses, and you go up.

Beautiful. Thanks, Fjord! Without issue, you float up to the entrance, and you, you know, what faint, since the light has been removed, it's just a dark, lightless interior of the upper chamber. Do you want some? Yeah. I send up two.

Okay. I'm going to touch the side of the doorway so I can shape it and try to block off the doorway as much as possible. Okay, and so as you begin to press against it with your hand, much like it's wet in clay, you watch as this detailed ceiling, this extremely carefully carved,

artistic Aeorian wall becomes shaped like a kindergartner's mug they made for their adult. Paper mache. To cover the majority of this entrance, but functionally seems to be blocking the majority of it. Are you talking nicely to the spider while you're doing this?

Yep, yep, yep, yep. Stay in there, go to sleep. Little spider. Don't come and attack us. All right, once you complete that. I just keep, I just fly around as long as I can. In the time that she's taking to do that, I ask Yasha for a hand up into the doorway,

the other doorway. Yeah. That's like 10 feet up. Okay. And if she hoists me up, I'm going to try to climb myself up into that area. Okay. And ritually cast Alarm. I'm going to pull silver thread along the length of it so that I can know if anything is coming behind us. You've got it.

And Veth, you've already climbed your way up there, you said? I don't know which door he's talking about. The only other door. The floor ceiling door. Cool, cool, cool. Yeah, that's the one I'm going into. Technically, it's the floor wall door, but.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Semantics. No, it's actual layout. Whatever. Agreed and disagree. Okay. Guys, we broke the fourth wall years ago. Oh.

Boo. Get out. All right, I will. Oh no, he's leaving! No! I have that kind of power? Wow. Do not empower him, it's too much to give him.

Marissa, get out! He's like, I have to pee anyway. No. Oh, that doesn't work. No, it doesn't. All right, so. Okay. Took the opportunity to go pee, I think.

I respect that, I respect that. So, Veth, as you're the first to climb in there, with a little bit of light that's beginning to peek inward, you get up over this entryway, and you see that hall where it's broken and shifted to the side. It's now this almost triangular-shaped space that you would have to peer through and step.

And as you get to that point, you can see where the jagged stone meeting part itself has been disjointed and shifted to the side. But it is still large enough for a person to go through. Roughly one, maybe two small figures at a time. So not a Caduceus size? One Caduceus. One Caduceus. Okay. I'm going to float down

with my ability to fly and land softly. Tup-tup. Next to the... Tup-tup. to this odd joint portion of the hall. Looking into the next chamber, the one that Caleb had already seen once, the decline is steeper than his perspective allowed him to really see. It's probably not quite a 45-degree angle downward,

but it's pushing about 35. And it's smooth? It's like a whole... No, it's not smooth. Elements of it are smoother than others, and there are some where you can see rocky shapes that have ice sheets over it that are fairly smooth, but some of it's broken rock, too, and broken ice. But regardless, it is slick and it is precarious.

We don't want to hit anything as we potentially slide out of control. Grab the rope and I hand it to Jester. Yeah, so you can fly through. Perfect. Let's figure out a way. Oh, yes. Do hand it to Jester. Yeah, she can fly through. Perfect. Let's figure out a way. Oh, yes. Do I still have the ability to fly? Probably. 10 minutes, yeah.

Make good use of it. Right? Yeah, you have maybe a couple more minutes of it left. Okay, I'll lift up and fly down and land at the bottom. Okay. Is there anything to hook the rope onto or is it just me holding onto it? It's just you holding onto it at the moment.

The room is freezing cold. The temperature significantly dropped when you stepped through the threshold and now looking inside this chamber as you fly through with the light granted by Caleb's orbs, you can see it's beautiful. The ice crystals with the light granted by Caleb's orbs, you can see it's beautiful. The ice crystals refract the light in hundreds of thousands of different facets,

like a room of diamonds surrounding you. And as you coast through holding the rope, you get to the opposite side. How long is the rope that was given, 50 feet? 50 feet. You cannot get to the, the rope is not long enough to reach the other side. We have a second to double up the rope.

Yeah, I do. Here, I pull out my rope, toss it to Caduceus so he can tie the end. Do a knot. It's a knot in the other side of the chamber. We have a second to double up the rope. I do. Here, I pull out my rope, toss it to Caduceus so he can tie the end. Do a knot. Okay. Do a knot and you should, yeah. That puts it at your final minute of your flight, just so you know. Okay. But you head back,

fly to the opposite side, and you see there are the double doors. And as you get there, there's no handle. There's no knob. There's nothing to grab the doors with. They're just there. And you can see a thick sheet of ice that is slowly built around the edges of them

that fill the gaps from where the rest of the stone walls currently would meet with the story. I'm going to pull my little mittens up over my hands and touch the doorway. Does it feel like there's anything? Is it safe to lean on and brace myself against the door? It's just a wall? You touch it and it's very cold,

but it doesn't react in any unexpected way. All right, I'm just going to stand here and brace on the wall and hold the rope as tight as I can for everybody so they can descend as slowly as possible. Okay, who's going first? Before we descend, can I get to the threshold of this door that we're in?

Yes. And step out into the main chamber? And then step back in. Is the temperature difference noticeable by threshold? It's not like you're stepping into another room and it immediately shifts. It's gradual in that little in-between area, but it is noticeable.

It's like when you step into the frozen room at Costco, like where they get the milk. It's like that. Like the ice ball at Wee's Ball? Remember the ice room? I'll slide down the rope. Oh! Okay. It's really beautiful.

So it is who going down the rope, then? If we already have? Caleb. Yeah. Caleb. Do we need to set a thread in case Ice Spider finds a way? He did. Caleb set that. Ice Spider's sealed up. Are you going one at a time,

or are you guys going with a distance between each other? I think one at a time would be a way to go. Yeah, plus I'm holding it, so I don't know if I can support more than one person. So Caleb makes his way down to the base. It's like water slide rules. Who's next? One kid at a time.

I'll go next. Okay. Caduceus heads down. About halfway down the rope, the temperature noticeably gets even colder. You find yourself, your teeth chittering against your jaw, and you feel this numbness beginning to hit the outside of your skin

by just the sheer drop in temperature. You, because you have a very high passive perception, glance around and from the cavalcade of teeth-like icicles above you, you see this strange, pulsing, faint blue light that has a number of crystal-like ice protrusions just floating around it, like a small orb of jagged jewelry

just hovering towards you with this faint mist kind of drifting off of it. That's a thing. There's a thing. And wow, this is how, yep. You guys hear him say this and look up and you see maybe a half dozen or more of these all descending from the ceiling towards Caduceus. Oh, they're all coming towards us.

Oh, I think they're elementals. Oh, I think they're ice elementals. Let's go ahead and get out of the battle. Oh no! Oh my god, what's happening? Oh, and it's like an incline, so you can't stand on the- But whatever it is, it's sponsored by Dwarven Forge's illuminated hellscape terrain featuring glowing magma rivers

is available at their web store. Check it out at dwarvenforge.com. Oh, we got a slant going on. Oh, this is so cool! A raked stage? It is totally a raked stage. Yep. All this means we can call downstage and upstage.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The rest of you are all up. Or we could. Ashley, get up. Get up! I'm going to be downstage. Downstage right. We've got to figure out our order. Can I please enter stage left?

It's closer to my dressing room. And I'm Dia. My god. I love your movies. The Tyler Perry movies. Why did I not load this? Of course I did. Okay. So I don't have a piece of cord

I was going to use to set the rope-like protrusion here. What I can do is use this power cord. What? To make it work. Why not? A little iPad cord. But once your iPad? Nope, it's good. There we go. Amazing.

Mostly works. Amazing map. And an iPhone charger. I know. I didn't know you guys would be putting a rope through here when I set it up. I love it. Are those cauldrons? You mentioned there being braziers.

No, I thought it was a narrower. Braziers, oh. I thought it was a hallway. I didn't realize it was a full room. Oh. Mm-hmm. Okay. Equal signs. So, if I could have everyone roll initiative for me, please. Oh my god. Yeah, braziers.

Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. Son of a bitch. Yeah. Why? Guidance. All right, so 25 to 20. 20. 20, all right.

20 to 15. Heist music. 15. That's pretty good. All right. Okay. Oh man. I get out of here. 15 to 10. 13. 11.

Ugh. I haven't rolled above a 10 this whole game. Switch your dice. 10 to five. Nine. Nine! Okay. Death and death. I don't. Death and Kadeus. Well, but I cut the new ones. And the rest?

Four. And I'll form the head. Fjord. Okay. Fjord. So you see about half dozen of these entities floating down towards Caduceus. Half dozen. Oh jeez down towards Caduceus.

Half dozen, ouch. Jeez, look. They're about here. It's fine, it's fine, it's fine. Oh, cool, though. You see numerous other ones floating above. I'll go ahead and get a few placement markings here. You can see where they are.

I see. How high is the ceiling from the floor? It's roughly 20 or so feet. 20 feet, okay. Oh boy. How do you fight ice? With a ring of fire resistance. How do you fight a problem like ice crystal? Oh no. Problem like ice crystal.

Oh no. Apparently there's a lava river at some point in time, somewhere in the world. All right. Jester, you're up first. Okay. Since I'm stuck at the base, I'm going to invoke Duplicity as my action. All righty, where are you placing her?

I'm going to place her close to Caduceus. Like, shh. Should we light these braziers? She's going to stand in the middle, yeah. Here? What's the range you can cast on, 30, 60? Uh. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Invoke Duplicity 30 feet of me. We're still carried over from the last 30, 60. La-la-la-la-la-la-la-la. In rock duplicity, 30 feet of me. We're still carried over from the last game, too. So you can do here, like either right next to him there or right here. That sounds good, right there is good. Okay, you got it. Um.

It's a bitch. It's a face itself. And man. What is it, a sacred flame? No, it's a... The only other thing I can do right now is, it's dumb. He's dumb.

I'll take a resistance. Kick him in the shoulder. He's dumb. None of my spells are bonus. I can cast Spiritual Weapon. Okay. I'll just do it at second level. At second level? Where are you placing it?

Right... wherever I can hit one of them. Yeah, sure, right there. Okay. And I'm going to try to swing at it with my Spiritual Weapon. Go for it. That's a 21. Go for it. That's a 21. 21 definitely hits. Okay.

Have we tried talking to them? Diplomacy first. Diplomacy first. Seven plus five is? 12. 12. 12 points of damage to that fellow there. As it cracks and does radiant damage, you said? Yes. Okay.

It hits the ice and you watch the crystals to the side scramble from the impact and reform without issue. Okay. So, that finish your turn? Okay, now they go. Goddamn. Now they go. Uh-oh.

This one flies down to there. This one goes to here. Put ice as the enemy in the initiative order. This one goes to here. Oh my god. They are drawn to the warmth. This one. Yeah, I don't know what that's about.

Must have been your head cresting a height. Cold-hearted snake. And you watch as, from above you, as you're all focusing on Caduceus, one heads towards you, and three more drift down. Oh man, there's a lot of them. Oh. There's one.

They did it. You guys are in trouble. It was nice. Uh-oh. As soon as they begin to swarm, the air around you becomes sub-zero freezing. Gulp. Immediately, your skin begins to grow numb from the proximity of these strange, elemental-like spirits. We're going to have right here...

All of those are going to be attacking. Actually, those four are going to be attacking Caduceus, and then there's... Three are attacking Caduceus, and then there's... Three are attacking Caduceus, and two are attacking your duplicate. Yes! Thank god. I just not give off warmth, so no, they're all going after Caduceus. I'm sorry. Sorry.

Good try, good try, but looking at that logistics there. All going after Caduceus? Is that what you just said? Mm-hmm. Four, five, are there five of them, or four of them going after Caduceus? Five of them going after Caduceus? Is that what you just said? Mm-hmm. Four, five, are there five of them, or four of them going after Caduceus? Five of them going after Caduceus. We want to fight Molly and Caduceus. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Like a healing spell, right? Like one? I did. Okay. 22 to hit? 22 to hit definitely hits. So understanding. Caduceus, I brought multiple ones today. My god.

I did not bring the spell I meant to. You take 20 points of cold damage and your movement is halved. Whoa. The next one. Yikes. Oh no. Wait, that was one? That was one. 14.

Misses. 13. Misses. 24. Jesus. That is 17 points of cold damage. Uh-oh. And that is a 12. Misses. Misses.

Ow. So as they all swarm in, you feel the heat in your body being almost siphoned out. The cold itself begin to oppress you, and already at the edges of your face, at your eyes, any point of moisture in your body, you could feel them beginning to freeze and crystallize and harden in the proximity.

There are now two attacking you, Jester. That is going to be a 24. Yeah. You take... 27 points of cold damage. Halved. Halved to 13, and your movement is halved until the end of your next turn.

The other one against you, that's a 25. Weird question, would I, if one of them missed, would I be able to bounce it off the shield? You would if these are attacks on you. Oh, is it okay to do that then? I know that I should have called that earlier. It's still during their turn, so we'll do that in a second.

I'll resolve this. Sure. The other hit hits you for 26 points of cold damage reduced to 13. Wow. 26. Are these considered melee hits or spell attacks? They're considered attacks. There's something about their essence that reaches out to you and draws the heat from it.

Okay, it's not a melee attack, then. It is considered a melee attack. Okay, cool. Oh boy. And two against Okay, cool. Oh boy. What else? And two against you, Caleb. Good. 18?

Shield. Shield. As it tries to reach out with its energy, the shield protects it and cuts off that element of its reach. The other one is a 20, which? Which, down to 15, still hits. Still hits at a 20, yeah.

So you take... 15 points of cold damage, and your movement is halved. Okay. Oh boy. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Tonight's forecast. Fireball! If it's one of the ones that missed, I'd love to try and hit the one that already got hit

by the lollipop. Cheers. I'll allow it, yeah. All right. Chill out. So. Let's kick some ice. That's a strength saving for a throw. And ooh, six. The night forecast.

15 points of force damage. It's cold. Okay, it definitely takes the damage. It fails at save miserably. 20 feet back. 20 feet? Yep, directly away. Served cold.

Served cold. So as it dodges, you bring the shield up and you guys hear this loud impact cracking sound as this wave of force energy blasts one of these elemental creatures backward. You see it gets jammed off and then catches itself in the air and slowly the crystals begin to spin around it once more.

Is that the same one that I hit with the spiritual weapon? It is, yes. All right, now. Does it look damaged at all? It looks damaged, yeah. That brings us now to Yasha's turn. Beau, you're on deck. Okay. One.

