Critical Role - C2E38 Welcome to the Jungle

Episode Date: October 12, 2018

Delving into the jungle island of Urukayxl, the Mighty Nein must utilize new tactics in order to contend with the dangerous denizens of the jungle...Watch Critical Role live Thursdays at 7pm PT on https://www.twitch.tv/criticalrole

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

Hello, everybody, and welcome to tonight's episode of Critical Role, where a bunch of us nerdy-ass voice actors sit around and play Dungeons & Dragons. Yeah! Before we hop into tonight's episode, let's get through some announcements very quickly. First and foremost, we have our fantastic returning sponsor, our friends since the beginning of campaign, to D&D Beyond.

D&D Beyond! Sayonara. D&D Beyond just released, this is actually kind of exciting, just released the new creatures section. Users now have a place to add any type of monster stat block for easy reference during play. You can add your favorite wild shape or familiar forms, keep up with your ranger's companion, summoned creatures, mounts, ferrets, or what do we have, a weasel? Followers and more. You can also track hit points and customize the name and stats for all your creatures. To celebrate, I've crafted a quick little trivia quiz for Laura. We'll start

with Laura. We'll start. Bounce around. I searched through D&D Beyond's list of actual familiars listed on their site. I will name four creatures. One of these is actually a board game. The other three are actual D&D familiars, which is the board game and not a familiar. Okay. A, Boggle. B, Jewieblex. C, Pudding King. D, Unstable Unicorns. Boggle. Incorrect. What? No Boggle?

I said, which is a board game and not a familiar? A Boggle is also a familiar. Unstable Unicorns is the correct answer. Stupid. Unstable? Taliesin, one of these is a West Hollywood bar. Three of these are D&D familiars. Which is the real bar? The naughty pig, the man trap, the steel predator, the cockatrice. Which of these is the bar? The naughty pig.

Correct! I know my West Hollywood bars, man. Oh my god. Marisha, one of these is an Australian candy. The other are beasts on the list. Which is the real Australian candy? Analfeshne? Musk stick?

All of Australia turning up. Oka jelly? Vegapigme. What was the last one? Vegapigme. No, that's not a food. What's B? Musk stick. You got it correct. Hey!

That's actually a candy from Australia. Vegapigme is a familiar. Vegapigme is legit. I'm going to skip the next one and go straight to Travis. Sorry, Liam, you lose. No, I'll do Liam's, too. One of these is a Kama Sutra position. The other three are beasts.

Which is a Kama Sutra position? The flying snake. The curled flower. Cold flower? Curled flower. The stench cow. Or the corpse flower. Which one is the...

Kama Sutra sexy position. Come on. Which one is? Yes. Run through those really fast. Flying snake, curled flower, stench cow, corpse flower. Oh god, too fast. You got it.

Corpse flower, corpse flower. Corpse flower! Is there anything I can remember? You said it too fast. Curled flower is... I want the corpse flower. All right, speed round. I'm still going. Corpse Flower. Corpse Flower? Is there anything I can remember? You said it too fast. The world flower is Corpse Flower. Remember your college super? All right, speed round.

I'm still going. Travis, I'm going to say pairs of names. One of each is a world wrestling entertainment wrestler, the other is a D&D familiar. Grung or Mojo Rawley? Oh, shit. Say the one that's the wrestler. Grung or Mojo Rawley?

Grung. No. Mojo Rawley? Grung. No. Mojo Rawley. Manchun or Fandango? Manchun. No. Lucrata or Lou Albano?

Lou Albano. Correct. Anish Hag or Gran Metallic? Gran Metallic. Correct, and one more, Gif or Mert? They're both beasts. or Grand Metallic? Grand Metallic. Correct, and one more, Gif or Myrt? They're both beasts. They're both beasts, hey! I don't think Myrt would appreciate

being called a beast. I don't know what any of these beasts are. Perhaps. A familiar, a familiar. Thank you, Sam, and thank you, D&D Beyond. Good question. I did a lot of research on D&D Beyond today. It was fascinating to scroll through the list

of beasts and familiars. I'm especially impressed you found the list of West Hollywood bars on D&D Beyond. That's an obscure graph. It's amazing the reach the program has now. Thank you, D&D Beyond, for your sponsorship. Can you put one on the row, too? Got to catch them all. The program has now, so thank you D&D Beyond for your sponsorship. Can you put one on the O, too?

Got to catch them all. All right, so a couple of other updates. The latest episode of Between the Sheets starring our fantastic Liam O'Brien right here is now available on YouTube, on the Critical Role YouTube. So that's at youtube.com slash Critical Role. Make sure to check out this coming Monday on our Twitch channel, twitch.tv slash Critical Role at 7 p.m. Pacific to see the next episode

of Between the Sheets with our fantastic Sam Riegel. I'm on the show! You're up next week. Did they pay me? That would be a conversation to have with the creative director. Brian has to pay me. To be anywhere within 500 feet of him, it's the rule. I think legally you're not supposed to be.

But yeah, so check that out on Monday, 7 p.m. Pacific on our Twitch channel. The next episode of All Work, No Play airs tomorrow also at twitch.tv slash Critical Role at 7 p.m. Pacific time. You get to watch these two awesome gentlemen here, as well as the special guest, Stephanie Shay. We're doing the Rage Room.

The Rage Room. The Rage Room. That's going to be fun. Got almost all of it out. We're doing Stephanie Shay. We're doing the Rage Room. The Rage Room. The Rage Room. It's going to be fun. Got almost all of it out. It's fine. Slow down. Bend the drill.

So there's that. Anybody else have any other announcements? The pre-orders for the key fish t-shirt start shipping tomorrow. Outside of that, just go to the shop. You'll know the drill. There you go. Sign wear gods.

That was sassy. All right then, without further ado, I say it's time we go ahead and dial in for tonight's episode of Critical Role. All right, let's go. Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go.どこ? សូវាប់បានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបា The LAURA and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM

and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM And welcome back.

Familiar? Never an accident. No, never. So last we left off, the Mighty Nein, following their thread of information in pursuit of the source of the strange sphere that Fjord had come into the possession of that seemed to tie in some way, shape, or form to the magical powers he had been slowly learning to control and manifest,

led you southward to the Menagerie Coast, where you commandeered a ship, named The Mist, which you then renamed The Mistake, hired a crew and made your way southeast towards the island of Uruquesil to follow the apparent source of this note that seemed to have some information about where it was from and where it may go. Upon approaching, you were greeted by a much larger ship,

which had shot a warning shot across the bow and demanded you to come meet the captain on their deck. You there met Captain Avantika, who had given you the options of either proving yourselves beneath her and her crew by helping them, putting yourself in danger at her behest, or they would weigh your corpses down with rocks within the nearby bay amongst the reefs.

That choice. You agreed to give in to these demands and in an evening stay within the ship known as the Squall Eater, a little bit of thievery went into the cargo hold of the ship, while Fjord had been called to the captain's quarters, where the two of you discovered that you had something in common.

You both appeared to have been, from her words, the chosen of Uk'otor, an ancient entity referred to as the Leviathan that was a historical creation of Zaheer, the cloaked serpent before it was banished, along with the rest of the gods in the Calamity and Following Divergence. Now, the captain seeing herself as the Chosen

and seeing you in a similar state, this kismet was grappled onto quite strongly by her and sent you to bed with the excitement of this travel of which you would embark upon in the next day. Upon waking, you found that Jamedi, a hired adventurer and dungeoneer who was set out to scope the island and find this temple, this supposed structure that was built

in honor of Uk'otoa long ago and had since been retaken by followers of the Cloaked Serpent. of Uk'otoa long ago and had since been retaken by followers of the Cloaked Serpent. Jamedi returned, finding the rest of the path too dangerous, but had managed to locate the whereabouts of this temple. Now you've gathered your things, you left the Squall Eater onto a couple of skiffs, rode yourself onto the white beach shores of Uruk-Hazel, and as you all step onto the white beach shores of Uruk-Hazel, and as you all step across the long beach towards the line of trees that makes the jungle,

you make your way into this mysterious wooded area. So, Mighty Nein, welcome to the jungle. Ooh! Welcome to the jungle! You're going to die! As Jamedi begins pushing forward into this, I would like to, one, have a marching order. Oh, that fast, huh?

I mean, you guys are going in a dangerous direction. I'll be up front. Yasha's first, we're all 60 feet behind her. All right, Fjord's up front. Yep. I'll be behind him. All right, Avantika's going to go ahead and ride up with Fj front. I'll be behind him. All right, Avantika's going to ride up with Fjord. I'll be behind Jester. She's got a nice mini.

Thank you. Oh shit. Jem'edi's going to be scouting a little bit ahead. All right. Not where are you? I guess I'll scout with Jem'edi. All righty. I'll be behind Jester, yeah. Or with Jester.

Okay. Yasha will hold up the rear from defensive standpoint. Caduceus, Caleb. I'll be towards the back, I guess. Caleb, same. I will walk behind Beauregard. Okay. There, okay.

Piece of shit. Also, question. What is the temperature like here on this island? Are we tropical at this point? You are very much in tropical weather. It is warm, it is humid, and even within maybe 10 minutes of walking into the jungle,

you could feel the sweat beginning to gather at the edges of your hair and the back of your coat. Caleb would then have taken his coat off and twisted it up and tied it to the back of his coat, so he's just with the holstered books and his shirt sleeves rolled up at this point. It's hot. So you're leaving the coat behind?

No, I just tied it onto the back of my pack. Okay, got you, cool. Rolled it up like a carpet. So as you begin to step through the soft floor of the island jungle, each footstep coming with a spongy pressure before it hits hard earth, rock, or just compressed compost and soft vegetation, I need you all to roll a stealth check.

Oh shit. As a group, as you progress. I cast Pass Without a Trace so everyone around me gets plus 10. Yeah. That might be a good idea. She's nice in the middle for a good spread. May I put up my cloak-y thing? Of course.

Okay. I'm also going to Bless her. Oh wow. First roll the N'zear Dex. I'm going to politely ask the local greenery and let them know that we're going to be coming through and that we're going to try not to disturb them

so long as nothing disturbs us. Did you cast Pass Without a Choice on us? Yes, I did. Did you do that out loud? Yeah, I have to. The local greenery? Yeah, well, I mean, I got to talk to a couple trees and let them know that we're coming through. I'm going to give the blessing of the trickster

to you. Four. All right. I'll eat it, but okay. I'm going to give the blessing of the trickster to you. Four. All right. I don't need it, but okay. Thank god for that plus 10, because that was terrible. All right, so. Avantika and Jamedi, got it. All right, so Caduceus.

15. Good. 32. We're all within the? Yeah. 30-foot radius, right? Yeah. Okay. 32. We're all within the? Yeah. 30-foot radius, right? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. 24.

26. 29. 25. You guys, and I'll roll for Yasha as well. Oh, natural 18, all right. You guys ever so quietly disappear into the jungle brush without issue, the hanging vines

and heavy palm fronds around you, heavily obscuring your procession deeper into this. Caduceus, can I ask you, what do you hear when you converse? Shh. I, yeah, I'm sorry. If you want to hear it, you have to listen for it. You hear that?

You hear that? No. What are you hearing then? Nothing. Exactly, yeah, that's good. All right. They're not saying anything. Continuing onward, who is keeping watch on this? Me and, uh.

I'm keeping an eye out. Who am I out there with, Cosco? Jim Eddy, yeah. Oh, in front. Yeah, and Caduceus. I'm going to eye around as well. All right, so go ahead and roll perception for your vicinity. You guys rolling perception for the path ahead of you.

Three. What the fuck? Plus? Plus? Plus zero. Why are you rolling perception check? I'm in the front. Makes sense.

Did you get a haircut? No, I just styled it a little bit differently. It looks good. Oh, that's nice. You've been the loss of your Samson-like powers. So anyway. Bring it in, bring it in. Pushing forward, you look ahead and it's just endless trees and hanging vines and heavy roots in the ground.

You feel nice and confident in the fact that nothing is catching her attention. A hand touches your shoulder and turns you to the right. Mr. Medivh goes, Look at this here. This was the first. He pulls out a small piece of paper and is taking notes. I have not looked further within, but this was the first marker to our entry in sight. As he points over to show you, you see what looks to be about 100 or so feet off, partially obscured by one of the nearby heavy fronds. You see what looks to be a dilapidated driftwood shack

with a frond-thatched roof. He looks back to the rest of you as you begin to approach. This is the first marker. Do we ever need to stop or do we press on? You've been past here before? I've walked through, but did not stop. I do not know if it is safe or not. Maybe we should go investigate

just in case there's an early warning system or something and there's someone in there watching us? Yeah. Caduceus? No. We'll check it out. Us? Yeah. Sure. Such a good idea.

That is a really good idea. All right. I'll take a big swig and go towards it. Jamedia begins to move and Avantika puts her hand out and stops Jamedia and goes, That'll be sorry, but you are more important than this. You two, you can do this without a man. Yes, we can, Captain.

I say, well, we await your return. We're supposed to be listening to her or something, I don't know. All right. So the two of you tread on. As you approach, you get a good look at it. It looks like this hut has been untouched in a long while. A lot of the overgrowth in the jungle

has reclaimed the base of the wood. A lot of it appears to be driftwood or ramshackle planks that have been carved from trees that have fallen over in the vicinity or possibly scavenged from shipwrecks that have washed ashore. It is a mismatch of different types of wood and cobbled materials, but it is a shack.

It's probably no more than 10 foot by 10 foot. It's not extremely large. You do see a half-brotted sheet of some sort of thick material that blocks the doorway. You see some holes that have been eaten through it. You want me to go look, or you? Well, I mean, we have a choice here. You're harder to see, I suppose, so there's that. All right.

I'll come up with you, though. Okay. I'll sneak up and peek through the curtain. Okay. You get to the curtain, and the material, it's a thick, it's actually, you can see this probably once belonged to a sail or some sort of a heavy tarp that is long, rotted, mildewed, and bits of it, as you put your hand to it and tug on it, elements of the threads separate a little bit. Peering inside, you see it's mostly empty. There's a simple cot, there's a chair,

a mildewed leather coat that appears to be half-folded over and thrown in the corner, and what looks to be a small box up on the far end of the table in the room that's just open. There's no lid to it. It's down the box. The whole room smells faintly of rot. I'm going to poke up and put my head in as well.

There's no trap doors, nowhere where anybody could be hiding or anything? I can look for traps. You can make an investigation check if you want to go check the interior. I was just curious immediately if there's anything I noticed. I'll look around for traps on the floor and stuff.

I'm actually also going to look around. Actually, if you're doing that, I'm going to look around the outside to see if anybody's watching us. Okay, make a perception check. Investigation? Yep. 13. 27.

27, okay. Glancing around the space, you see half of your party hiding mostly. Not too far off, but maybe 100 feet from the edge. Looking around, you notice there are a few animals that are up in the top of the trees, leaping. Looks to be almost some sort of a monkey-type creature, small, leaping from branch to branch.

You see a few colorful jungle birds that are up in the higher elements of the treetops, but no, at the moment, noticeable dangerous figures that could be lurking nearby. Nothing's really watching. Yeah. All right. You, looking about, touching the floor. You don't notice any trapdoors.

You don't notice any, you find one plank that feels loose, and you pull it up and it's just dirt. Okay. But yeah, it's just the table, the cot, the open box. Well then I'll use Mage Hand to reach up for that box and grab it off the shelf. Okay. You go ahead and pull the box off the shelf and pull it over. It has a bunch of old, dry-rotted

navigation tools. You can see what looks to be a wooden-handled magnifying glass. You can see there was a piece that held what looked to be an instrument that was used for charting paths along maps, but the wooden elements of these have warped over time and then dried out, and there are metallic bits that are rusted a bit. Does the magnifying glass look like it might still work, maybe? It could probably still work, yeah.

The glass has been touched, it's just that the housing for it has rusted a little. Mr. Clay, should we go in further, or what do you think? I don't know. Has the bed been slept in? Does it seem like someone's been here recently, or is this abandoned, do you think? Why don't you go check it out?

Huh, what? Oh, well, I'll put my head in. The only best case you can check is you go inspect the bed. 16. 16, looking at the cot, it's a simple 12. Sorry, yeah. 12, okay. It's a simple. You don Looking at the cot, it's a simple 12. 12, okay. You don't see the cot. It's a simple cot. It looks like the material that bows in the middle where somebody would have

slept previously. It's stained from weather over time. Looking up at the thatched roof, it looks like there's probably been a few storms that have battered it enough to the point where it leaks through and the place itself does not really keep any of the rain at bay. What manages to filter down to the treetops nearby, at least. As you push on it, the material tears a bit, and beneath it you look to see what appears to be a smaller chest of some kind. Ooh. Huh.

What? Does this look dangerous to you? A chest? Yeah. It looks like a chest. I can come see if it's trapeed. Sure, I'm going to take, actually, let's, yeah, I'm going to take a step back. All right, I'll Mage Hand check for traps.

Okay. Yes. Wow, so far today I've rolled two threes and three fours. Oh god. Watch that fucking dice out. It's going to pay off. Just like a slot machine. 13. 13. The chest is locked. It does not appear to be trapped.

Okay. I'll open it. It's not trapped for sure. Be my guest. No, that's better. 24 to open. There you go. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Cherry, cherry, cherry. Jackpot. You go ahead and.

It opens up. Nothing seems to happen. It's relatively small. It's maybe like six by four inches in size. As you slowly pull it open, moving the cot out of the way, looking inside, immediately you see what looks to be a small golden statue, maybe three inches tall. It seems to be a relatively simple carving. It's not extremely detailed, but the relief looks like the head of a cobra with the hood open, the jaw open with fangs drawn.

And next to that, you see what look to be three approximately gold-piece sized rubies. They're that big around, but they're fairly thin. I'll grab them all. Okay. You pull them out, and as you do, the weight that's been distributed outside of the chest causes it to slide forward, and at that point,

you notice that there is a cord attached to the base of the chest. The weight is what was holding it in place. Well, as you remove the objects, the chest slides back against the wall as whatever cable is attached to it goes through a loop through the ceiling, and you feel shifting as what looks to be a large urn of some kind that has currently set it up inside the thatched roof, tips over and begins to release a payload on top of both of you.

