Critical Role - C2E56 The Favor

Episode Date: March 28, 2019

The Mighty Nein brings their hard-fought evidence of the abyssal rifts to Lady Olios, in hopes of gaining the promised favor of the Bright Queen..Watch Critical Role live Thursdays at 7pm PT on https://www.twitch.tv/criticalroleSupport the stream by using the official digital companion for the world's greatest roleplaying game at http://dndbeyond.com

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

Hello and welcome, everybody, to tonight's episode of Critical Role, where a bunch of us nerdy-ass voice actors sit around and play Dungeons & Dragons. We play Dungeons & Dragons! Oh, we're in rare form already. This is bad. Is it really a permanent installment? It's here for good? Yeah, it's here. Oh boy. Sadly, no Taliesin tonight. He's very sick, so he's home probably watching, hopefully watching this, so you can keep up with how we ruin your character while you're gone.

But yeah, so get better, buddy, how we ruin your character while you're gone. But yeah, so get better, buddy, and we'll see you when we come back. Got too close to a time-traveling version of himself. Yeah, he was like, I can make it! And we're like, no, do not be patient, Zero. Timeline fatigue. Super rude of him to not have his character die last week

since he wasn't going to be here today. That's horrifying. So yeah, he'll better Taliesin. Before we jump into tonight's episode, we have some quick announcements to get through. First and foremost, we have our wonderful sponsor of the campaign, our friends at D&D Beyond. Sam? D&D Beyond, everybody. Speaking of campaigns, everyone is on the edge of their seats to see what will unfold in the campaign for president of D&D Beyond. If you're just joining the show, you might not have known this, but I,

Sam Riegel, am running a ferocious campaign to become the president of D&D Beyond, the company. Not sure yet if they know this, but I'm going to win and I will command their company. Running against me has been Liam O'Brien, doing a great job. You seen the polls lately? The polls? Not only have I seen the polls, we were just up in Seattle and a lot of people who came by our tables for an autograph or whatever said they were voting for you, friend. Wow. Which scared the shit out of me.

Don't believe the polls. D&D players want a firm hand. I don't think they, I think ultimately your strong arm authoritarian technique will fail, but just in case, I've prepared an ad, which I hope will win me back support by showing the people what I think they really like and they really want most out of a candidate.

What? Celebrity endorsements. Oh no. So I have lined up some pretty hot celebrity endorsements and I hope they will turn the tide of this election. Roll that video, guys. Sam is the man for me. Truth, justice, and the Sam-merican way.

That's terrible. Sam Regal makes shit happen. Truth, justice, truth, justice, and the Sam-merican way. And the Sam-merican way And the Sam-American way. Yay to my bestest best friend, Sam. Yay, Sam. And boo Liam. Are we done?

Sam Riegel is running for president, and he asked me to make an endorsement video for him. Hi, this is Timothy Simons, and on behalf of Sam, I just wanted to say that he really wants me to say that. So I said I would, and so I am. And this is my endorsement video that I said I would make. I have to see Sam a lot, so I told him I would make this so this is it. Sam Riegel for president. Sam, Sam he's our man if he can't do it no one can.

Vote Sam. Who's Sam? Sam is the man for me. Vote for Sam. Can you get my phone, please? I just have to make a quick call. I have to call my agent, because I didn't get a break. No, I didn't get the SAG meal. Truth, justice, and the Sam-merican way.

Say the terrible fucking things you want to say. American way. Sam Riegel makes shit happen. Sam Riegel makes shit happen. Is it Riegel? Okay. The love and compassion that this person has for the world is insurmountable.

Samantha Riegel. Vote for Sam Rogel for president. Is that his name? Am I done? I'm Sam Riegel and I approve this message because celebrities are the best among us. I rest my case. I mean, celebrities typically know better than you and I do.

They exist on a higher level of thinking and existence. When a celebrity says that you're good, you're good. How much shit do you have on them? Do you have a recording of their farts in the booth or something? Absolutely. Every time they've said a naughty word, I've recorded it and kept it banked. Anyway, thanks to D&D Beyond for sponsoring the show, and I hope I can run your company someday. Back to you, Matt.

Thank you, Sam, and thank you, everyone, who's now debt-free of what they owed Sam Riegel over all these years. It's out of hand. Holy shit. All right, yes, and thank you, D&D Beyond, for making this happen every week. Mm-hmm.

A big thank you to everyone who came out and saw us this past weekend at Emerald City Comic Con. We had an amazing time. Yeah, it was a great panel. The Critters came out in full force. Every convention, we just take over and it's amazing. So we had the opportunity to meet a whole bunch of you guys,

had some incredible times, got some incredible gifts from a number of fantastic folks out there, shared some great words, some tears, some hugs. So thank you all for making the time out there to come see us and we'll, we have Denver Comic Con coming up soon and other events throughout the year that we get to announce as we go.

So super excited about that. Travis, you had an announcement. Yes, oh, all you crazy, beautiful people, our Vox Machina, legend of Vox Machina, Kickstarter animated series campaign is still running strong! That's my best San Friggo impression. That's pretty good, that's pretty good.

We have currently raised over $7.7 million to make this animated special series, Briarwood Amazingness. Our next and final stretch goal is $8.8 million, and if we hit that, we will be able to complete the series and make 10 episodes of The Legend of Vox Machina. Holy shit. Guys, we might actually get there. I know!

This is like, it's possible we could make a whole season of a TV show. Don't even know. Goddamn. Just us and the community. No big companies, nothing. It's amazing, everybody knows. Also, if we hit 8.8, finally, finally,

our very own Ashley Johnson will DM her very first game. We will put her behind that screen, we will effectively kidnap her from NBC's blind spot, and it will be amazing. Don't quote me on that. Thank you all. Awesome, thank you, Travis. Laura, I think you had a quick commercial announcement to make?

Oh, me? Yes! Ooh! Ooh, this? Y'all, this has been a long time coming. We've been working on this for a while. Taliesin designed this gorgeous, and he created all of the freaking code. This is what we used in our- It's an actual functional written language of the Cobalt Soul cipher. I mean, shut up.

Taliesin has been talking about that design for about two years. And every time I was like, is it done, is it done? He's like, it's almost there, it's almost there, this is worth it. Did any of us actually look at it to see what it actually means? I did, thankfully.

Okay, okay, that's really cool. It's actually really cool, it has a bunch of hidden symbolism and stuff. He was here to explain it all. I know. I got a lot of tweets from you guys with our journals that we've released in the past, and a lot of you were like, can we have gridded paper? Because I like to make notes in my maps. So I made the back 30% of it gridded paper for people who like to check things out and draw things. So yeah, pretty freaking cool.

It's in the shop right now, and it's also in the UK store. Right now. Chika chika. Boom, boom. We can't get clearance on that one. Thank you, Laura. Super excited, we've been working on that for a while. Super excited to see that.

That's the thing, you can close it, there's little place mark stuff, it's pretty great. All true, all true. And as a quick note, we will be taking next week off. Many of us have been working our butts off for a while, and some folks need a little break, and some folks are just traveling with family. A lot of vacations and little escapes tend all lined up,

and we're like, let's just go ahead and take the week off for all of us, for ourselves and our crew who have been working tirelessly for the past few weeks with everything with the Kickstarter and the channel and everything. So we will be dark March 28th, next Thursday, as well as the following talks, April 2nd will be dark as well, but we'll be back, returning on our regular schedule the following week,

April 4th will be the next episode after tonight. So enjoy the next two weeks. Use that time to relax, use that time to, I don't know, watch other episodes, or check out some of the other great streams out there, or get the rest of your family and friends indoctrinated. I can finally get that colonic. See?

Oh, man. Wow. You've been talking about that for so long. Everything is content, right? Everything is content. Wow. You've been talking about that for so long. Hey, everything is content, right? Everything is content. I'm ready for it. Do you know how many miniatures are trapped up there? I need to flush it out. Check your colons, kids.

There's where the Thordak went. Gelatinous cube is rough. I don't want to ruin a camera. And on that note, let's go ahead and dive into tonight's episode of Critical Role. Oh no! The adventure begins They were always beside you

Your nerdy best friends And the DM to guide you And they rise from the flames For the battles ahead Villains beware Cause you're about to be dead They got magic and flair They got falchions and cunning

They don't see over there, there's a monster incoming Inspiration is waiting, rise up, don't think twice Put your fate in your hands, take a chance, roll the dice Roll the dice Can you answer the call? Digging deep in your soul As the legend unfolds Now it's your turn

To roll To roll And welcome back, everybody. That was a team effort tonight, well done. We will never stop doing that. We will never stop. I've noticed. I just accepted at this point. No, this is my life now. We'll be at your funeral and we will be saying,

Cockbutter! Oh, shit! Shit, pen pills! Oh, no, I did something horrible in a past life and I'm still paying penance. Nope, I'm using it, it's mine. There you go. Too bad, I'm taking it. Motherfucker.

Lock it up, lock it up. So, last we left off. The Mighty Nein, the intrepid cast of unique and broken individuals found their way east to the lands of Xhorhas in search of the seemingly recently captured husband of Nott the Brave from a previous life, which seems to be held and is currently residing somewhere beneath Gordranas.

Upon traveling through subterranean tunnels under the mountain range of the Ashkeeper Peaks, wandering past the dangers of the ashen wastes of the western side of Xhorhas, you made your way to the City of Beasts, Asarius, where you, under the guise of various illusions and or just smeared mud, hid throughout the society, made some friends, purchased some more Bounder beasts as mounts,

and underwent a conversation with one of the drow heads of the city, and accepted two contracts, it seemed, to both gain gold and possibly favor with the Bright Queen, Laelys Kryn herself, to whatever that may be. Upon searching for one of these, for an Empire spy as one of these, you discovered it to be Dairon,

your mentor from the Cobalt Soul. The other one enabled you to travel towards the north center of the city, beneath the well there, to discover what seemed to be a source of this slow-rolling demonic incursion into the city of Asarius. There, you did battle with a succubus and an incubus, as well as some sort of other demonic general entity

that came through the portal. A very harsh battle ensued in which a number of members of your own party turned against you under the charm effects of these demonic creatures. Talking about you, dick. So long. turned against you under the charm effects of these demonic creatures. Talking about you, dick. So long. At the end of this, all of you lay bruised and beaten

and Caduceus snuffed, his life lost, if not for the divine magics of Jester and that one diamond you guys have been carrying around for a long time as components, you manage to- And we don't have one, though. No, you do not. Caduceus still has one. Does he still have one?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, we bought two. Good to know. Thank god. But pulling him from the jaws of death, he returned with a mild vision from the Wild Mother, and you all, broken and beaten, and not at a place to make much conversation, quickly made a night's rest here in the seemingly now safe caverns beneath the city.

So you guys take your long rest. Yep. You can set yourselves at a full night's recovery. Before we sleep, or as we're sleeping, I just wanted to check with Caleb. Caleb! Caleb! I found this leather scroll. Would it be better for you to identify it now or after we rest? It's in a language I can't understand. I don't even know if it's a language at all. Hand it over.

What? Hand it over. Okay. Yes, please is always appreciated. I pull the book out and I start to ritual cast Identify. Okay. I don't know if this is before we went to sleep or after. Yeah, this is before going to sleep. I can't tell your morning voice from your just almost died voice.

Yeah, from his eye was controlled voice. Wait, it's a scroll in a different language? Correct. You cast Use Identify? I'll switch that to Comprehend Languages instead, as a ritual. It is abyssal, and there's nothing magical about it. It does not contain any sort of spell or incantation.

What it is is an incomplete, or at least a very limited portion of a construction instruction. Looking over it and based on some of the things you had seen in the tunnel behind you approaching the space, you gather that this was the next wave of development beneath the city in which the more permanent portal you saw being partially inscribed in the stone of the tunnels

as you entered, this is the next wave of instructions that were to be given to essentially the away team that has been here locally. Okay. It's like how to build a portal? It looks like more and more lines of the inscription runes that were going to be used in the next wave of preparing whatever was going to be

the permanent portal. Just to clarify, is it the instructions to build the portal that we fucked up, or the thing after that portal? No, the permanent, yeah, the archway that you saw, the small demons carving into the rock. The object that you found is not referenced there at all,

and while you know its purpose, the construction, there's something about it that seems strange. Like, seeing fiendish constructions, seeing things that are built or have some sort of an abyssal influence in their design, what you discovered doesn't seem abyssal in origin. The scroll doesn't seem abyssal in origin? No, the flying saucer.

Yeah, the silver disk. With the mercury in it. Correct. That I will take before going to bed, 10 more minutes to, forget it, I will spend 20 minutes or so to cast Detect Magic on it first. And after that, do I, well, I'll just Detect Magic first.

On the scroll? On the disk. On the disk, there's very much a magical essence to it, yes. And what is the quality of the magic? Conjuration. Conjuration, okay. And now I will finish the trio and do identify to see if it is usable. It's usable in its current form, meaning it isn't something that you activate

and then an effect happens. It is a generator that begins to tear and bend different inner and outer planes based on its construction to be closer together. This one is specifically tuned and built to draw towards some layer of the Abyss. You're not able to ascertain specifically. Its construction seems a little haphazard,

almost like it was designed just barely to function, cheaply, to get the job done, but it isn't a mighty artifact that's lasted eons. It looks like it's serviceable, but probably easily broken. Are you saying that with Caleb examining it, I just see a piece of the puzzle and understand its purpose, but there's no specific way for me to use it?

