Critical Role - C2E120 Contentious Company

Episode Date: December 24, 2020

The Mighty Nein locate their prize but quickly learn that adversaries and conflict can come from even the most unexpected corners...Watch Critical Role live Thursdays at 7pm PT on https://www.twitch.tv/criticalrole

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

Hello everyone, and welcome to tonight's episode of Critical Role, where a bunch of us Dirty Cuts voice actors sit around and play Dungeons & Dragons. We're Dirty Cuts! You dick. Left hook. Before we jump into tonight's game, we do have some announcements to get through,

beginning with our first of two sponsors, Cortex. Sam. From our fans. Nope. From our friends at Fandom, the people behind D&D Beyond, comes Cortex. Sam. From our fans. Nope. From our friends at Fandom, the people behind D&D Beyond, comes Cortex. It's not a new game, but rather a box of tools you can use to craft your own game, from hundreds of modular parts to best suit the way you

and your friends like to play. Right now, till December 31st, Critters can use the code, I skipped a whole paragraph, using a system. Using a system of dice and descriptive traits, you have the freedom to build within your favorite genres and worlds from books, TVs, movies, and video games.

And from now until December 31st, Critters can use the code COR20 at checkout to get a 20% discount on the digital edition of the book. Just go to cortexrpg.site, which is apparently a thing, slash CRCore and grab a copy. Now, last time I used Cortex to develop my own horror game, Tax Code Carnage, IRS Annihilation,

but Ivan and the folks at Darrington Press rejected my idea. So this week I'm going to pitch a new one. It's called TNT. Hold on. Oh boy. Steep yourself in an aromatic new RPG system. The first ever interactive tea brewing adventure game. Play as three soothing character classes,

Oolong, Assam, and if you're feeling nasty, Jasmine Matcha. Balance tannins, soak up caffeine, and fight the evil forces of Lapsang Suchong. Super interactive. All you need is dice, a cup, hot water, and a thirst for excitement. Oh, Jesus.

TNT is a truly immersive experience. Here, I'll demonstrate one of the modules right now. Oh no, the evil Earl Grey has flooded the realm with his undead bergamot bestiary. He's forcing us to eat scones without the creme fraiche. That is, until Roibos the Red attacks. Now you roll a d4 to see how many minutes to steep. and fresh, that is, until Roibos the Red attacks. Now you roll a d4 to see how many minutes to steep.

It's a four, and now we wait. I guess while we're waiting, what do you guys think? It's really good. It's good? I love it. It's strong, this is strong. Okay, well, I guess we'll check back later. See how it turns out. Until then, back to you, Matt.

Thank you, no, I'm super- Thanks to Cortex for sponsoring this. Yes, thank you. Thank you, Cortex. I'm super excited to try out this game and run a one-shot for all of 2021. For all of 2021. But yes, thank you so much, Cortex, for sponsoring,

sponsoring our friends at Fandom. Our second sponsor tonight is NordVPN. Now, this episode, as you know, they are the providers of the highest quality of encryption for your internet traffic, and they hide your IP and physical location on the internet. Right now, they have a special Christmas deal going on with every purchase of a two-year plan,

you get four additional months for free. That is four. That is the right numbers of fingers I'm holding up. But you can go to nordvpn.com slash criticalroll right now and use the coupon CRITICALROLL, one word, at checkout to take advantage of this great offer immediately. So I've been using them for over a year.

They're fantastic. I recommend you do as well. Check it out when you can. NordVPN. NordVPN! For the rest of the announcements, we have a few things to go through. First, beginning with Marisha. Oh my goodness, you guys. I've got announcements on this paper.

The most important one, this is our last episode of the year. Oh! We're going on Christmas break or holiday break or whatever you celebrate. We made it. Yeah, and we'll be returning for episode 121 on Thursday, January 14th is our next episode back.

Oh wow. So. Yeah. We will see you then. To travel, nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Just waited out a little longer. Also, if you're watching this episode live on Twitch

as it is airing, you should totally stay tuned. During the break, we have a special viewing If you're watching this episode live on Twitch as it is airing, you should totally stay tuned. During the break, we have a special viewing of our newest project, which is Crit Recap Animated. Oh yeah! Yeah, that's going to be airing during the break. Yeah, really excited about this one. Crit Recap Animated is a series of short videos

that's going to be breaking down our Mighty Nine arc in, sorry, our campaign in little arcs. Those are the words. And it is narrated by our local resident lore keeper, Danny Carr. Danny Carr. Who we all love. Yeah, the episodes feature animation by Offworld Studios and the writing team.

Aw, they added the writing team of myself, Dani, and producer Kyle Shire. Wow! Yeah, written in-house, of course. And yeah, our first episode is an introduction to the characters of The Mighty Nein. So if you miss it live during the break, look for it on YouTube on Wednesday.

Yeah, but we're hoping that these are little ways that people can quickly get caught up with the series as they come out, that way you can pick up as they come out and get refreshers on the arcs. It's super cute. You guys are going to love it. It's love I got. It's love I got. Those are my announcements. Thank you, Marisha.

Good job, Marisha. More announcements from Laura. Laura, go. This is just, hi, guys! So, first thing I want to talk about is, hold on, should I take it off the hanger? Uh, maybe. No, no, no, I'll keep it on the hanger.

Yeah. What? Our Critical Role Cobalt Soul Varsity Jacket. Look at that. Oh! Now you can be an Expositor in real life. Yay! That's really cool. This is amazing, and it's available right now

in our U.S., U.K., and Australian shops. Look at that. Shop. Nine-patch stores, shops. Look at that. Shops. Nine patch stores, shops. Also, we... Get off me. Also, we recently announced our partnership with Sideshow. You guys may know them as the amazing creators

of museum quality statues and art prints and figures and all of that. And we have, I'm nervous because I'm so excited about these things. We have our first releases in the studio today that we're going to show you guys. So first off, we have our Mighty Nein. Don't pull, don't do anything yet.

Everybody just hold on. We have our Mighty Nein, This is How We Roll fine art print by the incredible Ian MacDonald, which is available for pre-order right this moment. Oh! That's so awesome. I love that piece. Wait, does it come with a matting?

Look at these buddies! I think that's how it comes! Look at these friends! That's beautiful. Oh my god. That's so cool. This is so gorgeous. I'll put this on my wall. It's beautiful!

Yeah? Second that I should talk about is starting on January 14th, that's the day we come back from our break, you can pre-order our first... Whoa, you're so tall. Sorry. You can pre-order our first two collectible figures

for N'Vau. Oh! Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go! Look at the beast! Oh! Oh my god! You guys, they are amazing. Yeah, bring it in, Marisha.

Bring it in more so you can see. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. And the blue. I know. I'll use my pasty arm as a backdrop. There we go. Fucker! Yeah.

Oh my god. Ooh! So cool. Fjord is so attractive. I don't want to talk about him. He's casting a spell on you. Mildred's blade. That's what's happening.

Mildred's blade. Pretty amazing. More reveals are coming soon. Check out side.show slash Critical Role to RSVP to be notified of pre-order launches. Did you just say side.show slash? Side.show slash Critical Role. That's their website, side.show?

That's what it says. Cool. That's awesome. Merch and I are talking about this. First place we go when we go to Comic-Con every year is the Sideshow booth, because it is the hottest thing ever. So this is a crazy dream. Yeah. It really is.

You can stab a man's eye out with that ford sword there. And I will. Fantastic. It's real pretty. That's all I got. Thank you, guys. Ah, it's so cool. Fantastic. So yeah. That's all I got. Thank you, guys. Ah, it's so cool. It's so great.

Matt, quick update, by the way. Yeah, how are we at? Oh, oh. Oh. Oversteeped. Oversteeped? That was a fail. Two stars. Sorry. That's okay. Well. I'll just roll again.

Yeah, just roll up some new characters and we'll try a campaign. That's the whole game. That's it, that's the entire thing. Sam, that bit is in my top 50 of your bits. That was a good bit. That's medium praise. That's medium praise.

Awesome. Last couple things here. Earlier this week, we announced our new comic book series with our friends at Dark Horse Comics, Tales of Exandria. This series actually expands a lot of the stories beyond the main campaign characters in the world of Exandria, beyond Vox Machina and Mighty Nein, starting with a run centering on the Bright Queen, written by Darcy Van Polgeist, with art by Couple of Cooks. It is awesome.

We've been working on developing the narrative, and Darcy's done an amazing job, and just can't wait for you guys to check it out. And you can see the art from a couple of kooks, which their art's amazing. We also have our announcement article on critroll.com for all the details and pre-orders. Four Tales of Exandria, one, series one, number one, right now through your local comic shop or digital retailers.

And if you're able, please consider supporting your local comic shops, especially at this time. To find a shop near you, check out comicshoplocator.com. And from there, you can get your copy of Tales of Exandria, first issue of the first series, releasing March 17th, 2021. So keep an eye out. And that's it.

That's a lot to come back to the new year with. That's a lot for the last part of the year. We got to get it all in. Yeah, yeah. It's a way to kick it off the new year with. It's the last one of the year. We got to get it all in. Yeah, yeah. It's a way to kick it off. Kick it off better than last year. Peace out, Tori. I just, peace out so much.

Oh, I mean, look at that. Ugh, it's just. It's so fierce. I know, I'm jealous that they're the first two, fake ears. Wait, I got an idea, I got an idea. This should be better. Here we go. Oh, sorry!

I want to see them side by side. Hang on. There we go. We'll post pictures on socials and stuff. There we go. Oh, sorry! I want to see them side by side. God! There we go. We'll post pictures on socials and stuff. They'll print. Yeah. No, the details. Yeah. But nevertheless, with that done,

let's go ahead and jump into tonight's episode of Critical Role. Yeah! I'm out of here. The adventure begins They were always beside you Your nerdy best friends And the DM to guide you And they rise from the flames For the battles ahead

Villains beware Cause you're about to be dead They got magic and flair Villains beware, cause you're about to be dead. They got magic and flair. They got fouchions and cunning. They don't see over there. There's a monster incoming. Inspiration is waiting.

Rise up, don't think twice. Put your fate in your hands. Take a chance, roll the dice. Roll the dice. Critical. Roll the dice. Critical. Roll the dice.

Critical. Roll the dice. Critical. Can you answer the call? Digging deep in your soul as the legend unfolds. Now it's your turn to roll! And welcome back. So last we left off,

the Mighty Nein making their way through Eiselcross with the eventual destination plan of reaching the ruins, the central ruins of Aeor, which currently is to the east, across a volcanic river of magma. Magma. Magma. You have... Sorry.

I missed you guys, too. It's going to be one of those games. I know, we're already out of the gate loopy. But you traveled here and trying to head off Lucien and the Tomb Takers for what seemed to be one of the artifacts they're attempting to gather before heading to Aeor themselves.

You managed to gain some time by flying in the air via giant eagles. And upon trekking deep within, you encountered strange locales, ancient Aeorian citizens frozen in some sort of weird magical time bubble. You made yourself scarce as you went deeper into the ruin, discovering strange laboratories,

encountering a horrifying mutated abomination. After battling it, you discovered the remnants of one of these laboratories and an eventual escape hatch that led to an even further subterranean, nearly petrified forest, corrupted by some sort of unknown source. But beyond that forest, you begin to come upon a hallway and stairs that descended into a blue-lit chamber

in the same direction that Jester's magic had said the second threshold crest you seek would be. And so, as we left off, you had just dispelled the magical barrier that had prevented entry and began trekking down, down the stairways into this blue-lit, familiar chamber. Before we walk in. Okay.

I wanted to do this at the end of the last game. Okay. And just stop Yasha, because we're in the back. Okay. We're really, really nervous. Yeah, really, really, really nervous. Oddly, it's not because of this. Oh. It's kind of, it's, you make me nervous.

In a good way, I've got cotton mouth. In a good way. Okay. I've read your note. In a good way. Okay. I read your note. Yeah, no. I thought I really fucked up and I just was like, was it too much?

No, I just. No, it was great. Okay, you did read it. I thought maybe you didn't read it yet, or maybe you did and you just were like, I don't want to hurt her. Yeah, it was like, I read it, but then we kept having house guests. Like, we had the yetis, and then we had Dagen,

and then we just kept bringing in weird people into the tower. Yeah. So it was just like, it was, and then we'd be like, good night, and then it'd be like, oh yeah. I'm rambling. It's a weird question, but we might die soon.

Yeah. Do you want to go on a date or something? Yes, of course. Yeah, okay. I never do anything the right way, and so I figured that maybe with this, I should just go start from the beginning, and we haven't really had a begin.

We had a beginning, and then we had a you stabbed me thing, and then now we need a second beginning. I would love that more than anything. Okay. And just, uh, oh, I feel weirdly, um, happy and excited in this really weird place, but, um,

wow, I feel really good. I think I just thought that, you know, when, when acting weird or stupid around someone, and then you're just like, why can't I just act normal? Yeah. But I think it's, I like you, Beau. Yeah, I like you a lot, too.

I don't know, we'll figure something out. I ask Caleb if we could change the tower, because we're in a weird situation where I don't think there's bars, but I've got some ideas, so. Okay. Yeah, I would love that. Okay.

Tomorrow night, is that too soon? Should we wait till the weekend? What day is it? I don't even know. Yeah, we're all just sort of like, just waiting. No, you guys went ahead and I stopped her. Yeah, you guys have descended into the chamber.

We'll get to you all in a second. You might be like, oh, that's much less fun. Yeah. If we... I'm listening to this. Yeah. I'm sorry. If we live, let's go on a date tomorrow night. Okay. Yeah?

Yeah. I mean, we'll see. If we're still in here, we'll figure it out. Okay, okay, we got time. Yeah, we're just, we'll, as we're trekking through the tundra and saving the universe, we'll make plans. And then if we go on the date and you're just, as we're trekking through the tundra and saving the universe, we'll make plans. And then if we go on the date and you're

not into it anymore, that's okay, too. Yeah, same! Yeah, okay. He's like, no, I don't want to make it weird, because we're working together. Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, it's weird, but I, wow, I don't even know what to say. I was not expecting that, but I wanted to ask you earlier, but it just kind of,

just I'm sweating. Yeah, me too. I get really, really nervous. But you look great. It's like you have a very nice do. Thanks. Okay. Well, I'm looking forward to it. Stay alive, please. Yeah, you too. Okay. Well, I'm looking forward to it. Stay alive, please. Yeah, you too. Okay.

Let's go steal an ancient relic. Okay. After you. Okay. Yeah. I walk away and try to look really cute. Really cute. Really cute. Like move my hips a little bit more. Just wipe the spittle that gathered

in the corner of my mouth. And then I go forward. As you strut your way behind your compatriot. Hey, what are we doing? Are we all figured? You know, we got to figure it out? Yeah, yeah. We thought that you guys were talking strategy.

It seemed like an intense conversation. It was a strategy. It's a strategy of a different kind. Yeah, what did you guys come up with? We were gone for a while, so. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The plan is to stay alive. Yeah, stay alive.

Until tomorrow night. Yeah. You had a much more intricate thing before we went into the last one of these places. It was like you wanted to talk and be allies and all sorts of stuff. This is just stay alive? Well, Lucien's not here

and now it's just get the job done, right? And just make it and just live in the moment, yeah? Yeah, take this handkerchief. You're oddly sweating in this whole place. I know, it's... Yeah, take this handkerchief. You're oddly sweating in this whole place. I know, it's. Yeah, you look like my dad. Oh no. No, it's a good thing.

You thought you were farting back there, weren't you? I didn't want to infect the room. You know, we're kind of in a limited oxygen down here. I didn't want to. Weirdly, because I can't smell her farts for some reason, so she held me back just to stay with her in the, well, she had tummy issues. A very unique trait, Yasha.

Is that like some people? It's that crayon smell. It's very overpowering. It's just farts. I don't know. Because flowers, you know. Just farts. I don't know. Because flowers, you know. I think I've heard of that. It's like some people pee when they eat asparagus, it smells funny. Some people just can't smell farts.

Yeah. It's a genetic thing. It's just, it's a weird thing. You got to drop a bomb. Yasha is your wingman. Yeah. So as you take in the environment around you. Just like we did in rehearsal, Matt. Having this conversation,

as you slowly descend the staircase into a familiar chamber, this is a room that is nearly identical to the previous threshold vault that you had encountered at the site of A5 on the map. The shape's a little bit larger of the overall chamber. You can see there are the two somewhat rounded balcony edges that go to the right and left,

and then stairs that descend into the central chamber, and a central part of stairs that go towards the middle of the chamber. And there below, you can see the familiar sigils on the floor and the glyph against the wall. And there above, affixed to the ceiling, you see embedded the large, blue, glowing threshold crest itself.

There is a lot of fallen rubble in here, and you can see there are a couple of heavy stacks or piles of rock, stone, and other structural materials that have fallen, but overall, the room is holding. I know this looks very much like the last one, but let's not take it for granted. I'm going to start looking around

for any threats in the room. Any sort of inlaid statues or things that could come to life, or traps? Or zappos? I think you can make a perception check. You do see at the- Assist you.

Perception check. Can I go full-on poke about with an investigation? Or is that too involved? If you want to spend the time rummaging through stuff, sure, make an investigation check then. It is a... Where is investigation? It is an 18. 18, okay. So is a... Where is investigation? It is an 18.

18, okay. So it'll take you a little while. So while you're doing that, there are the two curved staircases that head into the middle chamber on the side, and then at the base of each of those, you see pillars that have orbs on them that are these hollow, dark, glassed orb, somewhat frosted, it seems like, from the inside.

That seems bad. Yep. I'll go down towards one of those and specifically check it for traps. Hmm. Maybe someone should scan it for magic first. Are we close enough in for Detect Magic to? Likely.

All right, I'll do a Detect Magic. Okay. So yeah. So you Detect Magic in the chamber. There is magic throughout a majority of this chamber. You see threads woven like small, subterranean roots of trees that seem to mingle and all gather towards the base of the ground and then weave within this glyph

that then folds up into the top and that heavy, heavy magical source from the central crest itself, it is nearly blinding and even just extending your consciousness to accept this is a little harsh. As you were investigating and looking around the area, the two orbs on the sides

just briefly flash and then go back to a dull sensation. You sense a brief flash of magical energy and then they just go inert. That was something. There's nothing now, but that was something. What? Oh, the orbs just sort of, they had a magic moment.

The regret! I'm trying to pull it back in. Dr. Beam's failing? You're still thinking about Yasha. I think we should be careful. This seems... Dangerous. I'm not getting anything from them now,

but there was a brief flash of something, I don't know, and this whole room is just lit up. Do we have to cross between the two orbs in order to get to the threshold crest? The staircases would descend around them, but the central stairs would go between the two of them. Yes. I'm going to go around them. I'm not going to walk between them.

Okay. As you guys all make your way down to the lower area and you are currently rummaging through, and there is piles of loose rock and fallen stone and materials that either belonged to the structure here or have since slid into it at some point due to the impact of this ruin. But you do see what looks to be an armored hand

that is loosely visible near one of the piles of stone on the far left-hand corner of this room. Ooh. All right. Caduceus! I can see from here, is that weird? Is it magic? It does not appear to emit a magical aura.

Just a hand, or at least just a glove. I don't know, is there anything in it? Yeah, for safety, yeah. Sure, I'll come over and I'll cast my magic hand and just try to sort of tug on it from 30 feet away and see if it moves or... I mean, it lifts with it, like it's being lifted from its place, but is attached.

Okay. It's not just a hand. There's a body in there. So I'll come closer and investigate to see if it's trapped. Go ahead and check and see. 12 plus... 25. 25, all righty. It does not appear to be trapped.

It does appear to be buried. Whatever it's attached to is currently under quite a bit of stone. Detect undead. You get no undead essence in the vicinity. All right. No fine sense for Celestial and Fiend? Wow, we are being super careful. We are being super careful.