Maybe it's just a silly prank. It's water. It looks to be a cluster of poisonous snakes. Dozens of them. Oh! Stumble down from above. What do you guys do? Oh my god! What do we do? Leap out of the way! I mean, yeah, I guess I will try to not get hit

by the cluster of snakes. Go ahead and make a dexterity check. All right. Do we have that rogue shit? Dan Caduceus, Doctor. Dexterity Saving All right. I want to thank Caduceus Doctor. Dexterity saving throw. Save. Yes.

Save, friends. 23 to save. You duck out of the way to the back, get your crossbow ready, and look down. The snakes hit the ground with a sludgy slap. All of these snakes have long been dead, mostly decomposed. They didn't feed the trap snakes?

Apparently whoever was handling this hut hasn't been here for a while. Oh, that's sad. Well, that's just sad. Yeah, that's... Do you want them to decompose? I mean, that'd be nice, wouldn't it? Maybe?

Yeah, I'm just going to see if I can start the muck going in here and maybe get a nice little indoor terrarium. I don't know what will happen. Sure, they're still mostly decomposed, but the weather, or at least the way it was kept up in there, wasn't conducive to any sort of heavy jungle fungus, it seems. But you harry that along.

Yeah. You just, through your cantrip, manage to watch as these dull blue and gray spores begin to apparate and grow across the pile of somewhat sludgy snake remains. That's already better. Were they real rubies, or was it all a ruse to get me to pull on them?

They appear to be. Do I have them? You have them. You have everything that's in the chest. You have the gold idol, the small snake head idol, and you have these three gold piece shaped rubies, essentially, they're about that thick and about that big around. Okay. Yeah.

Make an investigation check. Those are really big rubies. essentially, they're about that thick and about that big around. Okay. Yeah. Make an investigation check. Those are really big rubies. That was your perception, actually, perception. 12. 12, okay. You look at the rubies as you're inspecting them and you can see they have little scratches at the edges.

It's like slight, I wouldn't say imperfections. It's not like they were originally there, but you can see what looks to be small grooves or lines along the outer edge where something metal or pointy was used to scrape or pick. Okay. All right. Okay, okay, okay. With the keys.

Is there anything else? This is some uncharted shit right now. There's some maps. In the, with the, just some tools, all right. Just a few things left behind, and no sign of who once built or at least lived in this space nearby. But they haven't been here for a while, whoever they were.

Okay. Let's go tell the others about everything that we found, except for all the rubies and gold. I'm kidding, we'll tell them about it. All right, you know, okay, sure. Unless you're cool with not telling them, because that's cool with me, too. Telling who what?

All right, confusing. What did you find, what did you find? I found... those beautiful eyes of yours, I can't... I found two rubies! Two whole rubies? Yes! Whoa, what do they look like? Like this.

Ooh! They look even better with the golden snake thing. I mean, the whole thing comes together so nicely. Oh yeah? Oh, there's a golden snake, I forgot. Is it just a cobra head by itself, or is there also a body? No, it's just a head.

It looks like maybe an inch below where the jaw opens. It's about three inches tall altogether. Is it like our little mini Yasha bust? Yeah, kind of, yeah. Only with no torso. It's just like a snake head that's curled up, and it's only about from there to where the mouth is. I try to feed the ruby to the snake head.

Okay. I have to look at ruby to the snake. Okay. I have a look at this one, not the rubies. Do I see anything cool about the rubies? Do I see the little. You do also notice the small scrapes, yes. Are there any runes on this thing? Does it seem arcane in nature? It does not appear to have any runes inscripted on it.

There's no language carved or pressed into the mold. It looks to be like it was sculpted not by a master artist or sculptor. Some of the details are a little loose, bleed a bit. Where the mouth and the teeth are, some of them are a little bent or off-kilter. It looks like it was more of a passion project than a fine piece of craftsmanship.

Yeah, how does everyone feel about a 10-minute breather here? And I sit down and unholster my book and begin to identify as a ritual. Hey, can you do that on multiple things at a time? Or is it just, that seems excessive. What do you have that you want to identify? You have a quick OA? Just a thing.

What thing? Just given to me. What thing was given to you? A feather from Nila, forever ago. Ooh. Well, it's only 10 minutes. You don't trust her? Who's Nila? I don't know, just that it might be magical. Magic feather.

Magic feather. I begin to test it. She's a nice lady who has a small leg. Maybe it makes me fly. Maybe it makes you fly. Maybe it makes you fly, maybe it makes you molt. There's all sorts of things that feathers could do. Oh, that's right, you didn't meet Nila. Mm-mm. Yeah.

She was nice. She looked like Caduceus. She was really nice. Yeah. We didn't look anything alike, but yeah, she was very nice. Sorry. I'm much taller. Yeah, we can take 10 minutes. We'll set out a little perimeter just to make sure we deflect any unwanted bits.

That was generalizing of me. I mean, if Avantika thinks it's okay. No, I mean. What was that? Statement of observation. Does Captain Avantika think it's okay for us to take 10 minutes? Captain Avantika crosses her arms and impatiently goes,

whatever it takes, if you think it'll get us there safer, I trust you and your specialities. Okay. Is there any benefit to showing, I whisper, is there any benefit to showing that Captain Avantika that letter we found that she wrote? We should ask Fjord before we do that. All right.

What's Fjord doing right now? Hey, Fjord! Fjord! I whisper. Is there any benefit to showing Captain of Humpty Cat the letter that I think she wrote? Why would we do that? I don't know, I don't know.

That's why I'm asking. I'm a simple goblin. I don't know the world-weary ways of a sailor. You certainly could. I don't see what harm it could bring. I was still picturing you in the stripy sailor outfit. Sure, go for it. No, no, I'll just hang on to it.

If she ever is like, I don't know. If we ever need it, we got it. I walk over. Hey, are we whispering? We're not whispering. Oh, sorry. Sorry, we're whispering. Never mind, we were just talking about this.

Don't show Avantika. We could use it to copy her handwriting and write a check. You never show people their stolen mail. Oh, of course, I should have asked you first. Yeah, don't, absolutely not. Keep that shit on lock. He's rolling dice, you guys.

Saged advice right there. We should probably, is the shack large enough to house our entire? No. Not comfortably, by any means. We'll kind of. We'll be quiet, so we'll just stay still. All right, keeping watch. And look around. So in this 10 minutes, one,

the kind of blanketed heat and humidity that this jungle tends to hold in is uncomfortable for those of you more used to the northern elements of this continent. Yeah, this sucks. The sweat is definitely collecting beneath all of your armor and clothing, pooling in areas which you hadn't expected.

Your hair is matted against your face. The insects are starting to find their way to you as the scent of sweaty humanoid draws them nearby, occasionally being bit here and there. You finish casting Identify. This is not magical. It doesn't have any magical properties. It seems to be just an idol.

It looks like it was attached to something in the past, but it's probably worth, literally worth its weight in gold. Nott, here's your toy back. Thank you. I have a question for you, Matt. Oh, Nott, here's your toy back. Oh, thank you. I have a question for you, Matt. Is it really, it's just us and Avantika and Jamedi? Yeah.

That's it? Yeah. I scan the forest, are we being followed? Make a perception check. All right. Fucking false shit six. Looks clear. So foggy. Fucking false shit, six. Looks clear.

So foggy. Yeah, that's humidity. Okay, I'll walk over to Avantika and say, might I ask, you said your men are dedicated to this cause as well. How much do you share with them? I share what is needed. I share with them the elements of the dreams

and visions I've been given. For me, it is one thing to have a loyal crew. It is another to have a crew that has faith in you beyond being just captain. I do not want a mutiny. What's more effective than someone that thinks not only are you a proper captain, but you are the link to their god, huh?

Very effective. There are ranging levels of belief, maybe, but I think with the time we've spent together and the willingness to understand the possibilities of having a captain with such capabilities at their disposal, that, well, riches are not that far off on the horizon. Blind belief is quite remarkable.

I'm assuming you've shown them things to garner some level of expectation of your abilities? Oh, do not misunderstand. I myself have gutted and cut down dozens of men who have attempted to take my position. I don't doubt it for a moment. Speaking of which, and she removes her dagger and rapier and looks about and you can see beautiful, beautiful weapons,

very, very well made and very well kept. In fact, most of her equipment that she has, you can see her fiddling with occasionally to adjust and clean things as she moves through. There's a very forceful intent to make sure that everything is properly placed and well taken care of on her person. But she looks about and goes,

and as much as we are keeping an eye on us ahead, I am still keeping an eye on all of you, of course. I would expect nothing less. Because while I would like to believe this newfound kinship could make for some very incredible possibilities in the future. You cross me and this blade will find your heart faster than anything you've seen move.

Let's hope it doesn't come to that. I hope not either. She reaches out and pokes your nose. She boofed you. Nope. She boofed you. She just gets a finger full of sweat. Was that for all to hear or were they off a bit? They were off a bit. This was a way for everybody.

Are we satisfied? No, no, let's go. Let's keep going. Yeah, I'm good, I'm good. Break time over. All right. All right, Jem'Hedi? Of course.

And leaving you falling into the same positions with both Jem'mety and Nott. Taking points, everybody make another stealth check, please. Another stealth check. Is the last amount of tray still going? It goes for how long? That's for an hour. Okay, yeah. So yeah, it's still going for an hour.

Oh, blessing, who needs a blessing? Me! Technically, it's still on Fjord. Oh, okay. I'll take it, is that an still on forward. Oh, okay. I'll take it. Is that advantage? Better. 21. 21, okay. 19.

29. 29. 22. 17. Okay, all doing pretty damn well. Continuing to coast forward for the next hour, hour and a half or so, following Jamedi's path. You can see him pulling out notes here and there

and looking for different things. Occasionally, you see he'll come upon some sort of a heavy palm tree or a jungle tree that he's marked with a blade, and he's keeping tabs on his marks to follow his path back to where he originally found his way. Along the way, the insects are getting really obnoxious. The buzzing itself becoming this low, droning,

ever-present hum, but the bites are getting extremely obnoxious. Tremendous, acknowledging once he starts singing it more and more, and goes, I did not find them a problem before. Perhaps they seem to enjoy your flavors more than mine. Really tasty. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Are the insects really not bothering him at all, or? They're not bothering him, really, it seems. Just out of idle curiosity. Is he a human? He's human. I'm going to just very quickly cast Eyes of the Grave. Eyes of the Grave. So anything undead within 60 feet is going to glow in my, I'm going to get a little glow off anything that registers as undead.

Okay. What the fuck? Okay. Beauregard starts glowing. You twist. You get a very, very faint undead aura Twist! You get a very, very faint undead aura emanating from Jemete. Oh!

What? That's so cute! Still a twist! Really? Out of the fucking blue! He's good. Cool. Do you share this knowledge with anyone? I mean, at some point when I can get.

He's dead. I can get to Fjord quietly at some point. All right, well, first off, I need everybody to make a constitution saving throw. What? Why? Because it's so hot? Just make one. Just make one. Just make one. That's a saving throw. Jeez, that was so close.

20. All right. Nine. Nine. Nine? Is that back? Is it back? Always. Okay. Natural 20.

Nice. Natural 12. Okay. 12. Natural 20. Okay. 12. Natural 20. All righty, not bad, good spread, guys, okay. So, continuing to press on. Okay, okay.

Somebody cast something. Somebody cast something, right? Does that mean somebody cast something? Yeah, it's Jemid. Is it just so hot? What's happening? I don't know. It's a buzz.

So I'm going to crawl up to Fjord in the line at some point. Okay. Been keeping my eye out, getting a lay of the land. And Jemett, is not quite alive. I'm sorry, did you say not quite?

She is not quite alive. Am I still close enough to where I can overhear this? Yes. Just keep that. I don't think it's an appropriate moment to bring something like that up, but it's worth it. Do you detect anything sinister? Yeah, it's not quite alive. I mean, that's, but it's worth it. Do you detect anything sinister? Yeah, it's not quite alive.

Right, yeah, that's inherent. Sure, right. If anything, I feel like I'm exercising an enormous amount of willpower just not dealing with it. I mean, it just doesn't seem like we're in, there's a good advantage to dealing with this now, but yeah, there's something weird there. Thank you for letting me know.

I hope you'll keep an eye on him for us. Oh, I'll be keeping an eye on him for you. Yeah. All right. Yeah. I would also say, as we are tromping through, that I would push forward and try to catch up with Jamedi. Momentarily. All right.

Oh jeez, what is that? Sorry. Excuse me. Two questions for you. I'll just have her shoulder at you. What's that? How much further days travel, or more than one day, till we reach our destination?

With a full group like this, I'm trying to be as quiet as possible. I give us about maybe one day. One day. There will be a night of camping along the way. And did you encounter any kind of threats? There are dangerous things in this jungle, but I, it is easy for me to keep out of sight as one man.

This many, well, not as much. but it is easy for me to keep out of sight as one man. This many, well, not as much. Anything specific that we should be on guard for or prepared for? There are lizard folk that exist on the outskirts of this island. You mentioned that, yeah. They call the rivers streams and the inlets home.

Then there are the people of Skel and Fang, the snake folk that exist further in, near this temple. Variations of their strange physical... What are you guys doing over there? Trying to open candy. How about we hold off? How about we hold off for a minute? Congratulations.

Sort of my fault, I apologize. The people that have built around this temple, there are variations in how they worship the boons of this long-gone snake god they worship. It seems to operate on their person in different ways. I've seen some with heads that are full of serpent features, pieces of patches of scales, yellow eyes, as well as some with limbs themselves

transformed into snake-like forms. It is the stuff of nightmares. Their arms and their legs are just... You avoided them, you did not tangle with them yourself. No, that is not the work I do. I'm not a fighter by any means. My job is to not be seen, to infiltrate, recover, and expedite my exit.

That makes sense. I cast Mage Armor right in front of him on myself. Thank you. See you later. I'm going to go back to my earlier position. All right. Continuing forward, for the next few hours or so,

the heat is getting heavier and heavier as the afternoon sky now greets you. You find yourself stopping to eat and drink water along the way with what supplies you have available to you. You eventually, within the next few hours or so, as it begins to get darker and darker. I have a question. Yes. With my medicine stuff, would I know anything that would help get rid of bugs and stuff

that would keep bugs away from you? It's possible. Make a nature check. You have a can of off. Oh no, a natural one. You have no clue. How do they work? Not a whole lot of jungle insects in or around Naked Duranus, unfortunately.

So nothing catches your attention, necessarily. Did you say that it's also darker now? Is that true on some licorice root? Yes, it's getting steadily darker as you guys move your way through. Were there any flowers on our journey? Were there any what? Flowers, did we pass any flowers?

There are a number of jungle flowers that you pass. We can pick some as we go. Sure, all right. Correct. Most of the flowers that you pass. We pick some as we go. Sure, all right. Crack. Most of the ones that you come across are like a dull pink in color that fade to a green at the base. It's not a vibrant pink, but just enough of that

whitish-red crossover to appear. A lot of them grow along the base of the roots of some of these jungle trees, so you collect a few handfuls of them. Okay. Yes? I go over and Fjord while we're taking a break. Hey, did you find anything out from Avantika?

Like about, you know, shit that you guys have in common? No, no, I asked her if she shared with her men her passions and all the details that she knows and all the knowledge. I thought maybe she might, I don't know, covet that, but it seems like she's quite forthcoming. She's trying to build a following, like a zealot almost. Build believers out of her crew.

Does she believe it, though? Yeah, yeah. She's convincing if she's a liar. I think she genuinely wants to summon forth this thing. But does she believe that she's a zealot, like, connected to some god? That she's the Chosen?

Yeah. Yeah, mm-hmm. Fine. How are you feeling from last night? It seemed like you had a rough night. No, fine, fine, rested. REM sleep is some of the best, so, you know. I feel energized, jazzed, excited to continue on. All right.

Did you ever read any horror stories as a kid, or did you and your friends tell horror stories? Spooky things. Yeah, ghost stories. Yeah. You know how there's always a time where the narrator stops, and lets your imagination run wild with what happens? Yeah.

I just want to say, you know, people might have ideas and thoughts, and I'm trying to look out for you, because we said we would have each other's backs. And sometimes the less you say, the more people's minds like to fill in the blanks. From what I've learned, generally what's in people's minds like to fill in the blanks. From what I've learned, generally what's in people's heads is worse than the reality of the situation.

Wow. Do you want to tell me what's in people's heads? I mean, look, we've seen you do some weird fucked up shit. Right? Admittedly. So, anytime you're unsure, it's going to make other people even more unsure with a layer of suspicion. It's like a tiramisu of confusion.

Well, I admit, I'm not sure about a lot of this. No pressure, right? No pressure. I will try to fill in as many details as I can. Let's go fight some snake people. Totes. Yeah. Yeah. While that is going on, I walk over

and stand next to Caduceus and say, hey, hello, would you hang out with me for a moment? Yeah. Excellent. Let's stand right here, and I casually pull out the wire and I cast Message to Nott. Nott, would you please go? I need you to speak to Avantika and Jamedi together for a moment, please. You need me to speak to Avantika and Jamedi? What are you saying? Sorry, what?

Are you talking to yourself? No, oh. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Recast. What do you need me to say? You can respond to this message. Just distract them, please. Oh! Got it.

What did you say? I'll get to you when I'm done. Okay. Okay. That was Caleb. He wants me to go distract Lavantika and Jumanji for a moment. Do you want to come help me? Okay. What should we do? Should we do a dance?

Should we like... We practiced one. We did a really good one before, so yeah, we could do that for them. We could try to teach it to them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Great. Hoi hoi.

Hi, Captain Avantika. And Jumeti. Jumeti's a few feet ahead. He's currently leading the path. They're about 20 feet from each other. Oh, sorry. I'll get Jumeti. Sure.