So I will make my way into the room. Okay. How much of this do you think I have seen? From where, like, is the opening pretty big? You are right towards the opening here, which is about 10 feet wide-ish, and you have a clear view of all these things swarming in on Caduceus in the middle,

and in the distance, Caleb. You have the globules of light throughout the chamber from Caleb, so you have a clear view. Okay, so I will make my way in to the closest, making my way into the closest, making my way into this cold room. It's so cold.

So I'll go to the, Ashley brings the classics. Whichever one is closest. It'd be the one right across you towards Caduceus there. Great. It's, okay. Are you going carefully for half movement?

Because it is slick, or are you going full bore? Yeah, I might as well go full bore. All right, make a dexterity saving throw for me, please. Yeah, okay. Yes, I am raging. So as you rage, you go running across the ice. Roger. Thank you. You do have advantage on it because you are a barbarian, so.

Okay. Ooh, that's a one. That's not much better. Okay, so seven. Seven. You go raging and charging towards Caduceus, and as you do, you pass an area of slick ice and your feet out from under you.

You slam and fall prone on your back and slide. Oh, all the way down! All the way to the bottom of the chamber. Can I kick it on the way there? Can I kick it? Since I landed. Yes, you can. Can I kick it? Yes, you can.

I'll say you can take your attack on the way if you'd like, but you're still prone. You could use, I'll say you can take your attack on the way if you'd like, but you're still prone. I'll say about half your movement. So you would not be able to move past this if you get back up. Damn it, Asha. Or you can take the attack as you go, but it'll be a disadvantage

because you're prone during the attack as you're sliding. Tilt. Okay. I don't know, I'll try to get up. I'm going to just, yeah, I'm going to get up. I have to get up, I want to try to get up. I'm going to just, yeah, I'm going to get up. I have to get up, I have to get up. Okay. Now as you get up, frost has gathered around you

as you tore through a number of their frozen ores. Oh. You take... Uh-oh. Brr! 16 points of ice damage. As you just coast through a bunch of their freezing auras and flash frost just begins to burn into your skin.

But you stand up and you're there now at the bottom right next to Caleb. Four of them. Okay, that is, that's my turn. You can still attack. Oh my goodness is, that's my turn. You can still attack. Oh my goodness, that's not my turn now. I will attack. All right. Yeah.

You have two right now that are swarmed around Caleb and you have access to each of them. Okay, so whichever one is closest to me, which I think is the one right in front. Right there? Okay, go for it. So roll for an attack. Okay. Ooh! it. So roll for an attack. Okay. Ooh!

24. 24 hits. Go ahead and roll damage. Okay. I bet he's going to make lighting money. I'm going to roll that again. Much better. Caleb, do you have the Glove of Blasting, or do I still have it?

You have that. 28 for the first hit. 28 for the first hit? 28 to damage me? 28, yeah, the damage, sorry, yes, damage. That's awesome, all right, great. And then second hit is 18. 18 hits.

Okay. 13. 13, all righty. So after you slide down, slamming your feet against the wall, barely kick yourself back up, and using that momentum, you take the blade and swing once, twice heavily down upon this creature. The first strike, it's like cutting through a piece of frail brick. It impacts and breaks and then crumbles a bit.

The second swipe, you cut through, and you actually feel the resistance of the cold energy, and as you pull back, the blade itself now has a layer of frost across it. As you look up, it's holding itself together, but you see it shaking a bit, and the ice crystals on it are partially broken and chipped. So it's taken some heavy damage. Okay. To one? To one of them. Wow. To one of them.

And you said there's 12? There's nine. There's nine. Nine?! Nine. To one of them. Wow. To one of them. And you said there's 12? There's nine. There's nine. Nine? Nine. Yeah. Look at that. He always brings it around.

Look at that look. The Nottagon. So. The Nottagon. Can I get there? Oh, sorry. Are you moving on? No, it's the end of your turn.

Now it's your go Beauregard, and Caduceus, you're on deck. Can I get there with my speed, 50? Over to here, you mean? Nope, that brazier. With your speed, you can. Can you see me hitting that brazier? Yeah.

Three, four, five. 50, you can get there, yeah. Uh-huh. Just think about how pretty this fight is with all the diamond reflections on everything. It's beautiful. Fucking gorgeous. Make a dexterity saving throw for me, please. Yeah. I was going to say, you want to be on that side.

Let me roll better. Let me roll better. 29. 29. You actually use it to glide a bit. You get a few steps and then you see frost shooting off the back of your heels until you hit a bit of stone and you kick off of it to slow your momentum and then dodge around the side right up against that one piece of ice and the side of the brazier there. Cool. Which with your passive perception, you do see at the base of the brazier on this side, there is a small cubby about that big.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, get to the cubby. What's with the cubby? I mean, you're adjacent to it. Oh, I'm adjacent to the cubby. Get to the cubby! Can't do it. What's in the cubby? What's with the cubby? I mean, you're adjacent to it, you just see it. Oh, I'm adjacent to the cubby. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The cubby! Can't do it. What's in the cubby?

You do take... There's some pencils, a unicorn eraser. You take eight points of cold damage as you enter the frozen aura of the elemental to the left of you. Okay, okay, okay. What's in the box? What's in the cubby? What's in the box? What's in the cubby? Look in the box!

You glance inside. You look, and it just looks like an empty shelf space. You can see it opens up on the top, almost like it's leading up higher in the pillar. But there's nothing else you really see in there, if you want to use your action to investigate it. I do. Go ahead and do that. Roll an investigation check for me. All right, all right, all right, all right. 25. Okay, 25.

You glance inside as you feel the frost gathering around your ears now. You can't even feel that side of your face. But as you look inside, with very little light you have, and you don't have your goggles on you because you gave those to Veth, but thankfully you rolled pretty high, so you managed to still meet the DC,

you can see in the opening that heads up, at the base of it, there is some sort of a series of circles, like small concentric circles that get smaller and smaller that are connected with various lines. A series of concentric circles, right? Yes. Okay. Some sort of a glyph. A glyph?

Mm-hmm. That's in the bottom of the brazier? On inside of it, at the base of that opening. Any type of glyph that I would recognize in this quick glance? Make an arcana opening. Any type of glyph that I would recognize in this quick glance? Make an arcana check. You know your glyphs. Name that glyph.

17. 17? Vaguely, at this angle, it's tough. You're getting either transmutation or evocation. Oh god. Somewhere in that space. All right. Can I take whatever left action that I have and shout to Caleb?

I'll let you shout something, yeah. Or to people? All right. I'm just going to say, I think we need magic to light up these glyphs. These, sorry. I think we need magic to light up these braziers. Glyph in the brazier.

Brazier Glyph. Just to be clear, you say columns somewhere? These braziers are about five, six feet tall. Oh. And they're just these columns in the middle of the ground. And they look just solid, except for on the opposite end, there is a slight opening, almost like a tiny clay oven entrance.

Roar! Do I have a bonus action still? You do. Patient defense. Okay. You get ready. What the fuck are you doing? That's my turn.

What's happening? Caduceus, you're up. Veth, you're on deck. Bad ice. It'd be a bad thing to find out if these guys have an attack of opportunity. At the start of your turn. Goddamn it. Because you are standing within the frozen aura of four of these creatures. if these guys get an attack of opportunity. At the start of your turn,

because you are standing within the frozen aura of four of these creatures. Oh no! Roll pretty low. You take 11 points of cold damage. Hmm, don't like that. Oh boy, okay. Go, go, go.

That certainly changes things. And Yasha, because I also forgot. You take an additional eight points of cold damage from striking it with a melee attack. Eight points? Correct. Got it. I can maybe move and tank for you.

Maybe draw him away. I'm surrounded. I know, but. I'm going to cast Spirit Guardians at level three. Spirit Guardians, all right. Can you cast from a distance? You don't necessarily need to get up to a distance. No, I know. That's probably what I'm going to do.

15 feet. I'm like, is it going to light him up? Or is it going to damage? 15 feet radius, you said? Yep. So 15 feet radius would be this. Evocation or transmutation? Yeah, I mean, that's either hit it with fire, right?

Yeah. Dump some transmutation, but it's probably fire. Let's see. That's what I was going to do before you even got there. So I'm going to just try and curl my way around where Jester's duplicate is, and I'm just going to see what happens when I step away from one of them.

You're going to try to step away from one of them? Yeah, I'm going to stay in the attack realm of, yeah. Okay, so as you move back, that one, as a reaction, it feels energy lash at you like a frozen whip. That is a 13. That does not hit. So you've managed to move aside. Shit.

All right, can I do anything as a bonus action or am I just fucked? I can't see. Nope, there's nothing I can do as a bonus action because all of my spells are bullshit at the moment. I can't cast Healing Word because I just put up Spirit Guardians, right? Goddamn it. Sorry, buddy. because all of my spells are bullshit at the moment. I can't cast Healing Word because I just put up Spirit Guardians, right? Goddamn it.

Sorry, buddy. Is that your turn? Yeah, it's my fucking turn. Okay. Oh, I hate that feeling. Veth, you're up. Caleb, you're on deck. Yeah, okay. Jester's still holding the rope, right?

Yep. Yep. I'm going to jump on it and run down the rope. Oh, a ninja! I let go of the rope. What's your speed? 35. 35 gets you right there. You know what, though?

I think I'll stop early. It seems dangerous in there. Okay. And also, I don't know who's engaged with who. So I'll stop even earlier, maybe just outside the Spirit Guardian range. You got it. And I'm going to whip out this,

somewhere I got this, but I have it, so I'm going to use it. I'm going to whip out this scroll and read it and cast Flaming Sphere. Ooh! Okay. Bowling. Where would you like to place the sphere?

Next to Caduceus, the one next to Caduceus, but in a way that doesn't hurt Caduceus. Or roll downhill. Right, so right here? And I can, I don't know, I've never cast this before. I can roll it around, right? You can. Cool.

Like a bowling ball. Maybe there's like a free row or... Yeah, I want to, I mean, it doesn't have to be straight line, right? Like I can go around with it? Make that shit? You want a topsy-turvy ball? I'll show you. Like one of those little raccoon balls,

you know, with the tails? I love the raccoon balls. It appears anywhere in 60 feet, and any creature that ends its turn within five feet of it has to make a dex save or take 2d6 damage. So anything nearby that ends its turn next to it of it has to make a dex save or take 2d6 damage. So anything nearby that ends its turn next to it takes damage.

Also as a bonus action, you can move it up to 30 feet and ram it into a creature. In which case that creature also has to try and make it. But I can't like just go, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop. No. It'll hit them all. But if it's next to two. You can ram it next to a creature

and then other creatures have to move away from it or if they end their turn next to it, they take damage. Well then in that case, I'll make it appear between two of them because it has a five-foot, I guess, radius or something, right? You can put it next to... You can put it here and get it next to three of them.

Yeah, that! But it'll also be next to Caduceus, so you'll have to move out of its range next turn. Your call? Put it on the other side, maybe? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Maybe I'll just go for two of them. I'll go for two of them. I'll go for two of them. Two of them, there you go.

So as you finish reading the scroll, as you're holding onto the rope and grabbing it, the scroll burns away, and you guys hear this strange whining sound as this little opening seems to open in the air, and this ball of fire emerges from it, slops onto the ground and begins rolling. So it lands there.

You can use your bonus action to ram one of those if you'd like to. Oh, wow. I will do that. I will pick a random ice thing to ram. All right, so the one directly, which of these two would you like? The icy one? They're all the same to me.

The lower one, the lower one. Sure. The better, the more attractive one. You got it. It does not make its saving throw, so go ahead and roll 2d6. Okay, okay, okay. I assume it's vulnerable or, oh, come on, double ones.

Poo. Oh. Sorry, buddy. Double ones? Oh my god. So the sphere attempts to ram into it and it dodges out of the way. The flames leak past and it takes a little bit of damage. Does it double the damage because it's made of ice?

You don't know, you barely hit the thing. Does it say, ah, I'm so attractive, not the face or anything? You have no idea. You rolled double ones, yeah. All right. That finish your turn, Veth? Yes. You got it. Caleb, you All right. That finish your turn, Veth? Yes.

You got it. Caleb, you're up. I have a question about the spell that you and I worked out together, Web of Fire. It says, a flame crackles out around the caster and streaks of fire rapidly snake along the ground. It doesn't say, we didn't write in stone, straight lines, arching, curving.

What kind of control do I have on them? We said you have control over to hit the certain creatures you want to. It's the control of that. Okay, well then I'm going to try this. I'm going to pull out the cat's cradle, crest it over in phosphorus, and then slam it down into the ground

and send all five of them forward along the line of the rope and then splitting out and sending one to each of the braziers to erupt at each brazier. Oh, get it! And one on the one that is hurting, the one closest to Jester's duplicate. Okay, what's the range on that?

60 feet. 60 feet? Please work. Okay, so you watch as Caleb, first at the top of your turn, because you are in range of three of them, immediately take 21 points of cold damage from the auras burning into you. Right now, you begin to lose feeling in your fingers and arms, but you've practiced this over and over again, so even without feeling, you still go through the motions. As you slam your hands down,

you watch as this arcane energy sparkles at the tips of his fingers. As it hits the frost and stone, they spider out into these little burning web-like filaments. Like you'd see five separate elements of black powder paths or, what's the word I'm looking for? Fuses. Fuses, thank you. Snaking across the ground.

They up to the middle of it and then spread out to all five of them. Where do you send them on the braziers? Well, Beauregard's at a little hole or cubby, right? So I will do my best to aim, if I can see those, to the side, to hit the sides where those ports would be to erupt along the side of it.

Okay. To try to fart fire into the little port. I understand. I will say you can see all of them. The one that Beauregard's at is a little obscured. Make a perception check for me. What if I just aimed where Beauregard is? Then you might hit Beauregard. I know. I've got evasion.

Yeah, that's what I do. Wreck her. Okay, all right. So go ahead and roll damage. I approve of this message. 26 points of fire damage. 26 points of fire damage. Okay, make a dexterity saving throw. I could do evasion, right?

Higher than a 10. Evasion is if you succeed. Half or zero. If I succeed, right, right, right, right, right. 17. What's your DC? Oh, higher than that. Yeah, I rolled terribly.

Yeah, so you take the full brunt of it. I rolled a seven again. I rolled so many sevens. Are you changing out your dice? I am! This was supposed to be the bow die. Evasion makes it, it's been a while since I've been a rogue, but half damage, right? It's half damage on a success

and then no damage on a failure. Oh, sorry, no, sorry, sorry. Half damage on a failure. She would have taken zero. Correct, sorry. She failed, she takes half. Yes, so you take half the fire damage that was there. Which is 20, or sorry, what, 13? So 13, 13 points of fire damage.

