Critical Role - C2E40 Dubious Pursuits

Episode Date: November 2, 2018

The Mighty Nein undergo a dangerous watery escape from the temple, and go to great lengths to maintain their alliance with Captain Avantika...Watch Critical Role live Thursdays at 7pm PT on https://www.twitch.tv/criticalrole

Hi there, this is Matthew Mercer, resident Game Master here at Critical Role, to welcome you to this podcast version of the show. If you'd like to watch the stream as it airs, you can catch it Thursdays at 7pm Pacific on twitch.tv slash criticalrole or youtube.com slash criticalrole. Twitch subscribers can access the video on demand immediately after the broadcast and it also becomes available on YouTube Mondays at 12pm Pacific. Podcast episodes land right here on the Critical Role Podcast Network on Thursdays, a week after the initial broadcast. Okay, with that info dump out of the way, let's dive into the story.

Hello everyone, and welcome to tonight's episode of Critical Role, where a bunch of us nerdy-ass voice actors sit around and play Dungeons & Dragons. I know it's November 1st and Halloween was last night, but that's bullshit because we would have missed Halloween, so we're doing it anyway. Yeah! Halloween's when you want it to be! Apparently I have a type when it comes to Halloween costumes, but after having enough people send me pictures of new Dante going, he looks like you! I was like, fuck it, I'm going to embrace it. So yes, well, I guess we'll go around real fast

and introduce our costumes, because it sounds like fun right now. So yeah, I'm Dante from Devil May Cry 5. The best I could do in one week's time, most of which was spent in London. What about you? I'm Sherlock Holmes, because that's the best I could do in two hours' time, after figuring out

that I was supposed to do this while working on another project, so yes. I am ketchup. Ironically, you did. Do we have face paint that we can help complete the look? Nope. This is it. Nine dollars. Liam.

I'm Kylo Ren! Perfect, nothing else. Sorry, Dad. Marisha. I'm Lisa Frank Castle. That's clever. By far the most put together costume at this table. Thank you.

Travis? I'm the bargain bin. I had a cowboy hat. And I gave you some gloves. I think these belong to an M&M character? Yeah, or Pac-Man, I'm not sure. Hey! You look like you're trying to sell baked beans.

Yeah, I was a panda last night. I didn't have a fucking costume. I wasn't wearing that again. I'm not sure. Hey! You look like you're trying to sell baked beans. Yeah, I was a panda last night. I didn't have a fucking costume. I wasn't wearing that again. This shit was hot. Oh man. Well, perfect. Sadly, we're missing Laura Bailey tonight.

She is off doing rehearsals for BlizzCon tomorrow. Yeah. I will be there as well, both days. So those of you who are watching or are on the virtual ticket, check it out, because there's some fun stuff going on. But before we get into those announcements, first we have two fantastic sponsors tonight,

the first of which is the fantastic Tor Books. Leo. Tor Books. Shh. I have come from a galaxy very far away to talk to you about Tor Books. Tor Books is America's largest. This is serious. Largest publisher of science fiction and fantasy.

From Tor Books comes Oathbringer. In book three of the Stormlight Archives, humanity faces a new desolation with the return of the Voidbringers, Matthew. A foe with numbers as great as their thirst for vengeance. Find Oathbringer out now in paperback wherever books are sold. For more of the latest science fiction

and fantasy releases, follow at Tor Books. That's T-O-R Books. I'm going to resume doing unspeakable things. Tor Books. Kylo walking? I'm trying to? I think that was Jackie Mason. It's a really bad Jackie Mason. Listen to him again. He has a very subtle Brooklyn accent.

I like that. Yeah. Well, you've directed him, so you would know. I did one time, yes. Anyway. Oh, it was great, it was great. Great project, I love Star Wars. I'm dressed as him.

Thank you, Link. All right, and our fantastic returning second sponsor for tonight are our friends at D&D Beyond. D&D Beyond! If you have somehow still not checked out D&D Beyond, it is the official digital toolset for Dungeons & Dragons. Everything is there at your fingertips. The source books, the digital character sheets, the homebrew content creation. Go to dndbeyond.com now to check out how easy they make playing D&D.

You guys all know that first and foremost, I am a filmmaker, and I am proud to announce that tonight I've teamed with D&D Beyond to create my first ever foray into stop-motion animation. No. I don't want to say that it's better than The Nightmare Before Christmas. Okay. But I'll let you guys say that. Wait until you see it for yourself. Let's roll my film. Oh my god, what have you done? Oh my goodness. Thank you. Thank you.

Any film like this is a collaborative process. I have so many people I want to thank. Our cinematographer, Giuseppe Pfister, wonderful work, powerful work. Our gaffer, Blumpkin Stiles, the most daring in the biz. Sound mixer, Randy Cockburn, didn't think you could pull it off like that, best boy Mike Litteris, I can't believe I found you, producer Willie Stroker, you've got a finger on the pulse, sir, casting director Aima Dumas, and of course my agents at CAA, Amanda Hump, Keeper Cummings, Dixon Beavers, Harry Sachs, Otto B. McCracken, Wilma Fingerdew, Irma Wanker, Drew P. Weiner. No, I'm sorry, Drew P. Weiner. Thank you all for believing in this project. Also, my inspiration, my mentor, Hugh Janus. Mr. Janus, wherever he is, I think Hugh Janus is smiling down on all of us tonight. Of course, D&D Beyond, we did it, guys.

It took three years, but we did it. Thank you. Well done. Thank you, Sam, and thank you, our friends at D&D Beyond for making this happen on a weekly basis. Wow. We had a Halloween party yesterday. How did you have time for that?

I know, we were in London two days ago. Three years it's been in the works. Yeah, it's been in post for months. I'm so glad that DreamWorks is willing to work with you based on how much Disney you would do. Yeah, I have to add, also I forgot, I just announced I'm going to be at LostCon November 23rd through 25th, so if you're in LA

and want to check out the convention, I'll be hanging out there talking about D&D and voiceover and all sorts of things like that. Awesome. LostCon, L-O-S-T-O-N. Hell yeah, that's what I got. Find Taliesin there. All right, so our final episode of this batch

of Between the Sheets aired this past Monday and is now available on YouTube, where our fantastic host, Brian W. Foster, talks to me. It's a bit of an emotional one, but I hope you enjoy it. Check it out on youtube.com slash Critical Role. And yeah, I think that ends this batch. We'll be back very soon with the next batch of new guests and new stories.

The fantastic host. It was real good, Matt. You did a great, great job. I watched it on the cab ride home from the airport. Oh shit, thank you. So good. Thank you. So good, amazing. I didn't expect it to get as deep as it did, but here we are. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it.

The next episode of All Work, No Play will debut this Friday at twitch.tv slash Critical Role at 7 p.m. Pacific time. This week, Liam and Sam learn how to fire spin with our fantastic, our own, my wife, Marisha Ray. Yay! I... We survived all the burns.

Yeah, you were great, Marisha. The other two, though. I'm excited to see it. Oh, the burn! Yeah, you were great, Marissa. The other two, though. I'm excited to see it, I've only seen bits and pieces, and it's pretty absurd. Your wife ignites. But only from the fire. Right.

No, I feel like you ignite. So check it out this Friday at 7 p.m. Pacific. Travis, you have something to talk about. Yes, through the month of November, we are raising money for my favorite charity, Operation Supply Drop. Yeah! They are amazing.

OSD has helped over 750,000 members of the military community with supply drops. They have initiatives, they have job training, they have skill workshops for people that are going from active military work through their transition into civilian life, and they just touch so many people. I love this organization, I've been following them

for years. If we hit our $25,000 goal, we are going to host a special first person shooter stream with me. Ooh. Yeah, yeah, I used to be good, I'm not so much anymore since baby days, but I'm like gonna train. Oh my gosh. I'll have a montage. Deep down that rabbit hole for years.

Oh my god, I liked playing with you, never won, but I enjoyed the process. Thank you! It's all about the commentary that happens, right? And if we hit that goal, we will do that. Details and to donate, you can see everything at critrole.com slash OSD. Woo! Yeah! Amazing, amazing.com slash OSD. Woo! Yeah! Amazing, amazing.

Thank you, Travis. So great. Daylight Savings Time hits the U.S. this week, so make sure for those who are outside of the U.S., as far as times, you can check out the shows and a bunch of other content. Go to wheniscriticalrole.com for updated airtimes in your time zones, so keep an eye out on that. Isn't a good time change again here?

Yeah. We gain an hour. You fall back. We sleep longer. We gain an hour. That's pretty forward. I don't hate that. I'm going to spend six hours. Archaic, unnecessary means of changing our time.

Damien, Benjamin, Franklin. We're getting two daylight savings times because we have one in London, too, so we get two hours. Yeah. That's nice. To travel the world. I don't think that works that way. I'm pretty sure it does. They don't stack, damn it, they don't stack.

You might be right. I want a judgment call on that. Fair enough. All right. Absolutely destroyed any gain we got. I know, I'm well aware. Last but not least, I want to thank all of our fantastic European Critters and Beyond

who came out to MCM London this past weekend. Seriously. Shit. Our first European convention, and it was magnificent. The turnout was insane. You guys broke MCM London,

confusing all sorts of other guests about what the hell this thing is. I love the fact that Kit Bus, our official artist in the first campaign, had a far longer line than Frank Miller the entire weekend. It was pretty fantastic. All the love in the world for Frank Miller. Legendary Frank Miller. He's phenomenal. That is crazy.

But he's not a Kit Bus. But also lots of love to Kit Bus, who is a good friend of the show and a good friend of ours. It was so cool meeting you guys from all over the fucking planet, man. Amazing. Got to meet a bunch of people from the CR Translate team, bunch of fantastic artists and writers and just general amazing community members.

Thank you all for coming out. And of course, Arsequeef. And of course, Arsequeef. Yeah. Legitimately fantastic gentlemen. This definitely will not be our last time to Europe, don't worry, because that was amazing. Laura and I will get our travel situation fixed.

We didn't know raw plutonium was not allowed in the UK. We travel with it always. It is a fantastic gem, right? You charge it under the moonlight, and it just radiates. It's your wedding bands, you can take that off. And what's great is the longer you keep it next to Ronan, he doesn't actually have to feed. Oh, Jesus.

Oh god! Hey, how you doing, Spooks? Hey, how are you? I believe that's the extent of our announcements, and as such, that brings us in to tonight's episode of Critical Role. Woo! សូវាប់បានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបា Teksting av Nicolai Winther points to Travis on that one. It's the ellipses at the end. Like a little squeak.

So, last we left off, the Mighty Nein, and pursuing a thread of a mysterious orb that seemed to connect in some way to the entity in which Fjord has somehow connected himself to, and as such been granted these strange eldritch powers, led you southward from the Menagerie Coast after commandeering a ship called the Mist, turned into the Mistake, followed it through some dangerous reefs to a pirate ship called the Squall Eater, and thereon the captain of Antica. You made a pact with her,

as to whether the choice was to either die, to help aid her and a companion she had hired for this to help navigate this island, this strange, seemingly dangerous or cursed island to which you made your way through the jungles of this Uruk-Hazil, managed to avoid lizard men, managed to barely sneak through an ancient city of Yon-Ti, making your way to the top of this temple

and through the interior. A series of battles later, an encounter with a strange, lightless internal orchard in which two of the fruit within had been eaten by two members of your team and have been tripping balls ever since. Oh, that's right. Yeah. Oh god.

You made your way to the bottom subterranean guardian chamber, where you met a yaunty abomination that was laying guard, it seems, to the true guardian, a large hydra. Now, the hydra had turned around and laid waste to much of your party, but you managed to, through a series of clever choices, uses of fire magic, and some rapid assaults, manage to cleave all the heads from its body and kill it just in time. Its corpse now lying fresh under the ground, Captain Avantika seeming pleased and impressed by the display of these strange new compatriots that have now come to work under her,

you now sit within the stillness of this chamber, able to now finally take a moment to look about and see what secrets or mysteries it holds. So, Mighty Nein, what would you like to do? Was any of that real? Oh no, you're still... We just need to wait this out. We killed all the creatures. Is it the two of them that are tripping?

Yes! How many eyes do I have right now? Because it feels like I have three of them. You do. You have three of them. You do, you have three eyes. That's good, that's good. What's Avantika doing? Avantika at this point is sitting down for a second and just getting her breath.

The rest of you who are still up in the hallway, which would make something just Jester, Caduceus, and Jemettia, and Caleb all begin to slowly descend the stairs. Yeah, it's been a fucking thing in here. What's so funny? Hey, zip it. The hydra, did it back into the hole? No, it's currently slung over the side of the staircase that curves down into the subterranean chamber, yeah. So.

How do they make you sound differently? It feels like you sound different because of the gloves. But I think it's just in my head. Yeah, just in my head. Yeah, just in your head. I got stung by some wasps out by the bar. Y'all have Benadryl? Two healing potions and an EpiPen, hold on. Yeah, that was a thing. Caduceus? Yeah?

Is Jamedi up there? In theory. Jamedi's currently standing at the top, glancing around the side. I assure you it's safe now. Oh yeah, hey, you guy. How come you did not do anything? Oh. Glances around and steps down another step. Hey, you guy, how come you did not do anything?

He glances around and steps down another step. I was not paid to do anything of this sort. I was a guide, I was to delve. I am not skilled in the ways you are, and I'm not stupid to throw myself in front of a beast so large. You're worried you could maybe die? Yeah, it was pretty touch and go. You want to sit back and stay safe and then get eaten?

I am really not myself right now. Yeah, you're breathing like super aggro. Breathing real hard. It's kind of intense. Jem'Hali, wearing any weapons? Actually, make a perception check. Actually, I'm going to use this on the d20, see how that goes. Oh, where'd you get that?

Recon. That's good. Good start. That's a good start. 27. Looking at this person, he has a shortbow and a dagger, and that is it. He's not armed for a means of any sort of main assault.

In fact, most of his equipment and materials and the way he's armored and dressed is for expediency, lack of sound, and meant to blend into his surroundings fairly easily, a lot of browns and grays and dull greens. He's definitely more of a scout and a tracker based on his skill set from what you've seen than any sort of frontline fighter. I want to go over to Avantika.

As you approach, you can see she gets up and rummages off the side and pulls off a small lantern that she keeps knocking on the side and pulls off a small lantern that she keeps knocking to the side of her belt. Do I see anything else tucked up under there while she's doing that that looks of interest or of importance? Make a perception check. Okay, okay. 19.

19. Nothing in particular beyond what she previously had that you can tell at the moment, no. But this very, it's like a small lantern, maybe that big, and she pulls a piece of cloth out that was meant to keep it from making or clattering or making any noise on the inside. She pulls out the cloth,

tucks it into a pocket, and watches. She ignites the end of an oil wick, and the lantern glows a bit and gives off some light. She begins walking along the walls of the inside of the chamber. I'm going to cast Detect Magic. On the lantern? On everything.

I'm including our friends and everything in the room. Yeah. I'll mirror Avantika's movement on the other side of the room. Okay. Okay. I'll mirror Avantika's movement on the other side of the room. Okay. I like to look at things. So as you cast Detect Magic, a few things. I mean, all of your friends give off a faint aura.

Everything but Jamedi gives off a magical aura. You also sense the columns themselves have a fairly powerful, deep, magical aura to them. That's the most you can see at the moment. Nothing Jamedi is wearing at all? Nothing. Okay. Fjord, as you begin to walk along what would be considered the southern walls

around the side of the chamber, you and Avantika looking across, you can see the walls appear to be made of the same eldest stone that this temple is made from. The newer materials that have been plastered and set against what once was this original temple did not make its way this far into the basement. It seems that there is no intent to cover,

or at least hasn't gotten to the point of covering what originally lined the walls of this chamber, and that's where the original carvings remain. What you see are three massive carved murals on that wall, that wall, and this far side, mirroring the placement of the three pillars. These murals stand probably 15 feet tall and about 20 or so feet wide.

