Critical Role - C2E118 Solace Between the Secrets

Episode Date: December 10, 2020

The Mighty Nein forge their own way across the tundra to another Aeorian excavation site, but things far more dangerous than frozen relics await them under the snow...Watch Critical Role live Thursdays at 7pm PT on https://www.twitch.tv/criticalrole

Hello, spellcasters, sages, and spectators. I'm Ashley Johnson, and you're listening to the Critical Role Podcast Network. Tap into our magical narrative by watching Critical Role as it airs on Thursdays at 7 p.m. Pacific on twitch.tv slash criticalrole or youtube.com slash criticalrole. Twitch subscribers can watch the video on demand right away, or you can catch it the following Monday on YouTube. As always, Critical Role will be available right here in podcast form on Thursdays, a week after the initial broadcast. And now, let's scry into the story and see what mysteries it holds for us, shall we?

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 are the Critical Role! Before we jump into tonight's episode, we do have some quick announcements to get through, beginning with the sponsor of tonight's episode, Hot Topic, Sam.

Hey! This episode is brought to you by Hot Topic. As some of you may remember earlier this year, this year? What a year. Earlier this year, we had our first wave of apparel drop at Hot Topic, and we are excited to share the second wave. Now, apparel is fine, it's fine,

but the best part about this Hot Topic gear is it's got so many more different uses than just wearing it on your body. You can life hack it, and in fact, I took some of their sample apparel at my home and I life hacked it and showed you what else you can do with it. Let's roll that video right now! Oh, yes.

Oh, yeah. Ah. Mmm. Ooh. Mmm. Whew. It's so easy. A comb and a brush and a bowl full of... What? Hey, kids.

Good night noises everywhere. The end. Oh, love you, big guy. Oh! What a hilarious and unexpected video. We totally just saw that. I wonder what it's going to be like. Anyway, thanks to my wife, who may or may not have shot that,

but it's not just clothing. We've added more characters. Nope. We've added, they'll edit this out. We've added more categories beyond some awesome shirts, like drinkware, a journal, some pins, buttons, a cool D20 backpack hanger. Backpack hanger? Yeah, you can go ahead and hold that one up right now.

I have this? Yes. This is a backpack hanger. I was picturing a thing that you hang a backpack on. That's just a hanger. Oh boy. Fuck this, man. My model to the German in Raid of the Lost Ark when he comes in going like,

good evening, Fraulein. And Funko Pops. We also have two amazing blankets with the beautiful artwork of Critter artists, Hugo Cardenas and Joseph Ramirez. And all of this is more is available through Hot Topic. So get onto bit.ly slash Hot Topic CR and check it out. Laura, we brought some of the stuff with us tonight, right?

You did an amazing job, Sam, talking about all that stuff. But yes, we do have some of the stuff to show off tonight. So you, Sam, obviously, Sam has that fabulous hoodie. I don't know if you can see that. Hold on, I was going to get to the pin. Sorry, I'm sorry, Laura. But it's too freaking late now.

Hold on the dang pin. Okay, sorry, sorry. Oh, what a lovely pin. And look at your hoodie! And it's got a back to it, too. It does! Yeah! I love it. It's so cool. I'm a big fan!

That is OG Kit Bus arc, the original arc. Yeah, it is. So we have that, we have this awesome long-sleeve box-making shirt that's got all of our character icons down the sleeves. I'm doing a bad job showing that off. We have drinkware. Ooh!

We have you are holding the... Liam O'Brien, available now. We have Liam O'Brien. We have a new Traveler Contagion coming out there. Oh, that's awesome, I love it. We have an awesome, this is the Hugo artwork for a blanket. And then we also have our amazing Yasha blanket.

Oh yeah. Oh god, look at this! Wrap yourself up. Ooh, it's so sexy! They're so smushy. I can't see him do it at the same time. We got hands and stuff. That's our Yasha. Ooh, nice. That's so cool.

So yeah, there's a lot. I think that might be everything, and you already held up the backpack. I blew it, sorry. Yeah. This is a backpack hanger. Yeah! And there's other things, yes. And there are rear-view mirror dice.

There's a journal. Oh wait, I didn't hold up the journal. Wait, give me a second. Oh. Oh, there's a critical journal. Wait, wait, what are the tabs? What are those tabbies? Already there?

Yeah, the tabs are going to be included, so you can open it to, you know, a lot. Why didn't you leave with this? Yeah, I know. I should have had you hold this one up, Marisha. I need it. Yeah, there's awesome stuff coming out. Check it out. Life-cling.

Hot tub! Oh, oh, yeah. What? Wait, are we going to somebody else before I talk about my next thing? I don't think so. Okay, then I'm going to say my next thing. Go ahead. Laura. Stop. We've already done this before.

I didn't mean to tell you. Boy, think of all the money this company saves on rehearsal. Oh my god. So I always talk about merch items and everything like that, but because we do prerecord a lot of these episodes, it's not always, I can't give you the most up-to-date merch stuff

because sometimes it's out of stock by the time we actually air. So I'm just going to tell you guys to keep checking out shop.critroll.com and hint, hint, we usually post new things every Thursday morning. Yeah, see? That's not in the announcement.

There's a reason that it didn't say to talk like that. But yes, and we have new stuff coming out to all the shops, including we're going to do the full run of the Vox Machina dice. All of the different characters are going to have a full dice set. So check in for that. It should be showing up soon. All right, I'm done.

And bail. Of course, you start juggling and doing fireworks. Yeah. Oh my goodness. Thank you, Laura. Chup-chup-chup! Thank you, Sam. Well-oiled machine. Damn, Thank you, Sam. Well, old machine.

Damn, you have been busy. Yeah. I believe those are all of our announcements. So let's go ahead and jump into tonight's episode of Critical Role. The adventure begins Run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, 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 Roll the dice Roll the dice Can you answer the call? Digging deep in your soul As the legend unfolds Now it's your turn

To roll Turn to roll! What? And welcome back. Yes, Sam, we're back. So last we left off, the Mighty Nein making their way northward to Eiselcross. What is that? Wow. This is going to be a good night.

The energy's already all sorts of weird. Die! No! The Mighty Nein had made their way northward, hired by Vess DeRogna, and then she died. So. Oh my god!

They, however, continued with their guide, Dagen, to lead them through the path pre-set by Vess towards the excavation of the Ruins of Aeor, heading a couple of the smaller excavations along the way. Along this path, you met with dangers and some strange encounters with Lucien and the rest of the Tomb Takers. In the A5 excavation site, after fighting your way down,

you caught up to them, where they had, it seemed, procured a large threshold crest object. And after a brief conversation, continued their trek northward with an invitation to follow suit should you wish to learn more. You guys then headed back out into the frozen wastes with a couple of choice encounters that involve turning dangerous things into turtles

and really not having to be dangerous at all. You continue your trek. At the end of the second day, we left with you transforming three of your party into giant eagles, picking up the remainder of your troop and flying best you could for as long as you could over the central mountain range that would normally bisect the paths northward to A2.

So, Mighty Nein, as you continue trekking for the continued hour, which at full speed, I think it's somewhere in the neighborhood of eight miles an hour, but if you go full speed, about 16 miles an hour, you can get quite a bit of distance as giant eagles and definitely help kick up that lead

that you're hoping to gain upon the Tomb Takers and their journey northward. So I take it you're going for the entire hour. Are you going full speed? I imagine, yes, we will go full speedies. What is the, like, if you're walking in snow, what's your speed normally at? Without Dagen taking you along, it would be half speed,

but because of his guidance and his knowledge of the space and honestly digging a groove through a lot of the snow and ice himself for you to follow and suit. It's pretty easy for you to get around comparatively. Okay. Okay, yeah, I think we should just full-on geese this one. Oh, come on.

I'm going to just follow Caleb and Yasha's lead with how fast they go. Fair enough. So, a fair amount of distance. We have Dagen with us, right? You do. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Somebody's carrying him. Yasha?

Yasha is carrying. I am carrying. I think it was Caleb, wasn't it? It's whatever we sent last week. You are carrying Dagen. You're carrying Dagen. Awesome. I'm carrying you and Fjord.

And you're carrying Caduceus and Fjord. Yes. You got it. Correct. Yes. All right. That is. So the journey for an hour going at full speed like this, at the end of it, a creature would need to rest, at least for an hour of short rest to recover. Technically, because polymorph,

anything and any exhaustion or damage that the eagle form would have sustained goes away with the eagle form. I don't know if you need to rest after that at the end of the transformation. Depending on how many spell slots you have per day, too, you can cover quite a bit of ground, which will definitely lessen the impact

of the random tables, but where's the fun in that? But nevertheless, by the time you finish your first run as eagles and push a little bit further into travel, the day slowly begins to lose light. The gray sky seems to be growing darker, not just from the lack of sunlight, but it seems to be a cold front

and a heavy blizzard seems to be creeping on the horizon from the northeastern direction. But as you land, you could continue on for a bit, but you're now in the middle of the mountain range. So on foot here is going to be a problem, based on the journey you guys were taking. Well, why would we even bother with that? Yeah. Yeah, I can continue.

If you think it's safe to keep flying. Oh no! What? I can't Polymorph Yasha, too. I can only do it once a day. Oh. That still gave us a bit of time, and honestly, if there's going to be a storm hitting,

we should probably find a safe place, even for the tower. Hunker down for, is it dark enough that we should take Dagen? probably find a safe place, even for the tower. Hunker down for, is it dark enough that we should take, Dagen, is it dark enough that we should take cover tonight? I don't know, looking around, we probably got about, I don't know, 40 or 50 or so minutes before it gets real pitch. Yeah.

Let's just lay down stakes here. Find a place where we won't get snowed in in the morning. Yeah, and then in the morning, we can polymorph again, and we can get us out of the mountain range at least, so that we can travel on foot. Can we poke about a bit until we find something like a crevice or something sheltered

from the elements somewhat. Think I found something. Follow me. Good lord, Taggum. Rangers, man. I've been around you for a while. Follow suit, and he goes ahead and leads you down. You could see the section where you landed, which was part of a smaller valley

in the more jagged points of this small mountain hill range. You can see he leads you into a small outcropping where there is probably an eight-foot indentation into the stone. Based on the smoothing of the ice, it looks like something of some element of warmth had made this a home temporarily for a while. Most of the ice around here looks rough

and the snow built up there, but there was a smooth, concave little alcove. This is perfect. The wand gets jammed into the snow, and I take a moment, and before long, the door opens and we have our home again. Yay! All right. You make your way into the tower,

prepare yourselves for an evening's rest. If there's anything you wish to do before the night's done, you can speak up, otherwise we'll move on to the following day. Yeah. All righty, so. After a night's rest, some fine food, some fine not not freezing sleep.

The morning comes to, you gather your supplies and heading back out of the doorway where you entered, you find yourself back at the center of this mountainous valley in that same alcove. It is freezing cold now, and you can see there's quite a bit of snow has built up overnight. There is still snow falling. It looks like the heavy part of the blizzard

did pass over as you guys were resting, but as the doorway opens to the exterior of the tower, immediately snow tumbles in from the entryway and Dagen has to push his way through as you guys are waking up and getting prepared to leave. He's like, this might be a problem. Goes ahead and sets down his little glider metal front bits and pushes through and eventually you guys all manage

to exit without an issue. Just throwing snow around the room while he's trying to clear it out, just to have as much fun as possible before it's no longer in sight. 50 cats come out of the holes in the walls and just like,. One of them gets brain freeze and is like.

It's a shame. . Oh god! Like those ping pong ball mousetraps? Yep. Oh no! Perfect. Like twisting bubble wrap.

But as you guys are all there, adjusting to the extremely brisk temperature comparison to where you would sleep the night before, Dagen spins around and is, so we're taking to the sky again, right? I'm not leaping through all this bullshit. Point of thought, do we want to burn that many spells now

or at the end of the day? Well, unfortunately, it's going to ruin the day if we try to get through this mountain. We want to get off of this peak. Yeah, what'd she say? Everything will be fine. I'll burn the spell. It's okay. We have lots of trouble, right?

What's the weather like? Frightful. It's not blizzarding, Viv? What's the weather like? Frightful. It's not blizzarding, but it is snowing. Not like a gentle snow, it's a heavier snow, but it's not storming. Okay. All right. Evil time, what are we doing?

Yeah, yeah! Evil time! You don't need to be excited at the prospect call-up, do you? We don't see anything around us, right? I do, actually. We want to do a sweep of just the general landscape? I think I had it prepared yesterday, so. All this is Caduceus with a sweep of the landscape

to make sure everything's clear. Am I? Okay, yeah, I guess I'm looking. Huh? As Fjord grabs the scruff of your outfit and just holds you in a direction. How's it look? Perception beam. Yeah. It's like the Caduceus-hooded lantern.

Yeah. Go ahead and make a perception with advantage. With advantage? Yeah, because he's helping you. Okay. By pushing you in that direction. That's nice, 28. 28, okay. That's nice, 28. 28, okay.

Glancing about, and the snowfall does obscure some of your vision, especially beyond about a 60 to 70-foot distance, you do catch on one of the nearby ridges, you glance up and you see a bit of darker black color, and you focus on it and you see a set of dark eyes. There's something up there. You glance over and you see it shift

out of the direction, and then a little bit over past the next ridge, you can see what looks to be about five or six wolves that are all circling. Oh, they're wolves. They're doing the thing. Where are wolves? They're wolves. Oh. Beautiful. Oh. Beautiful. Stupid.

So stupid. Have we already become eagles while they're looking? He did. He did. We're up. Oh yeah, I went up. We should probably get a move on. Okay. Yeah, what are eagles? All right. Whoa.

So as you grasp the rest of the party, in the same arrangement, I assume, as the previous day's travel, immediately, y'all begin to lift up roughly at the same time. And as you pull up away, once again, you have an incredible, now better lit overall view

of the treacherous mountainous terrain that you plop down in the middle of. You can see some scattering elements of trees and pine. But other than that, falling from this height would be terrible because a lot of the rock and exposed ice tends to come

to a rather jagged point facing upward. But you can see immediately where you were beyond what you can initially see about 14 wolves had begun to circle where you had arrived. And they all kind of look up as you take off and you imagine the frustration. It's really for the best.

It wouldn't have gone well for anybody. They can understand me. They can. It makes me really happy. They can. That's the best part. You feel good that at least you've notified them that it's no hard feelings. No. But nevertheless, pushing on ahead for the next hour of travel,

that'll get you another 16 miles. Great. Were we just at the mountains that the Aluak Sanctuary is at the foot of? Is that where we were? Aluak Sanctuary is to the west of this mountain range. Oh, okay. And then the lava river is to the east, sorry. It's west for the sanctuary and then east for the river.

And you either choose one path or the other and you guys decided, no, fuck it, we'll go over. So that's what you did. Yep. Okay. So we aren't going through Yeti Village? No. No. You guys are flying in between,

basically taking a straight line shot. South of where the flow shift would be on the map. Correct, yeah. In fact, with the eagles would be on the map. Correct, yeah. In fact, with the eagles traveling, getting some time in there, you wouldn't make it all the way to beyond the mountain range,

but you will make it towards the decline and the safer region to hike down. So early in the day, as soon as you sense the spell duration begin to fade, the eagles all together, one following the other, probably following Caleb since he transformed first and would sense it before anybody else, begin to descend, exactly.

And he goes and glances down, you hear him shouting over the wind around you, blowing past, he's like, I think right there is probably the safest place. Eee! You can't see me, because... Let's go down! That's the safest place. Yee! You can't see me, because... Let's go down! That's the safest place, right over there.

Nice. To the right! To the right. Little to the left! Little to the left. Guiding you verbally as you guys begin to make your way down. Like a ship, I love it. Right before the spell duration ends,

you safely come to rest on a small cliffside that begins to head into a relatively dangerous switchback pathway, natural switchback pathway, with some gaps, but traversable. And as soon as you all land and go back into your forms, Dagen's glancing over for a bit and just biting the edge of his thumb and goes,

I think we can make this work. All right. Keep up! Begins to wheel himself towards the edge of the first walkway downward. Any preparation you guys want to do before beginning to descend this side of the mountain range? What's that again?

What? How long would it have taken to walk this far? This far probably would have taken an additional day of travel, if not a little more. That's great. That's very good. If the map is any indication, we're roughly just shy of completing

a third of our way to A2. Good work. Yeah, two hours of work, and that day is not too bad. Yeah. All right, so. How are we getting down the mountain? Are we sledding down? We are. Well, some. How are we getting down the mountain? Are we sledding down? We are.

Well, some of you are walking. I'm sledding. I'm wheeling. Then we'll climb down where it's necessary. Can we make a big sled or something for all of us? I mean, you're welcome to. I ain't getting in that shit. There's no trees around here, right?

I don't know. We have them. Paint us. Is there any? Paint on, not any fauna. There are scattered trees. It's nowhere near as dense as some of the Empire Mountains, and you can see a lot of them are finding nooks and crannies. They're not entirely exposed to the elements,

the dangers of the blitzer that would come through and eventually kill them all. Are there any rare, cold mountain flowers? Growing on a cold face. Make a nature check. You mean like rocks? Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, like a flower. Rocks are the flowers of the mountain. Like a fucking flower, dude.

15. 15? You wouldn't be able to recall much for this far north. You know. I don't see anything. That was just recalling if there would be anything up here. If you want to look specifically for anything, make a perception check. If you find something, add it into it. Can I guide her?

I can't guide her, can I? Because I don't know. Okay, okay. 19. 19. Yeah. On this part of the mountain range, you don't really see much in the way of gentle fauna. 19. Yeah. On this part of the mountain range, you don't really see much in the way of gentle fauna. Okay. Flora or fauna.

You do see some barer trees. You can see some of the taller pines that push through the nooks and crannies of this mountainside. Tend to be bald in some places where it looks like heavy blizzard or storms may have stripped elements away, but nothing in particular where you're looking for.

So, you traveling on? I want to make a fucking sled. You want to make a sled? What would we use? Do we have any extra cloaks? That's not a sled. Is it a sled just for you or a sled for everybody? Here, you want to sit on my shield?

I'll take the shield. That's what shields are for. Just your shield. Both of their shields are big enough for you to sled on my shield? I'll take the shield. That's what shields are for. Just your shield. Both of their shields are big enough for you to sled on. I think we have an extra one in the Bag of Holdings. I might have an extra shield. Perfectly good way to endanger ourselves, unnecessarily. Yeah, you get really fast, believe me.

I have an extra shield. All right, I'll take your shield. He's probably the only one who hasn't seen Willow in this room. I've seen Willow. You have? Have you? My kids just watched it a few weeks ago. Aw, that's pretty. Oh yeah.

Best Valkyrie roll ever. Yep, so here you go. Thank you. Oh, it's heavy. It's a little heavy. All right. So as you take the shield and walk up to the edge of the cliff where you saw Dagen's already making his way down, it's steep and rocky with trees.

I was picturing a gentle slope. No, I think it's like a double black diamond. You hear the asshole that walks up. Yeah, it's- With the cooking tray, and you're like, no problem! Yeah, the Empire kids don't vacation up north here to ride down for the holiday. They're still on foot another hour to an hour and a half

of travel before you reach the base of the mountain. So an hour and a half sled ride? I'll give the shield back. No, it would be like a, once we're closer. Like a four minute sled ride and whatever remains of you when you get to the bottom. Very little to break with. But I think you should.

Once we're a safe distance down, it'll be time. There will be a moment where you will be able to sled. Just I would recommend not doing it right now. Oh no, now you're making me want to do it. What if I turn her into a fish first? I hate you so much. Why me? Why is it turned on to me? I was like 13 in that headshot, man.

Oh, you're so pretty. 14? I'm fine with that. Oh wow. Is that before? I don't even know how old I was. It looks like a drawing from this day. I still lived in Kentucky. Okay, yeah. That was when I was working for Actors Theatre of Louisville.

That's how old that shit is. Yeah. I can still see the unbroken dreams. It's amazing. See all the hope still in my eyes? Great. They were ford illusion, like ford sword. So, traveling down the mountainside.

Cautiously behind Dagen. I'm going to cast Death Ward on myself because I've seen too much in the last couple episodes. I got eight hours. Fair enough. No. The journey is not that treacherous, especially thanks to Dagen leading you through.

There are a couple of moments in the mountainside where a rope has to be affixed and you all lower yourselves down before tugging or cutting it off. But as you make your way further, there is, at the end of the first hour of travel on foot, a moment where you, Veth, think dangerously, but possibly, there is a sleddable hill to the bottom.

Oh, oh, we've reached that moment. Yes, you have. Caduceus, Mr. Clay, thank you. Mm-hmm. Is there one side that's like, is it teardrop-shaped? It's round, but it's got some grooves, so it'll move in a direction.

All right, all right. I'll position it in a... Want to push? Be careful, because when I did it before, my shield is circular, too, and you tend to spin really easy, and then you can get a real good... Okay. Here, I'll hold the back

so you can get on. Maybe I can... What do I have? What do I have? Let's see here. Oh god, how dumb. Anything that could act as a paradox. That's what I'm looking for, yeah. No, such a bad idea.

Following us. Oh no. What do you want to do? How dumb do we want to be? You know what? I have Beauregard's Wind Fan. So maybe I could use it as like in Florida. A rudder? Yeah, yeah, yeah! Wind sails?

Those winds, those swamp boats that have the rudder on the back. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, oh. The rudders on the back? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, the big-ass fan? Yeah, yeah. I don't know, like a wind rudder. Yeah, you could try it. Yeah, sure. A fan boat, okay.

Fan boat. Oh boy. Sure. All right, so you position your fan. You get right up to the edge, and it's that slow scoot, and right, you get to that fulcrum point where it begins to rotate and that voice in the back of your head begins to regret everything that led to this moment.

But it's too late now because you begin to take forward. I'm going to just pat her on the back and say, may the Traveler guide you. And I'm going to give her guidance on the way down. Okay. So one roll you get. So there's one moment where you're like, you know what, I'm not going to do this, all right?

As you begin to back up, Jester goes and gives you one little shove on the back, and you immediately coasting down at an incredible speed. The wind has already numbed the edge of your nose and ears, just traveling down the side, but now your whole face is numb. Your eyes are getting into water and freeze on the edges.

