Critical Role - C2E122 Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

Episode Date: January 28, 2021

With secrets and mysteries ever growing, the Mighty Nein must navigate the rising tension between themselves and their ersatz allies as their travel to Aeor continues...Watch Critical Role live Thursdays at 7pm PT on https://www.twitch.tv/criticalrole

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

Hello everybody, and welcome to tonight's episode of Critical Role, where a bunch of us nerdy-ass voice actors sit around and play Dungeons & Dragons. We play Dungeons & Dragons! That one, all of that. Before we get into tonight's episode, we do have a few announcements to get through, beginning with the first of our two sponsors,

NordVPN. Sam. Control-Alt-Good-Day, fellow netheads. It's me Blackwillow69 at AOL.com And Cryptonic Override

It's been a few gigaflops since we've had to hash out our hacker haptics because the world wide web has been totally safe Yeah It's thanks to NordVPN providers of the highest quality

encryption for your internet traffic that hides your IP and physical location, go to nordvpn.com slash critical role and use code CRITICALROLL at checkout to get a two-year plan plus one additional month with a 70% discount. But yeah, like Kryptonic Override said, the Ultra Codex has gone into cyber hibernation. And the threat level is once again, midnight. So today, we're going to do something fun and take the cast on a VR tour of hackerspace, courtesy of our friends at NordVPN. Is everybody ready to jack yourselves live on camera? Wait, what?

Sure. Sounds super fun. All right. Okay, let's do it. Getting ready to supernova the Wonderwall. Connecting Miami to the sound machine. Running Harry Protocol on the Hendersons. And we're in the mainframe.

Whoa. Okay, this is kind of cool. So many Angry Matt key videos. Where in the internet are we? This must be Bernie Wallach's Vimeo. This is dope. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Now we're somewhere else. What is this

strange writing? Iraglyphics? Aramaic. It must be my mice base encounter. Wow, it's really old. Ooh, well let me see if I can hack into Brian Foster's porn collection. Wait, what's that bright light? Uh-oh. Wait, wait, wait. Travis!

Watch out, Travis! No! No! What's wrong? light? Uh-oh. Wait, wait, wait. Travis! Watch out, Travis! No! No! What's wrong? Oh, no. Travis has been technoblepped by a high-tension 64-bit nanovirus. What in English, Regal? Is he dead?

No, no, no. He's just frozen. He can be rebooted, but only by the Ultra Codex. It's back! Everyone, quick, jack off! Everyone, jack off right now! What? He means unplug. Unplug, unplug, unplug. Okay.

That was a closed-loop NordVPN guarded internet. There's no way the Ultra Codex could have infiltrated it. Unless the Ultra Codex is here in this room? That's impossible. Is it? Quick, what do we know about the Ultra Codex? What clues do we have? is here in this room? That's impossible. Is it? Quick, what do we know about the Ultra Codex? What clues do we have?

Well, it's super powerful. It worked with a serial killer. And it called Matt that really weird, specific nickname, remember? Yeah, yeah, yeah, you latex dork. You remember that? Uh-huh. Wait a second. You latex dork.

Let me key that phrase into our NordVPN manual override de-scrambler. Oh my God. If you de-scramble it, it says Ultra Codex. That means that Matt, you're the Ultra Codex? Oh. So you finally discovered my secret. But it's too late. I fragged Travis's body and won't defrag it until my demands are met.

Why is he laughing? You monster! Keep it still, Travis. You monster! What are your demands? I'll tell you. The next time NordVPN sponsors this show. Ah, damn it!

Well, I guess we'll have to wait. Protect yourselves from cyber attacks and avoid bandwidth issues with NordVPN. And Matt, as much as I hate to say it, hack to you. Thank you, Sam. Intrigue. Big, get that.

Travis is still frozen! Oh no, that's just in the skit. Travis, you're fine. Okay, there we go. My face hurts, I got cramp on the right side. Nothing in the Nordiverse, once the ad is over, we reset. Oh, okay. Yeah.

Time stop. It's like, this part isn't reality. Restarting the computer, I got it. Exactly. Thank you, Sam. Don't fuck me on dress camera! Look at me, look at me! Look over here! Look at me! All right.

Thank you, NordVPN. Our second sponsor for the night is Skillshare. So for those who aren't familiar with our friends at Skillshare who are sponsoring this episode, they're an online learning community with thousands of inspiring classes for creative and curious people to go ahead and learn all sorts of new skills.

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Yeah. Couldn't have written that. This would be a graphic at the bottom saying, Yeah, follow the graphic. Follow the graphic. If I'm wrong, follow the graphic. That's not for the paper. Also, starting tonight, we are broadcast, broadcasting, we're broadcasting Critical Role Live

on both Twitch and YouTube channels. But still the best place to participate in the live experience is with our community at the Twitch channel itself. As per usual, tonight's VOD will be available right away on our Twitch channel, and this episode will be uploaded to YouTube as VOD on Monday at noon Pacific.

So no changes there at all. Everything's good to go. Laura, you had some announcements. Hey! We are excited to announce our partnership with a WizKids. WizKids! Which does high quality miniatures

from our very own Exandria that you can place within your own world that you're creating or exploring. Our first, oh gosh, wow, six box sets of premium printed, painted, nope, premium painted figures will be available this spring at local game stores across the world, you guys. But for a peek at the miniatures included in our first offerings with WizKids,

check out our announcement on our website at critrole.com. I think you mean critrole.com slash one, one, two, Tilda, one, seven. Russian E. I'm super excited. Minches. Yeah, it's going to be awesome. As you know, I've been a fiend for miniatures

for, oh, going on like 15 years. That doesn't track that. You didn't come across it all? No, it doesn't. I'm sorry. Well, for those who didn't know, going on like 15 years. That doesn't track that. Didn't come across at all? No, it doesn't. I'm sorry. Well, for those who didn't know, I like minis. And I'm super excited for you guys to check these out. It's been awesome. All right, I think that's it and that's all.

So without further ado, let's go ahead and jump into tonight's episode of Critical Role. Shut up and dig up, and dig up, and dig up. Tonight's episode of Critical Role. The adventure begins They were always beside you Your nerdy best friends And the DM to guide you And they rise from the flames

For the battles ahead Villains beware Cause you're about to be dead They got magic and flair They got 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 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 have been making their way across Eiselcross, the frozen north, trying to outdo the Tomb Takers

in the retrieval of the threshold crests that they are carrying towards the ruins of Aeor to some sort of nefarious purpose, you assume, deals with the Cognouza. So after convening with them against your will, you've been traveling with them in an odd, tense social environment. You traversed the lava river

that cuts through Eiselcross magically. And before the second to last day of travel came to an end, you made some conversation. You made an offer to perhaps read and help Lucien with some of the book that he is apparently unable to completely unravel. You went and plotted a bit within your tower, discussing different possibilities

of turning events into your favor. Lucien, however, did knock at the door, wondering what you were all doing in this strange, extra-dimensional space. After a brief bit of miscommunication and a door slammed in his face, he canceled the tower and left you all out in the frozen snow for another night of not as comfortable rest.

Fetch. As you all took a moment to adjust to your unfortunate fortune, Jester decided to go ahead and offer a tarot card reading. Lucien, intrigued, sat and accepted. And after an oddly poignant series of pulls, it had a series of unexpected effects on Lucien before he, mildly unnerved, stood up and walked away. So, as you all now adjust to the coming freezing night here in the frozen tundras of the north, you watch as Lucien returns to the campfire,

not but 30, 40 feet from where you stand. What would you like to do? How do you do this again? I guess. Why, we just did this last week. I guess we need the dome, then. Yeah. Okay, right where we had the Farmore Plush Tower,

I suppose. Are we good to have a little bit of space? A bit of space, sure. Okay. Slap the book down on my lap and begin to do the thing. It'll take me about 10 minutes. As you guys are all putting around and building a bit, you can see the fire that they've situated on the side

and they've heated up some sort of liquid and begun finishing up their meals, Lucien looks back over to your space and goes, Now don't be pouty. You're welcome to come sit by the fire. Share a drink? Sure. I've never turned down a drink before.

I'll join. I'll join. I'll watch. All right. All right. All right, so who all's going to the fire? To the fire, yeah. All right. I stand next to Caduceus. Okay, yeah. Yeah, I'll go over. He says. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, that's it. Yeah, I'll go over.

What's your drink of choice? Well, he looks over towards Zoran, who you can see has this leather-wrapped cask of some kind that he keeps shoulder-to-side. We're a bit low on the interior heating provisions, but we have a bit enough of the strong stuff to keep spilling about.

He goes ahead and takes some and pours it into this, what looks like a metal, a heavy cauldron, if you will, like a small portable cauldron, and begins to add these spices and elements. It's less of a drink and it's more of a mildly alcoholic stew, if that makes any sense. That sounds really gross.

Mold wine with protein. Yeah. I know. Is there meat in there? I want it. Or what? There's all sorts of things that we were able to gather. Mustard. Let's just say it's mustard. Things we were, if you have some mustard,

you're welcome to add it if you like. I don't have any, do you have any mustard? I do, I think that'd be a terrible idea, though. Fair enough. Well, if you like some. And he goes ahead and points over to Tyffial, who begins to take this large ladle and is expectant if you had any bowls or cups or something to...

Yeah, pull out my canteen. Sure, we've got jangle jangles hanging on our belts and stuff, right? There are a couple cups in the bag I'm holding. I think we have at least four or five. If anybody doesn't have one, I'll toss out three cups. I imagine it's like Rin Faire. We all have one on our hip.

Yeah, you all have your casual travel cup, if you will. It is a curious slop that you can see is designed primarily for function, not for enjoyment. And the bit of an alcoholic tinge it has is more for interior warmth than any sort of buzz. It is not... It's a unique flavor. It is the Vegemite of the travel world.

Oh! But as it slopped around, Lucien glances amongst you all, a half-cocked grin. No hard feelings. Of course not. No, why would there be? I think it's just simple miscommunication.

We're learning how to communicate, I think. Right, right. Well, since we're all friends around here, who's got a story to tell? It's quite dark out here, and enjoyment entertainment is hard to come by. Do you spend a lot of time on the sea? Me, not particularly. Not in a long time. Well, I have a giant Leviathan snake creature chasing me

every time I set out on the open water. No shit. It's true, yes. Apparently I made some sort of a bargain and I have had a hell of a time untangling myself from it, let me tell you. Well, not every day you meet someone who's being pursued by a sea creature.

That's very true. Oh. Good thing you're not far from the water, are you? Are we far from the water? For now. Good. Just, we're traveling east. Don't go too far east past the mountains. Yes, of course. I know what's over there.

No tails. This is very chunky. Right, it's meant for chewing. I'll have another. I'm not driving. I'm not driving. What about you? I mean, you've obviously made incredible progress on your mission, your goals. Is there a terrible immediacy on your part?

Any sort of a clock or another interested party you might be trying to, I don't know, arrive before? Well, I mean, there was one I was a bit concerned about, but that was taken care of. Ah, yes. At the moment, there's no rush beyond just taking pride in the work one does,

and let's just say a bit of impatience for those goals. Tenacity. Frumpkin pads up through the snow to the circle and just sits and begins to turn from speaker to speaker, listening as you guys talk. Frumpkin, come sit in my lap. Frumpkin.

I take it you know about goals? Goals? We do, we do. Are you all just wanderers? Do you have particular things you're trying to accomplish? No, we all have our own unique set of goals. Some of them we've made progress on and some we're just wandering around,

hoping that they'll solve themselves. Right? I'm mostly fine. I think there's a story in you somewhere. Well, probably. I feel like I've been writing my first story for the last while, and I don't know if it's finished yet. I've spent most of my life at home. I got the feeling.

Hmm. Speaking of your story, Caduceus, do we know what corrupted your woods yet? Did we solve that? We do not, actually. I mean, there's been thoughts in that direction. I mean, I assume there's been thoughts in that direction. Why didn't you want to investigate

the corruption in the woods, in the ruin? It was different. It felt different. How can you be so sure? Even if it was different, it could provide answers. Hmm. Maybe. I suppose for the same reason that it's one thing to find the bones of something that died a long time ago versus walking up to something

that's still gasping, so you don't know what's still around. It's not the best metaphor I've ever had, but what happened to my home was slow, took time. still around. It's not the best metaphor I've ever had, but what happened to my home was slow. Took time. Was just death. Or at least that's how it felt. And down there, I don't know what that was.

Has the corruption been happening since you were born, or did it start after? Started before. Started before. Started before. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Started before. It's been slowly eroding over

decades and decades. Maybe a collection of wise minds, like a Somnovum could help solve that problem. Somnova? Well, yeah. help solve that problem. Somnova? Well, yeah. Isn't that what they're called? It's certainly possible. Huh. I genuinely haven't thought about it.

How much do you know about the Somnovum? Huh, me? You? Not particularly much. How much do you know about the Sum Novum? Huh, me? You. Not particularly much. Seems to, well, you know, my husband is a scientist, and so he studies the root names of things. Novum seems like nine, maybe, could be.

So I don't know something about nine in there. That's all I kind I gleaned. Now, where would you get a strange idea of nine being important? Well, you know. I think you're teasing me. I think you're right. Some of them are strange.

Well, strange is the wrong word. Some of them are mad. They're mad like crazy mad or ah? More of the former. Oh. Absolutely batty. Brilliant, though. Quite brilliant.

Beings, a being? It's hard to find the right terminology. Dreams and imagination. They have power over matter in the Astral Realm. And when the greatest imaginations become one and only know suffering over a thousand years. That builds into an extraordinary being without focus. Unstoppable force driven by instinct.

That's dangerous, right? But those with imagination. The things I can imagine for them. How about you? Is that what you think you're bringing to it? Focus. No, I'm asking you questions now. What would we know about that, though?

I'm asking if you have imagination. Oh, well, sure. Your goals, your future, the things you want to see, the changes you want to bring. Well, there's been a lot of strife between the two nations on the continent. We've definitely tried to help them heal and bring peace to the world. That would be a nice direction to focus the energy

of your wise friends, I guess. That's a very noble cause. I would like to domesticate unicorns. Frumpkin just goes. For like breeding and racing, or milking, or? Keeping as pets, you know. Cool.

Lucien tilts back and goes, Perhaps not quite as noble, but equally respectable. Thank you. How about you, Angelblood? Me? What depths of your imagination? Angelblood is a cool nickname. You can't call her that.

It's pretty funny. Uh. Can't call her the name Little Bad Brat. Just. I think I have quite an imagination, but I don't fully know I have quite an imagination, but I don't fully know what my goals are yet. That's okay. Would you want to discover more about your lost time?

Hmm. Yes and no. I forget that you don't know a lot about me already, but there's a period of time But there's a period of time that I lost, and I don't know how long it was, and I don't fully know what I did, but I know it probably wasn't all good.

Maybe it's best left in the past. Sometimes I think that. Well, maybe you're just not ripe yet. Maybe a goal will find its way to you in time. There's no rush. Yeah. I take it yours is to cut free this terrifying sea serpent that wants vengeance?