Hey, Jumeti. He's a bit dizzy. What? Can you come here for a second? I have something I need to show you. What is this? It's really important, though. It's super important. I need to show you. What is the seasonal bearing on this? It's really important, though.

It's super important. Make a persuasion check. Ooh. 22. Yes. What is it? Come here, come here, come here. Come here, come here, come here.

Come here, come here, come here. Hi! Come here, come here. come here. Come here, come here, come here. Hi! Come here, come here. You can see the temperature rising. He begins to walk over in your direction. Okay, now that we have you two together. Yes. Vontka's still like 10 feet from you, but is like,

what do you want? Okay, we'll do this very quietly. Well, something that, hi, it's me, Gilligan, nice to see you again. Something that we used to do on our ship to relieve the tension and raise morale was we had a boat dance. Yes, and it was specific when we were on

really important missions and stuff. Do you guys have one of those? Not specific to the dance, no. Or to the boat, at the very least. So you have dances, though, that you do to raise? Raise morale? Do you and Jumetii do one together? Jumetii goes,

This is completely inconsequential to me and I need to keep an eye on the cat. Before the moment passes, I stand behind Caduceus' tall frame and quietly cast Detect Magic. Okay. So you cast Detect Magic. As your visual aura expands beyond giving you that faint bits of essence of magic around you,

all of your friends that have various magical accoutrements on themselves begin to glow on their persons and around their persons. You can see that Avantika, both blades that are currently sheathed, give off a faint aura. That seems to be all that you can notice at the moment. Even for Jamedi?

Jamedi, you do not see. I need to walk up and learn more about this dance then. Wait, I'm going to stop you because I see what you're doing. You're probably not going to get anything off him, but he's got an undead vibe that I've been picking up. Oh. You understand, okay. I feel you. It's been making me pretty creeped out, to be honest, but I'm trying to hold

together, keep chill. Chill, lots of chill. It's hot, but still want to see what he's carrying. You really going to let me know what you see and we'll compare notes later. What are you two doing over here? You're holding up, we need to move. Jamedi's already moving, by the way. He's ignored both of you and has continued up the path.

I'm going to catch up to him. You're just throwing the dances on me. I passed him by. Okay, as you catch up, the next thing you see as you turn back is Jamedi hand up behind, no direction. This bitch. As you all begin to listen, Beauregard, Caleb, and Caduceus,

you hear what sounds like the cracking of branches and twigs and the shifting of jungle floor. Watch this gemete. It's like two fingers in the air and then... What does that mean? What does two mean? People don't know. I creep up to just about 30 feet away.

You, you! I agree. And walk up. Okay, so Beauregard and Caleb approach. Why are you following me? What are you doing, then? You hear coming from Jamedi, and as you look just past this clearing,

you notice a troop of four figures making their way through the brush. You hear this very low guttural clicking from one of them. You can notice these shapes, these figures, and a little bit of the now somewhat fading dusk light. They're muscular and burly and hunched. You see scaled skin, but deeply scaled all over. Not snake-like, but more lizard-like.

You see long snouts with rows of sharp teeth and a frill down the back of the neck. You can see makeshift bits of leather strapped together to form patches of armor across the torso. Big, heavy shields carved from some sort of a large shell that has multiple rows of spines and hooks down the back of it.

You see clubs and heavy blades that are made of makeshift scavenged metal or weapons that have washed up on shore or been recovered from others that have been unlucky to make their way to this island and never returned. How many? Four of them. Okay, I... At least one of them has a spear. I duck down, I turn to the rest of the group, and I say,

How far away? Thank you. We're up there. That's bad, Jester. I'm going to take it. It's a spell. It's a spell. It's bad. I quickly turn around and for a while I say, There's four lizard people over here. Then I'm looking in the distance at them

and at Jamedi. Okay, make a perception check. Before this spell fades. There's four lizard people up there. We should do this quietly. 16. 16, okay. I direct the group and I say,

you, this way, and you guys, this way. I don't know. She's like, let's try it, let's try it. Yasha's cupping behind her ear going, what? Yasha and Fjord to the right, we'll go to the left. Okay, let's go, go. At this point, you hear a sudden impact. Glancing over, and Caleb, you watch as behind them on the bushes on the opposite side of this small path

they are walking through, you see three arrows. You watch as two of these lizardfolk tumble to the ground to one knee. They turn around and you watch as two people in purplish robes with basic jewelry and leather bands rush forward with daggers and a scimitar in the other hand and just slash out and start hacking. These lizards are now being assaulted by these people,

and you watch behind them as one burly man with weather-dark skin, exposed chest, and these large, billowing, thick arms that look like two very long, maybe five-foot serpents that come protruding out the sides of the shoulders into these two separate snake heads full of eyes and teeth. Rush forward and slam, biting into the throat

of one of the lizard men. He goes and gets pulled to the ground. His arm snakes? His arm snakes? His arms are snakes. The two other people that you see, you see one male, one female, both look human, but in the middle of this chaos, you can see their eyes are bright yellow

with the serpentine snake eye slit in the center. Now the lizard men are pulling up their shields. One of them has been carved down on the ground, and the one with the big hand has pulled the throat close to the point where it's just slowly dying on the floor. They have completely gone into this combat between the two of them. Roughly how far away is that fray?

It's about 60 or 70 feet. They haven't noticed any of you here, and you are currently completely in shadows. I don't know. What do you do? Hold. Yarn. Hold. And also, do I see anything glowing on Jamedi? No. Okay.

Do you see anything glowing on any of the snakes? It's too far away, I think. Too far away. We're ducking. Yeah, we're staying put. And watching. So it's snakes versus lizards, right? This is the ultimate Godzilla movie.

Oh my god. His arms are five feet, like these big ass. Yeah, like about a foot wide. And they just spiral upward and then they're like . Snapping with giant fangs that protrude and snap on each. His face is just intense and grinning.

This is a hunting party. You watch as one of the lizardmen grabs a spear and jams into the abdomen of the man with the snake arms, looks back and hisses at him angrily. Manages to pull the spear free with one of the snake hands, and then leaps over, pole vaulting off the ground. The other snake head coming down and snapping into the shoulder and chest area of the snake man and then throwing up into the air.

You hear as he goes flying, spinning up into the boughs, lands on the ground, and he stands back up, grabs his shield, and you can see him woozy. There's this black color where the impact of the wound was. You see the veins growing dark and it stumbles and falls onto its knees and falls to the ground. People got venomous bites. Venomous bites.

Have you ever seen an anaconda mouth? There are lots of teeth in there. It's real, real bad. Venomous bites. One by one, you watch as each of the lizardmen are felled from the ambush. By three of the other party? Yes, two of which look to be

comparably smaller creatures, but they just weren't prepared, and while the three snakemen hunting party appear to have sustained a few blows and injuries, they were successful. And the other two only had eyes that seemed off. Correct. Okay. As you're inspecting, you see patches of skin

across their shoulders and the upper part of the chest. You can see scales that appear and then vanish. Sick. With the battle done, the quiet hits, and you watch as they begin to walk off to a small patch where it looks like they had dropped some sort of a satchel. They start pulling out rope and they start tying the legs together of these lizard men. They have two of them tied on one side and the other two tied ankle to ankle on the

other. The one with the two snake arms picks up both and begins dragging them behind them in the jungle, while the other two flank and look out into the grass below and begin making their way deeper towards the path where they came away from you. They're unsuccessful. They're bringing their meal back with them. The path that they took away, does it line up or deviate from the general direction

that we have been heading in? The direction you've been traveling has been a little zigzaggy because it's been following Jumeti's path and the marking he's making, so you're not entirely certain. It seems it could be parallel to the path you're going, but since you don't know the final destination, you're not entirely certain if it'll line up with it or not.

Okay. Jumeti. His hands like slump and he's just watching carefully. Shh. What? Are we following them or, and he's watching carefully. Shh. What? Are we following them, or are we going a different way? We are not getting anywhere near these creatures. Good. They eat lizard pebble.

So I have noticed. Did you see his arms? I did. It was quite frightening. Oh my god. Imagine if it was his legs. How would he even walk? It is a very good question. One that will keep me up late at night. Yeah.

You're not sure if he's joking. Do you guys do anything else? You just let them pass and continue on? We're going to let them go. Yeah, let them go. Okay. Did they leave anything on the ground? Did they leave anything?

Did they drop anything? Make an investigation check. The canopy of trees above, right? There's no sort of... It's a thick jungle canopy. It breaks in places, but. That was the greatest plan we've ever had. We flanked.

And then we didn't do anything. The battle was just over. Yeah. We didn't punch our way through shit. It's a new day. Oh my god. It's a new day. Amongst the ground where the battle took place,

you can see there are mashed plants and streaks of thick lizardmen blood, a few broken teeth that are scattered in the sand there, but nothing beyond that of value. Okay, so you get three lizardmen teeth. Okay. I turn around and I say, do we have anything that resists poison or venom? I have a spell that I learned,

that I took this morning that will cure poison, but I don't have anything that protects from poison today. Caduceus, you raised your hand. I've got both, but it's best applied when needed, really. There's only so much to go around. I feel like with these people, maybe we should have a frontline party and a backline party, and maybe a little frontline poison resistance could be good.

So put our two clerics in front? No, no. I don't mind going in front, mainly because I have no fucking range. Do we have to keep whispering? Can we pretend we're still whispering, but let's not actually whisper? Can we each do that? It's up to you.

No, but if we give the, we're stage whispering. There you go. This is my whisper voice. Yeah. My normal voice. Just saying, these guys clearly have reach, and I don't think we want to have all of us tangle with them. Who do you think

should be in front? Yeah, you make a good point. What if we are in the middle? Because we're so heely. That's fair, we'll be in the middle, just in case things go wrong. I'm super heely. You're so heely. Yeah. I'm so heely. That's fair, we'll be in the middle just in case things go wrong. You're so heely. Yeah.

I'm pretty heely. I'm not going to volunteer or speak for anybody, but I just know I'm better when I'm up and close. I'll join you. Anybody else? Everybody else should stay at least 20, 25 feet back. What if they come from behind? Resistance? If we get into an altercation,

I'll pop both of you quickly. We should have somebody keeping an from behind. Do they come from behind? If we get into an altercation, I'll pop both of you quickly. We should have somebody keeping an eye behind. Did you notice the snake people came up behind Elizabeth? Yasha should stay with the healers, for sure. Yasha can look behind. Yasha! Oh god. Behind.

I have been. The whole time. Yeah. So you made Jamedi. Okay. And Avantika on the front. Avantika's on the front with you. Is that all right? Whatever.

This heat is a bitch. I have been spending this entire debate thinking, looking north and remembering everything that I saw on the way here from the boat and just calculating an exit strategy as I remember the things that I saw on the way here from the boat, and just calculating an exit strategy as I remember the things that I saw on the way here. Okay, good to know. All right, now that enough time has passed,

and Jamedi feels comfortable, he puts his hand out and goes, All right, we press forward. Follow me. I fear we'll have to make camp soon. There is a look to be a ruin up front that might give us some color. Continuing on. Yes.

Jumedi, what if it was his dick that was the snake, though? That's one hell I guess it'd take to get there. He keeps his eyes strained for it, but goes like, I imagine it would be difficult to relieve oneself. Probably. Or masturbate. He turns around and goes.

It's true, though. It is a valid point, but... I need you to be quiet, please. I call it resist, I'm sorry. Continuing on, the sun sets and the sky goes through its cycle of oranges to pinks to purples to blues. You haven't quite reached this aforementioned ruin

before night falls. No. Now the evening insects begin to grow louder and louder. The nocturnal creatures beginning to let out their nocturnal calls and the perpetual din of the various clicks and cricket noises and other various flapping insects mating calls into the night

become this constant droning sound around you. While the insect bites have subsided, the sound itself is uncomfortable, and for those of you who are used to more comfortable sleep, you begin to dread the possibility of finding a night's rest in this. Caleb, Caleb, if you do the bubble thing, can the insects come in the bubble?

Can you make it? Well, but Jester, doesn't it glow? No, it takes on, I'm able to affect its color. I can have it match. I mean, it still looks like a very smooth bobble that is eight feet tall, but maybe not that big, but it can match the general color. Just be dark and not attract any other attention?

Yeah, it does not glow. Okay, okay, okay, do it, please. Hey, guys. Yeah. This is great. Okay, okay, okay, do it, please. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is great. Okay, I spend the next 11 minutes, I pull out the book, unholster it, and start doing a ritual cast here.

Ritual cast of? Leoman's Tiny Hut. Is this where we want to do it, Jester? Is this where we're camping here, though, yes? Jiminy says, perhaps we wait until we get to the ruin, just so we have some sort of cover beyond the trees. Okay. Okay, just a we have some sort of cover beyond the trees. Okay. Okay, just a little longer, then, sure.

Who's keeping watch in this first bit of night travel? Yep, I'll take one. All right, go ahead and roll perception, as will Jem'Haddi. Five. 21. 21. Okay. I'm using the occasional low-level light cantrip 21. You go.

I'm using the occasional low-level light cantrip just to get away from us as far away as possible, just popping every now and then. Okay. If I think I see something. Okay. Following this little chain of lights that pop and glow as it goes,

eventually you come upon what looks to be the first signs of stone rubble. Some sort of structure was built here long ago and since fallen over and elements of its masonry either moved or reclaimed for other structures elsewhere on the island, but you can see the bases of walls and joining positions where you could see elements of this previous building

were used to maintain and hold the ceiling that has since fallen in. There's a series of walked paths that carve through the various ferns and heavy bush, but you do find the back of one of these walls where Jamedi says, This is where I had slept previously. Perhaps this is the best place to rest.

So he begins to set up a small tent ranging against the wall. What do you guys do? Do we want it just to be us? They have the tent. Kind of. Is that rude? A little bit. Yeah, but they're pretty intense for us. They can even hear through the bubble,

remember, still, though. Okay. So we can't talk bad about them, though. I think maybe we invite them in, and just keep one of those people. Do you want to stay with us, but do it like this? Do you want to ask them with that stink face?

Yeah. Okay. Captain Avantika and Jermadee, did you want to stay with us in the bubble? There's no facilities or anything. I mean, it's kind of stinky in there, but if you want to. Jermadee goes, I am unfamiliar with what this bubble is you speak of. It's whatever, it's a little bubble.

It's like a tent. It's like a tent, basically. I am okay. Okay. He heads back to the Kymffian Range tent. Vantika tilts ahead and goes, I assume this is some sort of protective measure for your night's rest?

Mm-hmm. Then I would be delighted to join you. I mean, you don't feel like you're obligated. Believe me, it is my honor. All right. Great, cool. Sheathes the rapier, but keeps the dagger drawn and turned around in her hand, so it's face down and looks over her shoulder both ways

out towards the darkness. So, how spacious is this? As you finish the spell, the strange colored orb appears there on the side of the ruins. Are the surroundings here, or what, we're behind a little bit of stone ruins, or still? Yeah, there's a couple of small stone elements there.

Then it's gray, the same color as the stone. Okay. I have control of the color. All right. Also, out of curiosity, I'm a transmutation wizard, so do I have a sense of how old the stone surrounding us is? The stone here, make an intelligence check. Ugh, bad roll, 12. You don't have specific information on it.

It's quite old, it's probably, it might be older than this age. It might have existed pre-calamity, or at least somewhere in that neighborhood, but you're not entirely certain. Caleb, you want to take a walk? Mr. Caleb, you want to take a walk, maybe, really quickly around this thing, get a gander at it? The thing is, if I exit this bubble now, then it goes away.

I'll just report back. I could do it again. No, no, that's okay. Better safe than sorry. I'll just report back in a minute. I could do it again. No, no, it's okay. Just better safe than sorry. I'll just let you know what I see. Do you want company? Do you need anyone with you? I'd love company, actually, just in case. Okay.

Beau. Nott. What? Keep an eye on them, okay? Let me know what happens. Shut up. On who? I mean.

On who, on our friends? Yeah. Just forget it, let's go. I want to take a look around this thing, and I also want to cast another Detect Undead while we're walking. You're going to look around what? I'm going to take a walk around this little ruin.

Okay. I'm going to have the little light spell up, see if I can see any, you know, just to see if there's any writing on anything, any carvings. I'm going to have Eyes of the Grave up again. I'm just going to be looking for any undead. Okay, and you're accompanying?

Watching his back. Yeah. All right, so the rest of you are staying within the sphere. Gray color, dimly lit on the interior. It can be whatever light source you want at this point. Okay. So the two of you lit on the interior. It can be whatever light source you want at this point. Okay. So the two of you wander around the ruin. Go ahead and make an investigation check, if you don't mind.

Do I? Can I help? Do you get Zami to get Zami? You roll two, maybe. No, okay. Confidence. No. 12. One. I'm not very observant today, okay? I've got things on my mind. One. Oh. I'm not very observant today, okay?

I've got things on my mind. Okay. As you walk through and pour over the ruins, the structure is fairly simple. This wasn't some beautifully made stone hall. Most of the stones here were probably pulled from rivers or were smoothed over. They're varying sizes and the masonry is very simple.

Couldn't figure out what it's a temple to or any. Not in particular. I don't even know if it's a temple. It could have been an abode. It doesn't appear to be huge. There are maybe one or two adjacent rooms that were set in that space. And nothing from the Detect Undead? Nothing from the Detect undead, no. Other than what I already expect to see. No. What I expect to see is still giving off

a little glow, right? Correct. There's a lot of them. What's the range on that? 60 feet, although I will say if there are, divination magic would also blind me to that, and if it was full cover, I would possibly not see it as well.

Right, understood. Caduceus, what's your armor class? 17. 17, okay. As you're looking over the stonework and turning to Jester to mention you didn't see much. The funny thing is. Yeah. There is a shape that moves out of the shadows

with incredible speed. You watch as the faint color being emanated from Caduceus' cantrip immediately falls away and you see the streak of his hair disappear in nearby shadow. I need you to make a strength saving throw. Like he's gone? He's just gone in front of me? You just watched him be pushed off into a nearby bush.