No carefulness. I love it. Nothing catches your attention. Nott, do you want me to come? Do we want to unbury this thing? Help dig it out? I'll try to, yeah? Do we want to look at the body? Yeah, dig out the body.

Let's see what this is. It'll take you a bit, but you don't have to roll for it, necessarily. With the aid of your friends, you manage to pull some of this off and you see what looks to be some sort of, you think it's a soldier in armor at first, but the armor pieces are bolted or sealed onto the body.

You don't see skin. Is it a golem? Is it a willy arm? A what? Like the golem from? Vili? Yeah. Oh, oh. It resembles an automaton that you've encountered before,

but this one is more humanoid in size. It's maybe about, I'd say a little bit shorter than Caduceus and has the proportions of a human, but it looks like it's crafted from enchanted metals and stone and other weird rubbery materials similar to the cables that you saw torn through some of the chambers and walls on your way in.

What does his face look like? As you pull it over, you see the face. The face looks smooth. There's no hair. It's just a metallic dome, almost like a helmet, but you can see there are sockets where eyes would be and an area where a mouth would be that looks like it has some sort of a joint to it,

like a jaw. What? But it is partially crushed inward. We leave this buried? It's going to come to life and... Actually. What if it's a buddy? I'm going to kneel down and start seeing if there is any sort of power source, the likes of which I've read about

and which I've been hoping for ever since the Folding Halls of Halas. Go make an arcana check. What, like a charger or... Battery. Battery or something? 15. 15. like a charger or battery? Battery or something? A little arc. 15. 15. A little Iron Man. Looking at this, and from the knowledge that you did gain

from actually crafting with your friends here, that golem within the Folding Halls, this is a different physicality to it. It's weirdly far more complicated than the comparatively simple golem creations. This has more maneuverability. Its joints are more natural. It's almost an imitation of a human body,

but crafted. You can see within the armor, there are grooves and runes, so there was some sort of enchantment, though it appears to be bereft of any sort of life or source. Is there any language on it? I still have Comprehend Languages up. There is no language written on it, no. I pull out the collar that got thrown around my neck

and say, I'm looking for something to bring this back to life, and I think if we are lucky, somewhere here I might. Maybe. The orbs haven't flashed again, have they? No. If you get close to them, do they flash? Do you want to walk close to it? How close was it? Caleb, who was, is anybody close to it before they flash? Do you want to walk close to it? How close was, was it Caleb who was,

is anybody close to it before when it flashed? It was me. Yeah, you were all moving in, but it was Caleb who was the first to go in and begin looking through and searching the local rubble and such. Or I'll get within. Oh, I can do it.

You don't really, you know, just maybe not you. I'm really strong for it. No, there's no doubt. Sure. Someone with a, can you still teleport? Can you still jump? Me? Either of you, honestly.

Okay. This place is giving me feels. I'll get within. Oh, I'm about to sneeze. Uh-oh. It went away. Oh. No, no. Look into the light.

I'll get within 20 feet of the orbs. Look at the crystal in the ceiling. Yeah. Okay. 20 feet is relatively easy, because the space where you guys were even inspecting this crushed construction was about 20 feet. So you step closer still, nothing, no reaction. 15 feet. I'm keeping it.

No reaction. Hmm. 10 feet. No reaction. What the heck, man? How close was Caleb? I don't remember. He was about maybe 15 to 10 feet from it. Huh.

Well, how are we going to get this crest? Well, we could, you know, you could spider climb up to the ceiling and we could try to pry it out. Somebody could fly up and we could. What did we see when we walked into the last one of these? How were they getting it down? They cut it down.

Prying it down. I could probably get it, if we take a moment, I could get it the same way you've seen me pulverize gems. And that's a couple. let's just keep an eye out and stay as far away from it as possible. How close do you need to be? What if we just try to dispel it? The floor. You know?

Just make it inert. How can we have that much magic, do we? This thing's huge. You can always try. Yeah, sure. Take a really high level, but. Better to save that for getting out of here, I think. But we don't want to make it inert, right? I mean, we want to remove it.

Why wouldn't we want to make it inert? That's a good point. I mean. Because then it's not a bargaining chip anymore. Yeah, but why would we bargain with them? What would we bargain for it? You know what I mean? I don't know. We won't know until we get to that point.

Want to destroy it? Yeah. Yeah. If we keep it not broken, then they have we get to that point. Want to destroy it? Yeah. If we keep it not broken, then they have the opportunity to use it. But if we break it, then they can just say, oh, well, I'll go get another one then. I say we get it out of here, then we break it. I don't want to spend time.

I want to get out of here quickly, and I want to make sure that we get out of here with everything we need. I'm afraid that it's going to be hard to leave. I just think if we get it out, we use a lot of power doing it, they happen upon us, we're already weakened, they take it from us, and then we did the work for them.

It's possible. Shit, you know what we should have done? That guy up above the gnome, Ivar, Iver, Iver, Iver, the guy that we've met when we entered this office. We should have fucking wiped his memory so he didn't remember seeing us. Because if people come down, they're going to be like, where are your friends?

And he's going to be like, they weren't that way, fuck. I think they know. We told him that bad people might be coming to hide. Said he was going to be like, they weren't that way, fuck. I think they know. We told him that bad people might be coming to hide. Yeah. Said he was going to hide. And they can watch us anytime they like. They probably know we're up here. Oh yeah, are they watching us now? I don't know.

Why don't you find out? That's fair. I feel like I used it rather frivolously. Oh, and I think I've used it today. I think you've already used it today. Yeah, because we've used a lot of spells already today. This is precisely why we shouldn't try and destroy it here. We should destroy it once we're ready.

Let's get it out first. Let's get it out. We're probably going to need more than we have. Well, I think I can get it out of the ceiling. It's going to take me about 10 minutes. We probably want to wait to catch it unless we want to see if it smashes when it hits the ground. All right. All right. Yeah, let's just try to get it smashed.

If it smashes, it smashes. Yeah. Yeah. Fine with that. He's not going to, but. Okay, so I will go not directly beneath it, so I do not get crushed, but just 10 feet out and spend 10 minutes and I will cast the spell Fabricate. And I will use that to meld the stone that's holding it

away from the gem, just to hollow out. All righty. Let's see if these columns react to magic. Yeah, I'm going to stand pretty far away. Maybe in the doorway. I'm going to stand in the doorway. I'm going to lie underneath, or next to that robot man. He seemed like he was in a safe place. He was crushed.

Whatever happened there, the worst already happened. Lightning doesn't strike the same place twice. Double jeopardy. Okay, fabricate is less of a shape as it is and more of taking raw materials and then building them into an actual constructed object. Right, if I could, it's up to you, but if I can take pieces of wood and make them go

couldn't I do the reverse and go and just make the shape a wider bubble? I would say come up with a... Currently, the spell requires a final, a final visualized structure. I have it. I will make a stone latticework bubble underneath where the gem is, so all the stone around it will drip down

and make almost like a thin spiderweb of stone that will either catch it or smash through. That'll work. Wait, do we want tob of stone that will either catch it or smash through. That'll work. Wait, do we want to catch it? Because I can catch it. Yeah. We don't want to catch it. You've got 10 minutes to think about it.

Up to you. Okay, I can cast Levitate then and catch it if you want me to. That sounds good. Okay. Or we could just see if it smashes. Or we can just try to break it. Do we want it? Okay. Well, getting mixed messages.

Okay. From, getting mixed messages. Okay. From yourself, supposedly. You're the one that doesn't want to break it. So you begin casting. Yeah. Yeah. Currently, I'm going to put it in a little bit of a stone net, which should be easy to break.

One of us to break it, if we want, in a quick hit. Caduceus, as they're all focusing on this, you hear this very, very faint. Son of a bitch. Something's coming. Back up. Against the wall in vogue duplicity.

Yeah, guard, patient defense. I stand in front of Caleb so he can do his thing. As you're focusing, you guys are going to hear this, too, and as the chamber begins to echo this impact, this heavy footfall is making their way your direction, you hear. And you begin to see light, almost like sparks, lighting up an aspect of the hallway

from where you guys entered from. And you were all within this cul-de-sac of an ended chamber. And you watch as through the opening, as you all found your space to hide within the interior, you are at the moment of your own, probably no more than 30 seconds into the spell before you're You have to bail on it. Yeah, you have to bail on it and try to move out of the way

as you watch this towering, 15-foot-tall automaton come charging through. Top of the stairs, you see it standing there, this massive, armored, like, centurion, if you will, this guardian golem-type entity stands there, its head itself, this juggernaut-like gradual hill to the shoulders. In the middle of its face, you see this glowing, bright red gem that's scanning the room.

You see its armored torso, its upper chest region, wide, and as one arm is a massive fist, the other one is this long lance that ends in a barb. As it stands there, you also see that it's sustained heavy damage. Its body is somewhat cracked open, and on the inside, you can see these cables that are sparking.

Recent damage? If you want to make a perception check real fast on it. Yes, I do. Oh, real bad. I think that's a six. Oh boy. Yeah. Hard to tell, but nevertheless. Let me pull the chamber out,

so you know what it looks like. No! Bigga, bigga, bigga, bigga! This is why we were nervous, this is why we were nervous, because we're all going to die. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. This chamber is surprised by,

I mean, supported by Dwarven Forge. Surprise that special dungeon master in your life this holiday season with Dwarven Forge Gaming Terrain. Go check out their amazing stuff at dwarvenforge.com or right here. Oh snap. Ooh! Look at those globes.

Stairs. Those are big orbs. They're way bigger than I envisioned. Same, same. Where are you placed in this chamber, everybody? Oh god. I'm crouching behind the robit. Where's the robit? I'm on the stairs to your left.

This would be the rubble where the creature thing on the top of the cupboard is. There you go. So you're crouching behind it over here? Yep. Okay. Everyone else? I was right here. Oh. Oh, top floor, you're up here?

Yep. Yasha and Caleb would have been near the center of the room and the moment we saw that thing, Caleb would have taken a step left, so he is directly behind Yasha, hiding from it. So right over here. Yeah. Oh my god. Yasha, you'd be about there then?

Yep. Okay. I'm right here. Can you see where my thing is? Did you paint symbols on the floor? That looks amazing. Can you see where my thing is? These are glowing. No, he can't see that. On the backside, babe, and you can't see it. Over here?

On the other side, yes. But yeah. Gotcha. Perfect, thank you. I'm doing the same thing on the other side. And I invoked duplicity. Indeed, and where'd you invoke it? In the arc lord. I invoked duplicity right next to the stairway

in the middle, yeah, right there. The symbols are glowing on the floor, they pulse! I'll go next to the stair. No, they don't The symbols are glowing on the floor, they pulse! No, they don't. They are pulsing right now, look at that! Yes. What?! Yeah, tucked against the wall. There? Yes, please.

I've done the same thing with ladders in my home game. I love the railings. Yes! Matt, that is a little large. Nope, it's a smaller one. That's cool. We should have used the new Ford figurine to be like, I don't know.

You only have one arm? It has one massive fist. Oh, I see it. Yeah, well, this mini isn't perfectly accurate to the vision. One arm is this long, pointed lance with a barb at the end. But it is very aware of your presence.

Shite. Okay. And I need you all to roll initiative. Oh, fuck. I just thought we'd have a little bit more time. Nope. No! No. Oh, wow. Oh, boy. I ate going first and I rolled a 20.

Cool. I ate going last and I rolled a one. Can we trade? No! Can we just trade? Is there a stock market for initiative? Apparently. Otherwise he's going to whack you. Yeah.

25 to 20. 22. I'm going to go and roll my d8. 20. Oh my god, are you serious? They're glowing. All right. 20 to 15. 15.

Okay, this is not. Wait, who is, oh wait. Caleb, just or not? Caleb. 15 to 10. 13? 10. All right. Hmm. All righty, 10 to five.

Seven. Seven. Okay. Oh shit. Who has the higher dex between you two? Me. Really? Yeah, that's a dumb question. Way off. All righty. Electric's full of electricity.

He's probably impervious, too. Top of the round, as it stands there looming over, it's the burning red gem in the middle of the face giving this light that scans across the chamber at once. Its shoulder sparks once in its body, jostles to one side before it rights itself. Caleb, you're up first, what are you doing?

I lean out from behind Yasha and take catmint from inside my coat and go and a spectral from can float and the cat's eye or claw is right above that glowing circle. And I will use it to shred and hit the automaton. All right, we're going after it. We're getting it.

As it rushes over to meet it, to strike. Make a melee spell attack, okay. Oh, that hits, yeah, that's a 26. That definitely hits. And it is 48. Is it a total of a creature? I mean, it counts as a creature. It's just its type is a construct.

25 of slashing damage. Nice. And I will back up to the opposite wall from it. Over here? Yeah. All righty. So as you know, up to the opposite wall from it. Over here? Yeah. All righty. So as you're now up against the wall, concentrating, you see this giant, apparated arcane cat claw rushes up and strikes across the front.

The claws spark and carve across the front of it. You can see the giant gash marks where it managed to fit through its armor and leave this invisible wound, the metal itself giving away ever so slightly, but still holding strong. That finishes. With a slightly shell-shocked face,

I just go, hey, go, Yasha. All righty, Jester, you're up next. I'm going to have my duplicate run up a couple of the steps and say, because she can talk now, she's going to say, It's me you want! I don't know.

I don't know. And I'm going to have her cast Banishment. Ooh, at the creature? Yeah, at the creature. Okay, all right. Hit it clean. What's the DC on it? 18 charisma. 18 charisma, nice.

That's a very handsome robot. Ooh, you're right. I know that look. Say it, say it. I legitimately rolled a 19 and a 20, for reasons. Still fails. Oh, wow. You might have a little charisma.

All righty. Nobody likes you. It vanishes from the space here for a moment. Oh my god. Isn't it an automatic success for? Like a dirt? Oh. No, I guess not.

Wow, cool. Roll a disadvantage. How long has it gone for? A minute. A minute. Did you roll a disadvantage? No, I had advantage. Advantage. 20. He had advantage. So he's got a negative three charisma.

At least. At least. He's checking something. Yeah, I mean, just like skills, it's not like there's a critical success on a save. I wanted to double check just to be safe, so. All right, double checking. Just gives us a time limit, is what it really is. We have a minute until he comes back. We can prepare.

Or we can get and run. Okay. We're going to get that thing in a minute? We can, it takes him 10 minutes to cast his spell. Yeah, we're not going to. I can also just try and cut it the hell out. Yeah. Well, I've got the claw up,

I can try to smash the shit out of it instead. It's not a bad idea. And I could go up to the roof, right? Or, well. I have a deep feeling I can't stun this thing. Probably not, but we have a minute. He's going to come back in a minute, so we should prepare to attack him when he comes back in this spot, regardless.

30 seconds now. Okay, all right, let's go, let's go. You guys do your thing. I'm going to stand there and get ready to cast... Do you want me to lift up Yasha so she can start whacking at it? See what happens. If you want to, I can try to help.

Cat's Claw, striking the gem in the roof. Oh, okay. I will levitate Yasha If you want to, I can try to help. Cat's Claw, striking the gem in the roof. Oh, okay. So it will rise. I will levitate Yasha so she can also strike at the roof of the gem. Great. I'll move and get in place opposite of Jester clone. Okay, right there? Yes.

You've got it. And wait and take the dodge action and just wait. Okay, just waiting for it to arrive. Okay, Yasha, you're now hovering up with the claw towards the top. Or I guess just hold my action. All righty. Hell yeah. So you're going to begin slowly drifting up there.

I'll get on the... What are you doing to prepare as you drift upward? I'm pulling out Magician's Judge and I'm getting ready to try to help with the claw and go to town on it. You've got it. What are you doing for it? I'm going to run back side to where he disappeared from. So we form a little triangle between the duplicate bow.

Yeah, maybe a little more to your right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like right up against it? Yeah, so like when he appears, I'm behind him in like a triangle between the duplicate of Jester and Beau. And I'm going to take, I'm going to cast Stone Shape, and I'm going to cast it on the ground where one of his feet were,

and I'm going to create a large hole so when he bamfs back in, he topples. That's a great idea. Okay. A little bit. You've got it. I'll hold my attack. I said dodge, but I'm holding my attack. I'm going to run up to Beau, holding my attack.

Tap you. Tap me. Tap that Beau. Holding my attack. Tap you. Tap me. Tap that Beau. Tap that Beau. And I'm going to give you, is this a fuck it moment? Yes. You know, I'm going to hold off on the big spell

or no big spell. I'm going to just give you freedom of movement. Okay. Can't be grappled and other stuff. No difficult terrain. No difficult terrain. Target speed, yeah, you can't be paralyzed or restrained. Okay.

And you can spend five feet of movement to automatically escape from non-magical restraints, such as manacles, creatures that are grappled. Just a whole floor element that goes up to the wall. Thank you. That's great. She grabs me. Those are so cool. For now. Why are they glowing?

Cute, though. Was it golden? Also, if this creature went through my guardian, it would have taken some damage, so. The guardian was set up at? At the base, at the entrance of the tunnel. Correct, and did not. Cool, just checking.

It ignores walls. Matthew, while we're waiting 30 seconds, I'm going to move up to the orb closest to me and hide behind it. You've got it, you are now behind there. And take out my Quokka Dagger! You got it. Quokka Dagger!

All righty. Get ready and hold my attack. Quokka Dagger. So Caduceus, are you doing anything position-wise or are you staying put? I think I'm going to... Can you give us blessings or buff us? Yeah, I can, actually.

I'm going to run over to, since it's only six seconds to do this, I'm going to run over to where I can get the most of them within 30 feet of me. Everyone's two spread out. From there, you could probably get most everybody except for Nott and Caleb and Yasha. How many people is that?

That would be five, including yourself. Sorry, four, because Jester's duplicate is not a target. So four, including yourself. Jester's over there. Yeah. Right. Just can't see her, man. No, I realize that, but I counted five because of her figure. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay, I'm going to cast Bless on everybody who's currently in range, including myself. Jester, Caduceus. Fjord. D4. And Beauregard. D4 to attacks and saves. Yeah, thanks. All righty. And I am going to prepare...

What's this at? Oof. Are you heading back to where you were or are you staying put, removing? I'm going to... You've got two more rounds before this comes back. Yeah, I'm going to head back to where I was. Okay. I'm going to prepare

Guiding Bolt at 4th-level for the minute he's here again. You've got it. You have to come over right now. Well, okay. Preparing a spell is concentrating on it, and that will end your concentration on... My duplicate? Your duplicate.

Okay, well then I... I'm sorry, your duplicate is gone, because when you cast Banishment, you have to concentrate on Banishment to keep him away. Okay, then I guess I myself ran over to do the stone shape that I talked about. Fair enough, yep. So, yeah. And there is a pit

in the ground about five feet deep. Yeah. Oh shit. Okay. Any luck getting the crystal out? Well, yeah, so I would say in all that helter-skelter action, I would at least one time try to use the claw to just go and pull, and if that doesn't work, take a slash. You got it, so go ahead and make a,

is there a strength score? 26. 26, all right, so go ahead and roll a d20. That's eight. And add plus eight to it. Come on, kitty cat. Mm. The claw digs in and tries to pull, but that first round, it's just not quite getting the resistance you want for it.

It's stuck in there. Yasha, are you trying? Yeah. Okay, I'm going to try to wedge the... Biscuits? Trying to just get it in there and try to pop it out as... Okay. Yeah.

Go ahead and make a strength check for me. So just roll a d20 and add your strength modifier. Damn. I wonder if I should just try to break it. Just start hacking at it instead. I'll try to get it out of there. Okay. 15. 15.

15. You find there's a slight gap in there, probably from the impact and slightly jostled by the pull of the claw, but it's not enough to start getting it out, but you do find there is a bit of a area where you can find the blade, get some purchase in there, and you're like, there might be a way to do this

with enough time and enough strength. Okay. But that's your turn there. Everyone else is prepping. We'll do your guys' rounds a couple more times here because you guys are catching up with what they've all been preparing for. So you want to make another check?