You can see them depicting these giant, faintly detailed and gently colored scenes, though a lot of the coloration seems to have faded with just dust and time, but you can see some of the stone has been stained or painted to show some variation in color, so you can make out the simple shapes to fill out this much larger tapestry on the stone before you. The one on that far wall, as you come across it,

you see what looks to see a crowd of people. Simple design, but definitive. Heads and shoulders and legs, you can see the humanoid form and there are many, many clustered around the base of this mural. Above them, you can see three larger humanoid figures that are haloed by some sort of a light or an aura that elevates them beyond this crowd. Three figures. Three figures. Then over the top of that, taking up probably 60% or more of this mural,

you see what looks to be a humongous bird of dark purple flame that is wreathing the sky above this crowd. You see its wings curved upward and then bent down. You see where the wings end, fire just curls and burns. And the feathers on the edges of these wings definitively come up into a purple and dark gray flame with bits and specks of deep red.

At the top, you can see where its head looks down, the beak long and pointed. There are three eyes across its face, and in each of these eyes, you see set a rather large onyx stone. It's a bird? A large flaming bird. Like a phoenix?

Like a phoenix, but dark purples and grays and deep reds in color. Three eyes. Three eyes, each one is an onyx stone? Each one of those eyes is an onyx stone. Probably about that big. Mr. Fjord, I feel like I should mention, I'm keeping a lookout for anything

and getting a bit of a magical aura from the three columns. I don't know if it's related to this. Are you reading anything off of all of the eyes that I'm seeing, those stones? You don't see any magical essence on the carving or the stones, just from those pillars. Glancing at the pillars, too, you can see

there's faint carved designs and shapes, almost like swirling serpentine circles and curves that chain into each other and swirl off. It looks almost like, imagine a column made of chains, if you will, but the patterns are erratic in places and don't seem to follow. The three columns are very similar. There's nothing unique about the pattern within them.

It doesn't deviate too much. From what you can tell, no. All right. So that's the Far Wall. If you continue curving around to the one closest to me, you meet up with Avantika at that point. She holds her lantern up, and you can see a very similar layout.

You see a very familiar showing of a crowd, much like the previous one, though some of their shapes have different shoulders, looks almost like their clothing, or whatever their accoutrements are different. So it seems to insinuate a different people. Above them, three more figures stand, shown larger and emanating some sort of radiance or aura.

Above that, you see what looks to be this Gesundheit, this giant coiled serpent of scale, fin, and eyes made of amber. Each of these eyes is a separate amber piece about that big around, or the size of a large gold piece, all along the coil of its body. You see at the very top where it's rearing up,

this very long, thin, pointed, almost lizard-like maw opens up, and behind it, this giant tidal wave is curling and frozen in place, looking like it's about to bear down on and either destroy or sweep away the crowd below it. Good question. Does the eyes in this picture bear any resemblance to the tattoos I spied through the window when I eavesdropped through Frumpkin on Fjord and Avantika's conversation? Very much so. Very much so, okay. Two eyes on this one?

On this one, the head of it has three eyes as well. Three eyes also. But the body itself has eyes evenly spaced around the entire length of its coiled body. And ember for the three eyes on the head, or every single time? Every single eye on it is a piece of ember, matching size. The eyes, are they, they're there, right?

It's part of the mural, they're not missing or recessed or anything? They all appear to be present. You described the first group, look just humanoid, no strange features, just arms, legs, head, but for the second one with the serpent, they're a little weird. More details have been put into them.

More care has been placed into their carving. Okay. Onyx eyes for the first creature. And her eyes for the second. And what about the third? I'll go over and look at the far mirror for you. Okay. Avantika continues curving around,

with a big wide-eyed smile on her face. As she passes by, she goes, He's using Kaedebwa. Yes, it's very stimulating. Have you ever seen imagery like this before? I can only assume this is carved by the Quinau. The, yeah, yep, the Quinau. The Quinoa? Nope, the Quinau.

They're the followers of Uk'otoa, right? Look at these cards. The key now? Key now. She continues curving around Beau and Caduceus as you walk to the other wall that side of the chamber. There you see what looks to be a curling thick worm of some kind.

It's folded skin and tooth-like scales burrowing up to produce mountains over the crowd. Cliff faces made of stone and rock that appear to be breaking and about to plummet into the crowd below. There, beneath it, you see three figures once more elevated, the same wreath around them of some sort of radiance or light.

The people below don't seem scared. There's no sign of fleeing or fear, just a gathering. But you see within this large, terrifying worm-like creature, its form bulbous with these strange protrusions, these spine-like scales that you can imagine would pull it through the broken earth. You see this ring of teeth

that accentuates where its mouth is. On the inside, you can see what looks to be where a tongue would be. There instead are three eyes across the inside of its mouth. These appear to be made of some kind of ivory, some polished white material. Also, the three figures on each wall,

are they standard humanoid form? The three figures all appear to be humanoid. They're not detailed enough to the point where you can see features to differentiate between, you know, elven, human, halfling. Do they seem to be the same three on each, or is it just sort of silhouettes of? It's just silhouettes of three people.

Three figures. Three figures. Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck. You hear Avantika's voice echo from across the way. She goes, These are the Chosen. She brings light over towards the one of Uk'otoa on the wall and goes,

I guess that makes this one me? She takes her finger and takes a little blood from the corner of her mouth in the fight and draws a little smiley face on one of the three. And this one is you, and goes and draws another face on the middle one. I can see the resemblance. The question is, if that's you and that's me,

who's our third friend? That's a very good question. You said you had met only one other Chosen before. Only one, yes. And what happened to them? They were a very informative partner. The other one had introduced me to

the great possibility of power under Ug'gator. We traveled this ocean for quite a number of years together, but they proved to be a coward. They took something important to our mission and vanished. I've spent many years trying to recover what they stole, and with no luck, I figured it was more worth my time to just pillage enough coin to pay other people to find them for me.

And so far, based on the fact they brought you to me, much more successful endeavor, huh? Indeed, this person that seemed to have shown you the light, did you try to track them down? Do you know anything about them or where they might be? They would seem to be very useful in our current situation. This is very true. Well, it seems I may have some information.

Let's get back to the ship. Let's finish our business here and let's talk over a glass of wine. Well, we're obviously not in a huge rush. We have not explored all of this. Zizi's true and she begins to make her way towards the well at the center of the chamber. I was heading that way myself.

Is there any writing of any kind? Glancing about at the pillars, you, too, can see within the shapes glowing runes that trace from ceiling to floor, then across the ground and all meet at the well. Am I able to read it with the comprehend languages that should still be cooking? Because it's an hour-long spell? It's not technically a language. These are runes. These are glyphs of some kind. Make an arcana check.

Come on, dice. Good to me. No. That is 17. 17. There are different epochs in historical time in which there have been advances in developments of arcane runes and sigils.

There is the early basis of magical runes, which is a deviation of draconic as a language, and then there are ways that they've been altered and made more efficient. These are very old base, early Draconic runes. As such, they hold a lot more very, very primal magical power. They're usually reserved for larger rituals

and magics that are meant to last for very long periods of time. The nature of the magic on these runes, from what you can tell. It's a little hard to get the direct essence, but there is some sort of an abjuration-based magic. I'm going to go investigate the, not the hydra. The water pool.

No, the creature that I killed. All right, you head on over to the other Yon team. As you approach, you can see the body lies there, tongue kind of rolling out and drooling blood, a mixture of thick saliva mingling with the dark black, purple blood out the corner of its mouth, its eyes wide open and rolled back. thick saliva mingling with the dark black-purple blood out the corner of its mouth. Its eye is wide open and rolled back. Its dark, thick green scales of its snake-like head

and thick, muscular-scale torso all lie limp across the stone where it was slain. You can see its blade has clattered to the ground a few feet from its grasp, and its polished marvel and silver shield scattered a few feet from its grasp, and its polished marble and silver shield scattered a few feet from its form. The rest of its tail just coils and is limp off to the side from there.

I'll just rifle around, looking for any keys or objects. 25. Nice. You find on its body 26 pieces of gold. Only gold. No other pieces of coin on its body. The blade is a very, very large blade. It looks like it's well-made, both for ceremonial purposes and for actual combat. It is both beautiful and very well made. The shield itself is also exquisitely crafted and shows no signs of wear.

I'll take the shield and just hang on to it until I can give it to someone who wants it. Okay. At this point, Avantika has walked to the edge of the well and looks down into the space below. I walk up behind her and I just go, Do you really? Yeah.

Like pushing her? Yeah, I don't actually push her in, but I just want to freak her out. Yeah, she's going to do that. She whips around as you do that, and both her hand grabs your wrist to deflect it, and you wrench your wrist free as a natural instinct, and you both have this moment of like,

You know, I do have a solution, I think, for this. Jumetti, you worthless sack of shit. You haven't done a damn thing since we got in this temple. You like to scout ahead, go forward, get your ass down that well. He's still up at the top of the stairs, he goes, Well, for one thing, I was paid to go to the temple and no further.

The fact that I have even come this far is because I need to claim my pay. Why do you want a cookie? Get down the fucking well, let's go. Avantika goes, actually, I think ladies first. Well, I would insist to join you, if that is the case. Hmm. May the best one win, huh?

She dives in. Oh shit, balls of blade! I thought! Can I talk to you for a second before you go down there? Real quick. These pillars are covered, you know, so when I do the shield, I cover myself and protect these,

the columns have that in them. The pillars are magic? Yeah, but it's protection, it's holding something in or holding something back. And we know what that thing is with the yellow eyes, but what is the tapeworm? I don't know. Go, finally go. I don't want her to get too far ahead.

Okay, cool. Okay, you jump in, and first off, Caleb's Distraction has given her quite a lead. She's a fairly accomplished swimmer and is making her way down. This well continues on for a good 70, 80 or so feet below. The water is cold, but it is salt water. Oh. Salt water.

Yes. It is salt water. Not brackish, but salt water. Right. Okay. So anyway, you are swimming after her. Make an athletics check. You have advantage because the water is, because of your armor, it's not giving you

as much resistance heading south. Wow. Athletics or? Athletics. So 19. 19, okay, you begin to close the gap slowly, but she's eagerly swimming down with almost a fervor. As you get deeper and deeper into this column, this basin below, you can see

the walls of it begin to grow thick with algae and grime. It could be some sort of a plant matter that's just accrued over the walls, or it could be waste matter from the hydra within its home that is slowly congealed to cover the walls, but the stone begins to give way to this dark, slick material. Once you hit about the 70, 80-foot point, the tunnel begins to open almost like a giant bulb or an internal spherical chamber. Roll another athletics check.

14. 14. You guys, she's still keeping a distance from you. Heading deeper and deeper in, the saltiness of the water, the brininess, the flavor in your mouth gets more and more intense. What was once a semblance of seawater is definitively seawater, but also very, very strongly briny seawater.

Make another athletics check. We've entered that chamber, right? Correct. What's our visibility like? 40, 60? For you, because you have darkvision, so you can see within 30 feet of you, essentially. So as far as you look, the chamber is-

There's not a lot of natural light, right? No. Yeah. Not at all. Okay. It's pitch black down here. I can tell. That being the case, you can also, you don't see the bottom of the chamber, you just see it open.

And just her going into nothing. And just her, but she's gaining. Just James Cameron going down to find the Titanic. Yep, just delving straight down into the darkness. Cool. Make another athletics check. Ooh, 20. 20, okay. She did not roll that well that time. She's beginning to tire, it seems,

or at least you're starting to pick up speed. As you continue to follow and follow, you get probably about 40 or so feet from her, but she's still ahead of you. Roll again. Natural 20. Natural 20, nice. She rolled okay. You see now the bottom begin to approach.

Just within the peripheral of your dark vision, you can see where the floor greets to meet you, and you pick up enough speed to where you both impact the bottom of this chamber at the same time. You both hit. She looks up at you and her eyes meet, and you see a few bubbles escape her mouth, and you see her big, wide, toothy grin,

and she begins scraping grime off the floor. I do the same. All right, make an investigation check. I don't know what I'm looking for. 23. 23? Yeah, boy. That's five. I think you did that shit.

Well, as the two of you are currently scraping bits of grime and algae off the ground, you can see now there are bits of plants that are growing up like lightless kelp that seems to have made some sort of a living down here in the subterranean water-filled chamber. As you're pushing through and scraping around, your hand scoops this large bit of grime

from in front of you, and you can see what looks to be a stone relief at the very, very base of the bottom, a concave, spherical shape about the size of a fist. Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh. She notices it, looks at it, and looks at you. What are you doing? Can I try and stick my hand in my chest? You can.

Does it go anywhere? You go and jam your hand, and it's hitting your armor. Yeah, yeah. You have a full-on leather plate right there. I don't know what to do. Like the size of a fist? Yeah, or like, you know, it's about that big. And you can see it is concave.

It's about the size of the stone that you had found. Yeah, that's in my body. Poop it out. I don't know how! I don't have an eject button! Can I summon the falchion? You can. The falchion peers in your hand, and as you do, this bright yellow light is now emanating from the center of its hilt, where the eye itself

is glowing with its own lantern-like source, at which point Avantika is now rushing towards the thing. The first thing's about to happen, and I just jam the eye into the... Make an initiative roll. Oh shit. Because you gave her enough time to get up right next to you,

and now we're going to see who gets to it first. Oh, six. Six? Yeah. Her hand, she's now pulled the glove from her right hand, and as you go to thrust the hilt of the falchion down towards it, you see her hand reach out and just manage to cover the little space first. As it does, you can see her body tense for a second, and

where her hand is, this bright, familiar yellow glow seems to now spread from between her fingers, sending beams off in multiple directions. You see her face looks aghast in shock for a second, and a large bubble escapes from her mouth. She looks over to you with this dazed look and pulls her hand back, and there you can see in the palm, there's this large open wound where blood's beginning to cloud the dark water below.

There in the center of this hole, you can see one of the cloven stones there. At which point you see a bunch of these runes begin to glow in three different directions from around the base of it, up the sides, up the chamber. The rest of you, looking around, suddenly see this dull blue glow begin to get brighter

and brighter from within this well, and you watch as these runes that you guys didn't notice, the two of you before, begin to suddenly begin to glow up the sides. The three pillars suddenly begin to spiral and glow as all these runes come to life. You see as Avantika pulls back and looks at her hand, she looks back at you, her eyes blink for a second,

and she just smiles, and you hear this earth-shuddering, soulful crack sound just rocks the entirety of the temple. You watch as bubbles suddenly, like this one burst of air that had been trapped in the grime below is all immediately released as one rise up to the water above.

You can look around and you can see the interior of this. There is a heavy black crack in the stone of this chamber. As you guys all hear this earth-shattering bam, dust falls off the ceiling of this chamber from the inside. You look and you watch as the pillars themselves still stand, but there are multiple places in this chamber now with these large black cracks now seem to have snaked their way in one instant burst

across parts of the wall. They are picking the lock on this safe. The glowing runes blink out. I think the lock's packed. Maybe they might need three. There's two of three, and I'm eyeing Jamedi as I say that. Presumably just two of three.

But as long as it's just one, maybe Fjord is thinking better of it. I immediately start searching on the ground for another opening. Make an investigation check. Maybe it's not all here. Maybe it's in another location. Maybe there are two other temples. Twelve. Twelve. You start pulling through the weeds and the kelp and the grime and nothing. It's all smooth stone except for this one little alcove that you found first. Evandica is now swimming frantically up towards the surface.

Frantically? Like, just trying to kick. She lost quite a bit of air. I'll go grab her. You go grab her. Okay, make a grapple check, make an athletics check. Five gold and stone cold. Seven. Seven, no, she kicks right out of your grasp. She looks back with an expression of surprise.

Pointing at the ground. Make a deception check. I'm okay with those. Underwater deception. Travis, you have your fate, too. Natural 20. Oh! Okay, she looks confused and continues swimming upward,

not reading too much into it. Okay. But yeah, she continues to clamber up to the surface. The rest of you, as you're looking about, you can see now the surface of the water. It begins to spill over the sides of the well. I'm going to start heading towards the stairs. I'm going to recommend everybody else, let's go.

That sounds good, yes, yes. Yeah, okay, of course. Jester's like, this is not very good. Where's Fjord? She's looking over very nervously towards the pool, which now the chamber's rapidly filling. You're already at knee height. He likes water, he'll be fine.