Just football tackled. Yeah. Just gone, okay. 10. Oh, that's a fail. Yeah, what? So you get pushed off, land on the ground, you tumble and are held prone on the ground

as with a little bit of light you can see, not having darkvision, unfortunately, what you see is a faint glimmer of two large white fangs, what looks to be a smattering of whiskers right before you, this growl sound, and what appears to be a cluster of snake heads that bend around each side of the head. So that is the...

All right, so the bite attack hits you. That is going to be only five points of piercing damage. Actually, it's an advantage on the second one. Okay, but the advantage does it. The other one, the snakes all snap on you. Multiple snake bites, biting across your face and your throat. Fuck!

For that, you suffer eight points of piercing damage, and you make a constitution saving throw, please. Save. Mr. Clay. I mean, come on. Mr. Clay. I mean, come on. Ooh. Oh no, don't make that sound, Matthew. Yeah, ooze or not.

And I need to make a constitution saving throw? Mm-hmm. You got this, Mr. Clay. Come on, come on, Snitch. 15. 15, that's a success. You take half damage. So you take only 12 points of poison damage.

Oh my god. I don't think that's bad. But he's not poisoned, that's bad. Correct. Jester, you see the shape and you glance over and you can see with your darkvision this maybe 10-foot long leopard-like cat that is currently now pressed onto the chest

and body of Caduceus. You watch as it bites down towards him and all these strange protrusions from around the shoulders and head area all strike down as a few of them curl back to look at you. In that bit, you can see a few bits of light, faint bits of starlight and moon that are coming down, reflecting in the eyes of these snake heads.

You hear this up behind you on the ruin where you were just standing. I'll be right back. No! We got ambushed! What do we do? Clever girl. I got to get my dungeon ready.

Oh no. Oh boy. How far away are you guys? D&D, beyond. I don't know. I don't know if we're very far. I don't think we're very far away. They want to do a perimeter sweep. Look up these beasts.

Find out about these beasts on D&D Beyond. Oh yes! All right, let's not fall. That means there's probably more than two. Oh. Look at these trees. So Caduceus, you are over here. Jester, you are over here. Is this from the Hawaii?

Yeah! You were in Hawaii. The rest of you are over, so Jemettis over here in this tent. The rest of you are all clustered inside the hut. The hut. I think.

25. Caduceus. Oh god, it's so scary. It's a leopard with snake heads. It's a leopard with snakes. Why would you make that? That's just someone who's drunk at night and is like, let's just do this.

Oh, you're so high. Your seconds are terrible. I of those things were terrible. I need everyone to roll initiative. Oh god, oh god. Come on, you guys, come on. Come on, player. Nope. Technically, you guys don't hear anything,

so we'll see when it comes around to your turn. Wait, what? What do you mean you don't hear anything? We do in the bubble, there's sound. You said we heard through the bubble. Yeah, but they're ringing the bell. You hear sounds, but there's been no sound. You guys have been setting yourselves up

for the evening there. The only person that would have probably noticed would have been Caduceus. And he's getting fucked up right now. Caduceus, we're totally safe in this bubble and nothing can happen to us. And both our healers are outside. Typical.

So, 25 to 20. Wow, cool. Nobody. Oh, someone roll for Yasha. Oh, you want to go with that? Seven plus, I got to get her shield. Yasha points. I think it's nine.

I need a Turkish Delight before I die. 25 to 20, nobody? Seven. Oh yeah, got it. 20 to 15. 18. All right, sweetheart? Oh yeah, got it. 20 to 15. 18. All right, so we have Beau, Caduceus, 17. Stop, look at all them stuff. Beau, Caduceus.

We're going to eat that whole box of candy. 15 to 10. 15 to 10. 13! Beau, Cad, Jessie. All righty, 10 to five. Yasha's nine, I have eight. I'm not sitting at seven.

So wait, Yasha. Oh, I'm at eight, actually. Fjord and Nott in the same initiative. All right, Caleb. Fjord. What? Four. Four. Five. Fiveraven. What? Fjallraven. Four. Five.

Huh? Speaking out of ocean. Five? Fjallraven. All righty, so Beau, you're up first, but you have not noticed anything, so your turn is spent fluffing your space to sleep for the evening.

So, you know what, Fjord, I think Jester's a little jealous. Just throwing it out there. Jealous? Jealous of what? Are you fucking serious right now? Six seconds, done. Caduceus. I'm going to make a, I'm going to yell for help,

and then I'm going to... You all immediately hear, Help! Then I'm going to tap my staff to wake up my beetles. All righty. That's my bonus action. My beetles are going to make a bite attack on that. All right.

I actually have that information now, thanks to the update. On D&D Beyond? On D&D Beyond. That's a swarm attack. They have a bite, so that's plus three to hit, I believe. That's 13? to hit, I believe. Or it's a, and so that's a 13? 13 does not hit. Okay, that's okay. Well, they're in the space right now. And then I'm panicking, so this is going to be fun.

I am going to start making a weird, awful sound, and I'm going to start getting even paler and a little gaunter, and I'm going to grab it, and I'm going to cast, I'm so panicked, Vampiric Touch. Oh boy. I like it. Get some of that shit back. I'm in contact with it.

It's a melee spell attack. Melee spell attack. Go ahead and roll for attack. My melee spell attack. Good. Oh good, oh good, oh good. When does a melee attack here? It's a d20 plus your spell attack modifier.

Okay, so plus eight. Okay, plus eight, yep. 20. 20 hits, go ahead and roll damage for the vampiric touch. Oh man, this is mean. They're next and then Jester, you're up. That's 3d6. That's five, six, seven, eight,

that's 10 points of necrotic damage. Okay. 10 points of necrotic, and I regain five hit points. Atta boy. Atta boy. All righty. So as you reach up, your hand grasps it in his throat and you watch as this strange hissing sound happens as you pull life force energy out of it.

This strange threads of purplish black energy that pull into your body, your wounds healing up slightly. I can see that, huh? You can see a faint bit of energy coming out of Caduceus. Help! Yeah. Is that your turn? That is, unless I can try and move away, but I'm...

You're prone, so it's half movement to try and crawl away, or you could spend half your movement to get up, and then you still have half your movement to try and escape if you want. I'm going to try and half my movement to get up. All righty, so you get up from prone. That's good. I thought it was on top of you. I'm going to back up against you. To here? That's good. I thought it was on top of you. I'm going to back up against you. To here?

Do you get an attack of opportunity? Will you get an attack of opportunity? You can go right there and knock an attack of opportunity. Okay, perfect. That way I can, okay. If you get poisoned, I can unpoison you. All right. If you get poisoned, I can unpoison you.

Cool. That finishes Caduceus' turn. It's now their turn. So the one up top who's hissing down at you, going. Oh no! As its jaw opens, this semi-translucent rolling cloud of dust and gas emanates in.

Goddamn it. No! 40-foot cone. Both of you guys. Why did both clerics go on a hunting mission? You guys did it. God, we're so dumb. I need you both to make constitution saving throws, please.

Okay. Cow, cow, cow, cow, okay. Picking your dice. We're like, It's like Avatar as a fucking... 20. 20, you manage to resist the effect. Nine. Yes. It's like Avatar is a fucking... 20. 20, you manage to resist the effect.

Naim. Jester, you inhale it, suddenly cut off guard by it, and you find your eyes blink and go dark as you fall unconscious. I'm so sleepy. Oh god. She's unconscious? Yep.

Wait, like unconscious or asleep? Like unconscious or asleep? Like unconscious. Like not zero hit points, but asleep unconscious. Like hardcore. Yes. All right. Shit. It is going to move, jump down from here,

and begin to move this way to flank you, Caduceus. This one here, now flanking you, is going to attempt to strike at you twice. Good to know. I forgot about that bit. All right, so it bites this one's claw. It's going to be with advantage. Okay, that is going to make it an 18 to hit. Why right, so bites this one's claw. It's going to be with advantage. Okay, that is going to make it an 18 to hit. Why is it advantage? Because they're flanking you. Oh, goddammit. Yeah, that hits.

All right, so the bite attack, you take six points of piercing damage. Bam! And the snakes snap at you. That is going to be a 19. That also hits. All right, so you take another, ooh, that's 10 points of piercing damage.

At this point, as you're between the two of them, the one behind you that just put Jester to sleep, all of its snakes snap around you, the back of your head and your neck and your shoulders, and you feel the poison through your veins. Roll another constitution saving throw, please. Oh my god. To the clerics, and I don't know, on a solo mission.

That's so stupid. 12. 12? 12 just, no, 12 succeeds. Yay! All right, Shaggy. How do you get spray and the snakes in the same? That's just so much.

Help! Hold on, 20. I'm standing. You have to get half damage on this. Half that is going to be 13 points of poison. I'm still standing. He's slugged. All righty.

Yeah. They're done. Jester? Huh? You are unconscious. I'm going to dream about the Traveler. That brings us to Avantika and Jemetti. Dreaming thatier and the

dagger, and then darts leaping over. One, two, three, four, five, six. Just seeing these creatures rushes forward, leaping forward with her rapier and blade. She's going to make three attacks. The gray's going to be with the dagger. One rapier, shot. Misses, then one for the rapier, one for the dagger. Hit, so for the dagger, that is... Four for a nighttime stroll. We are in total danger zone, and we're taking strolls.

Danger zone! Seven points of damage. It was perceptive. It was my own fault, I was suspicious. Another ten points of damage on that. What, on both? It was a seven and a ten. Right. Then Avantika seems to be holding both blades ready,

preparing to defend herself. Jaumetii, who stumbles out of his tent, there's only a half movement, glances over, can barely see what's there. He's on the outside of the dome, goes, pulls out his shortbow and is going to attempt to shoot it with an arrow, and misses with a four. Natural four.

There's no light source here. It just seems to disappear in the distance. That finishes his turn. That brings us to Yasha. Yeah, Yasha will use her full movement to follow Avant to disappear in the distance. That finishes his turn. That brings us to Yasha. Yeah, Yasha will use her full movement to follow Avantika out of the buble. Four, five, six, seven. Can she flank it? She can get to about there.

Is that within melee? That is within melee, yes. Great. She'll take a swipe. That is a 17. 17 will hit. Great. So that's 2d6, right? 2d6 plus an additional d6. Did she rage?

No, she didn't, because I, yep. Doesn't work on Barbarians. Yeah. No, so it's just 2d6, because you weren't raging. Six points of damage. All right. You added the three points for strength, right? No. Nine points of damage. Nine points of damage, you got it.

All right, second attack. It's real fun playing with a pair of Germany to have their sheets. Yeah. That's a 16. 16, that hits, good roll damage. 2d6 plus three. Six.

Plus four, technically. Plus four, so six, so 10. 10 points of damage. Got it. And with her bonus action, she would like to rage. There you go. Put a hot method. All right, that finishes up Yasha's turn.

Four to naught, you guys are up. I heard Mr. Clay! Let's go! I'll scramble out, going into the direction that I heard the sound and seeing all these folks over here. Okay, so you leave the thing and you can see everyone right there? Do I see the beast? You do, you see that one beast right there.

I will kneel down and shoot it. Go for it. In its hindquarters. That's a miss. 12. 12 does not hit. Reload. Fire again. Wait, do I want to do this? Nope. I'll keep moving and hide behind that wall. Right here? Yeah. All righty.

Bonus action, hide. Roll a stealth check. That's a 28. Don't you get advantage because you have coat? Sure. You's a 28. Don't you get advantage because you have coat? Sure. You get a 20. All right, so you are stealthed there.

All right, that finishes Nott's go, Fjord, what are you doing? Can I use my 30 feet of movement to run that direction around the far side of the ruin? Yep. You come around the edge and you turn and see right there in front of you another one of these leopard-like creatures. You're like, oh shit, you didn't even notice

there was a second one there. Oh shit, and I'll just fire both streams of Eldritch Blast from each hand. Go for it. 13. 13 misses, unfortunately. Second one. 23.

That'll work. Excellent, yeah. Nice. That's 11 points of Eldritch Black. She blasts and almost forcing it off of its feet for a second, catches up. Nice. Great, that's it. The stakes turn to look at you for a second. That finishes Fjord's go. Caleb, you're up. I drop the hut. It's gone. Seeing what I see, I've got the Transmuter Stone I can see in dim light, so I'm feeling into my

satchel and I take out some molasses and smear it on my hands and cast Slow on... I'll come as far as I can over here, behind Yasha, to see what I can see. Over here you mean? I will come this way, not getting closer to them. Five. Yeah, that's fine, that's good. And cast Slow on the two creatures that I see. Ooh. Ooh.

All righty. DC 16. Good choice. Yeah, all right, DC 16. That is a wisdom? Yeah. All right. That is a success, 16 on the first roll.

That's that one there. Yeah. The other one, natural 17 plus two, they both succeed. Success, 16 on the first roll. That's that one there. The other one, natural 17 plus two, they both succeed. I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry. No, no, no apologies. Good rolls. There's good rolls in there in part. Does that finish your turn, Caelan?

If I have any movement left, I will back away from that shit. You will have, from back to you, you have maybe five seconds in the same area. We can start backing away. All right, back at the top of the round. Beau, you're up. The orb has vanished, everyone's rushed out.

You look over and you can hear these growls and snarls and impacts, combat is happening. What are you doing? My pillow! Then I just run and I say, Nott! Don't! I jump over Nott and I'm going for this one in the back. 45 speed.

Over this way, you mean? Yeah, that one in the back. Oh, the one that I've been shooting at or the one closest? The one that Fjord's been shooting at. All right, go ahead and first off, roll an acrobatics check, just make it over the wall. Yeah, 25.

Yeah, you're fine. It says 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35. I'm going to come down big iron man, three-point landing punch to its face. Go for it. Wow, cool. Cool story. Bro. 12? 12 misses, unfortunately.

I crack my knuckles on the rock and I'm like, and I roundhouse kick it with my second attack. Go for it. That's better, that's a 22. 22 hits, go ahead and roll damage. Wow. Wow, that's super great. Five points. Five points of damage with your second strike.

And then I'm going to go ahead and I hit it, so I can do Stunning Strike. No, I need to hit it twice for Stunning Strike, right? No, you should hit it once. Just once, going to stun it. Yeah, all right. Constellation saving throw. That is a natural one.

Yay! So you missed the first strike, but as you roundhouse kick, you manage to kick right up in its abdomen. You feel ribs break and buckle under the impact of the kick, and some sort of chain reaction spirals across its nervous system as it falls to its side. It is stunned until the end of your next turn.

I'm going to spend another ki point and do Flurry of Blows for my bonus action. Yes, you can do that, yes. And do pop pop, two more punches. Go for it, you have advantage on these, I believe. Okay, first attack. I'll take that natural 17, which I'm pretty sure hits. Four, mm-hmm, nine damage.

And then second attack is a natural 20. Woo, nice. Thank you, Gil. Get it, get it. Two dice, that's double sixes. is a natural 20. Woof, nice. Think you'll get all two dice. That's double sixes. That's double sixes. That's 12 plus four. Oh shit.

Oh wait, no wait, I double my die roll. No, I only roll once. Well, it would've been fine. It's the same other way. 16 points of damage. Sorry, 16 points of damage plus four, so 20 points of damage, wait. Well no, 16 points of damage. 16 points of damage? Sorry, sorry, 16 points of damage plus four, so 20 points of damage, wait. Well no, 16 points of damage.

60 points of damage! Mass! So after it's stunned, you get up and just wail on it. The second hit, managing to plunge right towards where its kidney is, and you don't feel any sort of muscular resistance as your fist sinks about an inch or two into its body. You pull back, it doesn't break the skin,

but you can feel like you hurt some meaty organs on the inside. All right, does that finish your turn, Beau? Yes, sir. Caduceus. There's a stunned one behind me, a stunned one on one side of me, and a not-stunned one on the other, correct. I'm going to hit the stunned one with the Vampiric Touch. Go for it. I'm going to punch. You have advantage on it. One hit point.

I'm at four. He's getting Vampiric Touch, then he doesn't heal if it lasts. It lasts. That's 17. 17, yeah, that is. Go ahead and roll damage. That was close. Seven points of damage, so I get three back. You heal three back. Okay, so I get three back. You heal three back.

Okay, so I'm now at seven hit points. That's super high! And now I'm going to vanish. I'm going to disappear. Okay, so you turn invisible. I'm going to turn invisible. Until the beginning of your next turn. Yeah. Or end of your next turn.

And I'm going to circle around and back off. Circle around here? Yeah, and then move towards, and then take a couple steps back, see if anything happens. Yeah, it hears you moving and swipes out. It has disadvantage on the strike. Oh boy.

Here we go. The snakes swing out towards you. That is going to be a 14 to hit. That misses. Yep. You just mid-dodge it away. The snakes all snap out in the middle of the game, by no purchase.

I'm going to even get a little further out, just to. The nuisance is up, invisible. I want you, I'm not going to go off the board or anything. That's fine. Okay, that ends your go. It's now their turn. So. You're going to be fine, Jessie. Yeah, yeah, totally.

You're asleep. Okay. The other one that currently seeing all these individuals cluster in the area begins to back up and as he watches its torso swells and its lower jaw opens and the other one now releases a similar burbling cloud right there.

Oh no! Avantika's going to have to make a constitution saving throw. Fails. Avantika falls asleep. Is this a spray or a cloud? It's a cloud. Oh, so it goes around walls. Yep, and you should make a constitution save not.

Me too, right? Was I a not? Or no? 21. You are. Okay, you're fine. 17. Go ahead and make it.

13. 13, you succeed. Seven. You succeed. Yeah, it's just a double asleep. Did Yasha roll? Yasha was just out of the range of it, actually. With that, it's going to go ahead and attempt to run off this way and dart.

Yasha gets one strike on it to see if she can sentinel. She'll make it reckless. Can't make it reckless on your turn. That's right, not on her ass. Oh, it's a sleep gas. Yeah, that's a 24. That'll hit. She's raging, so 3d6.

