Critical Role - C2E29 The Stalking Nightmare - Live from Indy

Episode Date: August 4, 2018

Live from Indianapolis! The Mighty Nein descend deeper into the Sour Nest to rescue their friends, and find help in an unexpected corner... (guest Khary Payton!)Watch Critical Role live Thursdays at 7pm PT on https://www.twitch.tv/criticalrole

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. Thank you. Why can't I find a girl like that? Oh, God.

Well, what do you guys think? Taliesin did a pretty great job, right? He told me... You like the Crocs? Thank you. He told me a couple weeks ago, he said, what kind of look do you want to go for? And I said, do you have anything that's a good mix between Colonel Sanders and Liberace?

And I think... I think we got there. I think we got there. Right before I walked out, our producer, Max, whispered to me, he said, you look like a pimp from Atlantis. But in all seriousness, though, I told Taliesin, I said, just give me the gay televangelist. And then I realized that that's a little bit redundant. Well, welcome, my friends, in this room and online, to Critical Role Live at Gen Con 2018. If you're at the con this weekend, please stop by our booth, number 2931, the invulnerable vagrant. Give it up for all of our crew who did a great job putting that together. It's so rad. A couple of quick housekeeping things

before we get going real fast. We're going to have a break, just like every episode of Critical Role. So try to stay in your seats if you can until the break, and then you can go to the bathroom, get merch, whatever. But if you guys were here last year, and those of you watching at home, you remember that when someone stands up, the chairs sound like someone's waterboarding a pterodactyl. So if we could keep that to a minimum. What's that?

Nobody cares. Hold on. We're moving on. No, I'm just kidding. Speaking of, during the episode tonight you guys can laugh scream cheer cry gasp any of that stuff the only thing that we ask is that you don't shout any rules or corrections at matt or the players and the only reason why we ask that you guys is because it's fucking annoying. So let's just...

Let's just keep those to a minimum of zero. As I'm sure many of you guys know, today, August 3rd, is our beloved Travis Willingham's birthday. He couldn't make it. Him and Laura couldn't make it this year, birthday. He couldn't make it. Him and Laura couldn't make it this year, but for the best reasons possible, because they just had a beautiful little

baby boy, Ronan. I know. He's such a buddy. So I thought maybe we could FaceTime him and sing happy birthday. Is anybody interested in that? All right, we're dialing. Oh, my goodness. Look at that.

Hey, guys. Look at the baby. Woo! Hey. We love you. Can you hear us? What are you guys doing? I was hoping we weren't going to catch Travis in the midst of breastfeeding

How are you guys doing? Do you miss us? So much We miss you so much We miss you too. We wish you were here We have a little present for you. You guys ready? 1, 2, 3 Happy birthday to you

Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, dear Travis. Happy birthday to you. Yeah! We love you guys. Oh my God, you guys are amazing. I only have one, I have one request.

Hit me. Mighty Nein, I want you to kick some fucking ass. Yeah! We'll be watching along with you guys tonight. You'll be watching along? Okay, good. Yeah, we'll be watching. with you guys tonight you'll be watching along okay good yeah we'll be watching we earmuffs ronan for that right totally no cussing don't talk about them titties all right we love you guys love you guys you say goodbye travis oh man i wish those guys could have been here this year but Say goodbye, Travis and Lou. Oh, man. I wish those guys could have been here this year,

but instead they brought me for some stupid reason. What do you say we get this party started, you guys? Without further ado, I would like to introduce the cast of Critical Role. Mr. Liamiesin Jaffe. Mr. Taliesin Jaffe. Ashley Birch! Ashley Birch!

Hide your kids. Hide your lives. Hide your faces. It's Sam Riegel. And... Oh, no. Oh, no. And... and, oh no, oh no, and, and,

and you're my, our beloved Dungeon Master. Give it up for Matthew Mercer. Wow. Wow. Holy shit, y'all. Welcome to the poor, unfortunate soul that had to follow Sam Riegel out on stage. No, don't touch it! Don't touch it!

We all know where it's been! Marion! Marion! Don't look, Marion! This is insane. Well, welcome, everyone, to Gen Con 2018, our live show here at the Marat Theatre. So many incredible faces here in this audience here, and many of you wonderful people back at home watching us, so welcome. I'm glad you could join us. Oh, man. Butterflies.

Yeah. In my tummy. This is an incredible energy. So anyway. Time to high noon is three minutes? Somewhere in the world. Anyway, enough of that. Thank you guys so much for joining us.

Before we get into the show, welcome to Critical Role, where a bunch of us nerdy-ass voice actors play Dungeons and Dragons. We have some announcements to go through. First, we have our fantastic returning sponsor, our wonderful friends at D&D Beyond. Sam, if you don't mind.

D&D Beyond did not want me to sing a song, so I have one. Okay, I'll try to get through it quick because we have so much to do. D&D Beyond's our sponsor today. They got a lot of things they want me to say. Like the discount code for new editions. And their booth outside at intermission.

But I'm sorry I'm not saying those things. Because when I'm inspired, I just gotta sing. I'm in a ridiculous pink frock. And 2,600 critters are ready to rock At Gen Con I'm surrounded by my friends con Ashley and Marisha Mattalison con They'll be my side till the end con

At Gen Con There's a second verse, I'll go through it fast D&D Beyond might drop us tonight. Because what I'm doing here, it just ain't right. I'm not advertising their Facebook page or telling you the promo code GenCon2018

is what it is like I promised backstage. But this little stud's gotta follow his heart. And maybe some other body parts. So if they wanna know who to blame, why don't you just tell them by shouting my name? At Gen Con, I'm not even gonna pretend con. My outfit definitely offends con.

You can all see my rear end con. At Gen Con but seriously they are giving away a legendary bundle on their Facebook page and they're offering up a special discount code Gen Con 2018 for 25% off any digital product on their Facebook page, and they're offering up a special discount code, GenCon2018, for 25% off any digital product.

Okay, I'm done. Thank you, Sam, and thank you, our friends at D&E Beyond. A few other quick announcements to get through. My Fireside Chat, that was part of our fantastic 826LA charity run we did a couple months back, will be this coming Tuesday, August 7th at 5pm Pacific, where I'll be answering a bunch of your questions and generally hanging out with the community for about an hour or more. So I hope to have you there.

And we'll have Marisha's Honey Heist 2 Electric Bear Galoo. We'll be this coming Friday after this, August 10th at 7pm Pacific. You can watch both of these streams at twitch.tv slash criticalroll. And if you miss the live stream, they'll be available on our YouTube a few days after the stream. So look for that.

For more details and a link to the NPC survey, which a lot of people in the community have been helping us forge this community-made NPC that will end up becoming part of the world that we run, go to critrole.com. Another huge announcement that actually has taken a lot of blood, sweat, and tears from this wonderful man, Taliesin, here, and this wonderful man, Liam O'Brien,

over here. We're excited to announce our coming sequel to our art book, The Chronicles of Exandria. Yeah. This one bookends the second and final half of the Vox Machina adventure, featuring all community-based art from all the incredible critters out there.

Taliesin, Liam, what do you have to say? Well, if you were wondering why Taliesin was losing his mind... Oh, I'm doing Caleb already. Taliesin was losing his mind the last several weeks while also dying. And I privately lost my mind a little bit at nights out in the national parks it's because we've been working on this that was the one thing I couldn't say on talks

was my first thought when Molly died was I just lost three days off of my art book schedule oh god, oh no, please no but it's shaping up beautifully it's full of beautiful pieces from the community that you are probably familiar with. When you see them, there's some that are new to the book. And we're very proud of the cover,

which is done by comic artist Mateo Scalera. You might know him from the comic Black Science. I've loved his art for a while now. The cover is gorgeous. Marino Dionisio, who does his coloring on Black Science, did it for the cover as well. The book looks amazing. And for the thousandth time,

thank you for every artist in this community who gives back to this show. So for more details on that, as we are able to share them going on forward, including on-sale updates, go to critroll.com to keep up to speed on that. And as a reminder, we have our Wyrmwood giveaways that we do during the breaks here for the Critical Role intermission. We'll have one here tonight as well. So when we go to break, you'll have to jump over to the Critical Role Twitch chat. That's twitch.tv slash criticalrole.

We'll have a code at the time for you to enter, but just be prepared for when that comes around. Let's see. I think that brings us mostly to the end of our announcements for the evening. I think it's time to get comfortable. Oh, we're taking off our shirts? Yeah, it's time for us to take off our shirts. Oh, wait. Wait, what?

No! No! No! No! No! No! I feel so violated. Is this how you feel every time? Maybe. That's a handsome shirt.

Couldn't agree more. All right, then. With all of that out of the way, as we reign in our respective nerves and ridiculousness, I think it's time for us to come in to tonight's episode of Critical Role. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha I'm not gonna lie, I'm not gonna lie I'm not gonna lie, I'm not gonna lie I'm not gonna lie, I'm not gonna lie

I'm not gonna lie, I'm not gonna lie I'm not gonna lie, I'm not gonna lie I'm not gonna lie, I'm not gonna lie I'm not gonna lie, I'm not gonna lie I'm not gonna lie, I'm not gonna lie I'm not gonna lie, I'm not gonna lie I'm not gonna lie, I'm not gonna lie I'm not gonna lie, I'm not gonna lie

I'm not gonna lie, I'm not gonna lie I'm not gonna lie, I'm not gonna lie I'm not gonna lie, I'm not gonna lie Woo! Welcome back. So, last we had left off. See if I can get the music here situated perfect. The Mighty Nine, intrepid band of adventurers here in the continent of Wildemount, had found three of their members

taken in the middle of the night by a band of kidnappers and slavers that they found to be called the Iron Shepherds. In trying to hunt down and find where their allies were taken, they ran into a previous member of this team known as Keg, a dwarven warrior who herself was on a path to vengeance against these people she previously worked with. Aligning forces, they made their way northward

towards the city of Shady Creek Run, which exists outside of the laws and boundaries of the Dwindalian Empire. Along the way, they ambushed the Iron Shepherds, and in doing so, lost one of their allies. With Mollymauk fallen on the battlefield, and the rest left to simmer over the decisions they made, they continued northward, where they encountered a new friend north of the city of Shady Creek Run. As Caduceus Clay was pulled from his hermit lifestyle north of the city within the confines of the Savalier Wood to join them in assaulting the Sour Nest, the keep where the Iron Shepherds call it home.

They staked out the outskirts of this location, managed to slay some of the guardians who were keeping watch on the outer perimeter wall. Not necessarily very stealthily made their way into the entryway, but managed to take out a number of members of the Iron Shepherds, some of their paid compatriots as well as some of their more elite, at least one of their more elite fighters. Along with them, they had met Nila, who was a firbolg who was searching for her also kidnapped

partner and son. And using her druidic powers, aided them in this assault. And in doing so, found and helped her family escape. As she absconded from the location with her family to keep them safe, the rest of you remained behind,

trying to find out where the remainder of the iron shepherds reside within the sour nest and how best to deal with their presence. Last we left off, Caleb, you had sent Frumkin, you're familiar, in the form of a spider, to inspect the upper floor of the chamber. sent Frumpkin, you're familiar, in the form of a spider, to inspect the upper floor of the chamber.

And upon feeling a squeeze from Keg, had just instilled her with the speed and alacrity of a haste spell. And that's where we're going to pick up. So, in this moment, Keg, as you go to notify Caleb of what has transpired below, he just reaches out and instills you with that familiar surge of adrenaline. Time seems to slow, your muscles tense and flex. What do you do? I can't tell you, but we don't have much time, so let's move forward carefully, please,

and it's just the two of us, so, so let's move forward carefully, please. And it's just the two of us, so, you know, help me out, will you? Yeah. Where's Frumpkin right now? Further up. He's maybe to the second floor, I think. I didn't pop out, so I'm seeing what Frumpkin sees. Correct. At this point. He's a slow spider.

Yeah. Shit. Is he one minute slow? Yeah. I kind of want to... No, I shouldn't. Just barrel ahead. I can't hear a thing she's saying. But Frumpkin has curled his way to the top floor and you can see there are the two open hallways

here from left to right. And Frumpkin would be... I got two mics to make this work. Frumkin appears on the secondary floor looking both down hallways in which there appears to be no signs of anyone at the moment. I'm gonna turn some torches on.

I love the cheers for foresight. They're like, yeah, two mics, yes. Get it, production team. Your haste is running out. I mean, I'm so not stealthy. I feel like I just got to, unless I just go downstairs, I just got to waste the haste. Well, they told us that they would wait for us

before going down, and I'm sure that they've done that. So. Oh, but I can't hear you. So, looking through Frumpkin's eyes, there's no time to waste. I've just hasted her to protect me since it's just the two of us, but I have to move upstairs, so I'm going to field my way up the stairs and hope that Keg comes along. All right, so Keg begins to slowly climb up the stairs, feeling out along the spiral as it carries from the bottom floor

to the upper tier of the Sour Nest Fortress. Well, I ask Frumpkin to continue along the right path. Okay. Do I need to make a stealth check? You would if you want to stay quiet, yes. With disadvantage. All right, let's do it. Okay.

Four, so that's just going to go ahead and, yeah, it's four. Four. So that's just gonna go ahead and, uh, yeah. It's four. Uh, nine. Alright. Nine. There it is. So, as Caleb begins to kind of fumble his way up the stairs,

Keg just coasts up past him, double haste speed, clinging all the way. Frumpkin, you can hear this from the top floor. You hear this heavy sound of like two giant bags of pots and pans. Clink, clink, clink, clink, clink. You make your way to the top, and at that point...

And this is where the plan falls apart. Okay, you have about two more rounds before your haste runs out. And you now see both sides of this hallway are open and empty. They both curl around the corner to show the perimeter it looks like,

and there are rooms in the interior. You see one doorway right across from where you entered. How far is Caleb behind me? Hmm? How far is Caleb behind me? Caleb's about 15 feet below. So you're not coming up? I am processing right now.

I haven't made a decision in a split second. I'm going to hold. I'm not going to keep going forward. Okay, and with that, and waiting for Caleb to ascend the stairs, the haste spell comes to a complete cycle. Your body is filled with lethargic energy drain, and you find yourself stunned there

for a moment at the top of the stairs as the spell fades. Okay. But Caleb has joined you. Okay, that could have gone better. Sorry, I misunderstood. No, no, no, let's wait here for a second. Frumpkin, my boy, will you please go ahead? Oh. Oh! Oh, there it is. And I will gently pull Keg around...

I will gently pull Keg around the corner of the left path five feet just so we are not in direct view. This path here? Well, if Frumpkin's going this way, I will move Keg and I just a little bit that way so we are not in direct view. So the two of you begin to move slowly this direction as Frumpkin's going this way, I will move Keg and I just a little bit that way, so we are not in direction. So the two of you begin to move slowly this direction as Frumpkin slowly curls into spider speed.

Just to peek around that. Further down this edge. There is a closed doorway here, and it curves around this side. Do you continue? There's a door there. There's a door right there. I will let Frumpkin continue and watch.

Okay, Frumpkin continues down, eventually revealing the back hallway to be also empty. There's nobody inside that hall at the moment, but you see a second doorway right at the back there. It seems to be there's either a link chamber or two different rooms that have entryways right there. Okay. What are we doing? What are we doing?

Let's have Frumpkin look under that door that was just revealed. Okay. Frumpkin peeks under the door and unveils what looks to be some sort of a rest chamber for a number of hirelings. You do see inside, currently two sleeping hired members

who have begun waking up from the recent sounds to go through their stuff. Matt, do they have matching Huey, Dewey, and Louie-themed bed sheets? It's what they could find on Amazon. So yes, they do. But they both seemingly alarmed by the recent sounds of both the fireworks outside and the commotion downstairs. It was the fireworks too. It wasn't just me. Okay, great.

They're going into these chests at the base of their board and they're pulling out their armor and they're in the process of putting on the leather armor. They're getting ready to scramble downward. They're preoccupied? At the moment, yes. Okay. Okay. I come out of Frumpkin's vision,

and I take Caleb... Caleb, this is me. I take Caleb by the hand and go close to her ear and whisper and say, just follow me, please. You got it. Tell Frumpkin to go up that side

and we will go up the other side. Do I need to roll again? Frumpkin can get there just ahead of me and peek around that corner before we turn it. All right. As Frumpkin continues down this hall. And we scooch to the corner.

You guys reach the corner as well, and as you spin around the edge, you can see there are two doors that lead to what seem to be two other chambers that are separated on the opposite end. Okay, okay, rinse, repeat. I send Frumpkin under first door, pull Keg a little bit further

so that we are by those doors instead of... All right, as you gokin under first door, pull Keg a little bit further so that we are by those doors instead of... All right. As you go near the first door, Frumpkin enters this chamber, which reveals what looks to be another shared bedchamber. Maybe more elite members of the Iron Shepherds call a room to bed for the evening. As Frumpkin enters the space,

you hear the far door open up on that side and footsteps as the now donned in armor and armed hirees of the Iron Shepherds begin to make their way down the stairs below. I pull out the copper wire, listening, and I aim down, looking for Nott, and say, There are two coming from the upper floor. I don't know if they're leaving or coming your way, but be alert. Ah! Ah!

There's two coming. Caleb, just... Oh, wait. I got it! Caleb, just warn me. There's two men coming down the stairs to us. Do they look like iron shepherds? Okay, let me just get out of my copper wire. No, don't worry about it. It's fine. You want to flank the door with me?

You're not with me. You want to flank the door with me? It's just us and Mr. Clay. I'll be the first to greet him. It should be fine. Wait, you guys are dressed like guards still. I still look like a guard. You are dressed like guards. Yeah.

Where are we? Are we on the top on the outside of the cellar or are we down? You guys are down in the basement still after you sent Neela up with her family to exit. Where's the body of the other guard we killed? Ooh. Up near the hatch on the upper stairs. Is he just chilling? You didn't put it anywhere else, so yeah, it's just sitting up against a wall. Well, it's definitely probably starting to turn a little weird.

It is a little bit. It takes a while for the decomposition to take effect. We just killed a man. Let's head upstairs and take care of this. Okay, so we'll go up into the cellar and I'm gonna open the hatch and say, help me out

and just shove the guards down the stairs Let's put him in the cage and maybe he'll I think we're over planning, let's just go upstairs and tell them everything's fine and then we can kill the two of them which should be fine. Matt, are we in there?

Are they going to pass us on their way out? No, the stairs were down on the corner closest to us. Okay. Right there. That's the one exit you have. And I would say in the meantime that I would, of course, have sent Frumpkin into the final room to know if we have cleared this place of here. All right.

As Frumpkin enters the final room, it reveals a large bedchamber adorned with more intricate silks and accoutrements to design what looks to be a garish but somewhat ghastly bedroom in dark reds and purples. You can see what looks to be on the side of the bed a plate that still contains partially, mostly eaten remains of some sort of

creature. The room smells of a musty smoke and some thick animalistic musk. It's hard to pinpoint, but it it's a putrid stench immediately once it hits Frumpkin's nose. But the room is empty. Okay.

