Critical Role - C2E41 A Pirate's Life for Me

Episode Date: November 9, 2018

The Mighty Nein head for the lawless island of Darktow, engaging in an act of piracy along the way...Watch Critical Role live Thursdays at 7pm PT on https://www.twitch.tv/criticalrole

Hello, bees! This is Laura Bailey, here to welcome you to the Critical Role podcast. If you'd like to tune into the show as it airs, you can watch Critical Role Thursdays at 7 p.m. Pacific on twitch.tv slash criticalrole and youtube.com slash criticalrole. Our lovely Twitch subscribers can view the episode on demand right away. Or you can find it on YouTube, Mondays at 12pm Pacific. And of course, for all you fantastic podcast listeners, Critical Role episodes hit feeds on Thursday mornings, a week after the episode first airs. With all that said, let's get into another episode of Critical Role. 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 and Dragons. Travis is in transit, don't freak out, he'll be here in just a moment. He is making his way here from a very delayed thing. He's missing this week. He couldn't stand to face Laura. That's right. He's hiding. Well, if he knew what he was good for. But before we get into tonight's episode, let's go into some quick announcements. First and foremost, our fantastic returning sponsors for this campaign, our friends, our dear dear family at D&D Beyond.

Everybody, our trip to the UK changed us in a lot of ways. We were exposed to the European culture and that area of the world, and we fell in love with it. Tonight, there's so much to talk about that I'm going to actually need some help. Everyone knows Matt's Scottish accent is top-notch, but I've been studying with a dialect coach that I found on Craigslist, and I think I'm ready to unveil my Scottish bro. Now, because it's so accurate, Matt's going to translate what I'm saying. I'm going to be saying things in Scottish, traditional, accurate Scottish, about D&D Beyond, and he'll translate into American English. I'm weirdly on board with this.

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Hold your wish to nick it now, or you're fit to be getting scalped, you herpling jobby! You can get both at dndbeyond.com slash marketplace. Oh, it's my turn. Oh no, that's your line. Wait, no, that's my line, okay. Whatcha doing the weekend? Jangs, you're a right hoodie dobber, you are. Pure walloper, out your nut.

D&D Beyond is hosting a two-day streaming event this Friday and Saturday at Gamehole Con to benefit Extra Life. We're at Jock Tamsin's Burns. It's quality. I'm Bjarre Skunert. I look these words up. They're real. Both days will feature three four-hour sessions from 7.30 a.m. to 10.30 p Oh, wow. From 7.30 a.m. to 10 p.m. with special guests raising money for a special cause. Okay, they've thrown him that badly. Yeah. Call me Doonie! Get on your trolley and head over to twitch.tv slash get fucked, you

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Maybe it's winding down. Oh. Thank you, Sam. Don't press it again, it will start again. Maybe it's winding down. Aw. Thank you, Sam. Oh yes, well, you know, we just love London, we love UK, we love it all. My distant ancestry is extremely pleased with your performance. Thank you, D&D Beyond, as always.

What is Tohido? Tohido. To-high-tho, I believe, and it means something. All these words are real. Up to-hi-do means a lot? Don't know. Guide to Ravnica. The next episode of All Work No Play will debut this Friday at twitch.tv slash Critical Role at 7 p.m. Pacific. This week, Liam and Sam are building a custom Mame Cabinet with Felicia Day and our

fantastic director of events, Brittany Wallach. Yay! She's a good one! Yeah, Mame Cabinet is something that I've been chasing my whole life, and finally there is one in my vicinity. And Felicia joins us as well. Awesome. Check that out Friday. Also, through the month of November,

and in celebration of Veterans Day, we're raising money for Travis' favorite charity, Operation Supply Drop. We've talked about it before. We put up the account. You guys have already raised a tremendous amount of money for this. As much as we can get the word out there, before the donation period closes, continue to help them. Operation Supply Drop has already helped over 750,000 members of the military community since its inception and continues to support active military

members, veterans, their families. It's amazing the work they do. We're big fans of everything they do. Check out all the information to donate now at critroll.com slash OSD. Also, both the standard and deluxe editions of our second art book, The Chronicles of Exandria, Legend of Vox Machina, will be on sale via pre-order this coming Monday, November 12th at 9 AM Pacific. This art book contains art from our fantastic, beloved community of Critter artists. They've all put it together with just love and joy, and I'm super proud of it. These guys died to get it done, as did a number of our artists. You guys did incredible work. We're excited for you guys to check it out. And super excited to announce for our European Critters, the art book will be shipped out to our brand new fulfillment center in the United Kingdom. We just set up. A lot of hard work to finally get a fulfillment

center that side. This will drastically reduce shipping costs and delivery times for our European family out there. Super stoked to have this finally functional. We'll have more details to that available Monday morning when all this goes on sale. Should I translate what you just said for our Scottish audience? Do I have a choice? No. I'm going to show off an image from inside the book. This is the standard, by the way. Matteo Scalera, an artist that I fell in love with reading the Black Science comic book, he's fucking amazing.

That's standard? This is the standard. Holy shit, that's good. It is so beautiful. Show that thing off and I'm going to find a picture. This is the beautiful Deluxe Edition, which comes with a little ribbon, and you can see this wonderful cover art with the eye with Vecna in the center and the four gods depicted in the corners all cowering before his mind. Yeah, the four major deities that were involved

in that final arc. Mm-hmm. I'm going to show off a little Ioun. Look at this, look at this. Oh my god. Look at this. Who are these lovely kids right over here? Oh my god!

Yeah. Oh, hi. Just like that, it goes away. All right, we'll look forward to the information that is coming Monday at critrole.com. I believe those are all of our announcements. With that, let's go ahead and jump in to tonight's episode of Critical Role. សូវាប់បានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបា Teksting av Nicolai Winther LAURA and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and SAM and Hello, everyone, and welcome back.

So, last we left off, the Mighty Nein, after making a daring escape from the Temple of the False Serpent on the island of Uruk-Hazel, have managed to nearly drown in the escape, make their way through the jungle being chased by both Yon-T and the lizardmen denizens of this island, making their way to the shore just in time to have the actual pirate ship, the Squall Eater,

there to defend you, firing various heavy cannonballs towards the creatures of which had given chase and allowing you to escape on the boats to safety. Upon reaching the top of the ship, you've found that the mistake has been repaired enough to be seaworthy, though it does need some more intense repairs. Your supplies are relatively low,

and it looks like the current goal is to find your journey westward to the Island of Darktoe, which has been wiped from the Clovis Concord's control many, many years ago, and currently resides as the center of all piracy in the Lucidian Ocean. As you all went to rest for the evening, Fjord, who will be here shortly so I can continue to embarrass him, had an evening's conversation with Captain Avantika in which it was discussed his past history with his childhood father figure, who also seemed to have a history with Avantika as well and is somehow rolled in with this strange Uk'otoa phenomenon.

It also came to light that the shipwreck in which Gay forwarded his powers might have a connection based on the captain's intuition with where this third and final sphere may lie. It was decided between the two of them that this may be the next goal beyond Darktoe to pursue. After which they fucked. And so,

while that era of the story is transpiring, I want to ask you guys, since we have a moment here. Wobbly Wobbly. Yeah, well, or in the loose Wibbly Wobbly, Timey Wimey period of figuring things out as you recover from the intense return to the ship, what would you like to do?

Is there anything you want to check out? First off, everyone leveled to seven. You got level seven, which is awesome. Do we get a long rest after? This will be the long rest. For everyone but Fjord, I guess. So this isn't a... Nice.

This isn't the next few days of our sailing adventure. This is that night. This is that night. We will then begin to embark on what that journey will be, but if there's anything you wish to do before the evening's done. I already gave my shade, I'm done. That was all I needed.

I would try to locate Caduceus on the boat, actually. I don't know if he's hiding or not. Oh, I'm in my room, because I was, is this before Fjord came back, or? You could say this is while Fjord is out. Okay, so I'm in my room. So I will go to where he is on the boat, and? Hey, Mr. Caleb.

Good evening. You look, uh. Caleb. Good evening. You look, uh. Battered. Tired as I feel. Do you have a moment? Sure, sure. What can I do for you? May I come in?

Oh, yes, of course. I feel a little poorly. For the time you have been having traveling with us, it was not a very good day. It's been a string of bad ones, in fact. And I am grateful to have you along with this group because we get hurt a lot. We stick our noses places, maybe we shouldn't. And you have been very helpful.

Thank you. I think I'm coming to the realization that perhaps I was not entirely clear of what I signed up for, but I don't think that means that it's the wrong path. I'm getting used to the idea that this is, it wouldn't be a test if it were easy. So is it your intention to continue on with us? I joined your group of friends,

I guess our group of friends now, as a testament of faith, and it would be a disservice to that faith to turn around because it's hard, if it had been easy, and I suppose I wouldn't have needed to be called to it. I've been thinking a lot about it. Jester gave me a lot to think about, to be honest. Well, you know, sometimes

acts of good faith deserve to be rewarded when they can. I wanted to give you something that will make your time with us a little bit easier, I suppose. And I start to pull the periapt out and untie it. This, you know, I'm always so far back away from, I hear you, Laura, in my peripheral, I hear you. I'm always very far back anyway.

This isn't doing me much good, and it's better that you stay up more than I stay up, because if you go down, that's it. So this is just a little bit of extra, you know, protection, anyway. Mr. Caleb, do you believe in fate? There are lots of different kinds of fate. I know that's a heavy question.

But do you believe that we are driven towards something by things that are greater than ourselves? I don't know. I would like to think not, but I don't know. There are times I think about the cruelties of the world and the things that have been put upon me and my family, and I would hate for that to be a plan. There are times when, like today,

I'm very grateful for being in the right place at the right time to make sure that the right people are becoming strong in the way ways they need to be. I don't think that it excuses the pain. I don't think that you have to, I don't know, I don't think you have to not care about it or fight it with everything you've got,

but I think the world is shaping you into something important and I want to make sure that you get to fight it with everything you've got, but I think the world is shaping you into something important and I want to make sure that you get to wherever you need to be. That's a pretty big matzo ball. Well, you won't have to work very hard at it, I imagine. I think just being you, wherever the world puts you, will do just fine. Well, if you have this. this is magic, by the way.

I can tell. There you go. Thank you. I help you, that makes it easier for you to help all of us, so. And I promise I will continue to help you all. This is, even when we're not the best of people, I feel like we're still moving towards something

that's good and worthwhile, and I'm feeling the struggles in my way to bring us to where we need to be. Welcome to the Nine. I'm honored. Okay, I feel like shit, so I'm going to go to bed. Thank you for this, I won't forget it. Just like Fjord.

Meanwhile, one hour later. Rolling them double ones. So you get to remove that item, and you get to add it to your item. Adding which item? I already have the wound closure. It just feels right that it's with you. Yeah, it's a wound closure. What does it do?

Makes it harder for him to die. Yeah, stabilizes him at death. Nice. Super good. All right. I'm going to go to Caleb when he gets back. Caleb! Caleb! Caleb!

Ah! Where's my owl? Oh, right. Doesn't drown, it's amazing. Hey. It's like it's magic or something. Yeah. We had good times. You have three or four more days if you want magic or something. Yeah.

We had good times. You have three or four more days if you want. Do I? Yeah. I, whoa! Can you do me a favor? Pocket. Pocket owl. Pocket owl. Right next to my bacon. I owl.

I got this red feather from Nila, and I don't know, when she handed it to me, she was like... Like very deliberate about how she handed it to me. I don't know, we just see if it's like magic. You want to know if this is something? Yeah. Do you have a moment?

Yeah. Okay. I will cast Identify on this. Okay. It is not magical, it is sentimental. Yeah, that's a feather. That's just a feather, it's a good-looking doll. I tie it to my staff. I'm not disappointed. I'm not disappointed.

Are you good? Bye, I'm going to go to bed. Can I pull out sprinkles? Okay. As you reach back into your waterlogged hood of your coat, you hear this tiny little and there you pull out this extremely waterlogged

and unhappy crimson weasel. Your salt tap sprinkle. It squishes little cheeks. It pees in your hand. Aw, thank you. Okay, go right here. Stay there. Don't drown, okay. Then I'm going to look for Beau, but she's not around. So then I'm going to go look for Nott. I'm drinking. Where are you drinking? I don't know, are we all staying in the same room?

Maybe we have a couple rooms? There are three rooms between the group, I think, that have been given to you and people that have been moved to you, and people that have been moved to the mistake. Let's say that I'm drinking on the deck of the ship. Oh good, I was on the deck of the ship, too. How perfect.

Oh. Hey Nott. Hi. Hi. Are you super wasted? I've got a good buzz on. Okay. I have a question for you.

Yeah. Have you, I have a question for you. Yeah. Have you, I mean, I think you have, because you said you were into somebody before. Have you ever kissed a boy? Hmm. That was the cutest thing. I've kissed a boy. Yeah? Mm-hmm.

What was it like? Excuse me? What was it like when you kissed him? Have you never kissed someone? No, well, here's... You're a lady, your mom is a master of sexuality. I was asking what it was like when you kissed someone, that's all.

Because you haven't done it. Well, I didn't know if it counted. Oh, well, what was the situation? I was drowning. Oh, you mean today? Ooh. Does that count, though? Okay, well, I mean, let's take a look at this.

Your lips pressed against each other's. Yes. It meant other. Yes. It meant something. Yeah. How did it make you feel? Like I wasn't dead. Yeah, alive, yeah, that is the feeling. And did it make your heart beat faster

than being completely stopped, how it was? Yeah, I think so. I mean, it's not dead. If I had to do my first kiss over again, I would want all of those things. Really? Yes, that's the best first kiss. It's someone you care about.

Well, I didn't know if it counted. It means something. You'll remember it forever. I will. I will remember the after part of it, you know? Oh, yes. I was a little struggling at the beginning part. Well, yes, well, afterwards,

I don't know if you felt this way. You just can't stop thinking about it, and you feel the soft pressing against you and almost taste him just for a little bit, and it doesn't go away for a while. I think his tusks are growing back. You felt a little love. Just a little bit of tusk!

Ooh! Yeah. What was your first kiss like, though? It wasn't as romantic. It was just a dare. Oh, really? Yes. With who?

I don't know. Just someone. I don't even, I don't remember too much. That's weird. You said you never forget it. I sure did. It was just, you know, just pretty young and, you know, just kids saying like,

oh, you kiss each other, you kiss each other now. Just one of those types of games. I think kids do that sort of stuff a lot. I think so, too. But I don't remember his name. Oh. Do you remember the softness of his lips? I do.

Yes. It was a good day. Yeah, today is pretty cool, too. Well, do you think things will change now between you? Oh, no, I mean, he might have a big crush on me now. You know, but. Aren't you interested? Oh, I don't know. You know. Well, sometimes boys like it. Why am I telling you this?

Your mom's a lady of the night. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. But sometimes boys like it if you are a little bit aloof, a little bit cold to them afterwards. Like, maybe they did something wrong and they don't even know what it was. Really? Yes.

Like the play the games? Yes. Okay. Yeah, just a little bit of like, just keep him guessing, like, did I say something? Did I do something? Was I a bad kisser? Okay, okay.

And that'll put him on the defensive where you want him. That's right. And then you cut his throat and fucking kill him! I'm just kidding about that. No, no, no. Okay. Because I don't want to do that part.

No, of course not, he's our friend. Okay. Well, all right, have fun with your flask, okay? All right, I will. I'm going to go write in my journal. Have fun drawing. Okay. All right, as everyone concludes their evening activities, the journey, looking at the map and the distance,

it's about 800 miles to Darktow from Uruk Hazel. Dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun. Essentially. Dun dun dun dun dun dun dun. The ship normally... Jesus Christ. This is so funny. We should solve this at some point, right? We should get some bean bags or something? Rotate it.

There you go. If you roll it the other direction, it straightens it out. Did you know that? Put it under my... Okay. There we go. Now it's not centered. Whatever. It's fine. You guys deal with your map. It's not mine. It's your map. Do what you want. So. There we go. Now it's not centered, whatever, it's fine. You guys deal with your map, it's not mine. It's your map. Do what you want.

So. Boo! Not my responsibility! So your ship is actually traveling faster than it normally was as part of the blessing that Avantika received. It can achieve about 55 miles. An hour? No, an entire day of travel.

Okay, Jesus. Which is a bit faster than a general sailing ship, which is why the mistake can go faster, but they are a pair. You're looking at about 14 days of travel. Whoa. To Darktow? To Darktow, yeah.

14 days? Welcome to being on thetow, yeah. 14 days? Welcome to being on the open seas, man. Arr! Shit. They didn't have bullet trains in D&D. You have 11 days of supplies. There will have to be some sort of supply stop or a way of handling that. So I have a thing called Create Food and Water.