Orthopedic. Nice, 11. 14. 14, all righty. Six five. Nice. As she strikes wide with the blade, you watch the creature

It's limping a little bit and it's trying to back away. It's unable to move from where it is. Its speed is reduced to zero, so it turns to now look on the two unconscious figures in the ground. That one is stunned, so it can't do anything. Jester, you're up. I'm asleep. You're asleep. I dream.

Avantika can't do anything, she's asleep. Jometty's going to move here next to the trees for cover, and he's going to reload his shortbow and take a shot at that natural 20 for Jometty. Get it, Jometty! He said I did shit. All right, so that's eight damage with the shortbow. I'm sweaty.

Knees weak. Mom's Jometty. Yeah. Well done, well done. That's fantastic. His turn, that brings us to Yasha. No, you just roll your eyes at us at this point. You're so ass.

No, Mom's Jamedi's pretty great. She'll run up and take her two swipes, Reckless. She's going to move? Yes. Reckless, great weapon master. Yeah, Reckless. She's going to move? Yes. All right. Reckless, Great Weapon Master. Yeah, you know it. Is she back? I'm afraid to know.

She's not Great Weapon Master. That's a natural 20. Yeah! For sure! Dope, dope, dope, dope, dope, dope, dope, dope. So roll 3d6 and then double that. Three. Four.

Seven, 14. All right, 14 plus six, I believe. Yeah, so. So 20 points of damage. Yeah, how does Yasha want to do this? Yay! She'll see it sitting there and she'll reach up high and she'll just try and cleave off the front

of the jaguar's head in one downward strike. You watch as the body attempts to leap and the head just stumbles underneath some of the snake heads and the momentum carries it, but it runs straight into the base of the tree, crossing the way before on the ground. The head still coming to rest on the ground. Deadhead. She has one more attack. Can she use the rest of her movement to move towards the jaguar? I think she used ten feet of her movement.

She could, yeah. She has much of her movement, so she can move up. Is that melee. She could, yeah. She has much more movement. Oh, good, he's alive. Is that melee or just outside of it? Yeah, it's melee. Oh, great. Reckless as well? Two, 17, 21. 21, that hits.

Yes! All right, three, nine. Yeah, 14 points of damage. All right. Plus three, right? Or no, no, it's not double. The 3d6 only happens in the first attack, so it's only 2d6. Oh, thank you. So let's back it down to nine.

Nine, okay, got it. Plus four. Plus six. Yeah. So, 14. Got it, okay. That finishes Yasha's go. Fjord and Nott, you guys are up. I'll climb up over the wall and take a shot at the one remaining leopard. Leopard.

Up you pew! Le-pew-pew. 21. 21 hits? Yeah. You have advantage on that shot because it is stunned? Advantage. That's a weird roll. I'm going to do that again. It's still 21.

Yeah, so. Just make an attack on that one? Yeah. Wow. Oh, terrible. I spit on you with that. That's okay. 15.

15 points of damage to it. Struck that the blow hits and sinks in. The creature's looking hurt, but it's still standing, though it is stunned. Damn. All right, I'll reload and shoot again. All right. With advantage, because it's still stunned.

Great. 26. 26 will do, yeah. And then this is not a sneaky attacky, right? Correct, you only get one score. Much better. 11, and I'll use Fury of the Small to make it 16. All righty.

It's looking real hurt. Fjord gets it. Eat it, Fjord. Fjord, what are you doing? Maybe don't kill it. We can interrogate it. Because you guys are going at the same time, you guys can figure out. I'll take just enough of a step back to use Eldritch Blast again, I'll fire both of them.

Go for it, two strikes on it. Eldritch Blast, plus eight is 14. 14 just hits. Okay, and the second one. These are with advantage because it's done, don't forget. Oh shit, oh, you're better, okay. That first one was better. 14 as well on the second one.

Yeah, both hit. Okay, great. Yes! That's the second one. Yeah, both hit. Okay, great. Yes! Crackle on, dude. Two, okay, yeah, so six. And 13, so 19 points. 19 points of damage. How do you not want to do this?

Yay! What did you use? What did you do? Eldritch. I shot it with a thing. I'll light it up with this crackling green Eldritch Blaster coming from both of my palms, causing its fur to smoke and burn off and its snake heads to repel.

Oh my god, that's so visceral and amazing. I'll shoot it in the nose. You watch as its torso erupts and green flame and energy just. The body slinks to the ground, smoldering cinder, and as its head. Shunk. Just the bite of the seed.

I'll look over and not. You guys all take a moment, make a perception check. If you'd like, I can jungle around you. Wait, who, all of us? All of us. Six. Oh, Jester's asleep! Three. Hey!

Oh yeah. Hey! Hey! 13. 13, okay. Boy, I'm... 10. But keep hitting me. Hey! Hey! 13. 13, okay. Boy, I'm... 10. But keep hitting me. Hey! Five! She needs to pass him out!

You can use an action to wake him. Oh. Oh. Jester, you come to consciousness and you're half curled on Avantika, who's half curled on you since you guys passed out right next to him. Caleb is going to quick walk over to Avantika, kneel down and say, are you all right?

Are you all right? With his back to Spaghetti and cast Identify on one of the swords. Okay, make a deception check. Okay. My back is doing. I know. There's still motions involved.

Are you okay? It was almost a one, but it wasn't. That's pretty good, it's pretty good, it's good. It's 19. Ooh. Okay. So as you bend down and focus on the blade, which one, the dagger or the rapier? The rapier.

The rapier is a plus one rapier. Okay. Nothing too crazy or special, but it is a... I'm going to focus on the dagger. I cut the cheeks. Okay, he comes to you and pushes you away for a second and pulls the blade and puts her back up to the wall, has both blades out.

It's come into consciousness, but instinctually is defensive. We're good, we're good. I'm going to gather in and keep an eye out before I come back into visual. I'm about to become visual, visible again. Did we win? We won!

I don't know that we did. There were only two of them, and because Caleb left the bubble, it disappeared, right? It's gone, but it only takes me 11 minutes, but I don't know, are we safe where we are? We can do the bubble here and just, you know, have this wall take up some of the bubble space, or we can just be right next to this wall.

We made a bit of a ruckus. That's the last thing you want to do in a jungle. Oh, we what? Are you okay? You don't look very good, Mr. Clay. Thank you. I'm going to Cure Wounds. On yourself? Yeah.

Did they seem like intelligent beasts? Make a... I'm going to do a to you, to you. That was embarrassing, just what happened there. From what brief encounter you had, it's hard to say, make a nature check. Well, actually, no, this would not be a nature, this is not a natural creature.

Make a general intelligence check. That's better, that's a 20. 20? Yeah. They don't appear to be, they're more intelligent than some creatures in nature, but there isn't any sort of... Still animalistic. Still animalistic, they are natural to this island

at the very least. So then, knowing that, I would recommend, if I make the bubble again, even if some more of them come, as long as we stay safe for the next 10 minutes, if they come, we will be still and sleeping, and all they will see is a round stone. They're animals. Agreed.

They will leave. We should rally back to back while Caleb casts it. Are we going to leave the two dead animal bodies right here next to where we're camping? Because that could stink. We'll move over to where our bubble was before. How about that? Okay. I'll start them going, too, so I won't be

in there very long. Start them going. Begin my ritual spell in the same spot. What were you guys doing out here? I was sleeping, did you notice? No, but before that, why did you come out here? What? I will whisper to you, why did you come out here in the first place?

Why were you walking around in the dark alone? No need to yell, that's all right. I'm whispering. We were just looking at the temple, trying to maybe get an idea of what it was. Yeah, he was holding his light up really bright and seeing if he could find any words and stuff. I feel like I see where the problem happened.

I think they might notice some light. Yeah. That may have been a poor call. It's okay, you know? We're learning things. I definitely feel like I've learned. I think I need to pass out. A good night of sleep will do you very well.

Mm-hmm. Does everything in this jungle have snake heads? I think it's a fair assumption. All right. Snake legs or snake arms or snake dicks? Make a like a hi, make a hi-no. You complete your ritual spell and the tiny hut is completed.

Into the bubble. Yep. All right. At this point, Jaren, he goes, actually, I will be, if possible, interested in staying within this time. Oh, all right. He grabs a few things from the tent, and it's a very tight space.

It's only nine creatures is the max, right? So you've from the tent. It's a very tight space. It's only nine creatures is the max, right? So you've hit the maximum. But you all manage to fit in there in a very, yeah, not terribly comfortable space, but. 10-foot radius, so 20 from one side to the other. Yeah. I still think one of us should stay up and shift inside this bubble, just in case.

Yeah, I'll take the first shift, I'm good. I'm very jittery tonight. I'll take it, I'll take the first shift, I'm good. I'm very jittery tonight. I'll stay up with you. Frumpkin, by the way, is flitting about a little bit from person to person while we talk, even lands on Vantika's shoulder a little bit and does a little. Okay.

I bring Sprinkle out from inside my hood and make sure he was okay during that whole fight. Sprinkle, who is not necessarily used to the type of weather, appears to be very uncomfortable in the heat and being tucked into the cloth. And some water and some little boots. What are you doing to that poor dog? I'm sorry, buddy.

This is the crimson weasel. Now my owl is dancing. The dog is with Ruby. Yeah, whatever. Yeah. And Shul Dugong, I'm sorry, now the owl is pitter-patting on Avantika's head. Just walking along the head?

Just walking. Not constantly, but just in a cute way. Caleb, I whispered in his ear, make it poop. Make it puke? Make it puke on her head. Are you putting the umlaut over the o's in the poop? Pupe?

What are you talking about? You said puke. Avantak puts the finger up towards Frumpkin. Don't do it. He flickers up to the finger. Make your boop on the finger. Unrealistic. And bats his, whatever I say, bats a little one-ounce owl eyes at Avantika.

Interesting. Have you never seen an owl before? Not one so small and adorable in this docile. It's pretty cute. Frumpkin poops. Really? Hey, Avantika. How many dudes do you think you killed?

What, in all of my years? Yeah. I don't know, I stopped counting it around, maybe 50. Oh. That's awesome. That's a high number. Yeah, that's a big number. But in my line of work, it is important to not hesitate

when some drunk asshole tries to, I don't know, take your ship. We can't relate at all. Nope. Well, anyway. I will be taking a nap with one eye open. Good night, everyone. She settles into her camping garb. Who's keeping watch?

She's ripping her pillow tight. All right. Go ahead and make perception checks for the first watch, guys. We're inside the bubble, right? Yeah. What do we do? 12.

One. All right. We're really looking for an insight. Yeah, also, we're being very quiet because we don't want to be heard, but while we're in here, Frumpkin, over a period of like 10 or 15 minutes, just goes, you see this, goes,

along the ground, hops onto Avantika's boot. Okay. Boop, boop, boop, boop, boop. Boop, boop, boop, boop. Eventually stands on top of her dagger, and I cast Identify Through Touch of My Familiar. And he weighs one ounce. Yeah, that's true.

One ounce is good. One ounce owl. It's the best band. The one ounce owl. It's the best band. The one ounce owl. Avantika, who, as mentioned before, was sleeping with one eye open, essentially, is rested there, and then right as you begin to go through the actions

of the casting, there is a flash of motion. Oh no. What is Frumpkin's armor class? What's Frumpkin's armor class? Oh, I'm sure it's terrible. Hold on a second. Creature. Go to the creature.

Is there a negative? I am. It is 11. Frumpkin's up with five points of piercing damage. Oh no! As Vantiga instinctually. Why did you do that? Why did you do that?

You know why I did that. You know why I did that. Oh. You know why I did that? Hey. Be glad it was just your owl. Please do not go peering. Oytis not want it, huh? Okay, don't mind me while I make another owl, and I begin casting Find Familiar to bring back

the owl from the coffin as a one-ounce owl. Recycling pumpkin. We lose more owls. I promise to pour out an owl for a week so I can't have my cat back. Okay, so 10 minutes later, there's an owl. Watch is over.

You finish your watch, seemingly uneventful, towards the tail end of it, you do see a shape of what looks to be another one of those leopard-like creatures that stalks on the outskirts of the strange, opaque orb you've created and approaches it. Circles around it for a bit, prods at it every now and then. Spends about 40 minutes or so just keeping a watch

and eventually loses interest and wanders off into the jungle. Cool. Wow. I like it. Not that kind. All right, next watch. Who's taking next watch? We really need one more watch, I think. All right, Jester? On the way, because I got a pretty good amount of sleep

during that fight. Can I ask Caleb before good amount of sleep during that fight. Can I ask Caleb before he goes to sleep, hey Caleb, could we stick things through the bubble? Yeah, you can go out and in, and you can, sorry, and you can put your weapons through it, but no magic will go in or out. Okay. But you can leave and come back any time you want. Okay, just ticking.

But please don't go on any walkabouts while we are sleeping. I'm not going to, Caleb. But you already did. Well, that was for Caduceus. Don't worry about it, okay? You promise? Of course I promise. I'm going to stay in here.

That is good enough for me. Good night. Good night. Good night. Any perception check? Jesus. 20. All right. Jometty stays up to also take watch with you. Nice.

Sits across the opposite way, and you're watching this way over his shoulder and he's looking over yours and doesn't engage in conversation unless you wish to. Have you ever seen those cat things before? I've seen them my first time passing through here, yes, but I was quieter. Yeah, we're pretty loud sometimes. You are correct. This has been a bit more challenging

than I originally anticipated. Have you thought at all about the Traveler? No. Do you want the pamphlet? I am confused as to what you are speaking of. Oh! The Traveler. You are strange. He's everywhere.

And creepy. He's really great. I'll give you a pamphlet. I get it out and I walk it over to him. It takes a solid ten seconds of him just inspecting it and looking up at you and inspecting it before he can. Just read it over. There's a lot of information in there, it's really important. Much appreciated. He's here right now.

Tucks it away into the inside of his vest. Traveler, if you're here, you should show him you're here so that he will like you even more than he already does. Just give it a minute. You're not quite sure who it was on that side that let one lose their sleep, but the inside of the dome suddenly has a very fragrant air. Dutch up.

To be fair, we all had Indian for dinner tonight. This could be any one of us. He has cast his blessing upon us. Maybe the most impressive of miracles. How long have you been working for Captain Apontica? Only for this journey, months before. Do you like her a lot? She pays well.

Does not judge. What were you doing before you were working for her? Working for other people. What's the craziest thing you've ever done? Eyes narrow at you. I was the only survivor to the escaping singular mines to the north area of the continent. How far have you traveled outside of the Empire?

Well, I'm from the Menagerie Coast, actually. All right. Yeah, so that far. I have delved into a few ruins. I have been lucky enough to survive by working alone. I have seen many friends fall and disappear. But I have made my way. What's the craziest thing you have seen? Ever in my life?

Sure. Oh shit, I've seen some crazy shit. This one time, I saw a bug carrying a piece of bread This one time, I saw a bug carrying a piece of bread that was like five times its size. And he was carrying it upstairs, like up, and then he would turn, and then it would go up, and then he would turn.

Will wonders ever cease? I'm going to concentrate on our surroundings for the remainder of our shift, if you do not mind. Looks up. Towards the tail end of your shift, as the sunlight begins to slowly peak up. Small laughter, and then it caught like fire. There is some more shifting in the nearby bushes, and you see two figures beginning to approach the sphere.

Oh shit. Look over. He gets his shortbow ready and knocks an arrow. As you guys wait, you can see two similar to what you had previously seen in your travels on this island, two lizardmen armored, one carrying a net slung over his shoulder, the other with a long spear, both with shields off to the side, not ready for aggression,

but they both approach slowly towards the strange sphere, and begin inspecting it. I put my hand on Fjord's leg. Upper thumb. Mm. Mm. It's got the pettish. He pokes it with the spear.

The other one steps forward and . Licks it. . They both begin to walk around and inspect it and prod and poke it. He's just looking out very intensely, the bonadge. They both circle around the back end of it,

poke at the dome a few more times, and then picks up a rock and throws it at it, skips off of the exterior of it and rests in the bush. They both step forward one more time and smell it closely. They both turn around and begin to make their way in the opposite direction of where the dome is set,

making their way further into the jungle, clearing. One of them stops and looks back behind one more time at the dome and turns back, and both of them vanish into the nearby brush. Is it getting light yet? It is. There's no sign of the sun, but it's that early morning soft blue that's starting to overtake the evening's night.

We should wake up. Everybody should wake up. We should get out of here before they come back with more people. Who? There was, I couldn't tell, they were shadowy, but I think they were Lizardmen or Snakemen. Oh gosh. Could you tell?

I would say that they are probably very close to the ones we saw before. Which ones, the Lizardmen or the Snakemen? They appear to be of the Lizardmen heritage. Which ones, the lizard men or the snake men? They appear to be of the lizard men heritage. We should get out of here, even though the lizard men are obviously the weaker of the two. Caleb. Hmm?

We should get up and get out of here. Yeah, okay. They know where we are. Quickly, quickly. Did we get a long rest? Ah, you did get a long rest. Oh, good. Okay, well, say the word and I'll pull it down. Let's get everything together first.

Yeah. You ready? Following you. All right, collect your belongings. He goes over and starts assembling his tent, quickly rolling it up and putting it into his pack over his shoulder. You guys gather your things. Should we make the brush look like we weren't sleeping on it and stuff?

Why? You know, so that they won't be able to like. Make a survival check, Beau. Okay. Do the running man in the mud, Beau. It's not great. Nine. There are a series of foot grooves in the dirt.

Good enough. Yeah. It doesn't look like anybody slept here. It looks like a series of foot grooves in the dirt. Good enough. Yeah. It doesn't look like anybody slept here. It looks like a bunch of people kicked here. Okay, good. Riverdance was here. Yeah. You gather your things. Chimney leads you back towards the jungle. All right, a few more hours,

and I think we will be on the outskirts of the village. I cast Pass Without a Trace on all of us again. All right, a few more hours and I think we will be on the outskirts of the village. I cast Pass Without a Trace on all of us again. All right. So, yes? Mr. Gemetti, what are we going to find when we get there? Are there any baddies? There are plenty of these snake people where they live. We'll have to be very quiet.

