Critical Role - C2E135 The Genesis Ward

Episode Date: April 29, 2021

The Mighty Nein plunge deeper into both Aeor's ruined depths and its endless mysteries as they continue to chase after the elusive remaining Tombtakers...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.

Once upon a time, a group of curious storytellers breathed life into epic tales set in the wide fantasy world of Exandria. This is Liam O'Brien, here to welcome you to Critical Role. We'll dive into the story in just a moment, but first, a few notes. This is the audio-only version of our broadcast that streams Thursdays at 7pm Pacificm. Pacific over on twitch.tv slash criticalrole and youtube.com slash criticalrole. If you subscribe to our Twitch channel, you can watch the video on demand immediately after the broadcast.

And it's also available Mondays at 12 p.m. Pacific on YouTube. And of course, for all you wonderful podcast listeners, freshly minted episodes release right here on the Critical Role Podcast Network one week after our broadcast on Thursdays. With all that said, let's get into the story. Hello, everyone, and welcome to tonight's episode of Critical Role, where a bunch of us nerdy-ass voice actors sit around and play Dungeons & Dragons. We play Dungeons & Dragons!

Play it. Yep. Before we jump into tonight's episode, we do have some announcements to get through, beginning with the first of our two sponsors tonight, Ghostfire Gaming. Sam? Breaker one nine, breaker one nine, this is promising, young man.

Hollering at you. Going double nickel from Cowtown to Derby City. My trailer's topped off with a wide load of super cool stuff from our friends at Ghostfire Gaming and their latest campaign, Grim Hala, the monster Grimoire. Yep, I'm hauling copies of the latest supplement that provides over 400 new dark fantasy themed monsters for DMs to challenge players and enhance their games.

But this ain't no Suez Canal. My cargo's too important to get waylaid. Not even by old Betty Sue, that frisky server at the flying hook. So I got my eyeballs out for any county mounties or kojaks with a Kodak who want to lollipop this wiggle wagon. Uh-oh.

There will be sirens. Oh no, sirens. I promise after we're done, shit and shinola ran right through a bear trap. I got smokies on my six. Oh no, but each monster in this monster grimoire supplement provides mechanics for DMs to give existing creatures a surprise and twist, such as making them undead, a fiend,

or even a legendary creature. So I got to get it there on time. I'm going to flick the rocket sprocket and throw down the hammer. See you, piggies. Woo-hoo. I'm disregarding the law for Ghostfire Games. Oh, no.

Another sound effect! My tire blew, as you can all hear! I blew a rubber band! My rig's going alligator all over the black top! I probably should pull over for safety, but the fans are counting on this monster grimoire shipment! It details how characters can harvest monster parts to turn it into equipment or magic items. Ah, fuck it.

I'm going to steer and gear at 17 wheels the rest of the way. I'm a safety hazard for Ghostfire Games. Oh, no. Swerve it. Oh. Oh, fuck. Oh, criminy almighty.

I've struck someone. It doesn't appear to be human. Oh, yep. It, I've struck someone. It doesn't appear to be human. Oh, yep, it's one of them aliens. Probe ship landed in the middle of Route 66. Gray skin, blue blood, capable of near light speed travel. Definitely the most advanced extraterrestrial ever discovered. And it seems, it seems they still have a pulse. I should probably try to revive it.

No, but Ghostfire Games is too important, fuck it. No, but I'm shedding those Martian pounds like my old beer belly, just so I can keep trucking down to bit.ly slash ghmonsters to support their campaign. Yep, we're not making contact with intelligent life tonight because Ghostfire Games is too important. Back, back to you, Barrett.

Over and out. There it goes. This here's the wildest ride in the wilderness. Sound like Thunder Mountain guy. Yep, yep. I got a story for you later. You look so red. It took a lot of energy.

I have so many questions about your writing process. Red Bull's for me. Wait, what's Grimhalla? Throwing it in the air. Didn't you understand the ad? Grimhalla is what I was advertising. Grimhalla. Oh, did I say halla?

I guess I should say the product name of the sponsors. Grimhalla. There we go, perfect. Thank you, Sam. Grim Hollow. There we go. Perfect. Thank you, Sam. Grim Hollow! Grim Hollow! And thank you, Ghostfire Gaming. Our second sponsor for tonight, Square Enix. Been fans of theirs for a very long time. Crazy. Pretty much most of my life, gaming.

And this is really cool. This episode is sponsored specifically about the release of Saga Frontier Remastered, available now on Steam, Nintendo Switch, PS4, iOS, and Android. I played the shit out of Saga Frontier when it first came out for the PlayStation. I love that game. I'm super excited to play this remastered version. It is the beloved 1998

RPG classic. It is reborn with improved graphics, additional features, and a new main character, which I'm super excited for. Experience this role-playing game as one of the eight heroes, each with their own goals, storylines, and a new main character, which I'm super excited for, experiences this role-playing game as one of the eight heroes, each with their own goals, storylines, and endings. It was one of the first games where you choose

at the beginning which person's story to follow and how they eventually merge into it. I was in high school at the time, back in those ancient days. But Akitoshi Kawazu, who is the creator of the saga series, is actually a longtime D&D player. And that love has definitely and can be seen coming through throughout the Saga frontier, especially in the instances of making your characters' decisions and having them definitely affect the path of your journey as you go, which is awesome.

And to celebrate this release, they're free to play Romancing Saga Re-Universe. S is capitalized. I assume that's intentional. Mobile RPG experience for Android and iOS has a ton of free rewards and special in-game events going on right now. So go check it all out at bit.ly, B-I-T dot L-Y slash C-R, Saga. And thanks to Square Enix for supporting our show.

You guys are awesome. And, of course, our friends at D&D Beyond. D&D Beyond! Who've been with us for the entire length of this campaign. It is a fantastic online digital toolset to keep all of your campaign information and all your character information. If you haven't had a chance to check it out, please do.

It's awesome. We use it here and it's extremely helpful. And right now you can have the D&D Beyond's master to your subscription. That DMs can then share all the books that they own with the group within their campaign, and they have access to all their stuff in there, which is awesome.

Visit dndbeyonds.link slash master to learn more. And also, thank you all so much for joining us live on Twitch and YouTube. To join our live moderated chat, community chat specifically, feel free to head on over to Twitch, at our Twitch channel, where it is maintained. There we go. My brain is shutting down.

I've been talking too much. Ashley, you got some announcements? Oh, oh, oh, I have an announcement again. Hey, so thank you so much for your support of our Critical Role Foundation fundraising campaign with our friends at 826 LA. So since we are pre-recording the show, the best way to catch real-time fundraising updates

is by following us at CriticalRollFDN. That's F as in fancy, D as in nudamancy, N as in noodles. So CriticalRollamancy, N as in noodles. So Critical Role FDN on Facebook and Twitter. And to learn more about our campaign to build a writer's room for students at Venice High School here in Los Angeles, or to donate, head on over to criticalrolefoundation.org.

I'm done. Fancy, dunamancy noodles, everybody. Thank you, Ashley. And Laura, you had announcements to make. Oh. I'm done. Fancy Dunamancy noodles, everybody. Thank you, Ashley. And Laura, you had announcements to make. Oh, I do? Yep. Okay, so today we are launching just like a ton of stuff, and I'm going to show it all to you right now.

Well, most of it, yeah. Okay, let's do it. So it's going to be, there's different variations, and they're all available in all of our stores, US, UK, Australia, and Canada. Okay, first up is Boulder Parchment Shears T-shirts. Oh my gosh! Okay, that's rad.

Yes! It's amazing. Play with your friends. See if you can get the same thing. Oh man. Next up. Oh, next up, I'm the same thing. Oh man. So good. Next up. Oh, next up, I'm presenting this one.

I want it. Hold on. I'm really excited about this, too. The rules on the front of the shirt are pretty hilarious. You guys haven't seen this one, either. No! This is our Chaos Crew. Chaos Crew! Nice!

Nice, simple, easy breezy on the front, and then you got our punk rock wanted poster on the back. I have a little tag on the front. Yeah. Very cool. It's super awesome. That's so cool. I should say, the Boulder Parchment Cheers t-shirt was designed by Grace Berrios.

The Chaos Crew t-shirt was designed by Jordan Torrance, our very own. And then the next up is our Caduceus t-shirt. Oh my gosh. I want to see! Dun dun! Oh! I love this!

So this is line art by Hunter Bunyan, colors by Stefan McGowan. Did I say that right? So good. Sure. Wait, let me see. And additional design by Jordan Torrance. I love it. Wow.

It's so cool. It looks like a vintage tea company. I'm in love with it. What a great color. And then, oh, this is also really cool, and you guys haven't seen this either. What's that? What's that? It's a mug. This is our three-pack. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah!

Socks? Socks Machina? Yeah, socks Machina! We did it! We did it! We got Mighty Nein socks. Look at Ashley. Guys, you know I love socks so much. I know.

I have been waiting for socks Machina forever. We've got Critical Role socks. Those look thick and soft. And they're thick. These are like high, these are good socks. And those are the Socks Machina socks. And these are Socks Machle socks. Those look thick and soft. And they're thick. These are like high, these are good socks. And those are the Sockin' Us? And these are our Sockin' Us socks. Oh!

Nice. Mean. Yeah, so they come in a three pack. Those are cute colors. Yeah, those are good ones. I know, they're really great. I will wear that. So yeah, check them out. They're in our stores.

And lastly, the Mighty Nein lightweight hoodie, which I held up before, so I don't have it tonight, featuring the classic design by Brian Weiss, is available in our UK store. So that's everything. Yay! Wow, what a drop. I know, right? What a drop, I want all of it.

The socks, though, y'all. Yeah. It's pretty rad. Skiing. Are they soft? Yeah, no, they're really comfy. Yeah. I am lucky to get to wear the samples at home. Damn it. Damn. Well, thank you, Laura, that's amazing. I'm still waiting on my wear the samples at home. Damn it. Well, thank you, Laura.

That's amazing. I'm still waiting on my Vax cloak. No. Don't know if that's going to happen. Pajamas. Pajamas are fine. I think I've got one. I am a pajama. I miss the pajamas.

I know. Well, we'll talk later. Yeah. I had the Nicodranas sweatpants, and Omar ate a hole in the pockets. No. In the pocket? I was like, you don't,

because I kept treats in there and he was like, there must be treats. He was just asking for them. While he just still, yeah. I never got the sweatpants. I didn't get the joggers. I was like, you don't understand what you've eaten. We gotta get some stuff, yo.

I know. You do get to say well played. I don't have nothing. Well played. Still out there from day one. I was so mad. Well played. I think I've got yo. I know. You do get to say, well played. I don't have the PJs. I don't got nothing. Well played. Still out there from David's box. I was so mad. Well played. I think I've got it.

You win this. These are so sold out. You don't fucking get it, you piece of shit. These are so sold out. I'd wear slosses, pajamas. Anyway, thank you so much. I think it's time for us to go ahead and jump into tonight's episode of Critical Role.

Yeah! 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? Digging deep in your soul As the legend unfolds Now it's your turn

To roll Welcome back. So, last we left off, the Mighty Nein, after setting a trap for the Tomb Takers shortly into their descent into the ruins of Aeor, you waited and were rewarded, it seems, as they stumbled into your trap, immediately wiping out three of the five of them.

As you attempted to close the distance on the two surviving members, Lucien and Cree, they managed to escape beyond the tunnel where you were going to travel and collapse it behind them. Escaping their way? Yep. Oh boy. You slowly crawled your way through, pulling some of the loose rubble aside

enough to leave yourself a way in. You begin to experience and wander through the Presidious Ward of Aeor. Within, you discovered information about some of the layout of the city. You decided not to investigate the interior of a necropolis. You went into an auditorium

and brought to consciousness an Aeormaton, some sort of synthetic being that was created during the era of Aeor. Named him Charlie and are carrying him via a 3PO backpack on Jester. You then began to follow the trail of bodies left behind as the Tomb Takers, the Tomb Raign members, are now fighting what's ahead of them before you,

and found yourselves suddenly beset upon by strange creatures you've never seen before. You did battle with some of these Aeorian abominations, and after this extremely exhausting struggle, decided to bed down to rest your weary selves for the night. After a brief check-in, you were able to scry upon Cree and gather some information that they themselves

are also struggling a bit in their journey, but are still ahead of you in their trek. You all went to sleep comfortably within the dome, but Beauregard and Caleb seemed to be visited in their sleep by Lucien himself, as well as the sound of thousands and thousands of screams and laughs. So.

You all continue to rest, taking your watches throughout the night, but even the rest of you sleep not so soundly. Nightmarish imagery creeps at the outsides of whatever dreams may find you. Even pleasant memories brought to your subconscious begin to blur into shadow, begin to bend and twist. You feel uncomfortable, unwelcome in your own subconscious.

And as much tossing as turning as may have occurred throughout the night, you do manage to complete a long rest. So, go. I got back my one hit point. Hey, for the Heroes' Feast, I think we had two extra temporary hit points. You did. Do I heal back up to those or no?

No. It is your maximum hit points. You would heal up to your full maximum hit points. Oh, that's right, because we still, when did we have the feast? How long ago was it? Is it 24-hour spell? You had it before you slept. It is a 24-hour spell, I believe.

Yeah. It's pretty close to being done at this point. It would be. We had it in the foyer of the tower before we. Yes, and then we fought, and then we chased him for like three hours, and then we went to sleep. Eight, 16, so 16, 18.

So we would have almost a full day left of it. Well, you guys slept for five hours. Yeah. Oh, that's right. So it's still going, but you have a handful of hours left. Okay, okay, okay. So. So we probably need to do it again. I have one more chalice left.

Okay. But nevertheless, one by one, you all begin to come to consciousness. Just as the dome's magic begins to sparkle and fade. Caleb and Beau, the least rested of the troupe. Catch our eye across the dome. Guess we should go through the checklist. Inspection time.

Mm-hmm. Oh boy. Immediately, you can see right above the clavicle on Beauregard, a third red eye. Where, whoa, where, where, where? Like the clavicle or the sternum? The sternum, sorry. Oh, okay. Right up there. Like right here in the middle?

Like right there. How about placement, you guys? Does it look cool? That is disconcerting. Fuck. Is it? Oh. Mm. It's so close to your heart, Beau.

Where's yours? Are they all the same color? They're all red. And what about you? Strip, strip, strip. Taint. You look around, his torso is like, he coats strip. Taint. You look around his torso as the coat's down. Peenie tip. You don't see any additional eyes on your torso.

Oh! You don't? Check the legs! Check the legs! I pants myself, yeah. Nothing on the legs. Arms! Whoa. Okay, you look at the left hand in the palm.

Oh. You think I'd see that first? Oh, that was so unnecessary! It's always the place you look last. I'm so worried about the ween! Okay. I know it's somewhere. Don't tell me where. It's on the tip of my tongue.

Wait, did you have another one on your hand before? It's here. Oh yes. It is between my shoulder blades. I have. And left hand or right hand? You had a hand. Left hand. Here.

Left hand. Wait, his is also on the left hand? Yeah. So his is the front and mine's the back. That's weird that they're not showing up in the same places, you know? Like they show up anywhere on the body? Wait, where's your third one? It was here. Oh, and then it up anywhere on the body? Wait, where's your third one?

It was here. Oh, and then it was right on the tattoo, wasn't it actually a low? That's right in the middle of my back, my neck. So you have right on the front and the back. In the back. It goes straight through your neck. Oh man.

I'm here, here, here. Do you think he can, I mean, do you think he can see through your eyes? I wouldn't put it past him. I don't know. I wonder if our necklaces negate the effect of those. I hope so, I say directly to the eyeball. Well, we managed to fuck them up pretty hard

at the entrance to these caverns, and we had two eyes at that point. So. You had crazy dreams again, yes? Yeah, this time it was him. It was Lucien. And you could hear him? Yeah.

Could you talk back? I didn't try. Did you? Didn't really make sense. Like dreams do. Yeah. How did they end, the dreams? Screaming.

More voices. It was him. For me, it was him being like, oh, welcome, join the party. And then it exploded into a cacophony. Mm-hmm, strange dreams. I rest the eye on my hand on top of Beau's hand on the eye on the back of it.

Are you trying to activate them? What are you doing? Just commiserating. No, just give it a little pat. Take it away. They do line up pretty well. It's weird. Well, we should probably spend a few spell slots trying to get them off, because, you know.

The important question, how's my hair? Oh god! We have great questions. Still bald. Not a problem. I wave my hand and all of my hair comes back. Perfect. Oh, is it an illusion? What? No.

I am a powerful practitioner of that. Don't touch it! Mage hand! Mage hand. It's there. It doesn't move. It's not a problem. It moves in the wind. Do the eyebrows look firmly in place or are they just wiggling?

The weather's supposed to be. What's her eyebrows up? What happened? Yeah, he's pretty good. Oh, okay. It came back. See? Wow. It's just a half second delay is all.

They all got nothing on this. Roll a d20 for casting as well. Just kidding. Matt, can I cast Silent Image to make him look bald? If you'd like to. Well, how would that work if his illusion and my illusion are? I will have you guys roll off.

I will Counterspell you and burn all these slots. It's probably just going to look like a PlayStation character glitching into a wall. Yeah. Mine will only last 10 minutes. My characters can never keep their facial hair. So I don't know. Something all you see is just his eyes and his gums

and everything else is gone. All right, I cast it. Okay. Let's just see. Go ahead and roll a d20 and add your Intelligence modifier. Roll a d20 and add your Char cast it. Okay. Let's just see. Go ahead and roll a d20 and add your intelligence modifier. Roll a d20 and add your charisma modifier. Okay. Should we have a Heroes Feast

while we're doing all of this? 19? Maybe a little further in, I don't know. Six? Maybe some short rest, maybe? Okay. Okay. A nice attempt, but the illusion is too strong.

Your magic is powerful. Old magic. Worked hard for the old magic. Did we bring it that bad? Worked hard for this. All right, fine. As the dome eventually vanishes, Caleb, could you roll a d20 for me? I'll move my spell over to Beau.

