Critical Role - C2E66 Beneath Bazzoxan

Episode Date: June 13, 2019

The Mighty Nein tussle with a roc and make their way to Bazzoxan, a village holding the line against historical terrors...Watch Critical Role live Thursdays at 7pm PT on https://www.twitch.tv/criticalrole

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

Hello 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. We're going to play Dungeons & Dragons! Play it! Before we get into our game tonight, we do have a few announcements to get through, beginning with our fantastic friend and sponsor to the show

for all of campaign two. That's crazy. D&D Beyond. Sam, if you don't mind. D&D Beyond, big news from D&D Beyond. Their brand new encounter builder alpha is now available to all D&D Beyond subscribers. I actually legitimately checked it out earlier today, and it is legit really addictive.

There's hundreds of monsters and filters to pour through. It's a super handy tool to craft unique and flavorful fights that fit your current setting and difficulty level. And to celebrate this awesome new tool, I've written a genius level spoof rap song that I like to call, You Done With D&D? Yeah, you know me.

Okay guys, drop that beat. Wait, wait, wait. What? Stop, no, stop. What? I have something to say. What? Last week, you and Marisha dumped your bombshell report. Scandalous accusations about me accepting illegal campaign donations

from a foreign agent, Mark Humes, from the evil British D&D show, High Rollers. Yeah, but these were not accusations, Liam. These were facts, hard, hard facts that have doomed your pathetic campaign. So let's just move on to my rap. Not so fast, Regal. I haven't responded to your little inquiry yet,

and I think I know why you don't want me to. Because this week, I uncovered new facts that will completely exonerate me and my adorable running mate. Exonerate? Please, go ahead, do your whatever you're going to do, go. You may have hoodwinked this one onto your side, but I, too, have a secret weapon.

A person who, on the surface, at least, might seem like an overgrown dullard, a muscular nincompoop, a big old dum-dum. Yes, that's right, I'm talking about Travis Willingham. Yes, he's a jock. Yes, he works out too much. Is that right? Yes, he's fascinated by small, shiny objects,

but he's also a brilliant forensics analyst with multiple PhDs and degrees from international universities, Dr. Willingham. Thank you, Mr. O'Brien. When subjected to rigorous scientific analysis, the evidence Sam presented last week was flimsy at best. For instance, that photograph of Mr. O'Brien holding some British money, easily photoshopped.

And the auto recording of Mr. O'Brien on the phone with a supposed British accent, or an agent, rather. Well, we all know that Sam himself does an excellent Liam O'Brien impression, Sam. I mean, sure, hi, I'm Liam O'Brien, my Sam. I mean, sure. Hi, I'm Liam O'Brien. My voice sounds like sad sandpaper. But that doesn't prove anything. That's just something I do for laughs, for yucks.

That's nothing. I have legitimate proof of your client, on camera, doing a deal with Mark Humes. That is irrefutable. Is it? Is it? I brought that video to my lab. Lab?

I loaded it, yes, into a level nine microflux video meter and scrubbed the footage using a military grade series seven vector graphic discombobulator. Series seven? Yeah, he just got it. Broke out the big fucking guns, you heard me, Regal. And after hours of rendering, de-rendering, and painstaking decryption, I cracked it.

The footage had been altered. Roll the actual footage. What? Of that meeting. So after you win the D&D Beyond election, you remember your mission? I know what I have to do. Convert the D&D Beyond app to the British

system of weights and measurements. But, won't that be confusing? I mean, nobody knows what a stone is or how much it weighs. Don't question me, O'Brien. Initializing facial recognition scan.

Subject identified. Sam, Regal. Age, unknown. Mouth size anomaly detected. Warning, warning. I mean, that's, okay, how about this? If that footage was so easily altered, Dr. Willingham, what's to say that you didn't alter it, huh?

How can you prove that you didn't alter the footage? Oh, there is more, Regal. While Travis did his analysis, I hacked into your laptop. No, you can't, that's impossible. Oh, really? My password is impossible to crack. Yeah, uncrackable? You mean the password SAMISAWESOME

with dollar signs for all the S's? I figured it out in two minutes! No, no, no, no, no! And right there on your messy, skanky desktop, I found it. The unused footage from that same Mark Humes video. Roll it! Yes, sir. Goodbye.

Uh, uh, uh. I think you mean... Right. Goodbye. Uh, uh, uh. I think you mean... Right. Sorry. Pip pip cheerio. You clear, Mark? Marisha, did you get it all? Yes. Yes. Okay, remember, don't I didn't. You weren't supposed to, no. I've never lost anything in my life.

I can't be here right now. Thank you, Dr. Willingham. My pleasure, Mr. President. Ladies and gentlemen, Miss Johnson, at rest my case, sometimes it makes me wonder why I even bring the thunder. Why he even brings the thunder. Yes, I wonder also.

It is odd, but. Okay. Thank you, everyone, and our friends at D&D Beyond. D&D Beyond! D&D Beyond! Fantastic. Two-all-separate for the edition of Dungeons & Dragons. I plead the fifth. To further investigate this hat.

Oh, not the map! But wait, when is Sam going to come back? He's off the show now. He's off the show now because he didn't win it to be president? That's a bummer. Well, when you're in a jam, just call DW. Aw.

DW? We need it. Dr. Willingham. Yep. Oh. Dr. Who. Dr. Willingham. Most doctors only have MD afterD. after their name.

I'm also D.W. Travis Willingham, D.W.M.D. Down to work. M.D.D.W. For you. So, are there announcements for the night? Thank you. Thanks, Dr. Zizmore. He's never coming back.

No. No. That sucks. It's so sad. He left his phone. Did he never coming back. No. No. That sucks. That's so sad. He left his phone. Did he? Thank you. Good call. It is open, too. Yeah. Good call.

All right, so the VOD for our last episode of Between the Sheets, which aired this past Monday with our fantastic Ashley Johnson. Yay! It's available on our YouTube channel at youtube.com slash Critical Role. We'll be back with Between the Sheets in August with our next guest, Amanda Palmer.

Aw. Super excited about this one. So keep an eye out for that. She's awesome. It's going to be tear-jerking. Also, thank you so much for all the Critters who came out to join us at Denver Pop Culture Con's weekend previous. Denver! Yes.

It was amazing. It was so great to meet all of you. Critter turnout was incredible. The costumes were incredible. Just, it was amazing. We took over. I got to drag these assholes to Casa Bonita without context in advance.

That was fun. But yeah. I should've worn my shirt. You should've. Next time. Damn it. Nice. But yeah, so thank you all for coming out. should have, next time. Damn it. Nice. But yeah, so thank you all for coming out. We had a great time, hope you did, too. Laura, you have some announcements? Uh-huh.

I do. Oh my god, I do! Wait, this is not my stuff. I don't know where it is, but we do. Yay, thank you. Hey, you guys! We got new shirts in our store! I know that, but I just want to make sure I say it right. We've got Baby Got Back stories. Speaking of between the sheets, it's totally great.

And then we've also got our Don't Forget to Love Each Other pride shirt that is just the most beautiful thing ever, and we're so, so happy to have it in the store. And for the entire month of June, 100% of the profits will be going to Outright International, which is a fantastic organization, and you guys should look it up. Happy Pride Month, everyone. Happy Pride Month. Happy Pride!

Thank you so much, Laura. And lest I'm mistaken. Oh, and I should let you know, it's all pre-order, so both shirts are going to ship within the next few weeks. Just so you guys know. There you go. On that note, I think we're good on announcements,

let's go ahead and dive into tonight's episode of Critical Role. Two letter O. 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 fouchions 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 dice Roll the dice Can you answer the call? Digging deep in your soul As the legend unfolds

Now it's your turn To roll We're going to roll! Welcome back. So last we left off, the Mighty Nein, after making their alliances in Rosohna and the Dynasty of Xhorhas, you have been seeking an individual you believe is connected to the placing

of these various abyssal anchors that have been tearing open portals between the Prime Material Plane and the Abyss. You've encountered it a few times since you've crossed over the Ashkeeper Peaks, or I should say under, and you've been able to scry and put together a couple of individuals that are involved with this endeavor.

You nearly got them in Rosohna, and then they escaped and made their way north, where you've been chasing them off and on, pretty much all on, through the barbed fields, not around it, but right through the barbed fields, where you've encountered strange oddities and dangerous creatures and gloomstalkers and eventually a mysterious, majestic, divine tree

that sits in the center of this barren, destroyed, desolate wasteland where the final battles of the Calamity took place. You slept beneath this tree for protection. You climbed it, some of you, in very unique ways, and stumbled upon a giant nest of some sort of a creature that you later on came to understand to be a rock,

a massive bird that was asleep until it was rustled from slumber. In hopes of escaping, a number of you, I believe it was Fjord, Jester, Nott, and Beau had all leapt from, or is Nott still being held by you? We were, no, Nott and the other humanoids had jumped and we were feather falling.

Correct. That's right, we were mid-fall. Right. You're still eagle? Yeah. Yep. So you're still a flying giant eagle. Yeah. Cruising down. While the other four of you had plummeted down about 150 or so feet before feather fall kicked in, and now you're all gently floating to the floor

as tearing out of the canopy of this massive tree is the screeching, hunting, rustled awake rock. And that's where we left off. So. Fuck me. As the four of you are closing in on the two of you who are down at the bottom waiting at the base of the tree, you can hear the loud

screech come out across the sky above. You look up and see the shadow of the bird emerge from above. Hey. Oh boy. I'm just leaving. Yeah. Are they coming down? I mean, kind of.

That music's not good. Should we try and catch them? I guess. So, well, this is happening. The four of you are all floating gradually, five feet, 10 feet, 15 feet. You're definitely going to be safe once you land, but it's going to be a little bit before you land.

What are you doing? I cast Disguise Self. And I'm going to make myself look as much like a leaf as I can. A leaf? Yeah. But I know it can only be a person that you're disguising yourself as, and I'm going to make myself look as much like a leaf as I can. A leaf? Yeah. Okay. But I know it can only be a person

that you're disguising yourself as, so I'm like, I'm a big leaf. You're a person wearing a leaf costume. Yes, basically. Just kind of floating. Like a third grade. Like a really shitty leaf costume. Oh my god. Perfect, okay.

Jester goes into leaf mode. What are the rest of you doing? SAM and LAURA, ALL AROUND, Oh boy. How fast are we falling? Right now, you're falling, let me look at what the specifics are of Feather Fall, but if I recall,

let me see here. It's 60 feet per round. Correct. It's still pretty fast. It's 60 feet per round. Correct. It's still pretty fast. It's pretty fast. It's enough where, six seconds, 60 feet in six seconds, that's 10 feet a second. So it's.

But you said we're still 250 feet up, so it's going to be at least. About 150 feet up. So you get about three rounds before you land. Okay. Three rounds. So this first round, you've turned yourself into a leaf costume. What are you guys doing? My hat is a little stiff.

I'm going to use Mask of Many Faces to make myself look carved up already, and decaying, decaying zombie-forward. Okay. Like rotting meat. A rotting balloon. Yeah. Slowly drifting, okay. Like as unappetizing as possible. Sure, okay.

You look like Taliesin is a strawberry in your kids' cartoon. Thank you, that was where I was going with it. Fjord, you should have made yourself look like a leaf. Now you got that covered. Can I, like, swim back towards the tree? Swim?

Do we know how physics work yet? Oh, I'm trying! Okay, you attempt to flail midair. While holding a staff. Yeah. It's on my back. Okay, okay. Yeah, I got strappies. Sure, sure, sure.

You have a deep relationship with free-falling. Yeah. I do. You do. You feel you've gained a few inches towards the tree. There's a gulf of a few feet, so it'll take a while. Nott, what are you doing? Feather Fall, it's not a concentration spell. No, it's not.

It lasts for a minute, I believe. It lasts until you land, basically. Right, or how long? Unless you get pinch-packed. That's it, it just says until they land. No, duration, one minute. Oh, really? One minute, or they land. I will cast Invisibility on myself.

All righty. As I fall. Nott vanishes into space. Sorry, guys! Shit, I should've done that. Where'd it go? That was an option for you? Are you fucking serious?

And decided to be an even more bright, shiny target? Something that birds like to eat are leaves. Birds don't eat leaves! Sure they do. No, not rocks don't eat leaves. You're a leaf on the wind. Nothing bad ever happens to somebody who's a leaf on the wind.

Too soon. Too soon. Just a mace of day balloon's already caught in the wind. Too soon. Too soon. Just a base-state balloon puller falling from the sky. Okay. Oh no. So. Please be going after the Woolly Mammoth.

It turns around and it's making it your way. It rolled pretty well on perception. Which way? It's heading in your direction. Oh! 60 feet of me, I want to cast Command. Okay. It's right now about 200 feet away,

but it's moving at 120 feet around. Oh! Rocketing back towards the tree, you gauge at its rapid speed, you're going to have a round before it gets to you and this goes off. So what are you casting Command for towards it? What are you commanding it to do?

Flee. To flee, okay. And the DC on that is? 17. We've done it. Turn it around. Natural 17. Plus four, 21.

Plus four. Unaffected, it's rocketing towards you as you're all slowly floating down. Everyone else gets something to do on this round. Yeah, what height are we? Like how many feet off the ground-ish? At this point in the second round, you're about, I'd say, 80 feet up.

No, I can't get up. About 80 to 90 feet up. Okay, if it's going to, oh god, goddammit. Yep. I had to use all my fucking spells! To climb the tree? Yep! I will hold my bonus action Misty Step from the falchion until the rock comes within

grasping distance of me. How close am I away from Fjord? You guys all jump together, so you're about five feet from him. I reach out and grab Fjord and be like, please don't fucking leave me here. It's a one-way ticket. Please not!

I only got room for one with this one. You dick! I'm sorry! Beau and Nott, you guys, you're remaining invisible and just holding on for dear life? I already am. Everyone's fucking bailing on me and I ain't got shit! I believe I'm still with you, but I'm still with you. Caleb hearing these two bicker through eagle ears

is going to fly within their reach and just try to stay close to them as they fall. Okay, so you make your way close nearby to where this is happening. All right. I'm just readying my crossbow. That's it. Okay. I make myself tiny to hopefully be as small of a speck as possible.

Like a small cannonball. Okay, next round. Spawn. It comes right towards you. God. Just for the hell of it, I want all of you to roll a stealth check for me. Okay. Just for the smell of it.

Advantage for you, disadvantage for Beau, and disadvantage for Fjord. Disadvantage? You guys don't need to. That would've been better. Okay, that's still not bad, though. 24. 24?

Three. Natural 20. Okay. 10. 10. You're an eagle, you're not really being stealthy, unfortunately, so you're just making a loud noise and swooping by. I have an intelligence of eight,

I know what I'm doing. Beau manages to scoot along one of the knots of the tree and kick off and push out of the way of this trajectory. It is coming straight towards Jester and Fjord. No, no! You're going to die. It swoops in and actually slams into both of you

and the tree, splintering the side of its bark. Its beak snatches out towards you, Fjord. Oh my god. Can I do the Misty Spip? You can. Okay. Do I need to? You did say you were holding it, so you do. That's a natural 20 that you manage to dodge out.

I'll shoot 30 feet straight down. Okay. Which instead goes to Jester. Oh! But what if he was aiming towards me and right at the last minute I. Right, but the talons go right towards him. It's a different attack roll.

Okay. This is going to be 17 to hit. Oh no, it misses! You're lucky, you rolled a four on that one. Hard to hit a third. So the talons reach out and try and grab for you as they're going towards the tree. You manage to just push out of the way with your shield

and dart off, drifting 15 feet radically to the left. Its claws dig into the tree, impacts its wings, beat once more as it pushes off again. It's going to go towards attempting to grab somebody the next round. Can I, if she gets pushed towards me, and if I'm by the tree, can I try and reach out and grab her and throw her?

Wait. No? Don't do it. Okay. So as you reach out, Jester goes, Oh, this is a trend! But I hold your hand. Okay. Just don't throw me. Okay.

All right, so you hold Jester's hand, that's your action. Ooh. Yeah. I don't really have anything. I'm still trying to be stealthy. You're at the bottom now. Yeah, I'm lower. No, nothing yet. This round, you've touched down. Okay, I don't really have anything. I'm still trying to be stealthy. You're at the bottom now. Yeah, I'm lower. No, nothing yet.

This round, you've touched down. Okay, I have? Yeah. But I probably took some damage falling. Everyone's going to touch down after this one. 40 feet, I felt. I have a question. Well, no, but you're still feather falling. Oh, right, right, right. So no damage.

It doesn't count as landing if we hit the tree, does it? Or does it? No. Bumping into it does not, no. For the purposes of this spell, it's landing onto a solid surface where there's no more falling momentum. Okay. landing if we hit the tree, does it, or does it? No, bumping into it does not, no, for the purposes of this spell, it's landing onto a solid surface where there's no more falling momentum. Okay.

It's smart. Not anything? Oh, I mean, it doesn't see me, so I'm okay. Nope, you're fine. I will, because I'm 30 feet away, can I use my Hexblade's Curse to just mark the thing? If you'd like to, yeah. I'll do it. All right. Mark the massive bird, yeah. I'll do it. All right.

Mark the massive bird. Now, when I say massive, I mean... That was me. I'm saying about 200-foot wingspan. 200 feet?! Yeah. Are we anywhere near that little alcove cave, by the way? You're not that far from it, yeah.

Okay, so we can move towards that while this is happening. My god, there better be some fucking gopher holes in the ground. Yeah. There's an alcove. The one alcove, will it fit all of us, that alcove? Yeah. I don't know, you'll find out.

Maybe. I never fought a rock before, dude. You don't want to! We just fled. We've always fled. Oh god. I got bit by one. You don't look to. We just fled. We've always fled. Oh god. I got bit by one. I'm going to start heading in that direction.

I'm also, just to try and distract it, I'm going to use Thaumaturgy to send a sound and a bit of movement as far as I can from us in the opposite direction into the tree line. Okay. So just a big, skawking predator of whatever it needs to hear to maybe throw it off for a second, get some movement.

I'll allow a deception check. Okay, those go great. Oh, 17. Okay. Doesn't seem to catch his attention, unfortunately, in the chaos. Okay, hey, no. Hey, you know. It's worth a shot. It was worth a shot. Worth a shot. Yasha, anything you're doing, or just?

We're just running to the... Yeah. Try and catch up where they are. All right, Fjord, you're on the bottom. Caleb, you're still in eagle form. You're keeping near them. Everyone? We're close to the ground, right?

Yeah, after this round, everyone's going to get to the ground. Do I have time to race toward the ground and drop the spell, or are we past that point? With your speed, you could. Yeah. So I'm going to just, now that I say we're close, I'm going to nose dive and then hit the ground and roll as Caleb and a big pile of wood.

Catch yourself. All right. God never went into the potty hole. Jester? Beau's holding your hand, what are you doing? Oh, well, we're going to hit the ground anyway. So you're just waiting to hit the ground? Well, I was going to Dimension Door us, but if we're going to hit the ground anyway,

then it's pointless. Go! I'll do this! You can go to the other side. Okay. Go somewhere. I Dimension Door, as we're falling, the door right behind us, and as we go through the door,

I bamf us into the little alcove at the bottom of the chair. Okay. The door, as we're falling, the door right behind us, and as we go through the door, I bamf us into the little alcove at the bottom of the chair. Okay. So the massive rock that is still clutching the side of its wings, when it's ready to take off again, squawks extremely loudly again, shaking you at this proximity now.

Your eardrums go high-pitched from the intensity of its scream, and you both vanish out of its sight. You see it get a bit flustered and look down, this keen eyesight, looking towards where you are, and where you are, since you're the only ones currently in sight. You're getting close to within its vision,

but you're the two that it has its sights on. All right, so it's now going to push off and come down towards you with its talons. That's going to be 23 to hit. That hits. All righty. You suffer No.

25 points of slashing damage, and you are grappled. Oh my god. It has grabbed you in its talon. You are restrained while you are grappled. Okay. It swoops the rest of its movement, dragging you along with it and it's going to beak attack you. Okay, I got that. That's going to be a 20 to hit. Shield.

Shield, all righty. And Thunderstep would be super cool if you were stuck in Talon, huh? Thanks for that spell there. As the beak slams down on you, it actually encompasses your body and it's about to snap shut before the energy pierces out like a bubble around you,

and the mouth shuts, shooting you out like a bullet out of a gun, and you go skidding on your shield another 20, 30 feet before coming to rest. It's going to take up and it's about now 50 feet away and up in the ground with Fjord and its talon. Too late to do anything before it goes as an action? That's its turn now, what do you do?

Everyone can now take their action. Am I on the ground? Have I been knocked prone? You're on the ground. You're not knocked prone, I'll say. The shield helped write you. So I'm going to move my full 30 feet toward Fjord and the rock, and if it's in range, I will pull out my caterpillar

and cast Polymorph on the rock. On the rock? Yes. Okay. What form do you wish for? Sparrow. Okay. A larger rock. Really? What is the DC on this? 17.

17? Yeah. Okay. Natural 20. Oh! I'm so sorry. That was so good, though. That was such a good idea. That was a great idea. Two natural 20s from this rock already.

This thing is not fucking around. So as you attempt to transmute its form into that of a much smaller bird, it seems to just shrug off the magical effect. There's a brief flicker of its outline before the spell just dissipates. Caleb watches, he's got the cocoon, he's going. Oh shit.

Is he still on? All right, out of curiosity, do beacon talons count as weapon attacks or no? They do. Okay. Since he's close enough at the moment, I'm going to just try and cast Raven of Enfeeblement on the rock. Okay. Oh wow, that's powerful. We'll still save on that?

Constitution. 26. Jesus H fucking Christ. Okay, this rock is pretty powerful. This is hard rock. Can I do something with you? Yes, you can. I haven't done this before.

With a bonus action, I will use my Relentless Hex, which allows me to magically teleport up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space you can see within five feet of the next target. So I will bamf out of his claws, and I'm going to appear right on his back in between the shoulder blades, and I'm going to try and wait for him

to get somewhere above the alcove so I can ditch. Okay. I'm just riding the fucking rocks. You appear, you grab the feathers, and it's immediately, your lips like, in the wind. There's a bad idea! There's a bad idea! It's now swooped 50 feet away.