Actually, I'm enjoying sort of him being on my tail. It at least gives me an idea of where he is. Better the enemy that you know than the one that you don't, yes? True to that. It's more like wanting to close the book on him on my terms. I think I have the ability to do that as well. Just take a few more steps.

All right. What about you? What are my goals, or do I have an imagination? You've asked a few questions. Goals take imagination. Yes, or do I have an imagination? You've asked a few questions. Goals take imagination. Yes, they do. So, what do you imagine your goals to be? It's interesting.

Kind of at a point where I've achieved a lot of my larger goals. Now I'm just following open doors. This being the latest. Hmm. I think this will inform my future goals pretty heavily. Fair enough. You said you're setting your story.

Well, you asked what I wanted, and I think I figured it out. I want to change a heart and a mind and save a soul. Just one. Oh. There's a lot in the world not yet discovered, and a lot of possibility yet to be harnessed.

How about you? I'm not there. Oh, that's right. But. He says to the cat. Then he hears, only he, in his ear, hears, you seem to know a lot about this entity. What makes you think you could bend its power

to your wishes in the first place? Only Lucien hears that? He's using the message spell. He responds. And the cat is from Jester's lap, it's just like this. You hear the response, though all the rest of you just see him staring at Frumpkin. Why is he staring at my lap?

You presume much, Broody One. But I see a lot of curiosity in you, too. Perhaps we're more alike than you'd think. There is much I would like to do with my years left in this world. You see him break his eye contact with Frumpkin. Where does your imagination lie? I've got a few ideas.

Some of them vengeful. Some of them curious. Some of them, I don't know. Wild. Did the Sun Nova make you nervous? wild. Did the Sun Nova make you nervous? I did at first. But I've met them, truly met them once.

I don't know, it feels like we're family. Do you think you can control them? I don't think I can control them? I don't think I can control them, but I think I have something to offer. You want to be a part of them? I have some ideas to be mutually beneficial. You said that they were mad. Do you consider yourself to be mad? Well, I think it takes a bit of madness to truly unlock the imagination.

What could they possibly want? Can't even imagine. Well, continue along with us. Maybe you could ask him yourself. I was curious your opinion. Do we know how old he is? Have we seen him? Yeah. I don't think so. You don't?

Well, this has been a fine bit of conversation, but... Hey, all of you look a bit knackered. I appreciate the comfort. Hope you enjoyed the, what would you call this, Oryn? He sits there, chewing something heavy, and his jaw goes, Shit. For his meal. Rest well.

We'll be up early in the morning. A lot of traveling to do. Dream well. You too. Thanks for the chowder. Thanks for the shit. Thanks for the shit. Thanks for the shit. I didn't really touch my cup,

so I'm going to bring it back for Caleb. I didn't realize we were talking about larger goals, you know, like life goals. I just thought we were talking about things we want. I never knew that that was in your... I mean, I think it would be cool. I don't know if it was in what I was searching for. Sounds amazing! Pretty good idea. Like, as a business? Or...

Who knows? I think it would be great. I think, I don't know if I even want to do it. I just want somebody to do it. Have you ever seen a unicorn? Yeah, I see. Of course I've seen unicorns, obviously. Like, really? Yeah. I thought. Of course I've seen unicorns. Obviously. Like, really? Yeah.

I thought they were rare. Well, I have the gift. Oh, you have to believe to see them, right? What is this? A child's fairytale? I don't know. I've never seen one. How did you see these? Have you seen a real unicorn? The Traveler has shown me many things.

I didn't know. I didn't, I didn't... I don't think I knew that they were real. What do you guys think I talk about all the time? Fake stuff? Uh-oh. No. No, they're real. They're super real. Okay. I think it would be pretty cool

if they were domesticated. What, do you think fairies are fake, too, you guys? No, no. Those are clearly real. Fairies are real. They're real. Okay. I've never seen a fairy either, so. Fairies is one thing,

but a protruding growth on the head of a horse, that's just madness. It's a horn. It's a horn caduceus. It's just weird. I don't think that's possible. Neither man nor nature. What would you have told him, though, if... I don't know. Get your mom and dad back together.

That's what I'm thinking. Want to go back and tell him? No, why would I tell him that? Well, we were sharing personal things. No, I'm not going to run up to him and go, hey, I want my mom and dad to go back to dinner. Remember, the last time we shared something, we shared a vial of our blood

and that did no favors for us. No, you don't have to stand outside of the dome. You can come inside of the dome. Oh, hi, Caleb. Oh, yeah. Here's your patch. White-colored. And your shit. What is this? It's delicious. Shit, apparently.

Chewy shit. So good. Not as warm. Oh ho ho ho ho ho ho! I'm a bit bothered by one thing. What is it? Well, now I'm bothered by another thing. What the fuck is that?

Oh, God. That's just math. The man has asked us, like, three times our goals as a group, and we sort of dance around them every time. We sort of have an amorphous idea of what we're doing and what we would like to accomplish, and that's more or less just stopping

whatever the hell he's doing, but... You also have to wonder why he's even tolerating us being around. Can I share a crazy conspiracy theory that I just had when we were talking to him? Yes. Feeling like you're going to. I don't think this is true, but, you know, I think a little bit of you have rubbed off on me.

I love it. I'm seeing everything now. Give it to me. Num, num, num. All right. So he was talking about the Somnovem. Somnovem. Yeah. Oh. A littlem. Yeah. A little quieter. Yeah. We're talking quieter now.

Okay. Or can you do the... He was talking about the Somnovem. Novum. Somnovem. He described them. He described them as a collection of individuals who together were much more powerful than they were apart and that they were aimless.

He's also told us that we have a particular role in whatever this ceremony thing is that he's going to do. So my conspiracy theory is? We're the bodies. We're the Somnovem. We're the Somnovem. That's my conspiracy theory. We're the Mighty Nine, the Nine Eyes.

We need one more, though, if Molly's going to be one, too, Lucien. That would potentially answer my question, which is why haven't they tried to kill us yet? Well, we already know that he wants something to do with us there, or else he would have. I hope my Selmno Novum is super hot. Wait, wouldn't it just be you?

Or, I mean, you're... Well, I guess that's true. I hope it's got the hot personality. Oh, okay, okay. Hot on the inside. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's what you mean when you say hot.

Yeah. I like that theory. Yeah, they need bodies, and we're the bodies that they're going to go into, but they're not, because we're going to stop this from happening. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. How many of them are there? Five.

There's five. Oh no, what if he doesn't need all of us? What if Somnovem get to pick which ones they like best? You think they're going to pick them over us? Look at you and look at Otis. Look at you and look at Otis. Look at you and look at Otis. Come on. You glance over across the way and see Otis in there.

Come on. Which direction is Lucien looking at the moment? Lucien is across the fire, but looking in your direction. Yeah, so there are no secrets here. Hello. Did he react? Sometimes he doesn't react to us, sometimes he does. You can make an insight check

to see if you make any sort of flinch or reaction at this distance. Okay. Poop, 15. 15? Hard to see at this distance. He does have the campfire on his face, which is helpful, but you're far enough away to where you can't quite see any sort of flinch. I mean, that makes sense to me,

especially considering he is a proxy himself, right? And he's already been several different people, I guess. I don't know how this shit works, so. Yeah, he said he met them once. I don't know how this shit works, so. Yeah, he said he met them once? What do you, and you were like, I'm assuming when he was fractured in pieces in the Astral Sea, and was just floating around.

How old do we think, did he exist before Mollymauk's physical form, and he just took that one over? Or is Mollymauk thousands of years old? I don't think so, because it doesn't seem like Lucien was really keyed into this whole thing until he discovered that book when he was with the Tomb Takers. Right.

It feels like that was his big turning on point of this whole Somnovem situation. Then who was he before? Was he always Lucien? And then the Somnovem came. Yeah, was it Lucien, Molly Lucien, or? Like Lucien, Molly. Lucien, like normal bad guy, right?

Then the thing takes place. Lucien filled with a lot of other people bad guy. Well, it was Lucien and Molly at the same time, because it was a fraction of Lucien that found its way back to its body, and then that grew. Didn't Cree refer to him as Nonagon when we first ran into Cree?

Which would make one think that it was Lucien Nonagon or Lucien slash Nonagon, then Molly. Right. Lucien, maybe. Born Lucien. They performed a ritual. He became Lucien nonagon. Spiffing your title. Totally.

Things happen, another ritual gets fucked up. Nonagon Lucien gets taken away. Little particle Molly stays in body. Yes. Stays with us for a while. Uh-huh. But still a piece of Lucien. Yeah. Right. He's in there.

Unless Molly Molly, that portion died when Molly died and then old Lucien came in and now he's missing the one good part that he used to have, which was Molly. How do we get that part back in him? I think that part is in him. I think it's just, he's the perfect case study for if you harbor and foster the good side of somebody

as opposed to indulge in the worst side. Although, I mean, not to speak ill of the dead or anything, but like, Mollymauk wasn't all good, right? I see so much of Molly in Lucien. That's what's trippy about it, is you can see that piece of him. I don't think it's so much good and bad, it's more id and ego and superego.

I think that Mollynch perhaps is Lucien's. With your psycho and a little bit of gore. Look, sometimes a tiefling is just a tiefling. Sometimes a cult leader is just a cult leader. We had a squirrel back home that... I like this story. Yep. Me too. We had a squirrel back home that lived in a tree

that was just outside the furthest old walls of the grounds. Did you feed it corn? Oh, we didn't have corn, but we did feed it nuts. Oh, that's good, too. And he was adorable, he was hand-raised, very tame. And then one day, turned, got mean. Did he get rabies?

Well, that was what happened, yeah. What is this story? Wait, what? Story is, sometimes something from outside can get into a person and change them, just change them utterly. And that thing, you don't know how old it is, where it came from necessarily, but it is,

it's not that they stop being them, they just start being something else that may be older, may be darker. So Lucien is Molly's rabies? Yeah. I think Nonagon is Lucien's rabies. Lucien's rabies. Yeah. What a crazy phrase. Essentially, it's fucked.

Essentially. Cool. And I find myself wondering if Lucien truly discovered the Somnovem, or if they discovered him or chose him. And I just assume he's listening to me. I think they discovered and chose us. Well, I think that is true, but. Why don't we just ask him right now?

Kind of are right now. You want us? I don't think he can hear us. I do. Stick our head out the dome? Invite him in? Maybe tomorrow when we're, I don't know about waking people up at this point. I also, I don't know about the rest of you. I need to sleep.

Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to send a message. To? Lucien. Okay. Wait, will it work? Why not? Are we in like a magic-free dome?en. Okay. Wait, will it work? Why not? Are we in a magic-free dome? No. Oh.

This is not how it works? No, it's just uncomfortable, though. Wait, it doesn't keep all magic out? No, it can keep creatures out if he wants it to. I didn't know that. Things like that. We're not as safe as he says we are. No! My braille's history compromised.

I thought we'd been completely safe this whole time. It's like a level two spell. Oh god! I've been sleeping naked! It's not even a full sphere. People can burrow underneath it. You know, it's just a little doll. I've never done that, so.

No, I think it does have some defensive capabilities there. It sure does. Yeah, been a little bit since I remember that, but. It's temperature controlled. And also, rules as written, I have come to read that it does have a bottom, but ours doesn't, because ours doesn't. Oh. Interesting.

Is it like a ball, and the bottom half of it is just underneath? Is that how it works? I don't know. Magic. I like it upside down bowl. Yeah. Just a bloop. Yep.

I'm sending a message to Lucien. I'm gonna send a message. I'm gonna send a message to Lucien. Go for it. Were you born as a baby, Nonagon? Or were you baby Lucien and Nonagon came in? Just wondering how it works.

You see him shift his head slightly across the way. And then. I peek my head out of the dome and look him in the eye while I'm waiting for the answer. He quietly responds to the spell, though it comes to you. It's like watching somebody who's calling you on the phone, but they're just around the corner.

Yeah. Slight delay, it's a little weird. And he goes, Well, I've always been Lucen. The Nonagon just was the next path I discovered. Cult leadership. Oh. Oh. Okay.

Okay! Sleep well! You too! Or don't. He was a baby. He used to be a baby. You know, like Lucien baby. So Lucien baby, then Molly, then Lucien.

Oh no, I don't know about that. Lucien baby, found in Nonagon. It wasn't like, it wasn't, what I'm saying is, I don't think it was like, like how the beacon works, you know? Where like the souls come into the body right when they're born and they discover it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

He just self-actualized somewhere along the road. He read a book and he was like, that sounds like a cool title. What was that, Vorgard? I'm just throwing shade. I want to hear your shade. He said he read a book and he picked a title. Yeah.

I think there is a certain amount to this in which whatever he found in that book, so much more would be clear if he wouldn't let us read it. It's probably some element where he had to be open-minded to let the Somnovem in, right? Like, a little bit of column A, a little bit of column B, someone who is willing to hear voices from the Astral Sea.

I don't know. We are talking about something very great, something very beyond the ken of knowing. It's a good theory, though. What's our plan for tomorrow morning? Are we supposed to just hike towards, are we going to number one now?

Is that it? We have what we need? We told Essek we were on the way a while ago, but yes, I believe we're going towards A1. Gosh, and then there's Essek. We're going to be trying super, super buddy with Lucien tomorrow so that you guys can take a look at the book. We've got like a day left.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That should be our mission tomorrow. No killing anyone, no trying to subvert the other members. No, okay. I gave him a tarot other members. No, okay. I gave him a tarot card reading. Yeah, how did he take it? He seemed bothered by it.

I was watching that. Did you see his hands shaking? It twitched at the word rebirth. Yeah. Did you fake it or was it a real reading? Obviously, it was super real. Yeah. Obviously. They was super real. Yeah. Obviously. Come on, Beth.

Let's remember that. He's superstitious. Oh, we just say the word rebirth and then we strike. Yeah, it's like his code. Ah! Ah! It'll make him just fire his magic just a little bit off. Gosh, it's so frustrating

because we just need a little bit more info. So does he. I feel like we're at the cusp of what we know. So does he. He keeps rambling about dreams, too, and he's like, oh, I don't sleep, but I dream. And also the Somnovem are dreams, but also people, but also maybe just one of them. Well, he knows quite a bit,

but I think like Mollymauk, he's a bit of a flim-flam man. And we're in a game of chicken here. Caduceus, there there something to say? Oh. Somewhere out there. What are we doing with this threshold crest? We were having a conversation about if we try and teleport away with it.

Now we're being super, super quiet. Is there any way? To even move quiet. This is all super quiet. Is there any way we can make sure that our continued survival is attached to whether or not it's accessible? I mean, if Caleb's theory is true,

the threshold crest really doesn't matter, does it? Gatekeeper and the Keymaster. Yeah. I don't think that's what he's after. Well, I think we really have two options with many different variations, but they are slaughter them now or follow this road to the end. Because we either want to stop them

from achieving whatever it is they're trying to do, no questions asked, stop the end of the world or whatever we think this means, or we're curious. I'm not curious. I'm not curious. I know I don't want to see what they can do. I don't want it.