Ooh, I got a 17. Roll percentile dice for me, please. Yes, sir. Oh no. On a 17? This can be really bad. It can be really bad, he said. I don't know, here goes my hair. Wait, what spell were you casting? This is for the dome. The dome.

Just for the dome? 81. 81? Oh god. That's so high. It's so random. What do you, what is? What's your worst fear? Yeah.

Don't think about it. To Caleb's memory, throughout life, what is the smell that makes him the happiest? Hmm. Oh. KY Jelen. What an improper time for such a statement. That is, in fact, what my mother used to cook dessert with.

Apple tarts at home when I was still young. You pause as you're gathering your things because suddenly that aroma, so strong, surrounds the space around you and you can't help but glance around as to what the source may be, but there is none. Does your hand smell good to you, Beauregard? Now, all of you can now begin.

Does my hand smell good? Begin to smell the smell of freshly baked Zemnian apple tart. What is that? It smells really good. I just love it. Delicious. One of your danishes? I'm really hungry. That is the smell of my mother baking.

So much butter. Is this a mental attack? Are we being accosted? I look around. Do I see anything? Exceptional check. Eight. Are there any desserts anywhere?

It's pretty dark in here. I have some old. I mean, there's some in my bag, but you don't want to see them. I light up the globules and they just start floating around and I'm just looking to see if there's any. You sure you don't have anything?

I mean, I can look. I look in my haversack. You have the treats that you brought with you, though stale as they may be at this point. One that's got a lot of mold on it. That's not it. This one is not moldy, but it's really hard. No, thank you.

This one has crumbled into just a few little pieces, also moldy. And this one is perfect. It's absolutely perfect. It's cherry, though, not apple, so that's where it's weird. It's not that. It's got to be this place. Well, maybe it's a passing thing.

Maybe. Still need to go. Right? We still need to go? Yeah. I mean, are we sure there are no apple tarts around to eat? No, I am really snagged. No, you're right. We've got to wait a few hours,

and then I'll give us another feast. We could have apple tarts. Oh, we definitely will. With the hero's face. I know what they smell like now, so I'm pretty good at recreating. I'm like a savant when it comes to that. Oh, wow. Yeah.

I know it's been eight hours, but down the hallway, there was a brass door that was slightly ajar. Correct. As it moved? Off one hinge. Make a perception check. Is that the door that we came through?

No, that's where they left. That's where we're going to go. 19. 19. It does not appear to have moved from its current position. You can only just see the very, very faintest bit of a green speck of light between the seams as it's slightly off to one side. And the light that you are creating both via your sword

and your spell reflecting a bit off of its metallic distant surface. Want to give it a look? Sure. It's time to get moving. All right. All right, I'll creep out of the dome and go down to the door.

I'll go with you. Oh, good. I need some light. If you are to be scouting ahead for a portion of this, let me, he reaches into his pouch and Essek pulls out this small, dark, spherical pearl and holds it out in front towards your forehead. And you feel this familiar shunting of energy into your face that warms through you

and you have a mote of possibility be a fortune's favor. Oh shit. Thank you, Essek. Lacking in originality, but okay. Thank you. All right. I heard that and I taught it to him. Oh!

That's technically the OG. Places it upon his forehead, too, and takes it into himself. As you're gathering things, Charlie, over your shoulder, Hello. Oh. Where are we going? Good morning, Charlie. Good morning, is it morning?

I don't know. Caleb, is it morning? Ah, yes, it is. Yes, it is. Would you like a really old cherry tart, Charlie? I may try one. Puts it into his mouth and you watch it just get gummed into the jaw for a bit.

Pieces are coming out. What do you think? Delicious. Oh, it's weird here in the Vision. SAM and SAM laugh. Oh man. Okay. This could either go really well or really poorly. Give it a look.

All right, so me and Fjord are going to walk down the hallway. I'm going to cautiously inspect the door for traps. Okay. If you go through being quiet, make a stealth check, please. Stealth. F traps. Okay. If you go through being quiet, make a stealth check, please. Stealth. Fitting. 27. Got it. All right. And make an investigation.

23. 23. Does not appear to be trapped nor locked, though the door is fairly weighty and may require a little bit of physical exertion to pry it open enough for somebody to squeeze through. And there's a crack? is fairly weighty and may require a little bit of physical exertion to pry it open enough for somebody to squeeze through. And there's a crack? Yeah.

Can I peer through the crack? Make a perception check. Actually, Fjord, why don't you peer through the crack? I can't see shit. Oh, right, that's true. 17, 20, 20. 20, not bad. Peering through what you can see,

faint sources of green light, similar illuminating orbs that you've seen scattered throughout the ruins. There are a handful ahead, and the street seems to turn and then rise up significantly into a jagged top, and that's what you're able to see. No movement, no creatures, any blood on the ground?

From looking through this crack, with the low light you have, you have no way of seeing any sort of blood. Just looks like another hallway that turns and raises at the end. No bodies, no blood, no nothing. Do you think you and I can open this door? You've been working out.

Yeah, I mean, we are more than capable. Okay. You want to give it a... Let's give it a little... Yeah. Yeah. You've been working out? Yeah, I mean, we are more than capable. Okay. You want to give it a? Let's give it a little. Yeah. Yeah. Fist bump. Let's get it.

All right. Have you guys both roll athletics checks for me, please. Ooh. Ooh. Wait, I'm proficient in it, so I can just take a 10, right? Yeah. Okay, so 15. 14.

It begins to grind open slightly. And then locks into place. It's about three inches open. Well, the door is broken is the problem. Oh, I don't think it had anything to do with us. It's about three inches open. Well, the door is broken is the problem. Oh, I don't think it had anything to do with us. It's a mechanical failure. Or some sort of a... Those monsters trapped it or rigged it

so that it couldn't open any further. I think so. I mean, it's only been here for hundreds of years. Yeah, yeah. I blame them. Should we get Yasha? Yeah. And Jester.

Anyone else but us, yeah. Pretty much. All right. So the rest of you, are you following down this tunnel but us, yeah. Pretty much. All right. So the rest of you, are you following down this tunnel? Oh yeah. Do you need assistance? Ladies, if you wouldn't mind. Yeah, let's go. Together?

Yeah, one, two, three. All right. Easy peasy. Athletics checks, both of you, please. She says as she rolls a one. 19. Okay. Hold on, hold on, I need my Guidance. Where's my d4s? Oh no. What did I do with them?

A strength check? Athletics. Athletics. 20, no, two. As the both of you approach to it, you push and push and you see the hinge that got caught. Begins to and just snaps. Some sort of screw goes flying backward.

You hear it dangling against it. That's loud. As the door shifts and swings on the hinge in the corner it's on and actually slams into the ground, causing dirt and dust to fly up around you. As it settles for a moment, it's a little odd. You might have to climb over it a bit,

but you now have a view ahead of what lies beyond. That was loud. That was amazing, babe. I'm going to do a very slow spin to see if anything reacted to that. Make a perception check. What's that in the road? 27. I'm going to do a very slow spin to see if anything reacted to that. Make a perception check. What's that in the road? 27.

What's wrong? 27. 27. Nothing behind you seems to be shifting, moving, or out of the ordinary. All right. So pushing past these heavy brass doors, you reveal an area of surprisingly bright lighting ahead. The little pinhole space you can see,

you had a bit of that light glow, but now that you step into it, this is, similar to the Presidious Ward, another open neighborhood. This is what looks to be thousands and thousands of feet of rolling, broken neighborhood. Streets kind of bind up into structures and buildings. But what's unique about this very,

what would be an awe-inspiring, industrious center of this ward of the city is in the mass center of it, everything bends upward and then ends in a jagged point, almost like something detonated from beneath and the exterior of the crater is twisted upward and left at an end point.

Does it look natural? Does it look like it's frozen in time? You're probably close to investigate it, but it look like it's frozen in time? You're probably close to investigate it, but it looks like it's the aftermath of some sort of catastrophic explosion. Like buildings in the distance are rolling up? Like the floor itself they were built upon is rolling up and then ending as it got blown outward

or destroyed from some point, but it looks like the ground itself is unnaturally forced into this somewhat conical position before it is just ending. So something exploded from underneath it. It's possible. From this distance, you can't quite make out anything. It's in the center of this area that we're looking at?

Distance from us to the lip, if we had to ballpark it. About 150, 200 feet. You know, when you drop a stone into a pond and it goes in, but then it goes bloop up in the middle and shoots upward. Charlie, is this the Genesis Ward? I think so. It looks a little different than I remember.

That's fair. What has changed? All of it. And he points outward towards the destruction that lies frozen before you. Charlie, do you remember any of your previous companions or masters or? Attempting to ag-

Hello. Hi, Charlie. Good to see you. It appears I am a bit damaged. Hello. That's what we're here to deal with. Yep. So. Thank you.

Let's walk through and see what we can find. What is this room? Or this, you said it was streets. This is an extension of the actual city itself, but this particular space looks more industrious. As opposed to the smaller homesteads and structures, this has larger, seemingly...

Manufacturing? Kind of. It's hard to describe based on the experiences you've had in your life and past, that they look like smaller fortresses. Right, okay. Defensible to an extent, though not as detailed. There are some elements of intricate design in entryways, but a lot of it seems to be more for function than beauty,

as opposed to the previous ward that you walked through. And that's just what you can glean at this perspective. Once again, you do not have a lot of light aside from just this entryway and where the edge of this is. It's brighter than the previously pitch black spaces you've been in. Can we see the cavern ceiling at all?

Make a perception check. 11. Not really. Pretty dark. But you do see a few faint bits of green light fading, or faded light, up in the ceiling at a distance. You can't quite tell how far away, but it's not quite illuminating anything to catch your eye.

I'm going to lower the globules down in our path by our feet and try to see if there's any drops of blood or tracks or anything left behind by our friends. Make an investigation or perception check. Oh, that'd be a natural one. Bark. Hard to really find anything in this space,

partially because the chaos ahead of you has covered this area with a very fine layer of silt and rubble. We press forward. We need to find some sort of a trail. Yeah, let's go. They used to take a peek at us regularly. in some sort of a trail. Yeah, let's go. They used to take a peek at us regularly. Is there any use in...

Doing the same? Yeah, and get a sense of their surroundings, if they've changed or not? Last time we looked, they were surrounded by that yellowish light, right? Yeah, exactly. We haven't even gotten there yet. I don't think it's worth wasting a spell that high just to potentially find out.

What if there are three ways out of this place, though? Well, there are multiple things we could do. I mean, Caduceus, did you take Find the Path today? I don't have the, did I take Find the Path? Meant to. Is it like... It's just... I don't know if I remembered to.

Oh, and an object from the location you wish to find. Oh god, then no. But I mean, I guess the threshold crest, though, would be from... Not necessarily. That's true. Go back that way. Yeah, nothing I really see here.

I actually didn't take it anyway, I think. At a minimum, maybe we ease our way forward and see if anyone has better luck than I did. I have Locate Objects, so if we get within a thousand feet of them, I'll know which direction to go. Okay. Is it taboo if I attempt to see

if I can find anything where Caleb failed? You could attempt the second back since there weren't any additional attempts or assistance. Oh, right. Let me see what I got. Investigation? No fucking way. I rolled a two.

For a total of? For a... I mean, luckily my investigation's good, for a total of? For a... I mean, luckily my investigation's good, for a total of 14. 14. No luck, no luck. This space has seen, strangely, even more destruction than the Presidious Ward. And as such, the ground, the debris, the topography

makes it hard to follow any sort of patterns or color, especially with that dull green light matched with whatever the radiant light that you were creating. It's just an odd place to try and pick out something so minuscule. Gotta love that investigation bonus, though. Charlie, if you see anything that looks familiar to you,

please feel free to speak up, or if anything you want to see or just want to get a better idea of. All right, I'll keep my eyes out. Thank you. He just starts scanning over Jester as you guys walk. So you said that there were, there's like, what's our options here?

There is where the jagged edges of this opening, you imagine. You can only just peer a little bit past elements of it that are close by and you can see distant, similarly jagged points that come to an end, but you're uncertain if it's a pit, if it's a void, if it's just straight across or a small divot. You don't have the perspective yet,

but you can go around it, or you can go back. You can do that, too. Up to you. I am curious. It could be the way they went. Yeah. Not necessarily, but we should look. Are we trying to duck into any of these buildings and see if we can repair Charlie? Is that a thing?

If Charlie recognizes a place, then yes. We can also just poke our head into a couple places as we walk. I mean, since we have nothing else to go on, I figure they must've found this place by accident. So just trying to be curious about something is probably going to be the best course of action. And learn what we can.

I'm not going to use Comprehend Languages now, but I'm keeping my eyes out for any words or language. Fair enough. So you're heading around towards whereabouts? Let's head towards the crater for now. If any of the houses look relatively intact, just poking our heads in if possible. Okay.

Walking through, most of the buildings here have been reduced to elements of the base walls and just broken nothingness. This area definitely seems to be some of the heaviest hit of anything you've seen so far. Which, of what you've seen of Aeor to this point. Caduceus, about two or three minutes into walking, Oh no.

a sound catches your ear. God damn it. It's like a faint hissing sound, but it's consistent with some variation. It's like a faint hissing sound, but it's consistent with some variation. Is it moving? No, it feels pretty stationary. It's ahead of you.

There's like a snaky sound coming from over there. Snaky? Like a gas leak? Yeah, sort of. Do you smell anything? Or like a slithery sort of sound. Slithery, like a. Inside the crater? The general direction.

The general direction. Yeah. It's not moving. Slightly concerned about natural gases. But worth noting? Mm-hmm. Don't smell anything, do I? No, nothing like a natural gas leak. Okay, and it doesn't,

it's changing a little bit. Does it sound organic or mechanical, I suppose, would be the? It's hard to tell at this distance. You have to get closer. Okay. Let's go close. You carefully begin to move forward as a group. And as you do, some of you begin to pick up

some elements of that same sound. Caduceus, what initially was this faint hissing becomes a faint trickle. Like gently rushing water. They were by water. They were by water. They were right here. I think I hear where we're supposed to go.

There's a watery, drippy sound. Are we going up the hill? Are we going down around it right now? We're going to rule it out. Okay. So you're climbing as it begins to- How high of a climb is it? I mean, it's a little precarious as it is a shattered part of the ground,

but as long as whoever's leading the charge on this can hopefully lead it safely, and with a couple of checks, you can do it. How about you do this, Beau? Yeah, I'll dart up to the side and I'll start looking for natural footholds as I start scaling it and seeing what makes sense. Athletics or acrobatics, your choice.

I will do... Matt, I'll just say. She doesn't have to do it on her hands. Matt, is it like a quarter pipe? Or does it stop before it gets like... Some elements do curve almost vertically, but some do not. It's a very, it's an odd, for something that is so massive,

the shape that it's taken and the sheer level of astronomical damage here is nothing you've ever witnessed, and elements of it make little sense in the way that it's held there. Okay. Hmm, 16. Rough rolls today.

16, not too bad, though. It's okay. A little precarious, but you managed to. Are you using acrobatics or? They're the same, so I'll use acrobatics. All right. It's more flourishy. There you go. Leaping from shelf to section,

to exposed pipe, to metallic bar, you eventually go up towards an edge and grab and look down. Now, what you see before you, you maybe envisioned something like this, but it's different to look down and see it physically for you. There is a vacuous hole below

that extends maybe a mile or so across. Across? Across? Across. Okay, okay. It goes down, down, down, a deep, rounded crater. Does it fall off to black? Can I see the bottom? What you do see is there are numerous waterfalls

from different points that are just trailing down and hitting floors. When I say floors, this isn't just rock. You can see beneath the surface of this, there is floor after floor after floor of what were once subterranean levels of different structures of this ward that are now carved open and exposed.

You can see bits of light glowing inside, like a series of underground bases were suddenly sheared and abandoned. You see probably a dozen or so floors immediately with space between. Got that bunker buster. There are precarious ledges and bits of broken and dangerous-looking paths that could be trekked downward.

Can I see the bottom and the center of the crater? Make a perception check. Like the Forgotten City under Manhattan. Okay, 14. You cannot quite see what's at the bottom. Just disappears in the darkness below. Is it a lot of water? Like, it's a pretty astronomical amount of water

that's heading down? No, it's not massive waterfalls. It's a very, very faint trickle. You're not quite sure what the source of this water would be for how long this ruin has been here, for it still to be a gentle, steady flow in these locations. It's so fucking cold. Lots of ice means lots of water.

Okay. Which, to that point, the temperature is still chilly in here, but the temperature continues to fluctuate from location to location within here. It was so freezing in the exterior and in portions of the tunnel that you went before that fight, but even in here,

it's maybe the equivalent of a gentle 40 degrees. Wow. And being- That can change 200 feet from where you stand. You feel waves of warmth, waves of cold. It's unsettling. Being up here, can I tell if it looks like something cratered in, crashed in,

or if something exploded up? Well, an investigation check. Come on. Don't fuck me, Gil. Natural 20! He did it! Okay. That was adorable. Thanks, Gil. Thanks, Gil. Natural 20! He did it! Okay. That was adorable. Thanks, Gil. Thanks, Gil.

That was so cool. 32? That's a gentleman, that Gil. 32. Yes. In your mind, you immediately begin to imagine the city solid, bustling like it once was. In your mind's eye, you can envision

this extremely advanced portion of this mageocracy of Aeor. You can see streets and these large buildings. You can see the people going about their business. And you can imagine the ground begin to rupture and tear. People flung and disintegrated in numerous directions, instantaneously killed, hundreds in one blast. And it is a blast, you envision. You can see this massive explosion

that throws whole sections of the neighborhood into the sky, chunks of what was once underground probably thrown from where it was. You can see the vast destruction. This was blown from the inside out. Wow. Wow. Okay. And with that roll, you can see

on the southern edge, it isn't a continuous circle. On the southern edge, there is one very different, unique groove, like a smooth slide about 100 feet across, like something had borne with a giant auger at an angle inward, directly to where the center of where this explosion

would have initiated. Whoa. So whatever triggered this explosion, you get the sense that something arrived. Bore into the ground and then detonated out. Holy cow. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, how far am I from my party now, from them?