So Fjord's now on the back of this massive bird. Beau, Jessica, anyone? How far away are we from it? Right now, you're about 70 feet from it. Fuck. Oh god. 70 feet straight up, or 70 feet outward, about 30 feet up. Okay. Wait, so Fjord,

he's now on the bird. I'm on the bird! I'm on the bird! I'm on the burn! No, I didn't try to polymorph. Oh, you're not on the burn. She's on it. I mean, he's on it. Unless you're trying to polymorph

into something equally as rideable. Just, Fjord can take a fall. That's what she said. I'm a little late now, but also gets another attack if he does, I don't know. Anyone else, nothing? I've already spent my turn. For some reason, it starts to go over the alcove area.

I mean, it's okay. You're holding your, it's going away from the tree at the moment, because it was swooping towards and after you and Caleb, after it came down. So you're just holding on right now. Anyone else doing anything? Yeah, I will. Okay, okay.

I think I won't lose invisibility if I use an item, right? It's not an attack. Depends on the item. Oh, you're invisible. I have a potion that I made, a smoke bomb potion. You do. Would that do, would I? I'll say that, you won't lose invisibility, no. Okay, I hope that's okay.

I'm going to smash that around us and so we have 20-foot radius of smoke around us. Suddenly, the area where you didn't know Nott was is now filled with smoke. There's just a plume of fog smoke that appears in a big cloud at the base of the tree. Now we just can't see what's happening. Oh, but he can't see us.

Or she. The nearest tree bow was 300 feet, right? Yep. So, and it's like 70 feet. How far, is it trying to clear under the bough, or is it trying to go up and away from it? You don't know. It's just going away.

It coasted down to attack and grab him and Caleb off the ground, and now it's like picking up and gaining gradual height as it's about 30, 40 feet off the ground and about 70 feet out from the base. So where Rock is climbing? Yeah. Caleb runs right towards Jester and yells, Get on my back!

You've already cast Polymorph this round. I'm waiting for everyone else to finish what they're doing. If you're doing anything. Yeah, yeah. If not, just tell me. I can try and run back up to the tree and try and grab you. I can try to cast Polymorph. Get on my back! If you want to think it's away from it.

No, thank you. I'm going to try to cast Polymorph. I'm going to try to cast Polymorph. You're going to try to cast Polymorph? Yeah. On who? On the rock. Go for it. On Dwayne the Rock Johnson. So what for? I'm going to try to turn him into a bat.

Okay. That is a 10. Oh! Oh! Yes. Oh, oh, oh! Oh, but ooh! Yeah! So you watch as this massive bird

whoosh, whoosh, whoosh. And Fjord gets jettisoned at 120 feet per second, or per round, outward in an arc, like out of a cannon. Shoosh! Fuck you guys! Help me! If he's coasting, then I'm trying to gauge where he is and holding a feather and trying to catch him

as he gets in the range. What's the range on Feather Fall? I think it's 60 feet, isn't it? He is so far out of your range of Feather Fall. Oh, but isn't he falling, though? He was 70 feet away from you and then now got shot even further, another 120 feet out that way.

Then if I can do something, I'm turning into an eagle and flying. I'll grab on. How many more Cast Supply Morph do you have? One. It's a fourth level? Fourth level. further, another 120 feet out that way. Then if I can do something, I'm turning into an eagle and flying. I'll grab on. How many more cast supply morph do you have? One. It's a fourth level spell? Fourth level. And you have three more?

I have one more fourth level spell slot left. Cool, just making sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, so you're turning into an eagle. Yeah. Go for it. I'm grabbing on. Okay, I just go. There we go.

All right, you guys take off in that direction. The speed of the giant eagle is? 80 feet. 80 feet, okay, so you can't get to him, but you're heading that direction. Can I, oh, no, yeah, all right, yeah, okay. All right. Fjord.

Uh-huh. Oh no! Do something! You got nothing? Make an acrobatics check. That's it? Oh god. Make an acrobatics check. Free to the Wild No, make an acrobatics check. Free to the wild, mother!

No, this is a straight roll. Nine. No. Nine. It's going to be fine. You're not trained, necessarily, how to best break your fall when jettisoned via rock. Flying? No.

Yeah. It's a new experience for you. For a moment, it's beautiful, this view and the wind in your hair. It's quiet, calm. Yeah. That's just two. Then white hot pain, dirt, dirt, dirt, dirt, dirt, dirt,

soreness. Well, we'll see. Oh god. Jesus, that's all I got. Did I kill Fjord? Excellent. Oh god. Jesus, that's all I got. Did I kill four? The second, how far away are we on the eagle? Take 44 points of bludgeoning damage. Okay.

You're okay? Didn't you say 25 before? Yeah, he's got more than that. Wow. He's really tough. So you say 25 before? Yeah, he's got more than that. Wow. Yeah. He's really tough. So you're lying on your back, just torn up, rocks and dust and scrapes. Yeah.

I'll continue to fly the healer. I jump out at the alcove. Let's, let's, uh. Air medic. It's going to be fine. Hey, how you feeling? A little bit, a little bit? Make sure he's far away. Make sure he's far away. Make sure he's far away.

Okay, we're just going to give you a little bit of a pick me up, and I'm just going to do Cure Wounds just to get you back up and running. How you feeling, man? It's fucking good! Okay, okay. That's, I'm casting that at level, fourth level.

So that's a 4d8 plus five. An indent in the ground. That's terrible. This is a set of drugs. Nine, 14, 15. That's 20 points of healing, just to get you a little. Take it. Hell yeah. Thank you.

Why don't you hop on, and we've got a second where there's not going to be, how long is it just going to be a bat out of curiosity? Ah! I think Polymorphism takes, it's an hour long. Well, actually, this is an interesting question. I can talk to animals. Does that mean that the eagle can comprehend

everything I'm saying, since I can talk to animals? Yeah, he can comprehend what anyone's saying. Perfectly, okay. Do you want to take a second to drop Fjord off and maybe go take a quick look in that nest and see what's up there? Yeah, I'd like to drop me off for it. All right, come on. I'm running towards them

as much as I can. We're flying straight back now. Don't worry, Yasha, we're safe in this cloud of smoke. I start walking out. No, don't leave me here! I follow behind as they're moving away. Can we both sit on you or no? I don't know, that's a question for the DM.

Can two people ride on a giant eagle? One person can ride on a giant eagle. Okay, so I'll go back with him, and I think you know the plan now, so. Yeah, I'm going to fly low to the ground and look for, there's a cloud of smoke, and I'm going to look for Beauregard on the ground. Okay.

You go ahead and make your way over to the cloud of smoke. I'm following behind Jester a little bit, like 20 feet or so. You'd be able to see both Jester and Beauregard emerge from the smoke cloud. Fjord, Fjord, Fjord, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Why, why, why are you sorry? Get a wound. Oh, yeahjord, Fjord, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Why, why are you sorry? Get a wound.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Third level. It's a three. Yeah. Ooh, good. This little impact on your shoulder, you're looking at this little bat. 25.

Oh! It's still trying to attack? Don't touch it. No, no, don't attack it. Don't attack it. You just healed 25 points. 25? Catching a butterfly net. Thank you kindly. Any damage?

Nope. Can we catch him? Can we catch him? What's your armor class, Fjord? 17. Little squeaks. What's your armor class, Fjord? 17. It just little squeaks and is trying to bite through here and it's just pissed off. I take my little cape off

and I try to catch him in my hood. Catch him, Daddy! Catch him! You wrap it in there and you now have this little satchel with a temporary bath there. This is an hour long. Fjord's after pissing himself, did he? Can we just put him in the bag of holding?

No, I don't recommend that. Why? Because spell, magic versus magic, a lot of weird things can happen. You don't want to cross spells. We don't know, this could be a mama, but her babies are up there. I think it very much is.

She had a nest, after all. Yeah, there are. Going up to check it out before we go into this cave to hide. Hold their head now. What? Shut up. Go cut. I'm getting my ear cut.

We'll take a look up there. Grab anything that don't hurt the eggs or anything. Don't disturb anything. You want me to go back up there into that nest? Well, on top of this guy. I'll go up there. Okay. Do we want to give it,

you might want to take the bag, too, might be a clever. Just leave him up there and then we can fly down? Yeah. Well, yeah. You can take the bag, you grab anything interesting up there, put it in the bag, and then come on down. Okay. All right, so you guys take off.

Up towards the tree. Okay. I'm going to keep an eye out for any more rocks. Make sure this isn't like mama rock and there's not a daddy rock somewhere. I'm going to try and calm the rock. You can't calm the rock. I can calm the rock.

Make an animal headlock. All right. Okay. So you're keeping an eye out as you fling it. We set the nest before. Yeah. Ah, 12. I don't know if I did, though.

You got an angry rock bat in a satchel. It's not working. Beau saw it. You can hear it squeaking as it's constantly fighting against it, but it doesn't have a lot of strength to it. I haven't seen an angry rock bat since the Nausea of the War concert. Oh. Oh, there saw it. You can hear it squeaking as it's constantly fighting against it, but it doesn't have a lot of strength to it. I've seen an angry rock bat since the Nausea Wars concert. Oh!

So you make your way back up to the top of the tree, stop in one of the lower branches nearby, not exactly there, but nearby where you guys had leapt off. You stop and you're looking around. You vaguely recall where you saw at least the base of the nest. Go ahead and both make a perception check for me, if you don't mind.

I rolled a 20 on that first one. That's right, you rolled a 20 on that first one. Do you want me to do another one? Okay. Well, you were looking for possibly other rocks. Birds. In the tree? Uh-huh. Yeah. I'll say yeah, and then I'll allow that to stick.

Would you? I'll give you some. Okay. You do see the nest. You see the cluster of large branches and leaves and broken wood, and now you're looking up there, you can see there's a wagon wheel

and there's all sorts of shit that's just been mashed into this nest. Yeah, yeah, yeah, go, go. Leaping from branch to branch eventually. Looking for shiny, looking for satchels, looking for bags, looking for... The first thing you notice when you get up there into view, one, there's carts and looks like a part of a building,

like a piece of a ruin that was jammed in here. It's just been assembling its nest from whatever a giant bird could find amongst the barbed fields in the surrounding area. It's very Katamari Damacy, the way this nest has been built. That's cool. Yeah. giant bird could find amongst the barbed fields and the surrounding area. It's very Katamari Damacy, the way this nest has been built. Yeah. Good craft.

You do see also within there, what looks to be the feathers freshly starting to come in, a baby rock. Bigger or smaller than Caleb is right now? Oh, I'd say a little bit smaller than Caleb, but only barely. It's just like they're.

Barfing its mouth. Is it just one? The rest of the episode is just this. Yeah. You drew her out. I know, I know. It's cute, I know. It's adorable. I want shiny shit.

Is there shiny shit in the nest? Has it been hoarding jewels? There might be, but you'd have to go through, because it's right now. Are we in the nest now? Well, you guys are up in a branch above, looking down into the nest. You can go into the nest now? Well, you guys are up in a branch above, looking down into the nest. You can go into the nest if you like. It is a cluster of massive, dried bird guano

over these heavy, heavy woven meshes of branch and leaves and other pieces of errant material that this creature has assembled for it. But because it's porous, all branches and whatever's going to be found, there probably are shiny things in there, probably, but you'd have to sift through it

and search for a while to find anything. That is covered in bird shit and saliva and egg gunk. Caleb shits. I'm trying to understand your point, what you're making. And I turn and slide her down, that's it. Slide her down along one wing. One on one, fuck!

Into the nest. You stop and you look up at this 12-foot baby bird. Okay. Not what I meant, but it's fine. Hey, buddy. Is that not what you meant? I meant to set her down here and me go down in, but this is funny.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We're going for it. I take out my staff and I'm just like, Screeches? I got to give him Screeches. Good god. Did you say Screeches? Screeches?

Do an animal handling check. Oh, fuck me. With advantage because of Dagon? Oh my god. Dagon does not exist in this world. Ooh, okay, okay, okay. 16. 16?

Yeah. You can see it, like, it starts doing like the hungry eye that hasn't been fed recently. And you get the sense that this isn't a classic, like, you know, mama bird eating pellets and stuff. This thing probably eats flesh. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So you lick a tasty morsel,

and as you approach, you take your staff and scratch the side of its face, and it's like, . Mm. Mm-hmm. That itch is, yeah. Yeah. Okay.

I take out... Fuck, what do I fucking have? Do I have a ration? I take out a ration, a Traveler's Kit, and just... Human ration? Yeah, throw it away from me. There's a pepperoni. Okay. Two of them. Catches it midair.

Fuck! Fucking faster than I thought. Fuck! Would you see this flying thing? I have to go over. Fucking faster than I thought. Fuck. Would you see this flying thing? Man, it could go over. Caleb! It's now expectant of more food to come now that you've begun the feeding cycle.

I do the dog fake out thing. Of what, another ration? What else you got? Oh, I thought you were faking it. Are you faking it? What else do we have? Oh, I got some ball bearings. I took some ball bearings. Make a deception check. Poor baby bird, you're going to eat some ball bearings.

Are you trying to push through in here as well, or is it too hard to do? You could make your way down. You're just on a branch of a rabbit, so you can just leap down onto it. 15. A little outer circle. 15 and like, . And I back away, and I back away.

You back away a little bit into the nest. The nest itself is about, I'd say, 45 feet from side to side. It's a massive nest. It is lumpy and precarious. Let's just adopt this bird. It's no problem. Sure. Raise it.

More pets, that goes well with you guys. Caleb moseys up next to Beauregard. This is, I don't, do I see anything just looking down as I'm running around? Make a perception check. Worthy of investigating. Roll a 20, roll a 20, roll a 20. You're doing a big ol' thing.

I'm making a little bit of presentation to get attention. Okay. The creature is now looking for wherever the ball bearings went, turns back to you and goes, Perception is eight. Eight? Sorry. It's hard to tell. You can see part of a vardo.

You can see what looks to be clusters of sacks that have torn and broken inward. There could be, you just don't see anything that's a sign of where things might be. You're just going to have to do a general search over time. It'll take a while. Do we want to do that? Yeah, totally, it's just you guys.

It's not us. Meanwhile, the baby's coming up to you. You entertain the kid. I'm going to try and do as best as I fucking can with the rest of your polymorph time, okay? And the rest of that polymorph time. But we need a 10 minute lead time to go, okay? It's opening its mouth now

in the same expectant, feed me kind of way. It's going to take us about 10 minutes to get away from the other one. That's what I'm saying, we need to get down. So I'm going to start investigating, going through stacks. Make an investigation check. The more ornate, the better. We'll say about, flying to the top,

the slow approach up to here, I'd say roughly about five minutes to go, all that. 10 minutes for the first search. 15. I'm going to try to make friends and canoodle a little bit. I'm going to shout up when it's been 30 minutes. Okay.

So we'll get to that in a second. Going through, it's precarious in places. At one point, you do step across and part of the nest snaps underneath, but you're a monk and you catch yourself. You can run up a tree, you can not fall out of a nest from a small break. It slows you down a little bit.

You go through and you find small clusters of coins, some copper, some silver. For that first 10 minutes, you find a couple of sacks that contain what probably would have been a couple of sacks that contain what probably would have been some sort of a merchant caravan that was assaulted by this creature a while back, and what comes to about 210 gold pieces and 15 silver pieces.

So I can write that down. 210 gold. Down below, I'm going to implore the others, maybe we should get the Moorbounders ready to go. Yeah, that's a good idea. Oh yeah, let's ready every bucket. So you guys are going to start gathering the moorbounders, getting them prepped, getting them fed and ready?

Under, we should wait for night, right? We've got to go before the hour is up. Everything's really powerful at night. We should travel during the day. You guys show up pretty early in the day, too. You guys woke up not that long ago. Sorry, I just got a little scrambled, I'm all right. I'm really sorry, Fjord.

I think I can see your elbow, like your bone, the bone. Oh! Ah! That's better. So you start getting close to it to try and befriend it. It instinctually reaches out to bite towards you. You got too close. It's a 15.

What's your armor class? With a giant eagle? 13. 13. You take six points of piercing damage. I'll hop back a few steps. Okay. Six points, you said? Yeah. Okay.

It sits there going. Mouth still open, throat wide. It's expecting its next bit of its meal. Feed that bird. Puke in its mouth. Make another investigation check for the next 10 minutes. You're pushing on the half an hour mark here. Don't fuck me, Bill.

Goddamn it. Oh, actually, that's not as bad as I thought. Give Matt a reball. Fuck investigation. That's all I've got. 20 total. 20 total? That's, investigation. It's all dead. 20 total. 20 total? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's not bad. That's an hour of regurgitating. Okay, okay.

You manage to make your way over towards the broken bardo and pull open a section of it. On the inside, you can see there are drawers, and you rummage through the drawers and you pull open two of them. One of them contains two sets of very, very nice silk clothing. The one below that has a small lockbox

that is made of iron. Pocket that. Fuck yeah. Did you get close to her? Yeah, I'll just throw them around my belt. You've got the Bag of Holding. Oh, that's right, I have the Bag of Holding. Throw them in the bag. You hear Jester shout.

You hear Jester shout out from below. I'll use Darmaturgy so she can hear me. Hey, y'all, it's been a while and this thing's going to turn back and we need to get away and stuff! Are you counting with your keen bird brain? You're counting seconds? Fuck.

Jester. What? I need you to make three concentration checks as the bat, oh, the bat's being held by... The bat's being held by me. Correct. In my hood.

Yeah. It's managed to break out after every round it's trying to break free. And it noticed it? Well, here's what happens, as it breaks free of the bag, with a natural 20, after every six seconds it gets to try, because all breaks free of the bag with a natural 20.

After every six seconds, it gets a try, because all it wants to do right now is break free. It manages to tear out. And... Shit. So one concentration check as the first hit does get to you. Oh god. By this point,

I would have reacted to it, if that's okay. What did he roll? What was it? A natural 20. Oh god, to hit me? Yeah. Oh, I would have reacted to it, if that's okay. What did he roll? What was it? A natural 20. Oh god, to hit me? Yeah. Oh, I would have canceled that natural 20 immediately. Okay, it still hits you for damage. For damage.

It's not a critical hit. Concentration check. It's fine. You have to roll higher than it. It's caught. Fuck. Plus my wisdom. I know, it can't do that much damage. Constitution saving throw.

Constitution saving throw. 10? 10, that's fine. You maintain concentration. The bat is now escaping, it's starting to try and bite at Jester. Heck no, I'm going to cast Bane on the bat, if that's okay. Okay.

The bat is baned. Okay. So he's rolling lower. He's rolling lower in general. He's got to take a d4 off of any attack. He's not doing well. 14? Do you do anything?

I'm just going to let it keep attacking you. I guess I can try to put in, come on, man, get back in the club. Make a strength check. A strength check? Yeah. Oh no. Well, I mean.

What is it, five? Five, you still beat it. Oh yeah! It's a bat, and it rolled a four. Yay! So it brings out. Gets a d4 against that as well, so. Oh, that's nice. That's true, yeah.

Yeah, one. It escapes, gets one bite, and you're like, no. It's back in the cloak. I hold it tighter. Yeah, time to go. Thing is really angry. I'm getting nervous. Okay, I'm covered in bird shit, I'm sorry. You're going to keep looking? You have 30 more minutes, it's up to you.

Yeah. I'm disgusting. You want to look through about maybe a fifth of the nest. He's tempting you. And it's fucking working. He's really trying to keep looking. You got to take one more look.

You spent hours in this tree. One more look. Okay, okay. You know what? take one more look. You spent hours in this tree. One more look. Okay, okay. It's been hours. I saw a Vardo, or not the Vardo, I saw a thing over there that looks interesting. Go over there! One more! Ten more fucking minutes.

I'm going again. All right, so we're at the 40-minute mark. Go ahead and make an investigation check. Okay, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Better and better. 23. 23? 23.

I rolled a 17. All right, how long does Bane last? Bane, that's a good question. Last a minute. All right, so how many spell slots do you have? I mean, like, I'm basically. He's got another ten minutes now. Any time he gets out, I'm going to hit it again.

Right, but he's not out yet, he's still inside. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a first level spell, I'll keep hitting it. All right. He has to be within view, huh? Yeah, okay, he does break out of the bag again. Knock it off. Just don't use your turn. off. Natural one.

It breaks free and immediately goes to attack you and gets stuck halfway in the cloak that it just escaped from. You going to wrap it up again? Just put it back over. So he's got a strength check. I hold him and I'm going to try to pet him as he's in the cloak, like, calm down, bud.

All right, you have to beat an eight. With an eight, with a negative four? With a negative, well, that was a negative d3. Oh no, I rolled a one! All right, so it's going to attack you again! Negative four. Negative d4. D4, yeah. So 16, what's your armor class?

18. Yeah, that's fine. Ding! This bat is really good. I'm just going to keep trying to put it back in. Yeah, roll another strength check. Calm him down, calm him down. This mighty bird is confused. Don't even roll the six. Yeah, that is good.

Okay, you captured him. Roll the six. All right, so 23. So in this time period, this is fun to play this up. Imagine that you're Rodan and this shit happened to you. You come over and you go to the cart, but the cart is empty and broken, but you see wheels pushed and broken and woven into large logs and pieces of lumber

that were used for construction that are snapped halfway through the large bars. There are lots of suits of empty armor, very bloody suits of armor that have been torn open. The metal is bent backward. You can see where the beak tore through. It's like eating a lobster. It just had to get through the shell.

And so you find all this armor with bits of long, decaying, dark matter that's been left on the inside. There's flies everywhere. It's a terrible smell. But you start rummaging through some of these pouches and stuff, and you find a lot of really nice jewelry.

You find two gold rings and one pearl set necklace that look probably worth a fair amount. As well as an additional 40 gold pieces. Hey! Two gold rings, huh? Oh, gold rings, yeah. Let's wrap it up. Okay. Break's free again.

Break's free again! Is it in the first minute? Was it further down, or? No, it's just after that Bane is in the air. So you cast Bane again. Casting Bane again. Did you mark your spell slots? I am.

That's an 11. It misses you. You going to try and capture it again? Sure. Strike check. Yeah, nine. Nine, no, it managed to capture. Gets away, it's super on ball. Natural one, minus one, zero, does not hit you.

Cast your idea. Ha, ha, oh shit. Sorry, guys. I can't even imagine what that sounded like. I know. Oh, okay. 16. Yeah, it's back in the club. Okay.

