Critical Role - C2E137 Welcome to Cognouza

Episode Date: May 13, 2021

Floating through the Astral Sea, the Mighty Nein arrive at their unsettling destination and begin exploring the living city that has haunted their dreams...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.

Hello, bees! This is Laura Bailey, here to welcome you to the Critical Role podcast. If you'd like to tune into the show as it airs, you can watch Critical Role Thursdays at 7 p.m. Pacific on twitch.tv slash criticalrole and youtube.com slash criticalrole. Our lovely Twitch subscribers can view the episode on demand right away. Or you can find it on YouTube, Mondays at 12pm Pacific. And of course, for all you fantastic podcast listeners, Critical Role episodes hit feeds on Thursday mornings, a week after the episode first airs. With all that said, let's get into another episode of Critical Role. Hello everyone and welcome to Critical Role, where a bunch of us nerdy-ass voice actors sit around and play Dungeons & Dragons.

We play Dungeons & Dragons! Yep. Before we get into our session tonight, we do have some announcements to get through, beginning all the circumstances that come along with it, including graphic design, creative writing, and music. With memberships starting as low as $10 a month with annual subscriptions, Skillshare is a great way to learn and unlock your creativity for social good. As a special offer, the first 1,000 Skillshare by following the link skl.sh slash criticalrole05211. We'll get a free trial of our premium membership. Why? Why? I feel like they're just trolling you. Is that part of the?

No, that's real. Okay, okay. We asked them to make it a bitly, they said no. One class that I got to check out this week was Intro to Photography. And after a few classes, I don't want to brag, but I'm pretty much a Pablo Picasso of photography now. I think that tracks.

But why listen to me? My photographs speak for themselves. Show me that slide. Oh, look! Look at this. Okay, so this might just look like a picture of a blurry hand to you, but it's really a subversive commentary

about identity and education reform. Really proud of that one. Next slide, please. Okay. I titled that one Regarde Mon Visage. It was shot on 36 millimeter, which is one more than 35, which is better.

Is that real? I can't. No, it's not a booger. It's an exploration of artistry in a postmodern society. It's like narrative telephone all over again. Next slide, next slide. Ah! Oh my god! I thought I deleted this one.

Ah! Ah, no, I mean, uh. Tasty buns! This is clearly an inspection of how social media has replaced human contact. Next slide, please, please, please, please! Next slide! Okay, see, this is just me experimenting

with different tripod placements. And it's a metaphor for, I don't know, DC statehood. I don't know, it's a metaphor for, I don't know. I don't know. DC statehood, I don't know. It's a metaphor for... I don't know what it says. Oh god. It's a metaphor for me at night, taking a bunch of pictures of myself. Okay, next! Next slide, please.

Yep, this one is me drowning my sorrows because my photos are bad. I eat my feelings. Next slide, please. Don't ask. No, hopefully that's what the bell is about. I also drink my feelings. Oh, wow. And next slide, please.

You're doing pretty good. Okay, yeah, great. You know what? Let's go to the next slide, please. Look how far this is. You're crazy. This... Your butt goes in there. That's so gross. This! Your butt goes in there.

That's so gross. College kids don't get that deep. In retrospect, I didn't need to get that deep. No, you didn't! You really didn't. You were in the uranium! Commit to the mist! I could've just been hovering over it.

Something made the leap, man. It made the leap. So many rompkins. Anyway, this is, that's it, the bit's over. Check out Skillshare, everyone. Learn stuff, okay. Back to you, Matt.

I didn't have to give that. Did you just quit out of the bed? Yeah. He ripcorded out of the bed. He just ripcorded? Does it matter? I think it's a new one. That's a new one.

Oh my god. Oh god, I'm so down. Just so far down. Your ears were almost underneath the seat. I cleaned my toilets. Let's get that slide back up. No. Thank you, Sam.

Thank you, Skillshare. Look, I used my car key fob as the slide thing. Oh. Improvise props. Whoever finds your car unlocked right now, well done. Our second sponsor for tonight, Ghostfire Gaming. Ghostfire! Fantastic friends there sponsoring tonight's show

and their soon-to-be-finished campaign, Grim Hollow, the Monster Grimoire. This supplement provides over 400 new dark fantasy-themed monsters for DMs to challenge their players and enhance their games at home. Each monster provides mechanics for DMs to challenge their players and enhance their games at home. Each monster provides mechanics for DMs to give existing creatures a surprising twist, such as making them undead, a fiend,

or even a legendary creature. Also, details how characters can harvest monster parts to turn into equipment or magical items to use in their campaign, which we've house ruled before, but now you can do it from the book specifically. This campaign is coming to an end, so make sure you check out everything at bit.ly slash ghmonsters now.

I didn't have to put my head in the toilet for that one. No. And what a lovely you are. Hey, hand in. And a big thank you to our friends and sponsors since the beginning of the campaign, to D&D Beyond. D&D Beyond! The official toolset of our show. One of the beginning of the campaign to D&D Beyond. D&D Beyond!

The official toolset of our show. One of the things we like about the digital books on D&D Beyond is that they're not PDF copies. They're indexes and links that are really easy to peruse beyond having to go and scroll through physical books in your hands. It's super awesome, makes super quick reference when you're in the middle of a game, especially when you're streaming it live, which is very helpful. So check it out now at https://dndbeyond.link/.critters https://dndbeyond.link/.critters Nice.

Backsplash, backsplash. Yeah, yeah. And thank you all so much for joining us live on Twitch and YouTube. And of course, reminding you, if you want to join our live moderated official chat for our show, please head on over to our Twitch channel. Ashley, you have some announcements, I believe.

It's me. Yes, it is. I'm still a little queasy, to be honest. That's what John said. Just because you had to be really close to the water with how deep you were in there. Anyway. I might've gotten some nose tickles. Because of everything that was under the rim.

But hey, thank you so much for your support of our Critical Role Foundation fundraising campaign with our friends at 826 LA. Yeah! So since we're prerecording the show, this one, the best way to catch... Ugh. Oh no.

I'm going to get better at this, you guys. Okay. We're prerecording the show, so the best way to catch real-time fundraising updates is by following us at 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. Yeah! Well saved. That's a good job. Well saved. Boom goes the dynamite. Yeah. And Laura, you have something to talk about, too.

Yes! Okay, okay, okay. So first off, we have stuff in all of our stores right now. Hold on. Okay, so this is the first thing. I don't know if you can tell what it is. These are temporary tattoos. Tattoosies! It's by the Mighty Nein.

I'm going to open it up so that you guys can see some of these things. You can probably just go online and check it out that way, but, ah! Oh wait, that was in the front. Ah! So cute. Those are big. They're big. They're good.

Yeah, they take up a good amount of space. You can put them here. You can put it here. Put it here. Anywhere. Anyway, check it out. They're in our stores. And the other thing that I'm excited,

oh, these, oh, I should say, I should say who designed them. These were designed by... I just don't want Ashley to feel alone, you know? Yeah, I thank you for, you know, not making me feel alone. Ugh. No.

Savannah. First! First! Savannah Mayer. At well underscore dipper. Well, the burp. These artists, these artists are amazing. Okay, next thing. So good.

Next thing is this beanie. Oh yes! It's in short. I don't know if I put it on good. I don't have a camera. It's on, it's centered. You did good! Yeah, you got it.

Oh, this old slouchy beanie? So anyway, it's in the store right now. She gave you the vanity. Hey, look at that. Yeah. Go check it out. Thank you very much, Laura. Everyone's bailing. Everyone's bailing on everything.

Everyone's bailing on everything. Yeah, we all just, this is... Can we point out the amazing tie-dye? Yeah, I wanted to announce that Marisha Ray is really good at tie-dye. Thank you for these shirts. Marisha's all over the place. You're welcome. You're welcome. It's been my little Sunday zen.

You all get tie-dye shirts. Just got to chip away. Don't look at me like that, Taliesin. I feel like we should do an online thing. The Critters should show us the tie-dye that they've done. That's a good idea. I love big tie-dye. How-to video?

Ooh! I'll put that on my to-do list. Right at the top. Right at the top. There you go, top. High priority, that one. Uh-do list. Right at the top, right at the top. High priority, that one. Indeed. Oh god. All righty, well, it seems like the well-oiled machine is

Oh no. off and ready to go. Thank you so much for hanging with us through those announcements, everybody. I believe with that, it is time to go ahead and jump in to tonight's episode of Critical Role. Man! Roll! Roll! Critical! Critical!

Roll! Roll! Critical! Critical! Roll! Roll! Critical! Critical! Roll! Roll! Critical! Critical! Role, Role, and Critical 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 And welcome back. So, last we left off, the Mighty Nein, giving chase towards the two remaining members of the Tomb Takers, Lucien, piloting the body of a long-dead friend

that once belonged to him, and his companion, Cree. They both delve into the Genesis Ward and you gave chase, following down into the dark open pit that once was this portion of the city of Aeor. You traversed the subterranean tunnels below, hid stealthily from nearby stalking creatures. You found odd bits of forgotten technology, experimental bits of science and arcana combining, went through a commissary,

managed to cabin in the woods a possible encounter and just watch them kill each other from across a transparent wall. As you began to disable what appeared to be a series of traps in front of you, as somebody had ransacked a cache of intuit charges and laid means of keeping you at bay or worse. Through a clever use of a few dispels,

you made your way to the Immensis Gate, where it seemed both Lucien and Cree were in the process of setting the device to allow them to continue on to the next step of their journey. You stopped and you realized that they had set two more Intuit charges to detonate at Lucien's whim and requested a conversation.

Carefully, you entered the chamber, spoke a bit, and allowed them to open the portal just enough to let something through from a realm of water and then set it to the Astral Sea them to open the portal just enough to let something through from a realm of water, and then set it to the Astral Sea, where they leapt through and away. The creature that was allowed to step through the sliver, this water-based elemental entity, began to rise through the chamber and attack whatever was nearby, which was your troop. You fought, but focused instead on escape,

and one by one managed to slither past it and through the portal, some a bit injured, some a bit sheepish, but with a final moment of success, as Jester leapt through, ensnared by the tentacle of the beast and about to be pulled back to further complicate matters, a clever use of Mage Hand shut the portal,

severed the bond, and allowed the Mighty Nein to arrive in person in the Astral Sea, floating just over the view of the city of Cognouza. So as you all drift, looking at the massive island of rock before you, numerous long sinewy tethers, like jellyfish tentacles of red and purple that drift below,

you can vaguely see the shadow of another smaller mass of something, whether it be land, ship, or creature that is currently tangled within them and being pulled up. And then above, with a bit of light that seems to be coming through the nearby gossamer strings of the surrounding star escape,

you can see the beautiful, if ominous, city before you. And you're still a sheep. So, Mighty Nein, what would you like to do? Can we see Lucien or the Tomb Takers? Make a perception check. I'm just batting away the sheep pellet. Just floating. 11.

11? With the immensity of the space around you, there's too much going on on all sides. And even at a quick anxious glance, you cannot make out the direction or position of either. Not with an 11, unfortunately. Party check. Can we see everybody? And is everybody heading in the same direction?

Oh yeah. Nobody's moving. Oh. Everyone leapt through, and once the momentum came to a stop, everyone's just staying in place. That's right. You have to think where you want to go. Oh yeah.

I'm going to try flapping my wings. They flap. Do I move or do I just flap in place? The wings just flap in place. Well, I'm going to keep flapping. It looks really beautiful, Caduceus. It feels surprisingly good on the shoulders. Mm.

Oof. Is there any other kind of debris floating in this sea or is it just swirly colors, Acid Trip, and the city? Looking around in the space, you can see off in the distance, many, many small, dark shapes. And because of the position you currently hold here and the lack of detail,

it's extremely challenging to make out any sense of depth. They could be very small things that are close or massive things that are far, far away. But you can see broken bits of rock. It looks like chunks of other land masses that have been carved free. Things that almost resemble lengths of chain or tendrils that have severed from something

that just drift off across this little line of shadow. You can see puffs of cloud and almost gently, softly gyrating waves of silver and glitter amongst black, void-like spaces, all just slowly shifting and moving. We should link up. I think. Keep a hand on each other.

I think I want to go towards Fjord's hand and hold it. Did I do it? Nope. I don't know. I said it at the wrong time. Distracted by music? Yeah. You will yourself to drift towards his hand. Okay, yes, I do.

Okay. You shift and move in his direction at the speed of, what is your intelligence modifier? What? Oh no. How smart am I? Not very, plus one.

Okay. The speed you travel is three feet around. Aw, man! Ever. So I have an intelligence modifier of negative one. The wings are not moving you. And neither is anything else. Adam, you do have a minimum movement of one foot around.

One foot. I'll try to reach Jester as well with a plus two. Does that mean I'm four feet around? Adam, you do have a minimum movement of one foot around. One foot. I'll try to reach Jester as well with a plus two. Does that mean I'm four feet around? Six feet around? Six feet around. It is times three, your intelligence modifier, so. I'll link up with Jester and try and grab the nearest person that went through just before us,

which was Yasha, right? Yeah. So I'll pull Jester and will towards her and try and grab a foot or a hand. And I'll try to will myself towards them as well. I'm going to very slowly make my way towards the sheep, since it's the only thing moving at the speed I am. I have a negative four modifier of intelligence

at the moment. You spin in space. We're just... Beau's just like. La la la la la. How long are you going to be a sheep, sheep? Caleb could be a sheep forever. We don't know how this stuff works.

We should try and kill the sheep. Caleb, are you going to be a sheep forever? You can actually understand me. The legs just go like this. I think that's a no. How would he know? I don't know. Should I just grab him? I don't know.

Yes, grab the sheep. Yes, hold on to the sheep. Come here. Let's go. Are you scratching his belly? Yeah. Now that we're on this side of the portal, how do we have any sense of distance to this city? Or is it impossible to tell, because space?

Make a perception check. Yeah, okay. 15? 15. You are roughly about two or so miles from the city. Oh boy. Two to three miles from it. One foot every six seconds.

That's going to take us long. 10 feet a minute? We're going to be here for a year. I don't know. I can't do the math. I'm not very intelligent. If there's no friction, right? Couldn't the fastest person pull everybody else? Or no? You could certainly try.

Okay. So I can go nine feet per round. Yeah, we're fucking talking now. I can go 12. Ooh! I think Caleb can end up going 15 when he's not a sheep. You have to make him not a sheep.

Caleb! Will yourself to not be a sheep. That's how things work here. Just think, I want to be Caleb. The ears go. Yeah. Yeah, I can see you're trying. Try harder.