No. I mean, it's working now. Just its proximity begins to, and what you do learn is that it cannot be, at least the way this is designed, it cannot be focused to create or design or summon a specific portal. It just gradually, at least the way this is designed, it cannot be focused to create or design or summon a specific portal. It just gradually, by its proximity, begins to shred the barrier between the planes.

I see. What'd you find out? It is some sort of a linchpin between here and I don't know, the Abyss. I don't know. It's the best piece of evidence we have, yeah. For sure. Did that piece of paper say anything?

Like... I just laid out what we stumbled on down here. These things are taking instructions from someone. You think it still counts as good evidence if we break it a little? Mm. We've got the plans, we've got the rune rubbings, and we'd have a broken artifact.

Probably not as much. No, not as much. Not as impressive as if it's intact. Caleb, in your expert opinion, if that disk thing, if that stays in one place for a while, will it eventually burrow a hole into the portal to another dimension? Should we keep moving it around

so it doesn't just stay put and just sort of... I'm afraid I do not know. That's a monster coming through to attack us. That's a monster. That's somebody peeking out of their vagina. That's a monster coming to attack us. There's nothing more. Yeah, nothing at all.

Do you remember when that nasty thing stuck its head through and it said, is it ready or is it complete? He was asking them if something was being finished. The portal, the thing with the blueprints, yeah, yeah. Is that it? I think so. I imagine so. I mean, that's what those little guys were building, yeah.

All right. I'm just wondering how widespread this incursion was planning on being. And how'd the device get here in the first place? Somebody had to put it here, right? Someone had to put it here. Maybe they mean to take the city we found, those dogs or whatever they were,

and another place entirely here? Can you check it for fingerprints or anything like that? What? You know, like, you know. I'm making out my CSI, dusting. Can you cast a spell to see who held it last? Ooh. Like who the previous owner was? Do you have any of that in your books?

Yeah, so I'm going to bed. And I just sort of lie down and collapse on the ground. I could cast Zone of Truth on the apparatus. What would that do? Nothing at all. Okay. I'm just worried that if we go to sleep and we lay it here, it's going to slowly start opening a portal. Shouldn't we just move it around a little bit so it can't? Or we decided we were going

to put it in the box, right? We're going to put it in the box, right? We're going to put it in a lead box. Okay, that should be enough. I know magic enough to know that we're kosher. That is a-okay. Set it outside the dome afoot. All right, let's do it. Sleep.

All right. You guys all, within the safety of Caleb's dome, his magical hut, you all find yourselves resting for the night, exhausted. The next morning, who knows what hour, except for you, you know, because fucking feet. By the time you guys come to consciousness, it's more than eight hours, just the base.

Oh man. A bigger flask. Stretch goals. Stretch goals. Oh my god. Do you have to keep both of the flasks on the table still? I will have to keep all three of them soon. I hope.

Would you have to drink all of the contents in a single game? Oh no, oh god. I think so, that's what lift is for. Once again, my opponent focuses on the superficial and not substance. You know what to do. You're a flip flopper, Liam. Sorry.

Hold me a bit. So. So. Ready? Come into consciousness. You, Caleb. Caleb, the into consciousness. You, Caleb. Caleb, the side eye. I'm just keeping eyes on him. Okay. Make a perception check.

Oh, that's way, way cocky. That's the worst dice. I love it! Shut up, it was cool. I got a really bad roll on it, though. It was what, a perception? Yes. Yeah, eight. Eight, all right. He's sleeping pretty hard. Everybody is.

You're a little distracted, because on the ground not far from you is Caduceus, who is super exhausted and snoring super loud. Frumpkin is also purring furiously all night. There you go. So you're surrounded by haphazard motors. Yeah. As consciousness comes to you the next morning,

a good solid 12 hours or so of sleep is needed as you guys just run through exhausted after the battle the night before. This would put you guys, after your combat and rest, probably mid-afternoon. You do also notice that the corpses of the, which does mean, I believe you have, that's four hours of sleep that you did not have the damage. Not get protected. Yes.

But you fell asleep. I was looking it up. But no issues, thankfully. The corpses of the demons you had fought before are now black sludge. Rapidly through the night, they have decomposed into a thick black, seeped into the dust and dirt of the chamber floor. The heart of the demon still remains,

if only because of the electricity that was used to tear it, or that was within the body of the creature when you tore it out, seemed to have cauterized it to some point. Also because it's cool to let you keep a demon heart. I'm not going to be a total dick. It's just cool to have a demon heart that you tore out. So, hello.

So metal. Love that. Other than that, it is a quiet, sore, cold, subterranean morning greeting you in the mid-afternoon under Asarius. Well, that was a shit string of events. So we go back up top and turn in our findings

and get this rescue mission back on track with a favored boot. Oh. Yes, but before we do, maybe we should just, so this doesn't happen again, maybe we should have a code word with each other in case you're taken over by another being or something, your mind is controlled.

Like there's a challenge word and a reply, and if you don't say that reply, I know you're a bad guy and I kill you. What about like, octo, and you say? Pussy. What about ella, and you say? Pussy. Wow, no fant? Okay.

How about hairy... Dog. Dog. Dog is good, hairy dog. Hairy dog is usually where I would go with that. What about smuggling? Pussy. I'm trying here. I'm just coming up with the same shit on the back side.

What happens if the first word is pussy? Pussy. Smuggler. All right, got a couple options there. Basically, if you think your friend is mind-controlled, say anything to them, and if they don't say pussy back, kill them. That's right.

I think if you are charmed or controlled in the same way that our friend Caleb was yesterday, I don't believe you'll be able to say that word, right? Right. No. I don't think you will. Definitely not. I disagree. I was in complete control of my mind and faculties, and I would have known to say pussy smuggler if it was the time to say it.

We're cold-broken. We got, look, the DM is dangerously holding a d20. Maybe we should. No, it's just a very pretty die. All right. Sure. Let's continue on. Sure it is back now. Yeah.

We will make our way up out of the cavern, back topside. How does Caleb look? I mean, not Caleb, how does Caduceus look? Caduceus is beat as shit, but slowly conscious, sitting up, in the process of pulling out and fiddling with some tea,

and looks over and goes, Oh, hey. How do you feel, Caduceus? I'm alive. That's pretty good. Thank you. It's pretty nice. It's real good. I appreciate that.

I'm sorry that I accidentally killed you yesterday. Things die. Some come back. We'll talk later. I don't want to do this moment without Taliesin. Wow, it's so good! It's okay, tea happens. Pussy! Nope, all right.

But he slowly gets up and creaking his back, and it stretches a bit. What are you guys doing? Got to get out of this well. Yeah, let's get up and out, I guess. We should go see Lady Zathrys Olios. Before we get out, I'll saddle up next to Caleb and just say, hey, how'd that feel yesterday when you were all launching shit at us?

Not good. I was there, but it didn't matter. Not good. You ever had anything like that happen before? Um... Mm. No. Not like that, no. Not like that, no.

Not like that, like having your faculties overtaken? No, I have never been controlled through arcane means before. Did it feel like you wanted to do it, or did it feel like you wanted to fight it? I was actually frightened of you. Oh, I was actually frightened of you. Oh. It made me frightened of you. Well, we are pretty scary.

But you feel better now. You know that we're friends, right? No lingering effects, no PTS. No itchy fireballs. No. No, I'm fine, I'm me. I'm me. Check on our big friend over there.

Yeah, Yasha. So Yasha currently stretching, getting up and getting the magician's judge, and sheathing it and standing up, and just listening into this conversation, and as you all glance over, all eyes cast upon her, she just, sorry.

Sorry. Yeah, well, you know, it's all water under the bridge, yesterday's events. It could have happened to any of us. It's true. We'll be more prepared next time. Somehow. How? I just put it out there.

I don't actually have an answer. I mean, we might be able to find something that could help with not being so easily swayed. Well, I mean, now that we know, next time we come across anything like this, maybe I can try and help out a bit. Yeah, you have awesome spells. Oh, thank you.

Yeah. All right, let's go. Let's do it. Let's get out of here. Do your help, do your help! So you guys make your way back towards the tunnel where you had originally entered. Make your way towards the entrance of this cavern that is pressed against the exterior wall of the well

about 15 feet down, right where the water level hits. The well, the bucket is currently up. It is currently wound up, and you look up to the 15 feet of space before it reaches the surface, and you can see the gray sky ahead. How wide across is the well? It's about four feet across, I think. Oh, we could do this. Yeah, I'm going to do the monk ninja warrior thing.

Sure, make an acrobatics check. This would be athletics, actually. I'm going to follow behind her doing the side thing. Okay. 20, 22. Yeah, without issue. You guys are like, oh shit. Beau's like, I got this.

Oh, that's how you do it? Okay. Make an athletics check for you as well. Oh, wow, that was, okay, good. 20. Now, it's interesting, your arm span is just wide enough where you can reach the sides, and usually you'd have a hard time keeping the pressure there. But you're pretty beefy.

I'm so beefy. You just. It takes a little bit longer than Beau, but you do manage to make your way up and out the well through your own physical locomotion. When I get to the top, I want to slowly peek my head up. Okay.

Look around and see if anyone's watching or how suspicious this looks. Okay, make a perception check. I was rolling for Yasha, it's fine. Natural 20. Ooh! Nice! What's up, what's up?

All right, you don't see anyone suspiciously looking in this vicinity. Natural 20, okay, hold on. Yeah! My ass is rolling. Guys! Go subscribe to D&D Beyond right now while the whisper is happening.

It only takes a moment. You'll have a new subscription by the time Matt sits back down. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. That's a big whisper for a perception check. Yeah, I know. What the fuck is she seeing?

Which one of those pictures is older, the left or the right? Interesting. You'll never know. Jester and I get up. Yep, you guys get up. Yasha clambers up after you. My butt hits Beau, my head hits Beau's butt.

Oh, sorry. Sorry. Ugh. Yasha instinctually hears that and goes, sorry, she's been apologizing a lot. I send the bucket down for the rest. You guys, one by one, easy enough, with the help of the rest of your party,

you make your way out of the well and back onto the streets of the north center of Viserys. While they? What'd you get? A six. We didn't have to roll for it, you make your way out of the well and back onto the streets of the north center of Viserys. What'd you get? A six. We didn't have to roll for it, you're fine. They were helping you, that's good. While they get up, while they climb the rope, I'm just going to say, you guys got it, yeah? Yeah, yeah, we're fine. I grab Jester by the arm and I pull her across the road a little bit. What the fuck's going on? Where's your thingy, your medallion, your symbol thingy?

What do you mean? Oh, it's on my belt. I look at it. What about it? It's at the same one. You glance across the street, and between two of the buildings, there's a hut. It's made of stone and a thatched roof. It looks old and weathered. There is a wooden door, and on the door you see, hanging from a metal ring, what looks to be, at first glance, it looks almost like a meal bell, like a dinner bell type thing. But it's a little archway with a little path running through it with a horizon in the center. I take off towards it.

I power up walk behind. Okay. All right. Still looking around. You go ahead and make your way there. You push past what looks to be this heavy pair of oxen that are making their way across the street. The cartwheeling behind, you see this large orc

that pushes out of the way. Sorry, sorry, sir, sorry. Just goes ahead and takes the reins and pushes them a little further. You guys move past that as the wheeling continues on. I saw all of that. You make your way to the door, and it's a door. Knock, knock, knock, knock, knock, knock, knock, knock.

Hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello. Jesus. Super dark inside, you just see a little bit of spackled gray and brown fur and this big cloudy eye glanced through the crack and go, Harold? Hello? O-M-G. The eye squints a bit and it rotates

and goes to the other eye, which is not as cloudy, and goes, what's that? What do you think it is? What is on your door right here, man? The door pulls open, and you see now, hunched down in the doorway, it looks to be an elderly gnoll, the hair mostly white and gray,

this heavy walking cane, it's a crooked stick on the side. You see bits of the snout where the fur has gone away, fallen out, you can see the wrinkled skin, some of the spots that have come through the bit of the snout. Some of the gums are missing teeth and are blackened. It's older and not in the best health,

but it seems to be, and the smell is awful, too. Yeah, that would be some stinky breath. Some stinky, hollow breath, yeah. Oh, cool. And so, uh. Literally no. The sequel has been found. Some stinky hollow is his breath, yeah. And so, uh... I don't really know. The sequel has been found. Not regular.

The other hand grabs the doorway and peeks through the elongated neck of the gnoll, creeping in. Looking it over and goes, Are ye friend of the Traveler? Are you? Oh. Come in, come in. Can I come in? Traveler. Are you? Come in, come in. Can I come in?

Can Beau come in, too? She's also really cool, and she also sort of likes the Traveler sometimes. You also follow the Traveler? Uh, yeah, well, I follow Jester, and whoever she follows, I follow. I'm gathering a small army of Traveler followers and she is one of them, actually.

Sure, come on in. He turns around and you walk inside. The interior is small. It's 10 foot by 10 foot and that is the extent of the interior. You can see there's a heavy bundle of rags and furs and such that are pushed over what appears to be a broken wooden frame that once maybe was a functional bed, but now it's just a pile that it sleeps on.

The smell in here is a combination of rotting food, general wet, oily fur, a hint of urine smell, and burned out candles. The candles don't do a good job of covering that. What? It's a little Oranc in your heart. Are you welcome to leave? No, no, no, I like it, it's wonderful.

Goes and pulls up a small stool and sits on it for a second, Leans on one knee towards you. So why are you coming to my house? What do you want from me? Are you going to tell us a story? You're kind of, if you have the posture, you're going to tell us a ghost story. Like, mostly I want to know, like...