You're maybe about 60 feet away from them. And there's another note, too, as you're taking this in and imagining this, you glance up and those bits of green light that were witnessed along the ceiling, they're moving slightly. And you look up and you can see dozens and dozens of pieces of rock,

chunks of stone, parts of street just floating and gently drifting, locked in place. Oh, gravity. That face, Marisha, is like the best. Oh no. Oh no. Okay. I turn around to everybody and

I think this is where we need to go. Are you still up at the top? Yeah. And we're down at the bottom? What? I think this is where, I think we got to go in. Go down, go in, go down? What's in there? Well, let's just go look.

A city. So why would we climb up if we're going to go? Do you see any yellow? Do you see any yellow rooms? Hundreds of feet up. It's hard for you to make a perception check on this. Do I see any yellow rooms? Oh, he's doing it now.

I'm 16. There are some, the closest to you are probably 70, 80 feet away. Can I just grab a piece of rock or rubble on the ground and I'm just going to try and wing it up into the air? Yeah. Go ahead and roll a strength check for me, if you don't mind.

16. All right. What the? And you watch this one piece of rock that was just slowly turning, begins turning slightly more in that direction, a slight shift. But the rock that hit it falls?

Yeah. Okay. Leftover Fleece Rock. So are we going up or down? Well, you have to come up here and then we're going to go down. It's like something blew up this crater. I can't hear you all the way up. You can't hear me either,

so I don't know why I was driving. It's mostly water that we can climb. Yeah, there's a pipe over there. And then just like if you jump over to that pipe. Following her lead, I'd like everybody to make an acrobatics check, please. Before we leave, I'm going to actually pick up a rock as well,

but I'm going to write on a piece of paper, wrap the stone and add it to my collection of waypoints. And then I'm going to use my keen memory to use the exact footholds and handholds that Beauregard took to get to the top. Okay, you know where they are. Yeah. Still making acrobatics. You got it.

You said acrobatics, right? Yeah. Okay. If you're following her lead. 11. All right. 18. 20. All right. 21.

23. What? Caduceus, wow. All right. Were you on the gymnastics team back in the day? A couple of wobbly steps here and there, but for the most part, you all managed to work in conjunction to get to the top without issue. And as you all step up with, I'm actually going to say,

not bad, actually, Essek joins with you without issue. As you all make your way to the edge and glance down to see precisely what Beauregard had been taking in, there's that pause as you all make your way to the edge and glance down to see precisely what Beauregard had been taking in. There's that pause as you all let the immensity of it wash over you. Essek breaks his silence, going, This, I cannot fathom what would cause this

level of destruction. Maybe the tip of a mountain punching up from below? Well, whatever it- Or the fist of a mountain punching up from below? Well, whatever it was. Or the fist of a god punching up from below? Whatever it was, it wasn't down there. It was placed, and I point out the boar line from across the way, point out the... Oh wow.

Too far to make out much detail of what, you know, what may have done it, but you can see the definitive smooth punch point on that side at an angle. Wow. So should we go down in there? Do I see any yellow rooms? Make a perception check.

I'm going to use my holy bomb for my guidance. Ooh! 23. 23. On all these levels you see throughout, a lot of them are dark. A few of them have bits of that green light, and there are different tiers

that have a similar orange coloration to it. A little bit below and to the left of where you are, about four floors down, or it would be three steps if you're going, what you're on, two, three, four, you can see there is a yellowish orange interior light. That looks familiar. Yeah, it does.

Okay. How do we get down there? Do we have any rope? We always have. Wait, we didn't grab our, did we grab our? It was buried, semi-buried. Yeah, the two sets of rope that you previously used in the tunnel were left behind.

So does anybody else have any rope? I have a rope. I used, it was mine and Fjord's rope that I think we used. I've never used mine before, ever. I have rope, too. Got some pitons. I don't have any rope. Clerics don't get ropes.

Yeah. But I have a really beautiful flower crown. I have a rope. Oh! Yeah. Wait, so break this down for me again. So the crater and then the other side of it, the southern side of it, you said is like a... So yeah, there's this massive, almost mile-cross,

gauging with distance in the low light, cavernous crater. And it is a deep drop into darkness. You cannot quite see the bottom. And there are multiple layers scattered throughout at different levels that are all sheared off and exposed. On the southern edge, it's almost, not quite directly across from you, but a little bit to the right-hand side

from your perspective. As opposed to a straight wall, you can see a sheared angle inward, almost like a slide or something that would just directly drive into the shadow. Okay, that's the part I missed. How do we know the stories of how this city came down. Use your imagination.

So we got some rope, yeah? Yes. I don't know if it's long enough for us to drop four floors, though. How much rope do you have, 50 feet? Probably the same length, yeah, 50 feet. Two of those? We do have means of manipulating things at a distance. If we can affix the rope and just go one floor at a time.

Yeah. Oh, that's true. And just able it as we go between our particular specialties. And if Beauregard, and I think you two as well, Essek, you didn't seem to have a problem with that decline yesterday. By the last ones down, you could follow us and bring the top of the rope,

and we could just go bit by bit by bit, as you say. Indeed. I remember when we used to set traps and utilize gravity as part of the weapon, and yet here we are. Ooh, ooh, ooh. Gravity, it'll turn on you. Well, we just need to make friends.

I like that. All right. There's a spell for that. Let's do it. Always a spell for that. All right. One floor at a time, I guess we'll rope it down. All right. So with one rope affixed, that'll about 50 feet, you said?

All right. Roughly 35 to 40 feet down to the first subterranean floor beneath you. Those that are descending through climbing means, go ahead and make an athletics check, please. Come on. 15. 15. 15. 15. 15.

Athletics? Whoa. 12. 13. 20. 13. There are some points where the rope begins to shift a bit and you catch yourself, everyone checking in with each other.

Essek shouts over the edge, is everyone okay? I instinctively grab for Fjord's hair to try to hold onto something. Glides through. No! And Veth just falls. Stop, stop it, stop it!

You don't stop it! As the adrenaline begins to subside, you slowly begin your descent once more, and safely make your way to the first ledge into what would be considered the first basement floor of this climb into the Genesis Ward. First thing. after Essek drifts down with the end of rope and hands it over to Yasha,

you notice is where this ledge is, it opens into an open hall. It looks like there is one faint orange glowing light source in here that is still functioning, and the rest of it is in heavy stages of shadow. But this was an open hall with desks and chairs and other bits of furniture that have been thrown around. It's odd. You can see where the edge of this ledge would be. There are large installed bookcases that are just sheared off where the explosion happened.

And it looks like there are remnants of tomes that have just been burned to cinders and ash. Cinders. Were you here before? Sorry. There are also dozens and dozens and dozens of bodies scattered all across the ground here. Just ancient semi-mummified. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Standing at the edge and looking out into the crater, we see a little bit of orange light here, if we were to keep going in, but if we strain to look lower or at other parts into the crater, we see a little bit of orange light here, if we were to keep going in, but if we strain to look lower or at other parts of the crater, is there anything similar anywhere else? You can see the next one down appears to be, you can see there's additional ledge and another floor,

maybe about 20, 30 feet below where you are now, but there is no light source in that one. There's a very small ledge, and then below that, the next one has a brighter orangish-lit coloration to it. there's no light source in that one. There's a very small ledge, and then below that, the next one has a brighter orangish-lit coloration to it. Okay, I want it. Within this room, beyond the bodies, you can see there is a distant door

that is currently closed and locked off. Pardon me. And what looks to be another open chamber on the right-hand side of this room. God. Don't you just want to explore everything? Of course. Yeah, this is awesome. Check everybody for key cards and weapons.

I can still talk to people. Currency. No books left intact. Not on this side of the chamber, no. This side. I'll just go peek through the door. Well, we'll have to check it off the list. All right, I'll go to the open door, look for traps.

Okay. As you stroll across the open chamber, go ahead and roll an investigation check. 23. 23. Always 23. This is the closed door or the open one? The open one.

Open one. I'm not a crazy person. Right. So you can see there was a door that was affixed here, and there is damage to where it was. It has been pushed inward and shattered. It looks like something was jettisoned from whatever explosion happened and threw it into this door,

breaking it into four or five pieces, and they're scattered on the ground on the inside. But the entryway that you're currently at does not appear to be trapped. Okay, I will go through it and look around. Glancing inside, this is a storage room. You can see there are all manner of stone boxes, metallic crates or storage bins,

shelves that are filled with glass jars and small bags. This is a fairly well intact storage room. Oh, wow. I better look inside some of the things. Are there any potions or anything? Yeah. Any robot legs? Office storage? Yeah, what kind of?

Windex. A thousand-year-old potions. Come with some Windex. Make an investigation. I will so much hand sanitizer. Look around through some of these items. All right, so you guys see Veth disappear into the back storage chamber and is gone.

Storage chamber, it's like office supplies. 23. I'm going to creep after her. Okay. You see Veth is now rummaging through the contents of the room. Are you being careful? I mean, it doesn't look like.

Sure. I'm keeping an eye out for anything moving or any sounds outside of vests shuffling. Make a perception check. I'll assist. Three dice? I was rolling my Guidance. Okay.

That's a huge Guidance. I know, it's a holy bomb. Holy bomb. 19. 19, not too bad. You do not hear any other sounds in the vicinity beyond Veth currently rummaging through that chamber. A short glance through here and looking about,

most of the materials in here are spell components. Spell components? Yeah. You begin to recognize some of these jars and bits. This is baseline components, nothing too expensive, but for any sort of simple, non-consumed spell components required, there are just rows and rows of them in different containers, and they are labeled any sort of simple, non-consumed spell components required. There are just rows and rows of them

in different containers and they are labeled in a language that you do not understand. But I recognize the items. But you recognize the items. You can see mummified wings. You can see ground dusts. You can see pastes. You can see viscous liquids in capped bottles.

All manner of strange material components just stored within this chamber. Okay. This is like a magic office. What did you find? It's all base level magic components, you know, like basic-ass shit. Eye of Newt and, you know, Oil of the Poppy.

Seeing all the writing, I will wave hand through the air and sprinkle salt in front of my vision and cast Comprehend Languages so that I can read. Yeah, indeed. You connect to all these different components here and they're labeled appropriately. Though a lot of them have been damaged from the impact of the city.

Some of them are still intact and still resting on the shelf in a very impressive display of placement, but some have fallen and cracked and shattered, and there's all sorts of odd dust and ash on the ground. That earthquake putty, man. Yeah. It's pulled through anything.

I'm going to look more thoroughly and see if I can find anything very useful, like pearls or gold dust. Make an investigation check. 19. 19. You do find a pouch with seven white pearls in it. Ooh! Wow. Yoink.

But, yeah. The tiny crater inside Caleb. But that's the extent of what you find that seems to be, that catches your eyes, useful that you do not already have or necessarily. I don't want to be here a million years. That's amazing. I could stay here forever,

but we should not stay here forever. I think we should check out the other room? Yes. Okay. All right, go back and tell the others what we found. Interesting. I'm tying off the rope so we can keep lowering down. Oh, good idea. Is there any writing in the main room where we're sitting?

Can we see anything on the wall that looks like written language or? Make sense. I'll go check that other door for traps. 25. 25, nice. From what you can tell, there isn't a lot of on-set labeling anywhere, but you do see above the door that Veth was in,

there is some text, and the other door has text above it as well. Charlie. Yeah. Yes? Can you read that in Common? Can you translate that into Common over there? Oh, that is Component Keeping and Dry Storage. This one is Records 104.

Oh. I appreciate that. Happy to help. Rush! Like sparks fly out of one half of his face. Oh. I appreciate that. Happy to help. Rush! Like sparks fly out of one half of his face. Oh no! Can I get you anything? Are you all right? I'm fine. Oh, okay.

Hello. If you need anything, just ask. Hello. Hello. Hello. Oh, no. I heard that and I move closer to the rest of the group and keeping an eye on Caduceus and Charlie, I actually go over to Essek. How are you on pearls?

I mean, I brought a number with myself, but I will always accept more. Why? I fish out three from the seven. Here, take these. Thank you. They go fast. True enough. Records? Records. They go fast. True enough. Records? Records.

Might be something. Need records? Or should we keep chasing after, you know, the guys that are about to blow us all up? Is the door locked? The door's closed. I'm going to check it for traps. Maybe they went through. Go ahead and check. That's the room I saw! A million.

The door is not trapped. 33, yeah. It is not trapped. Okay. I'll open it. Just taking a look inside. We're not going to go deep. We'll leave the Necropolis alone, but the records. Well, I mean.

Bunch of records? The door opens and it is a scattering of bound books and cases of paper. Oh no. All sorts of, looks like deep glass vials of dark liquid. Stacks of blank papers. You immediately looking in here, this is a room that also keeps

a bunch of blank vellum and ink. Everything you've ever searched for in every shop you've ever been to, there is, you can only fathom an unlimited supply in this large, maybe 50 by 80 foot chamber. Is there any rubble or anything on the ground in this room as well? This room actually held pretty well.

Yeah. There are a number of tomes that are scattered about here, and you can see that a number of tomes that are scattered about here, and you can see that a push of it that have text and writing on them. First thing I do is bend down to, I find a blank piece of paper, and I tear a third of it away,

and I write records on it, and I fold it up and put it into my waypoint collection. Okay. I would say, let's just get the Bag of Holding in there and just stuff some stuff and not look at what we're grabbing. We don't have the Bag of Holding. We have a tiny, we don't have anything.

I have the amber. Is there anything beyond? Is there any books of note? If I take five minutes. If you take five minutes, I want to make a quick investigation check you can scan through. Yes, I do.

Have a d4 on that. Thank you. Book search! An investigation? Yep. 28. Whoo! Worth it. You find a number of documents

and pieces of paper that are written in the language of Aeor, but you cast Comprehend Languages so you have the ability to read them. To give you just a quick overview in the five minutes of which you can just grab and peruse, because I'm not going to read a bunch of documents or make up a bunch of shit for you right now.

There are some books that detail elements of the study of creation, specifically creation of the Pantheon. Speaking of growing proof from their perspective that mortal minds and imagination gave form to the gods, not the other way around. There is elements of research regarding that and debate and papers fighting for both perspectives

throughout that one particular book. There is one note that catches your eye because the word Somnovum definitely is of interest to you. You find a report that speaks of the Sum Novum having defied programs, breaking approved protocols in research and experimentation, and hoarding their findings.

And as such, studies have been halted within the Cognouza Ward, and members of the Sum Novum Collective are not to be allowed within the Genesis Ward, floors B3 through B6 until further notice. B3 and B6. Through B3 through B6 until further notice. B3 and B6. Through B3 through B6. Correct.

You also see two more documents of note in this quick grab and read over. Yeah. One of them refers to the Factorum Malus project. Factorum Malus? Factorum Malus project, which translates loosely in the common tongue to what you're interpreting as Hammer of Creation.

Ooh! Ooh! It says the project requires some time, which translates loosely in the common tongue to what you're interpreting as hammer of creation. It says the project requires some time, but early results are satisfactory. And the last bit of note that you pick up, you rolled really high on this. An individual named Athodan is referred to, saying Athodan's work on rejuvenation continues to show promise. The relic is an inspiring find,

and the weaving of necromantic glyph work is revealing unique arcane properties. The Magistry will be pleased this next round of presentations. Oh boy. Athedon, rejuvenation. Ho, ho. Okay, I'm just going to gather all those up.

Okay. And I need 10 more minutes here. I know that we cannot stay, Ho, ho. Okay, I'm just going to gather all those up. Okay. And I need 10 more minutes here. I know that we cannot stay. And I sit down and I start making the Circle of Amber so that I can take away a lot of paper. What was the name of that? 10 minutes, Caleb?

Yeah. Maybe we can keep going. Do you need the paper before we fight the world? Why don't you, um. Because you can always come back here. Why don't you progress a little further and I will just be, I will just fly down to you. Brashar. No one has been here in thousands of years. 10 minutes, please.

I'll lean over the side. Can I get a better look at the room that I had spotted? Make a perception check. Can I get an assist? Ooh, Fjord. I'll help you. Yeah, can you hold on to me so I can lower down further? Hold on to my ankles so I can drop.

Your ankles? Yeah, I'm going to hang off of the side by my ankles. Yeah, I can totally do this. So that I can get an advantage. Boost, pumpkin! That went from picturesque to awkward very quickly. Oh yeah, it is. Oh, that's good, that's good.

This is an investigation or a perception? Perception. Okay, good. 26. Nice. Glancing down, from what you can see, the ledge below, there is just a faint bit of orangish-yellow light that is showing you the ragged edge that is visible from where the floor between sheers off your perspective.

But what you do see is the tile, the tile metallic-ish floor of it that is familiar, both the memory of what you scryed upon as well as your previous experience in another Aeorne ruin. You also notice the beginning of what looks to be one of the numerous waterfalls about 15 feet to the right of it.

There is some sort of an aqueduct that has been sheared and is just giving out a trickle of water, a sound reminiscent to what you heard the night before. Help me up! Help me up! Huh? Oh. Okay, well, all right. That was it. It's the room, it's the room. It's definitely the room.

Or at least it's the same floor. It's the same area that I saw them in. We need to go. Okay. Okay. We go. Yeah. Caleb, are you going to catch up? Are you going to catch up?

Yes, I'm going to. I'm going to stay with Caleb. Okay. Why are you staying with Caleb? I don't want to leave him alone. It's been a couple minutes already. By the time it takes a few minutes for us to get down, he'll just go last. I think it'll... Yeah, yeah. We can juggle this.

Okay. Any good notebooks, scoop them up. Paper and notebooks. You know me. Okay. All right, let's go. I wave with my eye. It's weird when I wave with the back of my hand.

You don't have to do that, you could just do that. I don't like any of that. Essek, at which point goes, you know, I'll stay as well, just to help keep watch. Okay, we are on a timetable, everybody. I do want to, you know, timetable. We'll go. Let's go.