I'm going to try to pull it again. Okay. Not roll a one this time, that's better. 24. 24. It's beginning to pull a little bit free, but it's- Look a lot like Christmas? It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Okay. So there you go. But it's still holding fast. Okay. Go again. Get it. Get it, girl. Get it, get it, girl. Try it. Get it, girl, get it, get it.

It's cocked. Would you advantage because you're awesome? No. If she's raging, she would, but. Rage! I'm raging! Wait, are we on our turn? Yeah. You would just use one of your rages for the day

if you were to do it, so. Remember, it'll drop afterwards because you're not hitting anyone or being hit. Yeah. I would like to rage. Okay. All right, so you use another rage. You do get advantage on your ability check.

Okay. Maybe because she has on your ability check. Okay. Maybe because she has a date coming up. Yeah, that one's better. Okay, so that would be a total of... 23? 23. Both of you are pulling at this, and it's starting to feel like it's getting closer

to coming free, but neither of you are able to close that gap. It's pretty taut in there. We can buy time, keep at it. This is the last round for both of you. Come on! Before the creature returns. Kitty cat. Oh, not as good. 15 on that one. The orbs, I bet, were.

15. Finish it. Finish the orb. No, the orb. Finish it. There we go. Cocked. Released him from his cage. Oh, but advantage. Are you raging again?

It's using another rage if you're going to do it. Do I have enough rages to keep up? Let me see. I have three more. Oh my gosh. I'll take it. Okay. 20-20 after all.

Okay, okay, okay. 18. 18. Damn it. You're both trying and you're not quite getting free. It's very heavily wedged in there. Yeah. And at this moment, there's a flash of light and the creature appears where it was and then

sinks in and falls to one side. You can see it's technically prone at the moment. Yes! Yes! Okay. As it is now within a five, it is 15 feet tall, so the five-foot drop is just enough to make it a little inconvenienced. But since it does drop at the end of your turn,

we're back in the initiative order here, it was after you. So it takes its turn. Dalek. Stands back up. Exterminate. Nobody prepped anything? Nobody was prepping to attack it the minute it appeared?

You were. We all were. Or no, you were holding onto the, sorry, you were holding onto your Vanishment, but they were both. You were and you were. You were both holding onto stuff. I got my dagger up. Yep, so go for it.

Those who are holding actions, take them now. Okay. Birkert, Fjord, and Perth. But as he appears, he's prone, right? As he appears, he's prone, correct. As he appears, he's prone, correct. So your attacks would have advantage on him. But except mine would have disadvantage? Technically, because it's ranged, yeah.

Oh, ours have advantage? Yeah. Pop pop. Natural 20. Yeah! Nice! How's that advantage? Yeah, go ahead. Okay, that first one is a dirty 30.

Yeah, that'll hit. Second one, oh my goodness, I rolled two fours. 16. Misses. You also get the d4. But I get a d4? You do, from Bless. Come on. I wanted to find something. Give me, yes, a four, so 20 total.

20 misses. Ooh! Even though he's prone? Well, yeah. Yeah, I gave you the advantage, but he's still heavy armor. 20 misses. 20 misses. Yes, heavily armored figure. Okay, so the first one hits.

So the first one hits. The second one, you actually go to strike, and part of its open, wounded chest area sparks, and you recoil from it. But so you take your attack, take your attack. Okay, 10 damage for me. 10 damage from you, all righty. One, two, three, 20.

I don't think I'm going to put it. No, do it! Really? Do it! All right, I'll pump a fifthth-level Divine Smite into him. All righty. Going for it apparently. Matthew, I have a feat called Sharpshooter,

and it says it ignores half cover and 3 quarters cover. Is that what prone is or no? No. Prone is different. Cool. Disadvantage then. You don't have a d4, do you? I think she does. Well, you were hidden from it, technically, when it arrived, so you would have advantage

if you cancel it out, so it would be just a straight roll. Okay, I will reroll. I think Veth was in the... 22. Wait, did you add a d4? 22? I'm not blessed. Not blessed, 22 misses. Oh! Whoa!

Big boy. You throw the blade and watches it just streaks off the armor and ends up clattering to the ground somewhere near it. Honey Badger don't give a shit. Oh no. All right. That's 83 points of Divine Smite damage. Wow. Wow!

83 points? Crit, a crit. Oh, I got one more. Wow! It was a crit. 83 points? Crit, a crit. Oh, I got one more. Paladin crits, then that's, well, no, you get one attack because of the reaction. Great, is there any wild magic? Well, no, you guys are holding your actions, so no. You guys can, you can, correct. So you can't take another attack.

Oh, okay. Is there any shenanigans from his 20 on magic? It's just a physical attack. What, not the smite, though? All right. I want something crazy. No, it was divine smite. 28.

Oh, okay. What's it? 28 also hits. Roll a d100 for me, if you don't mind. Yeah! Ooh! It's a melee attack, but since it was divine smite, there was some divine magic blasted into it. Give me something Fjord-ish.

65. 65. 65. 55. Please, don't beat me. Oh no. No! Oh no.

Okay, okay. You're welcome. End of chapter. What's about to happen? Oh, you. What happened? Oh, this is a journey. Sorry, I'm looking too.

Everyone you know and love die. Okay, no, I think hilariously enough, as you strike him with this, the flash of divine energy smacks into him and you watch the divine energy streak off and seem to float in the air for a second, almost like time slowed down from the flash of the energy and they turn into a bunch of little butterflies.

Again? You got the same spectrum. Is that what you rolled? I guess I rolled a 65 as well. You rolled right in that same space, yeah. Can you feel some good? So now it is surrounded by these slightly light green floating butterflies

that are just drifting around the creature. Melora, for the win, it was 17 points of damage for a total of 100. 100 damage on a held action. Not too bad, not too bad. Okay. I've got a Sacred Flame also, so. All right, go for it. That's just a dex save.

Dex save. Prone. Well, prone. I don't think you're at disadvantage on a dex save if you're prone, are you? Maybe not. No, it doesn't. All right. Even with the penalty, it's 19. Yep, he saves, so that's.

Well, the natural 20. I'm getting all the natural 20s on saves here, not any attacks yet. All right. That's 18 points halved, so. Mm-hmm. Nine. Nine. Nine.

Fjord's return round. It's taking some heavy hits, not too bad, not too bad. All right, that finishes all the held actions. Yep, yep. All right, as it's standing there, it gets up from prone, and one of its legs begins to step out of the hole that it's currently in.

As it does, you watch as these runes in its body light up around it, and suddenly, almost like it emits steam from beneath the armor. This energy seems to just dissipate 10 feet around it. Beau and Fjord, I need you both to make a wisdom saving throw, please. Thank you for the d4. Disco lights are the come.

Wisdom saving throw. Indeed. Uh-oh. I don't like that. Oh, it's cocked, it was cocked. That's terrible. Up here. 18. With your Bless. 18's okay. Maybe.

10. 10. Both fail. Oh! You are both slowed as you feel your body. Okay, okay, okay. Your body suddenly, like, time seems to drag on and people around you begin to move faster and quicker.

Your reaction time is nullified. You, neither of you can use reactions. Oh no. Your speed is halved and you cannot make more than one attack a turn. Ooh. Okay, ooh. Beau has been rendered useless. Awful.

Demunked. Oh. Wait, for the duration, target's movement is unaffected by difficult terrain and spells and other magical effects can either reduce the target's speed nor cause the target to be paralyzed or restrained. Okay, so your speed's normal.

Yeah. But you're still slowed. Everything else still affects you. Good. Well, yeah. Okay, that helps. I'm only half. That's normal. Yeah. But you're still slowed. Everything else still affects you. Good. Well, yeah. Okay, that helps. I'm only half. That's Beau. Okay. And after this weird energy steam emits, the red beam

right over to the one that banished it, and it begins to. I did say, it's me you want after all. I think you took its voice. Yeah. Oops. No! Oh no, it can get all the way to me!

It can. Oh no! Even after getting up? Oh no, you know what? It doesn't get all the way to you because it was prone. Oh! That's right, yeah. I have to, I have to. I'm just anything.

There you go. No, that's a valid point. So it begins to like, gets up halfway and begins making its way in your direction. I can't even take a reaction to signal him. That finishes its turn. Oh, oh, oh, oh, fuck. That brings it to Veth.

You're up, Yasha, you're on deck. Okay. Yeah. Did it see me? Am I hidden? You are not hidden when you revealed yourself when you attacked. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, that limits me. What is this shirt? Oh. Oh, yes. Yes, let you all suffer as I have suffered for years.

Oh no, I'm terrified we're going to get scratched. Yelm actually kind of looks like young Billy Boyd. Oh my god! Hell yes! You can't get it. Thanks! You're the cutest when you're not Billy Boyd. Oh my god! Hell yes! You can't get it. Thanks! It's the cutest way I've ever loved Billy Boyd. What's about second breakfast? Oh, yeah. Second, already.

I always wanted to be an elf, but I'm a hobbit. You're a boy with a smile. All right, so what you doing, Veth? Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. Got to protect Jester, got to do all kinds of stuff. I can't do much, because some of these things are concentration and then Yasha will fall, so that's no good. So why don't I just shoot something at it?

How about this? MATT and LAURA and SAM and LAURA and SAM and SAM MATT and LAURA and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM I'm going to try something stupid. Do it. Yeah! Let's go. A long time ago, Yes. Jester painted me a banana peel.

Yes. It's a magical banana peel. Yes. I'm going to sneak up and throw it right in front of the monster's foot and see if it will slip on the banana peel. Okay, okay. So if you're going to sneak up, roll a stealth check.

Okay. Yeah, yeah. This is so stupid. To a lot, 34. All right, so your bonus action to hide behind there. Yeah, I'm going to make my way around. Coast along the sides here. Yep. And grab the edge, leap up, and chuck it out there.

Because it's making its way towards Jester. Towards Jester, yep. Just toss it right in front of that foot. You got it. That's it. Okay, okay. All right, that's your turn. Yep. I like it. Oh, it's so funny.

That brings us to Yasha. Yasha, you are on the ceiling and levitating, free-floating. Okay, I think I'm still going to try to go to town on this thing. Yeah. I wonder if I should just hack at it or try to pull it down. All right, I'll try to keep trying it out.

Roll a strength check. Yasha can't fight with a broken back. When did you say that? You're raging, right? Shitty, yeah. Still raging? No. Or I wasn't hit. You're not attacking and you're not being hit.

This isn't mid-battle. This is just trying to pull something free. So every turn you do this, you are expending a rage to do so. So you have to decide. And you have a limited number. Is it per day or per short rest? Per day.

Yeah, per long rest, I have five. Yeah, forever. Fuck! Okay, I'm going to rage again. Yeah! Okay. So you have advantage for a second roll of? Slap yourself. Okay, okay, okay, okay. Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam.

18. Damn! 18. It's getting closer. You are slowly prying it free. It's just not coming out. It is starting to show some looseness to it. All right. Okay.

So that's your action. If you want to keep going, you can stay there, or you can attempt to it. All right. Okay. So that's your action. If you want to keep going, you can stay there, or you can attempt to move. I'll stay since I'm up there. You got it, all right, that finishes your go. Fjord, you're up, Beau, you're on deck. I will use my bonus action to cast Hexblade's Curse on this giant, wait, yes. Hexblade's Curse on this giant. Wait, yes.

Hexblade's Curse, is that once per day? It is. Long rest or short rest? Once for short rest. Short rest, you guys did have a short rest. Yes. Yeah, we healed up. So it is indeed cursed. And I will actually use my movement.

In addition, the target can either take an action or a bonus action on its turn, not both. So you can either curse or you can take an action. Your call. I understand. I will take the curse off. Okay. And I will, so if my movement speed is 30, that means I have 15 now?

Correct. So I'll use 15 to move away from it, back towards that corner. Okay. And I will fire. It will'll use 15 to move away from it, back towards that corner. Okay. And I will fire. It will use its reaction to swing back at you with its bladed lance, because it has a reach.

Okay. So. That is a... 30 to hit? Yeah. Okay. Do I just die outright? Yeah. Okay. Do I just die outright? Yeah. Did you just rip your spine out, Mortal Kombat style?

We have such a Pavlovian response to that horn. I love it, I love it. I've trained you guys well over time. That's a lot of die. SAM and LAURA, LAURA and SAM. Oh no. Don't make that face. Sorry, I rarely get to roll d12s, let alone a number of them, and.

It was a thing. That was, that was. It was amazing. 11, 11, 12, and nine. Ooh! So. 11, 11, 12, and nine. Recovery 42. 43 plus. 50 points of piercing damage as you're trying to move away, and as you do, Beauregard, you see this as Fjord turns, and then suddenly,

this lance pierces out middle of his stomach, and he's now stuck from behind. Oh, because there's a barb on it? Yeah, and the barb is emitted, and now it pulls against your chest, and you're currently grappled by it. Through your butt? You got harpooned from behind.

Are you dead? Oh my god. This is not good. You're going to be okay! The sword lights up and does a measly seven points of damage to it. You've got it skewered., kaboom. Skewered. I got fish hooked by this giant lance.

It's sticking through my stomach and got me on a pole. And a lot of damage. You still have your action. Okay, okay. Yeah, I'll fire into Heldsbreid's first. Eldritch Blast. Oh no. How'd that go?

I don't know. Do I just get one of the three? Because I'm slowed? He has a blast. No, technically it's not an attack, it's an action. The spell fires three, so. Holy shit. Oh, that's so cute.

That's a 24 for the first one. The second will probably miss with a 17. Add the d4. Oh, thank you. You're still blessed! So, yeah, okay, so 28 on the first one. That hits. 25 on the second one. That hits. No, I'm sorry, 24.

That hits. Okay. 24, okay. And 26. 28 on the second one. All three hit. On the third one. Okay. I am so fucking harpooned right now, I can't think. That's plus three, 13, so that's 16 points of damage. And that was just on his reaction.

That wasn't even, oh god. 11 plus three, 14 points of damage. 14, nice. And then nine plus three is 12, 12 points of damage. Got it. Nice. Still a decent round on it. So as you're running back and release this slow arc and as they fire out, they blast into its chest,

leaving these scorch marks and part of the broken armor itself a little crinkled inward. I just look at everybody and go, Ah! Beauregard, you're up. Can I see if that happened or is it straight through?

Can I see that Fjord? You currently cannot see this happening. You're hiding behind the wall and trying to avoid this creature, and you just hear the noises from around the side, but you do not have an eyeline to Fjord on this. Okay. Loud gurgling. A rogue butterfly just floats in front of me.

Yep, like, oh, that's pretty. Oh, pretty. Yeah, there are oh, that's pretty. Oh, pretty. Yeah, there are butterflies surrounding you. It's beautiful in the moment of horrible throbbing pain. Beauregard, what you doing? Okay. I just cleared away and then. So my mind is blown by seeing Fjord impaled.

I'm just going to run over, which is weird because I can move, I can run fast, but my arms are in slow motion. Yeah. You are a walking speed ramp shot, is what you are. I am. You made it! You made it!

All right, are you going for the creature? I am going to utilize his lance being impaled through Fjord. Sorry, Fjord. I'm going to jump up on the lance. Oh, crap! Yes. And I'm going to scurry,

I'm going to use it to scurry up his shoulders. Because I have one attack, and I'm going to take my bow, and I'm going to try and jam it down in between his neck plate and his... Jam on it. And his, yeah, head. Roll an acrobatics check for me with disadvantage

because you are slowed. But I'm not hindered. I've got freedom of movement. Yeah, I guess I'll allow it, yeah. Okay. So acrobatics? It would make sense. Just straight acrobatics? Sure. Straight acrobatics.

Okay. 25. 25. 25, yeah, you manage to leap off of the heart boom with a slight jostling of your body. You come up the side and now you're on top, standing over it, and you can look down into one of the larger separations in its armor where you can see these arcane sparks

jumping back and forth in the middle of its torso cage. So go ahead and make the attack. Okay, I'm just going to try and plunge it in there. So just one, just nope, only one pop, right? What if we can't make it? Oh my god! It's not going to make it. I know. I rolled terribly. I'm right here. No.

15. 15, unfortunately. 17, 17. You should try and slam it downward and it jostles just enough that you have to spend most of your physical mindset to stay atop of it without falling into it. Okay. No impact. I do need both of you, at the end of your turn,

to make saving throws again for me. Okay. Wisdom again? Yes, wisdom. Oh shit. We can save against it. Natural 20! Not even with a d4? 20, not even with the d4!

25 total. All right, so you are no longer slowed. You, however, unfortunately are forward. I'm back. What was in that gas, man? This is what you get for talking about farts. Caduceus, it's your turn. That's not cool. Caleb, you're on deck.

Okay. All right. I don't have a ton I can do, so. He's too far, Fjord's way too far for me to reach. Physically, yeah. Okay, that's fine. I'm going to take a couple steps forward and I'm just going to do,

because I've got nothing better to do at the moment, I'm going to cast another Sacred Flame. Okay, dex save? Yep. 13. Nope. He's saving it up. Hey, that's really good. That's a 10, 18, 19, 20.

24 points. 24 points, nice. It's so cute. Yeah, it's really cute. I love it. All righty, well done. So that's your action, and that's 10 feet of movement? Yep, I'm just going to stay there for now. Okay, you got it. That finishes your go. Caleb, you're up.

Okay, I will move towards the center of the room, and with Fjord in my eyesight, I will call out, Fjord, I am so sorry. You are not going to like any part of this. And I use my bonus action to send Cat's Eye or Claw and surround him. Okay. Oh my god.

And then pull him to the left. Pull him to the left? Throw him to me. Go ahead and push them even further up. I'm going to put some peppers and onions on next. Go ahead and roll a d20, adding eight to it. Are you willing? Yes, yes, yes. Okay.

This is against the creature's grapple. Oh, okay. Aw, I thought it would be four, okay. This is a 16. 16. That does actually work. It rolled really low. It was a 13 on its end. It has a great bonus, but it rolled low.

So you do manage to no longer grapple. You do, using the Cat's Cradle, yank Fjord back off of it. The barb tears through again. I'll say for that, you take another four points of using damage. Four points, okay. But you are no longer grappled. That was a bonus action, so my hand is outstretched for that.

Then my left hand just does a little curveball firebolt, which is my action. You've got it. Range spell attack. That is a, oh, it's a 20, which doesn't hit. 20 does not hit. Because it's so tough. All right. Sorry, buddy. That's okay. All right. Is that your turn? Yeah.

Jester, you're up. Okay. I am going to step out and say, it's me you want, and get banishment again. I'm going to banish him again, and I'm going to assume he can't do it because he rolled a 19 and a 20 the last time and it still banished him,

so he's definitely going to go away. Just going to roll for fun of it. He's rolling super high. It was another 19, but no, you can't. I'm out of your system now. So, I just run. It vanishes yet again. Beau, you fall. Auto-banish is pretty cool.

Auto-banish is nice. And take six points of bludgeoning damage. Even though I have soulful? As a monk? Yes, you take no damage. No damage? No, they knock everything over. Three-point land on the ground, no issue. Immediately.

Heal them! Heal Fjord! I'm going to, let's see, hold on. I don't know what. Yeah, I'm going to, let's see, hold on. I don't know what. Yeah, I'm going to heal Fjord, but I will figure out how much that is in one day. Okay. Everyone else, you have a minute.

A minute. Keep hacking away at it! We'll dive back up next to Yasha to help. Yeah, but what if we can't pull this thing because of the, maybe it's like the orbs or the- You can try it, try it, try it. You were getting it. I have time, I don't have to rage. I can just go. Can you slap me?