Quickly, do I see anything of note? Make a perception check. You know, Caduceus, I think there's actually merit to your plan. I'm kind of into it. 17. Two escaped prisoners. One got them out. Damn shame.

Damn shame. Yeah. Right. I'm not following. What are we doing? Am I an escaped prisoner? No, we gotta You're really not following? I felt like that was really clear I don't know

Just stay here What? In case Caleb Or when Caleb and And Keg get back You're gonna go attack these people with We're gonna I'm gonna see if I can get them to leave the house, and if they don't leave the house,

then I think you should probably shoot them with that thing. We're going to have them chase the escaped prisoners. All right. Sounds good. All right. So as this is transpiring, what did you roll for perception check? 17. 17.

There doesn't look to be anything about the stonework or beneath the bed at Frumpkin's level that looks out of the ordinary. Frumpkin briefly leaps up onto the edge of the bed, and you can see the bed, while it was once well-made, seems to have been worn. The actual cushion is sagged pretty heavy in the center. It looks like it's been slept in for quite some time.

Yeah. Okay, well, if we are still alive in an hour, there will be time for this later. I leave it. And, uh, listen. You're not going to see me for a while. But I will be with you. What do you mean? You leave me alone?

No, no, I am not. I'm canonically a coward. Yeah. Ditto, kiddo. It goals me to do this because I will only be able to do it the one time. Fuck it. And I pull out the scroll of invisibility that Caliana gave me and recite a few words and I am gone. What the fuck?

And then you feel a tap, tap, tap on your shoulder. What the fuck? Keg doesn't have object permanence. No. That is now also canon. Write that in your Wikipedias. Okay, I guess I'll go back down to everyone else. Quietly, please. And I will not be walking right next to you,

but a little ways away. But you can trust me. I will not leave your side. Okay. Carefully. If you can tap me every so often to remind me of that, that would be great. Oh, one other thing.

And there's a little flash on your shoulder. And there is a large-ish spider. What the fuck? A little quieter than that, please. What the fuck? That's the ticket. Let's go. Okay, must I roll again? For stealth?

Oh, for stealth, yeah. Still a disadvantage. Give me some good juju, guys. It didn't work. It's a ten. Yeah, that's double digits. It's a number. Ten. Better than last time.

By one. By one. The audience's support counts for one. All these people! It's a scale in the right direction. So, Keg, as you hold up your plates a bit, like you're trying to cross a puddle, you're trying to tiptoe down the stone hallway towards the staircase,

the rest of you begin to hear what sounds like the arrival of footsteps rushing along the stone on the outside of the small hallway that leads to the trap door and to the basement. What do you do? I'm going to kind of position myself in kind of the corner between that, hunch against the wall, kind of try and lose my breath, if that makes sense.

Mm-hmm. I'm going to kind of face away since I don't have the disguise spell and just look really perturbed towards the prison. Matt, are they in the little hall just outside of the...

Yeah, it's maybe a 15 foot wide hallway. Boy, oh boy. Can I sneak into the far hallway that was away from the kitchen? Yeah, you can do that. Make yourself a check, please. Oh, yeah, that's a one. Oh, no.

I'm going to hide just in case they come this way. And as Nott darts around the corner, you suddenly, you hit what feels like a wall at first. But it's softer, and covered in material, and you look up to see one of the hooded

lackeys of the Iron Shepherds who had just come around the other side, goes, What the fuck? And pulls out his short sword. I grab Nott by the scruff and lift him away. Her, you mean? Her. Oh, thank you. Wow, welcome to it. Mr. Clay, I'm a woman. I know you're new here.

There's a whole conversation there that I'm excited to have when we're not having... Hey, we need one for questioning, man. Sorry, we caught one of them. Let me go! I didn't do nothing wrong! No, we got you. questioning, man. This is... Sorry, we caught one of them. Let me go!

No, no, we got you. I say, shut up, you miscreant, and I backhand knock. All right. I will say, make a deception check, Caduceus, with advantage, because you've been given help from your friends. My deception...

Is that right? Yeah, okay, that's right. All right, let's see how this works. That's 15. He's going to roll. He's going to roll. He's going to do something. They both kind of stop and glance and look at this. And the one that first Nott had bumped into leans forward. You can see his kind of squared,

scarred chin where none of his facial hair grows from some sort of deep wound that he received at a younger age. You see his eyes, kind of these deep sunken brown irises staring back as the study scene goes, I don't think I've ever seen you, Nott Neville. I have his face, though. I have the face of the one.

I'm not wearing a costume. I have his face, though. I mean, I look like one of the guards. Yeah, he had the disguise spell. But not every transformation is impervious to scrutiny. Wait. Shit. We've been infiltrated! And he pulls his other blade out, the guy behind him goes ahead and pulls out his blade as well.

Roll initiative. Oh, man. This is small enough where we can theater of mind this. Oh, no. Where's my initiative? I've got a seven, Matt. Okay. I can top that.

I've got a six. Twelve. Yeah! All that. I got a six. Twelve. Yeah! All right. Not great. Got this. Do I get to be part of this mix? Because I was coming down the stairs?

You will be in just a moment. Okay. You're catching up to it, and you're kind of coming around the corner. They were a bit quicker than you, and you're being, trying to be stealthy? Okay.

Trying to be the operative board, yeah. No worries. All right. All right. So they, Beau, you're up first, yeah. No worries. All right. All right. So they, Bowie up first, actually. They rolled a really bad initiative. Oh, what?

Oh, cool. Not as bad as these guys, but... I wasn't expecting that. Just the one who drew his blade, I'm going to try and take an elbow and I'm going to try and do it like a knockout crack right to his temple.

Go for it, Wolf of Attack. Oh, fuck, I'm gonna kill! That wasn't a kill die, but I'll let you know when it happens. 19! Wow, that hits.. Total damage. 11 damage, and can I do a Stunning Strike? Crack. You can. All right. Saving throw on that is a six. Fail!

Totally worked like once before. So the one that just drew the blade, as you crack him upside the head, he actually stumbles a couple feet into the wall. And as he backs up, you can see his eyes kind of rolling around in the sockets, and he's trying to grab the edge of the stonework to get his bearings. He has no idea where he is for the moment. As he backs up, I'm going to take his head,

and I'm going to slam it back into the wall he just ran into. Go for it. So attack rolls have advantage now because he stuns. Good, because that was a natural one. 17. That hits. 11. 11 points.

All right. He's still standing, but he's looking pretty beat up, and he's like, he's just making vowel sounds now. Speech isn't capable, given the series of events that have transpired. I'm going to say, shut up, and I'm going to just crack him across the face again with my bonus.

Also with advantage. Off-handed. That was a kill. But he did good. He did good. 19. That hits. Roll damage.

Nine damage. So as that, you're like, shh, come on, shh, shh, shh. Go to sleep, go to sleep. Bam, bam, bam, just repeatedly slamming his head into the stone until his arms go limp, and you kind of slide his face across the stone as he collapses to the ground. I'm gonna take my scarf.

I'm gonna kind of wipe the wall. As you're doing that, the guy behind him, who was his backup, just sees this happen because his initiative is next in the order and he turns and runs. He goes at a full run and then a dash so he's about 60 feet away from you, down the hallway getting near the front doors of the fortress.

I'm going to shout out, Hey, Keg, we got a runner! I don't know if she heard me or not, but... You've just now come down the stairs. Roll initiative for me. I have a 16, my friend. 16, all right. So that would put you at the next top of the order. You just see this guy cross around the corner as you

step to the bottom of the steps. There's a moment of pause where you both make eye contact. Oh! this is awkward. So we're going to finish up with Nott and Caduceus, and then we'll come back to you. So, Nott, what are you doing? Oh, can I peek around the corner where he just ran? Yeah, you have enough movement to get around. You can still see him as he's turning around the side.

Leave no one alive! And I'll fire. 27 to hit. Yeah, that'll hit, that'll hit. Yeah, yeah. But it's not sneak, right? It's not sneak attack, no. Six plus five, 11 points of damage. Nice, 11.

All righty. And a bonus action, I'll shoot again. That is a 21 to hit. That hits. Full damage again. With another six points of damage. Six points. All right.

As both crossbow bolts in his back, he reaches back. You can see his muscles in his shoulders kind of pull back from the pain. And he looks back in your direction and glances back at Keg, who he's not sure which threat is more nominal at the moment.

Caduceus, your turn. I'm also going to peek my head around the corner, and I'm just going to blow a little bit and cast Sacred Flame. That's a natural five on his wisdom saving throw. Dexterity or wisdom, I don't remember. It's a dex

16 save. Yeah, no, no, that's not happening. I didn't think so. So go ahead and roll your damage on that. That's, oh. 14 points of damage. So, Keg, you watch the person run around the corner and look at you and go, and just get shot with two bolts from behind, tense up, and then burst into radiant flame

and then collapse to the ground, kind of slow smoldering on the stone. I'd just say, never mind, Deuce has got him. Everything could have been copacetic. Got here a bit late. Is he dead? I hope so. He will be in a moment.

Okay, so I can leave him. He's good. It looks like he's not putting up much of a be in a moment. Okay, so I can leave him. He's good. It looks like he's not putting up much of a fight at the moment. Should I take him out? Okay. How far away is he from me? Roll an attack with advantage.

Sure, go for it. Okay. Well, that was an 18. Yeah, 18. Roll damage. I mean, just plus seven. You don't know any roll damage. You just walk up and you see him on the ground going,

ah, just kind of rolling, and you kind of shake your head. Shut up. 12. Like a watermelon at a Gallagher performance. You bring your war hammer down on top of his skull and paint a new carpet for the front entryway of the Sour Nest. So, at that moment, it doesn't appear like there's any immediate danger or movement. You all kind of take a moment to look about, and there's no sign of anybody else coming at the moment.

The disembodied voice says, Oh, this is going wonderful. Jesus! Oh, I forgot you were there. Mr. Clay, I apologize. That was a good plan. Oh, thank you, friend. It was so easy. That came together pretty nicely.

You're really good at the fake hostage thing, too. That was great acting. Oh, let me go! I'm crazy! Oh, that was great. Oh, we still got two downstairs. At this moment, you watch as a strange blur streaks by. Caduceus, you see it. From the upstairs, this tiny little, looks like a blur of black, no larger than that big,

just scoots past and curves around the corner, back in the direction of the basement. Does somebody see something? What the fuck? Scoots past and curves around the corner, back in the direction of the basement. Somebody sees something. What the fuck? I'm gonna... What? I don't know why I'm being quiet. We should head downstairs. No, you guys kind of see this

and begin to kind of follow past Beauregard. You're kind of still standing back by the hatch, and you watch as something stops in front. It looks like this black shape. Make a perception check. Mm-hmm. It's not great. Ten. Ten. It whizzes right past you, and you don't even have a moment to really make out any details of what it is. This place is fucking haunted.

Kill it! Kill it! But it immediately heads down the stairway towards where you found Nila's family into the basement. Follow it. Kill it! We gotta follow it first. Okay, kill it and follow it. No, follow it then kill it. Okay, great.

Tell Caleb to meet us downstairs. Will you stop arguing and can we go downstairs carefully and quietly, please? Oh, by the way, I am invisible. I didn't know you could... Oh, the scroll. Oh, good job, Caleb. Yeah, it looks really good on you, man.

Yeah. Let's go. I am actually over here, though. Oh, sorry. Let's go downstairs. I'll go first. Well, you guys have returned to the entry where you had met Nila Stanley and sent her off to protect them.

You're now down the hallway that curves to the right. You had made some intel when you had sent Frumpkin earlier to see and you saw in the next chamber what appeared to be two members, Ruza and Proto, of the Iron Shepherds, waiting on the opposite end, weapons ready, knowing you're coming, and there appeared to be two cages with people inside that you couldn't make out any details.

Okay. I whisper into Nott's ear and say just this once I think I should go first you don't need to do this Caleb if you don't want to I'm not there anymore Brave, dead, it's semantics, really. So Caleb, as you continue down the hall, unveiling it to the right, it still appears to be open without issue.

You peek further down. Do the rest of you follow suit, or do you stay in the back chamber? I feel like I should hang back, probably. Stealth-wise. I'm gonna go up and just peek around. Make a stealth check, please. Oh, boy. And a stealth check for you, too, Caleb, but you have advantage. I'll follow not.

I'm also gonna... All right, so stealth check for all those that are going to follow. 27. Nice. How close can I get without doing a stealth check? I don't know. Do you want to be stealthy or not? Fuck. I'll hang, I'll hang. I'll hang back.

Okay, so Keg's going to make it to the edge of the hall and just kind of wait. 18. Okay. 17 for me. Okay. 12. Eight. 18. Okay. 17 for me. Okay. 12. Okay, as you guys all make your way quietly around the side,

Caduceus' armor catches the edge of the stonework and gives this faint grinding sound. I still look like a soldier. But you work forward. Looking inside, you can see these two archways in this chamber where you had previously seen, and there, on the other side you can see Aruza and Proto, weapons ready, whispering to each other. As you're standing there, Caleb, that familiar sound, that buzzing, small, dark shape appears and

stops for a second there in space, and you can see what looks to be a small bird. A jet black hummingbird hovering there. With something long and metallic in its beak. To which it, and then kind of darts up into the shadow and is gone. What's happening up there? The audience is loud! What's happening up there? You hear as Ruza looks over at Prado and goes like, Are they coming or not? I'm getting impatient. And Prado goes, Yeah, maybe we should poke one of them.

And he goes and pulls out a blade and jams it into the cage to the left, and you hear a voice kind of against the gag, a muffled yell. I am going to move into the room and sit down on the floor between the cage and the door, pressed against the wall. Right here?

Yeah. Yeah, and just wait. Make a perception check. Perception check? 19. 19. As you move up against the side, what faint bit of light is coming

from the almost entirely extinguished torch in the wall? You see a bit of shifting movement, and you hear the movement of chains inside the cage where the blade had just been stabbed inside. You see, in the movement, it looks like a large, shifting, almost gray-white shape in the shadow, and you hear a muffled voice kind of cursing against the constraints and the binding,

at which point, out of the corner of your eye, you watch as a hand slips out of a chain carrying the same metal object that the small bird was carrying in its beak. And the hand slowly pulls the gag away from the mouth. Kari, if you'd like to join us at the table. Thank you. The murmuring. Well, I don't know about you people, but I'm tired of the stabbing feeling.

The rest of you, what are you doing? I'm Not hearing Caleb for a while I'm just going to kind of, again just creep down the hallway and peek around a bit Yeah, go ahead, take your time You know We do the thing where the Brady Bunch

where all of our heads are stacked and we peek around the door Ah, screw it, I'm gonna come too. I'm sorry! Wait, maybe we should... Can you do some magic-y things, Mr. Clay? Something?

That's a eight. Eight? All right. As the three of your heads poke around the corner, all three of you shift as Keg slams into you from behind with a fourth one, at which point both of their heads, who are currently bickering of Prado and Ruzza,

kind of look back towards the front. Shit, they're here! Back up! And they both begin to retract and back up into the chamber behind them. Can we shoot? Can I shoot? If you'd like to. I would like to. I would like to shoot. I also have? If you'd like to. I would like to. I would like to shoot.

I also have a thing I'd like to do. All right. I'll shoot at, sorry, it's Prado and Ruzza? Well, now that we're entering combat, and they're already there, it's time to roll initiative. So, everyone roll initiative. Oh boy. Farts.

Nope. Nope. Nope, that's not good. All righty. Probably for the best. All righty, do we have... All righty. 25 to 20? No. Oh, oh, oh.

Oh! I rolled a natural 19, so I'm pretty sure that puts me... What's your initiative bonus or your dexterity bonus? Plus three, so yes, I am. All right, 22. All righty, you are tied with RZA. It's so nice to see familiar faces. Glancing, yeah, with the duchess now perched up on the wall,

you can see, creeping around the side, the tiny goblin face of Nott and Beauregard with hood up around the edge. And for the first time in a day or two, you sense the tide turning in your favor. All right, 20 to 15, anybody? 18. Alright. 17.

15 to 10? 17. Oh, okay. Alrighty. 15 to 10. Guys, guys, come on. I know we want to make it interesting for the audience, but come on.

Ashley Johnson has nothing on me. Alrighty. Ten to five. Seven. Yay. I actually don't move until next combat, funny enough. Three. What'd you get? Two. Alright. I actually don't move till next combat, funny enough. Three? What'd you get?

Two. All right. The lowest I can roll. All right, with that, Ruza, you guys are going to go at the same time because you have the same dexterity. You and Ruza are going to go at the same time. What are you going to do?

Well, let's see. I think the best thing that I can do is be the eyes of these people since I'm still working on my getting out of my predicament. So let's say we move the Grand

Duchess to a safe but at least a well lit place to see the action. Alright, the Duchess to a safe, but at least a well-lit place to see the action. All right. The Duchess darts across the chamber, across from where the torch is, and perches up on a piece of the protruding stonework where she has a good view of the hallway where they're currently receding and the chamber you're in.

All right. Very good. And how well do I see these two gentlemen who've been keeping me company? The gentleman and the lady are both, you see them both pretty well. She, at the same turn, is running down the hallway. I don't like that. So what are you doing? Let's see.

What can I do to this besides can I do to this to besides just trying to pick the lock is there is there anything I can do to to maybe knock it open at this point no I still I still only have one hand free right well you you've managed to get both of your hands free drop the manacles and the the gag you've been working on this for a while. You're still in the cage. Freedom, baby. All right. So I say, let's see. Oh, you know what?

Oh, man, I hate to use this so early in the night. Do it. Do it. These guys suck. Oh, screw it. You know what? You know what? There's nothing like a spiritual weapon to tear into a... All right.

And what form is your spiritual weapon? That's a great question. We get props. Oh my god You know when Shikasta makes a spiritual weapon It's normally you know A very powerful woman From the past So I

When I saw this downstairs... Dude. I said, plug her in. Nefertiti is in business. You know, I deal with royalty. I deal with queens and duchesses, man. All right. So with your view, you could drop it directly in front of Prado or behind Prado to still try and get the strike.

Would you want the front or the back? Can I bowl her down that hallway and see how many pins I can knock over? I'm just asking. At this distance, you could get one. You'd be able to next round try again. Alright, you know, let's pick up this spare. Okay, so we'll say he bowls by and slams right there. Taurus, go ahead and make a spell attack roll for me, please.

So d20, add your spell. Yeah. Your spell attack modifier. Yeah. Seven. Plus. Seven plus. For your spell, plus... Oh, it's none of these. Paperwork! 14. 14.

14, unfortunately, does not hit. Prado's a nimble fella. As Nefertiti's mystical bust slams towards him, he dodges out of the way and goes, and just begins darting back towards there. That was your bonus action. You still have your action to either cast a cantrip or do anything else with your action,

like pick the lock or anything else you want to try and do. Oh, I'd say we try to pick the lock a little bit and see if we can get out of here. Go for it. Go ahead and roll a d20, add your dexterity modifier and your proficiency modifier. That's three plus three. So plus six to whatever you roll.