It's strange that these aqueducts are here. Was this area being cooled? Like, they're not torn or natural. They look like they were crafted. Okay. Yes? Maybe they were moving water to these rooms. Okay, we go down. Everyone who is descending,

go ahead and make an athletics check for me, please. Boy. Oh lord. Oh lord. Rolled a natural one. Oops. Nine. 21. 15. 10.

Athletics. 10. Indeed. I was at the bottom of the rope because I was first down. Yes. The descent is a little more precarious this round. As you begin to make your way towards the next level, you can notice a faint bit of fraying beginning to make itself known towards the upper quarter

of where the rope is currently affixed. As you make your way to the bottom of it, holding the rope, Jester, you glance up and see the rest of your friends descending, and you can hear that familiar Climb faster. The rest of you make your way to the platform where Jester is, but the rope is looking pretty rough. That's our only rope?

We have two ropes, right? I also got an idea. Was that both ropes tied together? This is our last rope. Yeah, you can mend it. I can mend it. Yeah. So you ask him. Yeah, that's mend it. I can mend it. So are you Essek? Yeah. That's true.

It just has to get down to me. Because it's at the top. So you're now at the next ledge down, about 30 feet below the place where Yasha, Caleb, and Essek currently are. I'll stand at the top where the other rope is, just waiting for Caleb and Essek. And this is where they camped.

It's one more level down, potentially. Oh, we don't know. Okay. But the level that you're at as you're standing there, you can see there is a floor across from you. You are similar to the space above. There is another layer before you, but there is no light. I'm going to light up my staff and take a look really quick.

I'm going to take a look, just peer down, though. I'm not going to walk in, but light up the staff and peer down. Reception check. And it was like they were banned from B2 to B6? B3 to B6. B3 to B6. 27. Ooh!

Glancing through, the first thing that catches your eye is this area is destroyed. Similarly to the floor above, you can see furniture and installations and numerous, numerous bodies, but everything here is charred, blackened, burned. Like something just tore through this floor and incinerated everything within.

All the bodies are just blackened skeletons, their arms reaching out and then falling on the ground, charred to a pitch onyx coloration. All the flesh just burned away to these flakes of ash and black. Oh, wait. There it is. Are there any visible words on anything? Hard-pressed with everything covered in soot.

Yeah. You did roll a very high perception check. You do see a faint purplish glimmer a little deeper into the shadow, near the ground. I think I see something in there. Like a magic thing? Do you have dark vision? I do not have dark vision. I have a light going on. Oh, can I see it better

if he points at what he's looking at? It's probably about 40 or so feet in. So where you guys are standing, you're not quite sure what it is at this distance. The light helps fill the space around you, but the glimmer of purple that you see is just barely catching the light and is visible from here.

Can we hear anything on this level? Any movement, any? Make a perception check. Yeah, that's all right. Ow. They hurt me that time. The D4 attacked me. After all these years,

they're finally learning to rise up against you. I rolled really low, too. Mom? Nine. Nine. You don't hear anything moving. It's pretty still. It's just more the ominous appearance

of the space around you. Who are we still missing? Caleb. Essek and Yasha. Essek and Yasha. And Yessa and Yasha. I say we keep exploring what we want to explore so we can move. What's this purple thing? Let's go. Do you mind taking it?

Yeah. Sneak over there. Be careful. I will sneak and stealth over to the purple thing that I can't see. Make a stealth check. I have Caleb's thing still. I could use it. Oh, that's true. Yeah, why not?

I don't know. Talaj. It gives off a dull, warm glow in the space around you. Okay. I will sneak over and look. Okay, make a stealth check. Stealth. Okay. Stealth is 24. Okay, so you're making no noise

as far as you're concerned, though. Hard to hide when you're clutching a glowing orb. 26. 26. Throw a cloth over it. Well, that's up to him to say. Nope. Or her. I'm sorry. I'm going to get to the purple.

But glancing around and utilizing Caduceus' pointing out, you find that one of the charred corpses, you see it on the ground, on its back, arms out. There is an electrum bracelet around its wrist that is mostly covered in soot. Electrum? Electrum. Like a silverish metallic coloration. And in the center of the band,

there is an amethyst-like gem. That's glowing. No, it just has a purplish color to it. Oh, oh, it's like just a glimmer. We're just catching the light a little bit. Oh, got it. Get it. Yeah, of course. Yeah, and the Power Globe take the thing off of the body.

The wrist just breaks into ash. It just falls apart around it. So you have the dirty wristband. Sorry. Sorry. Okay. Any other doors, anything else that's points of interest to investigate, or are we? There are multiple halls that exit from this floor.

Three in particular, one across and then one to the right and left. Are there any words on the walls, anything like that? Yeah. Charlie. Charlie, can you read anything in here? Everything here is fairly dirty. Yeah, but are there any words that you can read? I just run by all the hallway entrances and just dust them off really quick.

Quietly. Very, very quietly. A quick, quiet dusting. Yeah. Munch it! 50 p.m. Grab the bracelet really quickly. Charlie, do you know what this is? I don't.

Insight check. Make an insight check. You're trying to read an expressionless robot? That was a little weird, 28. There was something, I don't know if I just saw something actually running through there or not. You've not spent time reading synthetic creatures, but you still have a fairly good read on pauses in language and withholding information.

Charlie seems genuinely perplexed. Okay. Okay. Did I find anything in my quick dusting? We need to know what this is. Yes, you see there are bits of language Okay. Did I find anything in my quick dusting? We need to know what this is. Yes, you see there are bits of language in some of the hallways.

Okay. They're just smudged. Charlie, Charlie. I'll creep over so Charlie can read things. Charlie. Like he's my shoulder flashlight? Yeah, yeah. What's it? Elemental energy funneling. Elemental energy funneling.

Elemental energy funneling. Okay. That's this one. Hang on. That reads the same. Oh. Mental. That could be your, and then this one? The other hallway does not have a label.

Oh, okay. Break room. Yeah. I say we continue down. I agree. Let's collect our people. Caleb. I'll send a message upstairs. Caleb, any progress?

You almost done? You can reply to this message. That was a good chunk of time, right? I'm just wrapping up. So as you're in there, kind of collecting and preparing the spell, Essek's leaning against the wall, arms crossed. So, um...

Oh. What is everyone's hope through this? Well, as I'm putting down stacks of Dunder Mifflin, almost like it's a pallet, and then also grabbing books that I did not even inspect and plopping them down in for inspection later, what do you mean in this room, or do you mean down below? Down below.

Six feet under the ground. I'm... I just have a general sense of unease. I did not sleep well last night, and the more I begin to see Beauregard, yourself, return with these markings, I've only just recently learned to trust. It's hard to begin to mistrust so quickly.

So I just need your assurance that you will be forthright should anything begin to change. Well, here's the thing. Stack, stack. I cannot guarantee you I know what these do or that I can handle what they might bring. But my friends down below will make sure that there is no harm come of it.

I'm not going into this blind. I say it is worth the risk if whatever is down there returns, your home, my home, is in question, so. Let me ask you this. Mm.

You carry this worry and weight that Master Ikithon gives Chase as well, yes? Yeah. Which is more important to you, that Chase or this one? This one. Good. If we don't take care of this, we can't take care of that.

I have a great many desires for my home, but they are on the back burner, as they say. I understand. I only ask because I've seen great many prospective talents like yours grow unfocused in times of necessity and decisive action. You're not curious about what's around you right now?

I'm extremely curious. I'm taking in everything I can, but I also understand that if one is to keep their nose in a tome, somebody else needs to be paying attention. I've also been around a lot longer than you have. I know how to curb these curiosities for the sake of what's directly ahead.

I can sense a similar discomfort in some of your compatriots. Yes. Some things can wait. We've only touched the beginning of this. I can only assume that there is going to be many more intriguing mysteries played before us, but they are not what our goal is.

If we survive all of this, then maybe we'll return, make a trip of it. But I just worry. Psst. Hey, this place is creeping me the fuck out. I don't know if you remember that we split up with our party, but we should probably go. Wrapping up. You heard the woman? Thank you, Yasha. You're welcome.

I'll hold the rope. All right. Please. We should hold the rope from the other end, too, since this is the iffy rope. Oh yeah, Yasha's got it, but yeah. I'll hold the other end just in case he's... Also, Fjord, hold onto my waist. Oh.

Plant your feet. If somebody goes flying down, you know, it's going to give us a lot of force. Okay. All right. Hold a little tighter. Okay. Essek, as you hold the rope,

Essek just gingerly places a hand on it and just Mary Poppins down. Well, shit. For the next bit. I'm Mary Poppins, y'all. Yep. I was thinking it. Yeah.

And there was no warning or anything made about this fraying rope, right? No. I'll go down first. I start climbing down. All right, make an athletics check for me, please. A five. You get about six feet down before the rope

and you glance up and can see it tearing its final thread before it goes free and you go into full fall. I go the other end? You do. Does it go past us? Yasha, you almost fall into your back as the rope goes free. You watch as Caleb tumbles down towards the group,

a little ways free of you, and just goes off the edge. Oh, there it goes. He's not holding onto the rope at all anymore? We're going to find out in a second. Make a strength saving throw for me, Caleb. Holding onto the rope? Correct. Or I could turn into a sparrow.

I'll do that, too. Well, there you go, never mind. As he darts and falls off the side, as you clutch onto the rope, he turns into a bird and curves his way back towards the ledge. Oh, look, you got like a kite. I lose the rope.

I land on Jester's shoulder. I'm just going to peck, peck, peck. Ow, ow, ow, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. It's not hard. I thought. It's not hard. Yasha, do you need help getting down? No, you guys go on without me. I'm just going to stay. Okay.

You have records. Jumbo catch you. It's all vinyl. Is it? How far? Like, it's far. I wouldn't be able to climb. It's about 30 feet down. You could try and climb down the rubble. It's a higher DC, but you's about 30 feet down. You could try and climb down the rubble.

It's a higher DC, but you can certainly try. Okay, I'll try to climb down the rubble. Okay. Because I have other things I can do. So go ahead and make an athletics check for me. Okay. Let me come over and watch. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, that is a natural one. Oh no!

That's okay, that's okay, that's okay. I have other options. That rock is loose, that rock is loose. So you just begin to descend and you're grabbing some sections of it. You're like, okay, I can do this. I got it, I got it, I got it, I got it, everybody. And as soon as you reach your foot down,

you catch a ledge and you put your weight on it and it just crumbles. And as it crumbles, you hold on tightly and both of these come free. And you're now in a free fall. Okay. There she goes. I take out my feather, but I'm waiting a second to see if you do anything now in a free fall. Okay. There she goes. I take out my feather,

but I'm waiting a second to see if you do anything. You are free falling. Use it. 20 feet. Okay, I'll use it. 10 feet. Banffot winks. All right. Much cooler than the sparrow. Oh! As cool as that was.

The angelic Yasha coasts. I'm adorable. You are adorable. You are more adorable than her. You are, it's true. Yasha, can you fly all of us down to the next level? Yeah. Yeah. That'd be great. How long does it last? One minute.

One minute. Let's go, let's go, let's go! Let's fucking go one at a time! I just jump on her. Come here, baby. Who else? Who else? Beth, come on, come on, come on. I'll wait. I'm one. All right.

I'll take it one at a time. With the minute that you have, you quickly begin ferrying the group one by one to the next floor. This would be B3, I believe. Yes. Bingo. Off limits. Yeah.

This is the orange room. Before we go in, I have a question for Essek. Yes. Can you identify this? I have a question for Essek. Yes. Can you identify this? I have a funny feeling this might be important. At least as important as the robe. What are you handing him? The bracelet. The bracelet.

Oh, the bracelet, got you. What are you handing him? Don't you see me miming holding a thing? He's like, can't you see it, Matt? I will take some bacon, thank you. Bangarang. Starting to believe. You're doing it, Peter.

He takes it and you watch his eyes flash over for a second. He goes, This is some sort of faint magical aura to it, an evocation. It seems to be utilized as some sort of a key. Wait, we needed a key for something, no? Yeah, the tower.

We're going to need keys. The lightning tower. Oh. Mm-hmm. Hands it back to you. The sparrow lands on Fjord's bald head and you feel little tiny claws going in your skin. See, there's traction.

You could have tried. You could have held on. I was reaching for the hair. I'm going to wear this for now. Very well. Unless you want to wear it. You go ahead. It goes with your outfit.

It does, actually. I feel like it really blends. Yeah, I like it. Quite striking. You're not wrong. So we're on the B3 now? Are we in the room that we saw, that I saw? Yeah. Indeed. The first thing you notice is once you all land,

you can definitely hear the running of water and about 15 feet off to the right, you can see the trickle of water that is splashing down and vanishing into the shadow below and the multitude of floors that will continue down or deeper and deeper into this cavern. Now this floor, the space where you are, a little ways off, you can see a darkened circle

on the ground and the remnants of a slight fire. This is where they work. Now the aesthetic in this entire space, as the hall continues backward, you can see this, you are at the edge of a hall, by the way. There was a tunnel, like a 10, 15-foot-wide hallway that you are currently standing at the edge of that has been bisected at this point, and it continues inward.

You can see, gently flickering on and off in a randomized pattern, as if the arcane enchantment is slowly sputtering over time, the orangish-yellow source light that is in the nearby ceiling. And you can see numerous ones deeper within the hall. The aesthetic in here is a familiar design, that dark metallic that you previously had encountered in the laboratory in, I believe it was A2. A consistent structure design layout is to that same space. You can see the archways are familiar. Also the hall when you first arrived here,

that's the upward. You can see fallen cables and areas of exposed wall that seem to have some sort of metallic inlay that has a Sigillic design to it. Like there are channels for magic to be funneled from one location to the next. Okay, that makes sense. You guys, there could be another creepy baby monster here.

Absolutely, this feels like some sort of weird factory, especially with the upstairs being the elemental energy funneling in these aqueducts that you mentioned. It feels like it's all pumping into some sort of weird. Lucien just spent the night here, so it can't be that dangerous, right? I mean, this kind of feels like his aesthetic, right? Any blood on the floor, around the campfire,

anything like that, bandages? Make an investigation check. Yeah. Oh, 26. 26. Ooh, fingernail clipping. You actually see a gentle spray on the floor partway into the tunnel. Partway into the tunnel that's in the distance? You guys are at the mouth of the tunnel.

The ledge where you are is where there was a tunnel that was sheared off when the explosion hit, but the tunnel goes deeper into the wall, or deeper into the main side of this giant cavern. Just guessing, it looks like they used some of their blood magic to move. With that level of investigation, you very much can see this was intentional.

It's not small enough to be anything life-threatening, and based on your experience with them in battle and Molly in the past, this appeared to be some sort of ritualistic use of vitality, yes. Okay. Any idea of what they were trying to investigate? Like, is it? Could have been a magic spell to

communicate with you in your sleep or something. Could have been. Could have been lighting up a sword for light. Is it real dark down here? It's not as dark as previous chambers. You do have occasional sources of light in here. So of a lot of the places you've been, this one is actually fairly well lit in places.

There are walks of this space where it gets darker, where there aren't functioning or visible light sources, but enough where you can see the tunnel continues on and maybe about 80 to 100 feet in, you can see it leads into another chamber and splits. Shall we? Yeah.

Is it about that time? Has it been a few hours since we left our sleep camp? Oh yeah. Are we hungry? It's probably about two hours or so since. Just two hours? Two and a half hours, maybe. So we might have two to four left of the heroes?

Yeah, you would know the duration of it. I'd say you have about an hour left. Oh, just an hour. And then so it goes, the floors continue to go down as well, correct? We've got these tunnels, but then they continue to drop down? They do, though the distance shifts.

It isn't a continuous floor after floor after floor. Sometimes they're off-kilter, they're built at different angles, and this is just what's available at this cross section. Any type of indication of what direction they might've gone, shuffling of dust as they put out the campfire, anything like that? The best gauge you have is that that spatter of blood is about 10 feet into the hall

from where they were staying. All right. Let's get it. Let's do it. This Heroes' Feast takes an hour to consume, so you guys decide whether or not it's worth it. Is it our last chalice? Yeah, next time we take a short rest, maybe. Okay. Yeah.

So we're going into this hallway? Yeah. Okay. I'll go. I have darkvision. I can be eyes for you. And this is a hallway that's not labeled energy elemental funneling. It's the unlabeled one. This is the next one down. This is down. Oh. Yeah, this is a hallway that's not labeled energy elemental funneling. It's the unlabeled one. This is the next one down. This is down. Oh, oh.

This is one floor lower. You have no idea. Is there any writing on the wall here? Yes. Make a perception check. I'll assist with that. Also. It just says, get the... Ooh, natural 20! Plus one plus five is 26. Nice. Total, but that's fine.

Nothing in particular in this hallway that you're walking down has any sort of writing on it, but I will gauge that roll as you progress. Okay. So what's the marching order here? Fjord and Veth. I'll follow. All right.

So I can be up there for the perception roll. All right, and I will put next to you, our friend. There we go. All right, who's next to Jester? I'll go. All right, Yasha? I'll go behind them. All right.

I'll bring up the rear. All right, so then we'll put Essek in the center and then Caleb and Beauregard at the rear. Caleb has stole a sparrow and has landed on Charlie's head. Fair enough. You occasionally hear a little ding, ding, ding, ding.

So I'm picturing. I'll just use this tiny frog to be your sparrow. I'm picturing Jester holding Sprinkle with Charlie on top of Sprinkle and Caleb on top of Charlie. Yeah. Correct. Correct. I am a walking zoo. All right.

Continuing onward. Like the lady in the hoarding lady in Labyrinth, you know? Just slowly flying out. Oh, you need this, you know? You need this, oh yeah. Here you go, darling. But you want your little pencil box, yes, this, you know, you need this. Oh yeah. Here you go, darling. But you want your little pencil box? Yes, yes, yes. You continue on for about 80 or so feet

and the hall ends in an arch that continues into a square-like chamber. But a heavy portion of the central roof has fallen in. What was once probably a much larger room is now divided like a donut, in a way. There is just a large segment of rubble and broken ceiling that's caved inward, and there is a central pillar of rough, destroyed structure.