Almost got it. Man, he's a cute sheep. He's a really cute sheep. Maybe he should just stay a sheep. It's not a bad ending for him. I think. It's not a bad ending for him? Truth, truth, he's been trying. You watched him do it again and again,

but it always wears off. I imagine some grass and hay. Hay. Like it'd be good to eat. Hay. Nothing happened. I don't dream make it. Rats.

I'm going to will myself over to- Sorry. Intelligence score, not intelligence modifiers. Oh. That does help. I was like, I wrote that wrong on my sheet there. What's the rule? Times three?

I was like, no, that seems way too low. So it's three times your intelligence score. Oh, well, that's not too bad. So a little bit of practice. I was like, that doesn't make sense. So initially, we'll say, from a narrative standpoint, it took a moment to kind of adjust to the surroundings. And now you start picking up some speed. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we had to figure it out.

Now you start picking up some speed, like, oh, I get it, I get it. It's like riding a bike. Don't doggy paddle. All right. 42 feet. Well, I can still, can I still test? I'm going to go over to Caduceus and just be like, here, hold onto my belt. Okay.

And then, can I tug him? Can you? You can. Can I tug Can you? You can. Can I tugboat him? You can. That's the worst, doesn't it? That seems worse. I don't even know what that is, but it seems like. You can. What's the matter with you?

What? Just floating around tugboating people. That's motorboating! That's motorboat. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. That's motorboating! Oh yeah. Oh yeah. That's better. Tongue moves from the other side. Oh, tongue moves.

Oh god. Oh no. I'm sorry, Matt. Oh no. Sorry. Which is fitting, given the skit. Hey, Beth! What is it? You can see invisible things how far away from you? I can hear invisible things 10 feet from me.

Shit. Right on, dude. Everybody can hear it. But Beau and Caleb can see it better than the rest of us now. Can Caleb see better? What? I thought you guys can see invisible things now. Oh.

Caleb, can you see invisible things? Yeah, that's true. It was seeing in the dark and seeing through illusion. Seeing through illusions. Okay. Turning back to the door, there's no portal, right? Gone, gone. Can I just make sure that the Tomb Takers

are not behind us, trying to follow us in? Make a perception check. Yeah, natural 19 for 22. 22. Looking back at where you came, it's just an endless expanse of odd textures and shifting bits of nonsensical matter. Glancing back towards the city and towards the rest of your friends, of odd textures and shifting bits of nonsensical matter.

Glancing back towards the city and towards the rest of your friends, you do make out two shapes heading in the direction of the city. Ooh. Eyes on. Way out there. They're a ways off, and you watch as they both divide. Split. What?

They're going to send the threshold crests into different places. That's how they bring the city back. Oh. Shit. Are we? Do we? How many threshold crests do we think that they have?

Just two? They have two. Divide and conquer. Well, and they can't get it back if they only have one. So we could just all go after Cree. You don't know which one is which. The shapes, yeah, which, which, which? Oh, we don't know. Does anyone have, you can Dimension Door over to them. I have 500 feet, yeah.

I do, too. How far are they away? We don't know. You don't know. We also don't know what that would mean, where we are. I mean,. You still have Find the Path, yeah, Cad? Doesn't it only last a minute? You don't know. I also don't know what that would mean, where we are. I mean. You still have Find the Path, yeah, Cad? Doesn't it only last a minute?

Find the Path only works if we know where we're going. We have something of where we... Well, you can't track the threshold crests. I'd need something of, like, I need a chunk of threshold crest to, or I don't actually know if it would work on an object. We need a chunk of... Do I have a chunk of threshold crest to, or I don't actually know if it would work on an object. We need a chunk of. Do I have a?

Left or right? Left or right? Left. Right. I'm a right. Holder, parchment, shears, here we go. Anybody want to go left? I was thinking left as well. Left.

Three lefts, two rights. I was thinking right, too. That's three rights, two lefts, stay right. Because I feel like Lucien is left. I say right. That's three rights, two lefts. Because I feel like Lucien is left. I say right. That's four rights, two lefts. Left. That's a left. So four rights, three lefts. And four lefts.

Oh, great. Art again, which way do you want to go? I say right. Artie gets a count. Right or left? A sprinkle curls out on the shoulder and you watch as, in a similar way, now that there's the pretenses of drop, there is a similar fey glow to the creature

that you've seen in times around Frumpkin, actually. There is a similar type of energy and just ever so faint arcane aura to it. And you watch as the intelligence of a weasel is present. And then within a moment, it seems to almost adjust itself, like the essence of Art Hagen is stepping into Sprinkle. Before it looks over towards you.

My, you've certainly found yourself in a bit of a pickle. Yeah, we're in the Astral Sea! Look, there's a horrible city! We have to stop it from being delivered. My apologies, I've never been here. This is wild. Right or left? Oh.

Left. Left. Essek, he's the tiebreaker, since sheep can't talk. Oh, that's true. I voted. Oh, you did? Yeah. So that makes it left, right? Well, Essek gets the vote. It's four and four now.

All right, so Essek gets to vote. Let's try left. Left. Left it is. Okay, we all think left, right? Yeah, both think real fucking hard. Let's go. Well, not that hard. Do you think smell in the Astral Sea, how does gas work?

Yeah, it's true. How does it work? Maybe we move a little further. I've got a divine. Like a little prop. When was the last time you used your channel divinity D100? Oh, but I want to save it. I don't want to use my channel divinity for choose left or right. I was hoping to just find exactly like

an idea of exactly where we should go to get, find Cree, like where they're going to drop Cree's. Yeah, because at this point, we're all here for the first time. Yeah. Yeah. Give it a try. All right.

Can you show me where? Has it been seven days since you used it the last time? I think it has. Wait, since you successfully used it? I think it's been seven days. I don't think it's been seven days since we used it in the... Blooming Grove? No, because it worked when we were up in...

Blue Man Grove? You're right, never mind. Blooming Grove. Hasn't been seven days. I don't think it's been seven days since we did it. I think it's been seven real days. All right, we're good. Yeah. I could double-check into our friends at CritRollStats, but that would take a moment. No, I'll call it.

Okay. It's been less than a week. It seems like that, right? We've only slept a couple times. You're still clear on that. I'm in the clear. Yeah, I could try it. Just got a little easier. Well, you successfully did yours before you guys left Eiselcross the first time.

Oh, that's right! It was when we were in Eiselcross the first time. I feel like it's been a week. Yeah, yeah, yeah, because then we, has it been a week since then? Fuck, I don't know. Go for it then. All right. I feel like, I was like, I think it's been a week. Yeah, yeah, yeah, because then we, has it been a week since then? Fuck, I don't know. I'll go for it then. All right. I feel like, I was like, I think it's been a week at least,

because you guys have stayed out multiple times in multiple cities when you're gathering allies and information, when you made it to the Blooming Grove and then traveled. We said we have about 10 days. Yeah. Okay, sorry. I feel like it's been a week. Sorry, Taliesin. If you want to try.

No, I thought you were right, too. All right, let's, let's. It's been a week. It's been a week. Sorry, Taliesin. If you want to try it. No, I thought you were right, too. One week? All right, let's. It's been a week. It's been a week. Boy, it's been a week. All right. I would like to be guided to the location of where Cree needs to bring the Threshold Crest. The Threshold Crest.

My brain. Boy, no. That was a lot of unintelligible words for nothing. You quietly pray and there's, you can sense the Wild Mother's reaching out to you, but the connection you normally maintain seems to be slightly obscured and fuzzed by the current proximity of the Astral Sea.

Very fair. Worth a shot. We're going left. We could gain 1,000 feet, but it would burn spells, and... I don't know how much closer that would actually get us. Well, we could all get 500 feet closer. I think it'd be better to let them separate a bit more before we try anything.

Caleb is chewing on Yasha's coat. Seems weird that Lucien would just let Kree go off and not protect him. Faster to get it done. He doesn't care. But he needs both of the crests delivered. Just doesn't seem... Yeah. Anything could be a trap at this point, too.

Yeah, well, we just got to pick a direction and go. Left, I guess it is. Yeah, let's go. All right. Who has, so for you, you would be the slowest member of the team, but you are? 27 feet. Correct. So mostly you're walking speed while flying. And what's the sheep's?

I'm actually walking. Oh, negative four. So you probably have to drag the sheep along as well. Well, I'm still holding it. Cool, all right. So that being the case, as you all begin to will yourself in the direction of the city, noiselessly, frictionlessly, you all begin to drift with imagined flight

and locomotion towards the city of Cognouza below. Slowly, it begins to come more into focus. And as you now have a sense of movement and its approach, you get a sense of the sincere mass of this location. It's larger than you expected for being just a portion, a ward of the city of Aeor and some of the other wards that you had experienced for your time in the ruins. Those of you with discerning eyes can see some repeated pattern

in different neighborhood layouts. Like certain street arrangements and structures that seemed very unique, seem to be repeating elsewhere. Like Fibonacci spirals in the road. Mm-hmm. Like as the city has slowly expanded over the time that it's brought its consciousness together

and swallowed things in the Astral Sea, it's begun to replicate itself as it expands. And I know I'm just a sheep, but are the buildings that we're seeing larger than normal buildings, or just there's many buildings that have multiplied out the same way that the roads have duplicated and duplicated?

From what you can tell now that you've traveled quite a bit, they appear to be sized for normal humanoid folk. Just numerous, numerous neighborhoods. And beautiful. It's... You can't help but be struck by a bit of awe to see after how much of the ruined city of Aeor you'd been trudging through in the dark beneath,

to now get a glimpse of what it would look like in its heyday. And it's gorgeous. You can see where there was prominence and to a certain extent, the arrogance that would ensue from being responsible for a society that looks this erudite. Still further, you drift and drift

and closer and closer still, following the left-hand path, you said. Can we tell if we're following Cree or Lucien at this point? I will require whoever's taking point to maintain another perception check to see if they can keep a bead on the movement. It was either Beau or Fjord.

I'm so bad at this. Can I assist Fjord? If you'd like to. I'll assist Fjord. Can I just, scanning on the horizon, seeing if I can spot movement. All right, between the two of you, deception check with advantage.

Natural 20. Yes! Yes! Hell yeah. Up for a 23. That's great. Keeping a bead on this figure, this one figure that's darting off

and making their way towards a portion of the city. Hey, what? You stay trained on, and the rest of you shift with Fjord, this slow-moving flock of the Mighty Nein, justing as he does, getting closer and closer. And eventually, you begin to find yourselves above the first parts of the city,

where you're now looking down upon the streets and neighborhoods. Impossibly intricate, beautiful white cobblestone streets, above the first parts of the city, where you're now looking down upon the streets and neighborhoods. Impossibly intricate, beautiful white cobblestone streets, buildings and tall, multi-story structures and abodes, residential spaces that intertwine with bridges, and thin, tall towers that come to these intricate peaks. The streets are barren,

empty, a frozen point in time. The streets are barren, empty. The streets are barren, empty. A frozen point in time without the people. Just an expression of what's there, minus the society. Weird. Do the buildings have eyeballs like we've seen? Some of them going. You swear you saw that from a distance,

but none were that large. And that vision specifically I should have specified was to the two of you. But from this distance, you would not be able to tell. The detail is way too small. And the tendrils that hang underneath the city, they just continue to hang. They don't start to reach out and pull, do they?

You don't see anything like that, no. Fuck. About this time, as you're keeping a train on this individual, a voice rings through all of your minds simultaneously. Welcome, guests, minds, kin, so rare, rare, rare,

welcome, welcome, welcome us home. Nope. Do we all hear this? You all hear this. We have to destroy the city. You glance down. After you all look at each other, and now there's people in the streets.

Oh, what? Where they're, like, and naturally, there's no way this many people could have rushed into the street this quickly. For a moment, you all looked at each other and began to move forward and glance down, and now it's a bustling cityscape. You see people just walking in pairs or solo groups

and picking up things and pulling carts and just going about their business. Do they look corrupt or? You're too far up to make any sort of perspective view of that. You'd have to get closer. Wow. Is there anything following us

or coming in from any other side from the void? Make a perception check. 25. 25. Jeez. 25. 25. Oh jeez. None? Okay. No? Nothing in your entire I did a little twirl. periphery.

Catches your eye. And just to be clear, are a lot of us still pretty busted up from that fight? Yeah. We haven't healed or anything. Nope. I don't think we should set foot down in that city Are a lot of us still pretty busted up from that fight? Yeah. We haven't healed or anything. Nope. I don't think we should set foot down in that city

if we haven't. Well, where's the individual going? Slowly coasting down towards the city itself. We do have a mansion. We have the tower we can hit. Well, we have a sheep. Can I use a medicine check on him to see if I can see people skin coming through?

Does he look like he could be a sheep forever? We could just hit him real hard. I don't know, is it a polymorph sort of thing? Or is he like, is it true polymorph? Yeah, it's got to be. He did say if he changed. He didn't mean this! Damn shacks!

26. 26. Physically seems like a sheep. You know, I'm just going to take initiative. May I? What? You'll thank me later. I'm just going to take initiative. May I? What? You'll thank me later. I'm just going to bap the sheep.

You punched the sheep! I'm going to hit the sheep with the stick. Yes, you do! Okay, roll an attack. All right. Crack that damn sheep. It's like an Aesop's Fable or something. You crack it open, a wizard comes out. That's a, I don't do this very often.

You better be able to hit a sheep. That's a 17 to, I believe, hold on. That hits me. I don't think you had to hit me that hard. That definitely hits. Go ahead and roll damage. Trying to figure out, yeah, I was trying to figure out my attacks work, but I never use them anymore.

Yep. I hate him so much. Like keeping him on my hips. No, for some reason it doesn't say, but that's okay. I'm a little bit out of the know. It's your stab. It should be a 1d8 plus your strength modifier. Okay, thank you. Yeah, three hit points was all you needed.

That's 1d8 plus my strength modifier? 1d6, your choice. Okay. Because we have one-handed or two-handed, that would work. Six points. Okay. So you have three hit points as a sheep. So Caleb takes three points of bludgeoning damage

as the sheep form reverts. You take two points, because it was a five, because I forgot to remove one. Got it. Okay. Oh, hey, you're back. Good work, Caduceus. Thank you. I'm learning from you guys. If it's a real problem, you just smack it.

You want me to still hold on to you, or should I let you go? No, no, I, well, maybe just for a moment. I got it, big boy. I don't know how much you were tracking. We are following that individual, if you can see. It seems the two of them split up. Does anyone have a telescope or anything?

