Critical Role - C2E132 Aeor

Episode Date: April 8, 2021

Having located the secret entrance to Aeor, the Mighty Nein take stock of what waits for them both above and below the ice...Due to the improv nature of Critical Role and other RPG content on our channels, some themes and situations that occur in-game may be difficult for some to handle. If certain episodes or scenes become uncomfortable, we strongly suggest taking a break or skipping that particular episode. Your health and well-being is important to us and Psycom has a great list of international mental health resources, in case it’s useful: http://bit.ly/PsycomResourcesWatch Critical Role live Thursdays at 7pm PT on https://twitch.tv/criticalrole and https://youtube.com/criticalrole. To join our live and moderated community chat, please head over to our Twitch channel.

Hi there, this is Matthew Mercer, resident Game Master here at Critical Role, to welcome you to this podcast version of the show. If you'd like to watch the stream as it airs, you can catch it Thursdays at 7pm Pacific on twitch.tv slash criticalrole or youtube.com slash criticalrole. Twitch subscribers can access the video on demand immediately after the broadcast, and it also becomes available on YouTube Mondays at 12 p.m. Pacific. Podcast episodes land right here on the Critical Role Podcast Network

on Thursdays, a week after the initial broadcast. Okay, with that info dump out of the way, let's dive into the story. Hello, everyone, and welcome to tonight's episode of Critical Role, where a bunch of us nerdy-ass voice actors sit around and play Dungeons & Dragons. What? Just like that.

We do have some announcements to get through before we jump into our game tonight, beginning with our first sponsor, Skillshare. Sam. This episode is sponsored by our friends at Skillshare, an online learning community with thousands of inspiring classes for creative and curious people. Skillshare offers classes designed for real life and all the circumstances that come with it,

including graphic design, creative writing, and music. With memberships starting as low as $10 a month with an annual subscription, Skillshare is a great way to learn and explore classes and unlock your creativity for social good. As a special offer for our audience, the first thousand creators to join Skillshare by following this link, skl.sh slash criticalrole01211. Yep, yep. Maybe a bitly one next time.

We'll get a free trial of premium membership. Now, I was given a free trial, and I signed up for a class called Caring for Your Houseplants. And I learned a lot. For instance, did you know that your plants will grow healthier and fuller if you talk to them? Here, I'll demonstrate. Oh, hello, Janelle.

Your leaves are looking fantastic today. Full and green. You know, you really brighten my day. Oh, why, thank you, Sam. That new haircut ain't bad half bad either, cutie pie. Oh. Oh, you noticed, Janelle? I mean, I sit at your desk all day.

Now I got something handsome to stare at. Oh. Well then, if you're open to it, I could spend some more time tilling that soil. Oh, you want to repot me? We could pour a glass of worm compost tea and germinate. Ooh. Janelle, what the hell are you doing?

Steve! I thought you were still at the office. Who is this grasshole? Is he mulching with you? Whoa, whoa, whoa. Janelle, Janelle, what is this fern talking about? This fern is her husband, you filthy hoser. Dude, I had no idea. Really, I am so sorry. We were just- I know what you were doing, And now your salad days are over. Baby, please, he means nothing to me. He's small potatoes.

He doesn't even photosynthesize. That's it, you bastard. You're gonna reap what you sow. I'm gonna amend the soil with your dead body. You heard me. Get over here so I can- Wait, what are you doing? Get your green thumb off my stem, you scumbag.

Hey! If I ever run out of time! I'm going to move! So there, you just talked to plants. And that's how it goes. So go check out Skillshare today, everybody. Yeah, that's it. Sam, who the fuck is that on your desk?

She means nothing to me. Back to you, Matt! Son of a bitch! Oh my, okay. Wow. Well played. That was a bitch. Yeah, yeah. We've... Well played. That was a bit.

That, yeah, yeah. We've... Ashley. Oh no, it's so much salt. That was, that was, that was... I'm just curious how, like, where your brain went to think of that bit for this ad. What, to think of our fine sponsor Skillshare

and then go A to B with me having a three-way sexual affair with a fern? I think it's a pretty natural connection. True, true, true. It makes sense to me. It does, it does, now that you break it down. Ow. Ow.

Well, on that note, I want to thank our second sponsor for tonight, Elder Scrolls Online. This episode is sponsored by our friends at Bethesda and Cinemax Online Studios and their 2021 release, The Elder Scrolls Online Blackwood, coming on June 1st for PC, Mac, and Stadia, and June 8th for Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PS4, and PS5.

So ESO is the largest Elder Scrolls adventure with over 18 million players. They have a year-long adventure coming out that includes multiple DLCs and a main chapter release. And this year's main chapter, Blackwood, uncovers the schemes of the Daedric Prince Mehrunes Dagon, one of the inspirations for our bird's name, actually.

800 years before the events of Elder Scrolls IV. The first DLC, Flames of Ambition, is out now and their free play event lasts until April 13th at www.elderscrollsonline.com slash free play. They also have a ton of great offers going on right now, which you can find all at www.elderscrollsonline.com slash buy. We are excited to have a year-long collaboration with ESO

and we'll be sharing more content and updates along the way. Super excited about that, and thank you guys so much for responding. That was amazing, Matt. That was amazing. Thank you. You squished five minutes of copy into like 40 seconds. That was good. It's no plant fucking, but you know, I do what I can. Trying to make it where it's worth it.

Fuck it, though. Indeed, Travis, indeed. And finally, a big thank you to our friends at D&D Beyond, our fantastic sponsors for all of Campaign 2. D&D Beyond, as you should know by now, if you don't go check it out, it's an online digital tool set to organize your characters and your campaign notes.

It's awesome. You can make characters there. You can do custom campaign stuff like I do for this. Books, the whole thing. It's awesome, you can make characters there You can do custom campaign stuff Like I do for this Books, the whole thing, it's great Check it out at D&D Beyond's mobile app At dndbeyond.link slash mobile And of course, thank you all for joining us live Here on Twitch, as well as YouTube

But to join in our live and moderated community chat Please head on over to the Twitch channel But we're happy to have all of you guys So, I believe that's all the announcements for the evening. So let's go ahead and jump into 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 falchions and cunning They don't see over there There's a monster incoming Inspiration is waiting Rise up, don't think twice Put your fate in your hands

Take a chance, roll the dice Roll the dice Roll the dice Roll the dice Roll the dice Can you answer the call? Roll, critical, roll, critical, roll, critical Can you answer the call? Digging deep in your soul As the legend unfolds

Now it's your turn To roll To roll Oh! And welcome back. So, last we left off, the Mighty Nein, after setting your affairs outside of Eiselcross into a comfortable place, you gathered yourselves to make your way northward once more.

The brief goodbye to the clays in the Blooming Grove, a vision and proving ground for Yasha in the name of the Stormlord, in which you have fully embraced your mission currently, as an extension of his power, and have taken the Holy Avenger as your blade. You all transitioned yourselves northward through the risky expanse of teleportation magic

to a land that seems iffy when it comes to such transportation incantations and arrived safely at the outpost of the Dynasty where Essek awaited your arrival. and arrived safely at the outpost of the Dynasty, where Essek awaited your arrival. After sharing some information about the current circumstances and the timeline that you are on,

you all convince Essek to come with you, as you had discussed previously, and make your way in a northwestern direction towards the secret entrance that you expect Lucien and the Tomb Takers are heading towards, that Caduceus had uncovered through a successful use of his divine intervention. So, as you all have gathered your things,

you begin to trek out from the outpost into the cold, snow-powder-covered expanse that is Aeor's sunken ruin. So. You're trekking through the snow, crunching beneath your boots. Everything at your side, you have a number of hours of travel,

and even just a short distance out into it, Essek looks back and, glancing at the horizon towards the space you're headed, we are not in the open, in a very clear day against the white of the snow. If there is some way we could be a little more, not a beacon for dangerous creatures to find us,

I could try and give us a form like the rangers of the outpost with white cloaks to maybe blend in a bit, unless you have some other things to help with. An alpine look? I mean, I'm already wearing white, but... Fair enough. I understand if you want to make everyone else do the same. I'm all right with it.

Just wearing a lot of black against the white can be a bit, I catch it. Yes, I stand out quite a bit. Oh. Yeah. I would take one. Winter mode, activate. Cha-ching! You're the one activating it.

I can't. I just made sounds, didn't I? You did, all of them. And pose, hit a pose. It takes a moment for me to cast the spells. Okay, just say a little, like... And right as you finish that, he finishes casting the spell.

Oh, wait, wait, oh, what? Try and jump into your pose in time, but each of you then take on the attire, while still yourselves, the attire of the outpost rangers of the green. You could see the light gray leather armor and the white heavy furred cloaks and hoods over you that drop behind and for the most part,

allow you visually an easier way to blend in any environment as you move forward. Essek, can you make mine look like it has just a little bee, like one teeny little bee, like right here? The spell is already sent. I can't make alterations. I am sorry. Okay. Can you burn another spell slot to redo it? I certainly can.

No, no, no. Don't do that, Essek. I don't want you to waste the spell. Don't, don't do it. Just don't. Jester, it could be life or death. You don't need to reverse psychology or't. Jester, it could be life or death. You don't need to reverse psychology or ally.

Make a persuasion check. This is not very good. 13! No. Five. But he does mark that spell off there. All right. Where are we going?

Oh, we're going to the entrance, yeah? The real, the main entrance? Or the secret entrance? The one that Lucien knows about. Speaking of Lucien. Oh, my thing? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I forgot about the mark that he put on my chest.

What? Wild! Yes, this is my fault. I say that now. You fought, or Travis? Both. Yes. We fought with Lucien, and when he struck me, there was a blood, like, grand sigil

that seared itself onto my chest. And I have a feeling that it allows him to, you know, might be able to see where I am, or at least know my location. I should probably try and get it removed. We tried! We tried, Essek. But to no avail. But you're so powerful.

You don't have to burn another spell slot. You don't have to. I don't want you to have to. Make a persuasion check. Can I give him advantage? You cannot, not with the last slot. 20. Oh! He goes,

I would assume that perhaps these devices that you acquired would be enough, but I do not also understand the ins and outs of strange blood magic like you say that they utilize. Hemocraft is something a bit beyond my realm of expertise, but I can certainly give it a shot. Can we pretend? I mean, if we try to remove our clothes,

does it still look like we're wearing? Could I be completely naked and still look like we're wearing? Could I be completely naked and still look like I'm wearing clothes? It'd be very cool. With the spell you just gave us? You could. Why would you want to?

No, I'm just saying, can you even see, can we show Essek the brand or? What, do you mean this? Yeah, but it still looks like you're wearing a vest now. It does. I can see vaguely through the illusion, knowing that it is an illusion. Oh, okay, cool.

So I would not recommend you disrobing. All right. I put my clothes back on. Don't! Don't disrobe, don't! Don't! Don't do it! Man, Iso I still got weird.

He drifts, as you're all walking, as this conversation's happening, he drifts over in your direction and glancing just past the bear of the illusion, can see ever so faintly the dull orange glow of the sigil that's burned into your chest. He's going to attempt to dispel magic. It's that easy?

Nope. I can't, like, guidance him or anything, can I? For that, you could. Can I say, because I was going to say, and then I was like, does that work on this? It might. I'm going to try to guidance you. Okay, well, the first one failed.

Okay. And he goes, he watches as he waves his hands and there's a little bit of that soft impact, like a warm wind just taps your chest. And he goes, Guidance! Okay, he's going to attempt it again. What'd you add?

I mean, it's a d4. Mm-hmm. Oh, I mean, it's a d4. Mm-hmm. Oh, I'm rolling it. That didn't help. Oh. Oh. Oh no, Essek. He goes, I could continue to try.

No, no, no. You've been most gracious. I'm sure, I'm sure it's no big deal. Besides, we need you at semi-full strength now for anything that may show up. If for some reason we encountered no sort of trouble or dangers tonight, perhaps before we all rest and maybe we can try again.

I understand. I'm just, if we are certain that this seal of Hemocraft is protected by this magic, then there is no need to worry. But if our whole idea is to... Sneak? To sneak from this individual and not be, well. What kind of magic are you doing to try to break it?

I'm attempting to dispel it, and it is receptive, but I, maybe it is indeed my lack of experience with human craft, but I'm not, I could attempt a more powerful. I could try it again. I'm going to try it again. Guide yourself. I can't guide myself.

I can guide you. Thank you. Okay, you're attempting to? Should I try it? I wish, can I ask Esse. Okay, you're attempting to? Should I try it? Can I ask Essek how powerful his Dispel is? What are you trying it at? Like, were you doing it at third level?

I was doing it to the basic level. Okay, okay, I'm going to try one level up then. All right. See if that works. So fourth level. Fourth level Dispel, with Guidance. DC plus, okay. All right. Roll good.

I'm trying! It's only my life. It's all of our lives, Fjord. Yeah, but mostly mine. But mostly yours. No, no, no, no, 19 plus a d4. That doesn't, that. Four!

23 plus whatever my modifier is. Oh, your modifier would be your wisdom modifier. Oh, I mean, wait, plus DC, no. What am I doing? You're rolling a d20. You're adding your wisdom modifier. Yes! And whatever you rolled in the d4. So plus five.

So 24 plus five is 29. Whoa. 23 plus five. 23 plus five, yeah. 23 plus five is 28. There we go. You feel that same impact like you did with Essek, but it's heavier and actually almost briefly wins you

as you feel that same burning, searing sensation that you originally felt when it burned into your flesh. You hear just so faintly around him this this sizzling sound, and you instinctually feel your breath catch in your mouth as it almost hurts. You're ready to make a pained sound, but it doesn't really hurt.

You just sensory recall the experience. Then it fades and the light is gone. And you can sense whatever anchor that brand held in your body dissipate. Mage Hand, slap him in the tip. It's cold out here! It's even worse! Can you see? Is it gone?

Are you sure? Can you see your dress? You look up. I can't see it! It's gone. You did well. Resume sneak. Indeed. I'd like everybody to make a group stealth check for me, please.

Are we doing this fancy, or are we? Because you all have the white cloaks in this space, everyone gets advantage. Ooh! Good job, gets advantage. Ooh! Good job, Essek. Ooh! Terrible roll. Yep. What?

Oh, thank god. Real bad. All righty, so starting with Fjord. Four. What'd you roll? Four. Okay. Four and a two. So you got six. You don't get any plus on stealth? Nope.

What'd you get, Jester? 14. Okay. 13. Okay. With advantage, all righty. Yeah. 25. All righty. 20 total, not natural.

Got it. 21. Who knew? Look at that. 18. Hey, so we made up for it in the back end. Got it. 21. Who knew? Look at that. Okay. 18. Hey, so we made up for it in the back end. Sort of. Okay, okay. Would we have an idea if we're shitily stealthed or would we think we are?

A question as old as time. You'll find out. We're bad at this. We had pike for three to have here. Yeah. Clank, clank, clank, clank, clank, clank, clank. Shh. Clank clack clack clack clack clack clack. Shh. Clank clack clack clack clack.

Yeah, clank clack clack clack. Hours of trudging across this somewhat shifting, rough and rolling expanse that is the icy plain above the ruins of Aeor, the occasional snow dusted surface of jagged Aeorne ruins peeking through and jutting outwards, some looking like natural bony fingers of some massive creature that's long since buried, the towers themselves curved or broken with time. Other parts look like some semblance of a beautiful piece of art or a statue that is just barely part of the head poking through,

the glacier-like ice that has since built and formed over the broken city beneath. Slowly following, Caduceus, of course, is the one with memory of the direction to keep on this. Essek reminds you along this journey, we did send a group of rangers, as well as this Dagen fellow that you brought to our attention in that direction to keep perimeter.

So keep an eye out. We at least, in this guise, will not surprise them. Have you yourself ever been this far out or anywhere near where we're going? I have not been this far. Most of our goings-on stick close to the outpost, both for defensible purposes and, well, trying not to overlap with other

not-as-kind excavation efforts. But as you continue on, for an hour, two hours, three hours. Should I scry on Lucien and the team? We've talked about this before. Aren't we concerned that they can see back somehow?

I don't know, but if they, wouldn't this cancel out them being able to see back? Sure, sure. It feels like it's poking the hornet's nest, I'm not sure. Yeah, but what if they're them being able to stay back? Sure, sure. It feels like it's poking the hornet's nest. I'm not sure. Yeah, but what if they're not even coming to this location? What if they're not anywhere in the snow right now? What if?

They're already down there. They're already down there. I think at most they would know that they were being peeked at. I don't think they're going to look back and find us. Yeah, same. I don't think it has a huge... Do you want to do it?

What do you think? Yeah? I'm here for it. I vote yes. You can keep moving. You can hop on my back. No, I can't. It's got to be a thing. I got to take 10 minutes. I know. Give you a piggyback ride for 10 minutes. It's really hard to do that while getting a piggyback ride. It's hard to do that while getting a piggyback ride.

I've been working out with Beau, okay? It's true. Have you? I'm incredibly impressive right now, yes. Oh, I hadn't noticed, wow. Baggy clothing. Snow hiking builds your glutes and your calves, so it counts. That is true.

Oh, good. Yeah, I mean, I didn't want to say anything because I didn't want to potentially cross the line, but yeah, I can tell. I mean, I suppose, yeah, I could be like, you know, I think you could carry me and I could do it. I just won't be aware of what's going on, right? I think it's super winded.

We can give it a shot. Mad Max this. Yep. The deuce is helping! How long? No. Just the wool from Sword in the Stone. Okay. I feel like there's a valuable lesson to be learned here.

I could use a spell. It's a crazy idea. I need to take a 10-minute break. I could use a spell and levitate you for 10 minutes and he could just pull you. Like a balloon. Like a balloon. Like a scrying balloon.

Is that a great idea? Like Inception? Oh, we could sit down for 10 minutes. Oh, there's also that. Fuck you. You guys tell me what you want to do. I like all these ideas. I like them all, too, but they expend your very valuable resources,

and I think maybe we should just sit. Yeah, we could sit. Okay. Sit. Okay. I'll make a couple little snow dicks just to set up the ritual. Draw an eye, ooh, to think of Lucien.

Okay, and then I'll cast my spell. Hey, oh, Traveler, come help me. Let me know if he sees me before I get double dares. Okay, thanks. Did you say double dare? Huh? Did you say double dare? I don't know what they said. Help me before I'm on double dare.

Oh man, Jester on double dare? I watched it. I hate that. Oh, you guys open in the Toys R Us run? Yeah. Vardenera. Okay, sorry. Guidance on that.

Oh, yeah. Oh, that's so smart, I always forget. These guns remember now. These guns remember? Carving out a pocket in the snow, and as you guys are trudging through, it's like thigh deep at places. It can go from a knee to thigh,

and so it's a physically taxing experience. Oh, but when you're thigh deep, you can just lean back and sit down, and your legs are really nice. So you just sit into it and relax and focus. Full power. As you close your eyes it and relax and try to focus. Full power. As you close your eyes, you hear the voice in your ears.