But I also kind of like him. I know he's a bad guy, but it almost feels like if we say the right order of code words, then we can turn them back into Molly, you know? Well, that is one vote or argument for following this to the end, because stop them now,

that's not really part of the equation. But even if we walk towards this big question mark, there is a chance of that. You mentioned saving somebody. Hmm. I did. Talking about him? Of course. Yeah. I thought you meant me.

No, you're fine. Yeah, I am. Anything from your people? The last time I checked in with them was when we got the details, I think, about the root words of Somnovem and whatnot. I don't think I have any lingering threads there. Do I, Diem?

With the kobolds? They're continuing to look and research into it, but. No dangling participles. Check in with them maybe in the morning, or maybe tomorrow night, if Jester has a few spells left. Actually, we could burn them now if we. Yeah, I can check in tonight. I can't remember if we checked in this morning or not,

but there could be a lot more information in 12 hours. I'm trying to remember. I think it's been a few days. Maybe I stressed the urgency. Do you remember who I asked, who I checked in with? It was head honcho Udallafon. Udallafon. Udallafon. I wrote it down, too. I'm going to send a message to Udallafan. Udallafan. I wrote it down too.

I'm going to send a message to Udallafan. Hey, Udalla. Did you find anything else about all this stuff that we asked you to search for? This is, I'm with Beau, by the way. You have six words. Tell her I'm waving. Gross. Tell her I'm waving. Beau's waving.

Them. Tell them I'm waving. Beau's waving. Them. Tell them. Tell them I'm waving. Beau's waving. And? She misses you. We are looking into it. There has been

some information on Aeor. A longer conversation. Oh, come on. Come by and we can share. Oh! You kidding me? Ooh. Oh no!

Oh no! Can't put that shit in writing. Yeah. It's fine. Beau can go back and we'll just keep going with Nonagon. And then I get back how? Well, if the information is that good, you'll know how to get back.

Get back, we can share. That doesn't make any sense. No, it doesn't. You're not jumping back from that far away. I punch things I cannot teleport. Even with help, though. It's a little precarious. You could come back cut in half.

You could come back with a unicorn horn. Which would be awesome. Which would be really good. Think about that damage you could do, Beau. A unicorn horn would be pretty good. That would be really great. Not that it you could do, Beau. Unicorn home would be pretty good. That would be really great. Not that it comes to it, we always have the emergency ripcord.

Yeah. Yeah. Ah, preparing it every day. What's the emergency ripcord? I'm not just saying it out loud. Okay. You're right, I should remember. Yeah, you know.

You always, you never forget. Nope, I got it right up here in my jaw. He's like an elephant. Larger con always, you never forget. Nope, I got it right up here in my dream. He's like an elephant. Roger Convo, please come by. It's been a whole week since we played, and I'm trying to remember. Every Thursday. Every Thursday. Just a week.

I'm trying to remember such a long week, seriously. I took growth hormone. Wasn't there armor that I have not identified yet? Wasn't there armor that I have not identified yet? I identified that rod, but there was magic armor. The rod. Oh yeah, I would love that. Which I should say, we've met Elk Antler, man. I would love to clean up any of that that we need to do.

I remember what the rod did. It was just a platinum rod, right? It wasn't even like- Well, the rod was identified. It was a rod of fear, I think. I have to remember. It's been a long week. But there was leather armor.

What was this? In our journey a week ago, there was leather armor, like in the... A Wand of Fear. I do have that. There was a Rod of Fear with a property of a Wand of Fear. Okay. The leather armor, you have it? Did you identify it?

No, I don't think I did. And I don't know who was in possession. I mean, we are in possession of magic armor, but I can't. Oh, wait, wait. I wrote down something. Or maybe we did identify it, and I just don't remember, but it's bouncing around my head. I wrote down, wait, wait. I wrote down something. Or maybe we did identify and I just don't remember, but it's bouncing around my head. I wrote down, wait, what is this?

I have armor from Zana. Who's Zana? Yeah, Zana was the leader of the team that had headed into the last ruins that you found the corpse of. Oh, so we haven't identified that armor. Is that the armor that you're talking about? But it wasn't magical.

There was some, I thought. Maybe I'm misremembering, because again, it's been a week. Indeed, I'm looking that up right now. I'm going to go through my old notes. I bet Dani knows. Yeah, it's Black Dani. If only we had a Dani. Is someone slagging Danny?

I want to remember, though, because we detect magicked everything, and I had like a half magic. No, no, I believe you. I'm just going back to the... Basically, I'm asking you to have anything. Okay, yes, I have it. So would you like to? Yes, I'll take 10 minutes to identify.

It is a set of studded leather armor that has a fairly strong defensive property, an abjuration-based protective property enchanted to it. The equivalent of what would be plus two studded leather armor. Whoa. That's good, not for me, but. That is really good.

I can wear that. Yes, you can. Who has low AC? They can wear it. We're all pretty powerful at this point. Sure, but who's got the lowest? What's your AC? 18? You probably don't need to sit with it, right? I imagine.

Is it attunable or none? It's attuned, yeah. Attuned, okay. Oh, wow. Well, there it is. So, any other business for the evening or do you wish to rest? Let's rest, let's rest.

Yeah, rest up. We've got stuff to do tomorrow. Just because we were taking a vote, I vote we slaughter them now, just to make at least one in the other column. Everyone else wants to see it out, yes? Okay. Oh, is he the only one? I want to see where this goes.

I mean. I mean. I mean. I like to give more opportunities for things to go well. True. Ah, I'm the opposite. I want Nonagon to be my rabies. All right, my chemical romance. Oh.

I'm curious. Yeah? Yeah. I want to see where it goes. And also, I feel like we can save him. I don't know if that's very naive of me to think that. I don't think so.'s very naive of me to think that. I don't think so. It's okay to have hope. Yeah.

Give them a rest. Yeah. It's tough. It's easier to hate somebody the less you know about them. Facts. Yeah. Yeah. You want to fax somebody? Yes. All right.

All right, let's go to bed. Good night, all. Okay. Caleb rubs his temples, slaps his face a couple of times, and just turns into a golden retriever. That's new. And walks over and just slumps down next to Veth

and just goes on his feet. Stinky dog breath! Chin on the feet. No. Oh, do I have to give him some scritches? Hello, hello. Hello. I go over and I give him some.

Yeah. Oh, scritch. We'll co-scritch. Co-scr some. Yeah. Oh, scritch. We'll co-scritch. Co-scritch, perfect. Don't lay on your back, Caleb, that's weird. No, he's presenting himself. I know. He's presenting himself. Caleb's flashing everyone.

It's super great because about an hour later, while sleeping, he just suddenly back into Caleb. Foot to face. He continues to sleep on Beth's ankles. Fair enough. Sleeping foot. The Zoom takers have watch up and about. If any of you would like to take watch, or if you're trusting them to keep watch, that's up to you.

Oh yeah, we should keep watch. I'll take first watch. Okay, go ahead and roll a perception check, Yasha. Okay. Go ahead and roll a perception check. Okay. That would be 21. Yeah. Nice. You do see on the peripheral, it looks like some large shapes begin to cross somewhat near.

You can't quite make out what they are, but you can see Zoran and Tyffial end up leaving the fire and going off after it. You then hear these muffled sounds in the distance. It's like these elephant-like sounds. And then you hear These elephant-like sounds. Then you hear.

And you, they must have scared off whatever was wandering too close by. Then they return to their campsite. But beyond that, no other issue. Okay. Second watch. Oh, well, there we are. All right, two of you, perception check.

19. Hmm, that's probably better than me. Yes, 17. No. Okay. Relatively uneventful, though the snow does pick up a bit through the night and begin to gather on the dome, which begins to clear out visibility quite a bit

as it begins to enclose the dome in the soft snowfall. You glance over, you can see the faint embers that are the only point of light in the lightless black sky and ground around you, other than just the glance of Lucin just sitting there looking across in your direction, keeping watch, still staring. But uneventful. Third and final watch, who's taking it?

Sure, okay. All right, Caleb, go to moral perception check for me. Can Frumpkin help me? It never goes well. Sure. But it's a help for me. Oh, a natural 20. Oh! Nice, nice. The dome is covered in snow,

so you would have to reach out and clear it off a bit to give me some room. This is how Frumpkin helps me. There you go. I periscat him out. There you go. Periscat? Periscat. Yeah, that's a whole other question.

I don't think that means what you think it means. Caleb has a handstand and... Oh, she blows. Okay. The more I think about it. Tub Caleb? No. No! No!

Yes. Anyway, anyway. Oh no. Oh, that's true! No! Anyway, you hold Frumpkin beyond the dome. Kill us now, now that they're gone. Please, this is the only way you can go. I told you we should have killed them!

But you didn't believe me. Not doing it. Keeping an eye out there, Frumpkin shivers in your grasp, looking around left to right, no sign of anything dangerous in the peripheral, uneventful evening. Eventually, as the light begins to come to, it is not the clear sunrise you've met a few times out here.

It is a light snow and a gray sky above. But nevertheless, the day does warm to a degree. And eventually, after pushing off some of the snow and the dome coming down and dropping the rest of it around you in this soft pile of fresh powder, you can glance over and can see the flames have kicked up over where the Tomb Takers are

as they themselves are preparing themselves for the day, having a meal, and glancing over to notice you're being awake as well. What would you like to do? Confirm my long rest. Oh yes, thank you. Do that. We lose our exhaustion point.

Did we, had we already lost that? I think you'd already lost that. Okay. Get everything else back. I don't know that I can use that armor, guys. I mean, if I do, I will sacrifice some stealth capability. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Who else has low AC? I'm 17.

Whoa, whoa, but I thought you had special armor. I have Mariner's Armor, which is not applicable. Not the armor of Agatha Christie? Mm-mm, nope. That's all spiel. Oh, well, yeah, Fjord should wear it then. That's pretty low. Anybody else have low AC?

I can't wear leather. You can't wear leather? That's unfortunate. Leather will look good on you. I use my abs as my armor. Okay, what about pleather? Can you wear pleather? On Saturday nights.

I'll take it, nobody else? Really, no? I could use it, but I would have to Give up stealthy stuff? give up this dagger. Oh, well. Is that a problem? And I won't do that. Anyway, let's Is that a problem? And I won't do that. Hmm.

Anyway, let's go have a day. Did we notice the crazy look in Veth's eye when she said it? You can make an insight check. Genuinely no different than the normal crazy look in Veth's eye. I mean, you're not wrong. A little bit of not in there. Oh, nope, natural one.

Not at all. Nope, nope. Not at all. Seems, yeah, nobody else wants it. You can take it. Okay, nope, natural one. Not at all. Nope, nope. Not at all. Seems. Yeah, nobody else wants it. You can take it. Okay, I'll take it. I'll put it on, but I won't attune to it, just yet. All right. As you guys are gathering your things and getting your meals situated.

Armor plus two. You notice Lucien begins to approach as they finish and put the fire out in the other camp. Steps up, heavy coat on, looks like he's smile, all smiles this morning. Before you finish breakfast, since we had a bit of a conversation the other day. Sure, I'd be curious.

Pulls in the cloak and pulls out what you see to be the collection of papers and haphazard binding on the tome that you saw taken from the interior of Vess DeRogna's chambers. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, that book. Kind of looking over to, over to holding it out. I assume someone wants to give it a shot. Absolutely.

He's the one that understands that sort of stuff. I certainly hope so. Here. Okay. I scooch over to Caleb. Yeah, come have a seat. Okay, so the two of you. Okay. I roll out a wide piece of leather

so it doesn't get snow on it, and I set it down. Resistance. Thank you. Reach into my components and I pull out a black pearl. No. Pull out a white pearl. Guidance. And I will cast Fortune's Favor on myself in little geometric shapes.

I'm going to grab his shoulders and give him a little back rub and say, You can do this, Caleb. You got this, guy dance. Okay. Okay. Was there some specific request? Or is it just a general knowledge? I think it's going to be like seeing what he can decipher.

For one thing. Spend some time with it. The script, as you glance at it, it makes no sense to you. Oh, well, that's easy. What languages do you both know? Actually, what languages do you both know? Hang on.

I think it's more up-to-date on my DMV burn. I'm going to cast Comprehend Languages. Okay. And I also have that fancy monk. Read everything? Yeah, read the monk ability. Read all? Features and traits. Hang on, hang on. Hold, keep going.

Hang on, but keep going. Tongue of the Sun and Moon, you can understand all spoken languages. Correct. And any creature that can understand any language can understand you can. So spoken languages. Correct. And any creature that can understand a language can understand you. So it's speaking, but not reading. And then my languages

are Common, Deep Speech, Dwarvish, Halfling, Undercommon. Oh. You can read it, it's Undercommon. Oh! Fuck off! A edition of languages. Huh? I said it's written in gwar. Yeah. Oh! What's up, additional languages? Huh? I said it's written in gwar.

Yeah. You cast Comprime Languages. It's under common, which you can read. You picked this up because of your training with the Cobalt Soul. Is it like a cant? It's written as a cipher, meaning the language is not a common language of the writer and the way it's written is different

from most under common speakers, instinctually. So you gather quickly that this is intended as a cipher. Now the contents begin abruptly, like the early pages are no longer part of it. They read like brief passages about historical musings, piecing together elements of Eor's history, mental notes over breakfast by a confounded arcanist, questions they posit to themselves

about where it might lie, what secrets made it so dangerous to call the ire of the gods down a pond at the height of the calamity. Details of odd recovered relics from around the frigid depths surrounding Eiselcross and the theories that they have that elements of Aeor might actually be found there.

Half-finished sketches follow that of assumed Aeorian architecture. Discussions of the Convocation of Aeor, the committee of mages that governed the ancient city, pontificating about their politics, whether they were indeed a unified people, as some archivists suggest. The notes then continue like a travelogue,

making themselves the briefest of entries regarding their journey northward. So not unlike the Nine Zone journey through here, it discusses the harshness of the environment, the dangers that beset them. There's no mention of Balen Post and no other societal handholds up here in the north, really. It's just desolate, uncharted tundra

and honestly, deadly mystery. There are numerous gripes about magic being unpredictable up in this space and numerous times and odd creatures that had to be avoided on this journey. Very much gives you the sense of an early explorer first coming into uncharted land. Eventually, the entries begin to speak of a massive anomaly that they came across,

a patch of frost that's miles long. And it piques his curiosity. Lore entries beyond that briefly note his entrance to a subterranean labyrinth of corridors and structures, sketches of door reliefs and archways and long dead bodies left frozen. One perfunctory entry speaks of an uncovered text hurriedly scrawled before the death of its writer. It reads,

The philosophers abandoned us. The cursed, plodding dreamers took their whole ward with them. Cursed. Cursed them. May they rot in. And it ended there. May they rot in? In and ended there. The following entries muse out the meaning of this statement, slowly exploring more of the ruin and trying to piece together the goings on.