Come on, let's go, let's get out of here. Jester at the edge of the pool, looking down. Okay, you guys glancing down. Jem'Heddy is back in the chamber, his eyes wag. He goes, we should go. We should go bring her back, she owes me money. I'm grabbing Nott by the scruff and dragging her up the stairs.

You don't have to drag me, I'm going. Okay, okay. Okay, as you guys all begin to climb up the stairs, the chamber's filling very quickly with the water. It's now reaching the base of the stairs, at which point, as you guys, Beau, you and Jester, there's just enough water now where your buoyancy

carries you off your feet, and you're now actually treading water in the chamber. At which point, Avantika makes it to the surface with a large gasp of air, and but a few moments later, Fjord also breaks the surface. Come on, Fjord, let's get out of here! What's happening? Water, bad water!

All water's bad, but this is even worse! What the hell happened? Continuing to fill the stairway that leads upward. The water has now reached the base of the doorway and you have a few moments, maybe six seconds or so before the doorway itself is completely filled. All right, let's go.

Okay, you're all going into a full swim here, double move, half speed for all of you guys, so it's going to take you a little bit, except for you. All right, you guys are already up there. All right, so as you all get to the stairway and begin to make your way up to the top, the water continues to pour up, up, falling behind you. You get to the stairs and you, having to trudge through,

you get up to the next, the secondary floor, and there you stand with the walls that were partially relieved and covered, and there is the stone slab that is lifted up, and there's an orchard before you. What do you do? Oh, the orchard, that's right. There were stairs that were spiral stairs, right?

Yeah, there is the fountain, but it has been, it rose back up to the top when this chamber door was opened. Oh, so there's no stairs? Currently, no. It's raised up and closed off the front when you open the doorway to get deeper into the basement. We see to the ceiling of this chamber. Make a perception check.

With you, disadvantage, because you are human. Highest out of entry. Make a perception, you said? Yes. 15. 15? You can see the pillar that holds the fountain at the top and there are the stairs still part of it. You can see where it's up there,

but whatever mechanism rocks it. Yeah, yeah. That's fine. Is everybody outside? Is everybody in the chamber now? The central chamber is now, the water has now reached the base of the orchard. I'm going to hit the button to close the...

You don't know the button. You never found it. Oh, who did? I don't know, who did? It was Nott. Yeah? Yeah. Could you mind hitting the button to close this thing again? Oh, yes, yes, sure.

It was one of these holes. I'm going to just pick one. I go to the north one. Okay. Oh god, which one was it? I don't know, I don't remember. I'm just going to just pick one. I go to the north one. Okay. Oh god, which one was it? I don't know, I don't remember. I'm just going to go into one. Aren't these little holes, right?

There are, as you can see now, the water that has begun to fill up the chamber. It's a little slower in here because it's a much wider space now, but you can see eggs starting to float out from the other chambers. The other two rooms were the two hatchery areas where you saw the larger eggs were set.

Right. Hang on. Do I remember which one was the? Make an intelligence check. Nine? Oh, plus six? No, this is not a saving throw. No, it's just straight bone north. Plus three, so 12. 12. You recall it was in the chamber where you're standing in. It's not too far from the stairs where you're standing, and it's not too far from the stairs

where you guys descended below. Okay, do I see a little door, a little hole near where I'm standing? You look over to the side, make a quick investigation check. Natural 20. You reach over and you find it, and you hit it. The door slams shut and locks you in the room. Locks you in the room. Oh fuck!

But you hear a grinding on the other side of the chamber of the fountain lowering. Oh shit. Fountain lowering. Right. So the fountain lowered, but Nott is trapped in there. Nott and everybody else who hasn't left that chamber is inside. The only people that said they were leaving that room,

I believe were. Yeah, I was going in, yeah, I was. Oh god. So all of you are now locked in that chamber with Nott. Wait, can you open it? Wait, we're in the chamber, we're all inside? You're all in the chamber with N in, yeah, because I was, oh god. So all of you are now locked in that chamber with Nott. Wait, can you open it? Wait, we're in the chamber, we're all inside? You're all in the chamber with Nott, yeah. But that chamber goes downstairs, right?

Correct. I will open it up again. The fountain, the chamber opens up again. Okay, Mage Hand, come on out. Everybody out, everybody out. Okay, you move around, you cast Mage Hand. The door slams shut, the two other doors slam shut. The chamber now is about waist-high in water. You watch as the pillar begins to slowly lower.

It is a slow drag down. Okay, let's go. Come on, come on. Okay, the stairway itself, if you recall, ends a little bit ways up, and there's a bit of a drop down to get to it. It slowly comes down and does meet the floor. There's a bit of a lip to get up there now.

So if you ascend to the top of the staircase, there is about a 10-foot or so jump where it is smooth walls before you can actually get to the top floor. Yeah. Cool. Cool. You want to get up there and drop a rope? Yeah, I can do that.

Let's try that. Make the jump. Do you want to jump off of Yasha or anything? Sure. Yeah, she'll do the- Give me a boost. The cheerleader. Yasha goes over and gives you a boost. That's going to be, okay.

That gives you advantage on your acrobatics. Your time to try and parkour up the stairs and leap off the sides. I'm going to cast Dancing Light and send the four globules up around the roof so that everyone can see everything perfectly. Okay. 12 on my acrobatics.

Gotcha. You leap, slide off the side, and manage to fall down into the water next to it. You come out of the surface. You guys, the chamber is now halfway full and it's almost starting to reach the top. It's really slippy. I'm going to try and, oh god. to reach the top. It's really slippy. Ah.

I'm going to try and, oh god. Give me a boost. Yeah, you're tall. All right, I'm actually weak. Somebody stronger should probably give me a boost. I'm going to scurry over, cast Mr. Clay and jump. Enlarge on Caduceus so he's twice his size. Oh. Mighty Caduceus.

I'm tall now, I'm very tall. I might be taller than the whole. You're tall enough to the point where I'd say, because it's double the size, right? It's double the size, yeah. So you're 14 feet, you're not tall enough for the whole chamber, but you're tall enough to push people through. I'm pushing people through.

All right, so alley-ooping, one after the other, you go ahead and grab each person and lift them up like a little booster into the chamber, one by one. You guys all get up into the top now. And Caduceus, you're too big to get up. Yeah, Caduceus, hold Fjord's hand. Fjord, hold his hand, you got it? Yep. Yep.

I cast Reduce, and now he is half his size. Oh! All right. All right, so you pull Caduceus up. You guys are now in the chamber, standing there. There's the stairs that lead up, at which point you hear footfalls, and you see coming around the corner down, it seems that the sound of the resounding crack

in this temple has drawn the attention of three on T. They turn the corner, you see one of them, two snake arms, a familiar sight as one of the Malisons comes down. Two Broodguard are there, what are you doing? The water is now spilling up past out of the hole, and now the top room is starting to fill with water. Are we in the top level now? You are.

We are. Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. I'm tapped spell-wise. I'm going to just go, and start shooting at the first one. Go for it. That's not great. It's a 14.

14 to hit. Okay, at this point, the water seems to have accelerated and has now filled the chamber. As you fire. 16 to hit. All right. I am casting Spirit Guardians and rushing them. Okay.

You're now, well, underwater. You've taken your last breath and you've all completely been submerged in this chamber. The other, Yonati, you can see in the darkness below here, the only bit of light you have are the globes still from you. Although, are those concentration? I've got a light on my stick anyway. They're gone then, because enlarged reduce.

I would have cast a light on my stick then, so. Okay, so you're casting light on your stick. Anybody I don't like within 15 feet is currently getting ransacked by tiny fairies. Okay, what's the... I love it, what's your save? What's the save on that? Eight system, I believe that? Winston 16.

Okay, the Malison succeeds, the two Broodguard fail. So go ahead and roll damage on that. Oh, that's a... Freaking out a little bit. 3d8 radiant damage. That is correct. That's 11. One or seven, I can't tell. 11, 12 points of radiant damage.

12 points of radiant damage, nice. None of that was a melee attack, right? Because your damage is reduced since you're teeny. Doesn't mean it's just, they're fairies. All right. And I'm heading straight towards the exit. What was the roll you hit? 16 to hit.

16, that will hit the Malison. You do not get sneak attack, however. It causes nine hit points of damage. Nice. All right, that finishes your go there. I would probably bonus action. If I had a bonus action, I would shoot again. I'd allow it. So you're like, because you can stand on the water,

so as you're leaning over the surface, you're like, ah, squeezing it out. It's 16 to hit again. Nice. And another 11 points of damage. 11 points of damage, good. All right, so I now need everyone to roll initiative. Oh jeez. Oh jeez.

If I'm on top of the water, how much space do I have? Well, now you don't need more. The water surface begins to crush up beneath you, and then you have to delve underneath as it meets it. It's filled up and it's now making its way up the stairs towards the top of the temple. So, 25 to 20, anyone? 20. All right.

I roll for Jester. Terrible. I roll for Yasha. I did, never. All right, so. 20 to 15? Nobody. All right, 15 to 10?

Yasha got 13. Wow. Jeez. Guys. All right, 10 to five. Seven and seven, both seven. Oh, Sathnein over here. Nott, Caduceus, Caleb.

Nott and then Cad. I rolled a natural one. Caleb and Jester. Jester and a seven, yeah. Jester. And then Fjord at the bottom. I'm sorry, Dante, could you please describe where everyone is physically, the enemies and us,

just so I can see it. Awesome. That was my Dante. Yeah. The hourglass is gone. Yeah. That's okay, just means that you guys are now in the process of slowly driving. Yeah. Zero. The hourglass is gone. Yeah. They freaked me out. That's okay, just means that you guys are now processing slowly drowning.

Yeah. Arthur, don't say that! How do you do that? Ah, D&D Beyond. And Tor Books, everybody. Tor Books, Tor Books, Tor Books. Tor Books, Tor Books, Tor Books. Tor Books, Tor Books, Tor Books.

Nope. Tor Books, Tor Books, Tor Books. Tor Books, Tor Books, Tor Books. Good times. Great. Ah, shit, webox, Torbox. Torbox, Torbox, Torbox. Good times. Great. Good times. Ah shit, we're back here again. Except now it's all filled with water. Hit.

Ooh. Going to the water. How did you do that? Everyone hates the underwater levels. What's up? They're also drowning too, right? I mean, since they're not officially in, but there is, now that we are in combat,

whoop whoop whoop whoop, there is the nature. Fuck. Did we have some water-breathing potions somewhere? Tenny Caduceus just made its way up there. There's Beau. There's Jamedi.

All righty. Someone might have a water rating spell. Top of the initiative order, Beau, you're up first. While you're in water, movement is considered difficult terrain. If I recall, the attacks are made at disadvantage while in water. Okay. Let's open our heads at this point.

Yeah, we're definitely underwater. Do we see the exit ahead of us? Those are the stairs that lead upward, yes. So if we just book it, we'll go? You can. That's an option. We're just going to have these guys on our butts. That is entirely an option you can take. Uh-huh. Well, I'm a human with no magical abilities,

so I'm going to run. Also, the trapdoor. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I can't do a lot. You have throwing stars. They don't. Not throwing stars. We have a key to the trapdoor. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I can't do a lot. You have throwing stars. They don't. We have a key to the trapdoor. Yeah, son of Sparta, the trapdoor into this place was like a metal grate, wasn't it?

Not fully, like there were holes because it was a metal grate, or was it solid? There were holes above, but they were on the ceiling and they were part of the stonework. Up top, there was an actual trap door that had kept you, that you had locked behind you. Right, but not like metal with holes for the water to go through. No, no. That you know of.

There are holes above, which is where that seemed to be where the sacrificial blood would drip through into the fountain. So, what you doing, guys? You running for us? Uh-huh. All right, so you're swimming? I'm darting, swimming up.

Three. I'm going to spend a ki point to do Step of the Wind. All right, Beau is out. I've also got to be cool. You made it up the top. Is she hitting the trapdoor? No, she's not out of the temple. She's heading up the stairs.

She's out of the battle at the moment. Got it. All right, so that finishes Beau's turn. It is now their turn. They both roll really high on initiative and you guys roll really terribly. Yes, we suck. All right. So the Malison's closest. Is he getting within 15 feet of me? He is. Okay, then as he enters that space, he has to?

Well, he was still within 50 feet of you, so the top of his turn he takes the save? It's when your speed is halved while within 15 feet of me and the creature enters the area for the first time or starts its turn there. All right. Natural 20 net save, so it takes half damage. Still takes damage, but it's half. So the 3d8, that's...

That's a good spell. Yeah. Clerics, man. Clerics. 19, so half a 19. All right, so nine. Just burst of energy in the inside. Some bubbles escape from its mouth,

and it just comes forward, and it's going to take two swipes at you with both of its serpent hands. Okay. All right, so that's two back attacks. That is going to be a 16 to hit. Misses. No, natural 20, but it has disadvantage

because it's in the water. That is still a 19 to hit. That hits. All righty, so you do manage to take, from one of the serpents, you manage to just glide out of the way in the middle of the water. The second one, that is four plus three piercing damage. You take seven points of piercing damage.

Got it. Including ten points of poison damage. Fuck, ten of poison? Yep. Not diluted by the water? Unfortunately, no, because it's straight from the fangs in your bloodstream. It surges pain into your chest,

and you also lose a bit of air instinctively from the pain. So consider now your air supply is halved. Okay, so that's half my constitution modifier? Essentially the DC is going higher when we start getting to that, depending on how long we're down here. All right. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.

All right, so that ends his go. Now it's the two brood guards. Swim forward? Brood guards? Brood guards. Brood guards. Okay, so he gets? Brood guards. Brood guards. Okay, so he gets into my realm, one of them's getting into my realm. They're both already in the radius, so they both have to make it. I don't have to reroll, it's the same roll for all three, right?

The top of the turn, it's a different turn, so roll again. The roll I just used, or a new roll? No, it's the top of the turn it happens. Oh, so. All right. That's right, because Spearguardian's happens at the top of the turn it happens. Oh, so. All right. That's a... That's right, Spirit Guardian's happens at the top of the turn, it doesn't happen immediately.

Yeah, top of their turn. Top of their turn, right. Okay, so the damage they would have taken this turn, they've already taken, so we're just letting that happen. Right, okay, marking that. Good to remember. Yeah. All right.

So they both move forward. One broodguard is going to go ahead and attack you, Nott. Ah! He's going to make two claw attacks and a bite attack. Disadvantage on each, though. The first one is going to be 15. Miss! One claw attack just goes wide.

The other one, 16. Hit! All right, one claw you manage to duck out of the way. The other one slams into the side of your body, pushing you through the water and down into the stonework, causing your hip to hit the side. That's going to do four points of slashing damage.

Its giant serpentine mouth of its weird lizard-like body is going to attempt to strike out and bite you. Ooh, two 10s. That's going to be 14 to hit. Miss. You manage to push up and jam your hand up into its jaw and keep it from biting you and pushing it away. The other one is going to be coming up towards Yasha, who is not raging. The first one with disadvantage is going to be 15 to hit.

That hits. 15 hits. That's going to be a claw attack. Ooh, eight points of slashing damage. Okay. Next attack with the claw with disadvantage, natural one, that is a complete miss. Yasha takes one claw and barely affects it. The other one, she grabs its hand in the middle of the grasp and pushes it back.

She grabs her sword ready now, and as she goes to get her blade ready, it's going to attempt to bite towards the front of her jaw and chest. That is going to be 17. I hit. All right. So she takes six points of piercing damage.

Okay. That ends the blue guard's turn. Yasha's up next. Yasha's up next, cool. 14 points of damage. Yasha's also lost quite a bit of air on that time. That was two hits that hit her? So just mark two hits of oxygen loss on her.

Keeping tabs on this. This will come into play in a bit, depending on what happens. Where is she on the map? She's right there. She's in melee with somebody? She's in melee with the Brute Guard, yes. Okay. She has to fight, because if she leaves, she's going to get hit again,

and that would be bad for her right now. With her bonus action, she would like to rage, and she will take two attacks at the one that she's in melee with. Okay, she's in a rage. She has the Reckless. Yeah, we're going to be Reckless. Okay, so that makes it just a straight attack,

because she has disadvantage under water. Oh, balls and ass, okay, here we go. Balls. And ass. Balls, balls, and balls. 19. Definitely hits. Three extra hits.