You can see edges of the room have also similarly crumbled in a bit. They are embedded to the right and a little further into the left, these foggy, filthy-looking glass columns. There are other columns in the chamber that have fallen and broken and left open. And you can see the next flashing source of orange light

is not in sight, but you can see the source of it on the opposite side of this collapsed pillar. This is where the creatures come from. Yeah, we got to be careful when I shove Veth in. Ah! All right, I'll just keep going. You step into the room. Yeah. Be careful, Veth.

Nothing happens. No problem. I'll go walk around the donut towards the light. Okay, stealthily? Stealthily. Roll a stealth check for me. 29. 29, nice.

Carefully, you maneuver around. That light pulses and flickers a bit. And as you head around, to the right or the left? To the right. To the right. Arcing around, you can see there is another hallway that leaves this area to the right-hand side. You can see there is a large metallic door that is on the opposite wall

from where you guys entered on the far, far side. Like near the orange light? Yeah, beyond the orange light that is closed, that appears to be intact. You can see a raised platform kind of on the left-hand side of the far corner, where there is a raised pillar and some sort of a metallic contraption that is placed on top that you... that's never really necessarily seen anything like before. And then beyond that, another hall that exits this room.

So there's like, if you continue in the chamber, there's two hallways that go out this way and a door on the opposite side. There's the center that has collapsed and there is a raised pillar with a contraption on it. Oh. Did my perception let me see any words in this room? Are you following?

Oh, I guess I'm third in line. Do I see any animals or creatures or monsters? Contraption is like handheld contraption size or like contraption? Or like softball size. The pillar itself is about eight feet wide and the contraption is about a similar width. Ooh.

But you're uncertain as to what its function is. Supercomputer. It's Whopper. It's Charlie's big brother. Charlie bit me. Did I see any animals or creatures or monsters? Oh my. No. Looks clear. Want to come see these platforms of weird robot stuff?

I'm going to branch off to the end and take the left route. Take the left route? Mm-hmm. Just as we all get to the other side. Okay. So you head to the left route off the opposite edge. You pass by the rubble and the fog glass column and the broken column there. You can see the pillar with the metallic thing

setting up right there in front of you and the door. I'll sweep right to the opposite. Anything in those tubes? Foggy glass tubes? Make an exception check. I'll assess. Natural 20, again? Nice. Very neat.

And a four, so I'll take that natural 20. Thanks, Fjord. What was it, perception? So 24. Yeah, glancing inside, it is filthy. When I say that it's fogged up, it's like the bottom of an aquarium that hasn't been cleaned out in 40 years. It is just this black, dark, brackish sediment

that is largely clustered on the bottom of it. It looks like it may be hollow or it's contained something, but it is so dark that it's very little to see there, but there is something within it. There is something in it. There's nothing moving, but you can see there's something being contained within it.

Can I tell what that is? Unfortunately, a little too. I mean, even with that roll, you're able to see something in there where normally you wouldn't, but you're uncertain as to what the shape it would be. Okay. I keep going, I connect with everybody.

Okay. Do I see any words with my 20, natural 20 that I rolled? You do. You see above the sealed door, there is Aeoran text there. The left room has text above it, and the right one has text above it as well. Charlie, can you read those? Oh, right.

He looks above the sealed door, and that one reads, it says, Rejuvenation Experimentation, Team Athedan Admittance Only. Athedan. Athedan's admittance. Bracelet. Looks at the left one and goes,

Repair Terminal. That's good. Hey! Charlie. Charlie's going to kill us. What about to the right? Maintenance. What was that? Maintenance. Oh, maintenance. These are great.

Two out of three are perfect. We need to fix Charlie. We need to go see this rejuvenation thing, right? Should we peek into the repair room? Fix up Charlie? Yeah. Sparrow flutters down, lands on the ground next to Veth and I go back to human form. Oh.

Oh, you're human form? Yeah. Oh! This is a lot. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, Charlie, can you stop listening to us for a second? All right. Do you think it's smart to repair Charlie? No.

Why would it not be smart to repair Charlie? He's a sweet boy. Like in case his brain comes back online and he's like, he evils and he's like, yeah, out for termination, any living creature, sure. Why would you assume any of that? Why? He's like a helper. He's a helper bot.

Why has his memory been affected every time we bring up anything with the Somnovem or the Cognosal Order? That's not the only thing that he's forgotten. Did you watch Raised by Wolves? Come on. I'll also say, if there's a way to get his brain online before his feet.

That's true. Ding, ding, ding. Hi. Hi. Hello. Okay, should we go into the repair ward, then? Yeah, okay. Can I listen now? Yes, you may.

You see this tiny little holes in the sides of his head, unshielded. So you continue on down the left hall, then. Yes? Yeah. All right, following down for about 40 or so feet, it comes to a cylindrical chamber about 40 feet across. Part of it has fallen in, and the back wall itself is a bunch of rebar-like metal structures

that point forward. In the center, you can see there was, based in the floor, a 10-foot radius dome-like metal structures that point forward in the center, you can see there was, based in the floor, a 10-foot radius dome-like structure that has been slightly pushed up and dislodged. And you can see there is a line where it may open, but it is currently off to the side. Any, just like a capsule that was holding something?

That's been a little bit. Kind of what it looks like. It looks like some sort of a spherical, you can see only the top half of it. It was embedded in the ground and it has what looks almost like doors that can open on the sides, but it is currently slightly pushed up and out of its housing and...

Opaque sphere or transparent? No, opaque. Like a brass, goldish color. Like a containment field that's been broken out of? See if we can shove this thing back in and we'll also check the back of the room. I'll come and help. We'll go over and put our hands on either side of it

and try and get it back into it. Have you both roll strength checks or one with advantage? I'll give you advantage. Okay. Yeah. or one with advantage? I'll give you advantage. Okay. That would be 26. 26.

You both at the same time shove, and as you do, it slides into place, as it does, some pieces of the metal rebars clink, clink, clink, into the ground. Loud, heavy metal clanging sounds kind of echo through the hall, but as it sits, some pieces of the metal rebars clink, clink, clink, into the ground. Loud, heavy metal clanging sounds echo through the hall, but as it sits into place, the doors open with a slight hissing sound. And on the inside, you can see

there is almost a cushioned interior with a number of small metallic objects and slight arcane flashing bits of energy that are just waiting, almost like a terrifying dentist arrangement of devices that fill the interior. And there's nothing sitting on that little pillow, I'm assuming.

We should put Charlie on the pillow and step out? So my feeling, it's a risk. Uh-huh. I think it's, I don't know, I think it's a risk worth taking. When we found Charlie, was he just as sort of filthy and ancient-looking? He was, right? Yeah.

With all the rubble around him? Yeah. I mean, he looked like he was in a similar place of ancient disrepair and forgotten like the rest of Aeor. Right. Well, everything that I just skimmed upstairs, and it was only a few moments, but made it seem like the Somnovum were pariahs.

Really? Yes, like they had pushed the envelope too far on the things they were trying and were forbidden from entering areas of the rest of the city. So if Charlie was in the Presidious Ward, right? Presidious Ward. I mean, there's no guarantees down here, but it seems like he would not be related to them.

I don't know what he is, but. When we found the, what position was he in relation to other people? Were people, did people die afraid of it? Did people? No, he was next to the dais along with other bodies. He was slumped forward with the damaged, partially open chest plate.

He's well decorated. There's a lot of intricate detail into him, more so than the first one that you had seen. We'll ready ourselves if we have to do something, but let's, I say we take a risk. Let's give it a try. I'm going to regret saying that so much. Flop him in.

I put him on the pillow. We all agree? Charlie, do you know how to make this thing work? I assume that it, and at which point the doors start closing as you back away and pull. The doors. You hear this muffled, all right, I think

this high-pitched whirring sound. Going to back to the behind it. And you watch as some of the other pieces of rubble that now came to rest to the back after it was shifted into place. Oh boy. Again, vibrating off and hitting the ground around it. The room's shaking, almost like

an imbalanced washing machine. I'm just going to look behind me. Yeah, keep an eye out. Keep an eye out everywhere. You really have cast Silence or something. Oh shit, that would have been smart. Well, we're just listening and watching now. What? Why are you looking at that? A minute passes.

Two minutes pass. Five minutes pass as these whirring sounds and heavy thuds and metallic clangs and buzzing of energy seems to emanate from the interior of the strange orb. You occasionally see it shift in place until eventually all the sound stops. The doors open as a mist-like smoke emerges

from the inside. He's super hot now. Vision walks out. Yeah, he's pretty hot.. Vision walks out. Yeah, he sprints, yeah. After America comes. And we're going to take a break. All right. Because we've been going for a little bit, and we'll pick up with the reveal after the break.

Can I make you all some coffee? I see Prince from the Bat Dance. Oh my goodness. Yes! He will definitely. Honk up! All right. Save me, Paul Bettany, save me!

All right, we'll be back here in a few minutes. We'll see you guys shortly. Hello, Critters. This is Ashley Johnson, president of the Critical Role Foundation, our 501c3 nonprofit organization with a mission that might sound familiar. To leave the world better than we found it. We partner with other nonprofits to raise funds supporting causes that mean a lot to us. And we allocate 10% of all donations to an emergency relief fund

that allows us to provide immediate assistance in the case of natural disasters or other unexpected emergencies that require quick action. To learn more about the Critical Role Foundation and to donate, visit criticalrolefoundation.org. And welcome back. So, as all of you await the whirring and loud noises emanating from this strange, spherical engine-type sphere, suddenly the doors open as a bit of mist and smoke apparates. It's covered in skin, I swear to god.

I know! Have you seen this, boy? It's so weird! A hand emerges and grabs the side. Still metallic. Oh! And standing up out of the sphere, tall, you see Charlie, whole.

Cleaned, repaired. No visible damage or injury as to where you found him. Looks at all of you. I'm Davexian. Oh. Oh, oh, oh. Davexian. Oh boy. I'm here to kill you all. I'm grateful for your aid in restoring myself.

Oh. Might I ask, what has transpired here? Oh boy. Wow. Can we walk and talk? Let's walk and talk. Yeah, we're... That's a lot for a walk and talk.

Oh. Calm yourself, man. Calm yourself. Come on, it's not a minotaur. Let's go. I don't know, that voice. The confidence. Wow. Very well. And continues striding back towards the central chamber, not waiting for you.

Okay, the Vexium, we have to be very quiet. What's the last thing you remember, the Vexium? Vexium. Kind of stops in the middle and turns around, inspecting the space. I was at a gathering. What happened? An associate. I genuinely do not remember.

That's why I'm asking you. I genuinely do not remember. That's why I'm asking you. We're going to try and- There was a... You see an introspection for a minute, the glow in the eye is dimming for a second, like he's lost in thought. Huh. Huh. I remember.

I guess they found the experiment. I guess they found. You know about the Somnovem? Let's not pepper too many questions to the Vaxxian. He's just been through an ordeal. Do you want to sit down and maybe I could get you something to eat or? Actually, I do think we should stop a moment

because this is a difficult conversation to have and I wouldn't like for it to be inadvertently cut off by some other problem. Fair. Devaxian, it is a very long, long time from the event you remember. So it seems, based on the decay in this chamber, well.

What was the experiment? Did you swallow your thumb? He's stunned by your hotness. I don't do that. You are an extraordinary machine. Oh yes, the vaccine. Fjord is not a robot, despite his head. That's just, that was an unfortunate...

There were... Stop interrupting me. Get it out of your system now. There were means of protecting Aeor from the divine destruction that was reigning upon and sundering Exandria. One such experiment, we assume, was considered too dangerous to be allowed.

And as such, the city was struck. What was the experiment? It seems like you guys had a few kick in, so. Not the regeneration. Oh, there were a number of experiments. Right, so which one are we talking about? Is it this Hammer of Creation that Caleb totally mentioned to me?

Yeah, I broke it down for you. He corrects the pronunciation, the Factor of Malice. It's not the Hammer of Creation. It's the Creator Hammer. Oh, the Creator Hammer. Oh. Oh, like God Smasher? Like Bonk Bonk Creators?

Well, the hammer was metaphorical. Sure, I gathered. But as you can see, such interests come with their own folly, and it seems we were outdone. There is no one like you where we are from, or when we are from. Will you forgive me,

Maid? from, were you, forgive me, made? The process of creation is different between purely organic creatures and those of artifice. But much like two of you might create a child, I was indeed created, but through intellect, through power. The same way someone creates a child? The processes are different. Okay.

Well, as you can see here, Aeor's time has passed. Indeed. This is a new era. But not all of your fellow citizens are still asleep. What can you tell us about the Somnophon? They are a cabal of theorists and

odd, exploratory, metaphysically obsessed buffoons. Have you heard of the Eyes of Nine? I do not believe I have. The Nonagon. Now that we're the Nine of the Sundovum, if we're on the same track. The Nonagon, I do not.

We are a great many centuries past your time, and from the best that we can tell, your outsiders are about to turn their theory into a reality. Part of your city still exists, we believe, somewhere else. Part of your city still exists, we believe, somewhere else. And is on the verge of being returned. Oh.

And this portion would be? The Carpouza district. In the astral plane, the astral sea. Is any of this familiar to you, or does it make sense? To be honest, no. Cognouza's what remains of Eo, that in itself is a very cruel joke of history. Is it because they were outcasts?

Oh my god, I would love to hear about it, but aren't we fucking chasing people? Yeah, we're like seriously beneath the walkie-talk. I would love to walk and talk, but he wanted to stop. Is he okay? Are you okay? He looks great. He was just repaired.

He's fine. Indeed. Well, let's just put this straight out there, then. Something terrible is going to happen, and everything that this city fought against to save it is about to reignite, destroying everything that's been rebuilt over a very long time.

We need help, and we need someone who used to know this place. Are you in? I'm welcome to answer a few questions, but. Okay, can you answer them while we walk and talk? We're seriously on a time crunch. I think they're trying to bring the Cognouza Ward back right now from the Astral Sea.

It's really bad. It's corrupt. Really, really bad. I think bastardization. Maybe you can help us figure out where they're going. They have two threshold crests. They're going to somewhere deep within this area and are trying to, as they said, bring part of the city back.

Threshold crests deep within this area. Astral Sea? Yeah. B9. B9? Mm-hmm. B9. It's where the planar tethers are, centered around the Immensis Gate.

Great. Immensis Gate? Do you have a quick way of getting there? A shortcut, maybe? I would say the, the broom elevator, but, and he points out towards the expanse of destruction and goes, it seems it no longer exists. And this is a definitely hands-on operation,

not to be too forward, but yes, do you have any offensive or defensive capabilities? Or knowledge of where we can find anything? Most of my knowledge of this place, this city, as you've said, is from long, long ago, and the ruin and chaos here, I cannot offer any assurances. I imagine there are things to scavenge.

You just need to find them. I guess we just mainly want to know if you're going to kill us along the way. Are you going to kill us, or can you just come with us? I have no quarrel with you, but I have no interest in following the same path either. That's fair. I need to find my associates and see if I can scavenge any more of, well.

Well, you've got about 24 hours. If we fail, it's probably 24 hours before this place is a new crater, so. Well, good. That'll give me time to put my affairs in order, then. Do you know what this is, by the way? I'm miming a bracelet again, just in case it wasn't clear. That would be a security bracelet, yes.

Good to know. We need that on the way to B9. It's possible. It is utilized to bypass some of the various sensors and or bypass various locks and seals within certain chambers. Things like that door? Possibly. That door is heavily sealed, if not itself, other things like it, perhaps.

And you wouldn't know what's... I can attempt to open it, but it is more of a radial opening. We should probably just go back to the thing and drop down to nine. I'm fine with that. Yeah. I don't think we need to fuck with whatever's behind this door. No. I don't think we need to fuck with whatever's behind this door.

No, I don't know why the Tomb Takers would have gone this way, but if we know to drop down, maybe we know a faster route. We can find it before them. We've never seen Lucien fly. Even when we were flying above them, they could not, so it could be our one chance to really gain some ground.

Yeah. I get the drop on them again. What is it? We're doing a hand thing. It brings its hand up for a second, it focuses, and there is a a burst of electrical energy, not unlike that staticky sensation

that you felt in the previous chamber where you battled those strange abominations. The air seems to tingle and some of your hair begins to drift. Those who have it, sorry. No! Begins to temporarily float and drift into space. And as it washes over, you notice that the sealed door, there's a sound.

Well, since we're here. Let that be a parting gift. Parting gift? You just unlocked it? You're just going to leave? I have interest elsewhere in this room. We've told you there's no people alive. There's none of your associates who've survived. Although many of your fellow Eorians.

If I recall, you found me not far from my associate. He wants to fix more people. Are you with Bruchard? The one in the bubble? Yes, there are people all over, encased in some sort of blue spheres, freezing them in time or protecting them. We have not been able to ascertain the purpose.

Indeed, that calls to my curiosity as well. I may not be of much help, but if I can manage to locate ascertain the purpose. Indeed. That calls to my curiosity as well. I may not be of much help, but if I can manage to locate or discover some means of freeing associates of mine, maybe they can be of aid, if not in time, should you fail to be a second wave of defense against this. You're not familiar with this phenomenon?

I am not. This is entirely beyond my understanding. When we get to B9, is there anything we should be on the lookout for that will let us know we're on the right path? Defenses, traps. Defenses, most definitely. There are a number of arcane. Keep a clean eye out for any sort of deeply set grooves,

any sort of strange language along floors and doorways. The gate itself has an intricate pattern for initiation. If you intend to utilize this gate, ensure that you have the most trained eyes upon it. Initiation. Okay. Trained eyes. What was it called? The tethers? The teth Okay. Train. What was it called? The tethers? Yeah, the tethers.

Planar tethers. Planar tethers, thank you. And the immense gate? The Immenses. The Immenses Gate. Planar tethers. Just one of the larger waypoints between the planes rooted here in the city, if it still stands. They're counting on it.