14, 17. 20 total. 20 total. 20 total? 20 is whatever you roll. 14, 17. 20 total. 20 total. 20 total? 20 is what you needed. It was a DC 20K. Now I'm free to do what I want. Any old time.

Taking the small pieces of metal and wire that the Duchess has been slowly stealing from throughout the sour nest and bringing back to your cage, you manage to get the lock to fall open, and with that, the cage opens, and you can step out, taking your first breath of free air

in a couple of days. Ladies and gentlemen, it feels so good to be out. With all of you beautiful people. All right. Does that finish your turn? I do believe that does. All righty. Finishing Acosta's run.

Ruza has darted to the back there. Let's see. This brings us... Ruza's going to go ahead and hold her action. Nott, you're up next. Is Prada still in the room? Prada is out of the room, but Prada is moving through the hall further down that way.

Can I see him? Yeah. I would like to shoot him. But first I'll run closer so I'm within 30 feet. You'll run so you're within 30 feet? Yeah. Oh god, there's probably traps. Oh shit. There you go. That's about 25, 30 feet right there.

Did I die? No. Okay, cool. I will shoot my crossbow. Oh, that's no good. No, 13. 13 does not hit. It ducks out of the way, and you watch as it hits some of the stone walls,

sparking before it lands harmlessly on the wall. One more shot, bonus action. That's better. 19. 19 does hit. Go to the wall. Okay, good. That's ten points of damage. All right. Not bad.

As he dodges the first one, the other one, he tries to duck out of the way, and instead you see it vanish into the cloak. At first you thought it just passed through harmlessly, but you hear a, yeah, and he kind of falls and limps against the wall for a second before looking up in your direction with a snarl. All right, that finish your turn? Have I done all my movement?

No, technically you still have about 15 feet. I'll just duck over towards Shakasta so I'm not right in eyeline of either of the hallway baddies. You go to duck over towards Shakasta, so I'm not right in eyeline of either of the hallway baddies. You go to duck over towards Shakasta and your face hits something that's not there. It's like some sort of invisible force. Why do I keep running into things?

I need contact lenses. You immediately recognize the familiar scent of Caleb's coat right in front of you. Oh! Caleb! Caleb, is that you? Act natural. At which point? Caleb, it's your turn.

I'm going to slide out away from Nott and go to the other side clear of the hallway to look into the cage that's there. Into the cage? To the other side of the room. Oh, over here? Yes, and is anyone alive or dead in that cage? Make a perception check.

That is 19. Okay. Inside, you see what appears to be two people. You see a small child, what looks to be a dwarf male, older. Both are looking scared, the child especially, but the dwarf has his arms around the child protectively.

Though it is a human child, it looks like they've both been in captivity for a bit, and at least he's feeling protective of the child. They're both stripped of any necessary implements, aside from just their clothing, and they look scared, but not too worse for wear. Okay. Hello.

I'm invisible. Stay as low as possible, and this will all blow over quickly, I think. And that's the end of my turn. All right. That brings us to Prado. He's going to Prado. He's gonna go ahead. Ah, that's not working.

There we go. Prado's gonna go ahead and dart over to join Ruzza at the back, and says, Quick, send it down, send it down! And Ruzza, who's been holding her action, reaches back and grabs what looks to be some sort of a lever. At which point, both of the archways to the front and the back of the chamber that you're in, you hear this grinding of chains. Oh fuck.

No! Are you outside of the room? No, I came in with you guys, I think. I think you were just peeking around. Am I not in? I don't think you're in. Sealing the three of you in the chamber. Shit.

Beauregard, Keg, Caduceus, in the hallway behind, as you spin around the corner, this portcullis suddenly slams down, separating you from the other half of your party. I'm at Mercer. That's not good. First the t-shirt, and now this?

You bastard! At which point Prado, who now has kept you at bay and can see the space between the bars, takes out his crossbow, and the one that he can see best at this moment is Nott. And he's gonna go ahead and take a shot at Nott. That's going to be a 17 plus four? Oh yeah, that hits. For sure. That's going to be a 17 plus four. No, plus... Oh, yeah, that hits. For sure. Sorry, plus six to hit.

So that's, yeah, that hits. This is a long bow, not a crossbow. My apologies. So that's two plus four. He takes six points of piercing damage. Okay, yes, fine, yes. And then he's going to go ahead and dart around the corner. Okay.

Oh, wait, I can take my little, my reaction, can't I? Yes you can. What is that thing called? Reduce it. Uncanny dodge, uncanny dodge. I'll reduce that to three. There you go, so three damage to you. All right, that's gonna go ahead and end Prado's go

as he darts around the corner. Beau, you're up. Ah, okay. I come around the gate. I look in and I go, hey, Shakasta! Hey! Hello, darling. What's up? What are you doing out here?

Well, you know, vacationing. Hmm. More like a staycation. I'm going to hold my action and kind of start wedging my staff up under the door and maybe deuces can help me crank it open. I'm actually going to turn around and start searching that hallway.

Oh, cool, man. Yeah. No, I'm not doing something really important here to keep our friends from reaching their peril. and start searching that hallway. Oh, cool, man. Yeah. No, I'm not doing something really important here to keep our friends from reaching their peril. So you go to hold your action to try and wedge it, look back for his help, and you see him just turn the other direction and start walking away.

Are you going to continue with your action or still hold it? Real cool, man. Keg? Okay, I'm going to try to pull a Nila and fucking rip that shit open with my bare hands. Okay.

We will see. Come on, baby. No whammies. So Keg comes to that. You have advantage on this because Beauregard is helping you because she's holding her axe and you can't help with that.

Seriously, no whammies this time, please. Fuck. So that's a 16. A 16. The bars begin to pull open ever so slightly, but not enough. You do feel, however, that whatever weight is carrying it down is heavy with two people. You might have a chance of lifting it. But it looks like the bars are too thick to try and pull apart.

I did the wrong. We should under. Under's better. That's okay. With our legs, lower back, yeah. Yeah. All right. That ends Keg's turn. We should under. Under's better. That's okay. With our legs? Lower back? No. All right. That ends Keg's turn. Caduceus. I want to search this little hallway for a switch

or some kind of panel to open this thing from this side. Make an investigation check. All right. He's so calm under pressure. He's like a walking Quaalude. Yeah, no. I don't find anything. What'd you get? After adding my negative investigation number, it's a one.

You start to just trace the stonework with your fingers and then find this really fascinating bit of moss, kind of soft green that's been growing in the crevice. You haven't seen this type of moss before. Hey, hey fella. Hi friend. And you forget for the moment what you're doing. What? Oh, yeah.

Top of the turn. That brings us to Shakasta and Ruza. Now, she's going first because she's a little quicker than you on this one. Ruza's going to go ahead and let's see here. Yeah, she's going to Vicious

Mockery. That's a fun one. Looking through at let's say Shakasta, since you're the one who stepped out of the cage and they had seen you there for a bit, just kind of looks over to you and goes, Oh, I'm sorry. Was our betting arrangements not good enough for you? Oh, we can arrange for a much better place to sleep

about six feet beneath this. Go ahead and make a wisdom saving throw, please. Oh, no. I hope you're wise. Oh, I can do it. Let's see. 20. Oh, yeah. Never mind. 20 oh yeah

never mind cannot be mocked like water off a duck's back doesn't bother you darling it's you just put one obstacle between us. You know, I'm just going to knock that one down, too. I think they're in love.

No, there's definitely sexual tension. Ain't no mountain high enough. All righty. And what are you going to do for your turn? Let's see. Well, I believe that trapped within that gate is the beautiful Queen Nefertiti. Yeah. I think she should just go slamming her ass all up and down that hallway.

Go ahead and roll another attack. D20. Big one. Oh, that didn't work. Let's see, what did that end up doing? Let's see. That's your spell attack modifier. Was it plus seven, I think?

Oh, so ten. Yeah. Once again, everyiti goes grinding through the hallway, slamming near Ruzza. Ruzza quickly ducks out of the way and kind of dodges over to where Prado is hiding. The queen's used to having other people do her work for her, I guess. So why don't I point my middle finger down that, through those slats in the gate, and send some Sacred Flame? Yeah, that'll work. All right, so that's a wisdom-saving throw, I believe.

Or Sacred Flame is dexterity? I think it is. Either way, let's see what she rolls. That's a 13 plus. Ooh, that's a 13 plus. That's a good roll. Tell us, is it wisdom or dexterity for Sacred Flame? Sacred Flame, say.

You said Dex? It was Dex for me. Dex, all right, so that is, yeah. That's a 19. That's a success. So as the middle finger sticks through, she ducks away. She's a wily one, Ruzza, and she just keeps dodging and weaving, dancing around your assault.

Next time, I'll use the other finger. So much sexual tension. Get a room, guys! All righty. Finishing up Shikasa's turn, that brings us to Nott. Nott, what are you doing? Oh, me? Again? I just went. Great. I'm going to run up to the cage. Do I still see them?

Through the portcullis? You don't see Prado, but you see Ruzza. All right, I'll take a shot at Ruzza. Go for it. That's 25. Oh, that'll hit. Nice. That'll hit.

Oh, and I get to roll, but still no sneak attack. Damn it. Yeah, they see you there. Six. Six points of damage to RZA. Gotcha. And then I guess I'll shoot again. Yeah, because I don't know how. I can't lift this thing.

I'm a wee thing. I mean, you can certainly try. No, I can't. I'll just shoot again. That's 18. 18 hits. Roll damage again. That's 18. 18 hits. Roll damage again. That's 11 points of damage.

Nice. Not too bad. These are good rolls today. Firing between these bars of the pork liss. Fire both bolts. Both of them sink into the armor and probably pierce an inch or two into the torso of Rosa. You watch as she falls back into the wall.

Oh, you son of a bitch. And then I'm going to duck around again so they can't see me just anywhere. Right up next to you, kind of bump into an invisible Caleb again. Are there duplicates of you? How are you doing this? I am very stealthy. Oh, you are you doing this? I am very stealthy.

You are amazing. Caleb, your turn. Well, you know, this seems to be going okay, not so bad. So are those tables by the gate that Keg and Beauregard are trying to pull up? Yes. The room I'm in? I'm going to kick one over and roll it over, because I can see Keg sort of jimmying on the gate. I see where she's going with it.

And I'm going to be ready to push it under once it's lifted up. And I will hold my turn, but I'm going to do that pushing my rear end out of the way of view of anyone, even though I'm invisible. Just for the hell of it, make an athletics check for me. Okay.

Always fun. What could go wrong? Big six. All right. You managed to make it most of the way over, but it's a relatively heavy table for your size and diminutive form. I have average strength. You can probably get it there by the end of next round,

but you're in process. Yeah, okay. Aw, there's a tiny table you can move. Finishing Caleb's go, it is now Prado's turn. Prado's gonna go ahead and dart back around the corner. Ducks beneath Nefertiti, and then is going to... Gonna take two shots at Beauregard, but because it's between two portcullises, he has disadvantage on the strikes.

This is the only one he can currently see down this long hallway. Okay. So the first shot is a natural 20, but disadvantage. That is a nine plus six. That is a 15 to hit. What's your armor count? Miss.

Miss. Nice. Yeah. Ting. The second shot is a 19 to hit. Oh, hits. All righty. So the second longbow shot releases towards you for,

that's going to be eight points of piercing damage. I'm going to use my reaction to deflect missiles. Oh, I rolled a nine. Sorry. I should have dictated that. The first one kind of just goes wide and hits the wall beyond the boundaries of the portcullis. The second one you see coming towards you,

you just catch it. I would probably have a disadvantage if I'm throwing it back through like she was. Your call. Okay, okay, I'll do it, I'll do it. I'm going to pull some, like, gambit moves and try and right through the door, toss it back. Munchit!

Munchit! Guys, this material does not breathe. Can I get a don't fuck me, Gil? Oh, Gil fucked me. Seven. You go to throw it, and it hits the bar immediately upon release and kind of like shoots off to the side. It skids to a stop at the foot of Shakasta

as he kind of looks down at it, confused. I got this for you. You've always been so thoughtful. Yeah, I know. Thank you. All righty, Beau. No. That was into Prado's turn. Prado's gonna actually move back behind the corner.

Now it's your turn. Okay, I'm gonna wait for Keg so we can lift. Hoist. All right, holding that. Keg, it's your go? Okay, I'm gonna wait for Keg so we can lift. Hoist it? Okay. Hoist. All right, holding that, Keg, it's your go. With advantage. 20! Nacho, go, 20!

20! 20! 20! So Beau, as you squat down to get your hands in the position to grab you, you're like, all right, time to go. And as you go to reach for it, it's already lifted up.

Man, it was really light, actually. I don't know. You see Keg there just holding it up, both arms overhead. Ah, yeah. What's up? Everything flexes. With that, Caleb scoots the table back into space to keep it held somewhat aloft.

Yeah, this table's pretty heavy, too. Do I have more things? Can I rush forward and try the second door? Or is that that? That would be an additional action, but you can move through the space if you'd like. Okay, I would like to do that. I move through as well if I can.

Well, you were holding, unfortunately, you had to ready your action on your turn, so you don't you'd like. Okay, I would like to do that. I move through as well if I can. Well, you were holding, unfortunately, you had to ready your action on your turn, so you don't have any movement. Okay, copy. One, two, three, four, five. That puts you right up next to Shkasta. Shkasta, as you, of all the friends that you recognize coming into this event,

you watch as this short-haired, burly, kind of somewhat gritty, stubble-chinned female dwarf in full kind of jagged-looking half-plate armor comes up with two heavy weapons, one a giant warhammer, the other a battle axe. Looks to be the edge of a mostly-burned cigarette kind of dangling at the edge of the lip

after holding this thing up and then just stepping through, dropping it behind her. So what's your name? Keg, as in booze or powder, explosions, etc. What's your name? Keg, as in booze or powder, explosions, etc. What's your name? Shakasta. We'll get a keg later, Keg. Get a room, you two!

Keg is aroused? Is he flipping you? Question mark? I go both ways, baby. What can I say? What can I say? I love a strong woman. So let's do this.

Caduceus, it's your turn. I see that this is no longer fruitful. Get a little momentary frustration. I'm going to drop this ridiculous form I'm in and go back to normal. I'm going to dive underneath the door. Take a look, assess the situation. Ah, I'm going to take my staff, and I'm going to whisper to it, it's lunchtime, children.

And let's throw that, let's throw a swarm of insects right into the middle of it. You watch the naturally kind of twisted and gnarled wooden staff that Caduceus carries, which previously had what looked like a dozen of small knot holes in it, suddenly begin to just exude dozens and dozens and dozens of small beetles that began to swarm out of the staff and curling onto the ground.

So cool. So you can place it. Where can I get it? Can I just put it right on top of that problem in the corner? Like right around the corner. Just so it can't quite be seen by anyone down the hall, but close enough to bite. It's 30 feet. You can't quite get it to them.

Even if I go all the way? Okay. How close can I get to them? You're right next to them. The swarm of beetles is right beneath the floating bust of Nefertiti. Can it make a bite attack? It won't be able to attack this turn, unfortunately. I think I can... I think I get a bite attack on first appearance.

Right, but how close can you summon it? 30 feet. Right, so it appears 30 feet, and then it's within that 30 feet. Right, but it's not quite close enough to bite anybody. Okay, that's cool, that's cool. It's not 10 feet away. That's cool. You look really cool.

Hi. Hello. So do you I don't know who does your hair but we can talk about it later I'm very impressed oh yeah and I'm going to back up now that I realize that we're in fighting shot I'm going to back up so I'm no longer

to the far left corner the rest of your movement puts you right there oh that's as far as I can get? yeah alright and I'll go invisible until my next turn left corner. The rest of your movement puts you right there. Oh, that's as far as I can get? Yeah. Alright. And I'll go invisible until my next turn. As a bonus action? Yeah. Alright.

You can just do that? How many of you can do that? You don't know me. What? Alrighty. I'm going to need somebody to teach me this trick. Alright, that fins your turn. At the top of the round, at this point, as you're all kind of gearing,

this bassy, resonant voice fills the chamber you're in. Hmm. Boo! It's rare that the meat carries itself right to your table. But you don't see anything around you. But that's all it says. She's invisible too? Everyone knows this trick.

At the top of the round, Ruzza, seeing that the scenario is kind of turning, and this trap scenario isn't going in their favor, darts away. Darts away? Darts further down that hall. Damn it. Shkasta? Is there anybody still in that hallway?

Not that you can see. There is still that porkalist blocking your path. Okay. Let's see. There is still that porkalist blocking your path. Okay, let's see. Oh, well then, let's have the Duchess move a little further, maybe into the corner of the... Yeah, yeah, through the slats into that corner, perch up there, and see if she can see down the hallway a little bit. Got it. All right.

So the Duchess manages to find her way over to the far corner of that hall and perches up to give you a view, and you can see as Ruzza is making her way down the edge and around the corner, vanishing into this next chamber. Oh, God, I'm knocking things over. It happens. I'm sorry. It's fine. They'll be okay in the end. It's happening. There we go.

All righty. And glancing, ending your view there, what are you going to do? Just look at me? Is that what's happened? That's why you're just suddenly laughing? Thank you. Nice. Let's see.

Oh, you know what? Hey, salt shaker, are you strong? Is there a mechanism for opening that gate? You can spend the rest of your turn investigating the room for something like that. Yeah, why don't we do that? Roll an investigation check. All right, what do I roll?

20. room for something like that. Yeah, why don't we do that? Roll an investigation check. Alright, what do I roll again? 20? 12. Alright. You don't see anything in the chamber. The only thing that you did notice was the switch at the end of the hallway that Ruzza had originally put down to send the portcullises

following. We saw that? You saw them drop the portcullises, yeah. Okay. Is it like a huh? Or like a button? No, it's like a small lever that kind of goes downward and causes them to be released to slam down. Too big for a tiny bird.

For a tiny bird, yeah. Okay. Is that the end of my turn? I mean, you have an action if you wanted to try something else. Let's see. Is there anything that we could do to shake this thing free?

Could I hit this with a spiritual weapon? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Why don't we slam the gate with Nefertiti? That could work. Let's see if we can find something she can do. All right. So have Nefertiti go ahead and roll an attack against the wall.

All right. Natural one. Oh. It's that big headdress. It's getting in the way. Yeah. Restart it. Sometimes that's what you've got to do with Nefertitis. in the way. Yeah. Restart it.

Sometimes that's what you gotta do with Nefertiti's. Sometimes if you turn it off and turn it on, it works. It helps. As the bus slams into the bar, the metal rings from the impact, but unfortunately,

just the mild bulging of the metal on this side isn't enough to really cause any damage. All right. All right, does that finish enough to really cause any damage. All right. All right, does that finish your turn? Let's see. All right, that brings us to Nott. Yeah, I don't think I've got anything.