Oh my god, I do. I have Avantika's spyglass. I forgot about that. Whoa! Let's go! Use it! I'm sure it's not cursed at all. Come on, space pilot! Go ahead and make perceptionception check with advantage.

Ooh! It's probably still going to be bad. I'm guiding her. Ooh, and Guidance! Ooh! Ooh! What's happening? In fact, I'm trying to pat her back,

but Sprinkle runs up and pats her back as well. We're both patting her back. Okay. Okay. 20 total. 20 total, okay, with the spyglass. Now that you've followed behind and you've both covered down closer to the top of the cityscape,

the tower peaks and apexes beginning to get close to brushing where you're gliding down towards the overend portion of the left-hand, pardon, side of the city. It's a problem with eating before you play. Yep. You see the figure dart down over some buildings and vanish into the city below.

What you do catch as well with the spyglass is of the shape that drifts down, you see the hint of a tail behind. What? They both have tails. I don't think Lucien did. Does Lucien have a tail? Lucien has a tail? I swing my tail up.

We have tails! Right. So does Cree also have a tail, though? Yeah. They both have tails. Was it a furry tail or a smooth-looking tail? Was it a furry tail or did it have a little? It's hard to tell with a 20.

Should've rolled high. Did it seem like it was a thick tail or a skinny tail? Did it seem like it was a thick tail or a skinny tail? We could do this all day. Hard to tell with a 20. Someone with a tail, okay. It was in the reddish-purplish tone. Cool, cool.

Wish I would've been using this spyglass this entire campaign since I've had it. Kind of forgot I had it. So that's cool. Great. If you forget to use it going forward, you suck. Yeah, yes, thank you. Yeah.

Well, we just- Okay, well, he went, whatever, whoever it was, went down there and. But we're saying we don't want to go down there while we're not healed, right? Should we just get far enough before we stop? Caleb, do you have enough for the tower? I do not know. Oh boy.

Yeah, the hard part is if we lose sight, we'll just guess. It's a city full of maybe people. Yeah. We should keep following. Yeah. Yeah. We need to get somewhere where we won't lose it, but we'll also, we need to rest really, really badly. How are we going to rest?

How will we rest if we sleep for eight hours? He's going to bring the city back. We're going to wake up and we'll be back in Exandria. Yeah, we're just going to have to keep pushing for the last moment. Pushing for the moment. I've got a health potion if anyone needs it. Dire Straits?

I could burn a spell if you really need to get that. I know, I could too, but I'm real shit at killing people, but I could burn a spell. I'll burn a spell. How? Currently less than half. Less than half. Yasha's real fucked.

So a full heal spell might be good. 16. I'm a little over half. We could do a Mask Cure Wounds. That's a fifth, though. Yeah. Actually, what's the 10-minute one? Yeah, we'd be back there. That's a Prayer of Healing. Do a Prayer of Healing, but that's a 16. We're gliding as we hash this out.

I mean, it's going to help a little, but. Prayer of Healing just gives? D8 plus five. Okay. DM, if we ever get within range where we might be able to discern a figure on the streets, I want to cast See Invisibility. Maybe do it at a second at least.

I'll do it at four. I just don't know our distance to our target. Honestly, everyone's so beat up, it's not like we need the magic's going to matter anyway. Are we doing a choo-choo train to float to the back? I like skydiving diamond holding hands. Healing is not a waste. Healing is never a waste.

All traveling at the speed of the slowest member. The slowest member. So not the sheep anymore, at least. No. Well, the sheep is being carried, I'll say at that point, not so much, but unless you want to leave somebody behind. Like, you can tether and tug, but it's still the speed of whoever that is.

Oh yeah, we never asked, we never got that answer. Yeah. 27. Tether and tug. We should go with that. 27 healing to six people. No, no, no. We got to pick six people to heal. I and Tuck. We should give it a go. 27 healing? My speed. No, no, no. We got to pick six people to heal. I'm at about half. Who's at the lowest? Yasha. I'm pretty bad.

Yeah, you're pretty bad. I'll take it if nobody else takes it. Three. I'm at half. I could use one, so that's five. One, two, three, four, five, one more. I'll take it if you're not down at all. Are you down? I'm down a little. I mean, I'm at like 2 3rds.

I'm down like 60 points. Okay, then. And, well, yeah. Oof. Uh-huh. 11, 16, 21 points. I'll take it.

Pretty good, actually. Thank you, Caduceus. Thank you, Caduceus. Thank you, Caduceus. Thanks, he's the bunny monster! A little better. My current hit points went up when we rolled. So should I get rid of those so I'm still at the same?

Nope. No, Matt said we could take them. The hit point bump you can take, but any spell slots and such would require rest to begin. I mean, I could do a fifth level that's a mass care wound. It may be better, it's better to do the Prayer of Healing at a bump though, isn't it? Yeah, the 10 minutes gives you the d8s. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that makes more sense.

We might be there in 10 minutes if we can see people walking around. I don't have Prayer of Healing prepared, because let's be honest. Okay. Sorry. A lot of laughter. So because we're going as slow as the slowest member, should we split up?

Well, I can tether Caduceus. I'll help yank Caduceus along. Okay, I mean, you're pulling, and it meets in the center of both of your speeds, so it does speed him up a bit, but it does slow you down. What if I took his other hand hand since I'm the fastest here? That's a good idea. Do you have Expeditious? No, not right now.

I do. I don't think it'll change your intelligence. Yeah. It'll double your speed, though. Right? It's brain-powered here. Oh. Thought-powered. Would it work? Yeah, that's a good point. Not my strong suit.

Okay, well, I'm still keeping, I'm not losing where I watched that person drop down. No worries. So yeah, the good news is the individuals that you're chasing here isn't speeding at an incredible speed beyond you, but you are slowed by the general speed of the group. Kiddos!

As you begin to get closer to the city, you begin to feel a unique tug, like gravity's beginning to kick in. Someone tugboating us? Sure. Whereas the closer you get to the city, there is some sort of gravitational pull towards it, which doesn't adjust your movement.

You still will yourself in the direction you're going, but you can feel that distinct pull, whereas previously it was just a free-floating lack of gravity. Which leads you to believe, probably in proximity to this city, one could walk on the ground, per normal. Okay, okay. And utilize speed as such.

All right. But currently it doesn't feel like a fall. It just feels like... A tractor beam. Exactly. You didn't realize how much, you didn't realize the lack of gravity until you begin to feel gravity again, and you're like, right, that feels normal.

That was weird. Okay. Eventually, you begin to crest up to that one little area, that one building rooftop where the figure vanished over. And Fjord, as you drift and look, there is an intersection thoroughfare, a small square with a fountain and a little park and a domed tower

with a unique astral device on top of it and homesteads and people that are out in the street talking to each other and moving and going about their business. Because I can see these people, I'll cast Sea Invisibility for the next hour with the Star Razor. You've got it. What is their dress like?

Are they a variety of peoples? From what you can tell, they are a variety of peoples. Human, mostly human. Some outfits that do resemble some of the outfits that you found on various corpses throughout the ruins of Aeor. These appear to be Aeorian individuals. Does anything else appear in the spell table?

Cast Invisibility? No. Okay. And are we drawing any attention by being here? Nothing seems to be paying attention to you at the moment. Is there any? Not right now. You guys are just up in the air, above a rooftop, in the sky, looking down over this intersection. That's awesome. Yeah.

And our quarry has already gone down. Well, we couldn't tell because they went over a lip, right? They went over a lip, and now you've caught up. You could attempt to see if they're anywhere within sight, if you want to make a perception check. Yeah, of course. So two individuals can go ahead and roll a perception. I'm going. I'll give Guidance.

I rolled a natural 20 anyway. Ooh! 30. Yeah, you did. 30, okay. Is that new? Babe. You give a confident glance around here and do not see an individual

that resembles either Lucien or Cree. And there's nothing weird about the way people are moving or acting, there doesn't seem to be some sort of... The total of what was it? 30. 30. Plus Guidance, if you want to take it. Oh, you know. 34.

Whoa! Guidance, if you want a ticket. Oh, you know. 34. No! You're at a distance, so. I'm looking for it. This is practically a zoom and enhance moment for you here. I'm like, something must be wrong, and I know that. Perfect steady cam. You notice townsfolk are walking They're like, Something must be wrong and I know that. Perfect steady cam.

You notice townsfolk are walking and they're stopping and facing each other and then going off in their own way, but there's no conversation. They're just almost going through the motions. Are they acknowledged? Oh, we're too far away from you. Too far away, but they're just, some are picking up things and then moving.

Some look like they're interacting, but they're just looking at each other and then continue on their way. They're like background extras. Would you say we're 100 feet or farther away from them? Right now, where you're standing, or sorry, where you're hovering, you'd be about 90 to 100 feet away from them. Right now, where you're standing, or sorry, where you're hovering, you'd be about 90 to 100 feet away

from the nearest person, and about 150 feet from the middle of this main area where you saw the figure vanish towards. Something is very not right. Yeah. This is... I don't know, I need to get closer. I wonder if all of their minds,

you know how when I tried to send a message to Yussa and all I got back was just that screaming? I bet that's what's in all of their brains. I mean, Caleb and I can now talk to people through our minds, so maybe they just have no need for their voice anymore. Or the other way around, they just don't need their bodies anymore.

Yeah. It's just. They're not illusory, are they, to Beau and Caleb's eyes? No, they're physical. Okay. Yeah, that actually tracks. This may just be going through the motions.

The motions in their minds or elsewhere. Caleb, I don't suppose you want to, with your speed, fly down and slap the top of one of their heads and fly back up again? I don't know how fast they might be. Or at least try and make eye contact. Or slap their heads. You said there was a device

in the center of this courtyard? So you see there are a number of buildings surrounding it. There is a raised area with a fountain in the middle. Though you would also note there is no water in the fountain. There is no water in the fountain. My God. What is this place?

It's the best fountain I've ever seen. It's all wrong. It's all gone wrong. Get a hold of us. You maniacs. What have you done? There are a number of connected residential buildings. There is a beautiful dome structure

with a metallic weather vane type device on top. There's a tree and a little garden, almost like a courtyard garden area. A healthy tree? Yeah, is the tree alive, or is it one of those rotten trees? It's vibrant and green.

Are there any buildings with roof access that we can see with a door going down or anything like that, like a way to get inside a building from the roof? No. A lot of the roofs are textured and smooth and either tower tops or just a shingled roof, but you do not see any signs of fireplaces or any chimneys, at least.

You do not see any hatches or openings that way. Any second floor, third floor windows that we could maybe peter pan our way into? There are some windows, yeah. I think we need cover, and I think we need to not fly down to the ground. Are we worried about losing who we're chasing? We've lost who we're chasing.

We need to find out where they were going now. Okay, I'm going to try divine intervention to... I'm sorry, I thought they went into the ground. Yeah, you said they went towards the center courtyard area, right? You saw them vanish over the edge, in the direction of this general intersection. And by the time you've caught up, they're not present.

Yeah, they just did this, right? Exactly. And then we came over the top and it's Times Square. Yeah. Got it. They could have switched back around. It's not super dense here. There are anywhere from eight to 10 people in this courtyard,

just going about their business. Kill them all. The one who screams is our person. I think going inside and just having a moment to walk down into this might be a smarter idea than flying. It's only eight to 10. Should we experiment with one of these people? See if they even have eyes, look at us, anything?

They might sound the alarm. Sending a message to one of them and see if they can respond. Very smart. All right, sure. I'll pick someone who's walking away from us. Mm-hmm. And I guess fly close enough to be within 120 feet. Okay, easy enough to do.

And take out a wire and cast Message and say, Hey! It's not that easy, is it? No, it's not! I need someone counting. I'll count. Five. Hey there, you. Nice day out today, isn't it?

So nice, you should look up in the sky and see more. Wow, you're, yeah. You're going to reply to this message? That was about right. You do not get any response, but the individual that you're targeting, which looks to be maybe a 17-year-old girl,

jet black hair in a light lavender day outfit, but really nice, long, wide-robed sleeves. Don't trust me. Walking along, just stops. Ooh. And looks up. And then continues walking. Okay, okay. They understand language.

Interesting. They're alive. To stimulus. That's an assumption. She didn't do anything. I feel like anything you do right now is poking the badger. Yes, they're not in fear or... Yeah.

Yeah, so maybe we can go down and get closer. I get a bead on another person and think, excuse me, do you have the time? The individual stops and looks up at you. And just screams fully loud towards you. This endless, echoing, terrifying, volumetric scream. That just goes and goes and goes.

Nobody else is paying attention at the moment. And then suddenly it stops. And you feel this buzzing in your head and a voice in the middle of just your mind that goes, I see you. Come, come. You must talk. What do you want to talk about?

Many things, but quickly before the others. No. And the figure just still staring at you walks over into one of the side, kind of, not an alleyway, but one of the streets and just stands next to this archway. I don't like any of this. That was one of the most unsettling things I've ever seen in my life.

I thought Matt was going to open his jaw and just keep going. And another Matt was going to be inside. What's weird is I wouldn't have been surprised with everything else that he does. He's like, how did he do that? I was going to attack it with fire. Caleb, you're making friends.

This is good for you. Jesus. You guys didn for you. Jesus. You guys didn't hear anything either. You just saw me looking at a person. Yeah, it seemed like a nice scream. You all heard the scream. The scream, yeah, but I didn't say anything. What happened?

Did you do this? What was that? I'll tell you the time. I reached out and they reached back. They invited me down to talk. Ooh. Do you want to talk? I don't know what else to do right now. Yeah.

I think we should. We've got your back. Ask him where the threshold crests go. Well. Well. Let's go down together. When it looked up at you, could you see eyes? Like normal iris pupil?

Humanoid, right? At the distance you're at, it normal iris pupil? Humanoid, right? Just like Matt. At the distance you're at, it looked humanoid. Another Matt Mercer. Yeah. Okay, well, don't come all the way with me, but don't be too far behind. We'll be on the roof, maybe. Okay.

Seems like a good idea. No, I think this is a terrible idea. Within 60 feet. Yeah. 60 feet above them is fine. Okay, I will, with my, at intelligence, 20, 60 feet and around kind of speed, I will, for once, zap down.

Yeah, you travel faster than anybody in this troop when you're just, you have a speed of 60 while gliding around, just. Okay. I'll trail him just as a guard, and once I'm within 60 feet of those people, just Divine Sense, just to cover it. Okay.