Oh shit, shit, shit. You suddenly, as you're defending against this weird crystal, you see this, out of the corner of your eye, this little red and right as you notice it, you burst into flames. You are on fire. Yeah, you are.

By all mathematics, I should have been able to dodge that, so. That's hot. By all... Roll terribly. You are on fire. Just try them. Hey, we got fucking fire! This girl is on fire! Oh god.

Worth it, worth it. So you watch as the majority of these streak off up inside of these small little open spaces, and then the top of the pillar suddenly burst into arcane flame. As it does, immediately you see all these ice entities seem to shiver and quiver at the immediate reaction. You know what I mean. Yeah.

Carry on. Quiff? Quiff. You know, quiff. It's been a long, long day. It's been my last laugh, man. You're crying after that. Indeed. Too cold in here for that.

Quiver and shift to the proximity of the fire. The shiver and queef. You're a child, Marissa, a child. That's the big bad. That's the big bad. Man, I haven't been in this sport in a while. This is wild. Oh, it's the exhaustion.

Oh no. Ooh. Okay. And then one of them hits the one that's by Caduceus on this side, you said? The one that's smack dab against Jester's duplicate. You got it. It does not succeed in its save, so it's 26%.

As it shoots up and ignites and bursts around it. You watch as the fire consumes a majority of its exterior and as the flames burn away, it's barely holding on. The crystals have mostly now melted away and its small pulsing blue energy is barely maintaining cohesion. Does that finish your turn? Yeah, I'll stay put.

I will get hurt if I try to move. All right, that finishes Caleb's go. Fjord, you're up. Can I try and pull myself up this rope to the top of the entrance? Because I'm outside. Up to here, yeah. Yeah, and then can I see any of this

happening down below me? You've been able to see all this happen. You're like, at this point, everyone had pulled up inside and there was a bit of tunnel before the entrance. So you've seen everything in front of you. I think I'll just hold onto the rope and I'll unleash some Eldritch Blast at that

one that's nearest to Caduceus, closest to me. You got it. Go ahead and roll an attack on that one. I got this one move. It's crazy. Yes. Stop, I was just getting better! Oh, me too. I got the kick. 19? 19 hits. You can go ahead and roll damage. Oh, I'm going to fucking murder all of you.

15. 15 points of force damage. 15 points of force damage. What? One five, one five. Oh, 15. One five. 15.

19 to hit. 19 hits. That is 12 points of force damage. 12 points 15. One five. 15. 19 to hit. 19 hits. That is 12 points of force damage. 12 points, you got it. And then the third. 200 points? Yep. And another 18. Yep, hits. Okay, great.

Last one is 13 points of force damage. 13 points of force damage, nice. You fire them off as they impact the sides of it. You see it hit the ground with the clatter and then lift back up. Looks hurt, but it's still fairly hardy. I'll stay where I am. You got it.

Finishing that brings us to the top. Jester, you're up. Okay. Beginning of your turn. Okay. 19 points of cold damage, reduced to nine. Oh! Okay. Oh no. Okay.

Oh my god. I got this. Okay, I'm going to... Would I know, does radiant fire damage do, it's not like, that's not like fire damage. No, it's a holy burning, but it's not considered fire. Oh, it's not fire, okay. Okay.

Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. Then I'm going to follow a Caduceus' footstep and I'm going to cast Spiritual Guardians. All righty. On, um... I'm going to cast it on where I am, on my real person. All righty.

That's at third level. Yeah, third level. Okay. And then I'll use my spiritual weapon to attack the ice crystal that I attacked before. Okay, so you shift it over here. Ooh, natural 20. Great, so that's double damage on it.

So go ahead and roll and double the dice. Great. Ooh, 14 plus five. 14 plus five is 19. 19! Nice! So as it moves towards the edge of Caduceus' radius, it slams into that element. It's still bouncing around.

Apparently, this is, this is. It's like the way it's made its way around the circle. It really is, it keeps making its way around the circle. Yep. No eye contact, no eye contact. But the thing is, guys, I love that we're all laughing about farts right now. Yep, yep.

I love it. All right, so yeah. You swing past the barrier of spiritual guardians that are swarming around Caduceus as your giant serrated lollipop swings through the blanket of celestial beetles. It crashes into this elemental. It takes a heavy hit. It's starting to look prettier. Whoa.

Okay. It's taken three hits pretty hurt. Whoa. Okay. It's taken three hits already? That one has. Jeez Louise. All right. That finishes your turn? Yeah. It's now their turn.

So at the beginning of the round, go ahead and roll your damage for both of your- And they all make wisdom saves. First one's fire? Yep. There we go. Okay. Boo.

What is it? 3d8? 3d8. 3d8. Okay. Boo. What is it? 3d8? 3d8. 3d8. Boo. Boo. Success. Failure and failure.

So the top two over there are success. So what was the damage you rolled? Seven. Seven, all right, so. Not great, but that's fine. No. 17. Don't look at me, don't look at me.

Oh wait, no, it's not plus anything, it's just 3d8. Right? 3d8. 3d8, flat, 12. All righty. And the fireball does damage on their turn as well, right? It does. And then 12 for you. Fail. I don't know why.

Success. No, fail, actually. What's your DC again? 17? 18. 18. Fail. And fail. So 12 to all of them. Do I have any other d4s to use? If I'm conscious.

The one that Yasha had struck last round is assaulted by a swirl of tiny pink hamster unicorns. And you watch as it shakes in place and then shatters into frozen moisture and crystal ice on the ground. I want them to look like inferno unicorns now, so they look like they're on fire. Okay, angry burning red eyes.

Nightmares. Perfect, you got it. Yeah, nightmares. The two that are next to your battle fail. Do I roll? And you roll 2d6. And success. This time it was a one and a four. There you go.

Five points. Doubled, I'm assuming. Oh boy. Because they're ice. They're vulnerable to fire, maybe? Watch as they burn in the proximity of it. Not a high fire damage, but nevertheless, it hurts them. It hurts them. All right, so now it's their turn.

Ow. That's two against you, Jester. Yeah. Two against me. That is 20 to hit. Yeah. And 21 to hit. Yeah. Aw.

As they swing towards you. 16 points of cold damage reduced to eight. And 16 points of cold damage reduced to eight. And... 17 points of cold damage reduced to eight. So 16 total on that one. Oh, man. These all swarm in on Caduceus here. Let's all just go to sleep after this. They're also half speed, if that matters.

Indeed, but it doesn't matter, unfortunately, because you're still pretty close. Yeah, I know. And they fly. They have a three-eyed kid. Indeed. But it doesn't matter, unfortunately, because you're still pretty close. Yeah, I know. And they fly. It's a three-eyed kid. Help. What number are you at?

67. Okay. But this is about to be brutal, unless he rolls really poorly. Ah. 12. Missed this. Nope. 15. No. Wow. You got the shitty ones around you.

21. Hit. Shit, sorry. You did that. Don't worry, he's fine. 23 points of cold damage. And natural 20. Cancel.

That's a reaction, you do cancel it, yeah. Oh, lucky. I'm good for you. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Oh, and it's a good thing you did. 24 points of cold damage. Yep, that would've been the end of me. Wow.

You're down, you're down? This is his down? No, no. He's okay. I have. Would've been. Yeah, I would've been if I had not canceled that. Okay, okay, okay. Definitely would've been your turn. But you're not looking good.

Beauregard. If it hits my turn, I might be down. You do have patient defense, so it has disadvantage on its attack against you. Correct. That might be. Am I also on fire, you said? Yes, yes! Or was that, I might be down. You do have Patience and Defense, so it has disadvantage on its attack against you. Correct. That might be. Am I also on fire, you said? Yes, girl! Or was that I just burst into flame?

Hotter than a fantasy. No, no, it was a burst of flame. Okay, okay. So it rolled a natural 20 and a two, so it misses. Awesome. All right. So the one that you hit Beau with didn't even catch on fire? Yes, girl, it's a...

She caught on fire. I guess she absorbed it instead. Exactly. You said it was sending it towards her. If she would have... Well, I was... I did great. You did great. She had a high chance of dodging it with her evasion,

so if she would have managed to succeed and evade it, it was going to go in. That makes sense to me. That was my... That's why I said nothing. It rolled like shit. So that finishes their go. Now that brings us to Yasha. Okay. Yasha, top of your turn,

because of the aura of their, you take five points of fire damage. Okay. Okay, so what I'm going to do, I'm going to start with letting out a battle cry and everyone within 60 feet gains advantage on attack rolls and saving throws. What's that? What's that now?

I don't know if it'll reach. Bonuses on attack rolls. Or, I'm sorry, advantages on attack rolls and saving throws. This is your battle cry? This is battle cry. It reaches you, it does not reach you. Yeah!

But everyone else gets advantage on attack rolls and saving throws. Okay, and then I'm going to attack the one closest to me. Go for it. Okay. Ooh, 25. 25 hits.

Okay. Savage Attack. Bump, bump, bump. That's a little better. Bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum- bum-bum-bum-bum- bum-bum-bum-bum- bum-bum-bum- bum-bum- bum-bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum- bum Natural 20. Roll damage. End it. Seven. Bonus dice for that. So 40. Oh wow, those are my points. So just the dice are? Just the dice doubled, yeah.

Okay, so, let me roll a super. Let us see. Okay, so 27 total. 28 and 27, that's over 50 points of damage in one round. That's great. You do take eight points of cold damage from the second strike. As you, with the second blow, the sword swings wide and you feel the pain, but look up and watch as the creature is no more. It is scattered in a spray of snow and ice chips in the direction of Caleb, spraying the front of him slightly. Ice chips. You can still move if you'd like.

Yeah. Boy, I feel like there's a lot going on over by Caduceus and Jester. Wait, which is the real Jester? Which is the real Jester? The one by the door, downstage. Ask both a question that and only Jester will tell you. I'm going to move a little closer to,

but right out of range of the little ice creature, and just ready to attack. So stay put? I'm going to stay put. Okay. All right, that finishes your go, Yasha? Yeah. Beauregard, you're up. Caduceus, you're on deck.

I don't think I can do anything to light this brazier, so I'm going to turn around and... You do take three points of ice, of cold damage from being in the proximity of a taura. I take three points of ice damage. And then I'm going to do just big two sweeping swings with my Belaborer. I have advantage on these, don't I?

You do. Thank god, because one's one. So 26 for the first one. That hits. And 28 for the second. That hits, roll damage on each. Checking another. How do we get Caduceus out of there?

I'm going to lift him out, and he's going to get hit. I think I'm going to be dead next turn. Do you have a transition type spell? I won't have time, I'm going to drop instantly. But it's your turn next. I'm going to drop immediately on my turn. 10 and 12 damage.

I'm out. 10 and 12. Yeah. Before they get to go again. I'm in aura. You do take an additional eight points of cold damage from the two strikes, but- Even with my staff? Even with your staff,

but you do destroy it with those final hits. Oh. They've taken quite a few hits previously, so as you slam it both with my staff? Even with your staff, but you do destroy it with those final hits. Oh. They've taken quite a few hits previously, so as you slam it both with the staff, the second one sends it flying against the far wall where it just breaks into a thousand pieces. In that case, I'll move and bonus action, Flurry of Blows, the one that's harassing Caduceus. Over here? Whichever one feels like it's most harassing Caduceus.

They're all pretty much most harassing Caduceus. All right, moving into that aura is a new cold aura. You take another one point of cold damage. Okay. Bonus action, two more strikes against it. Hop, hop, hop. Oh, still at advantage? So 21 for the first one.

21. And 21 again. Both hits. No, sorry, 22. Whatever, never mind. Well, so the first one, those are to hit, right? Yeah. Roll damage for the first one. Okay. Not those, not those.

For the first one. Okay, 13, 14. You take four points of cold damage from the impact, but this one, which was already barely holding on because of Caleb's spell earlier, shatters at the blow. Great. Four damage. So my second one, can I attack the one that's on the other side of me? You can continue to move and come into this one if you want to, or this one. Yeah, I'll do that one that's on the other side of me. The one that, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Just full on superhero style punching through ice. Yeah, that's in natural 18, so 30.

No, sorry, 28, 28. Go ahead and roll damage. I'm not going to have to attack him with my staff. Because you're not moving, you're technically not moving more than half your movement, so you don't have to make a dex save to try and maintain your footing. Terrible damage, seven on that one.

Seven damage on that one. And Extract Aspects. Good call. You do take four points of cold damage from the impact. Okay. They are resistant to non-magical slashing and piercing. Okay. They are immune to cold and poison damage

and vulnerable to fire damage. Yeah, you know, that all tracks. There you go. Oh, fire damage. Just doing so much more. It was doubling. You were just rolling really shitty. Fire is bad. Everyone knows that.

Everyone knows that. Oh crap. Hey. Okay. But it's really helpful to know. Thanks. Thanks. That's my turn. All right, Cad to know. Thanks. Thanks. That's my turn. All righty.

Caduceus, beginning of your round. Let's see what happens. You take one point of cold damage from one aura, eight from another, and then six. So one, then eight. 15. So nine total. Are you still up? Yep. Then the sixth addition to that, so nine total, are you still up? Yep.

Then the six addition to that, so 14 total. I'm still up. All righty. 14, thank you for knocking that out. Just the one made the difference? That would've fucking done me. I'm at six hit points. Oh!

So yeah. Okay. Let's go for it. I'm going to, okay, the wound closure. Okay. Wow. I'm going to, okay, the wound closure, do you use, I can't remember, if I use Cure Wounds, that's not using, that doesn't use my healing, oh god, sorry, hold on. Look at your parapet again.

Your parapet situation? Yeah, my, this is my brain. That doesn't use my... No, when you roll a hit dice to gain hit points, that's during your short rest. Okay, so it's just a short rest. So it doesn't affect, actually, magical healing. Okay, that's okay.

I'm going to cast Cure Wounds at... Let's do a 4th- Kirwan? Sure. For fun. So 48. 48 plus five, go for it. Maybe I'll roll a better 48 than I have been. Eh. It's 12. 20 points back, so a little better than before. There you go.

And that's pretty much what I can do, so I'm just going to, I ain't moving anymore. I'm just going to stay put and hope this all ends. Fair enough. If you could, make three concentration checks for me, please. To maintain your Spirit Guardians. You have advantage on saving throws. Oh, I already have advantage on concentration checks anyway.

But saves or checks? Checks, or it's a saving throw. So whatever your constitution saving throw is. 13. All right, you maintain. 22. Maintain. Nine?

Nope. Fuck. It's so scary. Oh fuck. Oh boy. All right, that finish your go? I mean, in more ways than one, yeah. Veth, you're up. Caleb, you're on deck. Wow.