Yeah. Well, I would wish you luck, but you seem to be quite the sharp mind. But for our sakes, that we see you again. Behind this door, you said, was a gift? Nothing that's going to try and smash us to pieces? I go with that for the room. I have no idea. I follow.

You requested my assistance and I sealed it. It's up to you whether or not you wish to inspect, but I do thank you for your assistance. Consider this a gesture of gratitude. To Vaxian. I guess Vax for short. I know we only just met, but I won't ever forget you.

And I know with confidence that you't ever forget you. And I know with confidence that you'll never forget me. And there's some comfort in that. She's horny. I gathered. Thank you. And good luck. May you survive these trying times. Turns with a confused cock of the head.

And then just briskly begins to exit with confidence back towards the hallway that you entered from. Very like, an entity with a plan. Yep. Unexpected switch. Super soldier. In an uncomfortable way. We go inside the room.

Yeah, what's behind this door? We're going to very slowly take a peek into the room. If it's rejuvenation, hopefully it's a- And I'm- Steve Rogers just opened up a door with his hand. I'm going in. Okay. Heading inside the chamber,

you can see what looks to be a somewhat square rectangular shape about 30 feet back and about 40 feet wide. There are two odd platforms in the center back of it that are encased in a cylindrical glass, not unlike the ones in the previous chambers, if a bit smaller. They're about three feet wide

with a thick casing around it. So while they were about five feet from side to side, it's almost a foot of glass entirely around these solid cylinders that rise from the top of these platforms to about eight to nine feet up before joining with some sort of a stone interface in the ceiling.

You can see one of them is heavily cracked in the glass, but it's still holding, but you can see a number of heavy spiderweb-type cracks throughout it, climbing about six of the eight feet upward. Throughout the room, there are four Aeorian corpses along the floor, well-preserved in this sealed chamber. The positions in which they currently sit seem less that they were thrown about. Some of them seem to be clutching here or just sleeping in past. And based on the heavy element of security and sealing of this chamber, be clutching here or just sleeping in past.

Based on the heavy element of security and sealing of this chamber, those with a high passive investigation, which would be Beauregard, Caleb, and Veth, you gather this room may have been emmetically sealed and the contents suffocated. Three of the bodies are dressed in similar uniform outfits you see with some variation amongst a lot of the corpses that you've encountered

in these lower levels. One of which is dressed in more combat-ready attire. You can see a unique, sleek-looking chest plate that has some sort of soft sigils along some of the plates, some points towards the shoulders. It looks like a fairly well-made piece of defensive equipment and an odd weapon that sits at their side.

Ooh. Are we gathering that this is? Loot the bodies. Yeah, loot the bodies. Is this any indication that this is Athodon's? There is writing at the base of each of these glass tubes. Oh fuck, we just lost our translator. I've got a secondary option.

I can read it. Oh, that's right, you cast Tongues not long ago. Okay. Yeah, I'll cast Comprehend Language, yeah. Okay, is Ritual you cast Tongues not long ago. Okay, so you? Yeah, I'll cast Comprehend Language, yeah. Okay, is ritual right? No, I have it prepared. Oh, okay. I'm just doing it.

Okay. Everyone's wearing a rush. Fair enough. The two glass cases, the text beneath them reads, Terminal RE01, Terminal RE-02, and there is a purple crystal affixed to the base of each. Oh, one. Same color as the bracelet?

Could be. Okay. A purple thing? Essek, as you are going through the chamber and preparing your spell, Essek's going, There's something odd about this room. What is it? It's hard to explain.

It's like a flavor in the air, or a scent that's familiar. Eyes of the grave. He sensed nothing. Which is the grave. You sense nothing. Which is the cracked one, terminal one? Terminal two is the cracked one. Terminal two is cracked. Would Caleb or Veth,

with all their experience with chemicals and components, recognize the smell? It's not a smell. It's not a taste. Make a perception check, Caleb. Ozone? Perception, you say? Yes. That is a 19. A 19?

You begin to catch some of it, too. Something oddly familiar, so subtle. And as far as a sensory contact to it, it's almost extrasensory. And you can't quite place it until Essek makes eye contact with you and goes, Dunamis. This chamber has Dunamis.

That's interesting. Indeed. I think it's worth having a conversation with one of these people. Why? You can find out what this is real quick. Be on our way. Is there still fluid or something in the chambers?

Anything that looks leaked out? Yeah, what's in the tubes? They look completely clear, empty. When you two say dunamis, I know what it means, but just so Veth is in the clear. You mean Tracers of Dunamancy? Yes. Like time magic, gravity magic?

Possibly. It is specific to the pursuit of Dunamancy, to the crafting of that sort of arcana, and it is very specific to the Dynasty in our research. Oh. This could be where it originated from. That would be interesting. And a dangerous thought in the Dynasty as well.

Does there anything that looks fucked up? Like it could have been fucked up from like Dunamand's magic? Does anything look fucked up? Yeah. I mean, this whole city looks pretty fucked up. I don't know. This place is busted, you guys.

I don't know. I'm curious. Let's say we go for it. Yeah, talk to somebody. Talk to the fancy one. The warrior I'm going to speak with dead. And then we're going to take all their stuff. But we'll do it after he talks to them, so they don't think that we're going to know.

Okay. So you go to the corpse. You can see it's very dried into a leathery mummified exterior. Wait, will he be able to understand? I would know. Oh. Shit.

Burn another slot, just burn one. Let's see what happens before. We could also always do what we did before and take ahead. He just cast it. I just cast it. Yeah, he already did. Let's try it. I mean, I'll hear what he says. They speak audibly, right?

Yeah, but he wouldn't interpret any of that such as. I mean, I'll hear what he says. They speak audibly, right? Yeah, but he wouldn't understand the questions. Yeah. Right. If you can answer in common, who were you in this place? The head, which currently rests against the wall in the back of the armor, leans forward, The head, which currently rests against the wall on the back of the armor,

leans forward and this horrible, dry, sucking sound catches its throat as its chest cavity pulls in air for the first time in over a thousand years. The jaw still open, unflapping. You just hear this hoarse whisper come out of it. You cannot understand it. But you, if you have tongues available, can. Oh no, well, I have it available, but I didn't cast it.

Yeah, so then. It's already been spoken, so whatever he said, I've missed. Whatever he said, you missed. Can I quickly write, because can I quickly write, because I, can I quickly just jot down the phonetics? You can.

Don't you have a, wait, do you have a monk ability that lets you? I can, oh, you're right. I can understand spoken words. Everything, right? Oh, great. I can, but I can't read them. But yeah, he's tongue of the sun and moon.

Yeah. Okay. So oddly, as you're in the process of jotting down your notebook, you listen out and go, Push-ups, y'all, they work. Huh. Yeah. You can understand this guy a little bit. You're following it strangely.

Right. You miss the name, but you gather that this individual's saying that they were security personnel for the project. Security for the project. What did this machine do? SAM and LAURA say, You pick up to mean it was an attempt

to condense near instantaneous rejuvenation. Whoa. They were trying to make rejuvenation juice near instantaneous? Yeah. Were they successful? Skeptical. And mostly. Mostly. Mostly. Yeah. Are they successful?

Mostly. Mostly. Where did they keep the fruits of this labor? You were looking at them. To the tomb. How do you use it? You require the proper clearance. At that point, the head's already just kind of. Let's hope that that person had clearance. If not, maybe there's something on this fancy body.

Oh yeah, let's loot. What's this weapon? Yeah. What's it look like? You look at it, it is a... It looks like a crossbow, and it has the same bow front to it. It is made from a darkened, almost like a slate steel metal look to it,

with interesting runes that are put across the entire bow. There is no string. And the bow is not curved more than it is slightly angled. And you can see the runes across the bow that get wider and wider towards the base. And there are these two discs at the end. You can see the slot where a bolt goes into it, and it just looks very sleek.

Don't want to assume, but would you like to? Is it a large crossbow or a? It is a hand crossbow. All right. I'll take out one of my doohickeys and put it down there, one of my bolts. And there's no string. There's no string.

There's nowhere, if you reach for it, there's nowhere to cock it back and you just place the bolt in and it seems like it's almost flimsy. It should fall out. Okay. I will aim it at that dead body we just talked to. And is there a trigger?

There is what looks to be a place where the finger gets pressed. Okay, I'll do that. Okay, you place it there and you feel it warm up to your touch. And it just is almost at the ready. You guys watch as the runes along the bow light up and give off this soft orangish-red glow.

We're just going to back out of the room. Let's get back out of the room. Yeah. In the dirt. Don't shoot them before we loot the bodies. It's not going to explode or anything. We don't know that. Okay, loot.

Says the woman who killed Caduceus with an exploding arrow. Take the stuff. I'm looking for keys or any kind of cards or any more bracelets to be cards to open things. Okay, make an investigation check. I'm aiding Beau, because she said she was doing it, too. She did? Sure, yeah.

Didn't you? You said you were. I didn't say loot the bodies. Make an investigation check, Jessica. She did? Oh, come on, it went 19, three, eight. I mean, the armor on the dude's pretty plain. That's definitely easy to scavenge. As you nervously pull it from the corpse,

Veth is just holding this thing. I'm going to shoot. It's like that little handgun in Halo. Nobody has any keys! Nobody has any keys! Yeah, yeah, yeah. Key cards, any fucking thing like that! Let's hope the body doesn't explode, look out! Okay, with your finger on that strange little lever there as you press in, it, like a hair trigger, just pulls in

before shutting in, and all the rows of runes flash. And like a rail gun, gravity just pulls it forward. Like it just gets yanked in a forward motion and it impacts the corpse with a heavy. Well, maybe that's your dunamancy. Cool. No string, no kickback.

Wow. Any explosion? No explosion. Pretty cool. Beep, beep, beep, boop. Yeah. You do sense where the finger trigger is. As you're looking it over,

there is a secondary lever on the handle. Ooh, grenade launcher? Okay, okay, okay. Maybe not in here, though. Hang on, now let me pat down the body. Yeah, sure, go ahead. Now can I do an investigation check? Sure, this is how to retrieve my bolt. And we're looking for something so we can get the rejuvenation check. Sure, this is. I'm going to have to retrieve my bolt. And we're looking for something

so we can get the rejuvenation liquid. Oh, dude, I keep biffing these. This is bad. 17. I was going to give you a d4, by the way. You did? You blessed me? I did bless you. All right, all right, Guidance.

He Guidanced you. Oh, 18. 18. Better than my... Come on, Biff. It's better. You go rummaging through the bodies best you can. You do find on one of them, there is another similar bracelet that matches the one that Caduceus had found, but this one has a turquoise colored gem.

Ooh! Getting the collection going! Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. Ooh, that one matches your outfit. You should wear the turquoise. It does, come on. All right, let's see if we can do this and head on our way.

This seems like a good thing to have. Well, do we want to get some rejuvenation juice? Let's see if this ID works. Is there any type of beep beep, retina scan, key card access? At the base of each of these two devices, you do see what looks to be a small purple gem inlaid. Oh, well, maybe. It feels like the purple.

Yeah, right? I'll give it a roll. Okay, okay. Okay. Which one do you place it in front of? Aria I or Aria II? II is busted, so try. Aria I? Try I. Oh, try I. Okay. You pull it across and you hear a and the glass opens up.

There's a, previously where you did not see, there is a slight line and a glass door inverts and then slides to the side and the tube is open. What's inside? Nothing. Oh, I bet you have to like step inside of it and Luke Skywalker it.

How big? Load in the juice. Person size? It's about three feet across on the interior. Yeah, you got to. Give me my hair back! Oh no, Fjord, what if it turns you into something else? Do it. Fills with acid. I think. Do we have to close from the outside? Did you step inside?

Yeah. Yeah. He did. Oh, it closes. Oh god! Oh my god. What are you doing? The gem. Oh boy. What if he steps out and he's like, my name is Devexie.

Yeah. And as the gem is flashing, Essek goes, right there, I can sense it. What are you pointing at? You're in Canada! You can't hear anything. It is locked in silence. He's in one of those money tubes. Yeah. I love you.

At old game shows. Oh god, this is some Spock shit, no. Go ahead and roll a d100 for me, please. Oh shit. I'm real good with those. Oh shit. I'm so excited for this one. Butterflies. Butterflies, butterfliesflies. Butterflies. Apple tarts.

59. Your hair's going black. 59, okay. Yeah. The little gem begins to glow immensely, and you watch as the chamber begins to glow with the same purple energy, where once you just saw Fjord standing in this translucent glass,

suddenly the whole thing lights, like it's filled with neon purple light, and you just see Fjord standing in this translucent glass, suddenly the whole thing lights, like it's filled with neon purple light, and you just see, for a brief moment, the skeletal outline of Fjord's body. It had just been irradiated to an extent. Well, the herring comes back now. The light's gone. The light begins to diminish.

I have theories. Just mists on the inside. It's a microbe! It's a microbe! Fjord seems fine. Is his hair back? Is it closed? Is it open? Did it hurt while I was in it?

It didn't hurt. It's odd. They felt this weird warming sensation and then everything blurred for an instant and then you're standing there. Refreshed. The door opens. Hair's back. Oh!

What about your teeth? Are they fully tusked, or are they filed still a little bit? They're where you left them previously. Okay. Should you have any interest or need, you can consider it a long rest. Oh, cool!

Good to know. Interesting. Cool. We better go in here instead of actually taking a long rest. We wouldn't have known that. No, absolutely not. But we know this on the way back, if things go haywire.

Also, they said it mostly worked. Yes. So. I mean. That was the first chamber. You do have a tail worked. Yes. So. That was the first chamber. You do have a tail now. Ooh. Yeah. That was REO1. And it's not where you think it is. The only question left is what's with the armor?

Anything cool with the ar- oh. More so than even when Essek pointed out the space here after that display, you can strongly sense the expendedadunamis in this space. And you immediately begin to tie the reasoning behind this effect and the acceleration of time, localized time. And Essek is kneeled down at the purple gem

and is like, how are they doing this? I've got a crazy idea. Uh-huh. Oh, the eyes. That would accelerate the eyes. Or? Oh, yeah. It accelerates the rest. It's a long rest. It's not reset.

Darn. Unless the green stone makes it go a different direction. I kneel down next to Essek at the gem. It is difficult. There is so much to learn here. Pray there's time afterward. If there's time afterward. Is there another green stone,

or is it just the purple gem? What's the gem on the second tank? They're both purple. Okay. Okay. Cool. Keep an eye out for Teal. Yeah, yeah. Let's, uh...

Oh yeah, did we take the armor? We took the armor. We took the armor. What does it do? We don't know. We need to identify it. Does the armor seem magical? Do we know? You don't know. It has faint runes on edges of the plates, but that's all you know.

Maybe we can identify it when we take that break. Yeah, I mean, it's 10 minutes, so. Yeah. You have to decide an hour later, it can be later. I mean, do we need to take a break if we're standing next to the Rejuvenation Chamber? We're taking a break to do what? To identify some armor? We're taking a break to do what? To identify some armor?

We're taking a break eventually so that we can do the Heroes' Feast. Let's go a little further then. Yeah, there's that. We'll go a little further. Only if we want to do it. No, that's true. I mean, I think it's good to have. But wait.

I'm going to do it. Do what? I'm going in that chamber. Why? Do you need to heal? I'm curious to see if it restores some. All your spell slots? Correct. Oh, okay. If you want to try it. I guess this will answer that eyeballs question.

All right. Yeah, okay. Maybe he'll get another one. Ready? I'll try Aureo. Well, yeah, I'll try Aureos. Always. Up to you. Yeah. Okay. Wait, but the second one is cracked. So. Is it?

Yeah, the second one is cracked. Go in the first one, go in the first one. No, no, no, go in the second one. We'll slide with that a little bit. It's going to be good, it's going to be good. Yep. Up to you, fly. No, no, I'll go in the first one. I don't remember it being described as cracked.

Okay. Well, the first one is currently closed after Fjord exited it. Oh. I'm going to try and open it again. Tate has a cooldown time. Okay, so you wave the purple again. It opens again.

Okay. Okay. I farted in there, I'm sorry, I was nervous. Oh! All right. It's pretty rank. Smell my dooamance, dude! Dudumance! Oh, I stepped in dunamis. It's course, and it gets everywhere.

Oh god, bro, please. Oh, that's what you're tasting. Ew. Yeah. You step inside. Oh god, oh please. Oh, that's what you're tasting. Ew. Yeah. You step inside. The door closes. The gem blinks twice, then goes dark. The door opens.

I have to try the other one. Might be out of power. That one looks a little damaged. Might have to recharge. Okay. Worth a try. Does it have a fuel cell, like a pearl or something? I don't know.

Advanced technology, just thinking of that. The gems seem to be some sort of, whether it be a focus or is the element of the rejuvenation, I don't know. It may take time for it to recharge. It might require a specific input. I don't know how much is the device or just the basis of this gem. I mean, it would stand to reason

that if it works with time, then the thing that would charge it would be time. So maybe it just collects time and then. Yeah, maybe it's a slow recharge and a fast. And then uses the time? Yeah. And then. So it just will hold like You would think that over the thousand years,

it would have charged a whole lot then. Well, I mean, sometimes you fill a bottle only as far as you can fill the bottle. You know when you overcharge your phone? It's a bitch. But yeah, like a water jug underneath a dripping. As you're having this conversation, you watch Essek drift over to the second damaged one.

He gets down, looks closely at the purple gem. Ah, Caleb. Points at the gem. I can peer over his shoulder, too. I see what he's referring to. You glance over towards it, and as he touches the back of your head and pushes your head close to it,

and for a second, you resist. As you glance in, the purple coloration begins to fade to the back as instead you begin to see elements of space, drifting possibilities. It's almost like a weaker, smaller replica of a beacon. Oh shit.

Embedded in the device right there. That's cool. This'll do a lot for their religion. This was not in the other, or it was and it's gone dark? A similar gem is in the other one, but that one's gone dark. Yeah. What do you do with this knowledge?

I don't know. Should you take it? Yeah, do you want to? Yeah, can you swap a do? Well, we just take it. I'm not that badly. We should do it quickly because. We should do that. I'm not that badly. We should do it quickly because. We should do that.