Hurry up, you, Dumbledore! Hurry up, you guys! Okay, okay, I'm satisfied, let's go. Sorry about the microphone. This is amazing. I jump back in. You jump back on the mic. The baby, at this point, is slowly making its way over towards you this whole time,

and it's been simultaneously waiting, expectant for food against the eagle. Do you snap at it? No, but don't pick fights. Not right in its face, but it's like. Nobody goes for you. 14 to hit. You were trying to pick.

On my bird? Yes. I think that hits, yeah, it was 13. All right, that's 11 points of piercing damage. Ooh, good. Are you still on the edge? Run the fuck away, Come on! Come on! Oh my god.

Backing up, backing up. Okay, the bow on its back, it gets an attack of opportunity on you as you back out of its combat range. I said I wasn't going to do it! Oh god! Wait, is it attacking me? Can I do something? It's attacking you.

Which means you can, if you want to. Sentinel it? Yeah, go for it. Are you with the melee on it? Oh, I feel so mean. Are you right next to him? You better do that. I'm on him.

Yeah. Okay, 22 for me. That's a hit, roll damage. Stunned the fucking bird. Stunned the bird. Yeah, I guess I could do that. That's a natural 20 against you. Oh, just now?

Yeah, when I was trying to snipe at you. Sure, that hits, right? This dice has been rolling really well today. Great. Oh my god. Oh god, if he can't play more. 14 points of piercing damage. I am a wizard.

Am I on your back? You guys have Feather Fall still. He does. So you can crack it in the head, roll your damage. 11 damage. 11 damage. It pulls back. I'm sorry. It makes this horrible, sad noise

after you crack it in the face. You made me fucking hit a bird. Am I a 12-foot bird? Get to the edge of the nest, please. You know how you're standing on Caleb's shoulders after he transfers back into himself? Let's go, let's run. In a piggyback ride, I'm backing up

and I'm pulling, I have a fifth spell slot left and I'm pulling out the cocoon again. Come on, we got to get out of here. Okay. Oh. Oh, good. One last final eagle call as you leap over the side of the nest from branch to branch out of the canopy.

You're pushing 45 minutes now. Okay. Dive bomb. Dive down. They're coming, they're coming, let's go! With a little over 10 minutes left of the spell. Oh my god. Just a little over 10 minutes left? Yeah. Holy shit. I thought we had 20 minutes left.

Yeah, I thought we had 20 minutes left. Yeah, we had 20 minutes, that took 10 minutes on the search. You should have 20 minutes. So this should be 20 minutes left. It was 40 minutes to the search, and then it was them biting, and then having to get out in the recast and get back on you guys, 45 minutes. So they should have 20 minutes left. It was 40 minutes of the search, and then it was them biting, and then having to get out in the recast

and get back on you guys, 45 minutes. It's fine, it's fine. They'll fly back down and get to you. Okay, okay, okay. All we need is three minutes. As they calm down. I've been very kind in some of the allowances I've done here, so.

As they calm down, I'm going to, let me double check this is not a... I'm going to mount, I'm going to mount, what's your moorbounder's name? Yannick. Yannick, because Caleb can't ride it, command it, so I will take the helm of Yannick. Good luck.

Make an animal handling check. Two. Yannick eats Nott. There you go. Just flings you off backwards. You go flying 20 feet onto your back. Yasha, can you try? Take three points of bludgeoning damage.

I'll get off the one with Caleb and I'll try to get onto Yannick. Make an animal handling check. You know what, Yasha, use a German accent. I mean, a Zemnian accent. They like it. The bat tears free of the cloak. This cloak now has multiple holes in it.

Oh, good god. Okay, okay, okay. It's one. Again, mark that off. What did you roll? I rolled a three. Fuck. Yannick actually bites at you.

It doesn't see you coming, and then as you attempt to walk towards it, it instinctually goes and. It's not going to work for me either. Natural one, though. You manage to step and catch the snout. Nope. I will cast.

That actually gains a little respect for you after you catch its snout? Nope. I will cast. And that actually gains a little respect for you after you catch its snout. I will cast Phantasmal Force on the moorbounder. Okay. Okay, but. And if it fails. It goes, yeah. It can't beat armor class.

Yeah, it's just. I'm not going to fight back. Just keep attacking. It has to be the DC 15. By the way, is he still? Oh no. DC 15 minus. This whole time he's been attacking me in a Leaf costume. I beat the Phantasmal. Yeah, you're still in the Leaf costume.

There's no minuses or pluses for the Morbounder? I'm looking at it right now. You're still in the Leaf costume? Yep. Nothing can change. Yeah, it resists the Phantasmal Force, I'm looking at it right now. You're still in the leaf costume? Yep, this whole time. Yeah, it resists the Tenkatsuma Force. I'm sorry. Rolled a natural 16. Oh my god, yes.

The bat can't get a hit in. It's trying, you guys have come down, you're down. You've joined the rest of the group, this is all happening. All right. Okay, I'm going to cast Command on it. I'm going to cast Command on the bat. Okay. And tell it to cast Command on it. I'm going to cast Command on the bat. Okay.

And tell it to go home. Okay. And it spends, how long does that Command last? For one round? For one round. So it moves away for a round. It comes right back. Let's go, let's go! Caleb, we can't drag a car without your keys!

Come on, man! Yannick, come here. He just. Oh, are you not an eagle anymore? Yeah, I just, oh, thank god. Okay, so we get on the moorbounders and we start to go. Okay, you get on your moorbounders

and you just cruise away northward. Full speed. Full speed. You got about, I'll say, 10 minutes of travel here after all the faffing and gathering your things and spellcasting and the baddest left behind and cannot catch up. Oh, he can't fly fast enough to catch up.

Oh god, no, the bat by no means can. He's going to change back in a second. He's going to change back real soon. And he's pissed at us! Oh yeah. Yeah. Okay. V-line.

Let's go. Go, go, go, go, go. You guys go, you go, you go, full sprint. We're looking for anywhere for cover, by the way. Perception check. Mm-hmm. Wow, fuck. We spent so many spells.

We did it! 22. We didn't fight it. 22. As you're all rushing up forward, about nine minutes of that 10 crest before, out of your sight, you catch what looks to be a rock formation.

It's a small protrusion that curves over and creates a small hole that pass through. It's like a little mesa with a tunnel in the middle. It's very small. We're going to take cover. I'm going to pull everyone. Take cover, take cover. You guys go ahead and follow Caduceus' lead. You move over and you all cruise underneath. There's maybe about 20 feet of tunnel here

that is shielded from the sun, which now the clouds are beginning to break. The rains that came in previously are starting to separate a bit, and little lights peeking through. The ground's still muddy, and as you're still rushing there, you're still kicking up and leaving this big trail of muck behind you.

You all make your way into this little tunnel, right as you hear, ROAR! Pass without a trace on all of us. All right, everyone make a stealth check. Mm-hmm. Advantage on wisdom perception checks that rely on sight. Uh-oh. Okay, what'd y'all get?

25. 26. 26. 25. 29. 15. One. Oh!

Wait, an after one, or? An after one. Oh, plus. Plus 10. One. Oh! Oh wait, an after one, or? An after one. Oh well. Plus. Plus 10. 11. 13, uh. Wait, we get a plus 10? Plus 10 from?

Oh, 35. There you go. Oh, yeah. It might not be in time, but Caleb pulls out his book and starts to ritual cast Leomund's Tiny Hut to make a cork in the end of this tunnel. It might not be enough time, but he's doing it anyway. It won't be enough time. Okay, well, he doesn't know that, so he's doing it.

Right, so you begin doing that, okay. Your butt is sticking out, your butt! I'm going to prep a spell for as soon as. No, no, no! As soon as he's within, oh god, it's close, 30 feet of me. Okay, so you're all sitting in this shadow. You can see there's the circular exit

that goes out into the little bit of sunlight and overcast exterior. You can see the pools of rainwater that are visible across the muck on the outside, and you can see one of the distant barbs rising up. Has it noticed us? You don't know yet. You guys are up in the inside shadow right now.

You're all ten feet back, and all you can see is the exit and what little bit of view you have from the portal that leads outward. The moorbounders are getting restless and. How big is that portal again? It's like you said it's... Well, the whole structure is maybe about 50 feet long end to end.

The portal's about 20 feet to 15 feet wide at certain places, so you're all crammed in there with the moorbounders, just going to be quiet. You hear. Oh god! Oh shit! That was in-game. No! 35 minus.

A minute passes, no sound. You're still working. Stop! I'm going to poke. It takes ten minutes. Ten minutes, so you're still working on it. Five minutes go by. Fuck. I'm just drinking.

You're probably okay, right? Seven minutes. Eight minutes go by. I've been drinking a lot! Nine minutes go by. I've been drinking a lot. Nine minutes go by. I know! You complete your hug. Ah!

Boom. Okay, so now the hole is. Caleb lays out on the ground underneath, in the mud. Guys! Nice job. That was awesome. Holy shit. What'd you find up there, Beau?

Something that was well worth it? I hope so. I start pulling out all the loot, including my giant rock feather. That thing is huge, Beau. I'm going to keep an eye out while all this is happening. I'm just going to sit at the entryway and just keep an eye out while all this is happening. I'm just going to sit at the entryway and just keep an eye out on things.

Okay. Cool. For a while. What's all there, let's see. What did you get, Beau? Okay, I got 250 gold pieces. I got these silk robes and clothes, they seem fancy. What are they? They're Rosohna make.

They're just nice, noble clothing, large silks and high thread count. I put them on. They might be a little smelly. They're just game clothes. They're for shit and dead people. There's also these necklaces. Now that's Javad.

There's a necklace, some rings, and then... Yeah, what about that lockbox? Just normal rings? I'm going to toss it to Nott. No! It's iron, careful, you might want to check it for traps. Okay, so make a lockpicking check. I take one of the silk gloves off and put it on Yasha.

Okay. 22 to open. 22 to open. 22 to open. It's so pretty. It opens up. Make a dexterity saving throw. No! Oh no.

You got dunce. 15. 15, okay. Everyone else in there, also make a dexterity saving throw. Shit. Fuck. As you open it up, and you see, first you see a nice little pillow

that has this beautiful gold ring with a little opal set into it. You're like, oh, pretty. This little light goes. The chamber is fireballed. There was a fireball trap in there. Are you okay? We may be really bad.

He's not having any feelings for us, though. We might all be unconscious. That's so many that he's rolling. Okay, hold on. Fireballs, okay. That's like 20 to 30. Yeah. You're probably good.

All right, so what'd you roll? A 11. 11, 24 points of fire damage. Fine-ish. Natural one. 24 points of fire damage. 21 with the Ring of Evasion. Okay, so you. 24 points of fire damage. 21 with the Ring of Evasion. Okay, so you take 12 points of fire damage.

15. You take 12 points of fire damage. I will lessen that to zero. 12 points of fire damage, zero. 17. 17, all right. That's 12 points of fire damage. 12 points of fire damage? 18.

12 points of fire damage. Now, Marisha, you have evasion, so even on a failure, I think you still take half damage. Oh, I thought it was on a, oh, okay. Yeah, you're right. Success, no damage, failure, half damage. You're right. So.

Now we can see what's in it. So after the ring in your ears fades, the inside of the rock is slightly singed. Sorry, guys, sorry. You really got to. Okay, everybody's black and tanned. I've been seeing a lot. Sorry. It's just to. Everybody's black and tan. I've been tanning a lot. Sorry.

It's just 20 more seconds of time. It was just a little box. You've got to be a little more. You just build that one little step in, just one more little step. Sorry. That one's on me! What else is in there?

Did you obliterate what's inside? I don't know what's inside. It's the little gold ring, which is now on the ground amongst the rocks. It got blown out a little bit from when the explosion happened. Does it have any runes or gems or anything?

It's just a simple gold ring? It's a gold ring with a little opal set into it. It looks very pretty. How about we have the... Caleb, identify that. And maybe the other necklace and the rings, too, just in case. I need to be on 35 gold.

Make a side hand check. 35 gold to everybody. 35 gold. Oh, okay. Good hyping. Fjord? Caduceus, I have not prepared the ability to sense the arcane here, do I? How many gold? I'm able to tap

down to that myself. 35 gold. Yeah. Nott, what's your passive perception? Passive perception, I'm adding gold. Passive perception is 10. Short rest would do. Yeah, short rest would do. Sure would appreciate a short rest.

Can we take a short rest while the wizard is manually? Tuesday. Today. Short rest. Hit dice. 1d8 plus four. Oh, we're short resting? Yeah, definitely. You can use your hit dice to heal up if you'd like. Get your spells back.

You and you get to recover from your arcane recovery. Damn. Yeah, and I'm going to spend 10 minutes ritual casting Detect Magic on everything that was found to see if anything. Okay. The ring that was in that lockbox does give off a magical aura. Ooh, identify that chicken! It is an abjuration-based aura.

Okay, and I will spend the next 10 minutes casting Identify the same way. Okay, it is a ring of protection. Oh! Oh! A ring of protection! Yasha! Fucking worth it.

Yep. I got a ring of protection for myself! No? No. No. If you want it. No! Of course it's not for me. No.

Well, Beauregard is the one who secured it, so she can decide who you go, Beauregard. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. I look at it very longingly. Wait, really? No, sorry. Have we met? Hello, I am Caleb Widogast. Our new Caleb is here, everybody.

New Caleb? Sharing his loot. Oh yeah, that is true. We should take a moment. Actually, I've been giving loot out for months. I'm just giving you shit. That's defense surgery. That's two points.

Yeah, those are weapons. Yeah, they literally charge with electricity and shit. All right. Yasha and Caleb could use that. Yasha could use some. Did you already get a ring? Where did we get that other ring? Didn't we have one already?

We got it from Wako. Yeah, so you already have one on. You can't have more than one. You can have two, I think. One on each hand. Do they stack? Even so. But, yeah, even so. I mean, Caleb is...

You have multiple rings, just, you know, it's about how many things you can have at two and at two. Yeah. What does it do? Plus your AC. Plus one, probably. Plus one to your AC, and I believe saving throws. Give it to Yasha. You already have one, though, right?

I have something else. It makes more sense for Yasha. You already have one, though, right? I have something else. It makes more sense for Yasha. You have something else? Well, I would love to wear it, but I can only concentrate on so many items at once. Oh. Maybe once I get my bracers and everything, would you want to take it?

If I lose something, yeah. Okay, if you lose something, you can give it to somebody else, and then they can use the thing that you don't need anymore. Yeah, what other things do you want to get rid of? I think she's saying if you have something you want to get rid of.

Hey, Yasha. No, I don't. Okay. I don't. Hey, Yasha. Yeah? Beau just gave you a rare. Oh. Does that mean what I think it is? What finger are you going to put it on? I'm going to put it on this one.

Yeah! For Beau, that means marriage! All right, so you can go ahead and add that to your character sheet if you want to. Just go to your equipment and add wing of protection. Do it there. Make sure to attune it. All right, so you finish your short rest,

you spend your hit dice. It has been a very eventful morning. You're now pushing close to noon in the time that you guys have traveled up and down the tree, across this 10, 15-minute jaunt out into the barbed fields. Enough time has passed where you don't necessarily feel like you're immediately being bared down on

by an angry rock. You should, Caleb, can you send Frumpkin out and see if the bird is looking at us still? Of course. Okay, goes out. Perception check for Frumpkin's vulture. Your vulture? Yeah. Perception check, you said, yeah.

Correct. Oh, that's pretty good. I'm going to go over to vulture. That's giant eagle you said, yeah? Correct. Oh, that's pretty good. We go over to Vulture. That's Giant Eagle, that's the wrong one. Oh, Jesus, I'm just going to make it a straight roll, 16. 16? Okay, I'll say, because of the creature's size, it is visible. Frumpkin does see it. It is way off and has no scope of what distance,

but it is quite a ways away, anywhere between 50, 60 miles away. Oh, wow. Mm-hmm. Possibly 20 miles away. Let's ride. Possibly 10. It's hard to tell this distance with the size of it, but it's still looking.

It's definitely still present and hasn't given up, it's just in a different direction for now. It's out in the distance. Can't tell quite how much, but we need to go carefully if we are going to go. Let's go. Or perhaps we wait until the night time. We're losing this fellow.

Obann is getting away. We need to move. Yeah, we got to go. This is actually good. That's right. Last one, we'll stack it in. is out here. Just one little stack of damage. You guys okay over there? What? Yes. We need to take off. Looking at this ring, let's go.

Yeah. We should take off. All right, you all get back on your moorbounders. Exit the backside of the small two-way cavern and start heading northward once more. As you're riding past the little puddles and ponds of remaining rainwater that haven't quite fully absorbed into the hard-packed earth, you start making your way

for the remainder of the day forward, yes. Out where we are, is there any of that grass on the ground that was appearing nearer the tree? Where you are now? Absolutely not. Back to the wastelands. Yeah, pretty much about 100 feet out from the tree is the extent of where any of that seems to grow. That's only when night falls, it seems.

Interesting. When you first arrived at the tree and when you left the tree, it was all beginning to die away. It seems like about 10 to 15 feet from its base is always Verdant, and then further out, it seems to extend in the night and then retract in the day.

Looks like a paydoll. Yeah. So, cruising on, are you going fast pace? I think slow to start, and then 15 minutes after, we'll speed up a little and then keep an eye. Enough that we don't get jumped by those things again because we're going too fast. We need to keep an eye out of other monsters.

And eye on the sky, there's a lot to come. Does that contract from you, as you're taking point on this again, Caduceus? Oh yeah, go on. Eh, 11. 11, okay. You guys are cruising forward, cruising forward, making your way.

You go around this one section where there's a crevasse that begins to dig down. Not a super deep crevasse, but there's a point where the ground begins to slowly sink between two cliff walls of this small valley, maybe about 20, 30 feet across. Do you guys want to crest on the upper edge or go through or on the other side?

What would you like to do? I'm no tactician, but it feels like not down in the middle, right? Because that's ambush point. Yeah, we should go around. Okay, right or left? Fjord's been rubbing off on me a little bit. Where's the sun? The sun right now, it's moved past the Zenith,

so it's about, let's say, 2 o'clock in the afternoon, 3 o'clock in the afternoon. It's starting to push its way a little bit this way in the sky. The clouds, there are still clouds present, but they're starting to break up a little bit. You have little glimpses of blue sky, and the day is getting hotter.

All right. So I'd say the left, personally. Me, too, I was going to say left, too. Look at that, that's unanimous. All right, and you cruise to the left. I kneel down instantly. So you move to the left. I kneel down and still look. So you move to the left. As you come around the edge and crest up to the top there,

you can see there are a couple of small huts and a tent set up there. Immediately, you hear . Fuck. Send people. And a cluster of, look to be orc marauders, start rushing in your direction and getting arrows ready. Oh for god's sake.

Oh. Rushing on foot? They rushed out and stopped, and as you guys are cruising by, they're now starting to pass you on the right. Fucking cavalry right through. Just go? Yeah.

All right, you guys just pick up, more boundaries, pick up pace. You're right, you guys just pick up, moorbounders pick up pace. You're rushing, you're rushing forward. Four of them do get arrow shots at the moorbounders. That is going to be a hit. Two hits on your moorbounder. Good job. Are orcs considered humanoid?

Yeah. Yes, they are. That's a critical hit on Jester's. Oh no! Undone. Oh yeah! Undone, and then a four hit, because moorbounders do not have a huge armor class. So two hits on yours, because you were the one at the front,

and then one on each of your moorbounders. Oh god. So the two. Can I deflect the one that's It wasn't, unfortunately, at you. It's like you'd have to mark out of the way, you know what, it's fun, make an acrobatics check. It's going to be difficult to do this,

so you have to roll real high to try this. Look, I just watched John Wick 3, and he said that it was possible. Acrobatics? Yes. 21. 21? Not quite good enough, unfortunately. How far away from us? You try and reach, and you start cruising off to the side,

and your hand goes forward, but it's just a little bit out of your reach. How far away are they from us at this point? At this point, they're about 50 feet. 50 feet? That's going to be 13 points of piercing damage to your moorbounder, which brings them close to half health.

13 points of damage? Correct. Just two tabs on that. All right. And then that's going to be seven to yours. Okay. And five to yours. Okay, good. Well, when that happens, I clap some bat guano and sulfur together in my hands and throw a fireball behind them by about 30 feet, 20 feet. Dope.

So as they're going after their second arrow, they all get thrown forward about 10 feet. You see the tent just explode, as well as what looks to be another half dozen orcs that were inside them about to get their armor on and ready. Willhelm's here. They just get blown out of it. They're still barely, go ahead and roll damage,

actually, roll damage on this, I want to know. But if I did too late, it's possible, we'd do it. Roll damage. Just doing the basics. The basic. Okay. Yeah. Pretty. 10, 13, 16, 19, 21,

26 points of damage. 26, okay. You watch as about four of them just get thrown about 15 feet, not moving on the ground. But the rest of them are injured, but stand back up and watch you guys just coasting away. They look at each other and realize

they can't really keep up, but the one that's holding the horn gives another horn sound, echoing down into the area, and you can see a little bit of dust gathering on the opposite side of the cavern, the other ridge. How far away is that? That would be, from where you are right now,

about 120 feet. Okay. Are they also on mounts? It looks like they are. I'm going to cast. You don't know what kind. Shit. Also, would I have made a wisdom save for humanoid orcs? Yeah, you would.

Oh, that's right. Oh, flying colors. Thank god. 26. Yes, yeah, you beat that, no problem. Yannick just starts to veer off. I'm going to cast a round in that whole group of orcs that are getting up and out. Yeah. I'm going to say,

Hello, bees! And I'm going to cast Insect Plague on them. You're going to cast what? All right, so as this massive, you watch as a thousand tiny little flashes of light, like a tiny sparkler goes off, and then a swarm of bees just. These are orgs who are like,

and they're now just being assaulted by this cloud of bees. They're completely negated. You guys are too fast for them to even consider catching up. So what's the range on that one? 300 feet. 300 feet. You watch as the ones that are riding on wargs, which are, the wargs all of a sudden start flipping out

and going side to side. They're going to try and hold on. Attack their masters! It obscures their vision, too, and the area it's laying on. All right. Two of them manage to maintain holding onto their wargs. The others get thrown off onto the ground.