It is mighty chilly here, isn't it? It's pretty cold. Hmm. Well, let's see if hopefully your quarry is someplace warmer. Oh, oh, wait, okay. As your will expands outward, As your will expands outward, you feel the clouds above get dense with snow. And as you try and push through them,

you see a flash of red in your mind's eye, and then you're shunted back consciously into your body. And you hear the echoing voice vanishing in your mind of Artagan going, Oh, sorry, I tried, tried, tried. You know what? I really should, next time, if we try this again, should try to focus on something other than Lucien,

because I think he would know, you know what I mean? Oh yeah, like Otis or something. I could focus on Otis. He seems kind of dumb, because I think he would know, you know what I mean? Oh yeah, like Otis or something. I could focus on Otis. He seems kind of dumb. Or I could focus on, no, wait, Otis. Which one's the dumb one? Are any of them dumb? They're all dumb. I mean, they're all pretty dumb.

They're all jerks. Or I could focus on something they're carrying. Like I could focus on the Bag of Holding or something. Sure, sure. Oh, I miss our Bag of Holding. Make a note for next time. Got it. Make a note?

Just tell Fjord, we'll remember that. So you know, it's location and creature. Just kidding. Really? Yep. How did, okay. Because now you have locate object and other ways of getting yourself to an object. Solid. Which is short range.

All right. Well, I take it it was not a success? It was not, Essek. It was not. That is unfortunate. Shall we continue? Yes. Perimeter check.

Make a perception check. I knock, I make the eye go away and knock down a thing. Make a perception check. I knock, I... Somebody says me. Make the eye go away and knock down a dicks. You roll with me. All right. 21. Check your dicks. That's going to be better than this.

17. Okay. Glancing about around the space, you do see a little bit to your west, not intersecting with the path you're taking, but what looks to be a dark, furred, larger, lumbering beast kind of walking opposite, parallel to your direction. But it doesn't seem to notice your presence at the moment. Dark-furred, lumbering beast over there

walking parallel to us. I don't think they seem to notice our presence yet. No. That's good. Should be good. Is it just walking parallel to us in a different direction? Yeah, it doesn't seem to notice them.

Show me your best snowman. Hmm? Show me your best snowman impression. I've only seen the ones you made anyway, but. It's good, I think we'll be all right. Hey, no, their faces looked better than that. I'm trying to. Smile, smile. There you go.

All right, we keep going. I'm not going to lie. You look like me. Traveling with you is not quite what I was expecting. We get that a lot. We try to keep it light. It can get dark pretty fast. We've been on the road for a long time. Speaking of dumb, we are real dumb. I'm appreciating the levity.

On we go. So continuing onward, you do not draw the attention of the, what you recognize as you begin to make the distance. You can see more of the shape as the rest of the snow bank that was between the two of you begins to no longer separate your vision from the body. It's a mammoth.

In fact, a group of mammoths that were heading southward, which you know from, well, you've taken the form a few times. Ah! It is. And eventually, as we push forward, Caduceus, you see some of the exposed broken stone structures that are pushing up.

You can see a small cliff-like drop-off that begins to reveal itself a little ways ahead from the raised impact outer lip of this giant circular structure. And you start having that sense memory. You begin to recognize some of the terrain and you gather that you're not too far from the location that the Wild Mother showed you,

not but a week or so beforehand. We're very close. This is almost it. Are there tracks on the ground? Anything that's been here before? You can make a perception check or a survival check. I will make, just because I never. Sorry, perception or investigation.

I will definitely take perception, my god. 15. Can't really tell. I mean, there was recent snowfall across a lot of this region, so if there were any, they wouldn't be too recent. Anything that would be more than the previous night would likely have been covered by the fresh snow,

but so nothing catches your attention. All right. We have any way of contacting the guards to let them know that we're almost here? I can reach out to them if you'd like. The ones back at home base? No, the ones that we're about to run into. They gone.

Dagen. Dagen. Dagen. Dagen. Dagen. Would you like me to reach out to my ranger contact or to Dagen, or shall you? Oh, I can do it. Oh, you can do it. Very well. He closes his eyes for a second.

You watch as he brings his hands together and seems to pluck from the central place. And as he does, this long thread of slightly waving black-purple energy comes out into a thin line. As he holds it there, he says, My friends, the Mighty Nein and myself are quickly arriving upon the entrance. Please make yourselves known shortly.

And as he speaks, you can see the line kind of wiggling, like it's actually picking up a wave of his voice and transitioning it through his sending spell. This is how he does it. Before he releases the tethers in the sides and they fade away like a spider thread on the wind. I'll watch them. Ours is like the mud road drifter version.

Got a bit of copper wire here. I got some natty lights, I'm headed your way. Natty light. 30 keys. Trucker Mage is my favorite archetype of D&D character. That's pretty good. But you were doing sending. Arcane catheter.

You weren't doing message, you were doing sending? That was sending. Okay. Four. I can't believe I caught that. Oh. Very well. Keep your eyes peeled. There should be a notification.

At that moment, you see Caduceus, Beauregard, and Caleb. What looks to be some sort of projectile fly up into the air in the direction you guys were traveling. It arcs upward and behind it, you can see this almost red ribbon that's wiggling behind it. A audioless, quick visual flare-like cue. You all turn over and look that direction a audio-less, quick visual flare-like cue.

You all turn over and look that direction as he goes, Ah, I believe these are our compatriots. You do notice that the arrow is thrown quite a ways past where this cliff face descends downward. As you all creep up to the edge, you can see, it's almost like whatever impacted here to create this valley-like crater that is the ruin of Eorze. The city crashed in,

the stone on the outskirts of it splintered upward, and that's where the edge of this cliff drops off. And as you glance towards the edge and see the rugged exterior of it, it's a miniature mountain range created from that impact that comes to an abrupt and scraggly end. Probably about a good 85 to 100 feet to the closest base of it there.

Are we going down? Do we have to go down to get there? I would assume so. I mean, you're the one who knows where the entrance is. Do we have to go down to get there? Yes, you do. Yeah, we have to go down to get there? I would assume so. I mean, you're the one who knows where the entrance is. Do we have to go down to get there? Yes, you do. Yeah, we have to go down. You're saying an 80-ish foot drop from the lip of this cliff?

Correct, as you walk to the very edge, it's lifting up almost, and then you peer over the edge and see the drop off before it hits some snow and ice. Yeah, it's mostly sheer, but elements of it do stick out, but there's no other really platform-like places to stop. Where are the stairs? Make a perception check. Yep, no, I'm not going to.

Okay. Do you need the stairs? No. I'm going to look for stairs. Make a perception check. Assist. Okay. If she can't find stairs,

should we come up with a different option? We could also look for an elevator. Uh-huh, sure, sure. 16. A dumbwaiter? A dumbwaiter? Sure. 16. There are no stairs. Yeah, well, that's fair. Mm-mm-mm. Should we climb down or feather fall down?

Or we can just. Can you push Beau off the edge? Well, she'll be fine. I know. So she can go, yeah'll be fine. I know. She can go to the yard. Double guns. Double guns.

How many people can we feather fall? I got this from years of training. Between Caleb and I, we could feather fall all of us down. That takes a small spell. It was small. I could only get me and one other, I mean, or we can transform and get a few people down. That's a bigger spell, though.

That's a bigger spell. Yeah. Hold on to that. We have our means of drifting carefully. Or we could try to climb. Well, you could try to climb. I'll be fine. Why don't you educate us? Oh yeah, you can drift.

I can. Can you drift us? By the same means you were discussing, yes. Oh, the feather fall thing, yes, yes. Well, we could try to climb and save spells, and if then we fall, then we'll use Feather Fall. Okay. Let's do that. Yeah, it's a good warmup.

Save the blood moving. I go over and start to hang on the side and try to start climbing. All right. But do we want to? Okay, split into two groups here. I'm already going down. Okay.

That's one group. But if someone in group one falls, all of group one has to fall. Yeah, who's in group one? So that I can use Feather Fall on all of us. Because otherwise, I would just use it on the one who's falling and then the rest would have to keep climbing.

So if someone falls, everybody just drops. Yeah, so what is the code word is important. What's the word that is yelled that says, let go? Let go, yeah. I think scream. Those are two different things, let go or scream. We'll say the word scream. Scream. Okay.

Scream. Scream, okay. Won't you know if we're not on the wall anymore? This is really steep, you guys. I start climbing down, too. Essek, you're with us, come. For ease of use, the four of us. Yeah, I'll go. I'm going to climb as well.

All of us are going. So are there two groups, or is it? I guess we're just going to free-ball everyone. Okay. This is a group. I'm taking care of you three. And then you've got us. Here we go. Okay.

We probably could have dropped a rope to make this easier. Yeah, yeah, fuck it. Ah, too late for that. That would have been a good idea. Yeah. We'll be fine. No, we would lose the rope. We can't get it from the, oh, well, you could.

Okay, it's fine. So if I could have the three of you make athletics checks for me, please. Okay. Should go well. Ding-da-dee-dee-dee-dee! 16. 23. 14.

The three of you actually manage to find some decent hand and footholds as you continue down. Some areas are a bit slick, and the rock tends to crumble a little bit in others, but you still manage to confidently find your way down. Partway in your descent, you have this shadow drift by as it drifts over the edge and just glides down past you like an elevator,

and just looks over at you each as he slowly descends towards the bottom. No support wouldn't hurt. Not going to lie, that is pretty cool. Essek, can I jump on your back? No. Okay. No. IndyCar.

Yeah, full Doppler effect on the way down. I'm sorry, that would not work. But you guys managed to came down safely. The rest of you, if you're following thereafter, athletics checks, please. I'm just going to do my cool, dope monk shit and do what I did before, take the back of my gauntlet, slam it in,

and just glide down the wall. Slow fall. Okay, so you're just taking the slow fall of it? Don't smile at us. Get out of here with that mess. Look how beautiful she looks when she's falling. So graceful. Such ease.

Right into the feather bed. Derelict. What would be 28 points of bludgeoning damage? How much do you ignore? Far more than that. God, you don't have to be a dick about it. Five times 14. Five times 14? Five times 14.

Good to know. Five times 14. Five times 14? Five times 14. Good to know. Five times. I just have to make a bigger mountain next time. Worked last campaign. Not much, roughly 45 to 50 points. I mean, but still. Yeah, I'm good. Yeah, you grind down your gauntlet to the side before eventually

kicking off and then landing into the snow below. The rest of you rolled. 15. 25. 14. This whole character was just to make up for the fish, wasn't it? 100%. I will jump off every cliff safely

every time I get an opportunity. Respect that. Okay. You all find yourselves at the base of this cliff. Safely. We did it. Safely. Good. You did good. And you gather, glancing around,

that it's maybe another 10 minute or so, walk up along this crest line before you will come to the fold in the ice where the entrance you recall seeing would be. It's about this time that you see a handful of figures begin to poke up over this little soft ridge and you see one hand go up and go, Hey!

Put it where? Oh, no, it's there. Oh, Dagen! Damn it, Jester! Oh no! Oh, Dagen! Not another NPC. Yay, yay, yay! At this point, the illusion that Essek had placed upon you dissipates amongst the group, revealing your true selves

as you've made the journey past the white open expanse. And as Essek begins to glide in that direction, the rest of the rangers that are immediately present, which is only four at the moment, begin to emerge to meet you partway. Do you come along with? Yes. Yeah. All right.

As you approach, they all begin to gather. You see them all keeping their eyes on the line behind them, and Dag comes forward. Well, it's real good to see you. Everything going all right? No problems? All of the problems. No problems at all. You? I can't imagine.

You managed to stay out of trouble and not drag any sort of ire or tension, so well done. Stiff stock, the chasm went so cold. Look, I've only been with you for a few weeks and you're already the most rambunctious pieces of shit I ever traveled with. It's fantastic. Thank you. Thank you. Rambunctious? Well, until ever traveled with. It's fantastic. Thank you. Thank you. Rambunctious?

Well, until these ones. We are rambunctious. He points to the other guard, and they laugh and go like, he's, and Essek goes, Shh, he's a new hire. Be respectful. Oh. Dan goes, that's right, I'm a new hire.

Be respectful. Sorry, I forgot I brought you these natty lights. Stupid. That's real stupid. No, canon. Not stupid. It's an uncommon magical item. Sorry. It's the Aeorian.

Have you found those cannons? Have you found the entrance? And you see the head ranger of this troop begins to speak up. There hasn't been a Dagen, comes around and says, there hasn't really been much of a signing beyond. And they both stop and look at each other and you can already see there's a bit of competitive tension

between these two figures in the group. Poor Dagen grumbles and crosses his arms and the first figure gives a nod. We've kept eyes around the space and have seen nothing out of the ordinary beyond the normal and expected denizens of this Eorrean expanse in Islecross. We've looked for the individuals,

but nothing as of yet, at least, unless they slipped our sight, which I highly doubt. And did you venture into the space? No, you would not do that. You would not? I would have, but. But seeing the entrance. Insight check. Make an insight check, yeah. Ooh.

13. 13. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Person in charge knows what he's talking about. He seems like he knows what he's talking about. That's a good character. Campaign three. Campaign three, man.

Lord Kermit. Bye! The ranger addressing that question goes, our instructions were to keep a perimeter widely around the entrance that you had mentioned, but to actually traverse them, we are not specialized in such dangerous arcana. Dagen goes,

A bunch of wusses! Does that mean you want to come in with us, Dagen? Hell no! I'm not paid enough for that. You're just going to keep a lookout while we go inside and scope things out? That's what I'm good at. Good. I hunt things, keep an eye out, and get paid well for it.

You've been here a while. Do you see, I don't know, ample opportunity for an ambush up here topside? Kind of looks around. I see an ample opportunity for an ambush up here, top side? Kind of looks around. I say an ample opportunity for an ambush anywhere I go. I like his optimism. Is it a flat area? I mean, other than the cliff that's nearby.

Well, I mean, there's the, where I think is the entrance you were talking about, that's up against the cliff. Oh, okay. It's at the base of it. Okay, that's something. You have a keen eye. We are expecting this place to be undiscovered country, as of yet.

Does what you've seen bear that out? The head ranger goes, We were unaware of its location until it was given to us. So to that extent, undiscovered, but you have discovered it. So thus, by the nature of its definition, it is now discovered. Well, it's technically correct.

Is this like a star? So if we discover it, we give it a name? Yes. This entrance? We certainly do. That's how that works. That's right. Dagon's Door. That's what it is. I hate it to be a school. Regatto's Back Door, maybe?

We'll have to find that one. That's the exit strategy. Oh, there we go. That's not our passage to enter. Thought on its way, and you just cut me off. We should scope out the entrance, because we're just guessing until we see what the lay of the land is like.

If we go up there, will you guys be able to, the guards just stay outside, will you guys be able to cover our tracks and make it look like we haven't gone inside and nobody's been here? The head ranger goes, I think we can, and then Dan goes, all right, now we can.

Yeah, okay. No worries. And will you be able to make contact with us should someone arrive, as a lookout does? He looks over towards the head rangers. We have quiet means of doing so. We've already shown that upon your arrival. Well, yeah, but how are you going to send an arrow into the entrance?

What she means is, if we're underground and you're topside, can you communicate via arcane means to let us know that someone might be coming? They look at each other back and forth. They look at Essek, and Essek goes, and he leans over, and you watch, as he puts his hands out, a small chest apparates on the ground, semi-translucent,

like it's made of shimmering glass. And he plucks a finger up and you see it open. And as he pulls inside and pulls two stones from within. Oh! And hands one over towards the head ranger and goes, take care of this and hands it to Dagen. Oh shit. It's like someone just got promoted.

Oh! Oh boy! In front of the whole team! Oh shit. Looks like someone just got promoted. Oh! Oh! Holy! In front of the whole team! Oh shit. Hot, hot. The other head ranger just quietly bites his tongue. We will let you know as soon as anything catches our eye. Thank you.

We appreciate that, and if possible, I wouldn't recommend getting in the eye line of these guys. They're a lot. They're a lot for anybody. Exactly right. All of us are going in and we feel underpowered. An early warning system will help us, but up here, stay hidden.

At worst, we may ask you to figure out a way to bury this entrance. Yeah, I was going to ask about that. We talked about that before. Do we have some extra? We should look at the entrance. Yeah, let's go in and suss it out. Flutterbutter or something?

Fluffernutter, it's patented. Fudged, Fuggard. Fluffernutter. Fudruckers. Fudruckers, yeah. That's the blow-up stuff. Yeah. Yep. Fudruckers, the blow-up stuff. So salty.

I'm not right. All right. Let's find the end point. So as the rangers begin to scatter and build a perimeter at that point, with the Ascending Stone remaining within Essek's control and with Dagen as well, you begin to make your way. Make your way. There it is. Let me down, man.

I'm waiting for the more interesting ones now. Oh, he's evolved. Oh, you're playing. Okay. You don't play on easy anymore. All right. We're down here slumming. Yep. All righty.

Next time you say the word shaken, just get ready. Just get ready. Every group needs a Sam Riegel. Following Caduceus' lead, you head over towards what is, to you, the familiar space. Already around this craggy cliff face to where this entrance is, you can see elements of broken stairs and structures

that peek out from under the white powder. Numerous shards of history essentially left to crumble and vaguely remind you of something once great that fell in this space. You can see the entire side of this. It looks like an ice mountain with bits of blackened stone and rock jutting out. It is not smooth by any means.

It looks like it was punctured with heavy force and then frozen in time. And elements of it kind of fold outward in these awkward angles, almost like there was a quake to shift any sort of rigid structure and then lock it into place. As you get closer, you can see some of these ridges extend,

like it's a heavily serrated cliff face. Some of them bend around themselves, causing pockets, areas where you can almost step into one of these small ridges in the cliff face and disappear around the corner before it comes to a close and ends. Oh, god. And the one that you recognize

is one of the heavier ones. And as you watch Caduceus step into the space and you come around the corner, you can see a very faint sliver of it, about two feet wide and about four and a half, five feet tall, that opens into the ice and deeply within where the light cannot touch.

You know this to be what the Wild Mother showed you. Well, we're here. That's unsettling. Shall we peek in a little bit? Come back? Put some light up and still feel itchy like we're being watched. Just can't get it out of my skin.

We're about to poke around somewhere that nobody has poked in quite a long time. Hope not. This whole place has bad vibes. Bad vibes. Well. Speaking of bad vibes, Caduceus, as you're looking over the space,

you think you hear something shift behind you all. I'm going to pull everybody into the, I'm just going to quietly grab everyone and move them into the blackness, and I'm going to turn around and look out. Okay, the dark space, it's quite small. You can get in, it's about two feet wide and four and a half feet tall.

So you can go in single file if you'd like. I'm just going to quietly turn around and point and see if I can see anything in that shifting from where that shifting came. Did it come from above or did it come from? Did it come from? Yeah, where did it come from? Inside or outside? Outside. It came from the outside.

Okay. Not from the inside. Behind us from where we came from. Yeah, as you all are stepping into this space, because right now it's just Caduceus in the crevasse and talking to you. All you guys are on the outside of it. But you hear this sound. Beauregard is dead.