You're just like, ah, ah, making your way down. Making your way down. Immediately, it begins to spin to one side and you can see there's a cluster of trees heading up your way. What do you do? I'm going to fan, fan left! Fan left! You coast into the side, and as you do,

the snow sprays off the back and suddenly you're given even more force than you expected before, and as you do, the snow sprays off the back, and suddenly you're given even more force than you expected before, and as you do, you actually coast off the snow for a second. Oh! I got air! Impact hard! I got air! As you do, you're now scooting towards,

you see what looks to be a bit of a turn, but the speed that you have is setting you in a position where you can bank it maybe, but you're not sure what's beyond it. You can't really tell how it goes. What are you going to do? I'm going to, wait, so if I continue, I'll be flying up and over something?

To whatever's beyond that. And if I, could I try to make the turn? Okay, I'm going to try to lean hard and fan right. Yeah, fan right! All right, all right. Go ahead and make an acrobatics check for me. And you get an added d4 to that. Oh thank god. This would be the get an added d4 to that.

Oh, thank god. You do. This would be the way. Four, two, six. Well, don't forget, you also can't roll lower than 10. Oh, that's right. Because acrobatics, you do have trained. You're totally right. So that's a 22.

22, as you scoot along, you pull the fan to the side and you guys watch as snow just sprays off, and for a second, you're afraid you lost Nott, and then you see the shape of her against the white snow now coasting in the opposite direction. She turns, scoot. Yay!

Should we be giving chase at all? I know, she's going to be down there for a while waiting for us. I still see how this plays out, hold on. Yeah, yeah. Turning to the opposite side, you can see there's now a cluster of trees in your path. Got it.

And you can try maneuver through. I'm going to definitely try to maneuver through. Okay, go ahead and make three acrobatics checks for me, please. It says on D&D Beyond, D&D Beyond, that there's a little green A next to acrobatics. Does that mean I get advantage all the time, or what is that? No, that's...

A means advantage. Okay. Do you have anything that gives you advantage on acrobatics normally? I don't know. Is it a halfling thing? It's always there. Is it a rogue thing? It just says there's A next to it always. I don't know. Well?

Did you feed into it? Eh, it's fine. We're fine. Until you discover what that is, it doesn't apply to this. So. Great. All right, here we fine. Until you discover what that is, it doesn't apply to this. So. Great. All right, here we go. Four acrobatics checks? Three. Three, okay.

14. 14. And a one. No, you can't roll lower than a 10! You can't roll lower than a 10. For sure, for sure. So that becomes a 10. A 10. Yeah. That's a 10 plus your acrobatics. So the 14 is a 24, the 14 is a 24,

and the 10 is a 20. There you go. Oh god. Yes. What? You changed it. You were designed for this shit. Hit the A. Thankfully, your smaller halfling size means that you're a little more aerodynamic,

the wind fan helping guide you from behind like a fan boat, and you knowing how to adjust your weight and positioning as you've been doing that for a good portion of your life to be unseen and to not make any sound, you lean back and find yourself dodging between trees, a couple of them you actually pinball off of, until eventually the trees vanish

and all you see is this, what you think is a gradual decline, you're like, oh, cool, and then you realize it's a fast-approaching cliff edge. I got a veil. Shoo! Oh no! You are in the air.

Oh! No. I know I should have recorded again. There is about a 50-foot drop. Okay, okay, that's 50. No big deal for you. No big deal. I need you to go ahead and make one more acfoot drop. Okay, okay, that's 50. No big deal for you. No big deal.

I need you to go ahead and make one more acrobatics check to see if you can land properly. Stick that shit, Sean White, let's go. Yes! This is a higher DC, so. By the way, I don't get advantage. That's only advantage on escape from being grappled. Gotcha. Come on, Lindsey Vonn, Super G.

Let's do it. That's a 10. Do I still get your Guidance? No. No. Okay, so that's a 10. That's a 10. Do I still get your Guidance? No. No. Okay. So that's a 20. That's a 20. Oh no. Oh no. I want a Veth-shaped hole in the snow.

You watch as in the middle of the air, Veth kicks out the shield a bit, trying to pull some of that Yasha, skin-gorgeous snowboarding action, and the shield just fitters out of your grasp. Oh no! It's just me and a face. I'm like, the shield a bit, trying to pull some of that Yasha skin-gorgeous snowboarding action, and the shield just fitters out of your grasp. Oh no!

It's just me and a fan? I'm going to fan down to see what you're doing. So from the rest of your perspective, you know that moment where the Wile E. Coyote plummets off the cliff edge and there's just the cloud? Oh no. And the impact? You just see a snow.

You just see a snow ploof go. Pfft. Thankfully, it's snow where you impact, so you don't take any damage. But there's a moment where your whole body is just locked in ice cold freezing temperature and you scramble up about seven feet of snow to get back to a surface, and you survived.

Hey! Fresh pow! That is so dangerous. You could have suffocated in all that snow. Yeah. Oh boy. But that was awesome! At least from our height, we just saw. We don't know. Yep, I know. Oh, she's fine, right?

Yeah, she's good. We should make sure she's, we should head down. Should we do the same? I don't know. No, no, no, no. And next! And Dagen goes ahead and wheels himself off the edge of the cliff the same way that Veth did, with his front attachments.

And you've seen him used for almost the entire journey here, especially in areas when you're going down hills and such. He is full-on ski-sledding down the side of the mountain. You hear him yelling, Woo! As he pulls to one side and skins the spray this way, pulls to this side, off this way. He's old hat. He's come across this place.

And without issue, you see him make his way down the edge of the mountain, up to the point of the cliff, and lands it without issue, until eventually you see him come to the point of the cliff and lands it without issue until eventually you see him come to the very base and spin around and then turn back and just go, Woo! You hear the voice echo up the side of the mountain. Is Veth okay?

I shout down to him. Mouselite! Hey, hey. Oh yeah, she's fine. All right, all right. I set off an avalanche. Here we go. Not yet. Sure, she's fine. All right, I'm here. Get off, Mavillanche. Here we go. Not yet.

Sure, it's possible. All right, here's Chia. Like crazy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, this is the only way down, right? Yeah. Is it? Here, I'll just fire off my pistol to let you know that I'm okay. Yeah, I'll take out Skingorger

and get it ready at the top of a ramp. All right. Go down. Go down. Following the same path previously carved by your two friends, makes it a little easier because some of the snow has been broken up. Go ahead and make, for the purposes of this, two acrobatics checks for me.

Okay. Okay, so that would be, wait, did you say acrobatics or athletics? Actually, it'd be one or the other. So for you, it'd probably be athletics. Okay, so first one is a 26. Second one is a 24. Woo!

It's like you've been doing this your whole life. It was made easier because your friends went beforehand. Nevertheless, without having to swerve so heavily left or right with the wind fan blowing you a little bit off course, you find the same gentle path, comparatively, that Dagen had made his way down with. And when you eventually get to that final bit,

you lift off the cliff, hold in the air, and then impact. It's soft, but you catch it with the edge of Skingorger and then glide the rest of the way down. You have now climbed your way out. You're like. Oh, so much snot. Shpoof, and you watch as Yasha lands about two feet in front of you

and sprays snow back onto your face. Cover all the snow, you know? I mean, we've got shields. YOLO. Yeah, going down. YOLO. YOLO. Yeah, going down. YOLO. YOLO. Classic Wild Mother adage. Yeah. I'm going to try and.

I'm going to try and place him down at the bottom. I'm going to try and. On my shield. You're both going at the same time? Yeah, I'm going to cat around and just try and sit on it and use my staff. Can we just start walking? Yeah, let's just walk. Yeah, okay. Two acrobatics checks?

No, for you it would be three because you haven't done this before. Okay, I'm into it. You've done this once before. And I'm bad at this, this must be funny. We have, we sledded. We sledded before on our shields. That one time at the temple?

Yeah, that one time that we did it. And I nearly died? Yeah, that time. That doesn't count, does it? All right, so first pass for each of you. 14. Ooh! Agrobatics?

Yes, or athletics, your choice. 12. I'm going to give myself some guidance, just in case. Okay. Well, the first pass is you both begin to head down with extreme speed and prejudice, immediately the winds past you, the bits of light snow that's still following you

and pelting you in the face. Caduceus is putting your staff out behind to use almost like a rudder. You grind past and turn to the left, and you narrowly avoid being smashed into by Jester, who is unable to turn quite disgracefully. Ah! And, oh boy.

And while you didn't bail from the shield, you do have disadvantage on your next check. Oh no! So second pass on each of you. Roll another athletics or acrobatics. Maybe. Ooh. Oi, oi. That's good.

Disadvantage, don't forget. I know, I know, I did it. It's my advantage rolling. Okay. Ah, ah! 14. 14 again? Well, that one's gone. Disadvantage, don't forget. I know, I know, I did it. It's my advantage rolly. Okay. Ah! 14. 14 again? Well, that one's gone.

Well done. Burn it. Touch the ground. 21. 21, nice, nice. So as you begin to spin around the corner where you saw Veth Bank initially and Yasha used with a little more acumen.

It doesn't cause much of an issue, and you barely scoot, you almost glide off the edge. Oh boy. But you manage to just barely crest, which you have a just enough of a view as you bank off the side to glance over the side, and it is a sheer rock cliff on the opposite end. Yeah, I know.

And as you spin by, you watch as Jester cuts you off and is now about three or four feet ahead of you. Oh no. And you're now heading. I'm not doing that. She's that friend at go-karts. She's that guy. Yeah.

Turbo boosted. I'm that guy. No. I got a banana peel behind me. What happened? So now both of you are coming towards the cluster of trees following Yasha's path and both, actually both have pretty decent past perceptions, you'll be able to follow the path that Veth and Yasha had previously cut into.

Probably Yasha's, since being larger and a little more, no offense, skilled at this portion of it. Sure, sure. Make one more check for each of you. Oh boy. Come on. Oh boy. Come on. Oh no.

Oh no. Oh, I didn't even guide myself this time. Nope. Seven. 11. Hey! Hey! So the rest of you are watching as they spank off the side and catch up and scoot by and on the side,

they both go, woo, and go into the cluster of trees. Oh no. Oh no, our healers. They're not making it out the other side there. Both of you. Ow! Oh god, Nani. Eight points of bludgeoning damage, nine points of bludgeoning damage as you watch Caduceus just wham into the edge of a tree.

It doesn't catch him full on, but it catches him in the shoulder and he goes spinning off of his shield and both eventually begin slowly haphazardly sliding through the forest. You laugh for a second, glancing over your shoulder as he totally biffs and then whack, you hit a smaller tree that sends you flying off the shield,

ass over tea kettle before into the snow. Your shield lands over on its side and both of you are gently gliding side by side through. Like when you fall on a mobile? As we're prone, I'm just going to high five him. And you slowly make your way towards the cliff now. Oh, oh, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop. Dig in for that.

I'm going to hold onto him as he digs in. Yeah, dig in. Because you guys did lose momentum, it's easy enough to stop as you dig in and you both come to the edge of the cliff. And it's about a 45, 50-foot drop before the next snowbank. I'm going to pick up my shield and I guess we'll just.

Yeah. Yeah. Same. Okay. How do we get down? I mean, we could wait for the others. Yeah, let's wait. Okay, let's just wait. That's fine. That looked so graceful! Nice job!

Did you break any bones? Did I win? I beat him, right? I beat Caduceus? There's no winner here today. All right, so the rest of you are walking down. I'm just trudging down. Okay, so those at the bottom,

you get to wait about 25 or so minutes for the rest of the group to catch up. But nevertheless, you all gather at the foot of the mountain range and you have a fairly hilly, but open, less mountainous journey ahead of you onwards towards A5. Before everybody leaves,

a puffin circles down from the sky and just lands on Fjord's shoulder. A puffin? Ah, what is this? What is this thing? Oh. Is that a function? Is it an orange puffin? Is it orange?

Just around the beak here. It's Caleb. Oh, Jesus. Peck, peck, peck. Ah, ah, ah, not the ear, please! This is odd. Can you understand me? Meh.

We're sure it's Caleb, right? Caleb gets real stupid when he polymorphs. Caleb, can you understand him? Meh, meh, meh, meh, meh, meh. I take that as a yes. You have a strong feeling. I take that as a yes. Strong feet. I put him up on my hand like this, Beau,

and I put him on Beau's head. Oh, why the head? It gets, ah! Ah! He totally did not just shit on your head. It'll be cold enough in a minute, you can just crack it right out. It shouldn't be a problem.

Yeah, sure, good point. It's the best place for me to shit on your head, to be honest. All righty. Sentence you said to me, William O'Brien. I had a nickel. You've heard it. Dagon rounds you up.

All right, back on the roll. Leads on Fjord. I need someone to roll for the next day's journey, since you are out. I know, I feel like we left off somewhere. We got all the way around. I did the worm, I created the fucking worm. Oh, okay, so it's my turn.

Full Department Shears. Okay, go, Jester. I think it's my turn. What am I rolling, a 20? 20. A d20 for me, please. Full Department Shears, but make sure you do it with three people. Yeah. 17? 17.

17. Idiot. The weather for this day clears up. It seems the storm from the night before has blown through. There is an actual blue sky above, which you think would bring warmth, but if anything, it just brings comfort.

It's still chilly, but you, following Dagen's lead, manage to maneuver through this snowy tundra region with little patches of trees growing lesser and lesser the further north you go, and manage to avoid seemingly any other dangerous encounters along the way. So. Nice. That's a good journey there. You caught some time.

You have a little over three days now at this point before you make your way to A2. Three days. Three days up, okay. Is there anyone that we need to check in on? Just in the world. Before we go to sleep, too, I'm going to cast Locate Creature. When can we talk to Avantika?

I mean, we've still got a lot of day left, don't we? Or are we just walking? Well, you guys are walking, but I'm just going through the events of the day. If there's anything you want to do during the day, you can are walking, but I'm just going through the events of the day. If there's anything you want to do during the day, you can do it, yes. Okay. But there were no encounters that found you

on this part of the mission. We can't talk to Vess yet again, right? It's got to be close, though. Yeah, I think we're pretty close. We had like... I think we only had two days left last game. Yeah, that's right. We were saying two more days.

Yeah, yeah. So maybe one more night and then we'll be able to do tomorrow. And is there anyone else that we needed, that we wanted to check in on, or? I mean, I talked to Essek. I could send a message to the Plant King for you, Fjord. Oh my god.

No, no, no, no, no. Just to see if he'll let us back on Darktow. I think if we go back to Darktow, we're going to do it in a clandestine fashion. Rather, better not to tip him off that we're even thinking about it. Got it. Are we being scryed on right now, by the way?

Oh, good question. I'll summon the sword and say, and see invisibility. All right. now, by the way? Oh, good question. I'll summon the sword and say, Gaelas Vah! And see invisibility. All right. Make a perception check. Thank you. Nice.

22. Feeling fairly confident in the scan around you, you do not see any signs of a peeking beacon or arcane eye looking upon you or the troop around you, you do not see any signs of a peeking beacon or arcane eye looking upon you or the troop around you. Seems clear. How strong of a radius does this necklace have? Oh.

How long have you had that on? Fjord gave it to me because apparently, you know, Molly had been, I mean, Lucien had been scrying on. It's your person and everything on you. It's not like everybody within five feet of me or something. It seemed to have somewhat of an effect on my general vicinity.

A few times in the past, it felt like. Okay. It's a little hazy. So everybody just stay really close to me. Speaking of your person and everything on it, I think when you sledded, you might've dropped your weasel friend. It's not? No, no, no, no.

He's right here. Oh! He was just hiding in my hood. He absorbed most of the impact from the tree. Yeah, you would know Caleb. One of those eyes. The device, it protects the wearer from directly focused divination. So if somebody were to want to say, I want to scry on Caleb, it would prevent that.

That I know. In our story, early days, there was some scrying on us and I asked if I could wave it into a similar scrying ball, which made it go away. So I thought we had a little bit of wiggle. A little bit of wiggle, but it depends on the nature of it. Yeah.

Little bit of wiggle. Person specific. Yeah. All right. So anything else anybody wants to say? Oh yeah, anybody? Do you want to talk to anybody? Do you want to talk to Yeza and Luc? Yeah, if we don't have spells to burn,

just say, you know, wife's okay, still alive. Okay, I'm going to send a message to Yeza. Okay. Yeza, everything's fine. Veth's okay, she loves you so much. How are you guys? How's Luc? It's cold here.

She loves you. Did I already say that? Yeah, yeah, that's fair. Could be more than one. His response. Oh, hi. That's great. Thanks for the update. We're good. I think Luc has a crush,

but everything's good. Yeah. He's so young. What does that mean? Wait, how old is he, actually? It's unclear. I thought three, but now I'm thinking closer to 13. Not quite, not quite.

Like five now? But a five-year-old could take a shine. The halfling, you know what, Beau? The halfling aging process is a mystery to all. You know, I remember being, you know, infatuated with people, like six, seven years old. Who were you infatuated with as a six-year-old? Did you have, like,

you're from a fancy wine family, right? Yeah. Did you have tutors and stuff, or did you, like, how did you learn? I went to a fancy private school that no one really liked me much because I came from the rich family of the town. So that, yeah, little ostracized there was weird. So then who did you fancy?

Who did you make googly eyes at? You know, it's funny. I remember this chef that we had back when I was a personal chef. We would hire her sometimes, you know, whenever we would have parties, not all the time, but, you know, on fancy events. And she was always just really kind to me,

but she was always just like, she was super cool. And she would bring me sneak-a-me treats sometimes, you know, she would always stash aside some dessert and extra bread and stuff at the end of the day and slip it to me. And then when I started getting older, she would slip me some little sips of wine, but be like, don't tell your parents.

She was just the coolest. I didn't really know until I was older what those feelings were. Wow. Yeah. Looking back, though, she probably should have been a sign. Yeah. A sign to you. Yeah, I probably should have been a sign. Yeah. A sign to you?

Yeah, I probably wouldn't have, like, you know, had that first boyfriend if I would have, like, connected that I was having, like, oh, she really hot type of feelings. Hmm. But you, just because I'm morbidly curious. Sure. You did have,

who was your first boyfriend? His name was. Oh my god. It is not written down somewhere. Did you really write that down, his name? Yeah. Yeza. Fuss. I'm sorry! I'm going to make it real! It just came up! I didn't know how to bring it up!

Taco! Little circle. Fuck, fuck. You can make it up. We won't know. His name was Matoni. Matoni! Matoni? Matoni.

What's your alter ego? Did you say Tony? Sorry. Matoni. No. Matoni? Matoni. What's her alter ego? Did you say Tony? My Tony. Matoni. No. Matoni. Hi, guys. Did you guys date for a while?

It must've been very awkward. He was not. Hi, Tony. Wherever I go. We were teenagers. It wasn't a thing. And then we were kind of, we ended up being more bros than anything after a bit.

And then that was actually when I did start dating Tori. With Tony and a Tori? Oh, he must've felt so bad. Well, Tori was the first lady that I dated. That must have been supremely confusing, those two names in a row. You mean Tori? Uh-huh. Well, you know, I'm trying to, That must have been supremely confusing, those two names in a row. You... Uh-huh.

Well, you know, I'm trying to, there's been, I've been hit in the head a lot, you know, as a monk, so I don't think his name was Tony. But maybe it's like, you know, when you get a tattoo and then you regret the tattoo, so you have to date somebody that has a similar name so you can, like, fix the tattoo. Is that why you have a Toby tattoo?

Cannon. It just got really muddy. They just kept adding lines. Name, line, name, line. Just name. Kind of got rid of the cover. Dagen's like, is that your cue list? Who are you?

No, no tattoos of Tony or Tori. During this conversation, a voice creeps into your head, Jester. Oh shit, balls. An unfamiliar voice. It's me, Tony! Wait, there is a spirit! I heard this is your life. I heard you've been talking about me.

I hate it when people from high school call you. I found you on Facebook! How you doing? Oh, why? What did I see in this guy? So. The unfamiliar voice goes, Asociate of Essek, Uriah here.

Sending word to keep Essek updated of your estimated arrival. Should you need emergency aid, reach out. Be careful. That's all. Pretty close to your accent. How far away are we from? So wait, Essek, from that message,

was Essek trying to find out how far away we are? It was saying to keep him aware of whenever you're getting closer, essentially. Okay, we will, huh? We're around two days away, I think, but I'm not totally sure. Please tell him that we like him a whole lot and miss him. Two days from him or two days from our destination?

From that general region. Yeah, I mean, from, they're kind of on the same. Yeah. Yeah, that's pretty much it. I'll send a message. I don't know how many words that was. And you'll never know. Do you have any more or are you out?

Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do. I mean, do you have any more message spells? Oh yeah. I was like, that is the weirdest response. We're Robin Hood. We went full Robin Hood. Never go full Robin Hood. Do you want to do a song in jest or no?

Jester just goes full tilt in the middle of this journey. And we've lost her. Yeah. He did the walking song. Why'd you do the walking song? I don't know. It's up, down, down. Yes, I do have more messages, I expect.

That's good, because I have a super serious message I want to send to the choirs. Okay, I'm ready. That's so sweet. Would you mind checking in with my sister Calliope just to make sure everything at home is copacetic? Yes, what would you, just ask her if everything's okay? Anything specific? How things are going, how Mom and Dad are,

how if everything's, and that, you know, we've got some stuff to do and it's dangerous, but hopefully everything's going to work out. Let them know when it's all over. Okay, and this is to Calliope? Yeah, yeah. Okay. Hey, it's Jester with Caduceus. How are things at home?

Mom and dad okay? How's the Grove? How's the Circle of Thumbs Up? Are we, are we, are we, we're going to be doing dangerous stuff, but it's okay. Be home soon. How's the circle of thumbs up? I can't even hear it.

That's what, question mark. Yeah. Clive here responds. Oh, everything's okay. We've planted the crystals. Planted the crystals. Taking root. Taking root.

Excited to show when he comes back. Everything sounds like it's great. She's excited to show you. All right, all right. It's good to know. I'm sorry I didn't tell her that we were entering Frabel. Probably for the best, that they don't worry, anyway.

You never asked me to send messages and I got it all wrong. No, it was pretty good, actually. If anything, I appreciate that they're probably a little confused, that makes me feel better. Okay, that's good. I got one left, anybody, anybody up for grabs here? I got two left, technically.

Save it just in case he's... You could prank call somebody if you want. I know, I'm trying to think of somebody. Somebody you've never met. To prank call? Put a voice into their head. Yeah, yeah. Think about it. Well, let's save him.

Okay, yeah. Okay. So. Actually, could's save him. Okay. Yeah. Okay. So. Actually, could we put a call in to Tony? I'm sorry. Where he is, what he's doing. Oh shit, you still got my number? What he's thinking about. Is he thinking about you?