Even further entries still speak of the sounds that worry the mage. Things are living down in these halls, he says. He notes his need for caution. Eventually, an entry speaks of finding information about some of the Aeorian wards, the Paraisides Ward, the Ars Ward. Ars, A-R-S.

Paraisides? P-R-A-E-S-I-D-I-S Ward. Paraisides, Ars Ward. Ars Ward. And in particular, the CognouIS Ward. Praise it, Ys. Arse Ward. Arse Ward. And in particular, the Cognouza Ward. A region organized by nine philosophers who are dedicated to the ideas of manifestation through dream and imagination with the conduit of arcana.

Increasingly obsessed with the astral plane and many of its denizens being able to forge matter from sheer will and idea alone, they were rumored to be plotting a succession, or a secession from the Convocation to abscond from the city to their beloved plane of dreams in ash, as it said in some of the notes of other Aeorian denizens that seem to be speaking down on these philosophers.

The next entry seems to tremble with excitement and discovery as the mage intends to project himself into the astral plane and seek out any survivors who, based on his findings, may have escaped. Then the book changes dramatically. The following pages are filled, top to bottom page, with nonsense, deep scratches of ink, and shapes and symbols that make no sense,

just hash marks and scratches and designs that overlap and twist. It is just a mess of designs and nothing. They have no purpose or reason to them. There's no language. There's hints of text, but it's not. And your spell can't focus. It's not able to make out any language at all

because it's not language. It's filled with nightmarish design and incredibly detailed patterns that catch your eye on a smaller and smaller scale. These fractals that almost draw you in, that you catch yourself leaning into the pages a bit, and then pull back for a moment and blink. And for a second, you catch yourself wondering

how much time has passed, how long you've been looking at that page. Just at that point, Lucien closes the book and goes, I think it's enough reading for now. So. What'd you think? With my appetite, why don't you?

I seem a lot like the soberest Assembly of their time, but better or worse, depending how you look at it. How long were they looking at it? They began to read through, and then once they got to the strange scrawlings, it was a page turn, a page turn, a page turn. And then they just stared at one page

quietly for about five minutes. Wow, okay. You said his spell was having a hard time making sense of it, just looking at it. At a certain point, it wasn't language anymore. It was... Yeah, once you got to those pages, there was no language. It looked like a disturbed individual's attempt

It looked like a disturbed individual's attempt to produce nightmare on page, but then there was structure. There were things that looked almost like glyphs, but they were broken and absent of any reason. You saw patterns that made no sense, but were also beautiful. And there was math to it at times,

but then it seemed to just scatter out into nothing. It was infuriating for a person who has spent their life studying structure and equation and the ability to control the order of the world and the elements and focus them. And you think back to it, even with your keen mind feet, and for the first time, oddly, you can really not recall the details

in any of the pages you just looked at. Yes, well, it's very much, and I'm bumping Beauregard, I'm not even talking to Lucien. We're talking so much about dreams. This is dreams on paper. Yeah. This is your friends

talking to the writer in their way. And you are able to read or make something of this? Not at first. But if you make sense of any of it, please do let me know. Was I able to glean anything in terms of pattern recognition just for the short amount of time that I was looking at it

with my Expositor Chaos Gribrain? Go ahead and make both of you an intelligence check for me, if you don't. Just a straight. Just a straight. Just a straight intelligence check. Well, this dude doesn't sleep. That's a plus d4. What kind of roll is it?

Intelligence check. Just roll and add your intelligence modifier. 19. 25. Not bad, not bad. You can make out, no language, some elements of structure, it seems, but through the sketchiness, through the chaos, once again, there are patterns of nine,

patterns of nine, patterns of nine. Just that continuous numerical sequence. In different ways. Sometimes it's just little detailed hatches against a semicircle. Sometimes it's, if you look at the page from a distance, you know, there were elements around the border that if you counted them up,

it was just an endless source of chaos built upon a singular numerical sequence. of chaos built upon a singular numerical sequence. But that was just one aspect you could glean from so much nothing. It's them speaking through. Minor question. There were sketches and drawings of doorways and passages earlier in the book.

Do they bear resemblance to the strange halls that we have been exploring with Big Bebe? The early sketches, not so much. The ones at the beginning of the book were more conjecture by the writer. The ones that began to accompany the actual passage into this labyrinth begin to very much resemble some of the ruins that you've already been through.

Okay. And with that, Lucien glances back at the rest of you. Well, think on it a bit. You've got a bit of travel. If perhaps you've got an idea, come let me know. And he turns around and walks back to the Tomb Takers. They take the rest of their heavy packs

onto their shoulders. They all head over to meet you guys. I'm going to turn back to Beau and Caleb just as they walk away and just say, be careful with that book. That's what Lucien was looking at when he became the Nonagon. It's a pathway.

He might be doing it on purpose, you know? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. You're still you, right, Caleb? But I can see it. She's not wrong. I can... You can start to see it. If you believe.

Clap your hands, Beau. Like a unicorn. Clap your hands. No, I'm not doing that. No, I'm not doing that. Well, let's set off, I guess. Yep. As you guys gather your things,

you kind of put your packs up and you turn, and right at that moment, you can see the Timtakes are all standing there, loosened, in not a confrontational way, but in a definitely hold-up-a-second sort of physicality. Lucien goes, As requested, to build trust in the bridge that's been so asked of us,

I've shown you something very private and personal to me. As a response, just show me that you still have it. Pull it out, Caleb. Show him your wang. Fjord, show him my wang. Yeah, all right. I'll reach into the Bag of Holding, produce a small piece of amber. It's in here.

Ooh. Cute, isn't it? Quite clever. Waved a Vess. Two keepsakes in one. Well, looks over towards you, to Zoran, you see he's carrying the large other one in his back. It's a much easier way to travel. Shame you don't have these fancy things, eh?

You make more of those. I don't, but there's more room in it if you'd like to have us carry anything for you. Now, why shouldn't I just take this right now from you? Because you like us? It'd be a poor sign of trust. If you hold onto it, you won't get to stay in my tower tonight. It is so warm in there.

And there's lots of good food. As we said, when we arrive, we get this. We made a deal. We did. The whole time, I was just watching to see if there was any sleight of hand thing that went on. Yeah, go ahead and make a perception check. Yeah, that's a one.

No! That's been too cool! It still could be. She is a halfling. I'll just point out. Oh yeah, yeah. I will look at it. I'll look at the ember. Do I see little... Does it look like the piece I was looking at? Make a perception check. Oh boy.

Let me fail that as well. 14. 14. No, it looks like it's the same as it was given over. Can I do an inside check on that little test he just did? Sure, go for it. What are you looking for? Would he have actually just taken it from us?

Go for it. Or is he just, yeah, that's bad. Not a one, that's bad. Not a one, that's bad. But you're also a halfling. But I'm also a halfling. 14. 14? That's not too bad. He wasn't trying to hide much.

I'd say the best thing you can make out was, it was not hard to see that there was a look of relief on his face when he received it. That's as much as you'd be able to gather with a 14. Okay. a look of relief on his face when he received it. That's as much as you'd be able to gather with a 14. Okay. And there was a noticeable, like... Oh, they aren't totally bullshitting me. Oh, okay.

It's not A1, we are. So. If we did know, it would just be a little inconvenient. Gatekeeper, just, yeah, yeah. Are we going straight to, you know, the big, the big site now? Here's to hoping so. One more day of travel.

Gather your things. Let's be off. Yeah. All right. Who wants to roll the dice for the final length of the journey to see what happens? We asked. Is it a d20? D20.

10, right in the middle. Oh no. Oh no. As you begin to trek off, the gray sky gets thicker. Yes. And thicker, as the ice fog rolls in once more. I blame the piers. Need everybody to make a group survival check

Need everybody to make a group survival check as this recurring weather pattern is one of the worst to encounter out here. Got another cold front coming in from the west. Survival. I rolled a one. Not rolling great.

Not great. They're not rolling great either. I got a one, yeah. You got a one. Three, two, five, six. Oh. Wow. Nine. Eight.

16. One. One. Oh, right, no. I don't even care. Omega fail! What'd you get? You just said it. 12. I'm a guy, I've run the group. Wait, did you get a one, two?

Mm-hmm. You got a one, two? Yeah. Yeah, I rolled a 12. Couldn't that die away. That was... That was bad. By far and large,

the worst group check we've had in a while. Well, that's a real bad storm, that one. Ah, yeah. That's it, there are sets That's going to slow you down. So it's no longer a one-day journey. Yeah! A three-hour tour. Remember the last time you guys had a frustrating bit

of being lost amongst this ice fog? Oh, it was with them, because they lost us. Yeah, and as you're getting through halfway through the day, you can hear Lucimith be like, son of a... Well... This way. Oh no.

Last time this happened, we should have just hunkered down and waited it out. You prefer to do that? Unless you're confident, more confident than you were the first time, dude. Because we were really tired after that. Got nowhere. No, he's going to say that we move.

Patience is not one of his strong suits. I think we can do this. I feel it. This way. All right. Cool. Let's go. Trekking through the freezing ice fog, shaking. You all eventually get to a certain point where you come upon familiar tracks at the end of the day.

Lucien goes. Oh, they're ours. Wow, how did these tracks stay here? It's been snowing so much. Wait, whose tracks are these? It's turned into an ice fog at this point. The snow has diminished. At which point, everyone's going.

Starting to get a little dark. I hate this place. A humble person would say that there was probably a lesson here, although. We camp out for the night. Do you want a tower? If you don't mind. Yeah, this is why we are friends.

Good. All right, fine. The entire time Caleb sets it up, I just stare at Lucien. He doesn't make eye contact with you. You do see the red eye in the neck shift to make eye contact with you, though. I just slow Jack Nicholson nod at the eye.

And so he looks at you expectantly like, Yeah, yeah. The wand jams down into the snow. I arrange all the pieces necessary, the little wooden cat, and then and we see stained glass again. All right. Quickly, you watch as the Tomb Takers, one by one,

enter, except for Lucien, who is waiting for the rest of you to enter, so he could follow and bookend the journey inward. You all enter to a more comfortable space within Widogast's nine-sided tower. So much nicer. Yeah. I prefer this so much.

Oh! Will we still suffer a point of exhaustion? You will tomorrow. Oh. The worst. I'm going to take a bath tonight, just to make sure. The bed's so comfy, though. Like, way more comfy than normal, so.

You're going to be real sore in the morning. Okay. It's a combination of sore muscles, a combination of near hypothermia. Many things came together to make you comfortable for the night, but you can already tell the damage has been done and the morning's going to be a reckoning.

Is tomorrow the day that we get there? Not anymore. Got one more day of travel. And then we're there. Because I do have a thing, not saying this in front of Lucien. I have two doses of something that will help two of us not be exhausted tomorrow,

if that's something that we are interested in. Huh. Doses? It's a leaf that Caduceus can help brew into a tea that we can drink. It's an Olisuba leaf, which helps you recover from exhaustion. But I only have two leaves.

I wouldn't mind giving it to the wizard and... That's what I was going to say. Oh yeah. Anyone else? Exhaustion affects skill checks, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah. So who does that a lot? Perception checks, investigation checks. If we are going into any ruins,

then it would make sense for me, but if not, then not. Not. But you might be looking at the book again. Yeah. What about you two? Lucius Abode.. What about you two? You two.

Us two. Want to share some tea? A little tea and tea? If you guys are okay with that. I'll get the kettle. Thank you. Where's Lucien? He now steps into the door behind

and closes it. All of them are looking around. Lucien is the first to pipe up. Not going to lie, this is a very welcome change of pace. My thanks. If you're a good boy, we can do this every night. I like it when you're condescending. It's attractive. He's always condescending.

He's always attractive. That's attractive. He's always condescending. He's always attractive. That's dangerous. Behold me in the Tower of Wodogas! Fear me! You can do it too, you just stay up. Lucius goes, Hop. Oh.

Full of surprises. Well, and the rest of the Shroudtakers go, Up, up, up! They all start drifting up, and they all start kind of drifting up, and they start just rushing off and exploring. Okay. If any of them try to go outside of the central invisible column that's 10 feet wide in the center, they are going to start to float or fall back down.

So it's just the center invisible spoke. Okay. And they do, they start. It's a fizzy lifting drink moment. They're all just like, what's going on? It's for as intimidating as they've been since you've met them to certain degrees, this is the most adorable they've been,

if I could put it that way. We don't have to find out about the food. But nevertheless, the evening in the tower is yours. Lucien does ask, is there a particular chambers for us to be staying? Yeah, I have one set of chambers for you and your friends. All right.

Where? Ah, follow me. I don't say up and I float up through the center. Come along and take us up to five and wrap on the door with no decoration on the outside of it. This is for you, and I open the door, and inside the sitting room is, all the walls are covered in stained glass windows

that you cannot see through them, but you do see those small little globules floating just behind in one direction slowly. And the windows show scenes from Mollymauk's Fletchling and Moondrop Circus, just tableaus of the different performers and Mollymauk himself. And there is one window that shows a scene

with the Devil Toad and the Mighty Nein in the circus erupting beautifully wrought. And the mirror, or not mirror, the glass window above the fireplace is Caleb's imagination of the city that he has seen in their vision. Move us through to the next quarters and there are bunk beds.

As you pass the stained glass relief of the city, Lucien glances over it for a moment, pauses, and just says absentmindedly to you almost, city. Lucien glances over it for a moment, pauses, and says absentmindedly to you almost, You've seen more than you let on. Huh. And just continues with you. Dare to dream.

You can all sleep in here. And there are bunk beds enough for all of Lucien's tomb takers, but not Lucien. And I push through to the final room and there is a similar bed and bathtub. All the same amenities, but the drapery is Mollymauk's ornate coat. As they all glance around and make in the space, they nod. Pretty high passive insight.

Lucien, other than his normally confident self seems to have a faint touch of apprehension. But then quickly they all turn and Tyffial goes, is there a meal included as well? Yeah, so I would say make yourself comfortable in about an hour, exit your chambers and go higher up until you reach the room

with all of the cats in it. Beg your pardon? Y'all look at each other and Cree goes, we'll be down shortly. And they all kind of huddle up a bit as you make your way to wherever you wish to. Can I ask a question? Yes, you may.

I don't remember where Dagen went. Yeah, he's been following us. Is he just following us? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So now he's fucking out there. He's like a tracker guy. He knows exactly, he was probably all day today, he was like, go that way, you idiots.

He's been in our favor. You certainly hope so. He's a ringer. I'm going to send him a message. Yeah. Okay. Tell him to just meet us at Aeor. Yeah. Yeah. Meet us there.

Oh shit. Go to Aeor! Go to Aeor! I know, I know, I don't know about him. Like, did he cross the lava stuff when we did? Yeah, all of those things. Remember, it was collapsing behind us, though, and falling to shit just as we were crossing.