I do, too. We can mix it up with the normal food so it doesn't taste as bad. Whoa. That is going to make this journey not an issue when it comes to supplies. Look at that. Divine magic. Teamwork. You don't have to stop then. All right, great. So sorry that we just burned an entire encounter.

Yeah, fuck whatever else you made. Is food and water the only thing we need? Do we need any other supplies to make this trip? Not to get to Darktow, but at Darktow, there will be repairs made to the other ship and possibly some small repairs to the ship for its journey and any other supplies you would need while there. But it's a 14-day journey at full speed.

During this time, a couple things. One, you guys can decide to, if you want to, learn how to run a boat. That being the case, we get to decide what types of skill sets you want to pick up out here on the ocean. That being the case, we have the Quartermaster. Quartermmaster is the one who has the most authority under the captain of a ship. They take over if the captain's unable to. They divvy up plunder, or whenever you board a prized vessel, they decide what to take and what to leave.

They generally helm that whole process there, as far as pirate ships are concerned. There's the navigator, or the sailing master. You do have Orly hired to do that for you, but Orly can also train one of you to be a backup in case Orly vanishes. I was about to say, I feel like being able to go by the stars or otherwise is something I might be able to do very well. You can both train her if you want to. You can overlap.

I know which direction is north at all times. I don't forget anything. I'm real smart. Fair. In the game. The direction is north at all times. I don't forget anything. I'm real smart. That's fair. In the game. Just in the game. He's still lording that rap battle over. We have the bosun. Bosun is in charge of the ship itself,

keeping it top shape for travel and battle. They handle looking over the wood, the canvas, the ropes, making sure that everything's solid and functional. They lead shore parties for supplies and repairs and oversee activities like dropping and weighing the anchor, setting the sails, cleaning the deck, things like that. So start thinking of things you might be interested in. There's the cooper, which makes and maintains barrels for storage, food, and water. There's the carpenter, which is one that actually repairs the ship's structural integrity when it takes damage. They answer to

the bosun, they keep the hull, the masts, and the yardarms functional. There's the master gunner, who organizes the placement of shot, powder, the fuse, and aiming the ship's cannons. Nott's going to want to train as the Master Gunner. And of course, Powder Monkey, which is the next one below, who basically just runs all the stuff. Powder Monkey? Yeah, Powder Monkey. Maybe I'll apprentice as that first. Apprentice the Powder Monkey, and then it should be needed. You will become, hopefully, a good Master Gunner. Anyway, those are the most important aspects.

Everyone will learn a little bit about sailing as you go, but start getting an idea, if you want to right now, of which one of those you'd want to specifically begin to focus on. What does the bosun do again? He runs the manager of the ship, like the office manager, right? Keeps it running.

Yeah, make sure that all the canvas, the ropes, the wood, everything's in good condition. I have enough experience being a quartermaster, so I'll do that as well. Okay. Okay. He said quartermaster, not bosun. I guess I'll do the bosun stuff.

I feel like I would've been really bad at it. We'll find out. So train us hits the boat. Which actually, to that point, the next morning, as everyone begins to go about the first real day out here in the Lucidian Ocean, clear blue sky with dappled bits of cloud around you, the smell of sea salt and foam and spray making its way

as it splashes across the front of the bow. Avantika catches up to you with Vera being called up to the side. She goes, Vera, if you would be so kind, I would like to call let's say the utmost members of the crew, please, to the deck and maybe some of your friends as well. Of course, I'll bring them up.

As you all gather on the deck, Vantugger goes, I appreciate all of the hard work you've put into this, my crew and yours. As we are making our way back, it is important that we properly balance the endeavor here and make sure that both training that has been inquired about is properly disseminated. And out of curiosity, and with no disrespect to you, Vera,

I will be replacing you as the ship's quartermaster until we return to Darktow with our Captain Tustooth. The viewer looks taken aback and briefly offended. But of course, my captain. So, Corte Master, time to start paying attention. Indeed. She begins to divvy out responsibilities to the rest of you in the various positions that you requested to start learning.

Some elements of the journey have you moving over to the Mistake, some of them moving back, especially for the repairs elements, and whoever decides they want to be the carpenter, if anybody. Some of you want to. I should be the carpenter. That's up to you. You're strong.

I'm strong, maybe I should be the carpenter. Do you have any... I've got no. Nothing. Nothing. It's up to you. That's not a bad idea. What was I going to do? Position barrels? Barrels?

Makes and maintains barrels. Hey, you've been around barrels your whole life. I kind of already know how to make a barrel. Do you want to be the bosun? I was thinking the one where you actually have to go out and find supplies, I might be really good at that. That is the bosun. Yeah, I'll take the bosun. Then I'll do the carpenter.

All right, there we go. Note that somewhere, our new character, that those are the positions you're training on this journey. All right, Cooper, got it. I'll make a making of garrows. Well, the powder monkey. Powder monkey for now. For now.

Working my way up. All righty. A few days into this journey, we'll say because you're training as the carpenter, Jester, the mistake is keeping in time with the Squall Eater. It slows down a bit and you're brought over to the opposite side. Looking around, you wander under the deck and find that at one of the tables, you see Waldook, who's one of the deckhands of the other ship, is currently sitting at a table with what looks like a large tankard of really, really rough grog or ale, biting his lower lip, and he has his sleeve pulled up. You can see Orly has this

unique, what looks like a bowstring of some kind that's wrapped between two fingers, an inkwell, and a needle that's tied up in it. He's currently halfway through doing this really good-looking elaborate tattoo across the arm of this deckhand. Whoa. He's got this patch over his eye, right up against one of the portholes where the lights come in through, and he's using it for perspective. He's almost lording over this smaller, thin human, and gnats over, Way there.

Can I go stand over his shoulder and just stare at what he's doing? Yeah, you keep watching. You can see he's doing this curled mermaid that is coming up and on one hand is holding on at the hip and the other one is picking what looks like a fruit off of a tree. You begin to question the design a bit and Orly says offhand, It's what he requested, huh? Why are you having a mermaid pick fruit if she's in the water? He's sitting there going like, well, I had a rough ride with some scurvy a few years back

and two things alike are the idea of ladies in the sea that can save me from scurvy. Oh, that's really smart. It's very meaningful. Orly chuckles under his breath. It's very well done. You can see now the other tattoos that are across his body were probably done by him on himself. Hey, Orly. I'm training you to be a carpenter, did you know?

Yeah. I was unaware, actually, but maybe you should ask around for the men who's doing the repairs around this place. Yeah, I will definitely do that, but I also want to learn how to do tattoos. Can you teach me that? I can try and teach you some of them. I'm a really good artist, Orly.

My skills. However, there is a specific tally with some of these here. Yeah, it's a thing that you wrap around your fingers and then you go like this? Kind of. Do you mind? thing that you wrap around your fingers and then you go like this? God. You know, the man? And the guy's like,

Uh. I'm a really good artist, don't worry. Sure. This already helps show you how he threads this and gets the needles set up. Go ahead and make a performance check. Oh jeez. Performance?

Performance? That's artistry. Oh no, performance! We'll say dexterity if you really want to. Yeah, I'll do dexterity. Whoa, 17. 17. Picking up where the initial partial ink sketches were,

you actually continue to fill in the rest of the upper torso and do a very good job. You can see where the style does shift in the art, but it's not abrasive. It just continues and it's rather nice. Do you think maybe your mermaid would want some googly eyes? He goes, no, no, I appreciate that, but no. Are you sure you think it would make her look really good? He starts to pull his arm away from you.

Orelia puts his giant, tortle hand on your shoulder and goes, I don't recommend messing with the artistic vision. I understand. I don't want people messing with my artistic vision, either. There you are. You and me, Orelia, we're going to be fast friends. I like the idea of that. Point of order.

Did you say porn of order? Point of order. Okay. You don't happen to have any sort of gem dust, do you? Gem dust. You happen to have any sort of gem dust, do you? Gem dust. Like a gem that's been powdered? Yeah. Or like ink. Oh, I have plenty of ink. It's more than that.

Wait, are you trying to make a sparkly ink? More or less. I mean, I don't have any powdered gems, but I could probably powder some gems. Well, I picked up this technique years ago from the, some of the individuals that spawned from the legacy of the island folk. It allows me to instill a mighty ink spot.

As he does that, he flexes his arm and you watch as the tattoo shimmies ever so slightly and you watch his muscles bulge a bit. Oh my god. If I do that, will you teach me how to do that? If I give you some dust? I see. It's not so much something that can be easily tarned more than it's

something bequeathed by an elder. Do you want to bequeath me? No. What if you really like me, though? We'll see how time goes by, but for the time being, just let me know if I can be of service. He talks to you about it and he gives you an overview of his capabilities.

So for different types of gem dust, he can imbue somebody with a series of tattoos that can alter elements of their physical self. It's not inexpensive, and each person can only have it once ever. So it's not like you can have multiple. But for 2200 gold worth of ruby dust, you can imbue a permanent plus one to strength.

What the? For 2200 gold worth of emerald dust, you can do a permanent plus one to dex. So he runs down the stat sheet there. The most expensive one's constitution. That's 2500 worth of emerald dust. He can do a permanent plus one to dex. He runs down the stat sheet there. The most expensive one is constitution. That's 2,500 worth of diamond dust, but there are all the different gem types there. He can also imbue certain resistances. Those are more expensive. Those are 5,000 gold worth of fire opal dust for fire resist and 5,000 gold worth of black sapphire dust for cold resist. But he has the capability of imbuing

essentially magical permanent tattoos. That is amazing. I have a jeweler's kit. Hoo, hoo! Oh my gosh. Oh, my jewelry. Hoo! That's a shitload of jewels.

Yeah, that's something. That's a lot of jewels. We have some, don't we? Yeah, we have some. And some stuff that we don't want to get rid of. We have some, don't we? Yeah, we have some. Some stuff that we don't want to get rid of. I want some magic tattoos! Oh my gosh, do they shimmer, though? Do they look sparkly on your body?

Do they look like a shaman? You can see aspects of, based on what enchantment it is, like an orly, his is specifically an aquamarine dust. It has this faint aquamarine light blue shimmy to it. As soon as the light hits it, it glitters across. Aquamarine dust being the one that boosts charisma. That's the eye and glittery tattoos. You're so charismatic. Mm, many folk have said that. I will definitely, definitely want to learn this from you,

and I probably, once I get a little more rich and I have some powdered gems, I'm going to have you do it to me. Well, looks like you're just going to have to keep me employed for quite a while. Yeah, don't get hurt, okay? Don't get me hurt. Okay.

He goes back to finishing up the tattoo on that individual. Okay, what was the guy's name that was getting the tattoo? That was Walduk. Walduk. Well, Walduk, I'll see you later. Okay. I'm going to go carpenter some stuff.

All right. Holy shit. I'm going to go carpenter some stuff. All right. Holy shit. So. Roughly eight days into this journey, you've moved about 100 miles off the shore of the southern island of Buali when a small horn sound goes off on the Squall Eater.

Woo! It's a small horn. I had a flashback. I know, yeah. No, this wasn't meant to be an epic horn that I totally failed on. This is intentionally a small horn. Glancing at the top, you can see Avantika

has climbed to the center of the main mast and toward one of the crow's nests up top. Looking down, points to you, Fjord, and goes, Call to master! Call two of your compatriots that you trust to the top with me. Will do. Jester, deuce. Yeah. Jester.

Deuce. Yeah. Up top. Oh yeah, I like it up there. All right, so you guys climb up the main mast to the crow's nest, and there you see Avantika with a spyglass, and she leans into the three of you,

directing mainly towards Fjord and goes, So, now that we are at sea, I want to show you something. She pulls out the spyglass and holds it over to you and helps you point it in a direction. Here, you see what looks to be a vessel a little ways off on the horizon, a little bit north of where you are,

like a northwestward direction. She whispers over your shoulder so the rest of you can hear, So glancing at the ship ahead of us, it appears to be a Concord ship, a shipping vessel probably carrying trade goods. It appears to be equipped for rapid travel, but we could head it off.

As my quartermaster, I ask you for your opinion. What should we do? Oh, well, I'm sure it's a ship of innocence. We don't want to stray from our path, correct? Take a look. What do you see? I'll use the spyglass. Make a perception check. Torturing orphans on the deck.

20. 20, okay. Glancing at it, it's a pretty well-made ship. It's meant for speed. It doesn't appear to be heavily manned. It's not carrying or transporting people. It doesn't seem to be a transport ship of any means. You see a handful of small sailors on board with a hand crossbow or a saber that's sheathed at its side. You see on the deck a handful of crates that were not kept in beneath, which means it's probably pretty well-packed. It does appear to be Concord colors. It's probably traveling, since it's traveling south, or you

could gather it's probably recently finished, especially with your experience as a sailor, finished stocking up on all its materials, its travel supplies, and its goods, and is based on the path it's heading southward, it's either going to arc around to Tal'Dorei or be heading in the direction of Marquette, or possibly, if it's feeling risky, the Shattered Teeth. Captain, are you in a habit of intercepting said vessels in your time at sea?

It depends if we can do so quickly without losing any sort of momentum, perhaps. Not all ships are boarded and there's a loss of life. Most, I'd say, probably 80% of encounters out here is just intimidation. Most let us take what we want and continue on our way. They don't want to die. It's important that you know, in my previous life,

I've had encounters with pirating vessels as well, and most of those experiences I did not enjoy. Well, to be fair, there are plenty of assholes on these waters, so it does not surprise me. But it is your choice, I say. You may talk amongst your friends, but there is opportunity. You say no need for a loss of life?

Not unless they, how do you say, are stupid. Or stubborn? I don't know. Well, my fellow bosun and navigator, this is 2B, nope, bosun and carpenter. I'm a carpenter for

learning to be a carpenter. Okay, carpenter and bow. And a really good tattoo artist. What are you? A bosun. Oh, I had that completely fucking backwards. I take real good notes. What say you on such a dangerous expedition as this?

May I? Oh, yeah, yes, of course. I'm going to take a look at this thing. Make a perception check. 22. 22, okay. You make out the same details he does. Nothing catches your attention,

nothing about it seems out of the ordinary, per se, but it does seem to be a vessel that is filled with its payload and making its way south. Let me see, let me see, let me see, let me see. Make a perception check. Only because I would totally do it if they were both looking and I rolled like shit. I just thought, I think that's a ship.

You're not wrong. Obviously the decision is yours, but we are low on supplies, which means we have more to lose. If something goes wrong, we lose vital members of our crew or burn through magic ability. We are going to be without food, whereas I'm sure they're probably very well stocked and prepared for these sorts of eventualities. I feel like we would be coming in from a place of weakness.

That's my initial thought. Jester? Oh man, I don't know. I'd be okay with it, I guess. You're up for a scrap on the seas. Well, it doesn't have to be a scrap, like Evander said. It could be, you know, just go in and take stuff, but maybe we could also give them something. What would we give them? I don't know, like new names or pretty drawings or...

Fine art. Yeah, we could just make it a fun time for them. An aggressive trade? Interesting. Very well. What is your decision? As long as we abstain as well as we can from violence, and as long as your men in the crew understand

my disgusted such tactics, I think we can make our way towards an intercept. You watch as this playful look on her face as she watches this discourse turns into this extremely intense, almost Joker-like grin. She goes, Well, then, welcome to Paris, my friends. Come.

She jumps off the side and heads the ropes down and begins shouting off commands to people on the ship. That escalated rather quickly. She made me question what we just did. I thought it was one thing, and then her face made me think it's a whole other thing. Well, you said we need supplies, right? Well, I said that we were in a position

of disadvantage, I don't. I felt like your words were different before. Listen, we're going to not use violence, all right? I'm not. The sails shift. Is it a rupture being pulled and we can move in the direction of the reception? Do me a favor, spread the word amongst the rest of us,

right, and make sure the rest of the crew hears as well. I don't want innocent bloodshed if it can be helped. I mean, whatever for it, I guess we can do that if you want to, I don't care. Thank you, Jester. I'm already down, I'm not there. All right. I feel like this is somehow connected

to your previous bad decisions. Oh shit. Nope. No. Is the big ogre. Bouldergut? Yes, that name. Yes, Bouldergut is on this ship. She has been moved from the Mistake,

partially because Bouldergut acts as a bodyguard to Avantika, and because the other ship itself is in serious need of repairs, they assume probably don't put the giant heavy ogre on it. Can I find Bouldergut? Sure enough, Bouldergut is down there currently getting ready with what looks like a giant great club that is carved from an older masthead.