Where are you from, huh? Are there any humans here in this forest? Mm-hmm, yeah. You know, I feel like I'm a citizen of the world, you know? I'm not really from any one place. How did you meet the Traveler? When did you find him? When did he come to you? What's your name, friend?

What's your name, friend? I asked you for a steady date. You did, you really did. Yeah, it's Jester, after? I asked you if I was staying there. You really did. Yeah, it's Jester after all, what is yours? Korvac. Korvac. Korvac. Korvac. Right, yeah.

When did you find him? When did he come to you? When did he stay? You know, like what did he look like? Does he have the same cloak that he wears with me, or is that the only thing, or sometimes? You know? Okay.

Well, you came and found me about a couple years ago. Well, actually, it was a couple years. After my partner was killed by a gloomstalker in the south. Thought it strange that fair folk were visiting all the codger like myself, but he taught me to pass the time, pissing off folks with pranks. Yeah, yeah.

You know, pissing off my neighbour Brutash is a real right prick. Really? Yeah, and brought some liveliness back into my life, when I was mostly just kind of a lone man. Promised to bring some gifts down the road the more I poked those nearby. Did he? Why, not yet, you know, I'm just still sowing mischief as much as I can.

The old, you know, physicality's breaking down as the years pass. Oh, you look spry, totally spry. You got really nice ears, and I am a good null ear expert, after all. That's true. Well, anyway, I kind of became the only friend. Doesn't visit often, not really,

but I was telling me there's supposed to be some meetings. He was telling me about the same thing! In Undor, some bit wrong there. Ayush, I told you the same. Yeah, yeah, you're going to go. I mean, I hear it's going to be the biggest rave ever. I mean, all of them. Gimel helps at the butchery.

The only other person I know believes me. Wait, who? Gimel at the butcher. Yeah, I can totally understand everything you're saying. I told him all about my traveler. He made fun of me for a while, but. The dragonborn butcher, that guy? No, the orc, you're thinking of the gentleman.

So an ogre was the butcher that you met. Sorry. But you don't know who Gimlet is, you haven't been writing to him. No, no, he's one of them orcish folks. How did you come to find him, huh? Oh, he came to see me when I was really young. Oh, how long ago? Oh, you know, like years ago,

probably, it must be like, oh jeez. 15 years ago, maybe, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You were right, did he? Yeah, he was my age when he came to see me, and then we hung out, and we were best friends hanging out for a long time, and then he got a little older,

and I think more powerful, because he tends to do these sort of things, and then he seemed to come to see me less and less, but he still is super prevalent in my life and stuff. That's great, I'm glad to hear that. I mean, I think I might be one of the originals. I think if we go to this place in a year, I think that I'm probably going to be pretty high up.

Well, I wouldn't know about that. I've done quite a few deeds in his name. I mean, do you have a lot of spells from him? Because I totally do. I brought the person back to life. I've shot at least four of the wells of this city. What's up? of the wells of this city. What a god. I smelled something when we went down there.

I think that might be what it was. It also makes so much more sense. Yeah. I was like, why does the water smell like this? I thought it was sewage, and it turns out it is. That's the will of the Traveler. That's a good way to Give her dysentery? Oh, hold on, I have a present for you.

I'm going to take out my paintbrush of magic stuff and I'm going to paint a little Traveler figurine for him. You're quite talented, aren't you? Yeah. I'm really talented. Thank you. You're welcome, you can pray to that whenever you feel like the need to. Carefully gets up and lumbers across the chamber

and sets it on this makeshift table that's barely functional for a creature of his size and sits and admires it, his body half cocked to one side, the way he holds his weight and goes, Yeah. Yeah. Spins around, looking at the both of you. And how'd ye come to know the Traveler?

Oh, you know, we're just starting our relationship. It's still very new. It was really Jester here that introduced me to him. Haven't been visited yet, personally. Kind of didn't know if he was real or not until this just happened, so mind's a little bit blown, but I'm hopeful, you know? So I'm really excited about this gathering.

I don't get to meet a lot of other folks, and most just think I'm a bit crazy, you know? Even though there were other people, and then we were in this one place, and I found these tokens that were like his symbol, you know? And I was like, yeah, yeah, so somebody had to have left them there, so there's got to be a few more of us.

Oh, that's going to be such a good time. I'll be excited. Whoever brings the most people to the thing is going to be the winner. So you should probably start. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What are we supposed to bring? You're supposed to bring as many people as you can.

Oh, there's only a few more months of time. I thought, oh, goodness. I can talk to old Smiley. Wait, what was the date of this? I mean, I know, I remember. He just said, more to come. Ah, he's so mysterious.

I know. I hope you don't die before it happens, because that would really suck. Me too. Yeah. How long of a trek is it? Sorry. What's old for an old?

Is that rude to ask? What's old for an old? How far away is this place? What place? The place we're meeting in. I don't have a place yet. It's in the month of Undelar. Oh, I thought they gave me a place.

They didn't give me one yet. Oh, hold on, let me look at my notes. Can I interject for a second? Sure. Caduceus, they've been gone for 10 minutes. You see everything, where did they go? We can't make a start out here, but they have been gone forever. They've been taken or something.

Calm down, it's fine. It's not fine, where are they? They haven't been taken. Saw them go across the street that way. Is that a skid mark on the side of the well? There is a bit of. I wasn't going to say anything about it, but probably. I think I thought it was the location.

The day Zenith Undelar is what I wrote before. All right, well, I suppose the invitation's going to come out some point soon, right? Yes. That's pretty cool. I wonder if he can be in a bunch of different places at the same time, probably not. I wonder what he wants us all to do when we get together.

I'm sure it'll be interesting. Hey, Traveler, are you here right now? Huh? What do you want us to do? Will you tell us where we're going? Because we're a couple people here now, talking about you. Do you hear him?

Good trick, good trick. I almost thought he was here. He might be. It's been months since he made an appearance, so I think that's his way of keeping me on my toes. I saw him last night. Okay. He visually deflates a bit.

No. It gets really awkward in the room. The room just gets super tense and quiet. Okay. I back into a pot and knock it over. Oh no, that was probably the pea pot. It was. Oh no.

Yeah. You're right. Feeling uncomfortable. Hey, so. You should probably get going. Yeah, hey, do you know the spell Sending? What? So it's this spell where you can send people messages. I don't.

Okay, well, I know it. So here's the deal. If I find out the location, I'm going to send you and let you know. Sure, tell me more about the great gifts he's giving. Yeah, fantastic. Well, I mean, I've known him for a really long time. I'm sure in a couple years,

and maybe when we meet in a couple months, you'll already have some spells. Maybe if you started wearing a cloak like him, he would like it. I draw dicks on things. Reaches back and grabs one of the blankets from the bed and. That is already a huge improvement. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

When an NPC tells you to leave. You can now see the gnoll is eyeing you up and down very intently, and it's making, with a good eye on the left, and it's making intense mental notes. Yeah, yeah. Take it in, take it all in. All right, Beau, we should go.

Yeah. Yeah. All right. Scorch eye. Come on, you see the hands touch the back, I'm going to have a nice court child. Come as four. Nice to meet you, Court Rock. You see the hands touch the back, and for as old as this gnoll is, it's still got some strength in him

and shoves you back out the side. Woo! At the front door. The door kind of. See you in a few months, dear. Oh. Why does everyone react to me like that? I don't know. You're so likable. At this point,

you do notice that Jester's cloak is on fire. What? You pat it out. You're behind the door. Yeah. What is wrong with you people? Jesus, it's Fight Club. Oh, oh, I'm going to go to the back of his hut

and just draw a giant, like, giant dick and a flaming poo. All righty. I get the boy's attention and Nott. Oh, here she is. You should have led with led without Caduceus. Hi, everything all right out here? How do I smell?

You smell like pee. I smell like wet dog. I like it. I have so many questions. There was a dude, and he also worshiped a Traveler, you guys. Is that unusual? I've never met somebody else that did.

Wow. But the better news is is that I am way more powerful than he is. That means the Traveler likes me so much more. That is good news. So not only are you not alone, you're the only one that can do stuff? I don't know if I'm the only one, but obviously I'm one step above that dude, so.

Nice, nicely done. Here's a very old, steps away from death. Oh. Like, so old. Right. Yeah. You could smell it on him. Yeah, yeah. That's got to be a good sign

that we're on the right path. Yeah, so P.S. in a few months, I'm going to have to go and get together with all the other Traveler followers. Yeah, but, yeah, so. In a couple months? So what? Yeah, I don't know where it's at, though, so hopefully

it's somewhere we can get to pretty soon. How many other followers are there? Like, five? We should probably find out at this event, right? Yeah. Well, I mean, has he given you any indication of what he wants with all of you there? The Traveler does not give you any answers

to these questions. No. Most religion is steeped in mystery by design, actually. You know what, I'm going to talk to him about it tonight. Okay. Just make sure it's a secret, it's a secret. It's a secret, it's a secret, it's a secret. It's a secret, it's a secret, it's a secret. It's a secret, it's a secret, it's a secret. It's a secret, it's a secret, it's a secret. It's a secret, it's a secret, it's a secret. It's a secret, it's a secret, it's a secret. It's a secret, it's a secret.

It's a secret, it's a secret. It's a secret, it's a secret. It's a secret, it's a secret. It's a secret, it's a secret. It's a secret, it's a secret. It's a secret, it's a secret. It's a secret, it's a secret. It's a secret, it's a secret.

It's a secret, it's a secret. It's a secret, it's a secret. It's a secret, it's a secret. It's a secret, it's a secret. It's a secret, it's a secret. It's a secret, it's a secret. It's a secret, it's a secret. It's a secret, it's a secret.

It's a secret, it's a secret. It's a secret, it's a secret. It's a secret, it's a secret. It's a secret, it's a secret. It's. Yeah, gods are pretty mysterious. But your god is really pretty. Yeah, yeah, she's pretty nice. Yeah. Well, I'm sure Nott's husband is sitting pretty. What are we doing right now? We have to go rescue him! Oh my god!

Oh my god, he could be dying right now. What if that minotaur comes around? Did you see him? Let's decide on a course of action right now. I would like to get out of this city, actually. We go see Lady Oleos. Yeah, we have to go see Lady Oleos, present our findings and our evidence,

and for the payment, we should probably decide before we get there, so maybe as we walk, we can talk about this. We're walking and talking now. Walking and talking. The favor that we ask of Lady Oleos could be transportation to Gordranas, the release of my husband, the location of my husband, permission to see visit my husband. I don't know what's too much, right? If we ask for her to release my husband, maybe she doesn't have that ability.

Maybe we've just wasted our wish. When it comes to your husband, do you think it's important to not detail him as your husband? Yeah, we kind of didn't tell her that we're from the Empire and- Shut up, Beau! Stop saying that out loud! I'm saying it quietly.

Quietly. I assume these conversations are quiet. A soto vo-tay. I know we're going to fuck this. Was he known as a chemist, like a scientist? Could we ask to see a scientist that was in? We have to specify that it's him. I don't want to see just any scientist, right?

I don't have to reveal my relationship, he could just be an important person to us, maybe. Maybe, who are we, right? That's maybe the first thing we need to establish when she says, who are you guys? Who did we tell that we were? We're a band of travelers. I don't remember.

I think we said people. We said we were investigators. And we were trying to find this man. What if we were commissioned to build a piece of a scientific apparatus that he needed for his studies, and the only way to get him what he needs is to be reunited with him? Could be. We already did tell her

that we were being hired to go find him and bring him back. Well, shit, fuck. Well, we didn't say why or by whom. We could say that for the good of science, he's needed back in wherever he's from. Because if he can just get in the same room with them, then we can out of there somehow, right? Some of us can.

I mean, that's what we should probably be hoping to do at a best-case scenario. How long until you can use that thingy? Which thingy? The teleportation thingy. I need to study. We are getting killed almost every day. How long does it take to study?

Years. It's going to be years before we can do that? I don't know, I need access to books and libraries and paper and ink and not being Is this why you always look for books? Yes, he's trying to find new libraries and paper and ink and not being murdered by things. Is this why you always look for books? Yes, he's trying to find new powers and abilities. But he already told you how to do it, didn't he? No.

He just said, hey, here's the thing. He gave me a backdoor and told me when I'm able. Okay. You are so. I know, I got confused. Just chill out sometimes. So we're looking for him, and maybe we need to give him something to complete his studies.

That way they're motivated to get us near him, right? I mean, that's what they took him for, because he was studying their stuff. Maybe. What if we just, with her, what if we just say, hey, will you give us a letter, a sealed document, saying give them whatever they ask for? Give who whatever who asks for?

Us. To give to who? From Lady Olios? Yeah, a signed document from Lady Olios to whoever is in charge in Gordranas and say, hey, these people did a huge favor for me, give them whatever they want. I'm sure she'll have questions

about all of the questions, right? I'm sure she'll have questions. I have questions, right? I mean, she's not dumb, I assume. Well, look, we already told her that we're looking for somebody. That's not that far fetched. I think what we need to decide is, are we looking for his location, or are we looking for him to be released to us?

Is that a bridge too far? Should we start with that? They sent forces into another empire to retrieve him. She's not just going to throw old caution to the wind and give us everything we want to find out where he is. So then we need access to question him. Oh yes! That's a good idea. We have our own beef with him. Yeah, fuck that guy! And we need to get our own answers to close our investigation.

Yes, yes, yes. Ooh, I don't mind this idea. Okay, what did he do? He's interested. What did he do? He knows what he did. Yeah, but Lady Olius, what did he do? What do you think he did? He's a very powerful alchemist.