Nott's gonna run up to the cage and reach out with her mage hand. And try to flip the switch. As it does so, you hear and the portcullis begin to raise up. Yes! Yes! Good job, Nut. I'm going to just sort of

inch around Nefertiti. Excuse me, Mrs. Titi. Pardon me? Pardon me? Is Prado still there? Or did Prado bug out? No, Prado is ducked around the corner. And Ruse is still there?

They're both... They both just disappeared around the corner from your perspective. And so all I see is a hallway and a swarm of bees. A swarm of beetles, yes. Okay. I don't want to go through the swarm of insects. I don't know what would happen.

Only one way to find out. Oh, Jesus. I will run through the swarm of insects. And bonus action, disengage from them. I don't know if that works. As you dart and vault over the beetles, they seem to not pay you any mind or really care of your presence,

but nevertheless, you dodge the shit out of them. They never had a chance. Just in case I grab some chopsticks and I just catch one. All righty, as you turn around the corner, immediately you see, maybe ten feet from you, is Prado, who's currently pulling another arrow out of his bow and is turning around the corner.

Glance over. Ah, shit! Can I just duck back behind the corner, or am I exposed? Your movement got you right around that corner, so that's going to be the end of it there. Caleb, you're up. Okay, since the gate is open, I'm going to start slowly walking

down the hallway after not sticking close to the wall. All right. That's as far as I get. It's as far as you can get on 30 feet movement. Okay, so I will... You can use your action to dash if you want. I could, but I don't want to do that.

I will put Frumpkin on the wall opposite me, 10 feet ahead of me, and then I would love to give Frumpkin his turn to go as far along the ceiling after not. What's the movement of the spider again? Oh, you know, like 120 feet. Did we, question, did we ever get the

father and son out of the cage? No, they're still in there. They're good where they are right now. 20 feet. All right. They're fine. So, Frumpkin moves 20 feet along the ceiling and the edge, making his way further down.

Not full enough to reveal the next chamber, but is there nevertheless. And I will just stay pressed against the wall, and that's the end of my turn. Okay, that finishes Caleb's go. Prado's up. Prado runs and disappears into the next chamber. You hear what sounds like a door open.

That's all. All right, that finishes. Beau, your turn. I kind of halt everybody, and I say, wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait.

Wait. Wait. Wait. This is absurd. I don't know. This feels like we're being lured right into a trap. Yeah, it does. We're following him.

That's what it feels like. All right. Where's Caleb? Caleb? Caleb! Caleb's gone. Okay. He's dead.

Who's the next in command when Caleb's not around? You know, Keg, I feel like we don't need a man's approval for a plan, necessarily. I think this is a pretty solid fucking plan. What's the solid plan? I don't have a plan! In Beauregard's ear, she hears, I am just in the hallway ahead of you. Just chill out for a moment. And I will continue to let Frumpkin creep around

if we are in that sort of a scenario. All right. At the moment, it doesn't appear that there is... This is more of a chase sequence as you guys are going after them. In this order, as we progress, next up in the order would be Caduceus. Caduceus, what are you doing?

I'm going to send my insects further down. All right. After them. Bugs. The show's all about bugs now. Bugs. I'll hold my action in case I see anything, by the way, with my turn, if that's okay. Okay. Oh, can I move in? I want to move in. I was talking to everybody.

Mm-hmm. That's... That's good. All right. So. And I guess I'm going to push to the far corner of the hallway and just take a look down to see if I see anything. As far as I can get. You don't quite get that far. And the invisibility lasts until the end of your next turn?

Invisibility that you get? Oh, then now it's over. Yeah. As you pass in the hallway, you hear lightly, Hey. Cool. Alrighty. So as Frumpkin creeps around the corner,

the last thing that Frumkin sees in this area is another cage that is closed and locked in and what looks to be another humanoid figure that is slumped inside, gagged and bound, chains, manacles behind the back, and similar to the other captives who've been held. There is a doorway that you see one of the other hired guards is closing behind him,

and for a brief glimpse, you see Prado and Ruzza further in the chamber, where it looks to be a torch-light source within the next room before the door closes. If I'm able to now, I will send Frumpkin over the ceiling and down the door. And if there is a crack, he will go through. All right, so the rest of you moving in further into the next chamber? Sure, yeah, if there's no threat. I'll scan for traps as I walk.

Make an investigation check. Yeah, motherfucker! Oh! 24! Woo! an investigation check. Yeah, motherfucker! 24. Best rolls of my life! All right. As you turn around the corner, you can see the beetle swarm and

Frumpkin both kind of making their way towards the bottom of the door as most of your friends are coming along, at which point you look down and can see of the generally pretty rough-hewn stone flooring that most of these lower chambers entail, the step right in front of the closed door behind them seems to have some sort of a grooved pattern in it that is mostly filled with dust and dirt.

Woo! I am the greatest rogue alive! I will go and try to disarm that trap. All right. Well, with my mage hand. Go ahead and attempt to do so. It's plus seven. It's plus your dexterity modifier

and your proficiency modifier. So 20 even. 20 even. Nice. You manage to get the mage hand beneath, and at a quick glance, you can see this is not a mechanical contraption more than it's an enchantment on the piece of stone itself.

Oh, so I can't decide. So what you do is the mage hand kind of runs itself around the outskirts of it, pulling up the dust and dirt that has settled in to have it blend in with the rest of stone itself. Oh, so I can't decide. So what you do is the mage hand kind of runs itself around the outskirts of it, pulling up the dust and dirt that has settled in to have it blend in with the rest of the stone, curling beneath and pops it up and causes it to just fold up a bit, lift out the stone tablet,

and drift it off to the side and set it down. So the trap is still armed, but that part of the floor has now been moved out of the way. So we can step over around it. Yes. Yes. Nice. Wow. Caleb, are you right next to me? From where are you? No.

No? Oh. And you're sending Frumpkin into the next chamber? Yeah, if there's a gap, yeah. There is a slight gap for a little stealth check for Frumpkin this time. Is Frumpkin's not invisible, is he? No, no, it's a spider. Hey, good news, I rolled a one.

As Frumpkin curls beneath the doorframe. Revealing what looks to be this other hired guard that was back further in the chamber. Prado and Ruzza, they've lifted what looks to be another barred trap door that guards another set of stairs that goes deeper below into another chamber. A dungeon in a dungeon? They're stepping further down into this next bit,

at which point Prada looks over her shoulder and goes, hurry! It gets an attack before you can pull him back. That's going to be a 16 plus 6. That's a 24. But maybe it's only one point of damage. That is 11 points of piercing damage. Ooh!

Oh no. But maybe it's only one point of damage. That is 11 points of piercing damage. Ooh! And a rapid-fired arrow about that long, I'd say, against the spider would look terrible if it wasn't a fey entity that just dissipates into dust as it blinks back into its home dimension. They are going to die. How long does your beetle swarm last?

How long does your beetle swarm last? A minute. A minute? Okay. It probably only has a few more like maybe 10-15 more seconds before it fades. Really? Can we have followed behind at this point? You guys could have followed and gotten to the next chamber behind them if you wanted.

Can we say that we did that? Yeah, let's all kind of, can we all convene in this room? You may. Before we do anything else. Can I bring my spiritual weapon with me? You may. As ineffectual as she's been.

She's tried, though. She's tried. As Nefertiti kind of floats in behind Chakastis and inside, the spell begins to kind of blink out, running its course. You tried, baby. All right, so you see now there is the unconscious humanoid... No!

The unconscious humanoid figure in the cage before you and the closed door where they all vanished behind, and you hear... Sounds like some sort of metal object or slab has fallen solid onto flat ground. I start moving up through the hallway, not, yeah, it's still me. I'm still invisible. You need to check

that door. I don't know if it's trapped. Which door? The door that I just checked? The next door? You checked a trap in this room, didn't you? In the hallway that leads to the first chamber. But what about this door? Frumpkin watched, went under a new door. It's actually way more convenient.

You know about more rooms than I do. I just checked the door in the front of the first room. You checked for traps right there, and there was a trap on the floor right in front of that doorway. You disabled it and moved it out of the way, and now you guys are looking at the door. I point invisibly and say, the door that I'm pointing at, that one. I don't see, I don't know what you're saying. Waft your smell in the

direction that... And a gentle knock happens on the door in front of her. Is that the door that I checked? No. Yes? Well, you didn't check the door, you checked the room for traps, and that was the trap you saw. Oh, the door, the door, okay. I'll check the door. Why don't you check

the cage for these fellows? I was just thinking the same thing. That's a 17 on investigation. Alright, the door does not appear to be trapped. It is locked however, from the other side. From the other side. I'll help search the room as well.

I'll look for any other triggers or passageways. Any objections to me trying to chop this door down? Is it made of wood? I should ask first. It is made of wood. It has some metal framing to it, but it's wooden primarily. Yeah, I would prefer it. We are blown anyway.

Okay. Alright, here we go. Wait, what about these people in the cage? Yeah, I was just thinking, maybe we... Can I investigate the people that are in the cage? Yeah, you go ahead and walk up to them. You can see that they're the two people, the small child and the dwarf in the previous chamber where you were locked.

And in the chamber you just discovered, there appears to be an older gentleman in his maybe late 50s, early 60s or so. Looks pretty bruised up. One eye is kind of swollen shut. The other looks pretty bloodied as well. And he's just kind of chained from behind and has the gag in his mouth as well.

Can I at least get him to move close enough that I could get the gag out of his mouth? Yeah, you go ahead and pull it free. Who are you? We're friends. We're going to get you out of here. How are the bindings on your hands? On the heart.

You can see he looks weak. He probably hasn't eaten well a number of days. And as part of the process of them kind of mentally conditioning those they capture, it's a minimal sustenance and a lot of just mental and psychological damage as well as physical torture to go along with it. You've seen and endured some of it, but it looks like some of these other figures have gone through more of it. I have one good berry left over from Neela that she gave me that I didn't eat. So I'm going to just hand him the good berry.

Well, his hands are bound. I'm going to feed him the good berry. He looks at you with his one semi good eye and what are you why? What, you don't like berries? Just eat the berry!

Make an intimidation check. Eight. He looks at you. I'm sorry. Yeah, I'm sorry. And just sadly eats the berry. But Hauer is like, Yeah.

Okay, it's not too bad. Antioxidants, you know. That's I. What's your name, friend? What's your name? Juska. Juska. I'm just a farmer.

I don't know why they took me. And he kind of pulls against the constraints from behind. Can you get me out? Can you get me out, please? We are just giving them time to be ready for us. We need to proceed. Sorry about your ears, Grandpa. And then I smack the door with my axe. All right, make an attack roll.

You're the worst person. I am, I'm sorry. The door with my axe. Yeah, make an attack roll for the door. While she's doing that, I will... 20. Not a natural, just a... Yeah, no, that hits. Go ahead and roll damage.

Okay. I'm going to use Mage Hand to unbind his hands. All right, go ahead and roll. Nice. That's an eight. 14. 14. It takes you a little bit,

but you do manage to get the manacles off of the back of his body. And you roll what? An eight. An eight. As you come down with your battle you do manage to get the manacles off the back of his body. And you roll what? An eight. An eight. As you come down with your battle axe, you all hear the resounding as it slams into the wood, splintering and breaking it a bit. You can see just a brief gap where you've managed to get two of the wooden boards to separate

and it's starting to splinter. You're starting to go full shining on this door. With that impact, over the next moment, with repeated hits, you definitely can see your ability to cut through this. Okay. Can I do it again? Can I begin to get through? Okay. Yeah. As that's happening, the bindings are now freed, and Jessica kind of brings his wrists up

and kind of rubs them. You can see where the strain has caused red, bloodied lines across from the tension where he's pulled against the restraints. Sallow, this kind of long-bearded, or a bearded chin out of just neglect looks up with a faint glimmer of hope and smile to the rest of you and just says, hey, thank you.

He's still in the cage. Still in the cage, yeah. It's still locked in the cage. Yeah. Should I try to unlock that thing? Go for it. Make it 820? All right. 11. Plus your dex bonus and your proficiency bonus. It'll be plus six, I think. Six.

So 17. 17. It's going to take you a bit. You're starting to get through it, but these cages are designed to be hard to pick. But you take the better part of a minute to do so. In the meantime, you. So, Matt, hypothetically, if I rolled a critical failure

trying to go shining on the door, what would happen? You'd bury us. Oh God. Intermission. Just in theory. In theory, your axe goes wide, and as opposed to hitting the actual wood, manages to catch a heavy part of the metal reinforcement

on the door frame. As it hits, that heavy impact just sends reverberations through your arm and body like the worst kind of tennis elbow or like, you know, you've ever felt. And as you go, chatter back on it for that minute,

a voice familiar creeps in again in the space around you. What are you planning to accomplish? You've killed a few bottom barrel goons, but you're in my domain now. I had first planned to make you into premium contraband when finished. However, I may just keep you all as my own personal pets

Kayla's been silently making the jerk-off motion In the room they're standing in Let's get this door open I have to make a saving throw, Matt? Make a wisdom saving throw, please Oh, no! Got this Come on, no! Got this. Come on, baby. Character development.

15? 15, okay. In the moment, the sense of intimidation that your previous employer, Lorenzo, had held over you, and all the memories of what transpired on the Glory Run road not but a day before

goes running through your mind and you feel that cold sense of fear, that urge to run creep up once more and you close your eyes tightly and shrug it off. That for the first time in the face of this, that driving surge of vengeful confidence beginning to burn in your belly once more. I just got a little teary-eyed.

And I say, eat shit, fucko! And then I go for the door again. And that is a 20. And I'm on the door. With your second swipe, you bring both your battle axe and your war hammer together in one giant swing, both splintering the wood and the force of the hammer,

splintering and breaking what looks to be the two main heavy wooden boards that hold the majority of the right side of the door by where the hinges hold it on. As you break through, the door... breaks on the top side and then swings open, the apparatus of which keeps it there

wedged in that door, broken partway and now rendered pretty much useless. The chamber in front of you is now left open for you all to see where the three members, both Prada Rusa and the third thug have vanished from the chamber.

You see what appears to be a table on the far end and a brazier kind of burning with a low flame. And then what looks to be the stairway below has a set of bars, like another trap door that is just a gate that seems to have closed and locked behind them. I like your fire, Keg. Thanks. I'm going through some shit. Can we get this gate open? Maybe not. Will you have a look at it first?

Sure. How are you doing over there, Shikasta, with the gate? I think I'm almost there. All right. At this point, Shikasta, you do manage to finally get the final tumbler of this one locked up. It opens up, and with that, watch as the older gentleman kind of steps out,

takes one step towards you, and half collapses into your arms. He's just drained of energy. Put that good berry. Yeah, that's the only berry you got. Electrolytes. He rights himself. But that good Barry. Yeah. That's the only Barry you got. Electrolytes. He writes himself.

He's not unconscious. He just kind of stumbles and then gets back up and leans against the wall, breathing heavily. Right. There are a couple of people that are in the chamber around the corner here that are also trapped. How are you with the lockpick? We're deputizing the guy we just fired? He looks at you for about ten seconds, blinking the one eye he can blink.

Never mind. Thanks for that. I make radishes grow. We'll come back for it. Yeah, yeah. I say, you know what? Go to the chamber around the corner. Stay there with the people who are there, who are caged. We're going to let you all free in a bit, but we've got some business we've got to take care of. We're going to make sure these people don't do this again.

Okay. Say, hey, when was the last time you've seen Lorenzo? Did he go this way? Has he come back? I haven't noticed. I'm sorry. I try not to make eye contact. They don't like it when I do. Did you see a blue tiefling or a green sort of gradient-colored

half-orc and maybe like a sort of amazing-looking white and black sort of kind of dark angel thing? He looks to you first kind of still taken aback by the goblin face and the sharpened teeth

and the yellow eye staring back, but calms himself. I think those were the new projects he took below. Projects? We gotta move. Caleb is already in the next room, steering clear of the trap and trying to inspect if that brazier is arcane in nature or if there is anything

dangerous other than the trap. Make an arcana check. While he does that, I'm going to go immediately for the gate and look at that into the stairs and see what the deal is. Are you looking for traps or anything? I'm going to investigate and see how I can potentially open it if it's locked.

So Beau, as you approach the gate and go to look towards it, the razor flame flickers. I jump back, I jump back. You do just as a gout of flame juts out in your direction. Oh, if only I had gotten to say natural 20 before that happened.

Well, you realize what it is just as it happens. Oh! Oh, that's one of those... A cone of flame just bursts forward from the brazier in your direction. I need you to make a dexterity saving throw, please. Oh. Oh.

I rolled a two. So nine. You take ten points of fire damage. Oh, that's not so bad. As it incinerates past you, and you kind of take a step back, and the flame is now super small. It just expended a lot of its fire energy in the brazier.

It's just this low flicker. It begins to burn brighter. Ah! While it's going, I'm going to see if I can yank open the thing. All right, go ahead and make a strength check. Can I do athletics? This is a straight strength check, unfortunately. I'm sorry. I prefer a nature check. A check. Just roll a d20, add your...

Don't fuck me. Gil. Fifteen. Fifteen. Yeah. Begins to bend. You can see now where they've lifted to lock behind it latches when it's dropped. And where the latch has stuck in and it's been locked underneath, it's starting to pull apart. The metal is bending.

It's not strong enough to break. It'll take another round to do so. But it's starting to give. I'm going to rush forward and help. All right. Do the same thing. Wow. And am I aware of that trap? What sets it off since I got the natural 20?

Yes, proximity. Proximity, all right. So go ahead and make a strength check. Okay. I'm still trying to help. 21. 21. Beau, as you're pulling, your muscle is getting sore.

The veins bulging in your arms and your neck. You're yanking as hard as you can. Keg, do I look buff? Yeah, you look great. Thank you. Keg joins in with you and both together. Do I look buff? The latches break off and it slides open,

hitting the back wall, leaving the stairs below open, this kind of warm air billowing up from beneath, at which point I need you both to make a dexterity saving throw. As the razor now has regained its flame and then sets forth another blast. What was it? 19. 19? 12.

Alright, so you succeed. Beau, you unfortunately do not. So that's going to be 12 points of fire damage to you, Beau. Oh! Six points to you. I still get burned! You take half damage, though. And you watch as the flame now turns to a small cinder,

and then begins to rise once more, kind of regenerating its flame power. Is it, the brazier, it's in the wall? It's inside the wall? There is what looks to be a stone bowl of some kind that is on a small pedestal that looks decorative on the corner that contains a small ember,

but the ember itself seems to be magical, and whenever anybody walks within a certain distance of it, it just sends a gout of flame in their direction. Can I mage hand grab it and throw the bowl across the room? Well first off, you both are in proximity, you have the stairs below, what are you doing? Are we down, right?

Down, yeah. We drop down. All right, both Beau and Keg vanish down the stairs. Just as the flames over the direction they were, but it passes overhead without any harm. You've managed to pull out of the range of this razor nut. That looks like a big bowl. It's pretty large.