Oh my god. Beauregard, as he gives you that expression and glances over you and Caleb, you all look at each other. And right as you turn back towards the rest of the group that's right beside you, you see the white snow that fills the space. Part of it begins to bow upward.

What? And drift off the edges. Security system. As a massive blue hand darts out of the snow and reaches forward. You can roll a d6 for me. A massive blue, like how big of a blue hand? Five.

Five. Oh! Frost dian? Like Cabin in the Woods? Make an athletics check for me, yes. Okay, okay. Oh, I rolled to you, I'm sorry. Roll to me.

Oh, that's not good. Okay, okay, okay. Um, um, um, um, um, 12 total. 12. You, without even noticing this, suddenly hear the sound of the shifting, this heavy movement behind you as you whip around to turn,

and you feel this impact from behind, and suddenly your arms are strained to your sides and you are lifted off the ground. The rest of you watch as, stepping out of a pocket of the earth here, that you all were stepping over, coming towards the entrance, what looks to be a massive humanoid,

standing upwards around 20 or so feet tall, their flesh blue and white with white fur and armor, but you can see where the face is. The flesh is torn away, halfway down, exposing a skull, the jaw itself partially unhinged, with bits of frozen viscera just dangling like red-purple icicles outside of the face. As it lands up,

you see as two more begin to rise into the ground nearby. I need you all to roll an energy. Oh! Wait! No, more than one? This combat is brought to you by Dwarven Forge, makers of premium handcrafted gaming terrain,

hand-sculpted, hand-painted, nearly indestructible. Is that true? Learn more at dwarvenforge.com. Nope Learn more at DwarvenForge.com. Nope, yes. DwarvenForge.com. P.S. Don't read this aloud, but please tell Sam that we love him and wish he would call more.

Oh dear. Delve into the sea cave of secrets at bit.ly slash DwarvenForgeCR. Oh shit. You know when you have your die and you're like, this isn't going to roll well, and then it does roll shit? It's like you instill it with that negative energy

as you think it, so you just don't use it. Any time you feel that, don't do it. Don't do it. I know. So. I know. Well. Seriously. If you get that vibe, don't use it. That is vulgar. You're a good actor, you're selling it,

but it's not real. It's the truth! Putting it in there. Maybe Yasha will be mind-controlled and attack us like normal. I'm getting really good feels on this right from the get-go. I'd be really angry at you, but that's not bad. Oh, they are! Oh my god!

I'm waiting! Zomfies! My whole D&D life! What do you think? Yasha, you are currently being held by this fellow here. I love. For Frost Giant? I love Jotunheim, so. Jotunheim.

He's in his Son of Storkic. Yeah. Oh. Frost or Storm Giant. Storm Giant would be the. Oh my god. So this is Frost Giant? They're the apex. Zombie Frost Giant. The Frost Gi... Oh my god. So this is frost giants? Those are the apex. Zombie frost giants.

The frost giants are my ancestors. Yeah, exactly. Ooh, that one's got skeletons! Whoa! Wow! That's a full-on skeleton zombie. As they all begin to rise out, That's cool. Holy moly.

you can suddenly feel the wave of necrotic energy just emanate from the space below. Your presence rousing them from some slumber, uncertain as to what called them up, whether they died here and have risen or they were installed here as a defense. You are uncertain. All you know is shit's about to go down.

Oh fuck, in a big way. Oh shit. Wow. Okay. 25 to 20. Oh, I haven't rolled. Roll initiative! Roll initiative! I literally forgot what I rolled.

Okay, just shit. 25 to 20? Nobody? 20 to 15. Okay. 17. Are you the top? You're the top. Wow, that's a... I re-roll and I remember.

Okay, no, no, no, no, no. 16. 15. Oh, we really could have done better. Really could have done better. Yep. Okay. 14, or 15 to 10? 13. 10.

Dun dun. Oh man. I didn't even write down the order. I got it. Caduceus, Caleb? Eight. Six. All right. Right where I like to be. What was it? The bottom. All righty. Oh, I missed it all.

Yasha, you are up first. Okay. You are currently grappled by this creature. Yasha's first. You are lifted up off the ground, your blade's not even drawn and your arm's just held to your side. Yasha, I like that. What are you going to do? Okay, so I would like to rage. You are lifted up off the ground, your blade's not even drawn and your arm's just held to your side. What are you going to do?

Okay, so I would like to rage. Yeah! Hell yeah. Who fucking did it right? I did. Okay, so. Okay, so. Now what do I do? Okay, so raging,

and I'm going to try to break the grapple. Okay, well, the first thing I need you to do is go ahead and make a constitution saving throw. Oh no. Oh no. Constitution. Okay, okay, okay. You got a bonus for that? I'm feeling this one. No, it depends. Ooh, okay, natural 19 plus eight, 27.

Ooh! Okay, yeah. You sense in the proximity of it, this skin is touching you, it's freezing cold, and it would be cutting to your bones, except for the fact that you are an awesome bitch. Yeah. So what are you doing with the rest of your turn?

Okay, so let me try to, I'm going to try to break the grapple. Okay, so go ahead and roll an athletics check for me. Athletics or acrobatics, your choice, but I assume it's athletics, and you have advantage because you're raging, so. Sweet. I can't stop looking at the map.

I can't even think. Okay, great. 26. 26. And you break free from its grasp, immediately leaping back into the snow, right there adjacent to it, off to its side. That is your action to break free. Okay.

But you are no longer being held by the entity. That's my turn. You draw your weapon? Yeah. All right. I draw my weapon. While I'm standing there, I take out the Holy Avenger because I'm getting ready to use it for the first time. You got it, you got it, all right.

Okay. That finishes your go, Yasha. Veth, you are up. Beauregard, you are on deck. I assume that this giant has reached down to get Yasha, right? It grabbed her first, like a hand came out from underneath, and then it stood up and lifted her up with it.

So it just now got up mostly onto its feet before she burst out of its hand to the side. Is its hand close-ish to her height? Like to the ground-ish? I'd say it's three or four feet from her, yeah. Okay. I'm going to attempt, only because

it's the only time I'm ever going to get a chance to do this, I'm going to do the move from our animated opening, where in the opening it's not, but she runs up a giant's arm and shoots a giant in the head as she goes. You want to do it? You want to do it? I'm just going to do that exact move. Let's give it a shot.

Make an acrobatics. Let's do it. Yeah. Make an acrobatics check for me. Okay. Come on. Make it true! Two. But, but, but I believe I get an automatic 10 on acrobatics. You do.

Plus a plus 10, so my lowest acrobatics roll is 20. Which is more than enough. Oh! After Yasha breaks out of its grasp and it stumbles for a second, it begins to pull back. You dart around, leap onto its hand, and then, turning up its shoulder, jump off of it. She shoots it in the head

as she goes past its head or something? Yep, so go ahead and make the attack as you are currently running up its arm and onto its back. I love when she does this! A 19, a 19 plus 11, 30 to hit. That definitely hits. Go ahead and roll damage. Do I get sneak attack because it's engaged with Yasha? Yes, you do.

Yeah. Oh yeah, okay, good. Now, you need to make constitution saving throw for me as well. Yasha, yeah! Yeah! Oh yeah, okay, good. Now, you need to make constitution saving throw for me as well. Because you touched it. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. It's already on the landing.

Okay, okay, okay, okay. 28 points of damage. Constitution save is a 19, plus two, 21. You're fine. So how much damage was that? 28. 28 points of damage. Nice. So as you run up the? 28. 28 points damage. Nice. So as you run up the side,

from behind, shoot it in the back of the head and then leap off, landing on the ground. You guys watch the front of it. It's one side of its face is sloughed off and is hanging. The other one has one bright white milky eye that's looking at you while the other one is hanging outward. The one that's currently in there, fine,

starts glancing around before it gets struck from behind by a bolt and even that's now dislodged a little bit out that side. Gross! Yeah, yeah. It's... If it was alive, it would be unhappy. They're naturally looking rough.

Yes. Okay, okay. They're always looking rough. But well struck. Yeah. They're looking rough. You can bonus action. I'll bonus action take one more shot. Got it. Okay, okay. They're always looking rough. But well struck? Yeah. Can I bonus action or is that it? You can bonus action. I'll bonus action, take one more shot. Okay, go for it.

Natural 20. Oh god. Which means you get another attack. So that's seven points of damage. It fires again for a 26. Yeah, so go ahead and roll. For another 11 points of damage. Nice! Wow. Good round. Very of damage. Nice! Good round.

Very good round. Come on, man. I'll take it. As you land, you leap off and land, and right as you're still holding it behind you, it just goes off twice. You're like, oh shit! And it sticks up into the side of its body. Doesn't seem to react, no pain,

but it's definitely carving into it. Okay. All right, that finishes your go. Beau, you are up. All right, I'm going to swing around. I'm going to swing wide so that I'm kind of... Make a constitution saving throw for me, please. Make a constitution, make a con... Okay. Are you touching it?

Okay. Oh, it's anything within... Within a certain... All right. That's... That's not good. Uh-oh. Within a certain, all right. Mm, that's, mm, that's not good. Uh-oh. I am going to spend a ki point to reroll.

Okay. One of 27 ki points. Yes. Did she ignore that roll? That is much better. Okay, that is 25 total. 25 total, yes. The cold emanating from this zombified giant That is much better. Okay, that is 25 total. 25 total, yes.

The cold emanating from this zombified giant does not quite stick to your insides. As you continue your turn, what are you doing? Okay, I'm going to swing around. I want to get in between these two on this side. On this side? Yeah. I'm going to leap up on that guy's leg

that's right there. I'm going to grab onto his belt. I'm going to do kidney punch. All right, go for it. Do you do the center? Yes. The one holding Yasha? The one that was holding Yasha, yes.

Okay. 21. 21 hits, yeah. That is 98. Okay. That is 15 points of damage. 15 points of damage, nice. Pretty good. A stunning strike.

Ooh. That is a 19. That he saves. Again, my second kidney punch. That is really bad. That is a natural one. Natural one. You grab the kneecap, you get one punch to the side,

and as you pull back, your fist punctured into its body and pulls back some of that thick, cold liquid that's frozen to your fist. And as you go to punch again, it actually insulates from the impact. So the second hit has no fight. You have to shatter this purple ice off your fist.

Ew! And I drop down, and I'm going to do two bicycle kicks on the way down. Flurry of blows! Go for it. How'd that go again? Floria blows. Pop, pop, pop.

Oh, that's good. That's good. 20 total. One year into lockdown, folks. And 30 total. 20 and 30. Both hit. All right. All right.

Good, good, good, good. 15 damage again. Awesome. And that next, oh, Slitting Strike. 18. Son of a bitch. So close. And nine damage.

Mm-hmm. I'm going to save him. I'm going to save him. You're going to save him? What's the save on a stun? 17. It's her DC, 17. But is it a wisdom save or a? Constitution. Constitution? Okay. You said they were rolling really well?

On Constitution? Stunning Strike, I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it, one more. 21. I would think a dead body that can survive the cold. It's progressively rolled higher each roll. I'm going to have a high count on it. Higher, higher and higher. Yeah. All right.

But it's my trick. Yeah, you got to do it. Got to do it. You got it. Got to play to win. Extract X, Aspects. All right, so as you bludge it on the way down, your feet kicking into it, you can see part of the flesh strip off

and hit the ground, landing next to you. The smell is awful. Actually, you open some normally frozen off interior, but gathering that one, it's probably immune to cold, as well as poison, being an undead creature. And it cannot be poisoned.

Cannot be poisoned. Correct, but that's it. But that's it. Everything else seems to be open season. All right, I just shout out, avoid cold, obviously, and poison. Obviously. It's pretty rank in there. Okay. All right.

That finishes. Smells like low tide. Kind of, yeah. That finishes your go? Yes. It's now their go. So as you're saying this, the one that's above you, kind of like, it glances down after you've just beat into its knee and its side, and its now pushed out eye

with the bolt sticking through it, you see it begins to glow but flicker. The other one that's hanging, dangling slightly, begins to glow blue. Oh no. Marisha, if you could make a constitution saving throw for me, please. Oh no. Okay.

Oh no. That's the center saving throw for me, please. Oh no. Okay. Oh no. Oh no. This is the center one. Center one, yeah. All right, okay. 22. 22, nice, all right. Rolled pretty high. As it begins to look down towards you,

you see it and this blast of cold energy streaks down from its face, and you just barely manage to drift off at the side, and it scoots past you, and you brace in for just being in the proximity of that beam, but to no effect. It's got lasers? They got cold lasers? They got cold lasers.

They've got cold lasers! Have you been drinking the Natty Lights? No, but Tib's on one. All right. The other one on this side. They drink real smooth. The skelly one? The skelly, no, no, no, this one right there. Yeah. This massive blade, this pockmarked, rusted, giant cleaver-like blade in its hand looks down and is going to go ahead and look towards you.

I need you to make a constitution saving throw for me as well, Jester. No! But do I get resistance because I'm cold resistant? We'll find out. Oh no, I'm the first one! Nine! Oh no. Oh no.

Oh no. Maybe it's fine. Should I get advantage on it, though? No, you do not. But I'm down. Maybe it's fine. Should I get advantage on it, though? No, you do not. But I'm so cute. That's a lot of dice. That's a lot of dice. You take 38 points of cold damage

you are resistant to. So you take half that, so you're good. So that's 19? 16? 19. 19 points of cold damage? 38, 18. 38, 19. 38, split in half.

19, nine plus nine is 18. I don't know what's going on. We're not here for math. That's fine. Oh no, are you going to freeze me? But as it blights, you guys watch as this beam streaks out of its face and as it hits Jester, she locks into place.

Ice coalesces around parts of your body. Oh no! And you are paralyzed. I just said watch out for the cold laser! I'm sorry. Paralyzed? I just said, chill! But because of the ice, like she's, is she still trying to get out, but the ice is keeping her in place, or is she?

The ice is formed around her, and she's locked in place. Ooh. That finishes that one's turn. This one. Skeletor. Come on! Oh no, he's going to hit me now. Charges up.

Is he going to shatter you? Yeah, that's what I was thinking. A massive greataxe in its hands. I'm going to die, you guys going to hit me now. Charges up. Is he going to shatter you? Yeah, that's what I was thinking. A massive greataxe in its hands. I'm going to die, you guys, this is the moment. And it's going to take two swings at the now paralyzed Jester. Does that mean he gets? It means he gets advantage on it.

Wait, what can we do? If they hit, they're auto-crits against you. Ooh. Oh no. You're resistant, is it cold? That is 24 to hit. Yeah. And the second one.

Yeah, that's a 28, no, it's a 28 to hit. So they both hit. Auto-crit? Do I get to cancel one of the criticals? If you're within range. I'm within range. You are. Okay, okay. So the first one does not crit.

What if I shatter? First one doesn't crit. Because Caduceus is more jarring. So the first hit you take. This suddenly isn't fun anymore. No! 28 points of slashing damage. Oh wow. As one carves into her side

and sends her into the air, almost like golf swing, knocks her up in the air. You see this blast of divine grayish energy that seems to shear it off a bit, not quite going for a kill hit like it wanted, and instead knocking her up into the air. As she's frozen and spinning, it winds up from that first strike.

It's mostly skeletal body goes for a second strike against you. Is this the actual crit or is it? This is the actual crit. Did you do the thing? He did it the first time. That one of them.

He can only do it once. They're auto crits, so he uncrit a crit and the other one critted. You take 50 points of slashing damage. Oh my god. From the secondary strike. 19 plus 50 plus 28? Yeah, I'm down 100 points from that one.

But you're still up. Yeah. You're so good. And that's going to finish their turn. So, now. Am I paralyzed on the ground now? You are. Oh, did I? Oh no, I shouldn't say this about myself. Did I take damage as I fell?

No, I'm not going to. I'm cinematically flavoring the blow. I'm not going to damage you for my own cinematic flavor. Clearly, Sprinkle was somewhere else. We'll say six damage and that attack was you falling, so you're fine. It's included in it.

But you all watch as suddenly these entities swarm up. One of them is battling the sudden charging and running around of ant-like beings that are the Mighty Nein on it, while the other two just go towards Jester at once and just strike heavily into her, bringing her nearly down in one round. Fjord, you're up. Jester, you're on deck.

Right. Totally changes what I was going to do. Appalled by what's happening in front of me, I will run up next to Jester. I will run in front of her and turn my back to the giants. I will place both of my hands on either side of her face. Could you make a constitution saving throw for me, please? Sure. Oh no, what if you freeze?

That's a six, 21. 21. You managed to resist the numbing aura. Continue, please. I place my hands to resist the numbing aura. Continue, please. I place my hands on either side of her face and say, time to go, and I will cast Thunder Step, and if she is willing, I can bring one extra person with me. Mm-hmm. And it will deal 5d10 thunder damage to anything,

sorry, within 10 feet of me, but it'll take us 90 feet in a direction of mine. Which direction do you want to go? Straight behind them, straight opposite of, yeah. 90 feet, you want to go full distance? Just behind that, more towards Marisha's chair. Over here? That's great, yeah. You got it, okay.

Is Essek with us? You know what, just to be specific about it, let's go right. Thank god. Thank you, Travis. I'm so used to putting you guys on the board. Yeah, no, that's okay. He rolled low initiative anyway. Did you see Matt where Travis is playing?

Right there, yeah. Got it. Donker Shane. Okay. Oh, that's a cool angle. 5d10. Yeah, that's a cool angle. Oh, that's cool. I mean, I can't tell the depth anymore, but it looks real great.

16, 10. Oh, and one more. 31 points of thunder damage. And what's the save? 18 constitution. All right, so that fellow there succeeds. So he takes nine. So that fellow there succeeds.

So he takes nine. That guy does not succeed. So many. So he takes 18. All right, I need Yasha and Caleb to make constitution saving throws. 17. 18 points of thunder damage to you. Okay. 20. You take nine points of thunder damage to you. Okay.

20. You take nine points of thunder damage. I failed that? Man. You did. Phew. Nine, did you say? You take nine, yeah. You watch as Fjord rushes over, grabs Jester,

and then they both vanish. In a brief moment where they were, there's this little pocket emits this explosive concussive energy like a lightning strike had hit and the thunderous wave blasts out, damaging both of the undead giants and both of you, unfortunately, because of your proximity.

Did they only get nine and 18 for a reason? It was 31 points, I thought. Oh, my brain totally went off on that. I think because I rolled a 19. Sorry to give you more. Sorry, so it was 31? 31 to you, Caleb. Hold on, hold on, hold on. I think it I rolled a 19. Sorry to give you more. Sorry, so it was 31? 31. 31 to you, Caleb. Hold on, hold on, hold on.

I think it was 30 or 31. Let me max myself out first and then lose 31. Okay, 31. And then it's 15, we'll say to you, Yasha. Might've been 30, I can't remember. 30 to my health. Well, it takes one more point, it's good. All right, then. It's gone down

to one point before. Yeah. That's true, that's true. Well, we'll deal with it if we come to. Yes, fair enough. All right, that brings us to. I still take half because? Because you made your save. You made your save. That's right, I rolled to do that.