Quickly, I'm very highly regarded. Apparently one of his potions that he made killed an important family member, and we were hired by that family. Wow, this is good. Speak louder! Or it made them really sick, so we have to go question him,

because we have to find the antidote. The antidote, the cure! And we're on a time limit! This is good. That feels like, I mean, that's not just a good cover story. That's just a good story, period. I want to hear what happens.

How does it end? It is the story, though, more or less. Oh yes. People have been getting really sick in various parts of the world. That's true. The closer, whenever you're lying to somebody, look, I've been doing this a lot, whenever you lie to somebody, you've got to keep it close to the truth. You've got to keep it rooted in things that are true, and then you just play with those. close to the truth. You got to keep it rooted in things that are true,

and then you just play with those. Talk the truth. Those boundaries a little bit. What's wrong, Caleb? Why do you look like this? It's just been a hard day, and this sounds like a very bad idea. What are you talking about?

This is a really good idea. We've got the Traveler on our side. We are walking into the heart This is a really good idea. We've got the Traveler on our side. We are walking into the heart of the enemy of the Empire. Well, we've already done it once. We're just walking in again. She owes us now, though. She can't have us killed.

We ask for that, and at worst case scenario, we get the location, yep. Yeah, negotiation tactics. You start high. You want to give us everything. Huh? Maybe she'll give us something. Yeah, maybe something.

Well, you know what my mom used to always tell me? No. If you ask, the worst they can do is say no and throw you in an imperial prison and you never see your family again. That's the worst that could happen. That is the worst they can do. That's the worst they can do. That's happened to at least three of us.

I think if she doesn't want to give us the favor that we want, we just take the money, and then we say thank you, and then we leave. Is the money plan B? If she doesn't want to give us a location, maybe she could give us safe passage to Gwadronas. Is that worth it, or is the money better? I'm real broke.

I was super into the idea of money. Okay. Because we already have transportation, that's why we have our more. Time to see how we fare, are you ready? I think access first, right? Okay. Access first. Who's going to do all the talking?

We will because we already established the fact that we are the family. If someone wants to come with us, I wouldn't mind it. Maybe Fjord should go with you this time. I'll go, man. All right. All right. Let's do this.

Okay. I'll be nearby, watching the tower. Keep near him, and if there's anything spooky outside, you can message me, and if we get problems inside, we'll message you. I'm going to try and be inconspicuous because I reek of empire. You reek of pee, actually.

Yeah, I do. How are you doing? So the humans and Yasha will stay outside with the firbolg? We should change ourselves again. I am going to use Disguise Self and turn myself into a half-orc. Can you do that to me?

I can do something similar, yeah. I've already done it once. Can you do that while we're walking, or are you going to duck into an alley or something? That part is implied, Jester. Just let it be what it goes to say. I'll be my sexy tiefling boy again. Special it is.

Okay, let's go find a quiet place. All right, so you're using your polymorph again for that? Yeah, Disguise Sulfur on myself. And then polymorph for her. As you are a transmutation specialist, to burn a 4th-level spell for essentially a 1st-level ability that is Concentration, I'll allow it. Concentration on my hand.

All right, so as you guys go and disguise yourselves, and Caduceus just waits and. I hand off the rubbings of the sigils. Oh, and we'll take the disc. And the disc. And the scroll, yes. Anybody want to stare into the dingle banger? Yes. You should do it. Dingle banger.

Who wants to stare into this? I'll stare into it. Yeah, but make sure you don't take it out, because it's going to go like this. Ooh, so many threads of possibility! So Nott's looking into it? Yeah. All righty. That was just a handful of glitter. All right. That'll never come off.

So you make your way to the central portion of Asarius to the large, standing, gray tower that is the Aurora Hold. Through the familiar doorway, you are led by the clerk back to the chamber where Lady Zathrys Olios makes her time, it seems, the previous conversation you had. Led into that same study-like chamber,

she sits in mid-conversation with another drow figure dressed in nice robes across the way, and as you're presented to the main chamber, the two Kryn guards keeping a close eye from behind, she puts up her hand to stop the conversation, looks over towards the rest of you. two Kryn guards keeping a close eye from behind. She puts up her hand to stop the conversation, looks over towards the rest of you. Hello. Do it seem you've returned?

Does this mean good news? Are we in a safe place to talk? If you could give us just a moment, please. We'd like to introduce you to our associate here, Fjord. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Lady Olios. The pleasure is mine. She puts her hand up. I give her a little kiss.

Kiss, kiss, kiss. I got it. She's got hands. So if this is another one of your companions, how many do you travel with? I get confused because we say nine, but it's not that many. It's around nine. It's around nine.

Very cool. And if you, just a few moments, and the other drama figure leaves the chamber, gives a nod as he passes by into the hallway, door closes behind you guys. So what have you discovered as part of your investigation? Lots of stuff.

There is so much stuff happening in your city. Right under your nose, and you never knew about it. Do tell, please. We located a well in the city. We traveled down it and found a cavern underneath the soil. It opened up into even larger caverns, and there, there was a rift. Well, they were making, okay, so we saw this rift.

It was shaped like, you know. Similar to the ones you said you found. And there was monsters in progress coming through from another plane of existence. And then this big guy came through, and he was like, is the portal complete and stuff? And then we were like, oh no, what is he talking about? So we killed him.

Big fight. We found out. Big fight. Long and short of it, many of us almost died. All of them did. I used my amazing powers to close the rift for you. So you are more than just an investigator. I am a very powerful investigator. Interesting. Yeah.

Very well. The rift is closed, and you'll be pleased to know the more permanent portal for some, I don't know the exact mechanics, but there was going to be a more permanent portal. I pull out the rubbings. This was a symbol on it. We fucked up the symbol so that they couldn't

complete it, though. Laithir. The door opens and the mail drow isn't it, previously pokes through and goes, Yes? Please step inside, I need you to take a look at these and see if you can corroborate some of this information. We have other evidence as well. We are, we are. We found this scroll, did you give her the scroll? and see if you can corroborate some of this information.

We have other evidence as well. We found this scroll, did you give her the scroll? No, not yet. This scroll, if you will translate from the Abyssal, we all speak it, but you may not. It gives partial instructions on how to make a more permanent portal to the Abyssal plane of existence. But perhaps the piece de la resistance permanent portal to the Abyssal Plane of existence, I think. Perhaps the piece de la resistance

that you're looking for. I don't know if we should. I think that's enough. No, might as well. You think so, Fjord? I mean, it is pretty substantial. The favor that you're going to give us in exchange is a pretty great favor.

I feel like we should look for more. There is going to be an exchange here, correct? We have your word on that? We will discuss payment once this is an approved conclusion of the investigation. All right. Should we do this? I take out the lead box.

That's got the thingy in it. It's got a thingy in it. It's got a thingy in it? Okay, so this is crazy magical and also has the ability to open rifts into the Abyssal Plane. I'm guessing they're saying that right? Or others, we don't even know. I don't know, it could be any plane,

but we know the Abyssal Plane is one that it was working on. And it looks like a flying saucer or a fried egg. She looks in for a second, her piercing eyes past her violet skin, glancing inside the box. Looks over to the other male drow that she introduces, Laithir. Gives him a side eye and he steps forward and looks into it, brings his hand up and you see his fingers trace a similar series of symbols and shapes as to what you've seen Caleb do a number of

times when looking into the affirmation of various magical objects and what their capabilities are. You specifically have seen this many times if you've studied Caleb's incantations in the past. The eyes briefly glaze over and then there's a moment of realization. This is, as they say, actually, this is quite powerful. And it's a bit of a nature. Can I tell if he's ever seen this before?

Make an insight check. Yeah, that's why we brought Fjord. Yeah, smart thinking there, Fjord. 17. 17. Whispers! Ooh! Wow! Give me, give me.

So many whispers. What if we looked over and Matt and Travis were just making out? Just like, in it. With a careful appetite. Just like, yeah. With a careful appetite. Just taking the opportunity. That's how Matt imparts wisdom. Oh boy, guys.

Hey, that kickstarter's still going on. All right, sorry. Yeah, I'm just thinking about them making out now. She goes, well, and it's still working, you say? I mean, it seemed like, I mean, we didn't turn it off or anything, you know? He looks back to her and goes, Might I please choose? Of course.

He reaches forward and grabs one of the crystals and pops it out. You watch it. The glowing orange light slowly fades and the mercury that was spinning rapidly inside the orb comes to rest as a little like at the bottom of the orb. We forgot to mention it's fragile.

He throws the crystal in the box and goes, yes, but its functioning is very dangerous to be allowed to maintain. The last thing we need. I wanted you guys to be the ones to. She looks at me. Well, this is actually quite impressive, and if this does indeed stop the issues you've been having

that have been escalating in the recent month, then you have done a great service to the Dynasty. That's why we're here, to do service to the Dynasty. What of the spy? Nothing yet on that front, but we did find out that one of the reasons people were killing each other in town, you know, are because there was a couple of succubus, incubus people, They had wings and stuff, and they were whispering in people's ears and being like,

go kill your friends or your family, and then people would do it. And you've also dealt with these creatures? Yeah, they're dead. They were ghosty, so we don't really have much proof of that. They turn to sludge. They were quite powerful, unfortunately.

The one thing you should keep in mind is that this device was obviously planted there by someone. We shall keep an eye, then. Make a persuasion check for me about the lack of proof, but convincing that you've taken care of these creatures. With advantage, because Fjord helped me? You've all been diving into the conversation. I'll let you go with advantage, sure.

That was very kind. Extremely kind. Okay. It's not going to change much. 21? 21, okay. She gives a nod and goes, All right. There was a bugbear. There was a bugbear.

There are many. There was a bugbear who's been haunted by these dreams. He's killed his neighbor's dogs, right? Is that right? Yeah. And when we saw him, he was being mind controlled by them. They were dressed up as like, really? Not just mind controlled.

What was this bugbear's name? This bugbear's name was, of course, Gluzo? Nope. Calder? Nope. Gimel? Nope. Nope. Ladies' Itherists. Gluzo! Gluzo! Nope, that was the one who got us here.

Gluzo? Gluzo. We will take care of this Gluzo figure. No, wait, no! That was not Gluzo. Gluzo! Nope, that was the one who got us here. Gluzo. We will take care of this Gluzo figure. No, wait, no, that was not Gluzo. It was not Gluzo. Okay, and here's the thing, it wasn't doing anything, here's the thing. It was Obadon! And he wasn't doing anything,

he maybe did some bad stuff, but it's because he was mind controlled, right? So we took care of the things that were mind controlling him and now he'll be fine. He was dreaming about these sexy bugbears. He was under the evil corruption of these incubuses and succubuses, but now he's free and clear.

All we're saying is you could go talk to him if you needed any corroboration as to the dream effects. He was seeing some sexy bugbears and he would be able to tell you that. We will inquire about these sexy bugbears with this umedon and also keep a watch just to ensure that such behavior does not continue. Well, that is one job undone.

And she takes the box away from you and puts the rubbings over on the desk and goes, very well, so, successful contract puts you at a benefit of 10,000 gold pieces. Great, that's great. Oh, what a favor. You wished to have favor of the Bright Queen. Very well, that will greatly diminish

the amount of the reward. What exactly does the favor do for us there? Well, you would have to present what you have done before the Bright Queen, and then the favor will be granted by what she sees fit. Oh, who's the Bright Queen? Is that the leader of? Where are you from?

So, so. A roving band of goblins? But a fine investigator who seems to be diving into aiding the Empire. Yeah, only a few years ago, not separated from her band and decided to, you know, become more of a productive member of society, and some things haven't been filled in yet.

It's fine. Make a deception check. I missed a lot of things. member of society, and some things haven't been filled in yet. She didn't get the proper education. I missed a lot of things. I still think doo-wop music is current. Ooh, that's cute. 22. Doo-wop. 22. Yeah. The Bright Queen

is the governess of the dynasty. The oldest, who has lived many lives, and guides all of us under the banner of the Luxon. Oh! I remember now, of course. Of course, yes. In goblin, it's a totally different word. Goblin language, so.

What's it in goblin? Ah! It's more of a tonal language. There's six tones and they all, if you don't say them right, it can mean a totally different thing. So you are accepting the favor of the Bright Queen. And I tell you, I do not know and cannot assure the extent of her favor and where it might take.

That is up to you, but I can present you to her and the Kryn den in Rosana. Rosana, yes, I know where that is. I definitely do. Cool, that's great. Yes, that's what we wanted. Yes, please. Could you possibly also ensure

that our passage goes uninterrupted and unmolested? I will take you myself. Whoa. Even better, most gracious of you. So we bought some more bounders because we were going to go ourselves. Do we still need those, Dan, do you think? You do not need them.

We can try to fit them, but the space is a bit... Leave that up to you. Yeah, we'll figure it out. And the other drownai says, My lady, if there is travel to Rosohna, I would also like to come if that is all right. He says, of course, of course, you will accompany us. So gather the rest of your team then, and when you are ready, I will escort you,

and we will make the rest of this debt paid. Wow, thank you so much. That's a large favor for us. What is his name, Lyfis? Lython? Laithyr. Laithyr will be joining us. Well, at least for the travel, right?

Yes, I just, I was going to request transference anyway. And only so I can close my books on the matter. I know it reduced the coin that came for completing our task, but what is the reduced amount? The final amount with the favor will bring you to 2,000 gold. Excellent, thank you. Not bad.

