Critical Role - C2E63 Intervention

Episode Date: May 23, 2019

The Mighty Nein tell the Bright Queen about a potential attack on Xhorhas, and attempt to infiltrate a meeting at the Overcrow Apothecary...Watch Critical Role live Thursdays at 7pm PT on https://www.twitch.tv/criticalrole

Once upon a time, a group of curious storytellers breathed life into epic tales set in the wide fantasy world of Exandria. This is Liam O'Brien, here to welcome you to Critical Role. We'll dive into the story in just a moment, but first, a few notes. This is the audio-only version of our broadcast that streams Thursdays at 7pm Pacificm. Pacific over on twitch.tv slash criticalrole and youtube.com slash criticalrole. If you subscribe to our Twitch channel, you can watch the video on demand immediately after the broadcast.

And it's also available Mondays at 12 p.m. Pacific on YouTube. And of course, for all you wonderful podcast listeners, freshly minted episodes release right here on the Critical Role Podcast Network one week after our broadcast on Thursdays. With all that said, let's get into the story. Hello, everyone, and welcome to tonight's episode of Critical Role, where a bunch of us nerdy-ass voice actors sit around and play Dungeons & Dragons. Dungeons & Dragons!

Okay, good. That's good. That was good. Before we get into tonight's session, we have some announcements to get through real fast, so bearing with us, first and foremost, we have our two fantastic sponsors for tonight returning. First, our fantastic friends who've been here since the beginning of the campaign, D&D Beyond. Hey! Sam.

D&D Beyond will have their own special streaming pod at D&D Live, that's this weekend. Yeah! Tune in to twitch.tv slash dndbeyond on Saturday. Why is this a thing now? I hate it. I hate it so much. Twitch.tv slash dndbeyond on Saturday and Sunday, starting at 9 a.m. Pacific.

That's an unusual time to watch Dungeons & Dragons, but I'm into it, to check out all of the awesome announcements, games, and special segments. Now tonight, I realized this week that we all got our start doing anime dubbing. Yeah! It's a weird skill that we all have. If you guys don't know, there's Japanese shows and we dub them into English sometimes and you hear a beep, beep, beep, and then you have to match the lip flap

and stuff. So we have this skill and we never get to use it anymore, especially on this show. So I thought we would do a demonstration for our audience of our anime dubbing skills. It'll be a little different, because you guys are going to be lip syncing to me. But it'll also serve to be our D&D Beyond ad for the day. I'll just demonstrate real quick. This is just a demonstration. Hit that first file. Hi there, I'm Sam Riegel. D&D Beyond is the official toolset of Critical Role. You can check rules, save your characters, and manage campaigns all from their handy digital interface. It's D&D-rific! Okay, that's it.

This is the opposite of what we normally do. It's the opposite of dubbing. Yeah. This is the original Japanese book. So now what I'd like to do is kick it over to my friends over here, Travis, Marisha, and Liam. We're not your friends. And I thought they could each dub a line to show us how it's done.

Sort of. And then we could pick a winner, and the winner gets a $2 bill. Hold it. Where is the $2 bill? dollar bill. Hold it. Did you pull it from my wallet? I have a two dollar bill. Taliesin has deep beliefs in two dollar bills. I do, they're wonderful.

Okay, so first up is Travis Willingham. Travis, hit that second file. The year is 2424, and no one in Neo-Japan is safe. For I, Turovis Widinghamu, leader of the Paper and Pen Yakuza, will unleash a deadly wave of adorable battle monsters on Critical Role Cram School number seven, and I will rule Cram School number seven, and I will rule the planet. Excellent work, Travis, really good. No, no, no.

This two dollar bill could be yours. That was so unsettling in such a weird way. Okay, raise it. Kick up the volume for us a little, if you could. You've got a big paragraph there. I know, Marisha has a lot. Sorry, Marisha. It's up to you. Can you steal this two dollar bill? Here we go. Hit that third cue. You can do it, Marisha! Nani? No way! We'll never let Paper and Pen win.

There's a better, more organized way to play D&D. I'm just a transfer student who doesn't understand the power I have inside me. But today is our cram school's cultural festival, and our hot springs-themed maid cafe needs to be perfect. Therefore, my burning grip commands me to defeat you. Take my passion, my rage, and all my pain. Shining thumb sword exorcist attack.

Believe it, I am Gundam D&D Beyond level 9000. Oh, wow. That was really good. Strong finish. That was great. D&D Beyond level 9000! Oh god. That was really good. Strong finish. That was good. That was a good one. That was good. That was good.

Liam O'Brien. Liam O'Brien. With that third cliff, this is all you. Waiting for the twist of the knife. Marisha-kun, no! Oh, no, please! You can't defeat him on your own. You need the strength of the super ultra robo

blue Gundam soul eater bot Musashi Bebop Titan Defender A-class warrior mech. Whoa! Also known as Mecha D&D Beyond. Mecha D&D Beyond, I summon thee by the power of HTTP colon forward slash forward slash dndbeyond.com! Oh, that is some classic anime. Wow!

Classic. Okay, cut it off, cut it off. Literally reverse dubbing. You completely undercut your whole point. Talking about unusual reed patterns. The judges have spoken. Magical Girl Marisha has won the tournament. Yeah!

Not even from Texas! Woo! That's how you dub! Anyway, thanks, D&D Beyond, and have a pleasant weekend at the D&D Live event. Spend it all in one place. Thank you, Sam, and thank you, D&D Beyond. On a much more calm note, our second sponsor tonight,

returning, our friends at Eldritch Foundry. Those who don't know, they just recently kicked off this amazing Kickstarter. They are massive critters and have been for a long time. They are setting up their own customizable 3D printed miniature program for you to go ahead and check out. Their campaign right now has already unlocked distinct races like tieflings, dragonborn, goliaths, and gnomes. They have more goals to hit, which unlock animal creatures like kenku, turtles, and werewolves. Their next stretch goal, I think, is steampunk items,

as well as the Warforged they're hoping for, which is pretty awesome. You can go check out their fantastic Kickstarter at critrole.com slash eldritchfoundry for more information to see if it's your bag. And right now, there's a special promotion for tonight. They're giving away two of their Dark Temple Kickstarter tiers.

They have $500 value on their official social outlets, one on Twitter and one on Facebook. So head over there now for a chance to win your own character commission and an item designed by Critter artist Ilya Salnikov, who is amazing, her work is incredible. Yeah, that's good. So thank you so much, and super excited for you guys' stuff.

Yay! All right. Speaking of the D&D stream, a few of us are going to be doing that this weekend. Taliesin, you're up tomorrow, right? Yeah, I got to finish some stuff. Yeah! Yeah.

Are you running a game? No, no, I just haven't finished getting everything together. That's okay. Well, I know, never, so. You're playing with some cool people and some friends. I know, I'm excited and nervous. And then on Saturday, Marisha's running a game,

which is going to be amazing. Yeah, she's dungeon mastering, she's going to be badass. Yeah. I also have to finish some things. Oh man. It's, you got this. It's Friday tomorrow. And then I'm playing tomorrow as well,

later in the afternoon. I get to step into the shoes of a lore character I'm excited about. I think there'll be more information about it tomorrow, but I'm pretty excited. So check it out on D&D's Twitch channel throughout the weekend. And in case you guys missed it, we announced that we are finally,

after a, we're a small company, but there's a certain number of people, and there's only so much we could do at any given point in time. We've been working really hard, and we finally got the cosplay galleries up and running. We've been working on that for a while. Woo!

We've been talking about it for ages. For ages. Oh man. Talk about infrastructure, you're surprised. Yeah, everything takes a lot. Everything takes a lot. But thanks to the hard work of the amazing people here on our team, they'll be coming to our website soon.

So we've all seen some of the incredible cosplay that this community has produced, and we want to be able to show that off and also include possible prizes for Tox Machina for folks here and there, but mainly just celebrate this amazing group of cosplayers out there that are part of this community. So we're launching the Cosplay of the Week contest

on Tox next week, and you can go to critworld.com for all the details and visit critworld.com slash submit to see how to submit your cosplay. Woo-hoo! And the other nose you put up, which I'm still processing, in celebration of Red Nose Day, which is an amazing charity. It's an annual fundraising event

to help end childhood poverty. They do incredible work every year. If you haven't checked it out, I highly recommend it. But we've teamed up with Stephen Colbert. Ah! Colbert! To create a very special mini one-shot. I'm going to be running one-on-one for him next week.

Going to New York to run a one-on-one mini campaign for Stephen Colbert. I don't think it's hit me yet. But it will air on our YouTube channel on May 23rd. How do fans participate? As part of this campaign, you get to shape aspects of the storyline. So if you go to critrole.com slash rednoseday, you can vote now with your donations towards many of the

different facets of the story that you want to see make it there. We have choices for which companion goes along with Steven in his adventures. We get to choose which kind of magical artifact that Steven is looking for. We get to choose what class he plays, and then we also get to choose who the ultimate villain is of the campaign. Queen Bee. Yes. Taliesin has some preferences. At first, there were some frontrunners

that I was like, oh, well, this is already decided, but there's been some neck-and-neck fights in the past couple of days with donations. Like really hardcore. Yeah. So check it out. If you want to participate and help donate to support this amazing cause, go. So check it out. If you want to participate and help donate to support this amazing cause, go ahead and check it out. That's critroll.com slash rednoseday.

And look forward to showing you guys this ridiculous bucket list item that's happening that I'm. Comedy. I, yeah. I don't know what's happening anymore. I never know what's happening anymore. But on that note, let's go ahead and bring us in

to tonight's episode of Critical Role. Roll. Roll. Critical. Critical. Roll. Roll. Critical. I'm sorry. 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 Critical Roll the dice Critical

Roll the dice Critical Roll the dice Critical Can you answer the call? Critical Role Critical Role Critical Role Critical Role Can you answer the call? Digging deep in your soul As the legend unfolds Now it's your turn To Role Oh!

Hello and welcome back. So last we left off, the Mighty Nein, you had, after achieving a couple of fairly decent goals for the city of Rosohna and for the Kryn Dynasty, both returning one of their Luxon beacons to the Bright Queen, and then after that, completing a mission out towards a giant-infested mine in Steelworks, and managed to get the giants back to their home,

free it of the incursion from some seemingly placed abyssal assault, and returned to gain your prize. For this goodwill, you've been gifted with a house within the firmaments. Upon returning that evening, you then decorated, bought furniture, made a tree in the tower. Made a tree. Met some of the neighbors,

went ahead and did some shopping, wandered the city a bit, gathered some information, all leading to this supposed meeting point at the Overcrow Apothecary, where this individual you had scryed who seemed to be involved with these abyssal anchors that you found now in two locations in Xhorhas was going to meet.

You were preparing for this, went ahead and scryed again, and seemed to pick up more information. This figure, this individual, was peripheral to other individuals out of sight who were discussing some sort of war plans. And with this information, you had decided to go ahead and make your way towards the Lucid Bastion in the center of the city and inform the Bright Queen,

perhaps, of what you heard. And that is where we left off. So, Mighty Nein, on the evening before the day of the supposed meeting, you've gathered your things, you've left your new home, and you begin walking through the firmaments towards the Lucid Bastion. As you approach, well, first off,

I'm just going to give whoever had the suede, I have your sheet here for that. Oh shit. I do have that from last week. Nice. Well, that's back in play. Yep. That's what happens when you steal from smugglers.

So, first off, is there anything you want to prepare or discuss before you get to the Bastion? I would just like to say, the last time we saw the Bright Queenie, when things went wrong, we pulled out a thing. Smartly, smartly, is there anything else that we have on our person that we should not have

before we walk into this room? Do we have that little vial of you know what? We do. Should we not have that little vial of you know what? We do. Should we not have that? I think that's okay. It's not like they worship the little vial thing. What about the tripod? Are we not supposed to have that?

I don't think that even necessarily is, no. I think the relevance to it was just to their holy item. It's a good thought, though. Okay. Do we have that rift disc portal thing? No. We broke it. Not destroyed it. But did we hang on to it?

I don't know if we did. We did. We have all the pieces. It mostly shattered, but yeah. The center part of it had been broken, but the general structure of the outer ring was still intact. The frisbee. That's good to have, though, right? Yeah. We should definitely cover have, though, right?

Yeah, we should definitely have that. Oh, yeah. Is there any other evidence that we should know about before we go in? Hmm. And what are we saying? I just don't want to die because she thinks that... Ooh, ooh, we have one other piece of evidence.

We have the little blue piece of cloth, right? Yes, yes, yes. She could use that to verify our scrying, maybe. Yeah. That's true, I guess. We don't need it anymore, right? No. I know what he looks like.

I can scry on him pretty easily now, I think. So all the places that we've seen rifts, right? We've seen them in the giant hoard. We've seen it in the well, right? Yes, in another city, not here. That was in the Beast City. Yeah, but still under this territory. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And then, was there a third place? No. There was two places in the City of Beasts. Oh, that's right, yeah, two. So this is the third time we've seen it. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Okay.

And he made it seem like, well, if he's placing them, how many more he could have placed. That's crazy. And we're all agreed that me and Jester are doing the talking. You guys are just going to take a back seat. We've got this. I think I'm going to option out of that one as well.

I think maybe there should be a group effort. Oh. Yep. And I think we should also include our knowledge of, what was the place we just visited? They had the real nice massage in the front. Got the chestal rubbed going down. Oh, oh, the overcrow? Overcrow, thank you.

Oh yes. Thank you, Yasha, yeah. I could always do all the talking as well. That would be great, actually. I would like that. You're pretty charismatic. I'm a big talker, I know. I'm going to keep a straight face for that one. You've got a Zhorhacian accent, so it would help.

Well, you know, we'll see if that can come in handy. No daylight for present. I'm all about it. Caduceus, how you doing? Uh. Nuff said. Yeah. This is said. Yeah. This is complicated.

He's got some heavy Disney blue vibes. Let's just tell them nothing but the bare necessity. Oh, yeah. Yay. The simple bare necessity. I was trying to figure out a City of Beasts, Well Alone, Tumbleweed Song joke, but never mind. It's awesome. It's just something.

Let's talk out what we are going to be discussing with her. Well, we'll tell her that we went and there was the rift, right? We got that order from Professor Wako. One of her people. Yeah, yeah. We went and took care of it and found another one of the discs. So we scryed on the fabric that was left behind

on the disc and that's how we found the dude. Yeah, yeah. That's it. Just the truth. Exactly. The deus is always safe. We overheard about the attack and the incursion. Why didn't we tell them sooner? We did. To verify.

I just. We needed to verify. I mean, we just got back. A couple weeks ago. A week ago. A week ago. We just got back a week ago. We had to set. I just. We needed to verify. I mean, we just got back. A couple weeks ago. A week ago. Yes, a week ago. A week ago. We just got back a week ago. We had to set up a house. And we're going to her as soon as I scribe.

We tried to prepare as much information as possible. Well, I mean, to be fair, I guess there wasn't really an intense thing until just now. Yeah. The first time, it was just the dude writing in the book, you know? Now we know he's with the other guys and they're planning an attack.

I personally would like to see how she reacts to this information before we start offering our notions on what the best course of action is. I would like to maybe get a sense of her immediate concerns and character. What if she rallies all the troops and drags out the war machines and...

Well, then we can say on the other hand. We need to, you know, capture the guy first. We need to make sure we have somebody really powerful with us, because I have a feeling this guy's pretty strong. If he's coming over here alone multiple times and setting these traps, he's probably got some tricks up his sleeve.

But the attack on the garrison could be any day now, any hour now, realistically. We should do what we can to save as many lives as possible. I think if we get him first, though, then he will know more details. That's true. Sure.

And he's supposed to be at the Overcrow. Oh my gosh. But let's have. I just thought of something. What if I try to locate that book that he was writing in? We could locate object that if he's in the city. And we have that book that he was writing in. We could locate object that if he's in the city. And we have that book. He would have all of the plans. He was writing it all down in there.

If he was in the city. I thought he might not be, like he was back in the Empire, I thought. Well, but if he's meeting at the Overcrow tomorrow, then he might be around. Yeah. Is it tomorrow or tonight? Tomorrow night. Tomorrow is when the Overcrow comes. True. He might be around. Yeah. Is it tomorrow or tonight? Tomorrow night.

Tomorrow is when they have the conversation. Gotcha. Well, it would be best to have some sort of official permission to be skulking around if we're going to go back to skulking. I'd just prefer for them to know that we have a plan. Also, if we attempt to talk her out of holding, backing out of the garrison,

as you suggested, it could tip off our friends back home. That something is wrong and spook our blonde friend. Yeah? Right. Well, I'm sure they know that there are spies. It doesn't have to be us, though. They don't know that much. Does that mean that the goblin that's running the Overcrow

is actually working for the Empire? Ah! I think it does. You can never trust a goblin. That's something I've always said, right? It's something that we've all always said. No, we haven't said that. I don't think I've ever said that. No.

There's clearly moles on both sides. Yeah. Any type of war effort has to know that. Well, maybe they'll see the sense in just taking one's time, being careful, maybe not showing your hand. Yeah, counsel, caution. Yeah.

Remove those moles one at a time. That's right, you should always check them out because they could lead to worse things. Other things, yeah. Yeah, they could be real bad. Yeah. Let's go. Let's do this!

So as you approach the exterior of the Lucid Bastion at this point in the evening, a cluster of six Aurora Watchguards approach. The leader of them hand up, Holt, what is your business at the Bastion? We have really important info. Should I be the one talking, or not? We have some really important information

that the Bright Queen will want to hear about. Show me your thing. I really can't wait. This is the emblem. Seriously. For the the emblem. Seriously. For the Bright Queen right now. It is so important. Multipass. All these patches, she's like,

fine, put it down. Ah, Luxon be praised. All right. I will see if she is available. Please come within the antechamber. And all the guards flank around, not aggressively, but they escort you in, an armed escort, back through the echoing halls

of Lucid Bastion. I ring the bell as soon as we walk in. You see this guy from our show. Goes back to business. Eventually making your way to the same familiar antechamber you guys had rested when you first arrived here, though thankfully without having to deal with three more bounders at your back.

But the same small fountain there, the cups remain, the small seating arrangement, and as you enter the chamber and the door is closed behind, the guards leave it to you. But one guard leaves through the other side of the chamber and you get a quick glimpse inside the central cathedral of the Bright Queen. With the same glow-diffused light throughout the chamber, the same source orb hanging from the center above with the Bright Queen. With the same glow-diffused light throughout the chamber,

with the same source orb hanging from the center above, with the white chains riding off of it across, you can see that she's there on the Bright Queen's throne, but the room, you get just a quick glance, they're in mid-discussion, so there is definitely a busy evening. But you wait. And you wait.

Is the Bright Queen in the same clothes or was she in different clothes? Hard to tell at this distance. You saw the headpiece. Oh, they're snacks. We didn't have breakfast. By the time we had breakfast, we had lunch. Can we tell how many are up on the platform with her?

Well, it's closed already. You just got a quick glance. Roll a perception check. Jesus. Whoa, what's closed already. You just got a quick glance. Roll a perception check. Jesus. Whoa! What the hell is that thing, Igrom? It's a gift. 15. 15.

You saw the Bright Queen's right hand that you previously saw at her side was there to the left, and you think you saw the sky-cible Ariana Miriam there as well, but that's all you got to see in that quick glance through the air before it closed. So you're there for about 30 or so minutes before eventually the doors open once more.

The guard says, You are accepted into an audience with the Bright Queen this way. The chamber opens and as you guys walk into the interior, you can see already there's a, it is less, a smaller number of people in attendance here. Previously, you had all the raised platforms

with the chairs of the different den heads that were there and the five chairs that were on the main central raised portion of the platform where the Bright Queen was. Right now, you can see maybe six individuals present. Two on one side, two on the other, and then there is the Bright Queen and the right hand there.