I don't like this one at all. Feel guilty for running? I'm going. Okay. 13 points of damage. 13 points of damage. The first one, and the second one is straight roll. Same thing, 19.

Yeah, it hits. That's just 2d6. 2d6. Where is she? Oh, she's down there. Which one did I shot? Again, 13 points of damage. All right. That one's looking really bad.

She just, after the blasts it took from the spirit guardians and the two strikes from Yasha, you can see there's now a cloud of dark crimson in the water around it is thrashing about in pain. You can see it looking a bit woozy under the dark water here. Is she going to move at all? She will not move at all.

She can move around it. As long as she stays in melee, she can still move around it. We'll come in melee just closer to the stairs, please. Gotcha, that's what I figured. All right, that finishes Yasha's turn. Nott's up next. Who had I shot before? You had shot this one.

Can I do something unconventional here, Matt? Yes. And undo my last shot. So give him back 11 points of damage, because I am holding a keg of gunpowder, and there's no way I can reload a crossbow while holding a keg of gunpowder. I mean, you can drop it for the moment,

fire it, and then pick it back up. All right. I'll let that happen. Good job, Ketchup. All right. Because there is water, and it's already soaking, you can be just like, and pick it back up.

I'll say narratively it makes sense. Slowly started to sink and scooped it up. Yeah, it happened really fast. Well then, to the one who's on me, all up in my grill, I'm going to touch them and cast Shocking Grasp. Oh. Which is a melee spell attack. So I roll a disadvantage.

With disadvantage, yes. Oh fuck. Nine plus six, 15. 15 hits. Okay, great. I didn't know I'd done this before. Let's see here. I'm at fifth level already, so that's 2d8. What's an eight?

It looks like a little hairball. There it is. There you go. Hey, eight points of damage. Eight points of damage to it. As you reach out and grab it, you watch as its tongue retracts into its head, its eyes go wide, loses some air,

and it eventually shakes and pushes off your hand. It's also a verbal spell. A what? Verbal. You have to speak. Does that work? It do. You can do it, but you lose a bunch of air to do it. Oh boy. I hate water.

I'm going to swim away as fast as I can, or do I still have to disengage, right? Yes, you do. I will bonus action disengage and swim around, past, like around Fjord, so I don't get, yeah, like around this way. That's as far as you can get. Going towards the, yeah, towards the exit.

Swimming over. With one hand. That finishes your go, Nott. It is now Caduceus, Caleb, and Jester. You guys can decide amongst yourselves the order. I'll go last. I'll go first, because I'm scared. I am going to use my air to cast Expeditious Retreat on myself, so I, too,

am going to spit out some air as I do this in the water, and that doubles my speed, which I can use a bonus action for dashing, plus my movement, and I want to swim up five feet and then towards the stairs. Okay. Five, ten, fifteen, 20, 25, 30. Then. Five, 10, 15, 30. Yeah. So that puts you about there. Okay.

That's your? That's everything. Yep, that's everything. So you're right about there on the steps. Oh god. I'm dead. Put you there, swimming. Swimming through the air.

Okay, that finishes Caleb's go. What's Jester doing? Jester would like to probably, she's going to lose a little air, but yeah, is she engaged with anybody? She's not engaged, but she's right next to someone. She's engaged with this broodguard right there. Okay, then she will Toll the Dead. She will cast Toll the Dead.

Yes. Okay, so that's a saving throw for him. What's the save? 15, wisdom. All right, that is a 13. that is not, so that's damage. 2d8. 2d12, I think. Oh yeah, 2d12. He's already taking damage. All right, where are my 12s? Oh, question, Matt, did you move me two groups of movement?

Because it would be, for the bonus action, action and movement. Okay, so it would be one more third. So the spell's a bonus action. Yeah, when you cast it, you get that extra juice and then bonus action on every following round. Right, so it would be a bonus action with the movement. Action, thank you.

There you go. Thank you for the heads up on that. 10 points. 10 points. He's not looking good either. She's going to try and get the most advantageous point towards the door as well. All right, and she is currently.

Both of you, since you cast spells, go ahead and mark five points of lost air. Okay, five points of lost air. I'm just going to remember that. You have five total? Five, for the purposes of this challenge, to keep it interesting, five points before you are now starting to make, it's now considered how long

you can hold your breath going forward. Oh fuck! Like each hits a minute off of the, I'll have to look at how I have it worked out here, but. Makes sense to me. Essentially, at this point now, Jester and Nott are going to have to start making constitution saving throws each round. Awesome, Awesome.

Awesome. All right. I was not prepared for this this past. All right, so that finishes Jester's go. She moves around over there behind the side. Caduceus, what are you doing? I'm going to take a Blightstaff swing at that one that's right next to Yasha.

Blightstaff swing? Right there. Okay. You are a tiny man snap swing? Right there. Okay. You are a tiny man. Disadvantage in the attack. Oh, actually, that's true. Actually, never mind. I'm not going to do that, I'm so sorry, that's all right.

I'm going to get into the most advantageous position to make sure that everybody I want to hit is within 15 feet of me. Okay. You will swim up on top of the fountain. I'm just going to hold my breath and maintain my calm. It's the fountain head. There you go.

That's all you're doing? Yep. Four and a half feet tall. Okay. Enskiduces is go, Fjord, you're up. Yeah, I'm going to, wait, can I fire one Eldritch Blast and make a melee attack at somebody, or is it one of you? No, it's either two Eldritch Blasts or two strikes. Great, I'm going to fire an Eldritch Blast

at the dick that's with Yasha. All right, go for it, roll for an attack with disadvantage. No, that's fine. 16. 16 hits, roll damage on him. So one d10, that's four. Nine points of damage. Nine points of damage, all righty.

Is he still up? Still up, hurt, but still up. I will send the other one that way as well. Go for it. I can't let Ash's character die. Oh my god. Awesome, 16. 16 hits again, go ahead and roll damage.

That's four, 11 points of damage. 11 points of damage, that'll do it. Yeah! You hear the dull impact of the Eldritch Blast and then a second under the water and that flash of light, that second sickly green glow flash in the water, you watch as one of the Brute Guard .

I think it's to float up limply to the ceiling, no longer alive. All right. Check his body for gold! I will use my, my, my, my, my, my, I am going to move away. Yeah, I'm going to use my 30 feet and take an attack of opportunity as I do.

That'll get you right about there on the stairs. There you go. That'll do. Sure. I swim right there. Perfect. All right, and I'm just going to swipe at you'll do. Sure. I swim right there. Perfect. All right, and it does get to swipe at you with disadvantage. Okay. That is going to be a nine plus five.

That's going to be a 14. No misses. It does. Oh my god! It scrapes across your shield as you swim away quickly. Really making it. All right, that finishes your turn, Fjord.

Beau, you're up. Okay, what do I see? Where am I? Quick look around. You're going up the staircase, but you're partway up. But the water's still filling? Yeah, it's still filling, and it's still above you.

You can maybe catch up to the top if you want to. If you use your full movement, you'll get to the top where the door is. I'm going to keep moving upwards, and while I'm doing that, I want to take out the 50-foot rope we have, and then I want to grab something heavy that I have. I've got to have something stupid and heavy that I don't care about, and I want to tie it to the other end. I take a crowbar and I tie it, and I drop it down it to the other end. I take a crowbar and I tie it and I drop it down the well with the rope.

Okay, down the stairs, you mean? Uh-huh. All right, so you tie, take the crowbar and throw it behind, so it rolls partway down the stairs. I'm going to take the rope and double grab it around me and just keep hauling ass up the stairs. Okay, so with that, you'll make it all the way to the top and you get to the small inner chamber,

which is now halfway stomach-filled and making it to the top. You look up and you can see there is, you know, it's a little bit crouched down. There is the latch and there is the lock mechanism beneath it. Fuck, it's locked? Yeah, it locks behind you when you guys enter the temple.

Who has the fucking key? One of us has the key, who has the key? Is there a key? Who has the key? Yeah, one of us has the key, we found the key, Is there a key? Who has the key? One of us has the key, we found the key. Somebody found a key. It was on one of the guys in the first encampment in this chamber.

Who found the temple key? It says it right here on our equipment list. Jester has it. Jester has the key! Well, it's their turn now. So the Malison's going to go ahead and makes a saving throw. That is going to be a 14.

What's the DC? I believe that's full damage. Let's see, Spirit Guardians. 16. 16, so roll full damage on that. All right. 3d8. That's not d8.

There we are. Not bad. 16 points. 16 points of damage. There's no Reese's Peanut Butter Cups in this room! He's looking really bad. Are the other two not doing anything, by the way? One of them's dead.

No, I mean our other two friends. Gross! Their turn's next. We'll get to that when he finishes his turn. One of them is dead, so there's only one other guy. The Malicen, another burst of angry pixie swirling around his body is looking really hurt. You can see now as he moves around, the trail of blood that stays in the water behind the head as it ships around. Both of the serpent arms look up towards Caduceus, the source of these angry spirits, and just go ahead and make two strikes against them.

Yeah. You do the one right there. That is going to be 13 to hit. Nope. And now the deck is circling over. Second strike. Come on, if there was ever a time. That's a 12.

Nope. Oh! It's like a 18, six. Yeah, he's good. 16, eight. Bad rolls that are... So both serpent strikes from its arms reach out towards you and Caduceus, you're just tiny enough right now,

although are you still holding the tiny spell on Caduceus? I have not released it yet, no. What does it do? But does X-Men assist retreat at concentration? Oh, is it? It is, so it's dropped, so he's regular form. So you're regular form, and you just bear down with the shield and deflect both. Letting the parrots do the work.

You can see bits of green and pinkish lichen torn off and float in the water away from the strikes. That finishes its go. The other broodguard has to make another save. That is a seven plus, no, that does not make it, so full damage. The other broodguard has to make another save. That is a seven plus, no, that does not make it, so full damage on the other broodguard. Are we getting the impression that they are just totally comfortable underwater?

No, actually. Okay. Eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 15 points of damage. Ooh! 15 points of damage, that'll do it. Ooh, it does? So this guy also sparks and dies in the water. Go, Jester, go, Jester, go!

So that's Caduceus' spell. That finishes their go. Yasha's up. Yasha's up. Yasha will fucking hi-ho silver out that biatch. She's 40 feet, so 20. Oh no, she's out, I thought. She's going out.

All right, got you. Five, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40. Then moving the rest of the way up, that'll get her halfway up the steps there. Put her there. Yeah, got to get her out of there. Okay. Finishing Yasha's turn, Nott, you're up.

Oh boy. I would appreciate it, but up to you. Man. I really don't like this water. No, no one does. Oh boy, all right. I will, I will, I will, I will doggy paddle towards the snake hand man

and hit him with another zap. Jamedi has essentially just swam around this whole thing. Asshole! Asshole! We'll say for the purposes of this, Avantika has at this point swept up and taken her turn that she should have taken before. I'm just going to go ahead and take three strikes against the Malice. Oh great. That's my own fault. We'll see. With disadvantage, that's cocked. That still hits. Is it armor fast still at 12? All right. Takes ten points of damage. Second strike with the rapier, disadvantage.

That does not hit. Come on. And the dagger strike. Holy hand? Nope, misses again. Swinging out, piercing through the water with the rapier, and the dagger manages to scrape across the side of its body, but most of the strikes go wide, and she's going to continue swimming around this way. Is he going to take an attack of opportunity on her? No, she's still staying in combat. She's not, she's moving around this way. So you're going to take an attack of opportunity on her?

No, she's still staying in combat. She's moving around him, but is staying engaged, but is currently looking to go ahead and make another opening and then dive off back towards the stairs. So Nott, sorry, your turn now. Okay, my turn. Do I need to first make a constitution save? At the end of your turn.

At the end of my turn. Okay. I'll swim up and poke the thing with my short sword. All right. So you swim up a bit there. Go for it. Disadvantage on the attack. Oh, bullet. Okay. What does this thing do? 15! 15 hits. 15 hits and engaged with allies. You do get sneak attack damage. Oh, I do? Yeah.

They're engaged? Because it's engaged with Caduceus and Avantika. Oh, wow. Whoa. Bring it on. Okay, so that's 21 points of damage. How do you want to do it? Yay!

Because it can't see me, I'll just go up and just, I don't use short sword a lot, so I'll let it float for a second, grab it from behind, and then just rake it across the back of its neck. As you do, you pierce past all the humanoid muscles across the back of its neck and shoulders. Immediately, the water before you just fills with crimson, and you see it thrash for a minute, its serpent arms trying to reach behind to strike at you.

You swim away as they go limp and it begins to slowly float. We are booking. So that's that, you still have a little bit of movement left. I'm going to go towards the door as much as I can. That is about as far as you can get. With dash, yeah, as far as I can get. With dash you can get up there, so you're with four.

Make a constitution saving turn, please. Not great. 12. 12, okay. You are not drowning yet, but you're on the cusp. That's my favorite condition, is not drowning yet. All right, that ends your go, Nott. Caduceus, Caleb, and Jester, you're up. Full speed.

Yeah, same for Jester. All the way to the dough. She's going to cast Mending? 30. She's up with Fjord, and then I need you to rank constitution saving throw for Jester. No! Seven plus nine. 16. Yeah, okay. No, no. Seven plus two plus nine. 16. Yeah, okay, she's going to. No, no, seven plus two equals nine.

Shit! Actually, Caduceus, I need you to make one, too, because you did cast the spell of Spirit Guardian and the spell Underwater. Oh yeah, that's fair. So she rolled in nine. She rolled nine total, just for drowning. Jesus.

You see as she's swimming and she's like, and begins kicking in the water before starting to go. I rolled an eight. You rolled an eight? Caduceus as well, they both swim towards the staircase and you see them both beginning to touch at their throats. Can I cast a, can I? I got a crazy idea.

You used your full movement to get there. All right, so next turn I can try something, or if I'm... Well, we'll see. Next turn you'll be dead. Next turn you're going to be unconscious. Okay. All right, so ending your row, Caleb, what are you doing? Well, so I have three ways to move.

First I use the bonus action. Do I reach oxygen doing that? You can, you get up to the front there, yeah. Does that get me to air? It gets you to the last bit of air as it's about to hit the surface. At the end of this combat round, basically after Fjord, the chamber that Beau is in is now full. The water has filled the entirety of the temple. All the way to the tippy top?

Yes. Oh, waltz. Okay, so I'll use bonus action and movement to go as high as I can. Do I reach the trapdoor? You do. Reach the door. I will pull out the wire from my spell component and try to jimmy the lock. Oh god, I don't know what to do. I'm underwater, yeah? Yeah. So I still have action, so I'm going to try to open the lock.

Okay, make a lock-picking attempt. This'll be no problem, all right? Yeah. Straight roll disadvantage. No problem, all right? Yeah. Straight roll disadvantage. No disadvantage, because you're underwater. Oh, it's so good, a natural 20 and a three. So that is a four. It's a four, no, that's a failure.

You're sticking there trying to get through it, no effect. Fjord, you're up. Okay, looking around, still having plenty of air in my lungs, I turn around and see Jester starting to panic, and I know that she has the key, so I will reach out, grab her face, and bring her into a kiss,

and I will blow all of my air into her lungs. Holy shit. Are you upside down right now? All right. Shape of water. Yes! She is no longer drowning, but you have to make a con save at the end of your turn. Okay, fair enough. That's your action to do that. That is so hot.

So you breathe some of your air into there. The last breath. All right, do a slot movement. He just selfishly wants the door unlocked, but it's so sweet. I'll try and swim up towards the top. All right, so you make it halfway up. Actually, no, because you have full move, don't you? Full move. You get almost to the top. Not fully, but almost to the top. Constitution saving throw, please.

Nine. You, sir, are considered drowning. I got to ask, too. I lost five of those hoo-hahs for casting the spell you said, so do I need to make a constitution check? Yes, you do. Okay, let's all die together, guys. Oh god. 13.