Their wargs are now trying to wipe their face and trying to get the bees out of their eyes. They're shrieking, in the distance. Their attempt to try and catch up has been definitely set back quite a bit. There's still two more that have pushed out of the cloud and are trying to catch up to you,

and as you guys move forward, I'm going to do a mass healing word with a bonus action at level three for all of the wards really quick, for our mounts. Oh, for your mounts. Go for it. Our mounts. Okay.

You know what? Ooh, that's nice. All of them gain nine hit points back. Great. I absolutely have more fire to throw, too, if they're in range and I would. Well, over there, they're about 100 feet now. They're starting to try and cruise in towards you, the two that back. Great. I absolutely have more fire to throw, too, if they're in range and I would. Well, over there, they're about 100 feet now. They're starting to try and cruise in towards you,

the two that are still around. 50-foot range, so yeah. So I will finish the job. All right, so go ahead and roll your damage for your fireball. The two that are over there. Oh boy. Oh boy.

11, not as good there. 11, 12, 17, 18. I will finish the job. Finish the job. 23. 23. Explosion hits. You watch as both of the orcs get burned to shit.

Man, they are still on the backs and still pushing through. These are tougher than the standard fair orcs. The wargs themselves are extremely hurt, but still surviving. They skip and tumble a bit. They manage to maintain, I'm going to say... Die, that's it.

I'm just cocked. Now they're fleeing. The wargs veer off to the side, and both war parties seem to, I know their horn goes off, but it's a different tone. Like a Help! No!

Akin to. Calling off the attack, and riding on for another minute or so, you look behind and there's no additional chase following you. Did we just defeat a whole village in 30 seconds? Oh yeah. But it took us days to leave a tree? Following you. Did we just defeat a whole village in 30 seconds? Yeah. But it took us days to leave a tree?

Yep. Oh my god. Do you need to check the arrow wounds in case they were poison-tipped or anything? On our more battles? Good idea. Claries? I think it would help. I mean, I healed it and it seemed to do the...

Yeah, it didn't seem they had time to do any sort of poison-based tip on these yet. Yeah, this is an initial assault. You guys came up very quickly on them. They weren't prepared for an ambush. They were just on this ridge before you just rode up and blew the shit out of them. Gary, do you see those gobs?

Essentially. Shouldn't have blown that horn, but you did. That was a razor. There's an entire page of possible interactions there. I get to put aside. They were shooting at us. Of course they were. I didn't say it was a positive encounter.

It could have been all sorts of interesting. That was good. That was fun. It was interesting. It was very Mad Max-ish. So, pressing forward, Caduceus, as you're on point, make another perception check for me, please. Come on, baby. Better than last night, it was embarrassing.

Control! That better. 19. 19. You do see the emerging shadow of the rock coasting in your direction before it begins to arc. I want everyone to go ahead and try and carefully maneuver

into a stealthy position, probably slowing your speed a bit. Is that a stealth check? Yep. Stealth check? Yep. All of us? Yes, all of you, please. You still have that. Pass without trace is gone, right? It is gone.

Yep. Hey! Oh man. Eight. 18. Pass Without a Trace is gone? It's gone. 21.

It's 10. 18. 16. Okay, wow. That's actually a good sprint for you. Solid. Okay. You see the shape grow larger and larger,

the dark winged entity. It just circles off and continues doing a loop just off to the west side, seemingly just barely missing the opportunity to make out your pack heading northward. What if it follows us forever? It's got to go like some evil drone. You can tell Dore. It's just whoosh.

Wow, damn it. Hello, mama, I am back. Oh my god! The first true rival of campaign two has been decided. All right. No one can defeat the Rock, to be fair. The first true rival of campaign two has been decided. All right. No one can defeat the rock, to be fair. Moving forward, the day begins to come to an end. The sun begins to set against the mountains in the distance.

The water left from the rain seem to have mostly vanished into the earth. The mud begins to turn to dried ground, and night is coming. You can see Bazuzan in the distance, but you're not going to make it before the sun hits. You've taken a few breaks today and slowed a bit of travel,

so you could either break for the night somewhere or press on for an additional hour of travel. I say we press on! I vote press. Press. Agreed. I vote if we find something else, we are wiped the fuck out, and we will die, probably. We can find maybe a proper, Bazazan's a real town, right?

It's a town. You don't know. I have no idea. I don't know why I would know that. He's got a name. I mean, does it look like a town? It's hard to, right? It's a town. You don't know. I have no idea. I don't know why I would know that. He's got a name. I mean, does it look like a town? It's hard to tell from this distance. It's another hour of travel, full speed to get there. That's turbulent.

Yeah, I mean, we're just as likely to have something bad happen out here, I suppose, as if we get a little further. I've got something in my pocket just in case, but. You get the drift closed? Stay or go, what do you think? I mean, of course I would be fine with pressing on, but I know for some of you, that might not be wise.

Well, let's stop. We've been riding a thin line. No, no, we have a mission that we have to complete. Yeah, but if we all die before we even get to complete that mission. Fair. Is there anywhere around that looks like a good place to bed in for the night or no?

There's no, like, caverns or anything. It's only an hour? Not really, it's open fields here until you get to the base of the Penumbra Ring. There's a giant bird and a lot, I've got a daylight spell just in case. I just say we drive it. Personally.

Let's go, let's do it. Commit. All right. Are we still in the Badlands? You're on the cusp of the barbed fields. We can also, instead of going full speed ahead, just try and go super stealthy and take extra time. You can take two hours and go stealthily, if you'd like. Caduceus, don't waste your reserves. I have that globe, can do the same thing.

Okay. I've got a little bit of magic left. Not a lot, but a little bit. I have a few. Two, three spells left. Hey! That's something. Full speed, take an hour. Slow speed, stealthily, take two hours.

Full speed or not at all? Full speed or not at all. All right, full speed. Everybody please make a constitution saving throw for me, please. Constitution? Yes. For pushing on the extra hour. 17.

How far can we go? Jesus. You get a saving. Is it a plus one on save? 17. 16. 18. You got, oh.

Oh, 20. 10. 10, okay. Jester, you're the one who takes a point of exhaustion. I said I was tired, I said I was tired. It's catching you, you're winded from the travel, the intensity of the day's battles and being wary, the shift in weather from extremely damp

to extremely dry. The winds are starting to collect as you get closer to the city, and a bit of dust is starting to pick up with them. And you guys slowly begin to make your way as you get closer to the city, and a bit of dust is starting to pick up with them. And you guys slowly begin to make your way towards Bazzoxan. Oh, stop it!

Now, as you approach the jagged mountain cliffs along the northernmost point of the Penumbra Range here, flanked to the south by the barren and broken Badlands that you've just traversed. Your eyes catch dark spots against the ruddy rock as the last bit of light begins to vanish. You see sections of what looks to be a giant, dark tower, a temple of jet woven into the cliffside,

climbing towards the cloudy sky above, entering and emerging from the rock in multiple places, like it's been built in and out of the mountain as part of its structure. As you draw even nearer, you can make out the spire-like towers that emerge from this temple, a series of smaller little crests that seem to emerge with their own little platforms

and alcoves and balconies on them. It looks like someone took an elaborate stronghold and then merged it with a mountainside little platforms and alcoves and balconies on them. It looks like someone took an elaborate stronghold and then merged it with a mountainside, kind of Philadelphia experiment-wise, and only sections of it are emerging from the rock. You can see some of them appear to be crumbled, some still stand. At its base, you see what you assume is Bazzozan.

It is a series of scattered structures, a large village, not a city, but a village, constructed among ruins, similar to the ghost lands on the outside of Rosohna, but much, much, much, much, much smaller. You can see buildings that have fallen and been toppled, but amongst them, you see newer structures that are in construction or have been built.

You can see some that are partially erected with teams that are starting to finish their work for the day. You can see street corners that are marked with large iron watchtowers that are set on the perimeter of the village. You also begin to see, as you get closer still, the presence of Aurora Watch soldiers from the Dynasty.

In fact, most of the people you see here are armored. You don't see a lot of village folk. You don't see a lot of civilians, mostly a primarily military presence. The wind picks up a little stronger and dust begins to blow through. At that point, you begin to see what looks to be a group of about seven

of these armored figures notice your arrival and begin to walk in your direction. Already pulling out. Go for it. That's what we'll take over. Ah! Already pulling out your... Fireballs!

Travis, where's that bag? We'll take a ring. Ah! Already pulling out your... Fireballs! Wee! I'm going to throw every over you. Travis, where's that bag? It's in the... It's in the... All right. We'll return here in just a moment with the arrival to Bazzoxan and see what that entails as you approach.

Fuck. In Bazzoxan. Spires of jet, you said? So like black? Like pitch, pitch black stone that just, it looks somewhat polished in places, but the others are scarred and pot-marked. It looks old, it's ancient.

Does it match the color of the stuff behind it, the ridge behind it? No, the stone itself is more of like a... Not obsidian, but like... No, no, no, it's like a dull maroon-gray mixture. It's the same color as the spires, the various barbs along the fields, where most of the ground is a deep, ruddy red clay earth.

The spires themselves are more of a deep gray. It's making my spider sense tingle. It's exciting. Your spire sense? My spire sense. Your spire sense. So we have our Wyrmwood giveaway for the break. Our fantastic purple Heartwood tabletop tray. So pretty.

I love it. I love it. We'll give this away to one lucky winner. To enter, go ahead and in our Twitch chat here, enter the word Delve, D-E-L-V-E. Delve. Delve. We have only once, more than once,

you'll be disqualified. We'll have one winner in return, of course, for U. We have only once, more than once, going to be disqualified. We'll have one winner in return, of course, for U.S. and Canada, excluding Quebec. We'll see you guys here in a few minutes. We interrupt this Critical Role Podcast Network broadcast to bring you news of dangerous treasures that lie sealed within the Critical Role shops.

Only the heartiest of adventurers should dare seek them out. In all seriousness, though, I'm Matthew Mercer, and we've made some very cool things that we really like and hope you will, too. If you'd like to support the show, please consider visiting any of our Critical Role online shops through the Shop tab at critrole.com

and see if anything catches your eye. Okay, back to the show. Welcome back. We have our winner of the giveaway. The winner is Kamel86. Hey! our winner of the giveaway. The winner is Kmell86. Hi! Kmell86, congratulations. K-M-E-L-L-86 will get your winning dice box to you ASAP.

Whoop! Thanks, sir. Laura will be joining us in just a moment. She's finishing up there. They're in the, okay, you cover your own thing. Mommy stuff. So. Fancy.

As you guys are on your bounders, slowing down the pace of your arrival as you watch these figures approach from the outskirts of Bazzoxan, the daylight now primarily entirely vanished, other than the faint glimmer of remaining sunset light on the top of the range. What do you want to do to prepare for their arrival?

I'm casting Dancing Lights so the globules of light are rotating around Beauregard and Nott and me so that this badge can be seen. Okay. Anybody else? This is a Dynasty place. Yeah. Just, um.

Yeah, I'll cloak up as well. Fjord, anything? Do I cast friends of myself? No, but then they know it afterwards. We don't want to do that just yet. I will make my, yep, nothing. Okay. Nothing here either.

I'm just going to be loud and proud, leaving it all up to Jester. About 80 or so feet out, six of them all pull out variations of heavy crossbows, longbows, and just go ahead and get them ready. They're not aiming, though? They're not aiming them yet, but they're keeping them at the side.

The one in the center, who you can see on the armor, has what looks like a small red sash that goes over one shoulder and then dangles across the front of the armor has what looks like a small red sash that goes over one shoulder and then dangles across the front of the armor, approaches, and puts a head forward to the rest of you, putting your hand up. Tulart. Please give us a chance to speak.

We are friends of the Bright Queen. All of us. Step forward. Slide down off of Yannick and start to walk forward, holding the medallion. Okay, as you take a few steps forward, someone get their weapons ready. Takes a few steps and meets you partway.

Looks to you. You can see underneath the helmet, the eyes are not trusting. You can see from the chin, there's a bit of heavy gray chin beard that comes to a gradual point. It's an older drow, weathered, and all the armor here looks weathered in comparison to the bright, polished armor

that you are used to seeing in Rosohna. There's a general air of those who've had to survive on the outskirts of a less than positive environment probably reside in this area. You can see that immediately across the soldiers that are in the area. He looks you over,

looks at your symbol. Might I? I'm going to remove it from my neck, is that all right? And how would a human with a Zemnian accent come about the favor of the Bright Queen? I know it is a strange thing. We are all a bit of a strange sight. It is not a story that is told quickly. Then don't bother me with it.

What is your purpose for being here? Oh. We have been sent north. We work for the Bright Queen herself and are also in league with, perhaps you have heard of a man named Essek of Den Thalyss. I am familiar with those of Thalyss. He also can vouch for us.

Passing through, what is your business in the city, then? What is this? We are searching for someone. Possible enemy of the Dynasty. We might not look it, but we are friends to the Dynasty. Make Persuasion check with advantage. Yeah. Yeah!

Dynasty dice. Two 17s. Two 17s. Comes out swinging with a left and a right. 21. Gives a nod, looks over each of you, his hand that's been up in a hold pattern, just off to the side and down.

The weapons go back, the arrows are released and placed back in their quivers, the crossbows are unknocked. Well, you are welcome to stay. We are not a place for visitors often, so it is your responsibility to take care of you and your company, but welcome to Buzzer, then. Thank you.

We are obviously not from around these parts. Do you have any advice for how to not step out of line or cause any waves? We want to abide. Be quiet until you walk and leave. Understood. Turns around and goes back to the other soldiers, and they all begin to slowly turn and make their way back to the city.

Especially you folks who have darkvision and can see from this distance with decent enough wisdom. Yeah, these are soldiers that have seen some shit. There's a... The reason they're less interested in you is because you seem like less of a threat than maybe some of the things they've dealt with in the past. Do you want to input White Rock?

Maybe. So anyway, you can see there are a few lights throughout the city that signify the various towers and some corners, but a lot of the city's in darkness, as it seems that many of the folks that reside here are drow and have not an extreme need for that much light. But, Basilisk and I is before you.

What would you like to do? Find a place to turn in for the night, somewhere to put the creatures while they'll be safe. So we've got some very unruly friends that we're riding in on. My little pale globules are just bubbling in the air around us in a circle. We need a place to stay, but this is probably not

where we're going to find Obann, right? Not if, I mean, he might be in the mountains if what I saw was true. We're certainly not going to go any further now. He can't find that entrance or whatever it was he was looking for in the dark. We need to rest. Yeah, you have been our best bet

in trying to find this Orban, so perhaps we count our losses and blessings and bed down for the night and try again tomorrow, Jester? Sure, yeah, yeah. I'm pretty tired, so I could do that. We made it. Hey, guys, we're not dead. We did it!

We didn't get killed by a giant bird. Yeah. Or those things that almost killed Fjord. Or those other things that almost killed Fjord. You were pretty awesome, actually. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You too.

Me? I do like this leaf look. Oh, this one, I cast Disguise Elf again and put it on. Yeah, it's good. That's good. Oh, you're a leaf! Oh, now it makes way more sense. I didn't know what you were.

I was trying to find, I was like, is she a lizard? Is she some sort of a cobra snake or something? You know, I was falling, so it's hard to make out the teeth. I had no idea. I was trying to think about it all day, but I didn't want to insult you You know, I was falling, so it's hard to make out. I had no idea! I was trying to think about it all day, but I didn't want to insult you. No, no, no, it's okay.

You look a little bit like a snap pea. Oh, yeah. A little sugar pea. They're really good. Oh! I give Caduceus a hug. Not hugged by a sugar pea. Do we see any kind of stables or other areas where we might be able to board the...

I'll say, you begin to peruse the exterior. You do see what looks to be a long row of stable-like structures that are built into this series of expansive buildings that are set side by side. They're made of mainly stone and clay. They're resembling a roughshod barracks that is the process of being continuously expanded. There are, on both sides, expansions being constructed,

though for the time being, the construction is halted. There are soldiers all throughout, and you can see there are some of the rough Xhorhas horses are set there. A few military warbounders that are armored are set there. You do see some soldiers do have their own warbounders and are doing a perimeter on the far outskirts in the city, but it looks like it is directly under the Aurora Watch.

Any sign of any civilization, like civilians, I mean? You, as you get closer into the city and you begin to take in the vicinity, you do see some civilians, or at least people that aren't fully armored and armed like soldiers, but everyone seems to carry, even in regular clothing, some means of self-defense. I'd say the ratio to immediately recognizable civilians

to immediately recognizable soldiers is about one to four. There's a primarily military presence in this city. Some people risking their asses to make money out here in Hell. Yeah, or probably a few bars. We should find out what the nightly threats are around here, what they're used to fighting off. Yeah, why they look so haggard.

All right, let's see if we can find an empty stable for the kiddies. Yeah, that, and then we'll get a nightcap and find out a little bit, and then go the hell to bed. With your Emblems of the Bright Queen, space is tight, but you can find a place to keep them before the night. You get the sense from the request

that they're not happy about it, but they're willing to provide for a short duration. But everyone seems to be very intent in keeping what they have their own. This isn't a very sharing society. All right, should we find somewhere to stay? Yeah. Let's go. Yeah. All right.

Do we see anything that looks like it might have extra space or voices coming from inside? Some sort of shared hall? Or is that one walking about right now? Yeah. There are a handful of folks, I mean, there are soldiers all over. And there are watches that are doing patrols

both through the city and towards the base of the mountain. And you can see where it, you can make out the basic shapes from a little bit of moonlight that's coming through the broken clouds. The wind does carry through, and occasionally there's a bit of dust that picks up and wrecks visibility for a few minutes.

But then you look up and you can see where the mountain range carries up, the shape of those towers that all begin to build up and emerge from portions of the mountainside above you. You can see faint bits of green lantern light towards the base of it, similar to a lot of the light that gives the glow to the central portions of Rosohna. Fjord, maybe you ask around for a place. gives the glow to the central portions of Rosohna.

Fjord, maybe you ask around for a place. Sure, yeah, smart. All right, can I find a small grouping of maybe these soldiers? Easy enough, there's plenty of them to go around. You come across a group of four of them. First one you see, full armor, full set, helmet, approaches you, lighter, readier voice,

Zubr, can I help you? We're stopping through just for the night before we continue on our business for the Bright Queen, looking for lodging, somewhere to stay. There is probably a room in the barracks. It's not very comfortable, or you could try to go for the ready room, but it's as uncomfortable.

We don't have many visitors that come through. Why is it called the ready room? That's where most of the supplies for the general populace is kept. Any other stores that you could make us aware of, or we might be able to restock or upgrade our situation? The Ready Room would probably be the best bet. Everything else is currently under military set, so.

Appreciate that. By the way, it seems like you fellas have seen some shit. What's on the watch list for tonight? Threats, terrors, things you see often. Well, there is everything that lives south of this place in the Barbed Fields and everything that attempts to escape from that and points towards the northern mountain

where the large temple-like structure that you noticed is. Escapes from that? Oh no. Yes. We've come through the barbed fields, so we certainly see what's behind us, including a giant bird-like creature. I'm sure you're familiar.

Yes, the rocks do occasionally hunt. What do you mean, escape from up there? What is that? This is the Umbra Gates. They point off towards the base of it. You can see where the Green Lantern lights are. There's a large set of gargantuan black doors. Umbra Gates? Umbra Gates.

Umbra. This entire mountainside was a prominent temple to a number of Betrayal Gods long ago. We began to reclaim elements of it, but then uncovered that there was, in the time since the divergence, quite a number of remaining doorways. And we only managed to build

part of this city before it was assailed. And now we sit for the better part of a century at a stalemate. You mean things come out of there, you try and fight them off as best you can and no ground has been won? There has been some ground won, and then it was lost.

And then some ground was lost, and then it was won. Unfortunately, we were doing much better until we had to divide some of our forces to the west to deal with the Empire. It looks past you towards the cluster of the rest of your crew a little ways off to the side. So we're doing the best we can with what we have. I'm doing the cabbage pick.

That's a funky peek. I peek over my shoulder at the group, see Jester doing the fucking cabbage patch. I'm like, it might not look like much, but we're here to help. Whoop whoop! Most of us are here to help. This is bad.

Some of us are here to help. This is bad. Some of us are here to help. We'll take everything we can get. I'm Fjord. We are the Mighty Nein. If you need anything, just holler. I'm Sulu, and welcome to Hell. Sulu. Why would they call the city here?

The Umbra Gates. I go back and relay all of that to the group. Have any of y'all heard of something called the Umbra Gates? We ever heard of something called the Umbra Gates? Yeah. I can make a history check. Sure. History check. Motherfucker.

Not a religion check. sure. History check. Motherfucker. I'm a religion check. Nope. Natural 20! Yeah! 18. 18. 23 and a natural 20. Very nice.

I'm not sure. Okay, yeah, so Bazzoxan wasn't the name of a village. The Bazzoxan was the name of this temple. It was, to your recollection, in some of the books that you read, you spent a lot of time alone, and bragged a little bit, recalling this information, because Caleb did not.

But this in particular was a deep-set, multi-multi- multi, multi-leveled temple that was the center of the Prime Material Plane, seat to the Princes of the Abyss. Oh fuck! So the Demonic Princes all had some, in a brief period of time in which there was unity between them

for the purposes of the agreement of these entities in the Calamity, they all held different seats throughout this temple. This was where the seat of the Abyss sat in Xhorhas. Jesus. Anti-Rock of Eternity. All the Shazam notes. Is this the location on every Final Fantasy game

where you go to max out all your stats? Oh, here? No. No? Well, could be. Maybe. Could be, depending on how long you want to hang. Nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine. But you only have the history of the location,

you don't have the history of any of the local politics, you've had no experience with the Xhorhas or the culture of the Dynasty before all this. Abyss is demons, hell is devils. Correct. Fjord, this ready room, does that sound like a hotel? I had a children's book of all the levels of

Yalu and Orcus. It sounds like a co-op, really, more than anything. But yeah. Co-op? Yeah, like, you know, drop a little, pick up a little, stay if you need to. Is that our best bet, then? Sounds like it. I mean, unless you just want to rough it in the barracks.

Ooh. I think we should stay apart from the soldiers here. I would agree. Yeah, let's see what we can find. We'll head over to the ready room. Good name. Yeah. You make your way there, and you gather,

based on the conversation and the military presence here, this is probably very much like a martial law locale. Eventually, asking a few questions, you find your way towards what looks like a massive barn, like a pointed top barn. It's a gradual curve for both of its sides. Atop, there is a sign that has multiple languages written in it, but one of them is Ready Room and Common.