He's fine. Okay, yeah. He can fly! He's better without us. Yeah. All right. I'm going to send a message to Dagen when I'm going to send a message to Dagen when I'm alone. And say, hey!

Just making sure everything's okay back there. Did you follow us? We're in the tower tonight. Dang, this is crazy stuff, man. To Aeor! Endy! Endy has 10! Oh, that's the end! Oh, fucking me! You forgot?

To Aeor! To Aeor! Love you, Laura. It's the new Toosa Dash. There we go. Okay. Ridiculous. A moment passes that makes you slightly nervous, and then, All right, best I can tell,

y'all just disappeared into that weird doorway again. I'm not too far off. Maybe no more lava. Oh. Okay. That's all the response you get. But you, he's worth his money in gold for all the shit that's gone down.

He's the only, he's probably going through the fog, the ice fog, going like, fucker, there you go. But yeah. Okay. I'll take 30 minutes to attune to whatever this armor is. And what is it called again?

It's studded leather plus two. Studded leather plus two. I'm going to head to the kitchen or wherever and find the rest of the Mighty Nein. Okay. Wherever people seem to be convening. We're making our tea, probably. Okay.

Honey, honey, honey. Sure, sweetie. All right. Actually, why don't I take us up to our laboratory? Sure. And make the tea there with the- With the, in a beaker? Yeah. Cool. Yeah. Can I follow?

Yeah, oh, come along, yeah. We haven't brought you guys up there yet. No, we haven't. I haven't seen the laboratory. I didn't know there was a laboratory. You know, we've also never seen what's up on eight and nine, I think, right? Have we?

Do you want to give us a full tour? Might be the last night we're alive and stuff. Maybe we should see the attic? Why do you keep looking at me? Do you have more stained glass up there? Fuck dolls? Oh no. You can either show us,

or I was maybe thinking about just planning a B&E for fun. Well, that would be interesting to see. Yeah. Or if it's too sensitive, we'll just have our tea in the lab. No, I'll show you. Let's have the tea. And then I'll show you.

Do we have stuff other than the good tea? Do we have normal tea? Oh yeah, always. Okay. Yeah. We're in the tower, we got everything. So you brew multiple teas. Is there anything you'd wish to go over during this time? Or do you wish to go to rest?

I was thinking about this Cobalt Reserve dilemma. Oh boy. I see geometric shapes all over your head. Math equations. It's going to be really tough to get out of here and get back to the reserve to talk to Yudala Fon. The only idea that I have right now would be to try and maybe reach out to Dairon

and see where they are. Maybe Dairon can be our liaison for us, talk to Yudala Fon, get information. And then I don't know what. I don't know if we could try and figure out a way to get Dairon to us. I don't know. Essek could go get her.

Maybe. But teleporting, that means Essek would have to teleport in. Yeah. Nobody can get here quickly. And if that's the case, But teleporting, that means Essek would have to teleport in. Yeah. Nobody can get here quickly. And if that's the case, then you might as well take me and we can come back.

Yeah. Might not be worth it. No. I'm kind of wondering, you know, now, if they just. Maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe. Is there a spell that can send an item? We could teleport an item, like they could write it all down

and then foof it to us. Same spell, but sure. But if we lose an item, it's fine. It's not a life. Depends on the item. I mean, that would have to be the way to go, right? Try to figure out. Because yeah, I don't know if at this point

the Cobalt Reserve has any more information than we do. It's a gamble. And their information might be, there is no information because someone burned it all, and that's all we find out. Well, the way it seems like Udalla was acting, it seems like they found something of some pretty significant importance.

They didn't want to convey it over a message spell. Maybe it was just too long. Maybe they don't trust me. If you did want to try to get some help here, I could send a stone, anything from where we are, through to one of the circles, and that would lessen the risk, not remove it.

The communicator stones? No, no. Just like an object. As long as I have an object from this location, or as long as they have it, that ordinarily ensures that you will reach your destination safely. You know, I don't know what the chances of harm are because of the nature of this place,

but if we were to send something as simple as a rock through from our location to them, and they use that to return here, it's at least increasing their chances of success, I believe. What were you going to say? I was going to say, you gathered from the message that reached you from Yrelafon that they were more, they were aware of the limitations of the spell,

and it would be ridiculous to try and convey any of the information they've found in a short number of words. It didn't seem like it was with extreme urgency and more like, we have some information, but this is not the way to converse. Maybe we just reach back out to Udalla and ask them if there's anything that they can do

to send a message. Like you were saying, like written something over a longer period, I don't know. How would we get it? I don't know. How would we get it? I don't know. Maybe we're on our own here. Yeah, probably. Well, this tea is very nice. Should we turn in?

I think we're going to go eat food with them. Sure. Let's go eat. Okay. Unless you wanted to give us a more extensive tour. Well, you know, if that's what you wanted to do. Do. And the iris in the central hallway opens to the eighth floor, and Caleb floats up. Don't you still want to sit down? Fjord, I'm going to run.

And I start levitating up as well. No. Up? Did it work? Up? Yeah, you don't have to say up. You just have to, you have to. Up! Caleb makes a mental note

that the effect of the central chamber does not work for Fjord unless he says, I'm going to have to call Tavis. There'll never be a problem. Everyone else is fine. Once you guys float up with me, there is a nine-sided inner chamber at the heart of the tower,

and there are nine doors numbered. Pick three. How much do you think it must be weirding Lucien out right now that it's a nine-sided tower and everything's like 99999 in here, too? A whole lot. Pick three? A whole lot. Pick three.

Three doors? I'm going to pick door four. I'll pick door nine. One. Okay. One, four, nine. In that order? It would be four, one, nine.

Yeah, yeah. Right? Yeah. Okay. All right, so Caleb walks to? 491. 491. 491, to the door with the four on it, and opens it. Side note, this is the room that he came to last. Opens it, and you guys look in and see

a very Zemnian-style bedchamber, small, the equivalent of a school dorm. And there is a bed with all the sheets totally messed and twisted in akimbo and books sitting on a wooden desk opened up. It's a student's room. This is one of their bedchambers at the Soltryce Academy.

Was this yours? Like yours? No. Oh. Hers? Yes, it was. You spend a lot of time in this room. Oh god. Do you do that to the sheets?

No. It's a great room, it's great. Is there a view? The windows are very frosted over, so you can't really see through them too well. I look down at one of the open books. What is it? It's a book on illusions.

Is this active reading or is this just set dressing? No, I flip through it and there are the rudimentary beginnings of the illusion school of the arcane and the precepts that one must study and learn for a year before getting to the very novice levels of being able to weave said illusions. But you don't need this. No. But he did at the time. So it's that dressing.

It's a memory. A good one. Yeah. Are all these doors memories? What do you think, Beauregard? I think I'm pretty smart. Let's look at the next room. Was it number nine, you said, yeah? Yeah.

What was it, Nottiana? 491. I push open nine, and as everyone shuffles in, you instantly recognize the nestled nook in. Aww. This is where we met? It's the tavern room downstairs, yeah. Aww!

Who's here? Caleb. Just us. Anything around? Any paper, any? I mean, there are flagons and half-eaten plates of food and just looks- Is it moldy or does it seem like it's a moment in time?

It's not an old? It's fresh. Made just 37 minutes ago. Wow. This is where we met Caduceus. Oh. This is nice. It would have been better if you were there, too. I mean, it was nice that we met Molly as well.

Sure, why wouldn't Molly be able to be there if Caduceus was? Yeah. Well, I mean... You're right. Thank you. There are two separate people, of course. Okay, it's going to be dinner soon, so you wanted to see room number one. Okay. Okay, it's going to be dinner soon, so you wanted to see room number one. What is it?

It's home, isn't it? He just stands there for a while. Yeah, is it your home? Your childhood home? He doesn't say anything, but walks in. And if you follow, you will see a very, very humble small cottage-style home with a hearth, meager,

poor wooden furniture and a shelf with a handful of ragged books on it and a set of wooden stairs leading up to a second floor. And I just go and I sit down at the chair at the family table. I go sit down at the table with him. This is a nice house, Caleb. Do you come up here every time you make the tower?

I've never been in this room. I mean, I've been in this room. I've never been in this room. How close is it? This is a memory, more or less, yeah? This is it. Why? Why did you put all this at the top of your tower? The same reason that the tavern is up here.

Wherever I go, they are with me. They are? Yeah. So funny, they say you can never go home, but you've created an ingenious way to do just that. But this is your first time being in this room. This would still be here. They would still be here if you didn't make the rooms.

You know that though, right? It's just my way. It's just my way. It's just my way. Was your room upstairs? Just the one. Would you mind if I? Sure. Kael walks over and looks at the steps

and places his hand on the rail and skips to the second step and goes, smiles a little bit, and then continues up. And it just leads to barely more than a loft space. There is a single window and there is a simple bed. There was two other doors down below, but up here, it is just this little loft and there is a small bed, big enough for a teenager, maybe,

and a small little circle of rags, a functory bed on the floor next to the bed. What, to yourself? Almost. Frumpkin. I've thought about it so much. I've thought about it so much. I don't even know if it's a good idea to have this. It probably isn't.

But it's just my way. I'm just not allowed to forget it. I don't think you ever do. I don't think this room would change that. And not to speak to how smart you are, but I don't think you figured out that you're not supposed to forget,

but you're not doing it wrong. You're not using it the right way. I don't think. It feels less like a memory, more like a punishment for yourself, Caleb. And I'm not. If it exists here, it exists. It exists somewhere.

Even without here, it would exist somewhere. I know that sounds... This is a beautiful place. And I hope you know that without the cloud that it brings. This is beautiful. But. It is, it is. I have those memories, I have them. I've struggled with it for a very long time.

My feelings about these things. There are good memories, but I... It only takes one bad one. I can't help wanting more. Do you still wish to go back and undo it? Of course. I regret it, I regret. Of course. I regret it, I regret. Of course. Think Lucien has a room like this?

Do you think that's what's happening? I don't know. Maybe. Well, I understand that you all care for me very much and I am very grateful for it. There is a part of me that will not. Will not.

So the tour is almost over. You wanted to see the ninth floor as well? Come along. Only if it's all right with you. Yeah, yeah, it's beautiful. Oh, okay. I lead them back out to the central chamber, and there, the irises open. After Caleb walks out,

and after he leaves, I just turn and I look at Fjord, and then follow. I'd like to be the last. Okay. I'm going to leave just a very, very small, very, very small bit of tea on the table before closing the door.

Okay. I misspoke. Not locked, but is closed. So once we're all together in the center chamber, I look up at the iris and say, Auf. It goes, and as soon as that happens, in the center chamber, I look up at the iris and say, Auf.

And as soon as that happens, you see, almost like you are looking into a sea of stars, and we start to float up inside. And anyone who dove into the beacon will recognize the experience you feel in this room, which is all illusion, but looking around the room, you see just layer upon layer upon layer of vision, and you see your own self, many of you walking along arcs and paths

and breaking into multiple versions of you. Wow. And it is, you can see the floor and you see a hole in this void that we're in, and we're just hovering. But when you look out to the sides and up, it just goes forever and ever and ever. Good room to think.

Yeah. This is incredible. Wow. What? It's fascinating. Wow. The conflicting principles between those two floors. These two floors. One dedicated to preserving the past. Exactly how you want it to stay.

And then the other dedicated to? Endless possibility. Endless possibility. They don't have to be exclusive? No. It's all right, I'm going to go that way. Never go that way, never. Too late. I'm going to see if I can walk a little bit

and how far before I hit a wall. Not too far, I imagine. It's like that portion of the elevator when you have the mirror on both sides and it's the infinite stuff and you're like, it's really cool and then. Bump, bump, bump. The VR cord stretches.

It's about the same distance from the entrance to the dining room to the opposite wall. Just going to unsmudge. Unsmudge the void. Or a galaxy. Breathed on it. Millions of voices cry out,

Ah! Spit polish the universe. So you are all welcome up here anytime you want. I'm sure you remember the words to access this chamber. Us? Yeah. We'll only share it one time. Sure. But we all have keen minds, so we'll be okay.

What did you say it was again? Alfeitas and Farfagnugan. Alfeitas and Farfagnugan? Yeah. Yeah. It's very impressive. Yeah, this is amazing. It's a lot of things,

and it is definitely impressive, being one of them. I'm assuming one of those doors was the moment we met, because it's such a great memory, but you don't need to prove it to me by showing it to me. I'm just going to assume that it was. I bet doors five and six are super fucked up. Oh boy. Oh. Maybe another day.

You all have always known me to be blunt. No. I can't wait to see what's behind the other doors one day. Dinner. As they're leaving, I stop Caleb. After everyone else has left. He's leading the path. Well. You'll have to dive after me.

I'm so fast. Just dive after him. Nevermind, it's gone. I'm not diving after you for this shit. That's friendship. I'm going to just see if there's a 10th floor. Up. Up. Boom.

Ow. All right, forget it. You got to speak Zemnian. Get your smudge off the top of the void. Okay. You bump into the ceiling the top of the void. Okay. You bump into the ceiling, which now has to be washed. As you all drift back down to dinner, which you can see already awaiting,

there is, at the dining room space, the Tomb Takers who are in the process of taking in the coterie of cats that seem to be also uncertain of them in this odd, tense, mutual standoff. And as you all step in to break the tension, Lucien glances over. Perfect timing.

I think food's in order. As you all begin to take your places to feast for the evening, we're going to take a break. Oh! All right. That's right. Dinner break. Oh, where am I?

That was a long first half, wasn't it? Yeah. Yeah, it went longer than I expected. My apologies. No, no. But it was palpable. So we'll be back here in a few minutes to pick up for this very interesting evening. Stay tuned. See you in a little bit.

We interrupt this Critical Role Podcast Network broadcast to bring you news of dangerous treasures that lie sealed within the Critical Role shops. Only the heartiest of adventurers should dare seek them out. In all seriousness, though, I'm Matthew Mercer, and we've made some very cool things that we really like and hope you will, too. If you'd like to support the show,

please consider visiting any of our Critical Role online shops through the Shop tab at critrole.com and see if anything catches your eye. Okay, back to the show. And welcome back. So, last we left off, you all had sat down for your dinner the evening in Widowgast's nine-ided Tower with the Tomb Takers.

Is there anything specific you want to serve for dinner, Caleb? Well, there's always a very healthy pastry and baking array. That's just a permanent fixture, but I think we will do elk. Sure. Yeah, the we will do elk. Mm. Sure. Yeah, the main dish is elk. And lots of, yeah.

And vegetables, it's very healthy. Thank you. Baking aside. Mm. All righty. All right. Sounds delicious. Let's do some zucchini muffins so that I can still have vegetables in case the vegetables aren't very good.

Okay, okay. There's that awkward, quiet acknowledgements across the table as the hungry, rugged Tomb Takers try their best at giving pleasantries. As guests, do you lot want to say grace? Y'all look at each other. Otis goes, no. It's tradition.

Say a blessing for the food, you know, based on the being that you worship. And the guest always says the grace. Looks around at the other ones and Lucien goes, and just goes, The earth is great. She can't hold it. The eyes go black for a second.