13, you're fine. Oh. 15. All right, so that brings us to around the top there. Beau, the water fills the gap. Take one last big deep breath. Going to drop down and use that, nope, the rope is attached to me. The water fills the gap. Take one last big deep breath. Going to drop down and use that, nope,

the rope is attached to me. Going to drop down and see if I can go for Jester. Okay, so you're going to go ahead and pull Jester up. She's conscious, so you're going to get her closer. Yeah, I'm going to take her and yank her up with me. Sure, so you go down. It takes you, I'd say, two movements to get down there, and you go ahead and pull her partway up.

Are you using your ki point for a step of the wind? Sure, my last ki point. Last ki point, do that. That'll get her halfway up the stairs, because I'm saying pulling her, the dragon motion is half movement, so that'll get you down to her. Yeah, you'll get her partway up the stairs,

so about halfway up to where the top chamber is. That helps. If there was air where Beau was, wouldn't there be air where Caleb was? No, you were below me, I think. You were, you would, well, no. No, I'm speed-spaced it almost, and I just blasted up to the top of the temple.

You did. Okay, no, I'd say there was enough air. So then I would have failed to lock it. Thank you. All right, so you're fine. All right, ends Beau's turn. That brings us to Yasha. Oh, yeah. Avantika has also swam up, and Jamedi is now gathering as well. Jamedi and Avantika both grab

Caduceus's body. It was drowning him, again pulling him up the stairs behind them. That's nice. Yasha will head towards the door and just wait for it to open. She's going to use her movement to go up. Yasha gets up there to the top. Okay, so Yasha's now there waiting there in the chamber. There's the gate below, getting ready, looking around,

trying to get people to move upward. That finishes her go, Nott. I will grab Jester's horns and pull and go up as fast as I can. Okay, so you use half your movement to catch up to Jester, where Beau is, and then you grab her, move her an additional five feet before your movement's done. You can attempt to bonus action dash.

Bonus action dash, sure, yeah. You get another 15 feet, you get her just near the top of the staircase on the top floor. That ends your turn, Nott. Now it is Jester's, Caleb, and get her another 15 feet. You get her just near the top of the staircase on the top floor. That ends your turn, Nott. Now it is Jester's, Caleb, and Caduceus' turn. Caduceus, you are unconscious. I am unconscious? You need to make a death save.

Okay, I was at the top of your turn. I know, I'm just. Because I need to remember, I need to keep reminding myself that death saves are at the top of the turn. I know, I was saving a spell that apparently, I didn't know that I was going to lose this spell, so I'm a little just just threw off my plans.

I had an emergency exit and now I can't use it. I know. I'm sorry. It's all right, fuck it. You're good, Matt. 14. 14, that's a success on the save. Yeah.

All right, that finishes Caduceus' turn. Caleb and Jester. Taking a breath of air, Caleb would have just rebounded back down and swam, so I'll use bonus action if that gets me to them good. If not, I'll use bonus action plus movement to get to them, which I would assume would get me there, and then I will continue to drag Jester up towards the surface. With the scene that all of you guys, Jester and you, you all manage to make your way up to the top in Jester's turn. Jester fumbles through her sack, pulls out the key and gets it and.

So. This is how the ending of the first Poseidon movie should have went. What? The first Poseidon movie? Because all of this water pressure that's built up at the top of this temple is suddenly released as the latch

and this geyser of water thrusts all of you rapidly out the top. Money shot. Oh god! You all get shot about a good 15, 20 feet up. You have a look down at what you can see is the temple, which you can now see these large cracks that have set in the sides, where bits of water are just pouring out through small cracks, but now this large gas

that's resting in the air, and you all begin to plummet and fall. I cast Feather Fall on myself, on Nott, on Jester, on Beauregard, and on Fjord. Okay. It's my last spell slot. Take Cad, take Cad, I'm good. I already did it, it doesn't matter.

That's what I did, it's who I know, not what the hit points exist. I cast Feather Fall on everybody else. Yeah! Thank fucking god, because that would've been the end of me. That would've been number two done, right there, instant TKO. I throw a Wet Feather.

Perfect. Fuck, man, as you all drift down, the geyser slows, the pressure releases, but now water is just pouring out of the sides of the temple, and it's just completely flooding the city. You watch as the auntie that are rushing up the sides of the temple are washed down into the basin that is now the center of the city streets.

You can see now that the city's being thrust up the side. Some that is now the center of the city streets. You can see now that the city's being thrust up the side. Some have moved to the top of buildings and are glancing up and seeing you guys as you begin to descend. Now you're about to hit the top of this, and there is now a perpetual flow of water coming out the top of this temple. What are you going to do? We're about to hit the top of the temple or just on the sides of it? Kind of on the sides of it. You guys are slowly drifting down towards what's essentially a raging rapid water slide on all ends. And it ends with a mob of angry people who want to kill us, probably?

Correct. We can see that. Jester, at the very least, is going to cast Bear the Dying. He's going to grab me in the feather fall and cast Bear the Dying. Okay. Thank you. I'm unconscious, I think. Wow. I don't think you made it to unconsciousness

because we burst before your turn. No, we didn't. Okay, okay. You're unconscious. I started drowning. I don't know if you're making death saves. Is he stable? No, because we haven't gotten to his turn yet. You begun drowning and then you guys got thrust out

so you managed to just catch breath because it didn't come back to your turn yet. That very next turn before Jester got to open, you would have been down. Yeah. So you just caught your breath. I did, okay. The very last minute. Basically, as the darkness began to take your vision, you were

thrust out and then your eyes go wide again as you see the sunlight above you as your air rushes back into your lungs and then suddenly begin to drift slowly down, looking below. You can see the city and the entire landscape of this strange village below you. What the fuck? How the fuck do we get out of this? They're on all sides, people down below, or down on one side of it? They're on all sides. The entire city surrounds the temple. You guys only came up on one side, and the water is pouring down all in. Let's just get down and out of here.

I don't think Spirit Guardians ever goes down, doesn't go down when I go unconscious. And he spelled it concentration? It's not concentration, oh, it is concentration, isn't it? Where is it? Yeah, it is concentration. Let's just get back to the ship. Just paddling through the air

towards the direction we came from. As we're in the air, I'm going to take the shield that I stole off my back and slide it under Caduceus's butt like a sled, like a toboggan, and put it there and hold it there so when he lands, he'll just slide. Okay, so as you all begin to slowly drift and try and pattern your way through the air, I'm going to save the purposes of this and make this a group skill check on this. Everyone go ahead and make a dexterity check to try and comb your way through the air enough, using your body to try and guide your plummeting. Yes.

Well, you're out. 12. 12. 24. Right. It doesn't matter, you're out. Two successes. Failure. No, I'm not unconscious.

You're stable. Oh, I'm stable. That's right, I'm unconscious, never mind. You're fine. Natural 20. Success. Three successes, one failure. Jester? 18 plus. Success on Jester. For Yasha?

18. Success, all right. So as a group, that is a group success. So you all manage to just, yep, and both Jamedi and Avantikar are fine. So you all manage to just barely push your way in a certain direction. You all drift down. Like a skydiving team? Yeah, slowly making your way through until eventually the surface of the water, the rushing

sound gets louder and louder as you all strike it. As you do, it carries you down in this rapid Goonies-style water slide. You're all just coasting down the side of the stone. Elements of the stone just barely scraping and clipping the back of your butt and your back. It's not enough to damage you, but you're going to be bruised as shit in the morning. You're coasting down. You can see as the city is coming towards you, the water is now pouring through and snaking through the city. No pun intended. There are groups of Yonti that have clambered up onto the buildings and are currently trying

to pull themselves out of the water and help others get up out of the middle of this strange flood that has taken over the center of their civilization. The water's still coming, right? It's still pouring out of the temple, it seems. The island is sinking. Potentially.

Yes, potentially. Okay. If this is an island. It's a turtle's back. It's only a turtle! It's the Cajun turtle. Orly's vengeance. You fools.

All right, so as you guys coast down, you hit the bottom, and you can see now where the water hits and it snakes through, it curves back to the right and the left, which path are you going to try and guide towards? Right. You have an unconscious sledding fear ball. Just riding me, basically.

I'm like behind, I feel like I'm behind you, because I've got water walking on, so I might remember. You do, like. In keen mind, I would call out the exact right way to go. It's almost like curling. Yeah. Thank you for that. In keen mind, I would know the way that would lead us towards the way we came.

Yes, you would. So are you guiding and shouting directions? Yeah, that way, go that way. All right, so as Caleb's guiding you guys, you guys move around the side, kind of riding the water. At this point, the flood of water begins to subside a bit.

It's still guiding you through, but you can see now, the initial burst and rushing of the rapids is not a continuous thing. There is some sort of a tapering to it. You guys just managed to have been there for the initial burst. At this point, you guys coast around one side, come around, and you're now going down the center

of the street where you previously hid and basically muscled two of them into a doorway after stabbing and killing them rapidly. You're now gliding through the street along with the flow of the water, trying to keep above the surface. Caduceus is being pushed along by a little knot going. At this point, from one of the nearby building tops, you see two of these centurion yuan-ti see you guys pass beneath, and begin giving out a call. Then shouting over in the direction,

pointing towards you and other buildings, your presence is now aware to at least a handful of nearby yuan-ti. You see them begin to, their weapons were either lost in the stream or were not wielded, of course, but they're beginning to pull out their things. You guys continue to ride this forward, you're leading the path the way you can go.

I need everybody to go ahead and make a general acrobatics check to try and guide their body through the water in the direction that Caleb is shouting. This is a group check. Natural 20. Natural 20. What? What is up? Yasha rolled a five. Natural 20. What? What is up?

Yasha rolled a five. Natural 20. All right, those count as double successes. Oh my god. Unnatural 20. Still good. 23, and Jester rolled a 23. You guys got this shit.

Yeah, you're just out. Jester's been trying to make her way towards him, if possible. Towards him, I don't, if possible. Towards him. I don't know if she can get there. I think, what'd she roll? She rolled a 23. I mean, she rolled a 19 plus four.

I'll say with that high a roll that she's been able to make her way over towards the side of you guys, coasting along. She doesn't actually have anything that can wake me up right now. She does. She's trying to touch you so she can cast Cure Wounds. Oh my god, she has one left, doesn't she? Yeah, one spell.

All righty. She's trying to touch you so she can cast Cure Wounds. Oh my god, she has one left, doesn't she? Yeah, one spell left. All righty. So Jester just manages to make it over to the edge of you as the water, which was about maybe the flash flood three and a half, four feet deep, is now descending to about two foot. So some of you, your feet manage to catch the floor beneath, but the water is still rushing rather fast.

You can continue to just go with the flow of it or try and gather your footing, but it's up to you. But you can cast Cure Wounds on Caduceus. I'm going to cast Cure Wounds on little man. All right, so a d4 plus. You're always lethal to me. Oh. Let's go to d4 plus her wisdom modifier.

Oh, she has to roll for that. Yes, she does. Sorry, d8 for Cure Wounds. You're right. D8, not Cure Wounds. One point plus four is five. You're at five hit points. You went to consciousness on a sled over water.

Did I lose all my hit points when I went unconscious? Yes. Okay. Wow. Well, isn't that... Yeah, when you're drowning, it brings you to zero hit points. Okay, I had zero. What the hell, fuck. All right. Riding the water, eventually you're drowning, it brings you to zero hit points. Okay, I hit zero. Oh, well, fuck.

All right. Riding the water, eventually you guys manage to keep it going. Are you going with the water or are you fighting it? Might as well go with the flow. Is the water going the way we want to go? Yeah, I would be calling out this whole time which ways we want to go to get out of here. So you just continue with the flow of it.

The flow eventually comes to a stop on the outside of the city, maybe about 15 or 20 feet from the tree line where you first entered. Got to go. Keep moving. Got to go. Caduceus in the front, everyone behind him. I'm also going to cast really quickly, since I have nothing else left,

I'm going to cast Disguise Self and Look Like One of the Lizard People. Okay. Yasha will be actually up front. We need Caleb up front, too, to guide us. Okay. As a note, all the makeup has been washed off. Oh no! Sorry.

As you guys are rushing towards the treeline, you hear the shouting in the distance. You glance over. Now the water level has stopped. You can look behind and you can see probably two dozen or so yawn-tee have now begun to give chase. They're about 100 feet behind you, but they saw you exit and they're on their way giving chase, so now we're turning this into

a skill challenge chase. Oh my god. God. As you guys are making your way through. So as you guys are now charging into the jungle, you're not doing stealth, so your speed isn't as slow. What took you a day and a half or so to traverse this jungle to the center, you're not,

unless you want to keep stealthy, if you're just charging through. Run. All right, so full speed, great. So we have six rounds of this challenge. Oh god. Six rounds? Correct.

Success and failure do different things. Who wants to offer something to help in the skill challenge? You, much like the Resurrection Challenge, think of a creative way that you can help your progression. Are you going to do dexterity checks? That depends on what you want to do. Question, are we under 10 minutes since we shot out the top of that pimple?

You're still under 10 minutes. Yeah, so I'm still sped up, and so I'm going to run at the front and just shout out directions and call out holes, things on the ground to look out for. I'm going to lead the charge. Okay, I will say for that, go ahead and make a survival check with advantage.

Okay. A natural 20. Oh! All right, that's two successes on that one. I'll add to that. I would offer a better one. So keeping a close eye, Caleb is darting ahead That's two successes on that one. I'll add to that. I would offer a better one. Keeping a close eye, Caleb is darting ahead

into the jungle, shouting out various issues. Jometty is trying to keep up with you, but behind is also helping you keep an eye and shouting out traps that he had helped you bypass before, and making sure you guys don't fall off the path that you had made your way through, that he had set on his map beforehand that avoided some of the bigger dangers in the jungle.

So between the two of you, you manage to get a fair bit in there, and the sound of the tracing yaunty does not seem to be getting louder, which is good. All right, so that's one. Who does the next offer? I was going to say Yasha could take out the magician's judge and start cleaving machete style through the brush, making it far easier for us to move. Okay, so Yasha's going to mush up the front, which with a higher speed than most of you, she can definitely do, and begin to just carve through

to the swaths of the jungle to make it an easier passage. All right, for her, go ahead and make an athletics check, please. Advantage or straight up? I mean, straight up, unless she's raging. Oh, she's rage clearing. Okay, I'll allow that. I'll allow that for this.

21. That's his clearing. Okay, I'll allow that. I'll allow that for this. 21. That's a success. 22. That's a success. Yasha's now ahead of the group, just carving through. You can see there are bits where you come up to the front where there's heavy, dense clusters of tangled vines where the path you were taking, Caleb stops you at the front because you deviated a little bit from the path you were because you were just running too fast. At this point, you're not

used to this level of acceleration for an extended period of time. Right at the cusp of the end, at the end of your expeditious retreat, as this bell's about to fade, you come to that group of vines. At that point, you're about to spin to warn everybody, and all you see is this blurb Yasha. Carve through them. They all fall to the ground. The path before you is open. She goes, Go! Yeah. Carve through them. They all fall to the ground. The path before you is open. She goes, go! Yeah. Oh, you just keep running in that direction. All right, so Yasha's continuing that.

Who's taking the next bit? I'll try, I'll use a thaumaturgy to create the sound of a rushing group of us, but throw it happening. I'm going to move us off into the jungle in the other direction. Nice. You can create instantaneous sound that originates from a point of your choice within range, which is a rumble within 30 feet. Rumble of thunder, so I'm going to move us off into the jungle in the other direction. You can create instantaneous sound that originates from a point of your choice

within range, such as a rumble within 30 feet. Rumble of thunder, so I'm going to push this. Yeah, rumble of thunder you can do. It has limitations to what sound you can make, but you can make a rumble of thunder. Okay, I can't make it the cry of a raven. Such as is what it says. Oh, such as, I see.

I misunderstood what you were saying. Yeah, there are certain small sounds you can make. The sound of a whole group. I'm making the sound of people rummaging through. Okay, so rustling in the bushes. Yeah, I'm pushing it away from us and moving us in that direction. All right, make a deception check.

All right. Come on, man. Get some sucky stuff out. Not bad, 15. 15? That's just barely a success. Just barely. Just barely today.