Well, should we pack? Should we pack and meet you back here in 25 minutes? Well, how long until? Let us get you paid first. She steps out the chamber and gathers one of the servants. He watches one of the goblins, scoots in, and listens to her, darts out, and then returns about five minutes later with a heavy satchel

that is jingling with coin, fairly heavy, and passes it over to you. It seems to be, if you take a moment to glance through, somewhere in the neighborhood of what was promised, though if you wish to stop and take the time to count in front of her, you gather, it probably might be a bit offensive. I'm sure it'll be fine.

Feels right. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Well, let us gather our comrades and we will meet you outside. Later. Later. We'll come back. We'll come back. At sundown? Do you have a specific time that would be good for you?

Sundown should work fine. That gives us an hour to prepare. Great. See you then. Pleasure doing business with you. Thank you so much. Thank you. You're looking really pretty today, by the way.

This is that entrance where the left side goes into her chambers and the right side goes into another one, or no? As you head down the hallway to the right leads to her chambers. The hall continues on and there are other doors, but they're all closed. And as soon as you exit the room,

the guards are right there. There's two full Kryn soldiers that are just at your sides, essentially waiting for you to leave. Another day, another job done, right? Keeping it safe. We're going out, out. No response. Life be with you. One of them gives a nod.

You guys exit the Aura Hall. I ring the bell as we leave. The other bell. The other bell. As you leave, again, the other door, Ha, what, ha. The same servant looks in there, frustrated as you, you guys exit and you gather the rest of your troops here.

You guys are waiting outside carefully in the alleyway. It's been about 15, 20 minutes since they left, in the process of them getting the attention, traveling, having the conversation returning. So yeah, you're pushing close to a half an hour. Nothing weird happen on the outside? All good, all well? Make a perception check. Yeah, good.

Not good. 10. 10? Nothing strange catches your eye. It's the usual bustle and business around the city, as far as what you've encountered. I mean, it's common here, but it's still just something you're getting used to. The wide array of interesting creatures that call this place home, the sometimes brutish,

comparative day-to-day activities, or at least what seems to be brutish construction seems very violent. The feeding and caretaking of various beasts of burden seems dangerous, but nothing that catches your eye is worthy of further investigation. But the rest of your team does gather up to you. Hey, went great in there. Oh my gosh, she loves us. We're going to go meet, we got escalated, we're going to meet the Light Queen.

What? Which I might need some clarification, is that a person or a deity? No, that's the person, man. As far as I know, she's the head of the Kryn Empire. Empress. She's an empress! Empress Laelys Kryn? Yeah, yeah, yeah! You're taking us, we are going to meet the Empress of Kryn?

I thought that she was talking about some god, the Light Queen. No, man, I'm pretty sure she meant the freaking Empress. That's crazy. Or maybe she was talking about the head of the church. I don't know, do you know? I was not there. Yasha, do you know what the Light Queen is? I was not privy to politics.

See what I mean? See, it's possible for you to be a part of the Empire, or not, no? But we're going to another place, a place called Roseburg? 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, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, Gosh, go ahead! Yeah, Rosohna. Rosohna. Sona? Rosohna. Okay. R-O-S-O-H-N-A.

Rosohna in the highest. So we made it in. We presented our evidence. It's important to note, though, that she did have a drowfellor come in and check out that little frisbee-looking thing. Yeah. He seemed a little jumpy.

I don't know if it was because he was intimidated by what he was seeing, or if... Did he seem suspicious of you? Not of us, he seemed suspicious. He also said, did you catch that at the end? Where he said, I wanted to put in for a transfer anyway? Like, he wants to get out of this place? He's heading to the same place we are in a hurry.

I couldn't tell if he was just upset by the power of what he was seeing, or the implications of it, or if maybe he knew something he wasn't letting on. But he might be somebody to watch. He added a little bit of the arcane flair that you do. Just saying. When do we leave? Tomorrow. Tonight.

Tonight. Right before sunfall. Down, sundown. What about the big cats? Let's go round them up. We're going to get them. Maybe they can come with us. Yeah, or we get our money back. We're going to bring the cats, all right?

We might trail behind the caravan a bit, but we set the tone here, all right? Did she say how we're traveling? We're going to bring the cats, all right? We might trail behind the caravan a bit, but we set the tone here, all right? Did she say how we're traveling? No, what if it's just like a teleportation? Yeah. Well, I hope it's big enough for some kitties. Because we just plunked down a big amount of money on these bad boys.

Might just leave them here, we'll find out. We have about 30 to 40 minutes left. Yes, you could do some book shopping. No, with this, our disguise, we can't just hang around. We need to go somewhere or go, where are we meeting them? Here. Here. Do we need to do any, does anyone need to do anything before we go?

I kind of need to pee, but outside of that. Butcher, fisher, meat? We got to go get the animals? Yeah, let's get the animals and come on back. That's all I can think of. How are we? Should I just run by? Going to do this. We have to change.

The Sunbreaker's house just is. But how are we going to do this for that long? The remote, man. We really tried to charm the mass. It's good that we were not in there. We weren't for the first audience break. No. You guys might be our slaves, right?

You might work for us. Well, I mean, they weren't in the first audience or this one. No. We certainly don't want to be seen traveling with humans so casually, so maybe they work for us. Should we go buy some leather straps and strap you guys up like a... Some buckles?

Yeah. Some harnessles? Yeah. Yeah. Some harnesses? I've seen some of those before. My mom said there were some clients that were like. I don't like it either, but I think it is maybe. We don't know what we're walking into, what the situation is yet. Some leather straps.

I cannot do this for longer than short bursts of time. No, I know. Don't mean to demean you, but. Are we all wearing straps, sir. Give me if you want to, good dudes. I don't know what that means, but okay. Should we get a set for Yasha, too? No, she's fine.

As we're heading to go get the moorbounders, are there any stables or areas that might have such apparati? The stables have all that might have such apparati? The stables have all sorts of harnesses, but they're designed for moorbounders. That's fine, we'll make use. Slide that shit over your shoulder. I'm going to ask Zorth.

Yeah. He's like, Welcome back, so nice to see you! Glad you're coming back for your beasties. We've been feeding them to quite hungry growing beasts, you know. Good, I'm glad. We're actually going to take off this very evening.

So soon? Yeah, I have a question. Because you have been such a fantastic business partner, if I had told you to outfit these two gentlefolk here with, I don't know, maybe some rigging, some harnesses, what would you say might work? I would have, on the way, jumped into an alley and turned myself into the twin of Jester.

Okay. Am I still a tiefling? Yes, you're fine, as long as we're in a small amount of time here. Let's go get the dummy. I mean, if that's what you want, I'm not one to judge, but certainly, I'm for a harness. What is he about to? I could probably get both of you

with one harness amount of leather. Two harnesses, two harnesses. All right, all right, who am I to not want to sell more for your 10 gold pieces for the two harnesses? 10 gold pieces? It's huge harnesses, why do we need one for a looser? Easy, sir, but 10 gold pieces sounds fine. Yeah!

Could you make some modifications so it fits them a little tighter, a little more snug, like they've been wearing it a bit? Yeah, we can take care of that one in just a second. Boys! Calls the other goblins over and instructs them. They gather the harnesses and they swarm around you, making little measurements around your body.

They're like. Making marks on their batches of scattered parchment and scribbling with charcoal. It's like a nightmare tailor experience. Before they jump off for a second, you see them cutting and bolting straps until eventually they come back with two loosely human-shaped harnesses.

They'll work, they're not comfortable, and as they begin putting them on you, it's very unique. Yeah, breathe, there you go. Collar, chest harness, arms at front, cuffs. All right. Full thing. Do we still get them on those? Yeah, of course we do.

BDSM up in here. What? Fuck off, Nott. There are some people. I'm going to zip your mouth shut. Oh, fuck you! Whoa! Harnesses. Oh man.

Nott fetched the gimp. Oh boy. Here's your 10 gold. We all appreciate you very much. Course, always appreciate your patronage. Keep coming back and spending money and making strange requests. We'll do what we can, aye? Okay, I will do next time we are around.

Yeah! All right, let's get out of here. Yarnball, come to mama. All right, boys, open up the pen! They open up the pen and immediately. Jesus, how did that come out? They're just like, oh god! The goblins take a second to get the harnesses on,

and they're fighting them off, one of them spins off, gets thrown to the opposite side, and eventually the ones who bonded with them and you guys manage to calm them down. Yeah. Halt! Oh! Oh!

Come and see me, yeah? And walk out. Oh! Come and see me, yeah? And walk out. Yeah, do that too, hold you, and also here's a treat for you, I got that downstairs and stuff. Here, here, don't bite my hand off, okay. And walks with you, and Caduceus walks up to him. Hey.

All right. You guys just exit the facility. Hope I'm doing him justice before he tells. You guys make your way with your moorbounders, and whereas previously you were rather inconspicuous in the street, that's changed, because you have three massive beasts tethered behind you, as well as two humans quite tethered alongside you.

I want to climb on the back of mine and ride it through. Okay, you get up on the back. She would have still been a tiefling, and I specifically changed into a jester twin. So we're just BDSM monster people. But eventually, I do feel like before we go up to them, we should drop this so we're not having to keep it up. It was just a pickup on the ride.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The sun is setting now, you're hitting dusk. All bounders. Six is all bounders. Slave, get on one of the more bounders. My feet are bound. Can't afford, put me on the cat. My feet are bound! Fjord, put me on the cat.

Push her off so she's in the mud and gets drug a little bit. You got to look like you've been in that thing for a while. Come on, commit to the part. This is some Stanford prison experiment shit. I'm just unhooking your feet. That's stupid. What's the point of having somebody working for you who can't even walk, right?

You're welcome. Fjord, do you want to get on my moorbounder with me? Sure. You can ride in the back. Okay. I drop the magic and lean down onto the ground and get some soil on my hands and I rub it down and then I clap it onto Beauregard's face

and smash her face around and make it filthy. Then do the same to myself and then take three steps back very quickly. All right, cool. You do that. Effectively filthy. Also realize in hindsight, moments after, it's not just mud.

Ooh! But it works. It's shit. Not all of it. It's a mixture of various things. I work with shit every day. But as the seven of you, Yasha just walks alongside, but while the rest of the six of you are up onto, riding tandem two per moorbounder,

making your way through the muddy streets of Asarius, you slowly make your way as the into riding tandem two per moorbounder, making your way through the muddy streets of Isarius. You slowly make your way as the dusk light of orange through the clouds of the gray now transitioning to the mild bright primaries of the sunset. You see the aurora hold before you and make your way towards it to wherever the next step of your destiny awaits. We're going to take a break there.

Ooh! That's just 840. Good work, negotiation crew. Yes, good work. So we have. Not Detective Ages. That's nice. Yeah, so we'll pick up on that in Jynri in just a minute. In the meantime, we do have our giveaway

this week from our friends at Wyrmwood. It is not a dice trade this week, actually. What? What's this thing? I love this thing! If you guys have seen their Kickstarter thing they're putting out there, these are their red oak tabletop tiles, which are these here.

They're a series of magnetic tiles that you can arrange next to each other as magnets in the table. These are slots like this. Oh, oh god. This is like a spell slot counter right there. A death saving throw? Yep, it's a death saving throw keeper.

There's a tiny dice roller there. There's one that's got a dice jail. Oh, wait, is this the dice jail here? Yes! It's got a little dice jail for if you piss off your dice. Put some together, put some together. That's pretty cool.

I figured out how to do it the other day. There you go, you assemble them magnetically. Yeah, yeah. Put it in the center, right here. Do we have a camera there? Yeah. Oh, yeah, but wait, it's not. See, and they snap together like that, which is pretty cool.

It's a coaster? Well, no, that one's upside down. That's for your spell cards. Yeah, spell cards will slip into there. It's pretty awesome. So anyway, you can check out Wyrmwood's Kickstarter campaign for these right now to pick up your own set.

The keyword for tonight is recovery. So you enter the word recovery once into the chat here. More than once you'll be disqualified. But we'll have a winner when we come back here shortly. See you guys in a little bit. Oh, hey there. Laura Bailey here to tell you all about the glorious goods we create inspired by our stories.

Our stores are filled with the basics, like character inspired t-shirts, dice sets and pins, as well as more specialty items like fancy jackets, puzzles featuring gorgeous artwork, the comfiest joggers and pajamas ever, and much, much more.

There's also a few special items that support charity efforts, like our dedicated Critical Role Foundation merch. You can check out all of our regional online stores by visiting the Shop tab on critrole.com or head straight to the U.S. store at shop.critrole.com. Every purchase helps support our shows and the stories we tell. Speaking of which, let's get back to the story.

Welcome back, everyone. So we have the winner of our fantastic giveaway of the awesome tiles from our friends at Wyrmwood is furry photos. Congratulations, furry photos. You have won this awesome Wyrmwood Kickstarter giveaway. We'll have that to you ASAP. I feel like I should put this in that jail

that is over there, but whatever. I'll get it to you. Yeah, let me use it. There you go, that's for you. For now. For now. Before it belongs to furry photos. Give me that jail. All righty, so. Of course, it's the bottom one.

Bringing us back in. As you guys caravan your way through the streets to the base of the Aurora Hold, you make your way to the front stairs, up through the front entryway, the doors that are open, and the clerk there, immediately wide-eyed, goes, Um, uh, excuse me, what's going on? Yeah, we have a meeting with Lady Olios.

Zathras Olios. These are our hoopties. Are you bringing these creatures into the hold? I'm sorry, what do you mean, the hold? Are you waiting here? What is the hold? Does that mean they're here? I'll be right back.