Not he'll ever return. New mind, who does? It's Don. Is he alone? Is he thinking about me? All right. So as the day draws to a close, you camp up for another evening, I assume, New mind, who does? Is he alone? Is he thinking of me? All right, so as the day draws to a close, you camp up for another evening, I assume, with the tower once again?

Yeah. But before we do that, as we're trotting that way, I trot up to Caleb. Hey, hey, hey, question. When you set this thing up, if you wanted to change little tiny things, do you have to do that ahead of time? Or can I will it into existence when I'm in the tower? You have to ask me now.

I have to ask you now. Circle of trust. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. No, this is just good information to know, so I'll get back to you on that later, I think. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Sure. All righty.

So, after you've set up your nine-sided tower and the evening's rest ensues, does anybody else? Well, I just wanted to, one small detail, when we all gather for dinner, I use Major Image to make a spectral hoppadook around the entire table with dim little hoppadook fireworks going off

around just for ambiance. That's all, small detail. I'm going to send a message to Kiri. Aw. I haven't talked to her in so long. I approve of this, let's do this. Birds don't? Yeah, I approve of this. Let's do this. Birds don't live long. That's not true. She's still alive.

I'm going to send a message to Kiri. All right. Kiri! How are you? We miss you. We're in snow right now. How's Hopperduke? Looking at fireworks? Tell me you're cute. Also, that you're good.

The response comes, We miss you! Hopperduke is interesting. It's fun. We miss you! I built something. There are all these strange voices coming through with different phrases from people she's picked up around her

since then and such. Please come. I am sweet. And that's for Dens. She built something. How fun. Or at least someone who talked to her built something. No, she knows how to use words that people say.

Well, I mean. We need to go back and visit her soon, okay? I would love to go back to Hubberduke. It was such a party. It was a good time. Every once in a while, a little skeletal fish floats past Beauregard. Good time.

Lots of good times. Okay, that's it. All righty. Well, a night's rest comes to a close. The following morning, breakfast awaits you with a fine early morning meal shared amongst you. You gather your things and make your way back out through the main entrance into the cold,

frozen north of Eiselcross once again, trudging back out into the snow and ice. As Dagen leads you forward, I need somebody else to go ahead and roll a d20. That would be Liam Oberon. I'm going to use my new die. Do it! Two.

It's going to be good. Four nasty. So upon exiting, already the sky is darker than the previous day of bright blue that led you on a gracious journey without issue. Within the first hour of travel, the temperature gets colder. The wind kicks up stronger,

cutting and biting through you. The snowfall gets heavier and heavier, and it begins to sting like hail. you, the snowfall gets heavier and heavier, and it begins to sting like hail, before you realize you are in the center of an ice storm that is beginning to spray down from above. Ow! Clustering up best you can, Dagen's like, This is bad.

This is real bad, stay close. If you got shields, keep them up. Shields up. He bundles up even heavier and continues to push forward as you guys continue. Yasha, do you want to hold up the other shield that, oh wait, did we lose the other shield that Veth was on? No, no, no. No, you're able to recover it.

Okay. We can hold them up like umbrellas, at least. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I can hold his umbrella. I need all of you to make a constitution saving throw for me, please. Ooh. If it's really bad, I constitution saving throw for me, please. Ooh. If it's really bad, I could just throw up the tower now. Now.

Now. That's up to you. We'll lose a day of travel. Yep, very good. Natural one for me. 11. Seven. 11. Five.

18. Six. Shit. Oh my god. What the fuck? Terribly. The lowest group roll. So Yasha, you hold up that shield and push through, and you're like, after the first 30 minutes, going, we're doing okay, and you look back, and the rest of your group is just beaten

and pushing along, and you come back and try and help and rally, and Dagen's pushing through, and he's yelling, and it gets to the point where the sound of the storm itself and the wind is so loud that you're having to shout just to communicate to each other, but you continue pushing through for the day,

and you make some distance. You still make the journey's length, but by the end of the day, you are beaten, you are exhausted, and even though you are taking a night's rest, you know the following morning is not going to greet you kindly. So, setting up for another night's rest? Yeah, I forgot, with my transmuter stone,

that would be a 16 for me, so I don't know if that helps me enough. Not quite. Okay. You missed it by one. This much? Yep. Can we have really amazing bathtubs prepared that's already there? They're always there piping hot.

You wouldn't happen to have a bunch of kitty masseuses that do a number on the shoulders. Every kitty here is a licensed masseuse. You are my favorite weird wizard friend. Thank you. Send one of the big fellows to your room. license, missus. You are my favorite weird wizard friend. Thank you. Send one of the big fellows to your room. Please do. Really stomp on your back.

You got it. One of the big fellows. Skitty biscuit. Oh, that's going to feel so good. I think I'll kill you. All righty. You all manage to find yourselves a night's rest, but in the morning comes, you are sore

and you're exhausted. Quite literally, everyone takes two points of exhaustion for this next day of a journey. Except for Yasha, who takes just one. Two points of exhaustion. It was a heavy storm. And I absolutely did send a battle cat-sized spectral cat to Dagen's room that night.

And he is thankful. The next morning when you all wake up, he's like, ugh! I mean, the rest of me is fucked, but these shoulders are golden. What is level two? What is two points of exhaustion? Hang on, let me see. Does it tell us on D&D Burned? Two points of exhaustion means your speed is halved.

And disadvantage on ability checks? And disadvantage on ability checks? And disadvantage on ability checks, too, yeah. Jeez, la-weak. How much further do we have in our journey? From this point, you have... I mean, to counteract it. You would've had two more days, but now it'll be three because of that storm, unfortunately.

We should've just fucking held still. We wouldn't have lost the... We would have lost the day. I left the option, but yeah. I do create gigantic vats of steel-cut oats and sliced banana and cinnamon and raisins and dates and apricots and also bacon and also waffles and also pancakes.

Ah fuck, it sounds so good. It does sound really good. It's problematic. All right. It sounds so good. It's really good. I got kind of lost in it for a second. Welcome to the International House of Cats.

Like six different kinds of syrup. The IHAC? Yeah. Wait, the IHAC. There you go. A delicious breakfast is had, and it does help take the edge off a little bit, but as you all gather your supplies and your sacks

and your bundled clothing, and the door opens once more to the cold, uninviting exterior, you all feel a shiver. And with that shiver, you feel every bruise and every sore muscle in your body just groan internally as one by one, you follow Dagen's lead outside into the cold wilderness. That's why I put bourbon in the oatmeal.

Hmm. Oh, it's gross. Sucks. Dagen, you can see, is now pulling out his heavy jug and taking swigs, and he's like, this, my apologies, folks, this is, that was a rough day. We're going to be a little behind schedule, but just keeping an eye out.

We could polymorph again. Get an extra. Just to make a decent amount of distance, if not an edge. Yeah. That's a pretty good idea. Maybe not a bird, and maybe a big elephant, woolly mammoth thing thing or something snowable. Well, if we buy at least,

we get to not deal with the snow at all. Yeah. Which is a bonus. And, uh. Well, how's the weather? Flying against the storm? We have to roll for it, I think. Or would we? We'd still roll to see how it happens for the day. Okay.

But you would, but at least if you were to take flight form, you're still half speed in the creatures's. Half of the creature's speed. Creature's speed, yes. Although. Oh wait, we lose exhaustion. No, it's an interesting point. Let me do a quick check. Oh man, there's a pun.

This rule check brought to you by Hot Topic. Doing a quick. Hot Topic. This is a backpack hanger. That'd be awesome if just in the mix, that shirt was sold, that you have on. No, I just want a shirt. Yeah. Just a bunch of CR shirts and then my old headshot.

Don't be a little Hot Topic and request this shirt, please. Oh no. It might be a deeper glance. I would say for the time that you are polymorphed, I would say you would not have the points of exhaustion during the polymorph, but they return when you're done. I would say that. Where did you find that photo? It's an interesting point.

Don't ask that right now. Oh no. Oh, he finds them all. It feels like some website that I definitely need to delete if you found it. Could be a traitor inside the house. Yeah. Somewhere that's a GeoCities account.

Omar! Little floof chaps. Fuck him. All right. He toggled out a USB stick in his fur. Yep. It'll fit there in the back, too. There's some deep chaps. Roll to see what the weather is before we polymorph? Well, we polymorph and then we roll

to see what the weather is. Oh jeez. Let's do it. I like it. All right. It's going to be great. I'm going to do the same. It's Veth, right? Yeah. But if you can do this

this day and tomorrow, you will bring it back to just two days of travel, as opposed to three. So, you got it. Don't fuck me, Gil. Nine. A nine. Like the Mighty Nein. Hmm.

Bodes well. All right. The weather is not as bad as it was the day before. It's still snowfall, but the winds are light and it doesn't impede your flight pattern. Good. As the three giant eagles continue onward for that one hour, gaining some of the ground that was lost, you all find yourselves exhausted once more.

And trudging forward carefully in the snow as Dagen leads you on. About halfway through the day, Dagen goes, I... Well, he puts his hand up. He doesn't say anything. He catches himself and calls up whoever's closest to him and points ahead.

And you can see there's, in this soft, smooth blanket of fresh snow that covers some of these mild hills that you guys are currently heading towards, you could see a bunch of small shapes just barely poking through the top of the snow, maybe a foot or so, about 100 or so feet off from you. Snow bunnies? Shh. Oh.

Starts looking in. If anybody else wants to, two of you can make a perception check if you'd like. I did. 29. Oof. Where's that roll been? Fair enough.

Glancing and leaning forward, thankfully, because the weather is not very bad and because the white snow itself gives you a pretty decent bounce for what sunlight is making its way in this region, you can see what looks to be the tops of heads or creatures unmoving. We're being watched at least, what, three?

With that perception check, you would notice it would be seven. Seven, seven heads of something. How big are the heads? I mean, that big, we might be fine. It's hard to tell truly at this distance, especially since most of their body is currently kind of, well, some of it seems to be shoulders up, somewhat exposed.

Humanoid? They look humanoid, but they're also white in color as well, the coloration. So you can see them, but you can't make out much detail because they're blending in with the scenery. Are there more yeti? I mean, I don't know. I can't, that's far.

I lean closer to Jester and say, look, you can actually crush them from here. Oh, we've taken care of them, no problem. Dagen comes in and goes, you can also pinch them. If that doesn't work, there's nobody even home. Wow, that's a lot of bourbon in the pancake.

Oh, the bourbon just got me started. I keep my own stash, don't worry. That oatmeal's delicious. Certainly helping the track. And breakfast. So Dagen leans in. What's the plan from here? I ain't seen something like this out here.

Ever? Not in this particular, no. Normally creatures, they move, they stalk. These are right still. Maybe they're dead. Maybe they're all frozen. Maybe they're statues. If we're all frozen. Maybe they're statues. If we were to continue on, Dagen,

would our path take us right through there, around? We can go around. I could try sending them a message. Maybe I can freak them out. Do you think they see us? I mean, they've got to see us. They're in the snow and we're on top of it. How far away are they?

About 100 feet from you. 100 feet? Uh, no. Hold on. I could give that, and we're on top of it. How far away are they? About 100. About 100 feet from you. 100 feet? Huh, hold on. I could make an illusion, give them something to chew on, see what that causes. Yeah, do that. Yeah? See if they chase.

Okay. I will pull out the bit of fleece that I use, and I will create two wolves, like the ones we saw in the mountains, in the midst of them running about. You see two wolves now circling and stalking in that center space.

The entities that caught your eye as you and Dagen and the rest of the group leans in, don't react. Don't move. Just still. I wonder if they're dead. I think they're probably dead. I don't think they're dead. They're just waiting, waiting for us to get closer,

and then they're out. Strangely, they wouldn't take a shot at that, though. They'll blast us with their eye beams. Can Frumpkin go over? He could, but first, I cause the wolves to go to two of the heads and lift their legs and illusory pee on them. Okay. See if that elicits any response.

One of the wolves comes over, sniffs, lifts a leg and urinates on one of the heads. No reaction. They're gone. And we saw no movement at all when all of that happened. None. Let's go. Okay. I think it's safe.

Hold on, hold on. It's just another two minutes. Best boy, go over there. Check those heads out, please. I slap a hand on Beauregard's shoulder. Okay. You follow over, and as Frumpkin approaches, you can see there are different heights

because there are different humanoid creatures of different lineages, arranged in a circle, seven of them, mostly submerged in the snow. You can see there'd be one that is almost halfling size that is pretty much entirely beneath the snow, but there is a faint bit of it that is melted around it. In fact, the snow around these figures

seems to be gently melted to the point where it's not really touching the bodies. They're almost like there's a separate cylinder of empty space around them that prevents the snow. Like they have their own heat source. But they appear to be human, but they also are made of stone. Are they? Solid sculptures.

Simple sculptures or intricate? They're fairly intricate. Oh no. And they are all sitting, and they are all arranged in a circle with their arms out towards the ones immediately to the right and left, all facing inward in a seven-part circle. Can we see what they're facing on the inside?

From what you can tell, it's just snow. But there's snow in the middle of them or there's nothing in the middle, all melted out between them? Directly around each one. Yeah. Almost like a cylinder within a half a foot of where the statue bodies are,

the snow is melted. But then they're in a much larger circle arranged, and in the middle of them, it's just all the snow that's been piled up like everything else around them. Okay, so looking through Frumpkin's eyes as he goes up and down this mound between all of them and peeks in,

does this look like some sort of, do they look like actual statues or do they look like someone, more like they've been frozen themselves? Does this look like some sort of a ritual that they were in the midst of? Make a perception check. Come on, Frumpkin.

Oh, the cat. God damn it. Let's say a nine. Okay. It's hard to tell, both the blinding light bouncing from all the nearby white snow and the fact that so much of them are submerged, it's hard to make up the details.

You probably have to get a closer look, personally. Also, I think we have to roll everything at disadvantage, too. No, because we're busted. Yes, you do. So let's see if it's even lower. It's not. That was the worst. Shit. We've got to check this out.

I mean, we can try, like, if they're petrified, maybe un-petrifying one of them, see what happens. Find out what's going on. I don't know if I'm up to a fight. I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm definitely feeling creepy. At least check out the area, right? What if they're really, really old people?

What if they're from the ancient times? That would be awesome. Let's check it out. Yeah, let's go. That's what's here, the ancient times. I throw up Detect Magic on the walk over. Yeah, and within 60 feet, I'll do Divine Sense as well. It's okay. One or two of us just hang back,

maybe someone like one of you two, in case we get 30 feet away and we all turn to stone or something? I'm going to keep my distance. Like 105 feet, perhaps? I'm going to keep 30 feet behind everybody else, at least, until it's definitely some distance from this thing until.

All right, so you're casting Detect Magic? Yeah. All right. Sorry, my app crashed here. You should hang back, too, not so you can Mage Hand people out. Yeah, that's a good idea. If you guys weigh five pounds, I've got you. Oh.

Never mind. But no, I'll hang back a little. Long range action. Okay. Dagen, of course, looks over at the rest of you and goes, Well, if you know what you're doing, I'll just stay a little behind as well. Yeah, sure.

He goes and keeps a little bit at a safe distance from the rest of you in the front line. But as you approach Caleb and cast Detect Magic, you get a fairly decent magical aura from each of these. And the essence is divination-based. Uniform for all of them. For all of them, yes. What does divination mean?

Sensing, learning the truth. Oh, that makes sense. Anything for divine sense when we're within 60 feet? Celestial, fiend, or undead? Mm-mm. So wait, you're getting a divination sense from them. Can I get closer and see if I can see tool marks like these have been carved, or?

We'd have to get right on them because they're encased. Oh, I have an idea. This is stupid. Or like they've been frozen. What is your stupid idea? Well, what if we took rope and we tied one of them up and that way, you know,

if I did try to un-petrify them, then at least they'll be tied up. That's not just a stupid idea at all, if that's what we want to attempt. Let's see if they're even petrified. Yeah. Okay. So you continue to approach. I'll start sneaking up and see what happens.

Like, each step, I'm kind of... I have that. We have a lot of traps. Checking for traps, I guess, for lack of a better term. I'm going to awkwardly tail you. I'm going to stay close behind you. Okay.

Okay. So carefully, you all line up a bit behind Beauregard as you carefully approach. The closest one to you, which, looking at it, it appears to be orc in appearance. You can see the head on top is smooth with longer hair in the back, close to a skullet, if you will.

Texture down to the shoulders, and you can see from the part of the torso that's exposed above the snow line, it appears to be almost robes that are drifting off the shoulders. You see the arms extended outward, palms up, and then the ones off to the right and left, you can see their arms extended outward, palms up. And then the ones off to the right and left, you can see their arms extended, palms down.

And then the next one's over, palms up. So they're almost like alternating as they go. They were playing that. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Divination magic. Does that game have a name? Slapsies. Slapsies. Who was in there? There's one that's like a circle.

Down by the banks of the... Yeah, the rest of the bank. That's it. Okay, back to the D&D campaign. Travis. Necessary lure. Uh-huh. So alternating palms up, palms down.

I'm keeping a very close eye on this, by the way. This is, and including around us, too, to see if this is a trap. The person was an orc, and then to either side, do we see what race they are? You see, there's a human. There's an elf. There's a halfling.

There's a gnome. I could try to clear the space out amongst them, too. What was the last one you said? They're all of different races. They're all dressed similarly. And you said there's seven of them? Seven of them, yes. Six, what was the last one?

The last one would have been dwarf. So all different races? And how wide is the circle from one side to the other? Each of these statues, roughly from where the hand ends is about three feet till the next one. So it's a fairly wide circle. And then from two statues facing each other, what's the distance roughly between the two sides?

Let me just do some quick math in my head here. You could estimate, estimate. Right, no, so it'd be like 15 or so feet. Okay. Keep a bit of distance, Jester, in case we need you. That's pretty big. I think maybe, should we not step in the circle? We shouldn't step in the middle of them.

Can't even see what's in there. I feel like that's good advice in general. I wonder if we can melt the snow in the middle and see if we can see something. That's what I'm saying, yeah. Take the snow out of the center. Oh, I know, because I was totally paying attention to what you were doing.

Well, he and the zag. I wasn't looking for a pen. I'll get a closer look at the statues and see if they're carved or something else happened. So you begin to, from a distance. Well, I'm going to do something a little hot, so. Okay. Do you want to take a look at that first? Sure. to do something a little hot, so. Okay. Do you want to take a look at that first? Sure. Or do you want me

to clear them out first? Let me take a look first. Okay. Roll an investigation check for me with disadvantage. With disadvantage, I thought. Okay. But it's still a 22. Damn.

Looking very closely at the details, they are detailed, but some of the edges, the lips, elements of them are still a bit rough, which with your experience, both researching and actually witnessing creatures that had been petrified, leads you to believe that these were actually crafted. Carved and crafted. Mm-hmm. Though it's hard to tell how long ago, how recent.

Okay. So they're sculpted, and the fact that it's seven different races feels like some sort of unity circle, something like that? Could be. Do any of them look at all familiar? To you, no. Most of their faces are fairly blank.

Just the eyes are open and they're looking right across. Their expression is neutral and they're just arms out facing forward, like some sort of odd courtyard decor. See what's in the center. Back up, everybody, just 20 or 30 feet, please. And I will take a little bit of phosphorus and... I'm going to back up more than 20 feet.

Push my hand through and then curve it and make a small, tight ring of walled fire in the center. Okay. This column of fire bursts out from the center of this statue circle. He watches Dagen go and he's like, whoa, shit, and wheels back a bit, protecting his face like, that was,

sure, yeah, go for it, I guess. Within moments, the snow in the vicinity and even beyond the circle begins to just melt and turn to water and steam. From the center, you can see there's a column of steam that rises up from the initial arrival of this burning wall of fire. Within a very short period of time,

you've cleared the region of snow. You can see now the ground below, which has been a while since you've seen a larger patch of just visible turf. There is thick, muddy dirt that has become dry and cracked towards the center where all the moisture was burned away. You can see long, decayed elements of gray grass.

And if you want to roll a nature check before we produce this. There's markings on the grass. 50-yard line? What does that mean? That's a one. That's a one. Not an accurate one. You have no idea what this grass is.

You have no idea if it's alive or dead, but it's curious. My nature's a negative one anyway. I know how it works, I don't know what it is. I'm just curious. I nature is a negative one anyway. I know how it works, I don't know what it is. I'm just curious. Start looking about for sigils. What you do notice, in the center of the circle, there is a circular platform about a half foot high that has simple circular markings around it

and interesting designs that represent the seven points of each of these statues all meeting in the center. What do you think it means, Caleb? Do you think if you stand in the middle of it, you'll learn everything there is to know about the world? Well, one could hope. I should give it a try. I should jump right on top of it.

I can, is there any kind of divination? I can, is there any kind of divination? And I can't tell from years of study what its purpose is because it's too old? Roll a history check for me. Can I aid him? With disadvantage. Can I aid him?

Sure, just a straight roll. Straight roll. Although this history. I'm good at histories. I know. I'd say it'd be separate rolls as opposed to aiding, because this is more of both of your individual knowledge. Would you prefer to do separate rolls? So disadvantage for each of you.

Drapped. It was good the first time. It was fucking great. Oh, I tried, I'm sorry. 16 instead of a 28. 27. Ooh! With disadvantage? I rolled two 13s and my history is a 14. That's pretty good.

Yeah. But not enough. What? Oh! Yeah, it's one of those. Fuck! You roll a natural 20 and have a plus 10. Or whatever. Yeah, and have a plus 10. Or whatever. Yeah, this was a DC 30. It's, uh...

Oh! You have no idea what this is. It's got a teleporter vibe. All you know is it has some essence, like strong essence of divination from these statues. That's all you know. Yeah, probably not teleporting. Mm-hmm, so we're trying to gleam something.

Well, even though they're alternating, at some point, one of these is going to meet, right? Because there's an odd number. You do notice on one of the edges, there is one person whose one hand is face up and one hand is face down that completes the link. Got it. Maybe we should all stand behind them

and do the same motion. Sure, why not? Well, why was the snow around them like, the snow wasn't pressing against them, right? Yeah, they're warm statues. If we stand near the statue, does it feel warm? In the vicinity? No. If you touch it.

You're going to touch one? Do it. Yeah. You touch the statue? I touch one of the statues. Okay. You reach out, and as your fingers touch the exterior of the stone statue that's closest to you, at first, you sense it does have a strange warmth to it.