It's been, you have 10 rounds. You have a whole minute now. Slap me. Oh yeah, you can slap her. The claw goes. Ah! Will that work? Can I keep my rage that way? That's probably Maya. I will say that by the time it comes back around,

because that was his action doing that, the rage would have dropped before it got to you. So you'd have to spend rage again, but from that point forward, if you want to keep using the claw to plink her, to keep her angry, I'd allow it. That's pretty good. The first, that's what I'll do initially,

but just assume that on each subsequent round, I actually just go like this to your back and just start sinking claw in to push you forward. Ooh. That's not. Okay. 13 points just to. forward. Ooh. That'll do it. That's not. Okay. 13 points, just to. No, yeah, I'll take it. 13 points. And I will also heal myself a little.

Yeah, there's a moment of shock for it as you, as it vanishes and the cat releases you and you look down and the armor itself, the plate is wedged apart, and you look down to see how bad it is and you just see a hole, like a hole that big, where it's just muscle and blood. I'm going to cast Cure Wounds at first level, sorry.

So that's... Wait, put the Cloven Crystal back in at first. Oh. We just got this little tumor for the rest of the campaign. It's gone. All righty. 12 points of healing as of the campaign. She's gone. All righty. 12 points of healing as well from me.

12, amazing. And I'll do first-level Cure Wounds on myself as well. We got to figure out something to do to attack him right away. I'll get into place and hold my attack. Yasha, are you trying again? Yep. All right. You also get to make saves. You get to make 10 saves.

Correct, Fjord. Make some saves for me. You get 10 saves against Slow. Nope. Oh, okay. That was 11 points of healing. No? Nope. Okay. 10 saves. Claw crushes, roll again.

I'm going to burn another spell slot to keep this thing alive, too, by the way. Now it's only a minute. There it goes. There you go, no longer Slow. Will you remove my Slow, too? Will you remove my slow, too? Will you remove my slow, too? I did. Oh, I thought it was still, what's on me? No, that's your Bless.

All that Bless lasts for a minute, though, so that will fade before it returns as well. We can bring it back? I will once it's time. Matthew, I'd like to walk up the stairs, grab my dagger, and walk back down again. Okay. And hide in a slightly different position,

but close by, and just ready a dagger throw. You got it. Banana Peel still is out there in the middle of the floor. Yeah. As soon as it gets back, it's going to slip. Yeah, I'll actually move over here. Over here? Yep. I'm going to move and hide on the other orb.

I want to be in a completely different place than I was before. Over here? Yep. I'm going to move and hide on the other orb. I want to be in a completely different place than I was before. Over here? No, down, hiding as much as I can. Right here, you mean? Yeah. Okay. And put me where, since it was heading towards Jester, put me in her path, on this side, but still closer, a little closer,

still so it's towards the banana pill. Okay. Yeah. That is where he's coming. I don't want to be here. a little closer, still so it's towards the banana pill. Okay. That is where he's coming. I don't want to be here. I'll go down here, like down in the middle. And Matt, get Caleb back about 15 or 20 feet away from you. Not to abandon you,

but fuck that thing. No, you're good, you're good. And I can get with Bless, one, two, three, four. I'm going to get, I'm going to get the four of us right there. I think I can get four or five right now. I mean, how many people can I get with Bless right now? If you were to come down here to cast it, you could get everybody except for Beauregard.

So that's... Well, right now I can only do four people other than myself anyway, so. Everybody except for Beauregard and technically, no, Yasha would be in range, she'd be close to, so. It's up to you. I'll get, I have no spells left. Down here.

So third level, hold on, all right, doing it. Third, so that's three, four, five. So. Blessed. Blessed. Two. So that's five there, and then Yasha would be a six. I'll get Yasha instead of Caleb. If I moved closer to him, would I be able to get it? I'd have to pull it from someone else.

Okay, okay, that's fine. And then I'm going to back up into the far corner in the very back. The far corner? Into the far corner. That way, that way. That's the hallway. Yeah. I rolled a 23. 23? Yeah.

It begins to plummet. The claw catches it underneath about six or seven feet off the ground, and now it's holding Threshold Crest in its grip. How big is the Threshold Crest? It's about two and a half feet across from side to side. No way. It's a large shape and it's heavy.

That won't fit into a bag of holding, would it? Likely not. No. It won't even fit into the opening. You'd have to carry it with you. Can we get out of here? Yeah, let's make for the doors. Right about now is when it would fade. You guys have taken some time here to set up, cast spells,

arrange to wedge that free, pull it down, have a conversation, plan what's going to happen. We'll say right about now is when it returns. All right, I would have floated it back by Caleb, I would say, since it caught it by the ground. Okay, so it's now on the ground over here? Yeah. Okay. With a basketball in its hand.

It appears right there where it was. Beauregard is right there in front of it. Holding my action. Did it hit the banana? Well, yeah, because it hasn't moved yet, so it would have hit the banana. It hasn't moved yet. And it doesn't have to move because Beauregard is right there in front of it. Holding my action. Did it hit the banana? Well, yeah, because it hasn't moved yet, so it would have hit the banana. It hasn't moved yet. And it doesn't have to move because Beauregard is right there. Oh, it doesn't get frozen in mid-stride?

No, it's not frozen in time. It gets banished elsewhere and gets confused and tries to figure out where it is. And then it reemerges. Yeah, it's not a locked point in time. It's not questioning its existence, having been banished twice in a row. I know, it's probably still confused.

It is a being often, you can see, drawn towards having extensive internal, existential crises. No, it's an automaton designed to guard a space. But now with you there, it does get its ability back, but it's not going to use that. Instead, it's going to attempt to slam and hit you with its bladed lance.

Oh, watch out! Wait, wait, wait! Wasn't both holding an action? Yeah, you do, so you go first. Okay. That's right, go for it. Pop-up. Oh, oh yeah, okay. 25, sorry, 27 total.

27 hits. On both of them. Yeah, both hit. I rolled 215. Hiding, does that? You have advantage if you're hiding. Okay, thank them. Yeah, both hit. I rolled 215. Hiding, does that? You have advantage if you're hiding. Okay, thank god. Oh, much better. 27. That hits. Yeah!

Okay. Fine. 13 damage on the first one. All right. And 11 damage on the second. You got it. 34 points of damage. Nice. All right, so it takes all these impacts as soon as it reappears.

It's like currently running in an opposite direction, trying to figure out where it was. From the impact turns, its head back towards you, its whole body shifts in your direction, but regardless, you see the sparks jettisoning from the various damage it's taken on its body. You see one of its knees is busted. Now that you're this much closer to it,

and it's moving itself forward as it takes one giant swing towards you with its bladed lance to try and pierce it down into you from on top, like a giant hypodermic needle. Matt. Dodge it. I did wrong math. It's 40 points of damage. Got it, 40, okay. Four-zero. Four-zero.

Beau, dodge it. I'll try. That is going to be a 23 to hit. Jeez, it hits. And the slam against you is going to be a natural 19. Miss, oh, oh, natural 19. So it'd be 31. Did it have to move to get to her?

It did not, because she was right where it's at. Goddamn it, Beau! I thought, I was trying. I was trying. The camera zooms in on its foot. It's like right there. It's so fast. Come on, you son of a bitch.

You take 33 points of piercing damage. I'm a hard motherfucker. 33. Yep, and you are grappled. And grappled. No, you're not. Well, I can use five feet of movement to be un-grappled. Correct, so you are grappled. You are pierced as it goes through your shoulder and comes out the back of your shoulder blade.

It sucks, right? Yeah, it really sucks! But you already know it missed everything vital, and there is a way that you could probably arrange your bones and muscle and shift to maneuver out not too hard. Yeah, it's not my spleen, but it hurts. She never uses those muscles. Never, never, never. Uh.

The slam attack does. It's okay, they're insured. 24 points of bludgeoning damage. As you're reacting to that. How many? Hi-ya. Because it does have advantage against you after you've been grappled by it. So it basically pulls you up and then just slams you as you're on the edge of its lance.

Is it 22? 22, yeah. 50. Oh my god. Yikes! Wow. Don't let him catch you. He took me down by half. He does some serious damage. All righty, so. Three attacks and you're out.

That finishes its turn. Yeah. Veth, you're up. Oh, me! Oh shit, I just threw my knife. And he probably knows where I am. Yeah. But he's next to a friend, so yeah.

Oh yeah, that's right, you're engaged. I'll just sort of rock around the crissingy thing. So you're on it. Yeah, just around to the other side of it, and I will, I'll fire my Tinkertop Bolt Blaster. and I will, I'll fire my Tinkertop Bolt Blaster. Mm-hmm.

See if I can hit. Natural 20! Go! Plus sneak attack, because it's engaged with Beau? Yes, it would, yeah. It's a critical sneak attack. Let's go, rogue ship. All sixes, all sixes.

The bolt blaster. Is it a magical bolt? I don't know, it is a magical weapon for sure. You get a secondary attack after this, because you rolled a natural 20. But no, is it a magic 20? What's that? No, it's not a magical weapon.

It's spells and effects that are casting magic. But what if it was? It'll be me. It'll warp me away. Six plus. Six is 42. But it's... Doubled? Well, I mean, it's a natural 20, so is that doubled?

Double the dice. And then add your bonusies. Doubling the dice would make it an extra 36. Whoa. That's 78, right? Rogue. And that's just the first attack? So as you fire this one bolt,

you see, now it has Beau dangling from this lance in its arm, and it slams into her once. Her body goes limp for a second. The limbs fall back. She tenses to grab the edge. She pulls back the fist again, and you can see the red beam from its one central gem eye

focused on her. As it pulls back, you fire up and see this opening in its armor where the sparks are coming from. As you fire, it sinks in, and at first it's like it didn't hit anything, then suddenly sparks go flying out of it. It sees its body. It's still holding her, but it's hurt.

It's having a rough time holding together. Because it was a 20, it automatically fires again. Ooh, that's no good. You got a d4 added to that? Now I do, it's still no good. Nine plus 11, 20. 20 does not hit him. But I also have a bonus action to shoot again.

You do? Yeah. Natural one. No! That means it hits me! Yep. Battles and all things. That was a rollercoaster of a round. Yes!

It gives me five points of damage. Head in the game, head in the game. All righty. Yeah, I fire once, I fire twice, it didn't work, so then I am like, what the fuck? All righty, as Veth is like, ah, cursing on the side from the pain, we move to Yasha.

Okay, so can I try to float over to... Please, brushstroke over. Over to him? So what you do know right now is that you cannot control the direction of this at all. Only Veth can. Veth! However. Also, I can only move it up and down. You're going up and down.

If you want to try and grab ahold of the ceiling and pull yourself along like an astronaut, you could try that. Would that be considered an action? That would be your movement. Okay, yeah, let's do it. All right. Because I want to get over the- So you reach up and grab the edge

and begin grabbing some of the lip of where you just carved out the Threshold Crest from it, give yourself a shove, and you just drift for 20 feet. Okay. Four. That gets you about there. Come on, Sandy Bullock. But you're not quite there yet.

You could use another action to, or you can use your action to move further. You're not quite close enough to get to it. At this point, unfortunately, the levitation is not helping you. You're not quite close enough to get to it. At this point, unfortunately, the levitation is not helping you. No, not at all. So if I... What do you want me to do, drop you?

But then, okay, so I'll... But if I try to get over there, then I can't attack him because that's the... Fuck. Okay. Do you want me to drop you? But if I try to get over there, then I can't attack him because that's the, that's the, fuck. Okay. Do you want me to drop you? Yes, drop me, drop me. But that's, I'm still not going to be, yeah, drop me.

Drop. All right, you fall 30 feet. Oh no. Yeah. Up onto the ground. But you're raging still? Now you're raging still. Yeah. Yeah.

At least that's resistant bludgeoning. It would be seven points of bludgeoning damage reduced to still? Now you're raging still. Yeah. Yeah. So you're at least resistant. It would be seven points of bludgeoning damage reduced to three. Okay, that's fine. You are prone. Worth it. I'll stand up. Okay. What a turn!

What's your movement? 50 feet. 50 feet, you have five feet of movement. I'll over there. What a turn! What's your movement? 50 feet. 50 feet, you have five feet of movement. I'll stand up? Oh, am I standing up? It's half your movement to get up. Okay. We'll say. So it's 25, and you moved 20 feet across the ceiling

by just floating and pulling yourself along, so you have five feet of movement. Got it, okay, so. It was burning in action, too. Yeah. You haven't burned in action yet. Oh! She had that option. Oh, okay, so you haven't. Oh, never mind me, so. It was burning in action, too. Yeah. You haven't burned in action yet. She had that option. Okay, so you haven't.

Oh, never mind me, oh. But I can't do anything because I'm up close, you know? Yeah, unfortunately. Throw the sword. You think you can throw? I'll throw the sword. Yeah! Sure. Make an attack roll with disadvantage.

Straight into the sparking part. And with your angle, it does have half cover, so. Ooh, okay, that's not bad. I was like, oh, thank god, Yasha's got advantage. A natural one. Okay. Beauregard. No!

I was joking! Beauregard, I would like you to just make a dexterity saving throw for me, please. Oh my god. If I stab you again. Don't you guys have a date tomorrow? Honey, honey? Oh, I don't have the d4, you didn't get me.

Oh, do I have a d4? Yeah. But wait, I rolled a natural one. Still a natural one. 19. 19. Okay, okay. At the corner of your eye, see Yasha throwing this blade, and there's this moment, this, we're like,

this is uncomfortable, and you twist back a little bit, and she shears off the metal right in front of you. Unfortunately, it does not impact anything. Anything. And what did you throw? Did you throw Magician's Judge, because that was the one that was out? Yeah. Okay. So you do not have Magician's Judge, because that was the one that was out? Yeah. Okay.

So you do not have Magician's Judge at the moment. It is somewhere over here against the wall. All of the dumb decisions. It was a worthy endeavor. I'm just like, I have butterflies in my stomach. I don't know how to fight anymore. I'm going to have a date soon. She might die.

It is a lot to concentrate on. My knight in shining armor. She's here to save me. Oh god! My god. all right. Schedule in vain. That's your turn. I just scream out in rage. There you go. Yeah, I'll. That's rage worthy.

That definitely maintains the rage. No, no way. Fuck! It was pretty cool to be like, just. Clang, clang, clang. Not a very learned or experienced form of attack. Fjord, you're up. Beau, you're on deck. Oh shit, I'm up. Just not a very learned or experienced form of attack.

Fjord, you're up. Beau, you're on deck. Oh shit, I'm up. God, I'm down at the bottom. Yeah, I'll fire three more Eldritch Blasts at this POS. Yeah! Eldritch Blasts in your face. Yeah! Bless still up? It's not, right? Yep. Yeah.

Oh, is it? Eldritch, take the wheel. Oh, I finally had Caps Blade. That's a 19 plus. Bless still up? It's not, right? Yep. Yeah. Or is it? Eldritch, take the wheel. Oh, I finally had cast, but that's 19 plus. It's 19 to hit, or 29 to hit, sorry. 29 hits. Second one, that's a natural one. And third one is 26 plus.

A natural one. Yep, on a spell. 29. So two hit, roll damage twice. And also roll 100 dice. Did you add the d4? Or does it matter? Yeah, it doesn't matter. Should I do the 100 dice first? Yeah, why not?

Yeah, sure, okay, hold on, I have this. Just only ever butterflies. 65, if it's 65, 65. 77. 77, okay. Doing fine. Back in the summer of 65. In your childhood,

what is the smell that would remind Fjord of his childhood? Salt of the sea. For some odd reason, the air in the chamber surrounding this creature begins to smell like a fresh shoreline. It's like Port Damali's seaside. You begin to have sense memory of growing up along the beach,

of doing menial chores, but looking out upon the horizon and just knowing the possibility for adventure. It's a very strong smell. It's like you're right there. Do your damage. That's it? Yeah. I don't, that's the whole thing.

I love it. Did anyone else just suffer a gentle and occasional death? Yeah, yeah, yeah. 22 points of horse damage. 22 points of horse damage. That's it. Most of the stuff is gentle and occasionally. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 22 points of horse damage. 22 points of horse damage. That's it. Teleport into another dimension. And I will use my movement to just move further

back towards that alcove back here. Over here? Yeah. All right, that finishes your go forward. Beau, you're up. Caduceus, you're on deck. Okay. I'm just going to stay gripped onto this thing. I'm actually going to do some sort of metal shit. I'm going to grab it and I'm just going to

pull myself in even further. I'm just going to go for that open spot that Veth already made, and I'm just going to take my bare fist and just start slamming it. Go for it. Right into... Two attacks on it. Hop, hop, hop.

Jeez Louise. 24. 24 hits. And I don't think this one will. I know this one will. Oh, I don't, nope, nope. Nope, Fjord's? 20 total. Nope.

First one hits. First one hits. Come on, big money. You're just being jostled around on the edge of its giant piercing arm. Oh, oh, no. Oh, oh no. Oh, that's a seven. Okay, okay, okay.

What's off of it? What's the off button? 14. 14, all righty. That does damage, yep. That does damage. Flurry of Blows. Go for it.

Lord, one's a two, and one's a 16, so 28. 28 hits, so one of them one's a 16, so 28. 28 hits, so one of them hits. Come on, you motherfucker. 10 damage? 10 damage, all righty. You do have Extract Aspects, though. Extract Aspects, I guess.

Ooh, please. It is resistant to fire and ice. Okay. It's immune to poison and ice. Okay. It's immune to poison, psychic, and bludgeoning, piercing, slashing from non-magical weapons that aren't adamantine. It is vulnerable to lightning.

Uh-huh. That's great. To what type? Vulnerable to lightning. To no, no. I specifically didn't add lightning to my shield. I was afraid to add lightning because I was afraid it might soup it up. It's got electricity on it!

But it overloads. Yeah. It's a damage-exposed automaton. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. That makes sense. Sure, sure, sure, sure. We should have been using lightning this whole time, I say as I am losing blood at an exponential level.

You can use your movement to get off it. Oh yeah, I'll use my movement to get off of it. All right, you pull yourself off of its arm and you still have the rest of your movement if you'd like to shift somewhere. I'm going to look at the banana peel that it's like six inches away from. And I'm going to back up and I'm going to look at it

and I'm going to say, I'm the one you're looking for. How far back do you go? As far as I can into that corner, I guess. I just want to lean it, not that far, not that far. I want it to come towards me. Split the difference. Split even less. Even less.

You said as far back as I can. That's good, that's good. Okay. I meant two squares. One square back, one square back. One square back? Okay. Yeah, that's good, that's good. As far back as I can. That's good, that's good. Okay. I meant two squares. One square back, one square back. One square back? Okay. Yeah, that's good, that's good. Confirm, confirm.

Okay, it will use its reaction to take an attack of opportunity against you as you move out of the range of its piercing arm. If it fucking recaptures you. That is going to be... Probably will. 24 to hit. You've been sentineled. Sucks, don't it? Other shoulder.

Take 39 points of piercing damage. Oh my god, Beau! As you begin backing up, it just reaches out and pierces you right in the abdomen, poking out the backside, and as it pulls back, it's into your back and the barb catches you and you can feel yourself dragging your feet, grinding against the ground.

I just didn't hold a banana, though. But you can continue to use your movement to get off of it if you want. I can? Yeah. Because you still have more movement. Oh, then I will plant my feet into the stone and try and find a crevice and yank back. Okay, and you pull off of it without issue,

managing to make the rest, like another 10 feet of movement backwards. You are not grappled, you are fine. Fine, respectively. Okay, good. I'm glad I didn't, okay, great. Great. It's about to move. Jeez Louise. Fine. All right, that finishes Beau's turn. Caduceus, you're up.

I am, this is not cool. Yeah, I was going to hit it, but I've decided I've got a better idea and I'm going to cast Heal on Beau. Yeah. Thank you. 70 hit points up. Ooh! Fucking huge. Cleric spells, man.

You're about to get your ass kicked, so I didn't want to try and do a full resurrection. Okay. Are you going to move or are you going to stay put? I'm going to stay put. What's the range on heel, by the way? 60 feet. 60 feet? Yeah, you get her on that. I'll probably take a couple steps forward.