Yeah, you rolled good. To make that happen. Okay, okay, okay, okay. It's okay. Jester, you are still paralyzed, unfortunately. That ends your turn. It is now Essek's go. Fuck him up.

Now playing for Den Thalys. Actually. Essek, Essek, Essek. Could I, because that was not the full part of my turn. That's true, because you have more movement and a bonus. More movement and a bonus. Could I use the next 20 feet, let's say, or 15 feet to come around this way? This way? Yeah. To this direction over here.

Okay, there's 20 feet there. Let's see, am I within 30 feet of that giant in the center? Unfortunately, no. He is about 35, 40 feet from you. All right, fair enough. I'll retract that last hand and just put myself back behind cover

and that'll be my turn. Okay. Thanks. No worries. All right, now for Essek's go. Every turn counts. Essek, seeing this go very poorly very quickly, glancing about and sees you holding out the holy sword and just goes,

I suppose you're the one to light them up. He's going to go ahead and bring his hands up. He's going to bring his hands forward and as he begins to put his hands outward, you see this image of a clock, almost, made of ethereal energy. And on the face of it, you see this metallic image of you on it. And as he grabs it, he spins it and cranks it like a wheel.

And as it does, you feel your body suddenly begin to surge with energy. Time begins to slow down around you. You are hasted. Yeah. Cool. We hasted the barbarian. Yeah.

Dope. That's how it's done. I'll buy a ticket to that show. Uh-huh. With that, he is going to move and he's like, he does that and looks over and sees the guy and goes, he is going to... move. He's like, ah! He does that and looks over and sees the guy and goes, Well, um...

Oh no! Yeah. Drifts into the corner with his fists up, looking over towards you, Caleb, and caduces around the corner. He's like, Trust! All right. It's three undead giants and two librarians in the corner, he's like, Thrust! All right.

It's three undead giants and two librarians in the corner. Yep. Yep. Totally fine. All right, Caduceus, you're up. Caleb, you're on deck. Yeah. Do it. Do it, Caduceus. I think I, well, I've,

a lot of options have been taken away from me due to the territory. Who's within 30 feet of me? Let's see, one, two, three. Essek, Caleb, and Yasha. Within 30 feet of you? Is it just Essek, Caleb, and Yasha? Essek, Caleb, and Yasha, and Beauregard. Okay, so one, two, three, four, five.

Oh, nice knees. I know you're going to do something. Just because this is probably going to be a problem for a while. I'll go with a two. I'm just going to do a Bless Blast and I'm going to hit everybody, including myself. Bless Blast! Bless Blast!

Everyone within 30 feet of me gets a d4 on all saves and attacks. Compliment your life, Valtryek. Oh my god, have you tried the new raspberry Bless Blast? Bless Blast! D4 to saves and attacks? So Oh my god, have you tried the new raspberry Bless Blast? Bless Blast. D4 to saves and attacks. So when you attack, you add a d4. When you roll a save, you add a d4.

You, Yasha, Caleb. It saves and we've done it a billion times. It saves and what again? Saves and attacks. Attack doesn't help you at all, but the saves do. Who else did you say? And I think that everyone within 30 feet of me. Gotcha.

So that would be there and Beauregard as well. Let's see. One, two, three, four, and Essek, yeah. That's what I got. Magic of the Lestor. Oh, anything I can do as a fucking bonus action or is this just like my fucking bullshit? You made this character.

He has nothing good for bonus action. That'll work for now. I guess for my bonus action, for the moment, because this is not going to be useful later, I'm just going to turn invisible. Sure. Okay. And then get a little cover in that hole. Get a little cover.

He moved ever so carefully into the dark space. Just getting a little distance from whatever the fuck this is. Finishing your go, Caleb, you're up. Yasha, you're on deck. Okay, I will go just five feet diagonally towards the ice wall there, so I'm right next to Essek.

No other way. Pulling against the wall, please. Against the wall, you got it. Pulling a cocoon out of my satchel and I begin to cast, pointing towards the undamaged one there, and I will turn that under giant, hopefully, into a sloth. Into a sloth? Okay.

What is the... It's wisdom and it's 18. To this one here? Yeah. That is a failure. Yes! And I will continue to Essek really quickly. I will say, see you on the other side of the war

and slide along the ice towards this new sloth and get as close as I can. Nice. Look at that cute little frog! Look at that. That's about as close as you can get with your movement there, I'd say. Yeah, that's too close to the giant. Could I stay against the wall, please, GM?

Thank you. Yeah. That's fine. Need your guidance. You got it right. Okay. So he watches it like. Shh! Don't hit the sloth! Important note for a group like ours. Yeah, yeah. Suffer Nutter.

There we go. All righty. Everybody just stops fighting, kind of turns. Even the giant. Okay. Indeed. All right, that finishes your go, Caleb. Yeah. Yasha, you're up. Okay, going to use this

Holy Avenger for the first time. Fucking go! So hold it, and I'm going to try to take my first swing against the big blue. Right there? Yep. You got it. Okay. Sword breaks.

Now, looking at this, you are flanked, technically, which I forgot from earlier, from placement-wise. You are catty-corner with Beauregard. Oh yes! So you would have advantage on these strikes. Okay, okay. And a d4. Yes! Oh goddammit, both bad. And a d4, because of Blessing.

It's not going to do, it's a two. Oh, they're both. Well, hold on, hold on, hold on. They. They hold on. Be-de-be-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de. Be-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de. Okay, okay, okay. So, uh, uh, uh. What's your haste? 15.

15. Wait, hold on. Does haste do anything? Plus, do you do anything? No, okay. 15 just hits. Oh! Worth it, boys! Worth it!

Okay, okay, okay. So that first strike hits, carves into it, go ahead and roll damage on that. Okay. I don't know how you're feeling it. I don't like this attack at all. All right, let's do these three. Don't hit it.

Oh, you are frozen. That would've been slapable. Savage attacker, that wasn't great. Much better. Mighty Punch. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That would've been slapable. Savage attacker, that wasn't great. Oh. Much better. Mighty punch. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Holy punch?

Holy punches. Holy punch. Holy punch. Uh, sorry, math. We're sorry, math. Sorry, math. Sorry, math. Sorry. We abuse you so much. Six years in, sorry, math. Okay, 30. We don't like that much.

30 points of damage. 30 points of damage, but if I hit a fiend or an undead with it, that creature takes an extra 2d10 damage. Indeed, with a Holy Avenger, it does. Let's go, Stats! Okay, okay, okay, okay! Here we go, here we go.

Boy, I haven't rolled 10s in a while. I want to see you in a Yasha-colored jersey and face paint. Yes! I have a big-ass foam finger. 15 additional points. Yeah, that's 45. 45?

You're hasted, don't you get another attack? Yep. I do. Well, you have two attacks, and then you have a bonus action attack if you want it with haste. Well, no, you have bonus action and an additional attack. That's right, because haste gives you a full. So three attacks plus a bonus?

Plus a bonus, yeah. Holy mackerel. Okay, so, okay, second hit. We're going to be here for a while. Natural 20. Oh! Okay, take your time. Add it all up.

Okay, okay, okay. So, vertical critical. Yep. All the dice. So second hit is 2d6. Correct. So let me... Yeah. Come on, roll well, because I already did Savage Attacker. Like doing your taxes. Okay, okay, okay. Don't equate that.

So. Okay, okay. So you roll the dice rolled. The dice rolled is what you double. Correct. Okay, okay. So that would be... Hold on. Okay, 12, so it wasn't crazy.

Including the extra 2d10. Maybe our next theme song could just be instructions for how to roll damage. Yeah, it's just a schoolhouse rock song that we just feel. Roll your d20. The leg bone connected to the... See if you hit.

Then if you do, consult your character sheet. Attack roll before the damage. Total for the 2d10. So I double both of those. So it's six. You double the dice as well. So 12 plus 12? 12 plus 12, yeah. So it's 24. Okay, great. 48 plus whatever bonuses

you got on top of that. Jeez Louise. 48, okay, 48. 55. 58. If raging, an extra three? No, no, no, that is the three. No, no, no, that's the melee. Yeah.

Sorry, sorry, sorry. Yeah, yeah, no, two years. In the moment. You got it, you got it. I remember this pain. Fuck. So give me a wild guess. Oh my god. What number did you say? 48. 48. Okay, 48.

Plus three from the sword, plus four from the rage, plus three from your strength. So it's plus 10 to that, so 58, I think. 58. 58. 58. I think 58 points of damage, I'm pretty sure. Somewhere in the neighborhood.

Regardless, how do you want to do this? Because that was a heavy cleave on him. Plus Holy Avenger damage, plus critical. So I'm going to take the Holy Avenger and I'm just going to do a big fucking swing at his knee to make him bend the knee. And then when he's down to my level, I want to clean off, cut off the head.

Hell yeah. As you cut through the back of the kneecap, its knee explodes and you watch it kind of crumble to the ground. It hits on its shoulder and its elbow, and as the weight hits it, you see its whole arm dislodges from the shoulder with a sickening snapping sound as it tries to get back up.

And as it does, you use that momentum to swing back up. And with that, the head just goes. And you have to almost dodge out of the side. You guys watch as the head rolls backward, and Veth, you have to sidestep it as a massive bowling ball. Lasers. Yeah.

Yuck! Yeah! So you have two more attacks. One more attack. No. And a bonus. Two more, right? No, one more attack and a bonus. One more attack and a bonus. One more attack and a bonus, yeah.

I just hold the sword and I'm like, oh, I love this thing. It's vibrating. Mm-hmm. Okay, next attack and a bonus, yeah. I just hold the sword and I'm like, oh, I love this thing! It's vibrating. Mm-hmm. Okay, next attack. Clean blade, too. Skeletor to the left.

Ooh, clean blade. It's meant to the right now. Oh wait, I can roll a d4. Look at my man. Oh, 14. 14 does not hit. With the d4? With the d4, yeah.

I rolled bad. Okay, so then bonus action. What I'd like to do. Oh wow, guys, I think I know how to play D&D now. Okay, I'm going to let out a... It just clicked. Oh wait, no, that's not a thing. No, no, no, it's not.

Okay, zealous presence. I spoke too soon. I'm going to let out a battle cry. So everybody within 60 feet has advantage on attack rolls and saving throws. Sick. In addition to his d4, so I think we're good. All righty. And that's my turn.

We get it. Cool, that finishes Yasha's go. I was almost there. Veth, you're up with Beau on deck. That means everybody watched her go ham and scream, and everyone went, great. We get it. Yeah.

That's true. Yeah, terrible. I will, oh, I didn't think I was going to get it to go again. I will just drop to one knee, stabilize my arm, aim true and fire with advantage, right? So that's good for me. Mm, that's not good. 17. 17 hits. Okay.

Sneak attack damage. Love these minions. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Mm-hmm, and... Yeah. 20, 28, 34 points of damage. Nice! And then I'll just shoot again

because it seems like we hit these things. That one is a 23 to hit. That hits. For another 10 points of damage. Click. And then I'll use my remainder to run towards Fjord. I'm sure it's you. You don't know where Fjord is. You just watched Fjord vanish.

Well, I will run. I'm running away backwards. Now you see Fjord. Oh, hey! Hey! There you go. How's Frosty over there? Frozen! Oh god. Great.

That finishes your go. Beau, you're up. Pumped from Yasha's battle rage! Okay, towards the skeleton. Yes! That's my girlfriend! There you go, as you rush forward. She's so hot! Oh wait, advantage, right?

Okay. Correct. First one. Oh, that one's cocked, and it's cocked on a 20. That was a 19. Oh, that's a natural 20! He did it! He did it! Yes! Oh, that was the gildice!

Okay, okay, okay, okay. Sure, sure, you can't have it right here. What's going on? I love that. I love this moment so much. Wait, do I get aild eyes! Okay, okay, okay, okay. For you. For you. I'm so happy! I love that. I love this moment so much. Wait, do I get a diva? No, okay. That's one damage. Just one die. One die right now.

I rolled a one on the damage die! No! It's double, it's double! Use your ki points to give you more. I can't do that. No, no. That's how it's done. No, that's the wish.

That's the one thing! This is it. Okay. Well, that's eight damage. No, nine damage, because I doubled a one. There you go. Nine damage critical. Whack!

First strike on it. It just really stung, you know? It did, it did. Okay, okay, next one, next one. It smacks into its hefty, thick bony shin. It's like crack. Terrible. Emerges. But I think I could say, okay, okay.

11, so 21, 23. That hits, yeah. All right. Okay, you were inspired, but still shook by Yasha's breathing. It's true. Yes. Ashley's still doing the math over there. 13 damage on that one. I'm like, okay, hold on. 13 damage. I mean, she got it.

And might as well Flurry of Blows. Go for it, might as well. Do this again. Keep hitting it till it drops. Keep hitting it. And I got advantage on these, so. Guys, it's time to stand. Okay. I'm getting out of here. Guys, it's time to stand. Okay.

I'm kidding. You just leave your arm hanging down. 20 total. 20 total, all right. If you move a lot. If you move a lot while you're playing, it thinks that you're walking. Because it has to have a stick.

Hold on, I got to breathe for him. Ooh, he's 19. And breathe. You can still do it. 15 damage. 15 damage. I can still do it. 15 damage. 15 damage. I always get full activity from the game. And that's it.

All right, that finishes your go. That finishes my go. The angry frost giant now being rapidly sliced and then bludgeoned repeatedly glances down, holding its giant greataxe, still at its chest height. It brings it high and wide before bringing it down, the slow but powerful arc towards you, Beauregard.

Okay. Oh no. Oh, I can really see it coming. That is a 19 to him? That misses. That does miss. You got more than 19? My AC is 21, yo. It's meant to hide, yeah. Do you get something on a miss?

I do. Preda Natural Counter. All righty, go ahead and roll an attack. Oh wait, do I get this for freezies? I get to use this for free ones with my... Yeah, it's spending for future ones. And then it's spending a few points for future ones. Seems like a thing.

Great. Okay, those are both the same thing, which is 22 total. That hits. 14 damage. 14 damage. Fucker. All right, so he swings down one heavy impact.

It hits the ground, and as the dirt and rock and snow sprays upward, Beauregard, at first you think is hit, Yasha, and then all of a sudden you glance up and she's 10 feet up in the air, jumped just past it, and then comes down, whack, punching it in the face as she plummets from it, landing on the ground.

That's cool. It pulls the ax. That's cool. It pulls the, because it's a double-headed greataxe, it pulls upward to try and strike you as you land. Uh-huh. The natural one. Yes! That's a miss in the second strike. I just do one of those sidesteps,

just like, as it just goes back up. Okay. Super chill. All right, that finishes its go. It missed me again, though, right? It did. Key point, right? Yeah.

Pre-international counter. You can do that. You can buy an extra reaction once per turn, yeah. Yes. Those are both 14s, which puts me at 26. Nope, that's the wrong one, but I'll take that. 26 plus a four, so 30 total. That hits.

Go ahead and roll damage. And I rolled an eight, so I'll take that 15 points. How do you want to do this? Yeah! Yeah! Oh my god. Well, okay, so I landed, and it tries to come up one more time. With a backswing upward to try and cleave you

from sternum to top of head. As it lifts up, I'm just going to take my staff, I'm going to use it right in that rib armpit soft spot. Yeah, I'm going to take my staff and just jam it through him into his innards. Okay, as he pulls up, it exposes it, and as you jam it through,

there's a faint bit of blue light on the inside, some sort of frozen necrotic energy that's keeping it animated. And as you push your staff in between the ribs into that centerpiece, you feel some resistance, and then there's a clicking impact. And as it does, you all watch as the darkened interior of its ribcage suddenly lights up brightly.

And as it does, you see it react, and then just clatter into a pile of rotted bones as you withdraw and land next to it. Destroyed. Nice. Caleb is pulling his coat off and walking up to the sloth and just keeping it from walking away.

Hey, fuck up that sloth! Not that fast. Don't touch the sloth. That's a good animal to choose the sloth. It's really good. Especially in heavy snow. Yeah. Should we just chuck it?

No. No. Essek, can we call in some of your people and have them run it, oh, I don't know, 25 minutes away and leave it at the bottom of another crevice? I think that can be arranged. He pulls into his pocket and pulls out the stone and you hear him mutter underneath it.

It's an owl. It's an owl? It's a polymorph. Oh, right. I do it all the time. Yeah. I would know. Okay, you're frozen. I am frozen. We flew across so much space and north. Which you are not anymore

because it's the end of their turn. You are now unparalyzed. Yay! Oh my god! Are you okay? Are you okay? Oh, hi, Fjord. Oh, hi, Nott.

Does effectively end. Vess, I'm sorry. No, it's okay. Fjord saved your life. Oh, hi, Mom. He bundled you up and carried you to safety. He was very brave. You did?

Kiss me. I'm going to Mage Hand and just feel up Fjord while he's doing it. Jester, what are you doing? Ah! Ah! Ah! Making things interesting. Was that you? So Caleb, while this is happening,

Essek is next to you with the Sending Stone in his hand, just going, All right. Interesting folk. Kind of glancing past all this thing happening over there. They'll be here shortly. And as you all begin to convene and gather, you can see the rest of the rangers are beginning to come over this way,

with Dagon and the other ranger leader approaching. Essek points to the sloth, and immediately Dagon goes, what the hell's that doing here? It's hard to explain. If you punch that thing, it's going to turn into an undead giant. So I want you to pick it up

and spend 20 to 25 minutes hustling it away and then put it down at the bottom of a ditch or something. Is it a sloth? No, this is a large rat. Very. I love rats! But this one has a bad personality. Will you take this and go, please, quickly?

You see, Dagen takes a satchel and wraps it up and holds it and lifts it onto the side of his chair and glances over. Fucking magic. But to be clear, don't let it be hurt in any way, or it will revert to something that will destroy you very quickly. Yeah, drop it and run.

Gently, put it down, yeah. Shoulder going. Yeah. He glances over and the ranger glances back at him, and they both give a knowing nod, and they both together smile, and Dagen goes, I think I saw just the ravine for this one. This is a no-kill extermination, right? We're good. and goes, I think I saw just the ravine for this one.

This is a no-kill extermination, right? We're good. If it's an undead giant, it's already dead. Okay, okay, good. I'll take care of it. And he goes and starts heading off as it's fighting its way very slowly in the bag. Brr.

It's actually a monk, too. It's just really slow. Yeah. Give me 10 hours. They do bite. They do bite. They do. Oh, he continues to head off with it.

Another one of the rangers accompanies just to make sure that they have a team heading out that direction. They bite just like you, huh, Sprinkle? Oh, Sprinkle's fine. This guy's just fine. My doctor's a bit... Oh, his jaw fell off.

Take me with him. You see Sprinkle currently has a bunch of ice kind of caked in the fur and is sitting there like, Show me the ravine. You'll go here. I'll put him down my jacket so he's covered up more. Okay, curls up to warm inside. I'm going to...