Yeah. Warm, a little tingly. Nothing. I know. Let's just fucking do it. You're not good. It's just like a, I know what you did to the thing. Let's get it all the way. It does have a just fucking do it. You rock. Just like a, oh! We should do the thing, let's get an ulcer. Does it have a strange warmth to it, though?

A strange warmth to it, yeah. Oh, such an ulcer is happening. Yeah, let's do it, let's do it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh god, we're doing this? Boy, that really feels like, you know, There's seven of us, we're working on it. the college kids that stumble upon the cult circle

and summon Cthulhu. Just read this passage. I just really wish we weren't so tired. All those kids that stumble upon the cult circle and summon Cthulhu. Just read this passage. I just really, really wish we weren't so tired. Can we just do a 360 scan to see if anybody's watching and they're like, oh my god, these fucking idiots are really going to do it. Yeah, Dagen, who is currently going,

y'all have fun, I'm going to just back the fuck out of this for a while. Get ready to save us, Dagen, in case we die. Sure, totally, and he pulls out some beef jerky and is like, keep going. Yeah, we actually need Caduceus for this. Are we all going in? We're doing this? We're going to stand behind the statues

and do the same motion. We're going to do the... Terrible idea. So we should find some closest to our, like, that look like us and go for it. Yeah, I'll go behind the human. We're doing the same thing, but behind the statues. Yeah. I'll do the splitsies. So we'll be reaching slightly further. You'll be the splitsies.

I'll do whichever one is doing the splitsies. You'll end up in half, so that works out okay. I'll take, is there a tiefling? I'll do the tiefling. Sure, I'll take whatever's left over. I do not believe there's a tiefling in this battle. What the fuck is this shit? Why is there a tiefling?

I'll take the elf. You can do the gnome or something. What? Do the gnome. Okay, I'll do the gnome. Okay, I'll take the elf. You can do the gnome or something. Do the gnome. Okay, I'll do the gnome. Okay, I'll take the elf then. Goliath. I'll do the halfling. All righty. Okay.

You all arrange yourselves behind the statues, matching the hand movements, as you all take the corresponding poses around these. Wait, we got to figure it out, because I got to get it right. all take the corresponding poses around these. Wait, we got to figure it out. I got to get it right. Thousand? No! So like this. Okay, wait, okay, okay. No, wait, no.

No, something's wrong with it. What's the main thing about this is no one can see what we're doing. No, wait. All our hands are off. Here, do it closer to your body, closer to your body. Wait, who's the intersection? Oh, you are. Wait, he's the intersection? Oh, you are. Easy intersection.

This shouldn't work. You're the split, but I've got to be the splitsies. Why? No, she's the splitsies. Why do you got to be the splitsies? You got to flip. I already called dibs on something. You got to go down. You got two flips. But the team's got to flip.

If there's two flips, then there shouldn't be any flips. It should just be all the flips. There are no flips, guys. There's no flips. You describe one with a hand up, one hand down. He was wrong, there's no flips! Because I was told it was wrong, and I was like, oh right, there would be,

but no, there isn't. There's no flips! Okay. There's no flips? I didn't think there would be, but then I thought you guys said that there wouldn't be. Why is the world invisible? Yeah, there's seven, so at some point, there are two people with the same.

No, no, no, we'll do it, we'll showcase. No, with seven, it should be complete. You made me second guess myself. You did it with the fucking archipelago. Campaign one. Okay, we got this. Did it again this time. Okay. Here we go. God, we're so dumb.

It's been a long day. We were doing it correctly. Long week. Around the. Long month. Long year. Am I crazy? Seven. I mean, you saw it. Yeah, do it again if you want. Here, long month, long year. Am I crazy? Seven. I mean, you saw it. Yeah, do it again if you want. You're crazy. You do it, do it.

Okay, so wait, I'm going to do like this. So you start it. I was like seven. That'll complete the circle. Okay, then Yasha. And then you made me second guess myself. Well, if we weren't all going to die before, we are now. Okay, do it. Do it, Liam. There you go.

Wait, you guys are doing the same thing. Okay, okay, okay. They're matching. They're matching. So there is a flippy. There is a flippy. No, no, no. Liam, come on. You need even numbers to be a circuit, and odd is going to need a... Okay, so, oh. Okay, let's start.

Liam. Liam be the flippy. You call flippy first. Okay. Okay, okay. Base it off the person next to you. Okay! We did it! We did it! Where did you guys fuck up? And I'm sorry, I fucked up, too, on that one.

But then I corrected it, and then you maybe, never mind. That was fucked up. We did it. Ow! We did it! Big numbers are a circuit. Odd numbers, there needs to be a circuit. Right. Or a breaker. Basic engineering, Matt, come on. I just drew it.

Don't yell at me! You guys just fucked it up the first time you did the circle and made me second guess myself. I love that this has been five minutes of us trying to just match the stack. I know there are people at NASA who watch this show, but they're going to stop now. God fucking damn it. All right.

And everyone will forget. Just keep going. This, guys, well done. All right. And everyone will forget. Just keep going. Okay, okay. This. We did it. Guys. Well done. This is what we're supposed to do, right? As you all stand there and match the hand motions of each of these statues,

you look at each other. In a moment of quiet, you hear, Y'all did it! Looking great! How crazy. All right, all right. I really thought that was going to do something. I did, too. I didn't. Did anyone stand in the middle?

No. No, I'm scared to. We should do that. Okay, I'll go stand in the middle. Yeah! Do it, do it. Do it, do it. Do it, do it! No, look at his face! What? Do it!

Look at his face! Do it! All right, I'll go stand in the middle. Where is Baldur Pardes Shears? First to lose is Ghost. All right. Just one last thing. Quickie, quickie. Yeah. I cast Identify on one statue.

Oh, that's smart. That's good, yeah. That's a better idea than just jumping right into the middle. Okay. You cast Identify on it. It gives you a strong divination response, but there's something oddly esoteric and undefinable

beyond the simple magic of an identify spell. And does it feel older than Halas's holes? It feels old. His holes. It certainly feels old. It's old magic. It would really suck if this was sealing something away. Uh-huh. It's not that old. Well, it's divination,

so it's got to be seeing. It's a knowledge. Is there anything between? I roll Frumpkin into the circle. Oh, come on! We were boulder, parchment, shears-ing! Is it a three-way boulder, parchment? I already did it. We're doing boulder, parchment, shears.

Frumpkin stands in the middle. Yeah. Who were the three? It was me and Yasha, I'm a bow. Okay, ready? Boulder, parchment, shears. Fuck, we did it again! That's hard to do.

Goddamn! Go again. All right, okay, okay, okay. Boulder, parchment, shears. Oh, I win? You win. Does that mean I lose? Yep. Yep. I think you go in the slot. Quick resistance popped on you.

Thanks, bud. That's all I got. Oh boy. All right. I'll trepidatiously walk towards the center and stand upon the pillar thingy. Caleb's holding 17 components and is like, No!

So you stand up onto the platform. And a death warp. Okay. You look about, and for a moment you're like, nothing's working. Then you look at the statue ahead of you, and you feel like it's looking at you.

You look at the other one, you meet it left to it, and you feel like they're all looking at you. And language doesn't enter your mind, but thoughts, voices mingling. but thoughts, voices mingling. And the sense of what it seems to reach out to you is, do you give to receive? Ask and we take.

Ask and we take? Yeah. Do I feel like I can step off of the circle? That was a question. Right now, you cannot move. Oh shit. You are locked into the attention of whatever this is. And they are waiting. Oh shit, I need to think of a question.

Ask and we take. We take. Oh no, I can't ask anybody for help right now, can I? None of us heard any of that, right? No, you just watched Jester step in the middle there. Oh boy. What? What are the Tomb Takers trying to bring back?

All their eyes begin to glow. Suddenly, imagery fills your mind. Familiar imagery of a living city flexing and shifting. You see this odd architecture, both ancient but beautiful and alien in ways that you've never really seen, except for glimpses of the first excavation you saw.

You see imagery of this massive, flexing, in some ways still in stone, in some ways flesh and breathing, city, ship, entity gliding through the astral expanse. And you sense the Tomb Takers trudging through the snow, satchels half full with necessary gathered components and a devious intent leading them.

Devious? Your vision comes back to you. Just as you gather your thoughts, all of a sudden, you feel something being pulled from you. Some odd cold takes grasp inside the center of your chest and your soul and your spirit, and you fall to your knees

and start coughing uncontrollably. Then you stand up and, a little winded, but... But you're okay. We run to Jester. Yeah, I rush over. What happened, what happened, what happened? What happened? What happened in there? They're bringing the Tomb Takers, they're bringing back the city.

The bad city. How do you know that? I don't know, the statues told me. They just told you that? How do they know? I don't know, they said give something and and they'll give me something in return. What did you give? I don't know.

Have the statues changed? No. How are you feeling? How do I feel? Do magic or something. Have the statues changed? No. How are you feeling? How do I feel? Do magic or something. Do a cantrip. Well, I want to get away from this circle first, okay? Yeah, that's... Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

We walk a ways away. Come over here. Okay, I'm going to try to do a spell or something. Did we see the eyes glow? Mm-mm. I'm going to try to just do a Sacred Flame. Okay. Okay, okay. It happens.

That's good. Do you feel okay? Yeah, it felt like something cold left me, but I don't know what it was. Caduceus? Yeah. Beauregard? Yeah? Pretty decent passive perception. I mean, you all look tired.

You're all exhausted. This journey has been tough physically. There's something about Jester that just looks a little more, I don't know, mature. Huh. Like? She looks older? I'm going to- Older or just like,

she seems more- A little older. I think they, I'm going to just get right up. You smell a little. Fuck you! Well, just like a little- Yeah, like Noxzema. Have her- Yeah, like Noxzema. Have her, uh. Noxzema!

Like Mothball. Have her horns changed at all. Have her horns changed at all. They've grown a little bit longer, yeah. What is it? I think they took some of your life away. They took time. How much? How much time?

Not a lot. I mean, enough that I can see it. Like when you see an old friend a few years later, and it's been a bit. It's me, Tony! What's my face look like? Are my cheekbones more pronounced? My mom always said as I got older,

I would have more pronounced cheekbones. You look excellent. And yeah, I mean. About a year or two, is that what it looks like? A little more than that. No. You'd say estimate between four or five years. Ooh!

Wow. Holy shit. Well, good job. You're a tiefling, and they've got a little extra time, right? Yeah. I don't know. Yeah, it's fine. Okay. That's no big deal. Wow. Well, we have some confirmations.

That was worth it. That knowledge was worth it, right? Now we know beyond all certainty that we need to stop the Tomb Takers. I mean, I know we knew we needed to, but now we know we needed to. Is there anything worth asking still? We could ask what's at A2.

How do we stop Molly? You guys are worth it. What's he getting in A5? Five years of your life? Uh, what all'd you do? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, Dagen can go. No, I mean, what all'd you do? And he points back in the opening and they're gone.

In the conversation you guys were having about this, the moment you all took your eyes off of it, the circle has vanished. Whoa! I'm sorry, I hope my question was good enough. No, that is an excellent question. It was a good question. You did great. We know that. You were winging it.

Did it hurt? I mean, it has, I mean, we cough. It felt like empty for a second, but I feel kind of normal now. That was a hell of a question with no warning. Wow. How did it feel? You know, like... Like cold.

You know that moment in The Little Mermaid when Ariel's singing and she loses? It's like that. Don't know that at all. Yeah? Mm-hmm. Thought you felt empty for a moment. I did. For a second.

Oh, okay. Is that something that can be reversed? Well, I've got a voice. I think when you buy something, you pay for it. Also, she looks fine. We've all seen her mother. I mean. Yeah, actually, you look pretty good.

My mom's great. Stani, your mother is a beautiful woman. You're a beautiful woman. She's sharp in that a little bit. It's nice. Caleb, you would know in your studies that there are ways to reverse such powerful ancient magical aging to that degree,

but that magic is extremely powerful and extremely rare. It was worth it. Okay. And the Tomb Takers are halfway. Better move. It's interesting, as you play over the vision in the head of, beyond just... Beyond just them traveling,

the visions of them carrying many things, not specifically, but you saw them gather one threshold crest from where you encountered them, but from what you were shown, you sensed that they were bearing numerous things amongst them. Bearing, not bearing. Do you think, did it seem like when I saw it, that that was the future or that was what was happening now? Seemed current.

Current. Wow. How'd they get so much stuff so quickly? Maybe, well, I mean, we saw a vision of Molly when we were still outside of Zadash. They've been here. But also, what did you ask? You asked, what do they want, right? I said, what are they trying to bring back?

So it showed you what they are trying to do. So maybe they haven't succeeded at all. Yeah, I don't think they have. They're on their way there. But this does answer the question that they're not just looking for threshold crests. They're looking for? Lots of things. Lots of things. Lots of things.

Probably anything holding some of this ancient, archaic energy. Whatever's holding the city back. Mm-hmm. I don't even necessarily know if they know what they're calling. I didn't get the feeling that they really thought about this.

Are they pawns or are they more? And will they listen to reason? They believe they're going home. You ever stood between anybody when they think convinced that they're going home? Yes. A real home? Yes. It's not pretty. No.

No, it's not. Are they spying on us right now, Fjord? I don't think I still have a... I'll summon the sword, you see invisibility. Because it has been an additional day, yeah. Glancing about at the moment, you don't see anything. Make a perception check. A disadvantage.

Mm-hmm. Eight. Yeah, don't see anything. Um. Eight. Yeah. Don't see anything. Maybe now you'll get different targeted ads, like mortgage refinancing and Peloton and stuff now, instead of... That's a good point.

I was getting kind of bored with the old ones. Yeah, of course. Yeah, you look beautiful. You don't look that much different to me. I just don't like you losing time. It's okay. Just as long as that's all. This is good.

This is helpful, I think. We should also talk to Vashj. We are moving. Yeah, we should get going, yep. All right, y'all find what you're looking for? Sure. Sadly. Yes. All right.

Haven't met a group so eager to poke the badger before. And he starts making his way onward the path you were taking. Some badgers need poking. Making his way on. But beyond that, the rest of the day's journey is fairly uneventful. As you all prepare yourselves to bed down for the night, you have about two days, a little under two days travel with one more flight.

The following day, that'll take it to just about one, a little over one. We lose a point of exhaustion? You do after a night's rest, yes. That's good. So you lose a point of exhaustion. Yasha, a little over one. We lose a point of exhaustion? You do after a night's rest, yes. That's good. So you lose a point of exhaustion. Yasha, you're good now. Okay. What is the one point

of exhaustion do as opposed to the two? That's disadvantage on ability checks. Two is speed halved. Oh, okay. Woof. Uh-oh. It's doing real great. Yeah. Okay.

But you're making up the time with the flight, which is good. Okay. This is the night where we can talk to the head again. Oh, yeah. I've got some questions, but I'm happy to, we're happy to game this out once it's time. Can we do this by the fire? Yeah, let's figure it out while we walk and talk.

Maybe we can do it in the tower? Yeah. End of day. Walk and talk, walk and talk. We're walking and talking. All right, you guys are walking and talking. Yeah. Dagen's far enough ahead that you probably want to wait

until he's probably out of earshot. Oh yeah, that's right. Oh right, he doesn't want to know. Just throwing it out there again. Scramble the brain again. A little more drama. All right, so what would you ask? I want to know if they know

that they're bringing back the city. I want to know how she did, how she emptied Lucien. How? I don't know. The questions we asked her before was, what do the tattoos mean? What is the book?

Something went wrong with Molly, what happened? What does to alpha to alpha hornbound mean? What does it mean to be a nonagon? Did she actually answer any of those questions? Mm-hmm. Okay. Obtusely. Obtusely. We want to know, what's at A2?

Right. And what are these items that they're trying to get? All right, maybe we should ask if we should bother with A2 or if we should go straight to Aeor proper. Her answer to what does it mean to be a nonagon was, nonagon is a vessel, a key to Cognouza. Oh, right. The one to free the Somnovum.

Jesus. Well, that Somnovum. Jesus. Well, that Somnovum is maybe the city. Yeah. Yeah. Huh. But if she knows that, then she'll know what they need to get the city back. She did answer to what those two alpha to alpha mean in Homeward Bound.

I am uncertain. Many pieces lay strewn city to city. Pieces. So we got that to alpha to alpha were the city pieces. bound, I am uncertain. Many pieces lay strewn city to city. Many pieces? So we got that to alpha to alpha were the city pieces. They're collecting the pieces of the puzzle. They don't actually know what they're doing. What is needed to unlock the Somnova?

Yeah. Oh. Yeah. That's good. Yeah. We can also try... Well, we don't have any ivory, do we? Do you have any ivory, Caleb? Let me look through my equipment.

I don't think so. Mm. Is there a rule about the components? Is it like, if it has a worth of gold pieces, then you can't use your focal point or something? Is that what the rule is? If it has a gold piece value, that means you can use your focus,

but you still have to have that component with you. The idea is your focus is used in place of other non-monetary valued components. Okay, that's what I thought. We can use a residual. Yes. Didn't we use all that already? is your focus is used in place of other non-monetary valued components. Okay, that's what I thought. We can use a residuum. Yes. Can we use all that already? No, we have 200 gold worth of residuum left.

And there's always legend lore, which we could do. And really ask the Wild Mother or the Traveler, like, what is known about? What I'm thinking, I think maybe, well, between things like that and maybe a few message spells, Matt, do I know anything? Like, is Cognouza in Somnovem

an equivalent of our Latin root? Is it something that I would maybe know like the root wordage of? Roll a history check. We can message the library. Go, 30. Yeah. That's what I'm thinking, if I can message the library, potentially for some reason. Still with disadvantage

because you still have to be. Still with disadvantage? Because why? Because we're still exhausted. Because you still have a point of exhaustion. No, but I love you. But I love you. I love you. That's what happens when you fuck with Mr. Dibby and I know, though. But I love you! But I love you! That's what happens when you fuck with us through the green eggs.

Oh, oh, oh. Then one of them was a natural 20, but instead I'm going to have to go with a dirty 20. Okay. Ooh. Unfortunately, you can't recall in your studies anything that you can attribute specifically to the verbiage, the root words. No, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay.

That's the city in the Somnovum is the... To free the Somnovum? The one to, yeah, Nonagon is a vessel. Key to Cognouza, the one to free the Somnovum. Also, I was writing very quickly, so there might be some words missing. Unless that was in the Cognouza. You would remember.

Which bit? If there were words missing from what she's saying. I think, right? That's right, no, she got it. Yeah. Is that more or less any of the key factors? Okay. I mean, you could ask your people.

Yeah, we could send a message. You got people to read the book. You could write down exactly what you want me to say, so I don't fuck it up. Okay. I guess while we're walking? Sure. Okay.

Out of your shot of Dagen. Out of your shot of Dagen. Let's... This is all, we're not talking about Vessarogno right now. I don't think he wants to know any of it. Talk about other stuff while I think about this. Okay. So what are you guys doing?

Locking and... We'll make our way while this happens. 25 words? Yeah. Right? How many questions do you get? Five, I think. Five total. And we have three now, or four? We have a lot. I've got three-ish.

Hey, are we ever going to ask questions of that poor sap that I chopped his head off? Oh! Oh, I'd forgotten. Wait, who was that? He was, you know, he was just a dude that was probably standing guard or something that died. Yeah, we probably can ditch that head. About him.

Okay. We were going to ask, like. Or throw that head out into the snow. Or we can keep it for the time being. Sure. It's just getting really interesting in the bag. Okay, so have we rolled? For the day? For the next day?

Because you guys have. My turn? Yeah. Four. Four. Oh no. The weather is clear. And despite the still chilly wind, passage is safe. All right. Yes, so we should do another flight.

Sure. Really gain some time. It's just a matter of if we want to send this message before we fly or after we fly. Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. Well. Do they have a time limit on when they need to respond? Pretty quickly. Well, let's fly and I'll think about it while we fly. Okay.

All right, so utilizing your same, perfect, your same arrangement, your trio of giant eagles lift up the rest of your troop and make your way onward in the direction that you continue to go. After the hour is done, you all come back down onto the frozen surface and continue on trekking. So during the rest of that journey,

you begin to develop the question you wanted to ask. Uh-huh, uh-huh. Uh-huh. And you continue walking as it's developed. Walking in a circle now. Yep. Just got the one side. As the day draws colder and darker,

you eventually prepare yourselves to bed down, what I assume, once again, is in the Nine-Sided Tower. So you gather your things and make your way towards the final night to rest before reaching your destination the following day. Okay. Now, as you are all preparing for the night's rest, what are you doing?

Let's talk to a head and send a message to some librarians. We should just excuse Dagen upstairs. Yeah, yeah, yeah, hey, Dagen. You know what? Yeah, what? Let's get you a nightcap. Jinx, Jellicle, Jangles, could you get Dagen here a sherry?

And after dinner, sherry. Have we had dinner? We've had dinner. Sure, I'll- Because you're sherry. I'll take it. Come on up. Tell Aesop to go up and walk on his back again, please. Sure, I'll. Because you're sherry. I'll take it. Come on up. Tell Aesop to go up and walk on his back again, please. Yes, please! And he's floating his way up to his chamber.

Don't come down here, we're talking about secret things. Works for me. He shoves off for his night of sherry and back biscuits. That sounds like a good night. Yeah, it does. I could use that. Yeah. So, city? I would die. Okay, I'm assuming.

How did you empty Lucien? Yeah. What is needed to unlock Somnovum? What is needed to unlock? Somnovum. Somnovum. Falknock. Somnovem. Somnovem? Is there anything else? I've got about five words left. What does that do? I don't know what your question is yet.

What are they looking for at A2? Not what are they looking for? No, no, no, no. Do they need anything from A2? Oh, right. Yeah, do they need anything from A2? I have, from Expositor Lionette, Deep in Eiselcross, Pursuing Eyes of Nine. What is she looking for?

Any information or etymology on words Cognoza or Somnovem, and I've got like five words left. Okay. She had it marked on the map, but if we do it, there's nothing needed there. Yeah, we have to give them some way. Find someone who can send a message to you and let them know, because that's a lot of information.

Otherwise, we can check back in the morning. You can say that. We'll check back in the morning. Okay. What was she looking for at? That's a good idea for some reason. Is there anything they need at A2? Work fast, we'll check back in the morning. Because if not, we won't go. I'd love that.