Let me come forward. I want to, even in like, not quite on the glowing disc, but like a little closer to the glowing disc of doom. Okay. Yeah, there. Yeah, yeah, what could possibly happen? Not quite on the glowing disc, but like, a little closer to the glowing disc of doom. Okay. Yeah, there. There? Yeah. What could possibly happen? All right, that finishes your go.

Top of the round, we are Caleb, Jester, you're on deck. Caleb just saw all of that madness play out, looks at his hand, looks at the jewel, looks at the claw, looks at the thing, and I'll just use my bonus action to whip with the gem in its claw and just punch the robot. How far can it move? 60 feet. 60 feet?

Yeah, I can get there. As it rushes over toward it. Robot punch. Natural 20. Go ahead and roll damage on that. Is that the table? Is it magic? Yes, it is. It's a magic claw. Oh yeah, so go ahead and roll a d100 for me, please.

The claw turns into butterflies. Not the fucking butterflies. What's a pleasant smell from Caleb's childhood? The blood of my parents. Well, it might be, because I rolled a 73, which is really close to what you rolled. That's right, 77, I think. Yeah. Oh.

Hmm. You see this brief sparkle of magical energy form around it and then shrink into its body, and no effect. Okay. Wait, what? Oh, it cancels the net 20? No, no, you still do the damage. The additional effect here,

in this particular circumstance, does nothing, unfortunately. Oh. Oh. Okay. It would've been really funny if it did. Did the automaton cancel it out? No, I mean, like. Sucked up by Eiselcross, right?

Or it's an effect that doesn't pertain to this creature? It's an effect that does not apply to this creature, unfortunately. Okay, okay, okay. But it's a crit. A sheep. Sheep. It is a crit, yeah. Yeah, legitimately, really polymorphed it's a crit. A sheep. Sheep. It is a crit, yeah. Yeah.

Legitimately, really polymorphed it into a sheep. Oh, fuck. Oh! Yeah. But it can't be polymorphed. We could have sheared it and run. You just, if you would have punched it into a sheep. You would have done.

Yep. Caleb would have been like, oh, I'm the greatest wizard ever! 46 points of bludgeoning damage for my bonus action. Gotcha, yeah, and? And then, but he just sent it, he didn't even see that happen. He went down, pulled out a snake at her stomach,

and then just pulled it back down his arm and let go Acid Arrows at level four. So I'm sending Acid Arrows at it as well. Okay. Acid Arrows. Acid Arrows, bro! But it doesn't. Well, 19. Oh, three throws of sheep, man.

But what's the deal with something? Liam. Yeah. I'll save you the spell slot. How do you want to do this? Yeah! What did it, was it the claw? It was the punch. Oh, the claw. Yeah.

He counted sheep to death. I would say that the claw, as it was rocketing, almost like a handful of quarters, the quarter roll grips the gem, and if this breaks the gem, so be it, and just goes smashing it against the wall. As it repeatedly bludgeons into the torso.

I do my best bow impression. There you go. You watch as each impact, its body begins to crack open wider and wider until eventually one impact, the cat's claw fist hits the armor, it buckles, and you watch as the fist seems to vanish into its chest. It stands there for a second.

The backside of its armor explodes in a flash of electrical energy, and bits of its armor just shatters and scatters across the entire back wall. All down the sides of the stairs and the middle of the chamber, as its body now has this gaping hole in the center and the cat's claw on the other side

is sitting there floating, clutching the gem. The central red gem in its face just goes dull before it falls over the railing. Yasha, you have to back out of the way as it clatters to the ground with a heavy impact. You see smoke and dust and bits of stone debris gets caught up into the air.

As it slowly settles into quiet, you can see its ruined, no longer functioning form there, lying still on the ground. Woo hoohoo! Yeah! Nicely done. Somewhere a spectral sheep is going, uh-uh.

I know, I know. Now my chair! Sheep in the NPC lounge. Ooh, we should get out of here. God, I hope I get it. I want to go over and try to get that gem out of its head. Yeah. Okay.

How do you try and remove it? How would you like to remove this? I guess I don't have any daggers or anything. You have a hand ax, right? Yeah, I've got an ax, so I'll try to take the ax out and go, My banana peel. Screw it in, you just have to twist. Like a light bulb. You know, like get the edge of the ax in

and pop it like a hammer. Okay, go ahead and make a strength check for me. Still with a... Guard me! Oh. Oh! My patron didn't appreciate that. Five plus three.

This was your standard basic handaxe? This was with my... Yes. My handaxe of two plus two plus one. Wait, two plus two plus one? My handaxe plus one. Okay, okay. So it doesn't break, because it is magical.

Yeah. But as you slam it, it's like. Oh, it does hurt your hand! It's not quite giving. This isn't like the gem in the ceiling that was placed in as part of this. This is embedded deeply within its armored head and it's going to take a little more

than just wedging it out with a hand ax. I pull my ax out and chop the head off. Okay. It's pretty heavy armor. You can do this. It'll take a while. Ah, come on. The claw vanishes and the gem just goes onto the ground. Yeah.

And I come over and start looking over the body as well, trying to see if I can find that part that I was looking for. Make an arcana check. Yeah. God, I think my Detect Magic is still up because it's 10 minutes. Is it concentration? No, well, maybe.

Let's find out. That's a good question. 27. 27. The gem that's in its face. Yeah, you're right. Never mind. Yeah, so that would have faded. Geminids in its face is more of a specific kind of visual-based element.

If you would want to inspect its body, there is a possible chance of finding a power core of some kind if it hasn't been destroyed in the circumstances of the previous battle. Right. So make an investigation check. Okay. 24.

24, okay. And I would like for you to roll a d20 for me, just a d20. On an 11 or higher, it's still intact. 12. As you're rummaging through the body, you find embedded and attached to it this semispherical cage,

like this latticework, not dissimilar from the stone latticework you're going to create beneath the Threshold Crest, but you find this cage that's bent and twisted backward, and it looks like it just narrowly missed being destroyed from the impact of your spell, but you pull in, and with Jester's help, the two of you detach the elements of the cage

that are currently holding via these metal spikes, the core and the center, and you gingerly remove it. And it's a almost octagonal, if not slightly oblong gem that has this very, very faint, dull orangish-yellow color to it that just gives off this very faint glow of light. Oh, could you just saw away that little bit of metal near it?

Okay. That was an ax. Sawing with an ax. God, she's going to cut herself one day. Oh no. I'll save that for a rainy day. We should get out of here. Yeah. We should.

We should definitely get out. How are we moving this huge stone? Well. We carry it. We carry it. If we think we have 10 or 15 minutes, I could put it in here and I hold up amber. It's true. It's heavy. Be the easier way to do it.

Do we have 15 minutes? Yeah, that's a great idea. Okay, so I set to work, put out the pieces of amber, start casting. Takes 10 minutes. During that time, I'll try to get this gem out of the head. Okay. I'll say, with a little bit of time, you manage to, along with the help of your friends

and some spotted eye work by Caleb, who understands the inner workings of this, you manage to dislodge it. And this one is spherical. It has an attachment point at the back of it where it looks like almost a jeweler's filigree at the back of it where this rubbery cord was attached to. And as you finally manage to pull it free,

easier to do from the inside out, from underneath the neck, as opposed to the front of the face and where it's specifically designed to be too closed off for it to be pulled forward, you manage to pull it instead reverse-wise from inside and pluck it out, and it's lighter weight than you expected.

It doesn't feel like a solid gem, or at least it doesn't match the weight of other similar materials. Hmm. And it's red in color? It's red, yeah. And you hold it up to a little bit of the light, and you can hold it up near the light of where the source is emanating

from the threshold crest. You can see it looks very cloudy towards its center. Ooh. Is it like a rough gem or is it cut? It's smooth. It's a polished, like almost perfect sphere, except for the very back of it where it was attached. Okay, would you like me to, I'll figure it out later.

I'll just put it in the circle. Okay. Should we, Exfil, with the quickness? Yeah, well, he's got to put it in the thing. We got 10 minutes. I'm going to grab my banana peel. Should we get the sword? With quickness? Yeah, well, he's got to put it in. We got ten minutes. I'm going to grab my banana peel. Make sure that it doesn't.

And I'll grab my sword. Doesn't. Carefully retrieve, oh, they were so close to having that banana peel do possibly something, but. This could have killed everyone in the room. Slowly put the banana back in the peel. It's okay, my weapon didn't do anything either.

Sorry I left you up there. Banana peel. No, it's not your fault. Hey, we got the stone out. Yeah, you did great up there. You were so angry at that thing. Well, I was trying to get it out. I just felt like I couldn't do anything. I wasn't opening the fight.

You did it, though. Ah. You should celebrate somehow the fight. You did it, though. Ah. You should celebrate somehow. Oh. You know what? Tomorrow, you and me, we're going to do something to celebrate. You did. You piece of fucking shit. I feel like.

Because we were, the chips were down in this fight, but we came back and we proved our worth. You and me, tomorrow night. I'm busy. We'll figure out something. I have plans. Yeah, I mean, we're on a crazy island of doom that you don't have plans. It's impossible. I do, though, that I need to stick to.

What are you doing? I have, I have, I have, why do I need to tell you guys? Well, I mean, we're a family. We have no secrets from this group. We're a family, I have, did I have, why do I need to tell you guys? Well, I mean, we're a family, you know, like we're a found family or whatever, but. Okay. Tell each other everything. Sure.

What should we do? We're unsafe and it's dangerous. We have eight more minutes. What should we do? We're just sitting around for eight minutes! Sorry it's taking me so long. Wub wub wub wub wub. Wub wub wub wub wub.

Wizard, wizard. Are you riding dubstep over there? What's the... I'm going to check out this room a little bit more, just to see if there's anything else we need. Okay. School of dubstep. I'm going to look around and see if there's any extra items. Hey, the lance!

The orbs? The sword in his hand. Yeah, the big fish bob. I'm going to take it. Okay. You're able to eventually dislodge it from the arm after cutting through its area. It is like a lance, like what people would joust with on a horse, except for on one end, it seems to be rounded on one end

and it's bladed on the other, like a long rapier. Oof. With a little hook, a little barb at the end that comes backward. Bad, bad, bad. Can we store this anywhere, or is it too, this is too big? You can store it. On your back. You can put it in the back of a holding, you know what? I don't know if I want a lance, though.

I mean. You can always sell it. Yeah. We'll get rid of it. Okay. Did the other body, the other suit of armor that was under the rubble, did it have a weapon near it? Nothing. It was just like a person. A little robot. Right? Yeah, it didn't appear to have a weapon of any kind.

It was just like a C-3PO. The android. While they're doing that, and I'm not hearing the conversation that Veth is having, I'm going to go over to Caduceus. Thank you again. Of course. For keeping me alive. Well, you know, you got stuff to do later, so. Speaking of, I was kind of curious

about your stuff to do. You seem very uneasy with this forest that we're about to have to go back through and that you have thoughts and feelings, and I don't know, we're about to go back through. I just wanted to get your temperature on this. This place is, I don't like this place. That thing in there, that's not a forest.

I don't know what that is. It's, I don't even know how to explain what it felt like and what we saw in there. I was sort of raised to protect and respect life and death. I was raised to protect and respect life and death. And there are things in this world that are, And there are things in this world that are, I would say, perversions of death,

things that mock death. And that I'm used to. That in there mocks life. It's whatever, it's whatever, it's everything that's wrong. It's nothing I ever even imagined. It's,

I kind of want to burn it on the way out. that's wrong. It's nothing I ever even imagined. It's... I kind of want to burn it on the way out. Do you think it even can burn? It's lived underground, devoid of sunlight for thousands of years. It's not living. It's not lived underground. I don't know what that is. But it's not dead, either? No.

It's just wrong. Does it remind you of the corruption in the Grove? No. It's just wrong. Does it remind you of the corruption in the Grove? No. Worse? I don't have the imagination for it. I don't know what it is. I'm going to see some of the things that we've been seeing for a long time when I sleep.

This is just, I don't know what this is. I don't like it. I don't like a lot down here. What if burning it unleashes something worse? What if it's harboring something? That is the only thing that's giving me pause. All right. But it, it would be a mercy. Harboring?

Sorry. This is, whatever's going on in these places is just, we can't let this get out. I know Jester thinks that I'm not taking this seriously because I don't want to just break it here and now, but I don't think we can, and I want to live to get out of here so that we can stop this.

I'm getting in here, I'm very tired. I don't know where you are, but I am very tired. Well, I have feeling back in my hands, thanks to you. So that's very, that's a step forward. Getting out of here could be rough. I think you're right. And we got to take that thing as far away as we can so that we can figure out what to do with it,

but I don't think it's going to break. You're probably right, but I agree with Jester. My biggest fear is that we encounter Lucien and he takes it from us. There's something wrong with your friend. Yeah. encounter Lucien, and he takes it from us. There's something wrong with your friend. Yeah. Yeah. I've always known that since day one,

let me just tell you that. Well, I mean, from the stories I've heard, there's something really wrong. I mean, you know, there's wrong, there's cute wrong, and then there's whatever. I respect cute wrong. Same. All right, well, I guess, let me know what you think

as we go back through this forest. I'm, you know, we're with you. I'll talk to Jester and I'll see what she thinks. Hey. Are we going to have to deal with this lava river again? The what? The lava. I'd forgotten. I'd forgotten that we'd even. Maybe a good place to destroy things.

Or at least a good place to prove that we can't. Yeah. That's a plan. That's a good plan. Just reminds me of the Kiln in Uthodurn. Kiln is special. There's lava and then there's... Magic lava. The blood of the earth. That's just...

Okay, you're saying a lot of weird shakadoos this morning. I'm having a weird day. Okay, yeah. You've got to, I don't want to fill your head with stuff. You got stuff to do. Congratulations, by the way. Well done, I don't want to fill your head with stuff. You got stuff to do. Congratulations, by the way, well done. I won't tell anybody.

What? As he walks away? And I walk away. Okay. Yeah. Okay. While that conversation's happening, you were heading up the hallway. As you ascend the stairs, you can see now that smooth, well-carved, high, tall hallway arches

that you guys had walked through. There are edges of the walls that are just scraped in ground where you see this creature itself was not able to maintain a direct flow of movement. It was just crashing into and scraping along the sides as it barreled towards you. It already came through, sustaining quite some physical damage.

But you continue beyond that. You come to the two sides of the T-intersection where the force field had been placed. Still good. No sound, no voices. Make a perception check. I'll join you on that. 17.

Okay. 22. 22, okay. When you eventually catch up, we'll get to that. Yeah, oh, sorry, yeah. It's okay. But listening out, you don't hear anything. Eerily still, like a lot of what you've traversed here beneath the ice. I'll just stay. Okay.

You complete your spell, managing to take the stone and encapsulate it within your amber vault. You catch up with Fjord while this is happening and also listening, it's eerily still, and joining him, looking past the exit that leads into that forest, you can see the same purple-gray foliage

that just haunts you. It's alien, yet still so familiar. You don't like it. Why it's so far? We should avoid this. This is bad. Avoid what? This intersection? This isn't a forest.

Just be careful. It's a leveling. So find another way. Is there a way around it? I don't know. We flew, if I recall. We did. If we can find another way, we'll try. Should we check the perimeter outside of the treeline all around?

Mm-hmm. Here, by the way, take this and I hand you the amber. Put that in the bag. Uh-oh. And I also- Are you sure? This is usually on you. I take this and I hand you the amber. Put that in the bag. Oh. And I also. This is usually on you. Well, we don't want Lucien to see it. Yeah, that's smart.

In the bag. Do you want to send a cat? It's not like another dimension, right? Your little amber thing, that's not like another dimension. No, not. It's just on ice. It's just for ease of carry. And I pat Fjord on the shoulder, too,

and say, I thought we were going to lose you there. And before he notices it, I brush away some cat hairs before he can notice that they're there. Let's go, let's check the room. Oh, I catch up with Dan. Don't. No. Don't. Oh no. Don't. Oh no.

Let me start talking about something else. Dogs, right? Aren't they the best? There you go. There you go. Anybody else doing anything in particular while this is happening? While all this was going on, is there, the thing that attacks us made out of metal, right?

Which one? The big golem thing? The robot. Yes. Metal and stone and other internal, yeah, mostly metal and stone. I'm just going to find a shiny piece of metal so I can see my reflection on it, and I was just going to practice for a couple minutes. I was just going to stare at it and be like,

Oh, are you walking at me? You walking at me? No one else seems to be walking at me, are you walking at me? You walking at me? No one else seems to be walking at me. So you must be, and I'm going to throw the banana peel, just figure out a way to quick throw it. Quick draw? Sure. Quick draw. Sure. All right, so you're quick draw

practicing your banana peel. Yeah. You got it. Yeah. Okay, good to know. I think I have a good place to stow it. Make a note of that here. Just right in the sleeve. Yeah. So you can just. You walking to me, punk?

You walking to me, punk? You walking to me? Perfect. I'm going to try to do butterfly knife skills. With a banana peel? I'm going to sit down on the ground watching Nott play ninja with a banana peel, and I'm going to pull down on the ground watching Nott play ninja with a banana peel, and I'm going to pull out some of the bugs

that I've been gathering and feed them to Sprinkle. Hey, look at that! Yeah. Comes out. That was a pretty crazy fight, huh? You're welcome. Goes back into your hood. This time, just not them. All right, so those of you that are at the front,

what are you doing? I think we're going to start checking all around the outer edges of this room to see if there are any other passages out of here, and I will sprinkle some soot and cast Comprehend Languages in case there's any writing to be found. Okay, no worries. Okay.

Just out of curiosity, I'm going to try a divine intervention. Okay. If you can see this place, what's the safest way out of it and what should we do with it once we leave? No. Oh.

Her vision cannot pierce the ruin, unfortunately. 39 on the table, so. Sorry, no, never. Doesn't matter for that. Can I catch up with Caduceus as we're going? Mm-hmm. What do you want to do, Caduceus? Part of me wants to burn it on our way out. Yeah? What do you think? to burn it on our way out. Yeah.

What do you think? Beau thinks it might make things worse. I don't know. It seemed pretty terrible. Maybe if we fly up and over it and we're coming out, I can send down some fire, maybe some radiant fire to take it out? It seems so evil.

I think just fire ought to do it. Well, I can do that, too. Is it, from what I remember, when you talked to it and when we tried to talk to it, it seemed like there was pain, if I recall. Hunger. We've got to stay away from these things as much as possible.

We've got to get out of here soon. Yeah. While you're doing that, both of you, go ahead and roll perception checks for me, please. Who's taking the right side and who's taking the left? I will take the left side. All right. Balls. Five.

27. 27, okay. Fjord, as you move along the right side, right? You're taking the right? Mm-hmm. You take a good long look around. Your attention keeps being pulled towards the forest. You swear you're hearing movement or just feeling something looking at you over in that direction. You keep like,

no, nothing. And you keep walking and keep walking. And it's making you feel gross. Like you just want to shower in proximity to whatever this strange collection of unnatural forest would be. You do eventually come upon what looks to be a similar archway

to the one that you guys had gone through to find where the vault was, but it is collapsed about 10 feet back in. You can see it is filled with rubble and closed off entirely. You, moving along, find another hallway that continues onward. And as you continue almost the same distance the previous chamber you were in,

you can see what looks to be another T-intersection. Well, I will stay away from that T-intersection until I discuss with the group. Okay. So that dipped out of the chamber, another hallway, another T. I message to Beauregard and say, I found another passage off to the left ahead,

but I'm going to keep moving around to see if there is anything on the opposing side from you all. So I'll exit there and keep going around. You're just by yourself? Yes. You're just by yourself, a little wizard, by yourself, wandering around? Yeah, like, he's super. Do we have like the four and the three?

Sure. But I did tell everyone where I was going. I relay the message. He's found another passageway. Let's head that way. Keep going around, not through the forest. Don't get into it. As you step out of the hallway here,

you look over back towards the forest and feel that same odd draw, like something's over your shoulder. You keep catching yourself, just flinching back. There's nothing there. Continuing around, eventually, you and Fjord meet each other on the opposite end. This is a wide chamber.