So before Caduceus' next turn, they're going to get a go, and Beauregard's going to get a go. Mm-mm. No. Jester will get a go, and then they go. Is that real Jester or fake Jester? Fake Jester. Oh, and Fjord.

It doesn't matter. I can cast spells from my fake. Okay. I will, just because I like- By the way, is your duplicate concentration? Yes. Much easier to keep track of which one the real Jester is, because with the Spirit Guardians up, the duplicate is gone.

That's a good point. Sorry. That was a- Still good, still good. We're fine, we're fine. That's a... Fuck! You could eventually run over here, too, and then, yeah. If I can, I can climb the rope, maybe, and get uphill. It's uphill, so it'll be difficult. It's a slope.

I will, just because I like this rope so much, I'm going to hang on it with my knees. Who's holding the rope up here, by the way? What's that? Are you holding the rope up there? Stand up at the top, yeah. Yeah. Sure, I'm going to hang on it with my knees like that.

Okay. Upside down and shooting the thing. Okay. Cool. I like that we're battling all these things and still going, Hold it steady, guys! And you know what? I will throw a knife instead of the thing you threw.

Okay, who are you throwing it at? I'll throw it at the one closest to me. Right there? Go for it. Roll for the attack. With advantage. With advantage. 18 plus stuff, so it's got it. That hits, you can go ahead and roll damage. And it is sneak attack, because you had advantage on the attack roll.

Yeah. And next to a conducive to grab this. Okay. Three, six, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 20. 25 plus six is 31, plus I will pump an extra 3d6 into it. Sure. 38 points of damage.

38 points of damage. The dagger strikes it and you watch for a moment as it lodges itself in the center of this throbbing blue energy and the crystal just shatters all across the chamber floor. The dagger plummets and then slides down the bottom of the floor towards the other door. No, no, no!

That's your action. Bonus action, I'll charge with my flaming spear at the other one. Into the side there. As it rolls across the ground, slamming into the crystal entity, it fails its save. So 2d6. Four points of damage.

Up to eight. Yeah! What is it, 2d4? It's 2d6, I just keep rolling damage. All righty. And does that flaming sphere, does it catch the USB cord on fire, or am I okay? It will in a couple rounds.

Okay, cool. It's insulated, you know? Yeah, it's good, yeah. Great. You can move it, no, never mind. All right, so, that finishes your go. Caleb, you're up. I'm going to finish what I started.

I raise the cat's cradle up, and I spin my finger around and wrap it up tighter in string and bring it right back down and cast it fifth level. And I will send one of the snakes to the final brazier and hit every last creature on the map because there's four of them. Okay. That's five targets. Zoom, zoom, zoom, zoom.

That one alights. And then roll damage for the others? Yep. Eight, so that's 96. Failed save. Failed save. Jeez. Success and success. 28 total.

So they both take. So that's what, 52? 56. No, 56 points. Wow. Both of them just shatter and melt midair. You hear the explosion and there's just mist left behind as immediately the ice has turned to vapor in this small cloud of fog

where they both just kind of shriek, no longer exist to the right of you and Jester. You did at the top of your round take one point of cold damage from proximity to one of them, just as a note. The other two impact and are extremely hurt. They are barely holding on. They have no seemingly intellect of their own,

so they're not looking to flee. They don't have a sense of self. They are just hungry for heat. As the last brazier lights, the doors behind you and Jester open up. The two that you are leaning against. I need you both to make dexterity saving throws for me. Oops.

Okay. Oh, advantage. Cool, cool, cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yep, you do have dex save. Tie, tie, tie, tie, tie. Okay, okay, okay, okay. 21 for me. All righty. Remember that scene in the Titanic? Oh okay. 21 for me. All righty.

Remember that scene in the Titanic? Oh yeah. 15 for me? Shhh! If I fail, I'll succeed it with the ring. You do fail. Okay, so I use the Ring of Evasion. Is there any way I can? So you do succeed. Okay.

You both barely manage to move to the sides. Well, I'm holding onto the rope, so I'm assuming, or probably, it's Yane. The gear is lost. Oh god, there you go. Doors are open there. Yay. I'm strong, I'm strong! So you both, you just clench your glutes and hold the rope?

Just shift over to the side, you hold the rope and pull off the end, and the door just opens to the left of you. You both manage to prevent just falling into the next chamber. Oh jeez. that was close. All righty. That finish Caleb's go?

Yeah. You can move if you'd like to. I will move just maybe five or 10 more feet to the left. All right. So I don't fall in. Fair enough. That brings us to Fjord. Fjord, you're up. Yeah, my dexterity's not so great and doors are opening and shit at the bottom of the room.

You know, like when you go tubing, you can aim where you want to go? Yeah. Yeah. Can I try and jump and slide so I'll slide right towards where Caduceus is? We can certainly try. I'm going to try and kaplinko my way down to Caduceus. I dig it.

To get right where Caduceus is, you will be passing by Veth. Yep. Okay. You've also dropped the rope. I see. Yeah, fuck that rope. Ah! So you don't need to worry about that. Veth, make a dexterity check for me.

Dexterity check, I would say with disadvantage because you weren't expecting it, but you have advantage, so it's just a straight roll. Natural one. Oh no! Veth. I've still got the rope on the other end. You do, but she's now just gliding off. Like, because you're holding one end of the rope.

So are you holding onto the, she holds onto the rope, so you go falling out the side, but are you still holding the rope? No. You let go of the rope? I was never holding the rope, my legs were on it. That's right. Then I'll tell you what, as you and the rope go sliding by,

roll a d20 for me. Oh no. And the rope is going. She has a tangling breath up. Can I try? Yeah, I know, can we try to catch her? Grab her on the way down? That's like a reaction right there.

I can't give you guys 16 different reactions when it's like three rolls have failed in a row here. Indiana. Yeah. Let it go. Let it go. Let it go. Veth just slides into the next chamber. Do I catch my knife on the way? We'll get to you in a second. Okay.

Fjord, what are you doing? You're trying to scoot this way? Yeah, I'm trying to slide right down to where Caduceus is. Okay, mega dexterity check. Not a saving throw, it's not a reaction. Sure, okay. But I will allow advantage on this

because you are doing this intentionally and it's just sliding. A dexterity check? Yes, your dexterity bonus. That's my advantage. Everything's, well, we have advantage on a ton of stuff. 18, just an 18 with no modifier. Where do you want to go?

Straight down to Caduceus. All right, so you are sliding past him. You will either bowl through Caduceus, or you can try and stop or go with him. No, I literally want to give him a big-ass hug. I'm going to hit him, and when I hit him, I'm going to cast Thunder Step. All righty.

You do enter the frost radius of two of them when you do so. So you do take 14 points of cold damage as you slide into their space, but as you're scooting down, sending up ice bits and bits of rock and pebbles behind you, you reach out, scoop up Caduceus. You both go about to tumble as you finish the spell, and then.

Explode outward. The flaming sphere, I will say at this point, because it is no longer in your sight, will dissipate. Sure, sure. So where do you two want to go? I'm going to go to the corner down over here, right here. You both manage to stumble a bit and land against the wall, catching yourself,

not quite falling completely over, using the edge of it to stop your momentum. It hurts, that shoulder's going to be sore in the morning. Everything's sore. But you're okay at the moment. How much damage do both of them take? What's their save? 21, 21, 24.

24 points of Vanda damage, and it's a constitution 18. No. Yes? And yes. Damn. 24 to 12. They're already both pretty hurt, and so regardless of making it save, as you both vanish from sight,

there's a brief moment where just they go and the space where they were suddenly impacts and detonates outward in this shockwave that sends all their ice shards and essence just scattering across the room at enormous speed. The rest of you in the chamber have to protect yourself as you're suddenly pelted with tiny bits of broken ice. And with that quiet moment, you realize that nothing else in the chamber beyond you

seems to be moving, reacting. Would I have hit you? Yes! Would I have hit you also? I think you would have. Okay. That is within five feet, so yes, make a constitution saving throw. You slid just down with Caduceus and bamfed out when you were out of the closery.

I still have Battle Cry, eh? You do. What? Natural 20. Nice. So you take 12 points of thunder damage, I think. Is that right, 24? Maybe we should get into the next room and take a minute.

Saveth. Oh. You slide into darkness and we are expecting a floor to meet you. You are free falling. Oh shit! And falling and falling. I need you to make, just roll a d6 for me.

Okay. Two. Two, okay. Do you have anything? I've got stuff. You fall for 50, 60, 70 feet. You don't really see much around you because you don't have darkvision,

but you have the goggles on still, right? I do. I will at some point cast Feather Fall. Well, up to you. You've fallen for 70 feet at this point, and looking around you, all you see is bits of jagged ice and stone. I will cast Feather Fall. Okay. Oh my god.

No, better be sure. You just slowly begin to drift for 80, 90, 100, 10, 120, 150, 200 feet. Oh boy. 250 feet. Oh no. It doesn't last forever. At about 270, you fall pretty fast, though. Okay. At about 270 feet,

you begin to just barely see, rising up to you, the floor of this pit. Oh my god. You see broken bits of jagged stone walls and pillars that are almost like a spike trap at the bottom. Debris and elements of fallen architecture just litter the floor at the bottom of this pit and you land on your feet gently, taking no damage.

Ah! I thought he was going to say lava, 275. That'd have been literally anyone else. Tell us. And done. Tell us. Yeah. As soon as that rope went, I was like, okay. Spider-Man, slide into dark. Yeah. Okay.

No worries. Veth? So, yeah. Are you okay? Veth! Okay, okay, okay. I don't know, can I even hear them? That's far. Yeah, I can still hear them.

You can hear them. Yeah. Ah! Are you hurt? No, I'm okay. I start sending the globules down just to get an idea of the space. No worries. As you peer over, you can see now a mostly collapsed chamber

with jagged rock and ice punching through the top of what might have been once a beautiful structure, some sort of ceremonial interior, but the majority of it has tumbled inward and the floor has bottomed out from underneath. This 25 by 30 foot chamber area has no floor. All of it, whatever structure was there has fallen into this pit, into endless darkness.

And as you hear the faint echoes of Veth calling up to you, we're going to take a break. Okay. Good spot. I'm going to hit you with a Cure Wounds. I'm going to do a, if we can take 10 minutes, I can also heal, give everybody who took damage a little bit of a break. Okay, we'll wait for that.

Okay, yeah. Okay. Fjord is the master of the Drive by Thunderstep. Yeah. Yeah, it's great. Moving target. I love it so much. Okay, we'll wait for that. Fjord is the master of the drive by thunderstep. Moving target. I love it so much. It's like the hottest use of that spell. Oh boy. All righty, we'll be back here in a few minutes

and we'll pick up from this scenario and see where it goes from there. So, you guys admit. Lord of Merchants. Oh, hey laura bailey here to tell you all about the glorious goods we create inspired by our stories our stores are filled with the basics like character inspired t-shirts dice sets and pins as well as more specialty items like fancy jackets puzzles featuring gorgeous artwork the comfiest joggers and pajamas ever, and much, much more. There's also a few special items that support charity efforts, like our dedicated Critical

Role Foundation merch. You can check out all of our regional online stores by visiting the shop tab on critrole.com or head straight to the U.S. store at shop.critrole.com. Every purchase helps support our shows and the stories we tell. Speaking of which, let's get back to the story. And welcome back. Wow, you all came in hot on that. All right. You make one quiff. It's all over.

So. Oh boy. Fjord suddenly slips. No. Yeah, 375. We come back within the frost and ice-coated chamber where you saw Veth vanish down the extensive pit into darkness below.

Seemingly survived, because you heard her shout back up to confirm that she is indeed alive. But as you all now glance into this floorless room around the rubble, all you see now below you is the endless expanse of dark, dark pit below. There are no sorts of stairs working its way around this shaft of darkness? Not that you can see, no.

What's above? A very low ceiling of broken, fallen stone ice, and it looks like elements of broken pillar that have buckled and are being pushed against the wall. Most of this room collapsed. Vaf, are you okay? I'm fine, I'm going to look for a way out. I don't know if this is the way or what, but.

Are you alone down there? There, there, there. I don't know! So hard to understand. Am I alone? Make a perception check. 20. So here at the base of this ragged cavity,

you do find two frozen, extremely broken bodies. One appears to be human at first glance, one appears to be halfling at first glance, and they lie amongst the shattered shale and fallen litter and debris. It's about 20, 25 feet wide, and the chamber walls itself are a little oblong and strangely shaped from the naturally formed tunnel

that you plummeted through. But that's what you see at that glance around you. I will look over the bodies real quick, see if I recognize them or if they're fresh or anything like that. Okay. Make an investigation check. 23.

Okay. Their bodies have been picked over. They look like they've been frozen and broken here for a while. Okay, then I will set about making my way through the spikes and trying to find some sort of wall or exit. Okay.

Make another investigation check for me, please. Okay. I don't know why I rolled twice, but the one that I would count is a natural one, but with all sorts of things, it becomes 23. Right. Okay. You glance around the interior here, and it is... The pit is solid, but it is cluttered here,

and you can't seem to find any give, any entrance, any weak way here. It's hard to get through because there is little light. It is very cluttered. You do pick up a weird acerbic smell in the air that wasn't there previously. Acerbic smell? What is acerbic?

From my alchemical knowledge, do I pick up any, is it acidic or any, or? It feels acidic, but you can't quite pinpoint specifically what the smell is. Just were able to. Sorry. Neither did I. Good.

I'm sorry. I don't think that you are. Ah! We'll post that later on. Yeah. But you do, after a moment of searching and following the smell, find what you think is the source of that scent.

Okay. As you glance in this one section and there is an oily tar-like substance that is between a couple of these broken slab elements. A tar-like substance? It looks like a slick oil tar. And it's not frozen? It's not frozen. I'm not there.

You're not there. I will touch it. Okay. You touch it and it tingles the end of the fingers. Oh. It shoots out and begins to wrap around you. Damn it, it's an ooze. I'm going to go get the other battlefield.

Oh no, you're fucking by yourself. He's with a black pudding or something. Oh, it's a black, oh no. Oh, that's not good. Why would you do that? You survived a fall and you... What am I doing? I'm trying to find a way out! Oh no. Oh, that's so cool.

It's such a teeny tiny little room all alone, Veth. We didn't even get a short rest or nothing. Can we, did we hear her scream? You do, you hear the scream. You don't know what it means, but first, we shall see, as it does get an ambush round on you. You got all these people up here. Shit.