So of the square, there's the little archway where the individual's standing against. You glide down to it. The rest of you are staying near the rooftops? What are you doing? I'm staying closer, 60 feet above the population. Above the population? Yeah. Kind of over the main thing? Okay, so you're above near the rooftops. What are you doing? I'm staying closer, 60 feet above the population. Above the population? Yeah. Kind of over the main thing?

Okay, so you're kind of above in the center of the... Sort out the whole thing, not trying to hide anything. You've got it, okay. Is that weather vane thing close to us? It's across the way from where Caleb's quarry currently is, about 60 or 70 feet across the other side of where the fountain is. Great, me and Beau will go over and check that out. I'm going to head towards where Caleb's going,

but I'm also going to do the 60-foot thing and just do a Eyes of the Grave on this, on one of the, like, a couple people. Yeah, I want to get close, stay close to Caleb, so same area. Sam, I'm Sam. Sam? Okay. Sam.

Sam it. So we have Beau and Veth are making their way to Caleb, so same area. Sam, I'm Sam. Sam? Okay. Sam. Sam it. So we have Beau and Veth are making their way towards the domed tower on the other side. Everyone else is staying near Caleb or Fjord is right over the middle of the whole intersection.

Got it. I'm going to be right above the arch where the person went. Okay. So Caleb, as you dart down, it's this arch that goes over the middle of the roadway, and you drift, and the individual's just standing there, arms to the side.

Getting a closer look now, you can see it's a man in his 40s. Looks like he hasn't shaved in a few days. Little salt and pepper hair on the sides. Hair is combed back and a little bit to the left. Back and to the left. To the left. Dressed in nice clothing, though of a unique design

that you've only seen in other places of the Aeor rune. Something out of the corner of your eye twitches and you glance over and the base of the corner of your eye twitches and you kind of glance over and the base of the stone archway, the stone seems to gradually turn a reddish tint and towards the base of it, it seems to almost fan out like a skin where it meets the ground.

You could see this kind of smoother, fleshy texture where veins seem to almost undulate and bulge beneath the surface. And you can see a couple of errant teeth just kind of poking out in place. Get the fuck out, dude. And it just becomes the archway in his stone. Yeah, damn this place.

One out. I'm not a fan. I'm not a fan. I'm not a fan of this place. We're in the sun. Let's go. Let's get out of here. Teeth and flesh. Teeth and flesh. Survival of the fittest. How close do you get to this individual? Close enough to Tugboat. Yeah. Six inch range.

Let's say 10 feet for now. 10 feet. Yeah. You drift down before them. They look up and you can see the face is just blank before it goes. Oh, God. And you start sobbing before the sobbing stops. Their head twitches a bit to one side

and one eye turns red and swells. Their head seems to just balloon up as this massive red eye is now peering towards you. Please don't fall. And you feel your brain begin to get that fuzz a bit. I want to get closer to being Caleb's range. Okay. If I'm able, I'll pull back another five feet, if not.

You come back about five feet and you recognize this eye. It's been in a dream or two before, pull back another five feet, if not. You come back about five feet and you recognize this eye. It's been in a dream or two before, or at least something like this. And it says, You know the terror of the end, mortal ones. The nothing, the acceptance of fate or even oblivion.

We cannot end. No, at all costs, oblivion must be destroyed. We will endure. You're hearing this in your mind. Everyone else, you're just watching them stare at each other. Beauregard, you are catching the faint conversation. Oh. Eyes of the Grade, Divine Sense, anything trigger within 60 feet? Beauregard, you are catching the faint conversation.

Eyes of the Great Divine Sense, anything trigger within 60 feet? Nothing. But the closer you get, you begin to hear the conversation in your minds, too. I'm like right above it. Yes. Driven by fear, you are powerful.

Yes. The need to survive. Yes, yes, we need to survive, yes, yes. We can protect one another. I am Timore, one of the Simnovim. And I beseech to you, I need your aid. Your aid, aid, aid, aid, aid. Explain. The Lattice and Lottice

packed to end our march to bring darkness and nothing to all that we have made. They embrace Aesir. It's the unknown. Their reasons are madness. They must be stopped. If you would find them, find them within the Aether Crux.

End them so that we, others, may survive. Please! You are not all one. The others are not here. They cannot hear me. Just you. And if we were to help you, how would we?

Find the Aethercracks. Find where Lactus and Lactus, where their essence resides. And end them. Oh god. Can I insight check to see if it feels like a trap? Sure. Is there insight in the madness?

Yeah, right. We walked into WandaVision. Okay, that's true. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What is the nine? Maybe a nine is extra special here. It's not even trying to read, no. The vocal pattern, because there's no voice. These are just thoughts and emotions

and just a shotgun of fear and communication through a veil of scattered insanity and madness. It is impossible to make out any intent behind it, beyond just what's being said, but what you do take from it, all of you do, is a profound sense of terror. Not yours, though you may have your own in this instance,

but terror from this entity, this timore. And the names he said were Elactus and Luctus? Elatus and Luctus. Elatus and Luctus. Elatus and Luctus. Elatus and Luctus. Luctus.

I wrote it three times, trying to remember what you said because the sounds were so similar. The Aether Crux? Aether Crux. And what did this individual say that, I don't know if it's talking about itself, but it said a name, began with a T?

Timore. Timore. And he said he's one of the Somnovem. Yes. And we just met one just walking around the park? Or no, they're part of a hive mind. No, they're a hive mind. Yeah, and he said, but the others aren't here? It also doesn't mean he's telling the truth.

Right. Or he's going rogue against the other Somnovem. Yeah, that could be what it is. I think that's what's happening. Or there's, or there's. Where is he? The eye looks around and there's... Where is he? The eye looks around, and there's no expression. It's just this giant, swollen, fearful face

and this gargantuan red eye that is just burning towards you. Where is he? Where is the non-agon? His second walks. But he is beyond our sight. He was to come, but we can't see him. Maybe he'll help. Help!

What will you do when he arrives? He's going to help us through. Help us home. Welcome us home. Welcome us home. How many of there are you? We are nine. And under the nine and within us, many. And as you hear many, everyone in the street around you at once says,

Many in unison. Ooh. No. Maybe they just need us to help them. I cast Meteor Swarm. Yeah, so they can be better again. I don't have it, but I'll just go to sleep. This place is strange to us.

What do we need to be wary of? The rest. I must go. I can sense them coming. They are curious, too. They're curious, too. And the eye reverts, and the person just liquefies into the ground.

Oh! And where they were? Cobblestone. Shut the f- These people aren't real. At least the people aren't real! Yeah. Get out of there, Caleb! This is like bio-organic dream material,

and the consciousness can slide around to anywhere it wants to go. I don't like any of this. There's nine, and then nine within, and then nine within. It is a fractal. This whole city is a fractal. I go down the 60 feet, I land on the cobblestone.

I don't approach Caleb, but I just feet down. You touch, you're touching the city? Yeah. You can feel the gravity, it walks normally. Take the tip of the sword and I just poke the cobblestone. Make it sound like stone. Yep, chink, chink.

And there's still others walking about. There's somebody else now who's turned towards you. You can see this older woman, her gray and white hair is braided up into this top back, beautiful bow-like bun. And she's wearing these deep green and turquoise robes. She's carrying a small bag. Looks like it's containing some fruit.

And she looks over towards you and takes a step. I take a step back. And you all begin to notice the people that are walking, as they walk, and you get a look, the clothing, the sleeves, there's no sleeve that goes over an arm. The sleeve becomes a hand. The robe becomes a neck.

Like a Barbie or like a doll. Meaning it's all one thing. Like when you have a doll and you're like, yeah, and there's not really sleeves. With each step, a portion of the ground reaches up for the foot, and something from the foot reaches out and tethers and pulls it down.

Oh my god. Yeah, they, this old woman never fully leaves contact. Yeah. And as she approaches, her throat bubbles outward and the mouth opens wide and a giant red eye appears. And a voice goes,

Who, who was here? In your mind. Who was here? We don't know. We followed someone here. You all can begin to hear this growl come through in your various minds. I can sense the brethren.

Welcome. Thank you? Yes. Hi, Imayra. Ira? Imayra? Oh, Ira. Ira, I apologize. Roth Ira. Brother of Sep. Every name.

No name that you can make that we can't break. I know. And there's no way that I can't make you pay for it. All right. You march here with vengeance in your souls. Yes. An inferno in your bellies.

Pushed by pain and the need to make it. Make the planes bleed as you have suffered for their lack of respect. They all

shall feel horror. Yes. Creation lack of respect, they all shall feel our wrath. Creation is born from destruction, and if all that is worthy of us is destroyed, then so much more can be created. All the gods and fates that threw us to torment and death, they all will pay. Who were you talking to? We are new here.

It is hard to get our bearings. We're not sure. Make a deception check. You're going to get somebody in trouble. With disadvantage, because you are marked by them. 14. 14.

The eye that's looking at you shifts over towards you. And the grandma's legs seem to break and fold on them as her body begins to fall forward and then slithers across to stone around you towards Caleb before writing itself, the mouth still wide and swollen, the eye peering at you. This time I don't back up.

You lie. And every other civilian around at once goes, Lie! In unison. It had the ring of truth, though. How do you feel about visitors in this, your fine city? Was it Miramus? Miramus?

Was it Guardius? Tell me! The eye burns brighter and redder, and you can feel this white hot pain in the back of your mind that begins to burgeon. Yeah, it was Guardius. Make a deception check. A disadvantage? A disadvantage, yeah.

21. 21. 21. Guardius, do not trust them. They push forward without call for truth in the evils of existence. They wash

us all towards oblivion with arms open and naive. To strike first is to survive and to punish before you yourself can be hurt.

All will eventually hurt you. Find their essences and destroy. Then maybe we can talk. Show me that you can do what I need you to do. The mouth seems to distend and break as the eye pops into red ether energy. The now swollen and pulled back woman's head seems to snap backwards.

Her body begins to shake and quiver, as with about six of the other civilians around you begin to just before their flesh all simultaneously tears open in a whirlwind of teeth and eyes and muscle and tethering tentacles. I need you all to roll initiative. Yes!

We're fighting in space! Matt, you're so good! Ah! So wait, I saw you. Oh my Ira! Tamora, Ira, Miramus, Guardius, Eladdis. Oh, cool map!

Guardius. G-A-U-D-I. All right, just run to the boss. Guardius, Mirimus, Ira, Tymora, Eladdis, and Lucdis. You want to become a master of battle maps like Matt and Marcia? So many, one, two, three, four, five, six.

We've got six of them. There you go, you got six of them. Name them again. Guardius, Mirimus, Ira, Timore, Elatus, Luctus. Check it all out at bit.ly slash printrollDF. You would come down here near the fountain, you said, in the center?

Sure. I'm Ira Glass. Welcome back to this Aeorian life. I was within a movement's distance of Caleb. I would like to thank our sponsors. Yes. Caleb. I love that dude. Caleb, you have been approximately, to me as individuals, a pretty good individual.

I was nose to nose with her at the end there. Okay. Which is great. Right, which she would have to say about right there. Can't say shake and quiver. Wuthering around. Can't. I know, every time. All right, Jester, you said you were?

Above the arch. Correct. So I was basically as close to the arch as I could get without landing on it, so yeah. About there, we'll say. Yeah. Okay. That only lasts a minute. Caduceus, where would you have been?

I would have been in that little corner of the house, floating right between those two, yeah, towards you. Over here? Yeah, like right there. This is so cool looking, Matt. I'm terrible at two, towards you. Over here? Yeah, like right there. This is so cool looking, Matt. I'm terrible at this, hold on. That's what we have the pointers for. Like flying over here.

Over in this area? Yeah. Okay, you got it. Just watch a little more closer to Caleb, like right there. Right there? You got it. Woo-hoo! Hey, my initiative is seven. I'll be back in a flash.

Essek would have been likely ready. The defensive point's up on the rooftop of that building there. Should have healed Essek. You healed us. Not everybody. Not everybody. He's taking a little bit of hurt, but he's not...

Actually, he's taking some hits. He's taking some hits. of hurt, but he's not. Actually, he's taken some hits. He's taken some hits. Yasha. Yeah, okay. You said you were staying. I wanted to be pretty close to Caleb. Correct. I hadn't touched the ground yet,

but I feel like I'm pretty close, kind of hovering above the ground. Okay, we'll say you're about... Perfect, yeah. Here-ish? Yeah. Okay. Let's see there. Oh boy, okay, let me roll.

All right. Do you think they'll all be immune? Everything here will be immune to radiant necrotic like the creatures in Aeor? Well, I think the creatures in Aeor... Beau and Veth, you said you were heading over towards the... Yeah, we're near the weather vane. You got it. This is a whole other ballpark.

Yeah. Okay. I think they were basically cloning god-fighting creatures. They were basically test tube creating an army to be resistant against gods is what I'm pretty sure was going on. It's entirely possible that this is even, that a little psychic damage may go a long way.

We don't know. You know what, since we are about to go into battle, let's go ahead and do initiative order, and then we'll probably jump to a break, so we can go ahead and use restrooms and stuff before we jump into this. Okay. To do that,

this is going to be ugly. Yeah. Go on, ladies. That was the warning. All righty. This will be a long night. So 25 to 20? 21. 21, all righty. I'm going to.

I'm going to, too. Woo! My bae! Both and Yasha. Bae-bae! Hell yeah. Then we have 20 to 15. 16.

My initiative is brought to you by Dwarven Forge, and it's 17. 17. Bitly slash Krikol Dia. We were talking over. Beth and Fjord. 15 to 10. 11.

All right, 10 to five. Caleb rolled a seven. Ah! A sumphs. A sumphs? That's pretty good. Oh no. Nope, it's a sumphs. Yeah, you're right. Oh yeah!

Ich bin ein. Good, I can pick up anybody who dies. Okay. Berliner. So, there're right. Oh yeah. Ich bin ein, right? That's 23. Okay. That's true. That is, I am, there you go. I am a donor. Oh, good. What did Essek roll? Oh yeah.

He actually is the same as you. Okay. But he goes, his dexterity is 16. What's yours? My dex is 16. What's yours? My dex is 18. So Jester, Essek, Caleb, Caduceus. So the ones with the charcoal bases are the baddies, is that right?

Or are they? That's what I mean. Kind of meat-colored ones. Gross. Yeah. And there's a little meat lady with a diaper in front of me? We can be up close and personal with the map again. Oh my god. Oh, Jesus. I know. I like my table.

I love having space. But maybe we can wiggle in closer. Yeah. I want to be able to like. Wiggle and quiff. Done. like. Wiggle and quiff? Done. Yeah. That is that. Wiggle and quiff? All righty.