The clerk darts off. The hold. What is the hold? The hold is the structure you're in. Yeah, The Hold. A few moments pass before both Lady Zethris, Oleos, and Laithir arrive out of the left-hand opening. You see that the leisurely outfit that she had on earlier is now gone,

and there now is this longer, white. Tracksuit. Yeah, just chains, everything. She came back from yoga, guys. No, this long, almost ceremonial dress with white and silver and what looks to be a beautiful necklace of some dull gray stone that when light hits it shines and shimmers. It's very pretty. Anyway, as you approach, she steps forward and goes,

Very well, so have you acquired all of your friends? Yes, we're all here, yes. Looks across, Caduceus, Yasha, looks to the two of you. I apologize for any confusion. These two work for us, hard workers. Tough to find in this day and age, but they do their jobs well.

Interesting. All right. And your beasts, have you decided to bring them or not? Absolutely. I mean, do you think it would be appropriate? Here's the thing, we don't want to offend anyone, but these guys were expensive, you know? We can try.

How long is the voyage? Not long. Are we teleporting or are we traveling? We are using a much faster means of traveling. Would it make sense to leave these guys behind? Or should we, I mean, can they fit? Is it a thing where they have to fit? She thinks for a second and goes, Or should we, I mean, can they fit? Is it a thing where they have to fit?

She thinks for a second and goes, we can try. All right. All right, this way. She turns around, the guards open the door on the left-hand side fully, and you guys sit there, it's about five feet wide and about seven feet tall.

It is a comical experience squeezing these moorbounders through. This is Winnie the Pooh stuck at Rabbit's window. It's, it's, They're going to eat each other. Yeah, it takes about six people each time to push them through the doorway, and in the process, they're growling and snapping at anyone that isn't you guys, and it's,

it's, it is. It is unique. The folks that spend most of their days walking the halls of the Aurora Hold will probably tell this tale for years to come. No pooping on the floor, you guys. Too late, it's already happened twice. On the smooth floor, too, it's a Jurassic Park level pile. Caleb, clean that up.

I clean it up. Yes, sir, motherfucker! You do make your way down the hallway, which is a little. Oh, you took it. Oh! Cleaned poop for thief. Got it. All righty. You're led down the hall past the office

where Lady Zethras was originally meeting you for your first and secondary meeting. Continuing on, the hallway curves to the left and then comes to a small circular chamber where the other hall seems to curve and enter from that side. So this building seems to have two main halls. Where it meets in the center,

there is a doorway that heads back towards the direction of the entrance to the base of the hold, and a spiral staircase that leads up higher into the hold's towers, it seems. On the side that you're facing, there is a fairly heavy-looking door. It's a double door.

You see what symbol of the Derekihir is carved into this door where it's divided in the center where the two sides are closed in. On each door, you can see a heavy entrance where a key of some kind should go in. Flanking each side of the door is a heavily armed orcish guard. One's orcish, one's half-orcish. They're both arms crossed, standing, weapons at the ready, and as they approach, they give a bow and respectful nod towards Lady Zethris. As the rest of you come around the corner into the chamber, they all curiously look at each other, and this clusterfuck of a group that's making its way towards the doorway. One of them begins to

pipe up and goes, Lady. She goes, It's fine. She reaches into a small satchel she keeps on her hip and procures this beautiful, intricate silver key that matches a little bit of the silver inlay that's pressed into the designs along the frame of the door. She presses into one side and clicks to the bit of the silver inlay that's pressed into the designs along the frame of the door. She presses into one side and clicks to the left of the door, the one to the right, and both doors shutter as she turns the key until eventually both orcs reach out and grab the edges and pull both sides open. Beyond that, you see what looks to be a wide staircase, about eight feet wide, that curves downward out of sight. She continues down, as does Laithir.

Do you guys follow? Yes. All right. You look too cocky. Uncross your arms. You look like you want to start a fight or get it on with that woman. Just look meager. I want to do all of the above.

Inside thoughts, inside thoughts. So, progressing down the spiral, descends about 100 feet or so into the depths beneath the hold. The temperature gets colder. The air gets noticeably more damp. But most of it is carved stone with just bits of earth that are held back

with strips of stone that have been carved at Nier at Marvel and placed in through some magical means. It seems that they've been affixed magically with this seamless and beautiful in its construction. Imagine a stone rib cage that marks the roof as you go down, just occasional stone archery bars that go over the top. Tiger.

Esh. Once you hit that, about 100 or feet below, it levels out, and you find yourself to what is a Y-shaped intersection between three small diamond-shaped chambers, each marked with a silver arch at the entryway. So imagine the stairs stop, and you're in this small room, maybe 10 feet across. It's somewhat circular. On the right side, there is a diamond-shaped chamber that goes to one side. To

your left, there's a diamond-shaped chamber that goes that way. Then across the way, there's a third chamber. They're about 20 feet across, 10 feet wide, where it's at its widest point. There's an arch that signifies the opening to each of these doors. The floor of the chamber before you has what looks to be this interesting circle of various symbols and carvings that may have had molten silver poured into it and then cooled to give it this silver-embossed sigil on the floor.

You recognize it. It is similar, though unique, to the symbol that you were shown in the tower in Nicodranas. As you, one by one, begin to squeeze your way through, there's not enough room in this chamber for all of you and the moorbounders,

so the drow step into the chamber across from where the entrance is, essentially the point of the triangle between the three chambers. Within there, there is another subtle, nowhere near as bright in its silver, but a subtle carving on the ground, similar size, about 10 foot wide, this large grooved, not filled with silver, but a carved groove of other sigils and symbols. It's some sort of an arcane equation that is built into this for layer upon layer upon layer, getting more intricate as it goes towards the center. As you begin to head into that chamber, Lady Zathras, leading the troop, turns around and goes, I shall cross first.

Grant me a pause for but a minute, so I may notify of your coming. I think you'd prefer not to be eviscerated upon arrival, yes? That would be preferred. Not right upon arrival, no. She turns and steps through. You watch as she steps onto the circle, her body vanishes in the middle air. She just stepped through a curtain and doesn't exist.

Wow. Caleb, start counting. One, two, three. Laithir steps through. Same scenario. I was going to ask him some questions. Hey, you guys, now that we're down here without anybody around us.

There are guards behind you. The orcs that let you in are up in the stairway, keeping a distance from the moorbounders that right now are jammed in and squeezing. Jesus. This is a very unique journey. Money well spent. It's been a minute. Been. A lot of well spent. It's been a minute.

Been about a minute. All right. 58. Who goes first? I'll go. Okay. Okay. I hope you don't get eviscerated.

Fjord vanishes through. Okay, I'll go next. Then we should send the slaves. Yeah, and then you and Yasha. Sure. Jester, you step through. All right. With my moorbounder, yeah? You lot.

You bring your moorbounder behind you. You watch as Jester vanishes, but the tether remains taut, and at the edge of it, you see this sparkle that It seems to eat the tether as the moorbounder moves forward. Then eventually, as it steps into the circle, the moorbounder vanishes as well. I'm going to take my moorbounder by the collar and just walk forward. You vanish as well. Caduceus is there with his moorbounder, like,

wow, that's pretty crazy. I go. He follows you and you guys all step through. Yasha, following suit. I'll take a big swig and go last. All right. Braving yourself, as Nott has want to do, you take a heavy swig and step forward. The sensation is cold at first. The body chills, but an instant. It feels like you're being blasted with a heavy blast of wind, like you just opened a door in the middle of a storm for an instant, and then it comes to rest

again. Your eyes lose focus for about a moment, and then as they clarify once more, the lighting has changed. You now find yourselves in a chamber very much like the one you just left. Mirrored, though larger. The circular center is now about 25 feet across, and there's plenty of room for you and your moorbounders to all squeeze into this space all together. On the floor, there is a similar symbol,

a silver inlaid symbol on the ground as well. These are anchor sigils for teleportation circles. Fixed and carved, yeah? Correct. They're carved, and then it looks like they've had molten silver poured into them so that when it cooled, it now has this really cool-looking silver inlay that matches the symbols. Does the silver do anything special,

or is it just pretty? You don't know? I say it out loud. You say it out loud. Laithir turns to you and goes, It does both. It aids the continuation of the enchantment, and it is quite beautiful.

It really is. You see now six chambers affixed here, as opposed to three. There is one staircase that just continues upward. Not a spiral as the one you came down from the Aurora Hold, but one that continues up. As you guys have all stepped through at this point, Lady Zathras turns to you at the base of the stairs, ascended about three or four of them

before stopping and turning around and goes, Welcome to the Underarches of the Lucid Bastion. Where is that? I have spoken on your behalf, and you will meet with the Bright Queen within an hour. Wow. Good. Your guard will escort you to the holding chambers until you are to be presented.

Follow, please. And she continues to ascend the stairs. Lady Zathras? She continues walking, but gives a hand motion for you to catch up. How often is it that the Bride Queen actually sees people?

Not very often. Usually at a favor to a member of the various dens. You have done me a favor, and as such, I have given you one in kind. You're a den mother, then? I am one of many figures of many dens, but I am one of the three most powerful in mine, yes. Oh.

I had a feeling you were really powerful. Well, thank you. She continues to ascend, her formal dress dragging behind her by about five or six steps. There are guards waiting for you at the top. It's about a 60-foot climb. It's not too extensive. You make your way towards the top of the staircase.

It opens up into this kind of, how do I know how to describe it, this beautiful, long hall to the right and left of you. You can see what looks to be a semi-opaque gray quartz-like material that the entirety of this hallway is carved from. You can see the walls themselves reach up

probably 30 to 40 feet, and slowly come to a heavy arched point at the top. There are pillars about every 20 feet or so, and this hall goes on maybe 80 to 100 feet in each direction. You look past that, and it goes on moving further and further. This is probably a good 200 or 300 feet of extensive hull in just this section here.

You can see where each one of these arches and the pillars rise up and curve to meet the point. There are sconces that are affixed there where a simple white chain dangles and holds onto these blue luminous orbs, about that large that hang from it, and give off this beautiful ethereal light that fills the chamber, brighter than you expected.

This gives this entire hall with these mostly opaque gray crystal a very dreamlike quality. It's beautiful and it's strange and it's different. You swear you can see moving shadows or shapes beyond, but you're uncertain if there are things actually beyond the chamber walls, or if it's just the trick of the light,

or you're just getting used to the interior. As you move into the main hallway, your moorbounders coming up behind you, still growling and sniveling and scraping the ground with their claws as they move. You can see now, up ahead to the right side, there are about a dozen or so drow guards and about three orcish or larger creatures

in similar Kryn warrior armor, but it is made silver and reflective. More ornamental, beautiful and intimidating. They step carefully and intently to meet you as you step to the right and head further down that chamber following Lady Zathras. As you guys make it towards where these guards are, Lady Zathras turns to you, the clacking of your feet

across this empty hallway, the quiet causing the sound of your footsteps to echo in the silence. She spins around and goes, They will lead you to the empty chamber. Prepare yourselves. Within an hour, you will meet with the Bright Queen. Is there any formal way to address her ladyship? Just the queen.

Should we have some special clothes on, or maybe should we get cleaned up and stuff, because she's really important and stuff. It'll be fine. You mentioned you were one of three den mothers, forgive our ignorance. Would you mind telling us about the other two? My sisters, you mean?

Your sisters. I'm unaware. What are you mean? Your sisters. I'm unaware. What are you from? Over time. Every time. I'm just curious, you all seem to find your way under the Dynasty's banner, but know so little of its structure.

Well, we all sort of found each other by accident. I was an outcast from deep south, made my way up north and then east, and found this lot. Make a persuasion check. You're technically not lying. 23. The tension remains, but she doesn't press further.

Well, to inform you a bit, there are many dens that help run the Dynasty. The encrean, which you are about to meet, has been, since its inception for the past near millennia, the heads of our people. Meet this with reverence, honesty, and respect. I take it none of you are consecuted, correct? We're, I haven't turned 13 yet, so I can't technically...

That's a no. Then you have nothing to look forward to if this life were to end. Be careful. Is there a way we can just quickly get consecrated or whatever before? Consecrated. Yeah, before we meet her, or? Show your faith. Many, many years of service to the Dynasty.

Maybe then, but such things are not handed out to strangers. Yeah, not obviously. Of course, I mean, I just thought that maybe. Maybe then, but such things are not handed out to strangers. Yeah, not obviously. Of course, I mean, I just thought that maybe. Anything to avoid, any topics of conversation not to be spoken of within the queen's presence? Stick to your business, answer her questions, ask of your favor. That should suffice.

Thank you. We should probably put our babies in the holding area, or should we bring them with us to see her? They will remain in your holding area, I am to believe. She looks past at the guards and makes a motion towards the moorbounders and you watch as a few of them

step forward and reach out to take your leashes, your tethers of the beasts. Ooh, be careful. As they approach, they carefully step forward and look towards you and Caduceus and Caleb for a moment of permission. One by one, they gather them. and look towards you and Caduceus and Caleb for a moment of permission. One by one, they gather them. I give my orc guy an arm of the

little creature that I killed. As you reach in, it is just tar. It is degraded, thick tar. I put the tar in his hand. It seeps into all the metallic pieces of his gauntlet. Really nice mirrored armor. Yarnball really likes that you can offer it to him.

You don't finish the phrase before you're more bound or it goes. It starts licking it out of the mouth. It's like. Yarnball's like. Eyes bugging out the sides. Immediately coughs it up onto the ground. The grunts all look at each other and collectively sigh.