We'll have to gauge our passage through their town. Try to not be seen, and if we are seen, eliminate whoever catches us before we can notify the rest of them of our presence. Make our way towards the central structure. Trust me, you'll know it when you see it." Looks back, looks back to Avantika and says, and I believe that is the quarry in which you paid for

beneath that, correct? Avantika goes, it is correct. In we go and see where it takes us. So, shall we? Jem'Adi leads the way. All right, come forward. You all begin to slowly make your way into the jungle as you cast Pass Without a Trace.

We'll come back at the end of the break. Owl on your head. There you go. Oh god! Stealth Owl. All right, we're going to take a quick break. We'll come back to that with that stealth check and this next leg of the journey into the island of Kaisel.

What's up? Oh, the giveaway just happens now. We don't have to say anything. Well, yeah. No, we do. It's still here. So we have our fantastic wormwood giveaway tonight. We have... So moving forward, you'll have to move into the chat. This is how it's been.

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So go ahead and put jungle in once. More than once, you'll be disqualified. Once again, only available for those in the U.S. and Canada, excluding Quebec. We're working on it. But anyway, we'll be back here in a few minutes. We'll see you guys shortly. We interrupt this Critical Role Podcast Network broadcast to bring you news

of dangerous treasures that lie sealed within the Critical Role shops. Only the heartiest of adventurers should dare seek them out. In all seriousness, though, I'm Matthew Mercer, and we've made some very cool things that we really like and hope you will, too. If you'd like to support the show, please consider visiting any of our Critical Role online shops through the shop tab at critrole.com and see if anything catches your eye. Okay, back to the show. Welcome back, everyone. So before we get back into the story, we have our winner for the Dice Vault giveaway. Our winner is Wulfstar Umbra. Now, that doesn't sound like someone's D&D character. I don't know what it does. But Wulfstar, congratulations. We'll get your information, we'll get the Dice Vault sent out to you. It is true.

We are Wolfstar Umbra. Who did you? Wolfstar is a space cowboy. He's like total space cowboy. It's true. Sorry, Wolfstar. Thank you, Wolfstar. Thank you, Wolfstar. All right.

I never know your true form. So now, in the early morning daylight. We'll be right back. Go, go, go. Oh no. In the early morning daylight here on Uruquesil Island, you trudge deeper and deeper into the jungles. As the low mist in the jungle begins to burn away, as the day itself grows warmer,

all of you getting a bit more adjusted to the temperature and general atmosphere. Beau, you're feeling a little rough. Eh? What? You get this sweating a little bit and this soreness in your body and this general body pain, a dull pain throughout.

You've got mono. Nope. I'm great. Just, you're not quite sure why it's come over you, but. Yep. Pressing on, Jometty leads you for about another hour and a half, two hours to the jungle, before putting his hand up once more to stop you all.

Oh, we need to make a stealth check, actually. Oh yeah, we do. Can we come back? Pass without a trace. Pass without a trace, everybody. Do I still have? No, I don't anymore. Yeah! Natural 20 plus 10! Do I have the thing?

I got you! I think that was my... Please tell me you forgot to pass without a trace. Yeah. Thank you. That was my seventh four. I don't happen to have the blessing anymore. I had one of mine, too. You rolled with advantage, right?

Do I have the blessing anymore? No, you're slacked. I do, Dan. Sorry. The blessing. 14. 14. 33. Woo-hoo! You even here? 30 maxed out, jeez.

Laura reminds me that I roll with advantage, so I'm at a 30. There you go. Caleb? 30. 34. 15. Okay you go. Caleb? 30. 34. 50. Okay, and Yasha?

Natural 18, not bad. Wow. We're late. You guys are cruising your way through the jungle and using that score as you approach Jometty with his hand out behind them, stopping you. Glancing just past his shoulder, you can see the jungle trees begin to clear.

The first thing that catches your eye beyond this tree line, you can see a few dozen scattered stone buildings, most of them in relatively good shape, immediately coming into view. You can see the stone coloration is more of a sandstone, yellowish to a dull gray and white, with different materials used to accent elements

of the construction. This doesn't match the ruins you had previously slept in the night before. These appear to be fresher. You can see the varying green jungle vines and roots begin to entwine and tangle near the base of some of them, and where it's built looks like parts of the jungle have grown up around and helped camouflage elements of this small village.

You can see elements of the exposed stone carry snakehead obelisks that appear to be softly carved from bits of a marble material or recovered stone in a similar way that most of the construction has been done. Like the figurine that I recovered earlier? A similar sculpt and design, though larger and of more detail.

You see each of these obelisks about 10 feet tall, and they tend to be markers at different intersections of travel. You can see probably a dozen or so folk immediately at this position that you're at that are wandering through the city. Some are gathering materials. You can see, actually, up the way

across one of these walls, you see four figures that are strung by their feet. You can see the remnants of the Lizardmen that are in the process of having the flesh flayed from their body. You see one of the more humanoid ones, probably one of the hunters that you saw alongside the snake-armed man,

is aware of the blade and is just stripping it off of the bones and then slawing it into a pile next to it where you hear over on top of each other. What do the obelisk eyes look like? Make a perception check. over on top of each other. What do the obelisk eyes look like? Make a perception check. Hard to tell at this distance. You'd have to get a lot closer. Who's got the mote this morning?

Who mowed it? Who dodecahed it? Oh dang, we were going to hit that. We were going to pass it around. Yeah, it's somewhere in the building. Are we? Well, we'll give it to Fjord again. This is his day. Okay, Fjord. Stare at it.

Look into its eyes. You don't want to give it to Caduceus? I will not say no to it. Look into its eyes. I don't know. All right, you take your mode of possibility. We're hanging back at this point. We're not in the thick of it.

We're seeing all this from a distance. I was thinking about spells. Yeah. Remember, if anything goes down, Fjord and I will take point. Caduceus, I noticed before it seemed like you guys were poisoned immediately, but not lingering. Well, I should turn everything off when we woke up.

Are you? I'm not saying anything. Why? What? You seem a little... Nope. Are you sure? Yep. I can do it. Nope. Do you feel okay? Yeah. Does she look okay?

Make a medicine check. 22. Looking at her, you can see there is, all of you are fairly warm and sweaty. Her complexion is paler than you recall. There is quite a bit of sweat, more so than expected, that is streaming down her body. Her vision appears to be not as focused,

and she's not making eye contact with you as she speaks to you. Lids are a bit droopy. She doesn't look healthy. You don't look okay, are you sure? I really, you really don't look okay. Fuck you. Lids are a bit droopy. This doesn't look healthy. You don't look okay. Are you sure? I really, you really don't look okay. Fuck you. Okay.

Well, there might be some leeches in this jungle. Maybe some ticks? I don't, I mean, I'm just offering something. I'm ritual casting to this discussion. What are you casting? Comprehend languages. Do you see red stripes? No.

I feel stripey, I don't know why. You're clammy and, huh? Heal you or something? I am great. I'm awesome. Are you a cheat? Okay, you haven't been around her as much. When she tells you don't do something,

well, usually don't do it, but okay, that's weird. Maybe it's a human thing. She's hiding that she's actually not okay. Hold on. No. You should take this. No. Is it tea? What is that?

Yeah, what is it? Give her mushrooms. This, take a look take this. Is it tea? What is that? Yeah, what is it? Give her mushrooms. This, take a look at this. I just want to take a look. Does it smell bad? Yeah, you smell bad. Oh, that's fine, it's a clever distraction. I'm touching her and casting Lesser Restoration.

Oh, okay. I just suddenly felt like I've never done this before. Smell this, Bip. Okay. You finish casting the spell, the energy subsides, you pull back, and there's no change in her demeanor. Don't touch me. I apologize, that's weird.

I'm sorry, I was wrong, she's just a bitch. I get that a lot. You really don't look okay. Just for fun, really quickly. Based on your medicine check, it looks to be not a toxin. This is more of a disease that's taking hold. Just out of curiosity, one check for undead really quickly. It's a disease. Oh no, Beau. For the time being, just as a note,

as this has come to be noticed, all of your constitution saving throws are at disadvantage. Oh, great. Did you get hit in the fight? No. No, I just. You must have caught something from the little bugs. Does Eyes of the Grave show anything here?

Just got malaria. Okay. Oh, you got malaria. All right. Did what I can. God, she looks... This. Oh no!

Chyna's disease. You got the labels? Does it seem contagious? Not from what you can tell, but you're not entirely certain what the disease is. Oh no, Beau, I'm just not going to stand near you, okay? Yeah, no. You're drawn.

Okay. It's some sort of a an insect-distributed jungle ailment. It's the Con Plague. We just got back from the dark. A third of our people are down. It's very empty out there. Yeah. It's just Ed from the dark. A third of our people are down. It's very empty out there.

Yeah. It's just Ed. It kind of is. It kind of is, so sad. And Nani fell, too. Oh. But at least she got to watch how her driver almost beat up that guy.

That's true. That's too much of the internet. Anyway. Anyway. You didn't know that the evil Hulk was in this motherfucker, did you? That was amazing. Anyway, back to task.

Right. Yeah. Just be careful what you touch for a little while. We need to... I'm always careful with what I touch. Let's just keep moving. All right. As you guys slightly press forward,

Jamedi's showing a bit of a path off to the side. He glances towards the path where he was going, and one thing that catches your attention is you've seen the men with the snake arms. You've seen the folk with the scaled skin patches. What you see now, towards this one stairway portion that now leads to what you previously didn't see below the treeline, but a massive stone structure beset by these

stairs on each of its five sides. Envision a semblance of an Aztec pyramid, but a five-side shape that levels off at the top, and there are stairs on each of these five sides. At the base of the nearest one, you see less of a man and more of a giant snake, maybe 12 to 15 feet long, coiled and muscular, but to a humanoid torso with two heavy, log-like arms that rested at sides, one resting on this large, sheathed scimitar-like blade, its head curled up into this heavy, straight serpent snake-like mouth as its jaw hangs open, its tongue is keeping an eye and it slithers across the road,

bowing from side to side as it looks across the tree line. At the base of the structure, it's doing? At the base of the structure. You're seeing a variety of these snake people going about their lives. This one's keeping a watch on that one element, and Jamedi, you can hear a curse on his breath. He says,

It was the path I took to the inside last time. All right. Well, we're going to the inside last time. Well, we're going to have to improvise. Which way do you want to go? We're trying to get into the center of this? All of this? Vannik goes like, of course, inside that big thing right there. If... Okay, so if I'll go over to Jem'edi.

If we can clear him, is the path you've taken before clear as far as you can see? I don't know which way you went. As far as I can remember, it was fairly clear, but it is also, I had to ensure that there was not many watching. They have these, like right there, and he points over to the side,

and you can see along the stairs what looks to be almost like a withered person. You see them very, like a smaller human, hunched forward, their body a light green tint to it itself, this wrinkled, scaled body, its neck protruding and curved outward. It looks like the lizardfolk you had seen earlier, but with a longer neck and almost geriatric

in the way they carry themselves forward, lumbering, carrying a large spear and appears to be watching a sentinel across the upper portion of this large stone structure. So it's got a lizard face, not a human face with a really long neck? A serpent face. From what you can tell from this distance,

it's hard to see, but it looks to be more serpent and more snake-like. Okay. Or serpentine. Like the Beetlejuice part where his head goes. Can anyone create a distraction that doesn't put their own person at risk? Sure.

You can see there's about four or so buildings between where you are and the base of the structure. There's a small village that surrounds the base of this temple. And so you guys have to find your way through this city. They're being seen? Yes.

It's a big group of us. It's not us clearing and then the building, there's stuff. Can we make ourselves look like the snake people? Sure, some of us can. I can't. Although we could throw you in a net and act like you were dinner. Yes, yes.

Okay. Who's got a net? Hey, you two, can you make yourself look like snake people? Yvonne,raa goes, That is not really a speciality of mine. However, I'm very good at not being seen. And Jemana goes, That's also my specialty.

Perhaps we can come from a different direction, smaller group, the two of us can meet you on the way. Why would you go with Vong? I did not prepare the spell to disguise myself, Come from a different direction, smaller group. The two of us can meet you on the way. I did not prepare the spell to disguise myself. I thought we would be fighting monster people, so. Such a bitch. Sucks. What? Saying that as a person.

I'm just commiserating. Are you Marisha or? Moving on. Yeah, I was, yeah. What? I, how about I go with these guys with Chimedeon and Vandika? They both look at you and say, the whole point of this was to make it a small group.

The more we add to this group, the harder it is for us to do this. Three's a small group. Can you be invisible? How many of us can change? One, two, three, four. Like, not these two. Awesome, great. Two of us, one each One, two, three, four. But not these two. Awesome, great.

Two of us, one each take, tie them up in rope. As prisoners, as prisoners. They're humans. They're disgusting, filthy pinkskins. But still we move really stealthily. Oh wait, Yasha. Yasha's sitting there with her arms crossed going, just listening to the whole conversation going.

Can you change your appearance? I mean, kind of. I don't think she can do it like we think. Yeah, that's less of what we're looking for. We can make a distraction. Some of us can sneak eat. Maybe we do separate into smaller groups.

The ones who can't change can go first, and we'll make a distraction, the ones who can, and then the ones who can can just walk in after. Yeah. Oh my god, okay. Comforting. You'll have Yasha with you. They lose. And Beau.

That's true. To protect you. But without you, they're not going to be as sneaky. We have to stay together if we're going to want to be super sneaky. That is a really good point. Together, probably. Okay, here's the thing. They won't have to be sneaky if we make enough of a distraction, right? What if we don't make a distraction,

we make them look like prisoners, we still try to be sneaky, but then if we're caught, you know, then we have an excuse. All right. All in favor of that plan? Sure. That's one vote. Yeah.

Do you think that these beings' reaction will be to not lizard people being on this island all of a sudden? Or for the matter of we can't speak to them. Try to... You think it's an every day or every week or month occurrence? I think we're probably pretty special here. I think they might try to kill us and then eat us like that guy over there.

I think we should try to be as sneaky as possible. If for some reason shit hits the fan, I can make a pretty, I think, spectacular distraction that doesn't put me or us at risk, but I think we should try stealth first. Stealth with a couple of emergency. Stealth, distraction, fuck shit up, cool? Okay, so. You can make a distraction

far away from us? Yeah. If Caleb and I move together, you have your message spell that you can send back and forth to Nott. We all have to move together. Oh, that's what we're doing? Well, because you guys aren't as stealthy

without being within 30 feet of me. Oh boy. Maybe we do the light bait thing. The elves aren't as stealthy without being within 30 feet of me. Oh boy. Maybe we do the light bait thing, I don't know. What, act like you're tied up? Maybe. Yeah, we'll do it anyway. I don't know if they see us, then. We'll tie your hands in the front.

If they don't see us, it doesn't matter what you look like. Okay, okay. I think that if anyone that looks like me or you shows up on this island, anyone who sees it is going to come asking questions immediately. I agree. Do any of the people we see walking around,

do any of them wear cloaks? Make a perception check. That's not a bad thought. Hey. 14. Looking around, you don't see many cloaks. The weather here is warm enough to the point where there isn't the need to bundle.

There's no need for hoods because the society here wants to make sure that they can very quickly identify who's part of their faction and who isn't. So yeah, there's no cloaks. You see open robes, simple bits of cloth just to cover aspects of the body for protection from the sun and otherwise,

but beyond that, it's mostly just skin and scale. There are some people that look just like people? They're people that look mostly like people from a distance, but upon closer look, their skin in places gets a greener hue in patches, their eyes are yellow, they're snake-like eyes, sharper teeth. I'll use my disguise kit and try to make it look like

they've got scales on them. They would probably know the people in their old fucking village, though, let's be honest. Are there several dozen people, or is it, you know? Now that you've watched, the first few you had was only the first few buildings in front of you. Now that you step forward and glance, you can see there's maybe about 30 to 40 buildings that sit around the base of this entire temple. You've seen a few dozen in the streets. So the society here, you can assume

probably somewhere in the neighborhood of one to 300 people live in this city total. Let's do that, yeah. I'll use Mask of Many Faces to look like one of those fucks. Let's try and paint some scales on your non-changeling folks. Bleep bleep bleep bleep bleep bleep bleep bleep bleep. All right, so you're applying them to Yasha and Beau

and Caleb? And the clothes we've seen on these people are like what? The purple robes you mentioned? Purple robes, like simple cloth skirts. It's most of the clothing that is worn there is just for general protection and adornment. You can see jewelry adorning some of them, but it's very simple and it's more for purpose

than anything extravagant or presentational. I begin to put my spell books into Fjord's bag. Holding. Yeah, I can't have ornate book holsters. I'll take good care of them. Trying to make myself look as simple as possible. Play, play, play, play, play, play.

Disguise! Ritual cast, it's gone. Vatka goes, I'll be watching, au revoir. as simple as possible. Part of the time. Disguise! The ritual casts a disguise. Avartka goes, I'll be watching, au revoir. Wait, before you go, where are we meeting? Are we just, the temple at the top? I figure the top of that would be a very effective place to meet, is that not correct?

That is where you entered last time, huh? She turns to Jem'Hari, who's keeping a lot of the ground. It is indeed where I was. There is a room inside there I could not walk into. I could not find a way through. That was when I returned, so we'll meet there. Okay. Vatahir goes, Au revoir, waves her hand through the air and marks a few symbols, and you watch as she just disappears.

Whoa. That's bad ones. So are these guys painted green? Is that what we're doing? That's what we're going to find out right now. So go ahead and roll a, you're proficient with your disguise kit, so it's proficiency bonus plus,

I'll say dexterity check to see how well you can apply these details to their bodies. Roll for each one of them. 80s Halloween costume, come on, come on, come on. Caleb. State Fair, all the way. Make me look like Spider-Man. Eight.