In a quick glance, you recognize some of them. These people were present when you first came through. It's just a diminished amount. It seems like this isn't a formal gathering of all hands on deck in War of General Matters. You see Essek is present on the left side. Miriam is on the right, up in her chair, the ancient goblin lore master of the Luxon.

The Bright Queen sits on her throne. the ancient goblin lore master of Valexan. The Bright Queen sits on her throne. You can see now where she stands, the beacon statue that sits on the pedestal in front of her throne has a small light placed in it, probably signifying the return of the beacon itself, having a warm glow that lights her from underneath, where she sits her arms out on the sides.

Is she in the same clothes, or does she have different armor on? The outfit is slightly different. She still has the same mantle and light armor that's placed across the front, but now she wears this long gown that has diamond-esque rhinestones. As you get closer, there's a slight blue shimmy to them.

You like blue shimmy? There you go. I really like that. The guard walks you up to that same center place where you have both sides of the chair rows looking down onto you. The Bright Queen still sits, doesn't stand at your presence as you all approach quietly and come to stop. Yeah. We all approach quietly and come to stop.

I have been told that you have important business and had to see me. Well, you've proven helpful before, so. You have my attention. What is this business that was so important? Your Highness, is this as private an audience as we can get? There is no more private place in this city. Good.

Yasha, take it away. Yeah, so... We went to go see Professor Wako, and she sent us to a place. We went to go see Professor Wako, and she sent us to a place. We found a rift, we found a disc, and we found a piece of fabric. Yes, so the rift, you know, was, okay.

Basically, we have word that there's going to be a big attack, and we know where it's going to be. We found out, because we found this rift that was broken, and then we broke it, we ended the rift, and then we scryed on this little piece of fabric that was stuck to it, right? And then we found out there was this dude, and he's been doing it in a bunch of other places,

and then I scryed in him. You should back up a little bit. So we met at a circus. Little gruff goblin. Before that, it's a little hazy. It's a crazy, crazy, it was a crazy night, but after a while, yada yada. I think we should actually go to the forum.

Brightwing puts her hand up. You could hear Miriam chuckle and say, Time is precious in this conflict. I would ask succinctly what you have found and why it is important to us. You should just say what we wrote down. There is. We have very strong reason to believe

that there is going to be incursion on Ashgard Garrison. That one. I was getting there, I just. From whom? Well, with the aforementioned piece of fabric that we found attached to this rift-breaking device, Jester with her. I scryed. Jester scryed. And he appeared to be some sort of agent

working for King Dwindle. He had a Xem'nian accent, right? Clearly from the Empire. We happened to peek in on what seemed to be a very fervid and intense meeting on attacks. He was meeting with the king or something. Everyone was saying, your highness.

My liege. My liege. My liege. From what we heard, they are very upset at losing Ashgard Garrison, as you could imagine. I imagine they'd be pulling out all the stops. They are also releasing troops and guards into the Ashguard Keep Mountains.

The Ash Keep Mountains. The Ash Keeper Mountains. I said it correctly in game. There you go. Also, also, also. Should we tell her about that? The Overcrow. So he's coming, I heard him say he's going to be here tomorrow night. He's going about that? The Overcrow. So he's coming, I heard him say

he was going to be here tomorrow night. He's going to be at the Overcrow. The Overcrow Apothecary, which we pre-scouted just to make sure it wasn't a den of whatever, and it is. It's a home of smuggling and an invisible bugbear and all sorts of nastiness. We didn't want to waste your time. We thought it was important to vet the...

Yeah. This was all just a few hours ago. Do you recall any discussion of the scope of this attack on the Ashguard? Yes. Scope was, hang on, let me just pull out, I would like to take notes.

We told her all about it and she wrote it down. Yes, no, they said that they were going to be using Scourgers. They are going to be mobilizing three legions. I don't know how many that employs. You see a few faces look around, a little bit surprised. As well as bringing in the Righteous Brand as scouts into the Ashkeeper Peaks,

and they're looking at bringing in the Scourgers. Those fucking dope note skills, playa. On top of that, we have reason. They were using them as a distraction. Yes. The Scourgers were being used as? Yeah. If I had to guess, your highness, the man that we were able to spy on is a Scourger.

If he is able to come this far across the border, I have reason to believe it's by magical means. Possibly responsible for these devices that have been tearing the treasure. Yes, it's been a series of them that have been planted throughout your kingdom. We've destroyed three of them. This device you speak of is similar to the one

that you found in Asarius? Exactly right. Oh, with that, with that also, we've heard that with such a massive movement of the soldiers that the Empire has reached out to the gold chain mercenaries from Nicodranas to help guard the mainland. Really expensive and really powerful.

Fjord knows, he told me. Yep. The Bright Queen looks to her right hand, where she sits next to the Bright Queen and goes, Perhaps we should put some guard into the south along the Lucidian Ocean. And you can. This is what he looks like.

I pull out my sketch drawing of him. If you know, if you've seen him and you go like, oh my gosh, he was talking to me and I didn't know. She looks over towards Essek. That's good, that's good. They've been assigned as your wards, and you trust in this, yes? You believe them?

Essek's sitting there in the chair. You can see the hands just barely crossed, poking through the cloak. He goes, I trust them. Because he's been checking on that ship. Probably. She gives a nod.

Well, we shall plan accordingly. They were rude the day they tried to assail us on their terms. May I be so humble to ask what that plan might include? That is not of your concern, but we appreciate your diligence in offering us this information. If I may offer one more word, my lady.

Being of the Empire, what we can for sure tell you is that they do not take kindly to being bested or embarrassed, and they will retaliate with the full force of everything they've been working towards. If I am correct in my beliefs, this is retaliation for our retaliation. Yes, it's a lot of retaliation.

This will continue until one side cannot retaliate, and we hope with a swift enough and well-planned plot laid out with this information. Perhaps we can keep them from being able to retaliate for some time. I am no war strategist or battle advisor, but if you want to live for this vendetta

and retaliate another day, I would highly consider evacuating your troops from Ashgard Garrison and defending amongst the border. Trust that we do have military advisors. We have individuals who have dedicated their entire existence and multiple lives to being tacticians on the battlefield. Of course.

We have this handled, but thank you. You mentioned Scourgers. What can you tell me about these Scourgers? Caleb? I don't, I don't. Caleb might know. Caleb might know. What do you know of these Scourges? I know a fair amount.

Years ago, I was training to be one. I made it quite far in the process before I was cast out. I made it quite far in the process before I was cast out. But I know things, and I know I'm retreading past ground, but I hope that as you protect your people and your kingdom, you will consider, instead of utter destruction, there are people on the other side of those mountains

who are not happy with ones running the show. Use us. Use us for your ends. Use us to find this other missing relic. Use us and our contacts to help supplant Use us to find this other missing relic. Use us and our contacts to help supplant the Cerberus.

We can help you break the cycle. The cycle cannot be broken until there is nothing living. All we can do is our best to keep it slow. Why can't the cycle be broken? Because life is pain for many. Jealousy, strife, some need to conquer. There will always be those that will do whatever it takes

to get one over, the man or woman or otherwise, to their left and right. Talking about yourself or the Empire right now? I'm talking about anything that draws breath. It is our duty to acknowledge that and try to keep those base designs at bay. But one cannot bow down when others do not show that same will of understanding,

or else we will lie slaughtered. My lady, what have you to lose by using us as a tool to carve out the rotten heart? I have not spoken on whether or not I choose to utilize what you bring yet. Apologies. These scourges, once more, what are they? Warriors?

Mages. Artillery? Assassins, what are they? They are both hidden spies and destroyers. Executioners. I think I begin to see the pattern of their design. Well, should this information be true, you have done quite a service in letting me know. Many lives will be saved, and for that we are very grateful.

You've proved worthy allies to the Dynasty, and this loyalty will be rewarded. Now, you say this individual that you've seen is coming to the city. He has a rendezvous. Tomorrow night? At this apothecary. The Overcrow.

See to this. Find and bring me this individual. Yeah, yeah, we could totally do that, that's no problem. Do you not believe you are capable? Of your highness, of course I believe we are capable. We're super strong. We have very capable, if there is any doubt, we can have others.

There is no doubt. Now we got this. Essek puts his hand up through his own ears. Did you become Essek? Well, I have my own business to attend to, but I will vouch for their capabilities. And my tutelage. And Brekna gives him a look and goes,

well, if this is true, you know this man of which you have seen. Bring him to me. Preferably alive. Because if he is as connected as you say, we have ways of pulling that information from him. That information could bring this war to an end far sooner than any of us had hoped.

Can you do this? Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Then go. Relax and let it light upon you. It light upon you as well. I really like your dress today. Okay, bye. Should we go or should we go?

I guess we just leave. Do we go? Are we allowed to go? Should we back away? We're going to just back away really awkwardly. She puts her hand and gives a, not a shooing motion, but like a, very well, you may leave.

Keep backing away. Kind of feel where the wall is. Just slowly. There's no wall behind us. Yeah, I know. Don't make a contact. There's no wall behind her. Yeah, I know. We fall down the stairs. As you guys exit out, the guard escort

leads you back towards the front of Lucid Bastion and eventually left out towards the edge of the firmaments once more. I think if we get close enough to her, she will let you tattoo her. You think? You think? I think so. Oh man, how cool would that be? Well, you know,

bodies don't really matter to them, right? Don't they recycle them every so often? I think so. Yeah, so why not just get it tatted up? Maybe she's like, oh man, two lives ago, I had this really cool tattoo. Could you recreate it or something? Yeah. That'd be awesome.

We need to do this perfectly. Which part? All of it? Yeah, but tomorrow. What did we just do? Yeah, I'm not sure. We just totally committed ourselves to Jottos, is all. That didn't go the way I hoped it would've. No. How did you think it was, yeah.

I would hope there would be more of an audience for reason. I mean, in a fight, if you can take away the weapons of both sides, you are forced to use alternate means to resolve your differences. The Cerberus Assembly is a weapon. I would prefer to attack that than to wipe a nation of its people. Correct. Yeah, I agree.

Was she saying she was going to kill everybody in the Empire? She's saying until no one else draws breath. She seems very bloodthirsty. And mentioned them not respecting the life? What did she mean by that? I don't know. A very wide net she's casting.

What if everybody in the Empire bends the knee? That's what they say, right? I heard that recently. What if they all do that, and then they. That's what they say, right? I heard that recently. What if they all do that, and then they're part of Xhorhas, and then she doesn't have to kill them, and then it's all one happy, happy country. It felt like that's what she was alluding to,

but not necessarily bending the knee to her, bending the knee to their beliefs. Their Luxon is what it felt like. Yeah. You know, if they believe in this cycle, they believe in their intrinsic attachment to the dodecahedrons. I could only imagine they would only benefit

from having more people attached to that, right? Well, we're just guessing at this point. I know. The information's out there. We can't take it back. We are also not going to stop these people from trying to kill each other. We need to swim upstream together. We need to get through this.

We need to earn their trust. I know that we'll feel awful. To do what we are doing, one moment, please. Sorry. Thought you'd finish your point. I hadn't. I want to do things at home, Beauregard, and that's not going to happen

unless we completely earn her trust. You mean back in the Empire? Yeah, and for that, we need to do a good job. You think she would give us a wide enough berth to head back to the Empire? I'm starting to think, since we seem to be on the same page, that we might just have to do it ourselves. Yeah, we could go whenever we want to,

now that Caleb has that awesome thingy. I think that perhaps there's a course of action that is in front of us right now and it seems to be the right one if we are only taking into account what we can see and what's in front of us. I think we have to keep abiding by that for a while. I think we're allowed to piss around

and have her just sweep us aside. We show our real capability and then work with her, work with them to send us in, work in conjunction with them and maybe some of our intentions are parallel and some are not. But we know what we are doing. She will use us, we will use them.

We're still standing on the street. I assume we're walking towards her. Walking and whispering. As long as we serve our own interests. I have no doubt we can capture this guy and complete that and do a fucking stellar job, because we're awesome. We are really powerful.

We're really great. Doing it will save lives. He's probably really powerful, too. Yeah, he did open up rifts to a different dimension. Well, you know he did that with a thing. He made the thing, though. How do you know? Maybe somebody gave it to you, and maybe he's just this dude that walks around

and puts it down on the ground. Only one way to find out. Like a delivery boy? Yeah. Yeah, you're right. The Empire is also not Lily White. I was trained to kill people at a word that I did not ultimately know. Their guilt.

Bad people in charge. Normal people on the streets. Maybe we should just be in charge. Yeah. That's awesome! Let's help her tear down the Empire and then as a reward. Stab her in the neck!

Take over the kingdom! Oh, I was thinking. Leave her at Zorah's, and then she can give us the Empire, and we'll be like, we're all told to serve you, and then we'll be the kings and queens over there that are her friends. Okay, okay.

Psycho broken. Well. In all seriousness. In all seriousness, that could happen. Yeah. I have could happen. Yeah. I have a question. Yeah. Do you want to get in touch with your mentor before tomorrow night or after?

I would suggest before, just in case she is possibly going to meet. A part of it. I am terrified I'm going to run into this bitch in an elevator, and it's going to be so fucking awkward. That's going to be the most dumb genre tour scene ever. Both of you.

I'm down for that. Do we have elevators in this game? I'll make one just for that. Yes. Just, ding! What if she's working I'll go for that. Do we have elevators in this game? I'll make one just for that. What if she's working with the blonde guy? I thought about it. What if she's going to be at the Overcrow tomorrow? What if she kills me?

What if she finds out? She's not going to kill you, you're so powerful and strong. Also, if I may, we know the skeletons that are in the closet of the Empire, right? We assume that we're on the side of goodness and we're trying to stop the evil from being perpetuated by everything we've heard. No. We don't know this side.

No, they could be totally in one of us. Okay, just making sure we're all on the same page. I'm not here to serve a monarchy or anything like that, I'm just here to serve a monarchy or anything like that. I'm just here to. That was very impassioned dialogue. That's going to be hard to walk back. You guys know, so when I was working

at the winery with my dad, or even on the boat, and when you're building a barrel, you have to put the barrel straps on one side at a time. Mm-hmm. Because if you do one side, in order, the whole thing will get lopsided and it'll all fall apart. Like pants.

Like pants. Just do one leg at a Like pants. One leg at a time. One barrel strap at a time. Talking about a two-sided approach. Go back to the elf, never mind. Oh, you got to put them all together, you mean. You mean that we should be also alike? I see. Or, okay, different analogy, but similar thing.

Are you saying that we should also ally ourselves with the Empire at the same time? And just play everybody? No, I'm saying. Let's form our own country. Hold on. I'm saying. The rest of the campaign's just watching everyone kill each other from a distance as you guys go and just mark off a beach somewhere north.

This is Chesterland! We're just going to have an oil drilling station and we're just going to trade bitcoin. As you were saying. What was I saying? Okay, okay. Slide barrels. Different analogy.

No, no, stick with the barrel. I think the barrel works. When you put lug nuts on a wheel on a wagon. No, I don't know. And you have to put all of them on a little bit before you tighten one down, before you tighten them all down, or else the whole thing gets fucking out of whack.

It's more of an 80s car thing, but yeah. Okay, yeah. Yeah. When you're building an IT of bookshelf and you put the things in the holes at the different. But metaphors aside, are you saying that we should also be aligning ourselves with the Empire? In a loosey-goosey way? I'm saying if we're going to dismantle this properly.

We're talking quietly, P.S. I assume you guys are probably back at your house by now. Yeah, yeah. If we're going to dismantle this properly, it might not be from all one side. It might not work if it's all from one side. It's kind of what Caleb was saying. As long as we remember.

We just need to coordinate with your people, you. Oh fuck, I don't know, I don't know. No, he might not be wrong. He might not be wrong. What if in the next 24 hours you don't? Jester, can you put Beauregard in touch with Dairon? If they don't do the attack, then we've proven ourselves as bad informants

and untrustworthy. They need to do the attack. Shit. That's a fucking solid point. Doesn't mean they can't know about it. Bad informants on which side? The Dynasty. Yeah, if you tell your friend

and she tells home base and they don't do the attack, then we've fucked ourselves. You shouldn't talk to your friend now. Don't have to tell her everything. Derry bump. And the only way that they know that they can continue to get good information from us is if the attack is successful anyway.

I think so. If they prevent it, then we're no longer of value to anybody. Before too long, we are going to want to coordinate with your order, but your reservations are plausible. So maybe we see this through. I could get in contact with her and I could just mention the rifts.

Yeah. I worry about you stumbling across her before letting them know. You follow? Yeah. Okay. But back to your point about the attack having to happen, I agree with that wholeheartedly, Jester. But people, operatives die in the field all the time. Just all of them need to die at this location.

There can't be anybody to report back. They all need to die, except for our prisoner. Or we take them all prisoners. You want to kill Maril? Or capture? Capture. They just can't be allowed to communicate. This is happening tomorrow?

Yes. Tomorrow. You're not certain what time? Well, should we stop thinking about the broader strategy and start thinking more tactically about how we're going to surround this place and set an ambush? Capturing him, though. If we capture him and we still let Maro go,

and if she is a mole and an informant. We got to kill her. And there's also the invisible bugbear. But she would report back that he had been captured. Maybe we capture all of them. That's what I mean, we have to. We have to all of them. Yeah. But he could potentially be the leak of the attack.

Which one? Who? The invisible. The blonde guy. Uh-huh. Yeah. What do you mean? Blondie bear. Oh, I understand. If I'm a moro. What's our code word for that son of a bitch, by the way?

Blondie. Sure, Greg Blondie. That's the best we got? Greg. Greg, okay, Greg. You look like a Greg shirt. Because if I was moro, I would immediately, if I'm a mole, say Greg's been captured. If an attack doesn't happen, or if something goes amiss,

and I'm the Empire, I would assume that it was Greg leaking information through torture. It doesn't matter, because we're going to capture Morrow, we're going to capture the bugbear, we're going to do it all. It won't matter, no leaks. But what I'm saying is. You want it to be a lake? I don't understand. You want it to get back

to the Empire that Greg was captured. If they know that the Dynasty knows, maybe more people live. If they know that Greg was captured, then we didn't do our job right and we still aren't serving the Bright Queen the way that she expects. The Bright Queen said, go do it, can you do it?

We said, yes, if we let somebody go, we will have failed. And then they'll also know who it was. Yeah, look, we're real good at handling a situation. We're entering a bit of analysis paralysis, okay? So why don't we focus on the task tomorrow, check it out tonight, make sure there's no... There's a knock at the door at the front of the estate. The Xhorhaus. I got it, I got it, I got it.

I hide around a corner. I'll just crack the door, keep my foot on the other side of it. Okay. Hello? Looking through this late hour, you see two Aurora Watch soldiers, armored, both holding in their hands, heavy, it looks like, handles on each side an iron box.

How can I help you this evening? Delivery from the Bright Queen. Oh, please, bring it in. Ting ting ting ting ting ting. I'm going to do it every time. Yep, the chimes, they walk in. They don't pay much attention to the interior, but they both walk into the center of the main

foyer area there and drop it on the ground. It's a heavy, plain iron chest. Single chest? Single chest, yeah. They just drop it. Is it a dress for me, like hers? It is a delivered reward from the Bright Queen. They both turn around and leave. Should we tip? No.

Okay. Tip the hat. Let's open it! I'll go check if it traps. Wait, yeah, I don't know. I want to think it's something good, but what if it ain't? Go ahead and roll. That's the best thing you can do.

24. 24. Your armor is tickling me. My armor? Your arm hair? As you go over this iron chest, checking out the various nooks and crannies of it, you notice that it is not trapped.