Anything you need? There's busy work going on. Yeah, yeah. At A2. In the meantime, I'm just going to ask Yasha to strum her harp for us. For bardic inspiration, basically. Just to lighten the mood,

because it's kind of tense tonight. I mean, we got Oldie over here, and these two guys are just writing everything. I'm just going to be touching my horns. I'm trying to figure out how much they've grown. Slowly strumming. Got whiskers. Shut up! Just a couple whiskers, just pluck them.

I have whiskers, you have whiskers. I accidentally clicked a couple. Just a couple whiskers, just pluck them. I have whiskers, you have whiskers. I accidentally clicked the wrong. Does my horn jewelry still fit my horns? Yeah. Okay. I mean, I actually think the extra years looks great on you. Okay, I'm ready. Okay.

I'm going to send a message right now. To who am I sending it? Yudala Fon. We're going straight to the fucking top. To Yudala Fon, sending the message. From Expositor Lionette. From Expositor Lionette. Five questions.

You have five already. Is that part of the message? Well, I have one. Did you know about the city? We'll hold on this. Hold on, hold on, hold on. We'll do this first. Here we go.

From Exposure to Linette. Deep in Eiselcross. Deep in Eiselcross. Pursuing Nine Eyes. Pursuing Nine Eyes. Any information. Any information. Or etymology. Or etymology? On words. On words. Cognouza. Cognouza. Or Somnovum. Somnovum. Work fast. Work fast.

We'll check back in morning. We'll check back in morning. Who's on Tal'Dorei Council? Just squeeze in there at the very end. Two more questions. I was giving it time so that Yudala Fon would be able to write down some of these things. Fair enough. Mm-hmm.

Okay. The response comes, Ah, thank you for the information. I will pass this on to our archivists and see what we can find. That's it for now. Yep. All right. So, so far, is there anything he needs at A2?

Did she know about the Floating City? Is that important? Is that important? Well, we can ask, we can, I don't know. We can ask her. Yeah, she's got to know about the Floating City. We can ask her what Somnova is. Yep. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

What is Somnova? How did you empty Lucien? And that's three questions. Three. Why did you want to unlock Somnov Three. Why did you want to unlock some of them? Why did you want to? How did we beat Lucien? Well, yeah, does it help us to know,

like, how did Lucien kill you? Or like, what sort of power does he have? How would we stop them? We feel vengeful. Maybe how do we stop them from succeeding? If she knew her weakness, she would have been able to exploit it. I'm also curious,

I don't know if this would help us in any way, but why does she keep doing this to him? To Lucien, you know? Why does he keep getting, they keep getting emptied? He might've only been emptied one time. Maybe. Maybe she just did it the once and he came back, you know?

Hmm. I have a question, too, if there's room for it. These things can change as the conversation goes forward. This is priority, but if there's room, I have something unrelated to ask her. Let me know. I mean, what is it? I'd be curious to know if the Cerberus Assembly

would tolerate the removal of Trent Ickithon. That's a lot to write down. Let me know when we get there. All right, do we want to do this? Let's do it. All right, set we want to do this? Let's do it. All right, set up the head and... Should we probably put the head on top of one of the cats just so it feels like it's alive?

It's going to walk away. Oh, good. And I prefer focus and not... Ooh, let's make the room really dark and only have light underneath our faces so we seem more intimidating. Well, we're in the tower, so I just telepathically make the globules dim.

Hue lights. And I put a big silver platter on a wide, low table before the main fireplace in the salon for her head. All right. I want her head on a platter. And with that, you have the dull, ghastly, lifeless head of Vess DeRogna.

Gross. Lit, rather macabrely, at your disposal. This may be the last time. What is Somnova? With the head sister resting. They are the minds of Cognosa. Minds? The minds.

The ones who orchestrated its escape and wish now to return. I'm going off script. Already? Is that all right? Sure. Sure. Your spell. Escape from what? The destruction of Eor.

They betrayed their own city to ensure their survival. MATT and LAURA sigh. Why did you want to unlock, bring back, Somnova? To become one of the minds is to receive the lost knowledge of the greatest mageocracy in history. To become one of the minds is to receive the lost knowledge of the greatest mageocracy in history. To become one of the minds is to receive the lost knowledge of the greatest mageocracy in history. To become one of the minds is to receive the lost knowledge of the greatest mageocracy in history. To become one of the minds is to receive the lost knowledge of the greatest mageocracy in history. To become one of the minds is to receive the lost knowledge of the greatest mageocracy in history. We are collecting the keys to complete this.

What do we need at A2? It requires the means to come back. Enough crests to replace lost when it found the storm. I'm sorry, Caleb, I've got one more. Where must the ritual be completed? The gate lies in the center of the city's ruin.

The gate lies in the center. I think that's, is that five? That was four. It slumps forward, face down, with a sickening thwap. It's going to burn it out eventually. Yeah. Put a cloth over the head. There is one more call we could make. Essek could let him know everything.

Everything. The trouble know everything. Everything. The trouble's coming. Okay. What kind of trouble, what words to look up, what to research, there's no sense playing ridiculous political games right now. Yeah. I don't know if we want to tell Essek

that there is a potential way to plug in to the greatest minds of the arcane in all history. I think we are a little more honest with him and tell him that that's absolutely not what this is. That's a lie. This is destruction. There's no knowledge in that thing. It is a...

There's nothing to be learned from that kind of chaos. What is stopping? What makes you think he doesn't already know all of this and isn't in pursuit of it in himself? He's a dope-ass mage, just like she was. Sneaky as fuck. I feel like he'd be out here already. Maybe he's, maybe he just has a few different pieces of the puzzle

and we've got the others. We've convinced him to listen to reason once. That's all I have. I honestly don't trust him enough. Yeah, why is he doing this? Maybe we can tell him just enough. We already know. What we need is help to stop the Tomb Takers,

that the Tomb Takers are trying to bring back an entity that is... A city-sized entity that will bring chaos. Destroy everything. I mean, we already know that the Dynasty and the Empire are fighting for relics and knowledge from this place. We know that's why he's here. We just don't know the specifics.

I mean, what advantage would we give, though? Even if we say there's an enemy coming, that doesn't change anything. We need to take away a key component of what they're looking for. Maybe there's a lodestone at Aeor. Maybe they need to remove it themselves. Maybe he can find the site.

Maybe he can find another component before they do. Yeah. Lock it down. Right. It's not so much defending the city or stopping them. Maybe they need to take the last piece and move. I think it's foolish to ignore allies right now, even if they are shifty. This is all hands.

I'm not suggesting we ignore allies. I am just laying out the fact that we are in a rat race that we only know a part of the rules of. Yes, if we pull him in, I don't want to whet his appetite for the same thing that Vess hungered for. Agreed. Okay.

I don't have enough words to really whet his appetite in that way, anyway. Wait. Wait. I don't have enough words to really whet his appetite in that way, anyway. Whet. Whet. When I saw the vision of the city, did it feel as disturbing as it did when we saw it with Avocado?

I always think Avocado. Yeah. Avocado. I always think avocado. Avocado. Equally, if not more so, even though the vision was but an instant, you felt a prolonged view. You sensed this bottomless hunger that seemed to emanate from it. You swear at one moment you saw a shifting piece of ethereal rock,

like so many that just drift through the astral plane, draw near for the island stretched like a pseudopod and consumed it and expanded ever so slightly. As you think back, you remember seeing the streets empty, but you could hear voices, hundreds of voices. Sourceless, whispering, screaming, nonstop. This nightmarish cacophony of torment and confusion

and laughter and memory. And yet there were still minds amongst them that were stronger than the others. And you shake your head. The more you think back, the more details click in from that vision, and it makes it even more terrifying. I imagine it's one of those things that take root,

that you can't shake it once you've seen it. Silvester wanted her own consciousness to be uplifted, to be joined with. It's like their souls have become light. I don't think she understood the nature of this thing. I don't either, but she longed for it. She thought that when it came back, she would be an even more powerful maid.

Yeah, there's no coming back from this thing. It's in my head and there is no... This is... There's no coming back from this thing. It can't be. The vision had hundreds or thousands of voices co-mingling together, but a few stronger within.

Maybe they are the Eyes of Nine. Maybe it is every person who ever lived in the city and it's ruling nine. And there's an offer to the Nonagon to join the club. Or at least they think so. Yeah. We have to stop it. A group of mages thought that they were,

I don't know, Stop it. A group of mages thought that they were, I don't know, saving their city, and instead they damned it to insanity and an eternal astral sea. I think perhaps you're too kind to their intentions. Did she give us any concrete thing to look for at A2? No, another just... Crests?

You said more crests, right? But she didn't say any other type of item, so it's just crests that we know of. I think it's probably more, but, and again, it's not like she can't lie or not know. The trouble with this is they can say whatever they like. Do your best to gain trust, but it's a crapshoot. How many days are we away from A2?

One day. One day. We'll be there tomorrow. One day. One more. I'm going to stick my head out and just for giggles, poke Locate Creature to see if Lucien's within 1,000 feet. You're going to peep your head out of the tower first, right? Mm-hmm. They would have had to travel pretty fast to. Yeah, they would. You're going to peep your head out of the tower first, right?

They would have had to travel pretty fast to. Yeah, they would. Well, as you lean outside of the entrance, your mind reaching out magically for the possible presence of Lucien, the Nonagon. In the cold wind that's blowing the lightless night, you sense nothing. I pop back in. It's either very, very much ahead of us

or reasonably behind us. All right. Should I send a message to Essek? Yes. Saying what? Just, bad guys are coming. Bad guys are coming. Find a crest and hide it. Yeah. We're going to summon something dangerous

and it's going to be bigger than anyone can handle. We have to stop them. And yeah. Okay. People are here, they are not the Empire, they are not the Dynasty, they are outsiders. And all we know is they are dangerous, which is the truth. Okay.

Send a message to Essek. All right. We should hit 8-2 tomorrow. 8-2 tomorrow. That's fine, Mark. There's a group of villains on the way. We have to stop them, Essek. They plan to release something terrible.

Well, you portent something frightful. I have my responsibilities, but if I can be of aid, please let me know. I trust your guts. He says he'll help if we need him. Two. I'm going to go to bed.

Okay. We are exhausted. The rest of you as well? Yeah. Mm-hmm. I'm going to make my way over to Jester's room. Okay. And knock on the door. She goes to bed at eight o'clock now.

Yeah, six o'clock. Early, early dinner. I hear the game show network inside the room. I'm asleep. Gave up sugar today, did you know? Yeah. I see her teeth. Hello?

Just filming it. Hello? I was really worried about you when you fell. Yeah. This suddenly feels far more serious than I thought it might be. I know. I can't get the image of it out of my head. It's scary.

What do you think will happen? I think if they bring it back, it will absorb everything it can. It felt like all of the people that lived there, they were part of the city now. They could never escape. It felt like a hell. It felt like torment.

And we have to stop it, right? Yeah. I may have a problem. What is it? I saw you standing on that pillar, and it was the first time where I kept myself from trying to stop something that was happening to you, and I didn't do anything, and it's bothered me.

You couldn't have done anything, Fjord. It was in my head, you know? Yes. I don't want you to gamble with yourself. I know we were playing and it didn't seem like much and it seems to have exacted a pretty serious toll. All I'm saying is I want you to be careful as we do this. I don't think we'll be the spectators that we thought we might be.

Okay. I want to come out of this and be able to go back to the sea and go back to Nicodranas and go back to where it's warm and not fucking freezing. Me too. I just don't know if that's... I don't feel as optimistic now. Me neither.

But... Me neither. But I'll try to be safe. And you should too. But if it comes down to it, if if it means stopping that thing I want to stop that thing. I told your mother I would look after you. We'll be fine, Fjord. We always are.

I care very much for you. Really? Is it because I have chiseled cheekbones now? It's the longer horns. Yeah, it really does it, doesn't it? Yeah. It gives you an intimidating look. And I pull her in.

Can I kiss you? I kiss her? I don't know how this will go, but I can't promise that I'm going to let you just throw yourself at this thing. I don't think I can do that. I don't have an argument. Kissing is a lot more fun when you're not dying. Oh, and not when you're underwater drowning. Yeah, yeah, that's what I mean.

Mm-hmm. I don't know what to do with myself anymore. I've wanted to do it for a while. I'm kind of a big coward. No, Fjord, you're very brave. I am very brave, aren't I? You are. I feel a bit better.

Me too. I feel a bit better. Me too. Are we sure we have to go fight this city? We have to go fight this city. We have to fight it for it. We could take cats and just flee. We have to fight it. All right. I'll see you in the morning.

Okay. Good night. Good night, Fjord. I'll leave. I'll just go lay in bed and hold up my little unicorn figurine and fall asleep holding it. I don't sleep much. As the rest of you find sleep

in your corresponding chambers, closing the final night before your arrival at the second Aeorian Excavation. We're going to take a break. Yay! We'll be back here in a few minutes to pick up from there. Love is real!

This guy did it! You did it! The guy who never said he'd role play romance initiated. I'm proud of you, buddy. I was proud of you. I know! Five years. Look at that. This, this is character growth.

Like, I'm not talking about Fjord. I'm talking about Travis. Yeah, yeah. He's hiding his face. I know. It's good. And how was it? It was great. All righty, we'll see you guys back here in a few minutes.

I'm looking at that! We interrupt this Critical Role Podcast Network broadcast to bring you news of dangerous treasures that lie sealed within the Critical Role shops. Only the heartiest of adventurers should dare seek them out. Welcome back. Shit. at critrole.com and see if anything catches your eye. Okay, back to the show. Welcome back. Shit. Are we even trying to count? No, that's my fail. You're like, I got a good one. Oh, we're already on. Welcome back.

So, after you all complete your evening's rest, you all gather for breakfast the next morning. Some probably a little more awkward than others. What do you mean? I don't know what you're talking about. But nevertheless, meals are had, supplies are gathered, and Dagen preps to take you out once more into the icy tundra towards your nearby destination of the A2 excavation.

So do you have everything you need? Anything you wish to do before you leave or? Oh, oh, oh, we have to check in. We have to check back in. Yes. With Udallafon, please. Jester. Yes. Jester, I found this pillbox.

Is this, do you take all of these now? Yeah, I need them all. Wow. Yeah, my doctor recommends. Okay. You know. I have a high blood pressure. Why are there Metamucil and Grape Nuts in the breakfast mix?

What's this can of liquid? There's one for every day. Chikor, yes. Montag, Dienstag, Mittwoch, Donnerstag, yeah. Grape nuts are good. Grape nuts are good. They are good. For your vowels. You're a crazy person. Yeah. It's just like, you're eating.

That's gravel and milk. That's bullshit. I used to eat grape nuts, but you have to pour sugar over the top of them. Right, because they suck. There's certain cereals that are just, you're just taking penance. Who doesn't like to eat rock? You're trying to make up for something

you did wrong in your life, and this is your way of feeling better about it. Grape-nuts feel like they never go away in the bowl. Like, as you eat them, they regenerate. You can't see it. Like I said, penance. I should pretend I was the rock guy. This tell about an adventure by grape-nuts.

So anyway, is there anything else you would wish to do before you make the next leg of your adventurous journey? I'm just exfoliating my colon. Exfoliating? All righty. Yes, we're sending a message to Udallafon. Yes. All right. Is there anything else you want me to say, Beau,

or is it just, what did you find? Oh, right. She's got the info. Yeah, I don't. I didn't. It would take me a minute. Okay, that's fine. Okay. Checking back in, what did you find? It's going to be 10,000.

If you don't have enough words, find someone that can send a message to Beau. It's a spell. I'm sure they can figure it out. They can figure it out. Sure they can figure it out. The response comes to you. Good morning. It was difficult to research, but we found something.

Records say of the multiple wards of the Lost City of Aeor, the Cognouza Ward was a section of the city. Cognouza Ward. Cognouza Ward. Cognouza. Oh. Ward. So it was just a neighborhood.

It's a neighborhood. It's not a person, it's not a thing, it's a neighborhood. To which a follow-up message comes to you. Oh wait, send it to Beau. I guess it sends to me. Whichever works is fine, as long as the information is through. Continuing the conversation to you,

just because it's weird to otherwise finish half a conversation to one person and the next. Somnovem. Somnove. Somnovum. Has something to do with the leadership of that particular ward. That is all that we have. That was super helpful. That is awesome.

Thank you so much. Beau is super excited about that information. You rock. Yeah! Talk soon. No further response. You sense, likely, some appreciation from that. The Mines of Cognouza, orchestrated as its escape. So like some sort of mage.

The Cerberus Assembly of its time. Yes, 100%. And they jettisoned their own neighborhood while Aeor was being destroyed, or Aeor jettisoned them? Or maybe they brought down Aeor, contrary to popular belief, to somehow save themselves. Maybe they figured out how to save themselves and the people in that ward by destroying everything.

The rest of the city or something? Or at least turning themselves into something that could survive. Yeah. I'm sure they had very good rationalizations for themselves. Well, I bring back the Somnovem to become one of the Great Minds.

Okay. All right. Hmm. We should, we should. We're so ready for this. We should head to A2 and try to get a crest. What's better than one all-powerful circle of mages, but two all-powerful circles of mages.

Are we one of the two? No, we are not. Oh, okay. Are you clicking the dynasty? Is that the third? Or is that a broken one? You know what, let's not count mages. That's like a half circle, or?

They are our ancestors. Ah. Let's press on. Mm-hmm. I, too. I, too. All right. Get your shit and follow. He pushes his way out into the snow.

You all follow suit and begin the final leg of your trek. You continue on for roughly three or so hours before you find yourselves approaching. Do we lose our exhaustion? Yes. You do, yes. Yeah. Oh, thank god. We cleaned as much as we could. We're now good. You begin to notice you approach a small, jagged range of rocky hills and small spires

that seem to peek through the snow and ice. Advancing up the rough slopes, eventually, Dagen leads you to a rope climb to a small cliff face above. Looks over at the rest of you. All the previous times I brought people here for the trek, they all kind of went up that way. Come on.

He goes and wraps the rope and then hand over hand lifts him and his chair up along the cliff face. Damn. Before eventually getting into the edge, and you can see there's a metallic pike of some kind that's jammed into the rock, and he uses that to lift himself over, and then with one strong show of core strength,

get him and the chair up onto the cliff face. So you coming? And he wheels off. Sure, just like that. I want his upper body strength. I want that. Can I have that? That's very impressive. I'll go for it if no one else.

Just that way there's more people for me to fall on. Guidance. Go for it. Is it acrobatics or? We'll say for the purposes of this, it's a challenge, but with a little bit of help, with some of your friends, one by one, you can all make it there. I'm not going to have to make a whole skill check

to have to climb 25 feet. Fair. Though I love you jumping into it, though. I would fall anyway, which is why I was excited. Fair enough, fair enough. Okay, two. Now, to be fair, you could be Yasha's chair. She could probably carry you up the same way. Oh, thank you.

Yeah. Not using your legs? Yeah. Yep. Great. You just stopped me from falling and turning into a T-Rex in response. Yeah. All righty.

As you all eventually climb to the top, you only see before you this pockmarked snow and slate plateau at the top. Still jagged in places, but it seems to have leveled off at this point. And at first glance, you don't really see any signs of an excavation. I'd be careful where you step.

It's just rocks everywhere? Oh. The snow may have covered up the ends. Yeah. We just recently went through a snowstorm. You don't want to fall through any crevices. Dagen looks at me and goes, I was very astute of you. I did take one crew here once before,

and they had a fellow that walked out and just vanished. Oh. Yeah. I mean, they eventually found him. A little broken in the bottom, but somewhere around here, there's an illusory blanket hiding the entrance. Oh. Hmm, so just...

How do we find it? Carefully. Throw up Detect Magic. Nice. Okay. And start slowly inching along. You detect a mass illusion that blocks a large portion of this region. It is permanently installed, it seems. Okay.

But you could try and scan through and see if you could peer through it for those who are of like mind. All right, make an investigation check. Natural 20. Yeah, let's go. Two a total of? Oh, with investigation?

Mm-hmm. 31. Ooh! Whoa! With a brief glance, you immediately can see the pattern out there and there's a little bit of a shimmer where as you focus, you can see there's an echo in the shadow.

And there you can tell there is a very faint opening. And once you see that, you point it out to everybody else and the illusion seems to almost, once you click in, it's like seeing a magic eye image, where once you focus, all of a sudden you're like, oh, oh, well that's been there the whole time. Hmm, Indiana Jones, Invisible Bridge. Yeah, that kind of thing. Good pull. Fail Jones, Invisible Bridge. Yeah, kind of thing.

Good pull. Fail boat. I turn to the group and carefully say, go. You bastard. Beneath this illusory self, as you get low, you can actually look beneath the line, because as you walk towards it, you can see elements of your heels begin to absorb into the snowfall that's glided the area,

but there's no resistance in the snow. Peering beneath, you can see there is a 15-foot chasm a little ways ahead of you that just descends directly below, and you can already see what looks to be a rickety series of wooden steps and platforms that begin to spiral down the side. Those look safe.

Okay. Yeah, I mean, that's the way down, right? Yeah, apparently. Y'all have fun. I'm going to set up camp somewhere around here, out of sight. Yes, hide. About to say, best be out of sight. The last time we went up,

they had killed the scout, the person that was standing guard, so. Right, so the same folks that were out there, they're coming as well, probably. Good to know. I'm going to be... You can do that weird message thing, right? I can. Just let me know when you're coming back,

because I'm going to be a little ways off. Okay. Stay out of sight, little toad toy. All right, good luck. Don't die. Thank you. If you do, just leave some gold. Sure. All right.

And he heads off in a, this would be a north-northwestern direction from where you currently stand, trying to find some path out of sight. So. Who would like to descend first, and in what order? Oh, yeah. I'll go first. And I'll look for traps.

All right, who'd be going after? There is just enough room to go single file around the edge of this chasm, so who would be next after? I look at Veth and I unbuckle my goggles. Oh, yes. Still not a gift. Sure.

Just... Ah, I dropped a glove! Oh no! Wow, that could not have gone worse. You were three feet away! You weren't made to have a glove. A massive monster groan. I'll go next. All right. I'll go after that. I'll go next.

All right. I'll go after that. So Beau, are you going after Veth? No. So Yasha? And then who's after Yasha? Caduceus. Caduceus, all righty. I'll go after him. Okay. And then Jester? Clarke's in the middle.

Caleb takes the rear. Caleb takes the rear. I'll go last. I'll bring up the rear. Beau also takes the rear. Girl, I'm turning rear. I'll go last. I'll bring up the rears. Beau also takes the rear. There's two rears. You guys get to decide who gets to be in the rear. I mean, that's her. Baldur Pudge Meshiers!