You can see there are soldiers out front that are in the process of gathering large spindles of rope and putting them onto the back of their horses. Some people are gathering wood and construction supplies. Some folks are bringing things back, tools they don't need anymore to sell back. This is one of the central barter trade places of Bazzozan.

Does it all drow everywhere? I'd say it's about 80% drow, approximately. Yeah, it is 80% drow. Look at that memory. You do see some other gobliner races. There's occasional ogres, some goblins, occasionally hobgoblin or a bugbear, but it's primarily drow up here in Vastuzan.

You get the sense from here in Rosohna, most of the monstrous races and the waste folk are to the west near Asarius and the open fields of Xhorhas there. The closer you get to Rosohna, the Waste Folk are to the west near Asarius and the open fields of Xhorhas there. The closer you get to Rosohna, the more that they drow, primarily, the presence there. But as you approach the outside,

you get a couple strange looks as you pass, but nobody bothers you as you've casually made your way this far into the city. You enter the front room and you can see the interior of this large barn, which tip to floor probably stands about 45 feet tall and about 65 to 70 feet end to end. A lot of this is just an open space

where there's stacks and stacks of materials and equipment. You can see lanterns, shovels, pickaxes. You can see basics, shovels, pickaxes. You can see basic furniture, ladders, everything you would need for a very basic lifestyle in construction, maintenance, and building of all kinds. There's masonry tools and all sorts of very, very simple adhesives available. Then you can see there's a ladder that leads up

into an upper top deck area, and there is a sign that says Lodging. So it looks pretty rough and tumbled. Oh. There's nowhere that looks like it would have some spell components or anything like that? Depends on what spell components you're asking about. But you do see on the front,

most of the folks that were doing business have left and they're gathering or returning things. The interior, for the most part, is empty at this hour, except for you can see a pair of younger drow that are sitting across the far counter on the opposite end. The young female drow, you can see, has a short,

almost like a bob cut to her hair, and is in the process of gathering and marking down materials. The male drow looks similar in age, is in the process of moving boxes up onto the counter. The notices you guys arrive and he goes gives a nudge over to his partner. How may we help you?

We're looking for shelter for the night. Well, we can certainly provide it. It is how many, all of you? Yeah. That's right. Plus for our livestock. No, we left some to our founders. That's it? Oh, sorry. Yeah, stalled. For all. That's it? Oh, sorry.

For all of you for the night, that would be one gold, two silver. I got it. Thanks, Fjord. No problem. Is there anybody outside of the building that is watching the outside? There are people outside the building currently, yeah. The process of offloading equipment

or picking up equipment. Okay. They're not focused on you, but you can hear them shifting things, the impact of heavy sacks and building materials. Scraping and moving around. I'm going to stand next to the sign, too, the ready room. Okay.

We spoke to Sulu outside. He said to inquire about the sort of encounters you have around here. Oh. Well, thankfully, not too many. They're the ones that are watching the gates, but, you know, fiendish creatures sometimes wander past the gates or the tower.

Soldiers tend to them best they can. From what you've heard, how long does it take creatures sometimes wander past the gates or the tower. The soldiers tend to them best they can. From what you've heard, how long does it take to get from here to those towers? I have not been up there, I don't know. I'm sure you've heard them talking about it, though. I don't want to bother myself with these sort of things. You don't hear things? Kind of gives you a stale look.

I take out the symbol of the Brightwing. I don't mean anything by it, we're just here to do a thorough job. Make a persuasion check. I cast Bless on me and Fjord. Okay. Does that do anything for this roll? Beau.

No, it's just a check. Just a check. 16. 16, okay, sir. 16. 16. Okay, go ahead. There are multiple barricades set up throughout the exterior and interior of the various tunnels of Bazuzan, but things still manage to creep past,

and the soldiers kill them and try to fill the gaps. The access to these tunnels? For the Aurora Watch, yes. Mm. Any food? Do we need any food? It would certainly help for tomorrow if we had access.

We do have some more boundaries outside and at least some rough rations for them. Oh, that can be provided, prima. And the girl has been listening, but trying to look, she's not paying attention. Yes, brother? We have some more guests for the night, if we could prepare some food for them,

and how many more banders, you said? Yeah, we have three. Three more banders. She goes, all right, very well. I'll make the food for them, you get the food for the Morbandas. I say, all right. I appreciate your help.

I know it may not go too far out here, but here's another two gold for each of you. Thank you. It'll cover most of the Morbanda food. An additional gold for the remainder of the Morbanda meals, please. Not a problem. They are hungry beasts.

Excuse me. I know this might be a bit of a long shot for your establishment, but have you any incense here? Prima, do we have any incense? Ivory also, if there's any rolling around, I got some stuff I got to do, too. Our ivory. How much do you need? Like a pinch? I'm going to. Aura Ivory. How much do you need?

Like a pinch? I would take as much incense as you have. I will take it off your hands. I need 250 gold worth of incense and 200 gold worth of ivory. You also need incense. Incense and ivory, I got a thing. That is so much. How much do you have?

You see his eyes go wide. Is that gas station after a in Vegas? Prima? We will pay the premium. She goes, Premium, you say? Yes. 10% more than you are accustomed to charging. Now. Give me an hour.

I need to go call in some favors. I can give you that hour, yes. Do you have a barrel of peanut butter and 400 meters of wire and a pound of dove feathers? I can inquire. Cool. Did you want any of those things, Nott? Really? No, I just don't know what they,

I want to know what their inventory is. Seems extensive. Apologies. It's all right. We don't have a lot of trade that comes through, but we have had merchants who came, didn't leave. So the remaining materials were brought to us. Let me go check.

And she comes from around the counter and passes all of you and exits the complex. While they were all inside talking, I was trying to paint the sign. Okay. From Ready Room to Ruddy Poon. It's an easy, easy exchange. Just three letters. Three little lines.

Just a little line. There is a ladder on the inside that you can do, because it is high up, it's about 10 feet up for the barn door. There are other ladder on the inside that you can do, because it is high up, it's about 10 feet up for the barn door. There are other folks out there that are doing business. Are you still in your leaf costume? That's long gone, that's long gone. Yeah, that would have been gone by now.

Okay, I'm just asking. Damn. Make a stealth check for me. Okay. Whoa. 11? 11, okay. You go and as they're talking, you grab the ladder off to the side.

They all stop working and look at you. You set the ladder by the side. You wait and wait for them to go back to the business, make a sleight of hand check with disadvantage. Yeah, let's do this. You have Bless, right? Did you use Bless on the last roll? Bless doesn't help the ability to go back to the business, make a sleight of hand check with disadvantage. Yes, let's do this. You have Bless, right? Did you use Bless on the last roll? Bless doesn't help the ability to count facts.

You need Guidance. Oh, wait. Guidance does. Wait, okay. With disadvantage? Sleight of hand with disadvantage, 18. Not bad. Not bad. It takes you the better part of about 10 minutes or so and doing it one section of a ladder at a time, climbing up on the ladder and just waiting and looking out and a little fire flak comes by and you're like, oh.

Get down, move the ladder. Eventually, you manage to pull it off and most everyone seems to be leaving with their materials, and you finish up real fast. As such, the Ruddy Poon is now the center of goods and commerce here on this side of Bazzoxan. Yay! Thank you.

You hear the distant chuckle of a disembodied voice. I'll ask, once we've acquired our stuff, I know we're still waiting. We are also waiting to meet one of our fellows, someone who's meeting us here, by the name of Obann. Has he come in yet? Describe Obann for me, please. Make an insight check.

Make an insight check. Oh boy. That's 26. 26? Whisper! Whisper! Get that shit! Yeah, one, two, five, fucking purple. The D&D Beyond Encounter Builder Alpha

is now available to all D&D Beyond subscribers. I looked at it earlier. It's pretty tight. All right. Okay, okay's pretty tight. All right. Okay, okay. It's a tight. It's a tight. And also Dwarven Forge exists. What could you please describe?

Oh, yeah, a drow, gentleman, ruggedly handsome, handle himself, I don't know, kind of lazy. He's just a drow. Literally described most of the people who live here, but I don't believe I know of an Obann. My apologies. Yeah, that's all right. We saw him, I saw Obann, right?

Yeah. I'll cast Silent Image to make an image of him. He leans forward and inspects closely. Obann's just like R2 and Princess Leia. Yeah. Help me, Obann I. Oh, stop. Silent I.

I feel like I may have seen this individual once, but that was months ago, no time recently. He is a slow traveler. That's all right. If he comes in in the night, tell him we're waiting for him. All right, it can be done. You wait better part of an hour,

and then Prima returns with a small box. I say a small box, it's one foot by about a foot and a half. Lifts it up and puts it on the counter. So you needed how much incense? I needed... Well, we're talking about two different things, but I think yours takes precedence.

Mine is just 50 gold worth of incense and 200 gold worth of ivory strips. She reaches into her back pocket and is rummaging around this large pack that has a lock on the outside, locks it, pulls it aside, and pulls out and lays onto the counter a bunch of sections of tusk that resembles polished elements of the Udak tusks,

the large tusks that are in the front of the face. But they're shaved chunks. A lot of times, these large tusks that are in the front of the face. But they're shaved chunks. You know, a lot of times these large tusks either break down or the interior has to be carved down to get to the solid ivory. Lays out a number of chunks and goes, All right, that can be done. Incense pulls open the crate

and immediately the smell wafts out, this extremely strong, pungent collection of spices and burnable materials. It's a dense Sephora blast to the face. So we can deal with this as well, I believe. What is the rate for this? What, the entire crate? Mm-hmm. Oh, this will renew about a thousand gold pieces,

but I can provide an amount of which seems to fulfill your requests. My personal need is about 250 gold worth plus the 200 gold worth. Only request is if anybody asks you, do not say where or how you received this. I probably won't even remember, honestly. I'm like, how are you?

So you need 250? 250 will do me. I don't remember, honestly. So you need 250? 250 will do me. I would take what you would rate as about 50 gold, and we will add 30 to the price of that. You will add 50 to the price, and it would be, say, 350 total? Have we gathered or collected anything,

sundries or staples along our journey that we could maybe use in trade for some of this stuff? Have we picked up any weird, like 20 pounds of, I don't know, something? Are you in need of anything right now? Gold? Can I have any?

Yes, yes, we are all in need of gold always. Is there any other little thing that comes after gold? Gator skins, bloody manacles. Yeah, that kind of stuff. Gator skins? Need any gator skins? We can afford your price, but we have a lot of odds and ends. Show me this gator skin you have.

It's in the bag of holding. Oh. Okay. Now, this gator skin is not been properly tanned, so it's pretty gross. You pull it out and it's like, Ooh. Put it back, please, put it back, put it back, put it back.

Are you sure you don't? No, put it back. I bet Yon-Ball would like to eat that. Oh man. You can feed it to him. Is this worthless? Probably. Well, I just want it now. Didn't we get some jewelry in the nest?

Yes, I was going to say I have those two gold leggings. No, keep those! They're so pretty. It's true, they are. And the pearl necklace. 350 gold, and for the ivory, for the batch, it was 250 you requested, correct? 200 in the ivory, 250 of the...

Ah, so 250 for the ivory. 250 for the ivory. So together, 600 gold, call it a deal. Do you need any money? Two, no, I am good, thank you, I'm not. 200 for the incense for you. 250 for the incense. Ah, yeah.

So that's... 50 for incense for me, so 300. She's the incense. Ah, yeah. So that's? 50 for incense for me, so 300. 500. An extra 100. This is 20%. Let's do 15%. Make a persuasion check. 21. 21?

575 and no higher. Deal. I got that, I'll cover that. 575. Oh. So that's 575, but you get 200 gold worth of ivory, 250 of incense, and 50 of incense. Yep. I would freak out if that happened in game. You just bump into a table and spill a healing potion.

I'm going to rush in. What about my gold? Fuck! So the deal is struck. It is paid, the materials are yours. The male drow, who now, after this conversation, for the time I spent, has introduced himself as Deliz. Deliz Dimona.

Ow. I have one diamond. Okay. He says, up top there, you will find a series of bunks. Find the ones that are available, and take what is at your leisure. It is not comfortable to the highest degree, but it works, so.

I have two diamonds. Windows up there? It has some openings upon the roof, yes. On the roof, all right. Let's turn. Mm-hmm. We share in one big open space, like shared bunks? If you go up the ladder and check the space, you can see there's about seven other individuals

that are all sleeping in different beddings. There's bunks that are set up, like small, very basic beds. There are a few that are stacked up on little steps, almost, that are little platforms, where other bits of empty crates are set up there where there's not going to be filled with any sundries or materials.

And with all of you guys in there, it looks like the room is made to fit maybe 12 people comfortably, and you guys are pushing it at 15. So there aren't quite enough beds for all of you, but there are sections in the ground where there's heavy leathers and fur set aside for either blankets or secondary bedding.

So you can find enough to get comfortably asleep. Comfortably asleep. Just to bunk, not to do anything else. Like Caleb came up here hoping to. No bumping, Caleb. We'll see. We're quite familiar, but that's not going to happen up here. I was going to say.

You could, it's just you might draw some attention. You mentioned windows in the ceiling? You look up, there aren't windows, but parts of the roof, there are slots that are open for airflow, but arranged so that they're covered on top so that rain, fall, or any other heavy weather effects wouldn't just pour in over the top. Gotcha. But it's enough to keep,

enough airflow to keep the interior from stagnating too much. Is there anything like a balcony or? Not here, it's a pretty simple structure, unfortunately. Only way up into this room is the way we came, right? Correct. It's a hatch with a ladder. Don't feel particularly safe

having everybody zonk out at once. We should probably treat this as a, yeah. All right. Yeah. I'll take first watch. I am going to stay up with Nott, but use the time to cast Find Familiar. Okay.

Bring Frumpkin up as a Vulture, and before I begin, I say, you know I have seen through your eyes, and that was pretty great, but I did not quite know how great it was to fly. So you have been holding out on me. Would you like to be a cat? I thought so.

All right, give me some time. I spend the next hour with whoever's watching to draw a circle and chalk on the floor, and slowly, and I have my cat back. Yeah, your cat returns. I will pass the time, sipping on my flask. You go reach for your flask and it's not there. I freak the fuck out.

Holy shit. Did you see my flask? It's big and platinum and it's magical and it has booze in it all the time. We've seen it 500 times. Seriously? Yeah. The two of them are up. I'm sorry, I don't mean to interrupt your ritual.

I'm messing with my flow. Oh, okay, but just have you seen it? I have not seen the flask. Shit, I have to start over. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. No, it's okay. What you lost, what did you lose? No, just tell me when the last time you saw it was,

because I had it today for sure. You were chugging on it. When were you chugging on it? That seems likely. At the base of the tree, I think. Well, I would know exactly the last place I saw not chugging on her flask, because of my damn feet. Yeah, but Leen doesn't remember. Yes?

So I'm asking for Matthew to speak through me, because I don't remember. I would say it probably would have been probably at the base of the tree, yeah. I just see you guys are about to take off and head north. You drank in the cave. Yeah, that circle thing. That's right, in the cave. Do you lose your flask often? You're asleep.

Yeah. Fjord's not asking. Caleb tells you exactly the last place that he saw you have it last, so it was sometime yesterday. Do you think it fell out on the moorbound as one of your recent raids? Maybe we were being chased by a bird or something.

Maybe I should just retrace my steps. What if, what if in this outpost military town we find you some booze? Endless booze? I mean, a lot, we could probably get a lot. We have a bag that holds a lot, but we can't go back the way we came to find your magic flask. You know what, maybe one of the others has it

for safekeeping. That's probably it. Yasha is always, she seems a little shifty, honestly. She's always disappearing. She strikes me as pretty straight edge, actually. I don't think so. She seems like a wee. She's a disappearing. She strikes me as pretty straight edge, actually. I don't think so, she seems like a wee. She's a wee wee. I'm going to go to my original flask, the non-magic one.

Anything in there? A little. Oh, it's so sad. Okay, okay. Took enough for a shot. Yeah. If not, it's gone, it's so sad. Okay, okay. Took enough for a shot. Yeah. If not, it's gone, it's gone, it's out of drips, it's gone. I hate this fucking time.

Help me do this, take your mind off of it, all right? Sure. Okay, so hold this vulture. Sit in the middle, but don't hold it in your lap, because I don't want you to fuse with him. What? Hold him out in front of you. All right. Okay. Plant him on the ground.

All right, now just hold still for 40 minutes. I'm an alcoholic! 40 very, very, very difficult minutes go by before Frumpkin is returned to the original cat form. I don't say this out loud, but I tell Frumpkin, okay, she is very rough. She is missing her booze, which you know she likes very well, so lay on the charm, start purring,

and doing with the kitty biscuits, okay? Yes, yes. That's nice. Ow! All right, you guys finish your watch. Yes, absolutely. Who's taking the next watch? I'll go next round.

All righty. I guess I'd see you two going to sleep. Do you have my flask? No. I need it. Oh, I can help with a bit of that. Oh? Yeah, I'm going to just cast Greater Restoration

before I pass out. Before? Okay. Yeah. You're fine for the time being. Okay, I'll go to sleep. I'll join Caduceus on the watch. Okay. Close. Oh. You're fine for the time being. Okay, I'll go to sleep. I'll draw a Caduceus on the watch. Okay. Close your eye.

Close your eye, Sam. Oh fuck. Stop it! It's on your nose now. She's giving you Lasik with her fingers. Oh. Hopper it. Okay, wait, hold, make a wish.

I wish you would give me my flask back. Oh, Fuck you! All right. Hey, Caduceus. Yeah. So last night while we were sleeping, I had this dream like I do. Really? Yeah. Except, unlike the previous times

where I've seen an eye and I felt cold and there's been darkness, I felt warmth. And I heard a matronly voice kind of beckoning to me. I saw this greenery, these vines reach out and invite me forward. I can't help but think that might have something to do

with the tree that we were near, or? Well, it was hers, and she spoke to me, too. Yeah, who is she again? Well, you not know anything of the Wildmother and of the? What you've said, pretty much. What did she say to you exactly? Well, she said that his will

would find me again, and that she could only intercede for a short bit, maybe because we were so close to that giant fucking tree. But that felt really good. That would be her, yeah. What do you do to connect with her? Well, she's everywhere, so. I mean, honestly, the best things to do are to sit still and breathe slowly. And one of the things I like to do is sit still and breathe slowly.

And one of the things I like to do, although it's harder to do in a place like this, is just slowly count the number of sounds you hear and listen for each and every thing and start to name what it is as it goes by. And slowly you'll see her and feel her and everything that is around, every plant that's growing, every animal that's hunting.

It's all, while her power may wax and wane, depending on where we are, it is something that's always, nearly always available. You said she's everywhere. We are, I believe, heading to a place of power of hers, inevitably. I think this place will perhaps have great importance to you. I, uh, this is good. This is very, very good.

This is another good sign of what's to come. It felt good. How did she find you? Or did you find her? I was born into it, so. Your family? Yeah, my family, going back several generations, were one of three families of priests

who have served her through hundreds of years. Any tips you could give to a crash course to service? I'm really anxious to feel that again. I'm really anxious to feel that again. That's very good. I'm anxious to help you feel that again. I have faith in you, Mr. Fjord. I think that,

I would like to think that you have a shining, beautiful destiny ahead of you. I know that there is great darkness in your heart, but you have good friends. These are good people. I know that you're going to be tempted and sometimes you're going to follow the things that you hear, but I would just recommend

trusting in us to take care of you. It's all going to be okay. Right. Everything's going to be okay. You found a giant tree that silenced the evil voices in your head. I mean, how probable is that? Any more of those around that you know of?

Actually, I'm looking for a mountain that doesn't have any snow in front of a great salt flat. If we find that, I think we're going to be doing okay. A mountain with no snow. So yeah, if we find that, I think that's a sign that things are going pretty well. So I need to meditate and count the sounds that I hear

and give them a name. I find that tends to do it for me. Make a history check if you want for it. Thank you. 10. Does it ring a bell, what he's talking about? I will try that. I'll stay up a little longer.

Try that shit. Do some guided meditation, it's nice. Okay. Yeah. All right, so you guide him through it, breathing? No, I close meditation, but yeah, just going to do a round. Okay. Yeah. All right, so you guide him through it, breathing? No, I close meditation, but yeah, just going to do a round. Okay. Cool. My fucking knees don't bend that way, but... All right, we'll do it.

Okay. It's interesting, the wind is picking up through the night, and through the slats, bits of red dust are starting to plume through a bit. The storm didn't hit as hard up north here, and as things have dried and the winds picked up, you get the sense that a dust storm is or has been coming. The sound of it

clattering through has been a little distracting, but as you focus with Caduceus, eventually the sound begins to fade in you, trying to find a center, a place. Instead, the sound of the wind blowing begins to come more of a waves coming onshore. LAURA and LAURA and LAURA and LAURA and LAURA.

It reminds you of growing up by the waters of the Najari Coast in Port Damali. Reminds you of running along the sands of the beach. You find yourself sitting there and you can feel the warmth of the sunlight on you and looking into the endless expanse of blue waters out of the horizon in front. Then for a moment, it's different, it's not as strong,

but there is a familiar warmth to it. You know what he said, you know. She's everywhere. Part of that could be the ocean. You go to sleep very well that night. Okay. 15 minutes every day. you should download an app. I really hope you do.

You guys taking the last watch? Yeah. Okay. I'm taking the last watch. Jester, you got some more? Sure, yeah, I'll get that. All right. Oh wait, will I get my exhaustion point back if I take a watch? You've, we'll say, yeah, will I get my exhaustion point back if I take a watch?

You've, we'll say, yeah, you guys are trading off essentially in four hour blocks to keep an eye as everyone does it, so. Okay. Your exhaustion point would be gone by now. Great. You've slept for a straight long rest. Oh. Hi. I like it.

Is that all? Am I on a two? Yeah, I'm on a high. Yeah. Hi. Is that all? Am I awake, too? Yeah, I'm awake. Hi. Yeah, hi. I'm sleeping on the ground. I haven't done that in a while. Yeah. Yeah, it's very fun. It's hard on your back. Yeah.

Do you guys want me to go to sleep? Do you need some alone time, or is it okay if I stay up, too? No, this is good. Okay, okay. Are you still sleepy? No, no, I'm awake. Okay.