It is. Open it, open it! It is not locked. It is completely locked. Open it, open it! It is not locked. It is a vast amount of gold coins. Ooh! How much? You want to take some time to count? Caleb.

Yeah, you're going to be up all night. The chest probably weighs a little over 300 pounds. Three, holy shit. That's... It's 1,500, Your chest probably weighs a little over 300 pounds. Holy shit. That's... It's 1,500 gold pieces. 14,532. Somebody write that down.

I got it. 15,500. Whoa. We'll find that. Yasha, you can get your stuff! Yes! Yes! Yeah! That makes a...

In 21 days. I can finally finish up that project for you that I've been meaning to finish up. Are we going to divvy it up? We're divvying it up. Sure. 2,214 to everyone. What, that's it?

What? 2,000 what? 2,214. 2,000 or 214. That's fucking awesome. You get the sense this is most likely a reward for presenting this information. That's cool. Wow. Okay, that helps.

That certainly is an improvement. Anything about the box that we notice? Any sort of etching on the inside of it? Make a perception check. Yeah, I will. Kaplunk. 13. 13. No, it just looks like a box. You now have an iron chest

as one of your various pieces of furniture in the household. Cool. You can have a magical aura. Can we fashion a lock on that? Sure. There's a space for a lock to be put on it, but it is not locked. Where does it come from?

This is going to be our coffee table. We can put a throw over it. Yeah. There you go, Ferry. I think we decided correctly. Money driven. Okay, so the house, right? Who was it that saw the bugbear turn invisible?

Caleb's cat. Right. So we need to establish if there is any way up into the house from underneath, right? Because we know where the entrances and exits of that house are, but we have to lay in wait. All day long. That's right.

He could be there at 1 a.m., I don't know if that's a real time here. It could be at the stroke of midnight. It could be at there at 1 a.m., I don't know if that's a real time here. It could be at the stroke of midnight. It could be at 12.01 a.m. It could be a teleport in and out without actually entering the building. We need to be in there. Or we wait till they're, I don't know,

that's the question, do we wait till they're done having their conversation? Should we go tonight and just sort of scope out the neighbors, the rooftops across the street? Are there sewers? Yeah. The bonus. Jester's right. We are going to need at least one person in there to yell Cheeto if shit goes off.

We should let them talk, too. I have a question. Mm-hmm? Do I know from my use of the paints that does it make a sound when I do it, or is it quiet? It's as quiet as paints can be. That's pretty quiet. Pretty quiet. Yeah. I could make, you know, yeah,

I could make a door in the back. Shall we head that way and at least ask if there are, or look for any signs of a visible sewage system in this city? Do we know? Am I forgetting anything? We haven't seen sewers here. There are sewers. Make an intelligence check. Wells in the area. You can as well,

if you want to take my word for it. That's at one. Ah. You haven't gone to the bathroom since you were here. I'm not a good travel pooper. 19. 19. So there are sewers, but they're largely focused around the more core districts of the city.

So the Gallimaufry, where you guys have been staying, and the Furman's definitely. The Coronas, where the Overcrow exists, unfortunately, though, sits in a little more of a rough expansion of the city, where there is no formal sewer system beneath it. A lot of it seems to be outhouses and cesspools and tossed as fertilizer.

Mm-hmm. Also this evening, we could go, I could have Frumpkin be something much smaller, an insect, an invisible insect, and check out the entire building, hopefully. We didn't see all of it, I don't think. We didn't see the upstairs.

You didn't see the upstairs, no. I could make any of us be an insect as well. Yeah. About what time is it right now? Caleb, about what time is it? I'd say by this time it's close to midnight. Right, it was late. Yeah. Oh shit. So it's the 13th day, like ding, ding. Right about now, yeah. So in like one minute, we're in the day. You, it was late. Yeah. Oh shit. So it's the 13th day, like, ding, ding.

So in one minute, we're in the day. You're in the day. Fuck, we got to go. We got to go. I'm asleep. We got to sleep. Where do we got to go? We just go. We just go. Have we didn't get a good night's sleep last night? I mean, it could be at first light.

I think so. I could use a first night. Have you slept? Huh? There is no light. No, you guys slept the night before. I've already burned my fifth bubbles. You can go a night without sleep. You're just not going to get a point of exhaustion. That's true, we did, didn't we?

We used our fifths. Well, what if we camp nearby and we have lookouts? Sure. Camp in the bubbles. That's a nice idea. All right. Let's go over there and see if there's any, we could sleep on the roof across the street.

Could take one hour to go look around right now. Yeah. Let's do it. Okay, let's do it. All right, so you guys are heading over towards the Coronas, toward the Overcrow? Okay, you gather your things, prepare yourselves for, I guess, a camping night under the stars in the beautiful streets of the Coronas.

Yeah. I Tread to Scry. Yeah, that's right. It's still the same 24 hours. It is? It's the same 24 hours? Same 24 hours, so yeah. Did I Scry, too? Yeah. So your fifth is awesome. Oh, why did I put down that I slept? Because you're a dirty, dirty human.

You slept in real life, and you're a dirty human. Oh, no, no, no, my fifth level, that's why. Okay, okay, my fifth level's gone, never mind. So you make your way through the Galamafri. At this hour, there's still some bodies going through the streets, some individuals, drow, goblinoid, different figures doing business, but it all seems to be very much like

a late night graveyard shift type, you know, general sense, and a little bit of business seems to pass you as you make your way to the outskirts of Rosohna. Eventually, you come to the street, familiar to you now, definitely, as you step in. Should we be stopping as we're going over there? Not yet. Okay.

I'm, yeah. You turn into the outskirts of the city among the coronas and eventually come to the street where you can see, just as you come around the edge of the curving outer ring of this side of the district, this would be on the western side, northwest side of the city, where the Overcrow resides. My hood up and the cloak and my hiding face.

Yeah. So. Actually, let me show you the layout. Since you are scoping it out. Bring out the map. Oh shit! Oh, I got a job to do. As we enter this sneaky part of the show,

this sneaky part of the show is powered by Dwarven Forge. This is my Dwarven Forge hat. They currently have a free PDF, how many pages? 406 pages. Whoa. It's a module tied to their Dungeons of Doom products available now on their website. What? Oh shit. I feel like I need something for the hat

to dress it up, like some bling of some sort. You should put a beard, like, oh, you have a beard. A beard on the hat? Yeah, like hanging down. Oh, you mean to cover my beard? Yeah. So you guys are looking here on this side of the street.

Yeah. This is the Overcrow right here. There is the one, it's thin on one side and tall, and this is where the storage room was where you guys had entered through the window in the back. Okay. Oh shit. Right.

So there's the one chamber, this is the alleyway that was behind. And that's the front door right there. That would burn him by the time this was done. It's either that or that. That's not true. Light him up, Amy. That's awful close.

What's this here? This is just another? These are just other buildings nearby, other chambers. Do we know if they're residential, business? They look both. A lot of the Coronas is a mixture of whatever is available. Residential can be jammed in the middle of anywhere.

Any look abandoned? Make an investigation check. Can we do a little scout sees of these buildings? Sure. Who's going to go scout sees? Probably not me. I'll do it. I'll of these buildings? Sure. Who's going to go scout sees? Probably not me. I'll go with you as well. Okay. As we've been walking, have we seen any drunkards,

people that are tossed a little, posted up? Perception check. Yeah, just casual drunk folk, nothing crazy. 20. 16. Are we rolling for stealth or investigation? No, we have a few things going on here. I mean, we're true. So you guys are just doing a general.

Investigation for empty places. Did you end up going? I was letting you guys do that. Me and Beau are going to do that. All right, so you rolled a 20? I don't know what I'm rolling for. Investigation or self? Okay, 16.

16, so taking some time to look around and look for signs of, this building looks like it is a small hostel of some kind. This appears to be residential. That appears to be residential. That appears to be, it was once residential, but looks like it's been locked up or has been not touched in a while. You're not sure what the usage of that one is or not.

But you do get, at this late hour, you don't see any movement. The hostel has people occasionally going through. You can see some light in some of the windows. There's life on this side. You don't see any signs here of maybe sleeping or nobody's home, but those both appear to be in common use and residential-based,

and that's the one that's in the iffy space at the moment. sleeping or nobody's home, but those both appear to be in common use and residential-based, and that's the one that's in the iffy space at the moment. I think that might be our base of operations. You mean, oh. I think we should combine our ideas. Why don't you turn into a bumblebee or a moth, and I will turn you invisible. And then you can look inside all of the buildings,

especially the main. About an hour into the scoping, you do see a pair of goblins that are both zigzagging, heading just from this way, making their way through the district. Also, I'm sorry, go ahead. No, I can do that. For sure.

Can you remind me, DM, was this past day that we were awake the day that Essek would have taught Caleb those spells? Or was it an earlier day? That would have been an earlier day. Okay. Like a house wrap? Who's breaking into that fucking boarded up house?

Well, I can break into that house, but recall that at least one of the people that we're trying to sneaky around is invisible a lot, so we should just make sure that, we should just assume that there's an invisible person right outside the front door that's watching. Or out in the upper window or whatever. Yeah.

Yeah. Is that in the building, anyway? You want me to go to the building and? I mean, I would go to this side. Yeah, yeah. Want me to go? Sure, do you want me to? I'll building and knock and break in? Yeah, yeah. Want me to go? Sure. Do you want me to come with me? I'll stand lookout for Nott.

All right, let's go. Perception check from you, stealth check from you. Come on, don't be shady. Okay, okay, okay, okay. Stealth, 28. 17. Okay. For perception. Yes. So you keep an eye out for a moment, a beat,

where there doesn't appear to be any sort of immediate eyes on this little central thoroughfare. You hand signal to Nott and Nott, you dart across with ridiculous speed, diving into darkness, and you have no idea where Nott is. Nott just vanishes into the shadows. You make your way up alongside the building, skirt along the left wall from where this is standing.

I'll give a little perspective here just for positions and such. From where you are now, it would be about there. So this is north, south, east, west. I'm over here? No, I'm saying this is just a direction. I see, I see, I see. You are on this side of the building.

You're on the northe this side of the building. Got it. You're on the northeastern side of the wall. All right, yeah, I'm going to sneak around to any window that's the most out of sight. Okay, there is a closed window, shuttered in the back. I will try to jimmy if it has a lock or just open it. It doesn't have an intricate lock, but it does appear like there's a board on the opposite side, so you're trying to get it. a lock, or just open it. It doesn't have an intricate lock,

but it does appear like there's a board on the opposite side, so you're trying to. A board, okay. First I'll check it for traps. Go ahead and roll. 17. 17, does not appear to be trapped. Okay, now I will try to open it.

All right, so I do your dex and perception. Or dex and proficiency. 16. 16? This is not a very difficult, it's not an intricate series of chains in this. There is literally a wooden board that is jammed in to keep the shutters closed, so you kind of slip it up and it, you hear the wood hit on the inside

because as you slip it up and it falls out of its base, it does fall about three feet. Opens slightly, dark inside. Make a perception check. 10. 10. You don't hear any movement. Get in the bitch. I'm going inside.

Make your response to Sebastian. You can get in the bitch. I'm quietly heading over there as well. Okay, so you're going to meet up with the same you, right? All right, so you jump inside. The first thing that catches you is a very musty smell and a rotting smell. Not pleasant.

Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh. It's dark in here. You do have darkvision, however. I do. It's a very, very humble home. There's a singular table. There's one bed. There's something on the bed.

A previous tenant that seemed to maybe have passed in the night and nobody cared to check in on. Oh no. I'll go look at the body. Anything with no foul play just expired? Make a medicine check as you walk up and can see partially under the now somewhat stained blanket.

Five. Five. Who knows if it was foul play or a terrible murder, but there is a fairly decomposed corpse here of a goblin. Of a goblin? Of a goblin, yeah. Bloody? As bloody as? You're not there. I thought you mentioned that, I'm sorry. But if you want to go over there, you can join in.

With that medicine check, you have no idea. It's just a mess, and it's just gross. It, yeah, you have no idea. You're not a forensic specialist, it's just dead and decomposing. I'm going to just go around and see if there's any other people in there, anyone hiding, anything trappy. Do a little once-over.

I mean, you don't see any other people in here. It's a small chamber, there's not a lot of places to hide. Is there a view of the Overcrow from in here? There is a side window on the opposite end of all of there that you can open up and look through, and there is an angle that you can see the Overcrow from that far window on that side, or the front door. Those are two viewpoints you have.

I will message Caleb. Caleb, this is a good place for us to hang out. There's a dead body in here, but otherwise, we're aces. Caduceus, you approach. I'm going to try and hop in through the window. Caduceus. Psst. Hi.

Are you doing this quiet or do you do stealth? Oh, quiet, yeah. I'll make a stealth check. Nott's in there. She can just open the window for you. I thought the window was open. It was open. Oh, sorry.

The window's open. Yeah. Just crawl in, what are you talking about? That's a five. The vibrant pink of Caduceus is. Wait, no, wait, yeah, that's five. Caduceus, why'd you go over there? You make your way and stroll right through,

get halfway and then, oh, hunch, make the rest of the path there, but it's a stroll. We can all still see you, Caduceus. Oh, so, what? You're just literally just a pink. Might have a cloak up. You make your way around the chamber. The window's open, and it's a small window,

and you get stuck for a minute. You whinny the poo your way through for a second. What are you doing? Onto the floor. All right, yeah. There's a dead goblin over there. Can you do your thing? Wait, what thing?

Oh, that thing. It decomposes or whatever, it's gross. I mean. There's already a fair amount of fungus that's installed itself on the body. Yeah, is this a, let me get a low light going here that's not going to last out too much.

I'm just going to have a little passive light in here. Okay. Hide it under it. It's a goblin. Make my medicine check. All right, yeah. Oh, this is terrible, 13. 13?

Probably anywhere between six or more months. Oh! Oh! Wow. Just looks like in bed. In bed, you know, whatever's there is mostly just skin. A lot of it just comes to slot off into the bed beneath it. It's mostly just fungus growing out of it.

The sockets are empty and it just. It looks like the gremlins at the end of the movie when they start just melting. That's the actual goblin that worked there. I'm going to just, it's on the mattress on the floor. I'm going to start the process a little further since it's already doing so well itself and I'm just going to just, it's on the mattress on the floor. I'm going to start the process a little further since it's already doing so well itself, and I'm just going to flip the mattress over very quietly.

Okay. Yeah, actually, at the rate it's been, your decomposed cantrip accelerates it quite a bit. It becomes this briefly beautiful menagerie of colors. The scent gets a little more tolerable as the fungus has taken the majority of it now, but you go ahead and hide it off to the side and it is no longer visible. The room is still not a pleasant smell and musky,

but at least there isn't that source immediately in your face. Looking around, don't see anything else in here. It's just kind of... What are you looking for? Anything from items in the house to maybe a basement or anything like that, something in the roof.

How many perception check? 12. All right, so looking up, there's not really a roof section. There are rafters, and it's an open space before the actual Thatched Roof begins. But there are rafters. Between the bed, the table looks to be

a couple of small boxes that are partially open that had fruit in there, but the fruit itself is now extremely molded. This was a simple home with a solitary goblin that just lived through the rest of its days and no one seemed to miss it when it passed. I'm going to pull out the wire and say to Nott, Nott, is there room for all of us in there

and is there a decent view of the Overcrow? Yes, there is. Yes, there is. Come, but do it stealthily. It appears to me we could have, no, never mind. You know, it might be good to unlock the front door. I lean in the window. Oh, you're here, too. Yeah, I'm still looking out. I'm scouting, I'm still being looked at by the...

Maybe we should have two groups. Half of us stay here and then half stay on the opposite side so we can see if it comes from the back. Yes. We should have Caleb go on the other side, unfortunately. Or me. You stay here, we go. Caleb goes on the other side with the bubble,

because he's got to stay in the bubble, right? You and I are going to do our thing, though, before bedtime. Yeah, definitely. We could do it now. Well, yeah, let's try to join the others where they're hiding so that we can not be seen when we change you. Okay, let's be sneaky. Okay.

I want to cast Pass Without a Trace on us as we go over to the house. Okay. All right, so we have Caleb and Jester and Fjord, are you going with them as well? I'm a little confused on where everybody is. So we have half of the group is in there. Me, I'm looking out and then Nott and Caduceus are inside. I don't know where you all are.

Yasha. I'm with you, we're all over there, but I'm You guys are down the street in this area, just watching off the side until you decide where to go, but otherwise. I'm lingering back here. Right. We're going to group there, talk out what we're doing before bed, and then split.

Okay. Yeah. Sounds good. That's all good. Okay, so our group needs to stealth. Yes, you do. But you do get plus 10 because you passed out a trace. Okay. You do get plus 10 because you passed out in a trance. Hot diggity. 13.

With the plus 10? Oof. All righty. 30. That's better. 24. All right. 23. Okay, so as a group check, they manage to catch you as you're about to trip on a heavy rock

that's sticking out the center of the ground and almost go face first in the thoroughfare, and they swoop you up before you impact and carry on like it was nothing. The four of you make your way over to the abandoned complex, very small complex, abandoned building, where the rest of your party is,

and you saunter up to the side of the window. You guys watch the rest of the party approach. Let's get inside. You're all now hiding within the building. Who is responsible for that smell? Oh, the previous tenant is still in, underneath the mattress. Sorry. Okay, so we all need to sleep,

but two of us need to stay on lookout, one at this side of the house and one in the alley side at all times, so we need at least three and three. Also, before we do that, I really want to get a lay of the inside of that building. Jester had an idea that I wish to layer upon. She can turn into something small,

something like a moth or something quiet, and I will make you invisible, and then I will do one other thing that will help you. Okay. Okay? Okay. And then you fly and crawl and we'll wait. And I'll come back and tell you what I see? Yeah.

No problem. Great. We do that? Sure. Go for it. All right, I'm going to do it all. I pull out a cocoon and turn Jester into a small goth moth. Wait, you're doing it all? A small goth moth. Small goth moth. Small goth moth. Small goth moth.

Blue and black. That's cute. In my head, I think I'm really cute. I'm dead. An adorable, tiny goth moth. I land on Yasha's finger. An adorable, tiny goth moth. SAM and LAURA, and then... I land on Yasha's finger. In my head, I'm like, I never realized how beautiful light was before.

This is with polymorph, right? Yes. Okay. My polymorph, and while she's flitting about, I will cast Invisibility on her. And now she's invisible, and I can't see her exactly, but I pull out the valuable pearl that I use for Find Familiar and start weaving geometric patterns around it and muttering, and a small mote of light

floats out of it and touches an invisible moth, and you have just been touched by the spell Fortune's Favor, which is Dunamancy. Ooh, what does that do? And you now have one chance to redo, like with the Doh-Dakkahitra. Okay, okay, okay. Fortune's Fancy.

Fortune's Favor? Fortune's Favor. But it is fancy. It's very fancy. What is he looking up? He's looking up something off? Whether he can stack mob things. No, not that not even stack it.

Mother of all mob. Polymorph and invisibility are both concentration. That's okay, I can polymorph myself. Yeah. So I polymorph myself. That's what I was planning to do. I'm dumb, but Caleb's not, so he would know that. So you do. I do polymorph? Mm-hmm.

All right. Yeah, and then you can invisibility me. All right, so you become a moth. You're a moth. A flutter. Oh, like I'm stupid? You have an intelligence of one. Oh!

Yes, that's what I was looking for! It's even better. Wow. It's now an invisible moth. Flutter. Okay, so go, now you go. I go. She must have gone, so go, now you go. I go. She must have gone, I don't see her. She goes outside.

Uh-oh. Fuck, fuck, fuck. You still know what you were doing. I do. You don't forget your whole previous life. I don't forget that I'm Jester? You don't forget you're Jester, you're just, at this moment, you're more limited.