Bouldergut? I'm sure that is just for show, yes? Right, for show. It's important you understand I have an agreement with the captain, no unnecessary bloodshed. You will make sure that the rest of the men know this. She looks back and Avantika goes, oh, don't worry, you are the Quartermaster. You are the one who is to be building

any sort of ships that we encounter, so you choose your people. Oh, yeah. I know. Making sure you know, that is all. My imagination felt vaguely like a threat. At this point, you watch as Ipess, who is the second mate of the ship, this sunburned gnome scurrying up the rope to go ahead and put their flag on display. Ipess?

I-P-E-S-S. What does the flag look like? The flag on this is a dull gray-purple color, and it has a similar sketch of the same eye tattoo that Avantika has on her chest. All right. As that goes up and the ship begins to move to intercept, glancing through the eyeglass in the distance, you can see the other ship noticing the approach,

and there is now a bunch of chaos as they all begin running up and down the ship, notifying everybody else on there. What are you doing to prepare, guys? I'm running to find Nott, our master gunner in training. I'll say, Nott, I need you to keep an eye on those guns. We're not looking. All right, you motherfuckers! I need hollow charges loaded! I need extra fuses on every motherfucking cannon! Get me hollow shells loaded with extra charges! I want four cannonballs on

every cannon! Move! Move! Move! Move! Not, not, not! Oh my god! Look, again, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,! The angry, tough, red-bearded dwarf that actually acts as the cannon master of the ships, about his name is a Fiskinduth, goes like, I'm interested in possibly getting involved with this. It's too much fun to watch. Keep going, goblin. I'm liking it. If you're not going to help, stand out of my way! All right, I've got five pounders, eight pounders, 12 pounders, short fuses, and 20 pound kegs of cans. Two of the deckhands who act as powder monkeys are also helping get things organized.

What are we doing? What's going on? We're doing great. Beau, you're going to join me as we pull alongside the ship. You're part of the boarding party. Go up above. Okay. Nott, and I pull Nott close, and I say, if you fucking fire on that ship before they fire on us, you will never get into the Academy, do you understand? The Academy? All right, so we're not fighting.

The letter that I have that grants me access, if you want that for Caleb. Oh, I see. So act real tough and yell real loud. Don't fire on them unless they fire on us, you understand? Though I would recommend if you're going to fire, do a warning shot. Tends to get them a bit spooked in their boots

and slowing down. Good for them. So a warning shot's okay? Across the valley, not at the ship. In front of it, away from it, but just enough to show a little bit of power. To me, it seems like the closer, the more intimidating, right?

There's a bit of a range of error with these weapons. They're not perfect art. So don't fire at them? As long as you don't hit the ship. All right. I'm sure you'll. Come on, you motherfuckers, get ready to fly! At this point, the sails are fully unfurled,

speed is picking up, the other ship was trying to gain speed. It is a very fast ship, but as it tries to move away, it ends up putting you at a parallel pace, at which point the other Master Gunner leans in to you and goes, About now would be fine, I think. To fire? I want him to slow down, eh? All right. I'm so excited. I'm just going to take a swig.

He gets behind you, not quite making the vase and ghost, but is trying to help show you exactly how to set things up and get the cannon ready and aim it. Are you with us? It's more of an uncle and a friend. I'm going to leave you to it. I'm going back upstairs. Okay, I'll cast Quick Message and say, Fjord, I'm about to fire my warning shot. Good to go? You can respond to this message. At your will.

All right. I will life abuse? I don't know how you do it. Can you respond to this message? At your will, yep. All right. I will light the fuse? I don't know how you do it. Yeah. Powder. Powder, place the shot, put the fuse in, aim, and then fire.

Okay. Do I have to roll for this? Go ahead and make an intelligence check. Okay, that's a natural one. Oh no. I'm so excited. Okay. So. Ready! You light the fuse.

Fire! What happened, what's going on? What order did you put them in? I put the fuse in first, and then I put the powder in, and then one of the balls. Is that right? I don't think that's how. I think you fucked it up. I think I did the ball first and then the powder. I think that's how. I'm going to clean that cannon. Shit, shit. You're going to have to clean it.

Let's go to another cannon. All right, we'll move over to this one. So you've been setting up the other cannon. You put the powder first, put the ball, get the, the other cannon goes off. Oh! At least you weren't looking at it. There's a mea, a shaking sound,

what looks like splintering wood, and a bit of smoke in the vicinity. You glance over, and that cannon is fucked. I come running in. Do I need to fix a hole? It's not wood, but sure. Caleb runs up from under the deck with Sulphur in one hand and Batshit in the other.

What is going on? Where, what is this? Sorry, sorry. What are we doing? Technical difficulties. Please tell us what the fuck is going on. Apparently committing an act of piracy. At this point, Fiskin sees this and knowing your skills, he goes,

go back upstairs. There's a lot of powder in this room. Aren't we? Oh. Oh. Upstairs. You're good? Fire boy. I'm good. Go, go, go. I was born to do this. All right, so you owe us a cannon.

Try again. He has a cantrip mending. We'll see if that would help a destroyed cannon. That's a lot of material. I can fix it. A single break or terror? No, no. That cannon's fucked. One little thing goes. All right, try it again. The DC's lower this time because now you've fucked up.

I got this. Are they getting away? They're still like, you guys, you've managed to head them off, they're managing to get speed and they're curving this way and you guys are curving to meet them. They're looking at us because there was a detonation. Okay, that's better. Intelligence check? Yes. 20. 20. Without issue this time. 20. 20.

Hey! Without issue this time. Proper order, with a rapid pace, halfway through, Fiskins is like, and you do, you have to go, yes, all right, all right. Back off, old man. You said it.

Light the fuse. The whole thing lurches back about two feet and there's a large wooden platform that catches it from the impact. The room shakes for a second and you glance through the little side of the gun port and you watch it hit the water, maybe about 40 feet out from the front of the other ship, at which point you hear shouting from the other ship and you watch as it starts to slow and come to a slower crawl, begins to give up its chase. No, it did not. Out of text message.

Forward, forward, mission accomplished! Forward at will, forward at will! Beautiful, beautiful. Well done, Nott. Oh my gosh. Oh boy. Whoa. So have you guys been praying for two years?

This is more for just a visual perspective. Just for visuals. Guys, if you live in the UK, you're going to get some faster, cheaper shipping. Way cheaper. Yeah, of the art book. Uh-huh. Because books are heavy. Yeah. Which is going to be available what day? Monday.

Wow. This is exciting. But also D&D Beyond. D&D Beyond. But also. Oh shit. That's for sure. Whoa. So cool. You made those?

Well, no, this was sent to me by fans of the show who actually make these, and then this was custom made a while back in case this ever came. Does this ship have a grid printed on it or carved it? Yeah, lasered it. Whoa. So, just to give you a perspective,

as you guys pull up from the side of this, eventually the two ships are brought in, anchor is dropped. Whoa. Which one is ours? This is yours here, this is the squally here.. So on the opposite end, you can see the crew has all moved up to the deck. They have weapons at the ready, but not necessarily ready to fire. They're in the process of realizing they don't have much recourse at this moment. At this point, the rest of Avantika's crew, at least a number of them, have come up on

the deck as support, but you're the one who's helming this, so what are you doing? I look over at Caleb. Caleb, have you any desire to intimidate some folks? Do you need that? Yeah, okay. Mm-hmm. Do we have a name of the ship? I was going with. Squaliger. Oh, their ship.

She is intimidating. Their ship, you haven't seen either. You know, sometimes you can be nice to people, too. And make them think that they are friends. Yeah, I don't know. That's not where I'm going. Beau. Yeah? Team up with Bouldergut.

I want you to go on the opposite ship, find me the captain. Okay. And take, can I see how many men, now that we're close, how many are above deck? Yes, and just to give you a brief perspective here of what you see on deck. Off to the side.

Those are the main people you see that are all, some of them appear to be deckhands and aren't armed aside from a small short sword on their side. A couple of them appear to be a little better dressed, but none of them are warriors. They don't appear to have a very heavy, visible guard on the deck of the ship. Okay. Sorry to interrupt. No, go ahead.

Yeah. I'm coming with you. Just keep an eye out, make sure no one's doing any shifty biz. And you want no violence here whatsoever? Not unless, rules of engagement apply. Do not fire or attack unless fired upon. Do you want me to make an announcement, maybe? Yes. Ah, Thaumagurati, I'm going to project my voice very loudly onto the other ship.

Okay. Fellow friends at sea, we wish to have a parlay with your captain and we hope to keep this entire confrontation as bloodless and reasonable as humanly possible. We will do our best to be civil and not encourage anything inappropriate over the next several minutes.

We would appreciate your cooperation in this direction. And then I'm going to try and make all the doors open and available to us from the other ship with Thaumagritchi as well. I'm going to pop all their doors open. As soon as that sentence comes to an end, you hear a rapid clattering of heavy wood against wood. As all the various ports and doors

in the interior of the ship all manage to slam open at once. All the members on the opposite side look at each other, make an intimidation check. What number is that? Yeah, I have a number in there. Let's see what it does. That's a 22.

22. Woo! They all look at each other and begin to back, leaving further away from the edge. One of them rushes down and goes deeper into the ship and a moment later returns with one figure which appears to be better dressed than the others. You see very bright blonde hair and

a relatively well-dressed leather tunic over decent captain's clothing, comes to the front and goes, I am the captain of the Stormcap. Who am I to be parlaying with? I'll step forward and reach for gloves that aren't there and not do that. My name is Fjord.

I'm representative of the Squall leader here. If you will but humor us for a few moments. I'm afraid we're very short on supplies. We need to replenish our stores and perhaps enrich our pockets. If your men behave, I'm sure we will all get out of this very little worse for wear. I am Captain Jules Erag of the Stormcap, and I would very much like the lives of my men spared. What supplies do you need? Perhaps there can be a trade organized. Indeed.

Deuce, food, water? Definitely food, water. We're also in the need of some gems, if possible. I'll also say that if they require any healing at all of anybody who might be sickly on the ship, I'd be happy to offer my services. Oh, indeed, yes. The well-being of your men, obviously,

was something that we would easily tend to. His expression gets really confused. It's like, okay. What's Captain Avantika doing right now? Can I go? Avantika's on the other ship, leaning against the opposite side, watching this happen, just keeping an eye on everything.

Now, in exchange for our goodwill in this interaction, I'm sure you won't mind if we peruse below decks and just see if there's anything of interest. Looks across at the rest of his men, looks over towards you again. I'm, by the way, human-looking right now. Okay. Smead.

The intimidating palmaturgy casting Smead. Yeah. Okay. Do as you will. Fantastic. Boulderriggut! I'll call the ogre up to just board their ship and stay on the gangplank between ours and theirs. Baldriggut takes a step towards the gangplank and goes, Looks at her and Vantika shouts,

Perhaps not having her on the plank is a good idea? No, I'm sorry. On their ship, on that side of the gangplank. Perhaps not having her on the plank is a good idea? Oh, no, I'm sorry, on their ship, on that side of the gangplank. At that point, Voldegret backs up and does a running jump and hits the other side, and you watch the ship shift in the water from just the impact of the weight of this ogre.

Yeah, I can't remember how big she is. So now you have that. Our friend here is going to play chaperone, right? Ensure everyone stays nice and happy up here. Beau, would you mind coming with me? Yeah, absolutely. Let us know if you need anything. Will do, and again, I must emphasize,

no tricky business. We're in good moods. Be smart to keep it that way. And I fire a firebolt straight up into the sky and an arc over and let it land in the ocean. A firebolt? Yeah, firebolt. Yeah, screw that. You don't want us to be unhappy.

Make an intimidation check. 11. Okay. The captain thinks to himself and nods, turns and steps aside from the doorway that he's been standing in. I'll motion to a third, so it's not just Beau and myself. One of the other crew members of the Squalia to come with us downstairs.

Okay. At your disposal right there would probably be Vera, who was the previous Quartermaster, but she's a bit older. She looks a bit, not quite geriatric, but is in her older years. Yasha. Yasha.

Yasha. We're trying to go with Skrull either, people. Oh, okay. Valdik or. Vira, Ipsis. Ipsis or Valdik. I thought it was Vira, Ipsis, or Norgulz. Vira Norgulz is her name. So who are you calling?

Or Ipisys is the... Yeah, let's have Ipys come. Okay. So the giant bushy-bearded gnome comes by and has his short sword drawn. All right. We're going shopping. Let's do it.

Lead on. So the three of you make it across the gangplanks. Now the group is four of you, including Bouldergut. The large opening that leads down into the ship. Where's the captain's quarters? Captain's quarters is underneath and to the back. Be right back. I'm going to go into the captain's quarters. Okay.

As you head down, almost everybody who's on the ship is up top. You see a few figures that are deckhands that are just cowering in rooms. They look scared shitless. When you begin to walk past, you hear like, and they're just trying to stay quiet. You're in the captain's quarters. What are you doing? I want to look for any type of important paperwork, correspondence, what these guys are traveling, logs, et cetera. Make an investigation check. Also, I downed you here in the back of your skull. Books.

And books. Frumpkin, what are you doing? I put Frumpkin on my shoulder. I rolled a natural 19, so 24. A number of shipping ledgers. There are bookskeeping tabs on payments to the crew and how long they've been hired. There is one paper you do find that is hidden in a locked compartment beneath, but you manage to find underneath this little bit, you can slip your fingers through and pull a sheet of paper out on the opposite end of the shelf, not getting it. Underneath.

This is a list of the supplies on the ship. Anything of interest? There's food and water for the journey. There are Clovis Concord spices, Menagerie Coast specialty dried meats, tropical fruits that are specifically frozen and then brought, that are slowly falling through the journey to get them as fresh as they can to where they're going. It looks like this journey was intended to go to Marquet, to Port de Mali, the Bay of Gifts. You do see, amongst all the various bits of general supplies,

cloths and clothing and silks that are specific to the Menagerie Coast, there are some elements of empire goods as well that are put in there, but the thing that catches your interest is there is one last addition. Everything else seems to be written in one type of handwriting, and there's a different type of handwriting on the final entry.

The final entry says, Requested Package, Guarded. The amount that was paid for that was 1,800 gold that was received by the captain on this ledger to keep on the down low. I'm going to immediately look around. Do I see any other safes anywhere where you would hide a guarded package in here? In here? You do not. Not within this chamber. All right, I go meet Fjord and Norvold. Nope, Ypres. That's who's with us. I go meet them. Okay. Are you guys waiting for Beau or are you heading? Yeah, we go together.

Okay, so Beau joins up with you guys. Much fun. Oh, entire inventory of the ship? That looks interesting. Oh, yes, indeed it does. Who wants to ask about that? Oh, I believe I will. All right.

Actually, actually, with as high as your investigation check was, and continued investigation of the room, searching for any sort of thing, you do not find this package, but you do find underneath one of the small tossed, somewhat mildewed rugs that mark the floor, there is a section of floorboard that pulls open, and you can see that there is a small chest that is locked.

When you pull and shake it a bit, it's filled with quite a bit of coin. I grab the whole chest. Okay. Is it heavy? It's pretty heavy. I grab the whole chest. Nice, First room. Yeah, it's pretty good.

Yeah. I feel pretty proud of that. Yeah, that's real good. Do you think this is the shipment? Think this is that? Nope. What I deduced that this is that, or no? No. No. As you're moving and shifting it, it sounds like it's filled with a lot of coin.

So there's a different package here. Well, I'm going to find out one way. All right. I'll call over Bouldergut. Bouldergut, do me a favor and just take, well, just lob this over onto the other ship for me, would you? Bouldergut grabs it with one hand

and just walks over. As Bouldergut makes her way onto the deck, you can see the captain notice it, and just sigh loudly and hang his head. I know, Captain, I hate to be more of an inconvenience than this already is, and I want to get the storm cap on its way as quickly as possible. Would you do me a favor and have all of your men

come down here and assemble at the bow of the ship, please? This is just getting too interesting, and I just can't have you spread out all over the place. Men, please, to the bow of the ship. They all begin to shift and make their way that direction as the captain against the moog goes, All I ask, please, is leave enough supplies for us to make our journey.

But of course, captain, what are we, monsters? Does not break eye contact with you and just gives you this serious dark glare. I just start lobbing fire bolts into the sea like I'm skipping stones every 10 or 15 seconds. It certainly keeps the other side nervous. Just waving at them. I'm going to run into the sea like I'm skipping stones every 10 or 15 seconds. It certainly keeps the other side nervous. I'm just waving at them.

Hi. We'll make our way below Dex to see what we can see. Okay, so you go past into the cargo hold, which is below here. On the level where the captain's quarters are, and just below there's the rest of the cabin quarters for the rest of the crew, and then below that is the cargo hold. cabin quarters for the rest of the crew, and then below that is the cargo hold.