I've lived too long. The rangers scattered to their respective perimeters and you all are now gathered on the outskirts of the entrance into Aeor itself. What would you like to do? We'll probably heal Jester, because you've got like, what? I've got a few, I'm a little,

I'm a little messed up right now, but I'm fine. We've cleared the door. We could, no one knows this place exists, as far as we know. We could just take a moment here, yeah? Catch your breath. I mean. Rather than burn your energy. Yeah, yeah, yeah? Catch your breath. I mean... Rather than burn your energy.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sure, take a rest. Let's get a few feet inside, maybe. Yeah. Yeah. There's always the off chance that my old friends are going to come up from the rear, so I'm just thinking of just being ready,

just in case, as much as possible. that way, actually, if we stop here, we can keep an eye on everything. So yeah, maybe not going inside is the way to go. How big is the entrance that we came in? The entrance that Caduceus found? Two by four. Yeah. It's about two feet wide,

about four, four and a half feet tall. And that's it? That's as far as anyone's gone. Oh. We do have the benefit of using the portal. You all were stepping towards it when you were attacked. We're still outside? This is outside.

I thought this was inside the cave. Oh no. I don't know. I don't listen much. Real boring story, Matt. I know. But you're talking like White Rabbit rabbit hole? This thing is shrinking down and in this passage? Just the hole to get in past the opening,

so we don't know. Just the dark entrance, like the crack in the ice. Oh, understood. So it could widen out. It could. It could. Okay. At least if we go inside, anyone that,

I mean, they're not going to scry on us. Let's just, there's that little pocket where we can hide and somebody can just keep, I'll keep an eye out. Yeah, we'll just keep a watch. Across the wall to see if anyone's going to come down. Yeah, come in. So are you taking a short rest? And you're taking it on the?

We should. Yes, yes. And I think if anyone's going to surprise us, that it's because they have eyes, physical eyes on us now. Anyway. So where are you taking your short rest? In the? Up against the crevice. on us now. Anyway. So where are you taking your short rest? In the? Up against the crevice. All right, so you guys are all clustering

into that space there, okay? We're, of course, wiping snow for these giants. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was going to say, I'm going to take a second to clear out the- Should we check them out at all? Oh, like, I can search. I'll search the bodies. Yeah, you search a body, I'll search a body.

Okay. Unless you need to heal. Investigate? I'll vibrate the ground a little bit to just get all the snow to even out. Over time it will, yeah. You want to? It's a cantrip, so it's not extremely powerful.

Oh yeah, you look. It's not going to get rid of giant tracks if that's what you're trying to do. Just thinning everything out a bit. I'm searching the bodies. I've rolled a 32. 32. They're pretty gross,

though some of the grosser bits are at least frozen, which is nice. Not much of worth, actually. The weapons themselves are unusable by any of you. They're too large and a bit rudimentary and damaged by the elements. Yeah, not much of use on them, unfortunately. No superior healing potions?

Weirdly, no. Okay. It's like they didn't have anything to heal themselves with originally. Cool, cool. It's a problem. It's going to be okay. You need any, oh, you can just use it. I'm just going to use up some of my hit dice. I think I need a short rest for some stuff.

Anyway. Essek's going to take a short rest as well to regain spell slot. That frog miniature is too fucking cute. He's so cute. Yeah, if there was any large area that was heavily disturbed, I'll use Create Water to create a 30-foot cube

of just snow, like fresh snow. Okay, yeah, there are, you can see where the giants were resting. There were these mounds that you stepped over as you made your way here, and with them having lifted up, moved, and then fallen, they are now large piles of dead giant, re-dead giant, and in the spaces where they were,

there's a slight concave space where they previously were. So you can refill that and cover them with one casting for each of them, if you'd like. I'll do that. Okay. And then I'll take the short rest. You got it. Yeah. All right.

Anything, we see anything coming our way? Well, this is it. Make a perception check. Making my way. 24. You spend a good portion of the time for your friends to rest up, heal, catch their breath, prepare themselves for delving into what you assume to be a lightless interior, an endless maze of whatever this city might've been.

And as you glance out past the edge of the snow, as the ridge begins to slightly descend into the space where you are, you see a cute little snow bunny leaping from space to space. How far away? About 200 feet from you. 200 feet.

So I can't hit it with Sacred Flame from here? No, you have to get closer. I'm going to keep an eye on that bunny. Okay. You healed 22 people. Trust that damn thing. I've seen Monty Python. Fuck the bunny. The bunny eventually you lose sight of,

as it is now within a patch of deep snow and is no longer visible. Anyone sees a bunny, just shoot on sight. Where's Percy? Very suspicious. 35, 35. Percy is thinking, new hat. That, look. Percy is thinking, hmm, new hat. That, look at me. Percy is thinking new hat.

Fifth level, cure wounds. Fifth level! Mittens for my wife. Short rest to get everything back. Okay. Something for the years. I'm going to use a fifth level, cure wounds on Jester. She got 35 points back, along with her hit dice. That's great, because I just, yeah.

Let me see, because maybe I'll take one. 13. That'll get me back up to full health, but I used all of my dice. Okay, there you go. Good to note. All right. You like stomping to get the circulation back

in your feet and wriggling your fingers as much as possible? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It really wasn't painful cold. Do you know what they mean? It looked terrible. It did. We thought you were dead. We thought you were going to be like diamond dust. I could see through the ice that was freezing me,

so I could see that the things were attacking me. Did you, what was it like when you were just doing just ass over kettles in the air? I mean, it was just lots of spinny and then all of a sudden they saw Fjord. That's what's at the end of the tunnel. Yeah, the Fjord at the end of the tunnel. The Fjord at the end of the tunnel.

Good truck commercial copy. Thanks. Yeah, yeah. The Fjord at the end of the tunnel. There's always a Horde there. All right. At the end of your short rest, you feel yourselves steeled, hopefully, for what's ahead. One by one, you all begin to stand up,

bundle yourselves, and prepare for the next leg of your journey. What's the marching order of entry? We need someone who can see in the dark. I can't. Are we not safe in the light bucket? No, I can't. Oh, I really want to go in.

Yeah, go in, yeah. Whee! I'll go second, actually. I'll go third. I would prefer that. Should probably have someone checking traps. Check for traps? I'll go fifth, sure. No, I'll go up there, sure. Do you want me to go second? But we were on a happy fumble. We did great with traps. I'm an old pro. Yeah, go for it. Check for traps. I'll go fifth, sure. No, I'll go up there, sure.

Do you want me to check? But we were on a happy fumble. We did great with traps. I'm an old pro. Yeah, go for it. You're fine. It was great. All right, then I'll go next. She just kicked a door inward until it worked. Into the universe. Yeah. It was fine. Forever change in the universe.

Fabric of reality. Hey, who needs that? Keeps it in. All right. Mapped corridor, goodbye. And you think you should go up at the front and look for... All right, so we have Fjord. That's a good idea. Fjord, then Caleb, then Yasha.

Veth, second. We are volunteering Veth for us. All right, Veth is second in the order, then Caleb. Yasha. Night vision? I need some light, or else all of my checks will be at disadvantage, I think. I probably need some light. I need some light or else all of my checks will be at disadvantage, I think. My sword glows.

Great. I pop my staff to make a little light as well. Okay, Essek's going to hang in front of you behind Yasha. And then we have Beau and Jester at the end. Who's going last? Who's caboose? I'll go last. All right. I'll put on my goggles.

And keep looking over my shoulder as I go. You got it. Okay. I'm going to keep my sword out and guide with my sword. It does give you a bit of a glow in the right eye. A little bit of glow. All righty. So.

One by one, you begin to squeeze your way into this nightless interior, pushing into this very tight, rocky entranceway. I'm making my way. I'm waiting for it. Goddamn it. I'm waiting for it. And with that, we'll take a break, I guess. What?

Horrible! Felt it snap. Oh boy. Wow. Pushing into a tight place. Love you, Laura. All right, we'll be back here in a few minutes to pick up for the second half of today's adventure.

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So, Mighty Nein. One by one, you've squeezed into the small entryway to these ruins. That's right. Mm-hmm. Sorry. Plunged into the dark depths? Indeed. Within the lightless interior,

some of you carrying with you your faint bits of light source to keep visual. You are met with heavily damaged and partially collapsed walls and impacted natural stone as it opens up about 20 or so feet inward. You can see now as the ceiling rises about 15, 20 feet above, jagged icicles that drag down from the ceiling,

the ceiling itself uneven and broken, meeting the ground at certain angles where you can see the stone collapse is barely held at bay, and you have to push past these nearly enclosed portions of the hall, eventually moving on until about 150 or so feet in, there is but a crawl space to continue.

Do you take the same order of people? Just, yeah. I'll stay close to the front. There's a crawl space? Like, how little is the crawl space? It's going to be a tough fit for probably Fjord and Yasha. And Caduceus. I'm tall, but not wide.

He's tall, but he's thin. So as long as you get down and crawl, you'll probably make it through that issue, but. Working out? Thanks. Oh. Thanks, coach. Do you want to put on some glasses

and sneakle in first, or? Sure, or you can cast a bubble of light or something. Glasses may be the way to go. Yeah, I think so. Oh, shoot, I dropped. Keep it. Sure, I'll wear the glasses and I'll go first. Okay. As you begin to. Searching for traps.

Go ahead and make an investigation check for me, if you don't mind. 19 plus 13, 32. Oh! All right. You continue on this narrow, shadowed path. It begins to curve slightly before continuing forward for another 60 or 70 feet.

And then it just drops off. It just ends. And you have the darkvision goggles on, right? I do. What's the radius on those goggles? Probably 30 or 60, right? It's like 60, yeah, darkvision, 60 feet, something like that. 60 feet.

You can see across this collapse in this region, it looks like there are other elements of stone and previously laid cavern that have broken in it as a jam of boulders that are blocking off partway ahead. But right here, the ground just ends and drops into darkness that you can't see. And across the way, it just comes to this broken wall of scattered stone and slate.

How far away is the other wall? Other wall is about 15, 20 feet from you. Oh, but there's no clear entrance. There's no other viable way to really go aside from through the rock or down the pit. With your investigation check, what you do find are signs of long abandoned climbing gear, as well as two pitons, as they're called,

driven into the stone long ago, and you can see a single ice-coated rope that dangles down. On our side? On your side that descends into the stone long ago, and you can see a single ice-coated rope that dangles down. On our side? On your side that descends into the darkness below. Okay, and you guys are with me, right? You didn't send me by myself? You were by yourself. You were a little ahead of us. You turn around to say this and there's nobody there.

Oh shit! We close the hole. Fucking finally, okay. You can draw this. That was a little effort ruse. Fucking finally. Okay. The Goudranas? The most elaborate ruse. Jesus, those giants were unexpected. Let's go. I'll, if there's, are there, is it stone? Is it ice? Stone. It's a combination of the two.

It looks like a lot of this interior, especially the crammed hall you first entered with, looks like rough stone that was pushed up from the impact of when the city crashed. So it's just odd angles of subterranean earth and rock and bedrock that have all been jammed and broken and have come to rest in a very haphazard stillness. And then ice has crept in, either also thrown into the mix from the impact in a very haphazard stillness.

And then ice has crept in, either also thrown into the mix from the impact or has since grown over it. So it is, right now you do not see any signs of a city. You're just seeing broken and refrozen earth and rock. All right, if there's any loose rock around, not big, just size of a silver dollar. With your investigation check, you can see there are a handful.

There's none that are loose right now because most of the frost that's here, there are a couple of small that are wedged into the sides of the small one. I'm going to chip one off or pull one off or just get something loose. Make a dexterity check for me. Oh boy.

Natural. Three. It is a skill check or an ability check, chip one off or pull one off or just get something loose. Make a dexterity check for me. Oh boy. Natural. Three. It is a skill check, or an ability check, so you can't roll lower than a 10. This is, what am I doing? Athletics, acrobatics, or just straight dexterity? Just straight dexterity modifier.

Oh, plus five. So 10 plus five? Mm-hmm. Okay, 15. 15, without issue. Okay, and I'll pop it over the side. You pull it out. Okay, you get the sense that some of these might be, while they look small,

who knows what's holding all of this jumble of barely balanced stone together. And as you pluck it, it's a brief moment, as you pull it and you go, Oh, that could have been bad. Okay, okay, okay. But you're good. And you chuck it off the side. Uh-huh.

You don't hear anything. Ever? Well, make a perception check. Oh boy. Last time we... Perception? Six. You don't hear anything. Oh my god, it's endless! There's a bunch of black symbiotes at the bottom.

Yep. Yep. We've been here. Okay. I will radio back. Breaker one nine, breaker one nine. I'll tell Caleb, you know, you can crawl on through, there's no traps, but it ends if you want to come, or should I come back?

You can reply to this message. Yeah, okay, is there's nothing dangerous that is going to bite me in there? Nothing dangerous. So I do. So I'm going to start to crawl up slowly with two globules lighting my way till I reach her. Very well.

Just you? No, I tell everyone what I'm doing. Is there a standing platform at the end of the little crawl space? Is it like die-hard the end of the little crawl space? Is it like die-hard elevator shaft and the AC joint, and then you're just down, or can you stand up? No, it's shaft, and then it just drops into darkness. And you're in the crawl space.

And it looks like it opens a little bit, but whatever impact caused this to collapse beneath is what's left there. So it's very tight and it's very precarious. But there are signs of previous climbing. Well, then maybe I should go back and we can talk about this in a bigger space. I don't know, because otherwise it's going to be like-

You can fly, a flyer would be good. Well, I've just reached up and looked over the side and actually I'm going to make all four globules appear and keep one with us. I mean, we need to figure this out. Of course, but this will alert people to our presence if there are people to be. What are these little globules?

Did you toss anything down? I tossed something down. I didn't hear anything. Did you think that was tentacles or something? What the fuck is happening? What now? I mean, yeah, go ahead, globule it down. There's nobody down there. I'm going to throw a little pebble from my pouch.

Keep saying globules. Globule. Okay. Globule. Globule. You're going to throw another pebble? I did this. I did the pebble trick. Do I hear anything? Make a perception check. I did it already. You're just...

Oh, so bad. So bad. 16. You don't hear anything. Well, there's no point doing globules. I'm going to do it anyway. I'm going to send three of them sort of spiraling around each other in a circle,

a hundred feet down. A hundred feet down? Okay. So, and what's the radius in the light there? Rage blob? It is... Does it say anywhere? 10-foot radius. 10-foot radius, got it. They will go 40 feet away from each other

on a wide circle. Okay. The pit itself is about 20 to 25 feet across, so they can cover the space better. So as the one stays with you, giving this soft glow to the immediate space, the other three slowly spiral, this trilogy of lights just slowly descending

in a corkscrew below. You watch as they continue downward. There are sections of stone that got caught on the way down. There was a collapse that caused this tunnel to fall in, and you can see bits of debris. And you swear you see the edge of what looks like a door that is partially jammed out of the stone and ice.

You can see some scroll work on it, but most of it's still buried in the rock and ice in the side of the wall partway down. Is there any kind of outcrop or ledge where that door is that we could stand on? No, it's not a door that's sitting on something. It's a door that is partially pushed out. It's out of place. It shouldn't be there. It's Philadelphia Experiment out of the wall of a door that's sitting on something. It's a door that is partially pushed out. It's out of place. It shouldn't be there.

It's Philadelphia Experiment out of the wall of a door. Looking down through this, it is not a smooth descent. It is an open space, but it tends to kind of slightly worm its way as they continue downward,

and there are bits of jagged rock that jut outward. Falling down here, you can see, would be probably a very painful experience beyond just whatever might be waiting for you at the bottom. But you can see as they descend, the rope itself continues. It doesn't break, or at least it isn't severed. There is a rope that goes all the way.

The door goes past the door into darkness. Yeah, past the door into darkness. Eventually, you see the walls of the pit begin to open up a bit, to the point where, almost like the fall of this shaft opens up into something below, but the lights reach the end of their distance from you, and all you see is darkness.

Darkness and a singular frost-coated rope dangling and vanishing into the abyss below. That's fucking terrible. Just in case, I'm going to cast Mage Hand and on the opposite wall to us, just touch it to see if it's solid, not like an illusion or something. Okay.

As the Mage Hand pushes, moves across, you can see bits of frost fall on a bit of small pebble. It's not just a fake out. Oh, you can do that. And remind us, how tight is the space where Veth and I are now at the level? It's about two feet across to one and a half foot.

So you guys are about two feet across. Like on the side? So you guys are right up next to each other. We're talking, this is, it's a little bit larger than Bishop and aliens going through that tight tunnel to get to the satellite dish. So there's just enough space for the two of you.

You could not fit Veth with probably Yasha or Fjord. I pull out the copper wire and I You could not fit Veth with probably Yasha or Fjord. I pull out the copper wire and I send a message to Veth going, I think we should get the other people up here. You can reply to this message. And then Mage Hand will come back and just go. Okay. We are coming back.

We have something to report. We are on the verge of being stuck. We are stuck.. We have something to report. We are on the verge of being stuck. We are stuck. You go first. Send Vaseline. You can reply to this message, Vethko. Okay. Okay.

Eventually, Veth, you go ahead and scoot your way back to the rest of the group, and you see as she emerges from. Emerges from the crawlspace. That was high level. High level. Who was next in the lineup that? Next would've been Fjord. Okay, so what do we do?

I guess we were, this is it, right? There's no other tunnels or anything. We recount all that, right? Yes, yes, yes, yes. So there's a doorway some of the way down. It's a door. It's not a doorway. It's a door sticking. Like an open, or is there a? No, I think it's just a door.

To clarify, what you saw was a solid, rocky, dangerous descent, this pit. And then in one of the pit walls, there was a door just partially jutting out of it. It wasn't a door that opens inward. It's like someone shoved a- Jammed a door in. Yeah, unattached to any doorframe, doorway,

or opening to anything. It's just a door. It's just a door partially sticking out of the wall. Like a shelf. Yeah. For no reason. That door knows what it did. Yeah, that door is a warning to us. That door's got some stories.

All right. Doors be warned. Nicodranas? Yeah, campaign one door. Yeah. Nicodranas says, go, go, go, go, go, go. I got fucking fed up. Word of recall? Let's go. And it opens up at the bottom approximately how deep?

Just, we're doing it. I mean, where it widens out from the look of the globules? It widens out at about the 85-foot depth. And then 15 feet past, the light ends before you get there. I run out of light at 120 feet with that spell. This is bringing back some extreme. Right, right now. It feels vaguely reminiscent of when,

the last time we were, as we descended down into the cavern that had the trees that you didn't like. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we can descend again. Well, hang on. Are we going to say anything to these rangers out here? We need to give them direction, to let them know that they need to let the Tomb Takers go by and not interfere with them.

We kind of already did. But then are they going to blow the door? No. No, they're going to use the walkie-talkies that Essek gave to let us know if somebody's coming. Right, and then are they going to blow the door after they go in? The thing you're hinting at is we were going to pick

an ambush point, and this is a decent-sized one. This is a really, really acute pinch point, but if they're going to keep going, it might be nicer to have them, I don't know, get hit by an Inuit charge as they're climbing down a tunnel that goes into darkness. Nothing. Or if they can go over that. Didn't we discuss, though,

I'm talking out of character here, just our memories, that the Intuits are psychic damage. Yeah. And the Tomb Takers, that's not a big deal for them. And you're stunned for a minute? Well, for Lucien. You're going to remember it long. Just Lucien. Well, we don't know.