Helping me remember when Keyleth changed into things, that's different, right? That's B-shape. B-shape lets you keep your polymorph. Wild shape to keep your intellectual scores. Polymorph does not. We learn things every day. But you keep your memories,

or you just are dumb? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Wow. She's super dumb right now. I'm super dumb, but I'm like, I'm supposed to go look at things. I think our tolerance of one matches the record of our entire show. I think I either hit dumb right now. I'm super dumb, but I'm like, I'm supposed to go look at things. I think an intelligence of one matches the record of our entire show.

I think I either hit one or zero. When I fly, I'm like, no, somebody got it. I will say for the purposes of this, just roll an intelligence check for me. Wow. And subtract that. It's minus five. Hey.

Minus five? Yes. Nine. Okay. It takes you about 20 or so minutes to eventually find your way across the thoroughfare. You're easily distracted, and there are lights and flickers, like, ooh, a light! Like a monster that's like, So pretty!

But you remind yourself in your very limited capability to get back on track, and you get distracted again, and you're all just sitting there waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting until about a half an hour in, you eventually land, and you're like, this is a nice roof. Do I remember to make my way over to a window?

There was the shuttered window with the curtains, and you can make another intelligence check for me. Okay. She's going to fly into a torch and just plop open. A zero. All right. You go over to where there are these heavy curtains

that are currently closed up there, and you latch onto them and just start chewing. For a while. It's not bad material. It's a little musty, but it's tasty. Hum, hum, hum. Hum, hum, hum. So another 20 minutes.

That's 40 minutes now that you've been a moss. Holy shit. I don't feel like this is going the way we meant. Make another intelligence check. It's been going for a bit, though. I'm worried. Eight. No, yeah, eight.

Minus, this is minus five? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, okay. I'll say it takes you about 10 minutes or so to gather your focus. And go ahead and roll a dexterity check for me as well, which is a plus one. Oh no. This is taking a long time, which is a plus one. Oh. This is taking a long time.

Something went wrong. Eight. Okay. You cannot find a way in the window. It's closed too tightly, even as a moth, unfortunately. Do I hear anything? Make a perception check.

Moth has six stats. Minus two. I don't hear anything. Just a perception check. Mom has sick stats. Minus two. I don't hear anything. Just death, just a death. Oh man, this... Moth death. Can I chew this carton some more? It's so nice. Yeah. So the, um...

It's an hour. I know, an hour for invisibility. Yeah? And an hour for polymorph. Yeah. Polymorph was cast first. Yeah. So... Nom, nom, nom, nom, nom. Suddenly, you revert to Jester form, and you're like, what was I doing?

And you're falling. Oh god. Hit the roof. Can I grab, can I grab on the roof? Make an acrobatics check. We all see this for the first time. Make sure that dexterity saving throw for this. Why?

Come on. Seven. Seven, you rolled a? I rolled a three plus for this. Come on. Seven. Seven? You rolled a... I rolled a three plus four. There you go. All right. You fall, you take six points of bludgeoning damage as you smash onto one of the boxes in the alley below. You have fallen prone there in the corner,

thankfully invisible still, but you have a round before your invisibility wears off. Dash out of there. So you're like. Can I run and hide in the shadows around the corn? You also got that mote. Yeah, yeah. Oh, that's true.

There's no way I would have remembered I had the mote when I was fucking a moth. So that's half of your movement to get up? Yeah. Five, 10, or five, 15, it's as far as you can get. Can I use my, the minute I become visible, I'm going to use my thingy to turn invisible again for 10 more seconds.

Okay, so you can do that. All right, so that's your movement. With your action, you can go ahead and, which way are you going now? I'm going to try to duck under that porch or whatever that is. Okay, it's a very tight space. So you turn over this way.

The next turn, as soon as you finish that round, or if you dash over, you get over to the space and you get out of the corner, as far as you can move is that corner there. Turns over, you become visible, and you're all of a sudden, you're a little bruised, a little beaten. Make a perception check.

Oh god. I want to do something. 17. 17. Currently, nobody sees you, but you can see from the noise a shadow coming from inside the hostel. Somebody is coming towards the front door towards where the noise drew them.

Invisible! I turn invisible! You turn invisible and you're now on the inside of this corner there. There is a less than a foot gap between the two buildings that leads into the alleyway there. You're not sure if you can try and squeeze by. If we saw her fall,

did she damage any of the things outside? Oh yeah. Did we hear kukunk? You heard the impact and the breaking of wood. All right, I want to Misty Step outside. Yeah. And I want to use Mask of Many Faces to change myself into a drunken peasant. I'll use Minor Illusion to have a tankard in my hand.

I want to be right where all the debris was. Great, all right, so you run past this way and then Missy step over there, transform into, and describe how you look. Yeah, so, oh, a drow, but more like a farmer, so like real tatty stuff. Big, big muscular forearms from working so much. But like, just real slovenly stains of food and drink all over me and just laying up

against the debris, humming a little tune. You got it, you got it. Okay then. So we have over here an invisible Jester who's off in the corner, and as you are in that process of getting yourself in position, taking the form, you watch as this rough-looking, half-drunk, large, underbite, growling gnoll

comes outside of the front of the house and is like, What's she doing? A growling gnoll comes outside of the front of the house and goes like, What you doing? Help me, help me! I fell down! Make a deception check with advantage. Ooh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 20. 20, so.

Well, get the fuck off! Sorry, I was just. Comes up and grabs down. Wookie, fuck off! Sorry, I didn't mean to! Comes up and grabs the back of your shirt and lifts you. It doesn't quite match. Uh-oh, he's kind of drunk. But then he rolled a natural, too, so he doesn't notice. He grabs it and lifts you up a bit

and walks a few steps and just throws you about 10 feet. I'll take a tumble. You roll across and lay down there. Ah, you're strong! Make this house superior to this bitch! For me! Turns around and lumbers back to the hostel and heads back inside.

You booty! Your invisibility is wearing off now. Yeah. You're still in that corner. What are you going to do? Cast Disguise Elf to look like a goblin. Okay. So as soon as that gnoll turns the corner

and the invisibility drops, you turn into a goblin. He enters and you can see him disappearing into this very, very faint source of light inside. You see a shadow cross past it on the wall on the opposite end of the entryway. And now you're a goblin. I will start serpentine walking away from the house, just singing this word.

As Fjord walks back in and just. Actually, I'll do a wide loop back to you guys, yeah. Not walking back to the house. You take your way eventually slowly over that way, and Jester, you're heading over there as well? Yeah, but roundabout, roundabout. Okay. I'll say you have a luxury of a few moments here

to scatter it a bit and not draw any attention, but eventually you all reconvene back at the house. That was fucking funny. What did you find out about the inside of the house? Oh my god, you guys. What did you see, anything? I saw so many, like. What took so long?

You were gone for like an hour, and then you just. Were you in there for so long? You guys, did you know when you turn into something, you turn really stupid? Into anything? I don't know. Okay. I was really stupid. What did you do for that whole time?

Did you go inside? I don't know, I flew around and there was like a puddle and I landed next to it and I think I might have drank from it. There was a bit of a stale aftertaste in your mouth. I smell velveteen on your breath. Oh man. What if the bread's in your teeth?

I tried to get in, but there was a heavy curtain and some shutters and I didn't know what to do, so I just ate some curtain and then. Oh. Valuable lesson for Caleb. know what to do, so I just ate some curtain and then. Valuable lesson for Caleb. All right. I think we all learned something tonight. But Fjord, thank you so much.

I was freaking out just a little bit. Yeah, no, it's fine. I mean, you know, look out for each other. All right, so who's staying on this side? So wait, are we going to try to infiltrate? We just burned an arm and nothing on the other side. Should we sleep and scout? Sleep and lookout?

Sleep and lookout. But the three on the other side should sleep on the other side as well, right? I can go to the other side because. I'll go there as well. I don't want to sleep in here with this smell. I don't mind this smell. I don't mind. I'll sleep on the other side, then.

You should have a cleric with you. We should, yeah. Yeah, so that we can communicate. Yeah, I'll go on the other side. And you have to go there anyway if you're going to make the dome, right? Yeah. Well, that's everybody's there,

except for Beau and Nott. Never mind, I'll stay over here. I don't care, I'm going to go over. Okay, so. We stay here. Yep. We don't know where we're sleeping on the other side. No, you're not going to get out. But we can't make a dome in the middle of the street. No.

I thought you can't make a dome? You can't camouflage it. No. It's a dome. You can affect its color, that's it. Or we can sleep up on a roof. Or just sleep on the roof. Yeah, but the roofs are very peaked, you guys.

How are we going to sleep on a roof? All right, let's sleep in this house. Yeah. Let's sleep in this house. If we do here, the dome could be hidden in this house, too. Okay, so everyone is sleeping in this house. Yep. In the dome. All righty. Maybe you can make Frumpkin invisible and go in.

Frumpkin could not get past a door. But you guys have shared. Could Frumpkin be our ally for us? Can he be team ally? Frumpkin won't sit on it, yeah. But Frumpkin can only notify him if it's necessary. How about this? We're going to go to sleep. Why don't you do your silly string around her back window?

If anyone goes in the back window, we'll know about it. It's the window on the first floor above. First floor. Okay. That also means going right up to the building. Yeah. Don't worry, you can be invisible. Who's going to send you through the back window?

That's true. That's the only thing we have to worry about, otherwise we can see whoever goes in and out. I don't think they're going to, yeah. All right, you all want to just chance it? We'll just go to sleep. It's just a window back there, there's no door? It's just a window, right? Yep.

We can just chance it, that's fine with me. All right. I bet he's just going to teleport in, you guys. Let's sleep. You might teleport in. No problem. No, I like your idea, let's just be safe. I'll go invisible and I will put a wire over there. You can do it while you're invisible,

it doesn't break the invisibility? No. Casting a spell does break invisibility. Oh, any spell, not attack spells. Casting any spell breaks it. Okay. I can go with you and cast Pass the Trace on us and then, you know.

It's not worth it, not worth it! I was just going to say. And I can bless you with the trick, I can give you the blessing of the trickster and you could even better. I will send Frumpkin over and have him come alert us if anything changes. Right.

We do that. That's our lockdown. He'll sit on the crook of a roof or something. We'll go over and have him come alert us if anything changes. Right. If the pumpkin is going to go to the washroom. He'll sit on the crook of a roof or something. We go to sleep. There's Frumpkin. Who's taking first shift? I'll take first shift. I will, too, since Frumpkin is out.

All right. I'm going to sleep. I'm going to sleep. Okay. Take one window, I'll take the other. Okay. So Caleb and Beau are the two keeping watch. Everyone else is sleeping? Yep. All right.

Taking in ships of two, three hours? What are you doing? Two and a half. Six. Yeah, we need eight. We need an eight-hour rest, right? Eight-hour rest, and that would be ten hours total, in order for everybody to get a full rest.

Yeah. Sure. Oh, man. Yeah, that's fine. All right. Could be a long day. Yeah. Sure. Oh, man. Yeah, that's fine. All right. Could be a long day. What? No, no, no, two and a half hours, three shifts. We don't get a full rest. We need a full rest. We need a full rest.

We got to hit a full 10 hours, everybody needs 10? Eight hours, but you need to do 10 hours for everybody to do a shift and get in. We'll keep sleeping until something happens anyway. Yeah. Also, I would have taken time to put the wire in front of the door. Okay.

And I've told Frumpkin to wake me up should anyone come into the back. Normally we just do three shifts, right? How about this? How about this? We do three watches for eight hours. I don't need to rest. I can just be exhausted. For everyone to get eight hours of sleep

is three shifts that I've considered to be distributed over a 10 hour period. Okay. Oh, okay. Well, yeah, we can sleep until something happens, you know? I could just be exhausted and then everyone else can take out. We'll see if we need it. Because then it'd just be two hours of nothing happening and then you've got exhaustion.

If you need that last two hours, then. Yeah. All right. We need somebody in that building. Watch it. That's all right. Yeah, what if he teleports, like, what if there's a teleportation circle upstairs?

We don't see shit. By the time this rest has begun, it's about three in the morning, just so you're aware. Both of you, I'd like to make perception checks, please, for your watch. So stupid, we're going to miss something. I'm going to cast Dune Mancy on myself for four, just in case. Okay, it is, because I am great. I'm going to use Dunamancy on myself, before, just in case.

Okay. I'm going to use it now. Okay. Barely different perception, you said? Yes. 13. Eight. Eight, okay, you guys keep watch.

A few figures wander through the street, but through the watch that you guys take, no one seems to pay any mind or go bother the Overcrow Apothecary. Okay. You complete your watch. Who's taking up next? Just with briefest thing, an hour and a half

into silence, looking out windows, breaking the silence, Beauregard. What? I'm glad you're here. Yeah, glad you're here, too. Okay. Next watch is? I'll take next watch. Yasha and Fjord. All right, both of you guys, perception checks for me, please.

Goddamn. Jesus. Hey. Shit. You're going to break your one move. 18. 18, okay. Nice. Yasha. So between the Wormwood. 18. 18, okay. Nice. Yasha. So between the hours of five and seven in the morning, sunrise would have happened if there was a sunrise

in Rosohna. Oh, yeah. Yes. That's right. Through your watch, you see elements of the street begin to come more lively. Some of the early risers begin to awaken. You can hear some of the chickens and other nearby kept livestock

beginning to awaken and make their various noises beginning the day, as well as hearing wagons go down the street. It's starting to become a lively neighborhood. But you don't see anyone mess with it until the very end. You see a familiar goblin, one who runs the establishment,

approach the outside front door, pull out a ring of keys, unlock it, enter, and close the door behind her. Says, Bob. Should we just let her go? Yeah, that's fine. That bugbear could have been here. But her ring of keys.

So you guys finish your watch. You finish your watch? We're finished. All right, who's up next? Glad you're here. And I go to bed. I've never seen her fall asleep that fast. She goes to a REM state like that. Barbarians, man.

We relay that that very familiar goblin walked in with that ring of keys. I'm taking the last watch. Oh, there's two more watches. I'll take the next watch. Okay, perception check. Solo, I guess. Is that it?

I'm saving for the final. No, I guess I'll get up. No, no, that's fine. I don't know, whatever. The spellcasters have uninterrupted sleep. Stay up. Huh? Perception. I know.

I just need sleep to get my spells back. Sleep, sleep. Sleep spell class. Okay, I'll take the sleep. If you stay up, I'll go to bed. Okay, it's just me then. Let's hope this roll's good. Terrible, seven.

Seven, okay. So seven you rolled or seven total? Both, I have zero. Oh, all right. During my watch, can I also disguise self and just take a stroll back and forth on the block? Sure, yeah. Okay.

You see some families getting up and gathering supplies to go to small shopping trips further into the city. You see soldiers coming through and patrolling the vicinity. You get a little nervous and keep by, but none of them seems to be interested in anything. They're just looking out for any funny business.

Nothing else seems to really catch your attention. Fuck. What was that? That's it. It's been, have I slept for eight hours yet? I say you've now slept for eight hours, people that went first. Can I wake up, then? You can wake up, but the people that took first watch, which is Beau and Caleb, you still need to take

one more watch for them to get their full rest. All right, we're up. But that's good, spellcasters are good. Can I cast, as soon as I wake up, I'm going to cast Locate Object on that little book that I saw him writing in. Okay, you cast Locate Object and focus on the tome that you saw in the first, or the journal in the second way. The journal in the second way. Okay, you cast Look at Object and focus on the tome

that you saw in the first, or the journal in the second one. The journal in the second one. Okay, got you. You cast it, you focus, you concentrate, you extend your will and consciousness towards this divine cloud, asking the Traveler to guide your intent, and he finds purchase on nothing. Stop from the puzzle, please. Wow. That's ale Team. Wow.

That's a good sign. Maybe. But you both do get to make perception checks. I will make a perception check. Make it strong. My perception is strong. I rolled terribly. I rolled a 15.

11. 11, okay. 15. At the end of your watch, towards the final 20 minutes or so, you see two figures walking down the street that approach the exterior of the apothecary. One of them is a tall male hobgoblin in a breastplate,

obscured by a leather cowl, with a large sword sheathed on his back. The other appears to be elven in stature, long, tattered black cloak that's pulled around a set of gray leather armor. Their head is obscured by a hood and a face wrap of blue cloth, and both of them approach the front

and push on the door. The door opens. Do I see any blonde? Do I see any? Make a perception check. Oh, no, you already made your roll. You don't see any particular details of blonde hair necessarily, but you do see a bit of the skin appears to be dry.

Detect magic. Okay, 30-foot range, you detect no magic. Oh, shit, I am too far away, aren't I? Would I have known that or would I have not known that? Okay. I hit everybody and. Why, why, why? Somebody just went in, somebody just went in You would have known that. Okay. I hit everybody and. Why, why, why?

Somebody just went in, somebody just went in. Somebody? Two people. What'd they look like? One was a hobgoglin, one was a drow. They were in cloaks, they had their cloaks pulled up, but they could be anything. They seem like business. They could be anything.

Two people, no. Did we get our rest or no? No, they have another 20 minutes or so before they finish their rest. Two people now. Can we get our rest or no? They have another 20 minutes or so before they finish their rest. You have yours. Okay. What's an animal that's not stupid? A mouse. Everyone but Beau and Caleb

can be awakened now with a full rest. Let's go in there. Let's, uh. I can just be a customer. I'll disguise self and I'll just go in and be a customer, looking for dick oil or something. Okay, go look for dick oil. Okay. You don't want to have

a rat follow you in after you get pulled to leave? Sure, yeah. I don't know if a rat is smart. Where do you find the rat stats? I have the rat stats here. Rat stats. Rat stats. What's a smart animal? It's a dolphin.

Sparrow. I'm looking under. Rats. Rats. Rats. Ah! Rat has an inflect of two, so it's twice as good as it is. Sparrow or rat or rat. I'm looking under. Rats, creatures. Yeah. Ah! Rat has an inflect of two, so it's twice as good as a rat. What about a sparrow or a bird? That's fine, because you don't need to,

you're just going to be, why don't you just be on my shoulder the whole time? I'm a weirdo who has a pet bird. It's the intelligence level between a moth to a rat. That's a pretty big jump. Comparatively. Okay, I'll be a rat. I say this as a person that has been fighting

moths in our house for months, and I fucking hate them. They're pieces of shit. I know. You have to lower yourself to their level, Matt. Are you going to scurry in or be in my pocket, or what? I'll be on your shoulder. As a rat? Goblins eat rats, don't they?

No, I don't have to be a goblin. I can be anything. I'll be a little, I'll be a halfling. No, don't be a halfling, that's obvious. Oh, I'll be a short drow. No, be a goblin. Okay, I'll just be a different goblin. Yeah.

All right. All right, and what are you doing, Jester? I'm going to polymorph myself into a rat, I guess, and I'm just going to sit in his hood, her hood. Okay, there you go. You are looking like a different goblin? A different goblin. I'll look like the goblin that was guarding

that weird wizard tower way back in Gajranus. So balding, slicked back, really well-dressed, same attire? Sure. All right, you are a debonair goblin. Obvious, but. What were you saying? I was going to say, who's awake and not still sleeping?

Everybody with them. Who wants to go around back? I'd go in. The front is there. I'll keep an eye out over here. I will disguise myself as a very wealthy-looking drow this time, slightly nicer robes,

walking with what could possibly be security or assistance. Easy enough. Polymorph. I don't know if I want to polymorph at all. It's a lot, isn't it? Walking with him, but I'll try to look like I'm your security. Dope. All right.

Jester, are you okay? You look perturbed. I just don't know if I should be a rat. You guys, I don't think I should polymorph myself. Why? Just because I don't know enough about it to know. Can you disguise yourself? Yeah, that's what I was going to do.