As you make your way past the various hiding other members of the deckhand crew, down in the lower cargo hold, you can see there are a series of crates and barrels that contain all the supplies that were on the ledger, you would assume, of all the different trade materials. Yeah? I'll peek my head into one of those rooms where the different trade materials. Yeah. I'll peek my head into one of those rooms

where the crews are hiding. I'll say, you, you, and you, get your ass up. I want these crates taken above deck and put on our ship. Do it quickly, do it quietly. Which ones? I'll point out the ones with the food and some of the water and some of those frozen fruits as well for scurvy needs.

Okay. They all try to keep a distance from you, scurry down and begin lifting things, at which point a voice below goes, What's going on? They go. They begin to move stuff back up to the top. I'll grab one of them before they.

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. I heard that. I crack my knuckles behind Fjord. You know, if you were on the sea long enough, you would know that I'm the type that only asks a question once. Who else is down here? Make an intimidation check.

23. I question once, who else is down here? Make an intimidation check. 23. Eyes wide, you can see the pupils gyrating in a very, very quick shaking motion. I don't know his name. He's one of the, he came with one of the pieces of cargo. He just stays down there. That's the package. Yeah, that would be it.

You can go. Vamiginn is continuing to grab and pull the crates up. Cast message. Fjord, we are reloaded and ready to fire. If you want me to fire, literally reply with any word. You can reply to this message. Fuck. I'll kick reading.

I don't feel like we need reinforcements for this, right? I mean, I feel deeply capable, but I feel deeply capable, but I feel deeply capable. Yasha? Yo, Yasha! From across the other side, stepping up onto the gangplank. Yasha!

Yes? Come here. Bounds across the gangplank, coming to the other side. What do you need? She heads down to the ship with you. Think a secret package is a person. Think there's a person, think he's a secret package, because he's on this ledger,

and it's different handwriting. Anyway, let's go find the person. Yeah. We'll make our way further into the hold and try and find the source of this voice. Just because everyone's on the deck, I'm just going to do a quick Detect Magic and just scan the boat and see if anything.

The whole boat? Everybody in the boat and just go ahead and do it. While he's doing that, I'm going to say, I need a volunteer! From the other crew? And I will also say, I'm going to take that and that trunk that they just, the chest they just threw on as well.

The chest does not emit a magical presence. In order to really check the other ship, you'd have to go across onto its bow. Scan and walk across, it's a 30-foot. It's 30-foot, okay, at the very least, I'm going to get close and walk the... Okay. Okay. As you begin to make your way over towards the bow, concentrating on the spell, a tiny little magic source below you, deep, in the ship catches your attention.

In the other ship? In the other ship, yes. There's something magic down below. Well, this is happening. I say that all the time to my lady friends. You guys head down into the cargo hold. Super on edge and guarded. Make perception check.

Darkvision Goggles. Okay. Okay. I will aid you. Thank you, I will take it. Oh my god, I rolled a three and a four. There's something magic down below. Seven.

Mr. Caleb, I'm sure you might get a three. Looking inside, it is lightless and appears to be empty, aside from the series of crates and shipping containers that are in here, and the ones that you've had moved up to the top. Between the three of them, they've done two quick up and downs, they've brought a fair amount of supply so far and they'll continue if you tell them to.

I can't see shit, but I don't trust it. I can. Hang on, maybe if I readjust, let me just close my eyes for a second. Okay, why don't you try? Yeah, can I give it a better look with my dark? No, because you spent your time helping her. Technically, it is both of you looking.

Fuck. Caduceus, the fact that he is a little nervous, so I place my hand on Caduceus' shoulder and then look through Frumpkin's eyes to see what's going on. Getting a little bit of magic down there. I don't know what it is, but it's making me nervous. Okay, looking through one's eyes

to make a perception check. Oh, I wasn't trying to do a perception check. I'm not searching for anything. I'm just checking. Just keeping an eye? Okay, so you're just keeping tabs on the situation. I just, that's exactly what I'm doing. Okay. I just want to let it known

that I am asking for a volunteer from the other crew. Oh god. I need a volunteer! They all look at each other. It can be anyone, but there should be at least one. The captain steps forward and goes, For what?

For a special present! It's a treat! Make a persuasion check It's a treat. Make a persuasion check. That sounds awful. That sounds like the worst thing ever. Oh man. 17. A treat. Go, Lieb, that way. Liam? Lieb.

Lieb. One of the, I know, so close. One of the deckhands was like, me? Come on, come on. Onto this wall you're in? Come sit next to me. Comes across the gangplank over next to you. I bust out the tattoo stuff that Orly's been teaching me.

I'm going to give him a tat. While that's going on. This is the darkest timeline. Unmolested, except for... And that's how I got this. Where do you want it? I'm having bad effects. He's just like, what? It'll be so good, it's going to be so beautiful.

This poor guy. You got to test on somebody. Ooh, I like it! Let's get the arculas open. While everything's going on, I'm just going to He looks over at the captain very mournfully, and the captain's like... It's just going to be one smiley line with two tusks sticking out of it. Oh. Remember. You've been abducted now by Captain Tuskdude. Make a dexterity check.

You've been abducted. Congratulations. Whoa. You'll be hit by a pistol. 19. Over the next 10 minutes or so, you'll be able to provide a fine tattoo of that simple design. It's like a smiley face, but with tusks. You got it. He's biting his lips.

Just deal with it, that's not going to get. I'll make my way forward into the hold, even though we haven't seen much. Okay. All right, so you move ahead into the hold, about 10 feet or so. There's a small pathway that's built between all the different elements of crates and barrels to make

sure you can get to the back of the hold. Plug. Sorry, not sponsored. Actually, not sponsored. As you move around the corner, in a flash, you hear and you see this quick arc of steel as suddenly from around the corner, a fairly well-armed man, it looks like, with sun-darkened skin, short hair pulled into a tight topknot or a bun of some kind, is holding a longsword two-handed and swings at you. Three strikes. That is 24 to hit.

Hits. That is 18 to hit. Hits. Ooh, that is 26 to hit. Misses. All right, so in three hits there, that is 16 points of slashing damage. 13 points of slashing damage. And 18 points of slashing damage.

Amazing. I call out on the deck. Captain, your quartermaster is under attack. How do you know that? He's looking for Rumpkin. Oh, god. Avanti goes and goes, I trust he can take care of himself, huh?

You want to send me down? Uh, we'll see. All right, now I need you to roll initiative, you to roll initiative, and roll initiative for Yasha, and I'll do for Boulder God. I don't know if I trust Gil. I'm sorry, Gil, I don't trust you. Oh!

Ooh! 18. I'll take that 18. Is it 25 to 20? Yeah. All right, so Beau, you're 18? Yasha rolled a 19. Oh, so Yasha's up first. I rolled a six.

Okay, good to know. All righty. Yasha is up first. Seeing this flashing of blades across Fjord, Fjord gets knocked back, careening into some of the nearby crates. You watch as they shift from the impact. You hear the cracking of wood, and as soon as the figure pulls back, getting the blade in defensive position, backing up again. It looks to be a corner that was set with a table and a chair. This is essentially the guarding post of this figure below. You can see there's a very faint bit of light in the corner from what looks to be a hooded lantern that's been faced towards the inside of the crate, so it wouldn't give any sort of light that revealed its location. You see him going into defensive

position. Yasha's up first. Does he look armored? Armored, yes. Like half-plate. With her bonus action, she will rage and she will make two attacks with the Magician's Judge. Go for it. Magician's Judge. That's not good. that's an 11. 11 misses.

The blade scrapes across his armor, no impact. And a 12. Both, the first one scrapes across the armor, causing a couple sparks to fly, and briefly lighting up his position. The second time, he pulls the longsword up, manages to parry and caused the blade to completely miss,

impacting and getting stuck about an inch into the wood before she draws back, angly, gritting her teeth. That ends Yasha's turn. Beau, you're up. Okay, I'm going to come up on a parkour off of one of the crates, and I'm going to try and come down, and I want to nail him in the temple and try and do a stunning stir. First, I'm just going to try and hit him.

All right. While I'm doing this, I'm going to be like, Frumpkin, Frumpkin, help! And then, okay, 19. 19 hits? I actually want to ask Frumpkin to do something from on deck. All right, we'll roll initiative.

Does she get advantage on barrels because she's a cooper? I'm using my elbow. Fucking, oh, spider bites just keep happening to me. Five points of damage on that first one, and I want to do a Stunning Strike. Stunning Strike on him, all right. Con save.

Bob is out of the box here. That is, he has a pretty decent con, but he only rolled a 15. What's a DC? 14. 14, yeah. He saves on that one. Hang on, wait, wait, wait. It's my proficiency bonus plus my, because I was afraid that I had been fucking this up, plus my wisdom, which is together is... It's eight plus your proficiency bonus plus your wisdom. Eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, 12, 13, no, it's still 14.

Yeah. Yeah, I brought it low. So the first strike hits him across the head, but he can't resist, it pulls back, teeth gritted. Pop pop, do it again, first hit. 20. 20 hits, roll damage for the second strike. Bullshit. Damage, six. Six points of damage.

You said his con was good? I mean, you don't know. He seemed to be pretty decent. He rolled a 15 on that one, but you can try it again. One more time, one more time. All right. Another ki point. That is a 12. Do you stunt? First strike, no impact. He pulls back. He's rearing to try and deflect or at least keep you at bay.

The second strike, as you crack right across the side of the head, he goes down on one knee. You see his eyes go wide as they're rolling a little bit in the skull, and he's currently trying to shake you on his bell. You still have your bonus action. And my bonus action. With advantage if you're... Oh, when he's stunned? Yep. Yeah, that's an 18 to hit, natural 18. And another goddamn one! Five. Five points of damage. All righty. So he's stunned on his knee.

I'm going to look at Frumpkin again and be like, Caleb, if you're watching, I don't trust Avantika. And then that's probably all I can say. Okay. That brings us to Bouldergut's turn. Bouldergut, there's not a lot of space here, so I'm going to give her disadvantage on her attack because she has to try and swing this large gray club in this enclosed space as an ogre. Kind of charging by. Comes down to go ahead and do an overhead strike. But with, actually,

it would have advantage because stun, so it's just a regular roll, so let me try it again. Yeah, that's a natural 14, that hits. So for that, he takes 13 points of damage, and that hits. Then the other attack, 17, that hits. And another 15 points of damage, nice. So anyways, he's on one knee, Boulder comes around and she whacks, slams, and goes.

Almost falls to the ground again, the giant impact slamming into the back of the metal. You can see the actual armor dented inward from the impact. She pulls up her second strike. Down on top, this one actually sends him down on the ground, and he's trying to get back up from that impact. The back of the armor is pushed in. He's limited some of his mobility with his shoulder blades from

the way the metal's been pushed towards his upper shoulder. That's going to end Baldrighun's turn. It's now Frumpkin's go. Frumpkin is going to fly over towards this gentleman and try to, with Talon's Rake, across his head. Would advantage because he stunned, yeah? So that's a 15 or an 18. 18 hits. 18, so I cast Vampiric Touch through Frumpkin's Touch, and he takes 3d6 necrotic damage.

All righty. Frumpkin to attack? That's a first, right? Through me. Whoa. Me through her. Him, damn it. That is eight points of necrotic damage to him. You can Wi-Fi suck HP out of somebody like that?

Whoa. Yeah! I just turn it forward and I go, Frumpkin listens to my commands! And that's it. Ending Frumpkins go, Fjord, you're up. I will stand up after getting the holy fucking shit knocked out of me with those longsword shots

and say, friend, you better be real sure this is something you'll want to die for. I would suggest you drop your sword. You're outnumbered, and I will take a step back. Nice. Okay. Make an intimidation check. Because you stunned and beat to shit, I'll give you advantage on it.

First one was 24. Ooh! Okay, then it's your turn, Yasha's up. Yasha will walk up and attempt to grapple him into a bear hug. Okay, go ahead and make an athletics check for her. With advantage, because she is raging. 21.

21. Okay, he is... Fails to strengthen Dex's saving throws. Doesn't say anything about his other abilities. I'll say, yeah, she grapples him, it's fine. Beau, you're up. He's grappled? He's currently being held by Yosh, and he's like, looking right over at Fjord, who's backed, you're up. He's grappled? He's currently being held by Yasha,

and he's like, looking right over at Fjord, who's backed away, hands up. Stunned and grappled. I'm going to say, look, me and this guy have been trying to be better about not hurting people. You know, we're trying to watch out for one another. The truth is, we're one to talk to you. We're going to get answers from you.

It's kind of your choice if it's going to take us beating them out of you, or if you just want to give them to us. So, I'm not going to hit you. But just know, if you feel like you're lying to me, I'm going to punch the living shit out of you, and then you're going to tell me what I wanted to know anyway. Understood?

That's your turn? Yeah. Okay. Comes to his turn, he's being held by Asha, and he shakes off the daze, grits his teeth, and just throws his sword to the ground. Cling, cling, cling, cling, cling, cling. He grits his teeth and just throws his sword to the ground. We're not murder monsters. Our dark-leaning thing goes.

Five percent. Four points for a negate, one point Paragon. Yasha's still clutching him there. Yeah. Friend. Yeah. Friend. Owl. Second, we saw a little manifest that said there was some guarded parcel down below.

I can only imagine that they were talking about you. Now, my friend was correct. She can punch the shit out of you. Also, we can see how well you want to swim. Or we can just make sure that you're on this boat, healed up a little bit, and sent on your way, and you can create whatever story you want. But I do need to know that you were protected.

Still being grappled by Yasha without saying a word. There's this look of defeat and acceptance of one's pride, and he's just trying desperately not to engage more than he has to and glances over towards a crate that is across from where he was sitting. That would still be in his visual perspective, but it's an unsuspecting crate pushed in a cluster of others.

Just looks in that direction and gives a head nudge. I move to it. Okay. Before I open it, I look and I'm going to go, start trapping this damn thing. Frumpkin lands on his head. No.

If you're lying to me, I'll slit your throat. Is he, do I think he's lying? Make an inside check. I'm going to start heading over to see what the commotion is. It's hard to read, he's a pretty grim fella. What are you saying? I'm going to start heading downstairs

to see what the commotion is. Okay, so you walk very gently. Would you like googly eyes on your tattoo? Or would you just like the smiley face? Whatever you want, please just let me go. Googly eyes it is, thank you very much. I open the crate very carefully. As you lift it up, looking inside,

there's a few heavy sacks of rice or grain or sand, you can't really tell, but they're all lining it for weight on the crate. In the center, you can see there's a pillow or a piece of folded fabric that's just folded and placed in the center. You pull the fabric back, and there you see what appears to be a very intricate wooden box of some kind.

It's about maybe that big, about the size of a shoebox, if you will, but it's really well scrolled and carved wood, like a whittler or a carver spent a lot of time to make it look very beautiful and presentory. I pulled that out of the crate. It has these chain handles on the sides that just dangle on the edge, and it has a little latch on it, and it's locked.

It's locked? Yeah, it's pretty light. Hey, Frumpkin, if you're listening, can you have Caleb tell Nott to come down here, please? As soon as Caleb felt Caduceus walk away, he dropped Frumpkin's sight, because he didn't want to be smacked in the face. Yeah, a couple times. But Frumpkin would listen to you.

The captain on the top says, Are we done yet? Nearly there. I look at the guy. Is this trapped? I don't believe so. What's your name? Oh, I really wish you hadn't done that. I can't guarantee her reaction to that. Will be a positive one.

I'm trying real hard right now. Like, so hard. Yeah, you are. You've done really well. You've already guaranteed I lose my job and my wage. What more can you take from me? Are you being paid to protect this? I was. How much? 150 gold upon my return. I'll give him 70 gold.

You just slip into his pouch? Yeah, I'll walk up and put it in his pouch, as Yasha's holding it. He looks confused and untrusting. He's caught off guard by it, he's like, We're trying real hard, man. Like actively trying real hard. Soma.

Soma. See, now was that so hard? Did that take you being fucking rude? He just glares at you. So am I. Are you coming down under? Yeah, I'm probably getting down. Oh, hey, Cad, will you go get Nott?

Actually, while you're here. Whoa, wow. Yeah. Someone did a number on you. Sorry, would you mind helping this fellow out and just giving him a little love? I might do both of you for a make-up. Hi, it's a pleasure to meet you. I get the feeling you're having a really bad day.

Oh jeez, I'll go get Nott. I'm going to just do a little healing spell down here so everyone's feeling a little better. I'm going to start doing a little, where am I doing? Yeah, I'm going to do a little healing on both of you. So take a few minutes while you guys figure this out. Thank you. All right.

He rocked me. I miss raging. Prayer of healing. Prayer of healing on both of them, so. Okay, there you go. Nott, Beau catches up to you on the other side. Oh! Nott! Oh! Nott!