Baldur Pudge Meshiers! Baldur Pudge Meshiers! I was just going to let her push me out of the way, but. Oh, well, that works, too. Whatever you like. I was just, you let her push me out of the way, but. Oh, well, that works, too. Whatever you like. Baldur Parchment Shears. I was just, you know, squishy people in the middle, so. Protecting what's most valuable, you know.

Baldur Parchment Shears. All right, all right, all right. We're here with two people. It is. Eins, zwei, drei. Oh shit! No! Sorry, keep it going.

You had three! One, two, three. One, two, this. You hit a three! I don't know. One, two, three. One, two, hit. It was a Zemnian. I've always done one, two, three, shoot. We can't even get it right when it's as intended. Huh? You were going so slow,

it kind of threw off the rhythm, is it? So okay, we're going on four or are we going on three? Whatever you do, I'll do. What's the Zemnian way? It's We Will Rock It. Dump, dump, dump. Eins, zwei, drei, shoot. Eins, zwei, dump, dump. One, two, three, shoot. One, two, three, shoot.

No, it's one, two, three, shoot. Throw on four. All right, all right, throw on four, throw on four. One, two, three, shoot. All right, all right, go. One, two, three, shoot. Fuck. One, two, three, shoot.

Oh. Caleb takes the rear. We worked that out! All righty. Very important. Is it over or under, you guys? Over or under? All right. Go, go, go, go.

So you're looking for traps, you said? I'm looking for traps! Make an investigation or perception check, your call. Investigation. Yes! 26. check, your call. Investigation. Yes! 26. 26, all right. Glancing about, you don't see any traps.

You do see the relatively dangerous nature of the platforms that you are descending on. A lot of the wood here has been weathered. And you can see the platform is incontinuous. It'll continue and spiral down with some heavy steps, some steep steps, and then the platform will just stop. There is a rope that drops down about 30 feet, then there is the next platform that switches back.

And about every single platform you reach, the minute it takes any weight, you hear that. Next step. Oh god. Doesn't sound good for us non-monks. Next step. Oh god. Doesn't sound good for us non-monks. I know. But no traps. Okay.

So you all continue to follow suit, carefully making your way. Just paying attention to the sound. Should we get out a length of rope and just hold on to that shit? Yeah, it might not be a bad idea. That's a good idea. Wait, all of us hold the same rope?

So if one person falls down, they pull everyone else with them? No, everyone else catches that person. Everyone has to catch them. The weight distribution is hopefully in the favor of the group and not the one person falling. Not that I'm a physicist. I see that as a charm bracelet going

off the side. Right. But we could do a science experiment. I will turn into a bat. You know. Batman! Okay. Rope? Rope. Rope.

Yeah. We're not trying to do it, we're just holding onto it. 50 feet of rope, everybody wrap it around your wrist, grab it, and pass it to the person in front of you. All right. Continuing further down. Further down. The pit goes 60, 80,

100 feet down, the daylight fades as shadow begins to take the path downward. You, thankfully, with the goggles you borrowed from Beau, can keep an eye, but eventually, you're going to need an additional light source as no sunlight is making its way through. Both.

Well, I can do the globules, yeah. I can light up, too. Okay. Keep them fairly dim. Okay. They're already dim, but more so. You got it. Continuing down, you notice, as the platform begins to shift to the left, the pit begins to angle slightly,

almost like the slope begins to form, and immediately you can see there is a sheet of ice that is gathered, making it extremely slick. However, the last length of rope on that final platform before reaching the section continues down, and you could rappel carefully down the side of the ice if you'd like. Yeah. For each of you rappelling down,

I would like you to make either an athletics or acrobatics check. Should we disconnect from our rope? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Keep on our rope. Yeah, we'll need to let go. Okay. Athletics or acrobatics?

28 for me. That's a great choice. 16. 19. 19? Oh no. Boy. 28. 24. 23.

20 total, and then also some unarmored movement wall-walking shit. Okay. Dope monk shit. So as all of you begin to propel down the edge of the slope, it only goes for about 15, 20 feet before it then continues into another drop into black nothingness below.

And about 15 feet below the rotation into a solid pit once more, the walls give way. So suddenly, you are just lowering yourself into a black abyss. By rope. By rope. And you rolled a what? And as you guys are realizing that,

Caleb, partway into the rappelling, your feet go out from under you. As you try and reach for the rope, your other foot kicks the rope out from the side as the way you fall, and you're on your back, upside down, sliding down the ice. Is he sliding past all of us since he was last? He would be, yes.

So can we try to catch him on the way? The next person from there would be Beauregard. Beau, go ahead and make. Let's go, DMS. I will say go ahead and make. Let's go, DMS. I will say go ahead and make an athletics check on this one. I will say, grabbing things, strength. Oh, wait.

Is he a missile? I will say no. Okay, that's fair, that's fair. Not great, 15. That's enough. Oh, okay, okay. It wasn't terribly challenging, but because of the arrangement and he was the last one, thankfully, that did work in your favor.

So as he streaks by, you're just now cresting over the edge and you see him scrape past. You reach out, grab him, and the rope lurches for a second just from the physicality of everything. And you all hear that as Beau groans with the shoulder being pulled ever so faintly out of the socket

before she pulls it back in. But you are cut, and as you all below are dangling now, any movement at the top of the rope just sends further waves down to the rest of you who are just free dangling. What's going on? Sorry!

Forrest! Beau, Beau, are you holding? I climb back up a little bit. Grab a boost or his ass or something? Yeah, I actually grab his shins with my arm and push him back over to the rope. You have it? Do you have it? It takes a moment, but you do manage to

readjust yourself and get back ahold of the rope. Your physical prowess has saved my magic for another day. Oh, fucking, I think you broke my shoulder. It's okay. I weigh 140 pounds. Oh. That's a lot. So Veth, do you continue to descend into the rope? I'm descending the rope.

As you begin to lower down into the dark expanse, you can look up at the roof where the pit was, and you can see that it's a hole in a ceiling. The ceiling itself is an odd, almost pyramid-like apex from what little bit of light there is, but it's a gradual separation that then goes into darkness. You cannot see the walls, you cannot see where it ends, but you are at not the direct apex, but some element near the top of this angled, vaulted roof. You continue to lower down, lower down, looking for any sign of floor or end to this.

But because the light sources are above you, you're having to rely upon the catching up of Caduceus and Caleb. Even with your dark vision goggles, you don't have the most extreme vision. Eventually, you glance down, because it gives you 60 feet, right? Or is it 50? 30 feet.

Goggles. 60 feet. 60 feet? Yeah. You do begin to see the floor begin to approach finally, and it brings a sense of relief to you. Glancing below, you can already see that there's a tangled spread of broken shale and small patches of snow all across the floor below you. It is a broken mess of a floor,

but it looks safe to land. And the rope that you're on does eventually come and curl to the bottom of the additional 40 to 50 feet of slack. Eventually, you lower down, you touch and look up as each of you carefully, one by one, descend to the bottom of this chamber.

Looking up, you can just barely see the faint, faint bit of light that, by comparison to this dark interior, you can see just the faintest essence of reflected daylight that just barely outlines the very, very tiniest sliver of an eclipse where you first arrived. As you look around you, you can see

what looks to be remnants of tools, some pickaxes. You can see a couple of empty, discarded oil lanterns. You can see a bedroll of some kind at some place at the side. This looks like a camping location for excavation crews that have come through. But it seems most everything, at least in the immediate vicinity,

has been picked clean or destroyed. I'm going to cast Locate Object. Okay. And I'm going to try to find a threshold crest. Okay. It doesn't quite click in yet, but there is a duration on that, correct? 10 minutes. 10 minutes, okay.

Good to know. Right as you finish that, you hear a voice ring out from the shadow around you. Halt! You are surrounded! Identify your purpose and allegiance or be shot down where you stand. Do we have any ID or indication of accent?

Yeah. You would gather. That was Italian. Tony! Holy shit! Dude! It's been so long! What are you doing here? It's been 10 years. You've heard elements of it seem to be empire-ish. Some regions around Haporduk seem to lean into this variation

within the Zemnian region, so it does seem to have an element of empire root. We are of the Empire from outside of Rexxentrum, although we travel far afield. Unofficial business. Under whose watch? We have been sent here by Lady DeRogna of the Cerberus Assembly. There's a pause.

All right, hold on. Here's some shuffling, and carefully stepping into the light, you see this tiny middle-aged gnome man by himself. His hair is kind of tattered up and tangled, kind of a dark brown color, kind of gray towards the edges of his temples, kind of salt and pepper.

He has a chin beard that looks like it's kind of just been left to grow and curl on itself, where it kind of gives this fuzzy chin strap that's big and thick. He looks like he's suffered a little bit of frostbite, maybe in the tip of his nose at some point in his age, and it's just a little dark and nubbed at the edge, but he looks up at you all with thick furs

and equipment on his back and goes, All right. I'm Ivar. Ivar? Ivar. Ivar. Ivar. Klimtava, I am actually here under Zana DeLeo, the apprentice to the Ludinus Deleth. Have you been sent as a backup, as the requested backup?

From the Martinet, you mean? Well, I sent out a request. The initial party of which I was the lookout for has not returned in days, so I was requesting for backup. Well, Lady de Ragna has arranged for us to be here in the Frozen North. Oh, thank goodness, thank goodness.

I'm so very happy. I'm glad you could come. Gesundheit. Gesundheit. It's very cold. I'm glad you could come. Gesundheit. Gesundheit. Thank you. It's very cold down here. It is, yeah. I've not heard from Zana or the rest of our troop, and I'm starting to go a little scared, a little crazy. Yeah, it seems to be going around. We are out of touch with our...

Would you bring additional food, perhaps? I'm running a little low on supplies. Where are the others who had us surrounded? Oh, it's just me. Oh. Yeah, let me, I have some provisions here. These are called boba. He grabs them and is like.

Gentle. Just one. Just one a day. I know they look small. You will regret if you have even two. It will fill your colon like all stone, liquid. Oh, I find extreme importance in colon health, so I appreciate you letting me know. Clearly.

Okay. He wraps them in a handkerchief and puts them in a pocket. How long have you been here, friend? I've been here about a week and a half, I think. I don't know, time's a bit strange in these cabins. There's not a lot of light. It could be fast, longer, shorter. I don't know.

What day is it? Have you seen a big gem about this big? Maybe smaller, maybe bigger? No, I've mainly just stayed in this area. I did wander a little bit into the northeastern region, but then I heard some very terrible noises from one of the other regions, so I just came back in here and hid.

And what happened? Where's the rest of your team? I don't know. They've been excavating in and out and gathering information and findings, but they just have not returned in some time. How many were in your party?

Originally, it was, would have been six, including myself. But now, I don't know where they are. They might be lost. They might be abandoned. We can try our best to find them. It would help us to know, you know, which pathway they took last,

but also, if your mission was similar to ours, the Ludinus sent you? Well, I was brought here by Azana. She apprentices under Ludinus, but, you know, it was, well. Oh, you work with the Assembly. Ah, it's fine. We are one of the cycling crews,

expedition crews, Delvets. I feel like we skipped over something. Hold on. Weird noises elaborate. Uh-huh. Oh, um. Sounds like a... You ever heard like a baby crying? Yes. But like deeper.

Yes. Like that. Oh. Well, that's odd. Yeah. It was like a scary big baby or just a, oh, that would be really cute if I were a larger big baby? I don't know if cute is the word I would use.

Wouldn't that just sound like an adult crying? No, that's not it. You'll know what I mean when you hear it. Just asking, you know, just since it's an adult baby. I mean, you have a fair point there. And again, though, just general excavation, or were you looking for something specific? Well, I wasn't given more instructions than was necessary.

I was just brought along to keep watch and maintain the base camp here. Great, great. When were you expecting them to return? Initially, it was only supposed to be like a four-day delve. This was the supplies they had for it, so I ran out in that allocated time

and had to get creative. And how did you request backup? in that allocated time and never had to get creative. And how did you request backup? Oh, well, I didn't request it, but whenever things go wrong, there is a request for backup, and I assumed that the individuals who interheaded me had requested with your arrival, so. There is a great deal of trouble in multiple areas here.

In fact, I don't want to alarm you, but in addition to the dangers within, there are dangers without as well. And we are worried that people who have goals contrary to those of the Empire are converging on this place as well. So if you are to remain, we must find a way for you to keep hidden.

And I do not recommend risking your skin like you just did with us. Right. If we are followed in... I can remain hidden quite well. Now that I know your voice, Prince, it should be easy enough for you to call me when it's safe. I can just stay out of sight,

especially now that I have these strange little colon balls that you gave me. Yes. Aside from the noises, you said when things went wrong. What else went wrong? Well, as far as I know, in part of the challenge of excavations like this is there are still arcane devices and entrapments

and protections that are active, even after all this time, so there must be care taken at excavating. There was a device shortly into our arrival that was stumbled upon. That sent a great bit of pain

through me and my troop, but we survived, and they continued on after some rest. And I've decided once again to just not go anywhere else. And is that further within? Oh, that originally occurred on that chamber. He points to the northeast.

He goes, but there are two other chambers. They were last seen going the westward chamber. And he points in kind in the western direction. The southeastern, I have not been to. Can I go up to the edge of each one of those and see if I get a little ping? Going up to the edge of each, you do not get a ping yet.

And it's northeast, north, and? Northeast, southeast, and west. Zana that you mentioned, is she? Zana is a she, yes. Is she an annex? Yes, I think annex is the word. I am not, obviously, but they do hire me on occasion to assist when coming through. Of course, we are the same.

I'm going to try for divine intervention right now. Okay, go for it. What are you wanting to divine? Or intervene? I want the Traveler. I'm going to say, can you help us? Can you help us get what the Tomb Takers are after?

Okay. Go ahead and roll. On you, shifty fuck. Now. That's a good idea. He leans into your ear and goes, I would if I really had any more idea than you do, but I'll keep an eye out.

Yeah, okay. I think I'll do the same, see what happens. Whose god is better? No. Neither. The Traveller leans back in here and goes, like he thought she could do any better. I know, right?

I like how he's like, What? So. Come on. I'm just right? I like how he's like, Why? So. Come on. I'm just saying, it seems a bit uncouth to just immediately prey upon her and my incapabilities and go, well, I'm certainly capable. Well, if you had taken care of it,

I wouldn't have made a point of it. Oh, well, fine. The gnome is like, Disagree. Um, is this also in the Assembly? It's very normal. Oh yes, yes, he's very powerful. Don't worry about it.

Closing his face, his eyes blink, and the Traveler vanishes. Anyway. There is... I'm going to hide. Just call me if you need anything, or if there's danger, or you found them, or you're running, or you're dying.

Just let me know if something's happening. Of course, likewise, if you see anyone else entering the chamber, use that sturdy, intimidating voice of yours, eh? No, don't, don't. If you see people entering the chamber, just hide, because they will kill you. Which one? What should I do? There's both two. They are conflicting.

That's two for hide and one for confront. Ah, sorry, hide wins. You know what, you know what, though? As you hide, and I'll just pick up some tools off the ground, here, take these two, you know, tips of axes or whatever, and if you're discovered, bang them together and it'll send a sound that maybe we'll hear and we'll come back and save you.

Right, right, scare off things with big noises. Sure, sure, sure. It works to get the raccoons out of my home. Same thing, yes. All right, I'll hide and prepare. You can commune if you think it's a good idea. Do you? Commune?

I mean, I can ask. Do we have time? Oh, ten minutes. Wait, no. Don't take it just yet because I have this locate object that I'm, I can ask. Do we have time? Oh, 10 minutes. Wait, no. Don't take it just yet, because I have this locate object that I'm going to lose. Okay, let's, uh. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Northeast, southeast, and west. Look at why.

Any favorites? You didn't get any pings? Hmm. Well, they went west. They went west? That's the group last went west. And the chamber that you were in, was it a closed chamber

and you definitely didn't see any big jewels? I mean, I mainly just stayed here. I briefly stepped into the northeast chamber and I just decided, when I'm hearing some of those noises from the other chambers, did not go back. So baby noises from northeast. Well, I heard the noises coming from this area, so it's one of the other chambers,

but I began to delve into there and decided not to go any further, because I- And your party went west. Went west, yeah. And have you messed around with the southeastern chamber at all? No. No, I just stopped going anywhere.

I mean. Best to stay put, you know? Should we follow them or pick our own path? We should pick three different paths and split up. Good plan, good plan. Ooh, we'll cover more ground that way. The one end that you... Bless you, bless you. The one path that you looked in,

and then one with the older baby noises, and then the one with the people that disappeared. I don't know which of the chambers the baby noises were coming from. I didn't hear them until I went into the northeast chamber. So it comes from one or the other two? I just had enough to check. I guess we could split up

and go just a little bit. And then radio to message to one another. I don't like it, I don't like it. Let's just try for south. Yeah, I think that's true. We'll get a little bit in if I get a ping. Cool, if not, we'll backtrack and try and put it into the next.

Why south? That's the one that we haven't picked. Whatever, just pick one. Okay, okay, okay, okay. You do you, you. Wherever you want to go. All right, I'm going to go hide. Okay, bye. Bye. And he runs off into the shadows.

You hear the footsteps. To the south! South. South it is. Southeast. All right. Heading in the southeast direction, you begin to notice as you open through this archway from the chamber you're in,

what might have been a cobblestone street at one time. You can see these beautifully laid roadways ahead of you with, it looks like, almost sidewalks, but they're broken and certain regions are pressed upward, almost like five or six feet. Like, you know the end of Ghostbusters where the street begins to break up at different levels? It's like that multiple places across here.

You can see fallen over poles where it looks like bulbs that may have contained once arcane light sources have lost their power over time. You can see to the left, and as you glance up as the light emerges and you step into the beginning of this chamber, there is a massive angled stone slab that is currently covering what would have been the open sky of this road,

a portion where the rock had fallen, this massive piece of stone that had crushed the left-hand side. So eventually it comes to a finite wedge and you cannot see what's crushed beneath that side of the ceiling. To the right, you can see numerous buildings, some still standing, mostly,

some that have toppled over and fallen. Their rooftops and upper chambers and levels now just crumbled debris scattered across the roadway. The architecture itself is odd and beautiful. There is something very serene and reminiscent The architecture itself is odd and beautiful. There is something very serene and reminiscent of some of the finest universities or mage towers you've seen before,

but with elements of odd alien curves at times, almost like the arches have a lot of oval elements to it. And there's an essence where, as opposed to the bases being just a blocky set, they tend to gradually hit the floor. Cool. Veth. Interesting point.

There are elements of this structural architecture that you've seen hints of before. Some odd element of Gelidon's lair. The white dragon. Oh yeah. Oh wait, I would've seen that, too. You would've seen that as well. Oh.

Oh, the machines behind the ice. The purple, ugh. Stuff that was hidden behind the ice walls that look like. You can use a testament to how old his lair was. And it was cold as fuck. You see similar shapes. Everything has a faint curve to it, and even at edges and corners, things seem to round off.

It's unique, but then much of it is fallen and desolate. You can continue to push forward. Unique, but then much of it is fallen and desolate. You can continue to push forward. For those who are leading the charge, I would ask a perception check, please. Am I getting any kind of pings? Definitely got to check for traps. Not from this direction. I mean, it's a street. Not from this direction.

I'll look. Right? I'm just drinking in every inch of this place. I just ran my perception check, so. Okay. 27. 25. 25, okay. Pressing forward slowly, carefully, as the light slowly expands,

both yours and the orbs that you've summoned begins to reveal reveal stage by stage the absolute destruction and faint hints of protected echoes of the past, little glimpses of life from long ago. You can see a smashed cart, and what looks to be long, dried, partially petrified elements of fruit.

You can see skeletons broken, and some chewed on and pulled apart. You both can see about 40, 50 feet ahead, near the interior base of one of these buildings, a very faint blue glow that catches your eye. It stands out amongst the absolute pitch black darkness that surrounds you beyond the radius of your light. 40, 50 feet ahead? Mm-hmm.

I'll burn a Divine Sense for Celestial Fiend or Undead. Detect magic is up. Okay. You sense nothing of that sort, which brings a bit of comfort to you. Mm-hmm. Detect magic? Mm-hmm. You sense, it's hard to place, it's extremely powerful magic, extremely powerful.

Abjuration is the closest you can think of, but it has an unfamiliar coloration to it. That's the best you can make out. It's completely different than the read I got off of the gem that Lucien's party took? Correct. Okay, something else entirely, but Abjuration. Also the penance we needed to pay to get in, right?

To the first chamber where Lucien was, that door. Abjuration-based. Oh, right. Right, right, right. Wow. Oh, the gem for Lucien was for not teleportation, but that. Mm-hmm.

It's possible it's not the same thing over and over again. It's possible different materials are required for different parts. Well. So this faint glow is from a room or just a point? It's coming from inside a room at the base of one of these buildings that is partially collapsed,

but still has a somewhat sound base structure on the bottom floor. Does it seem like it was once a grand building? This one in particular doesn't look like it's any, not like a special structure. It doesn't appear to be a centerpiece of this street. And before Caleb does this thing, how high is this space?

From where you're standing now, you have about 35 feet before the slate ceiling. Once again, the angle's pretty steep, so it widens up and you can see the buildings to the right side of this particular open roadway. Two, even three-story buildings, for the most part, can fit within this space before it hits another stone wall.

To the left, it completely cuts off and crushes what would have been the other side of the street. Smooth or broken, like the pavement? Like, is the ceiling? The ceiling is broken stone. Like, it's a slab. It looks like a piece of heavy stone that just fell in and leaned and crushed part of it

and then left this angled bridge over this. And the light is shining out of a building on our level or higher up? On your level, you can't quite see the full source. And the light is shining out of a building on our level or higher up? On your level, you can't quite see the full source. You just see a faint blue glow that's bouncing off the inside walls near the entrance. You'd have to get closer. Let me go check it out.

Yeah. All right, I'll scuttle ahead. Make a stealth check for me. See if there's stealth 25. All right. Did you roll with advantage? I just did, 25? All righty. With your old advantage? I just did, and it's still 25. All righty. Moving forward, you glance around the edge,

and in the inside of this chamber, you see a dome about 15 or so feet from side to side, this semi-translucent blue arcane energy that just gives off this faint blue radiance. Not like Caleb's dome. No, I mean, it's similar in shape, but it has a very different luminescence to it,

and you can't quite see through it, though you do see there might be something within, but you'd have to get closer to peer through to even notice. And I'm outside the building looking in through a window or a door? Like an archway that opens into the main chamber. All right, come check it out, everyone. I'll check for traps around the doorway.