I'm going to just start looking at some of the other people that are sleeping that's not in our group. Okay, which at this point, some of them are starting to get up. Like the morning light has begun to come in. Just standing above them, Kroon of them are starting to get up. Like the morning light has begun to come in. Just standing above them, creepy as they would sound. Yeah.

We got to start that sword up. Morning. Sleep well. Good morning. One moment. Waking. A lot of them appear to be travelers. None of them in here are armed like soldiers. A lot of them are folks be travelers. None of them in here are armed soldiers. A lot of them are folks that are probably passing through,

some are either bringing supplies, picking up supplies, or have other business here. There are only two drowned here. The remainder are mostly three gnolls, two bugbears, one ogre, and a few goblins as well. As they wake up, you guys are just keeping watch. They gather their things and look about this troop

awkwardly and then make their way down the ladder. Should I try to scry on the dude? Oh yeah. What do you think? I think so. Okay. I'll watch for these guys. Okay, I'll just sit down on the ground

and give a little scry. Okay, you go ahead and you arrange the circle in the space you've now become very familiar with. A little bit of excitement rises in your chest because each time you do this, there is an added benefit of a brief communion directly with the Traveler. As you finish the spell,

okay, the hands reach out and take yours, and your vision thrusts forward into a cloud of white and finds nothing. Everyone comes back, and the hands still against yours pull back and fade, and the voice in your ear goes, Sorry, child, not today. Oh no. Did you see?

Well, I can't, did it feel the same as when I was pushed away, or pushed out of the scry, or did it feel like I just couldn't find him? It felt like the target seemed to resist the spell. Ah. Made their saving throw. Damn it. I didn't see anything.

Okay, do you have any other way of tracking this guy? I mean, I have my Locate spell. I could try to maybe locate the crest that he had on him. Is that the 1,000 feet one? Yeah. Yeah. So we'd have to be closer to the mountains, I think. It'll be hot there. How far are we from? Yeah, how far are we from those towers?

Hundreds of feet, thousands of feet? You guys are about maybe 700 or so feet from the base of the mountain where the Umbra gates are and the towers begin. What you saw in your vision was just base, was mountain base. You didn't see any signs of civilization or towers, yeah. Yeah.

I don't think he was near this town. It wasn't within my vision. I don't know. Why did he say to come on up there? I don't know. Yeah, what did he say about Bazazan again? The tomb under Bazazan. Mm-hmm. I could try sending him a message

and let him know that we're here. I mean, he told us to come north. Right? Yeah, he did. Should we alert him of our presence? I mean. He would be actively using you as bait. Yeah. I mean, it could get his attention,

but also it could be incredibly dangerous. I mean, if he attacks us while we're in the middle of the city, at least maybe we'll have some of the soldiers to help us. Yeah. We'll have to go after him. Yeah. I would be okay with that, but I wonder if we should check with everybody else. Okay, we'll wait until they wake up.

But does that mess up your sleep when you're using something? Oh, well, I mean, I already tried to scry, so that's kind of a shitty thing, but... No, it's okay. Maybe that's what I'm here for, you know? Okay, well, we'll ask everyone about it and see if that's what they feel comfortable with,

but I don't think it's a bad idea. Okay. Sin's starting to come up before I wake up soon, anyway. Yeah. You guys finish your watch, then? Okay, the rest of you come to consciousness. You're the last stragglers up here in the top of the ready rooms,

barn-like, hostile situation. You can gather your things and do whatever else you need to prepare before getting to the rest of your day. I walk to the edge of the door, peek downstairs, see if anyone's lingering nearby. There's no one lingering from up here, but you do see there are two soldiers inside that are currently just going through

and seeing what materials they need, shopping. This isn't a very busy place, but some people are coming in for some supplies. Okay. Gathering some chain, gathering some nails. I listen and what does it sound like they're stocking up for, those two soldiers? Make a perception check.

Took a few tries for that one. You got it out, you got it out. Why are you drinking out of that glass so much? It's for Nott. That went on Journey. It did, 16. What did you say, perception? Yes.

19. 19, okay, you listen in. They don't have any conversation about it. They know what they want, they're just grabbing it. It's more like, did you get it? Yes, no worry, okay. Okay. Actually, it would be talking in undercommon,

so you wouldn't even hear this thing, but it seems casual and nothing of importance. And don't pay attention to it. Hey, Yasha. Yeah. How's it going? Anything I should know about? Nothing happened last night at all. We just talked and uh. Do I have any other extra items

that I should be aware about over there? What kind of items? What? No items. Why are you so curious, Fjord, huh? What, just figured? Do you know something about this? About what? Caduceus! Yeah.

Maybe I've underestimated you. Everyone. Probably not. Nott has misplaced her drinking flask. Someone took it! She does not remember where she placed it. I had it with me, it was on me. Did anyone pick it up? Wait, I check all my shit.

Okay. I would have been pickpocketed. You go ahead and check your things and everything is where you remember it to be. Oh, that's good. No, it's not good. That means that I was specifically targeted. Maybe you just dropped it, Nott.

Maybe you just forgot because you got too drunk. That is the thing. No, I think more clearly when I'm drunk. Did you go behind the cave? We left pretty quickly. Maybe it fell off you when we got blown back by that giant trap you fell in that case. There's only one way to find out, we have to go back.

Can't we just get a bottle of booze somewhere? We could get you a drink in the meantime. I mean, your arms look wider than I've seen them in a long time. Gotta get you some booze. They're a pale cream! Huh? They're a pale cream color. Oh, yeah.

Blend in with the locals. Gotta get you hydrated. You can see that shit from a mile out. That's just dangerous. Supernova. It's because I need alcohol to ruddy my skin. Uh-huh. I can try giving you a little spell

to help out with the withdrawal. Is the spell a flask? No, but you can hold your flask while I cast it. I can't hold my flask! On the flip side, we are very well off at the moment. We have much coin. I am sure they have libations here. We could get you traditional booze for now.

And you've made some strong steps without it, right? What does that mean? You were doing so well without it before. Was I? You were. Yeah. You were not. I actually hadn't noticed that you'd started drinking again. Mm.

Yeah. I mean, there is like a smell. And things have a habit of just exploding or going a little awry. A little louder. Twitchy. Yeah, it's a little louder. Kind of angry, something. Yeah. I feel better, I felt better the last few days.

I think we were making some good headway and it was all because of me, no? No. No, I mean, like, there was a lot of... From what I remember, we did really good work the last few days. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. There was a cloud that was kind of worthless and...

Kind of difficult to deal with, really. I could sit on a smoke bomb and none of us could see through it. I was totally safe, though. I thought that was a very strategic move. You did it because Feather Fall on us, and that was nice. That's true. Saved our hides, big time.

I do remember you screaming a lot when the rock was coming to find us, and everyone else was hiding really well, and you were screaming. Could everyone just talk a little quieter, please? Just a little bit quieter, because I feel like you're all shouting right now very loud. It's hurting my ears.

It's giving me a headache. We're in the common room right now? I'm sure downstairs we could find a bottle of... Maybe, though, it's nice if you'd... Yasha, if you stole it, I will fucking kill you! I didn't fucking steal it, Nott. Okay, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I didn't fucking steal it, Nott. Okay, I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

I didn't mean to speak out of fear. Oh shit. So I'm down, God's out. Oh! I'm really sad. I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay.

Well, Nott, you've had that flask since the beginning. You got that enchanted when we were dirt poor and just fighting gnolls, so. I can go back to my original flask, I guess, for a while. Yeah, and you can maybe just give it some time, and then. We'll get you some bottles. If you feel up to it, you can get it enchanted later when we were at, you know.

Plus, if you really miss it, Jester can just scry on it for you. Oh yes, don't you have a locate object spell? I feel like we should perhaps hold off on that. We are looking for more goings-up. Because if it's close, you could find it for me right away. Yeah, I could. I feel like it would have to be right nearby, though.

Yeah. Wouldn't it? It would have to be within a thousand feet. Yeah, it's a piece. Go ahead. I could, but do you really want me to waste that spell? Yes, I do. No want me to waste that spell? I do, yes, I do. We're looking for somebody. Wow, you got a little crazy, how you going?

That right eye got here a little faster than the left one did. Yeah, it did. Look, you were number one in reminding us of the task at hand. Damn it. So. Maybe we could, I'm going to cast Lesser Restoration on Nott to try to help calm her down and.

It'll alleviate some of the. Yeah, it'll maybe take some of the headache away. That feels better. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you, Jessa. We just want you to feel better, you know? I'm also quietly going to go find the brother and sister that run this place.

Okay. Do you have any spirits of any kind? Whisky, fire, whiskey, anything? Yes, they can be acquired, yes. Three bottles, please. Three bottles? Yes, please. 45 gold. Ix, say that again? 45 gold.

I'm not such a guy. Is it hard to come by out here? That's a yes, I'll take one bottle. One bottle. 15 gold. Okay. Okay, thank you. All right.

Then I store it away. How much? 15 gold. How much? 15 gold? 15 gold. 15 gold? 15 gold. That'll be $800, sir. Did you know that what is considered a modest lifestyle is one gold a day?

Just saying. That's one gold a day for a modest lifestyle. Yeah. A fine bottle of wine costs you 10 gold. That's true. That same hide keg thing was like 120 gold a bottle of wine. Yeah, that stuff was super rare.

Just putting that out there. Okay. It's a dark brown glass bottle, about maybe that big or so. Corked top, wrapped in a rope around the base of it. No label, none. Oh, Jesus. You're going to go blind. Ah, it's some strong shit.

Yeah. Numbed your tongue on contact. Fireball. Yeah. It's a petroleum. Originally called cast fireballs. Oh. Yeah.

Don't set off a fire spell near you. Head downstairs where the brother and sister are. Yeah, you guys, anything else you want to do? You guys head on down and gather the rest of the crew. Oh, should we mention the plan that we potentially had before we got into public? Well, we were thinking that maybe Jussie would... Message Oven.

Oh, that feels a little... And say, well, and say what? And say, we are here. Yeah, let's think about this. It could be useful, but let's think about this. He had interest in Yasha and made it very clear to come and find him. There might be a way that we can use Yasha as bait.

Yeah. And maybe... Extendedasha as bait. Yeah. And maybe. Extend an invitation. Yeah. Yeah. And then just be super prepared for anything that might arise. Well, the trouble with that is that, I mean, I'm just imagining it from our end of things, if the situation were reversed

and we were bringing someone in, probably, you know, just take them one way. It would just, I feel like it would give them an awful lot of time to prepare and make plans, set traps. Just like, you know, it's like having an extra day to clean your house when someone comes over. Well, that's why we do it on our terms, on our grounds.

This is definitely not our grounds. We of lacking a direction at this point. Yeah, we are out of options. He is out of range, we don't know where he is. Well. He is at the base of mountains. We have been driving by mountains. That was a couple days ago. There are mountains for miles. Well, we actually, I mean,

he's going underneath the temple, if I recall. But we don't know. We don't know that for sure. I mean, tomb under? The tomb under Bazazan. That's where I would check. The soldier did say there were tunnels underneath. Follows the Angel of Irons delivering a crest. He also said that there were abyssal horrors

coming out of that temple. Good thing we're on the case. Beating! So how about we head underneath the tunnels, or head underneath the city and see where those tunnels lead? Maybe talk to a couple people in port in the city, see if they know anything about tombs under the temple and whether or not

this character has been around. I dig it. I mean, it kind of sounds like this entire place is a tomb, though. A guy mentioned that it was, or you read, it was a multi-level. Temple to the old Betrayer Gods. Yeah, the princess from, the demonic princess from.

Yeah, that sounds intense. Or something. I mean, yeah. I think you said the Abyss. Maybe someone knows of some particular, like, if there's a particular tomb. Tombs are very specific. Tombs have people or things in them. That's the whole point of a tomb, is to keep something.

Yeah. Should I go out and find somebody that knows the entrance to these tunnels? Yeah, ask if it's even allowed for civilians, people outside of the Aurora Watch to go there, and what we can expect. We're not civilians, to be fair, at the moment. We are, yeah. Oh, I bet it's allowed of the favorite of the Brac Queen.

Maybe you dropped it. Breaks into three pieces of it. It's chocolate the whole time! Somebody else give me theirs. Somebody else give me theirs. My Hanukkah coins. No! I got this.

I'll walk outside. All right, you go outside. Do I see any particular soldiers with extra plumage to denote a higher rank? Make a perception check. Yeah. Oh my goodness. Guilt.

All right. Oh, 21. Nice. Well, first off, the winds have been picking up consistently and now you can see there are large reddish dust clouds that are building up on the eastern side moving west and blowing this way, both in the barbed fields and coming through the city.

Pieces of material and flags and various markings that are hanging from nearby roofs are whipping to the wind and a couple points and a blast gets through and you have to cover your eyes a bit, and you're looking through, you do see, on the outskirts of the large, expanding barracks, you can see one soldier who's in the process of running a drill for other soldiers

that are going through shield and sword practice, moving forward, phalanx maneuvers, shouting out orders. They finish up within a few minutes and then take a break as they walk off. That person walks off to the side and begins eating a bit of a jerky snack out of a pouch and notices you out in the open.

Yeah, I approach him and say, you there? Spider-Turk. Yeah. On business of the Bright Queen, we've been sent to explore the tunnels underneath Bazelzahn. What do you know about, fucking, what do you know about a tomb underneath this area? Make a persuasion check, first off.

The advantage with the badge. Yay! Because it's on official duty. That's not as great. 16. 16 goes. I don't really know anything about any tombs, but there are old halls. Halls? Old halls. Ah.

Places of dominion for the demonic princes, but no tombs. Yeah, we're going to need to get in those tunnels. How do we get there? You're going into the tunnels. That's our job. You are crazy. Yeah, well, not exactly a reward.

Shit detail, you know what I mean? Well, there is a side entrance beyond to the right of the umbra gates. It's been nice knowing you. To the right, any others? That is the only formal one. They've closed off all exits to make sure that anything that comes through is forced

through a specific exit. Have you seen the tunnels yourself? Are they wide, singular? I mean, any kind of preview you can give me would be much appreciated. I've been no more than maybe 200 feet within. There is a specific main cavernous chamber that splits off into many, many tunnels.

Shit. And they can come from any of them. So we hold it. Right. Not a lot of expeditions deep within, huh? On the return. Yeah, good odds, good odds, good story. All right, good shit, what was your name?

Lianos. Dianos? Lianos. Lianos. That's Fjord, nice to meet you. You as well. You keep up the good work here. All right, have a good one. Be safe, light protect you.

Yeah, light be with you. Fuck. What happened? Right, so the entrance to the tunnels is to the Rite of the Umbergates. He says, this sergeant-ish fella has only been about 200 feet within. Most people don't come back.

Oh wait, that guy? That guy you don't come back. Wait, that guy? That guy you were just talking to? Yeah, that guy. He's really buff. I know, well, I mean, yeah. He's a big guy. You should see the vascularity in his neck alone. You can tell the guy eats well. Much bigger than you.

Yeah. Yeah. Have to work out a lot. But he's not bigger than me. You're really big, too. No, I mean, you're big. Anyway, anyway. You're so muscle. He says most things go in, don't come back,

but it scatters into multiple tunnels. I mean, there's a lot of assumptions in that. There's tone, you can see the tone. I mean, a little bit. I push my biceps up. Look, it's not important. What we need to focus on is that he had not heard of any tombs or anything like that.

It was just tunnels and that it was real dangerous. I wonder when the, wow, that's a... Do you have a scratch on the back of your neck? Nope. I mean, there's a lot of assumptions in that. Nope. Nope. Get it, you. Boom, boom, boom. I mean, there's a lot of assumptions in that. Like, they're assuming that none of these other entrances have been recently breached, which they might have been. I mean, if I were going to sneak in.

Why are we going into the tombs again? We're going to find. Find Obann. You said that when you saw Obann, he was outside near the base of a mountain, not in a tomb, under a mountain. Looking for something, probably, not still at the base of a mountain. It looked like he was looking for some sort of

secret entrance or something. Probably to get under the. Maybe he knows about a way that isn't as dangerous. But he said he was searching for it. He was delivering a crest for what? I don't know, maybe the crest was the key. Key to a tomb. Or something.

It's a good point, maybe there's another far knot in the city. We are grasping at straws. We have no idea where this person is. There's got to be someone. I tried scrying on him today, you guys. Can anyone else do that? No. I can do Locate Creature,

but it only works if he's within a certain range. You can only try to scry once a day. What about Caduceus? 1,000 feet. Mm. You ask her questions. Oh, that's a thing I can't do right now. Do you have, what about a, do you have a feeling?

I have a lot of feelings. But Caduceus, do you have a feeling? I mean, my feeling is that, my feeling is that there's a big door with a lot of options. If you're presented with a bunch of options and none of them are appetizing, you go get a meal somewhere else.

That's what my feelings were, too, but mostly, like, I was thinking specifically about food. I'm thinking that maybe there's someone in town who knows something about this place. Maybe we should, I don't know, talk to a, talk to somebody who actually has a better sense of what this. Think somebody's seen Obann, knows him? Or knows enough about this tower

to have an opinion about what we're doing. He could be in a different location entirely than where we are. So I should message him? What? Back up, back up. What information do we know? He was going to Bazuzan. He mentioned the tomb under.

He didn't say Bazuzan to me. He said, come north, bring her. Bazuzan, you overheard when the deal was going on. What else did you overhear him say? Something about a crest, something about Talonstad? Was that him, was that from him? No, that was the dragonborn that was delivering it. Travels to and from Talonstad and had delivered it.

He's curious about Yasha. Yes, yes. He mentioned following the Angel of Irons. And we know that that was the dead Hobgoblin. Right. That said that. Maybe then using you as bait is our best option. That's not a bad idea. I can message him and say,

hey man, my brother, where are you? Look at the Orphan Maker. Yeah, yeah. We have arrived in Bazazan with the Orphan Maker. And did we know anything else about the Angel of Irons? Can I make a religion check? I think we tried to make it before. Yeah, but it's been a whole bunch of other days.

Did try to make it before. I'll say allow you once for disadvantage. Well, I'm not grabbing her. That was pretty good. It's all just now. Ooh! Yes. 18, I'm not proficient. So it was 17 plus 23.

23? Doesn't ring a bell. Fuck. Well, let's try it. it's all we've got. Yeah. Okay, what should I say? You know, I've got a limited amount of work. Yes, yes, yes, yes, let's talk this out, please. Okay, I'm going to write it down.

Tell me what to say. Don't even introduce yourself. No, that's not, okay, I'm not going to say. The Orphan Maker has come. The Orphan Maker. To Bazzoxan. Has arrived. Or should we, you don't want to sit back.

No, you got to be vague. Yeah, she's arrived. Because we want him to give us information. Yeah. Like, meet me at the. We want to trick him into finding out. Where can we find you? Where can, where are you?

Where can we bring her to you? Where are you, where can we bring her to? That's a stupid sentence. Where? Where can her to you? Where are you? Where can we bring her to? That's a stupid sentence. Where? Where can we find you? Where can we find you? That's where it's to. You can't run forever.

You can't run forever. Ah, that seems like it might antagonize him. Your mother would be disappointed. Your mother. Don't write down everything that everyone says. Have you seen a lost flask? Also, maybe not so important. I can't, wow.

Maybe something about, maybe the Orphan Maker has arrived in the north. Yep. I feel like we should be more specific. No, no. Gotta kink about that position of power. I mean, maybe should be more specific. No? No, no. Got to kink about that position of power. I mean, maybe just like, hey, we are here in Bazuzan, and we brought the Orphan Maker.

That's, not that I like any of this, but that's, I think, that's as good as it's going to be. We have so many words left over. We could ask about the flask, it's all that matters. What if I'm like, hey, what was that crest doing? We can watch you. We're always watching you.

Stuff like that. Maybe that, we're watching you is good, but I don't know about asking what about us. She comes alone. She comes alone. But then, where are you? But she comes more with another person. Through her words.

It's different. Is it, though? It's just different. It's all good. It's just different. Wipe out murder on my floor. But he doesn't like his health. She can't have come alone because you're sending the message.

It doesn't make any sense. She's not even wondering. I mean. He's going to know if. Do you need to bust out the above the word, Max, or can we just be? No, it can just be simple this time. Yeah.

What if I just go like, do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do? Don't start with that. Caleb is legitimately laughing in the middle of the room. I'll end with that. What do you mean, though? What are you talking about? Okay, okay, okay, I'm going to say it. Just to fill the time.

Oh man. So you cast the spell. Oh man. Reaching out into the ether, sending your thoughts and words forward, you say, The Orphan Maker has arrived. Oh dear. Where can we find you? Oh dear, oh dear. The Orphan Maker has arrived. Where can we find you?

Oh dear, oh dear. Do do do do do do. Do do do do do do. Do do do do do. This was a fate sealed. We're going to die. Holy shit. It's been good. This guy is standing with him.

This guy has got the phone somewhere, and like, Orcus is standing with him, and they're like, No, no, no, No, who did that? Chat's on the phone. Not hold. It's too hard to do. Scoo-da-doo-doo-doo-doo! Oh my god, let Matt pull me later.

Oh my god. Expedient and trustworthy. I'm impressed. And a performer. Come. Five, six miles west of the village. Look for the hidden entrance.

I'm waiting. Number one, he said he was impressed with me, so that's really cool. But he also said five or six miles west of here, look for the hidden entrance. We have a location, that was brilliant. That was a great idea. Hold on. Yasha, was that yours? Before we get real excited,

did he give any description of what the hidden entrance might look like? It'll be the one that'll be hidden. Yeah. We can find it. Well, we know he's near mountains, we know he's five to six miles away, we know he's west. This feels, this feels like a plan. As we make our way, we can start Well, we know he's near mountains, we know he's five to six miles away, we know he's west.

This feels, this feels like a plan. We can start casting, you know, locate creature, locate object, and we can, you know, we can find it. Definitely go into the tunnels and check out the abyss before we go, though, right? No, that's real flawed, we should not do that. I'll tell you what, if we, on the way out,

on the way out, like a shop, we'll hit the shop, you hit the gift store on the way out. Anyone else find it ironic? Just one. Maybe just one total. You want one abyssal? Don't you think? Don't you think?

All the realms that have been ripped open have been from the abyss. Yeah. It's like, and we're right here next to the gate to the Abyss. Just saw Matt check one thing for that joke. Have they all been Abyssal Rifts? They've all been Abyssal Rifts?