What? What is it? Come here. Stand down, men. Hey, Caleb. Are there any men standing in front of you? There are two of the other powder monkeys that are currently playing cards. Stand down.

At ease. Wait for my signal. 14 points up for you, 14 points up for him. I think Frumpkin really likes me. We had a bonding moment. Frumpkin took care of me and protected me. I know that it's true, because I think he's thought everything's fine. Come on, Nott.

We are the best of friends. He's the best cat that man could ever have. Where are we going, what's going on? Oh my gosh, is Fjord dead? No. But we found someone and something. Okay, let's go. While we're waiting for them,

can I pick up his longsword? Yeah. And look at it. It's pretty well made. I still have, I still, by the way, have my Detect Magic up. Am I getting anything? Well, it's Prayer of Healing and Concentration.

So I would have had it when I came in. When you came in, yeah, the source of magic was that box. Oh, so is that box glowing like? Yeah. By the way, I suppose I would have said that box is definitely magic. I'd be very careful with that. Yeah, all right.

Let's be gentle with that. Was it Soma? Mr. Soma? Soma. So how'd you get this gig? I was just sort of curious. I'm a hired protector. I mean, do you work for anybody, or do you have a deal with somebody?

Do you like who you work with? I mean, seems kind of a rough gig. It is when people like you come in here and ruin it. I mean, that's fair. This is just odd. I mean, that's fair. This is just odd. I mean, I imagine being sent with something I didn't know anything about by god knows who. That's just a leave of mine to wander, I don't know.

You'd be surprised how much of an industry revolves around just that. You know I would. He's taking it back even more. I will say you are definitely the strangest pirates I've ever heard of. Sort of a reluctant piracy at the moment. You don't know the half of it. We like to have fun at our job.

We like everybody to walk away feeling as okay with everything as possible. We're going to let you go now and be on our way. I'm going to keep this as a memento. I would advise you to stay below. If you pop up, I can't guarantee the same goodwill be extended, I'm sure you understand. Nods begrudgingly.

Nice plate armor, by the way. It looks expensive. It was, and he looks over at the back part of it that's been smashed as shit by the ogre's great club. I toss the box and nod, catch! What is this, What am I doing? Careful with that. Very careful.

Dangerous. What do you want me to do? Me? I want you to open it. Oh, Jesus. It's magic. Do you want to take this on our ship and let them be on their way? What if it blows up? I don't want to blow up our ship.

I already did that once today. Magical traps. Yeah, it's obviously magical, by the way. All right, step back, step back, step back. Are there any alcoves or closets or chests around here or anything? There are a number of crates in the vicinity. Okay, I'll open a crate and put it inside.

Okay. And then move back and use Mage Hand to try to open it. Or check for traps with it. Okay, checking for traps, you can't have to get close and inspect it. Oh, well then I will check for traps. All right, go for it, make an investigation check. That is a 20.

A 20. It is trapped. How trapped is it? It's a fairly complex trap, but it's- Mechanical or magical? Mechanical. Mechanical. So is the magic not coming from the box

or what was inside the box? You gather it's probably what's inside the box. I mean, we could, yeah. Can I attempt to disarm it? Can I attempt to disarm it with Mage Hand? Yeah, that's what Mage Hand can do. Okay, so back up everyone. Let's get some distance here.

Cover your eyes, cover your ears. Hopefully it won't destroy the thing inside. I bet you're probably pretty curious what's in there. Yasha's still clutching in there, he's like. I was thinking we're going to get it open, though. I'll keep everybody okay. I'm going to get a little distance and go outside the room, just in case.

Mr. Fjord, I would recommend you get some distance. I will take that advice and join you. All right. Go ahead and make a Thieves' Tools check, please, with your dexterity. 28. As the gentle mage hand clutching the Thieves' Tools begins to almost do this weird ghostly finger dance across,

you see a spring break. As the Mage Hand Shocker is the box. Sure. Almost got it! You hear a spring break. One in the poop hole! Oh god! Oh god! Oh god! You hear the spring break on the interior and it seems the trap has been disabled. Oh my god.

I think it worked. I think it worked! What do I do? I'll fucking open it. Open. Okay, well that was disable the trap, now you got to open it. Roll to unlock it.

Oh, it's still locked. With sleight of hand, or I mean, thieves' tools? 27. Yeah. Monster. There are three locks. There's one lock in the front and two on each side, and rapidly, just pop, pop, pop, they all come open. Wow. I want to go look.

Okay, you're going to open it up, and on the inside, it's a soft velvet interior of the case, and there you see what looks to be a small ceramic pot of some kind, roughly about that big, that has a lid on it and it is enclosed. Then above it you see meshed in there what looks to be a paintbrush, about a foot long. A foot long paintbrush and a little pot of paint. A little pot of paint, it looks like. Yeah, no, you're going to, yeah.

We're not going to touch this. We're just going to take this to our friends. We don't know what to do with it. The guard glances over and goes, this is bullshit. This is fucking bullshit. What, that you were, you almost got this? Yes!

Okay. You think you were, you almost got this? Yes! Okay. You think you were paid to carry this around? Do you think it was a prank? Were you pranked by a friend of yours or something? I don't want to talk about this. It's an expensive prank. Mr. Caleb is going to maybe want to take a look at that. I would recommend hiding it.

At least not for the thing. In a complete attempt to capitalize on your disgruntled feelings, would you mind telling us who paid you to guard this, or where it came from? This paintbrush? I've already given you too much. Let me go amongst my pride swallowing. I feel really bad about this.

Can we throw him any money or something? We already threw him money, which means you're going to tell us who paid you. Come on, man, don't make us do this the hard way. We're trying to be good. Who paid you? I don't know. Come on, come on.

Where was the agency that you subcontracted from? I know how this shit works. I do mercenary work out of Port Damali from time to time in other places along the shore. That's great. Normally, some of the higher paying jobs are a don't ask type scenario. Okay. Fair scenario. Mm.

Okay. Fair enough. Okay. I think we've taken up enough of his time. You've been more than flexible with our questioning. That is very true. And I think we won't mention to anybody that we threw you a little cash. I mean, obviously, that doesn't need to travel

and whatever you need to do to maintain. I understand dignity is a thing. As well as the fact that you spit in my face. I'm going to leave that here. If we're going to cross out these doors, none of it happened. Actually, if you like, we can walk out of here being very irritated, if that didn't, and just getting like, ah, that guy, too much.

Do you want us to do that? Like, oh, ow, you got me in my kidney, ugh. He's just giving the thousand yard stare into a shadowy corner. I actually do feel that way, so let's just head up. Oh, yeah. So we'll head up above. Well, Bouldergut stops and turns around towards him

and pats him on the head. Nah. Then follows up behind you guys. I feel like we should leave these people with most of what we have. I think this has been enough. I don't want to cause any more trouble than we have. I agree.

Do you want to make sure everyone's feeling all right before we leave? Anybody else need some healing, anything really quick? Captain Jules Arag says, No, would you please leave us? If you have everything you need. Liam, get back over to your ship, you're going to miss it.

Go, go, go. Jester, what are you doing? Oh, nothing. He runs back across like. I made a friend. Can I reach over and look? Come here. And I pull his shirt aside.

Did you do this? He has been marked. That's rare. Thank you for your hospitality. I'm glad that we can complete this transaction peacefully. The captain gives a nod. Thank you for sparing the lives of my men. I wish you calm waters and safe journey,

and we will take it back over to the squalid. Okay. Arr! As we're walking over, I whisper to Fjord and I say, Avantika's going to want a paintbrush. What? Avantika's going to want to know about that paintbrush. Hmm, not yet. As you guys come across, the rest of Avantika's crew

pulls over the gangplanks. They pull up anchor, and Avantika, looking over the opposite side, goes, Do not pull up your anchor until we are beyond your sight. If we see you shift beforehand, we will turn right back around. The other crew nods. The sails unfurl, wind picks up, ship begins to move,

and you begin continuing to head westward. At which point, once you're a little bit out of earshot, and Avantika's keeping an eye off the edge of the ship, looks back at the rest of you and the rest of the crew begins to clap and there's a bit of applause. And with that, my friends, welcome, truly, to what it means to be free on the sea. I'm proud of you.

So, let's see what you found. And they go to start opening the chest. And we'll go ahead and take a break there. Oh! Boise. I'm hiding the little pot thing. Yeah. Yeah. But Bouldergut was there. Whoa. Boise. I'm hiding the little pot thing. Yeah.

But Bouldergut was there. Yeah, that's true. Bouldergut saw everything, so unless we want to bribe Bouldergut. We'll get to that when we come back from the break. Okay. I have a piece of wood. No, I'm dying.

All right, so we'll be back here in just a moment. In the meantime, we do have our Wyrmwood giveaway for the evening. For this, you need to head over to the Critical Role Twitch chat, that's twitch.tv slash critical role, to enter tonight's keyword is reef. R-E-E-F. Enter it once. More than once, you'll be disqualified. Once again, it's only available for people in the U.S. and Canada, excluding Quebec. But tonight we have our fantastic figured Myrtlewood dice vault, which is a new word,

a new word offered by Wyrmwood, which has actually a really cool texture to it. It's got kind of like a weird shh, shh. It looks like almost holographic. It's quite pretty, and one of you's going to win that when you return. So go ahead and enter in the Twitch chat. We'll see you guys here in a few minutes.

Why, hello there. This is Critical Role's resident art dad, also known as Liam O'Brien. We are continuously amazed at the artwork this community creates. That's why each Thursday at 8 a.m. Pacific, we share a curated gallery of submitted fan art over on CritRole.com. If you'd like to submit your art for consideration,

visit critroll.com slash submit. And thank you to all of the incredible artists who share their talents with us week after week. And welcome back, everyone. So, the winner of our fantastic figure Myrtlewood dice vault. Myrtle Myrtlewood. It's really pretty. Ironically, well named, Captain Cupcake.

Yay! Congratulations, Captain Cupcake. I love that cat. That is so cute. We'll get this into your right rickety space. You're the stupid Captain Cupcake. All righty. Captain Cupcake. We'll get this into your right rickety space. All righty. I'm got that. Ah, ah!

Oh yeah, too much, too much. Ruling it in. So, having now made your way on the Squall Eater off from, as far as I know, all of you, your first real bit of piracy. Oh boy. Pulling away, the chest that was brought on board is currently being picked and opened by some members of the crew.

As it folds open, looking inside, you can see it is a mass of gold, silver, copper, and an occasional glimmer of platinum coins. This was quite a bit of change, at which point the captain looks over to the quartermaster and goes, Well done, this will be divvied up appropriately. What else was found?

We got some, they begin to point out the food, a little bit of the thawing fruit, tropical fruit that was placed there. to point out the food, a little bit of the thawing fruit, tropical fruit that was placed there. Where's Boulder Guts to me? Boulder Guts just sitting there with the rest of you looking around and listening to the captain and looking off in the distance,

maybe like 10 feet from you. I have to go check on the cannons downstairs. I'll be back later. Wow. Make a deception check. Minus three, 10. I rolled a 12 on insight. The captain glances past, goes, Why don't you stay here, at least, until we finish divvying up all the findings?

Of course, Captain. I am at your beck and call. So weird. You're telling me? She's weird. All right, so anything else? What transpired below? You have not told me what happened. Apparently there was a sort of a scaffold.

And Baldigar goes, yeah, tiny man in armor. You begin to realize at this point, not a whole lot of timber difference between the male or female ogres that you've encountered in your time. Generally just more hair on the top of the head. Stubble's about the same. Indeed, there was a man in full plate armor

who got quite a few shots in. Yeah, one less pirate, one less shipper trying to prove himself a hero. Thought he could stand up to a lot of us. That is impressive. Did you finish him off? Well, we didn't kill him, but we definitely embarrassed him thoroughly.

Something that I find some men find worse than death. I'm impressed. You are all very strongly adhering to this not killing aspect of piracy. I can tell you from experience, it does not last very long. But I respect the intent. Anything else?

I heard there were some very good tropical fruits, super rare, in this crate, based on what I found. Good meal later on. Did we keep the sword? I don't remember. We did, yes. That kept a memento. No, hold up the longsword.

She comes up. Not bad. Boltegard leans in right over your shoulder bone and goes like. I just slip her 30 gold. Make a sleight of hand check. Oh fuck. Bribing the crew in front of the captain. Dumb as crazy.

Dumb as paste. I'm not. I just am trying to. Oh my god, are you serious? It's a seven. Oh, is it? That's not great. But that brings me to an 11. Is it a one? Oh, it's a seven. That's not great. No. But that brings me to an 11.

Is it a one or a seven? That's a one. Oh, it is a one. It is a one? Nope, it's a one. As you reach back, their coins slip from your grasp and all across. Fuck it, hold in my pouch.

Shit, how does that? Poldarkut goes and starts helping you pick him up. Thanks, Poldercut. But fumbling with her giant fingers. Thank you. Thank you. Good show, everybody. Everybody, great time. Just wanted a round of applause.

Woo! Captain Tusktooth. Go, Captain Tusktooth! Sorry. Sorry. Go, Captain Tusktooth! Go, Captain Tusktooth! Sorry. Sorry. Go, Captain Tusktooth. Quartermaster Tusktooth, formerly captain for us. Mm-hmm. Indeed.

Anyway, it was a good day. Start doing a little more healing on you. Evonica just gives a keen look towards Beau, nods. Captain Evonica. gives a keen look towards Beau, nods. Captain Evonica. Yes, Jester? Would you like a tattoo? I already have plenty, but thank you,

I appreciate the offer. If you want any more, or if you want any of the ones you have improved, just let me know. I'll take it, that's good. I will keep that under consideration. Anyway, regardless, we're done. Impressive work. Let's continue on to the Dragshadow Reefs.

Come on. So. You. What's happening? What do you know, Andy? I chase after Nott. Okay. You catch up to Nott, are you going as well, or is it just you two?

I'm going downstairs. What are people doing? That's what I'm asking, what are people doing? We act casual. I stay up to entertain Avantika. I, sensing my biff, casually I turn to

E-pris, saying, if you like, man, great work down there. How great was that? It was very impressive. So impressive. You beat the shit out of that man. I fucking, right? It's like adrenaline pumping. I could tell that it's very nice work.

Anyway, good day, man. And I go downstairs. You too. Goodbye. I'm just going to head down, obviously tired, and just go follow you guys to take a nap. Okay. Anyone else doing anything, or are we?

I'm following that. Okay, so you guys are going down. All right. I'm trailing them. I'm going to get that, so you guys are going down. All right. I'm trailing them. You better not fucking wizard down there with you. Mm-hmm. I'll try to find Caleb. If they do that, I try to find Caleb.

Okay, you find Caleb. Caleb, if you haven't left the top of the deck. No, I've been exactly where I was. Do you want to know more about my cat? Because you walked off before. But the funny thing about a cat is that they are very persnickety, but with the right person they are not, and Frumpkin with me, we are just so.

Just so. Genuine question, have you been telling this story the entire time I've been gone? No, I'm a very intelligent person, that would be foolish. I don't talk to thin air. And also, some people say that they have nine lives, which is funny because we have nine. You know what, I have something I think

that you would be deeply interested in. Did you find books? I didn't fucking, goddammit. I forgot to look, too. I didn't find fucking books. That's a long shot to get out of there. Okay, you know, books, cats, I get it. It's so good.

Try to do it. Try to get it. Joke's off. Love your fascination of both the most boring things that I can think about, including books and cats, but let's go look at something awesome. You thought it, too, didn't you? Books and cats and books and cats.

Books and cats and books and cats. Oh yeah. Shit. Yeah, you're telling me your love of higher learning, I understand, did you need something? Because you clearly don't want to hear about cats. So we could end this now. Okay.

Just keep your mouth shut for like 30 damn seconds. What'd you find, what'd you find, what'd you find? And follow me. What'd you find, what'd you find? We bring him to them. What'd you find, what was it? What are you hiding? I want to know.

Where are we? Let's get into our rooms. We're going to go into our chambers. You go to your chambers. And we. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Okay. I'm keeping a close eye on what's going on.

This is very, they're being so scanty. Yasha pulls in, what is going on in here? Shut up. Did anyone follow you? No. Okay. That captain can be invisible, she might be in this room with us right now. Everyone, just do this, just do this.

Walk around the whole room like. Oh. Oh, that's you, that's you, hi. Do we feel anything? Taliesin claps. Yeah. That would have been so awesome, though. All right.

Yeah. Boom. Yeah. Shake it, shake it, shake it, shake it. That's a roll, yes, yes, yes. Use my god. Okay. It's a magical paper.

Do the thing for your hero. Do you identify with it? Should I draw with it? Should I do something with it? Not yet. Not yet. I can talk now? Yes. Okay.