Yarnball's eyes don't blink at the same time. Only one of them blinks, really. At this point, Laedyra Zethers goes, I believe at this point our debt is paid. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, thank you very much for your honorable transaction, and if we find anything else out, we'll come and tell you right away. Is Laithier going to come with us,

or is he staying with you? He's right beside you, he says, no, I have business as well. Okay. Cool, just checking. So, the lady's like, May the light be with you. You as well.

She turns and heads the opposite side of the hallway. She's not returning to Asaaria's, but she was handling business elsewhere. The guards turn and begin to lead the moorbounders and yourselves further down the large hall for about 150 feet or so until you reach what looks to be a double door. Here you see, as it opens up into the antechamber, the guards pushing on the inside, it's a 20-foot-across room flanked with some black stone

benches on each side. You can see a small fountain of clear water that's gently trickling out that sits in the center of the chamber. You can see three metallic cups that are resting on the lip on the outside of this fountain. The guards tether the moorbounders to these heavy posts, these metallic posts that sit in the corner that look like they hold up some sort of a vase or some sort of a container made of clay or stone. It's hard to make out the

materials, but they tether them to it and lead you inside the antechamber. As you guys make your way in, they close the doors. Can I get a glance at the glasses? Yeah, the cups on the fountain. Yeah, the cups are inside the room with you. Oh, they're in the room. The antechamber is, there's a set of benches on each side. There's the fountain in the center,

and there is a larger set of double doors on the other end that are currently closed. Do the cups just seem like water cups, presentory type of thing? Presentory. 13. They appear to be clean metallic cups. They're not huge, they're small. Just resting on the edge of the fountain?

Yeah, just on the lip. It's about a foot and a half off the ground. You could almost lean and sit on it uncomfortably if you want to. That needs to be picked up. Come on. Do we see a symbol of the Dota Keydron anywhere? Make a perception check. Oh, it keeps doing that.

Yeah, it does a lot of things. I know. Like, 20 different things. Eight, no, you don't see anything like that. There isn't a lot of iconography in here. You do notice, and getting a closer look at the material, whatever this structure is made from, this beautiful gray quartz. Getting close to it, you can see, because it's mostly opaque, but there

is some sort of translucence to it. You can see layers and shapes and interesting things in it. On the inside, you can see what looks to be veins of silver, almost. It looks like maybe within a few inches inside, imagine blanched white silver tree branches that extend upward like veins and capillaries that eventually dissipate amongst the rest of the stone. Still. It's still. It's not moving. It's beautiful. It gives everything in here a natural feel, even though it is hewn material, but very pretty. Above the fountain, there is another one of those blue orbs that is dangling from a white chain

that is giving this nice, cool glow to the interior. Temperature's comfortable, it's slightly chilly, but comfortable. What's coming out of the fountain? Just water as far as we're concerned? Just fucking blood everywhere. Perfectly clear water, it looks like. You hear the faint trickle?

Oh man, I never did pee. I really thought I didn't. I'll go over and pick up one of the cups. Okay, it's light, lightweight. I look over at Shulman. It is only your party. Just us. Just you guys. This is in Yasha.

You are sealed in the chamber, and you assume you have under an hour. Definitely ours to use, right? Oh, this is the waiting chamber. You gather this is the waiting chamber. Let's look around the walls and see if there's any peepholes around where people are looking in.

Paintings with eyes. I wonder if they're looking at us through that glowy thing. I scoop the cup through the fountain. I do the same thing. Cheers. Cheers. Maybe it's the Fountain of Youth. You actually drank that shit? So Beau, I need you to, no, I'm kidding.

It's very crisp, very clean, cool water. It's actually some of the best water you've had in a long time. I've been in a saris for so long. Ugh. Oh, that's really nice. Anybody else want to wet your thistle? I'm going to.

Yeah, that sounds like a great idea. Takes the cup and scoops it in. I'm going to look around. We're all going to tell the truth when we get in there. Cheers. Cheers. I'm going to look for any like- You put some tea leaves in it,

and let it soak for a little bit. Old brew? Any writing on the wall, any marks? Make an investigation check. Ew. Gross. Ew. Gross. 11. 11. You run the perimeter a couple of times

and you don't see any writing. There's nothing particular about this chamber and its design beyond the fact that it's functional and beautiful in its simplicity. Most of the detail is within the actual stone itself. That is its... I don't know, it's beautiful. It's ancient.

It's hard to really grasp how it was made, but it's... Yeah, it gives off a very calming air to the interior. Okay. I guess we wait. Yeah. So what are we going to say to this? I mean.

The truth, we're going to say the truth. We're obviously just going to talk about the truth. About how we're looking for the scientist gentleman because he can help cure our employers. Right? Mm-hmm. And I'm going to take one of my brushes gentlemen, because he can help cure our employers. Right? Mm-hmm. I'm going to take one of my brushes

and on the underside of the bench, I'm going to draw a symbol of the Traveler. Where do we come from? Go ahead and make a sleight of hand check for me. Oh boy, are you going to graffiti this place? 16. 16, okay. You deftly stretch for about three minutes.

And you feel pretty calm. Is this regular ink or is this magic ink? This is just regular ink. Jor-Has. I know, but we're in Jor-Has, Ashkeeper Peaks. Where's Yasha? Where are you from? Where are you from? Where are you from?

I'm from south of the Sauros Seep. The what? Sauros Seep? Yeah, in the Iothia moorlands. Yeah, basically not on this map ends. Do we want to be from there? Why don't we say we were from Blade Garden and we came over through the Ash Garden Garrison. Because we weren't welcome no more.

Too much? I certainly hope that they are not watching us right now. I'm sure they are. Because you have shat the bed if they are. What do you think? I think we should tell the truth that we are pirates, y'all. We are pirates.

Fair enough. We're from the sea. I know pirates are frowned upon and stuff, but that's the truth, and we grew up on the sea, you know? We shouldn't be ashamed of that. Exiled from, what the hell was it called? In one day. Darkto.

Darkto. Darkto. Yeah, I'm all right with that. We are exiles in every sense of the word. Mm-hmm. I don't think that Caleb and I will probably do much talking. Right.

So. Okay. But it might be weird if you have your servants, slaves, whatever you want to call us in the room. Should we have a little bit more of an explanation there? Maybe when you come in, you both just bow down and get down on all hands and knees and look down at the ground. You can hold the cups for us. Why don't you hold the cups for us? I was thinking more like I'm your personal bodyguard.

What if you sit down on your hands and knees and then we sit on you like you're our personal tools? Yeah, like benches. Yeah, yeah, yeah, like you come around with us and give us like, you know. Very expensive benches that you hire. Very powerful bench. Among other things.

I've always thought that about you, yeah. Real important job description. I wish I had a bench to throw at all of your all-stars. There is a bench, there's a couple black benches in here. There they seem very bolted to the ground. How? How did I get here with you people?

We take you to all the best places. We're about to meet a queen, yo! This is amazing. It is. We were on a boat a couple days ago. She's really famous and stuff. Yeah. I'm actually pretty excited. See? I've never met a queen.

No. No. Like a little Elvis, like just a little. Be a fairy. Any coins on the bottom of the fountain? Thank you, Wild Mother, thank you. The DM will remember that. No, um, what was your question? Any coins at the bottom of the fountain?

Anything tossed in for good luck? Make a perception check. Hey, 20. 20, no coins. It is clear. It is a perfectly clean, there is no algae. It is just clean water. I'm going to look for peepholes. Yeah, that's what I said. I had said that a while ago.

Oh, you did? Yeah, but I never rolled an investigation. Go ahead and either of you, or both of you roll investigation checks, or one of you with advantage if you want. 20. Okay, that's better than me. 20, okay.

You glance around the chamber, you spend the next 15 or so minutes carefully scanning the ceiling and the walls and the floor where it meets. No peoples. About that time, the doors where you entered open. You've been here about 40 minutes or so. The doors where you came through open,

and Laithir steps in as well. Hey, welcome back. Yes, of course. Anyway, he comes in, the door closes behind him. The guards are still waiting there on the outside. He just stands, finds one of the nearby benches, and stands next to it, doesn't even sit, but just quietly keeps watch.

Unusual traveling partners, I know. What are you here to talk to the Bright Queen about? That is my business, but it seemed convenient to fix my wagon to yours on this travel. I was already in the middle of discussing business with Lady Zathrys, so here we are. Strange bedfellows, yes. How crazy is it that there was a fucking rift

to the Abyssal Plain, huh? I will admit that was unexpected. Such magics are not commonly found or even seen these days. That is an ancient construct, but not, I'm confused by it. Nott, what do you mean it wasn't ancient? Meaning the materials were more recently cobbled. Oh, really? Do you think somebody built it within the city?

I don't know if it was in the city, but it's been within this age at very least. Wow. Weeks, months. The shape and design of it seems to have seen little wear and tear. Yeah, it did seem pretty new. These happenings, are they limited to the City of Beasts, or has it been happening all over the Dynasty?

I do not know. I have not been privy to such discussions, so. But you might be seeing more of the Dynasty sooner after you get transferred away, right? Oh boy. Maybe. Don't like the City of beasts that much? Too many beasts? Not enough beasts?

It lacks some of the more gentle comforts of life. Sure. Where are you from? I believe we've asked enough questions of myself. Where are you from? I believe we've asked enough questions of myself. Where are you from? I believe we've asked enough questions of myself, too. He narrows his eyes very intently towards you.

Have you ever tried baked goods with cinnamon in them? Why do you ask? Because they're really good. I have not. You should try it. Good to know. I will keep this in mind next time I have the option of enjoying this cinnamon.

It's one of the top 10 foods. It's really good for you. Plus, yeah, it's supposed to be really good for your health, yeah. It's really good for you. Yeah, it's supposed to be really good for your health. Yeah, yeah. It's good. And you keep your pets close by. Yes, they serve a variety of functions. They have actually very short memories.

Watch, I can say 13, 44, 16. What'd I say? 13, 44, 16. Both. They also make really excellent, Beau, come here. Be my footstool. We're doing that? We're doing that thing? I'm sitting on the bench already, so I just lift up my feet and wait for her to get down. Let me know, I say I'm going to fucking get you.

That sounds weird. It's a very interesting punishment for Imperial dogs. It's not so much a punishment as it is an honor for them. Caleb, why don't you come over here and make sure my boots are looking clean for the Brat Queen, will you? I take a very filthy rag out of my pocket. I start to buff his shoe.

Yeah, that's right. This is awful. Zytheir actually lets out a chuckle watching this. You've certainly known how to pass the time. I've had this dream. At this point, you hear some footsteps approaching from the other larger doors. You can get out.

Get a few dogs. At some point, you hear some footsteps approaching from the other larger doors. You can get up, you can get up. Get up, you dogs. Get up, you dogs. As you produce this meosh, you look very uncomfortable. With a resounding thum, the heavy stone doors begin to grind against the floor, leading further into the bastion. A bright white light warms you as you step into the colossal cathedral-like throne room. The octagonal chamber is made of the same semi-opaque gray stone, maybe 120 feet, 150 feet across from you.

It rises to a gradual point, like an inverse pyramid from the interior, with harsh edges and elongated, jagged ridges that cut upward along the surface like climbing ice. You see roughly 12 armored figures, similar to the silvered warriors in the hallway previously, vigilant at two exits, the doors where you entered,

and a pair of doors at an angle to your left. The rest of the chamber is enclosed. At the peak of the room, where the point is at its highest, probably at the elongated pyramid shape of this room, where the point is at its highest. Probably at the elongated pyramid shape of this chamber, about 200 feet above the center. You see a circular sphere about 10 feet across, suspended by heavy white chains. It is emanating a bright white light,

like a small captured star, illuminating the chamber like it was the brightest moonlight you've ever seen, the purest, whitest moonlight. Now the actual room before you, you can see gathers and rises up into a small lifted dais. Then on that, there are three more elevated platforms, with staircases that lead up to the center and ones in the sides that curve up to the edges.

On top of that, above the platforms, as the guards begin to lead you closer to it still, you can see there are two side platforms that raise up with gentle stairs on top of this central raised area. On each of these side bits, there are four chairs. Four on this side, four on this side. Seated within them, you see a menagerie of figures,

mostly drow, but you see an orc. You see a bugbear in robes on the opposite right side. They're all mid-conversation, kind of hushed whispers. You cannot make out they're talking at this distance, but you can see there is some commotion and discussion. The third raised platform raises higher than the other two and has one heavy, wide staircase

that ascends up to the top where you see five chairs of differing sizes. In the center, one massive, bright white crystal throne that rises what looks like 13 or so feet from its base. Between, where all those chairs are arranged in a semicircle towards the stair, you see in the middle what looks to be a short pillar, maybe three, four feet off the ground. Atop it, a bright platinum wireframe construct of a dodecahedron. All the individuals around, as you ascend the staircases

towards the center of this area, all the conversation stops and comes to a halt as all faces shift to you. Atop the highest platform, immediately across from you as you step up the large staircase and walk towards the middle of these two rows of raised chairs, the eyes watching as you pass.