The perimeter of it is quite large, too. It feels like you're walking along the outside of a legitimate underground small forest. But eventually, you do meet up and realize that you've, it looks to be almost like there are three exits that would have been from the central chamber, like a Y, if you will, one of which is entirely collapsed,

and the other two you've come across. Okay. You're getting the creepy crawlies in here. Yeah, it feels like we're being watched. Come on, I found a passageway and I called the others, so I'll just double back to meet. Okay. We meet up in the middle. We all eventually gather back at that third chamber.

You come upon the same T-intersection. What do you do? Well, let's try what we tried before. I'll throw up Detect Magic. Okay. See if the same is here. As you throw Detect Magic, you can immediately sense the strong magical field

that cuts off that hallway ahead of you, similar to the first chamber you came across. Okay. Dispel at third. Okay, go ahead and roll a d20 and add your intelligence modifier, please. Pause. Rolled a five. Plus. Ten. Whoa.

All right, unfortunately, as the dispel completes, you guys see a brief shimmer, like someone threw dust across a glass floor, like, and you can, for a brief second there, see the outer edge shimmering of this wall of force like someone threw dust across a glass floor. Like. And you can, for a brief second there, see the outer edge shimmering of this wall of force in front of you. Welp.

Did you do it? No. Can you try again? Nine. Oh shit. What about either of you? You have yours? Yeah, I think. I don't think I used it, right?

I don't think you did. Let me double check, see if it is marked. I mean, I can, I... I believe you did last set. I have a couple third levels left. I'll try it as well. While they're talking about that, can I look at the archway above this hallway

that we're going to go to? Is there a sign or writing above it? Go ahead and make a perception check. Oh, I do have another. Perception, not investigation. That's okay, I already said it. Yeah, you got it. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. That's good, that's good, that's good.

23. 23, and I look up at the ceiling above and you can see the heavy cracks, structural damage that it's taken, but it's still holding okay. The arch design of this makes it fairly strong to hold any sort of above weight. So while there is some structural damage,

you don't feel any immediate danger of it collapsing or falling inward. You don't see any signs of any sort of writing or language at this moment, at this juncture. Was there any words on the outside of the archway like there was on the other archway? That's what I was just checking and he said no. Oh, okay.

Oh, on the outside of the chamber, you mean? Yeah, on the archway, yes. Sorry, yes, you did see writing. Oh, oh. Oh, so you would have seen it because you had comprehend languages. Because I have comprehend. Correct. This says Centurion Quarters.

Oh, this is where our robot came from. Oh. Oh, okay. They have a bedroom? That's nice. Do we want to waste, do we want to spend time here, or do we want to try to get out?

Well, we know that every moment we spend here, the baddies are getting closer and closer. So we should get out and get away. Yes. And the fastest way that we know to get out is through the Forest of Doom, but we're not going that way. We can fly up and over it.

If anybody has spells that can do it. I don't have any left. I do. For all of us? One last, well, I can shepherd us up one at a time. How high was that, the way we came? It was like 30 feet or something, right? It was like 80 feet.

Oh, the ceiling of this chamber where the rope dangled down from that, that was about 100 feet. And we got the rope back, right? No, the rope should stay. The rope is dangling about 20, 30 feet from the top there. Oh. So yeah, we should grab it.

But the top of the tree, well, the top of the tree's ends, the tallest tree that was there beneath it, 20 feet below the rope. But Caleb could fly from the ground level around the forest and up to the rope, potentially. Potentially, yeah. We can get out the way we came.

Okay, yeah. I think we should do that. Yeah. Yeah, I have one fourth left, so I will owl it up, giant owl it up. So we're specifically trying to not touch those trees? Don't touch the trees, up and out. Nothing happened last time that we were on them. I'll be the last one that you take, Caleb.

You're right, we did smash through the branches of some trees. Yeah, but I don't want to touch it now, now that I know what it's like. I don't want to touch them again. Fine with me. I feel like they know us. I don't like it. I don't want to touch them again. Fine with me. I feel like they know us. I don't like it. I don't like it. Are we still going to have somewhere to sleep tonight?

Yes, a very comfortable dome. Okay. That's fair. Up and out. All right, we'll go down. One at a time. I will take Veth first. I mean, I can climb, I can spider climb if you need it for other people, but if we have enough, if you can ferry us, then great.

There's an hour. Then take me. Great. Do I need to do anything to avoid tree or? Not necessarily. I mean, there's enough space between the edges of this chamber if you're ferrying people up one by one to that rope, you could do so.

I will fly Veth all the way up to the very top of the chamber where the rope goes into the ventilation shaft so that she can be there to scout. And then I will go one at a time, starting with Beauregard, Yasha, Fjord, Caduceus, and end with Jester. Okay.

One by one, you manage to, in your eagle form, lift them up and go over this darkened forest below. You have no light source beyond the individuals you are carrying. I cast an owl, so the owl should be okay. Right. So you have darkvision, but I'm saying from a visual standpoint, for those of you that do not have a light source,

this darkened chamber, you are just being carried and guided through this subtle stale wind that the interior of this chamber, this sealed, nearly sealed interior has held, untouched by most for probably a millennia or more. Until one by one, you make your way up to the rope, heading up into the broken decline where you guys had originally descended

into the ceiling of this chamber. Before I leave. Mm-hmm. So we're going to get to the rope, and I'm going to assume you have to drop your form. You're talking to me, yeah. I mean, if you want to get up and out of that tunnel, you can't go up through as an owl.

It's a tight tunnel. Caleb recognizes the look in her eye and onto the rope. So the two of us are hanging from the rope, yes? Yep. That forest needs to be destroyed, Caleb. I don't know how much magic you have left, but I have one high-level firestorm left,

and I want to use it. I don't know how much magic you have left, but I have one high-level firestorm left, and I want to use it. I don't think we need. I assume I'm, because I would have been waiting for this. Well, no, if you want to wait at this point, so you're waiting at the edge? I would probably be in the tunnel because this is a conversation I would have wanted to be a part of.

Okay, so you would have been on the rope and waiting for someone else to go above, because they're currently hanging from the rope. Oh, okay, so yeah, I'm not there yet. Never mind, that's fine. He said we wanted to destroy it. I'm just going with what we talked about. Definitely thinking about it, yeah.

So what are you doing? I mean, I could, but you know what you're doing. Okay. Get ready to move, I guess. I don't know what these trees are going to do. Wait, we haven't gotten everybody out yet. Everybody's, I'm assuming we're the last ones. Everybody's gone up the tunnel.

Hanging above us or in the tube. Is it easy to climb up the air conditioning shaft? Wait, there is a rope, right? There's a rope, you guys still have it fixed. I'm going to just slowly start moving. As you guys are all making it up there, I will say, with all of you all at once, like in succession, heading up the rope,

I mean, well, you're not all in succession because you've been ferrying them up left and right, so yeah, no, there's no worry. Continue. You're going to go under this rope, yeah? Yeah, of course. So go up above me. Okay. I'll come up quickly. Mm-hmm.

And I'm going to cast 7th-level... Napalm. Firestorm. Yeah! Into the forest below. You have Firestorm? Yeah. As you stand there holding onto the rope, just on the lip of the bent metal shaft

that you had all climbed down through, you glance down, clutch your Symbol of the Traveler, and look down at this extremely malevolent space beneath. and down through, you glance down, clutch your symbol of the Traveler, and look down at this extremely malevolent space beneath. And with a nod, you watch as this circle of bright, radiant flame just suddenly burns and travels beneath the canopy. It's almost like this burning ember of an underlight.

And as it immediately bursts up, you see flames begin to catch and swell and expand. This is going to be a raging forest fire very soon. And with that, smoke begins to rise up and you begin to climb up. As you get within this chamber, partway in, climbing to meet the rest of your friends who are all currently up

in the laboratory chambers where they're awaiting you. You hear this sound. No. This faint, echoing screeching, this but dozens of them SAM and LAURA grunt. But dozens of them, shifting and screaming. Horrible. You don't know what they're coming from,

but they're shrieks of fear, pain. Who knows? By the time you finish that thought, you catch yourself coughing, because this domed chamber that currently holds a forest fire is now pumping smoke directly into this tiny flue

that you are climbing through. We're all idiots. So as Chester and Caleb begin making their way up, immediately you guys are standing up there waiting for me. You just watch black smoke start pouring out. You guys start pulling the rope and helping them up and eventually you drag them back out. How long did your spiritual guardian last for?

A long time. Yeah, eight hours. It's still floating there, this radiant image of a celestial, translucent warrior in curled leaf and vine armor, this faint greenish glow to it, this feathered crown upon this not-quite-their head. Yeah, weird, crystal-y thing. Mm-hmm.

Oh, yes. No head. And eventually, you all manage to catch up into this chamber. Caleb would've, just to rewind a second, would've waited at the edge of that entrance and watched, and the firebug he is would have just stared at it all until the smoke overwhelmed.

Until I pushed your butt to take it up! Absolutely, absolutely. All righty. As you all reconvene, you knowing exactly what transpired, and you feel however you feel about that, there's that quiet moment as you all begin to hear those dozens, now almost hundreds,

of screeching voices echoing, and the reverb giving this weird, discordant resonance to the sound of something, something dying. They weren't going to be saved. There was... This was closest to kindness. That was not okay.

We should go. No. You all take a beat. Look about the surroundings and begin to continue your trek out of this portion of the fallen A Eoruin. We're going to take a break. We'll be back here in a few minutes.

Good shit. Wow. What the fuck are those? I don't know. I want to know. Was it the trees? Oh, it had to be. Or something in the tree trunks? I know, those trees were alive.

Trees were alive and weird. They were like, they were weird. They were weird. Alive at some place. Ooh. You can, can you take your Spiritual Guardian? Can it come with us? I'm just going to cancel it once we're out,

once we're at the entrance of the, I'm just going to make our traces go away. Oh, okay. Okay. Minus the black smoke port go away. Oh, okay. Okay. Minus the black smoke port. Yeah, we're definitely gonna be seen. But nevertheless, we'll see you here in a few minutes.

Oh, hey there! Laura Bailey here to tell you all about the glorious goods we create inspired by our stories. Our stores are filled with the basics like character-inspired t-shirts, dice sets, and pins, as well as more specialty items like fancy jackets, puzzles featuring gorgeous artwork, the comfiest joggers and pajamas ever, and much, much more. There's also a few special items that support charity efforts, like our dedicated Critical

Role Foundation merch. You can check out all of our regional online stores by visiting the Shop tab on critrole.com or head straight to the U.S. store at shop.critrole.com. Every purchase helps support our shows and the stories we tell. Speaking of which, let's get back to the story. And welcome back. So, as you all had just finished ascending the subterranean duct that led to the now burning forest

beneath the laboratory, you all took stock of a successful delve thus far into here, A2. And now you stand in the center of this quiet, darkened, half-collapsed laboratory chamber where behind you, not but 20 feet, there are numerous large liquid-filled glass tubes where living beings occasionally twitch from within.

What do you do? Keep going. We keep going, we leave. Okay. You all head back down the long hallway, eventually curving over into the chamber where you battled the cherub-faced lure abomination, its body still on its side there, the smell awful in the chamber

as it's expressed whatever it needed to in death. Ew. Expressed whatever it needed to. It's feelings. Yeah, it's feelings. But you head to the opposite entrance portion and that door is now back out of its wedge where you previously found it upon arriving.

It's out of its wedge, meaning someone moved it? Oh, that's right. It impacted and slipped out of its mooring and it's locked. We got that's right. It impacted and slipped out of its mooring and it's locked, right? We got to get through it again. Yeah. The screen door. Should we try to just get it back up again? Yeah, let's do it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ready? One, two, three!

Okay, you both can roll or one of you can roll with advantage. Let's both roll. Let's both roll. Smooth. The way I'm rolling tonight. Guidance. Guidance? Oh, never mind. Oh, I guided you. Oh god.

You guided me? Is that true? Oh, never mind. Oh, I guided you. Oh god. You guided me? Is that true? Nope, nope. I guided myself, I'm sorry. No, I... Hopefully you guided well. I didn't help you, did I? Nope. 11.

13. 13. You both exhausted, sore from the series of battles you'd suffered and climbing up from this subterranean space. It is not moving. In fact, it's more wedged now than it was when you found it, and it is locked at an angle. Part of its mooring is slightly cracked and off-kilter. It's not moving.

Caleb, do you want to show them how it's done, you and me? Good idea. Come on, boys. We'll assist you. Yeah, do you want to show them how it's done, you and me? Good idea. Come on, boys. We'll assist you. Yeah, come on. Let's go. I will assist you. Because you've done so much. Hey, Fjord.

Give it a go, you can do it. Okay. You've been doing your reps with Beau. Lift with the legs. Yep. That's my part. What, that's it? Here we go. We both roll.

All right, both of you guys roll strength checks. I pass Nott's flask over to Yasha as we watch. That's good, that's good. Where the hell did my d4 go? There it goes. Made about what you'd expect. 22. Oh! Okay. All right, Zane, it's 13.

You did better than I did. Natural 19. As both Caleb and Fjord get downed, fingers beneath the wedge and they strain. 23. The exhausted women who had just attempted it before themselves, taking a heavy brunt of this initial work. Veth, you are surprised to see the statuesque figure of Fjord Stone

flexing, his muscles bulging, lifting this as it creaks, slides into the mooring, then lifts itself back up, the previous doorway closing behind. Well, clearly we loosened it for you, but you know. I'm saving that mental image for my sketchbook later. That was amazing. Did you strain anything? Did anything tweak?

I think I gave myself a new hernia. Like, a new hernia. I got one hole to match the bulge on the other side. Yeah, I just go and I give it a little pop back in. Yeah. That's good. Right as rain. It's warm, we should go. Spreading.

I see you've been doing your reps with Bode. I can see you, stronger. The inverted sit-ups, A+. Yeah. All right. Proud of you. Slowly, you all return to the, no, head through this chamber, heading towards the opened doorway that you had originally pulled forward

to expose this chamber, and you head into the cold subterranean opening where you had first descended into this. You can see the ground itself still covered in a layer of rubble and shale and ice chips. Is he in here? Ivar? Ivar? Ivar? You don't see anything. Ivar? Ivar! Ivar? You don't see anything.

Ivar? And there is no light from above, by the way. Night has come. I'm lighting. Ivar? You're out. A little bit of fire in my hand. Ivar? It's us, you can show yourself.

There's a slight pause. Hello. Hi. Sorry, I was hiding. So, everything went well, hopefully? Well, we didn't find what we were looking for, but we feel confident we're going to find it at the next site. Oh! Make a deception check, please.

Has Caduceus ever had to make a deception check? Patrice. Fuck. His shit. Oh my god. Nine. Ah! Oh! Nine. Oh my god. Nine. Ah! Nine. He just stabs you, you know. Ow!

There's a reason I don't do this! He just goes, huh. Yeah. Very well, then. Did you have any luck coming upon my comrades? Oh. Oh, that we did find. Just to make sure,

maybe describe them? We saw some fallen bodies down there, and we can't be sure they're your friends. You see now his eyes look extremely untrusting. The combination of reading a lie out of the gate and not finding his friends, you can already see the math in his head going, and he just begins to step back a little bit. Did we take anything to prove?

Oh, yes. It wasn't us. We didn't. We didn't. There was a creature. Like a big baby. That thing that you were hearing. We didn't. No. We didn't. There was a creature. Like a big baby. That thing that you were hearing. Remember when you got scared and you were like, it's a scary noise?

It was very scary. It was a big baby. And your friends came upon it. Make a persuasion check. Yeah. We didn't kill your friends. It was a large baby. Believe us. They are. They are.

It kind of looked like this, and I used Mask of Many Faces to be like, . Is there an advantage on it because everybody else is talking to him? No. Just me? You're not getting disadvantage because everyone's talking with you,

because he right now does not trust you at all. Well, I rolled a one, so. We're going to have to kill this guy. Roll it, I'm not going to. Roll initiative. We're going to have to kill this guy. I am going to go. Roll initiative. We're going to have to kill him. I'm going to pull out the bone from the baby that's still kind of. The what? That I took some of the bones.

Yeah, it's right in the back. This was from the thing. The baby. That's a bone of a baby. It was a bone. This place is weird. Look, just go. Just get out of here. Wait, are you stuck here? Do you want to stay? Yeah, you can't stay here. Look, just go. Just get out of here. Wait, are you stuck here? Do you want to stay here? You can't stay here. You have to go. They're not coming back. We found a half-elven woman corpse.

It's the woman you came with, as well as a few other bodies. They're being digested in the corpse of a giant baby right now. Seriously, you can go down that hallway and see it. But it's dangerous. You risk. There's still some weird stuff, and it might be on fire.

And yeah, it might burn down soon. Yeah. Yeah. This place is fucked! You're welcome to, but we would be remiss if we didn't try and steer you towards safety. Here's the other thing. We know that there are other parties coming here. Right. And it is not safe for you.

Yeah. So, I can see in your eyes, you're having a hard time with us, but we can offer you about as safe a harbor tonight as you're going to find on your own. He starts walking away, and then you hear some shuffling, some movement of something heavy.

A pan goes like, ping, ping, ping, ping, ping. Eventually he comes back with a pack over his shoulder and goes, Wide berth, please. And starts climbing quickly, just skittering up the rope to get away from you all. He is very much not convinced that you didn't kill his compatriots for treasure.

Got any ability to modify this guy's memory? Oh yeah, I just used all my spells, so. That's what I was afraid of, yeah. Yeah, if you want to like. Kill him? Or like tie him up or something, I can wipe his memories in the morning. I just can't do it now.

Grab him, I can wipe his memory in the morning. How far up is he? Can I grab him? Right now, he's about 60, 70 feet. Oh, that's so far. Grab him at the top, Beau. We'll go up. I will say, he's dangerous to us. He could go back to the... Exactly, we need to wipe his memory

before he goes anywhere. He's a witness. Yeah. We got to kill all witnesses. We will either slit his throat or we will wipe his memory. So let me go get him. Is it cool? Let's go get him. I'm pretty sure we could subdue him successfully

amongst the nine of us. I'm not going to hurt him. I go. Inside check. So you're climbing up? I'm following behind him. Like we lie. So Beauregard, you climb up to the top and there's a bit of a lip before it angles, if you recall,

and then head straight up again. You get up to the lip and he's on the opposite end of it and he looks over in your direction, cuts the rope. Oh! That bastard. You slide out and then fall. Can I grab the ledge?

I'm a monk. I am awesome. You're a monk. It is solid ice. Go ahead and make a dexterity saving throw with disadvantage. Wait, oh! Fair. We were so far below that's on this.

In the moment? With disadvantage, oh my god, that's funny. Lasts an hour? That's good. I would say no. One hour, never mind. Okay. With all the trekking. Dex saving throw? Correct, correct.

Stopping for Caleb to cast. Okay. I hilariously rolled two nines, so 19. You literally reach up to try and grab in your hand and grabs onto just smooth, solid ice and just slides off. So I fall. Right, so you do fall and you take... I'm more pissed at this guy more than anything.

He did not trust you all. He got to go first and may have overheard some of you talking about slitting his throat or taking care of him in a large chamber that echoes well, so he cut that fucking rope. Yeah, that's fair. Yeah. 27 points of bludgeoning damage from the fall.

Negated. Negated? As soon as I see Beau start falling. You guys are watching, and all of a sudden, you just see the rope beginning to fall, and Beauregard's plummeting. Yeah, the minute I see that happen, I know she's safe. I'm going to use Message, and I'm going to send a message to Dagen.

Okay. Dagen. Dagen. Dagen! And I'm going to say, there's a guy coming out. Catch him, don't let him leave. It's really important. He's dangerous.

He's going to fucking kill you. I didn't know she was doing that, but as soon as I see Beau falling, I summon the sword and you see it glow and I'll cast Fly and just take off right up. I just slam my fist into the wall and as I'm sliding down, I go, somebody get him as I'm coming down.