So with initiative set, with all of the entities now burst into terrifying, fleshy abominations. Oh, cool, cool, cool, cool. Just like Barbie dolls. Exactly. What an analogy. Whatever happened in Kentucky, man, just keep it in Kentucky. I don't know.

They do it like dolls. Yeah, like tentacles with big eye faces. Yeah, and blue eye shadow and pink lipstick. Like Barbie. We'll go ahead and take a break. Hey! So, we'll be back here in a few minutes to pick up for this combat

and see where things go from here. Why, hello there. This is Critical Role's resident art dad, also known as Liam O'Brien. We are continuously amazed at the artwork this community creates. That's why each Thursday at 8 a.m. Pacific, we share a curated gallery of submitted fan art over on CritRole.com. If you'd like to submit your art for consideration, visit critroll.com slash submit. And thank you to all of the incredible artists who share their talents with us

week after week. And welcome back. We're going to jump into this initiative order in combat. Oh, shit. Oh, God. All right.

Now we didn't strategize. We didn't strategize at all. We didn't talk about them. Oh god! Oh, right now. Oh, we didn't strategize. We strategized all the time. We didn't talk about anything. Talking about chocolate. But that's fine. Beau, you're up first. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. So all these fleshy things are bad at us,

is essentially it? All these fleshy things are fair game? I mean, you don't know. It seems like a pretty primal display. Yeah. Who was, where's the grandma that split in half? Tell her it's an action to nature that's seem aggressive. Yeah. Who was, where's the grandma that split in half? Where's Caleb? Right there.

Okay, well. Caleb. Do I get any weird feelings or thoughts from the eyeballs that are on my body? At the moment, not anything different than you've been sensing since you got here. Okay, please don't barf. Oh god, I'm going to...

Ooh! I'm going to jump and head towards the one that was getting up in Caleb's face. Okay, what's your, are you using your base movement onto the ground, or are you going to use your intellect to will yourself to move? Well, in all honesty, they're pretty close to the same. One is a speed of 55 and the other is a speed of like 57

because it's 19 times three. Fair enough. So I will use my brain. Check out the brain on Beau. So wait, we're still unaffected by gravity up here, Matty? No, you can feel the tug of it. You can choose whether or not to go by gravity. Laura.

Oh my. I thought we finally got to test that. Hey, come on. Come on. After the last two hours, what'd you expect? You said it like an hour and a half ago. Sorry, I'm sorry. We can choose to go by intelligence, speed, or?

You will, as you will yourself off of the top of this and glide downward. I guess let me touch, let me get to the ground. With, because that'll be my move, I guess. Correct. So let me move as far as I can to the ground. There. Which has me how far away?

15-ish feet? Yeah. 10 feet away. 10 feet away. Okay, yeah, I might as well step in the wind to get there. Okay, let's do it. And as she moves, do we see her literally move in a diagonal?

You see her glide down, touch on the ground, and then go into an immediate run towards it as you approach. And I... What does the ground do as her feet leave the pavement? Is it that same thing? Good question. Right now, it's just stone.

Nothing different. Right now. Okay. I'm going to take out my staff and give it a nice little twirl behind my back and just start laying into this thing and see what I can do. Oh yeah, one, two. I don't know what's going to happen.

You all right, baby? Uh-oh. I'm good. Go ahead. Nailed some spit. Nailed some drink. Oh, pawpaw. Pardon me. The first one is a natural 19 for 31 to hit, and then the second one is 21. Oh, great.

Both of those hit? Both of those hit, okay. Fuck. Ha-ba-da-da-ba-da-ha-yeah. Okay, the first one is 10 damage. 10 damage. Stunning Strike, let's see if I can even stun these things. Stunning once, stunning twice.

Sold to the money in the corner. It is not stunned. It is not stunned. It is not stunned, but you rolled? I thought I heard a clanky clank. Did I hear a clanky clank? All right. Cool. I can tell you that he looked at what he rolled at, though.

The, yeah. Hmm. Hmm. The second is 11 points of damage. 11 already. And I'm going to Flurry of Blows from here and see if I can. You've already used your bonus action to step up the wind.

You are right. That's it, that's my turn. Did it look like Beauregard hit the thing and it reacted and recoiled? It took hits and was like. But it's like punching a waterbed, almost. Okay. And then as soon as you recoil, teeth begin to emerge where the impacts were

and drift along the outside and you see eyes open and then whip and then appear elsewhere within the body and just undulates and changes shape. Does it look familiar to our eyes or? No, like actual humanoid. Eyeballs. Whites and irises eyes. Okay, great. All right. I don't like it, I don't like it.

That finishes Beauregard's turn. Yasha, you're up with Veth on deck. Okay. Is that a bird on top of the fountain? It is a sculpture of a bird, not an actual bird. I'm going to go over the bird. That's the start of your turn. What's that doing here?

You begin to hear, for those who are in proximity, all of the mouths that are undulating and shaping and reverting are now beginning to scream together. And the screams are filling the air, and those that are nearby them right now, Yasha, you are feeling the screams piercing into your ears and your mind. I need you to go ahead and make a wisdom saving throw.

Yep, let's try. My sword? Do I? You get the bonus from your sword, yeah. Just seeing if I needed to take it out or anything like that. Okay, okay. It should be out, yes.

I mean, I wanted it out. I didn't know if he was going to let me do it. Okay, come on. You got to roll well. You can draw a weapon as part of your action, so. Okay, come on, come on. Natural 20. Yes! Yes!

Okay. So you managed to shrug them off, no issue. What would you like to do on your turn? Kiss the sword. Okay. So you managed to shrug them off, no issue. What would you like to do on your turn? Kiss the sword. Okay. I am going to rage, rage, I'm going to rage. There you go, there you go.

You've got this. Okay, so I'm going to attack. So you're going to drift towards it? Yeah, I'm going to attack. So you're going to drift towards it? Yeah, I'm going to drift towards it. Staying floating, just like with sword out, ready to go? You got it. All right, make your attacks.

You're attacking Grandma? 18. 18 hits. Yeah. Okay. Ooh. Ooh! Okay. Ooh! Ooh! Okay.

Say goodbye. Go to my noose. Okay. That would be... Okay. 36 points of damage. Woo! I rolled really, really well.

Oh, holy avenger. Second hit. Second hit, go for it. It's a natural one. First strike, you carve through it and you watch as a large part of its body just sloughs off onto the ground and then begins to disperse like a reddish purple liquid and then slowly begin to seep into the ground

and become a cobblestone once more. Much of it still remains, but it is heavily, heavily wounded. That finishes your turn. Mm. Yeah. All right, finishing your go, that brings us to Veth. Fjord, you're on deck.

Veth. On top of that tower, can I use partial flying motion to get around the back and inside the clock tower there, or whatever that tower is? You could. How far can you fly with your intelligence? 46 feet.

Easy enough to do, yeah. I'd like to. But around the back, so they don't see me going in. Correct, so. Whoa. Weird. I saw it separate and then it didn't separate. Yeah, it's being a little wonky there. It's okay.

Oh boy. So with that. It's okay. Oh boy. So with that. It's a party, man. You drift through and then fly through the space and you can definitely make it within the inside of this. Okay. And then I'll sort of bonus action hide, if I can. Easy enough to do from there.

I'll just roll a stealth check. 27. Feel pretty stealth check. 27. Feel pretty well hidden. Okay. Now, do I want to kill or do I want to disable? Are we resting ever? I hope so. We don't know. We hope so. We need to,

but it doesn't feel like we're able to. Sure would be nice. Sure would be nice. Sure would be nice. I'll try to disable one. I'll point to the one close by down there, and I will. Right there? Yeah, I will tell it a joke! I will point at it and say,

what do you get when you cross Beau, Beauregard, and two bowls of bran cereal? Monk shit! Wow. That's good. Wow. Ooh! Wow. Oh no.

You have to roll. And I get advantage on my thing because Do you? Because I'm hidden. I have a spell sniper or something like that. Yeah, you do. You just auto-hit the entire city. It's a wisdom save, right? It's a wisdom save.

Okay. Oh yeah, maybe the whole city will laugh. Just plummets through the astral city. I started a joke. You see it, part of it spirals upward and turns towards you, and about six eyes appear in that space. Oh god. A mouth opens up beneath, and teeth gnaw.

All these mouths begin to appear and laugh on its surface as it spills into the ground. Megan's just turning into nothing but a pile of swirling flesh with dozens of mouths that are all laughing. You begin to have horrible flashbacks to the laughing hand, but nevertheless, it is affected and is prone. I'm slaying him! The laughter doesn't hurt our ears

like the screaming does. I killed him in Aeoria. Not at the moment. You can hear the laughter in the distance, but it's also you're hearing the screaming of everything nearby you right now. Okay. All right, does that finish your turn, Beth?

Yes, it does. Fjord, you're up. I'm going to use my mind to push myself 42 feet straight up into the air off of the ground. All right. Up into the sky. I'll, uh.

Then we'll all fly around. Wait, I can do 48 feet. I'll remember, it doesn't need to be quite sure. I got it. Pardon me, but I quickly got super glue. Oh no. It's a super glue on Fjord's feet. It broke.

Life gaming right here, folks. Wait, did you just break Fjord? It came off his face. Look, I work out as often as I can, okay, but. His face came off? Yikes. These aren't fiends, are they? Can I ask them any faith? No. They are not fiends.

Okay, just making sure. Maybe they're a maverick. Are you literally gluing things right now? I am. Holy crap! All right, so you want to go on top of there 42 feet up, you said? Yeah, just 42 feet straight up from the girls. Oh, okay. 42 feet?

Yeah, that's exactly what my... That's the meaning of life. What? People that know will know. There you go. Douglas Adams. Douglas Adams, yeah. This guy right here by the door.

I'll send three Eldritch, was that getting warped by it? This one right there? Yeah. I'll send three Eldritch Blasts in his direction. You got it. That is 28 to hit. That hits. The second one is, ah, it's a 15. 15 hits. 15 hits.

And 28 again. Three hits. Okay. No, this is a 10. Do, oh, do, oh, do, oh, do, oh, do, oh, do, oh. Nine. No, this is a 10. SAM and MATT and LAURA and SAM and MATT and LAURA. Nine. SAM and MATT and LAURA and MATT and LAURA. 21, 20.

21. 30, 34 points of force damage. Got it. And with my bonus action, I'll make my face turn into a big red eye. Okay. I don't know. Winning Aeor. Sure.

Yeah. All right, that finishes Fjord's go. It is now the Cognouza Flesh Hoarder's go. Flesh Hoarder's? Flesh Hoarder's. Cool. Hoarder's. Thislesh Hoarders? I thought it was Flesh Hoarders. Flesh Hoarders. Cool. Hoarders. This one's going to go ahead and move.

Hoarders? Hoarders. Hoarders. Hoarders. Hoarders. This one's going to move 20 feet up to Caleb there. Oh good. Oh god. Oh god. Oh no. This one's going to go ahead and move 20 feet up to there.

That's as far as it can get on its movement. This one's going to move 20 feet up to there. This one can't do anything right now. This one's going to go ahead and move 20 feet up to here. You get the immediate sense that they can't travel quickly as they. Some of them slide like that one grandmother corpse did earlier,

but she was being puppeted by something else and had alacrity that these lack in the moment. Oh, interesting. So those three, four can't do anything, but those two, one's going to go after Caleb, and one's going to go after Beauregard. Caleb, attacking you. Caleb!

26. Hits. And... So it's going to go after Beauregard. Caleb, attacking you. Caleb! 26. Hits. And... 12. Miss. Well, that was against Caleb. That was one and two.

No, that wasn't damage, that was to hit you. Oh, to hit me? Yeah. Oh, a 12 against me? Yes. Oh, so I didn't get another one. So the Torrent of Teeth does get to you. The Torrent of Teeth. These are all friendly names. I stopped using torrents years ago.

Exactly why. It's for the best, yeah. All right, so you take... 32 points of piercing damage. Oh my. 32 points of piercing damage. Oh my. 32 points of piercing damage. Correct. And I need you to make a strength saving throw. I'm good at that. Is he within 10 feet of me?

He is. You have advantage. Thank you. Ooh. Ooh, I rolled an 18 and a 19, so 19. Okay. You watch as a tendril goes out and wraps around your body,

and you feel like you're being buzzsawed from multiple positions in your torso, and you manage to tear yourself away as it tries to wrestle you to the ground. You're fine. Okay. Other than the damage you took. And as it pulls back, these tentacles whip out towards you,

and you back down, and the staff gives an immediate shield and they reflect off, no impact. Beauregard. Interesting. That is a 23 to hit. That hits. And 19 to hit.

Miss. All right, so Torrent of Teeth against you. Okay. Are they rangy? Are they like, schlorping out over 10 feet? Schlorping out. The ones that are right next to you, so you don't know. Can't tell.

That would be 34 points of piercing damage as the teeth grind into your body and you manage to force yourself out of the way, hopefully, if you make a strength saving throw, please. You're doing 10 feet? Yes. Strength saving throw. Not good, 15 total. You get to roll again, because I have Holy Avenger.

So hopefully you get better. That is better. 18 total. Checking the Avenger, I think. Yeah, just double check. Is it anybody or once per turn? Creates an aura in a 10-foot radius around you. You and all creatures friendly to you in the aura have advantage on saving throws against spells

and other magical items. That's what I was going to check, so. Sorry, my bad. It's okay. You rolled well last time, so you're fine. That first one. What did you roll? What was the first one you rolled? A 15.

15 is just what you needed anyway. Ooh. So you take the damage, but it does not wrestle you to the ground. Don't go in the wood shop. And the second attack, as the tentacles try and whip out towards you, you manage to just knock them away with the staff in your fight. Oh, right, that's a 19?

Yeah. That finishes their turn. and whip out towards you. Okay. You manage to just knock them away with the staff in your hand. Oh, right, that's a 19, yeah. That finishes their turn. So they're not terribly hardy, but they definitely pack a punch. Yeah. That brings us to Jester with Essek on deck. Jester, what would you like to do? I'm going to...

Rage? I would like to rage! I'm going to cast Guiding Bolt, but I'm going to use my Ring of Spell Splitting. So I'm going to aim at one of them in the midst of the group. All right, which one? The one, there's been two of them that have been hit.