Oh, that's so good. So Caleb has these green circles on his face. I'm going to get better at this. It's hard to paint beards. And you're like, great, looks good. You look really good. So for Beau. Triple sponge.

Okay, that's way better, 17. 17. Beau, actually, pretty good job. The line work and shading you had done in these various patches on the inside of the brow line helps make her look a little more snake-like. You've sunk in the jowls, you've done the scattered patches with patch marks.

You look pretty convincing. You look pretty convincing. How do I look? Now that I'm seeing how good I did on Beau, I'm realizing how shitty Caleb is, but I'm not going to tell him. What do you mean, what did you say? Then Yasha seems strangely excited, like,

dude, me next, me next. Okay, okay, okay. Oh. Is that a one? Is that a one? No. Shit. Nine four.

Are you wrong, that big fucker? It was good before. This one's from Sam. Same as you. You? Yeah. Is it a one? So you guys are looking amongst yourselves

while she's working on Yasha, and finally she finishes, and voila, pulls back, and it's just Grinch. It's just green, head to toe, like bright green. It's pretty bad, but you feel pretty confident in that. Amazing. It's a really good color on you. Okay.

Let's do this. I'm just going to grab Caleb and just be like, you're going to be fine out there. It's going to be fine. What do you mean she looks bad? I think she looks really good, Caleb. I'm going to take some flowers and just stick one in his hair for good luck.

Is that better? I don't know. It's good luck, though. I lean in, way into Nott's ear and say, Oh, by the way, Caduceus says that Jamedi is actually a dead thing. What? What?

No, but what? Shit. Why are we following him? I lean in and I say, are we whispering now? Are we whispering again? No, they're gone. No, we're whispering. Telling Nott that Jamedi is a dead thing. Caduceus says Jamedi is dead. What? He's dead? Keep it on the DL.

The dead, though? Why are we following him? Just because he's dead doesn't mean he's a bad guy. Are you whispering, too? Yes, of course I am. We don't have a choice. What if he came here, was killed, and was sent to come get us to bring us back as feeding for whatever's down there?

What if we let the Pir pirate queen tie rocks to our feet and we're dead? We just have to do this. We can kill them later. Agreed. Agreed. Oh, you're still here? Shit!

Well, I hadn't left yet. I was curious to see your pattern. Did you know? Where are you? You don't see it. The voice is just coming from nowhere. Is Jemi here? Make a perception check.

18. Looking around you, do not see Jamedi immediately in the vicinity. Is he on speakerphone? Avantika! No, this is Avantika. Avantika! Great. Did you know he was dead?

We specifically was not telling you because I knew you were going to panic. Did you know he was a dead guy? I was not aware, but now I am very curious as to where you found this information and what you think this means. I just know things. I don't know what it means.

I was trying to find a moment to figure out if you knew or if we should tell you or if this was part of some sort of plan. I just hadn't figured it out, and for some reason, I had not realized that I was walking around with a bunch of gossips. Well, it's what I get, I suppose, for trying to be sneaky about things.

Nice job, guys. Nice job. He's going to fucking leave again. Good job. Whose side are you on? I've been doing my best not to be thrown by it. It seems like he's been standing up all right. He's done work for me before and was successful. He's pretty cool.

Wait, why would you? Has he always been dead? Is this a recent thing? Where are you? Don't worry about it, but nevertheless, he has done his job so far. I assume we just keep a close eye. If ever he decides to give any sign of turning on any of us,

well, it's eight against one. Indeed, I'll take out several feet of rope from the bag of holding and say, we should do this before he achieves the destination for me. See you on the other side, and you watch as the dust, the footprints. It's your footprints. This is why I was trying to keep it on the down low.

Why? Just I knew certain members of the party may get a little excited. I myself had a moment of panic. I had a moment of panic myself I had a moment of panic myself. I've been keeping it contained. Do you feel okay now? No, there's a dead guy walking around.

That's unsettling, that's unsettling to my very core, I got to admit, but. But you know. Well now we just have to go walk around snake people and not be seen, so that's fine. It's an improvement at the very least. Hey, Fjord. Mm-hmm. Avantika could go invisible or peek into what we're saying.

Can you do that? No. Well, kind of. Not really, no. I mean, I can pop in and out of it. We've seen you flit about. Yeah, that one. But you can't hear what's on the other side

when you're popping in and out, can you? Oh yes, you can. That's right, you can. How many fingers am I holding up? Yeah. None. Oh, I forgot that. I'm really distracted right now.

I don't know why I bother. You should probably get pretty sneaking on here. Sneaking on. Yeah. That was really good. We'll put two in the front, two in the back, and put these three in the middle. Kind of in the middle.

Your pass-dumped trace is probably faded at this point with the travel you've made at this point, so you'd have to recast it to get the stealth bonus. You guys should probably do it again. Mm-hmm, yeah. Pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, and I give Yasha the blessing of the trickster. All righty. Good call. So, everyone make a stealth check, please.

Hang on, hang on, real quick. Real talk for just a second. If Yasha comes with us and we puppet her and she dies, Ashley's going to be real mad. Just pointing this out last time because I did this with Pike, not saying one way or the other, just saying we're going to continue on with Yasha. Okay, done. Done. That's all I'm going to say. She's going to be in a defensive stance for most of the fight. Yeah, she'll be fine.

I'll follow her. I would say let's text her, but she's in another country, so she probably wouldn't get it. Ooh, okay. Stealth checks, guys. Stealth check. 21. 21.

Fuck. So close. Pass without a trace. 20. 25. Oh, I get an advantage. You do. 30. No.

38. That's rough. Oh, man. Oh, he's foul. Oh, he's foul. What? Natural one. But, but, but, um.

26. He's a lizard person. And for Yasha, if you want to roll twice. 25. Okay. Natural 15. All right. Another person should be fine. And for Yasha, if you want to roll twice. 25. Okay. Now draw 15. All right.

At least I look like a snake person. Yeah, you'd be a loud snake person, it's fine. So, you all begin to make your way towards the first set of buildings. You can see there's that one individual that's flaying the bodies of the Lizardmen and has made their way through two of buildings. You can see there's that one individual that's flaying the bodies of the Lizardmen and has made their way through two of them. There are two more that are in the process of being stripped. You can see there is one street that breaks through two of the ones closest to

you. Do you wish to take that path? What do you wish to do to stealth in? Because part of the pathway here is out in the open, so you have to gauge your timing. Describe the two again. So where you are now, towards the main stairway that leads to the top, you have about two streets, or three sets of buildings to get through. The ones closest to you, there are two large buildings

that are immediately towards your side. One side has nobody around it, the other one has one individual that is currently flaying the hanging corpses of the four lizardmen. I vote for the one guy flaying the lizardmen. Agreed. Is this distracted? Mm-hmm. And it's one guy. The other one has no guys.

That never is no guy. Okay. I follow your lead, Captain. Let's go that way. We'll go towards the flay. Okay, so you make your way, exiting the jungle way, and are you going quickly and quietly so nobody notices, or are you just strolling through,

using your stealth as a means of trying to keep any sort of... Trying to blend in. Gotcha, okay. So, all of you move forward. Are you dragging them behind by ropes? No, we're in the middle. We're sneak people in the middle. We're assassins creating it.

Gotcha. If there is a building to walk beside, I would prefer to have our chandelier drawn, and one very nice one closest to the building with us on the outside. Yeah, I'll be the barrier. So people in real disguise. Mama elephants and then baby elephants.

Oh, yeah. So you guys cluster and begin to shift as just this herd of snakefolk making your way towards that direction. Oh god, oh god, oh god, oh god. As the light hits you, as you leave the branches of the jungle and begin shifting, fully open now in the middle of the midday sun,

immediately you feel the heat in the back of your neck and shoulders begin to just grow hotter and hotter as the nerves build up inside. You cruise through the open area and to the left, you hear a. You glance over and you can see another one of those massive, mostly snake serpentine hulking individuals is currently wielding a whip. You can see there's a cluster of lizardmen that are currently chained and are currently pushing on a heavy bar that is dragging a large piece of stone out of the jungle

towards the center of the city. They're bent into slave labor for these people there and are pushing it forward. That catches you off guard for a minute, but you continue to focus and move forward. As you get closer, you can hear the slick sound of the flesh being pulled from the back of the lizardman's body that

Oh yeah! Onto the side. I think a little bit of spit on that one. Moving around the side, the figure finishes and throws it and glances over and just looks at your group. And just starts looking somewhat curiously as you pass. Make a deception check, Jester. Oh boy. Why? Why? Why?

Because I rolled a shitty stealth, that's why. Oh, no. Yasha's going to make a deception check as well. All right. Natural 20! Oh! Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! All right.

Yasha rolled pretty high on that, actually. Oh, that's a good one. So the figure goes back to its work and begins carving it. You move past that into the first street walkway. It moves on for about 15 or so feet, and then it has a cross path that goes to the right and left, and you can see ahead it goes to another set of buildings

behind, and there is an alley that turns to the right, and it seems to end at that point. So you have a T intersection before you, and then it ends and curves to the right. Where do you go? An intersection to go through to get to that right turn past it. I see. Correct.

So it's like a cross T intersection. Right, you keep moving, and then there's a right and left, or you can keep moving, and then it turns to the right. Are there any windows, doors, anything on these buildings? You see open squares. You don't see, there's no glass panes, but there are curved rectangles removed. Can we move up to the side of one and glance in

as we slow down just a little bit to peek through? Sure. On this T-intersection? No, just before we get to the intersection. Just to be clear, I always thought a T-intersection was an intersection like this. I meant, I meant. Like a four-way stop.

Four-way stop, that's my fault. Got it, got it, got stop. It's my fault. Got it, got it, got it. That's my fault. He's pulling out thousands of words out of his butt. It's a lowercase t. I don't know how I get it. I just wanted to make sure I understood.

Sorry, I meant to cross intersections. Okay, okay, okay. You should listen up, and burn. No, it's fine, no. It's an important clarification. You got all the words. That's my brain fart, man. I appreciate that.

Millions of words. But yeah, you're right on that. Okay, go over Liam. Yeah. Liam from Oh words. But yeah, you're right on that. Okay. Okay, Coover Liam. Yeah. Liam from Ohai. Namaste. You all listen to your tapes, your little sub-tapes? The most expeditious movement towards the temple,

I suppose, would be the, to be looking in the window. As he's saying this, you glance to the window to the side to your left, and as you look in, make a perception check. Ooh! Ooh, seven., and as you look in, make a perception check. Woo! Ooh, seven. I don't think you should look in.

You glance inside and it's a simple interior. There's a little bit of sunlight coming through from the opposite side of it, from the direction of the light in the sky. It frames ambiently the outside of a figure that appears to be humanoid that is sitting over a table of some kind, and you can hear some grinding or carving sound, but it's faced away from you.

Looks to be some sort of a workshop. Keep going? Yeah. All right, we'll push through. Okay, you push towards the first intersection. Can I see the tower, the temple at all, above the buildings? Yeah, you can see the top of the temple from here. Okay, so does this curve look like

we're still heading the right way? It'll start making towards the nearest stairway that leads towards the top. It hits the bottom of the structure and then curves around. As you approach the T-intersection, you hear this murmuring of conversation coming from the left-hand side of it. I cast Comprehend Languages. You do, and you pick it up. It is abyssal.

Oh yes. Abyssal. Oh! I don't know. If you had a character sheet, you would have to be able to It is abyssal. Oh yes. Abyssal. I don't know. If you had a character sheet, you'd have the benefits of knowing that, but not my responsibility. But yeah, so you pick up on it,

and the muttering is akin to, come, we have to pick up the hunts. The food stores are running dry this season. As that comes to you, you glance off to the side and you guys watch as two figures around the corner, they're both mostly human in body, though their bodies are scaled in a dull green-gray color,

their heads fully serpentine, snake jaws, the hood's not open, but just retracted, and they both have, strapped across their shoulders and torsos, long bows that are at rest, and they have quivers filled with arrows. They walk past and glance over at the rest of your crew. Make a deception check. Yes. I got it.

Okay, okay, okay, okay. 22. And Yasha as well. That disguise didn't quite go well, and Yasha and Caleb, even in the clustered section, are catching some attention. The first one keeps walking, the second one glances over and

looks at the rest of you. Hey. You hear an abyssal. Hey, what have you got? You guys hear. As that one turns, I'll turn to Yasha and I'll go and just punch her in the face and say, Go down!

She goes, Oh! She's not used to rolling with a punch. Yeah. You're going to take a dive. She goes down and the figure looks up, its eyes narrowing, and the tongue. Stand over, Yasha, take the rope

and start tying our hands together. Wait! To the other one, who stops. Looks back and goes, begins to walk towards you, just keeping a hand on the bow. I cast Hold Person. Oh no, no, no!

Sorry, I already said it at third level. On both of them? Yes. That's a failure. That's a 12. Oh, that's cocked. And a natural four, they both fail. They both. Freeze in place.

We should tie them up and then go. We're in the middle of the street. We can't tie them up, we got to go. We're in the middle of the street? You're in the middle of the street. Intersection't tie them up, we got to go. You're in the middle of the street? You're in the middle of the street. Let's just go, let's just walk quickly. Walk quickly. Yeah, we're picking up and moving expeditiously away.

I said I held them, but let's go. Or distraction. I thought there was a distraction. Want to do a distraction now? Not now. Okay, let's go. Distraction is then. So they are currently paralyzed

in the middle of the street. For the next minute, once they're released, they're going to do whatever they do. Should we hold their hand? Do we see anyone else around besides those two? Currently, right now, make a perception check. Walk them with us. Yeah.

Oh, 20. 20, glancing about at this moment, the only other figure you can see near this intersection is one of the patrolling, hunched creatures you saw up on the temple itself on the second tier, and is currently walking away from you and doesn't seem to be paying attention. Actually, we should take them and kill them

because they could actually snap out of it at any second. Okay, then grab them. We should kill them? Kill them. Kill them. Yeah, kill them. Grab them, slit their throats. Let's pull them off the street. Pull them off the street. Okay, Yasha, pull them off the street. Pull them off the street. Okay, Yasha, pull them off the street.

So while you guys are deciding on this, they both get to, I believe it's every turn they get to make a save. That's right. Natural two and 11 plus two, 13. Yeah, they're still held. Pull them off the street. Yasha should pull them off the street. Okay, so you guys lift up their arms and pull them off.

Waking up Bernie. Are there any doors around here? The building to the left of you was the one that you saw the craftsman in. The one to the right, you can see there is an open doorway. Is there anybody in there? Let's just go in. All right, you drag him over.

I peek in? I'm going to walk towards first to peek in because I look like a snake. Okay, make a perception check. All right. That's terrible. 11. 11, terrible. 11. 11, you glance inside. You can see what looks to be a pile of rags

on the small table in the corner, but nobody else appears to be in there. Insane. Yep. All right, you guys pull them inside. Wrap them up, wrap them up. Another 11, that's two, 13, failure. And an eight plus two, they're still.

Tie them up as much as we can and then gag their mouths. Yep. And just talk, because I'm in a corner. We're working the rope, we, they're still. Okay, tie them up as much as we can and then gag their mouths. Yep. And just talk, because I'm in a corner. We're working the rope, we're working the rope. Should we kill them? Yeah. Yes. Yeah.

They would kill us. We watch them skinning the inhabitants of the... It's a five. Will they wake up if we hurt them now? Fuck, if I summon a sword, I run over and I just shove it into his chest. What's your DC? 15.

15, one of them succeeds. Yo, I take him and I... But we're already tying him. We're in the process of it. He, one of them succeeds. I take him by ice. We're already tying him. We're in the process of it. He kills one guy, I snap the other guy's neck. The guy that's paralyzed, go ahead and attack. Attack twice, each time with advantage. Okay, with advantage.

Both hits are crits because he is paralyzed. Amazing, okay, so that is 16. 16 hits. Are they automatic crits? Yeah. Oh, the damage is a crit. The damage is a crit, yeah. The second one is a 23, or a, yeah, 23 is the highest one. Yep, both hit, both crit. Both hit, both crit, okay.

You said one saved? One saved. But we were putting things in their mouth. We were tying them up and begins to, but we'll get to that in just a minute. 29. 29 points of damage? You just carved through him. These are more ranged hunters, they're not as

hardy as some of the other ones out there. This one, you manage to, in two quick swings, carve through the chest and then take down most of the throat, just tears open and crumples to the ground, dead. The other, who is currently being bound, begins to start making noise and getting ready to... Are we in a stone room? You're inside a stone room. Is there wood? Yeah, shoot him, let fly. There's not much in the way of wood,

it's mostly stone. Firebolt. No, no! Firebolt? Firebolt or fireball? Bolt. Okay. Would that still make noise? It would still just fucking kill,

it would still make kills real fast. Go ahead and roll an attack, everyone who's doing this. I'm shooting with a crossbow. Okay, it's definitely flanked, so you get a sneak attack, but you don't have advantage on it. 22 to hit. It is not fully bound.

22 to hit. That hits. 24. Hits. 17. Hits. Nine hits. Six damage, I'm going to stun him.

Natural nine, fails. 17 damage. 17 damage, and then what's the firebolt do? It's 2d10, which is... 19. Okay, you watch as he freezes up from the stun and then takes a bolt of the throat.

The eyes begin to roll back as a fireball blasts in its chest from the firebolt. You watch it burn the edges of its face up in cinders and it goes quiet before limping to the ground, the smoke coming up from its moldering corpse. Out, out, out. At this point, the rags in the corner begin to shift as you watch what appeared to be an individual

sleeping in the corner begins to come to. Go, go, go. Look up and you can see what looks to be a more humanoid, one of the most humanoid of the ones you've seen there, but with the scales. What you managed to make yourself look like begins to come to consciousness and goes. Oh shit.

Is this serious? Yeah. Yeah, there's people in the middle. Oh shit. Is he serious? Yeah. Yeah, there's people in the middle of this living room. Charm Person? Jesus. That is a 15, succeeds. You're supposed to be better at this. Somebody do something, because he shook it off.