You see five figures sitting among the chairs atop, in the center, in the throne. You see a beautiful figure. A voice rings out, kind of sourceless, around you. Visitors, you bear witness to the bright Queen Laelys Kryn. The woman in this throne stands in a sparkling warrior dress of crystals and mithril chain, her beautiful dark gray-blue skin peeking from beneath the vibrant glow

of glittering beads and armor plates. Her white hair topples from under a headdress of three white crystal ibex-like horns that curve to the back. Past her shoulders, the hair meets her waist from behind. Her piercing turquoise eyes look down at you from above a stern smile. She steps up, lording right over

where the Dodecahedron is, coming no closer as you are all led to stop between these three raised platforms, the bright light ahead casting shadows directly around where your ankles and feet are. The voice, once more ominous and round you, say, May she warm your weariness. She lifts a staff, you can see,

that goes about a foot and a half beyond her height. Itself, solid white marble that fades to gray, and at the top, it seems to arrive into four clawed fingers that wrap around an even smaller symbol of the Dodecadran. Welcome, children of light. Might be with you. Lady Zethris of Den Olios speaks of a deed done

in the protection of Asarius and discoveries most foul. I ask you to tell me of these deeds. Well. Yes, our queen I ask you to tell me of these deeds. Well? Yes, our queen, Empress of Light, it is lovely to take audience with you. Thank you for your time and your graciousness. We are the members of the Mighty Nein,

a group of adventurers and investigators who have recently helped your lady. Olios. Olios, thank you. They were having an issue because a lot of fiends and monsters were coming out into the city and also some people were being mind-controlled and they were acting very weird and stuff, so we took care of that.

We found a happening under the soil and there was creatures from the Abyssal Plane. We fought, destroyed, and managed to shut a rift to that dimension. We recovered an artifact, which we brought to Lady Oleos. We only apologize that it took us an entire day to solve this problem. Yes, we had to wait until the dead of night

when one of the citizens of the town was being molested by evil, mind-controlling succubuses and incubuses, that's what they're called. I think it's, yeah. One's boy and one's girl. Yeah, and they were making him visualize really sexy bugbears. We don't need to get into the details,

but it was devastating for your people until we stepped in and put an end to it. We saw them, we fought them, we followed them down to their lair, where we drew them out and then closed the rift. Upon closing the rift and killing the creatures, we found the artifact that was causing it. We covered that already.

Yeah, but that was making it sound cooler. Yeah, okay. Take a persuasion check. Oh! See if it was cool. Cool check, cool check. Oh! See if it was cool. Cool check, cool check. Oh! Not cool. I have persuasion, what do I got here?

10. Oh man. All right. You see a slight grin and a cocked eyebrow peek through the very intense and well-presented presence of Leila's Cream. Lady Zathrys of Den Olios also says you deferred most of your riches to seek my favor.

Is this true? It is. Money is not as important to us as a favor would be in our time of need. Well, a word carries weight with this court. Might I ask, what are your origins? You act with an air that is unique in Xhorhas, especially during these trying times.

The truth is, we are people without a home and without a place of our own. We all have different origins, but... We came together on the seas. And if you are indeed to have my favor, what would you wish of me? What call is your deeds done at such threat to your own lives pre-consecution? Well?

Well, we do have a favor to ask, yes, yes. If I may, we are on a greater mission of our own, an important mission to recover or at least question a gentleman that we believe is in your custody or at least your dynasty's custody. His last name is Brunato, and he's a scientist, a chemist. We believe that he has done some experiments

which have wreaked havoc in other parts of the world and caused people great suffering. And as part of our mission, we are to find out what he knows and possibly use his information to heal some of the people who were affected by his experiments. We were asked to find him and return him so that he may be punished by the people there,

but we know he is in your custody, so we understand if that's not possible. I would like both of you to make deception checks, please. That's really surprising. That's a one, so I'll use this. Change that timeline. Way better. Still not great with my negative three.

99 for me! What's it? Nine. Nine. 10. What's it? Nine. Nine. 10. Oh, Jesus. Okay. I was trying to let you talk, it's your thing, but shit. Deception plus eight.

Okay. Okay, a couple things. We are in Silly Bad. One, the warm expression of the queen becomes less warm and a bit more stone-faced. Specifically in the moment that you concentrate and utilize that fragment of possibility within you.

There's a brief. We're using our power! Hold on. There is a brief, just a slight head turn of acknowledgment towards you and a curious look. A voice comes out from the side, the left side of you, amongst the thrones, and goes,

My queen, if I could speak. Who is this? Is that Laithir? Who is this? You look to your left to find the voice, and Laithir is standing there. Of course. She puts out a hand.

Laithir steps forward and goes, my eye has been caught by these travelers. For their smell is alien, their intent unclear. I myself still recover from wounds suffered along the western edges of the Ashkeeper Mountains, not a week before. Oh, we fucked him up. As does my partner, a lauded Echo Knight in your service, my queen.

We came upon a troop of Dwendalian scouts seeking weakness in our borders, wishing subterfuge upon our brave soldiers. We did battle and slew many of their filthy ilk, but were forced to flee when the tides turned against us. When these creatures, these allies of the Empire assailed us. The heir leaves the room, as every member of this court stands to look down upon you.

The queen leans back into her gate and her staff hits the stone. In that silence, she looks down at you, her eyes now burning. Is this true? Yep, yep, that's true. Yeah, we did fight with some of your soldiers upon crossing into the Dynasty, yes.

That is true. But we're not soldiers of the Empire. My queen, clearly the gentleman is confused. We, too, were found in an ambush and found ourselves assaulted from both sides. Your friend over here did not seem to take any special actions to ascertain the nature of our journey. We did trade blows, although I do not recognize him

from that particular encounter, but yes, this did occur. We were trying to make our way to the City of Beasts, which we successfully did. Make a persuasion check with disadvantage. Oh, come on. Disadvantage, Travis Lillingham! You got this one, you got this one! Oh, he already persuaded him? Yeah.

11. Hey, that's over 10. It's over 10. This one goes to 11. Her chin now raised, the warmth has vacated her face. The expression hard and angry. I am curious why you would walk into my sanctum. Yeah, me too.

Seeked your old tom right now. That's it? Have you nothing to say for yourselves? We simply seek your aid. Guards. Wait, wait. We have not been honest with you, it's true. Guards, I'm going to go ahead and go back to the house. What are you doing?

Where are you going? He's getting a map! Are we going to go into combat, Matt? I don't know. It's up to you guys. If we do, this combat is powered by our friends at Dwarven Forge. They just restocked their most powerful dungeon of Doom sets, which are available in their store now at DwarvenForge.com. Go get it. This combat should be interesting for everyone watching. Holy shit. If it's combat.

We do not need to fight them. We are not going to fight. No, we have to surrender. We're not going to fight. I mean, there's a million people and chairs everywhere. Deadly, deadly chairs. Never trust chairs. Jesus. Slowly, fast going. Never trust chairs. Shit.

We have like... Goddamn it. Just a couple fucking rolls. Like all of them. This is rough rolls, guys. We might die. We fuck up and not recognizing what's his dick. The guards immediately start approaching. Are you guys fighting?

No, wait, wait. Throw up our hands. Throw up our hands, yeah. All right, you're surrendering. Yeah. All right. What are we going to do, fight you guys? You guys are super powerful.

We don't work for the Empire. Please. The guards all emerge, stepping up to the sides. Here behind. And here. Oh god. And here.

Oh god. What should we do? Even more. Do you want to say something? Begin to arrive up. We have to tell her the truth. Tell her the truth. Yes, yes.

Just tell her. She turns and sits back down on the throne. Everyone else begins to sit down. They seem to have lost attention on you in the moment, and the guards begin to rush forward and just grab you at the shoulders. They grab Caleb. I am sorry.

We are sorry. We have come to bring you something. We have come to bring you something. We have come a long way. No. No. Oh no. Just get arrested, man. Just get arrested.

I think we should do it. Oh, Jesus. They've pushed Caduceus onto the ground. Yasha's currently being put into shackles. Please, please, spare us. He's my husband. You have my husband. You're holding my husband.

There's no attention being paid. The Empire is working against you. Wildemount is working against you. Wildemount is working against you. And we have brought the proof, if you will allow me to show it to you. The zyther across the way goes, what proof? I need to approach my friend. I mean no harm.

I need to remove something from the book. Make a persuasion check. Oh boy. Oh boy, this went perfectly in my head. 16. 16. You have a moment. Anything strange and I take off your head.

Jester, I am coming to you, okay? I am just going to open this bag. As you reach for it, you hear the sound of many blades being drawn as you reach for the bag. Echoing through the immense chamber, the bright light bearing down on top of you. You can feel the sweat beads forming

and dripping down your forehead and gathering in your brow. I say this as a child of the Empire, connected to inner circles there long ago. And I reach in and grab the dodecahedron. SAM and LAURA, SAM and LAURA, Okay. Oh god. And lift it into the air. I thought you were going to get out the tripod first.

No, go big or go home. Okay. The minute you pull the doedecahedron out, you hear the clattering of metal. Ting-ling-ling-ling. Ting-ling-ling-ling. Gasps. If you thought air was escaped from the room before,

it is a vacuum now in silence. The thrum of the object in your hand, the light pulsing like the heartbeat since the moment you found it. You see every eye upon you, and the queen, the Bright Queen herself, Elisgrin, has stepped around the art object, the symbol that sits before her throne,

and looks down straight into it, her eyes wide. You see tears forming at the corners of her face. I am of the Empire, but I am no friend to the Empire. One of your own came to retrieve this and fell. And I bring it to you. And I set it down in front of Jester, two or three feet in front of her feet,

and raise my hands back into the air. Everyone is just locked in on this, and slowly they all begin to look to the Bright Queen. She holds her staff up and says, endings. One by one, you find your chains, your manacles pulled away. The queen takes a step, and another, and another, and approaches, tall, elegant with each step. She approaches, and she's even more imposing, more beautiful and ethereal the closer she gets to you. She sets her staff aside and reaches down from the handles, picks it up. You bring us hope. And you have undone one of many great wounds against us today. I have no words. My emotions burn within my chest. If you are no friend to the Empire, you have certainly today become the heroes of the Dynasty.

And that's where we'll end tonight's episode. Oh my god! It's 10 o'clock and I want to do Taliesin and this when we come back in a couple weeks, plus it's a fun moment to finish. Oh, that's right, we're taking next week off. Taking next week off, yeah. Oh god!

Oh man, okay. Oh god. That turned that around. Oh god. I was like, all right, they're going to get prison, and they'll go back there, and maybe it'll be like trying to find out where he is in the prison. Like, no, no, okay. Yeah.

There's my die. Yeah. That I was looking for. That's where it is. It's part of the world. All right. Okay. Kind of figured her husband was in jail where we were going to be sent to. Because he did say that he was going to Rosana, right?

No, he didn't say. We never even got to try it with the tripod. I know. Maybe we can give her the tripod, too, and just, you know. Just go full cream? Tell her to give it a whirl while we're standing right there. Okay. I've got a lot to think about over these next two weeks.

Oh god. Oh god. So much. So much. Oh man. All right, all right. You returned the beacon to the cream, okay. So are they super powerful now? And they're thinking, oh god.

Destroy the empire. Let's just go back to the Third Temple and get Uk'otoa out here while we're at it. I mean, fucking, what do we got to lose? Okay. All right, guys, well done. Well done? Yeah, you did something crazy.

We gave the nuke to the bad guys. Bad guys? Are they good guys? Is the Empire good guys? Is there a way to lose Dungeons and Dragons other than a cheap beginning? We gave somebody a nuke to the bad guys. Bad guys? Are they good guys? Is the Empire good guys? Is there a way to lose Dungeons and Dragons other than a cheapy game? We gave somebody a nuke, oh god. Well, you might be in a position to learn a lot more

about the dynamics of the world larger than you now that you've made a very huge ally very quickly. Nice. Oh, this is going to be real interesting. Oh god. I can't barf. You got two weeks to think about it. This map covers the areas that we just declared war with.

We are a part of this part of the map. This is us. The part that we know nothing about? Fuck this whole thing. Us, no longer safe for us. Not necessarily. Also, the Empire doesn't know where the dodeca went, as far as they know. Someone broke into the tower and took it. Yeah.

Oh boy. They didn't know that we took it. A cream took it. Well. Well done. Took it. Well. Well done. Sadly, no combat, but at least you get to see the throne room. How would we have survived that? Do we use the new cameras? I'm not saying that you would have survived,

at the very least, but I'm just going off of our previous experiences. Sometimes, I don't know what you guys are going to do. I knew it was a possibility to surrender. I knew it was a possibility to try and be like, fuck this, guys, we're going to get out and make a crazy escape! And then it would've, but fuck, that was...

Yeah, we teleported in. Ride or die, bitches, ride or die! Teleported in, I don't think we were trying to escape, but I didn't think we were going to jail, which is maybe where we were trying to go in the first place. It's all good. We're in a position of power now. Yeah.

We are. That one's a surviving dude. Mm-hmm. I didn't know my passing joke about. Yeah, man, I'm surprised you didn't recognize him. He was in helmet and armor when you fought him. Prison, motherfucker. Oh, so, oh.

Yeah, and your insight check wasn't high enough to get more information about his response to you when you guys had entered the chamber. Also legitimately, for all we knew, we were about to be murdered on the spot. Absolutely. Well, cool. I'm super excited to see what happens now. All right, guys. Let me go home and rewrite some stuff. I've got some prep to do. I've got some prep to do.

Toss some binders in. I'm glad we have a week off now. Anyway, we'll see you guys. As a reminder, we're off next week. We'll be dark for that. We'll still have content and stuff throughout the channel throughout the week. We'll be back the 4th of April, I believe.

April 4th. That's correct. So enjoy your time off. We'll enjoy ours. And as always, we love your time off. We'll enjoy ours. Uh, and as always, we love you very much. And is it Thursday yet? See you next week! Thank you for listening to this episode of Critical Role. If you've enjoyed this ever-weaving story,

please consider rating and reviewing our podcast. You might just inspire someone new to hop on the wagon for the journey. We have plenty more stories to tell. Stay tuned, and we'll see you next time.