Then... Amen! Was that Otis? That was Otis the halfling. Did we know what language that was? What god was that? You don't know. Oh shit! I speak Sylvan, Giant, Elvish, and Common.

Giant? Then no, you do not. Abyssal and Cel? I speak infernal. Celestial? Nope. Goblin? Nope. Deep speech. Deep speech. What the fuck did he say? And you understand

everything now, this is, right? That's true. And I can understand spoken tongues. Yeah. Yeah, you can. Yeah, I need to fucking remember that. So you make out that the gist of this was, oh, great distant voice, come upon this meal and let us

destroy and devour of its sustenance. Oh! Wow. You just see Beau just like, zone out. And then slowly eat. Okay. Okay. Begin.

They all go into their feasting and the quiet persists until. Oh, I call one cat over. Liesel, could you do me a favor and go to the back and get just one plate of zucchini muffins and also some banana nut bread ones as well. Also some of those little bugs. Yeah, we have those.

Those are permanent now as well. So more bugs for the ladybugs. Nevermind, Liesl. We have enough. Ooh, ooh. Have you ever tried yogurt-covered bugs? No. You should do. Let's try those.

Liesel. Can we get a little thing of yogurt? No, no, no, no, no. Not like yogurt-dipped bugs. Like yogurt-covered bugs. You know, like yogurt-covered raisins? Like hardened. Or like a hard yogurt?

Okay, so take some of the bugs, dip them in, and then put them in the fridge. The fridge? The cold box. You know how to do it, yogurt-covered bugs. And then it'll harden, and then it'll be like a little. Fjord, would you like to order anything specific? The cat's head slowly turns towards Caleb and just looks at him for a second, looks back and goes,

Meow. Liesel's a bitch. Technically, yes. I like her. What's your favorite kind of food, Lucien? Well, to be honest, whatever's warm and I didn't have to pay for. No, you have to have a favorite.

That's a boring answer. What's your favorite food? I agree with that. Things with, I don't know, spiced cream. I grew up eating bland food, anything that's interesting. Where did you grow up? Where did all of you grow up?

What were your lives before this? You see them all look uncomfortable and be like, Ah. Super culty. I don't know if this is about sharing personal histories, per se. I grew up in Shadycreek Run. All right.

That's about as much as I'd like to talk about. Insight. Make an insight. Ooh. 22. Seems pretty straightforward and pretty much does not want to talk about it. Shadycreek Run, is that near where Mollymauk was?

That's where we fought Lorenzo. That's sort of interesting. That's interesting, isn't it? It's where we met Keg. Well, that's less interesting to Lucien, but it's interesting. It's just interesting. Otis, going off of Lucien's lead,

seemingly taking that as permission, goes, I'll grow up and trust him. We'll join the orders out of boredom. But now, you know, just curious to see where the road leads now. The orders? Does that sound familiar, the orders? The orders, yeah.

Oh, that's right, we talked about that. That's their little religion. So we're on a kind of nosiery coast originally, but almost for friendship, not until these... Not until these folks join me. Friends?

Are they, would you call them your friends? Compatriots, I don't do friends. Okay. The Menagerie Coast, that's where we're from. We're from the Menagerie Coast! Yeah. Yeah. Okay. There's another awkward pause.

You can see Cree and Tyffial just not engaging at all. The food begins to trickle in as the cats begin to come inside, placing plates of fresh food, and then the food is an immediate distraction. They begin to eat and take that as a way to break the eye contact and awkward pauses.

So Lucien, I said you grew up in Shadycreek Run. Did you ever make it to the Blooming Grove? I never quite made it up that far, no. Hmm. It's a shame. I suppose I would have remembered you. You've got a look about you, and you're definitely not quiet about it. I leave an impression.

Absolutely. But no. It's a shame. I mean, I've been to the forest up there quite a bit. Work takes you in strange places, but I had no interest in quite making my way to the Grove. Do you have family in the Grove? Don't really have family. Everybody came from somewhere.

Oh, those that wish to remember. Hmm. I think there's wish to remember. Hmm. I think there's wish to remember, and on the other end of that is occasionally an unfortunate truth. You might want to stop prying now and enjoy your meal before it gets unpleasant. Hmm.

I'm having a nice meal. Mm-hmm. Ah. Do you remember, well, you don't remember anything, but from your time as Molly, but do you remember anything about the circus or anybody from Shady Creek that was part of the circus?

No. Who was? Was there someone? Well, yeah. They all were pretty much from Shady Creek. Was there one that Mollymauk got along with famously? I mean, all of them? Me? Do you remember someone named Gustav Fletchling?

Fletching? Not Fletchling? That's something else. Afraid I haven't heard of him. I know it's useless, but insight check. Insight check. 14. He's hard to gauge. Can I try to do. Inside check. 14. I don't know why I bought it. He's hard to gauge. Can I try to do an inside check?

Because I'll do an inside check. Sure. Yeah, let's go, Yasha. Do it. Let's fucking go! 15. He's hard to read. At the most, you sense he's... You get this faintest sense he's growing more and more

frustrated with the questions. He's covering it with a smile as he eats, but it's getting a bit shorter. Get away from the personal stuff. Are you expecting anyone else to be at Aeor? Any other parties that we might have to, I don't know, have to work our way around or sneak by? Or is it guarded?

I'm certain there are all sorts of interests wandering those places. There's empire business finding its way there. There's dynasty business. There's independent contractors that are just looking to scavenge and take away. There's folks from all over, I'm sure, depending on the day and where you enter from.

Well, if we can be of use, I mean, is there a particular tactic that you wanted to stick to? More of the subterfuge side, or are you a smash and grab fan? I like to think the tactic will present itself when the time is right. We're kind of improvisers.

You'll be glad to hear we are as well. Mm, good. You mentioned, depending on the way you enter, sorry, do you know of a back entrance? We have an entrance that we've used before. Last time we came. You've been there before. Right. Yeah.

Once before. We're just trying to ensure that our way in hasn't been commandeered. trying to ensure that our way in hasn't been commandeered. Is it secret? Is it a secret way? As far as I know. Oh. Seems secret, but it's been a while. We'll find out. You know, I do have this map, actually.

I'll actually take it out. Show Lucien, if you don't mind. It seems like there are mountains on the north, east, and southern sides of where the city would be located, but there's a stretch of land from the west. Is there a particular direction that you plan to enter from? I mean, perhaps we could take advantage

of a scouting party or at least, you know, see which tactic would be to our advantage. We happen to have a viable scout on our side, but you have some skilled folk. Northwestern edge is where we first entered. Nice. How long ago? Number of years. Number of years. Number of years. Oh.

Yeah. Did you not accomplish what you set out to do that last trip? We were hired by, well, the late Vess DeRogna. Uh-huh. And with the map still out, I'll point to the other points. A question mark, A3.

Did you happen to already visit all of these as well? No. Oh. Not all of them. There are a few left unpicked. But not necessary for your needs. We have what we need. Nice. Efficient.

Is there a dessert, by the way? That is what we do best here. Are you in the mood for something? Great. I think it's time. I think you get your little kiddies to bring us some fine treats, if you don't mind. Casper, Bruno, bring out the final course and then dessert. They come out and bring out the final spread.

I just look over at Yasha and I go, mockingly. You glance back and Lucien's looking right at you. What's up? Begins to take and eat hungrily of the treats. Giant, one of the larger cats comes in. One of the larger cats comes in, two of the larger cats come in, and one has got a huge brass tray

with all kinds of fruit, cut fruit on it, and the other one has a huge basin with a fountain of chocolate pouring down into it. It is a fondue. Holy shit. Chocolate fondue. Oh my gosh. And they a fondue. Holy shit. Chocolate fondue. Oh my gosh. And they're shaped like stars and shapes.

There are additional small cats whose tails are being used to prop up the edges of the platter so that it doesn't go sideways. Nice and strong, kitty tails. Nope. I would say Beauregard, Caleb, and Caduceus, you hear muttering beneath her breath, Cree goes, Fucking rich kids.

Oh, sure. I'd never gone there. I stick my finger in the fountain so it stops the flow of the chocolate. He goes, Your finger the flow of the chocolate. He goes, Your finger is now covered in chocolate. Cree, I didn't catch where you were from earlier. Oh, I'm from all over.

Hmm. Do you have a place you call home? Well, try to ask it without seeming like you're making fun of her at the same time. No, we addressed this years ago. It's true, you're right, sorry. Is there a place you call home? Oh god. Oh no.

You hear a small scream in the background. A glass shatters. That's the equivalent of the Wednesday Addams smile. I would, yeah. In Addams Family values. You're like, . You look like you're going to a funeral.

Wait. Sorry, I love that movie. That movie is fantastic. I love it so much. Creak looks you back with an equal, false grin. I'm from a lot of places. Yeah, cool, cool story, yeah. The energy in the room's changing a little bit.

I've never been called a rich kid before. I'll be the victim all your life. I'll be the victim all your life. Yeah, that's an odd call. Wait, I did have a question for you, Lucien. So, wait, do you sleep? Not in the conventional way. So how do you dream?

Because isn't that how you, isn't that the thing with the... Animals sleep. But minds that have been freed can dream any time they like. In some ways, I'm dreaming right now. Is that true for the lot of you? They all shift all at once,

all heads looking towards you, in creepy unison. Somewhat. Through him. You know, Lucien, last night you were asking if we had any good stories. And, you know, we were a little exhausted from the day, but sleeping on it and just kind of

reflecting on the events that had transpired, I was reminded about one of the first outings that we all went on as a group. You familiar with Inaugur? You heard of him? Can't say that I have. It's a demonic entity. We found ourselves in Alfield,

and when we got there, the entire town was under siege by a bunch of gnolls. We were asked to investigate it, dug deeper, and realized these gnolls, these wild, chaotic animals, these creatures, they were formed into an organized cult. Didn't really expect it, underestimated them to be totally honest. Tracked them down into this cave and gnolls and a few humans all there, and they were worshiping this manticore, feeding villagers to it, all in the name of this god,

this higher null demon being. Well, we quickly killed the manticore. And her cub. That was sad. Oops. Yeah, it was actually kind of sad. It was. It was a tough choice, yeah. Just like that, Colt was done. Cleared him out.

Rescued some villagers. Would you say you're heroes? I come out, rescued some villagers. Would you say you're heroes? Of all fields, yes. At least for the day. But, you know, that was a while ago. Time has moved on, a war has happened. I'm sure people have not necessarily forgotten, but. Tell me this, Beauregard.

Hmm. That the only cult you've killed? Guess it depends on what you define a cult. Hmm. Travel a cult. Hmm. Traveler Con. Traveler Con. This too.

Yeah. I would say it is definitely the first cult that we've killed. Who knows if it'll be the last. Good story. Thank you for sharing. Well, that's the end of my sweet tooth. I think we'll adjourn for the night.

Rest well. And he gets up from the table, gathers his coat. The others slowly follow suit and give a nod. Otis goes, Thank you for the meal. And Soren's like, Thank you for the meal. It's very gracious of you. It's very gracious of you.

It's lovely dining with you. If there's anything else you need in the night, there is a red rope pull in your sitting room. The cats will come. Hmm. They're great to snuggle up with. Or not. No, you can't snuggle with me, no.

Appreciative. And the Tomb Takers make their exit. You hear, up, up, up, up, up. They all begin to drift up to the chambers that you had given them earlier. I will set the tone. Boy, what are we doing? How many cults have we destroyed?

At least two. Well, I mean, there was also the cult up in Rexxentrum, right? Obann's little party was a bit of a miniscule party. There's also the cult, like the Angel of Irons. Yeah, the Angel of Irons. I mean, yeah. And then there was Lorenzo's crew, the... Well, they were all part of that.

Were they religious fanatics? Uh... Yeah, that was more of a... Slave traders? Yeah, that's not a cult. They've got to have a definition. Process. That's true, that's true. Couture.

Morbid. Crime syndicate. Unless they're all connected, right, Beauregard? Maybe they're all one cult. That Null cult also had visions of hunger. It's been a theme. I'm not going to say they're connected, but it's hard not to look at our time together

and not see commonality. What's the hunger here? Hunger for power. That's very universal. Yeah. Oh yeah. Oh. Looking through my old notes,

I was supposed to feed Nuts to Nugget. That's where I got confused. I thought it was for Sprinkle. So did you kill Sprinkle? No, Sprinkle's obviously still alive. We caught it in time. So no peanut allergy or? No. Okay.

Roll for peanut allergy. We caught it in time. Isn't Nugget a dog? Jester, sometimes you can develop a nut allergy in the middle of your life, so you should be careful with Sprinkle. Well, Sprinkle gets bugs now. Bugs now? Bugs now.

Okay, bugs next. Are we relatively alone? Should we go somewhere else, another level, to avoid prying ears? Does your tower afford that? Well, the iris is closed, right? I mean, we can distance ourselves, but I'm assuming at any given moment

that we are more likely than not to him overhearing us. If you're worried about them overhearing, Caleb, may I make a suggestion? Yeah. Could you command Toto, Sprocket, Legume, Philbo, Marta, all of your cats to start meowing at once. Surround us and start meowing.

Those are all your names now. Your old names are gone. Those are your names. They all look at each other confused. I'm sorry. If they all start meowing in unison, it will create a cacophony that will be hard to discern

and we can bunch up together and talk with relative ease. Or we could, I don't know, just talk or check. I was only going to ask, I seem to be hiding my lust for a fight better than Beauregard was at dinner, but does your tower provide any sort of tactical advantage

in this sense? And two, should we contact Essek and figure out what part of Aeor he is stationed on, since we seem to be approaching towards the northwest? Well, if we are trying to separate ourselves, we could go to the eighth and ninth floor. Although I suppose he could have heard me speaking in Zemnian and remember the Zemnian,

but it's the only thing I can think of. I suppose that we would know if they were wandering around anyway, because the cats would tell us. Mm-hmm. I kind of like this cat idea, if I'm going to be honest. Let's, uh...

I'm just trying to think of Fjord. Let me adjust it. Let's meet in, uh... Let's return to the salon or the ninth floor is the question. Genuine tickle. Let's go to the salon. I think the salon is the right choice. To the salon!

Up. Road's closing up, therefore. It is. I genuinely make fun of the road tickle. It's actually one'm going to be genuinely mixed by the reticule. It's actually one floor down, and I start to hover downward. Shit. All right, as you all gather into the salon.

Okay, and I will walk over to the locked, ornate fireplace in the salon on the first tier of the three-tiered library salon, and I will pull the red rope plush pull by the fireplace, and cats appear at little cubbyhole entrances all around the salon, probably a hundred of them. And I just say, in the key of G. And then all of them start to go,

and a melody weaves. They don't all start at once. It's sort of like ro-ro-royo-boating around the walls, and there is just a low key cat melody happening now. There's no silence. All righty. Meow me, meow me. They would love it. At least in the future. Come on, this is serious. It's less staccato and more elongated, haunting yowling.