He shook it off? Don't touch! I did! I did, too. Go for it. The words you hear is, who are you? Help! As the shout-outs begin to come out,

but you go ahead and... Uh-huh, 15. Yeah, 15, that hits. Stun. That's a failure, yeah. Uh-huh, he stunned. And stuns in the bed. Oh, sacred flame.

All right, this individual doesn't have a lot of hit points, so let's take a brevity here. Being stunned, you guys just. Yep. However, I did have the opportunity to shout out one phrase. We'll see if the guard heard it. You know what would be great right now? A distraction, maybe fire.

It's a fire to the house. It's all stone. It is all stone, there's no wood, there's no nothing. Wait, wait, wait. Inside this chamber, it's all stone. There's stone tablets that have been carved and then placed up against each other. There's occasional scenes you can see through,

and the ceiling above appears to be slats of stone that have been placed in a lattice rush. I pull out all the cherry bombs that I have, and I go, get your fucking fireworks! Wait, but wait, maybe nobody heard. Let's just get out. Let's just get out. Is there anything, a hole in the ceiling or anything?

Is there a roof? Ceiling stone, too? The ceiling point, you can see looking up, there is no second floor or anything, and it looks like it's just a continuation of stone. It looks like a series of thin slats of some kind have been placed one next to the other next to the other in a layering thing to create a ceiling. Back door?

No, this entrance is the only way in and out. There's a window. I'm going to quickly grab two arrows from one of the dead lizards and stick them in his chest, and I'm going to walk out. Okay. I'm going to go, yeah. It was a suicide. Okay.

And we're going to have to. It looks like they beat off on each other or something. You guys turn the corner corner and as you exit, you can see that large, looming, slithering snake figure with a huge scimitar that's probably 15 foot from tip of tail to nose, thick, burly body is slithering its way towards you. Like can see us?

Yeah, what do you mean towards us? Meaning whatever noise this figure made, I rolled high on its perception, it managed to pick up the sound of its call and is making its way in your direction. Okay. I will point down the street away from us and go and cast a major image, and I will summon

the image of a manticore, a large manticore roaring and thrashing in the street. That's tight. All right. Full set on everything, right? Major Imogen, you can do the full spread. Make sound, does the whole shit, smells. So now, suddenly, in the middle of this room,

all of you turn and look and see, as a full-grown manticore, akin to the one that you battled not that long ago beneath the mines near Alfield. You see wings unfurl. All of a sudden, all eyes in the city shift to this creature. In a matter of moments, you can see arrows being loosed in its direction,

hitting the ground near it. The snake that was approaching you spins around, begins to draw serpent and begins to approach. On us or on the manticore? On the manticore. Great, let's run. We run away, we run away. So you put that behind where the serpent was?

Yeah, so he has to turn and move away from us. Okay, so you guys arc the opposite direction, heading towards where the base of this temple is. There is another one of those that is currently at the bottom of the stairway that is making its way in your direction. I just point at the manticore. You point at the manticore.

Just make a... Why can't I point at the manticore? She's the one who did it. Hey man, I look like a snake person. Make a deception check. Hey man. This is going to be great. The DCs are on these because you're Hey!

You got this. It's going to be great. Nine. Oh shit. Just had to be the ten. Had to be the ten. So you push and it turns around and sees the manticore and looks at you curiously and has to take a moment

to decide which is more dangerous, the manticore or this curious serpent. Goes ahead and just grabs you by the chest. What? And just begins dragging you with it. It makes a grab for her? Yeah. Yeah, it just goes like, I can't choose.

So it goes ahead and just grabs you. Blindness? I'm going to blind him before he grabs her. Okay. Well, first it has to try and grapple you. So go ahead and, if you want to fight it. Okay, yeah, I'll try to back away. All right, so acrobatics check, natural two.

So make an acrobatics or athletics check to try and burp. Cool, one. So yeah, it grabs you. However, what's the DC on the spell? Constitution 16. Natural two again. Oh my god, good. It was like 20, two.

All of a sudden, it loses sight and you see its eyes starting to blink out, where once the piercing yellow snake eyes fade to a snow-blind white, pulls its blade out and looking around, looking freaked out at the process. You have to break that grapple, it's still holding you. Make another athletics or acrobatics check,

what are you making? Jesus. Nope, nope, do another one. That was a very aggressive roll. You only have two to pick from you, we're fine. Athletics or acrobatics? Yep, your choice. Acrobatics.

All right. Oh god. Dear lord, fucking seven, but he still rolled a natural two, right? No. No, that was the last time. He rolled a natural eight, so he's still holding onto you. He's blind, but he's holding onto you, and the scimitar's out and it's swinging it wildly

in wherever's in the area now that it can't see, and it's just. Can I take the sword and take a shot right at its wrist that's holding her? With the hand that's holding onto Jessica? Sure, it's going to be I take the sword and take a shot right at its wrist that's holding her? With the hand that's holding on to Jessica? Sure, it's going to be at a major penalty. Okay. So go ahead and roll.

17. 17? Okay, go ahead and roll damage. Okay. Oh boy, this is going terribly. It's going great, it's going great, we're doing good. Oh, that's good, that's a 14 that's a, that's a, 14. Okay, I'll say that'll give you advantage

on your next check. Okay. It doesn't break the hold. I will step forward and say to the beast, how does the Lucidian Ocean say goodbye? It just waves. And I'll cast Tasha's Hideous Laughter on it. Okay. Natural four.

Yay! Falls to the ground and begins chuckling, though in the middle of its chaos, it is now blinded and laughing. It releases you. Okay, good. The manticore is still roaring. People are now, or creatures are now flooding out of the city to come combat this, and you can see some of them are swinging and beginning to notice something strange. Run away, run away, run away.

Yeah, running, running, running, running. All right, so you guys are just charging towards the temple. You've bypassed that one now. You're heading up the stairs. Up across the way, you can see there's one of those crotchety snake people that you saw patrolling the upper area who has its longbow out and is currently firing

one after another arrow towards the manticore to move out to the side. Doesn't seem to immediately notice your presence as you approach. If you guys are trying to stealth by without gathering its attention, I need you all to make a stealth check now that you've engaged in combat.

At 10. You'll need it. Well, hold on. Pass it out, Trace. Is it concentration? Yes. Yeah. Because you cast Hold Person since then. Oh, Hold Person is a, you're right. Spell management! Sorry, I didn't realize Hold Person was a concentration.

Okay, it is. So straight stealth checks, guys. Okay. 13. 13. 22. Seven. Roll for Yasha. 20. 12. 22. Seven. Roll for Yasha. 20.

12. 17. I have Yasha's character sheet, and she rolled a 10. Okay. Hold on, hold on. I mean, we're super down the middle. This is the episode where we start thinking. This is the one.

There we go. Something's out there. Chaos. Natural 20 on his end. Oh. What? So, so the, I rolled a natural 20 on my d20. No, I know what you mean.

That's all I know. How far is this thing? About 15 feet above you, above the stairs, kind of in the middle to open. Glancing off to the side, the manticore's still drawing most of the attention. People are starting to figure out the weirdness about it. Can I use my bonus action to Misty Step up behind him and I will kick him down the stairs towards the rest of us?

Yes, you can. Yes! In a wisp of dark shadow energy, you watch as Fjord just vanishes from sight and teleports right behind. Go ahead and make an athletics check. Oh god, those used to be really great for me. 17. Natural four.

You Sparta this fucker right off the side of the temple. You watch him tumbling down the entire length of the side of this temple before hitting the ground and skidding and looking unconscious and bleeding out the side of his mouth at the base of the temple. Firebolt. Okay. On the base of the temple. Firebolt. Okay.

On the dead guy? Yeah. Is he dead or is he unconscious? He's unconscious. Yeah. That's a 14, he has a 22. Technically he's prone because he's on the ground, so it's disadvantage.

Roll one more time. It's 15, 23. That hits, roll damage. So the damage he took from the fall there. Oh, that's the baseball. I was looking at Yasha, I was like, I'm going to get my Chronic Shroud. Just fight.

Five points of damage. What does that mean? Foof, kernt. That's the sound. Okay. So he's burning and not moving. He's going unconscious now. Let's get the fuck out of here. Is there an entrance to this tower?

You're going up the stairs? You're going up the stairs at the side. It levels off towards the top of it, but you don't know what's at the top there. Is anyone following us? Make a perception check. Many people. Everybody.

Okay, 15. 15, glancing around. I mean, the manticore's causing a huge ruckus in the middle of the city, and those that have begun to realize that it's an illusion are looking around confusedly, and at the moment do not see you, but that time is going to be very short,

because you're out in the middle of the sunlight. The trees aren't above you now. This is an open clearing in the middle of the jungle, and you're just running up the side of this temple stairs with the light down upon you from the sky. How tall is this person who just died? Maybe from foot to shoulder. Yeah. About four foot.

He's only four feet? No, it's a tiny hunched kind of. Okay, I take out some iron powder and I go and he shrinks to an eighth of that and I pick him up. Wait, the one you just shot? Yeah, I don't want to leave him here. He's at the bottom of the temple. Oh, he went down there?

Oh, I thought he was at our feet. No, you guys have been climbing the temple and he kicked him down off the side of the rock. It's all good. I would only do it if he was right where we are. Right, right, no worries. Let's just keep running. Yeah, yeah, yeah, in, in, in.

Out of light, out of the way. Okay. So as that idea flashes through your mind, that'd be cool, but it's not going to work, so you keep rushing and we come back to the moment as you guys dart to the side of the temple. Everyone make one more stealth check, now that you've had that brief encounter

and teleported behind, to make sure that nobody catches you before you reach the top portion. Stealth, you said? Stealth, yes. Oh god. 12 for me, natural 18 for Yasha. 12. 11.

20. 19. 17. That's still a pretty high average. It's a more average thing. A couple stumbles coming up the stairs from some of you, but largely you make it, cresting the top of the platform. You get there for a second,

take a few breaths and realize, glancing over the side, that people are still emerging. You look over the side and you can see dozens of these snake creatures, these snake people are emerging from the buildings and heading towards the sound of this raging manticore. There are those that are now scattering from the manticore, trying to engage them and tell them

that it's not what they think it is. There are eyes glancing around, and you can see the sentinels now are starting to, but you guys are keeping low and out of sight. No one at the moment seems to notice where you are, and the few that have noticed you, you've either taken out or have lost sight of where you were traveling.

So for the moment, you feel safe. You do, now at the top of the temple, you can see what looks to be some sort of a worship terrace. There's torch-bearing statues of snakes sitting near the corners of each of these five sides of the temple, similar in shape to the one that you found, the idol. In fact, you see at the top of each of these torches, there is a similar golden idol, but where the one you have is smooth, each of these has a carved divot on the inside where the torch itself is actually burning,

or where materials are placed in to burn as a torch itself is actually burning, or where materials are placed in to burn as a torch when the night comes, or for whatever ceremonial uses it requires. And the top is open air? Right now, it's open platform. You do see in the center of it a heavy stone tablet, about 12 foot by six foot, that rests directly in the center. You can see rings, metal rings that are bolted in with metal rivets that hold it on the sides of the tablet. The stone itself appears to be stained with a variety

of various shades of stain. Blood. Mahogany. Yeah. Rosewood. So much stain. So much stain. Where are we supposed to go? Yeah, we head towards the tablet. So wait, you said there were tablets with rings on the corners of the tablets and splatters?

There was one stone table, about 12 foot by six foot. You can see on the sides of it, there are rings that are bolted in and there are stains across the stonework. Super sacrifice scene. Obviously for killing. With all the reading that I have done, can I ascertain or have a good guess

of what this is used for besides? Yeah, you have a good idea. No, I know it's for killing people, but to do something, to do something, summon things, make a god happy. Does it look like a trap door? I have read many books. Well, make an arcana check.

Thank you. And make a religion check. All right. Oh, I got a one. Oh, great. Not entirely certain. I got 12. Not many, really. You get the Census for Sacrifices,

but you're not entirely certain what, to what ends and to what purpose, whether it's just ceremonial or for a specific purpose. At least we're still out in the open. You're out in the open on the top of this temple, but you do see, as you're inspecting the table and look around, there is a trap door made of the same color stone that has a handle built on it

that you can pull back. Love your own end. Should I check for traps? Is it safe? Sure, I'll check for traps. 18, investigation. Yeah. Love your own end. Should I check for traps? Yeah, is it safe? Sure, I'll check for traps. 18, Investigation. All right. It looks to not be trapped, though it is locked.

All right, I'll unlock it. That's 28. 28. Getting down to this device, you can see it's an intricate, thick, long key. It would have been probably that long and have a whole series of intricately designed cliffs to it to hit all the various tumblers to get this to open. However, you manage to get multiple angles and press and

hold and press and hold with all of your tools. and it takes everything in your bag to get through it, but you manage to just hit each one properly and then lift. It pulls open with a grinding sound. That was not supposed to work. That was really good. That was luck, that was dumb luck. We're all going to get it. You do hear what sounds like a

smattering of hissing and growling sounds that are getting louder and louder. Get inside of it. Can you relock it or something? Probably not, but I can try. Well, you all shut it and I hope they didn't notice we came up here. Let's go. Okay.

You all dart inside. At this point, as you're stepping inside, you see on the opposite end, rushing up the edge, you see Jemadi go, , and he jumps inside. Where's Avantika? I haven't seen her.

Bullshit. Are you lying? Make an insight check. I'll make, I'll enjoy this one as well. God fucking bullshit. 25. Nine. Hard to read. Doesn't matter.

Ah! Hard to read. Oh boy. Woos woos! Hey, how great was New York Comic Con? Boy, it sure was fun, Sam. We met a lot of great critters. We did.

Thanks for everyone for coming out to the live show. And we'll be back again next year. I don't know if that's true. We were like great critters. We did. Thanks for everyone for coming out to the live show. We'll be back again next year. I don't know. That's true. So I kill over Mysteriously Dead, just kidding. Kidding, sorry. Oh, god.

No, all right, cool. All right, so he darts inside. The rest of you guys are inside. You close it? Yes. You close it, yeah. Yeah. She's on her own.

I'm closing slowly. All right. As you're closing it gently, you can see shapes coming up over one and now a second side of this temple. There are a few that are charging up. All right. It locks instinctively from the inside.

The latch locks behind itself. We may not have much time. Darkvision, what do we see? All right, so you are now standing in a small five-foot by eight-foot chamber. You are all cramped in there, but there is a spiral staircase that leads down. Time to go. One at a time.

You first. What, me? Check for traps. Whoever I'm standing next to, I grab their butt. Who's rubbing my elbow? That's not weird. I'll take a big swig of liquor and start going down and scanning for traps. Okay, make an investigation check.

How long ago are you here? That's shit, I only rolled an 11. All right. There is a faint noise here that goes, not worry, I was waiting for you up top this entire time. I'm casting Mage Armor. All right, Mage Armor is on. What'd you roll? 11.

11, seems safe. Coast is clear, let's go! Okay. So it's not charging down the stairs. The rest of you follow suit. The chamber beneath has some sort of a faint, fiery light source, and it opens up below you. As you move downward, you can see what looks to be,

it is a pentagram-like chamber, not a perfect pentagram, but there are five sides to it, one that's shorter than the rest, and it gives this almost diamond shape to the interior of the chamber. You can see there are two walls on the sides, and there are bits of green growth in the corners. In the center, you can see there's a raised platform

with some sort of a fountain that rests in the middle. There are four figures standing around this fountain, which is precisely what you notice as, Nott, your foot hits one of these steps that gives out from underneath, and the stairs suddenly shift into a sliding platform. All of you,. It's about a 45-degree angle.

So how fast does the fall feel? It's only about 10 feet, 15 feet down, and what would have stopped you to catch a moment, you all of a sudden. So it's going to be a hard fall, but any sense of stealth you would have had or any sort of surprise is gone, as all of you manage to barely glide your way to the bottom

or stumble on your ass, sliding to the bottom of this chamber, and there, in the darkened, lit interior chamber, you can see three of these figures standing around this fountain, holding bowls, glance over their shoulders towards you and hiss with a sharpening snake. Drinking party, we were looking for it.

Behind the fountain, you see one almost jet black gray humanoid body that's a little larger than the others with a giant extended snake head, the cobra hood long and wide on each side, its eyes almost glowing red from the back. That's insane. I've been casting Slow.

We'll get to that next week. Oh! Oh my god. Oh shit. The big black cobra hood arms, or just the surface? It's a slender humanoid body that's tall and thin, but its body is just gray, scaled in armor plates, and then from its shoulders, it extends up into the

hooded cobra. And taller than the other three that were in the chamber? Yeah, it's probably about seven foot tall, and the others are about five and a half, six foot tall. Oh god. Hit skip and go to the next episode. We got a week. Yeah, don't we have that little box that appears

that it's just counting down from 10, nine, eight, and it's going to automatically skip to the fight? Right now, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. We all got shit to do in the morning. Oh, that's so true. Yeah, but Cobra fight! I know, we'll pick it up there next time.

Tomorrow's a long day. I know. Good shit, Matt. Well, now you guys are in the temple. We'll see where it goes from here, I'm excited. Only good things. It's so Indiana Jones. Yeah. So Nathan Drake.

Where are we going to stick the rubies? Where do we stick the, I don't know where to stick the rubies. Stick the rubies. The rubies have a purpose, I know it. Look at all these dice that fucked me tonight. That's a t-shirt. Yeah. All right, well thank you guys.

We'll pick this up next week i'm excited um thank you guys for sticking around with us tonight um have a good week we love you and is it thursday yet and this concludes the current chapter of critical role your essays on the history and impact of the various ages and epochs of Exandria are eagerly anticipated. Just kidding. No homework for you, but if you are inspired to do some writing, please leave us a review. Your words can really help new folks find our show and encourage them to give it a try. Thank you so much for joining us on this adventure. Until next time.