This one's been hit. Okay. Or sorry, both the ones that are right there up in the middle of the fray have been hit. Okay, I'll do the one closest to the wall. Okay. And then I'll also do the one down on the other side Okay. And then I'll also do

the one down on the other side in between the circular tower and me. Over this way? Yeah, that one that you were just pointing at. Gotcha. And this is a third-level spell. You got it. Let's go ahead and roll for attacks on each. What you're noticing with this,

the weird, wild, estranged magic of Aeor that was based in the Crash of the Ruins does not reach to this space, so you don't have to worry about that. Oh, great. Ooh, both of those are really good. A 25 and a 28. Both hit.

Let's go ahead and roll damage once, and they both take it. Okay. So that's 6d6. That's great. 11, 16, 22, 24 radiant damage to both of them. And they're both, the next hit has advantage.

Indeed. Next hit on this one is advantage. This one, as you slam it with the Guiding Bolt, it impacts and it screeches, the screams suddenly becoming a dozen to a hundred, and then it just burns away into ash. And it's gone. In the middle of the screams,

you briefly hear a sigh of relief. Free from hell. Oh god. Let go. You want to move, stay put? I'm going to rise up. I'm going to rise up! Rage rise up? Rage rise up.

Like 20, oh god. Actually, oh god, maybe I don't want to rise up. Rage rise up? Rage rise up. Rage rise up. Like 20, oh god. Actually, oh god, maybe I don't want to rise up. I'm going to rise up and stand up on the rooftop. Not the same one that Yasha's on, but the other one. Dizzy win. Why did you spray the laser on my table? Did I? I think it was a reflection.

Bzzz. Yeah. All right, definitely got that. Beep-bop-a-doo. Beep-bop-a-doo. Die, die. Die, die, die. Okay. That finish your turn, Jester?

Yes. All right, Essek's go. Could we see the whole square? Could we see the whole square? Can we see the whole square? Good. Cool. All righty. Overwatch, can we see the whole square?

Oh, I can hear. Hey! So they're slow. Rubble, rubble. Yeah. They don't seem to move very far. Thank you. In comparison to some other things. So we could run away.

If, yeah, if we're in the mood for that. But we just freed one, and it felt happy. We must free every citizen of this city. Yeah, by all means. Essek is going to go ahead and, is that weird? Drift down and glide above the ground here.

As he drifts there, he brings his hands together into a gathering energy perspective, Flandreau can motion crackling energy. And then he one-handed flings it forward and a bolt of black electricity arcs forward through to that one, through that one, and off about another 30 or 40 feet in that direction before we hear the crackle and a slight boom of thunder

in the space. Doing a lightning bolt against both of them. That's a great roll. Woo! 36 points of damage. They make their save or not. That guy fails, and that guy fails even lower. Okay.

So that is 36 points of lightning damage there, and 36 points of lightning damage to him. That one's looking pretty turned up. All right, I say he withdraws and stays floating in the position and is going to go ahead and back up a bit. There's a little bit of movement left. Which is also super high intelligence.

Finishing Essek's go, it is now Caleb's. Okay, I don't think that the oogity boogity that's right there is right on top of me. It looks like it's a bit of a distance. Hopefully it is. No, it's within five feet of you. Within five feet of me? Yeah. All right, then I'm just going to pull out my cat's cradle and slam it into the stone and send Streaks of Fire

with Widowgatswap of Fire towards the three that are closest to me. There, there and there. And one, oh, I can go underneath the thing that Yasha's miniature is on to get the one that's just laughing on the ground. Correct. And one to streak on to get the one that's just laughing on the ground. Correct.

And one to streak diagonally past the one closest to me to get the one on the far fountain. So you're going to hit all five? Yeah. Okay. That's crazy. Dex save for each? Dex save. All right, the one that is on the ground,

I believe auto fails because it is incapacitated. Okay. The other four do make it, so roll the damage first. Okay. Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do. 33 total. 33, all right. So he takes 33.

How do you do that? Over there. Succeeds. That guy over on that side. What'd you say? 16. Doesn't that hurt your finger? It does.

That guy. Oh, that's so simple. Succeeds. It was so much harder than it was. But he's taken enough damage that he just incinerates. Yay! Burns into ash as well. Eat it, flesh whore! That one right there. Fails and also ignites.

Nice! Oh, thank goodness. Screeches and screams before it is left into dust. Do we hear little sighs of relief on those as well? For each death, the screams turn into a as the ashes fade off. And the last one, I rolled low. Wow. Yeah.

And since there's nothing now on top of me, I will use my mind to fly 60 feet straight up. With mind bullets. Maybe I'll go to 50. With mind bullets! Be-ew-new-new! That's telekinesis, Kyle! How about the power to move you?

Be-ew-new-new! There it is. Mystery of Warnock. Okay, that brings us to Caduceus, you're up. Flicky goo goo. I'm going to... I'm just going to send a Sacred Flame towards that one that's right below me.

You got it. And that's a dex save. That is a dex save. Fail. Got lucky. All right, that's a... Should just keep these out, I keep using them. Oh, that's pretty good. 20 points of radiant damage.

20 points of radiant, nice. Wow, it's still up. Yes, that one right there. Yeah. And I'm going to fly a little towards Caleb and get a little higher into the, I'm going to just get a little bit higher into the sky. Okay, I'm. Yeah, just.

You're higher in the sky, we'll go with it. Yeah, we'll go with it. Use your imagination. As long as I'm within 60 feet of these guys. You're fine. All righty, that finishes Caduceus' go. Top of the round. It is Beau, then Yasha. Beau.

What was? The proximity of the screams around you. Actually, just to go back on this, Caleb, go ahead and roll a wisdom saving throw for me, please. But you do have the bonus of, oh no, there is no advantage on this, Caleb, go ahead and roll a wisdom saving throw for me, please. But you do have the bonus of, oh no, there is no advantage for this, so. For me, there's a total of 16.

16, you're fine, okay. Beauregard, roll a wisdom saving throw for me, please. Beauregard. Say it. Oh, 14. 14, okay. Ooh, it's happening. Here we go.

The screams pierce into your mind and you feel the spaces in your body where the eyes are set begin to vibrate with them. I need you to go ahead and roll a d8 for me. Oh no. Yeah! I love it. Oh wow.

Oh no, no. Maybe! I love the fact that it's a confusion. Oh no, no. Maybe. Seven. Seven. Okay. You, suddenly, the vision around you begins to become a mess of colors and shapes, and you strike out towards the creature

as it rumbles towards you, Go ahead and roll two attacks. I stop the creature. Look out, Yasha. Hi, baby. Whack, whack! Flesh monster! Yeah, yep. Uh.

Okay, 29. Is it Hater Armor class? Yes. And 21. Yeah. All right, so go ahead and roll damage against Yasha. No! Why are they good? Your first lover's fight.

Why is it good? Why do you always attack each other? I don't know, why do I keep fighting? We have so much passion! Just don't let the pent-up rage. Ah! Let the bodies hit the floor. They're both 13, so 26 total.

But you take half of that because you are raging and they are bludgeoning, so you take 13. That is true. Unless you take it all because of love. Indeed. I love you, but no. So your turn ends as you pull back and the screams from side of it,

and you shake it out and you look forward and you can see Yasha recoiling from the impacts of your blows. I didn't. I think this was long overdue. I practically killed you. This is not that bad. Well, I guess it's fair play, yeah.

All right, finishing Beau's turn. Kill, yeah. All right, finishing boss turn. Kill him, Yasha! Yasha, you're up. Okay, so. He's dead, and that's it. 20 gold on Moe! Also, because I rolled twice, because I thought my sword with the wisdom,

but the first roll that I rolled was a 14 plus one, so it brought me to 15. And then I also rolled a natural 20. Right, but you rolled advantage when you weren't supposed to, right? I know, the 20 was the natural advantage. To a total of 15? Yeah. 15 is just what you needed.

Oh, okay. I thought I had to be honest in case something happened. Yeah, you rolled a 14 last time. Okay, okay. I rolled a 14. be honest in case something happened. Yeah, you rolled a 14 last time. Okay, okay. I rolled a 14. Yeah, you were just beneath. Okay, okay. All right, so what I'm going to do is

I'm going to push Beau with my finger on her forehead. And then I'm going to walk to. Her 10 strength. I'm going to walk to, to float over to the two. That was awesome. In front of me, yeah, yeah, yeah. So as you glide through the air towards this creature.

That's true. Take a swing. Go for it. Okay. Swing out. Fakush! Oh! Say it.

Natural one. Fuck! That's the second one today. It is. I'm going to put you out. Get him out. Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, okay. I've got time for that shit. Come on, Orphan Maker!

22. 22 hits. The first strike, you go and swing wide, and it seems like it's cutting in, but instead it's actually swallowing it. It's going into the mouth. The teeth are scraping on the blade, and you pull out quickly and angrily do a second swipe

and it does hit true. Go ahead and roll damage. Okay. But since this is your first hit, you still do full damage. Okay. I'm going to destroy Savage Attacker. Oh yeah, that's way better.

They're teeny, teeny. Like the size of teeth. I know, they're really small. I just like them because they're so cute. They're teeny-teamy. The size of teeth. I know, they're really small. I just like them because they're so cute. They are cute, though. They're baby teeth. They're real teeth.

I feel like you got me those way back in the day. Anyway. Are they real? Okay. First teeth fall out. Uh-huh. I did give her teeth dye, so that makes sense. Oh, 36 again. That's great. 36.

Wow. One hit? You, angrily, your second swipe cleaves it in half and both sides and slowly dissolve into the ground. It is destroyed. I'm going to turn behind me, just over my shoulder,

give her a kiss, blow her a kiss. The tentacle monster? Yes. Wait. Super in the tentacles. Wait. Or that probably. Leave it, leave it, move on. You're in trouble now.

No, no, no, no. Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. Who's next? I'm done. We'll explore later. It is now Veth's go with Fjord on deck. Is there only one creature left? There's two of them. One is no longer laughing.

It did save at the end of its last turn. Oh. It's prone. But it's prone still, currently. Ooh, it's not laughing. Okay, I will float. By the way, just checking around this clock tower, there's nothing interesting in there. Inside? No. It's not as much a clock tower.

Silly imp holding a glowing thing or anything? No. Not on this floor, no. It's all pretty open. I will then float out towards, into the bough of the tree, the leaves of the tree. And sort of, you know, make my way through the tree leaves, hiding as I go with my bonus action. All righty.

With another 25, 27. You feel pretty well hidden within the leaves. I peek out of the leaves and I fire my crossbow at the one that I told the joke to. Go for it. Hoping that they didn't see. Okay, you are hidden, so it's advantage on the strike. However, it is prone, and ranged attacks against a prone creature are disadvantage.

So it's just a single hit? So it's not a sneak attack? No. Damn! Blew it, guys. I blew it. And it was a bad roll. 17. 17 still hits, though.

Ah, poopy doopies. That is, it's too late to do that. So eight points of damage. Eight points of damage to it. Poopy doopies. Shump! It vanishes into it. You assume it heard it, but now it's just like, getting itself prepared to rejoin the fray since it was distracted by the incredible cleverness

of your previous jest. That finish your turn? That does. All right, finishing your go, Veth. Fjord, you're up. I will send three Eldritch Blasts. I'll gravitate so I'm right above the fountain, just up in the center.

And I will send the three right by the one that's near the bottom of your hand. Got it. Oh god, oh god. 27 for the first, 27 for the second, and 28 for the third. Those were all stupid high rolls. Good! Why can't you roll again?

14, wow, 14, 28? Those slender wrists. 25, 27, 29. 31 points of force damage. Nice. Well done. That finishes your go. As you blast in with each of these,

you see splatters of flesh and bone and other elements scattering off. It's keeping itself together, but it's looking pretty hurt. Nice. Does that finish your go? It does. All righty, it is now their turn. Right to there. And then uses his movement and action to get there, but that's all it does.

I want our campaign to just be all Ashley sound effects. She'd release a library. So we could do an animated series audio pass where it's just Ashley doing all the M&E. Yeah. Is she eating soup, or is it a wet creature? You never, you don't know. The creature actually begins climbing up the tree. Oh!

Uh-oh! No! Joins you up into the branches. Oh! Want to do some apple picking? It takes its movement action to get there, so it can't do anything, but it is right next to you in the middle of the tree. All right, finishing their turns.

Jester, you're up. I'm going to float forward through the sky to get closer to Veth. Over this way? Yeah. Okay. Probably halfway in between. I got to get within 60 feet. Okay, we'll see.

About there-ish? Yeah. I'm going to cast. What's your movement speed with flight? Oh, 36. 36 is the flight. Mm-hmm. Yes, that's about as far as you can get there.

Okay. I am going to assume their dexterity's low since they're so slow, and I'm going to try for Sacred Flame on it. Okay. Rolls a nine. Sweet. Yes!

Yes! What a dumb movement. I'm amazing! Yeah! Sweet! 12 points of radiant damage! 12 points?! Wow! It flares in the trees

and you see some of the branches actually get blasted off from the radiant power. You hear it screech. You know, I thought that one was more damage than it was. Forgot. Sorry about that, Veth. I was trying to help you. That one was just laughing on the ground.

Whoops. That's all right. Is that your turn? Yep. All right, Essek's go. Essek glides up, figures that they've got that one over there, is going to join Jester over in this space. Lace glide up.

Essek, do better! Do better than me! You're going to go ahead and firebolt that one. Wow, natural 19, yeah, that'll do it. Should I have these? Or this? Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do- You're screaming, Veth. The creature is reaching out. It's beginning to wrap around you. You can feel the teeth beginning to push to burrow into your exposed arms. And as you pull back, suddenly,

it catches fire and begins to just screech, this high-pitched screech with multiple mouths around its body. It pulls away from you as you shove it off, and you watch as it begins to burn against the branch. And as it hits the branch and burns, instead of the branch blackening, the branch begins to move away from it.

And you begin to see the bark on the tree itself turn into flesh as that part of the branch begins to retract and form into the tree. Elements around you of the branches you can now see elements of eyes kind of peering through for a second. The tree itself also appears to be partially made of flesh. Sure. Gross. Fleshy trees.

But it is gone. Okay. Essek looks up and goes, Here we go, teamwork. Good job! Thank you, Essek. With that, that brings us to Caleb's job. Is there anything? I can't see any baddies on the map from,

oh, there, okay. Yeah. It's in-game. So Caleb watches Essek huck some fire and he just sort of smirks to himself and does the same and throws a firebolt at the thing right below, messing with Beau. Go ahead and roll for intent. Mm-hmm.