Make an investigation check while the rest of you gather up behind Nott and Veth and see this same thing. Does it appear like there are any other entrances to this room, or this is it? This is the front entrance. From the glow that this dome is giving off, you can see there would have been,

or there is a door on the opposite side of this room, like a double door, but both the doors are broken off the hinges, and on the opposite side, you can see just clusters of rocks that have kind of filled in that space. 23 for traps. 23, you do not sense traps.

And it's just the ceiling itself of the dome that's giving off this light? The entire dome is giving off this light. It's not like a focal point or something that's shining, it's everything. No, the actual dome itself, like an arcane semi-sphere that is emanating a strong arcane glow.

Writing, language, symbols. You don't see anything on it, no. Floor. Such a smooth wall. For the dome? The dome itself is smooth and nondescript, other than it's shining. Correct, though make a perception check. 16. 16.

You can't quite get a decent enough look to see what's within the dome. Like, the energy is a little too bright and it's obfuscating what might be within. Can I throw something at the dome? Back up a bit. I mean, is there anyone else in here? It's just us, right?

Right now, it appears that way, yeah. Death Ward. Yeah, that's a good question. Are there any hidden corners, or does it look like a square or like a rectangle where if we actually popped our head in, we could see our blind? From what you can tell from the blue glow

that's lighting the interior, it looks like the chamber is mostly rectangular. Okay. This is like Pompeii. We just can't see on the other side. How tall is the dome? 15 feet from side to side, but. Side to side, 15 feet.

Semi-sphere would probably be about 10 feet tall. It's a big dome. Can't see it. So, I mean, like dozens and dozens of people have been through here. This thing is still up. Yeah, so either it's super duper trapped or we can just walk right in it and there's nothing in there.

No ping from you, right? No ping. So we're not where a threshold crest is. Might not even need this. Is the floor the same as it is outside of the archway? For the interior of the room? The cobblestone paving seems to end, and the inside, it looks like it was once

probably a smooth wood, but most of it is broken and splintered, and begin to warp and curl, and other elements are just broken stone and elements that have either fallen inward from the destruction on the outside street or small elements of the structure that have fallen in. But for the most part, it's intact.

Old protection magic, essentially. I'm just going to take a knee and apparate Frumpkin. Take a circle around, go to the center and around the edges, please. Backing up a bit. Frumpkin does a perimeter around it. Go to the center. Go into it? Into it.

To the center of the room. Okay, Frumpkin goes to the center of the chamber. The dome is a little bit to the left side of it. Okay. Oh, then I steer him underneath the dome. Frumpkin hits the dome. It's solid. Solid. Can we dispel it? Yeah, maybe.

The wooden floor around it, it goes straight into the wooden floor. Yeah, it meets the ground, there's no gap. Pop that into the sphere. Mm-hmm. Can you, I don't know, Frumpkin, knock? Maybe there's someone in there. Yeah, you can give it a paw a couple times.

Pong, pong, pong. It doesn't seem to make any sound, but as Frumpkin hits it with the claw, you see the areas where the claws touch it. There's a little bit of a very faint increased luminosity in just the one spot for a brief moment. So it's reacting, but nothing more than that. Caduceus and Beauregard. Uh-oh.

Your passive perception is high enough that as you begin to focus more on this centerpiece, you can see shapes within the dome, faintly. Like shadows of something that is mostly obscured by the arcane energy. While Caleb's been very focused on the energy itself, you look beyond it and focus and you can see what looks to be

the shadows of three humanoid shapes. There are people in there? Someone's home. Moving? Yeah. Oh. Moving or still? Moving, right? Still. Still? Three, three, three people. Absolutely stuck still.

As they see this, you look up, and now that you're closer, you once again shift your focus from the energy to the interior, and you can see now on the opposite side, it looks like three figures. Two elven, one human. You can't make out their features definitively,

but they're wearing strange robes, and they look like they're running, but they are locked and frozen, their faces open and aghast, just. In the sphere? In the sphere. This is Pompeii. Yeah, it's totally Pompeii. So they're dead,

and what their protective magic lasted this whole time? I place my hand on the dome. Oh! You can feel the resistance. It's like touching a wall, but it has a slight tingle, almost like licking a nine-volt battery, but across your hand and fingertips. I'm going to cast Dispel Magic at level five.

Yeah. Okay. You concentrate. I'm going to cast Dispel Magic at level five. Yeah. Okay. You concentrate, focusing on the unraveling of the very basis of arcane equations. And you release nothing. I mean, probably some real high ups tried to dispel this, too, you know? I'll follow him into the room.

Anything in the corners, on the ceiling, any sort of make our way around the other side that was hidden by the sheer size of the dome? Anything on the far side that's? The far side, you can see the archery with the doors that are off the hinges. You do see a hole in the ceiling where it looks like there's an additional chamber above,

but you can't see much beyond the fact that it does continue upward. Around you, you can see furniture that's been destroyed and fallen over, and you do see signs of it being ransacked. You can see one of the, it would have been a really nice white wood, polished, almost cabinetry that has been turned over, pulled open.

The wood splintered from the hinges and you can see elements of long shattered china and small implements, utilities that have been mostly taken and scattered. These elves, does their garb look modern, knowing the different places we've been from, or is it very, very old? You've never seen attire like this.

I have a terrible idea. She's got a sword. I was thinking that, but I don't know if it's... I think it's a low. It's pretty low, but I could try it. If it's low, then it's not worth it. We've already hit it hard. Third level or lower, the target ends,

but if it's fourth level or higher, I have to make an ability check. Oh, okay. Pretty powerful. I could try it. But in any case, it seems like they've been frozen in time at the moment of their demise. So either this was a result of them protecting themselves or trying to, or a result of the explosion

that sundered this part of the town away from the rest of it. Or there's something about them and one of the mages that's been through here put some sort of lock and key on it. Or there's something about them and one of the mages that's been through here put some sort of lock and key on it. There's some sort of... Oh, that's true.

It could be locked away by somebody doing the excavation. Something that could harbor some sort of importance. We don't know. Can I still see the, can we still see the entrance for the main area from here? It's a little ways back, but you can go back and glance outward if you'd like. There is no light source in that direction,

so as soon as you step out, it's just darkness. You're relying on the two of them to get any sort of good view. Caleb, can you move a light up to that door up there? I spiral one up slowly. Okay. Looks like there's another chamber above. 30 feet, you said?

About 25, 30 feet. How far can you throw a cat? Yasha, probably pretty far. I mean, definitely. Can you keep one of the globules of light at the doorway, Caleb? So we can see if anybody is coming behind us. Yes.

I'm just worried the Tomb-takers are going to catch up. Do you want me to try it? Do it. Okay. You're going to chuck. Oh wait, are you throwing the cat? I think she was using the sword. I was going to throw the cat. Oh, I thought you were throwing the cat!

I threw the cat in half! Sorry. You smelled the cat. I thought you were tossing the cat. I was going to do the sword. Oh, okay, up to you were throwing the cat! I threw the cat in half! Sorry. You stole the cat. What are you doing? I thought you were tossing the cat. I was going to do the sword. Oh, okay, up to you. I misunderstood.

No, no, no. Yeah, I'm going to take out the sword and try to dispel magic with the sword. Okay. And you pull the sword out. Ready, it's up to you guys. Back up. Back up a bit.

Close your eyes, focus. One mighty swipe down, the blade hits, and you can see the impact, the shell itself, the arcane energy alights around where the blade hits. There's a slight faint wave of dispelling energy, a familiar unraveling net that fades, and you pull the blade back. No effect.

Yasha and I do a run while you throw my cat. Gladly. Give me your cat. You just keg through. Now we're tossing. Yeah, like, there. One, two, three. You hear the faint landing above. Why are we even here? It's a cat.

But nevertheless, Frumpkin is above. Okay. I place my hand on Yasha's shoulder and go into Frumpkin vision. This chamber, you can see a large part of the structural beams above it have fallen at different angles and a lot of this chamber itself is partially collapsed and definitely not leaving a lot of space to go around. Make a perception check.

Fucking cat. Come on, you motherfucker. 12. Glancing around, you don't see much. You just see the rubble. You see the... So, you don't see much. You just see the rubble. You see the... All right, Yasha, throw me up there.

You don't see much. Can I have said, in this time that we're all standing around and doing this, can I have been casting Commune? Sure, it's only a minute. With the Traveler? It only takes a minute? It only takes a minute. Oh, okay, yeah. I was thinking it took 10 minutes.

By the way, your, that is faded, by the way. Yeah. Yes, you may. Okay, I'm going to... Hi. Hello. So can you move around here really fast and let me know, like, which direction the crest would be?

Like, if I say, is it over there? Can you say yes or what? Probably, to an extent. I mean, there is strange magic about, but, well, what is it you want to know? I mean, are we in the right area for what the Tomb-tickers are looking for? Yes and no.

That's not very helpful. No, I'm sorry, but you have to ask the right questions. This is stupid. Do we need, oh god, there's so many questions I could ask you right now. I could have so many answers. Do we need what's inside of this blue dome? Probably not, it's been there for quite some time and the poor things are just locked in those final moments.

Hmm, more of a relic of history. Hmm. Okay. Th. Okay. Threshold crest. Mm. I happen to have a history. Wow. Through the west? Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Probably. I mean, the tunnels seem to go deepest there. Deepest there. All right. Thank you so much for all of your guidance. Well, thank you for requesting it.

Threshold crest. He says we should head to the west. Indeed I do. Go deepest. That fucking guy. Should we try throwing Veth up in the lead compartment? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just toss me up quick.

Roll a strength check. Can I help? Maybe we can assist and do like a 19? That's a good toss. Yep. Okay. Form a square. Well, that's a natural 19. Whoa!

So then... Try for the 20, try for the 20. Try for the 20. Pile. That's a 19 again. Ooh! Double gun. That was a bad bit.

Wow. You emerge and then step down on the inside. Even with the collapsed upper chamber, because of your halfling stature, you can get around here pretty easily. I'll just look for anything interesting. Roll an investigation check. Goggles after the bullet. Be careful!

Thank you, I was, yeah. 23. I after the boot. Be careful! Thank you, I was, yeah. 23rd Bull! Be careful! 23, as always. 23, okay. Looking through, you can find, that's how it's done. I mean, most of this, you can tell a lot of this has been picked clean.

You know, you're not the first to come here. This isn't a fresh dungeon to be delved. This is a place that has been thoroughly looted by multiple sources and multiple interests. But you do find what looks to be a buried and largely forgotten small metallic box that is currently wedged under a part of a collapsed wall on the side.

It might take a little bit of tugging to pull it away from its current hiding spot, but it can be done. I'll get out the dagger and start pulling, wrenching it out. Sure. First, I'll check for traps. Go for it, make an investigation check. 25.

No traps. Oh no. Okay. I don't like the way Marcia's doing it. Make a strength check for me. Oh. Strength. This is to wedge it free. Come on. I know. 12.

12? Uh-huh. It takes you a moment, but you do manage to pull it out. You fall onto your ass for a second and you guys are like. Love you. What's happening? Fine, it's like a reading. It's fine, I'm alive.

You sit back up and you look at it. As you do, the lid flips open. Oh! And it's about that big, and looking inside, you can see there's a strange device. It's like four triangles all placed together. And it's metallic with intricate designs and scrolling.

Yeah, kind of like a D4, if you will. But it has glyphs on it, and it looks like sliding discs. It looks like an odd magical device. I will pocket it. And is Frumpkin still up here? Yeah, Frumpkin's up there. I'll grab Frumpkin,

and I will, if I jump down through the hole, can I slide down the dome to get down? You can try and angle for it if you want to. Ooh, cool. Roll an acrobatics check for me. 19 plus 10. Woo! You, this is an odd shot,

and by all accounts, should not work. But you do the math in your head, you back up a little bit, and you do a super fast low leap. So you come in at a fast side angle. And as you do, you glance off the top of the dome and slide down the other side. Wow.

It doesn't do damage. It's going to bruise that ass. But your tailbone's going to suck in the morning. But you guys watch as, unexpectedly, Veth just off the other side, and the momentum causes you to tumble and you roll over your shoulder and stand up, and you're like, ha!

Oh. That was incredible. That was amazing. Wow. Did that hurt? Yes, a lot, a lot. I found a cat and a box. Yeah. And a box? Yeah. What's in the box? What's in the box? I don't know.

I feel like there's some experiment we can do with a cat in a box. I don't know what. Is it in there? Or what's it? But I don't know what. I take my cat. Here, take the box, too. Okay. Identify it. All right, I'll talk to you later.

Do we have 10 minutes? Maybe, oh, you need to be still while you do this, right? Yes, we do. Can I carry you while you're doing that? No, I would feel so awkward. That'd be cute. What if we, like, I could put you on one shoulder and Yasha could put you on the other, like a palanquin?

Yeah. Made of people. I will try anything once. Yeah, let's try it. Okay, we're going west. We'll hold you, you do your thing. Yeah. Let's go. Okay, ready? One, two, three.

I begin ritual casting. This is the strangest crowd surf that anyone's done. Okay, are you guys, are you heading deeper in or heading back? We're heading west, deep, like where the Traveler said. Okay, cool, so you'll be heading back to where you started and then heading in westwards.

Yeah, the junction. Okay. Along the way, you ritual cast Identify, which takes 10 minutes, you said? Yeah. Okay. It'll take you a little while, so walking back. The angels. You head back in and head westward. So heading into the western chamber,

you see a shattered, once magically sealed door that leads into this next area that now lies fallen. It is tumbled forward and left, not quite as broken as the doors you saw in the chamber where the dome was set, but it looks like it was pulled off of its mooring and left to tumble forward. Beyond that, you can see what looks like a long corridor

that has visible structural damage, even at this initial glance inward. Not unlike the chamber, the long corridor that you guys had eventually climbed to in the previous excavation, but there are differences. This one is wider. The previous one was almost single file. This one is about 15 feet wide.

Oh. But it has a similar feel to it, similar design. It is smooth and almost metallic, but you can see elements and panels have fallen. You can see there were structural beams above it that were pushed in from some sort of heavy impact that now punch through. You can see shredded elements of materials

that were above that now dangle loose into the space for you to walk through. But that is the path ahead. Does it look like someone has trounced through here in the last couple of days? Are there like, is the? Make a perception or investigation check. All right.

18. 18? through here in the last couple days? Are there, like, is the? Make a perception or investigation check. All right. 18. 18? Yeah, it does. It looks like there's been some recent-ish foot traffic. It's hard to tell how long it's been, but you can see there has been travel in and out. Oh, all right. Does it look, you know, like normal people tracks, or does it look like normal people tracks

or does it look like monster tracks? This looks like normal people tracks. Okay. I don't know what Nonaghani would look like, but okay, yeah, there's been some people through here. Sure. Relatively recently, I guess. This one person has nine feet. Oh god, they're here.

It's just a corridor? Just a corridor ahead of you, a long corridor. Keep on going. Okay. How you doing there, wizard? Shush. Okay, fine. He's doing a shadow clone jutsu right now, hold on. Dung-dung-dung-dung-dung! All right, continuing onward.

You push further, lowering him from some of the fallen regions of this long, long hallway, where you can see beams. Braces have been built and placed up in here, you can see. More recent construction, though not of the highest quality, enough to try and put brace beams to keep elements of this hallway from collapsing for those who are excavating their way

further into these ruins. 30, 50, 100, 120 feet, the hallway begins to turn, and you follow it at that side angle. You begin to- Left or turn right? Turn north? It'd be to the right. North? right? Turn north? It would be to the right. North?

Yeah, I can't. It would be. Yeah. Yeah, north. North. You can see there's heavy elements of almost like a rubbery rope dangling from some of these open, broken areas that push past you that give this odd, almost like a skin touch against your shoulders

as they shift to the side, like heavy cables. Does it seem organic or does it seem like? You can make an investigation check if you're planning. Yeah. 15, which is pretty good for me on investigation. Take a look at it. It is flexible. It doesn't appear organic necessarily, though. The texture does have some similarities in its flexibility and the smoother

sensation of the outside texture. It does appear to be hollow on the inside. That's the best you can make out about it. Weird. Tubs. Yeah. Tubes. And just severed, dangling tubes. Sure, it's tough. Tubes.

Continuing onward, and we'll say for the purposes of timeliness at this point, you have completed your ritual. My Rubik's Cube. Indeed. This is called an Intuit Charge. You can find it on D&D Beyond if you'd like to add it to your inventory

and read what it is and what it does. Intuit Charge. If you're into it. Oh boy. I mean, you were thinking it's like a debit card service. I was actually thinking of a QuickBooks joke. Oh, well. Yours is much better. I feel like I saved you there. Yeah.

Like into it or like into it? Like into it, like intuition, intuitive. Okay. Very rare. Tell me more, tell me more. This area is littered now with clusters of these thick cables and elements of the hallway

that have nearly entirely collapsed, except you can see now more of these makeshift braces have been placed up to give areas where normally this 15-foot-wide hallway becomes a small bit of single-file advancement, and you have to squeeze through and at some points almost crawl to continue, and as that opens up, you come to squeeze through, and at some points almost crawl to continue. And as that opens up, you come to a door,

a heavy metallic door that looks like it's also partially off its mooring and hinges, and is just wedged, preventing further passage. Wedged, preventing further passage. Stuck door. Stuck door? WEDGED. Wedged, preventing. Stuck door. Stuck door? And wedged by people or? That doesn't seem like something that would stop us. If we touch the door, what does it feel like?

A cold metal door. Yasha. Oh, well, okay, yes. What were you going to say? I was going to say I could try my paints, but we can try to move it with strength first. Smart. Does it look like it's supporting the ceiling at all,

the door? Make an investigation check to check out. Oh, even better, 17. It does not look like it is supporting. The door isn't, from what you can tell, at least. The frame that it's in probably is more the structural element. I'm sure the door would help, but you do not see,

based on the slight angle that it's at, it's currently bearing a lot of weight. Okay. Let's try to give it a go. Should we try it together? Yeah, let's try it together. Smash just does go for it lot of weight. Okay. Let's try to give it a go. Should we try it together? Yeah, let's try it together. Smash this, let's go for it. Come on. Okay.

So either you both roll independently, or one of you rolls with advantage. Let's go, let's both roll. All right. Go for it. That's cocked. 23. Ooh! This is strength?

Yeah, just add your strength modifier. 26. Muscles flex. What's your modifier? Oh, wait. Not saving time. Yeah, my modifier's plus three. Oh, so you rolled a 23? Yeah. On a d20.

I guided myself. Oh, got you. I rolled 19 plus four. Gotcha, okay, I was like, the math is breaking my brain here. Guidanced. Got it, okay, cool. When I do this, that means I guided myself, but I didn't say it out loud. Gotcha, no worries.

Now I know, this is Bless Your Heart. This is guidance. Guidance. Got it. Dumbledore when he casts. Yeah. Okay. Between the two of you pulling on the door, you begin to tug back and you can see there are heavy metallic chains and cables

along the top that it's attached to. You realize at this point, it's not so much pulling it out of the way, it's trying to realign it. With your strength, you shift it back into its space and as it does, you hear. And the wall begins to lift itself up. The door is pulled up into a ceiling chamber

and reveals an open room before you. Boy, you get trapped in there. Fuck you, door. Hey, we took out the door! A perception check into the new room that just opened up. You're fucking with Vox Machina? Fuck off. Who do you think we are?

Think this is campaign one? Fuck you. Fuck your doors. Beyond the doorway, as the light begins to spill in, you glance into a comparably preserved, lightless space. You can see elements of a chamber, but furniture has been tossed around,

but the floor is not as broken or shattered as previous areas you've been in. It is a fairly solid stone, almost like marble or concrete smooth floor, with some texture that leads into a minor series of steps that lead into a central raised platform, maybe 20 feet by 20 feet. But the chamber continues on beyond that.

You'd have to send the light source further in to see more of the chamber. But what you do see as the light trickles in beyond the fallen tables and scattered, broken, what looks like implements or tools, you can see large pieces of glass, large rounded, jagged parts of broken glass containers or sculptures, something.

There are a bit thrown about the floor ahead of you. Those tubes, are they hanging from the ceiling? I've seen broken glass before, you guys, in the Happy Fun Ball, and it didn't end well. There were creatures in the glass. I don't remember that at all. Oh, well, I do. Well, this could be the same thing.

Halas was in the same time. Is it giving the vibe? I feel like it's giving the vibe. You can see some similarities. It's giving the vibe. Are those tubes from the seedling again? Yeah, same question. The tubes, the dangling tubes?

Yeah, from the hallway? Yeah, are question. The tubes, the dangling tubes? Yeah, from the hallway? Yeah, are they in here? As you step inward, and if you'd like to make a perception check to pick out more detail for those who want to, you can see there are dark alcoves to the right and left, and then what looks to be another set of kind of wider alcoves beyond that.

You cannot still see the opposite ends as you slowly step into the chamber and inspecting around. What'd you roll? 22. 22? Anybody else roll for that? Just you? All right. You glance up and along the ceiling, you see there is a raised central area

about 30 or so feet up. There is a recess in which there are numerous glass structures held aloft. You see blue and green spherical or cylindrical glass tubes that are affixed, though it looks like whatever order they were originally placed in, they've been jostled and shifted

out of their current setting. You can see elements of them are broken, and on the top platform, you can see where other elements that may have been held up there have fallen and broken and led to the glass shattered across the ground ahead of you. You can see more of these tubes connecting between them and heading further and deeper beyond sight

into the ceiling above them. This definitely has some sort of laboratory vibe, but it's of a different flavor of design and presentation than what you encountered in the Happy Fun Ball. I don't like it. The actual structure on the inside of here, much like the semi-organic and clean feel as to the buildings that you saw on the street,

has very, very fine craftsmanship, but the design aesthetic is very, I have no other way to describe it, than crisp and clean. A lot of geometric angles and a lot of long lines. It has an almost, I fear to use the term because I don't want to misrepresent it, but it has a little more of a sci-fi feel

than what you've been used to encountering in this campaign. But for the player's mind's eye, that will help best to describe what you're encountering. Very fine tools were used to make this. The other party came this way. Have we looked for tracks on the floor, dust, disturbed snow? Not since we opened the door. Yeah. Is it undisturbed in here?