I can confirm Lucien. But even if we take out the rest of the Tomb Takers? I could also put a Fluffernutter in this little crawlspace tunnel. You could. And somehow trigger it remotely. We would also need another way out. I could also put the symbol,

the spell that I have. Not today. What's the spell? The spell is I can leave a glyph somewhere where they won't see it and it'll trigger when they pass by it or when they touch it. And does it blow up? It can do a lot of damage to them. It can make them very scared.

It can stun them. It can do all sorts of things, whatever we want it to do. But it might be smarter to do that close to wherever we plan to stun them, it can do all sorts of things, whatever we want it to do. But it might be smarter to do that close to wherever we plan to attack them, because if it takes them out for a minute, we need to take advantage of that minute. And if you can stun,

we want to take advantage of that one minute where they can't move, so. Exactly. I sure would love to set an Inuit charge at the top of the tunnel. It does psychic damage and stuns them. Four of them fall and fall past your glyph on the way down. Man, that would be amazing.

That would be fucking awesome. Unless they're all immune to psychic. But we also don't know what's at the bottom of this tunnel, so someone that can fly should go down and at least see what the hell that darkness actually is. And just not to keep pushing this, but we, hang on, speaking as Marisha for a second, we were talking about having, don't know her,

having the rangers potentially blow the tunnel in case Lucien and co. got in 20 feet and went like, something smells fishy, let's go back the other way. So we were talking about having them collapse the tunnel so they can't decide, this feels compromised, we're going to backtrack. Just throwing that out there. I don't know. Yeah, compromised, we're going to backtrack. Just throwing that out there.

I don't know. Yeah, no, they, I believe they know about that. I think we had, I think we had a discussion. I don't know if you directly relayed that. No. We didn't give them directions to do that. That would have to be a fluffernutter unless the rangers have. Sure, yeah.

Yeah, we can leave one with them. But just throwing this out there, we have the ability to extricate ourselves from a situation without passing through a rock wall. Maybe they can? And we know for sure they're not down there already? I mean, I don't know. We don't know for sure. Oh yeah, you could spot them.

We saw snow. You saw snow when you peeped at them. I didn't see shit. I saw a flash of red. Maybe I saw snow. There was a moment before, though. No, he said it was a dark cloud. The other thing is. It was foggy and then flash of red, and then I was like, ew, no, that didn't work.

The other thing is, would they see your glyph if they saw the dome and if they can see your door? The goal would be to put the glyph on the underside, like if we're passing through a doorway or something and put it on the opposite side of the door so they wouldn't see it. Locked by stone. Exactly.

Bucket on the door ledge. And we have total, Matt, four of those intuit charges, because I had one for a while, and then in the bag we ganged from the Tomb Takers, it had three or two? I have to look at my notes again. Criss-cross.

Okay. But yeah, they seem to be collecting them as well. That would be. They had some. Set them all off. Oh, they're collecting them. There's a chance I won't be able to set them all. It's a high arcana just to check to set it. Yeah.

So we set as many as we can. Well, before we decide where we're ambushing them, it feels like we need to explore a bit more. Yes, we need to know the terrain. Somebody that can walk on walls or can fly or... I can walk on walls? For a good amount of time. I prefer a flyer, just so they don't have to touch it.

I can fly, but I'm also... But Essek can do it effortlessly. Oh, yeah. Right, Essek? He can float, but fly. Yeah, he just floated down an entire cliffside. I can spider climb for an hour. There you go. Oh, wow. That's what we're talking about.

You want a slip or fall or anything? No, but I could go with Essek or with someone else. I can glide down, but I do not have the ability to fly prepared for the day. Oh, like you couldn't come back up. Right. I understand. Okay, then Veth. I don't want you to go up, huh?

I could go. Can you fly? Well. I mean, for a while. For a minute. I tell you what. I can fly for 10 minutes. Oh, well, that's probably better. I can spider climb, too, if I'm a spider, and you can ride. I know, I was thinking the same thing, we could that's probably better. I can spider climb, too, if I'm a spider.

I know, I was thinking the same thing. We could turn into ice spiders. Doesn't that use a big? We want to save their spells, but yes, that's a great idea. I don't need to burn a slot to do it. Oh! Oh, that's pretty good. Once a day, because I'm a transmutation genius.

Yeah. Would you be able to carry us down also as an ice spider? I mean, I could probably spend half of my time as a spider to do that. You carried me in Fjord before, so if we had multiple- Oh, I mean, we could just feather fall us down. But- We don't want to just go down though.

The creepy crawly is the way to go. So I can be a large spider for an hour. We spend the first half of that, or less, hopefully, taking a look, and then if it's okay, then . Sure. All right. That's me playing a piano. If it's bad, just, well, probably no,

but just make some noise if it's bad. No. Don't you have a climb, don't you, monk shit? I can... I can slow fall, I can fall very gracefully, and I can slow fall. I can fall very gracefully and I can wall climb. That's all you need. Right? Sounds like science.

I don't know if I can necessarily wall climb down. I think it's more of like jutting up. But you could slow fall down. But you'd fall and didn't you say there were spikes? Did I see spikes? Maybe not the touch. Yeah, I know I just said I will take advantage to jump off of any cliff an hour ago,

but this one? You've made a cliff that's too scary. All right. It's the spikes. You two, go. Okay. Okay, I could carry you down as well as Yasha, too, if you like. As a spider? Yeah.

Me ride a spider? Yeah, we're just risking you two. Don't risk everybody. Well, I'm bringing Yasha, too, if you like. As a spider? Yeah. Me, like, ride a spider? Yeah, we're just risking you two. Don't risk everybody. Well, I'm bringing Yasha with me because I'm weak as a spider and as a human. Good call. I feel like, yeah, in case you get down there and you're not all alone, I mean, I absolutely can go with you.

Yes, please. Of course. Yeah. Okay, bye. And if I need to, I can get up. Yeah. Okay, bye. If I need to, I can get it. Ah! That's cute. Ooh, you look so tasty, Caleb.

Could you roll a d20 for me, please? Yeah. Oh yeah, cool. 12. Oh yeah. 12? 12. Okay. You transform into a spider. That's right.

What? I'm going to cast Spider Climb on myself. Okay. Roll a d20 yourself, please. Oh. Right. Magic. Eight. Okay.

You die. Your spell seems to imbue you with the spider climb. Seems? Fucking. This first step's going to be doozy. All right, I'll start walking down the side of the wall. All righty. So spider and spider climb?

In a jaunty way. And I use two of my eight legs like a safety belt for Yasha. I act like I take a bite. Oh, you're so tasty. Give him tummy squeak. I'm going to hang off, just looking over the side of the cliff to see.

You're the only one in the tunnel now. I'll be in the tunnel. That way I can cast heal if they're within, you know, 60 feet when they fall. They will be. Yeah. Give us a blast of time. Yeah, well, I want to see. Okay.

As you begin to descend, Spider, at a rapid speed of what? Tis speed is just 30 for climbing. Okay, so the two of you climb at a respective rate, making your way down until eventually it broadens out. And you are now both standing upon the ceiling of a larger cavern amongst all manner of heavy ice icicles, like massive 12-foot long pointed icicles.

It's widened out and... It widens out and then there's just a forest of icicles that are all dripping off. But we still don't see the ground. So it opened into a chamber. Correct. You don't have any light sources currently below you. Correct.

So you are Mission Impossible-ing from the bottom of a large spider. Even though I've got spider climb, if I pick a spot, an icicle that drops, I'm still fucked. Yeah. It'll just stick me to the ice, but the ice could fall. Yeah. Cool, cool, cool. You have the goggles, though, right?

I have goggles, yeah. Yeah, for a range of 60 feet? But it's a farm. Okay. You can just barely see the peripheral of your vision as you get down there. And you have 60-foot darkvision as well? I know I have darkvision. I'm pretty sure, yeah.

Pretty sure. It's under your saving throws passive perception. It's in that little box. Yes, darkvision's 60 feet. Correct. So both of you, as you begin to spread out, you can see small structures, or at least piles of something

right at the edge of that 60-foot, like about 50, 55 feet below you. So you get the essence that there is some sort of a floor, at least something down there. It isn't an infinite pit, and you're not that far away. So about 50 feet below you, there is a bottom. Okay, okay. I guess we'll go across the ceiling

to see if it ever meets or... Okay. Or goes down. Curving over, about 70 or so feet from where the entrance is, it begins to curve into, and it's not a smooth curve, it's not a water-smooth stone interior. It is broken and jagged in shelves,

and you have to climb your way carefully with Spider Climb below, even the spider's side. Spider's side is the proximity of all of these icicles make it a little dangerous and precarious to find your way over there safely. So it does take a bit of maneuvering. I would like you both to make

a athletics check. Yeah. Okay. 13. Do I do it? Cocked. Do I help at all? You know, you're just dangling. Athletics, 15.

You're a great adventurer. 15, okay, okay. Both of you just carefully make your way over to the edge where a big portion of the ceiling drops and then catches at the edge of the interior of this stony chamber. So looking around at the base of this pit, you can see what looks to be a small courtyard. Did you bring light with you?

I can see as a spider. Okay. Darkvision and nine cents for 10 feet. So what you see are tumbled pillars of marble. You see a ruined rooftop across the way that is splayed open at a violent angle from what looks like a toppled tower. You can see a single stone bench

rising defiantly amongst piles of broken stone and wood. It's like shards of a society long lost, now a frozen graveyard. That's what you see ahead of you. Caleb, can you understand me? I don't know what that means. I'm seeing a hundred Yasha's broken in in all the little eyes.

Very cool. Hot. Maybe tell him to shoot out some webbing if he understands you. Like, just crap some out. Yeah, put a little webbing out if you understand me. He understands me. This is super gross.

Yeah. What do we do? We should explore. Okay. So we'll just walk. How long has it been? Five minutes, 10 minutes? Maybe five minutes. Okay. Well, no, the careful crawling across the sand,

I'd say closer to 10, probably, just slowly bringing your way. So we'll just look around. I would like both of you with darkvision to make perception checks, please. Or all of you with the spider thing as well. Terrible roll. Natural one.

Natural 19. Okay, thank god. Plus... five, 24. Six. Ah, these are on backwards! Everything looks small! Although you're having a hard time adjusting,

you grew up in darker environments. And glancing around, you can see the broken space around you. There is, a little ways to your right and against this somewhat ragged wall, what looks to be a still partially standing tower. Looks like a pentagonal building of simpler architecture, if heavily damaged,

that still stands at about two stories tall, but the second story is at a cracked angle, the rock shelf itself of this chamber pushing into it near the edge of toppling, but it is still a two-story structure, open. but it is still a two-story structure, open. You can see there is an open doorway towards the bottom where the door is pushed off the hinges

and busted, and that's just where you're standing. The rest is beyond your vision across the way. You cannot see the distant. And we're on the ground at this point? You're on the ground at this point, yeah. Should we go in there? Yeah, if you think so. Should we tell everybody to come down?

How do they get down? We'll figure it out. How long have we been playing with Veth's hair as a spider? Get the fuck out of here, Eric. It's nice, it's nice. I'm going to eat you. I'm going to eat you. Okay.

The total climb from where our friends are to here is what, more than 200 feet at this point, right? More than 120. I'd say it's about close to 190 feet, considering the angle across the ceiling to the base of the chair. So I can't actually send them a message anymore. You can't? Nope.

I mean, they're too far. Don't we have the stone? Nope. And even if we did, we only have one stone and it can talk to the people outside. That makes all of the sense. That's very true. But we can deal with that later.

I can always just climb back up and talk to them. Well, sometimes I've realized that when I talk to somebody, You can only do that to me. Ugh, okay. Here, try it now. Let me walk over here. Okay. Walked a bit away. Yasha has no idea how communication devices work. Veth, can you hear me? I can hear you.

You can hear me? It works. It always works, yes. Oh, this is so cool. Yeah. Okay, I'm coming back over to you in three, two, one. And then I make it look like we were farther away. Oh. Okay, that's really cool.

Should we investigate this place then? Yes, yes, let's go in. Okay. It's the only place of interest around, right? That you can see within the proximity of you. A lot of the chamber ahead of you, you do not see the opposite side of this room. It is still in darkness beyond your darkvision sight.

Aside from the single rope that's still in the center of the room that dangles down near where that stone bench was in a lot of the wreckage. Let's go check out this place. Let's go check out this place. Okay. Giant Spider's actually going to hang back.

Okay. By the base of the wall. You got it. Should Caleb go get everybody? He could. That's not a bad idea. Well, he can't tell them what's going on. You're right. All of a sudden, he's going to come back there,

and then the two of us are gone. You could stay down here. I could climb halfway up and tell everyone what's going on. Okay. Because I don't want them to get worried. I feel like Beau's going to get worried and be like, ah, what happened?

Beau's not really a worrier. She's not. I'm fine. I'm good. Okay, let's check this out. Okay, we'll just check this out. And then we'll go get him. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll just make sure this is fine.

Okay. Is the door open? Is there a door? There is a splintered door that is off the hinges and scattered along the side of an open arch that leads into this room, about 25, 30 feet from you. Check that door for traps. Good call. 23? Well, on the way.

Oh shit. I need you to make a constitution saving throw for me, please. Sure, sure. That's normal at an empty space. Me too, or? 17. Okay. You. Do I make one, too?

No. Are you moving with him? Then yeah. Yeah, I am. What? Because... it's cocked. How do you actually get the ant voice? 22. This could be a clip.

Okay. You both take nine points of cold damage. Oh, because it's cold down there. Oh, it's chilly. For whatever reason, as you guys take a few steps, the air around you gets extremely freezing, bitingly cold, and you feel like the temperature in your body is just suddenly siphoned from you.

Your bones seize up, you chatter in your jaw, and you don't understand why. It's just freezing down here. Your breath is extremely visible. Did you see that? It's just, was it just when we walked towards the building? Yeah, you got maybe 10 feet. It's 20 feet from you.

I'll take another step towards it. Oh, bolder. Yeah, of course you will. Okay. Let's take another step. Okay. All right. Another step. Okay. All right. Another step. Okay.

All right, how about I use that mage hand to sort of touch the door? Okay, it's open. You kind of touch the door and some of the wood falls into the ground. Seems okay. I think it's fine. I think we should go in. Okay.

I'll walk towards the door. Okay. You little assholes. You get to the doorway and you can glance inside. Just looking at the door! This is what rugs do. This might have been more than a two-story tower at one point, but only two stories currently remain.

You glance inside and where the roof or where the floor to the second floor would be is partially fallen in. It is just ruin in here. It is structural boards and beams just falling into the ground, broken stone and shattered furniture. You can see there's a little bit of a path that can almost climb up to where the second floor was and a little bit of where the upper platform still remains, if it still is load-bearing. But yeah, there's just a lot of rubble in here. Do you want to go up and look at the second floor?

The thing is, I'm very big, so, and you're small. What is that? What is it? Well, I just feel like we don't know if it's going to collapse or something with my weight if you go up there. I mean, if I go up there.

So I should go alone? We're going to need such an expensive regeneration. I don't know. Do you want to go up there? So much. I'm volunteering you, but maybe you don't want to go. Sure, I don't care. I feel volunteering you, but maybe you don't want to go. Sure, I don't care.

I feel like you, hold on. You have a family to get back to, so we need to- This is an empty building. Yeah, this is nothing. This is, there's nothing in here. No! Yeah, yeah, yeah. Should we both go? Excellent.

Yeah. Yeah, let's just go. What if we go back? Just go. Oh my god. I'm not going to lie. It shouldn't have taken this long for us to really truly hone in to the Yasha, Veth, team up dynamic. This is beautiful. Yeah.

Is there a stairway leading up, if I sort of peer in there, or do we have to climb? We don't see stairs, but a lot of the fallen rubble, the precarious interior is possibly climbable to get to. There's a whole path for us to climb up there. It's like how the rubble fell simply for us to go up there. You don't have to convince me. Here I go.

All right, this is a bit of a climbing challenge. So I'd like you both to make an athletics check to find your way up through the broken interior. Nice. 22. 24. Oh, well. You both finding handholds and large beams of splintered wood

and bits of stone that some breaks off and falls back. Others hold your weight. You pull your way up this destroyed hoarder's interior of a barely holding tower and eventually climb to a secondary floor where you can see there is a staircase that would have led to a third, but that has all been pushed off.

And you gather that some of the rubble on the immediate outskirts of this structure may have been higher floors that were just laid waste as they tumbled. Okay. Anything up here? Yeah, I'm going to look around, see if we can find any. If you want to try and rummage around,

you can make an investigation check. Yes. I will look for traps first. Okay. Oh, that's a good idea. Which is a 25. 25. No traps, just the entire place is a trap. It's a very... Yes. Yes. You're like, this is a very dangerous place. It's a very... Yes. Yes.

You're like, this is a very dangerous place. It's condemned to building. It's condemned, yeah. Okay, now I'll look for good things. Me too. 28. 28? It's just so much darker in here than I can see, I think. I can't see anything. Well, you're also, you're tall.

I'm tall, it's cramped in here. Okay. I can't see, it's because you're tall. The logic is not. Everything is because of us. The floor is farther away. Okay. Are these low ceilings or tall floors? I can't tell. You do, pushing forward,

find what looks to be a robe. Like a very nice, shimmery, almost silk robe. Yeah. Oh. And you go and find it and pull at it, and as you do, you can see the skeletal remains of who once wore it, though most of their torso and body is currently buried beneath some of the broken stone and wood of this collapsed floor.

Also, I need you both to make constitution saving throws again. Oh, so this is a time to get that robe looking. Get that shit. 19 plus two, 21. 17 plus eight, so 25. Okay, you both take 11 points of cold damage, but your investigation check reveals that

around where this robe is in this space, there's a fuzzy texture along it, like along the wall, like a bit of odd carpet. Oh fuck. I don't like that. Like a darker coloration than a lot of the nearby stone. And as you reached in, and the temperature gets bitingly cold again once more, you swear you see some of it shift and expand.

Okay, we got to get out of here. Also, as because you were both rummaging, I need you both to make a dexterity check in this precarious place. Remember that last time we were down here and there was a thing up in the cavern that we managed not to disturb, but it was fuzzy? Dexterity save?

Just a check. 24. I rolled a natural 20, so 24. Great. You're rummaging through the piles of whatever you could find up here. Did not knock loose any of the load-bearing elements of the tower, so it did not begin to collapse upon you. Awesome.