Just barely. All. Just barely. Just barely today. Just barely. All right, great. So with that, you hear the chanting sounds, the war cry of the auntie behind you, and it begins to divert slightly, getting them off track for just a little bit. All right, who's taking the next bed? Who hasn't offered one?

There's six of these. I thought there was three. There's six stages of this. Yeah. Is there anyone like? Everyone has to have an offering? Is there anyone tracking us pretty closely yet? From what you can tell, not at the moment, but if you wanted to use your turn

to do something to see if there somebody is, what do you want to do? Yeah, your crit earlier gave a lower DC to the next check, so that helped out tremendously. I'm going to take the rest of my ball bearings and dump them out as we run. Okay. As a note, you're in a lush jungle.

Probably not going to do much on this. That's a hard, smooth floor type scenario. You can if you want to. Nott, do you have anything to offer? I have one thing. I don't know if any of my ideas are good. Do we have, we don't have eyes on the YonT, right? No, not at the moment.

I would wait till they get closer before I do my thing. Maybe Jester. There's two dozen of them. I don't want to get that close. Well, I don't either, but if they do, I'd be ready for something. I have something else, but I'm curious if somebody else has something.

Let's see here. Got an oil flask. I could drop down some fire, but I don't think it'd work well either. Well, sure. So I'll just, oil flask. I could drop down some fire, but I don't think it'd work well, either. Well, sure. I'll just yell to Beau, Beau! Yeah? Repeat after me!

Okay. Fluffernutter! I throw the keg of gunpowder behind us. I go, La Farnada! I take my ninja star and I go. Wait, is it on fire? It has to be on fire! I see it and use the glove of blasting to fire three scorching rays. I don't have fire! I use my fists! Three scorching rays. Do you have a second-level spell, too?

No, the glove. The glove, yeah, you do. That's right. Okay. Use my fists! Three squatting rays. Do you have a second-level spell, too? No, the glove. The glove, yeah, you do, that's right. Okay. I will say... I could have used the bomb rockets. Okay, this is a combined maneuver here. I'd say, for the success of this,

this is going to be a combination of your, make a roll with your ranged spell attack. Yeah, it's three, right? Yeah. Make him go ahead and make a general strength roll. General strength? Yes.

That was my nickname in high school. 15. 15, nice roll, okay. You manage to lob it behind with a fair amount of strength. It goes about 10, 15 feet behind you. And if I can, I would push it with the little mage hand, a little extra top spin on it. Okay, it does a little whirl.

It through the air and then bounds a bit into the jungle behind you. And how do I handle this? Are these scopes? Are you detonating it just 15, 20 feet behind you? Or are you waiting for something else to come by? No, I'm waiting for not throwing it back at them, yeah? Correct, but they're not visible yet, though. You don't know where they are.

Well, I reacted to Fluffernutter being shouted and seeing it, so I would track it. I would track it and then hit it as it struck the ground. Okay, would you roll? Well, I rolled three times because it's three rays. So do I use the spell modifier for this or no? You do. and then hit it as it struck the ground. Okay, what'd you roll? Well, I rolled three times because it's three rays. Correct. So do I use the spell modifier for this or not? You do.

Okay, so the highest roll was a 20, and then the second highest was a 12. So probably, of the three rays, probably only one. What was the second one? I rolled a 20, a seven, and a 12. Got you, okay. So the two hit, go ahead and roll damage. The damage is going to be important here

because it is a waterlogged container of black powder. It may not be enough to truly ignite or cause an explosion here, or burn through the barrel. We'll see. The barrel, you said, was mostly intact. It's intact, yeah. But it's wet. Yeah.

What about inside? Sorry for the delay. It soaked through a little bit. Barrels of water fruit there. Total of a... You keep beer in them. This isn't a beer barrel, this is this. Total of 12.

Total of 12? That'll be enough. All right, so as it darts behind, you watch the vision of Caleb spinning behind and releasing the glove in front. These three arcs of flames. One of them hits nearby bush and just sends it aflame. The other two, one of them hits the barrel

and sends it arcing once more, and the second one hits it. It detonates and you guys feel this blast of hot wind behind you as your hair gets blown before your face. The entire jungle around you lights for a moment with bright yellow-white light, and there in that space now, there's a couple of trees that have now set aflame, and a section of darkened crater

in the ground where the barrel was. The loud blast echoes across the jungle of the island around you. I just turned bow and I was like, that was amazing! How did you do that with a throwing star? I think these are magic throwing stars! I think I bought magic throwing stars! I'll consider that a success. You guys keep rushing. You assume wherever the ante were, they're a little unsettled by this large explosion in the direction of where they're traveling, and it slows them down a bit as they

try and coast around the area where the damage is. However, there seems to be a lizardman hunting party now that is in the jungle a little ways ahead of you. This thing won't stop! I love it! You guys have been running for the better part of two hours now. It's a ways through this jungle to get back to the shore. So first and foremost, I need everyone here

to go ahead and make a constitution saving throw, please. Constitution saving throw. My favorite saving throw. Go. Hey! 23 for Fjord, 20 for Yasha. Good. 11. Okay. One.

You take a point of exhaustion there, Caleb. 10. 10, just barely succeeded. Just rolled an eight. One point of exhaustion. Okay, conditions. 18. 18, all right, you're fine.

Add active condition. Ooh, conditions. 18. 18, all right, you're fine. Avantika, Gem Medi. Avantika takes a point of exhaustion. Oh shit! All right, but you guys continue onward. Since you're just running through the jungle best you can, full sprint, it manages to keep ahead, but there is a threat of exhaustion as you continue to move.

So you now begin to hear the sound, this familiar clacking and like sound of the lizardmen that you saw in the jungle before. Who's doing what? That's amazing. Oh, we're still doing this? Oh wait, so we hear. You're still doing it. You have four total successes in the round. You have one critical success, which improved a little.

So we hear a hunting party? We see a hunting party? You don't see them yet, but you hear them in the direction you are. You hear, apparently the noise and the explosion caught the attention of a nearby lizardmen hunting party. I have these bottle rockets. If you can mage hand them away and distract them away from us with another popping sound.

And set them off at the same, wait. Well, I can light them. You throw and you take it further. Sure. Okay. Sure? Yes! We'll call it further. Sure. Okay. Sure? Yes! We'll call it. Let's do it.

Certainly not the worst. So you're doing the exact same thing with a different item. It's going to have a higher DC, but you can do it. It's your call. Well, gee, when you put it like that. I'm just saying. It's something you can do.

Do you want to do it? I don't know. I feel deeply shamed by my suggestion now. No, no, it's a great suggestion. It's a great suggestion. I'm just letting you know, like, progressively doing the same thing over and over again, it's going to continue to raise the DC.

She still has the thaumaturgy she could do. You can cause harmless tremors in the ground, but where, like, it doesn't say where. Oh, within 30 feet. Yeah, that's no good. The cantrip stones don't have all that power there. Yeah, they don't. Never mind.

She uses it to alter the appearance of her eyes for one minute. She makes them black. There you go. Anybody? I can try to assume the form of one of the lizard people in case they make eyes on us. Okay.

I've already done that as well. You have two lizard folk in the group now. All right. I have no spell, I'm down. I know. It doesn't have to be abilities. It can be just whatever you think you would do in the area to help.

I know, we just don't have a lot. We've used all those things. I'm running and I'm trapped. I'm going to put up the cloak and sneak. We hear them? You heard the hunting call them. In a direction that we can identify? Yes, somewhere to the front

and to the right of where you were as you guys are running through the jungle. I'll just say, stay here, and I'm going to put up the hood and I'm going to dash off in that direction stealthily. Okay, are you guys stopping for naught then? Yes. Okay. Do I have to for naught then? Yes. Okay. Do I have to roll for stealth?

Yes, you do. With advantage because of your cloak. Okay, so that's 22. Okay, so you are stealth. This is not technically a success because this isn't actually helping the endeavor, but you do manage to move ahead, and at your speed, you come upon the hunting party.

You can see now there are about six lizardmen with nets, shields, and spears that are currently making their way in the direction of near where your party is currently waiting for you. The more time that passes, the closer the ante gets to your party. I'm going to cast Mage Hand. They're holding, you said, nets and what else?

Most four of them have shields and spears, and two of them have spears with nets, and the other ones have nets apparently tucked behind their back. They're out here to catch and drag things back. Okay, Jesus, I got nothing, man. I'm just going to try to Mage Hand and trip the guy in the back with his own net.

Just pull it down a little. Okay, make an arcana check. Arcana check? Yes. Oh god. This is to see if you can influence the magical nature of your cantrip strong enough to try and trip up one of them. Okay, arcana check is a 20. Okay, that's barely a success,

because that's not a very effective plan, necessarily. Sure, sure. I don't know what else to do, but okay. But one of them gets tripped up on the net, and the other one's going to look back at it and start clacking at it. They're complaining at the one guy that fell back like an asshole

and is slowing down their trajectory. Then by a distraction, you can return. You figure you've bought a little bit of time for your party, but not much. Okay. I guess that's all I'll do. I don't know what else to do. You know what, I'm going to...

Fuck it, I'm going to cast Message and tell Caleb, go! I'm going to go out and go, hey, fuck Todd's over here! I'm going to just draw their attention. Okay. Oh no. And I tell the group, she's doing something stupid.

She's distracting them. I have an idea, but I don't want to leave her. Let's go. And I start trudging through the jungle towards the direction I think Nott's in. You all continue following Caleb, and they are now seemingly turning on you. I'm going to bolt, double dash, fast as I can go away. All right. You're darting through the jungle.

Not back towards my friends, but perpendicular. Adjacent to the direction. Okay, no worries. They're giving chase, they're following behind you, they know this jungle very well and they can traverse it very easily. However, you're quick and you're small. All right, so we'll save for that. Two of them throw ranged spears at you. That is going to be a 15 to hit? No. Okay. And, no, 12. Nope. Both spears hit to the nearby trees and you keep running, trying to make it through. Eventually you hear the sound of, as you're going, you hear the footfalls breaking through of nearby brush and glance over, afraid to see Yonty, and you can see the shapes of the

rest of your group, maybe 25 or 30 or so feet to your left. Are we able to tell the direction where the lizardmen are in relation to Nott, or just Yonti behind us? Not at the moment, you guys are just running. I mean, the lizardmen you knew were off to the front and right, and you guys darted at an angle, and you're guiding them still in the direction of where the-

Are you saying that we all hear the Yonti, or Nott hears the Yonti coming? I saw you guys through the woods, but they're behind me. Yeah, you haven't seen any of the auntie. You've gotten enough to gain on them, but they've gotten a little closer, but they haven't appeared yet. Okay, but I can tell the direction that Nott is running?

Or moving? You know, you're just. You've seen us, we haven't seen you. Correct. Nevermind. So you guys just continue to run, continue to run, continue to run. Everyone make another constitution saving throw, please. Okay, okay, okay, okay.

12 for Fjord, nine for Yasha. Yasha takes a point of exhaustion. Fjord barely succeeds. DC goes up by two every time we do this. Oh fuck, really? 20 total. 20, success. Secondary point of exhaustion, your speed is now hal we do this. Oh fuck, really? 20 total. 20, success. Secondary point of exhaustion, your speed is now halved.

Caleb is now winded and is now starting to drag the group back a bit. One point of exhaustion, Jester succeeded. Oh, we're at 14. 14, okay. She was 16. 10. 10 point of exhaustion, it reduces.

Anyone who has one point of exhaustion, your ability checks are at disadvantage right now. 10. 10 point of exhaustion. Anyone who has one point of exhaustion, your ability checks are at disadvantage right now. Damn. Two points, your speed is halved. So, um. I remember that well. I have the ability to carry a large amount because of my size. Yes. Can I piggyback and not get too much of a roll

if I throw Caleb on my back? I will make this one of your checks. Okay. So go ahead and make an athletics check. Oh man. You have disadvantage. Or you could have Yasha do it. I'll have Yasha, yeah, no, I'll have Yasha. Yeah, that's a better idea, because I was like,

yeah, I'm at five hit points, maybe not. Okay, so you shout the ID to Yasha. Yasha's going to attempt to. Athletic. Does Yasha have a point of exhaustion? She does. So disadvantage on her athletics check. I want to.

But it's the biggest pie bar. Unless this is going to attribute to her. Well, a natural 20 and a 12, so that's 19. 19, that's a success. Barely. That puts us at six total successes across the checks here. Yasha goes and throws Caleb, fireman carry over the shoulder,

and you guys begin running and running and running for this next additional hour now as you guys are charging through, following the path. You'll see you've gone three or four hours of straight sprint through the forest. Sprint, stop, run, you're breathing heavy, you're sweating profusely, your body is aching, your mouth is just filled with the worst cotton mouth,

you're dehydrated, and you can hear the yelping of approaching Lizardmen and YonT. As you see, the light begin to slowly break ahead of you through the trees as the treeline begins to thin, and the faintest bit of blue is visible. And within a few more moments, you break through the treeline and have found yourself back to the white sand beaches

of Uruquesil. There, as you come out into the sand, the hot reflection of the sun against the light. You can see now the sun is close to setting at this point. Now the sky itself has gotten slowly darker as you move past. The white beaches have now come to a faint, dull yellow and orange with the coming sunset light.

Not, emerges from the nearby brush, just catching up with the rest of you guys. I'm exhausted. On the ship, on the ship! They're right behind me! You guys look and there are the two rowboats that are still right where you left them. If Yasha's moving towards the beach,

Caleb is going to just start firing firebolt after firebolt at the tree line behind us of 120-foot range and just set the jungle on fire behind us. Okay. I will say roll an arcana check for me. Natural one. Natural one. Unfortunately, as a cantrip, the perpetual fiery quality of it,

it can do bursts of damage and plops of flame, but unfortunately the treeline here is too humid. The air here is too wet, and none of the trees are catching. However, you manage to get over, Yasha throws you onto one of the two rowboats you guys get onto, and at this point, you can now see, breaching one side of the tree line, the auntie, the other side, a group of lizard men.

They come to a head and look at each other and look at you, and half of each group charges at each other, while the other half begins to charge towards the rowboats. Stop the motor! Stop the motor! How close are they? They're about 40 feet away. It's a 40-foot rush. They're going to catch up. You guys push off and you're rowing out. You're about 10, now 15, 20 or feet off the edge. They catch up.

They start getting their shortbows ready. At this point, you hear, boom, boom, boom. Yeah, yeah, boom. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Bally that shit. Bursts of sand, columns of sand go flying into the air, and you watch as one lizard man, a yawned T, bursts off to the side. You look over, can see the flashes of light on the sides of the Squall Eater as volley after volley of cannon fire is blown towards the edge of the shoreline. A couple close

calls, as this is not a perfect aiming implement, you dodge out of the way and big burst of water. Some of the ante dive into the water and are now swimming through, trying to come after you. You can see their serpentine bodies making their way in your direction. Caleb and I are picking them off Eldritch Blast. Yeah. Hitting them in the water as you do. I'm on the edge doing polearm duty Blast. Yeah. Hitting them in the water as you do. On the edge doing polearm duty, like croc hunting.

No, no! Eventually, as you guys get far enough away from the edge, it becomes less advantageous for them to focus on you than to focus on each other. Through the cacophony of the explosions and the rest of the rustling, it seems a much larger force of both the lizard people that live on this island and the auntie that rustling, it seems a much larger force of both the lizard people that live on this island and the auntie that had given chase

are now focused on each other as a conflict which is now spilling back into the jungle and away from the beach. As you all very sore make your way towards the Squall Eater. When now you can see offshore, the mist or the mistake has also been pulled off the shore, seemingly repaired enough to be at least semi-serviceable,

though it's only been a day or so and the repairs probably aren't long-haul permanent. But for the first time in a very, very long time this day, you all take a deep breath. Some of you taking a short nap as you row yourself to the sunset over the distant far shores of the ocean towards the ships that mean safety. That's where we take a break.

Oh my god. Oh my god, why did we not take a short rest right when we started? It's your thing! I know, what do you fucking think about it? Damn it. Yeah. That was gnarly.

I've been feeling it the whole time. See, you're good, you're good, you're good. Water is your friend, you're good. This is, yeah, that was a lot. Okay, then. Damn. I've never felt more useless. Oh, fuck.