I don't think I can lift that. And it looks like the stone bowl itself is probably built into the pillar. It would weigh far too much for your mage hand to move. How do we get down there without the fire thing happening again? Oh, Caleb, are you in the room? I am in the room. There are a couple

of options. I could dispel it. It would take me about ten minutes. I would no longer be invisible. Ten minutes? You would lose time. The second option is that we just run for it. Well, I mean, if that's the options, I'm going to just tap my staff

and cast Dispel at the moment. Yes! What do you do? Dispel? Yeah. You can do Dispel? Yeah. What can't you do? It's a second level spell, right? Why weren't you always playing this character?

Dispel magic is third level. What? Dispel magic is third level. Alright? The spell magic is third level. All right. So I'll cast that. All right. You watch as the flame blinks out and is left dark. Flameless. Just a pile of blackened ash,

and whatever source of this enchantment is rent useless. Good job, Caleb. We should have waited. There is a deep, deep sigh in the room, and then Caleb descends into the hall. Well, I mean, if they had just asked,

I would have, I don't know. Okay. So you all continue down the stairs after your friends? Sure. Yeah. The duchess perch is on my shoulder. And just stops there, kind of wings tucked up, long beak, breathing really fast.

Keep a sharp eye, darling. As Deuces and Shikasa come down the stairs, they say, does this look bad to you? And I show them my scorched, really burnt arm, because it hurts real bad. It doesn't look good. That doesn't look that good. Is there anything I can do to help you right now? Yeah, that was kind of my

question. I just didn't want to ask outright. She's very passive-aggressive. Yeah. I have a potion if you need it, Beau. I have two. Yeah. I have a potion if you need it, Beau. I have two. So. Do you want it?

Let's wait for the clerics to weigh in. The clerics to finish their counsel. I say suck it up, Buttercup. I'll take care of you later. But Shakasta, I got you that nice arrow. Do you want it now?

Yeah, no, I want it now. It's a greater healing potion. So, greater healing potion. So that's 44 plus four. Whoa! You have two of those? Yeah, baby. Damn! Oh, yeah, baby. Thanks, man.

All right. Man, smoking is great. Kids, you heard it here. Oh, good roll. Wait, does she roll? So 14. 14 points. That's great.

That's very good. Shakasta, would you, friend, would you do us the favor of Stacy? Is it Stacy or Anastasia? It's Anastasia, baby. Okay. I used to have a cat. I do not any longer. Would you do us the favor of having a peek around with your bird, friend?

That sounds like a lovely idea. Grand Duchess, if you wouldn't mind? All right, as you all begin to prepare the continuing descent, the stairs only travel down about 25 or so feet before you. It looks to be a low, red-lit chamber and steps that go on beyond, so you have a view down to where the base is. The Duchess begins to coast down towards that space.

That's where we're going to take a break. Oh! Lorenzo has a red room. How long is this break, Matt? What is this, 10 minutes? 12 minutes? About 15 minutes break. We'll be back here in just a moment, guys.

For those who are watching and you want to go ahead and be part of the Wyrmwood giveaway, head over to the Critical Role Twitch channel at twitch.tv slash criticalrole. Enter the code word GENCON. G-E-N-C-O-N, one word. We'll come back with a winner's name at the end of the break. We'll see you here in 15 minutes.

Everybody check out the D&D Beyond booth. 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 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. We got this. All righty. Are we back? We look back. We good? All right. We on? I think we're back. We good? All right.

We on? I think we're back. All righty. Welcome back, everyone. Yeah, we're back. We're back. Do we have a winner from the giveaway? Are we back on?

Are we online again? I think we're back on the stream. But I have not been given a winner. Okay. All right. We'll get it done in chat. Whoever won, congratulations. You'll find out soon. Are we on the internet right now?

I think we are. We're on? We're on. Oh, wow. We're live. All righty. What I got. Bringing us back in. getting the music going. I just got so nervous.

Yeah. Oh, God. Oh, God. So, any other preparation you guys want to do before you descend the stairs? I think... I would like to render aid to three friends of mine.

You'd like to what? Well, I have an aid spell that before we go into the fray, I believe these two beautiful ladies have been taking a lot of the brunt of damage and deserve a little something extra. So I say they take aid and... Second level? The base level? Level two. Alrighty, yeah. So that's five temporary...

Sorry, your hit point maximum increases by five for the next eight hours. For Beau, Keg, and who else? And I think I'll give it to myself as well. There you go. So that's five more maximum hit points, and you gain five hit points. And we gain five hit points.

Yeah, with that. That's great. So are you both healed now, or? Say again? I have 41 hit points. 46. Out of now 51. I can throw a cure wounds at each of you,

just to get that out of the way. Deuces. Here we go. That's 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 points to you and 10 points to you. Hell yeah, thank you. Nice. And that's all my first level spell slots. That's cool.

Okay. Couple of tanks up in here. So, the duchess heads down into the chamber, and it opens into a T-shaped chamber facing your direction. So the stairs here descend down into this area. The room is low lit with a red glow emanating from what looks like two furnaces, one on each side there with like faint red embers and bits of ash that flicker out with small bits of flame.

Now I don't want my baby to go too far. Okay? Just, uh, let's see what's... I'd say... Yeah, yeah, just, uh, just enough to to stay in the shadow. Alright, make a stealth check for your

Duchess. Roll a d20 a stealth check for your Duchess. Roll a d20. Add two. Oh, buddy. Oh. One. One. So Duchess perches right in the middle of the floor, right there. Oh.

She's sitting right there. Okay. You think Duchess is hidden. What else do you guys do? Here's the thing. If she's sitting right there in the middle, can she see better than if she were in the shadow? I mean, from looking inside

and seeing some of the chamber, I'll give you a little more of a view of what's inside. Yeah. Silver linings. So there's this unnatural heat that fills the interior of this chamber. The air smells of coal and burnt flesh. The map looks like a cock and balls. Yes.

Spoilers. Hopefully not proportionally. Have you seen me? A little sad. From what I've heard, it's all about girth. Scanlan's gone, man. Scanlan's gone.

So. You can see a number of metal brands hanging against some of the walls, where it looks like they are carried over to these furnaces to be heated as torture implements. Further into the central chamber, you see what looks to be a table.

You see this, in the middle of this rounded chamber, flanked by empty chairs, this stained, stretched, leather-topped table, the leather draping over on each side, almost to the floor. You see heavy chains dangling at the front and the back of it, as this is probably a location where individuals are strapped to and tortured. Two sets of prison barred doors flank the opposite ends that seem to have larger containment chambers beyond there. They look to be heavy and very, very locked and barred. So, what would you like to do?

I'd like for the Duchess to come back and perch on my shoulder, frankly. Okay. Duchess. Heads back up. Oh, okay. Well, it's not like they don't know we're coming. So, we are inside the... We've lifted open the hatch, right? And there's no other doors going down to the downstairs, right?

That's it. This currently looks to be the only continued path downward, yes. Are the stairs wide enough for two people to go down, three people to go down? Individual. Individual. That blows. They're hiding. They're waiting. I can go blows. They're hiding. They're waiting. I can go first.

Well, wait. No, Caleb is invisible. I don't, I mean, I don't want to lose you, but... Yeah. And you're noisy AF. Well, they know we're coming. This isn't going to be a surprise attack I'm assuming Do you think they would grant you

The graces that they did before And spare you if they saw you Now? Probably not I don't think so Have they seen you? Yeah Oh Shacosta There's a really long story I don't think so. Have they seen you? Yeah. Oh, Shakasta.

There's a really long story. That's all right. You can tell me later. She used to work for him. But not anymore. Not anymore. Right, right. But have they seen you since you've changed your affiliations?

Yes. Well, then. Oh. Never mind. What if this? What if they know you, right,ations? Yes. Well then, never mind. What if they know you, right, Cake? You could say, all right, I'm coming down, Lorenzo! Is that what you think I sound like?

I'm pretty good. I'm like Rich Little. Are you as good at impressions as you are at detective? And then I could send... Sidebar, Rich Little was an impressionist from the 70s and 80s, kids. Thank you.

I could send down an image of you that looks like you, and so if they attack right away, they'll be fighting against just an illusion. Oh. That's not a bad idea. Thank you. Thanks, Nott. Thanks.

What do we think about that? That's a pretty impressive illusion. I like the idea of sussing them out since they're obviously hiding down there. Because from what the Duchess saw, she saw the chamber, but no one was in it. I agree. You are able to do something so substantial.

I'm not of substance, if that's what you mean by substantial. No, I mean... Wherever you are. I'm right in front of you. Okay. I'm right in front of you. I'm talking about... I think I got an ear.

I can do something that goes down and looks like keg. As big as keg? As big as keg, yes. Keg's not very big. It can't make noise, though, right? Well, she'll make the noise. I'll make the video. Oh, we're going to do a ventriloquist act.

Yeah. Okay. Can you do that? I can try. I can certainly try. But, you know, that's step one. Step two is much different, because then what if they come out and attack? Then what do we do?

Well, last thing that we want is for them to have the element of surprise on us. Okay. So as long as we can get them out. Okay. I mean, it's going to suck either way, and I don't want to die, but we might die. Okay. So am I pretending to try to be stealthy? Am I going, yo, fuckface? Am I like, yo, fuckface?

What's the vibe? The second thing is more you. That's true. Trying to be stealthy and failing is also very me. That's true. What was that thing you said earlier? Fucko? Oh, I eat shit fucko. I liked that.

That feels solid. I was thinking about it for a while. If I ever saw it again, I'd be like, eat shit fucko. I liked that. Oh, thanks. That feels solid. I was thinking about it for a while, like if I ever saw him again, you'd be like... No, it's good, though. Eat shit, Fucko. I'm glad you worked on it. Yeah, it felt pretty good when I did it. Never throw out your first draft, you know? Never show that. I was working on that for a while. That's great. It's good. Yeah, I admire that. But, you know, if you see him again, though, you can't

go back to old material. You'd need something new. That's what I was thinking. Fuckface. You're right. Well, is Fuckface a step down than fucko? Fuckface is different. I mean, it's in the same range, I guess. What would you say? That's true. I would say, I would say, eat shit, you rusty spoon.

I don't know. You're rusty spoon. You're deviating, though, from the brand, you know? You know, he doesn't have any hair. Maybe you could be like, baldy, Mickey. Baldy. You fucking chrome dome. Yeah. Fucking Chrome Dome. Yeah.

Fucking Chrome Dome. Nailed it. Making fun of someone's appearance is very good. It works every time. That'll really get him. Yeah. Nothing will get him except that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So I'm coming down. An illusion of me is coming down the stairs. I'm going to try to ventriloquist the illusion to say, hey, Chrome Dome. Uh-huh. This is going to go great. Let's do it. Hey, fucking Chrome Dome. Hey, fucking Chrome Dome.

Yeah, wow. Okay. What are we doing? We're workshopping a bit. We're just drawing them out, and then once we know their position, I guess we'll just run and gun? Let's stop making so much noise and try it then. Okay, let's do it. So you start with a, I'm coming down or something,

and then you'll come down. Okay, so I'm going to do the, should I do the chrome dome line? That's what we're going with? We've workshopped it a little bit. I like the chrome dome line. You've worked so hard on it. Could be on the movie poster. It's great.

So Keg shouts down, Hey, you fucking chrome dome! Language. Nailed it. Drop a bit of fleece and cast Silent Image and make Keg walking down the steps. All right. He watches this quiet, soundless image of Keg.

I'll go like this. Rattle, rattle. I'm going like this. Yeah, rattle. Clang, cl this. Rattle, rattle. I'll go like this. Rattle. Clang, clang, clang, clang. It's a radio play. I'm going to use a little Thaumagurji to make sure it's actually got some noise to it.

I'll pop it. With coconuts, you can make it sound like horses. I don't have a coconut. I think we're mixing. I think the streams are crossing. So yeah, I'm going to give it a little bit of sound. It worked super well, right? You've got two husks and you're

knocking them together. I'm clanging down. Illusion Keg is clanging down. Make a performance check. Me or her? Come on, Birch. Come on, Keg. Come on.

Hello, my baby. Keg, Keg, Kch. Come on! Hello, my baby. Hello, my darling. Eleven! Yay! That's all right. It's middling. Average. So you angle yourself at the top of the stairway

to make sure that the sound of your armor shaking at least disseminates into the air as much as possible. The image can only walk 15 feet because that is the distance of the cube. So it appears, the illusion appears near the top, or near the middle of the stairs. It's a bit of an echo, right?

It descends and steps no more than 10 feet out from that and stops. Okay. And starts like narrowing its eyes and looking around just sort of mean and maybe gets a cigarette Okay. And starts, like, narrowing its eyes and looking around, just sort of mean and maybe gets a cigarette. I don't know how she has so many of them. Does she roll them?

I don't know. It's just the same one. At this moment, you hear, and you see as a bit of the dangling leather over the table kind of bows slightly, and from the opposite end, something darts across the hallway. One appears to emerge from underneath the table, out this way, and another seems to shoot out from this side.

What shoots out? This is some Indiana Jones shit that's happening right now. The image of Keg falls to the floor, clutching her shoulder. I can make it sound, I'm going to use a Thaumagurti to make it sound like she's in pain. I'm holding the crystal up like a microphone. Ah, shit! Can you give me three big deaths, three medium deaths? Oh!

Winner! Open mouth, close mouth, gunshot. I'm just going to need a pallet to work with that. Ah! A moment passes before two more these strange quick

objects moving at a rapid speed crosses by. Another one hits the bottom of the stairs and clings to a rest. This one you can actually see and it appears to be a rather long, solid crossbow bolt. Okay. I make Cake's hand fall off. I don't know.

I don't know what happened. That was my good hand! Maybe it's a trap. Maybe it's definitely a trap. Okay, so step one went really well. What do we do now? Are there any other crossbow-y things?

None. Can you mage hand and lift up the little leather skirt of the table and see what's under there? That seems a bit far. Also, it's not a trap, is it? Because there's no weight to your illusion. What would have been set off? It's motion-censored.

This could be someone under the table. No, it's not a motion-censored. No, it's a person firing. They see it. There's somebody watching. It's a person firing. This could be someone under the table. No, it's not a motion sensor. No, it's a person firing. They see it. There's somebody watching. It's a person firing. Yes, it's someone. Where are those shots coming from?

From under the table and also from somewhere else. Maybe it's Prado and that lackey. Well, we know that Prado shoots arrows, right? And then someone else could be there. And then they had that hired hand with them. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's them. Will we be able to see anything to make perception checks from here? Not up in the stairway.

You'd have to descend into the actual chamber to see. Okay. I still got firecrackers. Just throwing it out there. Yeah, we're talking. Yeah? Yeah. I take out a cherry bomb. I light it.

I throw it in. Wait for it. Wait for it. All right, go, go, go! Wait, we're going in? What are you doing? Sure. I'll run down the stairs, and I'll fire as soon as I see anything.

Alright. Do they seem distracted? So, Nott runs down the stairs. Who's after Nott? I'll tumble down the stairs, doing like a barrel roll, some parkour shit. Are you stopping at where Nott is? You can move a little further or elsewhere, wherever you want to go.

Can I tuck behind the wall? Over here? Yep, and crouch and peek. Sure. Who else is going where? I'll do the same. The opposite wall. Can you go ahead and head the opposite wall? Yeah. Just about there. Caleb will come invisibly down, but not leave the stairs.

He will stay on the stairs. About there? Yeah, halfway down, but you can leave him up there for the stairs. He will stay on the stairs. About there? Yeah, halfway down, but you can leave him up there for the moment. Okay, that'll give you the basic idea. Shkasta? I'm going to stay back and put the Grand Duchess on Keg's shoulder. All right, the Grand Duchess is the... on Keg's shoulder. All right. So the Grand Duchess is currently residing,

we'll say, over here by Keg. So that'll represent the Grand Duchess in its current position. What the fuck? And you're staying back up in the stairway. You had a spider on your shoulder before. This should feel much better. It's all weird. You're staying up behind Caleb up in the hallway?

Right. All right, so your vision with the Duchess, you can see beyond that, but you do not have the ability to actually hit something unless you move down below. Right. All right, Caduceus. I think I'm going to... We don't want all the magic in one place. That seems like a bad idea.

I think I'll pull off and hug the wall to the left and get as far back from that corner as I can. All right. All right. So, at this moment, make a perception check.

Me? Yep, as you came down the bottom of the stairs to keep an eye. Twelve. Twelve? Okay. Plus nothing, Taliesin. Wow. You look down and see the empty chamber, no movement. Beauregard, you were looking around the corner, make a perception check. Oh, god.

Five. Right? It's a two. Plus three. Five. Alright. And Keg, you make a perception check as well, since you're both at the wall. Come on, baby. 20!

20! So. Thanks to God. What are you? Keg, as you hit the wall and glance around the side, you can see what looks to be a humanoid shape kind of ducked into the shadows underneath the table in the center

who has currently pulled what looks to be a heavy crossbow just underneath the leather and aiming it at Nott, which does attempt to shoot. That is going to be a 17 to hit. What's your armor class? It hits. And for that, you take eight points of piercing damage as a bolt hits right towards

the knee cap and actually sticks out the side, almost falling to one edge. I will dodge uncannily. There you go. Reduce that to four. Caduceus, as you've walked around the corner, you turn around to see and come face to face with RZA,

who is back up against the corner and just kind of looks towards you and goes, What the fuck? Do I have time to do a thing? No, now we roll initiative. Man. Okay. Okay. Unveiling.

This guy's kind of down there. Oh, God. Caleb fell. Rolling initiative. All righty, so let's go ahead and do this, guys. Are we rolling? God, you guys got a little cluster at the top of the stairs, goddammit.

Oh, my God. This is so embarrassing. Did you say roll for initiative? Yes. Oh, okay. All of you guys. Sorry, Mr. Clay. This is not going to be good.

Do you have a bonus? What do I got? It's bad enough I'm looking up reactions. Oh. Oh. Alrighty. Alright, so we have 25 to 20.

22. 22, all right. Okay, okay, okay, okay. 20 to 15. 15. 18. 15. All right, so we have Beau.

Then we have Caleb and Keg going at some time. 15 to 10? Oh, no. No? All righty. That'll be... I don't like this music. I know, so spook. All righty.

10 to 5? Taliesin, really? No. Five. I was hoping to be against the wall, by the way. Thank you. The back, there you are. Right there.

Thank you. Five. Five. Deuce. Yeah, you can. Where'd you get your costume? Over there. Four.

Oh. Four. Oh. Four. All righty. Oh, man. So, first, the natural 20 on the initiative order is Prado. Oh, shit. What at first you thought was the thug's placement over there turns out to be Prado.

Who immediately throws the table up and in front, using it as a block. That's cool. And his cover, and then aims over again with the heavy crossbow, firing once again at Nott. Shit. All right, so that is going to be a 23 to hit. That's a very big hit.