Why don't you do that, and I'll go in invisible? Yeah, I'm going to disguise myself instead. Okay. Invisible in a room full of magic angels. All right, then I will drop disguise self, and I'll just myself instead. Okay. Invisible in a room full of magic agents. All right, then I will drop disguise self and I'll just be invisible. I mean, they'll also, to be fair, if there's a bunch of magic people,

they're going to see through anything we do anyway. Possibly. Probably. Just make a fucking racket if you get found out. Okay, yeah. So what are you, both going invisible? Or are you disguising yourself? I'm disguising myself. What are you disguising yourself as?

Somebody my height. Uh-huh. I'm going to be a drow. All righty. Damn these horns. Just. Because I can't put my hood up, it's obvious.

I'm going to go in this, and I'm going to be kind of nice, but not too nice. So I'm going to be in dark colors, but no fine details or anything like that. No bright colors. Okay. Yeah. Okay. And you're going invisible? Yep. Dark hair.

So you two are traveling towards the front. What are you guys doing? Yasha and I are going to walk down the back. Okay. Viewing properties. All right, just make general stealth checks for both of you just to try and be, yeah, to not draw any unwanted attention, keep it casual. Not a terribly high DC.

Plus zero, 15. 15? Seven. Seven, okay. All right. All right, you guys meander around at a fairly safe distance. Walk between two buildings, make your way to the back alley

that rests behind most of the buildings here that are set up on the front of the street. We'll be pointing at the structures on the opposite side of this alley, pointing and gesturing and talking about the worth of what such a building might cost, maybe checking the ground, the soil, just looking like we might be interested in purchasing.

Purchasing real estate. Gotcha, okay. So, Jester. Yeah. Nott. Yeah. You guys are invisible, disguised, making your way towards the front of the complex. Mm-hmm.

Okay. You approach the front of the Overcrow. The front door is closed, but you reach up and take the front handle and it is not locked. Blasphemy. It opens on the inside. Familiar smell and sight greets you as you glance inside.

You can see across the way, Maruo is at the front, sitting in the chair and looking over and puts a hand up. Hey! Looking in the inside of the chamber, you can see only one figure. You see the hobgoblin that had approached with the other figure is just sitting, arms crossed, leaning against the outside of the spiral staircase

that leads up. To the? Upstairs. Upstairs. Yes. And the other fellow, who is an elf, is not there. Cool, cool, cool. Okay. They walk in.

Are you the goblin that runs this establishment? That's me! I have a bone to pick with you. What's the problem? Is there a problem? You sold some sort of solution to my handmaiden. Did I? She said it was for her hair. It's falling out now.

Can you come back tomorrow? I'm kind of closed. The door was open. That's my fault. I'm going to be in the room as well, if possible. Make a stealth check with advantage. Okay. 23. Okay.

I do believe we should sort this out now. What do you need? I would like her finances returned. Well, I see it's a solution to this problem. Make a deception check. You do have advantage on this because you're in a different form. Ooh!

Where is it? Oh, there. Ooh! 22. Ah! Was that the one with the blue skin? All right. How much did she pay? I can go check my ledger here.

Counts with some coins. Here, a refund on it, my apologies. I look over at the hobgoblin. Just looking out the corner of their eye. I hope you aren't planning on buying anything here. Just browsing. Be warned. Oh, no, no, no.

We can find out. Hmm, and I walk back out. Close the door behind me, if you don't mind! Mm-mm. I'm closing it. Okay. Hey, I got my five gold back. Sweet. You're still inside. I'm still inside.

Yes, you are. Did your hair stink while you were in there the whole time? Maybe. So while you're in there for a while, it's silent. If there's just... They're not even talking, and the one in front of them is like, So, uh...

Nice day, right? No response. Um, if he's, okay. Uh. How long does your... I'm going to knock... Hope he didn't journey too far! I'm going to knock something off of a counter.

Okay. What are you knocking over? Why, why? Just a book or something. I don't know what she has around. They both look. Immediately, the mood in the room changes, and the goblin grabs the sword

and gets it ready and walks over. Okay, while he's walking over there, I'm going to try to very stealthily go up the stairs. Okay, make another stealth check of advantage. Come on! Max, be with you. 25. Okay.

Carefully making your way up the spiral staircase. Oh man. You get to the very top, and there is the door that leads into the next chamber. Okay, I'm just going to hang there for a second. Okay. Listen for voices downstairs, and listen for voices inside.

The, you hear Margo say, I don't know, maybe he just stumbled off the things. Things just don't know, maybe he just stumbled off the things. Things just don't stumble. Be quiet. You just hear. Up the stairs? Just roaming the room and looking under tables

and you hear shuffling and things being moved and scraped across the wood floor. Are there any windows on the upstairs that we can see from outside? There's only the single window at the front that is closed. It is what you were chewing on the night before. Is there any way to get up to the second floor

on the outside? If I look around, can I climb a wall? Make a perception check. Super cock. Come on. Super cock. Come on! There is nowhere you see safely to get up there without being just an overt person climbing in broad nightlight.

I'm just going to ruin this thing. Where is the cat looking? Are you guys still asleep? You guys are awake now at this point. There is a cat looking at you. Are you guys awake yet? Are they still asleep? You guys are awake now at this point. You come to consciousness and you're catching this partway into motion. What? Well, plus nobody's in the fucking house. Well, some are in the house.

People took initiative, I don't know. What? He's looking around downstairs. Yeah, and then he turns the corner and then after he was looking around for a second, Mara was like, Look, the place is full of rickety! It's not the best furniture!

Goblin mispicking. And you see that the hobgoblin just goes to the staircase, means walking up the stairs. Oh fuck. And he's just coming closer and closer. Is there any, on the landing where I am, how much space is there? It is a tight hallway that's just wide enough

for the doorway before it opens into the next room. Wow, that does not look very... You're about up to the belt on this Hobgoblin, if a little bit lower. And there's no nooks, there's no... No, it's literally stairs and the door, and there's like, you are, you are, right? Okay, I'm going to try.

Bandana. I'm going to try to go up on the ceiling. Yes! Oh my god. Oh no! Oh no! You've got to bait them! Come on!

Brace yourself for the walls, you know? Climb up! I got claws. Totally doable if you weren't a tiny goblin. Ninja warrior, ninja warrior. Okay. She's three feet tall without her arms out. Okay.

Something low. Three and a half. Make an athletics check, please. You can do it, you can do it, you can do it. Athletics? Not acro. 17. It's not acrobatics? This isn't acrobatics unless you want to parkour and then defy gravity.

This is trying to climb up something with very little grip and hold yourself up there. 17, though, is pretty good. It's not going to last long, but you manage to scramble up and push against it and you can feel your arms shaking, the sweat starting to pour down your forehead and you're trying desperately not to breathe out.

You're just holding your breath and it's burning your lungs as the hobgoblin moves up and grabs the door. It opens up. The top of the head is about to touch you and you squeeze in and arch your back and barely manages to miss your torso as he enters the room and the voice inside goes,

What is the problem? He says, There was a noise downstairs. I'm just looking around. He walks inside the room for a second. What's happening? Walks back out, closes the door, and then walks back down the stairs.

You're such a business. Very carefully. Yeah, they're all wrapped up. Okay, okay, okay. Now you're at the top of the stairs. The hobgoblin is now at the bottom of the stairs, blocking, is standing right in front of the steps. If I were to cast Message,

that would kill my invisibility, right? Yeah, so I'm not going to do that. Wait a few more minutes and see if my friends do anything, and if not, I'll probably do some other more stupid things. I'll just make my way over to let everyone know. Holy crap. Goose, goose, I go back in the house. Nott's inside!

Why would he do that? She's inside. She was invisible, she went in by herself. But that doesn't make any. She was in there and the door shut and they said it was closed. Wait, wait, wait, what? I'm doing some arcane prep work.

I cast Mage Armor on myself and then I put a hand on Beauregard and Caduceus' shoulder and cast the other dunamantic spell, Gift of Alacrity, and mutter a few words and your vision quintuples for a moment and just shoots past your eyes, and now you are going to be able to add 1d8, I believe it is, to your initiative rolls

with whatever happens. Both of us? Both of you, too. For the next eight hours. For the next eight hours. To all rolls? To all of your initiative rolls. To all initiative rolls? False. Sick. All initiative rolls now have 1d8.

You two. Technically, with those boots, it's a 2d8 bonus. But that's fine. I have these manacles. Maybe we can use them on one of them, whoever's in there. Oh yeah, hang on, wait, let me see these. Okay.

Can I be a dope-ass monk and use these chains as improvised monk beating weapons? Nunchucks? The manacles of stasis. They wouldn't count as monk weapons, but you could certainly use them in creative ways if you'd like to try. I have an idea. What if we go back in and I try to charm them,

and then they let us put the manacles on them? Yeah, that also works. It would work for one of them, yeah. I could charm a couple of them, potentially. Yeah, yeah, but the man, yeah. And then we can just tie up the other one. Super cool, good. While this is happening, you hear

what sounds like heavy hooffalls. Zatty up the stairs now. From down this roadway. You guys are in the house. You guys are on the back side watching. Are you guys doing anything particular? No. You have no indication that anything's happening.

Can you send a message? Caleb, send a message to Fjord and Yasha and let them know what's going on. You know that everybody else is in? No, Fjord and Yasha are on them know what's going on. You know that everybody else is in? No, Fjord and Yasha are on the other side. They're in the alleyways. Fjord and Yasha, you guys are back here, right? That's where you were?

So you guys are just hanging in this alley. Caleb is sending them a message. I'll just rip those the shit out of Caleb. I pull out the wire and say, We are on the move. Things are happening. Nott is inside, apparently. Get ready. You may reply to this message. The horse you see riding down the road

comes to rest alongside the outside of the Overcrow. This very heavily furred waste horse. Muscular, big, thick fur, mane down the back of its neck, big, bushy tail. Looks exhausted. Trots up to the exterior. The rider, you can see, is a female, copperscale dragonborn, themselves covered in a thick shawl of dull green wool,

dismounts the horse and hitches it to one of the street side posts over there real fast before walking up to the building and opens the door and enters. Nott, you see this from the top of the stairs, you see another figure enter and the door close. The dragonborn walks up and gives a nod to the hobgoblin figure.

The hobgoblin looks up and down, looks over at Maruo. Maruo goes, Can I help you? The dragonborn, with barely a glance, just goes, Waiting above? Oh fuck. Waiting above?

Waiting above. And then tosses a pouch of coin to the goblin, who goes, right this way! Fuck. The hobgoblin steps aside, and the dragonborn begins to walk up the stairs to you. A little bit quicker, seems to have a bit of a haste to the step.

They won't be looking for me, so I'm just going to press myself against a wall. Okay. Oh god. Go ahead and roll a- The opposite wall, like away from the stairs. I don't- It's pretty small. I'd say go ahead and make an acrobatics check.

Acrobatics check. Okay, hold on. 18. 18, yeah. You manage to quickly dart out of the way and make yourself flat as possible, counting against the side. Goes to the door, opens it up, and steps inside, and you hear the voice go.

Did they leave the door open for half a second? For a split second. You hear a voice say, finally. What are you doing? Are they standing in the door, or have they gone in? Like, if I darted in the door, would I maybe make it? Maybe.

Do it, do it. Yeah, sure. Can you not hear through the door the conversation you're going to risk it because you can put your ear up against that bitch? True, true. What are you doing? What are you doing? Now's the time, you're going to miss're through the door of the conversation, you need to risk it because you can put your ear up against that bench! True, true. What are you doing? What are you doing?

Now's the time, you're going to miss it. Five, three, two, all right. Come on, go and shit. Roll another acrobatics check. God, oh god, oh god! Acrobatics, acrobatics, acrobatics! Boom. Okay.

13. 13, okay. You try and make your way towards it, and at the last second, the door's closing too quickly. You're going to get lodged if you continue forward, so you stop yourself and the door closes. You don't make it into the chamber. Best outcome possible.

Best outcome possible. That is so much better than it could have been. Yeah, yeah, it is. So the door closes. You could have been in heat roll three and the door would have just gone boom. You know where I am right now? I'm on Nott's Landing.

Aw. Get out, get out. It's the worst place in the world. No. No. It's just getting worse. He can listen through the door. Hey, do you have another one of those

locate object spells? You want to try and see if that's our guy? Of course it's our guy. I think it's our guy, too. How could it not be our guy? I don't know. It's a coppery-skilled character. It didn't sound like the same accent. We don't know, right?

We don't know. I didn't hear the guy upstairs talking. And what does she have to do with it, that dragon portal? Who knows? I could go in, I could try to talk to them again, and then at the last minute, hold person, and I can hold them downstairs, and we can all rush in and just go in and attack, surprise attack.

Yeah? No. No. Let's do it. No. No, we have an asset in the field! What? We got to do something. Yeah, Nott's there, let her work. We have to capture them, not let them talk and get away. What if they can teleport out? It would, I honestly, I think perhaps

they should talk a bit. The more that they have a shared story. Did you see anything in the room? So you're listening? Roll a perception check for me. Come on, my zero perception. Come on. 10. 10? Okay.

It's pretty muffled. The only things you hear, it sounds like the scraping of metal across wood, like a lot of small pieces of metal. This is actually the sound you're very familiar with. It's the sound of a lot of coin in a satchel being thrown onto a table. Oh, okay. You hear muffled voices. All you hear is, the table. You hear the muffled voices.

All you hear is, the only words you hear are, Satisfied? Very. Bazzazan. Bazzazan? No words, no bazzazan, the less I know, the longer I live. Then the wood scrape against wood.

It falls towards the door. I'm going to get off and press myself against the wall again. Oh god. This time, acrobatics, 22. 22, yeah, without issues. You're just like, barely getting into some of the space.

The dragonborn is leaving the room, moves past you, closes the door, and heads down. Hoptalba moves out of the way. Dragonborn leaves. You guys watch the dragonborn leave the building. I'm going to cast Locate Object again and try to locate that little thing. From the same book? Yeah.

Nothing. Okay. I'm going to shunt into Frumpkin and look around. Can I see Fjord and Yasha from Frumpkin's position? Yes, very easily. Is there a window up top? Up top of? On the second floor of our room. Back here? No.

In fact, the only window is in the very front. On the very front, okay. Yes. Number two. The dragonborn, you guys watch exit the building, get back up onto the horse, give it a little bit of food, and then get up onto the saddle after unhinging it and get into right away.

As the dragonborn exits the house, I'm going to break invisibility, cast Message, and say, stop that dragonborn to Caleb. Okay. That's early in the day. So, you hear. There's a dragonborn right now on the map, because I hear that, obviously.

It's not who we want, though, right? Yeah. It doesn't matter. We're in dragonborn. So the horse is back here. The dragonborn has left and is currently in the process of now getting up onto the horse. He's probably dropping off money for the person that's going to come. You have lost your invisibility,

and you're whispering into this. As it happens, you hear and the door opens behind you, and there you see the drow that was in the chamber hood back, looking down at you. Drow? Yes. Okay. The first one that entered, they go,

Okay. Interesting. That's where we're going to take a break. Oh! Which way is the dragonborn riding? This way, Pat? Or this way? Just now getting up on the horse

and looks like they're going to be heading back this direction. But we'll get to that when we come back from our break. Just going to knock the horse out. The horse is already 100 feet away from us. We will be back here in a few minutes. Before we go away, we do have our Wyrmwood giveaway to pick up where this is about to get real interesting.

I don't know where any of these people are. This is the Zebrawood Wyrmwood dice box, leather interior, nice and awesome. It's going to go to one of your lucky winners here. Tonight's password is scry. S-R-C-Y, scry. Enter it once. No, it wasn't a hint.

It was usually based on what happened in previous episodes. Okay. S-C-R-Y. S-C-R-Y, that's not what I said, right? It's fine. S-C-R-Y. S-C-R-Y. That's not what I said, right? It's fine. S-C-R-Y. S-C-R-Y. I apologize. Because we like you. S-C-R-Y.

It's like the words in front of me or something. Anyway, enter it once. More than once, you'll be disqualified. Once again, U.S. and Canada only, excluding Quebec. We'll have a winner when we come back here in a few minutes. See you in a bit. Hello, Critters. This is Ashley Johnson, president of the Critical Role

Foundation, our 501c3 nonprofit organization with a mission that might sound familiar, to leave the world better than we found it. We partner with other nonprofits to raise funds supporting causes that mean a lot to us. And we allocate 10% of all donations to an emergency relief fund that allows us to provide immediate assistance in the case of natural disasters or other unexpected emergencies that require quick action. To learn more about the Critical Role Foundation and to donate, visit criticalrolefoundation.org. Welcome back. What he said, didn't he?

Yeah, that was great. They're actually quiet this time. Good job. Welcome back. Before we jump into this cluster fluffer. Cluster fluffer. There you go. I need a nutter butter.

I know. Fluffer nutter. We have our winner. The winner of our giveaway of the Wyrmwood piece is Keegan Hansen. Keegan Hansen, congratulations. We'll get that sent to you ASAP. We're done.

So, where we left off. Oh god. Damn it. Come on, we got this. Wing it. If we fuck it up, we'll just leave the Empire, or the Dynasty, it's fine. They're like, how far away from us right now? Like 100 feet, is that 100 feet? Yeah.

You guys are looking through this side window. You can watch to that side there, from where you can view. It was male drow, right? Yes. Male drow, female dragonborn, as far as you can tell. The dragonborn is up on the horse after unhitching it and is getting ready to start riding that direction.

They're already on the horse? They unhitched it and got up onto the horse. We run out, right? Well, I tell the group quietly, Nott said, stop that dragonborn, we have to get there. Jester, can you get us there? Can you get us there? Yeah, I open the door and start running out towards the horse. Wait, what? Wait! All right, so let's roll initiative.

Yeah. Because we are now engaged. Is it just the people in this house, or is it us as well in the back? It's you guys in the back as well. Okay, cool. But you haven't been notified. You guys are just out there still waiting.

You're like, huh. There's just death. You got one d8 to your fucking initiative shift. Yeah, you too, Cad. I have one. Thank god, two. Oh shit, Samba. So 1d8 plus 1d8. No, I don't want to be this high

in the initiative stack. Wish I had taken that. I could do that once. Seems like a good time. Yeah, do it. Probably you're only going to get... 14 plus four is 18. Once a day? I thought it was... Well, I'm my boots. Oh, oh, oh.

Got it. All right, so 25 to 20. 24. 21. Okay. All right, so we have Caduceus followed by Beau. Damn it. Beau, you're what? 21. 21.

21, okay. Fuck, I rolled high. 20 to 15? 18. Fuck. 18. No. Wait, I might be a little. But Jester's up at four. Oh, 15, 15.

Did I count for anything? Jester would be through this door and just stepping outside at this point, I'll say. I'm sorry, Matt, I forgot to add my actual initiative. I'm actual 26. Okay, so you were up first. There we go. I was too busy counting dice.

That's okay. So Caleb, is anybody else? 15. Sorry. 15 for Nott. Oh god. All right, 15 to 10. Beau, seven. Hold on, 11 for Yasha. Yasha.

No, that's below 10. Five. Okay, so Beau, technically you have initiative. From inside the building, Jester just pushed the door open and ran out into the center of the main street. All you've heard is what you've heard from Caleb giving Nott's message. What are you doing? I'm still the drow, right?

That it hadn't been an hour since I went in. Correct. Pick us off, man. What are you doing, Beau? I... I... Fuck me. Can I acrobatics through this window?

Yeah, totally. Am I dope enough to do that? You can totally do that. I go through here. Make an acrobatics check. As you basically just look and then leap through and tumble past. That's a way to do it. That's good.