But you do notice this odd presence. We should leave. We should leave here, because I think that's alive. That thing that's moving, the fur? Yeah, the fur that's moving is probably alive. Okay, but here's the thing, though. What if this silk robe on this half-skeleton body What if this silk robe on this half-skeleton body

is the thing that we need to win? This is the clue. This is the clue to Aeorleton body is the thing that we need to win. This is the clue. This is the clue to AR. This is the key. This is the literal clue. What if it is? We have this conversation here. What if I just move some of the stone

for you to get the rope? What if we just try to, like, have you ever seen those things? Those people? As she's talking, I'm backing away. Those people, you know, they're like, they're with a tablecloth and they go, boop. What do they do?

They're like magic people? You know, they pull out, where'd you go? Are you gone? You left. I'm already downstairs. Okay. Yasha, what are you gone? You left. I'm already downstairs. Okay. Yasha, what are you doing? You're now finding yourself alone,

freezing in the upper levels of this abandoned, partially collapsed tower. I'm going to sniff to see if it's a familiar smell. Okay, okay, make a perception check. This is how we lose Yasha. Well, probably. This is horrible we lose Yasha. Well, probably. This is horrible. 10.

10? 10? I mean, it's a little musty. You don't recognize anything, though. Okay, I'll leave. I'm going to turn around. But the robe! Stop it. Silver robe?

Silk, it's silk. What if I just do a quick, does it look like, okay, I just have a really quick question. Yes. So does it look like the robe is like, really, like it would be a lot of work to pull it out? Dungeons and Dragons!

All you see is the arm and shoulder of the skeletal body that it is currently on, which means if you pull hard enough, it would probably come free. It's not deeply buried from what you can tell, but who knows, everything here's pretty tightly packed. Super strong. You can try it. If you want to Bill Murray this, you know.

I'm going to fucking Bill Murray it. Okay, roll a strength check for me. This is so stupid. This is so stupid. You're doing it. You're doing it. You're already doing it. This is so stupid, what if I roll bad? Ashley. You're super strong. You're going to be fine.

You know you want to do it. I do want to do it. Touch the button. Okay, I'm going to touch the button. The breathing button. Okay. What am I? I'm adding my strength? Okay, that's not bad. That's not bad. That's not bad. 21.

21. You reach out, grab the edge of it. I need you to roll a constitution saving throw. But not me downstairs? Or yes, me. Nope, not you downstairs. She's touching cold. The log ice. Fuck. The log ice.

Oh no, thank god. Okay. Oh no, that's still bad. I thought it was a one, though. But it's a seven, so 15. Oh, that's not bad. Do I? 15? Because I have, I'm not holding out my sword. Okay. No.

You take eight points of cold damage. Okay, okay. Once again, this freezing pulse, like part of your life heat is being drawn out of you, and it's weird because it comes in waves, and you're not sure, but your hand is on the robe, and you tug and you pull it free. It comes out.

Whoosh! Some of the rocks come and settle. Run! Okay, I'm going to, yeah, yeah, yeah. Roll a dexterity saving throw as the entire tower begins to rumble and collapse around you. Oh, this is going to be really hard. Okay.

I don't get it, am I free or am I? Okay, I have advantage. You, Halsef, make a dexterity saving throw, but you have advantage on it because you are in the lower floor. 21. 21. 24.

24. You, grabbing the robe, are running, running down as you look up, Veth, and you see behind Yasha, you both go charging. I got the roll! I got the roll! You broke the house! I got the roll! I got the roll!

Get out of here! You both go charging out of the tower and leap just as you hear behind you, all this dust comes billowing out of the collapse and immediately fills the chamber with this opaque atmosphere around you as you cough. Cough, bitches. Cough.

Thank you. You think our friends heard that? You guys hear this heavy echo of a collapsing loud boom after boom. Oh no! Oh no, get the diamonds ready. Should we go down? How? I can turn into a spider.

Your friends went down into a pit of despair and you heard an explosion sound. They're fine. I'm going to turn into a spider. We have no idea what's going on. I can fly one of us down there. Okay, so I'll turn into a spider and carry Beau. All right. This is lighter. Okay.

You all right? You can carry two, in theory, can't you? Sure. I have carried two. So. Mm-hmm. Oh, but Essek can float. Oh, all right. But yes, I can also carry Essek, if need be. So I'll go with four, then. I think I'll be all right.

Oh, okay. Let's do this. We all float down here. Oh. Can't do it. All right. Oh, okay. Let's do this. We all float down here. Oh, wow. I can't do it. All right, so. Do the noises. As the spider riders make their way down, Essek steps off and begins to glide down,

but Essek also puts a hand around the free-hanging rope as just a backup. So he's just keeping it loose, but in case anything gets weird, he's just keeping it nearby. Essek's keeping it loose, but in case anything gets weird, he's just keeping it nearby. Essek's keeping it loose. Yes. So while you guys are descending rapidly,

what are you doing? What are you doing? What just happened in there? What did you do? I grabbed the robe and then the house collapsed. That's a powerful robe. Or the tower, whatever it is. Can we at least see the robe? Wait, I'm going to look around.

Is anyone looking at us or any creatures? You see a giant spider. Ah! Ah, it's Caleb. Anything else? Wait, did you say it was pink? Or am I making that up about the robe? No, it's silver, I thought you said.

Well, you don't see color right now. There's no light source. So it's just a shimmering silk robe. And as you pull up and look at it, it is shredded underneath. Well, you don't see color right now. There's no light source. So it's just a shimmering silk robe. And as you pull up and look at it, it is shredded underneath. Like, you managed to pull it through. But ruined it.

But got ruined in the process. What was breathing on the wall in there? What was breathing on the wall just above them? Yeah. We don't know. It was just someone's house robe. It's in a bunch of rubble now. It would have totally decayed. It would have been destroyed if it wasn't magic.

That thing would be totally. Silk could last. It wouldn't last like that. This is magic for sure. Hmm? Definitely. Okay, well, we have the answer to Aeor. That's for sure is its robe.

We do. It's a half moth-eaten kimono. That is the key to unlocking the mystical origins. Okay, so you're flying down. Yes. Right? Yep. All right. So. Sword glowing. Sword glowing. Emerging, much like Gandalf and the Balrog,

as they tumble into the expanse, you watch as Fjord, sword glowing, just fires out from the top of the tunnel, this glowing aura, and then quickly behind, you see Essek drifting from the top with his own glowing mystique, one hand at his torso, the other clutching the rope as it lets it just slide through his grip,

and a secondary spider emerges and curls underneath and begins carefully, if you won't mind making an athletics check for the spider form to climb down. A blue dice, because it's a blue spider. Athletics? 14? 14, okay. Managed to carefully navigate, but do so well. Slowly, but you and Essek emerge first

with the rest of the group, where you see the Caleb spider, the dust is now starting to settle a bit. You can see some of the rocks are just beginning to settle. And there is a collapsed structure amongst all the rubble around here. It is a ruined courtyard from a time long forgotten. Looking back and seeing the spider making its way

with a bow and Caduceus. Dangling. Caduceus is not on me. I'm with you. Caduceus was flying with you. Oh yeah, no, you're with me, sorry. We'll head down to where the others are amongst the rubble, sword glowing to cast some light on the area.

Is there anything creeping up on our friends or at the periphery of that light? We can make a perception check. Okay. I high-pitched screech to the other spider. Ah! Ah! Wow.

There it is. That's pretty good, though. That is pretty good. Ah! 18. 18. Well, the thing you notice. 46? is. That's pretty good, though. That is pretty good. Ah! 18. 18. Well, the thing you notice. 46? 26. Okay.

You notice as you arrive and the light expands, what you didn't see with just darkvision is the endless glittering of ice across everything in the rubble here. Like a million diamonds just surrounding the space of ice across everything in the rubble here. Like a million diamonds just surrounding the space as the light from the vestige blade expands into the surrounding area.

You can see there are patches of brown dirt beneath some of the ice that almost gives it a camouflaged look where the space around you, it mingles from the white and the different colors of the stonework. It gives almost like a swampy aspect to it. And you can see where the fallen tower pieces

now create this giant pile of wreckage. How far is the distance in the? 30 feet for light from the sword. 30 feet, you'd have to get, you still cannot see across the other side of the chamber. But Essek has landed. And... Essek yells out briefly, goes,

Oh, there is, there is something curious here. Yes? What do you mean? There's lots of curious things. We've been feeling a bitter cold sensation since we got down here. Bitter cold, yeah. A movement of some fur and...

The structure just collapsed on its own when we got down here. But we did find this robe. It's the key to unlocking the Somnova. Yep. Let me see it. Essek, what were you going to say? As he's talking, you can see his breath

is emerging like a cold cloud. Like, this is the coldest of blizzards across Eiselcross. That type of density of cold breath, but in the middle of a chamber that does not seem that cold. And you see him shivering, just floating in the air a bit going, this is a very odd sensation. Is there something here we can't see?

I don't know. Detect magic. Thank you. Snaps. That's my favorite somatic component for a spell right there. You do not sense anything magical other than what you've brought with you.

So nothing on the robe is what you're saying. The robe is not mad. The robe is not mad. Essek, if you are cold, I happen to have a robe on me. Is anybody else getting like a... And what'd you roll perception? 26. 26. As this is happening,

you look beneath the glittering diamonds and amongst the rubble of rock and stone, it's hard to see until you really focus, bones, many bones. I'm going to like the staff. Numerous bones bent, withered, like boiled leather, frozen beneath this dusting of diamond. And the patches of brown beneath the ice,

you can tell in areas have an odd fuzzy texture to them, like a mold. This is giving me a bad Dragon's Lair weird shit vibe. We should get out of here. This is not good. Do we see exits, any way to get out of this open? There's a whole half of the chamber we can't see because it's too dark.

Essek, who is in the middle of the chamber, because he's the only one that descended straight down while the rest of you went along to the far wall where you came, he says, there is an archway on the opposite side this way. Let's get out of here. True. Oh shit. Caleb's spiders are going to start going

over the arch of the ceiling in that direction. Okay. Want to take someone with you, or? Are we wanting to leave this room before we use it? Yeah. You mean like to put traps here? Think this is a trap. It could be one to our advantage. Sure. Falling that distance.

I still don't hate the idea of putting the intuit charges at the top of the tunnel. Her glyph and the intuit charge are both 60 feet. If you put it on the underside of that tunnel as they're coming down, it'll catch them as they're coming. They won't see it and they will, in essence, fall. We can almost Rube Goldberg device it, is kind of what you're thinking. Like, boom, full. We can almost Rube Goldberg device it, is kind of what you're thinking, like, boom, boom.

This whole thing does feel like a slow siphoning trap. Yeah, I'm not a fan. It's got to be something with the moss, right? We got to be out of here. We need to get out of here soon. So why don't we set the glyphs and go? Although we only get one shot at these bombs, right? Let's stay against the wall for now

and let's see what. Caduceus, make a nature check. Really? Yeah. Oh shit, that's an 18. That's almost as high as I can roll. Total 18? Do you have any bonuses? I have an 18. That's almost as high as I can roll. Total 18? Do you have any bonuses? 18. That's actually really good. Negative one.

This is indeed mold. This isn't your normal mold. This, you've not seen before, but you've read it in books and you've come across samples of it contained by herbalists and such. It's referred to as brown mold, and it is an unnatural fungus

that is drawn towards heat and consumes it. Oh shit. We need to stay away from the mold and it's going to keep coming towards us. Does anybody else know what brown mold is? Do I know what brown mold is? Do I know what brown mold is? If anybody else is trained in nature. No. I'm a spider.

I'm also probably, at this point, into the region that we couldn't see into, because while everyone was talking. Correct. Make a perception check. Are you still on my back, Beau? Just talking to everyone, or did you drop? I think I'm still on your back. Okay. Is there any part of the room that's far enough away

from the mold patches where we can take some purchase for a little bit? It's hard to, I mean, where you are now is pretty safe. Stepping in towards the center of the chamber and glancing over where Essek is, it's patchwork. Like there's little five-foot channels between them, like five to 10-foot channels between them, but the patches are throughout this chamber.

It's a bit of a hopscotch. Essek, the brown stuff is heat-sensing and mildly carnivorous. You probably want to get away from it as soon as possible. Fair enough. Should I come to you or my? And he glances up at the spider, following them. Do you guys need some help up there?

Like just, I don't know, make some web if you do. Well, are Yasha and Veth up with, or is it just you going? No, it was just me, I went on my own. I have Beau. So the spider does not respond. Oh, I guess stay with us just in case for now. They'll make noise if they need us.

I don't know how to make web. Every spider knows how to. That's what I'm thinking in my head. How do you? Okay. You did roll an 18. Hmm? You rolled an 18. I rolled a 19. You rolled a 19?

Yeah, and that's an 18 for me. It's pretty high. You don't just recognize it, but you know that it's drawn to heat and will expand to heat, specifically like bright heat, like fire, so that can cause it to expand and spread, which is bad. Ironically, it's the cold that it leaves behind in intense ways can repel it.

The cold, wait, how? It can repel it. The cold, wait, how? Can repel? Like cold will make it? An extreme, focused, intense lack of heat. Like cone of cold or something. Like if anybody has some. Enough to do cold damage would likely repel it. So cold damage is something that would actually.

Chase it away. If anybody has an ice spell or some sort of cold spell, that's the best way to get this stuff to back off. I do. You do? Yeah. Well, are we going into this tunnel? So there's, the arch is behind us.

I think we should, well, you're already up. Based on where you were, the tower was on the southern side of this interior chamber. Essek pointed out, and you're starting to see it with your spider vision, on the opposite end, there is a metallic archway, what looked to be a continued hall,

or at least an entranceway into a hall of another much larger structure beyond the tower that this courtyard ends at. But it looks like a heavy rock shelf is pressed into it, and the archway is bent down, leaving almost a triangular entrance, but it continues onward into a wider hall. You said metallic.

Yes. That's, we're crossing into Aeor, if we go further. Which is good. I mean. If we set some traps here. One of the few. We could hit them, and then we could be maybe just outside, I mean, just beyond that door threshold. Yeah.

They'll be running from these traps and the cold mold. I'll tell you. And then when they go through the metal doors, we just. Psychic hit up there, and then there's something that creates heat right below this? That's what I was thinking.

Yeah. That's a big problem. Jester's glyph. I don't think we should get rid of the mold. I think we should encourage it. Yeah, I agree. The ice will get us through, but if they land into a big heat spot, that's a big problem for them.

Are we going to set these traps and try and whittle them down and ambush them later, or trap and ambush at the same time? We have to be at the same time, because we don't want them to be able to heal and regroup. Yeah. So are we going to fight them in this chamber? It depends. No.

We don't know how much further we're going. So if we trap this and make it the Alamo, we do that, but we also haven't seen what's beyond this. We could make it pretty damaging along the way, and if they do have to stop and heal, it's not necessarily a bad thing. Yeah. Speaking out of character, this is a secret entrance, though.

They don't know about this. They do. No, they do. They didn't even tell us about it. This is their entrance. This is their entrance. Yeah. Yes. They've traversed here once before with Vess. So they know what to expect.

So they're definitely. You gather they know what to expect. I would put it at the top and let gravity work for us. I agree. Because it put it at the top and let gravity work for us. I agree. Because it's one of the only places that it will. And then if we decide to make it the Alamo, we can. If we go in further and nothing is attractive, we can sit.

Or we can keep going and make it one of a few. But either way, if they are hurt here and they decide to stop, we could come to this because the Intuit charge will let us know or we'll hear it, right? My only thing to this because the Intuit charge will let us know or we'll hear it, right? My only thing is that if the Intuit charge goes off and it's at the top of the thing, then they'll know that we're here laying a trap for them.

So they'll be on the lookout for an ambush later and we can't set up in this room because we'll get fucked up in the process of just trying to. 300 feet, yeah. What if you reverse the order? What if you do the glyph? Because they're probably going to take that rope down.

Glyph goes off, they fall, land in a circle of intuit charges. And then from there, they're going to move into this metal passage. And if we probably should scope it out, but we could wait further into the passage, ready to hit that little opening

that they'd be coming through once they're in. Yeah, as long as the Intuits stack, which they should. The other part is if one of the glyphs goes off and they're coming down in single file, the first person will trigger it, not the other ones. It's a 60-foot radius. So yeah, if they're going down one at a time, then it's not going to.

But if you put the glyph 70 feet or 80 feet down, so that they're coming down the rope when it triggers, that's when it triggers. Don't put it at the top, put it halfway down, so they're doing this, fall, Intuit charges. What if they come down one at a time on the rope and only one person gets hit?

That's what I mean, it's just that bottom person. At least if that Intuit is at the bottom, when it triggers the first person at 60 feet, it's 300 feet up, so it'll catch everybody in that tube and they'll all either save or fall. And then whoever falls goes by the glyph. Boom, boom, boom. They catch it.

We could set some more intuits on the bottom, but gravity. The intuit charge, what triggers it? Proximity. First person within 60 feet. Only proximity? No, there's two ways it goes off. I think one is you trigger it. Mm-hmm. Psychically.

Yeah. But it's, you link your mind to the device, and any time within the next hour, you may choose to detonate, so that's very limited. I'll also remind, I should remind everybody that this won't work on the big bad at all. No, but if we can pick away the rest of the tooltakers. That's all we're talking about, yeah.

We're assuming none of them are. I mean, the glyph could potentially work on Lucien. No. It doesn't necessarily just do mind damage. It can do regular-ass damage. Does it? Yeah. What else does it do?

I think. Unless is he, let's see. This is it, we're just standing in a chamber. I know, we should probably move. Get out of here before we finish this talk. Am I, being on Jester, am I near the rope still? The dangling rope, Matt? Four or five.

He didn't answer that question. No, you guys would have climbed across the other way. The dangling rope, Matt? Four or five. He didn't answer that question. No, you guys would have climbed across the other way. The dangling rope is in the middle of the chamber, which is where Essek is. You're with Jester with the rest of the group, which is off on the far, kind of western side of the chamber, yeah. Which, as Essek heard you say about cold,

did you mention that? Yes, I did, out loud. Essek goes, Thankfully, one of the cantrips he has is Ray of Frost. Oh, well. He goes, and you watch as he extends his finger, almost like a laser beam of bright blue,

just carves across, and as it does, you watch as the mold grays and turns to dust where the blade hits. Well, that's one way to do it, I suppose. Don't kill all of it. Yeah, let's just make our path and just keep something for them to play with. I'm intending to carve a path.

The thing about the intuit charge, it's about the size of your palm, but if you lay it on the ground, it's going to float up in the air about three feet. It's obvious. If you lay it at least underneath the roof of the cavern, it'll like a balloon on the ceiling. So it's a good spot for it.

And it'll still reach everybody all the way up to the top. I think we do that. I like that plan. And then we can always at least set them, keep moving forward to Fjord's point, and we can always backtrack if we need to. Well, we at least go look through this door to see what's on the other side before we start setting these charges?

Sure. Because this is our waiting spot. Yeah. I can fly for two more minutes. And we could, with Essek's Ray of Frost, we could fight them in here. If we had an area that was all frosty and not moldy. In a way. That could be our little bunker. Yeah, they've been here,

so they're not afraid of this mold. They can either take it or they found a way past it. And one of the big things we need is distance for that anti-magic cone. Distance. Lots and lots of distance. What's the rough? The rough width all the way across would be about 80 or so feet,

80, 90 feet. It's not as big as I thought. And how big is that blacklight that we have? The magic blacklight that poops into the area? I don't remember who has them. What are they called? I thought you had them, Caduceus, but I'm not. Yeah, there were two Grenards.