It's only four piercing damage, however. Really shitty damage roll. Four piercing damage? Okay. Can I also uncanny dodge that, or no? Yeah, I mean, we're going back to the next combat round, and you technically have not gotten your reaction yet, so no. You know what?

I won't, just in case I want to react to something else. Well, that finishes Prado's turn. Nott, you're up. Did Prado duck or anything? Yeah, Prado is currently now behind the table and using it as cover. I cannot see the devil wears Prado? No, you cannot.

I was waiting for that. It was only a matter of time. Okay. I will run up to the table and poke over it and shoot Prado. As you rush up and glance over, you can see Prado, like, back against the table. Hello! Pulling and stretching a bolt and goes, huh? Come on, girl.

Oh! Come on! Come on, Huh? Come on, girl. Come on. Come on, girl. Come on. Twelve. No. I'm going to fuck you up. Oh, shit. He instinctually slaps his hand up,

and it knocks your arm and causes the shot to go firing off in the distance. I will reload and fire again. All right, go for it. That's 20. That'll it. That's 20. That'll hit. That's cocked. Okay.

Ten points of damage. Ten points of damage. This one sinks deep into the left pectoral muscle of Prada, piercing through the armor and gets stuck. You hear this expiring bit of air from the throat and it seems like it's not having a hard time breathing. He's hurt. He's not death's door,

but looking pretty hurt. Alrighty, I'll duck down. That ends your turn. Beau, you're up. Okay. Beau, Beau, Beau, Beau, Beau, Beau, Beau, Beau. Beau, Beau, Beau, Beau, Beau, Beau, Beau, Beau. So I'm going to pop around the corner.

Pop around. I'm going to go towards where Nott is. Keep going. Do I see anybody to my left? You do. You see the other thug immediately around that corner who is also firing from that side across the way. I go, so, pop!

Pop! Okay. First roll. Natural 20. Yay! Doubling the dice damage. That's a 7. So 14 plus 4 18. Doubling the dice damage.

That's a seven, so 14 plus four, 18. 18 points of damage to her, nice. All righty. So with a heavy clock to the side, he gets thrown back into what looks to be a torch that is in the wall. It catches flame a little bit under his shoulder, and he brushes it out. He's looking both distracted and pretty hurt. That's cool. I'm gonna take my off hand. I'm gonna run and just

take the edge of my arm into his throat. Go for it. Second strike. Second strike. 14. 14 does hit, actually. He's just a lowly guy. He's not as well armored as his compatriots. Not great damage, six damage.

Six damage, whack to the throat. He's not having a hard time inhaling. He's still standing, but. Okay, I'm gonna take palm to his nose and try and bat his head back into that sconce behind him. Come on, girl. Last hit, last hit. Mm, that's not good.

Uh, 12. 12 does not hit, unfortunately. You go to hit a third time, and this is a little wiser, manages to push off, it's kind of a sloppy parry, but he manages to avoid most of the brunt of the blow and pulls back. Then your turn? Yep, I'm gonna stay here and just be on this gay.

All right. That brings us to Caleb and Keg. Okay. You guys can choose who goes first. After you. Yeah, okay, I think. Unless I can go first if you want. I'm already gone.

In my head I think, this is still going very well. I have not been hit. Here we go. And I'm at the bottom of the stairs already, not at the top, so what I would like to do is move my full movement and then use my action to dash and just stroll to the right of Nott and I will just touch her on the shoulder as I go and get as far as I can in that direction against the wall, if that's as far as I can get. So 60 feet. You can get all the way over here. Yeah, that's exactly where I want to be. And then I will scooch down, not fully sitting, but like, you know, bending my knees down and doing like a squat and thinking, this is okay. This is okay.

This is okay. That's the end of the turn. All right. You're in full poop stance, Tsunami. Squatty potty. Typically. Can I get to Prado? Prado? One, two, three, four, five. You get to kick a chair over to get there,

but you can get right up against him. I say, hey, little shit, and then I whack him. That's a natural one. Oh! You swing with a battle ax, and it actually gets wedged into the table, and you're like, ugh, ugh, have to put your foot on to manage to free itself from the wood.

All right. Try it again. Okay, that is a 19. 19 does hit, go to no damage. Yes. Okay, great. Okay, so that is a 19. 19 does hit, go to no damage. Yes! Okay, great. Okay, so that is seven damage. Seven points of damage to Prado. With the warhammer, whack, to the side of his head, he's like pushed up against the

side of the now partially splintered table, but he's still keeping his cool about him. He's hurt, but hanging in there. I can't smack him again with a bonus action. With your bonus action you can. Oh, I don't fucking do that. You're a dual wielder, You got this, girl. Okay. Does that... 15?

15 does not adjust. It misses. Unfortunately, Prado manages to just duck out of the way as your hammer slams into the bottom side of the table where he's been using to break for cover, and it causes this huge open hole, this gap, almost like a porthole in the top of the table where you can see through.

If you finish to pull back your hammer, he kind of looks up through it right at Nott. Did that finish your turn, Keg? Yes. All righty. You now hear once again a familiar voice crawl from your space that says... This fucking sucks, right?

Do not kill them. They have not earned the mercy I gifted their kaleidoscopic friends. Let them bleed and bring them in chains. Oh, the horrors

you'll see. And for Lorenzo's turn. Oh! Lorenzo? He has such good mic technique. Beau. Beau. You hear this momentary vibration of metal

cutting through the air. Shee! Before... That is going to be a 20 to hit? Yeah, that hits. All right, that is 17 points of slashing damage. And... You have eight.

You have eight. Yeah, so... And 16 to hit. Miss the second one. So the first one strikes from behind, the pain shoots into your head, and the second swings as a backhanded wide throw with this glaive.

Now seemingly more jagged and almost larger than the one you saw before. You manage to duck out of the way and spin around, and there, kind of hovering in the air about ten feet off the ground. You see what seems to be the essence of Lorenzo, but larger. You see in that same kind of thickened leather studded bits of armor and bracers, a bulging, muscular, blue-skinned body. You see where once was a bulging, bald head with tattoo, two horns that emerge from the front.

Bits of a blackened beard, on what once was a hairless humanoid form now curling down the front of the chest and the back of the head, one kind of central plume behind. You see there before you what is Lorenzo, or at least his true form? Oh!

And as you look up into the burning red eyes of this strange, ogre-ish-like demon creature that you do not recognize, all you hear is the chuckle. Jesus. As he flies back further into the chamber.

About 15 feet up, his back to the ceiling of the interior. That's going to end Lorenzo's turn. It is now Ruzza's turn. Ruzza, who saw you first run over there, Caduceus, is going to go ahead

and attempt to cast confusion on you. So I need you, Caduceus, to go ahead and make, I believe it's a wisdom saving throw. A wisdom saving throw. That's 27. 27? Yes. As you watch Ruzza begin to slightly hum this incantation, there's a musical element that is discordant and awful

that seems to pierce through your ears and into your brain. For a second, your vision blurs. The colors seem to fade to gray. Up is down. The world makes no sense. And as you clasp your eyes tight once more, you manage to shrug off the magical effect. You look back at Ruzza, who notices that the spell has faded and goes, Oh, shit!

And, uh... He hasn't been the same since he left the Fugees. And Riz is going to go ahead and run the other direction to try and get away from you. That's going to end Riz's turn. That brings us now to the other thug. The thug that's up against you.

Oh, I thought you said the other fuck. And I was like, he is a fuck. You know. That thug is going to... Still hurt it. Same thing. Keep going. Is going to attempt to move away from you. So take your attack of opportunity.

Hell yeah. That was a sentinel. I don't want him getting away. Wow. 15. No, 16. 16 will hit. Go ahead and roll damage. Alright, not bad. 10 damage, and he is not moving. Bish. No. He is not moving, and he is not moving. No, he is not moving, and he is unconscious. Hey!

That was his... He's not very good up close, and really wanted that range, and took a gamble, and it didn't work in his favor, but that's okay. All right, that finishes his go. Caduceus, you're up. All right, I'm gonna see what I've got. Okay.

I feel like you're going to be a problem. I'm going to cast blindness on this beautiful, beautiful singer. All right. Is it a constitution saving throw? That is a constitution... Yes, let me double check. Yeah, that's a constitution saving throw? That is a constitution... Yes, let me double check. Yeah, that's a constitution saving throw. You have 16. Natural 18 plus 2, that's a 20.

Unfortunately, no effect. Your trading spells, both of you manage to shrug off each other. It's this massive duel of wits and willpower. Do you wish to move as well? It's this massive duel of wits and willpower. Damn. Do you wish to move as well? Oh, it's happening. You know, I'm just going to scoot a little. No, I'm fine where I am, I think.

All right. Yeah, that's fine. Shakasta, your turn. Shakasta. Well, let's see. Well, I have the RZA right here in front of me, right? You do, right at the bottom of the stairs. And so I think everybody else is preoccupied with other people.

I think maybe I should take a whack at this one. So let's see. We could go Sacred Flame, or we could... I mean, she's standing right behind me. Titi! Come on there for Titi. let's see what you got. Titty! As the form of this Egyptian,

this incredible ancient Egyptian woman from a world far from here, apparates on the opposite side of Ruzza. Go ahead and make your attack roll with a d20. No, we don't turn her on yet. Gotta get a... So it's...

Plus seven, so eleven. Eleven is not gonna hit. Yeah, for Titi! That's alright. You still have your action, if you wanted to. Let's see, uh... Let's see Let's see we could Let's take a Audience turn

I know Let's have Let's have the duchess Come fly back Towards me and the other side of the Chamber just to make sure That there's nothing Dutchess, come fly back towards me in the other side of the chamber just to make sure that there's nothing. Yeah, yeah, over on that side

just to make sure, because nobody's really investigated there yet. All righty. Yeah, yeah. Dutchess swings over and takes a look. It looks like the side of the chamber is empty. There's nobody else waiting in the wings. All right, good.

Is that all we've got? We have your actions still. Oh, we still got an action? In your movement, yeah. Oh, yeah. Let's see. I just, I think I want to, let's find our way towards the Duchess then. But just halfway there, halfway there.

A little further over. Not so close to Rizzo. Right. So. There you go. You can move over that way. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Back away.

Yeah, there you go. That's more like it. Rizzo does make a swing back with a sword towards you as you move out of her melee range. That's going to be a 14. What's your armor class? 15. 15. Can I make a defensive move?

It does not actually hit you, though. Oh, okay. All right. You know what? Be glad, Rizzo. Be glad. You do manage to move away from the strike, no issue, and you still have your action if you wanted to use anything else, like a cantrip.

Yeah, let's go Sacred Flame at the Rizzo. Sacred Flame. That is a natural 18 plus 3 on the... So it does not hit, unfortunately. All right. So once again... Fuck you, Risen. Guys keep trading blows and dodging and keeping it going.

So Shakasa, that ends your turn. Back to the top of the round is Prado's turn. This little shit. Are you talking about me? I'm going to throw things. Prado is going to... Prado's going to go ahead and drop the crossbow and pull out two short swords.

Ooh. Mistake. Is going to spin or basically just dodge very quickly, quicker than you expected around you, Keg. Still staying in melee range. Do I get an attack of opportunity on him?

Does not leave your range, so does not. He stays close enough, but whips around and is going to make a strike with each blade towards you. That is going to be 12. Blanks off your armor, no issue. Second strike. It's going to be 12. Just flings off your armor, no issue. Second strike. It's going to be a 14.

All right, and then as a... No, I'm just going to leave that there. That's going to end Prada's turn. Nott, you're up. Am I in melee range of Prada? No, you are just gonna leave that there. That's gonna be end of Prado's turn, Nott, you're up. Am I in melee range of Prado? No you are not. Okay. I am going to run away towards Shakasta, and as I go, I will turn around and fire a crossbow

bolt at Prado with sneak attack, because... Next to Keg, go for it. Oh, fuck you! It's only 12. 12 is not hit, unfortunately. It goes wide. Scrapes against the stone in the ceiling and just ricochets into oblivion. How much more movement do I have?

You have quite a bit more movement. But you'll be coming into melee range with Ruzza, but Ruzza cannot make an attack of opportunity against you because she already took one, so you can keep moving. I'll use my bonus action to fire one more bolt at that stupid Prado. Go for it. That's a 22 to hit. That'll hit. Go ahead and roll damage

and sneak attack. No sneak attack, though, right? Matt, no sneak attack? No sneak attack, yeah. Oh. Prado's still next to Keg. Okay, that's 17. Woo! Wow!

Prado's looking pretty hurt. Okay. Takes it right in the abdomen and like... His eyes are going wide and he's like, Boss! And I'll just keep moving as far as I can get around that wall. You get right next to Shakasta, and you're now right up against the wall,

kind of between the wall and Shakasta. Great. All right, that means your turn. That brings us to Beau. Where is Prada? Devil Wears Prada? Where is he? Over there next to Keg.

In the white thing? Yeah, right on the opposite side. Just behind him. Yeah, yeah, Keg. And him. I'm gonna go kill this guy because he's pissing me off. He's pissing me off.

So I'm gonna do my movement. I'm gonna kind of parkour off of the table that he knocked over. I'm gonna kind of use Keg's shoulder to get the rest of the way over. I imagine when Beau just walks down the street, it's all just parkour.

Sprint barrels. As you vault over, pushing that way, the floating entity that is Lorenzo, who's coasting about 15 feet above you in his wide form, having a 10-foot range with that glaive.

You just leave his combat range and it takes a swing opportunity towards you. That is going to be a 7 plus 8, that is a 15 to hit. Miss. Misses. Parkour! Parkour! Macy's Day Parade, bloon. This is not good right now. Parkour! Parkour! She parkours. Macy's Day Parade, bloon.

It's not good right now. It's bad. Okay, I'm gonna unleash on Prada. Yeah, do it. Okay, first one. Fuck him up. Ah, Gil gave me a natural one. Fuck you, Gil. You swing towards Prada.

Prada just ducks out of the way, and your fist instead hits the edge of Keg's armor. Your hand kind of goes back like that. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. Why'd you put spikes on it? I look cool. Fuck. Okay, next one.

17. That does hit, roll damage. Okay, nine. Nine points of damage against the dragon. Nine! Down the back of the head, and you can see blood spatter out of the nose and mouth across the stone, looks back at you, still standing.

Flurry of blows. All right. How many ki points do you have left now? Three. All righty. Whew, okay, first attack. It's cocked, sorry, I made a good one too. Oh, it's the same roll, though.

19! Alrighty. These are two offhanded, right? Yeah, so is the d6. Okay, eight damage on the first one. Alrighty. And second one. Same exact roll, 19 again.

Alright, damage on the next one. And same roll again, nine, two nines, 18. Bah bah bah! Bah bah bah! The first hit just clocks the side of Haro's face, his kind of like weird, scraggly, half-lingo T just matted with his own blood. His blade's still out, looks up at you,

grits his teeth, and in the middle of saying, I'm gonna gut you! And it's just out cold on the ground. Just throw in a few more! All right, one down. That's my turn. Okay. And with that, that brings us to Caleb and Keg. Okay, this is still going very good, so...

I am going to slide along the wall that I'm on to try to get to the space where Beau had been before she started, now that the little weasel is dead. Yeah, I'll stay against the wall if I can. Yeah. And then I'm going to lose invisibility because I start to weave my hand around my arm and I am going to release Scorching Ray, three globs of fire up his ass in the sky. All right.

From out of the ether, for quite a while, invisible Caleb suddenly just blinks into view as these glowing embers begin to swirl around his hands, turning into a gouting burst of flame. Go ahead and roll for your strike. Well, the first one was a natural 20, so... The second is a 19. The third is a 23.

Ooh! So 86 total. Woo! Well, the critical gets... Okay, so that becomes an eight. Okay, hold on. So 86 total. Woo! Yeah. Damage? Well, the critical gets, okay, so that becomes an eight. Okay, hold on. Yeah. Okay, so that's 10.

Okay. And that is 11. Okay. And then also this becomes 17. It's a total of 19 damage, squashing Ray to his ass. 19? Yeah. 19.

19. All of them burst across the muscular, but somewhat still rotund, like a barrel of muscle in blue rhinoceros hide. You see the flames leave these darkened, blackened spots on his exposed belly from the center of this leather armor, straps like a harness around his torso. Just kind of looks at you. Glad you could join us.

The gates. That's the end. Kag, you're up. Okay, so he's how high right now? He's currently ten feet above you against the ceiling. So there's no way I can just, like... Is there...

You could try off of the table for a strike if you'd like. Um, yeah, fuck it, okay, yeah, I'll try. All right, go ahead and make an athletics check. Okay. Oh, no! Nine? Nine! You go and put your foot up onto the edge of the splintered wood Eh? Nine? Nine!

You go and put your foot up onto the edge of the splintered wood that is still damaged from the impacts you had earlier, and as you go to leap, the wood gives out from under you and the table collapses, so you're unable to quite get into range with him at the moment. Okay. All right, then I'm gonna go try to fuck with Ariza.

All right. Okay. Alright, then I'm going to go try to fuck with the RZA. Alright. Solid. There you go. So there's RZA right there. You managed to get into contact. Okay, I'm going to smack. Hurt! That's a 19 plus 7. I think that make a hit. That'll hit.

Come on! Okay, very good. And here we go. That'll be ten points of damage. Ten points of damage, nice. Take that, Wu-Tang Clan. Did that athletics jump count as an action, I'm assuming? Hmm? Was the athletics check an action? That was more a part of your movement.

Okay, so I can hit her two more times? You can do it two more times, yeah. Okay. Nineteen. So, what's that? Ninete do two more times, yeah. Okay. 19. 19 hits. And that is 12. 12 does not hit. No, no, no, that's damage.

Oh, 12 points of damage. There you go. And then one more time, just for fun, and that will be 16 plus 7, which I believe also hits. And come on, big money, no whammies. That hits, yeah, go to all damage again. And come on, big money, no whammies! Well, that was kind of a whammy, five.

All right, got it. Rosso's taking a few hits, and is now starting to see kind of blood streaks across the face from where the heavy flat side of your Warhammer is smashed into her jaw. Some of the teeth seem to be cracked, and you see her spit one out of the stone. Okay, I see you

again, Keggy. Hey, babe. All right, that ends your turn? Yes. All right, it is now Lorenzo's turn. Oh, shit. Caleb! Stay safe, Caleb! Guilt. guilt.

Oh, he's trying. He's working the angles right now. He's thinking about all the great stuff available at D&D Beyond. Alright. And with that, after the flame-scorching strikes that were against him, Lorenzo's going to coast through the air,

arms out of the side, wielding the giant, jagged glaive, grinning, smiling towards Caleb. And is going to arc down just enough to catch you on the outside of the glaive's range. Two strikes against you. The first one is going to be a 14 to hit. Hits. He's so weak! Dead, the word is dead, the word is dead. That is going to be 14 points of slashing damage.

The next one is going to be, that is a 15 to hit. Shield, shield, shield. That is 15 points of slashing damage. Shield. Are you subconscious? Shield! Who hurt you? Lorenzo!