27. Yeah, you completely soar over these boxes. They don't reduce your speed at all. You're just tumbling and rolling and using that momentum to continue forward. Parkour! So five, 10, 15, you land there. 15 feet of movement.

That was 15. Correct. So I'm going to run the rest of my speed 15 feet of movement. That was 15. Correct. So I'm going to run the rest of my speed, and I'm going to dart catty-corner to this pocket over here. And as I'm going, I'm going to get out one of my cherry bombs. 45, your speed? Yeah, 45, yes. That sets as far as you can with your movement.

And I'm going to get out one of my cherry bombs, and light it, and see if I can throw it underneath the horse. Okay. One of the firecrackers from Hupperduke. You got it. So you use your action to throw. Go ahead and make an attack roll, roll a d20, add your dexterity modifier.

That's not a war horse. My dex mod? Yes. Oh, thank god, that was almost bad. 19. 19. Fucking hard. So you pull it out as you're running, and you stumble, roll to the ground, use it to move forward, pull it out,

kind of getting your flint out, throw it, and sends off sparks and a loud series of bangs from inside the horse. Gets up, and when it gets to its turn, we're going to see if the dragonborn can try and keep it under control, but that horse is sufficiently spooked.

Do I have a dash that I can do? You have your bonus action. A bonus action? Can I just leap and tumble and see if I can? Use a ki point at the step of the wind, you can try. Oh yeah. Because your action movement's done, so whatever your bonus action is. Yeah, I'm going to do that.

I'm going to step of the winds and try and get behind and hunker down over. Yeah. Just get down and try and get out of sight and hope that that was as stealthy as I thought it was and ran. You haven't hidden yet. Huh?

Because you have no action left to hide, but you did make your way over there. Next turn, you'd be able to hide. Just dart through quickly. So that's your turn. Beau, you're finished. Caduceus, you're up next. Okay, okay, okay, fine. I...

You watch both Jester dart out, and then Beau just jump through the window. What are you doing? I'm going to take my Action to Disguise self. Okay. So I'm going to look like my lanky farmer drow, which I've been playing with.

Okay. I'm going to head in that direction, 30 feet, and see if I can start waving down the rest of the kids. 15, 20, 25, 30. Yeah. Okay. There's that slight gap between the buildings right there. You can just see it, it's a little under a foot, it's a tight squeeze, especially for someone of your stature.

You're thin, you're just tall, so you might be able to try, but you'll have to get over there to try it. So that's your movement and your action. There's not a window on the second floor facing that direction? There is a window there, there's not one facing this way. So. So the horse was tired?

Yeah, and then... Yeah, actually, yeah, yeah, that's where I'm going to. Okay, ending Caduceus' turn. So, Nott. At the top. Turning around in the chamber, the drow is looking at you. Just gives you a look. And why are you skulking around? Interesting. Is it the drow's turn, my turn? The drow's turn. Okay.

I need you to make a wisdom saving throw for me, please. Cool, cool, cool. Not great. Nine. Nine. Nine. This drow's a pretty great fella. And whatever he needs, you're going to take care of. This has been a misunderstanding,

and you are at this drow's place, you are charmed. Cool. He says, why don't you go ahead and watch the door and not let anything come through without using one of those little weapons at your side? Sounds good to me. Great, thank you for that. And continues to walk down the stairs.

And then you spell that fuck. Steps to the inside and hits. Ha ha! We know. The, uh. It's heavy! It's heavy! Get your game, guys.

Get your game. All right, the hobgoblin walks down the steps past you and just pushes you aside, walks down very calmly to where the hobgoblin walks down the steps past you and just pushes aside, walks down very calmly to where the hobgoblin is, gives a look, and they both begin to walk towards the exit. Now it comes to the hobgoblin, this hobgoblin is just waiting, looking up at you, confused, but heard the conversation.

He just continues to follow at the front door. Correct, but is following behind the drow. The drow, that's the full extent of where it could travel. So end of their turns, Caleb, you're up. Okay, I was at the window looking out, so I'm going to try to clumsily crawl through the window and spill out here. All right, make an acrobatics check.

Okay. Get out of the window? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 12. 12, it, yeah. 12. 12, it's a little less cool than Beau's exit. It's more about, pull something, get out. It takes you 15 feet of movement to get off of that corner there.

So I want to go five, 10, 15, so I can see that way. And I crush the catmint flower in my hand and stretch my hand out, and the crush the cat mint flower in my hand and stretch my hand out, and a small translucent cat appears hovering just above the horse and the dragonborn for a split second, and there is a giant orange claw floating just above them. All righty. I love the all righty.

Yep, of course there is. There you go. Yep. Oh, wow. Big-ass flaw. Actually, I would there is. There you go. Yep. Oh, wait. Big-ass claw. Actually, I would like it to be a little past them, because what it's going to do is, yeah, it's going to claw the shit out of the horse.

Okay, so you want it to move down to like... Attack the horse, yeah. All righty. Five feet higher than that, but we can just imagine it. Sure. Five feet higher. Shit. Very low roll. That is a spell attack 14.

14 definitely hits. Okay. Go ahead and roll damage. Yeah. Liam O'Brien, candidate for president, hates animals. Hates animals. Stop that dragon war. That is, where is it, where is it? Sorry, everybody.

All right, fuck those guys. New spell to this, 48, 48, here we go. 16, 14, 16, 15, 20. 20. How do you want to do this? Aw. Yeah, well, you know. It will just break down and grab in, How do you want to do this? It will just rake down and grab in and it will into the horse's body

and smash it into that garbage pile right in front of the dragonborn. You hear this as it just crushes and claws into it. The horse goes limp and then is thrown into the corner there. Oh no. I feel bad about it. The dragonborn is thrown off of its back

and lands prone on the ground next to it. The dragonborn's like, wide-eyed, was already out of breath, it seems, and now is just trying to take in the circumstances, glances over and sees all of you emerging and swarming into the area and is looking around very frantic and frightened. One last centimeter of Caleb's humanity

just withers away. Okay. That finishes your go, Caleb? Yeah. Not? You're up. Terrible. Terrible. Oh, what, me? You're up, yeah. Oh, I got nothing to do.

You're just going to go and guard that door. Yeah. Immigrants. The front door or the what door? The upstairs door. Head on down. Oh, the front door. Oh, the front door. Oh, the front door. Now these are out of play, technically, since we're down in this space.

You have come over to the side, and you are now guarding the entrance for your new friend. Cool. Cool. You don't get a save against Fjarn. I don't think so. Okay. All right.

So, that brings us to Yasha. I was trying to startle him. You did hear the horse scream. And you've heard already the sound of a heavy impact combat on the opposite side of the house. Okay, do I see Caduceus or Jester running or any of this? Glancing from where you are, you can just barely see them

dart and pass, so yes. Okay, so I'm going to start making my way out there. Okay, so you're going to squeeze past? Just towards my friends, yeah. 15, go ahead and make an acrobatics check for me. Oh boy. Okay. See if it reduces your speed. Natural 20.

Oh, you run and it's like. You hear a faint from the air suction of how quickly you move through it. Five, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40. Is that your movement, right? Yep. All right, that's your movement. You can continue to move forward if you want.

That's a lot of stress. Since I see, did I see him cast a spell or anything like that, or? What did I see? Do I see that we're in battle? You see both of them rushing out and looking intense. You see Caleb in the background,

who had just been doing this. I would like to rage. Okay, bonus action, you are raging. You have your action still. Okay. I still don't see anything from there. You see everyone's going towards the front of the building. You see them with attention this way.

I'll just take the rest of my movement. Five, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30. Are you going through the building or are you staying there? Travis. No, I'm staying because I don't know. I see that the fight is here, so I'll stay there. So you're just holding the door as a guard?

Yeah. You got it. That finishes your turn. Now it's the dragonborn's turn. Dragonborn's going to get up for half its movement. 15 more feet, it's going to go ahead and run this way. 10, 15, and then it's going to dash and just continue to run another 30 feet this way. So it's about there.

It's off the map, but it's maybe 20 feet off the map. The dragonborn? The dragonborn. It's just like. She's running as hard as she can because her horse just got killed by a giant floating ethereal arcane cat claw. That'll make you run and maybe piss yourself a little. That finishes the dragonborn's turn.

Jester, you're up. Okay. I'm going to, I'm supposed to get the Dragonborn, right? Yeah. Fucking hell. I'm going to Dimension. Well, whatever you think is important. Do what you want to do. I'm going to run forward.

Okay. Five, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30. And do you think they're within 120 feet? The dragonborn? The dragonborn? It's a good chance. I'm going to try to Guiding Bolt them. The dragonborn? Yeah. Okay, go for it, roll for an attack.

No, that was cocked. No, that wasn't. It wasn't even cocked. What'd you roll, was it a natural one? Yes, it was. I'm sorry. Yes, it was, Matthew. I'm sorry.

Looky-tee. I didn't know if it was a seven, I couldn't tell. I feel like such an asshole, I didn't mean to, I'm just quite. No, no, no. Maybe it was a seven and I just misread it. So in running and pulling up your holy symbol and preparing the spell, at this moment,

you see the horse get crushed and thrown. Oh no! It throws you off and as you release the energy, you're almost looking one direction while the divine power of the Traveler thrusts in a different and unfortunately just goes wide and sparkles in this flash of divine energy in the sky, harmlessly above the dragon.

Do a bonus action, though. Use your bonus action and blow a raspberry. I'm going to use my bonus action to, yep, blow a raspberry. Blow a raspberry, go ahead, Jester. Fjord, you're up. I see Yasha dart. I will take the other direction.

Okay. 15, 20, 25, 30. Just make it around the side there with your movement. And can I see La Dragonborn? You can, yes. They're about somewhere between 30 to 40 feet from you, at a quick glance. I will send

I will fire two bolts of Eldritch Blast at it. Go for it, roll for two attacks. Okay. Laura, we got to get some sage and... 14? Get this curse out of there. No Aegis, more dice. 14 hits.

14 hits? Yes. New dice. 17. Both hit, roll damage on each. 14 hits, yeah, the dragonborn. It was the same dice, I didn't put it in a jail. That's the problem.

That's on you, then. Yeah. No, right? That's on you. I think our mistakes it in a jail. That's the problem. That's on you, then. Yeah. No, that's on you. I think our mistakes tonight have been equal. That's only six points on the first one. That's cocked. True. Nine, 14.

14 on the second, so 20 total points of Eldritch Blast damage. So Fjord turns the corner, looks over and sees the dragonborn running, releases two Eldritch Blasts to watch the dragonborn run, run. Hole through the chest. Falls. 20 points of damage? Yep, falls dead.

Not an important BV dragonborn. They were definitely a messenger. That was a, they were a scout. They were a scout. And they are big old eldritch hole in their sternum from behind, falls dead onto their street. Adios, muchacho.

Okay. Yep, no. Did we win? Oh, it's your turn. Shit. Watch. I could just kill myself just touching you. It's my turn. Yes, it's your turn. I could just kill myself just touching you. It's my turn. Yes, it is. That was quick.

I don't know. Get off the street! Yasha, are you going towards the door? Is that what you were doing? No, I was, I don't know what's, I just saw you guys fighting, so I came out there, and then I saw the dragonborn running, so I'm not going inside because I feel like Nott is probably doing a good job in there. I have no idea what's going on.

But I'm guarding the door, I'm holding the door. Hold the door! Hold the door! Waiting, if anything comes out, I'll be ready. Hold the door. Okay. Hold the door. See you in a bit. I'm going to head up by Yasha. How do you know? Okay. How do you know? Say you and Beau. How do you know? I wonder if jokes were fun once.

I'm going to head up by Yasha. They're always fun. I don't know, it's not the same now. There's a taint. Over the wall, over the wall! This way? Over the wall! Acrobatics check, please. I'm going to get a tattoo.

Athletics? Acrobatics, 19. Okay, fine. I'm going to get a tattoo. Athletics? Acrobatics? Lion's Gapes? Yeah, you're fine. Yeah, so you're right up next to Yasha. What's your movement? That was 45.

Yeah, or it's 40 to get up there. Where is, what the fuck? What happened? We were standing back there and then we saw that there was a whoop. I'm going to open the door. Okay. Oh boy, it's on. So you open the door and you see on the interior, Nott, who's been holding a ready crossbow shot,

go ahead and fire at Yasha. Oh! Yasha! She's raging. She is raging. Oh, at Yasha? Yes. I mean, it definitely hits. It's like 20. I don't know. There are bracers that are on order. Can I deflect missiles and try and catch an arrow for Yasha, since I'm right next to her?

Roll a dexterity check off against Nott. Oh, sure. Roll off. Both of you guys roll a d20, I do dexterity modifier. Ooh. Ooh. Ooh. Ooh. 24. Ooh, definitely not 13.

No, unfortunately, the unexpected firing of this crossbow bolt catches you off guard and you try and reach just a second too soon as it slips through your grasp. So you can go ahead and roll sneak attack damage as well, because Yasha was unaware that you would be shooting her as soon as the door opened. Wait a second, wait a second. Sneak attack!

I thought that hiding was a condition. If you know that shit's on and there's an attack going on, I just remember the shitty end of this as Vax. If your enemy knows that shit is happening. This isn't about being hidden, this is about being shot by your friend when the door opens. All right. There are a few things that's surprising in combat than having one of your allies go. I mean, to be fair. It's cinematic as hell.

That's surprising out of combat, to be fair. Yeah. 25 points of damage. 25 points of damage. Reduced to 12 for you. That's a good hit. That's a good hit. Okay, okay.

The door is now open where you can do that. All right, Beau. Oh yeah. This is such a clusterfuck. So you pull the door open and then you see the bolt go right into Yasha's shoulder. I'm looking forward. Nott!

I think this is my turn, right? Sure, you have a bonus action. I have a bonus action? I guess I can attack with my bonus action, right? You have nothing in your melee with, you can throw some. But right now the door's in your way, so you can, but they'll have partial cover because you're having to throw around the door.

To attack Nott? Hmm? To attack Nott? Yeah. To attack Nott or You can bonus action dash. To attack Nott. To attack Nott or anybody else in the room. I'm going to just get through the threshold. I'm going to use my movement to get in there. There? Yeah. And step all the way to not block the door for Yasha, but be quiet. Okay, that finishes your turn?

Caduceus, you're up. Okay, I believe I can cast spells when I'm using Hidden Step, right? Hidden Step is bonus action, turn invisible until the start of your next turn. You attack, deal damage, or force a saving throw once per short rest. Yeah, you can cast while you're doing it. It's one of the few cases of invisibility.

So, and that window is right there, if I recall? That window is a window? What, right here? Yeah. Yes, there is. And it's open? It is not open. It's glass. It's glass. Yes. Can I cast through glass?

If you can see something through it, depends. If it's an effect that happens and you can see the spot, yes, if it's something that has to travel, it has to break the glass to get through. Cool, all right, I'm going to turn invisible. I'm going to walk up to the glass, so that's a five, 10,, I'm going to turn invisible. I'm going to walk up to the glass, so that's five, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30.

You're right up to the window there. How many enemies do I see in there? You see Beau, you see Nott, you see the cloaked drow figure that entered, the hobgoblin, you see Maruo, the goblin that owns the establishment. I'm going to cast Bane on the three that I know are problem.uo, the goblin that owns the establishment. Those are... I'm going to cast Bane on the three that I know are.

Oh, I love it when you do that, doomsie. Bane, Bane. That's why I brought up your fucking initiative, because I want to be Bane. So on all three of them, all three, including Maruo. Oh, I'm doing Maruo. All right. Maruo has Oh, I'm hurting Maruo. All right. Maruo has now ducked below the counter.

Wait, did Maruo duck below the counter? Maruo, all this has just happened, and then you cast it, feels the effect hit, and then ducks below the counter. Okay, that's fair. All right, that finishes your turn. They get to make charisma saving throws, though. They do.

Maruo fails. No, they get to make charisma saving throws. They do. And slow down. Foul roll. Fails. Ever roll. Ever roll. The hobgoblin fails. Ooh, come on now. Hopped a draw. Fails!

Boom for three! Yeah, all three have Bane. Your punishment will be more severe. Yeah, that's my whole kit and caboodle. I'm invisible until the start of my next turn. Why does everything Bane says start with, oh! You need a can of Pringles to do what's right for you.

What's up, both of them? The drow steps over, is walking forward with the Hylian Mount behind them as all this happens, sees Caduceus in the window, looks over as, oh no, you're invisible, sees you walk in, and gives an amused glance, looks past and looks at Yasha and goes, Orphan Maker.

Oh shit! Back story! Blore it up, backstory, blore it up! This is the drop. Who? Who? Who? Who? You do not recognize this person. Who just said that? Because I just got real, everything went. Yeah, yeah.

The drought. And turns to you, Nott, and says, Ah, just take care of her for me. Winks at you and reaches back and grabs the hobgoblin. Oh no. No, no, no! You watch them both. Use a spell, use a spell!

You can't use it as a reaction. I can! What? To spell magic. Spell magic is an action, not a reaction. No, there's no reaction. Counter spell is what you need and he's too far away, unfortunately.

Can I see them through a window? Nope. From where you are, you can see them through a window, and you watch them just. I will cast Counterspell. Do you have Counterspell? I do. Oh shit, motherfucker!

Roll a perception check. I don't know if I can see him. Roll a perception check. This is pretty... Come on! 16. 16? Come on, come on.

Okay, go ahead and roll a... They're valuable spells. I know, go ahead and roll and add your... Hold on, let me check on the... Not okay. Let them fucking leave. Come on, Fjord. Does he have you?

No, he has a hot goblin. Roll now your spell ability modifier. Where is that, Caleb, where is that shit? Oh, it's just my charisma. It's right there, those three numbers at the top. Plus five, okay. Come on, fucker. 20. Yes.

20, all right. Come on. Do they go against it? I don't know, I don't know. Vest spell and DMD, yes. How did you get that? That's okay. Uk'otoa.

Uk'otoa. Uk'otoa. So that works. Clutch. Fuck you. It's a Vest spell. That's a fifth level. Oh my god.

But I never turn it off, fifth-level. Oh my god. But I never turn it off, ever. Okay. Ever, ever. Of course not. Why would you? Yeah, it's always on. Fuck. As that happens, and the spell peters out,

looks back at the window. Interesting. And is going to go ahead and turn back to walk towards the back of the chamber. Okay, okay. Look at all the cool stuff in there. And pushes through the door into this room. Is that where the stuff was?

That's the bag of residuum? Yeah, that was the room you guys had filtered before. The hobgoblin is going to go ahead and hold the space here and move up to front to where you are, Beau, and is going to go ahead and take three attacks against you with his greatsword as he unsheathes it. Ooh, he's got a greatsword.

Mm. That is 23 to hit. What's your hits? 20 to hit. Hits? 13 to hit. What's your hits? Am I moving? 20 to hit. What's your hits? Uh, 13 to hit. Miss. It's definitely high this time.

Counterspell, fucking. Oh, this means I'm going to have to throw some guys with Counterspell in here, too, now. Because we got two people with it. I forgot about it. Oh, I can't wait. I forgot about it when Caleb threw that fireball at us, and I was like, it's sitting right here. So many things we all forgot in that fight.

I never forget anything. So that's going to be? Not names, details, story points, spells. 18 points of slashing damage on the first hit? Oh, you're taking your negative d4 to all those hits, right? Oh. Not damage to it. No, I mean, so the attacks, you took a negative d4 to all those hits, right? Oh. Not damage to it.

No, I mean, so the attacks, you took a negative d4. 19 still hits? No, it doesn't. My AC is 20, so yeah, one of them misses. So one of them misses. Wait, you rolled a 23. 23 and a? A 20.

And 20, so the second one misses. Well, the second one I, yeah, it misses. Unless you rolled a four. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. All right, so that worked out well. But you still take the first attack, yeah. Okay.