Natural 20. Yo! Sabor. 14. Mm-hmm. Natural 20. Yo! Firebolt. 14, 21, so a total of 42 points of fire damage. Because of the crit. How do you want to do this? Yeah. I would let the firebolt hit it down at the bottom

and it would just wreathe around and burn all the way to the top and it would just char and bubble until it looked like fondue at Beau's feet. You watch as the flames consume it and it squeals and begins to liquefy. And as it begins to slowly expand and melt into the ground, you see briefly a face left behind that just goes,

Thank you. Then sifts away and left behind is just untouched, unscuffed, unmarked cobblestone. Wow. That had this energy. There it is. Yeah, it did. Yeah.

Do you have to still do your thing where you can go catatonic? Was that a person? Oh, I did. Yeah. Do you have to still do your thing where you can go catatonic? Was that a person? Oh, I don't know. We probably can't stay here very long. I think we should go. We should go. I don't think it matters on a certain level where we go,

but I think we need to not be here. And it's just streets off in different directions, or are we? From what you can see, there's streets this way, this way, this way. This opening goes to two other streets that direction. What you have right now in the middle of this intersection that catches any eye is what you see on this battlefield. We have no idea where.

You saw them disappear into this space, but you're not sure where. Also keep in mind that the city has been repeating itself, at least from what we've noticed. So there's probably a true center to the city and then faker recreations of it, if that makes sense. Copy of a copy of a copy. That makes sense. Yeah.

I'm going to run over to quickly inspect some of the crates or boxes or barrels around to see if, are they props? Are they facades? Are they full of actual items? Are they flesh? Mm-hmm. You cut they full of actual items? Are they flesh? You cut into it, is it cake? No, I want to look inside a building.

It could be okay. You glance inside the building and you see, at first glance, it's furniture, but a lot of it seems halfway apparated. The table seems like it's sagging and elements of it are corporating partially. The door itself is folded over like the doldrums.

Just like everything is slightly drifting, and you can see the coloration changing into different skin tones. The interiors apparently are lazy. I'm going to back off. Roll an investigation check, if you'd like. Oh!

29. 29. As you go over towards the crates, you open them up and you see there is, there are items and supplies and tools and things in the crates. And I pick something up? You grab it and it retracts.

Oh. Gross. Ah. Ah. That's terrifying. The bald fingers. Oh. Uh. That's terrifying. It's bald fingers. Try petting it.

See what happens if you pet it. Okay, I'll find a pair of pliers and pet them. I'll stroke the pliers. You should ask first. In Harry Potter, you gotta stroke the pliers. I should ask first. Always ask first. May I stroke you, pliers? You do not get a response from the pliers.

I take that as a yes. No? I don't know how to do that. I don't know if Henry Crabgrass would agree with that. Yeah. Henry Crabgrass would say that's a no, but. Okay. All right, well then I'll leave it alone. The living city in the Astral Sea

applies to the hairy crab. That's fair. I don't know. Universal rule. Overstep. I legitimately think there's nothing here for us. Yeah. I do want to go over and do what we were originally doing, which is investigating this fountain and this bird,

and I just want to see if there's a lever or a device or some sort of something, because it feels so central. Okay. I see you're inspecting which? The fountain area. Okay. And I want to see if there's a lever, button, et cetera. Uh, it's button, et cetera.

It's sort of cocks. It's half cocks. Can you read it? What is it? Can you read it? Can you read the primary number? Yeah. Then it's not cocked. Then it's not cocked. So okay roll, though. Wait, what is it, an investigation? Yes. I'm very good at this.

30 total. All righty. Inspecting the fountain, I'm very good at this. 30 total. All righty. Inspecting the fountain, there is no water present in it. And looking beneath, the somewhat marble texture of the outside begins to darken a bit to almost like a purplish red on the base of where the water basin would be.

And looking down, you can see portions of it are slightly undulating. But I can't see the bottom? You can see the bottom. Oh, I can't see the bottom. But you do not find any switches or buttons. But it's moving because it's probably also flesh, right? It's because it's flesh.

Everything is flesh. It's trying to give its approximation of water. Water. So I have a question. It's a memory. Yeah. If, well, I have two questions. One for DM Matt.

Residuum, can that replace any component you need for a spell or just monetary value? It's generally used to replace a component that is consumed. Okay. Because you can use an arcane focus, which would be like a holy symbol that you carry, to replace any non-monetary based components.

Right. With find the path. Correct. It needs a component that isn't monetary, but it's not a focus. I see. No, it does not replace things that require specific locational things.

It wouldn't replace a rod that you need to cast planter, you know, travel or anything. My second question is, this whole city is made of flesh. Technically, everything is the same thing, right? More or less, I think. So if we need something from a certain location, how does that work?

I don't know. Like you're saying you have an item from a place? Well, if we're trying to find a place with the threshold crests, we're trying to find the, what was it called? The Aether Crux. The Aether Crux. We don't have an item, though. We just have a body.

And I could cut off a branch from the tree. It's all the same thing. It's all the same creature. Earth is the same earth. It doesn't matter. It's all the same thing. It's all the same creature. Earth is the same earth. It doesn't matter. It's just where it has to come from. It's spatial, not chemical. Okay.

We need allies. We need to find... Well, we might be able to turn some of these Sarnovim against each other, right able to turn some of these against each other, right? We know some of their names. Seems like they're already against each other. I'm wondering if we can just find a couple that have interests that align with us.

It seems like Ira, Maramos, Maramus, and Gara,, God, yes. All seem to be. Excellent note-taking. Thank you. On that. Laxtus was the one?

Ira was the aggressive one. Yeah, Ira's the one. Timorei was the one that was sneaky. And super terrified. Scared. Wrote him as Fear. I had Wrath and Fear. Same. Oh!

Yeah, it's starting to very much be like their personality traits. I mean, you put a city of people together and put them into one mind, of course they're not going to agree. We have nine interests. Emotions. Nine fiefdoms. Distorted beyond all recognition.

Families fighting. So if they are approximations or divided emotions. Conflicting. Maybe we just need to find the right emotion. Clearly, they want out. Clearly somebody wants out of this.

Well, yeah. Some do, some do. We've got to just find... Well, the one that I spoke to said that Garius wanted oblivion. That seems different than returning home. Maybe that's our ally. That's a gift I would happily give. Vivian, that seems different than returning home. Maybe that's our ally. That's a gift I would happily give.

And then? One of them wants all of this destroyed and wants release instead of a return to power or a return to our home. Oh boy. We should walk and talk, at least change our position. I don't even know where we're walking to. I'm going to do a quick scan of the rest of this. We could float up. I mean, we could get off the surface and float above it.

We could also go in one of these buildings and rest. All the while Lucien is finding his way to. How do we find Lucien, though? They said he was invisible. They couldn't see him. They saw Cree, but they couldn't see Lucien. I bet they can't see us. They said they could see Cree?

Yeah, they said they could see his second. But that they couldn't see the nonagon. That's because Cree came this way and Lucien went the other. Maybe. I imagine they'd be able to see everything in the city. That's what I would think, too. I don't know.

If it's one big hive mind. Well, if it's a hive mind, it still might depend on where there are eyes. Yeah, why would they ask us who we talk to? It's nine big, bad minds. Yeah, that's a point. They didn't know who we were talking to. We should move, at least up. We are moving know who we were talking to. We should move.

At least we are moving. We're floating. We all drift up. Okay. You drift up and peer over the space and you can see where the streets go out and beneath you is the center where you have been glancing about and had this encounter with a few entities.

From where you stand, looking around, glancing about and had this encounter with a few entities. From where you stand, looking around, any streets that they may have ducked through, you would have had visibility. Hmm, maybe it's that building. What's that one? Did we go in the house? Do we want to do a quick scan of these houses? Let's just check them all. Okay. Yeah.

Do you want to find out in pairs? Sure. What do we do if we find something? Scream like a bitch. Yep. Yasha and I will take this, we'll take, whoops, wrong end. That was my eye, almost my eye.

Ah! Caleb, I'll stick with you just in case. Thank god I have three other eyes. We'll take this. Okay, so Yasha and Beau. This one, yes. All right. Which one do you want?

Who's taking what structure is? Do you want to take the little one in the corner? Yeah, let's go look at the little one in the corner. Jester and Fjord are like, All right. Essek raises a hand. Somebody got our exchange student wizard. Essek.

Oh yeah. I'll go in. Is anyone searching the middle building? I can go with you if you prefer. Sure, come. All right, so Essek and Veth will go into the middle building. You already looked at the dome? I didn't really.

I mean, I saw the second floor, but not the bottom floor or the thing on top, really. I mean, I was up there. Did it look like a weather vane? Up very top? Yeah. It looked, I was up there. Did it look like a weather vane? Up at the very top? Yeah. It looked like it was a bronzed statue of various planes, like a, what's the word? The rocket ride at the end. Astrolabe?

Astrolabe. Astrolabe, yeah. That kind of a vibe. And the secondary floor, you just dropped down real fast and looked in and darted out, and there's the stairs that go down to the bottom floor, but you haven't really inspected the space. You can go check it out.

Fjord, tough. You have seen visibility up right now still. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. Nothing weird with... Make a perception check. Okay. 15. 15?

You comfortably feel like there's nothing untoward directly around you. Untoward. All right, so. All right, who's going where? Yasha and Beau are going in that one. Both of you make investigation checks, if you'd like. Awesome. 23. Ooh.

19. Nice. 19. Nice. Glancing through, you enter and go for the stairs, and as you begin to step up the stairs, they're doughy beneath your feet. And you glance up, and the second floor looks unfinished and mostly pale, unsuntouched skin.

You can see almost translucent veins beyond the skin surface surface and you go, maybe this probably isn't the way to go. The house does not appear to unveil anything of particular interest to your path. I want to go back outside. Yeah, me too, this is good. And it was Fjord and Jester going to this one?

We were going to the other one. Oh, this one over here. Go ahead and roll investigation checks for me, please. Can I give Fjord advantage? Sure, if you'd like to. I'm going to add the Travelers with you, literally. Oh, thank you, Sprankle. Help me!

Help me! That's great, so a 24. Did you add a d4? Because I gave you Guidance. That's the whole point of me adding you. Well, you can give him Guidance and advantage. I can't? Pick one or the other. 24 is pretty good.

Because you're actively helping him with the thing. It's like stacking a thing onto a thing you're doing simultaneously. I see. That makes sense. You can take the advantage. Don't look at me with a stink eye. So what was your first roll? 24. 24. Pretty decent. That's pretty good.

She seems mad, but she really just has peanut crumbs all over her mouth. Yeah, no, I'm literally just trying to pick food out of it. Picking my teeth with a tongue. You step into this building, and it is a two-story building from the outside. When you step into the building, it is empty. There is no second floor above.

It's almost like a facade. A shell. A shell of a house. And on the floor where it would be carpet or hardwood, wherever the interior you'd expect, it's just like this tongue material. Ooh! Like, you can see the texture of the little flesh cilia, like buds, all across it.

I have to, I have to. Me too, like, I really want to touch it. It's pretty bouncy. Yeah. I'm going to just reach down and pet it and see what it feels like. You're going to get spit on your hand. It is faintly damp. It's literally like a tongue!

No, Fjord, don't do that. It's going to call them here. It goes away. Apologies for folks. The final arc of this story is very body horror heavy if you haven't noticed already. Yeah, nothing on the ceiling, nothing that attracts the eye,

anything like that besides this tongue shell of a house. No, but what you do see is a similar pale texture to the interior and the dampness you felt was a saliva-like liquid that is just slowly dripping from the ceiling in places. Do we want to get a vial of this and give it to Veth or anything? Oh yeah, good call.

I'll take out one of my random vials and scoop up some of the spit. What's it smell like? Okay. Ew, I can't smell spit, that's so fucking gross. Do it for science, do it, do it. No, no, no. I'll smell it. It has no scent. Oh, okay, well, that's good, no scent.

Brush that teeth. Okay. Is it the spit coming from the ceiling? Is there a hole in the ceiling? Is it just? You don't see where it's coming from. That little speed bag up there? Dab-ba-da-dab-ba-da- bag up there? There is no abode uvula, no.

I think we're good to leave. Okay. All right, who's investigating which? So you and Essek are investigating? The middle. Right there? The one with the bridge, yeah. Okay. Each roll investigation. 28. Higher than him.

This building has a little more structure to it. As you begin to peer and you see what Caduceus had glanced in before and seen some of the furniture that is partially present, but kind of dolly-esque melting at certain corners. And where it is, you can see the coloration begins to fade from the hardwoods and polished surfaces dolly-esque melting at certain corners. And where it is, you can see the coloration begins to fade from the hard woods and polished surfaces

to a general, ruddy skin tone with occasional bits of teeth poking through, like it's an exposed gum. You can see stairs that progress upward, and as you make your way up, they are similarly soft under the feet. And getting to the second floor, there is a singular person

kind of sitting on a stool in the center. Oh no. Like looking at the corner, like in Blair Witch? No, apparently just looking down. Shut up. Josh, tell us where you are. Hello? Sorry, is this your domicile? Starts the same high-pitched scream in your direction.

Why? It just holds it. You all hear the scream. We go running. Screams like a bitch, like, my way up. Oh yeah. It's just staring at you, screaming and screaming and screaming and screaming and screaming and screaming and screaming and screaming,

and Essek's like, Yeah, I, do you? He flings a finger forward and you watch as a bolt of flame hits and it ignites and the screaming slowly withers as it burns away and it's gone and the screaming stops. Still arrive in the window. Ha!

Was that you, Essek? Essek. Essek. Was protecting me. From what? Another one of these strange denizens here. The ones with the flapping tendrils and teeth? Not yet. Of course. We beat it to the punch.

Best not to be leaving alarms here and there as we go, yes? Very well. Carry on. Is there more to investigate in here? No. Okay. It's pretty blank beyond that individual. All right, meet everybody else back outside. All right, who else isn't anything?

So that's the bridged buildings. It's just us and that last little cabin. And the red roof has been taken care of, so the last cabin. Well, there's also the bottom of the gazebo, and then there's two strange statues on this side, but let's try the house. Okay, investigation checks from both of you.

You can have my advantage. Thank you. And you looked at the bottom of the fountain. Beau? Yeah. 26. I got a 23 and just water. Fair enough. I don't know. Might be something.

This chamber in particular, the room is half there. You expect the walls to be an open space, but you go inside and it's only about half the size of the room. And for the wall, it seems almost like one of the walls has swollen outward a bit. And you can see textures of stone, but it's bowing in places and bulging in others, where

it's a very nightmarish experience of seeing something flat beginning to push against its own normal flatness. And as you walk past it, you almost see a hand push through the skin and move before pulling back and you go and begin to make your way up the steps and the steps just continue upward. There's no second floor until they hit a ceiling and there's no door above. It's a nonsensical, non-Euclidean stairway. It's a body horror Warner Brothers lot.