275 feet. That is 17 to hit. That's far. Misses. It misses. You pull back as these weird tendrils of black shoot out towards you and then withdraw. And with that, you watch as this black mass of thick, slimy, oily tar begins to slowly emerge from the cracks below. Roll initiative for me, please.

Okay. Natural one. Oh no! Still on ability check, so. Ability check? Meaning you still. With your dex mod. I mean, it's six total? Well, with your dex mod and your reliable talent,

I believe it does work for that, right? I don't think so. Wait, what? My initiative just says plus five. Initiative is an ability check. Is it? I'm pretty sure. Huh.

I never knew. That's true. That changes many things, I would knew. That's true. That changes many things, I would say. Doesn't change too much, because it changes the very concept of the universe. Right there. Everything I thought I believed, all bets are off now. What the fuck is wrong with us?

I don't know what the fuck's coming out of my mouth. That video ruined me. I know. Whoa! Makes a dexterity check. It is an ability check, so. Wow. Wow.

But a dexterity check? I don't get reliable talent on dexterity checks. What does reliable talent affect? Oh no. Have you not been doing this? What? What's a rogue? Whenever you make an ability check

that lets you add your proficiency bonus. So no, you're right. You are correct. I am the best at this. I just wanted to double check. So six. So six, okay. Weirdly, you're going first.

Yay! It rolled higher, but it's pretty, it doesn't have a, has a really high negative. Okay, okay. I will, I will bonus action disengage. Okay. And then backflip, backflip, backflip away from it.

Or, you know, run. How far? As far as I can get. That's so cool. Eight, five, 10, 15, 20. God, it's like something out of the Hobbit. 25 is about, that's about as far as you can get right there. Sure.

You're just in the bottom of this area, like, fuck, fuck. Uh-huh, and I will shoot. Let's see here. Do I have spells that I could use on this thing? Not really, unless it doesn't like gusts of wind. Ooh, maybe this? Well, I don't know if it has wisdom.

Let's see here. Wisdom saving throw on a failed save. Sure, I'll try this. I don't know what it is. Can it see? Does it need to see? I don't know, who knows? I take out a pocket full of buttons

and I throw them and cast Hypnotic Pattern. Hypnotic Pattern, okay. Yeah, yeah. Does it need to see? Does it need to have intelligence? I don't know. We'll find out. Yeah, that's a pretty fair to see? Does it need to have intelligence? I don't know. We'll find out. Yeah, that's pretty fair.

Wisdom saving throw. I like the idea of pocketful buttons. That's cool. 13. 16. You got it. So it is currently charmed and incapacitated. I got a pocket full of buttons. Oh my god.

How was that? Coming apart at the seams. We are. This is a reentry. Yeah, oh yeah. Oh my god! I love that. Coming apart at the seams. We are... This is a reentry. Yeah, oh yeah. One of the heat shields. We are a mentally broken crew tonight. Well, when you're not around people,

then you get around people. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yep, yep. So you watch as it begins to emerge. You finish, you throw the buttons, and the buttons flash in the air above it in a multicolor spray as it reacts. Just holds its position there.

Okay. Okay, okay. I will call up, guys! I'm being attacked by a black ooze of some sort. Ah, maybe, should I just come up? Or are you coming down? Oh yeah, you should come up. But what if this is the way out? Can you look for any?

I've got 40, I've got 55 seconds. That's your turn. 54 seconds. All right, that's all we got. It's now the black ooze's turn. Okay. It's incapacitated. Its friend, however. No! Oh no!

You got it in there! Emerges. Oh shit. Go home and get your shine box. Oh no. 15, 20, it does manage to just get in range towards you. Okay, wait, I have an idea. It's going to go ahead and its pseudopod

strikes out towards you for a 19 to hit. Hits! All righty. You take three points of bludgeoning damage. Well, I mean. Plus. That's a plus to get you. 16 points of acid damage.

That's true. Yeah. Unless it gets you. I can uncanny dodge that, I guess. You can, yeah. So you take eight points. Okay, plus the three. Is your armor magical? Uh-oh. Oh no.

It is. It is. In that it can change its appearance. Correct, but it is magical armor. It is a magical armor. It resists the acidic effects of its pseudopod and does not diminish, so. So the 16 points are negated, or? No, no, you still take the damage,

but the armor is not melted away. Ooh! Fuck, get out! Yeah! Get out! You think? Yeah! So, that ends its turn. Oh boy.

Go ahead and make a concentration check for me. Oh boy. Shit. Pretty good, 17 plus something. Okay, you maintain concentration on your pattern. Okay. So now, you all heard what Veth said. What are you doing?

I'm going to Dimension Door. Okay. You cannot see the distance. You have to go, is it somewhere you can? You can just choose. Pick a direction. That's true, you can just pick a direction. You also have to pick a distance, so you'd have to guess how far down it is.

Fuck. You could throw a torch down there. That's a way to do it. Somebody else could. Somebody else so I can dimension door down really fast? Well, we'd have to wait for the torch to land, but... Do we have a torch? I don't know.

I've got all the torches! We can see Caleb has lights down in the tunnel, right? Yeah, he put down his globules, right? Yeah, I sent them down already, so they're some distance in. What's the range on that spell? Oh, it's over 100 feet. It wouldn't have made it if it went down then.

I mean, I could. 120 feet. So it can get less than halfway down. You can just leave? Yeah. You can stay? What? You don't want us to engage? You can stay? What? You don't want us to engage? You're okay? Yeah, do you want us to jump in the hole?

Nott, do you need help? No, I'm fine! Okay. Okay. Get out of the hole? Yeah. So you guys are all staying up there? She just said not to come down.

Okay, all right, so you all hold and wait. Top of the round. Veth, you're up. Bonus action disengage. Cast Spider Climb and start running up. I'm going to pull up the drift globe and light it up in that moment of panic. So you bonus action disengage, you cast Spider Climb,

which means the charm goes away. What's the drift globe? Does it have a further range? Oh, okay, okay, okay. What if these things can go up the wall? Well. All right, so you can now spider climb. That puts you at your full movement at 35 feet.

Uh-huh, I think. All right, so you are 35 feet up the side here. Okay. I hope they can't move faster. That finishes your turn. Oh no, they probably can. Okay. And at the beginning of your turn. Oh no, they probably can. Okay. And at the beginning of their turn.

Oh! No way! Moves 40 feet up the wall. No! And wraps around you as you fall in. It doesn't even take its action to get 40 feet up the wall? Yes. Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay.

We should help now. Oh! Remember what I said? I was fine. So now, as you're going up the wall, you look behind and one just slithers up the side of the wall and wraps around you. It's not holding you,

but it's now filling the space around you. The other one is now trying to climb up after you as well. All right, so who's doing what? I'm gonna grab Beau. Okay. And I'm gonna dimension door us down as much as I can see, because he has daylight.

Do you need a light to get down there before we do this? He has daylight. But it's not everywhere. It's 60 feet. I shove the drift globe into Fjord's hand and turn into a giant eagle. And I grab Caduceus and Fjord

and start flying down the passage. Caduceus, what's the up here? I'm 26 hit points. Yeah, just wave him up. All right. Nope, nope, nope. All right, I grab Yasha by the neck. Yep, and Fjord.

Okay, I'll be fine. I think my giant eagle mini is at the old table. I will, right before Jester grabs me, I'm going to take out a celebone, and I'm going to crack it, and I'm going to throw the celebone down there at the end. Nice. So that she can see. So it's a rave party.

It's a rave torch at the bottom. Okay. Yeah. Okay, it will fall by the end of the round, the full distance to go there. Okay. Shit. So. You're holding a cantaloupe that's glowing daylight 60 feet in every direction with your hand.

All right, so. I'm going to just, I'm going to bamf us 250 feet down. I don't know how much farther it is after that. Do it. You're just choosing 250? I'm just choosing 250. Okay. Both of you reappear

and fall an additional 20 feet. Can I do what I've done before and brace Jester on top of me and take the blow? No. Yeah, if you want to. I've got Slow Fall. Okay. Okay. So you manage to kick off the wall, and what it does is instead,

Slow Fall reduces the damage to you to little, but you don't take all of her damage away. Okay. So you just reduce her damage. But I pad her a little bit? You do. So you take five points of bludgeoning damage. Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. She's still falling 20 feet on a bow.

And both of you. I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I'm good! Right there in that space. Okay, now you can do something. Well. Oh, am I there? Can I go, am I there?

Hate to be a rules lawyer, but she doesn't have her goggles and there's no light down there. Correct. Well, it threw down a Celebone. She threw the Celebone down. Oh yes, yes, yes, yes! So it's a rave down there right now.

Well, it would have been your action to crack it and throw it down before you win. So that's your turn. I just look up and I wait for the LED stick to fall. Correct, and you watch as it boom. And as soon as that happens, you look over and you see these two giant black masses up the wall. What a great picture.

And one of them turns around and goes like and begins to move back in your direction. Yeah. Oh god, that would be so creepy. It flashes in different colors every time it goes. Oh, this reminds me of the Danny Elfman video that you sent. Thanks.

I don't know how it goes. Hell yeah. All righty, I need you both to roll initiative. Okay. Oh, you two. 15. I'll roll for initiative? Yes. I'm going to roll with my boots with this one.

Seven, eight, nine, 14 total. And you got, what was it? 15. All right. You got it. Okay. So now, Veth, your turn. You have Spiderwalk on, you're on the side of the wall. The creature is starting to swirl around you.

What are you going to do? I'm aware that it's faster than me. How are they faster? So I'm not going to disengage. I'm just going to run up the wall. Okay. So you're going to run up 35 feet? Yes.

You got it. Let's do this one here. Oh man, oh man. As you dart past, it's going to swing out with its pseudopods. That is a 23 to hit. Well, it hits. All right. You take five points of bludgeoning damage. Yes. And... 22 points of acid damage. I guess I'll Uncanny Dodge that.

Okay, so it's 27, so that's 13 points of damage to you total. Go ahead and make another concentration check. Not good, seven plus something. Your feet. Wait, oh, concentration on a spider climb? Yes. That's a concentration spell? Is it? Double check.

Totally is. Yeah. That's what I thought. You suddenly, your feet. Oh no. And you just plummet. Oh, jeez, that. Now, the good news is you didn't get your whole 35 feet up before it hit you. It hit you as you left.

So you do fall 30 feet, right into the other slime. Oh! Oh, fuck! That's so amazing! I feel like that would have gained some fall damage there. Yeah, it's got it, right? He just collapses.

Ooze doesn't take fall damage. It's an ooze. It's not a big air cushion like for stun guys? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It does cushion your blow. So you only take six points of bludgeoning damage from the fall. However, I will say because you are impacting full body

into an aesthetic entity, It shivers a entity, you will take 12 points of acid damage. Damn! And you are prone inside this creature. It's now around you, starting to block your vision. Wow.

How did I get here? This is not going well. Rapidly makes an air cavity that immediately creeps it out. Yep. So it's now these creatures' turn. This one is going to be spitting. Are you shoving Play-Doh back into the tube? It can't take an action because it used its action to get down there, but it's right next to you, Jester. The other one is going to strike you. Because you are prone, it has advantage in the attack roll.

Sure, sure. All right, that is going to be a 23 to hit. Uh-huh, hit. You take six points of bludgeoning damage. And 18 points of acid damage. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Now, if you are prone, don't check. I don't know.

Where are we at? I'm alive. Still a solid. Yeah, you can still take your reaction, technically. I mean, I already took a reaction. Oh, you did. But I didn't actually get to take your reaction, technically. I mean, I already took a reaction. Oh, you did. But I didn't actually get to take my action last turn. I started to walk and then I fell.

But I never actually took an action. That's true. So what would you do with your action? There's not a lot I can do from inside. I'm prone. Do I have the ability to move my arms and things? You do, yeah. Or am I oozed? I'm going to do the same goddamn thing and throw some more buttons up and try to hypnotize them again.

Okay. Since this technically goes first, if this works, then you will not take the damage I just told you to take. So the save is wisdom, correct? Yes. And that's against him or both? It says that it can do it, any creature within 30 feet.

Okay, singular creature? Sorry. Just double checking. Yep, each creature in the area who sees the pattern must make a wisdom saving throw. A 30-foot cube. Yep. Each creature in the area who sees the pattern must make a wisdom saving throw. A 30-foot cube. Okay. So that includes my friends?

It would. Because you haven't seen them arrive. Yes, yes, sure, sure, sure. It's a wisdom save? Indeed. And you can always tap them. They both fail. Both of you guys roll wisdom saving throws.

Oh boy. Good news, bad news saving throws. Oh boy. Bad news. 27. Natural one. Holy shit. Tonight at the Vortex. Yeah, a flashing LED glow stick falls, and then you throw some buttons.

The buttons explode in a splash of color and light. Like a small localized firework, and suddenly the creatures go limp for a moment, and Beau stands there staring into it. Beau's in a K-hole. Yeah. Memories of Hupperduke. All right. Okay, wait, wait, wait.

That finishes their turn. We're back at the top of the initiative round. Before we get there, what's everybody else doing? You said you are a f- I grabbed Yasha and Fjord and just jumped as a giant eagle. So I would use- What's the speed of the eagle? 80 feet.

So you can do 160 feet more. Right, which I imagine is just a straight dive fall for most of the, and then the wings go out like a drag parachute towards the end of that run. You got it. All righty, so you're still about a little over 100 feet above them. And since I don't have my eagle mini close to me

and I can't grab it right now, we're going to be using a vrock. Same difference. Just imagine it. Imagination. Yeah, you are currently now up in the air, trying to make your way down to join the fray with the two of them. Caduceus, what are you doing?

I am sitting up there. God, what can I do? There's nothing I can, I'm too weak to go down there. Heal thyself. Heal thyself. Yeah, I'm going to take a heal. Go for it. This is the worst foam party ever. Yeah, just assume I'm going to heal myself.

I thought this was supposed to be like a... Okay. I'm abandoning. Jester, you're up first. It's going to be like a dress joke. I'm goinging. Jester, you're up first. Okay, I'm going to use my Ring of Spell Splitting. How far is it going? I'm going to cast Polymorph on Nott, on Veth, and on myself, and I'm going to turn us both into

giant eagles. Oh no. Okay. Sorry, Matt. It's okay. I, if you give me a second, I can go grab some. Go do it. I'll be right back. I'll be right back, I'm going to grab some tiny eagles.

This battle map brought to you by, just a sec, I threw it away, but it's Dwarven Forge something or other. Check it out at dwarvenforge.com. Can't die by it, Nicolai. Oh my god. They have new things. Objection. Oh my god. They have new things. Mm-hmm. All right. Objection! It says objection.