All right, that finishes his go. Hey. Finishing their turn. Caleb, you're up. Okay, can I see in that window at all? Would that have caught my attention? No, that window is closed. Okay, good.

Both windows on both sides are shut. So as I walk this way, I send, as bonus action, I send Cat's Eye towards the dragonborn to grab it. All right. And I go five, 10, 15, 20. How far can you move it? 60 feet. 60 feet, yeah, it moves right over and reaches down

and scoops up the body. Now looking through the door, I can see what, the hobgoblin and the goblin? You can see the hobgoblin, that's all you can see. Just the hobgoblin? Well, the hobgoblin and the goblin? You can see the hobgoblin, that's all you can see. Just the hobgoblin? Yeah. Well, the hobgoblin's getting shot up with magic missiles, so I'm going to cast that at third level. All righty.

Do-do-ba-do-do-do, d4. 3d4, 3d4, 5d4. Wanted to do the drow, but the drow has left the room. Three, it shows five, eight, 12, 13. 13 plus, 18 points of damage. 18 points of damage to the hobgoblin. You got it. All righty. Done. Out of juice. Finishes Caleb's go? Not. You're going to go ahead and take a shot at Beauregard.

He said Yasha, I thought. Oh yeah, no, he did point to Yasha, so you're taking a shot at Yasha. That's the same thing, 20-something. Yeah, that hits. You do not have sneak attack on this, however, because there's an ally next to it. That's 12 points.

Okay, so I take six. All right, and. Do I do anything else, or that's it? No, I mean, the rest is up to you, but consider right now you are fighting against them, so tactically you make the choices you would make to fight against them. Bonus action, shoot again. Fire again at Yasha.

27. Go ahead and roll another attack. Bring it, bring it, bring it. Another nine points of damage. Reduced to four. Okay. So it's like, there's just bolts sticking out of parts of the torso. Yes.

Angry in the door. One, you're raging. Two, the pain's there. Three, that term used. Oh, that was the trigger. All right, that finishes your turn now. Are you going to move, stay afoot? White Cold Rage, she does. No, I wouldn't move.

Okay, you're going to stay right there? That brings us to Yasha, your turn. Okay. Fuck shit up! Kill that goblin. Nott. Okay. I never liked you, Yasha! I would like to reach out

and palm Nott's head in my hand. Okay. I would like to try to rip the crossbow out of my hand. Okay. I would like to try to rip the crossbow out of her hands. Okay, so make an attack. Okay. This is a grapple check, so go ahead and roll. SAM and LAURA do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do. So this would be in...

This is where I need my hand. I got to check real fast. Just to be sure of the combat scenario. Yeah. So for the grapple. I don't know. There we go. Yeah, you make an athletics check

instead of an attack roll. Great. And you have advantage on your athletics check. Okay. Because you are raging. I'll take the other one. 17. make an acrobatics check. Because you are raging. I'll take the other one. 17. 17, make an acrobatics check. Definitely. Especially my surgery arm.

24. Fuck. Being up against Nott is frustrating, because she's super slippery and very quick, and you just can't seem to grab her. You can try with your second attack, if you want. Yeah, I'll try again. Second attack.

Okay, so another athletics check with advantage. Okay, come on. Okay, 17 again. Acrobatics. 14. 15. 15. You pull, you can't pull the weapon away after that next turn, but you currently have

not grappled, cannot move, your speed is zero. It's holding, not in place through the door. Can I move? I hate you! Get out of the way! Can I move in the room, or? Currently, as you're holding, you can move in the room.

Unfortunately, you can't, because if you let go of Nott, you can, otherwise you're just right there. Okay. I don't want to hurt her, because I know she's, I'm going to hurt her again if she. That finishes Yasha's go. Jester, you're up. Can I see that Yasha's being attacked by Nott?

What you see is Yasha with three crossbow bolts on her chest and currently holding onto a scrambling Nott. Okay. Okay. Okay. I'm going to use the cat claw. It's like a claw machine. I hate your chin tattoo! I mean, I'm kidding.

I always have! I'm going to look at Nott and know I've seen this kind of thing before with Caleb, and I'm going to reach out and cast Dispel Magic on Nott. Dispel Magic on Nott. I don't know if that'll... I have no idea. I can affect any magical effect.

Hmm. I mean... Choose one creature or magical effect within range. Any spell of a third level or lower on the target ends. Seems pretty cut and dried. You have to roll if it's higher? Yeah. Sweet. I'll say go ahead and just roll a d20

and add your wisdom modifier. Jester. Why? I'll say go ahead and just roll a d20 and add your wisdom modifier. Jester. Why? 18? 18? Wisdom modifier. Not your eyes clear, and the influence from this entity. It was 14, it was not my modifier.

I did my saving throw. Oh, got you, 14 is still enough. Okay. Barely. So you now have control of your life. Honest? Yasha! Stop fucking hitting me.

Eep! Eep! So that's your action. You still have your movement. Okay, yeah, I'm going to run over so I can see in the room maybe better. This way? Yeah. 25 there,

you can see inside the room. Yeah. All right, that ends your turn, Jester. Fjord, you're up. I will, I saw them and there's a bunch of people in there. They're all rushing. They're doing shit. How far away from me is the dragonborn body

and the giant flaming orange cat paw? It's about 50 feet from you. Shit. I got that. Yeah, there. Yeah, I was going to come over and give it a little authority, though. It's up to you. Can you go through the window? Get in there.

Okay. Are there people on the street? There are some. Yeah, it's a morning. Now that you've looked around to notice, yes, there are people who have stopped and turned because a horse got murdered in the street and there's been spells flinging and shouts and yelling

and there are people marching to the front of the apothecary and starting a fight. There is definitely a spectacle. I still look like a very rich drow. Correct. So I'm going to pull out the symbol of the Bright Queen and I'm going to run towards the cat's paw and I'm going to say, business of the Bright Queen,

clear the streets. All right, make a deception check, please. Yes. Ugh, 11. 11, okay. You didn't biff it, but you have people's attention. You're not sure if they believe you yet. You may have to continue to push this to try and sway them.

That's going to be your movement and your action to do so. Yep. All right, that finishes Fjord's go. Beau, you're up. Okay, Nott's good. Going all in on this bugbear. That's who's in front of me, right? Hobgoblin, yes. Hobgoblin going all in on this Hobgoblin.

Go for it. Hoblin. People's dreams! Okay. Buh-ba-dee-duh! Feeblestoots! Buh-ba-dee-duh-dee-duh! Okay. First, I'm going to do bolt mine attacks at the same time. Wow, wow, cool, cool. One's a natural one.

The other's 23, though. 23 does it. That means number one. The first time you reach out, you actually end up punching right in the middle of the plate armor that it's wearing and like, you pull your fist back and then punch with the other hand and make him.

Okay, that's good, that's good. That's 11. 11 points of damage, great. Stunning strike. All righty. It's a natural one. It's going to use Indomitable to re-roll the saving throw. It also has to take the d4 on the saving throw.

That's right, yeah. I will continue to save that. That's going to be with a... No. 22 minus four, 18. Does that beat it? I think it does, yes. You got him with a d4? It rolled a 22, and then I rolled a four and the d4 just brought it down to 18.

This guy's pretty tough, he's got a high constitution. Anyway, so that's your second strike, you have your bonus action still. He's a piece of big, beefy hobgoblin. Right. In plate mail. Flurry of Blows. With a great sword. Go for it, two more strikes.

Pop pop. Jesus Christ. 20 for one and 13 for the other. 13 misses, 20 does hit, though. Roll damage on that other strike. Shit, fucking piece of seven. Shit. Seven points of damage.

Balls. All righty, is that your turn? Yes. All right. Beau finishes her go, that brings us to Caduceus, who has now appeared at the window. So is that window to my right open? This is closed, it is shuttered. It is a shuttered window.

It is two wooden shutters that are closed. Hmm. We all want that hole to be there. Okay, really quick, just to see. Man, that's perfect. That is a da-ba-da-ba-da. The way things are going, I'm going to cast,

I can't do Sacred Flame through the window, can I? You can. You can hit the window. Sacred Flame doesn't fire to them, it just operates on them. I'm going to do Sacred Flame on the bugbear on the inside. On the hobgoblin. Hobgoblin. Sorry, I'm still on bugbear. That's a natural 19 plus. Dex save. Dex save,

I make it a 21. With the d4? Ooh, thank you for reminding me. It's still going to be too high. Minus one to 20. Yeah, never mind. So it just, yeah, it's just nothing happens. Yeah. Okay, I'm going to just back a few feet.

Just a... Five, ten. Um, actually, you know what? I'm going to stay at the window and just keep my eye open on things for now. Okay, cool. Finishes Caduceus' go. It is now the hobgoblin's turn. The hobgoblin is going to go ahead and...

No, Ciri. Ciri, no, it's not your turn. No, shush. It's going to go ahead and make... It's going to do all its strikes on you because you're the one who's attacking it up front. It hasn't quite, it's barely noticed that Nott's no longer an issue,

but you're the one who's now punching, going for marks, and yeah, he just wants to finish you off. So first attack. Six minutes. 24. Yeah, is that with the minus 54? Yes, I'm relying on you. Yep. Next attack is, let's pop, Natural 1.

Okay. That, however, is going to be a 25. So two hits you. Stupid fucker, stupid. 18 points of slashing damage. 20 points of slashing damage. With the second strike, the blade carves through the front of your chest,

and there's a splatter of blood as the blade carves up past your neck and just barely misses a vital vein. It's enough quarters. Splatter to the back of the wall, to the side. Big sword, tight quarters. Big sword. People on the street, big sword, tight quarters! Big sword! People on the street, big sword, tight quarters!

That finishes its turn. Caleb, you're up. Okay, so I am striding in a straight line for 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, towards the straight line behind Jester, and I also heard that voice calling out about the Order of the Bright Queen, so I'm smart enough to figure out what that is. I try to subtly draw in Cat's Ire,

and the claw carries the dragonborn body and hovers by this drow's side, as if the drow had summoned it, right by his side. And magic missile, third level, again, through the door at the same target. Go for it. Okay, so that is, that was one, two, three, four, five of these guys. One, two, three, four. Four, eight. Ooh! Oh, they were all fours. All of them.

That's beautiful. That's five plus four is 20 plus, 25. 25 plus 25. They just spiral around Jester and Yasha. They pass the arms through the legs, hitting the armor. You watch the plate dent with each impact. There's all these giant, heavy pock marks

where they blasted into it. You can see the force causing it to almost push into elements of its chest. The hobgoblin's like. Looks at you through the door and is like. That finish your turn? Yes, it does. All righty, that brings us to Nott. I'm going to run past the hobgoblin

and dart into the side room. I assume you drop your grapple. Okay. You're going to dart past the hobgoblin? Yeah, and into the side room. Okay. So you step into the room. He's gone. The chamber is empty.

And the back slats on the window are open. I'm going to dash through it. Okay. Did you do a... Disengage? Disengage? No. No, I need that to run. That'll be... Minus four. Minus four.

Scroll to four. 17? 18. Yeah! Slams into the wood behind you, splintering elements of the floor. All right, so that's 35. Sets your movement, 35 there. Dash. Dash out.

You leap out into the middle of the hall, and the back alley, you don't see anything. Fuck. That's action and, no, that's movement and bonus. Movement and bonus, still in action. Let's see if you can find... I will message Jester. Wait, who can find things, people?

Jester can. I will message Jester, I need you in the back, I need you in the back alley right now! Okay. That's it. That finishes your turn, Yasha, you're up. Am I allowed to reply? I don't know if I can. Oh yes, you can reply.

You can reply to this message. You did, that's it. Oh, you did. Am I allowed to reply? How far is it to that back window? If I were to just keep going? This way? Yeah. You're not sure. You'd have to run to try and find out.

You aren't even aware there's a back window right now. You should know there's a back room. Okay, I'm just going to go up and I'm going to attack this hobgoblin. All right, so you move into this cluttered room. It's hard with this giant greatsword. You have to push off the wall and, with your best ability, strike it

with the Magician's Judge. 19. 19 hits. Okay. What's your With an additional six. 19 points of damage. Second hit. 50 feet away. Uh... 11. 11 misses.

Sorry. Okay. Don't forget, you can go reckless if you want to, just for future rounds. Yep, might as well, because I'm going to get hit anyway. Well, yeah. Next time. Next time.

All right, so the first strike impacts. It's now like you and Beauregard are gathered in this space, and you seem to be looking over your shoulder back towards where his companion ran off to. Am I able to get to a point in the, I'm sorry, so we're flanking? Yeah, you can move around.

I'll save for a little bit to get about there. Still keeping my eye on the back. Okay. Okay. Yeah, so you're not leaving combat range. You got it. Technically, if you were flanking before, that would have happened. Yeah. That's okay.

I didn't see that. We're fine, we're fine. All right, so that finishes your go, Yasha. Jester. Okay, I'm going to run around the side. This way? No, like whichever. 15, 20, 25, 30. Double that, dash it. 30, you just. 15, 20, 25, 30. Double that, dash it.

30, you just get to the back and you can see Nott currently standing there in the middle of the back alley going. Where'd they go? I don't know! You go that way, I'll go this way. Wait, I can locate object. That's all I can do for this turn, though, right?

Yeah, that's all you can do. There's an additional four points because I forgot to add this turn, though, right? Yeah, that's all you can do. There's an additional four points because I forgot to add for Divine Fury. Yes, don't forget that. All right. Slick, so 24 points of damage, and that's good. Opening attack. All right, that finishes Jester's go.

Fjord, you're up. You can see now folks are starting to gather, and you can see in the back, looks like someone has ran off and gotten the attention of two Aurora's Watch. Ooh! Mm-hmm! Aurora Watch soldiers that are looking over it and discussing, so what are you doing?

Everyone, please return to your homes. It's safer there. Clear the streets, please. And I'll just keep walking, showing the symbol and backing up into the passageway between the two buildings. Deception check. Perception or deception?

Deception. Deception. 28. 28. Hey! That's way better. All the figures in the immediate vicinity shuffle and go back to their business and start, then the Roar of the Watch soldiers are still walking this way, but their're a ways off, we'll get there and get here in two rounds.

They don't seem rushed, especially with you shouting, but they're definitely curious. But you get to move back, and you get all the way into the corner of here, and that's your turn. Okay. But you've definitely seeming to gotten rid of a lot of the immediate attention

and curiosity about this throwdown. I return the freak to normal, in case anything else is coming. All right, Beauregard. Okay, I saw Nott take off that way, so I'm going to go look for this guy, assuming he's in here. So I'm going to run past and go through the window as well,

into the other room. Okay. You should still take care of the hobgoblin, though. 40. Yeah, Yasha's there. You're at the window with 40 feet. You can try and go through. Go through. All right. Acrobatics check if you want to try

and not lose any movement. That's a natural 19, so 28. Yeah, no worries. You just one hand vault off and land on the ground, so that's your movement. You still have your action bonus, still. Hi. What's going on? Where is because that's your movement. You still have your action bonus, still. Hi. What's going on? Where is he? He ran away.

Oh! I'm going to go the opposite direction that Nott went. I'm going to dash. All right, and then dash as well? Step of the Wind, or just dash? Dash, and then do I see anything back where I am? Are you bonus action dashing, or are you using an action to search?

Just bonus action dashing for now. So you're spending a ki point to Step of the Wind to get over there. Yes. Okay. And then you're using action to go ahead and roll a perception check. As you're now taking your action to actively perceive any sign of anything that might catch your eye.

Six. Unfortunately, the adrenaline pumping in your head and the chaos that happened in there, and honestly being in the dark interior for a second and coming out here and having to adjust to the space back here, which you've only been once before, you're not really seeing anything

that's catching your attention. Sorry. Caduceus, you're up. He's still inside that fucking room? Possibly. Invisible? I'm going to use my action to use, no, I'm going to do another Sacred Flame attack for now,

keeping it pretty basic. Okay. Does not make it with a four minus two, a two. Yay, so that's a 2d8. Oh, that's nice. That's 14 points of radiant damage. 14 points of radiant damage. Bursts up across it, the flames curl around the armor, the face singeing some of the fur on the corners,

the beard and the edges of the red skin of this hobgoblin. Tough fucker. You're going to stay put or are you going to move? I'm going to stay there. Okay, that finishes your go. It's now his turn. I'm going to turn around. Since Beau has gotten out of his grasp,

angry, look at you. Let's finish this. That's going to make all three attacks on you. Minus the one before. That's going to be 25 to hit. He's rolling. Natural 18. Natural 18. He's rolling. Natural 18, natural 18.

26 to hit. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. And 18. Mm-hmm. All three hits. No problem. We got to give him extra luck. All right. Yeah. 16 points of slashing damage,

reduced to eight. Okay. And, I'm sorry, the roll frame. 15 points of slashing damage, reduced to seven. Okay. And as bonus action, he's going to use his second wind to heal up a little bit. Oh, he's going for it. So after it hits you. Wait, that was two attacks.

I have three attacks, yeah. In the middle, oh, there we go. 21 points slash damage reduced to 10. Then once he finishes, wham, and sending you back, you're having to move heavily onto your back foot as you're trying to deflect it with the Magician's Judge. These two greatswords striking and sparking in this dark interior, lighting up the room

with each impact and with each strike slamming into your shoulder, across the face, and one finally hitting you right in the middle of your trap. It cuts in deep and you fall to one knee and look up on him as he draws the blade across to cut even deeper. You're like, ah! But the anger's still pumping in you, and as you do, somebody and just prepares himself, grinning now. He's starting to feel the adrenaline really hit, too. That finishes his go. Caleb, you're up. Okay, so I am striding towards the door, and as I get about this far, I tell Cat's ire to lift that dragonborn, hug the building, and go dump it in the back.

By the time I get to the door, I should be able to walk in the door, I'm going to unload Magic Missile into the back of this bugbear again at a fourth level. Pobgoblin. Pobgoblin, sure. No, I need my enemy. As you stand there, all of a sudden, the body of the dragonborn just splats on the ground

in front of you. You hear a few bones snap, and the legs bent backwards now. I'm going to talk to that motherfucker afterwards. 26 points from Magic Missile, level four, into its back. Yes. Yes, queen.

I step in. And you step in? Yeah, I think so. Close the door behind you as you go. That would be an action, wouldn't it? If I can, then think so. Close the door behind you as you go? That would be an action, wouldn't it? If I can, then close it. See, Caduceus is outside, and I saw him there, right? So no. Okay. Yeah, closing a door is like using an object,

which you can do as like, or like, it's not using, that's just like a, you can do that as part of your movement. That's a gimme. Yeah, unless it's locked. If it's locked, you have to do an action to unlock. But if I saw Caduceus out there, I wouldn't have shut it. Okay, you're good. That finishes your turn, Caleb? Yeah.

All right, so as you just unload this blast of additional arcane missiles that all. They didn't even need to arc much. This was a point blank, almost, just release, and they just blast them in the center. You can see the armor is now the circle where they all blasted. The back of the plate hangs open a little bit.

You've almost destroyed the back of his main chest armor. Still standing? Still standing, yeah. He kills with his own hand. It's like, son of a fuck. It's three I unloaded into him. Damn. Nott? I'm going to go the opposite way of Beau.

I guess bonus action dash and then action to perceive. Reception check. Hey, better. 14. Five. Keep going. I guess bonus action dash and then action to perceive. Perception check. Hey, better. 14. 14. Look around, you hear the wind blowing through, a small pebble rolling.

Nothing. Oh, what? Fuck. I don't know. Either that or you're right. Okay. All right. It's possible. I finished your turn, Nottgasha, you? Fuck. All right. I don't know. Okay. All right. It's possible. I finished your turn, Nott and Yasha, you're up.