I'm not that badly. True that. You stand up a bit, see Essek puts his hand out and begins to concentrate, his eyes narrowing. As he does, you watch as the smooth, relatively untouched stone base of this glass tube device begin to crack and crumble before you see it get pulled away and dragged onto the ground behind, scattering the glass, breaking,

and as opposed to shattering around you, being shunted off to the backside of the wall, scattering on the ground. He controlled the direction of it all smashing apart? Yeah. As it all scatters across the way, it's just the base now where it's cracked. And as it all falls away, he turns his

hand up, and as he does, it's almost like an invisible hand digging into clay and lifting through as it sifts past the fingers. You see the rock lift and then crumble, and there in the center, you see this diamond-shaped gem of faint dark purple coloration that was now released.

And he lifts it and drifts it over into your hand. Don't you think you should hold onto this? There's two, isn't there? True. I'm just struck by the enormity of what I'm holding in my fingers. Are you going to take the other one, Essek? If we have time. Won't that break the machine?

Yeah, it might break the machine. Is that okay? I guess we're not leaving. We're leaving. Keep the machines. We can keep this one machine and keep that one as we go. Yes, keep one intact. Be free to be nice. We know that this. We're leaving. We can keep the machines? We can keep this one machine and keep that one as we go. Yes, keep one intact.

We know that this is here, yeah. We can come back. To be nine! It won't matter if we don't. Okay. Or to be 10. We go. We go. All right. Be nine. Or not to be. Yeah. Definitely not to be.

Mm. Okay. Okay. On the road again. You all exit the sealed chamber back into the main room. Seal it. There is a horrid stench in this room. Fjord. Haven't we been in this room before?

You have. But it wasn't like this before? Not previously. It's the oxygen hitting the bodies. What's changed? I'm looking around. Make a perception check. 26. 26. The smell is strong and catches you all

as you glance around a bit. There is also the matter of the two other glass tubes in this chamber that have now lifted up about five feet from their embedded positions. At that point, you hear. Oh, that's not a good sound. It's not the bodies. A weird, odd series of gasps and chittering and

slimy, almost lip-smacking sounds. We could run. We could run and just go for it. And just go down. What, just leap off? Let's go. Do we get a sense of which direction on the donut these sounds are coming from? You do.

It's coming from both sides. Oh, great. I got a thought. Which means you're uncertain. You don't see anything. This room is fairly well lit. Share that thought. Yeah. Anything? You can just say it.

We're going to run? I'm slowly pulling out a Stelebone. Oh, distraction. In three, two. And I'm going to activate it and throw it into the other room. Which room? You mean down into the repair room?

Down into the hole? The repair room. I assume that we're like, the two hallways are here and we're kind of in the middle of them. Into the room. There's two hallways this way and then there's the chamber.

And they're in the chamber. They're in the chamber, you assume. The sound is coming from kind of both sides around the center column. I am turning on the cellar bone and throwing it into the repair room as far as I can. Okay.

And you see a shape begin to step around the right side of the pillar. Let's slowly walk around. The cellar bone should be making a bunch of... It is. All right. It's quite a ways down that hall. Sure. It heard the impact. There was the light reflecting down,

and you're all standing right outside of the sealed doorway. Can we start scooching to the right? I'm going to try to help out Caduceus. I'm going to take out one of the bags of chuckle dust as well and chuck it in the same area, which will let off laughter down the hallway. At which point, the creature, whatever the shape is, begins to dart around the side,

kind of where you're standing and where the hallway is to your right. As it turns in the way, it stops noticing your shapes as you're shifting. You see something oddly familiar. About a 11, 12-foot-tall humanoid creature with a brownish-yellow leathery skin, elongated arms that almost drag across the ground that end in thin claws. You see a serpent-like head that arcs over its shoulders high up

and then across its body, dozens of small mouths. You saw one of these in a tube in one of the previous Aeor Ruins. However, here, one has been unleashed. Oh no. I need you all to roll initiative. Oh!

Is this called an enforcer or a? Absorber. This combat is brought to you by Dwarven Forge, makers of premium handcrafted gaming terrain. The eyeball thing was, yeah, the absorber. Guys, are you DTF? Down to forge? Yeah. Then get your hands on some Dwarven Forge premium tabletop terrain and take the games

to the next level. Check it out at bit.ly slash critrolldf. Look at this. All righty. Shots, shots, shots, shots, shots, shots, shots, shots, shots, shots, shots, shots, shots. So, copyright. Tell me where you are placed within,

because this was the hallway that you threw the Cillabone down, chop. So. Copyright. Tell me where you are placed within, because this was the hallway that you threw the Cillabone down. Yeah. Yeah. So we were, I was starting to sneak around the other side. Where were we coming from, Matt? We were coming from. You guys entered this way, came around, this was the room where the

tubes were. Rejuvenation. The tubes were. You exit out this way, this is that central pillar in the raised place. This is the collapsed section in the middle here, and these are the two available tubes. This is where the Cillabone and Chuckle Dust got thrown. So. Which This is the collapsed section in the middle here, and these are the two available tubes. This is where the celadon and chuckle dust got thrown. So. Which way is the way out?

This whole battle's going to be this sound of trying to make our way that direction. Well, it only lasts for... Correct. So you would have... We still have Heroes' Feast, right? I think so. Yeah, that's the battle. All right. We still have his hero's feast. Yasha, you win.

In a minute. Yes. Yeah, around there. We all die. Around here? A little closer to, where's this dude? I think it doesn't matter. I wouldn't know. Okay. About there. Yeah.

Oh no. He's an evil brute. That's a thing right there. All right. So about there or elsewhere? Technical term. That's a thing right there. All right. So about there, elsewhere? Technical term. That's good. Jester? I probably...

I'll say I'm right next to the contraption. Over here? Yeah. Because I would have had to been able to chuck the bag, so. All righty. Veth? Just around the doorway somewhere. Right here? Okay, Essek, I'll say, is probably just starting to emerge out here.

I was going to say the wizards were probably lagging, so I'll be behind him. Okay. Beauregard? I'll be up near Caduceus, in his window. Kind of over here? Yeah. In your window. That's fine.

Is this a hole in the center of the room? No. This is a collapsed pile. This is the collapsed pile, okay. This is just where the roof is caved in. Got it. Oh god, that thing looks really... Friendly? Yeah. Yeah, it's a good dude.

Super friendly. Oh man, look at the cracked cylinders, even. Matt, can you spin him around so we can get another, like a, I just want to see his little face. Oh boy. Oh boy. Quick, let's run. He's not looking at us. Ew, look at all those mouths. Yep, on the chest and on the back.

Ah! He's fun. He's like the Laughing Hand with all those. Yeah, I was just thinking that. Wond wondering if there's any kind of distant connection. Well, we had to, because Obann stole the heart, and then we had to go into the Happy Fun Ball to kill the Permaheart so we could kill the Laughing Hand,

if you recall. So, yeah. Eventually, yeah. Yeah. And Halas was a couple centuries off of this city, but that's only a couple centuries. Halas could have been fucking dumpster diving in Aeor. He could have been the first Aeorian dumpster diver.

Yeah. Could be. 25 to 20. 22. Nice. 22. Ooh. Who goes first then, Veth? Nott. Veth. Veth, god. Not bad. It's all good. 20. Ooh, 20. Who goes first then, Veth? Nott. Veth. Veth, god.

Not bad. It's all good. 20. 20, nice. The Asherah. 20 to 15. 15? 15. 15. Wow. Oh.

Beau Caduceus, Fjord. God. Fjord. Oh my gosh. All right, and then Caleb. Nine. Show me that fucking weapon. Do-do-do-do-do.

I don't know if I have to attune to it. Yeah. You seem to be able to fire it just fine. Actually, as this, I will say, which probably would have happened as you guys were all prepping and doing this space, as this was happening, Essek, you see him begin to cast something

and then condense it into his hand and hand you this small bead. Another? Veth. This is like a marble. And he just goes, Follow my lead. Follow your what? Lead. Aim it when you want.

Aim it? Giving you a bullet. He just hands it to you. Giving you a dunamis bullet. To put in my thing? What? Just be cool. Just be cool. Be cool! Go with it!

Go with it! What am I supposed to do with this? Take the drugs! Take it! Swallow it! Aim and focus. Aim what? So, top of the round. Veth, you're up first. Ah!

I get a strafe to my right, run to my right, and aim it. Okay. You hold it up. Has anything happened? You use your action to focus on it. Yeah.

As you release, a bolt of black lightning arcs out from it across the way towards the creature. It's a level four lightning bolt. Go ahead and roll a nine D6. Whoa! D6! Whoa! Holy mackerel.

Does not make it save. Okay, okay, okay, okay. It's like a minute and a half. Okay, okay, okay, okay. That's right, these guys were immune to radiant and necrotic. 28. 28. 28 lightning damage.

Out of the gate. All right. Wow, that was cool. So that's your action and your move. Are you going to stay put? Yeah, no, I'll tuck behind the big pedestal, I guess. Okay. Movement 30?

Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's about as far as you can get right there. You got it. All right, that finishes your go, Veth. Jester, you're up. Yasha, you're on deck. I'm going to peek out from behind the thingy. And I'm going to hold my hand out and hope and pray and cast Polymorph on it. Okay.

You go ahead and begin casting the spell and one of the arms reaches up towards you and as it does, the spell unravels. Oh shit. How does it spell? Good Unravel. Oh shit. Good to know. No effect. Sure, made by wizards. Yeah.

Okay. Oh boy. Oh boy. You still have 25 feet of movement. I should move. I'm going to. And a bonus action. If you're going to use it. I'm going to, oh god, run across and try to get into the other tunnel. Over here? Yeah.

Boy. 30, that's about as far as you can move right there, rushing past Yasha. Maybe that was its reaction. Yeah, maybe. Probably. Okay. So finish your turn, Jester. Yasha, you're up.

Fuck. I would like to rage. You got it. And I'm going to run on over to him. You got it. Get him. Take a swing. Do I have 50 feet to get on it? Okay. You can get 50 feet

to get there, yes. Okay. Here we go. Ooh, that's not good. So apparently you can do melee spells against it, but you can't do it. 21 does it. Okay. Does this hallway right here collapse?

It's not collapsed, but it is considered difficult terrain. It does take 10 feet of movement to move past it because of the barricades. I'm going to do Savage Attacker, because that wasn't great. Ah, that one was better. Okay. Everywhere you fucking go.

I don't see anything you can treat out of initiative. Uh. What was that again? That would be 33 points of damage. How much of that was radiant? Seven points of damage. Okay, so a little less damage than you expected.

Radiant's out. Radiant's out. Okay, second hit. 16. 16 does not hit. Second shot goes wide as you hit once across. You see one of the mouths splits open on the side, revealing some of its internal organs.

Then it tenses and that wound closes a little bit just from the muscle tension. The other swing you go towards it and its body almost bends and arcs out of the way and flies wide, no impact. Does that finish your turn, Yasha? That finishes my turn. Okay.

Now it is its turn. Ah! After Yasha. Hello. Edward Scissorhands. All right. It is going to shift around this way. Save on, Colin.

To about there. And stepping up onto the large pillar, its long legs, almost spider climbing up the edge of it as it turns around, and it's going to slash into you. Do I get a, no, because he sent it. It's still in your range. Yeah. Okay.

Stop what you can do. Stop it. Wow. You still. No. Two claw attacks against you. 95 just barfed him. That is going to be an 18 to hit.

Oh, it just hits? And a 16 to hit. Doesn't hit. All right, so the first one hits you. One claw just ends up deflecting it with the sword. The second one strikes you across the side. You take... Is this a slashing?

Yes. 14 points of slashing damage, reduced to seven. But it also deals, on top of that, much like the similar other creatures that you saw, as it strikes you, there's an additional burst of force energy through its strike that punctures the wounds even deeper. And you take, oh shit.

That's never good. I rolled two 10s. That is, take 20 points of force damage. Whoa. That's for, that's, I just take all that. Yeah. Yeah. I just take it like a champ. And it's going to.

20 points of damage. Good to know. Is that, is that magical? Is that a magical effect? It is just force damage. It's just a straight old, okay, I'm going to leave it. You are also now grappled by it. Because it's like your game. As it claws and pulls you in

and is holding you there, and as it does, its giant serpent jaw unhinges and bites down over your head. Oh man! Oh jeez! That is going to be a 25 to hit. That doesn't hit. Yeah, it's obviously hits. What the hell? Oh my god.

Okay. Oh boy. 24 points of piercing damage, reduced to 12. Okay. As well as 16 points of force damage. Holy shit, Matt. So that I take. Okay, 14. As the teeth clamp down into you, and as they bite in, you feel like there's an extension

to the dagger-like teeth carving deeper in, and for a brief second, you're afraid it might just take the top half of your body off with a bite before you manage to shove out of its jaw and elbow it backward. It's still holding you in place, but it's. And in that way, you can hear the horrible gnashing and all the mouths around are like

creating this loud din around it. That finishes its turn. That was 74 points of damage in one round. Beau, you're up. Holy shit. That both I and Beau say, upon seeing this, I'm going to use my staff to pull vaults over Caduceus and Jester and run up.

And as I run by, I'm going to say, I still think we should get out of here and do a big windmill of my staff over my head and come down with a pop pop. Go for it, roll two attacks. Okay. That is a one and a 22 to hit. Both hit.

Okay, those are good. So 14 damage to the first one. And Stunning Strike. Let me see if I can stun it. 21. Yikes. Okay. And that is 10 damage to the second one.

All righty. Stunning Strike. 20. All right, well, I'm not fucking with that anymore, exactly. Fuck. Flurry of Blows. Go for it. Hop, hop, hop! Ooh, oh, not as good.

17 and 18? Both hit. Oh, so 17 must be the threshold. It's the threshold. Okay. That is 14 and 13 damage. Right?

Seven. No, sorry. Sorry, 12 and 11. It's my bad. It is. Still a good opening round. All right, finish your turn. And extract Aspects,

even though I think I know what I'm going to get. Indeed, it is immune to necrotic and radiant damage. Immune to necrotic and radiant. So I shout to the others, it's just like the others! All right, does that finish your turn? Yep. Caduceus.

I'm up. You're up. Okay. Let's put, just because I don't want to burn everything quite yet, because we're not really fucked. I'm going to, how far away am I from Yasha? From Yasha? Can I get to 30 feet from Yasha?

You could. Just 30 feet. Be about there-ish. And will I still have room to move or no? That would be... I'm going to do a run by. Trish. And will I still have room to move or no? That would be... I'm going to do a run by. You can get like 10 feet left if you stay here, but that's rough terrain anyway, so.

I'll do it. There, you can do it. You have five feet left to move. All right, I'm going to cast Bless on Yasha, Beau, and Veth. And I'm going to back up 10 feet. You got it, 10 feet? As far as it'll let me. Nice. There you go.

All right, that finishes your go. That's my go, because my bonus action is so. Guy's got Sentinel on both sides. He's not going anywhere. Sentinel bitches. Sentinel bitches. Sentinel bitches. Although, technically. Hmm, I have to look at that. It's a level one. I don't know if a first, does a first level spell?

No. Oh yeah, did I have to roll a d20 even though it got fizzled? Yes, you did. 11. 11, you're fine. Just double checking. Same thing for my own edification on this. All right. Any animal magic? Anything over level three, I think.

Oh. Got you. That's what it was. Okay. Sorry about that. Thank you for waiting. All right, that finishes Caduceus' turn. Fjord, you're up. With Essek on deck. Am I able to use my movement

to make my way through that little walkway and get into melee range, or is it really congested there? Well, first, I would like you to make a wisdom saving throw for me, please. With the Vanish, because I think we still have Heroes' Feast. You do. Okay. Wisdom saving throw.

Mm. 20. 20. 20. The sound of the gnashing and biting and it starts fucking with your head, but you push it off. What do you want to do? Oh, cool.

What's your question? Can I make it up through the, by the stairs and by Beau? Like behind Beau? Beau's right on the corner there. You could get into melee with it, but it will be considered having half cover because the platform is in the way. Mm-hmm.

Oh, so I couldn't use my 30 feet to walk all the way up through and get over here. Up over, oh, through here on this side? Yeah. Dangerous. I have 30, you can get on that side if you want to. That girl is dangerous. Actually, I'll stay back where I am

and I'll arc over here behind Jester, just for this one to see how this pans out for a second, and I'll send three Eldritch Blasts its way. Okay, so as you're walking through, you're just like, go for it. First one is a 17 to hit. Hits. Great. That's a 15.

Misses. And a 20. Two hits. Awesome. Final damage. That's 12 points of force damage. Nice. Six, five, and 11 points of force damage. Great.

Don't need to roll a d20 for those, right, for Eldritch Blast? No. Okay. You do not. It is a lower-level magic and does not quite hit the strange magic level. Amazing, okay. All right, that finishes your turn?

Yep. All right, now it's Essek's turn. Actually, I'll use my bonus action to cast Hexblade's Curse on it. Hexblade's Curse on it? Yep. Does this thing have eyes? Yeah. Mm-hmm.

It does? Just on the head. The rest are just mouths. Oh god. We also have to do wisdom saves on the Laughing Hand. Yeah. It's the same sort of, it's just not laughter. It's creepy sounds.

Yeah. All right, Hexblade's Curse on that creature. That finishes your turn. Essek's go. Essek. Like someone who finds old schematics for something. Thank god for that Heroes' Feast. Essek resists the gnashing sounds.

He's like, He's going to go ahead and, everyone's clustered in there. You know, everyone's in that space right there. He's going to cast a magic missile at third level, just because he doesn't want to hit anybody else with stuff. Ooh. That seems nasty. 16 points of force damage to it. Not great rolls, necessarily. And he's going to go ahead and step back this way to try and get out of that gnashing sound.

That finishes his turn. That brings us to Caleb with Veth on deck. I'm going to keep this simple because I do not want to blow all my reserves. I'm just going to throw a Firebolt at him. All right. He does, from where you're standing right now,

he does have half cover. Well, I will step diagonally forward and to my left. That should clear that up. That does indeed right there. Okay. Guys, what if that's a miss? Wow. We just float down. That's a 24 to hit.