It's just not about character books. I will still help you. I need a moment, so I set it down and I start scrolling on the floor around it, and about ten minutes later, I have to open. In the meantime, I'm like, oh my god, so what happened? Is it like a tattoo? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Oh shit, that's so amazing. Okay, what did you get a tattoo on me? Are you expecting the full box? Are you expecting the full box? No, because, well, I guess I wasn't there. No, I mean, if they put the box down in front of me. I open the box, I open the box. Yeah, show them the paintbrush. The paintbrush and the ink, paintbrush and the box down in front of me. I open the box, I open the box. Yeah, show them the paintbrush.

The paintbrush and the ink. Paintbrush and the ink. You could use this. No, I know, but look, see if it's magic. Shoebox size. But it's the size of the item contained within. It's not like giant or anything. Deuces detected magic and it was glowy.

That's a lucky find. That's what I'm saying. So I need to figure out what it is. You should now, give me a moment. 10 later, after I transform into an Autobot, I cast Identify through the ritual spellcasting. Whoa! That's a novel. I need time. It's a long piece of paper. It's a long spell. It's lots of knowledge.

So you talk amongst yourselves for one minute. What do you want a tattoo of? What do you think it is? Oh, a tattoo, if we could pick any tattoo? The Quorum Sagestii. You mean like what physical attribute would we increase? Or what would you want the tattoo to be a picture of? Yeah, no, what do you want the tattoo of, like a picture of?

I've had an idea for just a little bit. So this is going to be stupid. Probably. You're not fucking. Not there! This is... Who said the not there fairies? Not there! A little not there fairy? Not there.

Not there. It's cousin to the metagaming pigeon, the not there fairy. Not there fairy. Don't forget, you still have that marble silver shield thing. Can you do more than one identifier at a time? You can take time to do it a few times. It's endless, but it takes ten minutes. Oh, you mean the shield?

The shield, yeah. Yeah. Oh, fuck yeah. What's it like, what? I had this idea, because Molly, on the back of his coat, his neck, his tattoo. Yeah. The tattoo and the coat, yeah. On the back of his tattoo, he had an all-seeing eye.

I just, I don't know, I thought it was really cool. I feel like it could be cool to have it on my back, kind of right below my neck. I think Molly would like that. Yeah, it'd kind of. I don't know. Maybe it was really sacred to him, he would be really super offended. Oh yeah, maybe he would, like a stoic on them.

But it's fine, I'm sure. Yeah, you know, he's dead, so what's he going to do? Wow. Wow. Wow. I was about to say, you can roll a d20, and if you roll a 20, I'll tell you what Molly thought. We'll do that later. Yeah.

Any news, Caleb? What is it? Sit down, sit down. Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. This is your lucky day. Yeah. And this is very dangerous to give to you, but you are the perfect person to have it,

so of course we are here. This is yours. This will allow you to paint things, and they become real. Yes! What? Yes. I was so hoping for this. What do you mean?

Anything? It's that, uh... Almost anything. Nothing to fancy. And now I get old. Chinese folk. This is some Bugs Bunny shit. The magic paintbrush. It's the magic paintbrush. From Roger Rabbit Warehouse?

Yes. This is literally... From Roger Rabbit Warehouse? Oh yeah. Singing sword and black hole? This will allow her to paint a door and allow there to be a door. This is literally. Roger Rabbit Warehouse? Oh yeah. Singing sword and black hole? This will allow her to paint a door and allow there to be a door.

This will allow her to paint a sword and there will be a sword. What? All you can eat, Fjord. Wait. It does eventually use up the paint over time. It can do a thousand square feet of surface? I mean, I learned from you in a moment.

When you walk down an alley and paint dicks, there'll be real dicks! Just dicks everywhere, dicks and dicks! I didn't think this through. I didn't think this through. Just a wall full of dicks! How did you not think this through? This was inevitably where this was going.

You could go in hindsight and just do something. Oh, if someone falls asleep, you could put a dick on their head and they'll have a dick on their head! Ah! This is my favorite thing in the entire universe. A rash of wild dicks have appeared in Wild Mound and through the Dwendalian Empire. I mean.

No one can explain the huge dongs protruding from walls, sculptures, and holy places. This is the most amazing thing in the entire universe. Fields of phthali. I won't lose it, I won't. Caleb! So just don't create a penis on my head, okay? And with a square.

I promise I will not draw a penis on your head. You have me at the clap. Excellent. You'll remember me. Can it make living things? Finite amount of ink, or what? No, it cannot do that. Not living things.

And it cannot create fabulous jewels, and it cannot create pious gold. Dick joke. But it can get us an escape from somewhere. It can. If we wanted to spirit ourselves away from this boat in the middle of the night, she could paint us a boat. She would need a surface to paint it on.

Oh. Like a big? Paper? That would be a really big, you would have a tiny boat. I'm talking about like a raft. She could just paint like a little raft and we could, boop. Then we'd be a raft in the ocean. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You could paint a small boat on the deck of the ship

if no one was watching. That's true. That would take a long time, though. That would be a difficult thing to do. This is a real conversation we actually need to have with the entire group present. Let's... Speaking of.

Just while I say it. Except for Fjord. Oh, Fjord. We're heading to port regardless, I figure, at some point. Yeah, I feel like before port. We need a plan before port. Before port?

Oh my god. Oh my god, this is the most amazing thing in the entire universe. I figure things don't change regardless, as long as we're on the O4 port. Before port. Before. You only had to actually be pirates and fucking roll a ship to get it, so live with that. I'm okay, I can live with that.

Does it say how much paint it comes with? It comes with enough to cover a thousand square feet of surface. Okay. If I made a ship, then it would use a lot of it. We could just steal it. Lots of things that are little. Oh my god. Just think about how many things that is.

Like if it's like a five-inch thing, that's like 2,000 things. What if you painted a 500-pound diamond? No, you can't do that. It would create a facsimile of that, but it would be worthless. Got it. The things it makes are not substantial.

Quick, Caleb, identify this in 10 minutes, and I give you the shield to identify it. Yep, yep, yep, this is a fair makeable. It is its color. I have been used. Okay, for chewing gum. Bored. Oh no.

Bored, Bored. What can your imagination make? Endless. Keys, ladders. Bored, bored in the barren room. Outfits. Outfits. Clothes? If you want, they're non room. Outfits. Outfits. Clothes?

If you want, they're non-magical items, usually. Catwoman outfits. Oh my gosh. Technically. This can blast an enemy with a bit of arcane oomph. A shield that can fight? A little bit, yeah. That's so cool.

Who can use a shield? Do we have any shields? Well, Caduceus and. I have a shield. You have a shield, Caduceus? I have a shield. Yeah. Do you need a shield? My AC is 17. Did we bring him down here yet?

No, yeah, I'm not here. Go to hell. Oh, I was going to say, I go get Fjord. Take a look at that thing, maybe? Casually, but I don't want to interrupt, like a cocktail party. Okay. I don't want to be, you know.

I do the, you know, when you're ready, just... Okay. Just where we are. It might be good if it's up close and personal with Fjord. Fjord could be good for us. Why don't you detect the clerics? Well. Aw.

What's your AC again? 17. Yeah, see, one of you guys have it. What's your AC again? 17. Really? Yeah, so one of you guys have it. That's pretty cool. Yeah, I really like my shield, though, but this is interesting. Can I use a shield? No. No.

I don't think you can. No. Fish? I don't think so. I think technically anyone can use a shield. Technically anyone can use a shield, but if you're not proficient, you get a bunch of bad things. All right.

We just covered this in our Handbooker Helper episode. Light armor. Uh-huh. All right. Correct, no shields. Consider it a gift after nearly dying. That's not fair. In the past, well, now eight days, but. I may, just for my own personal aesthetic,

try and mount my beetle wings onto this, but I like it. We'll do that later. All right. All right, let me. So. What do we do now? I'll have to add it to there myself. Oh, you'll have to add it? It's a custom item, so.

Oh, well. I told him, like, when you're ready, this is where we are. Plus one in my AC. How many attuned items can I have at this level? For any level, it's three. Three, all right, that's fine. Yeah, we need Captain Tusktooth down here,

because that was an interesting afternoon, but it is not what I want to do with the rest of my life. I have a lot of ideas. Yeah, I'll find my way back down to the rest of it. Okay, there you go. What'd we get? Nothing. Shit. Just some paint.

Weird that they would have an armored guy with a longsword protecting a paintbrush that does nothing. How do you feel about floating dicks? Not opposed. All right. It's a floating dick-making thing. Better than sinking dicks, I suppose. Should I try it just to see?

Don't waste any paint, but yes. I'm going to paint on the floor the teeniest of dicks, like this big. Okay. You take a little bit, you do this little thing, and suddenly. A flaccid penis or an erect penis? An erect penis.

Of course. That's the go-to. Okay. You paint it and finish it, and you look at it, and take the edge of the paintbrush and nudge it, and it rolls a bit. I mean, it's like a stone sculpture. It's not fleshy. It's not made of flesh. Even Frankenstein, the baby triumphant bastard in the life.

You're not turning this into Second Life. It's just all the different fucking floppy dicks flying everywhere. It's not the dick brush. Wait, I have a question then. If I make a tree, if I draw a tree, would the tree be made of stone, or would it be made out of, would it look like a tree? You can have to find out and try. This may actually give you, what is your shield,

what's your AC bonus to your turn's shield? This would actually, this doesn't give me an 18, this just gives me a 17, because I was already at a plus two with my shield. Oh. It's plus two and then plus one on top of that. Oh, okay, so right now it's only giving me a plus two. I'll double check the item.

Maybe I haven't. Oh, never mind, now it's working, there we go. I hadn't attuned it. Ah, there you go. I pick up the Littlestone. He wants it. So we found a paintbrush that you can paint things and they will come into being?

Is that what it is? That's right. Wow, and the shield. A little gaudy for my taste, but I'm going to do a little work to it. We'll hurt your enemies, not just protect you. Can I just ask how everybody, humor me, feels after today?

I would prefer not to make a habit of that. Yeah, me neither. Anybody humor me feels after today? I would prefer not to make a habit of that. Yeah, me neither. I mean, it feels like a bucket list item checked off the list, but there were several times that I might have questioned everything that we were doing. Right, bucket list as in hijack a ship before you die kind of a thing? I mean, we just had the full pirate experience

that a travel agency could not provide. So it was very authentic, and that was amazing. I follow you sometimes, you know that. Huh? Ah, nothing, just. Nott, I'd ask if you had any reservations, but you seemed very enthusiastic about today's. I was born to be a cannoneer.

Uh-huh. I can't promise there'll be a lot of that, but at least I know that you're DTF. Cool. Caleb. Down to fire. Yep, fire-a. Caleb. Down to fire. Yep, fire her. Caleb, how you doing? I mean, this is a matter of survival.

If we do not cooperate, she's going to kill us. I'm not opposed, per se, to what went down today, but it's not what I want to do with my life. I would prefer to break away from this woman, but we're here for you right now. You are trying to figure out, you know, your thing. I think I'd like to hear from you what the plan is, the long-term plan is.

Are we on the ship in the sea? Is that what you're after, or? Yeah, actually, I do have some news to share. Avantika apparently has come across my old mentor, Vandran, before. She knew him. And apparently he carried the same sword that I have. It's called the Sword of Fathoms.

Has a name. She's of the opinion that he always carried on him the sword and another one of those spheres, an eye. She asked me if I knew where the ship that I was on went down. I did recall the area, and she believes that if we were to search that shipwreck, we might find this third sphere. She has the ability to mess with water now.

And in some of the dreams I've been having, I believe that there's quite a bit more where that has come from. Still having those dreams, then. Not all the time. And I admit, I've been very excited about all of this, but... The things I see are world-changing, scary.

In a good way or a bad way? I don't know. Or is it dependent on the operator? I don't know that either. What is the good scenario, the good version of releasing a massive serpent onto the Menagerie Coast? Well, when you say it like that,

right, I don't know. I meant only the power that might come before that happens. Does the serpent get released if the little orbs are spread out amongst other people, or do they all have to be in one person? Well, I... Or three.

I actually don't know. I'm just assuming that because she placed her sphere at the bottom of that well in that temple, there are two other temples which we have to do the same thing, and that might lead to the release of that serpent. So those. But you think that this other, or one of the other spheres

is at the bottom of a shipwreck, not necessarily a temple. Right, the third sphere, and I have the second. So, Bud, you... Doesn't she have two spheres? No, she had one, but she got rid of it. Fjord has one. And he traded it for power.

For us to get that last one, so she can't. What if she does get the last one? Then we will have failed. Well, at least she would be twice as powerful as Fjord as one. It would be a lot for one person. I mean, there's also the- And also she would want the third.

Which is inside of you. She would want Fjord's body. Correct. Can I just take a second and ask Caduceus to check the door. I've been paying very close attention and listening into the hallway and just trying to keep very.

Perception check. 15. Visibility check. Okay. Seems to be fairly clear. I haven't heard any footsteps or. No. Look out the portal window.

Is there a portal window? In the room you're in currently, there is not a portal window. Without saying too much more, I think it's best that we all listen to Caleb's words and play along. Uh-huh.

We'll be making our way to Darktow. Yeah. And then we will re-evaluate. But the overall mission is to get... Don't say anything? I just feel like, and I'll try and soto as possible, that only the people in the room would hear, there are people that we can't see. I just don't feel like this is the best place to converse. We've been feeling around the air.

Yeah, it's not our show. Best place to converse. We've been feeling around the air. Yeah, it's not our ship. I feel like, for the time being, it just might be best to be the best that we can be here and be as helpful as humanly possible. Our goals are relatively aligned, and as long as we don't have to hurt anybody,

I'm all right with the rest of these people. Do we need more information? Always. To find your ship? I think I would know the location based off the trade route where we... You know the general vicinity of where it would have happened.

Ooh. It would take a little bit of searching and a little bit of, you know. Especially if it's on the bottom of the parking lot. Yeah. Well... Depending on what you have at your disposal, that could definitely narrow that search. But if it's just based on your disposal, that could definitely narrow that search,

but if it's just based on your memory, it would take a while to find it, but you know the general area where it went down. I... Soto. I was debating heavily and watching Avantika to see if, with the distraction of trying to board

the pirate ship today, that I could maybe sneak into her office with the distraction. But I noticed she was very adamant holding back and watching the entire scenery. It was not safe to go into her quarters. But if we need to get into her office, I think it's going to have to be an important enough and big enough distraction. Maybe, Fjord, you can go seduce her or something. Then with the seduction, you can sneak into her

office. Some people give up information when they've been seduced as well. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Is that something you could do? All good ideas. It just seems like she's into you, you know?

I've noticed that as well. Trying to use that to our advantage. You're doing great! Thanks. Yeah. Appreciate it. I'm trying to keep her close. Yeah. She starts to suspect us, we'll be in trouble. Yeah.

Well, if anyone feels uncomfortable with how things are going, please let me know. My curiosity is not worth dying for or doing something that you feel you'll regret. I value what everyone thinks here. I think if we don't do anything, it means your eventual demise. Well, that's just fucking dark.

Yeah, but. No, I think she fucking dark. Yeah, but. No, I think she's right. Yeah. I think you're fucked. Unless we beat Avantika to the punch in every scene. If you don't fuck, you're going to get fucked. Ooh. Now, Jester, where would you learn a phrase like that?

I lived. She lived in a brothel. Now, Jester, where would you learn a phrase like that? I lived. She lived in a brothel. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Do what you need to do to get all the information

out of her that you can't. If we see you cozying up with her, we'll know. We'll know that it's just an act. Cool. Yeah, yeah. Caleb said something similar last night, or a couple days ago. All right, we'll enjoy the paintbrush. Oh, is that it?

Is that our meeting? Okay, yeah, yeah. I mean, we're going to find our way to Darktow. Do you want someone else to seduce her? Yeah, because, yeah. I mean, we're going to find our way to Darktow. Do you want someone else to seduce her? Yeah, because I volunteer. I think she's made her interests pretty clear. If you really want to find the ship, I think I might be able to help.

With the seducing? What? No. I mean, no. Definitely not. I mean, Caduceus, if you want to teach me a thing or two about wooing a woman. Yeah, no, I really don't think I have anything to add to that.

I think you've been doing just fine. Yes to what you said, and yes to what you said. I think I might be able to help you find the ship. That's what I'm doing. And you want me to help seduce Avantika? You just do you, girl. All right. All right. I don't understand what any of this is anymore.

Yeah, I think that'll be very valuable when the time comes. I thought. Hmm. Help on finding the ship, that's all. About what time of the day is it? At this point, it's later afternoon. Oh, it's early. Time to break out the banana margaritas.

It's probably afternoon. It's four o'clock. No, it's like five or so, an hour or two from dusk. Okay. Okay. Okay. Let's just do our jobs. I've got a cannon to fix. Sounds good.