Okay. Ah! Okay. You move into the chamber and you're out. Caleb, you're right up against this guy. Yeah, I know. Just so you know. I thought that would do it, but.

We're flanking? You are flanking currently, yes. Okay. That means we have advantage? Yes, you do. Okay. All right, here I go. I'm going to attack. Oh, natural 20. Oh!

That'll do. Okay, so that is... Ugh. Savage attack, I'm going to reroll these. So that's four, five, six, seven, so 13, or... That's a little better, eight, nine, nine, eight, seven, 16 for the first hit, so double that. Oh yeah.

Oh, so, was that before you added your modifier? What was the damage before you added your? Oh, before the, sorry, sorry. Nine, nine. So 18 plus whatever your rage and strength is. Plus whatever my rage and strength is. Yeah, that's plus seven, right? Yeah.

Right, so the total would be 18 plus seven, right? Yeah. Right, so the total would be 18 plus seven, yeah. That's rough. Okay. Is that the first strike, second attack? Second attack. Yeah, okay. 24. 24 hits, go ahead and roll damage.

Okay. No Virgil, one reroute. Actually, go ahead and roll damage. Okay. No Brutal Critical. Are you right? Yeah. Actually, you should at this level. I think you got that at level nine. You're going one. You're going to get to roll an additional

d6 in damage, I believe. Really? It's with the ability you just got this last level, I think. As you move up. Brutal Critical, ninth level, yeah, so you roll an additional d6. Got this.

And then double that. Should I have done that for the last one, too? You just add it, you don't double it. Only for the critical. Only for the critical. Only for the critical. Yes, one more d6 of damage. Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. Okay, an additional four.

All right, you got it. Is that double or is that just a double? No, it's just an addition to it. So. Second hit. Second hit. The first one strikes and after the blow you took to the shoulder, you reach up

and the blade jams, you actually jam it up into his stomach and Sturmik cuts through the armor and goes a few inches into the torso. He's like. Can I keep it there? Yeah, and you push in harder for the next hit. 13.

13. All right, ooh. So you push in a few more inches. He spits blood down his chin, down the front of the armor, across the blade. He's looking really bad. Oh, come on. Yes.

God, he was such a heavy hitter. Okay. He didn't move, I attacked. Do I get a bonus action? No, that was, that was. You don't have much to spend on him right now. Yeah, I was just going to see if I could just hold him down.

As you're pushing the blade in, he's like, Orphan Maker, I've heard of you. Oh my gosh. So Jester, you're up. Okay. Oh, this is stupid. I'm going to cast Fucking Locate Object again, but this time I'm not going to do it on the book. I'm going to do it on that scarf that I saw the drow wearing when they

walked in the door. Okay. You go ahead and take on the persona of the drow that walked in. No, no, no. Locate. I'm sorry, I misunderstood. I'm trying to locate, yeah. Although we might do that later. Yes.

Where did I leave that scarf? Locate scarf. I guess locate scarf. Locate neckwear. If I saw it up close within 30 feet. Wait, what level is this? This is the second level. Oh, locate object.

Yes, if I saw it within 30 feet, I can find it exactly, but I wasn't within 30 feet. Correct. So I can find the nearest thing like it that I saw. Strangely, it picks up nothing. Oh man. Because it wasn't real. It was a fucking disguise.

Fuck. Or he's just fucking way out. Yeah. That's why he has her with him. That's why he has her with him. Or he bamfed. So that's your action? Yeah.

Because you can, how far on is that? I'm going to go in the... I think 1,000 feet. 1,000 feet, yeah. We still have the Fabric Swatch, but scrying takes a minute, right? Yeah, it takes 10 minutes. I'm going to go back in the building.

I'm going to go through the window that's open. Okay. I was like, You climb back through, and with the last pretty movement, you get inside the storage room back there. Yeah. Okay. That finishes your go, Jester. Fjord, you're up.

I will... How far away are the two Aurora? Aurora Watch, which are the main guard and military of the Kryn Dynasty. They are about 100 feet from you this direction. Okay. I will calmly start walking towards them with a very low hand at my side,

gesturing them to come forward, but in a sly manner as I can. Like I'm trying to keep a low profile to anyone else that might not be watching besides them. Okay. And I will wait till they reach me to interact with them. Can I hold my speech, my talk? I'll say sure, as an action,

if they approach close enough, you can do that. Okay. Okay. That finishes your go for the top of the round. Beau, you're up. I... wander back. Okay. And...

But as I walk back, I want to look for any stray movement, any sounds, any footprints in dirt that might be walking by, signs of any invisible person that might be wandering. Okay, make a perception check. Actually, no, this would be tracks, this would be survival. Survival? No investigation?

Who's that? I'm speaking bullshit. Nine. Nine. All right, you spend your round looking around. I mean, there's plenty of footfalls everywhere. There's foot traffic through here, a lot of all different sizes. You're unable to really ascertain

whatever is the most fresh and seems to be. No, I mean, I'm looking for movement of an invisible person, potentially. Oh, that would be perception. So whatever that roll was, consider that your perception roll. Same garbage. So yeah, unfortunately, I have nothing.

All right, that finishes Beau's go. Caduceus. I am going to, yeah, this has gone on long. I'm going to do one more shot just to see if I can knock this guy in his butt. So one more Sacred Flame. All right. Ooh, natural 18 plus two, minus four, 16? Yep, that hits.

All righty. Here we go. You DC 17? DC 17. Yeah! Bane came through again! Come on, man. Oh wow, that's rough. So that's 18 points of radiant damage.

How do you want to do this? Yeah! I'm just getting a little tired of all this. I see what's going on. The last thing you see is Yasha with Magician Judge partway into the torso of this hobgoblin. The last thing you hear, like, kind of fizzling through the glass is like,

You're late. And on fire. Yes! And just as he burns, he burns, like, does the moment of pain and just looks you in the eyes and grins as it begins to smolder and fall to his knees. What the fuck?

Sleep. Snap his neck onto the ground. Pull the blade out. Oh, did you just kill? I'm going to run in immediately. We need it, we need alive, we need it. He's very dead. Goddamn it.

We got a goblin though, right? Huh? We're not going to know anything. Mor Where's that? He's very dead. Goddamn it. We got a goblin, though, right? Huh? We're not going to know anything. Moro's done? Yeah, yeah, yeah, but we have the Moro might have escaped and all of this. We have a dragonborn and we have a hobgoblin. So, talk to death's weird.

So at this moment, it's quiet in the room. There's now the smell of burned hair and flesh. The hobgoblin is dead, charred on the ground, blood scattered on the wood. I crawl back into the window. Can I bring the, can I try and? If you have Revivify.

Oh man. Fuck. We can talk to the dead body. We can talk to the dead body. There's things you can, talk to the dead is only so helpful. Right, they don't have to tell you the truth? No.

Anyway, you guys enter back into the building, climb through, look inside. Should we move the dead scout in the back? The dragonborn? Yeah, we should move it inside. Well, that's what the half-time carried it to the back, so it could dump it through a window or.

Yeah, let's get it through the window. Cat pulls over. Helps get it through and then evaporates. Caleb, you come to the front, look through the window. Yeah, we'll pull it through the window. It helps get it through and then evaporates. So Caleb, you come to the front, look through the window and help guide it over. Bring it inside, the body just. It looks rough. I immediately go into the corner of this room,

sit down and start scrying. Okay. So. I pat down the dragonborn, so I'm looking for anything. Okay, while you'm looking for anything. Okay, while you guys are doing this. I can tell there's no saving this.

Outside of Revivify, yeah. Between the blade through the chest, the sacred flame, which, unless you intend to be a non-lethal. I did intend to be non-lethal, but. But at the point that he was falling unconscious. I know. I'm going to go behind the counter very gently.

Maruo is right there clutching a crossbow. He's like. I'm going to do Detect Magic really quickly. Yeah, and it's in the same corner. It's in the same corner. It's a wand, right, if I recall? No, no, it's a magical aura. I'm going to go poke that thing.

What's a fucking bugbear? Okay, you poke and you feel a body there. A hand goes and grabs it. Hey. Hey. This doesn't have to go down badly if you don't want it to. We don't want any part of this. I'm cool with that.

Do you mind dropping the invisibility? I'm saying this out loud. Let's all just cool our jets for a second. Maro fiddles with something and you watch the bugbear appear. It's a big, muscular one. Everyone's a little on edge and this definitely didn't go the way we wanted. Best to sit down and just chill out for a bit.

I can do that! Yeah, I know, you're fine, you're fine. We shut the doors and went out. While this is happening, the two guards approach you. All right. What is the business here? We've been called over, there was a- Keep your voice down.

Who are you? By the light of the Luxon, whatever you do, keep a calm demeanor. There is a covert ambush operation being carried out here by order of the Bright Queen. I need you to return to what you were doing. If you need to stay near, hide yourselves, act natural. That fellow that got away almost ruined this entire thing.

Please, you do not want to ruin this. Make a deception check. 18. 18? They both come into there. All right, apologies. Good luck. They both just turn around and walk back. May the light be with you.

The light be with you. The opposite way. Having a face, man, fucking saves so much trouble! I'll go back in and shut the door behind me. We can locate Creature if it's even possible. Sure, you want to locate Creature? Yeah, the face. I'm going to locate our friend who got away.

Creature, fourth level. Okay, so you're sitting on the cast Scry. Sure. Silent. Okay, it is, you be something. You do something. It is towards the north and it is moving. It is a ways away, you only know the direction.

You don't know how far it is or where they are. You just know the general direction of where they are. They're moving north. The person we were talking about? Yep, right now. Like how many feet? Don't know. You don't know. Just the direction. Moving north.

Can I pat down what's left of this hobgoblin's body to see if I can find anything on him? Yeah, make a domestic. Mr. Caleb, maybe do we want to send a creature, a flying creature, maybe? 11. 11, okay. The armor's ruined, the plate is largely destroyed. You do pull off about 365 gold pieces.

Okay. 12 silver. Moving. The blade is nice. Say again? The greatsword that he had is a fairly nice weapon. It looks well-made. Yeah. Did I find anything on the dragonborn? Correspondence, papers?

Actually, that's a valid point, too, because you would have also felt a magical essence when you cast the tech magic over in the chamber near where your friends were. Oh, yeah, I'll let everyone know. You should check it out. I'm getting a vibe from that room over there. The one that I'm scrying you?

No, no, the one that Yasha was. Specifically the greatsword. Oh. Oh. Greatsword is magical. So what are you doing? Dragonborn. Right, roll an investigation check for me. Moving north.

Just what the fuck? I get an hour of that, right? Nine. You do, concentration. Nine, okay. On the drawing board, you find the hour of that, right? Nine. You do. Concentration for that. Nine, okay. On the drawing board, you find the gold of coin, the pouch of coins that was given to her by this figure upstairs.

So you grab that. That one is 50 platinum. Fuck. Okay. If you know that this creature is nearby, we should go look for it. Has it been 10 minutes? Uh, if you want to wait,

we can wait until 10 minutes go by. I'm just scrying, I'm trying to scry. It takes 10 minutes to scry. On the blonde guy. The blonde guy. What about the one who was here, the drow? In the interim, I would have put him in my head. He's got low-key creature on that one.

I know, let's go get him. The blond guy does not make a save. He does not make a save. So as you're concentrating and focusing, your vision carries in once more, and for a brief second, you see the hooded face, the smile, the lower half of the Traveler's grin look at you and,

Help me. I will. Turns your head this way, and as your head swivels, there's a blur, and suddenly you're inside the chamber where you first saw him, the room where he was taking notes, and is back in the process of looking through the same book,

and is making more notes in the margins and researching. I don't think he ever left. Mm-mm. Maybe he's not the one meeting. Or the meeting is later. He was meeting the guy that we scared off. Okay. Or he's in the Empire right now.

Do I see anything that he's writing? Make a perception check. Do we know that for sure? Come on, come on, come on. Two different areas. Oh! What'd her do her shit? Uh, 23. 23?

Oh, I never thought you could barely see anything. Do you understand Celestial as a language? No. Then you cannot understand anything that he's writing? Celestial. Anybody got Celestial in their realm? She's an artist. Maybe she could copy a letter or two. Yeah, if you can write what you saw.

That's hard to fake. It's hard to fake a language. I'll try to remember symbols. That's all I can remember. Try to write it down. All right. While you're focusing on it, just concentrating on the direction,

the direction is moving slightly, shifting. They are moving still, they are still in movement. Go on. And they're out of range. What's the range? Give or take 1,000-odd. Heading northward. 1,000-odd feet.

They're moving northward, though. I believe we need some answers. If we get back within range, can you continue to find them and track them? Is it a spell that picks up? I feel like I would know that. Yeah. If you can get back within range. Should we move?

I can move fast. You're going to close 1,000 feet? I could if I had a horse. They're probably not. Could I tell what speed that they're moving? We have more bounders. You don't? Can I tell if it's a fast speed or a slow speed? It started slow and then it went quicker.

Let's get in the more bounders and then. It'll take, what, 20 minutes to get back to where the more bounders are? Yeah, because they're still at your house. You have to backtrack southward to where your house is. They're gone. We have no idea, they're gone. We should get questions out of these two. How much city is to the north?

How much city is to the north? Maybe another eighth of a mile, like not much. The Coronas doesn't go too far before you reach. So judging the distance and the exit, this figure left your range in the Ghostlands. They're heading towards the Ghostlands? Well, they're in the Ghostlands now, heading north.

They've left the city. I've just got to. Shit. I'm down to be a runner. We want to have some people stay here and some people run. Fjord, you and I could stay and disguise ourselves as the hobgoblin and the drow. We could.

Just in case. In case there's another meeting, yeah. So we lock these two up. Put the manacles on one of them and tie up the other. Tell the soldiers on the trails of the Ghostlands to catch somebody? Yeah, but we might leave them free in case someone needs to come in

and see the shop owner unimpeded. Yeah, we're saying we stay here as the people meeting. We'll look just like them. We don't need to be locked up at all. You, these two, the real ones, what are we doing? You're in the room with them, is that it? I don't know. I just want to come out of a limio and say that I have nothing to do with this! These two, the real ones, what are we doing with them? You're in the room with them, Zayn. I know.

I just want to come out of a limio and say that I have nothing to do with this! The goblin and the bugbear. Not the time. I'm saying make us look like the drow and the hobgoblin. Okay. The goblin and the bugbear stay there. They do what they do.

We turn in to the drow and the hobgoblin and act like we are the people that the blonde guy is meeting if he shows up. Sure, but will these two cooperate? Yeah, of course they will. I run a legitimate business! I run a business! What is it that you?

Did we check the upstairs? No, we should just take a look around. Your friend there, I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name. Ben. Hey, Ben. What is it that you do? Keep the boss safe. Oh, okay, okay. We don't get involved in business we're not supposed to, and that looked a little more than I can handle.

So can you explain to me what was just going on, maybe? What was this meeting, do you know what this, or is this a community? Well, this happens every now and then. It's not con. Mara was like, Some folks want a private place to meet, and so they drop me some coin

and I give them the upstairs. That's what I thought. We're wasting time, actually. Have you seen these people before? Ah! Only like once before, a few months back. Did they have a human with them? No.

Just them, no other people? Same tree up. She's not fat, are you fast? Not like that. Not like I am, but it's either that or I go along. How am I going along? I just scarfed my cat on Beauregard. You're also beat to heck right now.

I'm pretty low hit. You're both. I'm fast. You want to come with me? Sure. Wait, why are you really fast? Take a few more minutes. I'm going to run a quick Prayer of Healing. Well, no, if you're running immediately,

I'm just going to do a... I have 35 feet of movement. I'm going to do a... I can dash. Remember, they were moving, and then they moved faster, so they're either flying or horse or whatever. We're going to catch up to that.

Go for it. On the way out, I'm going to burn my, should I burn my spells? Is it time to burn spells? Yes. We're desperate now. I don't have any way to find them as I get there, so I was thinking it's your locate creature that I would need. Fuck.

Does anyone want to check upstairs? I could send them a message and tell them to turn around. You do know the figure. You could send a message, describe whatever you want to do. You've seen the figure, so you know them. I'm going to take a few minutes to run a Prayer of Healing on a bunch of people. Thank you. Okay.

I'm going to cast a level three, just to give everyone a little bit of a boost. I'm going to just continue to talk to the bugbear and see what's up with them. Let's see, what is this? I'm just being honest, I know nothing. Oh no. I'm just here to keep the box safe. Yeah, but you keep an eye out,

invisibly from the corner. I think you need to tell us everything you have seen or heard these people discuss. Well, I haven't heard them discuss anything. They come in here and drop coin and then talk upstairs. I just make sure they don't come after the boss. So you're a bit of protection here for your boss? Yeah.

Does a good job when people try and rough me up, or, you know, take out some coin. I'm going to cast Sending. Surprises him from the corner, you know what I mean? On the drow that's striding away. You're going to send a message? I'm going to cast Sending. All right. I'm going to go upstairs.

Yeah, let's go roll the upstairs. I'm going to do, so we're just going to send a message? I'm going to cast Sending. All right. I'm going to go upstairs. Yeah. Let's go roll upstairs. I'm going to do, I'm going to also, we're just going to take a look around. We'll be back in a minute. Just, you know, just keep cool and, you know, just be cool. All right, Mister. Cool, man. Okay.

All right. I'm going to cast Sending. All right. And all I'm going to cast Sending. All right, what are you going to say? What I'm going to say is, eyes are on you. You've left the rendezvous. What happened to the mission? Check somewhere else. Oh!

Ooh. Power play. Power play. Power play. Power fucking play. Move. Come on, come on. Come on. Responds, I know you, but I appreciate your attempt at deception.

If you are intent on following, come north. Bring her. And that's where we'll end tonight's episode. Oh, damn! We'll pick up there next week. Oh my gosh. Hey. Hey, magic sword, guys. Orphan Maker. I'm Orphan Maker, what, guys. Orphan Maker. I'm Orphan Maker. What happened there, Orphan Maker?

Orphan Maker. Holy shit. Way to, way to, man. Oh boy. Way to bring the, the, What is that meme? DVE. That could've gone sideways quite a few ways.

It did go sideways. That went so fucking sideways. But they always go sideways a little bit, no matter what you do. That's the nature of the game. That fucked us! A lot sideways. To be fair, you were dodging some crazy shit for a while there.

If I had just shut up, we would've, I don't know, it would've been okay. Yeah, yeah, probably. It's true, we would've closed up the building. There's a series of things that went wrong. Yeah, it's true. But that's D&D, man,'ve closed up the building. There's a series of things that went wrong. We all make bad choices. It's true, but that's D&D, man. That's how it happens.

Sometimes we teleport inside a dragon or press the release acid button. I didn't know who was who. I couldn't hear anything. My perception sucks! I panicked! I panicked, I thought someone important was getting away! It's okay, man.

Do you remember how much easier this was when we had magical earrings that let us talk to each other? God, the earrings! We need to get those earrings back. I mean, it is so campaign one, though, isn't it? Not really. It's definitely OG territory.

Clusterfuck is so much more fun. We up the difficulty with that. Oh yeah, I kind of like the Clusterfuck. Me too. All right, well, thank you guys much for him. Oh yeah, I kind of like the clusterfuck. Me too. All right, well, thank you guys much for watching. You'll see some of us throughout the weekend on D&D Live as part of their descent stream. And of course, spread the word.

Let's see if we can do our best to help out Red Nose Day, they're amazing people, and see how we can guide this eventual story for Stephen Colbert next week. Super excited. Don't forget, guys, we love you very much. And is it Thursday yet? No. Good night.

No. Thank you so much for joining us on this adventure. To help new listeners discover the show, please give us a rating and review on whatever podcasting app you're listening on. Until next time, is it Thursday yet?