Yeah, they have. Yes. So this fellow is creating them. Yeah, I think so. Upon payment from the Empire. Quite possibly. Maybe he's trying to open the tomb. To let loose a bunch of them. What if he's trying to bring a demonic prince here?

Also, we are going five to six miles to the west, so we have a plan. Let's go. Do we have a plan besides let's go? Do we ever? Yeah. Yes, we do, yeah. Which way is west, Matt?

West would be this way. So you'd be traveling this way along the mountain range. Okay. I mean. Yeah, we don't. I mean, I think we know that we're going to be keeping an eye out for the same sort of baddies in the open area. He knows we're coming.

Eye on the ridge for ambush, and other than that, kind of walking right into it. Yeah. I don't know if it's a help, but I can make all of us look like anything, like anyone. Maybe if we broke into smaller groups and staggered? No. I mean,

it's not going to be, I don't imagine, the sort of place that random people walk through. No, you're right. What is it, Yasha? No, I'm just, I could, if we get close to there, I could just go in alone or something, act like it's just me, and then you guys could

be hidden somewhere in case something goes awry. Mm. I already know. What if you go and then they put you in chains or something and then we don't know and we can't get here in time and then they take you to a rift and then you're in the abyss?

There could be so many things. Yeah. What if in your past life, before you lost your memory, you were an iron angel, were an angel of iron, and you were the queen of the angel of irons, and they're like, welcome home, Mother.

That's what you're a legend. It could actually be super badass. This is just getting, this is getting. Super fun, but it seems like an outside chance. Yeah. Yeah. That feels like a... Wynne doesn't know how to prepare for that, really. I don't think I know. I don't know what you pack. She's got dope wings, though.

Yeah, but I don't think that makes me, that makes me a freak, not an angel of irons. What did you say? Did you say that she's going alone? No, I just said, she's arrived, where can we meet you? And he sounds like he's placating us, but he also sounds like we may be able to talk to him. Let's do it.

What else are we going to do? I mean, we're here. He obviously thinks we're not very powerful, but he also did run from us. He did. Maybe he had important shit to do. Come on, let's get the moorbounders. Let's do this.

Let's do it. It seems terrible. Yeah. It seems like a terrible idea. It's this or the tunnels. Either way, I'm happy. Let's go. Or we can sleep one more night here and just go meet him tomorrow, because he knows we're here,

and that way I didn't waste my fifth-level spells crying. Oh no, you guys, what's your thing? Why you'd use your fifth, well, okay. All in favor of saddling up. Yeah, let's do it. All right. You gather your moorbounders from the outside of the barracks.

Take your cloth and cover your faces as the dust storms kick up heavier and heavier westward in the direction you're traveling, so at least you're not going against it. As your moorbounders take off and continue to push forward. Actually, that's a question before we took off. Do they sell goggles here or something like that? There are face masks and goggle wear if you want to.

This is not an uncommon thing, this side of the bar. Might not be bad if we're going out in the middle. Yeah. Yeah, that's a cool thing. We all gear up. All right. One in a row. That'd be six pairs of goggles since you have your own, necessarily. In the middle. Yeah! We all gear up. All right. That'd be six pairs of goggles, since you have your own, necessarily.

That'll run you one gold, five silver for the whole batch. Running man price, cool. I'll put in some of this. Oh, thank you. All right. Those have jewels on them. They might have spikes along the side. Before going in, I'll try to buy a bottle of booze. Okay.

Okay, you go ahead and head back to the ready room. And, can I help you with anything? You just need a bottle of any. She's underage, don't say I'll do her. I don't know. Any alcohol that you might have. I start looking at the both of you. Both of you make persuasion checks.

It's you, Fjord. Oh! Natural one. Better than that. Minus three. Oh no, it's plus one, weirdly. Oh, so what? Changed. We are unfortunately out.

What? Oh. She likes to buy booze for me. I'll take a bottle. 25 gold. 20, Pryce went up. Five gold. Mm! 20, Price, what? Five gold. Mm.

Mm. Mm. Mm. Mm. That's a lot. Mm-mm. Yeah, no problem. There you go. Bottle of booze. Pop the court.

Does it smell like booze? It smells like some of the strongest hooch you've ever smelled. Okay, just making sure it wasn't water or some shit. All right, thank you. Hand it over! What? Hand it over! Hand what over?

The thing that's in your hand. This is for disinfecting, what do you want? I need... Huh? Come on, let's get out there. Time to ride. Yeah! Mounting your moorbounders, goggles on, cloth wraps over the front of the face, you all exit to the western side of Bazzoxan,

along with the wind and the clusters of dust that follow, moving past you at a speed that's just beyond the pace of your moorbounders, so the wind and the clouds are, moving past you at a speed that's just beyond the pace of your moorbounders, so the wind and the clouds are slowly shifting past you from behind, and using that, keeping your eye forward, you make your way westward. One mile.

Two miles. Everybody make a stealth check. I'll say with advantage, because you are amongst the dust clouds. Come on, you Brian guy. What? Oh. Woo! With advantage?

Mm-hmm. Eight. 27. Oh, I am going to give Blessing to Caduceus. No, I'm good, I'm, oh. Well, I am, too. Caduceus and who else? What does that do? You get to advantage. Oh. Oh, wait, you already got advantage. Blessing doesn't help ability checks.

Blessing of the Trickster. Oh, I see. Sorry. But we already have. Yeah, but we already got advantage. Blessing doesn't help ability checks. Blessing of the Trickster. Oh, I see. Sorry. But we already have advantage. Yeah, but we already have advantage, I'm dumb. That's all right, we good. 27. 18. Natural 20. Ooh, 20.

19. Gashen? 19. Woo! Damn, that was good. So you feel pretty solid that nothing notices your continuous push to the west. Following the base of the mountain range,

you continue on the fourth mile. You hit the five-mile section, and now you're looking over to who's keeping point on a watch on this. All right. I'm going with Caduceus. All right, so Caduceus and? I'm going to, hmm. Someone wants to help Caduceus, so right. I'm with Caduceus. All right, so Caduceus and? I'm going to, hmm. Someone wants to help Caduceus,

so you can make it separately. Perception checks in this dust storm are with disadvantage. I'll help you. You can do this right off. It's too dusty to even think about looking for a hidden doorway in the mountains at this point, right? Well, that's what he's trying to do. I would like to help him.

Okay, so then either you roll individually with a disadvantage, or you help him and he rolls just a normal roll. Perception or investigation? Perception. I let him roll an advantage. Okay. So a single roll for you, Caduceus, to keep an eye out for something

that might catch your attention. Okay, weird question. Yes? Would find traps help with something like this? No. This isn't finding a trap, unfortunately. Okay, yeah. This is spotting something that is different from the rest of the walk. So just a straight

perception check. A straight perception check. Come on, come on, no way, man. Ugh. 13. 13, you get to the fifth to sixth mile range, and there's too much dust, and you're just, nothing is catching your attention here, unfortunately, and you loop around. I can try Locate Object, see if I can do it.

That might do it. Yeah, that might be it. What's the range on that? 1,000 feet. Wow. Well, I could also do Locate Creature at 1,000 feet. So you've already burned a spell. I'll try Locate Creature as we pass by again for another.

Okay, so you pass by the sixth, the fifth mile at full speed and it lasts for 10 minutes, is it? Locate Tree Tree is up to an hour. Up to an hour, okay. So you move past, so you cast Locate Tree Tree, mark off that spell, you move past. Nothing. Nothing. Back a second time.

Nothing. About 20 minutes back and forth. I envision you're casting this on Obann, right? Nothing. I'm going to keep an eye out for this, for this anything unusual. I mean, can I, I don't know. It was just fucking mountains when I was scrying.

Does anything look familiar from the time I was scrying? You saw the thing that he pulled out. Well, yeah, I'm talking like the mountain range. fucking mountains when I was scrying. Does anything look familiar from the time I was scrying? You saw the thing that he pulled out. Well, yeah, I'm talking the mountain range. Mountain range. Make a perception check with disadvantage. Are we tracing the edge of the base? You guys are writing along the edge of it,

yeah, along the mountain range. Yeah, no, nine. Unfortunately, it's daytime now. There's more light than when you saw it. When you scryed on him, the dust, no, nine. Unfortunately, it's daytime now. There's more light than when you saw it. When you scryed on him, the dust, everything, it's a really rough combination of elements to try and recall directly. All right, I'm going to cast Locate Object

on the crest that he had in his hand. Okay. You ride on for about 10 minutes on and your brain catches it and you draw direction. Oh, hold up, oh. That way. Jester gives a point, you guys are heading that way.

All right. Beelining towards up the way, you can feel it shifting to the right until eventually you come up to the edge and the rock begins to look familiar. You can glance and it brings you to a point where there is a small pocket that is hidden in shadow from where the light's coming from above.

They're recessed about two inches inside. About the size of a palm is a round stone crest. But he's not here. Something's been placed in there. I have been placed into an alcove. We felt he could be on another plane. I want to drop down and start examining it and seeing if I can figure out how it works.

Okay. If I were going to spring something on us, it'd be here. Okay, so as you approach it, you can glance off to the left of it and you can see what looks to be about 30 feet from it, a small six-foot opening on the side of the cave, or a cave on the side of the mountain. As you're glancing in towards the seal,

you can see things inscribed on it. It looks like it has a carving of a simple mouth with teeth, and there are runes both above and below it. Yeah. Can I read them? Are they arcane in nature? It appears to be a language. Do any of you know Celestial? Yes. Ah, yes.

All right. Oh! Yasha. You both, both Yasha and Caleb looking into it, make up a phrase that says, Let lie the king's instrument, deathless and detained, until the world ends. One more time? One more time. Let lie the king's instrument,

deathless and detained, until the world ends. This is a tomb with an exit. The worst kind. And the entrance to it is just open. It is currently, yes. Let by the king's instrument, deathless and detained. Can I look up the ridgeline?

That does not sound good. Just do a sweep of everything that's up there, see if anyone's. Can I look up the ridge line? That does not sound good. Just do a sweep of everything that's up there, see if anyone's there. Perception check with disadvantage. Nott, is there anything that could hurt us here? It's not terrible. You want me to go check in there? No, just on the outside.

Next to me, just look for anything that could harm us. All right. Nothing catches your eye. I'm going to go check for traps around the entranceway. Investigation check for traps. It's an open entrance? Yeah, it's just this open, yeah. I can't, 15, I don't know, maybe. Doesn't appear to be trapped.

I can't get a beat on anything. I don't know, just doesn't seem right, I don't know. Maybe we shouldn't go in. Let's just go back. Are you all right? No. What do you need? You know what I need. We'll be fine.

Anyone else want to try? I'll look and see if I can find any signs of footprints or somebody passing through. Sure, make an investigation check. Maybe that's land. Not good. 11. 11. This dust storm seems to have scooted through

and just covered most of any tracks that would have been. If you want to look inside, you can, but from the outside, you see no footprints. I cast... No, I can't, I don't have it prepared, never mind. I don't mind. You don't mind what? I'll walk up to the entrance.

Okay. And I'll just put my hand through. The temperature drops based on the difference in light, nothing else? I mean, it's cooler in here, but my hand's still attached. I'll step through. Okay, Fjord vanishes to the inside. As you cross the threshold,

you seem fine. Oh! Stepping inside. Made my butt pucker. It continues in Lightless, this steadily descending pathway about seven foot high, six feet wide, and just continues on this slow grade before you,

before vanishing beyond your periphery. Just a tunnel. Looks like a tunnel. You can see above you, there is some sort of a doorway that is wedged in a stone slab that rolls in to close this off that is part of the hiding mechanism for this entrance.

That's probably what that key is for, I imagine. Yeah, barricade looks like it's on this side. Come on in. What do you think about maybe we put something across the door so we'll know if someone is following us from behind? Oh yeah, a little wire. That's a good thought, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, I need 10 minutes. I'll go inside. Okay, the rest of you make it inside with Fjord. It's single file on this. You can uncomfortable, you can go actually shoulder to shoulder, like two at a time, but it's pretty tight

to move through any more than that. Too many people get in. Can I now do that investigation check to see if I see any tracks or scrawlings on the inside. Any writings on the wall? Yeah, writing on the wall. Anything weird? That's better.

20, no, 19. 19, okay. You don't see any writing on the walls, no runes or anything inscribed on it. Aside from Fjord's footsteps and the other people that came in there, you move beyond where you've seen and you can see no footsteps. Is it pitch dark in here?

It is pitch dark, there is no light. I can't see anything. No, it's fine, a little. Two floating by my heads and I let one trail behind the group and one float about 10 feet in front. It's dim light. Right. I'm going to grab Yasha before we follow everyone in.

I'm just going to grab both your hands. I'll do my dim, too, just to have it personal. I don't know what we're going to find in there, but the sky is obviously after you, yeah? Yeah. And I know we were kind of joking about it before, but if anything gets too hard, or if you don't want to hear what he's saying,

just say the word and we'll all have your back. Okay. I don't want you to worry. Okay. And I know that Okay. I don't want you to worry. Okay. And I know that you lost your family, but we can be your new one, and

we love you very much, Yasha. No matter what happened. Okay? Okay. Thank you, Jester. We can do this. We can do this. I have an idea. Oh. Calm down. I think, um, I think on the gate it said,

Let lie the king's instrument, and I think it's a rock harp. A what? A rock? I think you're right. Yeah. No jester was saying, yeah. It's a joke, it's not a real thing, guys.

I'm going to step to the side just privately, put my hood up and try as quietly as I can. Hello, Stormlord. I just wanted to say that, I don't know, maybe we're doing something stupid right now, but I don't know where you are, but maybe you could turn your gaze this way

in case we need you. Thank you. Okay. Go back to the rest of the group. You step inside and get two steps into the shadows before you hear a distant rumble of thunder and a cloudless sky.

It seems. Ah! Excuse me. Yes? May I borrow you for three minutes, right here? 30 minutes? Yes. Three minutes.

Okay. I pull out the pearl and I cast Fortune's Favor on both Yasha and myself. I also cast Gift of Alacrity on Yasha. So that's basically one re-roll for you and also increased initiative. Amazing. Thank you, Caleb.

I'm shaking. All right. We'll let the globule lead the way. Mm. Continuing on. 100 feet. 200 feet. You start picking up footprints, faint, but recent. You gather these are probably Obann's, hopefully.

Mm-hmm. One track, one set? Yeah, one set or multiple? One set. Just one? Okay. It continues at a slight decline, one way, hooking to the right before straightening once more at a slight decline one way, hooking to the right before straightening once more and heading almost back in the direction

of Bazzo's hand slightly. Stone walls around us? It's all a smooth, carved cave. It's a little rough and natural looking, but it's been hollowed out to represent a hall or a tunnel that would function. Continuing in this path, for a little over a mile,

carefully moving forward, the globes slowly drifting ahead, weapons at the ready, listening for anything. The tunnel just goes on and on and on, and it's silence and it's darkness, and the cooler interior, there's that little thought in your brain that creeps up that's like, how long does this go?

Is this infinite? You push nearing the second mile before the walls stop and it just opens beyond. This hallway opening into some sort of chamber or variation beyond where the walls are no longer there. Okay, Caleb. Frumpkin appears by my feet. Okay. Okay, Caleb.

Frumpkin appears by my feet. Be very quiet, please. Stealth check for Frumpkin. I want to use my Fragment of Possibility. Okay. Do you want to? Yeah, one for each other is much better. So that's 21.

Okay, Thumpkin shifts into the chamber. Perception check for Thumpkin. Shit, I don't have Cat open. I think it's 16. Okay, I'll go ahead. As Frumpkin pushes in, this small, 17. Okay, this small, seven by six foot tunnel,

this domed tunnel opens up into a much larger tunnel that is cylindrical, 40 feet end to end, 40 feet top to bottom. It just emerges into it, going to the left and right. Is there anything in? It's just a big ball. Some tumbled rocks, but it's just a long cylindrical tunnel,

like a big pipe or tube, 40 feet by 40 feet. So you're saying a T? Yes. And a tube going like that. And or tube, 40 feet by 40 feet that does this. You're saying a T? Yes. And a tube going like that. And a tube going left to right. Yeah. Caleb, what direction have we been traveling this whole time?

Can't hear shit. Oh, right. I send... I start whispering to the group, I made a tea in the road with my cat and he can go left or right. Any thoughts? Tap me on the left shoulder for left, right for right.

Tap him on the left. Which way would put us closer to the tower? Right. Oh, it would. It would send us closer to the tower. Right. Oh, it would. It would send us back. Top right. Okay. Frumpkin continues on for about another 15 or so minutes,

the tunnel curving slightly, winding one way to the next. Little bits of rubble and bits of rock that had fallen in just through time and erosion. Who knows? But it's mostly just a smooth cylinder. 20 minutes go by. Frumpkin continues.

Come inside, have a nice cup of tea. Go meet the missus. I would be looking through his eyes for anything, amiss, any secret worm doors or anything like that, but you would have said, it's a bit far. I'm going to summon him back. He just walked for a very long time, and nothing changed, I'm going to summon him back. He just walked for a very long time

and nothing changed, I'm returning, and I will have him walk five minutes in the other direction and see if it's anything different, but it could be a very long tunnel. Well, we'll keep walking towards it anyway, so. Okay, so you guys continue walking and you're walking along with them as you're meeting up with Frumpkin, or?

No, I was going to have Frumpkin come back to the T and then go a little bit further in the other direction. Okay. Not as long. So about 20 minutes, Frumpkin to return. Frumpkin goes about five minutes to the opposite direction before he is met with the end of the tunnel. Full cave and collapse.

Large, grated pile of stones and rubble. This side has just fallen in on itself. Look. I was going to ask the camera. I'm related to the group. How's the cave-in? That decides for us. Yeah, it does.

Let's go. What does that decide? The left is caved in, so there's only one way to go. Unless the cave-in is... A disguise. A disguise of some sort. Well, we can also search. It was only five feet.

It's true, five minutes. That's what they meant. Let's go check it out. Yeah. All right. So you guys continue down the right path. Left to the cave-in. Left to the cave-in? Just to check it out. Okay. You guys head towards the cave end,

you finish the path, and you come to the base of it. Stones of all sizes, large bits that have tumbled in, smaller, broken up rubble that has just fully collapsed in. Touch the rocks. There's a few places to make sure, just physical and real. Okay, it is physical. Yeah. Oh, it's real. Okay. Focus for a second, close your eyes.

Nothing. Does there appear to be any? Discernible ceiling? Yeah, like ceiling that looks like you could potentially peer over the rubbish. Make a perception check. I'll join on that. 13, 16 total.

Okay, you need to do this one. You guys have to climb up a bit to get to the edge of it to really see. 25, nice. The way the ceiling is, it isn't like just rocks were piled in. The ceiling is actually falling in and it's this precarious situation

where the rubble is holding these large sections of shale and heavy rock from falling in further. So it fully collapsed in and is just held by a perfect meeting of both sides holding the weight. That's not great. Can I get up there to take a look at least? There is no gap. It is literally like two bits are pushed together

and it is a closed. I back away from it. Yeah, I think we should be careful of cave-ins. Caduceus, catch me. I'm just going to. Yeah, maybe things like of the explosive variety, we try to limit if we can. Oh, you're smart.

So the other way, then? Yep, let's do it. All right. Let's send my cat, you know, 10 minutes ahead of us, and I'll just walk behind, and if the right. Let's send my cat, you know, 10 minutes ahead of us and I'll just walk behind and if the worst happens, it happens to him, and I'll bring him back. Okay.

Roll a perception check for Frumpkin, please. Anything watching us, anything? Perception check for me as well. All right, Frumpkin is moving. I'm going to hold, keep my hand along the wall. See if there's any hidden things along the walls. I'll do the other wall. Okay, both you guys make investigation checks

as you have your hands going passing by. Go. What'd you get? I rolled a one. One and a one on both perception checks, great. You're supposed to be good at this. Nine, ten. Okay, rocking this, guys.

So. But Frumpkin's still out there. Yeah, no, Frumpkin. Caleb's trailing behind Beau. Frumpkin's still out there. Yeah, no, Frumpkin. Caleb's trailing behind Beau. Frumpkin goes on and continues ahead. You guys continue to walk and walk and walk. The tunnel itself degrade ever so faintly, just winding side to side, retracing Frumpkin's steps.

Continue on. Do we still see the footprints? Off and on. This area is less soft earth and more hard rock, and there's less of a chance to actually witness footprints at this point. And so you lose the trail, but you recall the direction it was traveling.

You continue on. Frumpkin eventually realizes the tunnel is curving at more of a steeper and steeper slope, to the point where it begins to get a dangerous amount of steepness. Is it smooth? It's smooth, but not super smooth, like a slide. It's not the goodies.

Yeah. Right, right. But it is a carved tunnel that continues to drop down. You guys, being a bit behind Frumpkin, pick up something that Frumpkin missed. There is, off to the right side of the tunnel, an obelisk. An obelisk that emerges from the ground, rising up about 15 or so feet.

Four sides to it that comes to a gradual point, like a needle, and it just sits there. It's a different stone, and it just barely comes into your periphery, and you all stop. Nope, nope, nope. No one touch it. Touch it? Don't get anywhere near it.

Yeah. What color? It's a slate gray, like a graphite, almost. Are there any symbols on it that we can see? You just came into your periphery. You have to get closer to check. How far away are we at the moment? Right now, you're at 90 feet.

Oof. We've stopped. We've stopped. I would talk to you, but you can't hear me. Frumpkin is looking down a hill. It's getting, it's going down. I'm going to hold, because we're holding. I give him a tap to let him know.

I nod. It's a green. What? You want to sneak up? No. You can do this. I can? Yeah.

Yeah. Just make sure there are no traps. Just try and get close enough to see if there's anything you can see, you don't want to mess with it. All right. Sure. I'll walk up to the obelisk. Stealthily?

Nope. Wait. Okay. I'll go look for traps. Go for it. Do I have to get right up on it to search? Pretty close, within five feet or so. 28. Great.

You don't see any signs of traps. You do notice two things. One, there is writing along each side of the obelisk, like vertical symbols that look like this. That's it. Oh! Oh, man! And beyond that right side where the obelisk is,

there is another tunnel. Whoa! And beyond that right side where the obelisk is, there is another tunnel. Whoa! A small 10 foot by 10 foot square tunnel that pushes to the right. Totally. Do we under, oh, we don't see that. Do you know what that is? What languages do you know?