I have to- Is that Phoenix Wright? Are these just old? Yep. Old bits. Old bits. Just old bits. Do you keep old bits in your binder? There's a bit I don't think I did.

I know. I know. I don't think I ever did this bit. But it would've been real funny. No, no, no, wait, you did. What did you know? The eagles are coming. The eagles are coming. You used that for something.

That's half my hit points, thank god. I don't think I did this bit. Yay! I might've used some of that for Hazel Copperpot. I might've stolen some of that. The eagles are here. That works, it's fine. Welcome to the Hotel California!

Ooh! I'm a griffin or something. It's more of a sphinx. I'm a sphinx! You get the idea. I'll say for this purpose here, you are right there, Veth. Okay.

Put my earpiece back in. So you are now both giant eagles. I am going to, can I use my movement still? You can, because you've only used your action. For my movement, can I grab Beau and lift up off the ground? You would need your action to grab her, because it is a grab and then a move,

so unfortunately not. Okay. I'm okay. I'm having a great time. She's a space raven. Then I'm going to eat, oh god. I don't know. I'm going to fly up. Fuck me running. I'm going to step in front of Beau.

Step? Unfortunately, there's no space to step in front of her, because that space is occupied by the other creature. Then I'm just going to take my wing and bring it down in front of her. There you go. Not my child! Yeah. You got it.

All right, that finishes your go. Oh no, you're just... Beau. Yeah? Yep. Get that girl some orange juice. Do you need some water? Yeah, you're just standing there. That's your turn. Veth, you're an eagle.

I'm an eagle, but we're not allowed to pick up Beau? No, you can for your actions. Oh, okay. I'll go pick up Beau. Well, first I got to get out of the ooze, I guess, with my wings and stuff. Okay, so you like, well, you know, you kind of burst out of its space. I just want to do it so that I don't harm the ooze, I guess, with my wings and stuff. Okay, so you like, well, you know, you kind of burst out of its space.

I just want to do it so that I don't harm the ooze. So this is a gentle lift. Easy enough to do because it's incapacitated, no issue. And then I will grab Beau gently with my razor sharp claws. All righty. No, I'm not ready to go. Oh, honey.

Just 30 more minutes. And I will fly up into the air. Okay. Wait till this bee drops. Yeah. Wait, wait, wait, this is my jam. So with that, you can lift up the speed of the giant eagle, which is? Looking, looking.

80 feet. Thank you. All right, so you're now 80 feet up. You see a giant eagle beginning to is? Looking, looking. 80 feet. Thank you. All right, so you're now 80 feet up. You see a giant eagle beginning to- We're like probably 30 feet apart at this point. Yeah, you are 30 feet apart. Oh, God. Oh, God.

Oh, no. Everything's over. I got to put this plastic thing up in this eagle cooch. Okay, there we go. Wow. This is the year we reclaim our dignity. All righty, so we've been. With the eagle soul.

This has been a night. Symbol of our time. There we go. Did it. Did it. Did it. That finishes Veth's turn. They can't go because they're charmed. Just sit there.

What a weird encounter. Yeah. All right. Caleb. I don't know what to make of it, because I just came rocketing down from the top. Yeah, and you just see a giant eagle flying up, clutching Beauregard, just limp in its grasp.

Because there's birds down here. I'm going to do my best to break and not smash into everybody, and I can't do anything except fly. I'm just the lift at this point. Yeah, you can drop them off if you wanted to. Yeah, I should have. If you're trying to get to the bottom,

or are you staying where you are? Well, I'm seeing eagles come up, and I'm assuming in my dumb eagle state that there weren't eagles down there, so these must be my friends. So I am just going to fly down to whatever height they're at. It's fair, that's fair.

Okay. You can fly about 30 feet above with your movement, or you can go the full distance with your action. I don't want to go to the bottom. I want to stop with my eagle friends. Got it, okay. The only two people who can talk are Yasha and Fjord. Oh wait, I guess I can use this.

There is an eagle friend that is at 80 feet up, and that's the first one you see with Beau. Right. There's a second eagle at the bottom you can barely see. That's at the very bottom. So which one are you going with? Your eagle friends are at two different places. I will pass the first eagle friend

and go down between the two eagle friends. Okay, so you are. To try to ascertain what's going on. All right, so you are 40 feet above, we'll say. There we go. So as you're 40 feet above, holding Fjord and Yasha. Let's do 50 feet. All right, 50 feet above.

As you're flying there, clutching both of them, you look down and you see these two writhing black oozes and you see a third eagle on the bottom with its wings out. I blew! A blue eagle, if you will. All righty. I blew! So that's your turn.

Anybody else going to do anything? You guys are just being held by the giant eagle 50 feet up. Wait, what? What is happening? What are you? Yeah, if we hit it, it'll become uncharmed, right? Yeah. Yeah. We don't want to do that. But should we look around the room?

There's a big white floofy thing. I wonder if we could just... Maybe there's a doorway behind it? Yeah, exactly. This could be the way forward. Is that not the dead bodies that, no, maybe not. I mean, we could try to give it a look-see, if you want to.

Well, how long are they charmed for? You don't know, unfortunately. Yeah, they save it around, right? We should be trying to smoke these things, right? I mean, if you see my buttons floating around, you know that those typically last a minute. Okay. We all just die down here,

because we just can't leave. It puts the lotion on its skin. All right, so what are you guys doing? You holding? Waffling. Fjord so what are you guys doing? You holding? Waffling. Fjord, what do you want to do? Are we trying to get out of here and regroup up at the top?

Maybe. Yeah. I feel weightless. Let's do that. Let's regroup at the top. They're looking around. Yeah. Make a perception check. All right. Because we can send fireballs down and try to knock them out, you know.

Yeah. Just shout out, regroup, meet back up at the top. It's just you and Yasha. 25. We can understand. You can understand. Damn eagles! 25. Okay. Best you can tell, this chamber is collapsed enough

where you cannot ascertain any other position of exit. You could do a more intense search if there was a floor, but you're having to just look from a lightless expanse, and you have no lights. I have a light. Oh, you have a light from there. So you do have a little bit of light to see, yeah. But nothing at this distance, at a glance, looks like an exit. No light spider coming up behind you, right? Jester.

No, we would hear the trigger. Oh, that's fine. You fly up. And I'm going to shoot. All right, and so with that, Jester comes and joins the other eagles. Now you have these three eagles in this tunnel. It's a very tight space, by the way. That's as wide as the entire thing is,

so you're all having to carefully stay far enough and away from each other and not fuck with your flight patterns here. Yep. Going back up to the top, back up to the top! One after another, you all slowly spiral your way back up, and Caduceus, as you're sitting there looking,

all of a sudden you glance down and see three massive eagles fly up in your space, and you have to step back because they have to perch immediately, since there's nothing else to grab a hold on to. Since you're here, somebody should take a look at the other side of this. Yeah, that's what I was planning on doing,

actually, is flying next to the wall and see if I can spot any openings on the other side. Head over there, make a perception check with the eagle's perception. Okay. It may have keen sight, which gives you advantage, I believe. Keen sight, okay.

What is? Advantage that rely on sight, yeah. Is that a wisdom perception? Wisdom, okay. What is? Advantage that rely on sight, yeah. Is that a wisdom? Wisdom, perception. Wisdom, okay. So just go for that. Ooh. 18? 18.

Looking about this area, you're hard-pressed to find anything beyond the rubble. Okay. So it's probably at the bottom. Now we just busted out all these amazing spells to get down there and come right back up. But should we rest for a second? Mm, now that we know.

Eagles are only going to last so long. Oh, wow. And if anybody with some, doesn't have to get right up in it, we can hang from the eagles maybe and take shots? Stay out of the range room? I mean, I have ranged stuff, I could do that. Do it.

I could do my lightning glove. All right. Ah! Oh, you're, yeah, nevermind. All right. I'll grab Fjord and fly back down. Yeah, anybody else want to come with rain stuff? So that he can shoot at them from a distance.

I'll come. Okay. Two of us. Oh, yeah. Do you need a little? Ah! I'll hop onto Caleb. Or, you know. Has it been a minute?

Am I still hypnotized? No, your hypnosis has now broken. Okay. And everyone's talking and you're like, what's going on? What's the plan? What do you want me to do? Is it still hypnotized? No, your hypnosis has now broken. Okay. And everyone's talking, and you're like, what's going on? What's the plan? What do you want me to do?

We're going to take distance shots at these things. We're going to stay at least, you know. I'm going to land us on the lip at the top and back into human form and say, sorry, we need to switch. Yeah. And I turn you into a giant eagle. So now Yasha is a giant eagle.

Yes! Yeah, and I climb on your back. And then I go in front of Yasha, take me! These broken wings! Okay. So Yasha has Beau in one claw and Caleb on the back, okay? And Jester's taking- I'll let Fjord climb on my back and I'll fly down.

So you can have your arms free for a while. Oh, I let you fly, now you let me fly. Crisscross, crisscross. Make a jump. I love that move. All righty. And ba-dum-ga-dum. What's up? There better not be any more of these on the walls and ba-dum-ga-dum.

What's up? There better not be any more of these on the walls on the way down. So as you guys, now you've all got up onto it, you begin to fly down, and as you do, about 140 feet up the side of the cavern wall, both of them, who have been broken from it, are climbing up the side. I, before we get close, I'm going to take out my gloves

and smash and turn on my lightning gloves. You got it. Go for it. All right. Go ahead and roll for attack. That's a 24. Hits. 20. Hits.

And a 28. Hits. All against a single target?its. And a 28. Hits. All against a single target? Yes. All right, go for it. That is 10 plus five, 15. 14, so 24, and seven for 30. What did I say? 31. 31 points of force damage to it.

As it impacts, you see little bits splattering off of it. It's still momentum is carrying, because it's climbing up the side. So it shrugs it off. It hits, but it's still moving. Copy. That finishes your go. What are you doing?

I'm going to just pop, pop. I'm going to hit it with my lightning gloves. You got it. Okay, that first one is a 26 to hit and a 16. 26 and a 16. Both hit. Are the same one that Fjord's going after or the other one? I'll do the other one.

Okay. Terrible damage rolls. 10 damage and 11 damage. 10 damage and 11 damage, all righty. You got it. So those two attacks, bolts fire out and pummel into the side. You watch as the lightning

doesn't do quite as much damage as you'd hope. Also, you watch as it quivers and splits into two smaller black ones. Does lightning do that? I don't know. and splits into two smaller black ones. Does lightning do that? I don't know. So now there are these two. She's done. Fuck. Just let me be high again.

Break out the rain. You still have your bonus action. I still have my bonus action? I guess it didn't do as much damage as I thought. Like, it's resistant. Possibly. How close are we saying we are to these things? If you were doing that, that's like 10 or 15 feet away? 20 feet away, yeah.

20 feet away. I have a range of 20 feet with my glove, so it can't be more than that. Okay, okay. I might as well hit it again, I guess. Pop pop. Okay. Natural 20 and a natural 19.

Let's go, Fenn. Both hit. Ooh! Okay. Do you crit on 19s, too? I don't crit on 19s. No, no, that's your cool barbarian thing. For the natural 20, I rolled a seven on that damage, so 14 plus six is 20 damage. 20 damage, nice. And then on the 19, a two plus six, so eight damage on the 19.

All righty. Got it. So two additional hits slam into it, doing damage, but you see it seems to be absorbing a portion of the lightning impact. Do those split in half? No. Is this all against one or both? Just the one. Oh, I shouldn't have reminded him. That's okay. You fool. That should be playing now.

Fly, you fools. Is anyone riding me right now? I mean... You have Caduceus. I mean sexually. Okay. They both are the one that you, splits in two more, smaller. So now there are four. I don't know, is it me?

Is it me? I don't know. When I hit him with the Eldritch Blast, they didn't split, right? Correct. You just stopped being. It's lightning. No lightning. Save a horse, ride an eagle.

Can I step in? You can. Okay, I will slap Guano and Selphie together and do a 5th-level fireball, and I will huck it 10 to 15 feet below them so that it erupts upward and tickles their gooch. You got it. And as such, fire on their gooches. We're at 1, 5, 5. Fail. Fail. Fail. Fail. Fail.

Fail, yeah, they got a roll of 20 to even get close. 34. 34. On all of them? Yeah. Yeah. That's good. Both of the small ones that we just split

incinerate immediately. Oh, so it's a good thing! Sure. But you split them in half. Yeah, I did amazingly. Yeah. Big favorite. Yep, big favorite. I think it's good.

The other one looks, it's barely holding on as it's like, making its way up there. Is it making a sound? Ah! It's making a little leap. Exactly like that. I'm going to hit it with a Sacred Flame, if I could. That's a dex save.

Dex save. That is a 16. It does not save its dex save. On a natural 19, minus three. 18 points of radiant damage. On which one? The one that just got hit. That be that one there?, the one that just got hit. That be that one there? Yeah.

One that's looking rough. That one burns away. The body turning to black ash that falls and begins to scatter into the little bit of air dissipating into the floor below. We don't need to be close, by the way. You've got room to move. It's now an ash rave. Mm-hmm.

All righty, that finishes your go. Ash rave. I'll say, Veth? Oh, I mean, you attacked already, right? Yeah. We're trying to stay rangy, right? I've got 60 feet of range with this. Then I'll just hover, hover, so that, you're saying up?

We can stay 50 feet away. Okay, great. I did say that. I was like, you We can stay 50 feet away. Okay, great. I did say that, I was like, about 50 feet's good. Okay. I will say it moves up at an angle to get within range of Caleb on the back of the eagle. As it is a large creature,

it fits out 10 feet from the side with a five foot range. So it gets one swing at you on the back. Okay. That is a nine. Hard to hit when you're swinging from an eagle. Indeed. So that finishes its turn.

Back to the top of the round. Really, at this point, who wants to go next? Hard to dodge when you're swinging from a snake. At this point, who wants to go next? Hard to dodge when you're swinging from a snake. At this point, who wants to go next? I'll send three Eldritch Blasts its way. Go for it. 20. Mm-hmm.

20. Yeah? Hell yeah. And, ugh, 13. No, yep, 13. Just two 20s? Pathetic. Hits.

The 13 hits, no? Oh my, oh my, oh my! So AC is seven. Oh. Wow. It's a ooze. Not hard to hit a puddle. I'm starting to feel bad for this ooze, you know?

It was just chilling. The 13. He was living his best life. 31, 31 points of force damage. He just wanted to be a part of an Irish B&B. You hit it with one, and as it does, it impacts the actual ice and stone, and it starts falling off the wall.

The two others impact it and you watch it just explode out, smatters and sprays in the nearby walls, leaving this black trail that hisses as it burns down the stone. And with that, the combat comes to an end. I do a barrel roll down to the bottom. Awesome. Do a barrel roll. Oh, that's what,.