Check it out. 24 hits. For a little campaign one callback. Yeah. 13 points of fire damage. Yeah. You got it. And I'm actually going to go back to where I started and even a little bit further into the doorway. Okay, about there?

Yep, that's good. You got it, finishing Caleb's go. Veth, you're up. Jester, you're on deck. Oh, again. Top of your turn, you should make a wisdom saving throw. As even while blocked from the path, you can still hear the sound of those mouse fish. You also have a d4 to add to that.

Don't need it, but do I just get it? You get it. Wait, can I actually put him back right back where he started? Not into the doorway? If you want to. Yes, please. 25 to save. I assume I make my save,

so I will run around. You do, and actually, technically, I need you to make a wisdom saving throw for me. Oh! Because you were just in that radius. Actually, no, you were fine. You were fine. Okay. Yay! It was a 28.

No worries, you're good. I will run around the corner and take my brand new Brenatto's futuristic... Stark bow? Yep, that. And try to fire it. Okay, go ahead and roll an attack.

Add your dexterity modifier. The Brenatbow. Let's go. Do it. The Brenatbow. You also add a d4 to that. Thank you. Got a clear 17. 16. Oh, thank you. Got a clear 17.

16. Oh. Just goes wide. It does and release it, and it just shoots off and impacts into the far stone. Can I hot swap and shoot the other one as a bonus action? I'll allow it, sure. Hot swap.

Only because you used that word. Ooh, 15. Oh wait. Plus three! Yes! That hits. That hits. Sneak attack. Yeah. This doesn't seem very sneaky, but sure. It's a melee with Yasha and Beauregard.

Okay. 10. 20, 26. 10. 20, 26. 26. 26 points of damage. Heck yeah. All righty. And I'm going to keep running as far as I can

towards Yasha and beyond, if I can. Okay. 30 is your movement? Uh-huh. That's where you can get right there. Oh no, okay. I'm closer than I wanted to be. Jester, you're up. Yasha, you're on deck.

Okay, well, all of my spells are radiant necrotic and anything that isn't that, he can cancel. So I'm going to take out my Wand of Smiles. I'm going to write it all in his mouth and I'm going to use it my Wand of Smiles. I'm going to write it all in his mouth and I'm going to use it. Yes! Honestly, what if this does something crazy, though? It's not.

Do shitload of mouths. Hello, hello. Just have advantage. What's the save DC? All right, it's a 12. A 12, which save? I think it's a constitution. Hold on, let me check.

Please be entailed. Do each constitution. Hold on, let me check. Please be intelligent. Do each one have to make a save? Charisma, charisma. Oh, it's a 10. Does each one have to make a save? It's a 10. Roll a one, baby. Come on, roll low. Nah, sorry. I know, I wanted it to fail. I wanted it to fail.

Oh, such a good idea. I'll say it hits and you watch as two of the mouths are like, stop and go. And the other mouths go. And he goes. No effect. What are you doing? Such a good idea.

That was a great idea. Such a good idea. I really wanted it to work. I'm sorry. Oh, Francis, you're the worst. I hate that mouth. All right, so that's your action. You want to move?

Fuck off, Reggie. I'm going to... I don't want to get too far. Goddamn it, Greg! Two fucking thousand years from now. I'm going to creep around. I'm going to move around the rubble to come more to the front of the room,

like toward the exit. Yeah, I'm just going to keep making my way towards the front. Looks like somebody woke up on the wrong side of the nipple today. Yeah. Can you see over the rubble to the monster or does it provide cover from his sight?

The fallen part. Yeah, am I hidden right now from him? Or can he see over to our jester? No, he cannot see you. That is all blocked. Okay. What you do notice, however, Jester. Oh no. The other monster.

No. Up on the side The other monster. No. Up on the side of the wall. No! There were two canisters. We did, but. A bullet? Well, that's the mini I'm using to proxy it because this doesn't exist. But what you see is a large,

almost bulldog-like fleshy creature with these armored plates and parts of its body. You can see the skinless muscle between the plates of armor. Where its head would be, you just see a circular mouth filled with teeth and a long, tendril-like tongue that's like, Oh no.

And it's just like, They're looking right at me. God, what the fuck, man? This cinematic moment is very funny, though. Like. Quiet. Oh, fire! See? Woo!

Yeah, yeah. There we go. Yep, yep, yep, yep. Now that's... Okay. Not the best. Detective agency. Got it. All right, so that finishes your turn, Jester.

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Yasha, you're up. Okay, I'm going to try to break out of this grapple business. Okay. Just so you know, all grapple does is it prevents you from moving. Copy. I'm just going to start swinging. Okay, well, first thing, make a wisdom saving throw for me.

Okay. With advantage. And a d4. Natural 20. No. No! Yep! Get it. All your attacks have a d4 right now. Okay, okay. Good to know.

So you're good, you're good. So. And advantage, because you're, no. Kill it. Reckless. Guys, I just got a alien out here. Don't be terrifying me. 27.

Yeah, that definitely hits. Okay. Let's go over these guys. Ooh. La la la. Where'd the music go? Yeah, where did it go? It should be playing. The two last ones. I think it's just, this is a low track.

This is the lead-in. Oh, there it is. There it goes, there it goes. Ooh. 35 points of damage for the first hit. Take away the radiant, if you don't mind. Seven, so yeah. Well, any additional d6, too, don't worry, because that's radiant as well. Oh radiant, if you don't mind. Seven, so. Well, any additional d6, too, don't worry, because that's radiant as well.

Oh yeah, you're right, okay. Should I just roll again? Well, it's just the additional d6 that is the radiant on this. Okay, so there was, I should have. If you did 35 minus seven, 28, and then your d6 was... Well, you're not doing extra radiant damage beyond the extra d6, or is it,

you're rolling an additional? The Divine Fury. Sorry, the Divine Fury is an additional how much damage on the first attack? It's extra 3d6? It's an extra d6, one extra d6 on top. Correct, so that's all that doesn't go through. That's all that doesn't go through.

So that's the radiant bit. Let's just, so we'll just do six, because I, yeah. Okay. Just minus six. Yeah, because I rolled really well. Okay, second hit. Roll for an attack, still reckless. Still reckless. Okay.

22. 22 hits, yeah. Okay. 22. 22 hits, yeah. Okay. Nope, just two. Nice. 17. 17 damage, nice. 17 damage. Looking pretty hurt. Okay. 17. 17 damage, nice. 17 damage.

Looking pretty hurt. Okay. And as bonus action, Yeah? I would like to Battle Cry, which gives everybody advantage on attack rolls and saving throws.

For one round, All righty. Nice. You got it. Is it everybody who could see you? Everybody within? Everybody. Who can hear you. 10 other creatures of my choice within 60 feet

that can hear you. Yes. Yep, so that would be you as well? Everybody. Sound like. Ah! Go, go, go! I dig it.

All righty, it finishes Yasha's go. It is now the central creature's turn right there. Angrily, as it's starting to take the hits, it's going to attempt to just go all in on you, Yasha. You're the one who's drawn its attention. And plus, it has advantage on its attacks because you were reckless. Ooh, okay. That'll be a 27 to hit.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The first claw. Do you reward being reckless? Second claw is 21 to hit. Okay. And the bite is a natural 20. Oh no, no, no, no. Oh yeah, cancel that shit, cancel that shit.

Oh no. Yeah, you're within 30 feet. There you go, boom, cancel. Regular hit. About there. Well done. Undo that shit. I can't even Sentinel, because she has Sentinel.

All right, so the first claw against you, Yasha, is 10 points of slashing damage reduced to five. When you have Sentinel, if they hit somebody else, can't you hit them? Plus 11 points of slashing damage reduced to five. When you have sentinel, if they hit somebody else, can't you hit them? Plus 11 points of force damage. Unless the other person also has sentinel. That's the only bitch of this. You lock him down, but you don't get to use that bitch.

Second claw strike against you is nine points of slashing damage reduced to four. We're too alike. Plus 10 points of force damage. She's too toxic. We just can't. And the bite strike is trying to pull your, like a whole section of your throat and chest out.

It sinks in and tries to tear back, pulling part of your ribcage with it. It's hoping. Oh my god. Joke's on that thing. She doesn't have a rib. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Fine, fine, fine. There's a lot of them.

Dolly Parton got rid of a few. 16 points. 16 points of piercing damage reduced to eight. Just snatch that waist. I'm so scared. 18 points of force damage. How you doing? Well, let's see here.

A little rough. I mean, not awful, but. She's a tank. She's fine. You know, we're in the 40s. We have a rejuvenation machine 10 feet away. She'll be fine. All right. That finishes its go.

Now it is Beau's go with Caduceus on deck. What you got? All right, just enraged by hearing my girlfriend let out a blood-curdling scream and watching. Hell yeah, man. Of course, we're doing PDA. It's like a thing.

25. It's advantage and a d4 right now? Advantage and an extra d4, so a pop pop. A pop pop. Just digging into this guy. Probably shouldn't do that when you're standing in front of the creature.

24 plus a d4, 25 for the first hit. That hits. I'm going to go ahead and do the second hit. It's fine. Just make sure you hit him is the important part. And then 23 plus a d4 for the second hit. Okay, for these two hits. Ugh, yucky.

14 damage on the first one, eight damage on the second one. Okay, before we do that, could you go ahead and roll a wisdom saving throw for me, please? Yes, I can. With advantage and a d4. And a d4.

Okay, okay, okay. There's very little chance you don't make this because of all these stacking. Don't curse her like that. I know, right? That is a natural 19, though, for a 28 plus. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're fine. Yeah. Continue the rest of your turn.

You have bonus action. Bonus action, Flurry of Blows. Go for it, two more strikes. First one is a natural 16, so that hits. Second one is a 10 for a 22 plus a d4. That hits. Damage a few more times. So that is... Well, thanks, man.

Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh! 14 damage and 15 damage. You've damaged me. Nice. This is going to real hurt. Yes, yes, yes, yes! Okay. It's all good.

That finishes your turn. Yeah, can I shuffle around towards the... Buffalo? Yeah. Towards where Yasha and Veth are, start making a move. This is rough terrain, but you have plenty of movement, so you can definitely do that without a major issue.

Okay. Okay. That finishes your go. Yeah. That brings us to Caduceus. Your turn. Kill it! Fjord, you're on deck. Okay. And just making sure that the bullet creature gets a turn

at not when Edward says her hand goes. It's in the initiative. Got it. But it did not roll a high initiative. Okay, copy. Yeah, I honestly don't think I have anything that can actually hurt it. So that's my move. Look at your axe. His hand axe. I know. Honestly, don't think I have anything that can actually hurt it. So. Look at your axe.

Hand axe. I know it sucks. Yeah, I don't have anything to hurt this thing with. Maybe heal Yosh. Or just, you know. I've got another idea. Or just chill. I'm going to peek around the corner to see,

and back up against the wall to see what the hell Jester's dealing with. Over here, you mean? Yeah. Okay, as you up against the wall to see what the hell Jester's dealing with. Over here, you mean? Yeah. Okay, as you go against the wall, that's your movement. You turn around and you see Jester stepping back as this giant, flesh-armored tongue creature

is now towards her. Oh no, banishment. Banishment, nice. All righty, the range on that is more than. 60 feet. Yeah, it's plenty there. All righty. Does it have magic resistance?

Has advantage on, and that is a what save? Charisma. Charisma. Okay, not good for the first one. 17? Nope. Good, good. Nice. I don't know how long I can hold this, so let's get out of here real soon.

Yeah, it is banished. Ba-ba-ba-banished. Thank you. Ooh, we got a minute. All right, let's kill this other thing. All righty. That finishes Caduceus' go. Fjord, you're up. Well, now that the dangerous puppy dog is gone, I'll use Relentless Hex to teleport 30 feet

to the target of my Hexblade's Curse, putting me right up on it. You sound lucky. Lucky? What? You don't even know. Continue. Okay, I need to make a wisdom thing, right? No, if you're within a range at the start of your turn. So if you teleport in, you're fine.

Nice. And I will see and swing away on this thing with two strikes from the Star Razor. Go for it. Do I get advantage because it's being flanked by a bunch of people? You have advantage because of Yasha's yell. Amazing! That's a 25 to hit.

That definitely hits. And the second one is... 21 to hit. That also hits, yeah. Go ahead and roll damage. Wait. Oh yeah, that's 20. Gross, man. Thank you. Gross. Sorry, dinner's coming.

35. 45 points of slashing damage. How do you want to do this? There it is! I'll reach over and see Yasha all fucked up on one hand, and I'll just cut it off at the wrist, and then I'll flip the blade back so it's pointing towards my elbow,

and I'll stick it in its navel, and then just ride it up the middle. It just spreads its inner, its outward. Beau, you would be in the splash zone, but you're a crazy monk and just sidestep it as it goes across the dirt rock in bits before it slumps onto the ground, sliding into the rocks, pushing them aside

as its body comes to rest at the bottom of the platform. Nice. I will use the rest of my movement to run around this way. Just run around in circles? Yeah, just in case, you know, Puppy Dog comes back. 25 there, since there was one block of rough terrain there.

So that's about as far as you can get at the moment. You're rushing around, blade in hand. It's a full turn. Indeed. Are we going to go rejuvenate, or are we going to get the fuck out of here? We're not rejuvenating. We should go right now. I can't hold this very long.

Oh yeah. Wait, do you want to check that rug real quick? I'm going. Caleb, check it. It's not a magic rug. Why was that for a reason? It's there for a reason! Oh!

Please stand on it and do this. Just chilling there. We're going to have another creature enlist list. Let's go, let's go. Let's get the fuck out of here. Let's go, let's go. Grab the rug. Grab the rug and go. Essek, grab that bitch.

Who is that all the way in the back? Hmm, grab that rug. Just throw it off the side and we'll see. Yeah. All right, so with that banishment held, you all gather and begin to rush back into the hall where you first arrived. Is there a way to shut this door or no?

There does not appear to be any sort of door there. It's just an open hallway. We just go, just jump. Yeah. Don't you have feather drop? Have we seen how far the drop is? To the next floor? You have not. Six floors down from where we are.

We got to go to nine. How many can we feather fall on? How many can we take with the falling off? Yeah have not. Six floors down from where we are. We got to go to nine. How many can we feather fall and how many can we take with the flying arm? Yeah, then let's feather fall close to the edge and just go. You can do all that? Collect everybody at the edge. You have to do half. I don't have it prepared. Well, I can do five, I think.

I can fly. Fuck. I can fly. Yep. One, two, three, four, five. Your spell slot's more important than mine, it's not a spell slot. And he can float, so we're good. Oh, one, two, three, four, five. Your spell slot's more important than mine, so I spell slot. And he can float, so we're good. Oh, one, two, three, four, five, we're good. Three, let's go. Go. Five, and I'm including myself.

Ah! Don't fly out. Don't fly out. Wait, what? What? Bye. Yeah, we're good, we're good, we're good. I think we're good.

Sprinkler! As you all go leaping off the edge, going into the faith maneuver of jumping into the darkness, you look down, elements of the water splashing to the right of you. You can now see, in that odd moment of intensity, time seems to almost slow as you take in the immensity of the vacuous space around you and the darkness that you're plummeting towards.

As your feather fall kicks in, the two of you begin to take off on your flight and watches Essek begins to float down as well, keeping pace with those who are feather falling. You begin to drift downward and you pass another floor and another floor. Now mind you, as part of feather fall, you still fall at the angle that you're going.

Yeah, that's why I said don't leap. I just stepped off so that I would go down. Okay. The path just continues, and there is a platform beneath you at? Fjord, Fjord, grab my hands. Floor six. You guys just go straight to nine?

I zip past Essek and just showboat just a little bit. I think the flyers can probably pull people out so they're falling all the way to nine. Yeah, I'll Australian Shepherd. Essek has a fly on himself and begins to showboat as well. Holy showboater. Whoa!

Yeah, yeah. I go over to Veth and I'm like, . Whoa! Yeah, yeah. I go over to Veth and I'm like,. Oh, what? What? Like the electrons of an atom. I have a wild tail at the zoo. You just have Caleb, Fjord, and Essek

just flying around the slowly falling, uncontrolled mass of the rest of the Mighty Nein. It's a little water ballet, don't mind us. Descending down deeper and deeper into the darkness of the remains of the Genesis Ward. That's where we're going to end tonight's episode. Wait, so what? We haven't even hit ground? Nope. No, we fly.

We're flying. We're going to deal with that beginning of next session. So. Let's go. I was so glad I loaded that. Yes. It did. Lucky you didn't dispel that. Well, it didn't dispel

because it was a different type of creature. I think the ones with the hand could. Oh, you did it to the dowel gate. Yeah, yeah, yeah. To the dowel gate. Yeah, from its position where it was standing and the rubble blocking the path there, I was looking at it, I was like,

it's dubious that it's uncertain that you even noticed that you were casting something and it currently was focused on everything around you. So it did not count. It also would have meant that I would have dropped, I had to drop Bane to do it, too, so. Bless, I mean. Bless, you mean, yeah.

Can you tell us why Fjord was so lucky? I was, wow. Off camera? Can you tell us off camera? Well, we'll just say that the creature that got banished has an ability that if creatures within 60 feet of it can't teleport. And he was just out of 60 feet. No, it just vanished with the banishment.

Like, it was a perfect chain of events to fuck that up, and I was like, ah! Teleport dampener, kind of? I'd like to put that creature wherever it went. Freak the fuck out. I want it to be like, where the fuck is these people? Yeah. What the hell am I? Oh, everything's gross.

Anyway, we'll pick up there next time. Oh! So cool. Man, this is getting juicy. I know. This is getting real juicy. Thank you all for joining us. We'll see you next week, but we love you very much, and is it Thursday yet?

Good night. Thank you so much for joining us on this adventure to help new listeners discover the show. Please give us a rating and review on whatever podcasting app you're listening on until next time. Is it Thursday yet?