I barely anything. Common and Goblin. You do not recognize this script at all. Can you copy it? You know who does? The wizard that can't hear or see anything. Can I see Frumpkin up ahead? No, Frumpkin is too far ahead for you to see. That's okay, I'll take an Eldritch Blast

and I'll just shoot it down the hallway 120 feet. So I. It doesn't go 120 feet because the increasing arc it does eventually hit the ceiling, but from Frumpkin's vision, you do see a burst of greenish-white energy just behind and above. What is that something's happening? All right, you're back.

Hey. Oh, hi. Question for you. There's some writing on this thing. You tell us what it is. Yeah. Yeah. Why didn't you tell us there was an obelisk in front of us? Tell us what it is? Yeah, yeah. Why didn't you tell us there was an obelisk in front of us? We did not see an obelisk.

You were literally, okay. It's dark. I'm just doing my best. 10 minutes, please. 10 minutes? Start casting Comprehend Languages. I think it's 10 minutes. Let's have a quick look to see if anyone recognizes that language.

I know Celestial and Sylvan. Celestial, Sylvan? Deep Speech. Your languages? Orc Baby. Got it. Infernal. What's Orc Baby sound like? Infernal? Oh, blah, blah, blah, blah.

A China Nelvish. Okay. Abyssal and Celestial Encomas. You can read this. Oh! Fuck yeah. One thing to note, the script has been defaced. Heavy scrape marks across it.

Someone has gone out of their way to try and erase the script or deface it. Didn't we see that once before? Does it look anything like the carvings back in? Yeah, there was the... Asarius? Yeah, where the succubus was. This is different.

What you saw then were them chiseling new markers into stone that weren't there before. They were setting what was to be a gateway. This looks like abyssal symbols that have been defaced and long ago. What the fuck? This is what you read. Ooh!

Come on, come on, come on. So cruel. Not looking. What does it say, Yasha? It says, build every bridge, become every nightmare, feast on every heart. Nope. Nope. Building bridges sounds nice.

What are we doing here? Is it written in Abyssal? Yeah, this is Abyssal. So the entrance was in Celestial. So it was probably the Celestials that tried to scratch this out, yeah? That would make sense. Build every bridge.

One more time, please, Yasha. Build every bridge, become every nightmare. Become every nightmare. Feast on every heart. Feast on every heart. These people don't sound very nice. No. Build every heart. Feast on every heart. These people don't sound very nice. No. Build every bridge.

Yeah, but build every bridge is pretty fancy. And that is what it says all around it? On each side, it's the same script. Same script, I assume. Have all four been finished? All four been defaced, yeah. Build every bridge. Maybe build every bridge means open up the doorways between the worlds. Yes, yeah. Build every bridge. Maybe build every bridge means

open up the doorways between the worlds. Yes, correct. Yeah. Which is what I've been seeing of a lot. This is some cult shit. Are there any areas on the obelisk that are inserts, any shapes that would be? Make an investigation check. And there's a new passage behind this, right?

There is, a hallway beyond that, which the globes haven't been placed in to get much of a presence. 24. 24, good roll. You do a thorough inspection. You feel confident there is no slot, nothing beyond just it being a marker.

Okay. So the way that we were headed, where Frumpkin was going, it just sort of slopes down into the place. Slopes down to a point where it would be? Untenable? Untenable without the help of magic, and who knows where it goes.

Yeah. Do we want to push some light in here? Let's do that. To the side. I think so. Okay, the globes go in, and about 50 or so feet down this 10 by 10 hallway, you see a set of doors, stone doors that are pushed open inward,

leaving a two-foot gap. The doors have already been opened, and they're just left ajar. You can see carvings in each door, but you have to get closer to make out the detail with the low light. Any fresh footprints leading up to them? You're making a perception check.

Perception? Three. Three? Can't catch anything. Here, I pick up Frumpkin and I set him on Nott's shoulders. I sneak up there so I can get a look at that writing. Will you look quietly? Okay. Yeah. I might can get a look at that writing, quietly. Okay. Yeah.

I might take out a rag. Sneaky as possible. And put it over one of the globules when it floats. Do you get advantage of stealth? It's dim covered. Already? I do. Okay. Stealth?

Yes, carefully, please. All right. 27 for stealth. All right, so you stealthily make your way up with the globe. Covered globe. Globe of light. Right.

Dim on covered, so. Very dim. I've got darkvision. I don't need it, probably. But I need to see. Oh. Okay. All right. So you're watching through. Through Frumpkin's eyes, you know, Nott's shoulder.

So you approach the doors that are partially open this way from your perspective. You can see the chamber opens beyond them. No light either. As you approach, you can see the reliefs on these doors are actually sculptures. Humanoid. You see two figures, one on each door,

beautiful alabaster, humanoid features, smooth skin, no hair, looks like folded wings on their back, robes, and they're both just blank expressions. How far are the figures in there? They're on the doors. Oh, they're on the doors that I just carved?

At the cusp of. You walk up and you approach and see these as you approach. You also see what looks to be, as you get closer, trails of crimson down the front of the statues. Sure, sure. These are the statues, again, on the doors?

On the doors. Okay. So the doors, oh god. And that red is painted? It's by design, obviously. You'd have to get closer to see it. Does it look like the wet? I'll touch. Yeah, good. It is wet.

Yeah! Does it taste like blood? It tastes very iron-like. Ooh! Oh, gross. You can see it trailing down the front and on the bottom at the base of the doors, there's a small pool where they've dragged in.

It looks like this is a recent thing. This is how they open the doors. I'll take that little kitty cat and give it a recent thing. This is how they open the doors. I'll take that little kitty cat and give it a little kiss. I love you, Frumpkin. Put it down and go invisible, and I'm going to go in the door. No!

Okay. You guys watch as, at the core end, there's the slight globe. Frumpkin gets placed down and Nott just vanishes from sight. Oh no. She's not even drunk. Yeah, checks out.

I've relayed that to the group since they were ahead. Can't let her go in there by herself. She's not even drunk. We don't want to run in. We'll totally fuck everything over. I look behind us. Anything there? Make a perception check. 11.

Best to your knowledge, nothing seems to be nearby behind you. I tell Frumpkin to go in and hide the door and the wall, whatever is in there, and try to see anything. So you're still focusing on Frumpkin? I'm not sending the light in, though,

because I don't know what the hell is in there, but so Frumpkin is sitting in there. All right. Perception check with disadvantage on Frumpkin. Standard perception check for you, please. I obey. I'll do perception. 12, 17, and three. You enter.

There is no continuation of the tunnel. As you walk through the doors, you are in a subterranean courtyard. A crescent that, if you're standing at the doors, opens up around what looks to be a large, somewhat curved wall, floor to ceiling. Like if you were to imagine a tower was buried and you uncovered one side, there is a courtyard

that sits right around this heavy wall. The ground itself is uneven with rocks and scraps of metal. It looks like parts of a scattered junkyard, almost. There are all of these statues, all humanoids sitting, all facing this wall, probably a dozen or so. They all appear to be of a white stone, smooth head, no hair, folded wings across the back,

robes all sitting and all facing this structure. Oh fuck! This structure is, again, it's a platform, it's a stage? No, it's a curved wall. It's like you're walking to the outside of a tower of some kind. A courtyard outside a tower. Correct, so there's a courtyard wall. It's like you're walking to the outside of a tower of some kind. Courtyard outside a tower. Correct.

So there's a courtyard that you're in, and then there's just what looks to be a wall, like an exterior wall of something beyond. Is there a door? You'd have to get closer to look. Go look, baby. Yeah, of course. See if it's shut.

Okay, you walk through, and you're looking left to right, all these statues, all these angelic statues, also bleeding from the eyes. Fuck, fuck, fuck! We are fucked! Looking, you can see the piles of rubble. You see what looks to be a broken sword on one side.

You haven't even paid much attention to what is scattered amongst the floor here. As you approach this large wall, it looks of almost a deep black stone, it looks of almost a deep black stone, no windows, and there are grooves about every 10 feet or so that just striate up the side.

You can see a single adamantine door that sits in the center of the side, and you can see what looks to be a single adamantine door that sits in the center of the courtyard, in the center of the wall, that is raised up about two feet. No! And the path continues below it. Oh, it's been lifted up. It's been lifted up. Two feet?

But only two feet. But only two feet. About a foot and a half. Look out of the downtime. a half. Not enough blood. Straight up. Not enough to power the wheel. I'm going to walk in. You walk in after Nott? Mm-hmm.

I'm going to just tap Death Ward as you're walking away. Oh, that's not okay. Because you have Death Ward on you for the next eight hours. I'm going in with her, come on. Yeah, I'm going to flank the doors, but let her go ahead. Okay, you guys come into the chamber behind Nott.

Some of the boughs. You take in the same scenery around you. You see the large door. The door is like 20 feet wide and about 15 feet tall from what you can see as it's lifted up. The same scattering of the courtyard around you, the same statues.

Someone tell if this shit's evil or not. Just throw it in the air. It doesn't look it. As I watch Yasha walk in, I am going to stealthily search her pockets for anything. All right, make a sleight of hand check. Natural 20. Oh!

What does Nott find? A couple of coins, some flowers, maybe some sunflower seeds. Nothing. Yeah. Sorry. Yasha has one for material items. Sorry, it's me, it's just me, I'm here. Can I look around the room

and perception check to see what I see? Take in the room. Yeah, make perception check. Okay. I just rolled a natural one. It's hard to look around, and there's an ominous sense here, and you sense this weird tickle,

like something is just near you. Do I? Oh! Is this place familiar to me? No. I work a lot with substances and materials. If I look at the blood on one of these statues' faces, am I able to investigate it to tell how long ago

this was become wet? Sure, make a medicine check. Medicine. Ooh, yeah. This is to know the consistency and coagulation of a blood-like substance. 16. 16. Coagulation check. Indeed.

This is maybe a day old to two days old. Okay. And the blood looks like it's actually coming from the statue? As you inspect and get close to the statue and look, it is a very slow, gradual stream. It is actually producing blood. And it's still going? It's still coming.

Oh, fuck it, work it out. In those striations on the wall, do they have blood trickling down them or up them? They do not have blood at all. Just an aspect of this, then. At the base of the statues, does it look like they've rotated or disturbed the earth at all? Make an investigation check.

Check the floor around them. 20. 20? 19, sorry. Okay, no worries. No, the statues have not been moved. They are stationary and appear to have been placed there intentionally. But you do look around the base, too, and find, amongst the dirt and rubble that's in the vicinity, as you look around the base, too, and find, amongst the dirt and rubble

that's in the vicinity, as you look around, you find ruined feathers of white. You find they've been dirtied with age and dust. You look and can see other shattered swords and broken armor covered in soot that's just been left and dusted over, twisted beyond use. Because you rolled so well,

you glance over to one of these suits of armor off to the left side of it, and you see this little exposed flash of white amongst one of the pieces of twisted armor. Go over and check it out. You pull it, and it's a bone, but smooth, pure, just covered in a pile of dirt.

No grime, no just... Well, you see an exposed part of it and it's just... I'll pull on it. Okay, you tug it on and as you pull it out, all the dirt just falls off of it, like it never quite held onto it, and glance down and there's more. There's actually what looks to be

probably a mostly buried skeleton amongst this piece of armor. Does the bone look like it's humanoid in size or larger? It looks a little larger. Yeah, I want to join Fjord, and I speak Celestial, so I've probably studied this. Does it look like an aasimar's bone? You've studied Celestial as a language,

but you've had some studying. I'd say go ahead and make a religion check for me. While he's doing that, are all these statues in the same pose? They are. Are they all on pedestals or feet on pedestals? They're all sitting on the ground. Their hands are just sitting in their lap.

They're not standing. They're on their knees? They're all sitting on their knees, looking forward, and the blood that's coming down is pulling in their lap. They're not standing. They're on their knees? They're all sitting on their knees, looking forward, and the blood that's coming down is pulling in their hands and is spilled off into the dirt in front of it. 16. 16. Looking through and rummaging around, you can see bones that appear to have been part of wings, and you gather that these entities were celestial

in some degree. Okay. There is a skull, there is a full skeletal corpse there of this creature. Holding a bone, I just look over at Yasha. Mm. I go over and I look at it. Now that you have this information, look around.

There's probably a handful of celestial corpses buried amongst the refuse here. Any non-broken weapons or non-ruined armor pieces? You can make an investigation check to try and give the whole room a once-over, if you like. It'll take you a little while, but you can do it. I'll try. Maybe the statues were the people that fell. I'll try. Maybe the statues were

the people that fell. Yeah. You know, the people that died trying to. 25. 25. I'm going to entomb this guy. Maybe the good people too. I'm going to help her to detect magic

while we're in the room, too. Okay. Glancing around, all the statues give off a faint magical essence. So immediately the whole room lights up around you. The statues give off a faint magical essence. So immediately, the whole room lights up around you. The statues give off. The statues do. Looking around, there are no unruined weapons. All the armor and weaponry here

has been sundered in some way a long time ago. Fuck. If it were magical, it wouldn't be sundered. Anything of value was probably taken or just isn't here. Can I... Of course. I want to go up closer to one of the statues and just get a closer look, because

I haven't quite seen anything like that before. Okay. It feels... They're a little larger than humanoid. Their proportions are a little larger, a little bigger than you or most anybody else you've come across. What do you inspect? What do you do with the statue? Just see their wings and...

Planetaries. I want to touch it. Okay, you go ahead and reach out and touch the statue and there's a very faint vibration to it. You run your fingers across it and there's just that thrums and gets stronger and lesser, an inconsistent pattern of vibration as you touch it.

Nott, did you? Over here! Did you feel something funny when you touched the statue? I don't think so. You didn't really touch it. I just touched the blood. The blood, yeah. Wait, what do you mean funny? I didn't think so. You didn't really touch it. I just touched the blood. The blood, yeah. Wait, what do you mean funny?

I didn't sense anything. It vibrates. It probably, I could give it a try. You feel another statue, and you feel what she's feeling. It's inconsistent. Like a heartbeat. But it's jagged and Arrhythmic. But then you feel for a second and there is a rhythm to it.

Like seven or so consistent types of vibration. How many are there again? Repeating? Yeah. There are a little over a dozen, it's going to be 14 statues in here. They're repeating patterns? 14 statues. Are the statues different at all? No, they're all the same.

This door, this gate, is connected to these dead Celestials. It makes me nervous about his fascination with you in particular. 19. 19, they all appear pretty identical. Does there appear to be a mechanism attached to the door that That lifted it up?

From what you can tell. Go ahead and make an investigation check as you approach the door and check. Is the door opening at all, like minimally? We'll find out when this message comes out. My god, that's almost a natural choice. What they're looking at? I thought the door was raised.

It's raised about a foot and a half. Yeah, I want to know if it's coming up at all, like millimeters, if it's still raising. Yeah. 10. 10. Looking up at the door, you don't see any mechanism for it,

but you do see there's a tiny yellow gem that is affixed to the door. Oh. So the actual door, not above it. There is a, to the door, and you can see what looks like a loose chain and it dangles from it. Nott, could you tell if there's any footprints

in front of that little tiny door, just in case that fucker's invisible and in here with us? Is that giving off, oh, well, I've got the magic, I would have the detect magic up. So you walk up towards the door as well? There is a magical essence coming from that as well. From the chain and the gem, or just the gem? Just the gem. All right.

All right, I'll inspect to see if there's any footprints that go or crawl marks that go into the doorway. Okay, make an investigation check. I'll look down there, too. 24. 24, you do see what looks to be signs of limbs dragging through and underneath, pushing the dust aside.

Going to stare down underneath the door, too, see if I can get anything with the Detect Magic for the next 60 feet. Nothing from the door, no. All right. We got to go in here. Yeah. Yasha, you're in the middle.

Yes, I am. Still holding your hand to that weird... I'm going to... Is it music? Uh, I don't know. Yasha, I'm going to go put my hand on the one adjacent to this one that you're touching. Let's see if it's the same rhythm.

Okay. You guys hum out what you hear. Okay. Okay, you both feel it. You both look at each other and find a way to find a pattern, and it's identical. Buzz, buzz, buzz. It's an identical pattern, yeah.

It's identical? It's identical. I'm going to put my ear to one of the statues. Okay, you listen to it. You hear this faint, almost an oboe-like music track playing these notes repeatedly. There's music. LAURA and LAURA and LAURA and LAURA. Does it sound sad or does it sound...

LAURA and LAURA and LAURA and LAURA. It's... It doesn't sound either. It doesn't sound sad or happy. It just sounds like music. Someone's working very hard to keep something inside this. Let lie the king's instrument.

Uh-huh. Oh my god, it is a metal harp. It is a metal harp. It's a fucking metal harp. How did you guys know? The bridges are a... They appear to be stones, like a smooth alabaster. I'm going to try something maybe kind of dumb,

but I'm going to, maybe because of, you know, being Celestial, I'm going to stand by that door and just look at that thing and see if maybe it'll be like, oh, hey, we'll let you in. All right, you approach and stand before the door, look it over, look at the gem that Beau pointed out. Nothing. Nothing.

I'm going to sing out loud the song that Ogoa hear. Okay. No reaction. You're standing amongst a bunch of angel bones and angel skulls. We're going to go in here. Yeah. We're standing amongst a bunch of angel bones and angel skulls. We're going to go in here. Yeah. Are we walking in?

Yeah. Can we all fit under? You can probably crawl through. Two feet gap, I think. Yeah. I don't like it. Frumpkin, Beau, me, Yasha, people for back support. Yeah. Cleric in the front, cleric in the back.

All right, just give me 30 seconds to take an initial peek. The globules float outside of the door, so hopefully a little bit spills in, and Frumpkin just walks in four feet in, past the gap. Okay. I'm looking.

Frumpkin moves beyond the doorway and passes immediately into an interior room about 80 by 60 feet. Best that you can see, lightless. There's a few pillars that Frumpkin can see. Make a perception check. With disadvantage, because there is no light in here. Ooh.

Perception? 14. Hey. 14. Yep. Vumpkin can just barely make out three pillars. There appears to be a collapsed corner on the right side, where some stones and bits of rock and parts of the wall have fallen in. That's all the firm can see from four feet in, yeah.

Does he smell anything odd? With that, there is an odd smell. It's a very beautiful smell. Yeah. It smells a bit earthy, but also like a faint bit of rot but also like a faint bit of rot mixed with sulfur. It's hard, there's a mingling of different minerals

that's alien to Frumpkin's nose. It's not super strong, but it's just faint and generally relegated around the floor. Okay, so it's very dark in there. I could send in the globules to light up the room, or we could go in. Let's go in. How often can you be invisible and not?

I'm still invisible. Another half hour or so, I assume. I'd rather do that than light it up, but that's just me. Maybe, oh, you can already see in the dark, yeah? Mm-hmm. Okay. Yasha. Yeah?

I get nervous that you're some sort of key to Obann's final plan. Seems like some celestial presence worked really hard to lock away something really bad. And this guy's interested in you. Oh. I think we might be walking the Keymaster into the Gatekeeper. Good reference.

Well. If that's the case, then... We'll protect you at all costs. I know that. But if it goes awry, and they do end up taking me, you guys know what to do. We do. He was also surprised to see you. I don't think this was part of his plan.

He was going to do what he's going to do anyway. I think you're right. While they are talking, I place my hand on Caduceus' wrist and spend a minute giving him the Gift of Alacrity as well. Okay. What does that do? 1d8 added to your initiative.

All right. Caduceus, oh wait, you can't. What? Fjord, you oh, wait, you can't. What? Fjord, you're pretty tall, right? Yeah. Why don't you look like Yasha? All right. I can do that. You can do that? Of course I can do that.

He can sound like her. He's good. How about you do it, too? I mean, for a while, yeah. I could do it to all of us if we wanted to. But they're tall. Yeah, now there's three Yashas, and two of us sound like we've been

at a ska concert all night. It'll be pretty obvious once the fight starts, but yeah. Well, to be fair, he doesn't know my voice, I think. Just lower yours, too, so you sound closer to Fjord. Can you sound like Fjord? Yeah, super-thumb. Well, hey, well. Well, hey.

Well, well. All right. Well, well. Look like Yasha's doing it. How's your Fjord voice? Well, hell. It's pretty good. Yeah, I think we have a similar timber, to be fair.

All right, what are we doing? You want me to go in? All right, Fjord, give me the flask. The flask? The flask, you stole my flask, I know you did it. I don't have it. Fucker. I'll fucking kill you.

Sorry. I'm really just distracted right now, it's all right. You're dead. All right, I'm going in. All right. You all stand behind the door. Oh my god. Surrounded by errant scraps and bones and angel skulls

amongst statues faced. As Nott climbs low beneath the adamantine door and onward to the chamber within. Let's roll a pickaxe. No! Oh my god, Vecna! There it is. Dibba dibba dibba dibba dibba dibba dibba dibba.

Dibba dibba dibba dibba dibba dibba dibba dibba. Oh my god. Stuck. I know. This is fine, Mal. This is for a spell. This is fine. Bleeding eyes from three times.

This statue's creepy as balls. It's my favorite statue. Your favorite? Yes. My favorite statue? I don't know favorite statue. You're on purpose! Yes. I don't know what the fuck you're building, but yes. What are you building? Angel of Death triumphed. Sick fuck.

Oh man, this is so fun. What's he building in there? Maybe they call you Orphan Maker because you had a ton of groupies and you just made a ton of offspring. Maybe these were your disciples. Everywhere you went. I was thinking they called you Orphan Maker

because when drunk, you claim to have written the musical of Annie. Yeah. So. Orphan Maker. The sun come out yet? Fitting for Ashley Johnson. So many layers.

Yeah, there you are. Layers. The storm will come out. Dreams come true. There you are, players. The storm will come out! Dreams come true. I love it. All right, we'll pick up from there next week. Maybe you killed a lot of kids' parents. Maybe.

Or you fucked a lot of people. Oh god! We're both saying. That technically doesn't make orphans? Yeah, technically. Technically. Technically. Semantics.

Unless you very strongly convince them each time that you were killed and they assume they're an orphan. And you convince the other party to leave that child in front of an animal. That's true. All right then, we'll pick this up next week. Have a wonderful week, everyone. We love you very much, and is it Thursday yet?

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