All right. I'm going to make some barrels. Caleb, could I speak to you for a moment? Above, yeah. Of course. I'll go up. All right. I will follow. The rest of you go. All right. I will follow. The rest of you go about your business. I will follow. I'm going to take a nap.

All right. Taking a short rest. I'm going to stand at a distance looking over the rail. Okay. How far away are you? Shrug. How far away is she?

We're in broad daylight. I'm like, you know, far away is she from broad daylight? I'm like, you know, far away. Six, seven feet. Just looking out, looking, drawing. I'm very distracted. And dicks dropping into the ocean. SAM and LAURA and SAM and LAURA and SAM and LAURA and SAM and LAURA and SAM and How far away are you, Jester? Like 15 feet. Just a little bit. A bottle, that's it. Perfect. How far away are you, Jester?

Like 15 feet. 15 feet. Not far. Seeing where Jester is, I'll pull Caleb's hat. May I ask you a frank question? Of course you can. I scan around for Avantika. Make a perception check. Okay.

That's a 22. Looking about across the deck, you do not see her currently near or visible. I have to admit, I found myself a bit surprised. My initial impression of you was someone a bit timid and maybe reserved, meek even. But your tone, your opinion of what to do with Avantika in order to make sure that we're okay,

it seemed very calculated, very risky. Do you mind me asking if you've... Have you ever sacrificed anything in order to achieve a greater goal? Because I feel like I am swimming in the deep end. I don't quite know what I'm doing. You're dealing with very large responsibilities right now.

I don't envy your position. You know, my father was a soldier, and he expected a lot, and I learned a lot from him. I have tried to live up to the man that he was, and I have largely failed, but I picked up what I could. To use my wits, understand my surroundings. I wish I had half the courage he did. I don't know, you know, I think

traveling with all of you has emboldened me some. I was alone for a long time. And ran from everything. And I like this group, and I enjoy traveling with you, Fjord. Likewise. You don't miss much, do you? Always been like that.

I have a very good memory. I remember everything. But you have a very shrewd sensibility as well. You seem to be able to weigh pros and cons in an equation, a scenario. Math brain. Math brain. I feel like a fool much of the time.

I'm glad you think so highly of me. I do. I don't mean any of it as a critique, more as a compliment, and I'll add with it a request. Keep that eye of yours on Avantika for me. I don't entirely know what her intentions are, but I feel like there are only a few that I could ask to exercise quick judgment in a moment of need.

I start just sort of nervously twiddling a wire in my hand, absentmindedly. I think you know what I mean, but in case this thing gets out of hand, can I count on you to right the ship if need be? Keep the group safe. Of course.

As always, I will do my best. Thank you, and thank you for talking with me. I cough very hard into my hands and cast Message to him and briefly, quietly say, I think that that woman is going to try to kill you, I really do. Yeah.

Just so. And I'll turn and walk off. You need some water, Caleb? Yeah, do you have some? I create water in my hands. Wait, you can do that? I receive it. There's not much left, most of it spilled.

I'll keep creating it in your hands as you drink. You can create water? Yeah. When did that happen? I've always been able to do it. What do you mean? Shut up. Is this like a custom? Yes.

Just keep drinking. Keep going. Good. All right, so a few more days of travel to Darktow. A couple of moments here. In one night that you are in your room, sketching your book, testing out some of your new paints, you feel a hand on your shoulder.

Oh! You glance over and you can see the pale, soft fingers and a dark greenish sleeve resting there. You glance over to the side and you can see the draping hood and the slight curved smile across the angular chin of the Traveler protruding from beneath the cloak.

Hi. Hello. I see you found a new toy. I have magical paint. Well, I am quite excited to the things you're capable of, Jester. Me too. How are things?

They're pretty good. Did you want me to make you something with the paint? Surprise me. Okay. Traveler? Yes, my dear? Are you having fun on our trip? Yes.

I've been... pleasantly surprised. We're pirates. I know. Your tenacity is impressive. But we stole things, but they gave something back, just like you always teach, you know? Maintain that balance. Yes. That seed of chaos.

Traveler, how do I make a boy like me? Well, there are many different enchantments that could achieve the goals you seek. I don't know if I want to do it with an enchantment. Trickery? Maybe? Listen. Listen to what

piques his interest. And then happen to be the source when he needs it. And if that fails, there are plenty of enchantments that can sway his mind. I mean, right? You'll help me out with that. I'll do my best. You're not jealous, are you? No.

You'll always be my number one love. I know. So what are you making me? Oh, I wanted to be a surprise for you. I can't tell you. I'll wait. Okay. I'm glad you're here.

I'm never far. It's a surprise! What do you make from it? Oh gosh! Oh my goodness. Okay, with my magical paint. Oh gosh. Well, I was planning on fucking up some other things.

But right now, I will make a little shrine, like a little statue of the Traveler, and that way I can pray to him. As you finish painting it, it suddenly gives, it takes gravity. It almost seems to fall a centimeter. The center itself. It goes from this two-dimensional shift. It's almost like blinking. I want him shimmery green.

Sitting up from the edge of the bed, the cloaked figure walks over and lifts it and inspects it and places it back down. What do you think? You're getting better. I could leave these around other places? What do you think? Preferably where it will be the least expected.

Okay. And the creepiest to find. Ooh, okay. I'm excited. I've got to get to work. Yes? I can make so many of these. Make me proud, Jester.

I will. The time's coming soon when you'll meet the rest of your brethren. Right, I wrote it down. It's soon, right? What does that mean? The rest of your brethren? Yeah, in less than a year.

What? Soon, Medhi. Is there an advent calendar? I'm confused. As you look up from your notes, like closing your book, you turn to look and the Traveler's gone. It wrote down?

That's the first we've heard that, right? Slabby. What? Last thing we knew. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They wrote down the date somewhere, I know it. Heard that before. Right, no?

You guys don't know anything. Yeah. Try the conversation. Yeah. Fj before. Right? You guys don't know anything. Yeah. Try to have a conversation. Fjord. Yeah? Maybe two days out from the reefs, you go to bed that night. Oh shit.

Oh thanks. And as sleep takes you, you find yourself kicking through the thick, sludge-like waters that surround you, sluggish in your movements, the darkness all encompassing yourself alone in these shadowed depths. A faint green light is visible in the distance. You push and swim towards it, the light growing brighter, closer. As that grows closer, a second light even further, impossibly distant, but you can acknowledge it rests on the horizon.

As that first light gets brighter, you can see the source taking shape. It's a figure, female, nude, also swimming. Avantika, emanating this strange green glow, swimming ahead of you, her body breathed in this faint greenish-yellow aura. She looks and points to you. The waters around you seem to glow

with the same colored light. You look down at your body and you see that you are now the third glowing source of this green energy. Suddenly, the waters are easy to traverse. What was once sluggish and difficult to ford is second nature. A voice comes through.

Watching. The distant light you see suddenly dives with incredible speed, nearly out of sight. Avantika dives down after it, rocketing down below you, breakneck in her speed. You dart after her to give chase, moving far quicker than you anticipated. You realize the water's becoming thinner and thinner, like air.

You're falling. Three shooting stars plummeting through a dark sky. Learn. Glancing down below this endless void you plummet towards, you make up the details of what seems to be a surface rushing towards you. You plummet towards an ocean, the faint, distant,

endless glittering of moving, shifting waves of some sourceless moonlight, just barely giving the shapes below, with three large masses beneath you, like a misshapen triangle of land masses of incongruent sizes. One, two, three. You rocket downward towards the space between the three,

the center of this triangle, hitting the waters of the ocean with tremendous force. Impact, but no pain. You sink, the light of the other two figures glittering through the lightless waters. Down, down you sink, until you see a structure come into view from below. A tilted tower wrapped in sea vines,

the hollow center providing a wide tunnel further within. You peer inside this empty tunnel of the tower's depths, and watch as a sudden bright yellow light shines from within a gleaming yellow eye. Reward. As the two other lights seem to try and drift Reward. As the two other lights seem to try and drift towards you, behind you, you fall into darkness and the dream ends.

Oh my god. Fuck. I wake up and immediately grab the map. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. I wake up and immediately grab the map. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yes, queen, yes. The wettest dream. Fucking triangulation shit. Yeah. Okay.

Where am I trying to find this? Because we were over here, right? in the reefs, Uk'oto. Well, Uruk-Hazel, and we've been heading towards Darkto. So we've been coming across. Did we pass the wall? We're going this direction. Did we pass? You did, you passed south of it.

And you actually, your piracy hit right at this trade route there. Okay. I mean, if it's a triangulation. Why would there be one there? Well, this is where we're going. Technically, this is the shipwreck. Yeah.

Right? This is where we were. It's where we were. The three masses were not even in shape and size, and they were clustered. Clustered. There's another reef here. There is. And then there's a tarred reef here. There is, and the dead center is a lot of space.

You could say that this is the center, but... Okay. Mm-hmm. Are any of those places close to your shipwreck that you know of? Well, the shipwreck was here. What is this triangle of, where the three objects are, or where the three temples are?

In the vision, the three land masses are in it. Do you know which direction the ship was heading? At the time? At the time, from what you recall, the ship was heading outward. Yeah, so it'd be heading west. Maybe he knew where to go, and he was heading there to get his gift.

Mm-hmm. Said Beau in a morning breakfast conversation or something. Yeah. Anyway, you can contemplate this. Oh, I have a feeling I don't have any. But in the next few days that pass, eventually, the fog rolls in and the blue cloudy skies

you had become familiar with in this journey give way to gray, rainy, and cold, this marine front rolling in as you begin to come upon the outskirts of the dragged shallow reefs. Matt, before you go on, can I just real quickly steal a bunch of gunpowder? While I was learning how to be a powder monkey.

You did have days. You did have days. Okay, you do know that the current Master Gunner is keeping a very close eye on you after you've exhibited. I'm talking like a pinch here. Shawshank style? Yeah, little pinches at a time. I don't want tons. I'm not trying to steal a barrel. Just enough to make one of those bangy arrows again. Just enough for the tip of an arrow.

Okay, make a sleight of hand check. Okay. That's a natural one. Oh my god. I'm sick tonight. You steal, over time, a pretty decent amount of this powder. You're pretty damn proud of it, yeah.

So right down in your inventory, you have a handful of pepper. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Back pepper. You're going to be trying to construct an explosive arrowhead at some point. Awesome, go ahead and roll for that. Successfully secured Dee's nuts.

What am I doing? If you're building, this would be tinker tools. You could make a sneeze arrow, in theory. So what is it, dex? With this one, this would be, yeah, dex, since you've already made one. 15. Yeah, you managed to construct a pepper arrow. If someone's allergic? A pepper bolt, if you will.

They're fucked. Yeah. Yeah, pepper bolt, there you go. When life gives you pepper, make pepper arrows. Make a pepper bolt. All right. Pepper bolt. So.

Your ship skirts around the southern edge of the reefs. You can now see the tangled graveyard of destroyed ships and gathered driftwood marking the shallow spots across this jagged cluster of reef, curving around a southwestern passage, a channel that opens. The channel beckons you entry as you turn

to head northward to what would be the center, the heart of this cluster. No more than maybe 20 minutes into entering the channel, Avantika shouts out to the rest of the crew, Raise the colors! At which point, the massive ogre, Bouldergut, tosses the gnomish second mate, he picks high up to the central mast,

to the crow's nest, where he swaps out the flag to a new one, one that is straight purple. As it begins to push its way in, make a perception check. All of us? Is the flag just solid purple? Make a perception check. We've seen this before.

Natural 20. This is a different flag than the one that was raised during piracy. Okay. Natural 20. Okay. 14. 14, so what's the total? Nice.

14. 20, so what's the total? Nice. 14. 20, not natural. 10 for Fjord and 19 for Yasha. Natural 20 with a total of 24. Okay. So you, Jester, it's a couple things.

You pick up on the detail of the flag. It is straight purple, but there's something different about it. You're not entirely certain. It looks like a straight color, but there's sometimes the way some of the light hits it, you can see a sheen in parts of it. That's the best I can describe.

The rest of you also look around and you can see amongst these reefs, not only are there the jagged bits of it that come forward, and bits of rock that jut out the ocean amongst the rest of the rubble around. It looks like a lot of it has been placed both as a communal barricade on top of the reef and as a challenge to anyone who wishes to come in,

but you can see in areas where the rock itself is a little more sturdy and above the surface, there are watchtowers, and there are bolt throwers, and catapults. Oh, really? There are defenses all across elements of this reef that you imagine are one of the many reasons it's not been taken back by the Clovis Concord

in what you would know to be the 40 plus years that Darktoe has belonged to what is known as the Revelry. The Revelry? The Revelry is the communal band of pirates that work together to maintain some internal order. Make a history check for it, and anybody else is proficient with history. 17.

Okay. 25. Okay. 11. All right, Fjord and Caleb, you know that this began as a dispute with the heads of the guilds in the Clovis Concord. They own and run a majority of the trade routes

that come in and out, but a lot of the smaller shipping businesses and various other side industry leaders were being overtaxed repeatedly in an attempt to close them out of the business and essentially completely own all means of shipping in the vicinity. This pissed off a lot of people,

and eventually, in moments of combined desperation and frustration, they banded together, and where Darktoe was previously a very, very important repair and stopping station, this far out to the Menagerie Coast for long distance shipping, they ransacked it and took it over. They killed those that defended themselves

and any of those who did not want to raise arms would be absorbed and be allowed to become a member of what was now called the Revelry. And as such, they have since held this location and continued to be the source of piracy, both for their own wealth and continuation of well-being, but also as a continuous source of aggression and destruction of the otherwise very prosperous of aggression and

destruction of the otherwise very prosperous trade that the Clovis Concord runs. You do know also that the revelry is run by what's called the Plank King. The Plank King. Sounds fighting. The previous one was killed 15 years ago by the current Plank King, Sounds inviting. The previous one was killed 15 years ago by the current Plank King, challenged him. Plank King is known as Wyatt Marinos, and all you've heard is he is a giant of a man.

As you move deeper through this channel, the day goes on, begins to get somewhat dark as you begin to see the glittering lights of what seems to be the southern edge of Darktow Isle. The cold pulls through and a light rain begins to fall as you approach this island, unlike the jungle islands that you've come across in a vast majority of the Suavein Islands here off the Menagerie Coast,

is mostly rock and cliff. In fact, from what you can see, most of this island from this perspective is jagged cliff face, and probably a few hundred feet up is where the island's even surface even begins. At the base around this cliff face, you can see a scattered web of a shipyard, just tangled docks that just maneuver around,

containing dozens and dozens of ships. Across that, you see numerous torches that mark various intersections where they all meet, and built into the base of this cliff face, you see a number of buildings and windows all slowly being lit as the night grows darker and darker. This mass of almost natural-looking hive-like pirate city there stands before you.

Welcome to Darktow. Darktow. Dope. Beautiful. As the ship makes its way to the docks, it eventually comes to a stop. You can see a few figures out there at the edge. One of them that rings a bell as it comes in,

and a couple other come out to meet Avantika, steps out, and you can see there's a couple hands raised and go, Hail Avantika! She goes, We have returned. I know it has been quite a while, but success and celebration, I believe, are on our lips tonight. And a few of the men come up and look over the crew

and look over a few of you and take some notes, and then dart off. Guess we're part of the island now. Are we off the ships yet? The ship now has docked. The beginning to take remains of the supplies. The Mistake, you can see, is pulled off into the other side. Orly and your other hired crew are looking

very wide-eyed and confused about what the fuck is going on. So you literally hired a bunch of guys out of Naked Dronas that have now been brought into a month-long journey. Yep. Wow. Okay. As you begin to step off. Yep. Wow, okay. As you begin to step off the ship. Kill those guys. Jometty steps off with the rest of you.

Oh no. Looks to Avantika, and goes up to her and goes, You still owe me 50 more gold. I counted what you gave me. She goes, oh, Map Owner, she's out. I had correctly counted that. She pulls a few coins out of her purse and hands it to him. Counts it himself.

Our business is concluded, looks at the rest of you. Be careful around this one. Be safe. He turns and walks into the city. I liked him. Dead man walking. Complicated feelings. I'm going to get on my hands and knees

and kiss the ground. It is salty with sea splash and cold to the touch because of the nature of the stone. I love it. For sure, Caduceus is going to give Jamedi a little. He got away. Yeah, that was not a good time. No one talked to him over the journey. Nope.

I thought he was on the other ship. I guess we were switching back and forth between ships. There was a lot of back and forth over the journey. Avantika turns to us. Crew, it has been a good journey. You have all been very kind. You have been resolute, and Uk'otoa would be proud. So tonight we drink.