Yeah, it's a semi-melodic, in-heat evening call in chorus. Wow, they're going to think so many cats are fucking done here. So again, not that we would ever need to, or perhaps we might tomorrow evening. Is this place suited for fighting? Can it be damaged and could they escape?

Could we trap them in a single level? I can't hear you over the... Could we trap them? Shh! Riddles, Riddles. Keep it down, come on. Heads in, heads in. I don't think that, I mean, unless I'm mistaken, Caleb,

this place doesn't have any particular armaments or anything, does it? Well, you can play around a bit on the floor below us, but if you're wondering if you can fight here, you don't have to worry about damaging anything because it all resets to my liking. Yeah, I meant more like, could we trap them on a floor, keep them from leaving,

and then restricting the entrance and exit out of a room? Anything that happens, I mean, he could cancel this tower at any time. He could make the tower disappear. Well, I don't know if he can change. Here's the thing. Right now, there is not, but tomorrow night there will be, if we imagine it.

That's what I meant. Just a thought. What? Like one of those irises has a locking mechanism. I can fiddle, yeah. I like this. Another idea, as we approach the entrance to A1, if we needed to buy some time or something,

we could, I mean, we have daggons on our tails, so he could, you know, create a diversion or blow something up or fire a crossbow bolt from far off, and that might slow us down if we're trying to buy time for Essek to arrive or something. That's true. Even though the cats are singing beautifully, I will summon the sword and I will cast the invisibility

just as an extra precaution. Make a perception check. Whoop! 15. 15, okay, cool. Glancing around the chamber, surrounded by cats, you immediately and you glance up and right above you guys,

you see a faintly visible arcane orb. Motherfucker! Fighting our time seems to be... See where we end up. I mean, they have actually been quite nice. I thought they would've tried something at this point, but perhaps all our judgments were misplaced? You view them as allies now, do you, Fjord?

Oh, I don't know about that, but they seem to be at least participating in their half of the deal. Well, they've been listening to us shit talk them quite a bit on multiple nights. So I don't think there's a lot of illusions here. It's an uncomfortable alliance at best. But we're curious to see the end of the road.

There we are. You can stop singing. You can stop singing, cut it, cut it. All cuts, and they look at each other confused, and then slowly begin to filter out of the room through the- Yeah, you guys blew it. You blew it! Get out of here!

One prima donna cat still going. Vroom, vroom! Memories! Still traveling. It would be memories. It would be fucking memories. Yeah, you, Root, stop. Could you bring some whiskeys down? Thank you.

Still there? Still there. Well, good night then, I guess. Ooh, I wonder who it's following. Everybody, take 10 steps back. Okay. Does it follow? I think it's just stationary, isn't it? It might follow a certain person.

We could see who it's actually scrying. Just walk across to the far side of the salon. We'll walk to opposite points. Yeah, everybody walks back. Opposite spaces. No, you can see now it is following Yasha. Ah. Interesting. I knew it, she dies.

Wow, special. Angel. Hey! Angel blood. Go to bed. It's probably just because... Maybe it's because he feels something for you. Maybe he remembers me. Oh!

Maybe. I don't know. Again, that's that thing. What is it again? Hope that I keep holding onto. That's good, though. Yeah. Is it still there? You see, over a few more minutes, it vanishes. And then it reappears. Ah.

This time above Fjord. Well, shit. Interesting. Mm. Yeah. I walk over towards Fjord. Yes, above Fjord. I walk over towards Fjord. Yes, above Fjord. I walk over towards you and I look up at it.

Actually, I stand in front of you so I can get in its view. I'm assuming it's just like fish eye lens. Yeah. It's a ring light. Yeah. What are we going to do here? We're working together. You don't really trust us. We don't really trust us.

We don't really trust you. You have some idea of what you want to do with us. We feel compelled to follow. You having fun at least? It vanishes. You were actually looking just off camera, but it didn't really make as much. Messing with his mind.

Oh, it was a conversation with the Wild Mother. I'll wait a minute. Does it reappear in the roof? Mm-mm. I know, I want to try for divine intervention tonight. You can if you want to. I want to try for divine intervention tonight. You can if you want to. I want to. What do you want?

What I want. Tell me what you want. What I really, really want is... What I want. I want a hug, I want a hug, I want a hug. Is I want to ask the Traveler for help in getting Molly back. in getting Molly back.

Okay. Go ahead and make a roll. Come on, come on, Lavorre. In the cake. Come on. Oh, wait. No. That could have been really good, but I don't think it was. It was 40. 40? No. It's below your level.

Tell me, sweet little rat. I know. Good try, though. The Traveler peeks into your ear and goes, I'm going to be honest, I don't trust him as far as I can throw him. And well, with these arms, I can't throw him very hard. You're a very strong troll. I can be, you're right, right.

But still, throwing's not my thing. Caduceus, were you going to try something, or are you good? Yeah, I'm thinking about what to try. Huh. I'd say... I suppose any sort of advantage going into where we're going forward, I would really, I would like to have a better idea

of what we're getting into. I'd like to really know. Maybe even more than Lucen, as soon as he knows. You're going to speak? So what's your question? Are you doing Commune or are you doing Divine Intervention? Divine Intervention. Oh, I'm Divine Intervention. Oh, okay.

I'll Commune in a minute. I'll do something big. Okay. Yeah. Your hair looks so good. Thank you, that's all I needed. I would like this, my Divine Intervention is, I want this entrance, the side entrance, to be closed. To be the secondary secondary sneaky entrance. I want it destroyed.

Okay, go ahead and give it a shot. Ziggy zig, ah. That's a 39. Aw, unfortunately, no. No, it was worth a shot. It was worth a shot. Weird. There is commune, and then there's also, worst case scenario, we can just...

What's that? Oh. Super quick. You could be asking me so many things to Allison. I know! I don't want to say that a lot. We could just recall back to Jester's house one of these days. Super. Bail.

We could just call. At any time. That's always an option. Should we check in with Essek? Mm-hmm, super. Bail. You could just go. At any time. That's always an option. Should we check in with Essek? Yeah, I was just about to say. Sure, I can send the message. Are we being watched?

Nope. He's still got it up for another hour. At this point, it'd be about, I'd say, 30 minutes or so left of the spell. All right, yeah, then I'll send a message to Essek. What should I say? What should I say? What should I say? What should I say?

This is important. We're going to be at Aeor in a day and a half? Yeah. Meet us there. Well, he was already there. He was on the east side. But meet us at the entrance. There's so many entrances.

It's not like, it's a city. It's not like there's one place to go into it. I mean, do we want to complicate our arrival and lay a trap, or just make sure he stays clear? I think maybe clear and follow us in? He has so much other shit going on. How are we going to convince him to do that? He loves us!

He's one of the Mighty Nein! He told us the last time we talked, he was like, I'm running an operation for the Dynasty. I cannot abandon my post. I am in charge here. That is what he said. I think he'll understand that this is bigger than that. They've collected lodestones.

They have prior knowledge. They're coming to awaken the city. I need a third question. Wait for us. That's a big question mark with him, because he- It's a huge question mark. has told us to our faces that he bears more allegiance to us than any nation.

Whether that's true or not, who knows? Mm-hmm. Who knows what his allegiances are? If anything, I think if we utilize Essek in any way, he will be a tool, because there's no doubt that he's not going to have some sort of common interest in whatever they want. Right. So are you proposing that he help us

keep them from going in or to follow us in on the Sleekie? You are right there. I mean, think of what he did for knowledge already. Yeah. Just for research. I think it's kind of. We kiss him into this. He could work, like throw in two kaiju at each other

and seeing how they battle and, you know, I don't know. We could also tell him all this and he may just totally disregard it. We could also. Yeah, that too. So polymorph really fast and fly away. And just go. Right now?

Just right now. Go where? Go to A1? Go to Essek. Go now. Abandon them. Just go. Teleport to Essek.

In less than an hour. But we're highly risky. Oh yeah. Oh wow, it would. Actually, the more I think about it. Well. Yeah, once we're out, we're out. Come closer.

I'm looking out, you're clear? Yeah. Make a perception check. 60. 14, 15, 16. Looks fairly clear at the moment. Yeah, leaving is perhaps not a... Fairly clear.

Be advised, fairly clear. You look around the chamber and feel pretty confident with what you've seen before that you do not see it around you. Pretty confident. Be advised. You have a third question, though. I've got a couple in mind. I don't have a question, but...

Just piggybacking on that, everybody except for Veth and I are going to be tired tomorrow. Yeah. We could wake up in the middle of the night. They'll wake up pretty quick, SAM and LAURA SAM and LAURA They'll wake up pretty quick, but we'll already be awake. Do we go, but perhaps?

What are you saying? Is that what you're saying? Oh, Jesus. Where are we trying to get to, ultimately? Right. I think we should try to get to Essek. Why don't we call him first? Why don't we call him first? We'll wait. Let's do that.

Yes. If that. Yes. Because he could be on fucking Essek. Not at the destination. I don't know what I'm saying anymore. What you up to? Can you help us? We'll be at Aeorin a day and a half. Can you help us? We'll be at Aeor in a day and a half. Can you help? Things are dire.

Yeah. They have lodestones. They have lodestones. They want to bring back the Somnovem. There's a hyphen in that bit, right? Will you meet us? Will you help us? Sick. Rather rapid response comes in. Jester, um,

your words in some ways are alien, but I sense your worry. I'm at the outpost, southeast of the ruin. Come. Here you go. Outpost. Here you go. We go to him. But then that... What? go. We go to him.

But then that- What? But if we go to him, I'm here for that? We would have him on our side and try to help fight them. We're going to have, like, the plan to have the entrance demolished wasn't bad, because that could have forced us to have to redirect to him. We would have to convince the Tomb Takers.

Yeah, but the plan didn't work. I know, so what's another plan to convince them to go to the southeast side? We go away and they chase us. Because we have a thing that they need. True. Ish. Yeah.

We don't even know if they're going in from the north, whatever. We think they are. That's true. They could be lying to us. Very true. Fuck. If we go in the middle of the night, the rest of us would be exhausted. We go now.

We leave now. We just go. If we go, we wait a couple hours until they're out. I'm starting a Commune spell as this conversation's happening. Okay. What the fuck does it make? Lucien never sleeps anyway. That's true.

Take a minute. How many more messages can you cast? I mean, I can send a couple more, but that's using up spell slots. Who knows, if we try to do anything, they're going to chase us. We might have to fight. So where did he say the entrance was again?

Northwestern. All right. I'm good whenever. We lost a day of travel today. We could try and rest and enact this plan tomorrow. Day after. Tomorrow night. We're going to be exhausted.

So will they. And you guys won't. I feel great. That tea had something in it, a kick. Woo! So we are going to just chance that we can find this entrance. Yeah? Wow.

Big gamble. That's a big gamble with a tiny path. I'll probably be hitting my trance pretty soon. I thought we were going to be trying to find Essek's outpost. For what, though? To get Essek! But he said he was not leaving. Yeah, the difference between the northwest corner

and the eastern outpost could be like six to eight hours. A big deal, yeah. It's pretty big. And maybe there is some benefit to having him join us because he's so talented, but what is to be gained by diverting away? Because we don't know if he's going to come. I don't think we know. We don't know. Because we don't know if he's going to come. I don't think we know. We don't know.

I mean, we're either riding in and playing it as we see it, or we're kicking it off in here. I look up at the Yeah. For the last one. Make a perception check. I think we ride in. Seven.

14, 15, 16, 17. Great, hell yeah. Just climbing up there once. At the moment, nothing. At the moment, Travis. Be advised, at the moment. All right, I'm going. As they're having this conversation,

their words begin to slowly fade, Caduceus, as you begin to head into your trance, and the warmth of the Wildmother's presence surrounds you. You can hear the breeze. You can hear the breeze, you can hear the splash of water on brooks around you. You feel yourself in the center of an interpretation of the jungle where you reconvene with your family.

It's welcoming, it's warm. What would you like to ask? Lucien Nonagon, is this second entrance that he's been talking about actually where he said it was to the northwest? You get a stronger warm breeze that blows past your back over your shoulder in the direction that you're facing,

interpreting it as affirmation. Does he need all of us alive for what he plans to do? The breeze becomes extremely icily cold. Oh no. All of us. All of us. Angel. Changes my thought, then. We've seen angel blood before.

Does he need all of us alive when we arrive? The cold breeze continues blowing. Hmm. Interesting. All right. What was the last one again? I'm sorry. Does he need us alive when we arrive? Does he need us alive when we get there?

And the answer is no. But you got a confirmation on Northwest side? That is, he was not lying. Don't you, do you have five questions? Or is that Speak With Dead? Three, five is Speak With Dead. Yeah, need and want are two different things. Okay, so...

Maybe, maybe. Three questions with the commute. He does not need us? Nope. He doesn't need all of us, and he doesn't need all of us alive. But he might need some of us. But does he need some of us? He might need you. He might need you.

How did he know you had angel blood? Probably from the vials. Oh, right, right. You know. I don't think it's a... So again, what's to be gained if we were to collapse this entrance that he's hoping to take? That it would force him to another one where?

I feel like that would only be useful if we needed to buy time to get Essek on our side. Which I don't think we're going to get. I think it's a good call to talk to him. Unless we want to kick off a fight beforehand, which I don't think any of us is feeling too strongly about. I think we're on along for the ride, right? We're a little wild. Yeah.

I love home field advantage. That's the only reason I'm pushing it, but I really want to see where this goes to. No, child. And we have that here. Well, and for those of us interested in trying to redeem our old friend, we certainly don't have a method to do so at the moment.

The thin hope would be that something about where we're going seems pretty thin. Everything's thin. I think we just need to commit at this point. We've been talking around this for two days now. Yeah, at least. Let's just go. We're in it.

Go right now or go with them? No, go with them. Get a night's sleep. Out of the corner of your eye, you see apparate once more that same orb. Ah! Cats again? Uh-huh.

Oh no. Several cats do now approach you at my telepathic getting. No, no, no, no! I'm going to go to bed. Well, before we go to bed, I wouldn't mind reaching out to you, Doliphon, if we're about to crash for the night. Okay, but we're being, you know.

Okay. Yeah, okay. Go for it. Send a message. Being so good. Hope I get to go to sleep tonight. Just let them know that. Come into our rooms. They have locks on them. Just like physical locks?

Or like magical 9th-level wizard locks? No, there's no 9th-level. Oh! I've never brought anyone in here that I didn't trust. Should we all sleep in the same room together? Well, I'm wondering if we all might. Yeah, that's... Sleep in the same room. Yeah, let's do that.

Yeah. With them? No, just us, like instead of in our individual rooms. Yeah, yeah, yeah, let's do that. Yeah, let's do that. Slumber party! Oh yeah. Should we bring some mattresses by the fireplace? Yeah, blankies and yeah, yeah. Yeah, we could get those from the floor below.