We have them. Yeah. The Arcane Field Generator, I think. The AFG. We have one? Yeah. The Arcane Field Generator, I think. The AFG. I was robbed of my Bag of Holdings. I don't have it. Who gave us those? I don't see it in my Allura. Still got the Ring of Fire Protection, though?

No, I don't. I have it. Unattuned. Yeah. It's just a nice ring. It's real pretty. It's cold here. I like to spoil my...

One of us took it, but I didn't write it in mine. I didn't write it down either, but we have them, so. We do have them. All right, let's go explore the next thing. Let's see what, in case this has to spill over, we should see what else is around. We know what we're dealing with. Let's find out a little bit more about what we're dealing with

and where they're really going. So my question is, do you need me to carve a path for people? I think we better carve a path. All right. We'll follow you. From where he's standing, you see he steps a little bit over to the direction where all of you are standing and burns about a 20 or so foot wide walkway.

Carving it straight through to where you guys are. Glides over as he does so. Follow me. Turns around and slowly burns it through. You watch as the mold pulls away, the edges of it graying and turning into this piled silt. And as you move forward across the rubble, pulling and climbing over where the sections of it are,

eventually you come to see, with your light, the partially damaged, still holding, metallic archway into the next hall. Thank you, Frozone, that was awesome. The spider peels off of the rock wall onto the now grayed mold and Caleb is standing in human form. All right.

So what's the marching order here? Sorry. Oh, but no, you can still hold on for a piggy, if you want to piggyback ride. Okay. The one thing that I see on the symbol spell that could damage Lucien potentially is pain. So it's not necrotic damage, it's not fire damage,

it's just pain damage, and it would just make them, whoever gets it would be incapacitated for a minute. Lovely. That's pretty good. That's amazing. Does it deal any hit points or just incapacitate? It's just incapacitated on that one. Sidesteps his resistance. That doesn't count as a charm or a hold or a category?

I don't think so. Because it doesn't say charm, right? It's not a charm. It's not a wisdom save or anything. It's a constitution save and it... It's just pain. Yeah. For a minute? For a minute. It's a brain freeze. That's pretty cool. It is just pain. Yeah. For a minute? For a minute. It's a brain freeze.

That's pretty cool. It is pretty cool. A minute of attacking without an anti-magic field is pretty good. That'd be nice. A minute of falling down a... I mean, that's the ambush one, right? That's the one we can't set this in a place where we're not going to be able to attack them immediately

because it's absolutely worthless for them to bicker amongst themselves or be in pain for a minute if we can't do this in a place where we're not going to be able to attack them immediately because it's absolutely worthless for them to bicker amongst themselves or be in pain for a minute if we can't do anything with it. Should be right in front of us. Yes. This is where we hide. This is where we do your doorway. This is where we do, you know.

How far is it from this crushed metal archway to where the rope lands in the chamber? It's roughly... Actually more than 80 feet. It'd be close to like... Close to 90 to 100 feet across from edge to edge. From where the rope is, it's about 70 feet. I can start dealing damage to the bottom of that rope from this door.

Cool. From the door. You know, when we first encountered Gelidon, that really good tactic that we had when you were definitely here. When we were all together. Sure. Yeah. I was probably the most present. You guys, your mind was like, whoo! Yes, well, we were very distracted with the white dragon.

Saved your asses. Mm-hmm, with your dome, because you stayed in the dome and pew, pew, pew. For those domes, the trick of them, you got to get them up. Uh-huh. But if we were ambushing, could we have a dome in this corridor to where?

We sure as hell could. They can't. They can, they can dispel itk! They can just dispel it. They can dispel it instantly. They can just dispel it immediately. Tech magic up, it'll be a big shining beacon. Hold on. Well, if they're popped by a giant pain trap, then.

Well, then we don't need the dome in the first place. As long as we can kill them in a minute, I guess. They could. There's a long range on Dispel. This doesn't have to be the room where we pick the fight. I want to see more. There could be a bigger space. We either just set it here and know that it's meant to take out some of them and not be the final,

or we can come back. I just don't know if it's bad to let them know ahead of time that we're already in here. If they're on their guard, then they'll be looking for traps. They might spot whatever we set for them. We can come back, but let's keep going, I think. Yeah.

This is, let's keep going. This is pretty good. It is. Yeah. Great. Yeah. I'd like to know. I also don't want to get too far ahead and then miss our opportunity, and they're here. They're on our asses. I don't know. I wish we knew where the fuck they were.

We know that they're not upstairs yet, because we were on a radio call. Yeah. That's true. Yeah, I mean, worst case scenario, we get the radio call. You two, you haul ass, you fly, you set, you set. Book it out. Yeah, it takes a minute to set.

This is the element. I'd like to know what we're running into. Okay. But we should keep going then, if we're not going to do it now. Matt, I asked earlier, but you got distracted. The sack that we got from the Tomb Tankers, did it have two or three? I can't find my notes at the moment.

I'll go ahead and double check the episode, or we can do that. Okay. Say two for now. Two. Two. Yeah, same thing. I feel like it was two because you had one and it made it three. Arcane Field Generator two from Vassilhunt. Oh, Arcane Field Generator.

Oh, sorry, sorry. Yeah, two Arcane Field Generators. Into it, Chet. We'll double check. Oh yeah, chest of goodies that I didn't write down because I was distracted by sword. Sorry. Could be two, could be three. I'll double check. Yeah, chest of goodies that I didn't write down because I was distracted by sword. Sorry. Could be three. I'll double check. I think it is two, but someone text Dani.

God, I feel like I would have. Mm-hmm. I could. So are you moving on? Let's go into the next room. Marching order, he said. Yes, now this entranceway can offer two people at a time, shoulder to shoulder.

Ray of Frost, somebody that can see. Essek and? The Ray of Frost, is the mole traveling past Cavern into Metal Corridor, or? It is a little bit, yeah. A little bit. Where you can see. Okay. I'll go after Essek.

All right, so Essek will make his way to the front. Who else, is anyone going to be aside Essek, or is Essek just going to be holding the front line? I've got some muscle for our friend. I'll go with Essek, and I'll have the sword out so there's light at the front. All right, you got it. Who's after them?

Jester's behind with? Right. I'll walk by Jester. All right. I'll go back there behind. I'll join you. Great. You have more muscles than him. I was talking about you.

Me and Beau in the rear. You want your goggles back? Are you still using them? Are you good? Yeah, I'll take them back. Maybe we can share headphones. Oh yeah, okay, yeah. This is a good podcast.

The sword gives off 40 feet, not 30, but 40. So you guys can sit to them. As you're approaching the archway now, you can see where the metal is bent down. And you three notice immediately as the light from the sword hits it, there is chiseled text into the metal. Can we read it? Yeah.

Can you read it? You cannot read it. I instantly cast Comprehend Language. All right. You can read it. Now you can read it. I instantly cast Comprehend Language. All right. You can read it. Now you can read it. It reads, Presidious Ward, Convocation Grounds, Central Deliberations. Presidious Ward. Ward.

Ward. Presidious Ward. One more time all the way through? Convocation Grounds. Central Deliberations. Central Deliberations. Doesn't that sound like it would be like a courtroom or something? Mm-hmm.

Or some, yeah. Aren't they like philosophers? Well, the Somnova in the Cognouza Ward were, but we are in the Procedium Ward. Sure. Mm-hmm. All right, okay. Like for proceedings. Let's go, lore kids.

Where's our lore kids? As it continues to clear the path ahead, burning away the bits of brown mold that block your path, you push past the metallic archway and lead into the preceding hall. Can I just, I'm sorry. Yeah. Can I just do a perception check?

Is it obvious that a path was burned away in this mold, or is it? I know. I'm just curious about that, too. Yeah, it's going to look like you're riding a lawnmower. So they're going to know that somebody came through here? Does anybody have a wood fire that they can throw behind? It certainly looks tampered with. I mean, yeah.

Can I use, I don't know if there's any heat, though. I was going to try Sacred Flame, but that's actual, like, that's radiant. What about you? Yeah, I think we can go with that. Yeah, maybe bring some fire to bring it back to regrow the path. We can also cross that bridge

if we decide to not put the Inuit Lodge here. That's true, that's true, that's true, because we have a little time. Okay, okay, okay, okay. Easier to test when we want to. We've already spoiled the ground, so there's no issue with futzing with it further. Okay.

Okay, so we're in the hallway? Sorry, you were saying something and I cut you off. Oh, it's okay. issue with futzing with it further. Okay. Okay, so we're in the hallway? Sorry, you were saying something and I cut you off. Oh, it's okay. Entering inside, the same diamond dusting of frost clings to every surface within this tunnel. And not unlike one of the previous Aeorian ruins you'd come to, this metallic hallway does remind you in some ways of the structure near the laboratory where you had encountered

the giant baby. The materials and the architectural design of it seems similar. And in the same way, panels have fallen and there are other cables and bits of metallic load-bearing rods that have punctured through and it's stepping through this once beautiful and pristine, smooth interior.

And it now is just jagged and ruined, but little pockets of its glory, as it once was. You can almost visualize various studious individuals in similar robes to the one that you found and varying types of fashion exaggerations beyond that, walking up and down these halls, debating, arguing, discussing. Likely nose in the air, as far as you're concerned, Yasha.

Pushing forward, the tunnel begins to come to a T-intersection. It drifts into this intersection, left and right, and continuing forward. You can see where elements of the floor have broken in a bit and began to fall. There's a large piece of metallic beam that has crossed over in the way,

but you can see four paths to traverse. Straight ahead, left and right. Mm-hmm. Can I do a quick investigation check to see if there's any path that looks like the main walkway? Or like one that seems more derelict and collapsed? Just kind of an idiot. I'll look, too, for further writing.

You what, I'm sorry? For further writing, text. Okay, for further writing. You what, I'm sorry? For further writing, text. Okay, so perception check. It'd likely be a perception check for you to make it out. Go for it. 18 total.

Okay. A quick glance. I mean, most of this is derelict. It all fell to the same degree. Are you looking for tracks or anything? I don't know. Just flow. What would feel like in the Tay Day,

what would be the main corridor? Likely for a design like this, it would continue downward. In a straight position. There is a slight adjusted kink. The hallway seems to, where it splits in the T-intersection, it offsets a little bit. It's a unique design.

Pardon me? Yasha, you said you found that robe on a body, right? Yeah, it was on a skeleton that was- Skeleton got buried, right? Well, it was half covered with, you know, it was in a collapsed building. But the building is super collapsed now. Yeah.

If you find another body, keep the skull, if you wouldn't mind. You got it. Thanks, I got an idea. Okay. Yeah. We need a tour guide. What if this was, you know, what if there's multiple entrances from the tunnel,

right? And this is the one that leads to the Presidious Ward, but there's another doorway that we didn't see that leads to the Somnovem Ward. Wouldn't that be funny? Like if it was that dangling door, like it went to somewhere secret? Did we see any other doors in the Molden Chamber?

No. Looked like an exterior courtyard. Okay. No, mostly buried. Okay. An exterior courtyard. I think we're on the right. That's exterior courtyard. Okay. Now mostly buried. Okay. An exterior courtyard. I think we're on the right. Super weird. Okay. 21 for words.

Looking around the inside of this chamber, you've maybe traveled a couple hundred feet into this hallway before coming to this intersection, and you do not see any viable texts or anything that catches your eye. And everything is lit by Fjord's sword alone. Fjord's sword, yeah.

That's spooky. Ask the Traveler, maybe? I know, that's what I was thinking. I could spend a few minutes and ask the Traveler. Let's take 10 minutes and do that. Okay, yeah. I'll just sit down on the ground and try to contact Artie.

What's inside the room? They're right on top of us, man. If you guys don't mind, can we wait for 10 minutes? I can just ask Archie to go take a look. Where? You'd ask him to take a look where? In the courtyard, if there was another entrance we missed or anything. I was thinking which way to go, but.

Or if he knew which way to go. Well, you get three questions, so. Yeah. And maybe if you have an extra question, you can see if Lucien and co. are close-ish? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I can see. Sure. I can try. That's excellent,

because if we delay 20 or 30 minutes, I can take a short rest and regain a little bit of my- We need an hour for a short rest. Boo urns. Yeah, let's not short rest till we absolutely need to at this point. We just took one today. Sure, 10 minutes. All rest until we absolutely need to at this point. Because we just took one today.

Sure, 10 minutes. All right, I'll sit down and set up a little Commune ritual. All righty. What's everyone else doing during the 10-minute period? I'm keeping my sword out. I am keeping a very sharp eye on everything. I'm going to chat with Fjord.

Go for it. But we'll get to that. Well, it takes you 10 minutes to do it. So in that 10 minute period, what do you say? I think you're right about the Inuit charge back there. The more I think about it, the more that seems right. I'm thinking about the dozens of ways that we could blow our cover to Lucien before he even steps in that chamber.

First and foremost being, if any of those rangers get spotted. I don't know. I'm just afraid the further down we go, the more we will blow our cover that we are here. And just spatially, it's a gift. Line of sight, gravity. I don't know what would compare, but.

I'm sure there's many cons that we're not thinking about, but. Also, we might only get half of them or less, or none, but at least our chances are compounded by what's there. That's how I see it. But whether we do damage and they heal or whatever, but whether we do damage and they heal or whatever, off their guard, even for a moment,

and then unsettled, I'm happy with. They're very confident the last time we met. Yeah. Having some sort of ripcord, though, if things start getting really bad like last time, it's the only thing that I can't, that I'm trying to think of now with this situation. What do you mean, ripcord?

Get out of Dodge for us if they do start overtaking us and it all backfires. Where does that go in your mind? We leave and what? I don't know. I don't think we're leaving. I guess it's a question of if Lucien starts chasing us, or if we start chasing Lucien.

Sure. I don't know. It's good to continue discovering all the paths ahead of us, It's good to continue discovering all the paths ahead of us so we have options. We've definitely had the tables turned on us before, but for the moment, we're at least between him and what he wants. Yeah.

But we are going to win this thing. We're going to fight until the last second. We're going to win. There is no leaving. Maybe for some, but not for me. And I don't think for you. Just thinking about the others. I know.

They look to you. Let's not disappointing. We won't. Okay. You're doing your ritual where? Like in the middle of the hall? Yeah, like up against the wall. I'll have a little half circle of my little trinkets for the Traveler and my crystals that I've gathered.

You know, make it look pretty. Okay. What's everyone else doing? Keeping an eye, guarding. Looking down both, trying to keep an eye down both tunnels, trying to keep an eye on, just keeping, somebody's got to keep a watch. Okay.

Yeah, just watching. Okay. Shine on the robe. Yeah. So make a perception check. Are you glancing down the two tunnels to look? Yeah, I mean, we're there, right? You guys are right up at the intersection. Yeah, just. You haven't traversed it at all?

No, just taking a look. No one's actually been looked down one hallway or the other? We haven't looked down the hall? Why don't you look down the hall? Just the one ahead. Just look with your eyes. Yeah, just, I'm 12. 12?

I rolled really badly. Yeah, you did. Wow. Glancing ahead with what little bit of light you have, once again, the glittering ice dust across the floor catches your attention. Weirdly beautiful in its desolation down here. You can't see much on either side of the hall.

You do see similar signs of collapse, but you cannot see where they go beyond a few feet due to the lack of light source. Okay. You turn around and see Jester working on a ritual and they're having the conversation. Back up a bit then. Your passive perception, though, does pick up

this shape along the ceiling. One of the open, collapsed holes and broken parts of this metallic hallway, you see something reach out and clamber along the ceiling. We got a problem, we got a problem, we got a problem. I'm going tober along the ceiling. We got a problem. I'm going to hide behind the door.

We've got a problem. Get ready. Huh, what? How long has it been into Jester's ritual? It's been maybe six, seven minutes or so. We shake her out of it. Goddamn it. As you go to shake her out of it, you go behind, there's no door here.

So I'm assuming that like it. You go behind, there's no door. I mean, like, there's the, so like, I'm assuming that like. So this is behind, so like, you've gone up to the, there's the intersection, right? You're all here at the base of it, she's doing the ritual. You walk up and look both ways, turn back, and there's something emerging on the opposite side

of you guys. Oh, like from the courtyard side? From the courtyard side, from the ceiling. From behind. It's funny you mentioned aliens earlier, it's like, kind of climbs out slowly, and. From behind. It's funny you mentioned aliens earlier. It climbs out slowly. And it's large. It's at this moment, you all hear the heavy metallic impact of something.

Multiple limbs clanging onto the metallic ground and you hear. Clanging? Well, hanging and then landing onto the ground. Oh hell. Glancing back in turn, you see a rather massive Glancing back in turn, you see a rather massive lizard-like creature of deep blue cerulean skin.

Elements of frost crystals gathered at the edges of its limbs and folds of its body. Multiple legs as its eyes glance towards you, and the light flickers past it like a creature in a flashlight in the shadows. As it opens its mouth, you see drool drip out and then immediately freeze onto the metal beneath. And as it exhales, the air gives off a cloud of frost.

Natural pick up. Oh no! No! Let's just play more. No! Fuck. I don't hate it. Can we just leave it for them?

Can we control it? Who can control monster? Here's the thing, whoever goes first, fights the things. Yeah, whoever is going first. I mean, we have options. Fights whatever's down. Anything.

Anything in the ruins that have taken up residence in the path that you're going. Whoever's behind us is going to have an easy time. Unless we can somehow charm this creature and tell it to hang out by the grass. If you got the magic for it. Turn it into a ferris. It's kind of cool. It's a cool idea.

What's a cool idea? Charming it. Making it our buddy. Yeah, making it our pal. It doesn't last that long. Yeah, it's like a medicine. You can't charm monsters the same way. Okay, well, we can't talk about this before Matt.

No, no, it's an hour! Nope, you got to fake. It's an hour? So that was a fifth-level spell because I was already in the middle. Oh no, it's a ritual. They could show up. It's a ritual. So it doesn't waste a spell slot. You do not waste a spell slot.

I don't want to stop playing. I know, but if we go from here, we're going to be late. I know, I know. We'll pick up that next time. But on the flip side, we get to stop playing. I know, but if we go from here, we're going to be going pretty late. We'll pick up for that next time. But on the flip side, we get to go, indeed. That's true, that's true. All right. Time to fire up the text thread.

Oh yeah. Indeed, you guys got a lot of irons in the fire right now. I love it. Kill the thing. All right, we'll pick up there next time. Thank you all so much for joining us. We love you very much, and is it Thursday yet? Good night. Thank you for listening to this episode of Critical Role. If you've enjoyed this ever-weaving story,

please consider rating and reviewing our podcast. You might just inspire someone new to hop on the wagon for the journey. We have plenty more stories to tell. Stay tuned, and we'll see you next time.