Yeah, you are brought along for that, Fjord. Feeling good about that as you scream all the way to the bottom. Fjord's understanding. Okay. Your vomit will freeze by the time you come down. It'll come down like powdered rain. We did it.

Brown powdered rain. Dry oatmeal. We should definitely rest. Yes, we should. Let's make sure there are no other tricks on this floor or entrances or exits, though, just in case. I'm going to drop Caduceus and then use my eagle eye vision.

Can I see in the dark? I have no idea. Well, it's not dark, because I've got a light up. And there's daylight in here. Take a look around. I'm going to look around the bottom. It's still a rainbow LED. I'm looking specifically for a dagger. Okay, go ahead and make a perception check on that.

I'm clawing at that ice chunk to see if there's anything underneath it. I'm in eagle form still. Okay, I'm taking a look around with my natural huh. Huh. Okay. Looking for anything specific? Something odd, out of place.

Make a perception check. My natural huh. My natural huh. 19. As you peek around, it takes you about two minutes or so, but you do find the dagger that you threw. As it slid down, it tinkled off the wall

and got itself wedged between two stones, but you do find it, thankfully because the light kind of gleams off the metal from certain angles, and that's the one. 21. 21? Mm-hmm. Okay. And you're clawing away at that one there. I may find gold, I don't know.

So you're keeping an eye out, keeping an eye out. You carve away at the ice right there. Once it begins to break away, you uncover a small opening that was hidden behind it. Yeah. You peer at it and it's not completely encased, but it was blocked from view unless you went to the side.

And as you break down that chunk of ice wall there, it exposes this one particular exit. You are an eagle for another 55 minutes. Is there anything that you've ever wanted to do? That's it. Check that off the list. She can make, scientists have allowed her to make one sound. That's a pretty good one, actually.

That was really good. SAM and LAURA laugh. Whoa! I'm going to drop my eagle form. Okay, so you drop your eagle form. All right. We have one more eagle. The eagle will not fit through this opening, unfortunately.

I'll also say I could build this, I could burn a 10 minute spell and kind of give us a little bit of cushion or we can take a short rest. Short rest. Yeah, let's rest here. Wait, show me your wings, splay them out. Look at the little lines of black lightning

along the inside of the wings. I do a shiver, so I get really floofy. You know how they get like, A little shiver quiff. A little shiver quiff. I do a little, yeah. Eagles, too. A little shiver quiff, and then you know how birds get real fluffy.

Quiff of the week. Ah. Awesome. Most metal eagle ever. And I bring her back. Are we allowed to drop our form? How does this work? You can just drop it.

All right, I will drop the form. Okay. Come on. So we're taking a short rest here? Yes, please. An hour. Just chilling. Okay, so you can take a short rest to get spells back that you've spent for those who get them back on a short rest.

Please. You can spend your hit dice to heal up and anything else you'd like to do to recoup during this time period. Arcane Recoup! Caduceus, are you going to do anything fancy before I spend hit dice? Better to spend hit dice at this point.

I'm going to spend hit dice. I can do stuff later. Okay. Ooh! That's it. I just have to see how this works. My name is three. I'm going to go seven. That's it. We'll just have to see how this works. Indeed. That's three. And a 12.

Seven. Seven. Three dice. Six. Okay. One, two. Go, by the way! Ooi.

That's two. And one. I'm going to roll a three. D&D homework, D&D homework. Yeah. Whoa, why can't I roll like that when we're doing damage? I know, I was just thinking. That's how it works. That's it. That's because you want it too much. Got to let it go.

Be like water. Sure. One, two. Eight, damn it. 10. Five. We'll just do five. Yep, we'll do it.

16. Okay. One. Two. Ooh! 69 points! Nice. Appropriate. I guess I didn't need that many.

What, what, what? Nothing. Are you still hurting pretty bad? I'm good, I'm all back to normal. All righty. One more. Are you okay? One more, I'm going to I'm back to normal. All righty. One more. Are you okay? One more. I'm going to do one more. You? I'm totally full. All right.

Hang on. A one? Fucking one? Why? Hey, can I check out those bodies? You may, make an investigation. Good enough, good enough. I'm going to stop there. 20. All right. Just like Nott had discovered earlier, the bodies were rolled.

But you didn't know this at the time. Yeah, aside from their shredded clothing and heavy furs and their ruined armor from falling into this place and being broken, and they're in pretty rough shape, anything that was of worth to them appears to have already been picked clean. They got gooed?

They got gooed. They got gooed. Well, Fjord, I forgive you for dropping the rope and sending me to my doom. That was my fault. I apologize. I thought you would just do your nimble stuff and it would be no big deal. You have faith in me. I did.

That's flattering. I did. That's flattering. I didn't mean to put Caduceus' life ahead of yours. No, no. That was a wise decision. I appreciate the faith that you have in her. I mean, misplaced faith in this particular situation, but very healthy. Very healthy. I mean, there was healthy. Very healthy.

I mean, there was nothing I could do. As soon as I landed, they were on top of me. I was... Just minding your own? I just was minding my own business. Yep. And they jumped me. Insight check. 14.

What do I do? You can roll against it if you like. Make a deception check, yeah. Deception. Ooh. Eight. Right. Remember, you can't roll lower than a 10.

Oh, you don't have proficiency in it. Deception, I can. Yes, you can. Because you are not proficient with that. All right, all right. I doused the drift glow, but all this conversation is happening in the light of the Celebone Stick. No, I've got light up.

Mm-hmm, it is. And of my own. Oh, that too, yeah. And the sword and everything. Poof, skits, poof. The pulse is still there. How does the Celebone Stick work again? Can I, for my break? Yeah, I'm going to just, you know,

do a little twirly with the stick in my hand. Sure, yeah, go for it. How long does it last? Can I reuse the stick? Is it battery operated? Can I charge it at the end of the night? I will answer all these questions right now.

USB 3. The effect lasts until deactivated or one hour has passed. Oh, I'll deactivate it and save it. Well, it can't be used again until after the next dawn. Aw. But you can use it tomorrow. Yes. And don't worry, Beau, I've got like 10 salivals, dude!

Hell yeah! I'll put them away. They all live between my fingers like Wolverine. Save my battery for my rave stick. Okay, you got it. Oh, it's over. All right. Shall we?

Yes, please. Please. All right, so you've taken your short rest. The small, low-hanging entrance to this next hallway, it looks like, is before you. What's the order you are traveling? Oh god. If we take turns, Beau, you're up. Go for it. What? Okay.

Beau, you can't see in the dark. I take Veth and I shove Veth forward with my goggles. I still want those back. I do want those back. Right now? No, you should, you scout. Scouting, looking for traps. Yeah.

Searching ahead. Should we put a rope around? She's fine. Fine. We're all right. Are you stealthing your way in? One of those kids. Sure, I'll stealth in. Make a stealth check, please.

Little bear backpack. Tons. A million, 30-something. Okay. Jesus, fucking rogues. All right, so. I think I'll do a rogue again. Pushing through the small opening, you find a partial hallway that is also

interrupted by the previous collapse. You are entering from the side of it. This is also interrupted by the previous collapse. You are entering from the side of it. This is not part of the initial structure. This pit that unveiled there's some sort of an impact upon its collision with this part of the city, this Aeorne ruin. You enter a hallway into the right. It is mostly fallen in about 15 or 20 feet

down to the right side. The left continues on. It is not lit, but you have your goggles on. Uh-huh, my goggles. So you continue down that path, keeping as carefully as you can. You see the faint orange glow as two, it looks like, light-emitting orbs are affixed to two sides of the wall.

I will scan around for some traps and tripwires and look at those for... Make an investigation check. 23. 23. You look around. Nothing trap-related catches your eye. Nothing trap-related.

Oh boy. Yeah, it's loaded. Yeah. I'll run by! As you run past the middle of these two orange spheres that are glowing, nothing happens. Yeah, that's the shit right there. It's going to wait to hit me.

Just... Caduceus, you feel. It's too short. Why? Oh boy. You see another set about 20 feet ahead of you, and you vaguely see in the distance another set. Like these are occasional marks of lighting

throughout this lengthened hallway. I'm going to talk into a wire and just say, all good? Are we all good? So far, so good, yes. Please come, follow. Yeah? Save my life. I slip into the hole.

Okay. She wants us to come. All right. Who's after Caleb? I'll go. I'll go after Caleb. You can move two at a time in this chamber. It's wide enough for two folks, so. Okay, good. Two by two!

So Beau and Caleb, followed by? We'll go. Orlando! All right, Yasha, introduce this, and then Fjord and Jester in the rear. Okay, cool. High-five me. Fuck. Sorry, I was- There you go.

I was worried about those orbs, Fjord, I'm sorry. Continuing on. For about 150 or so feet, For about 150 or so feet, the hall is just one long, straight shot. The sides of it are fairly simple. You see a little bit of inset stone in rectangular shapes, but it lacks the detail

and beautiful artistic scrolling that the first chambers you entered had. This is more of a utility hallway. It's about that point that you see something on the ground ahead. It's beyond one of the orange glow positions, so you don't get much light other than the faint backlight of the next set beyond it.

It looks like something piled in the middle of the chamber. Look, up on the ground, ahead. I'll cast Mage Hand and poke it. It moves slightly with the impact of the Mage Hand, but. Like pull, is it cloth? What is it? You tug at one point and you see something move, like an arm. Oh, it's bodies.

Pile of bodies, okay, okay. When it does hit, it has a wet sound. Ooh, frack. How far away are we? From where you are right now, I'd say roughly 50 or so feet. I'll use Divine Sense, just in case. Okay. I'm going to keep an Divine Sense, just in case. Okay.

I'm going to keep an eye behind us for a second. Okay. Any Celestial Fiend or undead within 60 feet? No. Looking back? Nothing seems to be following. All right. All right, I'll scoot up to it and see if...

As you get closer. Oh boy. You can now see, with the faint bit of light, the walls surrounding this odd pile in the middle are smeared with blood. Liquid blood, not frozen. And the temperature in here itself is a little warmer, but it's fresher.

And you get a glance at the pile here and there are bodies, multiple bodies, lying in different positions, leaned against the wall and slumped over, some that are just face down in the ground, others looking upward, limbs just akimbo. Any sign of death? I mean, cause of death?

Oh, you can go ahead and inspect if you want to make a medicine check. I would like to inspect. Eyes, ears, and mouth bleeding. 30. 30 medicine check? Oh, medicine? No, no. God, no. Natural 20.

Adding your wisdom save. One. So 21. Yeah, that'll do. So you do notice as you get close, these bodies are all wearing thick traveling attire for the weather, similar to what you have. Though you recognize the clothing as dynasty in make and style.

So this is Crean in history. The same group of the guy that was frozen up top. Two drow, a human, a goblin, and two orcs. Oh, that's so damn. Wait, two drow, a human, a goblin, and two orcs. Six bodies total. Makes sense for a party from the Dynasty. Six bodies total.

One more body if we count the guy upstairs. Like this lookout up top. It's us. What? Well, just like one tooth here. There's nine of us. There's nine of us, yeah. This is not the Sun Tree. No, no, no.

Right, right. Yeah. The goblin looks like me. That red thread's looking real hard to snag onto something. I'm going to start to scoot. You do notice with that roll, the bodies are not that old. Maybe a week or less.

Slashed? Bludgeoned? A mix of stab and slash wounds. Okay, okay. How about it? Would I be able to tell with a medicine check? Oh no, you just rolled a medicine check. Yes. Okay, okay, okay. Blood to body ratio on the outside,

does it seem like how much blood is out versus how much would have been in these people? Is this the normal amount of blood that, I mean, or does it seem like it? It doesn't seem copious. This isn't a Nightmare on Elm Street sequence. Sure.

There's less than there should be, I suppose. I feel like I might have that. Make a medicine check. It doesn't seem copious. This isn't a Nightmare on Elm Street sequence. Sure. There's less than there should be, I suppose. I feel like I might know that. Make a medicine check. It's the same day, so I can't do seeing for the same day. 28. 28. It looks about standard. Okay. Yeah. This room. I'm keeping an eye out,

by the way, this is freaking me out. These bodies are piled. Is there an end to the chamber that's behind them at all? The hallway continues. It just continues. What's above the bodies? The top of the hall itself is no more than maybe four or five feet from Caduceus' head,

a total of 11, 12 at its height, and it's just a long hallway. Do the bodies look deliberately piled or like something happened? Roll an investigation check. Yeah, is it a skirmish? Yeah. I'll assist because I don't know if it's a skirmish or did they get Tetsuo'd in the hallway?

Mm-hmm. I don't think we just dropped there. All right. 28. 28. This was a skirmish. The blood splatter, the positioning of the bodies, a fight happened in this hallway,

and this group was butchered. Not necessarily like, well, hard to say they're butchered. They were killed, but it doesn't look like they were just completely annihilated. They had weapons ready, they were armed for combat. They were an adventuring party. To some weapons ready. They were armed for combat. They were an adventuring party.

To some degree. You have no idea what their purpose was here, but they are all left here dead from this scuffle. Are we thinking Molly's working with the Dynasty in some way, or was? No, I think they ambushed a Dynasty group that was all ready. You mentioned slash wounds and stab wounds?

Is that what you said? Mm-hmm. Okay. We already knew that the Dynasty was trying for the same thing that DeRogna was. Picked clean like the other bodies have been, or because it seems like liquid blood, not as picked over?

I'll say you go ahead and check through the bodies, and other than their weapons that have been left to the side and their ruined armor, most anything of worth has been picked clean. I'm going to get them going. So I'm going to start the decompose and let them start rotting. Okay, Fungus begins to take a hold.

Fungus begins to take hold of other wrappers. Yeah, take a little while. While Caduceus is doing that, I'm just going to talk at him over his shoulder. Do you have anything that might help against mental or psychic damage? Uh-oh. No, sorry. Sorry, it's really cold.

Is this Mal? It's just real gross. Uh, I don't know. Not today, I don't think. Other than, I can do it for a minute at a time, but I can't do anything else. A minute at a time? A minute at a time, I can give someone a defragment.

A little pep, just a little, not a lot. I don't have anything that's great. Not right now. Tomorrow. Tomorrow. Just give you a little pep, just a little, not a lot. I don't have anything that's great. Not right now. Tomorrow. Tomorrow. And this hallway that extends, same sort of dual beacons of light just into the distance?

Yep. How far does it extend quite a distance until visual acuity gives out, or does it seem like there's a difference? It's been that way for a while. It does look like it has, in the next four or five sets from where you are, it seems to stop. The light does. Interesting.