Okay. We could sleep where we slept with the yetis, or we could sleep in Veth and my chambers with the laboratory in between. There's an entire floor. This game. Sure. Oh, an entire floor. This game. Sure. Oh, this is quite...

Listen, this is my dollhouse. I designed it. I mean, I played with it. Yep, yep. Hello. Loving it. Okay, so I'm sending a message to you, Dala. Just let them know that, very preoccupied,

you don't have to get into that detail, just tell them, I won't be able to make it back to the Cobalt Soul anytime soon, so any pertinent information they could deliver would be nice. Okay. Hey.

Won't be able to make it back anytime soon. So any pertinent information, please tell. Use words carefully. But we could use words. Honestly, that all tracks. That would work. Yeah. Nothing about that didn't make sense. We could use words.

Yudala Fon responds, Of course. Not pertinent. An operative by the ruins previously has information on what the Cognouza is. Ah, okay. We know that already, right?

Multiple forms of research going at the same time. Everything looks to be in this overlap information. That's it. Wow. Okay. All right, so that's good. We know that we know it. Okay. Okay. To me, that tells us we might see friends.

Maybe. Or that could be Do we want to find out? that could be the gnome that we scared off. Yeah, do we want to figure out who the operative is? Well, it doesn't mean that the operative's there now. That means the operative had previously gone and reported. It says an operative by the ruins. Operative by the ruins.

Previously. Who had been by the ruins. Previously. Okay, okay, okay. Sorry, I didn't know where we were going. Okay. All right, let's make a fort. A pillar fort. Okay. All righty.

We shall rest. So you guys are arranging in which room? I think that we should use Yasha's room, because it is sparse. We'll be sleeping on the... Yeah, I'll bring some bed mats, but on the floor. Anybody can sleep in the bed. I usually sleep in the chair that's in there anyway, so. You should try the bed.

It could be exciting. Try it once. Yeah. We could also do like the, like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Try it once. Yeah. We could also do like the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. You know where? Oh yeah, yeah, multiples. Feeds in. Yeah, yeah. The grandparents. Grandpa Joe. So cozy.

Yeah. Feeds together. Grandpa Joe, what a terrible person. Yeah. And you really break it down. He's awful. Sorry, I have a whole rant on that. Our happiness depends on you.

But I make a run down to the large chamber beneath the salon with all of the sliding door closets, the Room of Requirement that just offers up what you need and get some bedrolls and blankets and pillows and take a couple of trips back and forth with Veth's help. Ah! Yep. Just so we have something to sleep on. Okay. Okay.

So you guys go ahead and set up in Yasha's room? Yeah. All right. So you go ahead and eventually find yourself asleep unless you have any other business to do. Are we all in for the night? Does anyone need to leave this room for anything? Nope. Hold on, let me go pee.

Well, that's in here. Oh, I thought that was out. I feel more comfortable peeing in my own room. Hold on. Okay. I think she's going, number two. own room, hold on. Okay. I think she's going number two. Beau, go with her. Okay, and now I came back. While you're about,

you do hear this echoing whistle. You glance up and you can just barely make out the shape on the upper areas of the available tower. You see Lucien on his own, just walking around and just looking. Hey, Lucien. Whistling. Yes?

If you really want a fun tour, let me know. I can play a fun trick. Do tell. Up. I'll fly it tell. Up. I'll fly it up. Okay. Do you want to go, do you want to see? See what? The fun stuff.

Sure. Do you trust me? Are you being deceptive in any way? Nope. He takes your hand. I am going to cast Polymorph on both of us. Okay. And turn us into cats.

I can show you the world. Okay. And then run off and show him the little door so he can run around the tower as cats. Doesn't that let him into our room? No, there's a lock on the inside of those doors in the room. Okay. I'm not Scanlan Shorthalt.

There's no sneaking into my guests' chambers. Everyone has complete privacy and they are in control. Oh, the beard makes it creepier. I can see you when you're asleep. Oh my god. There's Kareeper. No creepy Santa, no. Lucien gives Chase for a little bit

and then seems to be preoccupied with his own wanderings in cat form for a little bit. Okay. I run up behind him and try to tell him that it only lasts for an hour, but all I'm doing is meowing. Meow, meow, meow. Meow, meow, meow. Meow, meow, meow.

She's been gone for so long, we need to send out a party. Yeah. How long do you wander about? I'll wander around with him for 30 minutes, and then. Jester has gone for 30 minutes, guys. Ah! Maybe she's just taking a shit. Yeah, that's true. She does take a shit.

I mean, I did say I needed privacy, so yeah. Nothing but pastries. And milk. Maybe at the 20th. No shit's a gigantic thing. Just fills the chamber pot all in one go. Boom. There's a reputation around the... Aw. I think 20 minutes into that,

I would have spoken to Frumpkin and put out an APB amongst the cats. Indeed. All-pussy bulletin? Yes. Yeah. Wait, that's Scanlan's house. Okay, so. I'm a blue cat, and when I turned Lucien into a cat,

I polymorphed him into a little red cat with little purple and teal swirls. Okay. No. Oddly enough, though not of your implementation, the cat has visibly nine eyes that are red that glow through the fur across the cat. Wiggy! Okay, cool.

Neat. But as he's following you a bit and then following your lead to go through all these tunnels, it's interesting. There's a playfulness to it that belies some of the intense conversations that have happened. And then you can see him growing

a little more curious to wander on his own as you follow up behind, and right then Frumpkin arrives and approaches to go, Meow. Meow. Looks over at Lucien. Mmm. Meow. Looks over at Lucien. Mm.

Meow. It goes and is trying to lead you back. It goes and is trying to lead you back. Mm. I look at Lucien. I do a little shruggy shrug. Meow. Meow. And he darts off up the tunnels on his own. I'll follow from him. Shruggy shrug. And he darts off up the tunnels on his own. I'll follow Frumpkin.

Okay. Oh, that one internet cat that goes... Yep. Shaquille O'Neal. Yeah. Okay. I'll go with Frumpkin. Okay, so you follow Frumpkin back. When do you turn back into a cat?

Well, I don't know, because if I turn back into me, does that cancel it on? You can cancel it, I'd say for the purposes of this, because you used the object to twin cast it. I'll let you cancel one if you don't wish to cancel the other. Okay, I'll cancel myself when I get back in the room. Okay. Jester arrives unharmed.

Through one of the doors, I'll pop, pop, pop on the little tunnel door. Wow. It was that bad you had to come in through another door, huh? I was a cat. Lucien's a cat. That's his secret? No.

No, I turned Lucien into a cat. Oh, oh yes, that's foolish of me. Okay. I'm playing everything. Okay, so you, did you do your poo? I didn't poo, but. Still need to? Did you pee? I actually didn't pee.

You forgot? I got distracted. Not even as a cat, because it's free rain when you're a cat, yeah. You need a litter box. You can't just pee anywhere. You can see them every 20 yards inside the tunnels? This place would smell so bad! Is it magic fey pee? Uh-huh. I'm just going to use your bathroom. I'm going to go pee.

And I'll come back. Okay, but he's still going to be a cat for another 15 minutes. If we want to do anything, he's a cat wandering around. Or, you know, we could just let him be a cat. Well, are we in here for the night? Yes. Yeah. Okay, so to Frumpkin, who has returned as well,

I say I want you to telepathically clog the arteries on five. Fjord, cover your eyes. And over the next three or four minutes, cat after cat after cat after cat after cat after cat just sort of like vomits up like World War Z in from the bottom and out from the top. Not into the room we're in.

Not into the room we're in. But the central chamber just starts to fill with spectral cats, like popcorn in a popcorn popper and fills like a glut in that center hallway. And I say, this is wild, you want to see something funny? And I opened the little doorway and there's like four cats, like, pressed in there. Perfect.

And I have just clogged all of five and the tops of four and three leading into five. Okay. I've had this dream. Everything's okay now. That was a nightmare. Yeah. The spell connection you have with Lucien's polymorph ends was a nightmare. Yeah. The spell connection you have with Lucien's polymorph

ends prematurely on its own. Oh, he's not a cat anymore. Mm. So you can cancel that shit at any moment. Well, yeah. He's pretty cool. He can do just about anything, it seems like. I know.

All right, well. Go to bed. You and I need to rest because. We need to actually rest. Yeah. Okay. I'll take first watch. All right. I'm going to sit up against the door

and just sleep. Okay. I take the bed. Oh man, I'm going to get straight eight hours of sleep. This is a fantasy. Yep. Are you guys doing the sleepies with the feets? Four people? Touching tips?

The feets in the middle? Yeah. In the bed? Yeah. Four people in the bed? All right. There's room. Yeah. See who's in the bed. No, I don't know. Who's in the bed? All right. All the ladies? No, jump in. I who's in the bed. Who's in the bed? All right. All the ladies?

No, jump in. I'll jump in. All the ladies. Okay. Cool. So all but Fjord eventually find their way to sleep. Fjord, make a perception check. Not as good, nine. Nothing seems to catch your attention. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Most of you sleep okay. Beginning, it's that tension of knowing that the enemy is in the house that leads to an uncomfortable rest. Um. Fuck. No. Okay. Caleb and Beauregard. Oh, because you looked. Through the challenging wrestling to night

and sleep, As darkness awaits you in that place of dreams, you find yourself in a cold, dark space. You remember nodding off, but now you're here, conscious, it feels. You look around in this darkness. Do we see each other? Yeah, are we aware of each other? No, you are unaware of each other. Fuck.

This faint red glow begins to warm in front of you, This faint red glow begins to warm in front of you, like a tiny, tender flash that begins to burn into a bright flame. Until there before you, you see a massive glowing red eye that just peers into you, inspecting you, piercing you, looking around to you, within you.

No words, no language. You immediately feel this sense of fear and odd desperation, but it begins to subtly pull away as you feel it connect to you. Like a single thought enters your mind, like the light seems to swarm and fill your space. And all it says is, without language, but feeling,

emotion, welcome. Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome. And you hear this faint sound, this humming, like thousands of bees buzzing. And as you listen, you begin to see scratches, shapes, flashes of the pages that you had looked at in that tome.

And it's not buzzing. Their voices, their screams, hundreds, thousands of them, just faintly out of view. Oh god. The eye closes. And you wake up, both, shooting up at the exact same time within the chamber. Catches your attention for it immediately.

That's rare. I grab my notebook. I start trying to copy as much as I could from memory. Okay. You start writing it down. What are you doing? Shut up, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh. That's not good. You feel that fractal pull within the page,

this vertigo still lingering after the dream that you both had independently experienced. As Beau's sketching in the book and holding it in front of her, Caleb, make a perception check. I wanted to ask also, if I think back to what we looked at, which is a hazy, but does it make any more sense? Yeah.

Perception, you said? Yes. Open. Up. 18. 18. 18. As you're looking over towards Beauregard, and she's sketching, you see the back of the hand

that's holding the book. Oh! Oh! A single red eye. Oh! She's just drawing. And she's unaware. Seemingly.

Nothing. Stop. What? I take her hand and twist so that hers is on top of the back facing up. On the back of your left hand, you see an identical red eye in the skin to Lucien's. and you see an identical red eye

in the skin to Lucien's. I'm so terrified. Yeah, yeah, I know. Come here, come here, come here. Turn around. I look where the tattoo on her neck is. Are there any more? No. I look at your neck.

Nothing. Your arms, he had one on his arm. I check the gooch. Oh no. That's the last place you look. We just wake up to Caleb butt-ass naked. And Beau's like. Some of them's like, oh, this was a bad idea.

I'm sitting there holding this up and they're like, except it's just the staff. Who's the worst watch? I do actually, Ichabod Crane just pulls off his shirt and I just start looking at bare chest and arms to see everywhere and turning around in front of Beau and our board. As Caleb's pulling back his robes, you can see on the right shoulder,

just above where the bicep and deltoid meet, you see a similar single red eye. Fuck. Ha ha ha ha ha. The rest of you begin to come to hearing the shifting and ruckus and conversation and the tension in the room is immediately accessible to you. Wish I had that spell now.

Does it feel like anything? No, though strangely warm. I look down at my notes. What did I draw? You can see, you recall writing your dream, the words of it, and you look down at the page again, and it is just scratches and lines and nothing.

Oh boy. What happened? And that's where we're going to pick up. Oh! No! Oh man! Are you kidding? Holy! You asked to read the book. You were right.

You were right to open it up. Yeah. Together, you did it together. I'm just glad it's not on my team. I don't know if it's good that we did it together or bad that we did it together. I don't think it's good. Don't think it's good.

That one itches. Yeah. Really hard to get through. It sees. Welcome to Merlin. You're level one now. Oh man. Level one, yeah. Welcome to the Eyes of Nine. Oh my god.

Wow. We'll be in all the nine groups. Just a starting fee of 199 gold for the first six months. You have to listen to a certain number of tapes. Uh-huh. By these amount of books. And you have to recruit only 10 people each. Yeah, yeah.

Wow. Fuck! Well, that complicates things. Just a titty bit. Wow. Fuck! Well, that complicates things. Just a titty bit. Wow. Oh no. I guess we have to kill Caleb and Beau now, too. I love it. Matt, this is more than I could have ever asked for.

You potentially turned the wizard and the monk on us? Oh no. Or made them more powerful, maybe. Yeah, yeah. Then perish. Yeah. Oh no. The one who's obsessed with gaining control of his domain.

Shut up, baby, I know it. And the one who is skeptical as fuck and hates all of it. Fuck. You did look at it together. We did, yeah, yeah. That was probably dumb in that moment. Probably should have think of it. Fuck. You did look at it together. We did, yeah. That was probably dumb in that moment. Probably should have think of it. We blessed and we guided and we didn't go like,

maybe one of you goes first. Well, we kind of knew. Kind of knew, could have, yeah. Risk was always there. Yeah, we fucked up. But wow, it's good. Hey man, you read the yellow sign. Yeah, it's full Necronomicon.

I want to keep playing. I want to find out more. I know, I know. Well, soon's full Necronomicon. I want to keep playing. I want to find out more. I know, I know. Well, soon enough. I know. Soon enough. Yeah, one step ahead of him, learned something he didn't know, and instead we stared into the Necronomicon. We followed in his footsteps.

Yeah. Well. That's cool. We'll pick up from that revelation next time. Next week. Super excited. Thank you all for joining us. Before I forget, just wanted to do another clarification on this, there was confusion online

and I wanted to confirm as well. I think I said it before, but the combat wheelchair that I have been using in the game is not designed by me. It is designed by Sarah Thompson at Mustang's Art on Twitter. Do not give me the credit. That's all their work and they're amazing. Anyway, thank you all so much for joining us. We love you very much and this is Thursday Ed.

Good night. Man, what did you two do? And this concludes the current chapter of Critical Role. Your essays on the history and impact of the various ages and epochs of Exandria are eagerly anticipated. Just kidding. No homework for you, but if you are inspired to do some writing, please leave us a review. Your words can really help new folks find our show and encourage them to give it a try.

Thank you so much for joining us on this adventure. Until next time.