That was a teacher. Do we really only have It's only a teacher. that we actually learn from these mistakes. Otherwise, it's just words. No, there's also smudge and I have a giant pile of stuff in the other room, man. Yeah, we got that.

I want Mies' peanut butter muffins. Nope. I don't have those. That want Mises peanut butter buns. Nope. Don't have those. That's all they had at Schmogsmeat. Wait, I don't even know what that is. I don't either. Anyway, friends, we're going to go to a break here in just a moment.

We'll return, but in the meantime, we have another Wyrmwood giveaway of these fantastic, delightful Pudog dice vaults, which is magnetized, opens up to keep all your dice, possibly even a couple miniatures in there. Well kept, beautiful orange color for the Halloween season that we're still celebrating today, damn it! Yes!

So to enter this, you need to jump over to the Critical Role Twitch chat, that's twitch.tv slash criticalrole, and enter the keyword once. The keyword is HYDRA, H-Y-D-R-A. We'll come back at the break for a winner. Once again, only people in the United States and Canada excluding Quebec can enter. We're working on it.

But we'll come back with a winner here in just a moment. So sit tight. Be right back. Oh, hey there. Laura Bailey here to tell you all about the glorious goods we create inspired by our stories. Our stores are filled with the basics, like character inspired t-shirts, dice sets, and

pins, as well as more specialty items like fancy jackets, puzzles featuring gorgeous artwork, the comfiest joggers and pajamas ever, and much, much more. There's also a few special items that support charity efforts, like our dedicated Critical Role Foundation merch. You can check out all of our regional online stores by visiting the Shop tab on critrole.com or head straight to the U.S. store at shop.critroll.com. Every purchase helps support our shows and the stories we tell. Speaking of which, let's get back to the story. And welcome back, everybody. Hi, hello. I'm going to be perfectly honest. So we have a winner of the fantastic Padauk Dice Vault, I don't know how it's pronounced, or not.

I might be messing it up, but regardless, the winner is Fmiller8. Fmiller8, congratulations. Yeah, Maya! We'll get this dice vault sent out to you ASAP. All right. Don't even not look. Did we just automatically get a short rest

just because that was the most heinous, strenuous? In exhaustion as soon as we hit the deck? Nope. Oh, cool. Because you row into the ship and there's still the occasional of the final shots were sent off to deflect any interest in following or pursuing you towards the boats. As you guys are trying to make some distance here,

you look over at Avantika, who has her one ungloved hand. You can see the gap where the open wound, there's just a little bit of blood trickling down her forearm where the eye once was. She looks at it and closes her fist, and closes her eyes, and you feel the rowboat suddenly pick up speed, and you watch as the water and the waves now give an additional thrust,

like the ocean itself is rising and pushing the boat forward, and you watch Avantika open her eyes and smile, and looks over at Fjord and goes, Well, better luck next time. The boat is now speed boating across the surface of the water. The other rowboat left behind in its wake. One die roll, man. One die roll.

One die roll. I said,. As you approach the outskirts of the Squall Eater, the rope ladders are thrown over the edge, down into the water, and with that, you all eventually climb up onto the top as some of the crew goes over to retrieve and ratchet up and bring the rowboats back onto the ship,

but now you all clamber onto the deck of the large ship and take a moment of respite and breather as the crew of the Squall Eater there awaits. You can see their bolder gut, the large ogre. She stands there, arms crossed, with a stretched leather tunic now strapped on each side of her torso. Avantika rises and Vera waits, her right hand soothsayer-like assistant,

or for this would be considered the deckhand and spiritual leader of the ship. Can I pause you for one second, Matt? Yes, you may. Did you all fucking take off your costumes? Yeah. No, we're still wearing ours. Is that super glued on or something?

No. I took mine off. That I saw. It got uncomfortable. Yeah, I was bad luck. You have clothes underneath your fiber. That's true, if there's any of us that I would not be able to truly be certain. There are imprints being left on that chair.

Yeah. Sticky butt. Peel off, peel off. Little hearts. Sorry, Matt. It's okay. So as you all bring yourselves onto the ship here, Vera approaches Avantika and helps her to her feet.

Says, like, So, how did it go? Tell us. And Avantika shows her hand. It was a resounding success. And I would say that our new compatriots have proven their worth with flying colors. She goes and gives a.

Ow, ow, ow. And I do believe, and you see Jumelia sitting on the ground and goes, yes. You have earned what our contractor showed you. Please, Vera, if you could retrieve the pennant. Vera leaves, and then Moment comes back with a small chest and hands it over to Jem'Medi, who sets it into his pouch and satchel.

He stands up for a second, nods his head. I hope you understand that with all due respect, this is our last time working together. The captain says, I understand, but it is your loss. There is always more work for you. Where would you like to be dropped off? In the graveyard.

At this point, Vyris says, Ah, Captain, at this moment, it appears that we are maybe 11 days of supplies, given the fact that our crew has now swelled. As such, we could probably make it back to Darktow to also complete the repairs on the mist, as it is seaworthy, but I do not know how long.

So that would be my recommendation. Maybe making a stop or two along the way, whatever's close by. Captain considers, very well, I guess we will make our way westward on to Darktow to get repairs done, to supply up, and should you wish to stay, make our way to the next leg of our journey.

Who knows? It seems that you are up for your own rewards to be reaped. Indeed. Such a mighty display on the way back. I feel like I would be left wanting if I didn't try and pursue the same sort of glory. Of course. Well, these gifts are paltry.

Once Okotoa is truly free, then the true, the true blessing can be given. Captain, may I ask, you knew of this location already. Do you have a lead on another? I have a lead on someone that should be in Darktow that will be able to, with the right amount of coin, give us the information we seek. Hopefully, if not, we'll be sitting here

with our thumbs up our asses, but I've paid well enough and this person has come through before, so fingers crossed, eh? Indeed. Regardless, I think, I think we could all use a bit of rest, huh? He looks over to Caduceus. I would,

I would be amiable at this point. Understood. I'll get Jeremiah to get food cooking immediately. I think a fine meal and a full night's rest is in order. Friends, I'm, I'm, uh, I'm impressed, and I'm thankful that you not only upheld your side of the bargain,

but you proved yourselves as quite formidable mercenaries. I mean no disrespect to some of my crew, but when we get back to Darktow, she looks to some of my crew, but when we get back to Docto, she looks at some of the crew, turn around. So I'm going to, maybe we'll do some trade-off, eh? Send some of them over to the Mist and maybe you'll stay with me for a while.

We would certainly entertain that very notion. It's hard to think past any sort of arrest. Sorry, I thought that was hypothetical. We were just, you know, talk about that later, which we should do. Very well. Then we will get some sleep. In the morrow, we will discuss

how much money we can make together. We'll discuss, we can probably make a stop or two along the way if you're interested. Bring up some map and see what you want to do. And we've had a bit of rest, maybe a glass of wine. Of course. All right, go, rest, sleep. I shall do the same.

She walks back into the quarters, Vera staying there on the deck. Jem'Haddi makes his way down to his quarters. So, what would you like to do? Go to our quarters, I guess? Could we have a conversation near the bow of the ship, perhaps, away from here? Sure.

Is it empty towards the bow? You can find a bit that seems a little more remote, but there are deckhands, there are folks that are always keeping watch. Navigator. I'll be right back. You guys find a spot, I'll meet you there. And I go back and I go, Jeremiah! Give me that.

I just take bread or whatever he has prepared. Okay, you come to Jeremiah. You eventually start shouting until you find Jeremiah. Jeremiah! Jeremiah, you see as this mid-40s halfling fellow, pale but well-dressed in colorful silks and vibrant makeup. He has this very... From some of the theater productions you've seen, he seems almost made up for the stage, but just a cook. Big smile, big curled waxed mustache, hair parted and curled on the sides, light brown auburn hair, portly halfling fellow. As you shout out his name, he goes like, Uh, hello? Are you looking for me? Yep, I'm Jeremiah.

I'm Jeremiah. What's your name? Uh, Beau. Beau, Beau, yes. You're one of the new kids. I am making food. I want to. What do you have right now? Something ready? I want to just chew on something while we talk.

Fine, here you go. And hands over a somewhat stale loaf. Think you have a sausage to go with it? No, they are being prepared, and I wish not to serve something that is unfinished. Water, wine. He grabs a thing of wine, a small jar, and says,

I can fetch you a water. Thank you, sorry, I'm just hungry as fuck. And I go back to the group. All right. You guys patiently wait for Beau to return with a stale. I got appetizers. Okay, that's good. There we go.

That's good. I should start by thanking all of you for putting yourselves in harm's way again. I did not expect that to go the way that it did, I should start by thanking all of you for putting yourselves in harm's way again. I did not expect that to go the way that it did, but that seems a repetitive notion at this point. What the fuck actually happened down there? We haven't really gotten a clear description, and we're all kind of confused.

Yeah, yeah, I felt, I knew when she showed that exuberance at diving down that it was a matter of urgency and I just couldn't catch her. We made our way down this well into this open, this sort of spherical room, and at the bottom, underneath some algae, there was a recession, and it looked like it had a space for an orb, right? Like the eye that's in my sword.

Right. In my dullardly moment of trying to figure out how the fuck I would get it in there, she reached out and she has the same sort of thing in her hand. She put it in before I could put the sword in and it ripped a high straight out of her hand. Just pulled her hand back and blood was coming out of it. I thought it had done something to her, but that's when I saw these arcane symbols light up and they shoot across the floor and straight up to where you guys were at above the water.

Yeah, we saw them. You saw them come out? Mm-hmm. What happened? We connected to the pillars, and that's when everything started flooding. Then it was just running for our lives at that point. I don't know, I didn't see much else. That type, he was in a hurry,

but the type of runes that were in that chamber were one of protection, some sort of ward that I don't understand, it's old. Protection? And it shook the entire room we were in. I thought maybe there were three locks down there, but you only saw one, so presumably there are two more places in the ocean or in the world for you?

One more. That seems like a lot. There was more than one. There was more than one creature. There's also the temple where we found this thing that had the snake, the naga. But no recession. I can't remember, when we found the actual Cat's Eye,

the sphere, it wasn't in a recession, or was it just resting at the bottom of the hole? It was just sitting in a pool of water, and you found that amongst other piles, it seemed to be less of a temple and more of a... Scavenged artifact. A scavenged artifact amongst what looked to be a marrow den that was just expanding beneath the swamp.

Three onyx eyes, three ivory eyes, three amber eyes. Three different creatures. What was the one that was inside of you? Was it the onyx one? No, it was the amber one. It was the one that was inside of you? Is it the onyx one? No, it was the amber one. It was the amber one. Yeah. Oh shit. That big serpent with all the eyes

like in her captains. What was the color? What was the hantikas? Yeah. The same amber, yeah. Is it the same color? There's amber? Yeah, I mean, they're yellowish amber, you know, yellowish orange.

Just depends on where the light hits it. So in the amber was the giant on where the light hits it. So in the amber, was the giant serpent with the tidal wave. Yeah, the same that she had on that, decorated around her office. That's Uk'otoa. Uk'otoa. But you saw when we were in the boat,

she closed her hands and you felt that surge in the water. Yeah. Yeah, I think because she got there first and offered her orb, she was rewarded with some sort of oceanic control or power over Waterhide. She controlled the water? I think so. She's the one She controlled the water? I think so. She's the one who made the flood? No, no, no, no.

Back when we were in the sail, in the rowboats. Oh, when we took off. Yeah. I was curled up in the bottom of the well of the rowboat, just sort of cowering, so I didn't see any of that. But, so she got something for giving up her- I think so, yeah. I don't know why the water surged out of the temple like that.

We also heard a large cracking sound, as if a lock had been broken or a wall had been broken. Protective nature? Creature? Yeah. So three murals, three creatures, beings, three chosen ones. And three eyes in each. And three different eyes in each. A creature of the sea, a creature of the air with fire. And a creature of the earth.

Do I remember anything from hitting the books in school of some gods? Roll a history check. It'd be history and not religion? This would be history, technically. Well, actually, history or religion. Well, they're the same for me. Same modifier. 17. Yeah.

17. Herstory. Yeah. 17. Herstory. Okay. So. You recall tales, I mean, there are many powerful creatures that have existed throughout history. Entities that are either elemental in nature or are primal forces of power.

There are some that are guardians of the world, some that are guardians of the elements within their own planes. There are many, many types of horrors and protectors throughout history. Thinking back to some of your studies, both historically and in your, cracking the tongue of the occasional religious thing

against your better will in your classes, there are some entities that were left in the wake of the Divergence. Avatar-like entities, or at least creations that are meant to be an extension of the power of the gods. Some of them are guardians in the world. Some of them still remain true to the religions or the gods that created them.

Some, over time, have found their own interests. Some have grown obsessed with their own power without their creator and master to chastise or watch over them and see themselves as a new god, even. Thinking back, you don't have all the information, but you do know that thinking back to the murals and the things you've heard about Uk'otoa being said, Uk'otoa was worshipped by the Kinau,

which were the indigenous people of the Menagerie Coast and the Suaveian Islands in the vicinity. Uk'otoa was one of these avatar entities that was created by Zaheer, the Cloaked Serpent, to be one of its many ambassadors of power and one of its greatest warriors in the conflict of the Divergence, or of the Calamity. Big Kaiju's or of the calamity. Big Kaiju's kind of thing. Essentially. Okay.

But when Zaheer and the rest of the Betrayer Gods were banished, along with the other, the prime deities, they were now the most powerful beings on the surface of Exandria, and as such, new religions began to spring up around them. And the The Kinau of this area took to worshiping Uk'otoa. Uk'otoa begin to preside like the next best god there was. And you get the sense that these other two entities might be similar relics of this time.

Powerful beings created before or during the Calamity and then left with their gods now sealed away to become forces of power of their own. You don't know if they've been sealed in the same fate that Uk'otoa was, but based on what you saw in that temple, they seem to be connected, or at least have similar structure of worship. That's some heavy shit.

Who left the five? So I say all of that. I read this one paragraph once, and in the filigree, there was a monk with a trumpet up his ass, and that's why I remembered this section so well. In fact, I still remember the book, but if we go back to the library,

I could still find it, and we could figure out more about this. If you were to find a place of deep research, you could probably find more information about these entities, yes. That would be a choice. Oh, speaking of choice, what's yours? Yeah, she said for all of us to hear

that the real reward comes from releasing the serpent. Is that your intention? Is that what you desire? No, no. It feels like she has bigger plans. I'm not a crazy person, all right? A giant serpent from the Calamity? The Divergence?

Nah, that sounds, that's some medieval shit, all right? That is bigger than anything I've ever heard of. So what are we doing? Are we pirates now, is that the thing? Are we biding our time till we leave? I don't like the water at all. I don't want to be on a boat anymore. I know, and Caduceus,

I know your experiences with water have been less than thrilling. I mean, I've actually had a good time, but just, I've died a few times, but I'm great. I think the question really is what we're going to have to do about this. I mean, this is the direction that we're heading. This is what's being put in front of us.

I don't know if running headlong into the next temple is the best option, I think. I actually agree. If you didn't find the answers you were looking for down in the water, maybe it's time to look somewhere else. Well, if I might, Fjord, I don't know much about how this magic works, but if there's three of these things, right? at least three of these eyes that need to be placed to unlock the three temples or whatever and release the crazy thing under the ocean, one has been activated. One is inside you.

There's one. Maybe we should try to find that one. And with that one, we could then safely get the one out of you,. She seemed to act like she knew who the third person was or had been. She also seems very interested in you. And don't get me wrong, she's hot and all, but I question her motives. Feels like she, I don't know, I don't know.

She looks at him like a skeleton key. She needs him for what she wants. I agree with that, and I think she's understood that her sexuality can be wielded as a weapon. I see that as well, and thank you for the lookout. Frankly, between us, I actually tried to keep her underwater after she got away real fast. It's fucking brutal.

Yeah, and then I had to act like, nah, look at the ground. It was terrible, fucking failed. All things considered, I think it would be best if we left on good terms. I agree, I'd like to find out what she knows about the Third and then maybe ask for a bit of respite before we continue. I actually do not feel very comfortable.