Okay. How did all these other guys get through without fighting those oozes? Good question. You should keep going. Also, how did, didn't you have to chop through like a big thing of ice to get here?

They probably put the ice there. Well, the ice wasn't- It was obscuring it. It was obscuring it. It wasn't actually- You just went to town on it and- Ah. Plus it looks like it'd been a week,

so maybe it was formed. Do any of the bodies that we've seen, any of them look even remotely familiar or just random? Looking over them? No, not really. And are they all just drow or various Dynasty folk? Two orcs, a goblin. Oh, right, we answered the question.

We should keep going. We should, yeah. We're coming back on it. Getting in the loops, yep. Let's go. Our friend is waiting. Beth, you want to take point? Don't I? I do have a locate creature

when it comes time for it. You do? I do. And I'll also say, did you, just in case, do you have a word of recall, just in case? Let's see if I prepared that one today. I feel like I did. Looks like I didn't. Oh boy. Oh boy.

Well. I have one of those, too. Okay, so that's a spell I'm not going to use unless a bunch of people are already dead. Well, does anyone with magic have anything that could help us against psychic damage? Nope. No. Just curious after encountering two corpses

with blood coming out of their eyes and horrible expressions on their faces. But these guys. Bless. These guys get tore up. Yeah. Because Lucien, we're assuming killed Vess DeRogna by himself?

Yeah. I mean. But he also, I mean, if they're of the same order, this nine eyes order, maybe they know each other's weaknesses. And the element of surprise. But we saw that trowel at the top of this excavation site that looked just like Vess,

and he didn't have any eyes tattooed on him? If they died the same way, because Lucien can just give them a vision or or do something, overwhelm their brains. Right, right. How are we supposed to compete against that? He killed a member of the Cerberus Assembly by himself. We are at a disadvantage.

Nothing has changed. I didn't prepare a word of recall because Vess said that teleporting in these areas would be really, really dangerous, so. I thought that would be a bad idea. I got a thing I might be able to do. Fair point. We'll remember that for next time.

I figured teleporting out is easier than teleporting in. Let's go, let's go. But keep going. Yeah, keep going. Next time. I got an idea. I'll take point again

and keep going down the same hallway. Okay. If it comes to me. Should we be checking the hallways for hidden doors and just normal shit? Just run your sword. Run your fingers. Yeah. I'll take one side, you take the other. All right, deal. Just keep my eyes open.

Okay. Continuing on, running your hands along both sides of the hall as you progress forward, eventually you pass the fifth, fourth, third, second, and final set of lights. And at that final set of lights, the hall comes to an end. There before you, you see

what looks to be a single rusted iron door. It has no handles. It has no handles. It has no knobs. It has no break in the middle of it. It's just a solid iron slab of different material than the rest of the hallway, but it does have crossbars and seems to resemble a door in its construction, and it blocks your passage.

What you do notice is there is an empty shelf, not dissimilar to the pillars that you encountered in that previous chamber, though it is wider and further back. It looks like it's about six inches tall and about a foot wide. Like a little slot. Are there a- In the door?

In the door. Is there any etching or pattern the way Beauregard encountered? You go ahead and glance inside. It looks like the entire interior is covered in etching and various types of arcane glyphs, sigils, and variation of draconic in the same ancient script that you've seen

in other elements of Aeorian Reference. But as opposed to just seeing the one at the bottom, the entirety of the interior is just one massive network of arcane script. Does the arcane script mean anything? Does it say anything? Make an arcana check. All my reference.

Guidance. As you're looking. I'm also, I pull out one of my last two pearls, all that's left is the black one, and place it to my own head, and take a moment to cast a little Dunamancy. All righty. So Guidance. Terrible.

Terrible. Guidance is a d4. 20 total. 20 total. The essence of this seems to be some sort of an abjuration-type nexus, some sort of an abjuration-type nexus, but it is an incomplete glyph, and both the top and the bottom of it

seem to direct towards the empty space in the middle of the shelf. Best you can ascertain, it requires something to complete the connection. Zzt. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Your arm. Or blood. But it's a rectangle shape?

Yes, it's a little slot about six inches tall and about a foot wide. Is it a gomjabar? Okay. You said, wait, six inches? Six inches is high and about a foot wide. So we go into your bar. Okay. You said, wait, six inches? Six inches is high and about a foot wide. In the middle of the? In the middle of the iron door.

No blood, no dry blood on the ground, on the door, anywhere. Glancing around here, make an investigation check. 19. 19, looking around, inspecting the area, looking at the inside, checking the floor around. Doesn't appear to be any signs of dried blood. So it requires something to complete it,

but we don't know if that's something like blood or magic? What's the root of the glyph? Do we understand the root of the glyph? Catalyst. He was saying, like, abjuration. Abjuration is the sword of. Protection, a ward keeping us out. Protection. Same low ceiling that we were in on the hallway,

about four feet above Caduceus' head. Width of the hallway is still the same, it's just this board. Correct. It's just been one continuous, long, straight hallway. Protection. Nothing's pinged your emergency wire, either? I mean, yeah, it would've mentally dinged. Bodies had all their arms, right? Yes.

Or at least, although arms were present. Is there dust on the ground or anything like that? Can we see footprints and stuff that isn't ours on the ground at all? There isn't a whole lot of dust in this chamber because there isn't a lot of traffic anymore. It's hard to really tell, I'd say. I want to go back for one of those bodies.

Yeah. I do have... Oh. What? Darn, we, yeah. What? What? We have an arm with a tattoo. We do? We also have a head. We invested on this body. Well, let's try one of the normal ones first.

Yeah, let's try something else first. There's a head that you chopped off. I also thought of that, but I just didn't want to take the time to take everything out and put everything back. So let's just grab a person. I'll help you. Thank you. Okay.

We're going to go back for a body. Which of the corpses do you want? It was a drow. Two orcs, two drow, a goblin, and a human. I'll grab a drow. Okay. Any of them have tattoos on their arm? You take a glance over them.

Nothing beyond ornamental elements, nothing that seems to be in line with what you were referring to earlier. Well, all right. But as we're walking back, this is good. It's due diligence, but I think you're right. So bring the corpse there and we'll experiment with a hand. Okay. You place the hand in there. No reaction.

Just as a note, Beau, I do have heroism, which if I cast it at 5th-level, it makes creatures immune to being frightened, and you gain temporary hit points equal to your spellcasting mod. So it's like four people or five people. Not much, but.

Do you still have Molly's vial of blood? Did we end up getting that? We should use that. Yeah, we do, we have Molly's blood. You do. All the vials are less than they were when you gave them, but you do have some. Is there any other markings around?

So we have this glyph that's abjuration. Anything else that's indicative around it? Nope, the rest of it. It just looks like an iron door surrounding it. And you think it needs to be something with abjuration? Like the symbols indicate abjuration? For dimension, apparently? What if they have the symbol on their wrist

and one of the nine eyes? I have Armor of Agathys, which is ice. I'm going to sit on the ground and place my necklace on the ground, and I'm going to say Una, which makes it all. Okay, all the contents fill the bottom, or the middle of this hallway, including the body of DeRogna.

Yeah, DeRogna's here. I grab her underneath her armpits and drag her over to this thing and take her hand and stick it in. No reaction. Oh! Wait, flip it around, though. Turn it this way.

That's where the tattoo is. It's front and back. Oh. Put her head in there. It's a card reader. I just didn't know, like, if it around, though. Turn it this way. That's where the tattoo is. It's front and back. Oh. Put her head in there. It's a card reader. I just didn't know, like, if it was a passport, you know? How big is it? Six inches tall, a foot wide, and about a foot in depth.

That's some magic, abjuration magic. Yeah, try it. Wait, abjuration is what again? It's protective stuff. Protective stuff. It means it is a protective spell, not the protection spell. But that burns your shit? No, I mean, it's a first-level spell.

I could try it. Let's be honest, I don't use a ton of those. Want me to try it? Sure. All right, I'll cast Armor of Agathys on myself at first level. Okay. Like standing at the door? Well, do you have to direct it into the hole?

Probably got to put your hand in and dump. And then do it? I have a shield, too. I can do it at level one. I mean, it's a... Or is it a cell? Surrounds me, manifesting as a spectral frost that covers me and my gear. Stick your hand in there while you do it.

No, I think you could just do it. Okay. Yeah. Put my hand in and cast Armor Vaget at the first level. Okay. Does it have my hand in and cast Armor Vagas at first level. Okay. Does it have somatic components on it? A cup of water. Well, what is the standard components? Like V and S?

VSM. Okay, great. So as you put your hand in there and you do the manipulation of your fingers, the spell begins to apparate, but then the energy vanishes inside the slot. You see a faint blue glow from the inside. You glance and you can see the intricate sigils.

A portion of it is now glowing, about maybe a sixth of the full equation. You have to use the spell of every type. You have to do more. What's another higher level? It's all abjuration. What about the dome? Maybe it's just-

I've got an abjuration spell. Do you think it's all abjuration? Do we see any other type of glyphs or? You said that was one out of six. Essentially one out of six. A sixth of it is now glowing. Yeah. It was only first level.

Because it was only first level. Because it was only first level. Unless there are other. Maybe it's a level thing. Unless we're making Captain Planet. I mean, unless we're making Captain Planet. I will stick my hand in and just as an experiment, dump shield in as well. That's level one as well to see if it adds or. As you go ahead and put your hand in there

and release the shield, once again, the shield is about to apparate and the magic shifts inside and you glance inside and another sixth of it, about a third of the interior is now glowing. Doggy. Okay. Was that the same, was that also? It was also abjuration.

I have lots of shields, so I will do another two. Okay. I will do that twice more. Two thirds of it are now glowing with the same process repeating itself. Now, just so that I do not empty out. Yeah, Caduceus, do you have anything? I don't even know how to figure out what I have. I've got protection from energy is, but I'm used up.

Anything protective? I've only got one third-level spell left, and if we need that for a bit, fine. That's a good one. I have another first-level spell. I can keep doing it if we need me to. Evocation. We're sure nothing else will work, right?

Conger? No. I can do it. I don't know. I have a first-level spell, so I don't. I never use my lower slots anymore. Then, yeah, use them. Abjuration? Oh, wow. Because ours are higher level. Yeah, I'll dump shield twice at second level.

I'll fill it up. Okay, the first time you cast shield at second level? Yeah. It fills up the rest Shield at second level? Yeah. It fills up the rest of it. Oh, okay. Oh, good. The second level slot was what was required. Ah. So now with all six spell slots sacrificed,

it glows blue and the door opens before you. Should put that stuff back. Yeah, I was about to say. As the door opens before you. Should put that stuff back. Yeah. I was about to say. As the door opens before you. Oh fuck. The following chamber is lit with a bright blue light that projects from the center of the ceiling

this nearly circular room, a very bright blue light source affixed in the center. Walkways line the outer edges, while small staircases descend into the middle, lower portion of this area. The far wall, you can see now, is adorned with an incredibly elaborate 15-foot sigil that wraps from the floor along the ceiling. Intricate designs that interweave like a puzzle of arcane inscriptions that rises up to wrap around that glowing blue source. You can see now this bright, smooth,

cerulean blue-colored gem, about a foot and a half from edge to edge that sits there above, roughly 30 feet in the air. In the far center of the room, you can immediately see what looks to be scraps of a small encampment, tents that had been pushed over, its material, and what looks to be the middle of a heated fight.

You can see other bodies strewn across the ground and other figures standing down in the middle of that chamber. You see two humanoid figures are cut down immediately, onto the ground. You see another one is left, lifted into the air by another figure, and you now see four other humanoids finishing, carving, and standing back to return to the center.

A woman is being held in the air, screaming. And the figure that's holding her, you just see a flash of nine points of red light across their body as the screaming ceases. The limbs go limp and the body drops to the ground. The figure then looks over through the entrance to the hallway, right towards you. Uh-oh. My apologies, you've arrived early.

I was hoping to tidy up a bit. That's where we'll end tonight's episode. Oh! Again! That is what we call in the business, a quiff hanger. Oh, you can sit on that one. Well done. Oh my god! Allison, what did you make?

Every time. I just was like, hey, I wonder, this'll be fun in act three. I just thought we'd be on the other end of it. Caleb, just with one foot, pushes Daragd's body. He just tries to hide it. Don't worry about it. Take off my cloak, lay it over his head.

Yeah. Wow. Just a cat in a cat box. How big did you say the room is? The room would be, I'd say about 45 to 50 foot from end to end, and it is a circular chamber. Okay. Oh boy, we are here. It's happening, it's all happening.

We're going to have a great conversation. Great conversation. Yeah, yeah, yeah, right? Talky talkies. Right? Just some chats. Just a little combo. Final countdown. Duh-duh-duh-duh. It's going to be great. It's going to be fun.

I got a thing I can do. Oh boy. Wow. Oh man, I'm okay. Okay, I'm okay, I'm okay, I'm okay, I'm okay. It's okay, it's okay, it's okay. So the, you saw that it wasn't like beams came out of the eyes, they just lit up red. They just all lit up around it.

Like you just saw this black silhouette with the blue light from overhead, kind of in shadow from the body it was holding. And then suddenly you see all these red light sources light up around the body, and the person in its hand just goes limp. And it was Molly plus one with four other figures, and they had wiped out whoever was in there.

These eyes that appeared on the body, were they on the body? They just started to glow? Or did they get burned into the body? Seemed like it came from the body. No, it was Molly's body. Oh, it was Molly's body that was glowing. Like lighting up.

They searched. They searched, yeah. Oh god. I thought it was. Yeah, we're in for it. We're in for it. So we'll pick up from there, it'd be fun. Oh god. I thought it was. Yeah, we're in for it. We're in for it. So we'll pick up from there, it'd be fun. Oh god. It'd be fun.

Why'd you have to touch the damn oozes? We could have had all these spells available. Reach, don't get touched. No one get touched. You got the touch. Beau. I know, I know. Honestly, it wasn't until the shouting up through the tunnel that the oozes were like, oh.

Oh, we could have just been quiet. Stealth has a lot of benefits in certain spaces. What was that spider? Was that spider alive? Was it just a statue? What was the spider? If we had gone behind the spider statue, there would have been the slaying of the Nine-Eyes sword,

and we would be like, whatever. Oh, well. Anyway. Good shit, Maddie. It actually led to a door to a balcony overlooking the same scene. Damn it. God. All right, we'll pick up from there next week.

Okay, okay, okay, okay. Until then, thank you guys for joining us. We love you very much. And is it Thursday yet? No. Good night. No. Thank you for listening to this episode of Critical Role.

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