Had you not used Fly today? Mm-mm. Okay, then yeah. I can negate 65 fall damage. Just off the top. Yeah. Whoa! Crouching tiger, just gliding like Chalyon Fath. Okay. Dagen responds.

Totally crouching tiger. Okay, let me just make my way over there. I'm a little holed up right now. I'm going to start levitating. Okay, you start levitating. I will fly just like Fjord did, same pose, but way slower. Fjord just flew on like neo jumps.

Shh! Shh! Get him, get him, get him. Okay. 60 feet. Yeah, you Superman up like, shh! And he's currently quickly climbing up. There is, do you have darkvision? Yeah, half orc, you Superman up, like, and he's currently quickly climbing up. There is, do you have darkvision? Yeah, half orc, you do.

So you see, he gets maybe about 40 feet from the lip before you catch up to him. I'll just go past. He's like, huh? Right up top. And just scurries up as fast as he can. I'll just look over the lip and be like, that was very rude. He gets to the top and steps onto it.

Yup, we're back, baby. Yeah, this is good. Clutches his pack in one hand and reaches the side where he has a little short sword and he's like, listen, I don't want any trouble. I don't, I don't. I put the little star, I put the star razor on the ground and I'm spinning it.

Just let me go. I'm just going to go back to Balen. I should go as if we had any ill intentions for you, but you cut the rope on my friends. That was not the thing to do. Sit down. Make an intimidation check. This is how we treat allies.

Yeah, this feels like the good old days. I love it. Oh, 45. Plus 10 to intimidation. He jumps to his death. He goes. We catch him. No, dude. No, stop. I was just hired to do this.

I have no stake in this. I am not trying to hurt anybody, but I'm not about to get killed by- Oh, no one's going to kill you. Look, you seem to have the wrong idea. We meant what we said. Your friends were already dead. We clearly had lots of trouble down there,

but I'm not going to let you leave my friends to their death, let you just run away. There's this crunching sound behind him. He turns and looks, and you see there, just over the edge of the snow, put up Dagen in his combat chair. The axe out in front just goes, You should probably listen to the man, huh?

Yeah! Yeah. You see snow frost in his beard. He looks pretty good. You can see he's pretty good at camouflaging himself out here. He has a separate white cloak that he puts on and the frost that gathers around it.

You can barely see him, except for when he adjusted himself. Believe me, I really don't want to arrange a meeting between you and Sheila, but I will. Just sit. Sit. He sits in the yellow snow that has gathered around him. Aw. I crest the top and land and say,

that was a mistake. You cut the rope on my friends. And I am not going to let that, seems like I'm... That was inspired already. Take care of it already? It's perfect, yep. Okay. Now, in all of that pack that you have,

I don't suppose you have any, I don't know, additional rope, do you? No. No. Right. Did we grab the rope as we were fleeing the smoking chimney that we created? Sure. I feel like we pulled it off. Yeah, you were pulling the rope. Yeah, fleeing the smoking chimney that we created? Sure. I feel like we can do that.

We pulled it off. Yeah, you were pulling the rope, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's true. Oh, good. Who has that? I do! Not either of us. Okay. My friends are going to watch you so that we can all make our way out of here safely.

I'll be back, and I just jump off the edge and float back down using fly. I'll grab the rope, fly back up, and our friends will start to make their way back. Make our way back up. Make our way back up. Slowly, you all get back to the top and it is pitch black out here and it is freezing cold.

The wind is starting to pick up and while there isn't any snowfall at the moment, Dagen, as he starts to notice you all approaching, goes, I think there's a storm coming. Probably some heavy sleet. Let's try and find ourselves some place to shelter up. We're not going to have the good. Caleb's still halfway down the up. We're not going to have the good. Caleb's still halfway down the rope.

We're not going to have the good. I help him. I'm pulling the rope. Wait, we're not doing the tower thing. We can't. We used a lot of energy. We're at a magical deficit, but we could make some, I think the dome keeps us warm, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, we'll be okay.

We have alternate accommodations. We should get away from the mouth of this thing, though. We should move as far away from it as we can. Where were you holed up before, Dagen? He points over and you can see a little ways away, there's a small bit of a snowbank that he had carved out. And it looks like it may have been utilized

to form a snowbank where he can keep his eyes peeled and glance over towards the entrance where you guys were. Was it, maybe we should be a little farther away. I think so. Let's keep going. Plus we can change the appearance to be white like snow, yeah? Yeah. Even if we can get an hour away from here.

Yeah. Ivar, aren't you glad you decided to stick with friends? Look at these conditions. Where are you all going? Somewhere safe. Ballenpost? Eventually. Can I just make my way towards Ballenpost?

I don't think so. You can, totally. Yes, you know what? Let's just hole up together tonight. We want you to be safe. Yeah, wait for the sun. And then you can go wherever you need to go. Yeah, it's just what I meant. This is on me, I'm just really,

I'm just a bad liar. I'm so sorry. I'm not good at it. You're a very strange group of people. I know. Let's get an hour away. Let's get an hour away. Just throwing this out there. What's to say that they aren't watching us right now and we'll know where we camp for the night.

Just throwing it out there. Because when you're scrying on somebody, when you're looking at them, you don't see everything around them. You just see them. So if we're in the middle of nothing, in the middle of snow, we won't likely look. So we should find a place with no immediate landmarks.

Okay, cool, cool, cool. But still post-watch. Sure, of course. That's agreed, yeah. Anything that comes on the horizon or close, yes. Okay. Dagen gathers his things. All right, well, point and direction,

I guess I'll take you the fastest route I can muster. Well, yeah, Dagen, find us the most nondescript spots you can out here. Nondescript? Plenty of that going around, don't worry. And he pulls his lever on the side and you watch as the heavy metallic sled front clicks up into place.

Pulls his hood up thicker to keep heat in. Brustles some of the ice from his beard. All right, get ready. Throws a scarf around the front of his mouth to keep that bundled up and warm, and you watch as he begins to push forward as the little pointed hook parts on the outside of the wheel begin to pull him forward

through the heavy snow and ice, and as you all follow behind, who is watching your new friend, Ivar? Okay. Okay. Okay. You guys trudge on for the next hour or so, following the path of your guide. I'm assuming we've tied his hands, too, and his...

No, no, no, he's free, and I'm actually, I'm going to pull out one of the cloaks from the Bag of Holding and just offer it in case he's cold. He takes it and bundles up even further. So what are you doing out here, then? You're just treasure hunters? Oh, well, complicated.

We're on a bit of secretive state business. We'd love to share, but I think it's safer for you. It's of dire importance. We're saving the world. Fine, keep your secrets. It's of dire importance. We're saving the world. Fine, keep your secrets. It's fine. And just keeps walking alongside you quietly after that. As you guys continue on, there's a certain point, Jester, you hear a familiar voice in you say,

Can I just trip him just once? Well, yeah, obviously. You hear. You glance over and it's just this face full of, almost like a pie to the face of snow, and he's like. You all right? Are you okay? Let us help you up. I saw.

What happened? In the middle of snow, what did you trip on? He looks back. I don't, I thought I saw a... He just keeps walking. The voice creeps back into your ear and goes, Thank you. I needed that.

I did, too. Gotta get it fixed. At the end of the hour, the temperature continues to plummet, and you all find comfort in Dagen pulling you over towards what looks like this stone archway. It's almost like there are elements of rock

that have built up to create this natural arch about maybe 10 feet off the ground, 15, 20 across. And he goes, I think this is so odd, it's not terribly nondescript. You know, either we're camping out in the middle of just an open snow field, or we're hoping to use some of the environment to give us a little bit of shelter.

Since we're not using your fancy wizard tower, this is our best bet to make something that could house all of us. We won't need that, right? I can help us out a little bit. I have a bit of a halfway measure. It's going to be tight. Yeah, we'll be cozy.

Mm-hmm. So I don't think we need to use this. We should do both. Both? Okay. I think so. Okay. There have got to be a lot of ridges and mountain sides here.

Okay. All right, we'll make camp. All right, follow me, wizard boy. He goes and takes you around the side and finds on the opposite side of this, it's leaning over to the edge and there's a bit of a lip to the top, which does offer a little bit of protection, which is good.

It does cut the wind off from this area, too. The wind has been heavily blowing from east to west, in your face, and once you get to this side, it's a little bit to the left of where you arrived, and you're able to block off most of the heavy wind from hitting you, setting up where Dagen has you guys situated. So I'll take 10 minutes to throw up the dome.

Yeah, I have a seat. He sits down. No one is more surprised than me, but I'm going to be the good cop tonight. Here, takevar, have a seat. He sits down. No one is more surprised than me, but I'm going to be the good cop tonight. Here, take this glass jar. Eat one of those little bowls in there. That will fill you up for the night. Have a cat.

Frumpkin appears in his lap and just starts turning circles, nestles down into his crisscross applesauce lap, and just starts to purr as loud as possible. Have a cat. It will make you feel better. I'm going to cast Charm Person on him as well. Okay. Yeah, he does not resist.

And I'm just going to, you know, try to charm the pants off him and make him feel like he's the safest that he's ever been in his whole life, you know? Don't worry, everything's okay. You know, you're probably pretty exhausted after everything. You should just go to sleep. We'll talk about everything in the morning.

No, you're right. I apologize for getting off the wrong foot. I just, you know. Have you been up this far north before? Never. There's a lot of, well, throat cutting, a lot of competition for Alex and being the first to delve the deepest

as people continue to explore further into these places. Some people are crazy. I just, you know, I was not one to trust when you arrived, but when you returned, there was, I don't know, such an air of deceit about you that I assume the worst, so that is on me. I apologize. We have learned to take up a harsh exterior

to better deal with unsavory types ourselves. And this I understand. Yes. If Lucius never lied again. How does a cat live so comfortably in such a cold environment? Well, he is not just an ordinary cat, he is special. Oh.

King of cats. He's a cat's prince, if you will. Is he a king or a prince? Yeah. He's a cat's prince. That's confusing. Yes. Well, thank you, cat king prince. Trompkin just rolls over, with his belly exposed.

And my arms go out like that. And he scratches on his stomach. Do you spend a lot of time out here? Dome's already built. Oh, Dome's already built. We're warm, we're warming up, everything's great? Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah? This far out, not too much.

Usually just to these particular sites. He looks over towards Dagen and Dagen says, No, I'm familiar. We both do similar work, though you've only been here a few months. Isn't that right, little one? He said, Well, yes, but we all need income, right? I'm not as good as he is.

It's okay. You're learning. Dagen goes, yeah, I kept my, kept my employers alive, for one thing. Ooh, ooh. It just gets quiet at that point. But eventually, if you guys need to bed down for the evening. It'll be a long night, I'll take the first much.

Yep. You put the dome up? Yeah. I'm sorry, I thought I made that clear, yeah. Well, the dome lasts for eight hours. You need an eight-hour rest period. So the dome should be put up right when you're ready to sleep. Yeah. So. Well, we're not going to do a lot of talking here right now rest period. So the dome should be put up right when you're ready to sleep. Yeah.

So. Well, we're not going to do a lot of talking here right now. No. So. I'm going to have been petting Ivar's back to help him go to sleep as fast as possible. He's like, what, how do you? Oh, okay. It's not Ronan.

Go to sleep, go to sleep. I'm charming him, too, don't worry. Go to sleep, little Ivar. It's so weird. Don't disturb him. It's not Ronan. Go to sleep, go to sleep. I'm charming him, too, don't worry. Go to sleep, little Ivar. It's so weird. He's just crying. He's like, she's going to kill me. If he wasn't charmed, he probably would be. He's just waiting for the.

Frumpkin is right here, just going. Yeah, I just want him to sleep through the night. Okay. Yeah, he conks out. sleep through the night. Okay. Yeah, he conks out, he's exhausted, physically and emotionally. But the rest of you find your space in here, and when the dome itself appears, and what was the coloration you're going for?

Oh, white. White, okay. Yeah. As you're all settling up, Dagen leans over to you and goes, I don't mean to question your capabilities, but this doesn't look like it's hiding much. You don't think it's going to hide us? Well, from the outside, it looks like the snow about us.

Oh, oh, well, I take that back. It's see-through from the inside. Gotcha. Yeah. snow about us. Oh, oh, well. I take that back. It's see-through from the inside. Gotcha. Yeah. Wizard types are weird. Well, get us back into the tower tomorrow night. Please. It's a nice place.

I like what you've put together there. Do you have any requests or adjustments to your room, or within reason to the rest of the tower? Within reason. What? Let me think on that. Okay. Oh no. I got some ideas.

It's so good. But if you guys want to prepare yourselves for any doings. Just before we sleep, I'm going to mosey over to Beau. Hey, Beau. Yeah. Listen, I've noticed that you, I've been spending some time talking to Yasha a bit more. Yeah, what's it to you? Well, I wonder if you could help me.

She and I are going to have a hangout tomorrow night. And I wondered if you could tell me what she likes to do or what I should do for her. It's just a one-on-one thing that we're going to do, and I thought it might be nice to do something nice for her, you know? She agreed to this? Yeah, she's all down for it.

Or did you invite yourself and force it upon her without any other further? I think she invited me, actually. Mm. But we're definitely getting together tomorrow and I just wanted to do something really nice for her. Mm-hmm. What do you think I should do?

Like a food thing or a drink thing or a flower thing? What? Why don't you start? Why don't you tell me what you have in mind? And then maybe I can critique from there. I don't really know? Why don't you tell me what you have in mind? And then maybe I can critique from there. I don't really know her as well as you, but I just, you know, she's been through a lot. Yeah, hang on, let me sit up a little bit, because this feels like it's going to be a conversation.

Yeah. I just want her to, sometimes I feel like she doesn't feel like she's part of the family, you know? Sure, sure, yeah. Do something really sweet. I mean, you could almost say the same thing about Caduceus, though, too.

You know, I've been trying to make sure he feels included. That's a great idea. Why don't you do something with him tomorrow night to make him feel real awesome? Yeah, you love that one. Yeah. That's a great idea. You know, I, I, uh.

I'll seal that door. Maybe we could circle back around and have a family night at a later time. That's a good idea. Yeah. So tomorrow, just me and Yasha, and then later we'll do a big family. No, no, no. So tomorrow, just me and Yasha, and then later we'll do a big family. No, no.

No. Good night, Beau. Good night, Veth. Oh my god. Good night, then. No. No. Good night. Perfect.

All right, who's taking first watch? I have four. All right. I'll stay up, too. Okay, so you're both taking first watch. Who's taking second watch? I'll stay up for a second. All right. And who's taking third watch? I'll stay up for a second. All right.

And who's taking third watch? I'll take third. You got it. Okay, so first watch. Everyone else is all bundled up in the dome, and it is a very tight camping situation, especially with two additional allies in this space. It's pretty clustered and Tetris-ed,

but you all manage to get yourself in there. Occasionally, someone will shift and a hand will go out of the dome into the freezing cold and be like, oh, that's a bad idea, bad idea. But it's comfortable enough. Both of you stay up and keep your eyes peeled. I'm leaning my head on Fjord's shoulders.

No, more or less. Okay. Do you want to both make perception checks for me, please? Or one of you will do the big one? I will give her advantage. Oh, really? I think so. I only have a plus three.

Okay, mine's a little bit better. Perception? Perception with advantage. Jesus. Woo! 24! Nice, nice. Not too bad.

You both continue enjoying the quiet proximity to each other, keeping eyes out amongst the dark, freezing cold, of which now the storm has blown in. You can see there is an icefall. You can see smashing stones of hail impacting and breaking against the dome above. And it's this faint pitter-patter of

and it's now this droning sound. You're all exhausted and it doesn't wake any of you up, but it's weirdly comfortable. It's like a lulling drone after a time. Yeah. But it does begin to coat the outside of the dome and the ice begins to freeze up and it's starting to obscure visual outside of the dome, and the ice begins to freeze up, and it's starting to obscure visual

outside of the dome slightly, as is the nature of the storm. You're protected, but the icefall is starting to coat the exterior. Might need to tell the others to step outside to take a peek every once in a while. Yeah. I'm not doing it.

No, no, that's why you take first watch. Oh yeah. While we're waiting towards the end of the first watch, can I pull out the tarot cards? Yeah. And I'm going to stare at the blank cards for a little bit and then I want to make a card with Caduceus on it. And I'm going to put Caduceus in the middle,

and then at the bottom of the card, I'm going to put beautiful trees, like a forest that surrounds him growing. that are white and rotten and full of hatred. And I'm going to write at the bottom, growth, and on the inverse, I'm going to call it rot. Hmm. Okay. That's tough. That's tough. That was fucked up in there. Yes, it was.

I hope we can help Caduceus make everything better at his home, too. If he's ready to go back. Eventually. Okay. You finish your wash, uneventful. You go to rest, waking Caleb for the second watch. Caleb, if you can go ahead

and make a perception check for me, please. I will tell him to go outside if you want to look. Oh, go outside if you want to look. It's sort of covered the dome. As you do wake up, it does look like the interior of an igloo. It is just a solid white snow. Top as well. Top as well, yeah.

Yeah, just covered in the night's super bummer about that. Before they fall asleep, I just stick my arm only out through the top to see if I feel cold air or snow. Freezing cold, you do feel air, but it's about six or seven inches before you get to it. Ooh. And when your hand comes out, you can feel the snow fall on your hand.

It is not a blizzard, but it is a snowstorm coming through. Okay, I grab Frumpkin by the scruff, and then I put him under the butt and I go. Out the top. Oh right, he can't leave. Mm-mm. Right, fuck. And just look around to see if there's anything bad

with Pumpkin's eyes. Make a perception check with disadvantage because he doesn't have darkvision. Oh, it'll be terrible. Nine, probably. You feel pretty confident, there's no problems. Okay. That's not a shitty way to say it. Okay, he's never failed us before, so I think it'll work.

All right, good night, get some sleep. Good night. Do you think that you would snuggle? I'd be leaning against him. Lean against him? Yeah. Okay. So then I would just sit down and take Frumpkin into Caleb's lap,

and once they're dozed off silently, just a little recognition. I scoop Frumpkin up onto my shoulders like a scarf and just look out through the hole at the top and wait and pass my time. Okay. You finish your watch. And completing that, you wake up Caduceus

to take final watch. Big guy. All right. Actually, will you lift my cat as high as you can up through the dome? All right, that's fine. And I hold his arm and look around like it's a submarine periscope. Submarine cat, yeah.

Turn your arm around a bit. A catascope. At disadvantage. Ooh, 14. Okay, at the end of your watch, as you're transitioning over, you don't see anything that catches your attention. All right, thank you.

Okay. With Caleb going to sleep, the rest of the interior of this is quiet, except for the occasional bout of snoring from, well, probably a combination of Dagen and Yasha. The cold weather has been rough on your nostrils up here. But in order to take a watch, you'd have to push through some of the snow.

Well, here's the question. How tall is the dome? 20 feet, right? Is it in a 20-foot radius? It's wide, but it's not super high. It's not a circle? I want this to be real. Just, right?

Yeah. Those cupcakes that you can get. It's a 10-foot radius, so it's a 10-foot. It is, yeah. 10-foot tall. So I'm just going to take a step forward until my head just peeks out of it. Okay.

So you step forward. If I get cold, I just lean back. You just go face first into a pillow of snow. It is freezing cold in your face, immediately going numb, trying to brush it out of your face, and it tumbles down. And some of the snow above the dome,

as you push through, slides down and begins to bury over the top a bit until eventually you push it all off of you. You eventually carve through and you look like a person whose face hit a cake. You're just all over. Eventually, you look out into the darkness around you. You do not have darkvision. No.

So make a perception check disadvantage, please. And I'm actually going to give myself, just going to be hitting myself with some extra mojo. Terrible for me, 14. 14, okay. It's hard to see with both the heavier snowfall, the cold temperature, the wind blowing, and the lack of any light source in the vicinity.