And with that, he's gonna go ahead and shift further. Oh no. Back to kind of keeping an eye, keeping his options open, making sure he's not too far from anybody. Alright, that's going to go ahead and end Lorenzo's turn. It's now Ruzza's turn. Ruzza. He's going to go ahead and expend a level three hold

person. Against Keg. Surprise, surprise. And against Beau, who the two that are currently most visible in bludgeoning her allies. I need you both to make wisdom saving throws. Come on, come on, come on. What? 18.

I know, I'm trying to figure out where I am. 10. Matt, where is the RZA on the... Next to Nefertiti. This is a unique setup for the last show, so thank you for... It's a mashup you've all been waiting for. Exactly. So you manage to shrug off the effect.

You feel it kind of encasing your brain. Your body begins to tighten for a second before you manage to have it no effect. However, behind you over there, Beau's body seizes and freezes up. Oh, no. That's going to end... It's oddly painful. Oh no! That's going to end. It's oddly painful! RZA's going to go ahead and, as a bonus action,

look up and say, All right, Lorenzo! I think it's time you really release a little bit you got, buddy! And it's going to give a d8 inspiration die to Lorenzo. Shit! Ending RZA's turn. Caduceus, you're up. a d8 inspiration die to Lorenzo. Shit. Ending Riz's turn. Caduceus, you're up.

Okay. Hold on, let's see. Yeah. Okay, so this will be fun. I'm gonna... Let's try something weird. I like weird. I'm going to take a couple steps towards the wall, and I'm gonna get a little closer to that terrible little bard there.

I'm gonna put my back against the upward wall, so that I'm out of range of the big blue. Yeah. Am I like 15 feet from the bard? You are. Perfect. I'm going to cast Spirit Guardians. So I'm just going to start whispering into my big purple crystal and then tons of tiny little adorable sharp-toothed fairies are going to come out and just start biting and eating a lot.

They're adorable. I believe that's a wisdom saving throw for wisdom? That's a wisdom saving throw for half damage. All righty. That's a 14 plus two, 16. What's your DC? 16. All right, so that's half damage.

That's fine. It stays up forever. Let's see. Where's the damage? Oh, there it is. One, two, I don't have enough dice for this. Oh, wow, that's great. Here. Come here, buddy. Give me the DA.

So that's four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. That's nine points halved of radiant damage. How much does that total? Nine points of, half of nine points of radiant damage. How much does that total? Half of nine points of radiant damage. All right, so four. Four points to Ruzza. And now, as long as he's in the range of it, he's half speed.

Yeah, so she's at half speed. Got it, cool. So Spear Guardians is up. That's your action. That is my action. As a bonus action... I'm sorry, I'm trying to... I'm learning this. I don't think you have much in the way of bonus actions. I thought I had a thing I could do. Sorry, one second.

I don't have much. Can I do that? As a bonus action, I'm going to... Can I see Caleb? You can, yes. As a bonus action, I think I'm going to... Can I cast Healing Word as a level 2 spell? You cannot because you've already cast a level 1 spell.

That's right. Only a cantrip. Only a cantrip now. Okay, never mind then. Sorry. Damn. Cool, cool. That ends your turn.

Shakasta, you're up. Shakasta. Let's see. I would like to... Rage. I would like to command Lorenzo to freeze. Freeze. So what is the command word on that one?

It says I can tell him to... That means you can't do nothing. You can't, you just gotta stand there. You gotta do nothing. Well, you got halt, which means, yeah, they don't move and take no actions. Okay, is that what you're doing? Freeze, baby.

All right. Just like in the 1970s, you know, television with Starsky and Hutch, when they say freeze, you don't do shit. You just sit there and do nothing. It's a natural 15 plus one. It's a 16. What's your DC?

15. 15, yeah. Resist the command. I'm sorry. You still have your Nefertiti. All right. Let's see. We're so close to

Let's see if we can knock out Derrisa. Go for it. Make the attack. Alright. She sucks. Fuck me in my mouth. Why? You gotta do it in It's bad It's uh

Wait I rolled a three So E plus Yeah it's not gonna hit I'm sorry buddy It's a ten It's a ten Ten yeah Nefertiti's still trying to apparate

It hasn't quite She hasn't quite taken her full form yet The spiritual energy hasn't coalesced enough To have an impact But it's She's on her way. She's going to be the MVP, man. I can feel it. When it works, it's going to be glorious.

It's going to be amazing. Egypt is just so far away. Yeah, I say move just back away. Back into that corner there. Yeah, yeah. Back to the duchess. There you go. All right. All right.

So that ends Shkusta's turn, top of the round. Nott? Oh, is anyone engaged with the RZA? I am. Currently Keg is, yes. I will attack the RZA. Not good. 16.

Oh, no, yeah, 16. 16 hits, yeah. Ooh! Come on! That's 17 points of damage. Whoa! And she has made a constitution saving throw to see if she can maintain. That was almost a 16, but turned into a 3. So the whole person died. Yay! Sushen saving throw to see if she can maintain. That was almost a 16, but turned into a three.

So the whole person... Thank you, girl. Thank you. Us ladies have to stick together. Girl power. Is she still alive, the RZA? Yes. Though hurt very badly. I'll shoot one more time, why not?

That is 17 to hit. That does hit, yes. Just seven that time. Seven points of damage? Yep. All righty. With that, Ruzza takes the next bolt, the first one that strikes right in the sternum area

and sinks in rather deep. Instinctively, she reaches up and grabs it, looks over in the direction where it came from, and at that moment, the second crossbow bolt goes right into the throat. Ooh! And you watch as she opens her mouth, trying to make a sound,

and instead nothing but blood pours out of the corner. I'll just say... Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Hell yeah! Come on! Bards suck!

And I'll just back up even further. All right. You back up a little bit, you said? Back up even further, just away from any danger. Over by Shakasta? Yep. Or all the way to the furnace? Oh, in the testes area up there, sort of like the little closet thing. Yeah, that's good. There you go.

There you go. Alrighty. That ends your turn. That brings us to Beau. Okay. I'm going to turn around and can I quickly flip the table

that Prada had flipped over, flip it back onto its legs? Yeah, sure. You managed to... That is your action. So you have to grab it. It's a whole motion to get it up there. I'm going to jump on it. Jump on it.

And then I'm going to take my bonus action to do patient defense. I'm going to look at Lorenzo and be like, your new look sucks, man! And then do patient

defense. Patient defense, good. Alrighty. Caleb and K good. All righty. Caleb and Keg. So I am bleeding profusely everywhere. And I am going to kind of stumble in the direction. I think that's Keg. She is short. I will go in that way as far as I can.

And as I go, I as I go I say, this is going very well. Very well. You have ten more feet, you can go in either direction. I will go, if I go to the right, will I clear out of that flying guy's line of sight? You have two more spaces. If you can go near Caduceus

I'm going to cut directly right towards Caduceus And just before I disappear out of view I'm going to say hey how's your day And I will send a firebolt At Lorenzo Roll for the attack It's not that great It's a 16.

All righty. That does hit, exactly. Ah! Well, this has been exciting. Okay. That's good. That's also good. So 14 points of fire damage.

Wow! Flames burst across. You see the leather cracks in one points of fire damage. Wow! Flames burst across. You see the leather cracks in one part of the harness. Just grins back at you. And then hopefully I'm disappearing around the corner and just leaning my face against the wall like that. Alrighty.

That ends your turn. Okay. I'm rushing and I'm jumping on top of the table. It's a table, man. It's the centerpiece of our attack plan. Oh my god. Is that enough? Keg, this is just like Titanic.

Keg is in love? Just me and you floating on this. It's gone past just arousal. Just, You know. Can I reach Lorenzo from the table? Possibly, yeah, you can give a little jump as you swing. He's just in reach with the table's help. Okay, here we go. 18. 18 hits.

That's right. Okay. That's six. All right, six points of damage, nice. Here we go again, on my own, that will not hit. And one more time for the cheap seats, that will not hit. Okay, go ahead. But you still get one swing that cuts through and carves through part of the outer leg and calf of Lorenzo.

The leg gets pushed back a bit from the impact, he's just floating, his large, almost corpulent form though of solid muscle just kind of sitting there enduring it as his face focus comes from where Caleb was back towards you and just says, Oh, glad you can join the party, Keg. That ends your turn? Yes. Alrighty, well that makes it Lorenzo's turn.

He's going to decide to turn over a new leaf. And manage a bed, bath, and beyond. Yeah, sure. He gets into real estate. Yeah, gets his license on the second try. There's so much thinking when Lorenzo's turn comes up, and it's very scary.

Do I get a thing? No. Dammit! You gotta jump to hit him, but he's not within your melee range when you're standing. Why are we standing next to each other? You guys tried. Oh wait, once he's within 15 feet of me, he gets half speed. Oh no, he's not walking.

But once he's near me. The Spirit Guardian still slows his movement, I believe. Is it walking speed or just walking? Once he enters the field, he also, I believe... Has to make a wisdom save, which is a 12 plus four, 16. 16 is the half damage.

He still takes damage. You also watch as Lorenzo coasts through the air. Some of the wounds that he suffered seem to be slowly sealing up. Okay, that's good. You also watch as Lorenzo coasts through the air. Some of the wounds that he suffered seem to be slowly sealing up. Oh, come on. God, this guy. Matt, there's an audience here that deserves a certain amount of

And it's radiant damage. of death and payoff. Is radiant damage doing anything to him? Nothing more than just terrible radiant damage. Okay. It blasts him as he pulls into the area and goes, Ooh, it's not gonna do. And vanishes.

No! Why? Caduceus, it's your turn. Hmm. I'm having Ryshon flashbacks. I'm having a little regret that I didn't pack that fairy fire, man. Who knew? I was drinking tea last time I got to pick spells.

Fairy fire is one of the best fucking spells, man. I'm curious about these rooms back here, those grates that you've still got covered over. What's over there? I don't know. Do you want to go see? Yeah, I want to run over there. You're looting? I'm going to run over there.

That's your movement can get you that close. Will it get me that close? Use your action to make a perception check if you want to glare through. I would like to be a little further away so I'm not like a blast radius with two other people. Okay, so there? Yeah. Just to be a little better. Yeah, and I'm going gonna use my action to...

Make a perception check with disadvantage because there is no light source inside that chamber. You do not have darkvision, which I remember. Liam, don't you have like a potion or something? Yeah. Okay. Make your roll. I mean... 15.

15. Looking through, it's hard to see, but you can make out what looks to be a few shapes. It could be humanoid creatures that are still gagged and chained on the far back side of the interior there. Okay.

Yeah, then I'm going to turn back around and that was my action to take a look in there? All right. So you're peering in very closely to try and make out details of an area with no light source in the middle of combat. Oh, man. Okay, okay. I'm just

holding up. Yeah, that's my turn. Okay. Weirdly, the map looks even more like my penis now. You should really get that checked out, Sam. All right, finishing Caduceus' turn. Shacosta, you're up. All right, I guess... Shacosta and the Duchess will move into the chamber

and check the other side of this chamber now that it's... Whereabouts do you want to go? Let's see, as far to the other side of this penis as we can get. Yeah, yeah. That's about as far as you can get with your movement. And have the Duchess follow me as well. Go ahead and go to the end of the chamber there.

Right over here? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And perch there. And can she see inside? Make a perception check for the Duchess with a disadvantage. Yes, it is. It's a disadvantage. Go again, go again. Actually, no, we decided that the Duchess's design had dark fish in it.

It's just a straight roll, whatever you roll. 11. It's hard to make out anything in there. You see there is a chamber in there, but there's not enough light to make out the details of it, unfortunately. Alright, does that finish your turn? You can move your Nefertiti if you'd like. You know what, why don't you just hang back? Alrighty. Is there any light in that chamber that could...

Thaumaturgy could maybe... There is a candelabra that has low light over there that's just kind of giving a faint glow, and there are two torches on the sides here that are also giving off this kind of low red-orange... But nothing in the... Nothing in the room. In the room.

You know what? We might as well... Thaumaturgy, just to see if we can make a little more light in the room. Okay. So as you do so, the flames flare up, and you watch as the long shadows stretch from beyond the bars into the chamber,

and you can see what looks to be an unconscious figure on the far, far back end that is also in full manacles chained and gagged facing away from you. You can't see. Alright, so there's... That's really all I've got. I can't start working on these locks at all now,

can I? Not because using Comaturgia is your action. Alright, well there you go. Alright, that finishes the turn. Back of the turn. Nott, what are you doing? Me? I'm going to peek around the corner. Do I see anything or anyone to attack? I mean, you don't see anybody in there.

You can make a perception check if you want to use that as your action. It's up to you. No, I will just stay tucked in my little closet. Is there a way I can hide but still see around the corner? No? Maybe. Roll a high stealth check. Okay.

Maybe. We'll see. Nope. I mean, 15. 15, okay. Good to know. And I'll just hold my action until I see something. Okay, good to know.

What are you holding? A crossbow bolt ready to fire. Bow. I am good to know. What are you holding? A crossbow bolt, ready to fire. You got it. Bow. I am gonna do the same thing. I'm gonna kind of crouch down. I'm gonna pull two ninja stars, and I'm gonna hold my action until I see Lorenzo. You got it.

Alrighty. Caleb, Keg. Caleb's face is pressed into the wall, and he says, I'm so glad that we have two clerics they will they will get to you lickety split you're going to be fine

but you know maybe just in the meantime I will pull that potion out of where is it? That's not it. That's licorice. Hold on. And in our game it's a bonus action to quaff a potion. Am I remembering that right? Yeah. We're keeping that rule for our game.

So I'll shove that in my gullet. That's totally the wrong die. For... Oh, okay. That's okay. That's okay, so... Seven points back. Okay, I'm cured! Absolved of all damn...

No, no, no. And I don't know where anything is or what's going on, and I feel real bad. So I'm going to... I'm going to try to crawl up the steps a bit. Through the blood in my face. Yeah, I'll crawl up the steps, and then, hey, I will just throw a firebolt where he was.

That probably won't work, but let's do it. Roll for an attack of disadvantage. Yeah. Natural 20. 20. That is a total of 12. 12. It just bursts into stone. We did it, you guys!

Keg. Would a perception check give me any indication of what Lorenda says doing? Or would that be arcane or some stuff? It's possible. All right, I'll give it a go. So use your action, make a perception check. That'd be... 18.

An 18. You just, looking over your shoulder, see some sort of a shift across the stone, like the pattern just moves and quakes ever so faintly unnaturally against what would normally be the rather still, though warm air. Right next to me? No. In the back of the chamber right here.

That's your action. Okay. Use your bow and arrow. I have a javelin. I could try to javelin. Shall I try to javelin? I could try to javelin. Shall I try to javelin? Okay, here we go. 17?

It was your action to try and perceive where this... But can I bonus action? You can't take a bonus action attack unless you've used your attack action before, unfortunately. Tits, McGee. Okay. Huh? Heal? I'm maxed, kind of. Yeah. Okay. Huh?

Heal? I'm maxed, kind of. Yeah. I will hop off the table and move toward Nefertiti. Can I get closer? You can go there if you want. Or there. I'll go there. Yeah, there. Okay. That finishes your turn.

All right. I communicate that information to the group as well. Yeah, as Keg walks over, kind of pointing in that direction, telling the group. Yeah. I think there's something spooky happening on the stone over here. Oh no, ghosts! As Keg walks forward, pointing in that direction, a familiar voice rings out right before you and says, Oh, little girl.

You're making crafting this nightmare too easy. And with that, there's this curl of bluish arcane energy right before you. Your hair begins to blow back from the force as a cold temperature begins to gather directly ahead. With that, in a brief instant, you watch as Lorenzo appears before you in his large demonic form and unleashes... Do I have range? Confetti!

I think I see him! At least he's not him! Oh, fuck. Well, at least he's not floating. Oh, shit. Oh! Oh! Oh! Wait, I did not see Caleb in that cone.

No. A cone of cold. We get our held actions for when we see him first? You do it simultaneously. Okay. I will fire my crossbow. First one is an 18, second one's a 17. We only make one attack, oh no, two attacks,

I allowed that household for extra hold out. Held attacks get the extra attack feature, so go for it. So both hit? Both hit. First one. 13 damage. Nice. Second one. Wait, no, no, no.

I'm wrong. These are throwing stars. You're throwing stars, yeah, sorry. Wrong die, wrong die. I was doing my melee attack. First one. Okay, seven damage. Second one, five damage. All right, so total 12 damage from those two strikes,

and you also got one. Missed. Missed, all right. Rolled a nine. With what? Rolled a nine. Okay, yeah, I know. What?

So. What is that number? Why are you saying that? Okay. I need Caduceus, Beau, Shakasta, and Keg

to all roll Constitution saving throws, please. Not yet. Please. Come on, guys. 13. Is it? 13. 13, you just succeed. Oh!

14. 14, nice. Two. Six. So Beau and Shacosta, you each suffer 44 points of cold damage. No! No! Were you at 33?

You're unconscious. Beau is unconscious. No! Were you at 33? No! You're unconscious. Beau is unconscious. Shacasta's unconscious. Oh! I should have saved him. Nefertiti vanishes. And that's 22 points of cold damage to both Keg and Caduceus.

Oh boy. Guys. You need two points? You see the body of the thug you had killed earlier. The body of Ruzza and the body of Prado. Frozen statues.

Corpses on the ground turn to just sheer flash frozen ice. And there you see on the ground covered and encased in pieces of frozen air and moisture from the vicinity, the unconscious and dying bodies of Beauregard and Shakasta. I'm good, I'm good. Lorenzo, glancing back down at Keg, who manages to shrug most of this off, says, Don't worry, you're all next.

And begins to back away. You did get an attack of opportunity. Yes, I'm going to fucking take that attack of opportunity. That's an 18! That hits. Seven. Seven hits. Seven. Seven damage. Seven damage, nice.

Yeah. All righty. And with that goes to Caduceus' turn. Okay. Let's see. Let's see what I can do with this. So first thing I'm going to do is do a... I'm going to use my bonus action.

A little gardening. To pot a very nice plant. Oh, man, it's so hard to do this. Okay. I'm going to use my bonus action to spare the dying... Well, yeah, to you, so we got that. Spare the dying is an action. Spare the dying... Well, yeah, to you. So we got that. Spare the dying is an action. Spare the dying is an action.

No, it's spare the dying for me as a bonus. Oh, because... That's right. What does that do? What is that? No more death saves. I'm going to run over to Bo, and I'm going to tap her and use... I'm going to use over to Beau, and I'm going to tap her and use...

I'm going to use... Where's my spells? I'm going to use... Where's my first level spells? Is it Cure Wounds? Cure Wounds is the first level one, yeah. But I can cast it at the second level if I have a second level left. I'm going to cast Cure Wounds, but because she's unconscious, she gets all the hit points back, not just... At what level? You're at 21 hit points.

What? You're at 21 hit points. What level did you cast it at? Level 2. Right, so it's 2d8 plus 16 plus 5. Yeah, Jesus, 21. Yeah. 21 hit points.