Let's get to Port and restock and that's when we'll figure out. I doubt she would allow us to leave on any terms. I don't know. She needs what's in him. What if we surprise her? Tie her up, then Jester can do her zone of truth thing,

can find out everything she knows. I think. Slit her throat and sink her ship. I would, see, I would be all for that, given the circumstances of what Beau just outlined. Big, big consequences looming that are age-old, timeless things. But if she can control water now,

I would be concerned that that effort might fall short and then we'd be super fucked. I just don't know what her abilities are at this point. Perhaps some sign of agreement to share information with the understanding that you're both working towards the same goals, and maybe it would be better to have two groups doing this instead of one. Yes, I need more info, Caleb.

I need more data, more knowledge, more, I mean, you read books on this stuff. There has to be someone out there that knows more about this before we just charge in. She's already said that she's sent people out to do this work, it wouldn't be that much different, I suppose. If we have what she needs, she'll have to play nice.

But if we just leave her, she could go off and do God knows what. As opposed to what? She has to find others. We can stay with her, we can stop it before she does it. We really can. I think she's only interested in the one creature, so she's only interested in this type of eye.

I don't even want to start to think about the onyx eyes or the ivory eyes. If we want to leave, we are not going to walk away, we are going to sneak away. She's not going to let go of you. You are a key that she needs. She said herself that greater things come when the serpent is released, the giant godlike serpent.

And I would ask you, we're all here, we like you. And if you are being completely forthright with us, we're good, but if we get the slightest whiff that you are after what this woman is after, well, I can't speak for them. I'm not interested in being here anymore. Yasha puts her hand on your shoulder and says, Faith is a funny thing.

Be careful where you place it. It can give strength. Or it can lead to terrible things. Thank you, Yasha. I understand your concern, Caleb, I do. I have small curiosities just from the things that I've seen. I have no interest in dealing with matters

that predate time as we know it. I'm pretty simple. These days I've spent with you are the most exciting of my entire life. I'm not looking to end them or the world by frivolously giving up, something that I barely understand. I'd like to try to ask if we can go separate ways,

and if she says no, I would play that we would join her in her voyages in the morning and then sneak away. I'd like to try and do it amicably if we can. I mean, I don't think there's anything wrong with maybe asking for the mist. I think maybe Caduceus has a good point if we can convince her that we're still part of her crew, but doing our own recon. To be honest, it would be worth actually following through with it anyway. She knows things that we don't. we get to find out.

Yeah, we took all that time to learn how to sail the damn thing. Also, that boat is fucked, and they could shoot us to bloody hell if they wanted to, so it won't be that big of a stretch if we just wanted private sleeping quarters. For sure, I think either way, we have to make it to Darktow.

I agree. And we need a second ship. Third, if she doesn't have a specific location, two ships find that thing faster than one. Mm-hmm. That's true. What do you say? We'll have to play along until we get to Darktow, and it is not somewhere that you normally want to go if you're not of the pirate variety.

Yeah. None of us have any chance, any other option but to play along. Yeah. None of us have any chance, any other option but to play along. Yeah. Regardless. Is this some sort of pirate town, or? I think it's like a pirate island. It's like a hideaway.

You don't go there unless you're looking for trouble, or unless you are the trouble. He is awesome. Or unless you are the trouble. That's awesome. Speaking of trouble. Kind of exciting. Are you going to take her up on that glass of wine? She has. That she has mentioned like three times.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. What's Jester doing right now? Fuming. She's just touching her lips. Jester is carving something into the bow of the boat, and we don't know what. She's got just the axe, and she's moving it in a direction without looking.

Trying to look. I suppose I should, to keep relations up. Yeah, well. You do what you have to. Yes. Yes. All right, I'll see you all underneath. Wait.

Take this vial of acid, just in case. I don't know. Maybe she'll try something, splash it in her face. In her face? I don't know. I think it just burns. Sure, whatever. Is it magic acid? Nope, just acid. Okay. Did you make this?

I did. Thank you. Are we now just going to go and sleep, and properly sleep? Well, no, not until he comes back from his rendezvous. I'm going to go to sleep. I don't know about the rest of you. I'm going to pat him on the shoulder, and just for fun, cast Protection from Poison.

Ooh! You got an hour. Okay, all right. Thank you, Caduceus. I'm going to make you a fan of water before your life is Okay, all right. Thank you, Caduceus. Hell, you know. I'm going to make you a fan of water before your life is done, I swear. I don't mind it, I think I just have an issue with the things that are in it, and being under it,

and I'm going to go to sleep, and probably, yeah. Throw a blanket at all. You're going to be my strongest acolyte. You're going to preach the words of the water. It's terrible. It's really not. I mean, look how good you're doing, right? You're thriving, surviving.

This was the worst day of my life. I can't believe you. Your whole life. I mean, as far as I can remember, I mean, this was a really bad day. And water had a lot to do with it. Yeah, okay. I'll get back to you on that.

Sure. And I'll make my way towards the captain's quarters. We're going to figure out a way to breathe better. It's going to be okay. Oh, I don't care about the other one. I just don't want to look at it. Come on. So you guys all go to rest?

Okay. I'm exhausted. All right, you guys go to rest. A long rest. You head your way to the cabin squatters? I do. All right. You head to the door, it's closed. You hear, for a moment, you hear this sound of rushing water.

She's cleaning up. I'll try the door. Okay, it opens up. It's the normal office den set up, but there's the balcony out back that opens up, and there in the balcony, Avantika's standing on the balcony, and you can see there's this column of water that's rising up out of the ocean, and she's nude.

It's just washing her. She's in the process, she's in the throes of manipulating this water. She's just learning whatever this new gifted power that she has, and her hair is twirling up into the stream. It's this beautiful dance between her and this elemental force that she now has. She looks back over her shoulder at you,

knowing that you've been there for at least a couple minutes. I'll be just a moment. Don't rush on my account. Eventually, the water splashes down and off the side. She walks back out of the night air and pulls her hair up and ties it off. I've seen this film.

Takes a little silk robe and places it over and sits down. There are already two glasses placed on the table, and she uncorks it and pours two glasses. To your success. To our success in time, eh? One can hope. It's only fair, you've been on this journey far longer than I have.

This is true. SAM and LAURA laugh. Not the best wine you've had, but it's serviceable. Not air-rated. Well, I... I am excited for you to experience this. I am as well. Is it everything you thought it would be? I have only but scratched the surface, and I've never felt a connection like this

with the sea that has been my life. It's incredible. I can only do it in bursts, but I can cause it to swell and move and part and flood and shift. It's soon. She reaches out and touches the top of your head.

Soon, I promise. Now, we were talking before, and I think it's only fair. She takes another big sip. Your blade is very interesting. I knew one other who had a blade very similar. Referred to it as the Sword of Fathoms. Sword of Fathoms.

Sword of Fathoms? The previous chosen. Can you tell me more about this person who wielded it? His name was Vandryne. Oh fuck! A fine sailor and a foolish coward he ended up to be, but he was the one that opened my eyes to the destiny of Uk'otoa.

We traveled together for a number of years before he just abandoned and absconded with something important. Been trying to find out where he went, but he was very slippery and wherever he is, either what you have in your sword is what he took away, or wherever he is, he has the third with him.

And this Vandran, you say he told you about the Sword of Fathoms or he had a Sword of Fathoms? He carried the same blade? Carried the same one. Was there an area, a destination, a direction that you last knew that he was going? Is it in our interest to try and find him? It is very much in our interests.

We were going to go and visit this very island some time ago, when he was the only one to have one of these orbs. How did you find, if you don't mind my asking, yours? Well, I had to kill a number of men. It was being auctioned off in Port-au-Molay, and there was a collector.

Word had gotten to us that this artifact was sold off to this individual, and, well, needless to say, he put up a bit of a struggle. artifact was sold off to this individual, and well, needless to say, he put up a bit of a struggle. I'm sure he did. But thankfully, this collector enjoyed nights long at sea, and that happens to be our specialty. So his corpse now adorns one of the many beautiful islands, and well, now, I have this beautiful reminder.

In the hand, you can see it's now mostly healed over, but there is a scar where this orb once resided in her palm. I'll stand and just pace around the quarters, looking at the various iconography of the serpent. As you're pacing, she talks towards you. It's very interesting that you carry the same blade as Vanduin did. And come to me with what could very well be the same orb.

Do you know this one, this Van Dwin? I don't. We should find him. Make a deception check. 23. Oh fuck. Test it. 23. Oh! Get tested.

This sword came to me in a very unusual way. I've been a sailor for many years myself, and was lost at sea during a storm. When I woke up, I found myself on the shore, and there in the waves next to me was this sword. I don't know how I got there, but as soon as I grasped it, it changed everything. The sword, however, did not have the eye, the eye we found later, my companions and me. Who else was on this ship with you? Various other sailors. Our captain. Who was your captain? Captain Twitchwood. Do you know him?

She smiles. I appreciate that you are a very accomplished liar. But so am I. And the only reason I still sit here before you with the dozen or so scars I carry is because I have been very keen at seeing through the same skill. A 23-level skill?

Okay. The angel's captain, Wigglebeck. Then I'm sure you can understand the need for secrecy for a small circle. You know Vanduin, don't you? I do. And he was on this ship that you shipwrecked on, eh? Do you remember where the storm was?

I remember where we found the storm. Do you remember where the storm was? The storm. That sunk the ship you were on? Yes. And this was the last time you saw Vanduin? I feel like you know the rest of this story and I'm at a disadvantage. I don't necessarily.

I've not seen Vandran since he absconded with this, how many things. But he would not travel without both that sword you carry and the orb he stole from us. So wherever that ship has sunken, there's a very good chance that it has the third missing orb. Do you remember where the ship sunk?

She reaches down and pulls out a map and rolls it out on the table before you. Put your map up. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Just splash acid on it. Got this. Oh man. Get it, get it.

Now, between you and I, there was a storm, do I remember? You do recall, actually. It was somewhere coming back along this trade route, and somewhere in this space, the storm had blown through, and this is where it sank, and you washed up. Dark Toes over here, right? Dark Toes over here. You walk back along this trade route. Okay. Somewhere in this space, the storm had blown through and this is where it sank. Darktoes over here, right?

Darktoes over here. You washed up on this island here. We're over here. You guys are over there at Uruk-Hazel. You washed up over here. That's the spot in this vicinity. Okay, okay, okay. Yep.

Fuck it. Yes. I do remember where the ship sank. Then, my friend, I think we're going to do even more amazing things together. I agree. I believe that we'll have to wait until we find ourselves on Darktoe, though.

I have been patient this long. I can be patient a bit further. Very well. She leans her forward with the wine glass very close and goes, It's been a very long day. I think rest is in order. I would agree.

She takes a big, long drink of wine, sets it down. Well, and sets it down. Well. There are ways to complete a hopeful future pact together. Many different ways. Yes! Yes! Yes!

Bait the tentacles. Yeah, I'm going to go for it. Yeah, I'm going for it. I will... Oh god, okay. Yep, yep, yep, yeah. Oh god, okay. Yep, yep, yep, yep. I will keep Avantika's hand and walk around the desk. I will try the old lean-in and see what the reaction is.

Man, all right. Oh man, I'm getting some Twitchwood right here. Quickly, her hand grabs the back of your head and pulls you in. Oh shit. Feel very mixed about this whole thing. Yeah. She's a very powerful woman, and you find yourself very quickly overpowered.

And you are allowed to... For the sake of brevity. Not the most restful evening you've had, but an evening is had. How many points of exhaustion? 12. Make a constitution check. No, I'm never going to do that in a game. Sure, go for it then.

That's your own day. 16. No. You succeed the check, but you disappoint your dungeon master. So. I wouldn't call it a romantic evening. Sure. But a very.

An adrenaline, an adrenaline. Union of two business partners of a similar goal. The sound of fish slapping against the wall. Oh god! They're both on the scene. Right in the blowhole. And we fade back. Oh god! They're both on the seats. Right in the blowhole. And we fade back in.

See, see? Do I make my way back to Quarters before sunup? I don't know if I want to stay the entire evening there. You do fall asleep together. Oh, okay. Unless you choose to not wish to. Yeah, no, I'm not going to stay-stay. Okay.

You don't walk out of the captain's quarters at sunup, plus we're super tired, so I will leave and try and stealth back into the corridors with everyone else. I have a passive perception of 18. I know. Hopefully you're super asleep. I know, roll a stealth check.

Come on, compromise gods. 18. Fuck. All right. You carefully and quietly tiptoe your way through the hallway to your assigned quarters, of which you are sharing with whom? Caduceus. Caduceus.

Caduceus, one eye suddenly opens as you are keen to be somewhat aware, living alone out in the middle of a dangerous wood, to any sort of aberrant noise in the vicinity. You hear the faint creak of very gentle footsteps as Fjord makes his way into your chambers. Can I figure out what happened just by looking at him? You, yeah.

I've got a bad sense of smell. Sleep well with your bad decisions. As you all rest a long rest at sea as the Squall Eater and the Mistake make their way towards Darktote, the far west. We'll end tonight's game there. We'll pick up there next week. And also, everyone levels up. Everyone's level seven now.

Oh! Cheers! That's level seven now. Oh! Cheers! That's a great ending. That's a good finish. So to that degree, while I have you guys here, let's roll some hit points, sorry. Roll some hit points for those who are present. Do we recover our exhaustion?

Yeah. Yeah, over the next couple days you will. So we'll say, because this is a multi-day travel to get to Darktow, so yeah, your points of exhaustion will be gone by the time it matters. I'll let Yasha roll for hers. I should probably roll for Laura. What do you think?

She would appreciate that. Hey, it's your head, man. D8 for me, right? D8 for you, yeah. D8 for me as well. Five. Five, nice. It's a fault. So D8 plus your constitution, yeah?

Yep. So that's nine for me. Wow, nice. It's a d8 plus your constitution, yeah? Yep. So that's nine for me. Wow, that's a one. We roll ones for hit points. That's a two. Nice. That's not, it's better. Thanks.

One. 71? Eight. There you go, Nott. So I re-roll a one? No. I re-roll ones for hit points. Just because rolling one for hit points

at a level up is like the fucking worst. Okay, so rolling a d8, right? Correct, what'd you get, Caleb? I rolled a two, so that's a con bonus, gets me to four points up. Four more points. Six. Six house.

I got a lot of points to you. Yeah, so that turns my rolling into a 35. To be fair, you guys have been rolling fucking great for hit points for like many levels. It's time for there to be some balance. I feel like I should re-roll this again. No, you've taken a good one, dude. Stop fighting for success.

I rolled a two, so I'm working on it. I rolled good at hit points, this is bullshit. You're so weird, Sam. Yep. It just feels cheap. How does it feel cheap? Because I rolled a one first. But every roll one's because one's good.

I know, you're a good man. I already said it. As a player, it's the worst feeling. Two sucks still, but it doesn't suck as much as a one. Uh-huh. That's how I do it. Why don't I get it at level seven? Yeah, you do manage HP by a few.

All right, well, we're not going to sit here and subject you guys to us slowly leveling up at the table. Although I'm sure there are a few that would love to see it. store. All right, well, we're not going to sit here and subject you guys to us slowly leveling up at the table. Although I'm sure there are a few that would love to see it. We got the important part out for you guys. We'll pick up here next week to see what's in store for the Company of the Squall Eater,

of which the Mighty Nein have joined, the union, partnership of Captain Avantika and Fjord, and the imminent Darktow in your future. Semen, semen everywhere. Oh man, not a drop to drink. No. No, no. I don't even know. I don't.

Wasn't even great. You wouldn't even go to one. I think it finally happened. I don't. Wasn't even great. You wouldn't even go to one. I think it finally happened. I think you finally broke me. I'm broken now. I'm a broken man. On that note, have a wonderful night. We love you guys, and is it Thursday yet?

Good night. Thank you for listening to this episode of Critical Role. If you've enjoyed this ever-weaving story, please consider rating and reviewing our podcast. You might just inspire someone new to hop on the wagon for the journey. We have plenty more stories to tell. Stay tuned, and we'll see you next time.