Just for fun, I'm going to tap where the second floor would be. You tap it. The flesh opens up and there's teeth around it, about a six-foot wide hole, like an open mouth, rimmed around with jagged teeth, and it opens to the roof. The stairs continue to appear and lead upward.

I thought so. All right, I'm heading up. You head up and you are now on the roof of that building, though. Okay. Not floating in the air. Do you find anything? I'm learning a lot.

I'm going to... Are you behind me? Yeah. I'm going to float out the window and brush against the window stone as we're going. Okay, you touch it and it's weirdly warm to the touch and it does give a bit with a bit of pressure. The cast decompose as I pass by.

You watch as in that space, the flesh begins to quiver and twitch and where it does, elements of it begin to gray. I know, I got it right. Yeah. Got it, buddy got it right. Yeah. Got it, brother. It's always a bit dicey for a moment, but I push through.

Yep. Watch this on Twitch. But the skin begins to gray, and behind you can see fungus beginning to build, and lichen and other elements of decomposition begin to take hold. Oh, I bet you don't like that. All right. It takes root, right?

It doesn't start and then fight it off. You see no signs of it pulling back. I'm going to Superman spiral over to the statue figure that I see by the gazebo tower, and take a closer look at it. Yeah, what statue are you seeing? There's two of them. There's ones off-camera right now. In that?

Okay. Go towards. Sorry, did I? I did not! Did I? I'm going to feel real bad. I'm so sorry! That's okay, ready? One, two, three. No!

No lasers in this theater. You head to it and you see what is represented as a massive statue of a human. And as you get close to it, the details are fuzzy or gone. Like the memory of whoever the statue once represented has begun to drift. And as such, it is built and presented in a very memorial type way.

This is meant to be in memory of a great figure of the Aeorian history. But as time has gone on, they're just kind just a blank face on a relatively featureless body. Okay. Well, then I will just push past and walk into the bottom of the tower.

Okay. Have we explored every building now? Yeah. Yeah, except for the gazebo. You would have said if there was text on it, yeah? Correct. There is no text on this one. But you can make an investigation check

if you want to look around. Sure. 16. 16. Glancing around, this space, it's fairly empty. It looks like this is part of the small park aesthetic here, like it was a hangout space.

Where the stairs come down, you see a very faint fold or line in what would normally be solid stone ground, almost like at a certain point, it creates this weird lip-like line in the floor. And does the eyesight tell me that this is a magically hidden exit? Not magically. Okay.

This is a physical line in the ground. I'm going to finger it open. As you touch the exterior, and it does give a little bit on your finger, it opens up into a similar porthole filled with teeth, and the stairs continue downward. Hey. That's it. Basement at the Alamo. Yeah, I think to everybody,

we're no chicken dinner. I come back out. Can I check out the other statue in the other corner? All at once? It's one way. Amazing. I come back out. Can I check out the other statue in the other corner? All at once? It's one way. Amazing. You go over and inspect it, and it's an exact duplicate of the other statue.

Okay. It's an exact copy of a faded rendition of something. It's an odd focus to detail for not having much detail. Look at that. It's the idea of a memory. Mm-hmm. Yeah. When you just start forgetting, things become fuzzy.

A lot of what here and not a lot of why. I float quickly past everyone and head into the gazebo. Yeah, I'm going with. Yeah, let's go. We all follow. Into the bowels. Ew, literally. You're welcome.

Everyone into the puckering butt. Following the stairs down, and the stairs that continue downward have no give. They're pretty sturdy. That's good. It's an awful sensation because the temperature does get warmer the further you descend down the spiral,

and gradually the stairs begin to be a little softer. You descend about 60, 70, 80 feet before the stairs become this interpretation of stairs, almost like natural rough rock stairs you would find in a cavern space, but spongier. And then you reach a bottom. Here you see a semblance of a corridor that goes in three different directions.

It has the same brass-like coloration of some of the subterranean Aeorian tunnels that you've encountered at various ruins and Aeor proper previously. You see the same paneling, you see the same overhead tiling of metallic plates, but not in disarray, not scattered, not hanging tubes and broken pipes and beams,

all intact, going in three different directions. But those of you who are very perceptive, as you look forward, it seems to just faintly corkscrew before it reaches the outside of your periphery. And the surfaces here are still spongy, or no, we're in metal now? You want to touch it? Yeah.

You hit it and it gives a bit of a bounce back, like in an aluminum kind of way. Feels more metallic than flesh. One easy way to tell. Decompose. It takes a moment, but begins to change color. Oh. Okay.

It's a stronger memory. Stronger, yeah, yeah. Okay. This stuff knows what it's supposed to be. So. I love it, by the way, when Matt says to me, do you want to touch it? Just a nice, familiar thing.

God, how did it turn into that night? Okay. The invisibility is still up. Anything in this hallway? Nothing invisible, but there is writing on these three tunnels. Ooh. Okay.

Yeah, I'll take care of that. While he's doing it, I'll hand a vial of clear liquid. Oh, what's this? I've labeled it Unstinky House Drool. Oh! That implies that there's a top shelf expensive drool. Thank you.

Just miss the house drool. I don't know what it does, but it was falling from the ceiling. You might want to give it a test. Fjord smelled it. I will definitely run some tests. Figured the pH could be of interest to you. I will sneakily drop it on the floor.

Okay. Just with a slight drop into the flesh. Roll a sleight of hand. 33. Let us roll. He accepted it without issue. Just goes into the wall like a meat baster. Just Homer Simpson's in it. I think she liked it.

Yeah. I sprinkle soot and salt in front of my vision and can read the writing on the walls. Okay. The tunnel to the right where you're standing says, Pristidus Junction. Junction, junction, junction, junction, junction,

and the words get weird. The opposite side, it just says, Help, help, help, help, help, help, help, help, help, help, help. The one across from you says, how was it? Is it specifically here? The one across from you says, how was it? Was it specifically here? Crest Vault. Oh, that's it?

Yeah, baby. Is it? I don't think that's where we want to go. I think stealth is more immediate. What? You're crazy. What's up? I think that any confrontation right now ends with us becoming a small tavern, so. What's that?

Can I try to roll for divine intervention? But of course. Have we ever heard crestfall before? Well, threshold crest. Threshold crest, yeah. That makes sense. And a toothpaste. No.

You look towards Sprinkle, who looks back. Artie's not in it at the moment. Maybe we need to call for help. I just give him a little scritch. That poor weasel, it just, yes. It adds to his psychosis. Let me fly. Yeah. Die among the stars.

Can we make a sprinkler show that says that? Please, I want to die among the stars. It's hard to know how to interpret that help, though. I mean, those things up top will relieve to be killed and maybe... I think that direction is probably a fight. Yeah, 100%. I think that we can find...

Maybe it's just a matter of calling who we want to talk to. The one that you said, the tunnel corkscrews, the one ahead of us? It seems to almost shift a little bit to one, like it begins to turn slightly one way before the light. This way, like very Funhaus style? A little bit, yeah.

And that's towards the Crest Vault. Correct. She might be able to talk to her, too. That's true. Yeah, that's true. I don't need to do shit. Talk to some of these people? Cree. Mm-hmm.

If we are linked. The only problem with Cree is that I'm assuming Lucien can listen. Lucien can listen to anything you're doing anyway. Lucien could be listening to you right now. That's true. Well, is everyone still wearing their medallion? Yes.

Doesn't matter, he talked to you when we were in Aeor. True. Doesn't mean he can see us. Doesn't mean he he talked to you when we were in Aeor. True. Doesn't mean he can see us. Doesn't mean he knows where we are. No. I think. Could be that one-way thing. Well, this...

I still think we might have allies in this city, and I think that a friend here would be very helpful. Sure. How much time do we have? Yeah, we have to get to the crests before they activate. Are we counting Temora a friend? Temorae? Temorae? I think so. I think it couldn't hurt

to find out. And if something terrible happens, it's not like, what are we going to do if it's not Kari? We're... We can try reaching out. A stiff wind. You can try speaking to Tumorai directly. I can, but I'm not sure why we trust any of them.

Why we believe anything. We just need more information. Well, let's talk. I mean, we've talked we trust any of them. Why we believe anything. We just need more information. Well, let's talk. I mean, we've talked to a couple of them. Well, we're on the precipice of the Crestfall. We need to go. We need to follow. I'm not saying we shouldn't reach out. We're literally at the edge of this tunnel

and it feels like we need to make a choice. Do we keep going and check out the crosswalk? Perhaps if we can cut off Cree and stop this on one of the two crests, then Lucien's. Yes, and we have more time. Yes, we buy ourselves time. Exactly. If this is Cree, we can assume it's Cree because.

Because of what we've heard about. The way they spoke, yeah. Then let's move. Let can assume it's Cree because. Because of what we heard about. The way they spoke. Then let's move. Let's do it. Go. Straight ahead. All right. Continuing onward.

On foot for those who wish. I'll float. You float? Can we all still float? We all can still float. You can still float. Some people move faster on foot than forward. I'm going to hop every now and then. I move a little bit faster.

I do, too, if I float. So I'm going to float. Okay. What up, Essek? Yep, Essek is the fastest of all of you. Well, whatever. Even faster than you. I'm going to do that wall run occasionally.

Just barely. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll float down while, yeah. Not a contest. He's got me beat by 150. It's only not a contest if you're barely. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Upside down, yeah. Not a contest. He's got me beat by 150. It's only not a contest if you're winning. Yeah, yeah. You all begin coasting forward quickly.

The tunnel, as it continues onward, the metallic sides, the brass interior, darkened shadow ahead, but as the light you carry hits across, it reflects in places. You watch it begin to corkscrew a bit and then continue to corkscrew until it is completely upside down.

Or are you? Up and down, left and right, is hard to tell when you're not letting gravity be the one pulling you. When you are flying or floating, the only guide you have are those that stay on foot. And it does have that vertigo sensation as it begins to shift. And the texture begins to change as well

as it dips downward. The metal begins to corrode and give way to darker flesh, purple textured striations and flexing skinless muscle. You can see bits of stone and rock, like natural cavern spaces, but with a purplish tinge. And at the edges where it's cracked,

you swear you can see veins occasionally pulsing. You can see portions of it from underneath where the rock gives way entirely. And there's a film, some sort of a smooth, shiny sack of skin across a subdermal surface. And as you're heading forward, you hear footsteps getting louder.

Coming towards us or from behind us? Coming towards from the direction that you're traveling. Oh god. Keep going. Probably already affixed it. We need to undo it. Yeah. Are we going to kill her? Yes. Yes.

Let's do it. What do you do? Should we hide? In a tunnel? Is there a way to hide? It is. There are minor pockets as you look around. For lack of a better way of explaining it, mild folds in the walls

that you might attempt to utilize at your disposal. I'm going to make myself look like the old woman with the bun on her hair that we saw in the town square. I'll squeeze into a flesh fold. I'll become one of the strange blank people as well. Okay. I'll choose an adjacent fold. I'm going to choose a fold as well.

I will snuggle into a fold and cast Mage Hand just to have out. Okay. Yeah, I'll go into a fold. Very well. Wonderful moist. Everyone who is attempting to step into a fold, go ahead and roll a stealth check for me, please.

Gross. Thanks for blowing that towards me, though. It's actually down, but... No. Pardon my mouth. 22. You ready? Okay. Seven. Oh. 25. Okay. Seven. Oh. 25.

Okay. 17. Okay. 24. Can I give you Blessing of the Trickster? As you all sit there and wait, the two of you out in the open with your shapes changed and everyone else finding pockets. The footsteps come to a stop about 40 feet out.

You can see just, no swords out, so there's no light. You're just looking in pitch darkness. Darkvision, 60 feet. Exactly, which everyone but Caduceus can see at this point, if the sword has been extinguished at this point. Two games without darkvision, it's the same. You had it briefly.

You just hear breathing. Does it sound like Cree breathing? It sounds like breathing. Sound like cat purr. Just something. Make an insight check. Insight? Insight. Ooh!

Woo-hoo! 23! You don't know who this is, but they are definitely physically winded. And there is a faint, curious upturn to a growl. Like a,. At that point, faint bits of red light begin to fill the hall from two different spaces

as the eyes on Caleb and Beau's body suddenly glow like red beacons, exposing their locations. Son of a bitch. And in that moment, two red eyes glow on Cree's body. Ah. Huh. I was wondering when you would catch up.

And we're going to end there? Oh no, you mother fucker! Oh! Ah! motherfucker! Oh! Oh! Oh, ya duke! We'll go into this hallway showdown that I have to build next week. Oh!

See how this goes. One, six? Mm! Just one or three. We are not six. I have some thoughts. We are like, we are... We're eight. We're kind of broken at the moment. You might lose a bit on Caleb. We are like, we are... We're eight. We're kind of broken at the moment.

You might lose Beau and Caleb. We're a little broken. Yeah, we might. We're not super broken. We're a little broken. It's not just me. Oh yeah. It's not just me. Jack Nicholson nod. But nevertheless, we'll pick up from there next week. Oh!

You are now traversing the subterranean depths of the Cognizant. Subdermal. The subdermal depths, you're right. Yeah, subdermal depths. Put some sleeves on, Beau. You ever like? Cover your shit up, Caleb. I've, that's true, we got on sleeves, right?

Or is it really humid? Let's be honest. It's whatever you wore into A? Sleeves are bullshit. They're bullshit. You probably have sleeves. It's 98.6 degrees. Yeah, we would have been shedding our coats here

because it's getting warmer. We each have one on our hands. Yeah. Hey! I've got one right here now. Yeah, you're like E.T. Yeah. Yeah. Excited to see what's going to come soon.

All right. Well, thank you so much for joining us this week. We'll see you next week. We love you very much. And is it Thursday yet? Good night. I don't want a week. Oh, hey.

Ashley Johnson here. And I sure do hope you're enjoying the adventure. Remember when you first found out about Critical Role? Was it through a friend or a family member, or maybe even through the words of a stranger in the review section of our podcast? Many listeners find our show through word of mouth and recommendations, so please consider rating and reviewing our podcast, because each review makes an impression that may just inspire someone new to give our show a try,

and that, more than anything, helps to support us. Thank you for joining us on this adventure, and until next time, let us try to leave the world a little better than we found it.