Go ahead and make a perception check. I'll join you in that. 17. 17. 24. 24. Indeed, there have been footprints. And at this point now, as you're looking through, the smell begins to hit you.

There is a very faint, chemical burning smell to the point where at certain points, your nostrils, the inside seems to almost open your sinuses from the inhale. And there is a dark liquid now that you can see on the upper platform that has congealed over time,

like a dark black liquid dark liquid now that you can see on the upper platform that has congealed over time, like a dark black liquid that has. What do I smell? Do I recognize it chemically? Make an intelligence check. Come on. 13. 13. It's not the same smell that you had with the black puddings previously,

but it does have definitely a caustic nature to it. You do see some platforms on top, beyond just the shattered stuff as you begin to push inward. They're raised, almost like podiums of stone that have their own designs on top of them. And from what you guys are looking, you do see some writing on the walls

and the top of these platforms. Caleb. Yeah. In fact, you see some writing on some fallen, looks like plaques, almost. This is the first sign you've seen of any sort of language. Hmm. Does this look familiar? Yeah, I cast Comprehend Language.

Okay. How long does it take to cast? Uh, do-be-do-be-do-be-do-be-do-be-do. Trying to keep an eye on the other side of the door, too. If that thing, if anything, any sound comes from the other chamber, if that door just starts to squeak, I won't know about it. It's an action.

It's an action? Okay, easy enough. Shh. You glance over and you see inked across a damaged wall as you step further in and you begin to be barely able to see some of the light bouncing on the opposite end of this chamber. So there's the smaller alcoves,

the meteorite and left as you enter. There's the larger, more rounded alcoves in the center of this chamber to the right and left, and there's the raised platform in the center, and the glass is scattered all among it, and there are these two smaller, almost podium-like dyes that rise up on top of that. Beyond that, you can see,

it looks like an additional alcove across the way, and looks like almost these large metal cages or containment structures on that opposite end. And there are two walls that face that side, like metal walls. And we don't hear anything outside of us? Currently, no. It's just quiet.

I don't like this. You see across the wall, as you focus in on a damaged aspect of it, where some of the stone has fallen, you see a sign on the bed that is partially hanging that reads, Development Laboratory Procedures. Mm-hmm. Development Laboratory Procedures. You do see off to the side,

one of these fallen signs that is broken and shattered, but the part of the language is legible. It reads, Primordial Applications. You can see now there is a sign of writing above one of those metal walls, off to the front and left of that far alcove that reads, Biological Weapons Research. Oh my god.

And upon the top of one of these raised podium-like things, you can see all sort of symbols and glyphs. And there are two marble, circular, almost like buttons that sit on top. Like palm-sized glyphs that are put into these circular raised bits of stone. And the text on there says,

Emergency Flush. Flesh or flush? Emergency Flush. Ooh. That's a good thing if there's a monster in here, though. Or that's the thing that closes the doors and fills it with liquid. Probably, yeah.

Nothing in here is a glow, right? It's all dark. For what you can tell. Yeah. What's the other button say? Do we have detect magic? The other button has no detect magic. I do. And this all looks pretty ransacked.

We should detect magic in here. From what you can tell, it looks like it's been partially ransacked. You can make a more thorough investigation if you'd like. Sure. Make an investigation check. Is there another door on the other side of this chamber? We haven't gotten there yet. You don't see another door.

You see there's the alcoves and the metal walls. There is that sign, or it's writing it says, Biological Weapons Research is on the, above the metal wall on the cross and left-hand side, like an angled. Such a strange word to him, to us. Yeah, a lot of this is not quite clicking.

It feels strange and you don't really have anything to understand and connect it to. 26. 26. A lot of this has been looked through. A lot of this has been combed through, but you can see the central platform where those podiums are,

and where that black liquid that is settled and congealed on parts of it are. There's only a few footprints. It looks like people tend to avoid that central platform, but people have walked up there. And this is probably dumb, but there's no sorts of switches near the entrance that we came in.

Anything could be flipped or pushed. Make a perception check. 21. 21. These are good rolls. Looking around the sides, not really. There's a lot of damage visible on the outsides of where the door's frame is, but the frame itself is very thick metal,

and it looks like it's holding up the majority of the structure on this side. You can see heavy cracks that run through both sides of the wall. You don't see any signs of a lever. I don't even know what sort of power source this sort of laboratory would run on. Should we keep going?

Should we check the podium in the middle? No, one moment. I cast Detect Magic in here to see if anything feels active. Of the chamber, there is very faint magical residue on some of these shattered glass pieces. When I say shattered, there are small pieces and there are large, jagged sections

that are just resting on the side. Very faint magical residue, as well as that dark, congealed liquid. There are two stronger magical sources emanating from those two raised stones, the glyphs on that central podium. And what's the read on those, as far as school? If there is one. This is less of a school of magic.

They are not a spell. They are not a sigil that contains an effect. It looks like they are just connective. What was written on that part? The two that are glowing, were there words connected to those or no? Those are just unintelligible. There are words.

They're unintelligible. There is one phrase on it that says emergency flush, and that is on the top end of it, and there are those two stones. For emergency flush. I'm going to cast Locate Object again. Okay. Searching for the crest.

You sense a faint draw, kind of, if you're facing deeper into the chamber, to the front and left-hand side. We should go that way. Towards that darkish corridor that we haven't looked towards, that way? Mm-hmm. Are there drains in the floor?

The Jester points over that direction. That's in the direction of where that scrolling on the wall reads Biological Weapons Research. Biological weapons. This place is evil, man! This place is terrifying. I want to leave this room and push one of the buttons, but not in this room.

I think I feel a little pressed for time. Yeah. I feel like we should push beyond this. Yeah. I agree. Let's see what we can find. We can fuck with things. To get rid of that crest, I want to try to destroy it before Lucien gets here.

Yeah, that's true. That's true. That's good. Maybe we should press on. Okay. Yeah, I guess I'll go forward and I'll go forward and I'll go side by side with you with the globules just to read if there's anything else to read. I will try to move a bit stealthily.

Sure. For fear that giant baby cries will find us. Sure. Okay, a little stealth check. Stealth check. I can cast 30. 30, nice. Wow. Crying adult.

An adult. Why couldn't the sign have just said, like, flubber or something cute on it? Flubber. I don't know. Where's an emergency exit when you need it? Flubber. Bathroom. Yeah. You and I have been wondering about this for a long time.

Yeah. Yeah, so I'm stealthing over towards the door. Is it a doorway that leads out of here or just a hallway? No, no, the chamber is closed off. There is no exit. What you do see are the two metallic walls on the opposite end, one of which has a cage structure in front of it,

and the other is the one that has the sign Biological Weapons Research above. And your ping was through the biological wall? Yeah. But it's just a metal wall. Just a metal wall. Can I search around the corners to see if it slides or raises?

Yeah, make an investigation check. 24. 24. It does look like it would slide upward. You see a seam above. Though the framing is different, it looks similar to the door that you entered from. So it looks like it would have a similar raised system. Ladies, we got another garage door.

I just lift it. Okay. Both of you, full strength check. Ah! I'll just check around for traps. Just please. Go for it. 23. 23. Does not appear to be trapped.

I'm going to give you a d4. Great. We're going to stand back. He doesn't do it. Ooh. Plus a d4. 21 for me. 21. Oh a d4. 21 for me. 21.

Oh well. 15. 15. You both pull underneath. It's hard to get a grip, but there is some of the metal rim that you can go ahead and get your fingers beneath and one, two, three, with all your might, you pull,

the muscles bulge, the veins pop. It's now budging. I'm going to pull out my paints. I'm going to paint a little hole in it so I can peek through the door. Okay. Yeah. You go ahead and paint. It's normal paint.

Oh shit, it's not going to work here. Fuck! You don't like this place. Just, what, is this, does everything not work down here, or is it just the paint? It must just be more powerful magic than the paint is. I try to make myself look like Veth. Okay, you look like Veth.

All right, we're good. Okay, okay, okay. So there was the emergency flush area. I make myself look like Laura. You said there's two buttons there? Correct, there's one kind of, So there was the emergency flush area. I make myself look very far. You said there's two buttons there? Correct, there's one to the front and one to the back. The top one has the emergency flush on that one. The second one doesn't have any additional scrolling on it. Does it look like there are... Hang on a second.

I'm going to dart to the other corridors. Do they all have the same lock shut type doors off of this corridor? The very, very first door that was already fallen forward and off the side, looks like it was a similar structure to the one that you just moved through and the one that they were trying to lift.

So there is a consistency in the design. And then there was another offshoot, right, on the opposite side of this chamber? No, that's the main chamber. Just alcoves. Yeah, there's just alcoves. Just these central parts of the laboratory where you can see there are shelves

that have tumbled forward or been turned over and are empty. I wonder if the emergency flush button was already pushed. I think that's exactly what it is. So we have to hit the other one or hit it again and make the doors rise up? I don't know. I'm going to burn a fifth-level slot and cast Telekinesis to try to lift the door.

Okay, go ahead. A thousand pounds of weight. I mean, there's nothing to do. It's not being held by anything, so it's just if the weight is Okay, go ahead. 1,000 pounds of weight. I mean, there's nothing to do. It's not being held by anything, so it's just if the weight is too much or not. All right. Go ahead and roll a d20 and add the strength modifier of, well, it's 1,000 pounds of weight.

Yeah. It's too heavy. Ooh. Oh. Okay. Let's push some buttons. I wonder if we could do it. Yeah, I think it's the other way around. Let's push some buttons. Yeah, I think it's you. That's intense.

Should we clear out of the room and have a hand press the other one with the opposite of flush? I think perhaps that would be a good idea. Yeah. The metal door that you guys managed to function, it's not so much that you lifted it, but because you managed to wedge it back into its slot

and it pulled itself back up. But yeah, it should not have been, you would not have been able to lift that door. That door is not closed. But it was basically knocked off its track. I run over and I kick the door that Caleb tried to pull off with Caleb. I kick the shit out of it.

You do so, well done. Break four toes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Got it back in place, whatever happens next. All right, so back up and I'll push the button. What button am I pushing? I guess let's start with the emergency flush button. I feel like the other button. The other button.

I think the other button. I think the emergency flush is what happened here and filled it with acid. But if it's already down, is it like a light switch? We don't know. Did we see any grains on the floor? The door that we moved in place was already up. Was already up, so we just put it in the thing and then it went up, so that button was already

It was down. It was down and wedged out. We pushed it in and it went. It was just slightly off of its groove. Yeah. But it raised up. But it raised up as soon as we pushed it in. So I think something was already... Holes in the ceiling? It's fucked. This is hard.

It's a little high up to see, specifically. You do see all the glass elements up there and cables and wire that are connecting them. You do look and there are portions of the ground where you, looking down, you can see there are holes. So there was some sort of a drain, a drainage feature built into the floor. We're on the bottom. Caleb,

can you throw some light up the roof? I want to just see. I got a funny feeling. Okay. Let's push some buttons. What are you looking for? Holes. You don't see anything, not matching the floor. I mean, is there any, is the ceiling

a solid structure or is it like, does it? I mean, it's solid except for the recess in the center, which is where all the partially destroyed glass tubes are. The tubes. So do those, do the tubes, let me see if I can try to explain this. The tubes that are in the room that we're in, do they connect to the ones that are outside?

There is a possibility that there is a continuation of them, but you've seen multiple tubes, and some that are severed and just dangling. Like, a lot of it's just loose and damaged, but you see at least consistent installation of them throughout. Let's do it. We have to push it.

Yeah, let's go ahead and push it. But I think we want to be in here, right? Yeah, let's just. There's two buttons, right? DM? It looks like there are two raised glyphs. And one says, emergency flush, the other doesn't say anything.

What if we get shut out while half of, we're on the other side? Should some of us be on the inside? Everyone, back up! How are we going to back, what are we going to back up to? We're going out of the room. No, we can step out of the room, we're fucked too. Some of us can stay in here.

I think we should split half in here and half on the other side of the door, just in case. Weirdly terrible idea, but boy. I really hate it. That's what that feels. If we want to take the minutes. I want to split the party so fucking bad. Throw up the dome like I did for Gelidon. Oh, and it would protect us

if it fills with anything crazy? Maybe. Maybe. I plugged the bottom of a boat with it once. You did? Yeah. You did. It's waterproof. Laudra'la.

Ma. It is an acid brew. It's a pretty good idea. Vethno! Dwayne! Dwayne! I'm doing it. I slap the book down on the ground and I start ritual casting. It's like a diving bell.

A dome. Okay. Yeah. On the inside or the outside? Inside. Inside. Okay, okay, okay. I'll poke my head out Yeah, then we can sit in the dome. out of the door and just keep an eye during those 10 minutes, looking for anything outside.

Is the dome going to be where the buttons are? Just sentry style. Okay, cool. Well, it's whatever we want. Veth could cast from within the dome. Oh, well, I don't know. It's May Channel. Yeah, that should be good. Okay, cool. Well, it's whatever we want. Veth could cast from within the dome. Oh, well, I don't know. With Mage Hand. Yeah, that should be good. Okay, fine, carry on. Or we could put the dome on top.

Just put the dome right next to the door, so if it opens, we have access. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. That's a good idea. Yeah. Good. Just put the dome in the door. The door can't close. The door is closed. Emergency flush.

Oh, the other door. Okay. This is a. The door is closed. Emergency flush. Oh, the other door. Okay. This is a plan. Cast the dome. I like this one. Here we go. Okay, so you cast the dome. Whereabouts are you casting it? I'm going to put it as close as I can get it

to the door that we want to open. Okay, cool. So you're placing it kind of opposite rooms, center to the left, kind of that area? Yeah. Yes. I don't know, I'm trying to figure out whereabouts, please. Well, I can't see inside your head. I understand.

So were you entered? Yeah. Then across the wall and to the left is where that angled metal wall is with the sign. Are you putting it in the center of the room on that side, then? Yeah, close as I can get to that door that we wanted to go through a moment ago. Biological weapon. Yes, biological.

You got it, okay. Cool. All right. All right. You finish the Creation of the Dome and you are settled with it. Let's do this. Okay. All right, it's up to you. Spectral Hand appears and presses the other button,

the Not Flush button. Okay, the hand presses on it. It doesn't depress, it doesn't lower in. It doesn't seem to react. Oh, it may need people. Fuck. I'll go over there. Yeah.

I'll sit on it. You sit on it? Nothing. You've got spells, Veth, go for it, come on. It needs a spell? What kind of a spell do you think it needs? Abjuration. I don't have that shit.

I'll run over and be like, I'll try it and I'll cast Armor of Agathys at first level. Just add it? Well, that's what we did with the door the first level. Yeah, I was touching the stone and. Maybe if we get back in and try and hit the other. You reach out and touch the stone and the minute you touch it with your hand,

you feel it glow and warm beneath your hand. Wait, you just need a hand, not a butt. Yeah. Yeah, needed a hand. Are you serious? My hand is like my butt in many ways. It's dirty. As it glows,

the door next to you guys begins to rise. As the door behind you slams shut and leans once more off of its mooring. It seems like that door is damaged and is back in its wedged position as it was when you found it. But locking you guys inside that side of the chamber.

The other door opens and you're within the dome, right? Yeah. All right. What are you guys doing? Going through. Nothing's pouring out or anything? Nothing's pouring out. Looks good. This hallway, too, is like 15 feet wide. Let's go. Nothing's pouring out or anything? Nothing's pouring out. Looks good. This hallway, too, is like 15 feet wide.

It's the same as the previous one. Okay. Then we go down that hallway. All right, cool. Dome disappears. You guys take a few steps and you hear. The dome of renews. That's a baby!

Oh, I hate that sound. It is like a lower-pitched baby. That's a baby! SAM and LAURA, all together, Oh, I hate that sound. It is like a lower-pitched baby. It's an old baby. It's probably really quickly here. Oh no. Oh no. Let's go, should we go back into the dome? Just scooch back?

Just drop that. Oh, you just dropped the dome? I'm going to Invoke Duplicity. Hmm? I'm going to Invoke Duplicity. Invoke Duplicity. As someone's doing. As you guys, you hear this heavy metallic footfalls heading from further down the hallway you're looking

and you see this faint light swing side to side. Oh for god's sake. What do you do? It's an angler fish. Yeah, we make friends with it. It needs a friend. Okay, hang on, is it dark in here? Is it dark?

There is no light in the room aside from what you guys have created. Kill your globules, kill them. Globules are gone. You cancel your light? I'm out. I'm going to hide behind Yasha. Behind Yasha. Where are you guys arranged right now?

Because you stepped about 10 feet into the hall before this happened. And is it just a hallway and there's a huge, there's a sound and light coming at us and like closed hallway? Towards us from the hallway? Yeah. Maybe we should back, back into the room. Back into the room.

I can't see anything at the moment. All right, you guys all back into the middle of the hallway. You hear like, you step into like glass that breaks under your foot. Thankfully, nobody gashes their ankle, but as you back up into it, you see the light slightly swing. You hear that?

Shit. The light begins to get faster as it heads towards you. You can see now it lighting up the walls as it approaches. Let's just keep dragging him out, let us not fight in the hall. Back him out, back him out. Back him out, back him out. I'm going to find a hiding spot

and I'm going to volte a bolt and get ready. Fine. Okay. I'm just going to slip to the backside of the door, like up against the wall. Why is he coming through? Uh-huh. Okay, so you hide on the side. You all find, I'll say for the purposes of this, I'm going to set up a map so you can tell me where you are.

Okay. Oh, and then he's going to call it, isn't he? Yeah, yeah, got to. I mean, it could be really sad, you know? It might be a sad baby. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's got a broken paw. This made-up map is sponsored by Dwarven Forge. Surprise that special dungeon master in your life this holiday season with Dwarven Forge Gaming Terrain.

Go check all their amazing stuff out at dwarvenforge.com. No! Cool. Okay, okay, okay, okay. This is the hallway you guys are backing into. This is now the closed door that fell off its hinges. This is the chamber and this is the platform where you press the button. How did he have this? Where do you guys want to be placed?

Where's the button that we pressed? Over here. What was the hallway that you said we were coming through? This is the hallway that's coming down. You guys entered from here, and that was where you were headed before you backed into this chamber.

Okay. So I'm going to just get my back up against the wall, like right here, just waiting for it to walk by me. Okay. Veth, were you hiding? Put me behind a cage or something. Okay, you can do that easy enough right there. Okay. Maybe I could fire

through the bars or something. I'm going to hide behind the astrolabe. It's a rough shot, but you can try it. What's up? I'm going to hide by the astrolabe on the other side. Over here? Yeah, right over there. I'm going to hide by the astral lathe on the other side. Over here? Yeah, right over there. I'm going to put my duplicate across from Beau

on the other side of the hallway. Okay. And I'm going to actually run and hide right behind the button. Over here? Yeah. You've got it. All righty. Yasha? I'm going to hang out with Jester's duplicate

hidden behind there, just getting ready, like right up against the wall. There is a lot of rock and rubble right there, so you got to move into the corner or place there. Where do you want to go? I forgot to have my glasses on. It's all good. Okay. Jester! Fuck, fuck, fuck.

Why are you watching Home Shopping Network right now? Yeah, I'll stay right there, that's fine. Okay. Fjord? It won't work, it's a zirconium. You can't use it for a spell. Caleb. It's so pretty, though! I'm totally blind, and Caduceus said that he grabbed Caleb, so I'll be next to Caduceus.

All right, so he gets dragged off into this side here. Yeah, I'm going to put Caleb behind me. When we hit the button originally, when Fjord touched the button, did it instantly react, or how long did it take to react? Currently half a second. And it was as soon as my hand touched it, no magic was needed.

And then. Yeah, I'm going to try to find it to where as soon as it starts to come through, I'm going to touch the button. The he's running, drop it and then. The rancor? You're going to do the rancor? Yeah. Okay, okay. Going to rancor this. Which podium was it, by the way?

It's where I am. That's where I'm standing right there, yeah. Okay. Do you want me to do it with the hand, or you're on the button? I'm on the button. That's what I was, that's why I went. You guys all carefully wait, and you hear the as it gets louder and louder before eventually you see

the light begin to fill the floor as there is this dangling, swinging orb of light. You watch, especially from your edge, both Yasha and Beauregard as it emerges. And from the light, you see framed these human arms reaching out. And two more human arms. Oh! And two more.

Clusters of human arms that seem to be reaching out from the sides of a large, bulbous, swollen head. You see these arms reaching out like predator tendrils from the sides. Sorry, nope. These white, pupil-less, glistening, bulging eyeballs protruding from the front of this gray face

that the orb is floating from. It's in the doorway, it's in the doorway, it's in the doorway, it's in the doorway, it's in the doorway! Its massive, mammoth-like body of thick hide begins to step inward. As its head turns slightly this way, you can see the face, humanoid, but awfully cherub-like,

like a large, pulsing, swollen baby face with over a half dozen arms emerging from the side large, pulsing, swollen baby face with over a half dozen arms emerging from the side as its mouth opens to split open jaw with hundreds of teeth filling the inside of its blackened mouth. They slightly twitch and turn. And that's where we're going to end. As we get to fight this thing.

Why is that? No! One of my favorite minis of all time. Look down so I can see it. No! Is this a real thing? What? Did you make this? No, this is actually from Kingdom Death.

This is one of the things that got me to buy it. Wait, can you turn on the camera so we can see his little, little face? There we go, there we go. Oh yeah. Oh! Oh no! Because you're the one that I touched, right?

So don't try to be at the other one. That is terrifying. Nope, nope, nope. So much nope. So we're going to pick up from there, literally right there, next week. Oh my god, you can. You can, and you did.

You can. Going to poo like a baby. Is it that far out already? Is it that far into the room? It is emerging right now. I'd say, to give you the benefit of the doubt, we'll stay there. Okay.

I like this plan, though. Let's remember this plan. I'm going to go one of two ways. That's not even the worst thing they make. Like, that is nowhere near the most horrifying thing I've seen come out of that game. That's terrifying. I wanted to bring this mini into the game so long.

All right, thank you so much. We'll pick this up next week. Have a wonderful week. We love you very much, and is it Thursday yet? Good night. And this concludes the current chapter of Critical Role. Your essays on the history and impact

of the various ages and epochs of Exandria are eagerly anticipated. Just kidding. No homework for you, but if you are inspired to do some writing, please leave us a review. Your words can really help new folks find our show and encourage them to give it a try. Thank you so much for joining us on this adventure. Until next time.