Woo! Oh! And you did spare, what does spare the dying do? It means he doesn't have to make death saves, at least for the moment, but probably could use some healing, and I've already used all my actions, but I don't, again, that's...

Ending Caduceus' turn. Shakasta, you are stable. Yeah, I'm also... You can still move if you want. I'm going to back up against the one in the corner, so I have a little bit of... There? No, the other corner.

Yeah, a little coverage. There we are. All righty, there you go. Caduceus turns out, Shakasta, you don't have to make any death saving throws because Spare the Dying, so you're fine, but that's your turn. To the top of the round, not, you little coverage. There we are. All righty, there you go. Caduceus turns out, Shikaste, you don't have to make any death-saving throws because spare the dying, so you're fine, but that's your turn. To the top of the round, Nott, you're up. Oh, God, me?

I guess I'll... I guess I'll poke around and... just take a shot. I can't do anything else! I'll run in closer so I'm within 30 feet, and then fire. I miss. Oh. Bonus action fire.

18. 18 hits. Roll damage. That's 9 points of damage. All righty. And then I'll run back to my cubbyhole. All righty. There goes Nott. That brings us to Beau.

Beau, what are you doing? You come to consciousness, you're prone, so you have to use half your movement to get up. I get up. So I have 20 feet of movement left. Correct. Can I make it to Lorenzo? God, I'm so mad. Man. I don't, how far away am I?

You are 10 feet from Lorenzo. God, that sucks! I'm gonna use a key point to get there. Step of the Wind? Yep. Hope that was a good call. I'm going to unleash on him because I'm fucking pissed. Okay, first attack.

Uh-huh! Yep, 24. Okay. Alrighty, go to all damage. And I just, like, all the rage and fury. And... I'm going to spend my last key point to do

Stunning Strike. I'm going to use my little shape-wise dice for this one. It is a plus six constitution modifier on this one, but it rolled a natural four. Oh, hell yeah! Oh my god. He's stunned. You're a golden god!

I go full Ip Man on the next attack with advantage. So everyone has advantage? Oh, god, I thought it was a natural 20. But it's 21 total. Yeah, that hits. Wait, did I do damage for the first one? No! We need you guys like every week.

Okay, I'll use this for the first roll, which will be seven points of damage. Yeah? Yep. Second roll. How do you want to do this? Five points of damage. Five points of damage.

And then my last bonus action attack. With advantage. Same roll, 13 on both. No, no, it's 16. I'll take that 16 plus 7. So, yeah. And then... Eight damage. All right. Pop, pop, pop, pop!

All righty. So he's stunned for a round. Everyone has advantage? If anyone wants to physically attack him, yeah, melee. Okay. Or actually, if you're stunned, just attack rolls have advantage, yeah. Attack rolls.

Lay it on. That's my fault for not having him fly to the ceiling last turn. I just turn around and with all the rage, like popping blood vessels, I just say, fuck him up! Caleb and Keg? Okay. Okay. I would like to push myself up the stairs as far as I can while still being able to have a bead on him.

Any higher up the stairs and you won't be able to see him. Okay, well, then I will just sort of collapse. Any higher up the stairs and you won't be able to see him. Okay, well then I will just sort of collapse onto my ass on the stairs and make that symbol-shaped thing that Ford used to make and go, Hey, buddy!

And I will send out another firebolt. You have advantage on the attack roll. Okay, that is a 16. 16. 16? 16. 16? Yeah.

That hits, that chest hits. Sorry, I was doing math in my head. No worries. Okay. Okay, that's six points of fire damage. And I will now push myself up out of sight, up the stairs a little bit. It's going very well.

Alrighty. Shakasta will get to you any second. I would like to fuck him up, if I may, if I could. Yes, fuck him up. Come on, kid. All right, here we go. Don't fuck me. Yes, 20.

Bam. Bing, bam, boom. They all have advantage, so roll twice. Oh, you are right. Okay, that was still better. Okay, so that's seven points of damage to start. Nope. Yep, 19, and I crit out of 19!

Yeah! I forget what I do when I crit. I just double it, okay. Double the dice. Oh, that's sad. Okay, six. All right. Bummer, okay, here we go.

Nope. 14 doesn't hit, does it? 14 does not hit. Okay. Just unable to penetrate the hide with that third strike, it just hits the outside of the muscular blubber on his giant torso, and it kind of shimmies and shakes and then tightens. Okay.

All right, that ends your turn. That's that. All right. It's now Lorenzo's turn. Lorenzo shrugs off the stun at the end. Ah! Well, I mean, hey, how? But can do nothing else on his turn,

and is still locked. Yay! As soon as he gets his ability to speak back, goes, Oh, you're being tricksy. I like it. That's gonna bring us to Caduceus. I'm gonna run over to Shukasta, and while I'm on running, I'm going to use my bonus action

to down a Potion of Healing. Okay. Which is, let's see, let's see if I'm doing this right. That's, ooh, five, that's seven hit points that I regain. I should mark that as used. Okay. And then once I'm there, I have to use an action to feed him a potion, correct? You do, yes.

Okay, one, two. So I'm going to five, six. Here's the question is, does the potion also get my bonus to two? No, because it's not your healing spell. I figured not, but I thought it was worth it. It's worth an inquiry, most definitely. Okay. Well then. I wish that was Lorenzo's voice.

So I'm going to give you a potion, and that's... Let's see what I roll. That's okay. Fifteen hit points. You're awake again. Woo! Okay. Fifteen hit points. You're awake again. All right. And I'm going to use the rest of my movement to get some cover behind the table, I suppose, is the closest cover I got right now. You can try and push it off. The table is righted now, so it's just an empty space.

I'm just going to give it a little bit of a... I'm getting a partial cover. Okay, I'll give you some cover on that. All right, finishing Caduceus' turn. Shakasta, you are conscious now. Yay! Shakasta! Smokum, have you got him, man?

And I will use Mass Healing Word. Let's see, up to six creatures of your choice that you can see within range. What's the range? 60. 60? So you can see everybody but Caleb. So you... Ah! You can heal everybody but Caleb. Because he went way up the stairs.

Because he went up the stairs. You don't even know where he is. You came to consciousness and Caleb is just gone. All right. So who's in need here? This is going very well. You can't see me. Well, I say everybody that I can see

except Caleb gets mass healing. So... Let's see, 1d4... 1d4 plus your wisdom modifier, which is 4. So roll a d4. Okay. Big money. Big money. Come on, come on, come on. Yeah, that's good, that's good. That's not bad. Yep. So roll a d4. Big money. Big money.

That's good, that's good. That's not bad. Seven total. Seven total. So everyone but Caleb heals seven hit points. Oh my god. I'm feeling a little better. Alright, you gonna stay Puchacosta or you gonna move somewhere?

You know what? Nefertiti is still floating. Is she not? No, you lost her, unfortunately. Worst prop ever. I love you! I love you! That's alright. You can still move if you want to. It's up to you. Let's see. We shouldn't move away. You can still move if you want to. It's up to you. Let's see. Let's see.

We should move away. I'm going to move back toward, into the testicle area. Here? No, no, no, no. Go around. Yeah, yeah. There you go. And then into the testicle.

There you go. All right. Now cough. And bring the Duchess with me. Just cup a round. Yeah, yeah. All righty. That ends your go. Now cough. And bring the Duchess with me. Just cup a round. Yeah, yeah. All righty, that ends your go. Top of the round, Nott, you're up first.

I'll do the same thing, poke out, shoot. Is Lorenzo engaged with anyone? He is engaged with both Beau and Keg. Okay, 19 to hit. That hits. Let's finish this. Come on. That is 17 points of damage.

Ooh. Woo! Plus Fury of the Small. Yeah. Mega 22. Yeah! Nice. And then I'll shoot again.

Nope, miss. So that bolt impacts, and now that you guys are close enough, both Keg and Beau, you watch as the bolt hits, you can see now the wear and tear in Lorenzo's form is really starting to show. Wounds are still closing with each round that comes back to his go, but the wounds closing seems to be slowing, or at least the wounds are getting more and more deep and dangerous. He's looking quite haggard and wounded. Fuck yes! Beau, you're up.

All right, seeing we're not just put a bunch of bolts in him, I'm going to take him, I'm going to flat hand, like, and palm the bolts right deeper into him. Go for it. Okay, first one. That is successful, 18. Yeah, that hits. Roll damage.

Eight damage, the first one. Second one. Ooh, that was cocked. One more time. Same attack, 19. All right, well done. Another four, that's eight damage. And I'm going to just do one more with my off hand.

I'm going to go... I'm going to try and break his nose, because that feels personal. 16. 16? 16 just hits. And that's 7 damage. Nice.

He's looking real hurt. All right. That's my hit, that's it. Keg? Yes! Keg! Keg! Kick! Mother locked them doors in here, man. Not a great start. 11. 11.

You go to swing, now being wounded and looking at a glare of desperation in the burning red eyes of Lorenzo. You swing and it just grabs the hilt of your weapon as it swings downward and just holds it aloft, and then your face goes, Try it. Okay. Fuck! Nine. Oh. The other hand grabs the other weapon,

and you're just locked in that moment now. Last one. One more. Please! Oh, come on! 17. That'll hit. Roll damage. Okay, okay, okay.

Come on, come on, come on. Six. All righty. Ah. I really wish I saved that action surge. Digging it. No, no, no, no, no, no. I wish I had saved it. I wish I I saved that action, sir. Digging into it. No, no, no, no, no. I wish I had saved it.

I wish I had saved it. You wish you had saved it. She used it last session and they didn't take a short rest. Sorry, guys. Sorry. That was so awesome. Caleb. I mean, of course they're going to come for you because you could have fucked off days ago,

but you're a big team player now. Oh, I better try to hit that guy again. I will scooch down again. Oh, he's holding both of her blades. Okay, well, I probably won't hit, but let's do it again. Pew, pew. That is a six, 14. 14 does not hit. Oh, wait. Oh, is it six, fourteen. Fourteen does not hit.

Wait, is there? Hold on, let me double check because my iPad died and I can't see my shit. We are texting. It's okay, everybody. It's just a computer. It's sixteen.

Roll damage. It's eleven points of damage of five. Eleven points of damage. That's 11 points of damage. Come on. 11 points of damage. Come on, come on. Come on! That's a lot of calculator. Fuck. How do you want to do this? Oh, well, fuck me running, it worked. And I just watch it leave

my finger and take an impossible spiraling trajectory through the air and he's so preoccupied with that charming dwarf woman with the stubble and it takes him in the back of the head and it just starts to burn through the back of his skull

and eat away through the back of his head and burn through his eyes. What the fuck? You watch as Lorenzo, in desperation, begins to take flight. Both you and Beau try and swing for his form, but it doesn't matter at this point. As he attempts to try and make for an exit, the flames curl across the body, leaving ash dissipating

as the outer sides of his form begin to just fall away into dust and blackened shale. As both of your weapons and fists swing upward, they hit what feels like rock and scatter it like ash against both sides of the walls. The torso falls and tumbles to the ground, one arm still dragging Lorenzo towards the stairs in this last-minute bit of desperation before it tumbles onto its back, the flame curling and burning away the rest of his face and jaw.

The hand left there limp before that eventually is taken, too, leaving nothing but charred charcoal behind. You shouldn't have killed my cat. One tactical fuck up on his part and that stunning strike turned that completely around. Monks, man. I need a drink hey welcome back Keg just falls to her knees and starts crying

I'm gonna to go get some of the ash off the ground and give it to Mr. Clay and say maybe you can make some tea with this Do I get any sense of what this is? I'm going to do detect undead I'm going to see if I can understand what he was

Go ahead and make an arcana check Alright sense of what this is. I'm going to do detect undead. I'm going to see if I can understand what he was. Go ahead and make an arcana check. All right. Also, in the meantime, DM, I... 16. Definitely don't want to make tea from this. I figured.

There are certain creatures that are, you would assume, distantly related to giant kin. You're used to seeing the ogre-ish, you know, mighty beasts. This was something entirely different. You've heard terms thrown around like ogre mage. But this is commonly referred to in children's nursery rhymes,

the kind that are meant to scare kids from going out at night. Sure. As an oni. I don't know if there's much we can do with this. This is a bit... Yeah, no, you don't want to drink that. Let's sweep that away, why don't we? Beau is going to immediately run over here

to this undiscovered prison ballsack legion. There's four balls in this tent. You glance inside that additional chamber, and looking in, you can now see within that chamber, there is a singular figure on the opposite side of the wall, chained up. Your eyes kind of adjust and you pull the candelabra close and you can see the familiar dark gray leather

and white hair of a chained and unconscious Yasha on the far end. I'm going to try and start figuring out how to open that other gate that I'm next to. All right. Go ahead and make a check. Do you have thieves' tools? No, I was just going to hit it with my stick

until the lock broke. Or just, you know, hit the lock with sacred flame or something fun. Just blow it. All right. Take a while before you realize this particular type of metal seems to be pretty made to endure such spells.

I can help a little. Oh, really? Oh, yeah. No, I want to watch. This looks like fun. I don't do well in crowds. A natural 20. That was so cool. Wow.

That little boost of confidence was just enough for you to find every tumbler within one quick attempt. And with a swift... It hangs open to the inside. After you. Oh, thank you. I'll go in there. Yeah. All right.

And there you see three figures. You see one that appears to be an older woman, chained and gagged. This is a familiar pattern with all of these. You can see they've dealt with magic users and people who have special abilities in the past, so as a precaution, they do this to every prisoner they can. And there you see on the ground as well a familiar blue-haired, horned ally,

as well as a taller, more rugged half-orc friend. I have a question. I don't know if the situation calls for it. I rolled a voluntary wisdom save for... Thank you for reminding me. Yeah, but I rolled an 18, so it's a 21. Okay. Okay.

I'll just run over to Jester and give her a hug and just say, Case closed. Case closed. They're all unconscious? They're all unconscious, yeah. And you, as you guys are at this point, you can see kind of coming down the stairs,

behind you, Caleb, the older fellow that you had saved earlier with the swollen eye. Yeah. Behind him, the dwarf and the child seems to have been able to free them from the cage. And they come down and just kind of say, Is it over?

Is it safe? It's better than it was. It will be. It's better. It's absolutely better than it was. But I think you should thank these people who came down into the catacombs. This is the second time that I've come across these people.

And they've gone from fresh air into dark, dank air. For no other reason than to find people and to help them out. They're special as far as I'm concerned. And you should remember them. So what do we call you? Us? Yeah, you. I mean, you're obviously...

I think we're all still the Mighty Nein. The Mighty Nein seems pretty amorphous at this point, seems like. You know, we thought it would be a joke in the beginning. It kind of stuck. Doesn't make any sense. I'm going to go sit on the table that got knocked all over the place during that fight and sit and just stare at the three unconscious and feel very tired. Shikasta, did you say something about making all this better than what it was?

Well, that's what I've been trying to do. I've been doing it a long time on my own. It feels good to know that there are other people out here doing the same. Yeah. You know, I mean, it can get a little crazy talking other people out here doing the same. Yeah. You know? I mean, it can get a little crazy talking to a little bird all the time. Under your shoulder. What did you say to me, Nott? Some people are just good? Maybe. I may have been drunk at the time.

I was too. I mean, really? I mean, people aren't good. That's not how this works. I mean, things that you do are good or bad, but people are just people. And you guys just keep doing good things, and all I've seen is you doing good things. I'm not sure what the confusion is about.

Well, we used to be. No, you're right. Yeah, I know. every once in a while I run into people and I and I find that I a lot of people do a lot of talking but I've always found it's the people who hush and do good things

are the best ones and I'd say you're in that class if you ever hear the word the people who hush and do good things are the best ones. And I'd say you're in that class. If you ever hear the word hush, just know that I'm close. I'm going to take these people and get them back to where they belong. Thank you, Shakasta. Thank you.

Oh, here, I stole a bunch of gold from you last time. But that's when we were bad people, and now I guess we're good now. So here, it was about 20, 25 gold. Whether you realize it or not, I gave you that gold. People don't take money from Shacosta. Spend it on something you like. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. You're very handsome. Are both cages open at this point? Or just the one? Are both cages open at this point or just the one? One is open, the other is still closed. Yeah, we still haven't found your partner. He's not here yet, right?

It was kind of a pie-in-the-sky thing. I'm sure he's long gone. Well, let's open the other cage. You never can tell. All right. I can't. I'll go ahead. Oh.

I'll assist. I'll go ahead. Oh. I'll assist. 17 plus. Yeah, that'll do it. It opens up, and inside the chamber, there is just Yasha. It's all right. I'm sorry. Let's get your friends out of here, huh? What are you gonna do?

Sorry? You gonna keep looking? I don't know what I'm gonna do. I kind of only been thinking about killing that son of a bitch now. I don't know what I'm going to do. I kind of only have been thinking about killing that son of a bitch now. I don't really know what my life is going to be like.

I'll probably go on a nice drunken bender for a while and then when I come to I'll figure something out. Do either of you want to come with At least for a drunken bender tonight you want to stay with me You can sneak out in the morning if you want. It won't be weird. Yeah, yeah, that sounds good.

Yeah, totally. Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. What was it Shakasta just said? Get yourself something nice? You know what is happening. Keg is a mess. And gathering up the rest of those who were captured by the Iron Shepherds,

Shakasta shepherds them off to their proper locations, free and far from the confines outside of the Dundalian Empire. The rest of you, with your friends in tow, make your way back towards Shady Creek Run into what the rest of the morning light, which now begins to slowly curl over the distant mountains. A long evening, exhausted and tired. You look forward to enjoying comfort, alcohol,

and whatever else transcribes. Sex, it's sex, It's lots of sex. All right. Well then, we're going to go ahead and finish tonight's episode. Whoo! Whoo! Whoo! Thank you. Come around and take a bow. Come around and take a bow. Come around and take a bow. Come around and take a bow. This is how you do it. Thank you all so very much for coming and for watching.

Man, he was supposed to get away. Well done. Hey. Sometimes I kill a party member, sometimes you kill mine. I guess it works out well. But no, in all seriousness, guys, this is perpetually, continuously becoming

a more and more surreal experience, this wonderful game with wonderful friends. There aren't words to describe how much this crazy phenomenon and family means to us. And just thank you for your support, your engagement, support and engagement of each other. And this is a testament to a new era in storytelling that we all get to share in. Thank you. Thank you, Kari, for coming and joining us for the live episode. Pretty much came almost straight here from being in the UK this past weekend. So I was barely home and then just flew back out to be here with us.

Hiding the whole day so nobody would see him so he could make the surprise drop. Thank you so much. Ashley, thank you for coming along with us for this crazy journey. I'm just rambling now. You guys are amazing. Thank you for coming. Hope you have a wonderful night. We have our panel tomorrow. Go check out the Invulnerable Vagrant Gen Con.

Love you guys. And is it Thursday yet? Good night. listening to the Critical Role Podcast. 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.