Glancing about. Don't see anything. The closer the sun gets to us, the more I'll be able to see stuff. Probably, yeah. So about six hours into this, keeping your eyes out, the light begins to shift ever so slightly since you guys did get a late start before resting

into the evening, and eight hours of full rest are needed before you can complete your rest and get the benefits of it. About six hours into it, the sun begins to rise and a little bit of light comes to come through. It seems that the snowfall has lessened. The heaviness of the night storm has passed over and it's more just a gentle flutter,

but it's still left a soft powder around. You push through and glance through the snow. It's that beautiful early sunrise coloration begins to carve through. The gray sky breaks a bit, and you can see that orangish-golden hue that's rimmed with red just breaking over the distant mountains.

You take a deep, cold breath of morning air and glance about and glance over there and you see, sitting in the snow across the way, a purple-skinned figure with horns sitting there. Looks like he's taking the dirt out from under his fingernails and his heavy furred cloak and looks up. Goddamn it. Ah!

I was wondering when you were awake, Ian. I've been awake. Oh. I just sort of was busy. Just, this is nice. Snaps his fingers and you see, shifting around, a few other figures that have been settled around this dome.

Is the dome still up? The dome's still up, yeah. It's just his watch now? It's just him poking his head out of it right now, pointing to his watch. Ah, it's a nice sunrise. I agree. We're going to take a moment and appreciate it together.

Yeah, give me a minute. Sit down. Hey, we got a problem. Does this mean we don't get a long rest if we? You have not completed a long rest. Oh shit. We got a short rest though, right? Shit. I'll see ya. Okay. Oh yeah.

I hit my long rest button. I did too. I did too. I think I can undo it. I don't remember what it was. I did, too. I did, too. I think I can undo it. I don't remember what it was. I mean, I think I remember. I know what I had and what I used. Damn it. Son of a bitch.

I was at 88 points. All right, I'm going to stand back up. As you peek out, you can see now, Lucien's leaning against the dome. Most of the snow's been kicked off and it's to your side where your head pokes through and he's looking over at the sunrise and smiling. I needed that.

Occasionally you get a good pretty one, in a lot of ways, but right now, it's worth appreciating. Yeah, it was a rough day yesterday. This whole landscape is made of rough days. It's got its moments. How was your day yesterday? Exhausted. Not a lot of sleep, you know, when you're trying to

catch up to some folks that seem to be overachievers. Well, they're industrious. We've never technically met before, really, by the way. I don't know if you know that. I don't think I've technically met most of you, just the blue one. Well, I don't have any previous experience

with anybody who looks like you, I suppose would be how I put it. Oh, right, right, yeah, the weird period. Don't worry about it. Well, it occupies a lot of the thoughts of my friends, but not me. For the record.

So did you go down there? Didn't have to. Apparently, you all found what we were looking for and went rushing off. So twice now we've changed our trajectory, trying to keep up with you. Really? Where were you headed? Well, same place originally.

Oh, you just had a... There was a lot of discussion about that, so. Yeah. Not going to lie, kind of impressed. Thank you. But. That means something. You've all not really had much of a meal, not slept.

No. I think it's time for a discussion, if you don't mind getting the rest of your friends up there. Oh, they're getting up. Good, good. You know, no sense making a thing of it. What's your deal? You know, I had an answer to that a couple days ago.

I don't know anymore. I got some ideas, but I'm not sure. Does that make sense? Ambition, but no direction. Ambition's a big word, I suppose. Direction, but confused ambition. I don't know, not even ambition, that's weird. Confused ambition, would you call that curiosity?

I'm trying to figure out what kind of fruit I'm supposed to grow, if that makes sense. Strange analogy? Well, I'm supposed to, I think I'm supposed to do something for this world, and I'm just not entirely sure what it's supposed to be. Maybe our paths aren't too far off anyway. Hmm.

People are people. Hmm. Oh. At the very least. If you want. Yeah, as soon as you guys are ready, we should eat. Hey. If we just keep resting.

Just keep sleeping? I mean, I know it'll be hard, but could you meditate? And some of us can stay up. I don't mind staying up and talking strategy and stuff, but if you guys, magic-y people, want to keep resting? Meditate and rest, it's okay with me.

I'm okay to stay up. Your dome is about to go, right? I don't mind staying up. Two more hours at the dome. That's a long time away. Unless he dispels it or does something else impatiently. Well, what is he going to do if he can't get in the dome, right?

So why not? Why not just say hello? Unless, we don't know, but. He got all those damn eyes. What if one of them flashes and it's like. You're right, yeah. But we can try. We can try.

We can try. I only need a short rest. I can stay up. Yeah, I. I only need a short rest. I can stay up. Yeah, I can be okay with a short rest. We can strategize while you meditate. Here's the thing, they can hear you guys. The dome is not soundproof. Well, speaking of Thieves' Camp. Nope.

It's not soundproof. There is a layer of snow around most of it, except for where Caduceus and Lucien have created. I do know Halfling. Created Taliesin angels in the snow. I guess you would call them. You know Halfling? She is a halfling. Yeah, okay, okay.

Yeah. I mean, I can stay up too. And they're just sitting on the literal outside of the dome, like outside of a tent. I'm standing in it. They're just waiting there, he's leaning. I look at Veth and I say, in Halfling. Keep sleeping. I'm going in it. They're just waiting there, leaning. I look at Veth and I say, in halfling. Yeah, keep sleeping.

Keep sleeping. I'm going to keep sleeping. Do you think he understands halfling? I don't know if he understands halfling. What if we could test it? I'll tell you a joke or something in halfling. Okay. If he laughs. Then we know. Then we know. What if it's just a shitty joke and he doesn't know?

Oh, it's going to be a shitty joke. Digging deep into something. You have jokes written down? I do. Of course you do. From my hideous laughter spell. I have one that I wrote down maybe six months ago. Okay, ready?

In Halfling, I'll say, what did Captain Tusktooth say when he forgot how to captain the ship? I don't know, what did he say? Long time, no sea. You don't hear any reactions. For one reason or the other. Though you do hear a mild groan from a voice you don't recognize on the other side of the outside or the other. Though you do hear a mild groan

from a voice you don't recognize on the other side of the outside of the dome. One of them speaks halfling. One of them speaks halfling. Successful technique. Okay, okay, okay. That's right, because didn't you have a halfling? One of them is a halfling. We should have known that. Okay, okay.

Does anybody want me to say anything, or am I just going to go out and... All right, am I just going to go out and, all right, I'm just going to go out and let it go. You need to keep resting? Don't rest! I've been up for... But do you need your other rest? Like, do you need your other two hours? Technically speaking, I would have hit my point,

because I was taking the last shift anyway, so would I have hit my... I know it's very... It's a bit fiddly because the idea is it's eight hours of rest. It can be spent on watch, but not in conversation. But it's still an eight-hour period of rest. Yeah, so I can't do anything for another two hours, as long as I just chill.

Well, you can do things, you just don't regain all the spells that you would have. Yeah, unless, yeah, so. Unless you chill. I mean, it'd be weird if I weren't out there. I wouldn't go out there. We've been talking. No, we just want to wait. Just want to wait it out.

What are they going to do? They could do a million things, like Fjord said, but I don't know. Yeah, we could just try to sleep, and then if they, then we're out there with them. I'll stay up, I'm good. You want to let him know, or? I'll let him know.

I mean, hey, sure. I don't think he's going to go for it. No. I guess we could just, you know, it just feels rude. I don't know. Rude? I guess we could just, you know, it just feels rude. I don't know. Rude? I dipped my toe into the world of deceit and ill intention and it did not turn out well.

Yeah. Now, I knew I would pick up some bad habits with you all, but this feels like a step too far. I feel like I've wandered too far off the path. Well, we've picked up plenty of good habits from you, so it balances out, yeah. It's a give and take, but. I know they go and they wake a-whoa. You hear another voice come through.

It's like, they're rousing, they're rousing. Be patient, eat your jerky. Don't want any untoward behavior unearned yet, Zoran. Zoran? Do we know that yet? Yeah, there's one named Zoran. Oh, that's the goliath, maybe? There's... I only have Lucien Cree.

I shuffle to the edge of the dome, pop my head out. Tyfield, Cree,ree Zoran Otis. And Lucien. Lucien, hi, good morning. Oh shit, go on. Morning. If you could just give us a little bit of time, we're going to brush our teeth,

maybe brew some tea. Gak turns around, looks towards you, goes, Oh, I'm sorry, you're all resting. You have a nice night's sleep. Yeah, I mean, we would like to continue our rest unless you're in some sort of astronomical hurry. Of course, of course. Well, we're happy to wait here for a bit.

I figure, you know, we've only trudged through nights in the dark, trying to catch up to you and your group for grabbing the thing that we were after. Grabbing the thing you were after. Well, you all got extremely, how do I put it? Eager to not walk the path I left for you, instead cut us off at the pass. And you know what? I appreciate initiative,

but unfortunately, I can't say that we're really in a mood for waiting that much longer, so. And you watch as the eye on the chest flares bright for a second, and the dome vanishes, all the snow falls on top of all of you. It was Ivar, he did it! It was his idea! What?

Who are you? What is going on? Who are these people? I tried to tell them. Well, Lucien, from my memory, or at least where I come from, invitations are suggested. You can take them or you can leave them. So while we did not follow along the path.

We're covered in snow, we're waking up. That you laid out for us. We'll stall for two more hours. Seems like it's a free tundra, right? I didn't know. And you made no claim of this crest, so I'm not entirely sure what you're so upset about.

I'm not upset. Do I appear upset? Yeah, you do, considering you and your men have surrounded our campsite in the middle of the night after trekking through the long, dark night. To me, that feels like someone who's pretty upset. You see a vein bulge on the side of the head for a second and one of the hands closes before he takes a breath.

Yeah, see that? Well. That vein? Yeah. So my question would be, what purpose did you have in acquiring this? Did you acquire it for us? Maybe we did. Well then, that would be a gracious blessing upon us all,

doing us a great favor. And for that, we would be very thankful. We were hoping it would be a surprise when we met you at Aeor. But I guess we could talk about it now. Or you could let us sleep for two hours, and then we could give it to... It's fine. Let's have a conversation, and when that's done,

you're welcome to continue sleeping, having your breakfast. You can go about your merry way, or if the hooks are in you, there are more answers or you walk. But nevertheless, you took something. Where would it be? What makes you think that

we're going to disclose that information? Well, you said you got it possibly as a favor for us. I think this is a fantastic chance to show that you are indeed a friend. Someone who's been wanting to learn, someone who's been wanting to see what most eyes are not capable of seeing. Oh, Lucien, we've seen a lot.

I wouldn't underestimate how much we've seen. I can guarantee there's some things you've never seen, dear. He says, and as he says that, all the other voices finish the sentence with him. Oh boy. Just got to stall him another hour and 55 minutes. Plus, it feels like there's so much.

The Snowflake, it is so complete. There's so much room to cover. I mean, aren't there, what, five, six of these excavation sites? You've visited everything and gotten everything you need. We're on the cusp. A brief journey. I think it's quite fortuitous

that our paths have converged in this way, as you've helped us now on two occasions. We just figured you were going east. We heard of locations that were further northeast from that site where we first met you, and we just figured we'd converge in the middle at some point. Have you collected everything that you need

from those locations? So far, at least the things that we need from the outside. Everything else lies within the actual ruin itself. Did you not continue where... Nope, never mind, taking back what I said, nope. What? Did you say that out loud? Nope, that was Marisha saying Beau did not speak. Smooth criminal.

What's weird is, though, I don't understand why we need to give this to you. No, just tomorrow. You know? Tomorrow, tomorrow. I know I am, but what are you? You know, because it seems like finders keepers out here, on Eiselcross.

No? Perhaps. You're right, you found that. And now we found you. So the law would say, under these conditions, that perhaps you're ours for the taking. Wouldn't that be right? Yeah.

You could pick a fight if you really wanted to, but you have to. I'm not here to pick a fight. I'm here to ask for something that I was after. And I'm giving you the opportunity to be a friend and help us. It's true that we haven't, you haven't shown any aggression to us

and we haven't shown any aggression to you so far. So it's probably best if we keep it that way. You have concealed some things from us. We asked you lots of questions last time we met and some were not answered. Well, you hadn't yet proven that you were on the up and up. As you can imagine, there are a lot of people here who would be curious about what we're doing

and would be eager to put a knife in our back. So I assumed, if you were indeed curious, if you were wanting to learn more about the Eyes of Nine, then you'd follow. I was surprised that you seemed to have a bit more gumption and get up and go than we were expecting. Well, I feel like we wanted some insurance. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I mean, we are curious, you're right,

but we're also, we have some experience and we know that curiosity doesn't really get you anywhere on its own. So now we are curious and we have a little bit of leverage. And so I think we're okay with a conversation. As long as some information is shared on your end, we'll share some on our end and we'll see where we get. He pulls this black, jet black metal scimitar

out of the sheath in the side and plants it in the snow in front. He leans on it, arms crossed, hands in front with the chin, resting on the tip, looking forward towards you. He goes, Leverage, well, that makes this a negotiation. You know what I want. What we want. What we want.

What do you want? I would say what your ultimate plans are. I mean, after all, if we're to be at the table and to play, we have to at least have a card, and now we do. So you said that if the hooks are in, we could continue and see what this is all about. Would that mean our next stop is Eor? That it would be. Well, I, for one, am very curious

as to where this is leading to, and frankly, what it's all about. I wouldn't mind traveling a bit further. Knowing that you've hit all the rest of your stops, we can't seem to be of any further service to you in expediting your cause. And well, I think we'll all be safer be of any further service to you in expediting your cause, and I think we'll all be safer traveling in numbers,

don't you think? Although this poor chap, I think he's had enough. Yes, Ivar? He's half buried in the snow, trying to not be seen, and is like, Hi. And just disappears even further under one of his coats. You glance around and you cannot see Dagen.

Interesting. Good, good. That's fine. Yeah, exactly, good. I mean, I can't speak for the others. They have baggage, but I... Hey. You do. Yeah. Fair... Hey. You do. Yeah. Fair. Fair. Thank you.

I just feel a little safer just having something going forward. I mean, I appreciate what you've been trying to do. I've just been, I feel like I've had probably more polite people betray my trust in my time outside of my home, so. Have I betrayed your trust at all, I ask? Not yet, obviously. You've been, you've been.

But you're the kind of person that waits for someone to betray their trust all the day as long. I'm learning to expect. It's a sad way to live. Well, I'm learning to expect a lot of things out here. And it is, it's unfortunate, but I figure it's going to be a lot harder getting what you want if you have to figure out how to get it once we're all gone.

And honestly, you seem pretty convincing, so I really don't imagine that once we've had a couple of conversations that you're not going to get it in the first place. Well. So why wait? Why not wait? The thing that you have is not the only one of its kind. It would be far more convenient for us to have it now,

but should you not wish to, we can find another. So let's eat. Let's talk about it. Indeed. So, what is the trade, then? You will give us the stone. And we tell you what it is we're after.

No, I don't think so. I don't think that has the right weight to it, does it? I think it's more like we come with you and you inform us, as much as you're comfortable, a little bit about what you're after and what you expect to happen. See, the thing about having one piece of a puzzle is, yes, you could go find another,

but it just might not fit right. So you really do need our piece of the puzzle, and I sure would like to know what the whole picture looks like, or at least get a hint. Make a persuasion check. Damn, that's good. Damn, that's so good. Ooh, natural 19 for a 24.

Oh, yes. Wild magic, butter. Lucien leans back and goes, Ha, ha, ha! Fuck you! And as he looks towards Fjord, Caduceus, you swear, you swear that the eye tattoo on the side of the neck seems to turn

and look in your direction. Gross. And she goes, Well, boys and girls, it has been a bit lonely traveling out here alone. Are we against having a few more companions? No, particularly. Wouldn't be too bad to have some more knuckleheads to toss some laughs with, aye?

The halfling looks up and goes, Yeah, yeah, sure, more friends. We could take more friends, aye? The elf looks back, initially curious at the group, sure, more friends. We'll get tight, more friends, aye? The elf looks back, initially curious at the group, and goes, Well, sure, why not? Could be fun. And Cree is leaning behind Lucien,

just looking at all of you with this very stoked expression, and goes, Whatever the Nunes says goes. Lucien goes, very well. Is that one coming? Points over to your new gnome friend, Ivar, who's now not visible beneath the snow. Ivar's like, no, no, no, I'm going back to Balan Post.

Works for us. I'll still, if I'm not, if we haven't gotten a rest, I can't do it. Fuck. It's the least of our worries at the moment. Yeah, that's true. We could give him the stone for two hours of sleep. Let us sleep for an hour and 55 minutes

and we'll give you everything you want. I mean. There are times in my life where I would've been like, that's a fair move. Yeah, I've been there. Take it. Take it. Take anything, let me sleep. I mean, we're not sleeping, man. We're holding still and listening to all this shit.

I'm trying so hard to keep my eyes closed. I guess we can let Ivar go. Ivar, are you going to be okay crossing the tundra by yourself? Only for an hour. No provisions. I can travel faster just by myself. And I've done this as a job for quite some time. So I'll be fine. We're only an hour away.

Just remember, we're good guys. These guys are not. We protected you from them. TBD. Yeah, just let it, let it. Make a persuasion check. Goddamn it!

One. Oh, eight! Oh lord. Where is short halt? Is that a hand-culling pirate? Ivar's going, Okay. He's already leaving. He's like, pack on his shoulder, like, oh, okay, all right, y'all, travel safe. Bye, already leaving. He's like, pack on his shoulder, like, okay, all right, yo, travel safe. Bye, Varr.

Yeah. This one sees all. I make my face look like his. Ooh. Wink. Change back. So then you know. And he just turns around and starts trudging into the snow in a southward direction.

You see Lucien's watching and goes. That's what I know best. Lucien raises a finger over towards the halfling, goes, Thank you. Do you need? No, he's fine. Very well. Well then. Good.

Y'all look a bit tired, and I think we can use a bit of rest. Finish up, have some breakfast. Then I guess we'll be on our way together. Yeah, that sounds nice, actually. Bit more sleep, some food? Yep, yep, yep, actually. A bit more sleep, some food. Yep. I think we've got quite a bit to talk about on the road ahead.

And that's where we're going tonight. No! How did he find us? No! How did he find us? I guess if he's seen us, he can scry on any of us, right? It's because we slept near the thing. Oh my god, we're going to get two more hours sleep.

Do you know what that means? It means brunch with the devil. I'm so excited. There's a lot of things someone can do with a fraction of your blood. Oh, that fucking cat! Has our blood. El gato es diablo, I told you. That blood is not long ago!

It's gotten bad by now, right? Right? You got to refrigerate that. Oh, it's cold. Well, we're cold out here. Son of a bitch. Well, it's a blood cleric. They got all sorts of tricks, even beyond what the player.

I have been getting my body fresh. The slice. Yeah, I know, I know. All right, well, we'll pick up from there next week. Oh, next year! Next year, that's right, yeah. Yeah, oh my god. Next year in 2021. May it be a better one.

May it indeed be a fucking better one. Oh man, that went to weird places. Okay, let's see what traveling with the, the Nonagon is going to be like. Oh man. Maybe we'll get to do a group combat against something. It'll be like a bonding experience. I just really, we've never quite gone up against another adventuring party.

They're pretty stacked. Yeah. It's not like a foe or two. He's got weird tricks. I feel like we could check out some of the side buddies, but not him. But not him. Legit. Yeah. Yeah. There are nine of us, though.

It's going to give and take if we do that. And we are mighty. Yeah. Indeed. But we shall see what that looks like next year. Oh! It's too far away. I know. Thank you all so much for following along with us. Have very happy holidays, all of you,

and a happy new year. Of course, we'll see you in the new one. Enjoy, know that we love you very much, and is it Thursday yet? Good night. Yeah! First one's first! Thank you for listening to this episode of Critical Role.

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