Come, let us be off to the Bloated Cup. The rounds are on me. The Bloated Cup. The Bloated Cup. The Floated Cup. I'm going to tell her. Marius comes around the edge of the... Oh god! Hey!

Hey, Marius! Oh my god! Marius! Hi! Yes, remember Marius? Yes. You have the phone? Yes.

He's like, okay, um, don't mean to make this really, um, where the fuck are we? We're at the end of the world, my friend. Okay. You're a pirate. Ta-da! It's going to be time for you to toughen up a bit.

Do you have a pirate face? That's really good, that's good. Is that a pooping face or? Both, really. Okay, well, until you find a better one, that'll do. What's your pirate name? Uh. What should it be?

Marius the Mariner. Lepore. Got it. There's more. She's still going. Lepore the Pain. Lepore the Pain. That was really good, do me.

Oh, Caduceus the juices. I like that. That's actually pretty good. Orly's big, turtle hand clasps on your left shoulder. Beau goes, I kind of like that one. How do you mean? I like juice. Okay, yay.

Swirly, that's swirly. That's good. Teach me how to do tattoos that are fancy. Yeah, what? Make me your apprentice, make me your, bequeath me. I'm going to get a drink. I guess we'll follow. The rest of the crew, looking confused amongst themselves,

stick together and they come over. One of them, who would have, his name would have been... Oh, this is, actually no, at this point, this is Galen. Galen, who has recovered and has kind of, yes. Who has become loosely the, because he's the only one who was originally on the Mist and knows it well, he's become the den mother of the other hired crew that you've brought

into this wily adventure. He comes up and goes, So, all these ones, what's the plan? So, all these ones. Yeah. What's the plan? Did we say there was a plan? Do we live with plans? I'm not sure, did we have a plan?

We have a vague idea. We hired them for a certain amount of time. Yeah, we should probably let them go home eventually. They don't even really remember who they are. I mean, to be fair, we should let them go home eventually. They don't even really remember who they are. I mean, to be fair, we should let us go home eventually. Yeah, maybe they should stay on their boat. After it's repaired. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And then we will take them home eventually. Do you need to pay them more? No, I think we've brought them to a port of great business. If they choose to stay here, they certainly can. Otherwise, they'll have to wait until we're leaving again. All I'm asked around. Where at? He doesn't seem bothered by it.

He's been here before. Gallen left this port on the mist, but he seems generally, he's over the travel, has gotten a little bit of concern, and seems somewhat invested in the new crew you've hired. He goes and travel, has gotten a little bit of concern and seems somewhat invested in the new crew you've hired. He goes and relays that message to the rest of them. They're just scared.

Whoops. In the meantime, the rest of the crew seems to have followed suit with Avantika, leaving a few crewmen that are just part of the docks to keep watch. How guarded or patrolled or monitored are the docks? Pretty damn well patrolled and monitored. This is the bread and butter of their business. In this area, are there uniformed patrols,

or do you just see well-armed? Muscle is obvious. You get the sense here, and based on your history checks, everyone who resides in Darktow is a member of the revelry. Is packing. By the way, you guys are members of the revelry. So by touching down on the island,

you become a member. Well, by becoming part of a Vatikas crew. I need to find some revelry. Coming into port. Econography. And having a few individuals mark your presence, you imagine that's probably the case. And when you, well, what are you guys doing? We're going to follow.

We're going to follow the people who've been killed. Let's make sure that the crew knows that they should be repairing the ship and that we need to be ship-shape at some point. Yeah. Sure. I don't know if that was the easiest membership

I've ever obtained or the most difficult membership I've ever obtained. It's kind of hard to say. Following up on Fjord's question or Travis's question, the muscle that we see around us, does it look like it's, are we in Deadwood, or is there a strong police force of sorts that is making sure

that shit is not going down constantly? That they would identify? Yeah, is anyone in charge, or is it just a saloon with cowboys everywhere? It's more the former than the latter, I mean, from the first part. There is no uniformed guard. There is no, you know.

They're not wearing a hat or a sash. This is Golden Age of Piracy Barbados, basically. We are in the thick of it. Yeah. The heavy realm of piracy has only existed for about 40-plus years. Oh, wow, okay. And it's still, in some ways, finding its footing. Oh lord. We all are going to die. We'll tell the crew they can have the evening. Dead with a civilized character.

We can have the evening, we've just been at sea this whole time, but in the morning, we expect work to continue on the mistake. Okay. Probably the only rule here is talk shit, get hit. So, winding through the docks, following the rest of Avantika's crew. The docks and bridges, it's this labyrinth to find your way beyond that to the stone and rock where you had kissed earlier. The

city itself is a series of switchback paths and carved caverns and cave entrances that have since been outfitted with pieces of wood with windows, and now at this point, it's pretty much pitch black in the sky. What little bit of light there is from the nearby torch and lantern light gives just a hint of the mist that's rolled in across the outskirts of the island.

The only light sources you have are those that you keep on you or the distant, glowing, smattering of hundreds of firelit windows lit from the inside, the warm buildings that make up the city. As you make your way to what you assume to be the tavern, the bloated cup, if you will. Avantika's currently standing outside talking to somebody.

There you see this burly, rough-looking human man, probably a week and a half unshaven, this thick five o'clock shadow, grayish curled hair that goes right about shoulder length. It's slicked back, probably with its fingers to one side, but it's oily enough where it stays in place. Looks like he's wearing an officious coat, and they're currently in the middle of a discussion.

She looks over her shoulder to the rest of you and goes, Ah, my apologies. There is one bit of business we must attend to before we can celebrate. The rest of you continue on. My new compatriots, it seems, and the human figure pipes up and goes, word has reached the ears of the Plank King

that you've brought new blood here to Darktow. I imagine these are the new blood based on, he looks at a sheet of paper that's handed to him and looks at the description that was written and he would appreciate you bringing them to the Throne Roost and have an audience. Who are you? Well, I'm the assistant to the Plank King.

And what is your name? James Tybalt. James Tybalt. I thought you were all about this right now. Getting deep. Assistant to the Plank King. And do we need to bring any presents or anything to the Plank King when we meet him?

I'm certain he wouldn't argue. He smiles now, it's the first time he sees Gren, there's just maybe six or seven teeth. Ooh. Most of them are blackening. I recommend you all follow me. Yes, sir. You too, Avantika. He wants to check in.

She sighs but gives a smile. Ipys, bring like 500. He starts counting out gold from one of the chests they had brought with them. We never divvied up that box. No. No, we didn't. It's for her to do.

Aw, fuck. It's for him to do. Is that for me to do? The quartermaster. Yeah, the quartermaster. He said divvy up treasure. That's what quartermasters do. Balls.

Yeah, it's intentional, guys, we're fine. It's all good. Quenna's passed over to a smaller chest, and Avantika carries it up under her arm. So you guys are led to the western side of the city, and then begin climbing up this precarious set of winding stairs carved out of the rocky cliff. Wow. Cool.

Above the city, slick with mist and recent rain. It looks like the way the wind's hitting the rain isn't hitting the cliff side, but you can see it passing maybe 15, 20 feet in front of you. This is precarious, you guys. Partway up this climb, the occasional torch is now replaced with a wooden pike holding a skull or a head at varying stages of decay. I'm going to put my metal scary mask on.

Okay, you put your metal scary mask on. You feeling at home there, Deucy? This is nice. You're led up further, maybe 250, 300 feet up this cliff face. Leading you with some of the bursts of wind to lean against it to pull across. The stone stairs themselves vary from two feet wide

to maybe a foot at times. Looking down over the edge, you can imagine a few folks, you sure have found their end with an odd misstep. The stairs finally stop at a wide stone shelf that overlooks the town about 200 or 300 feet above, the furthermost edge ending just above the rocky waters of the inlet. A cave mouth greets you against the cliff,

warm with firelight. Two watchmen notice you. They stand there, keeping an eye, as a cloaked man pushes past you to descend from where you came. Yep, just pushes past you. Tadada, tadada. Avantika nods to the guards and shows the chest.

The guy that pushes past, what does he look like? What's he wearing? He's a little ways past you now, make a perception check. Okay, just let these guys go by. Is this a dude? Nine. Nine!

It's too dark and there's too much rain. It's hard to make out any details, unfortunately. Avantika continues in, after showing the chest offering. The rest of you follow. That is our offering, too. That's all our offering. As you follow inside, the smell of fine-cooked meats and sauces mingles with wet leather and

stagnant water. A soft fiddle and squeeze box duet dances through the evening air, the bardic sources atop stools next to a large stone chair carved from the surrounding rock. Sitting atop the throne is a giant of a man, half giant to be precise, his dull gray skin marked with scars, his coat long in velvet blue, tattered at the edges. Plain breeches and boots shift as he stands, his eyes cold, shifting with his smile. Long black curls toppling along the sides of his head past his shoulders, framing his face to about mid-chest. Now, you know this through your research, and some of you have had experiences.

For the most part, male goliaths don't have hair. Let alone such luxurious locks. European British judge. As he stands up, a servant enters and leaves a bowl of somewhat bruised fruit at the feet of the throne. The figure claps his hands once loudly, the large figure, and the music stops, coming to a halt.

Deep guests. Evantika, you bring guests. Welcome, friends, to the revelry. Come, say to Spell. Two servants all of a sudden come behind you and hear the scraping of wood against stone as servants all of a sudden come behind you, you hear the scraping of wood against stone as two long benches are pressed behind you.

You find yourself awkwardly having to sit on them as they creak with your weight. Another bowl of nuts and somewhat mushy berries is placed in Caduceus' hands. A bottle of wine is opened and handed to Caleb. My manners, where are they? I am Wyatt Marinos, the Plank King of Darktow,

Master of the Ravelry. All hail the king. Yeah. All hail the king. All hail the king. Yeah. All hail the king. All hail the king. Hear, hear. And you are? Oh, ah yes. Oh, wow. We are part of Avantika's crew,

but humble servants in her adventurous... adventures. I am, some call me Gilligan, others other names. I present to you this dried meat of the harpy as a present for you. Harpy jerky. Sets it awkwardly on one of the arms of the stone throne.

Okay, Gilligan. So, Avantika, seems you took all of these under your wing. She nods and takes her chest and puts it forward and goes, That is true, and I believe the rest will introduce themselves here in a moment. I'm the Little Sapphire. I love them, I'm the Little Sapphire.

Hmm. Hello, my name is Philipp. I'm Beau. Some call me Tracy. I'm Fjord Tusktooth, quartermaster of the Squall leader. They call me Clay. Yasha just goes,

I'm Yasha. Well, you've all come up under the banner of the Squall Eater. What draws you to a life of piracy? What drives you? So much. What drives any of us? Necessity. Urgency for a better life.

All right. Ships are really cool. We like to steal things. You have disdain for organized crime and the Empire. I serve nature and I'm the maker of fine graves. I just love water so much! Can't get away from it!

Mm! Ooh! Doggy! Oh, is this required? A refugee from the Empire, looking for better life. Looks to Yasha. I like to punch things. Smiles, looks back over her shoulder. You've got all that, Linus.

You see off to the side, in an alcove, you weren't looking, you see a man, hunched over, who's currently writing everything down in a book and sketching and just paying really close attention to everybody. You draw art, too? Yeah. Do you want to show me some of your drawings?

No. Okay. He's feverishly taking notes Okay. You watch, he's feverishly taking notes and sketching, you recognize that he's drawing as well as making notes. I'm going to definitely, every time he looks over at me, pose differently. Okay.

Well, if the captain here vouches for you, then I trust you won't go causing any trouble. Only law here is no trouble coming in between pirates while within the Reef. You cause trouble unearned, I judge you. You've seen a few judged on your way up here. Oh yeah. Trouble outside the Reef.

Oh, yeah. Well, you either return to explain your cases, and I decide it was fair, or in need of punishment, or if you don't return, I just assume you're guilty. Name's the big ones, you understand? Does this just include harming other pirates or stealing from them, too? Depends on what the other one thinks.

If the other one doesn't want to be harmed or stolen from, well, that's breaking the law. Got it. What if the other one isn't around to lodge a complaint? Well, hard for me to hear that you broke it. Now, Darktow means protection. It means family. And family shares its good fortune.

He looks to Vatika and she now kicks the chest across and scrapes, he stops it with his foot and kicks open the lid and the coins are there now visible, a couple of spilling out. I accept your tribute. Welcome back. We'll get your ships up and fixed real soon. Welcome to the Rivalry.

Are you all sorry a lot? You have certainly shacked up with one of the craziest lasses of the Suaveen Islands. That's for sure. It's crazy, all right. Damn dream chasers she be. So be warned where she leads you. She's crazy.

Fucking nuts. I thought that the entire time. Yeah, yeah. She looks up at him and goes, You quite a bit yourself there, master. He grins to himself. Well, thanks, that's it, Shavuof. Get the fuck out of my room.

May I just ask, the Linus person over there, are they just writing everything down that we say? Yes. Most its mother butch, I love dogs and poop. It's glaring over at you. Talk about a lot of life. Talk about a lot of life. Fuck.

Settled on the ground. I think so. I take our leave. I guess so. We're going to go just enjoy your fine place now. Thank you for having us. Do you have a favorite cocktail at the Bloated Cup? Or a brew?

No, I have my drinks brought up here. Mm, right, of course you do. All right, bye. As Avantika leaves, the rest of you are leaving. He takes his arms and pushes you out, leading you to the exit. Is it just the Plank King and Linus in that room, outside from Avantika? Make a perception check. 17.

17. A couple things you notice. One, you glance in the vicinity, you look and notice the Plank King. Right where the hairline is, it's a duller, paler white. Oh! Yo. And in that moment, you remember the first Plank King was definitely known for his longer, darker locks. Whoa! That's metal.

He puts the lotion in the basket. That's some metal shit. Looking around the interior of the chamber, because the way this is carved inside the mountain, it's this nice, arched cavern top, and there are a number of alcoves and hidden spaces. You glance around and can, at first, at just a quick glance, notice at least six or seven

other figures that are just hidden in the alcoves, just watching. Creatures. Figures. Figures. Seem to be other human life. Roof snipers. Ratchets. As you're all being ushered out of the chamber

and pushed to the side, the Plank King's like, Anyway, off with you. Enjoy your nights. Drink well. We'll take care of that. There's a little tug on your arm bow, and the Plank King just comes and whispers in the side on your arm bow. The Plank King comes and whispers in the side of your ear and says,

You've a key in the air, right? Avantika, if there's anything untold to our little community here, you let me know. Some grand coin in it for you. How much? Just backs away. I yank away from him. Move on. Okay.

Snitch. Tell you're a snitch. Tell at 50 feet that you're a snitch. Am I that transparent? You said how much. Transparent. You sit in the bathroom stall with your legs raised. Yeah, no, yeah.

In a notebook. With that, you make your way out, back to the stone steps. Avantika sees you all exiting and goes, Well, that was harrowing and necessary, but over. Now for drinking, yes? Indeed, he seemed like quite the benevolent leader. He's certainly a series of adjectives,

yes, I'll give you that. How long has he been in a seat of rule? Well over a decade, probably. How much on average do you pay him to not kill you? It's not paying him to not kill us. It's sharing in our spoils to better the community. And if you didn't share your spoils? I don't know. I've never tried.

Right. He has beautiful hair. Yeah, it's very lush. Yeah, it's something. Nevertheless, I'm going to get drunk. Who's with me? Yeah, here, let's go. All right.

Come on. She smiles and turns around and you all begin to make your trek down the somewhat slick stone steps to the darkened city of Darktow, the glittering firelight, open windows below leading you to what other revelry the evening has in store. That's where we'll pick up the rest of our time.

Our daughter on Pirate Island! How did this happen? Cool, though. He stole a ship and followed the path. We're surrounded by weird artillery and pirates. We were going in a completely different direction and now we're pirates! He's wearing somebody's scalp, you guys.

There's a war on another continent and we're not a part of it. I am so proud of you all. In comparison to these folks, we're not so bad. We're not that bad. It is a point of comparison, this is true. We're in the main of other creatures. Guys, we're the heroes here.

Yeah, yeah. Okay. Wow. Good shit, Matt. Well, guys. Ooh. Wow. Good shit, Matt. Well, guys. Damn. This is a very unique flavor of campaign. I like the Black King.

The Black King is cool. He's a foot woman. All righty. On that note, folks, we're going to pick this up next Thursday. Yeah, look forward to the art book coming on sale Monday. Monday, Monday, Monday! The final chapters, the second half and end of Vox Machina's campaign as created and presented by you,

the fantastic art community. Yeah, other than that, have a wonderful weekend we love you and is it Thursday yet? goodnight guys oh hey Ashley Johnson here and I sure do hope you're enjoying the adventure remember when you first found out about Critical Role

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