Critical Role - C2E85 The Threads Converge
Episode Date: November 21, 2019The Mighty Nein find danger in an unexpected place when they're forced to contend with an assassin, and inch closer to uncovering truths about both the Angel of Irons and themselves...Watch Critical R...ole live Thursdays at 7pm PT on https://www.twitch.tv/criticalrole
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Hello, bees!
This is Laura Bailey, here to welcome you to the Critical Role podcast.
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let's get into another episode of Critical Role.
Hello everyone, and welcome to tonight's episode of Critical Role,
where a bunch of us nerdy-ass voice actors sit around and play Dungeons & Dragons.
We're Dungeons & Dragons!
That was nice, you guys.
That was a thing.
So before we jump into tonight's
already starting off crazy episode,
we have a few announcements to get through,
beginning with our fantastic sponsors for the night.
The first one, our friends,
since the beginning of this fantastic storyline,
D&D Beyond. D&D Beyond!
Oh, Brick!
Oh, Brick!
I've made a major discovery!
Look, whatever it is, make it fast, Sordi.
My life expectancy is shorter than your pubes.
Okay, listen, D&D Beyond wants you to know
about a brand new rule and adventure book,
Dungeons & Dragons vs new rule and adventure book, Dungeons and Dragons
versus Rick and Morty, releasing next week
on Tuesday, November 19th.
DNA was a major discovery, Sortie, okay?
Nuclear fusion was a major discovery.
Another Rick and Morty promo is more like
an unexpected taco burp. Okay.
Momentarily pleasurable, but about as rare
as Matt Mercer dropping the words toothy maw into a tabletop game.
Don't you get it, O'Brick?
You can play D&D through the lens of the mad genius
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and find out what happens when his high power
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are paired with the world of D&D.
That's pretty cool, right?
Sarcastic meta commentary?
Sounds like something Sam, pay attention to me,
Regal would do in one of his D&D Beyond ads.
Oh, okay, Obrin, just shut the fuck up and listen.
You can pre-order now and it'll appear
in your D&D Beyond account on the 19th.
Sorry, the only account I have is on Pornhub,
thank you very much.
After you shot your wad here,
let's end this bit.
I have a one shot to run in an alternate timeline
that's 10% less fucked up than this one.
Chop chop.
Okay, find out more and order at
dndbeyond.link slash Rick and Morty.
Rub-a-dub-a-dub-dub!
Yes! Wow.
Oh, five stars!
Some of your best. Some of your best.
It's going to work.
Recast for Morty, but Rick was fucking great.
Yeah.
There you go, Roiland still has a job then.
There you go.
This is the amusement park Rick and Morty.
Yeah, exactly. That is the amusement park Rick and Morty. Yeah, exactly.
That is the bad hireable birthday actors, Rick and Morty.
Thank you very much, D&D Beyond,
for your fantastic continued sponsorship
and friendliness to our story.
And our second sponsor tonight is 10 Speed Press.
For those guys who haven't seen,
they've been releasing their Young D&D Adventures
Guide Series. It's awesome.
It's a rules-free introduction to D&D
specifically made for young and new players
that really emphasizes the creative elements
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They've already put out some awesome books,
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book, there's the Monsters and Creatures book,
and then coming up on November 26th, Dungeons and Tombs.
So slowly building that element there.
And then in March next year is the Wizards and Spells book,
so looking forward to that, too.
But for those of you who are trying to get your kids
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ah, it's too complicated for me,
these are kind of your thing.
They're actually really cute, the art's amazing,
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And thank you guys so much for supporting our show tonight.
Let's see, next up, Marisha, you got some announcements.
Oh man, oh man.
Tomorrow.
All day?
Uh-oh. 7 p.m.
Fucking Undead with its back! All day? Uh-oh. 7bm!
Fucking undead with its back! Woo!
Bitches!
Watch the reload circle turn there for a second.
It is the exciting conclusion
of our four-part miniseries.
Watch it, please.
Please. Watch it, please. Please.
Watch it live, because you're not going to want to
have it spoiled, and I can't guarantee that,
because shit is fucking crazy in this finale.
So grab a loved one, sit on a couch,
binge it tomorrow if you haven't,
and Deadwood tomorrow. Thank you, Marisha. Binge it tomorrow if you haven't. Undead would.
Tomorrow.
Thank you, Marisha. We'll be watching it live.
Oh yeah. Hell yeah.
Oh yeah.
Sitting on Brian's couch.
Snub it up in some telltale blankets.
Mm.
All right.
So nice.
Thanks. I actually really want one.
You're good at work either.
Travis, you have some things to chat about.
Yes, once again, for the month of November,
we have partnered with OSD.
Woo!
OSD, we have helped support our active
veteran military communities, and so far,
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Please give if you can.
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Love our military community so much.
It's so important that we get back to them
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We're doing it again all the way
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The link is critrole.com slash O-S-D.
Nailed it.
Oh, that was good.
Is that a backwards D? No, that's right. Okay, good. No, no, D was right. Nailed it. Oh, that's good. Is that a backwards D?
Oh, that's right.
Okay, good.
No, no, D was right, the S was right.
The S was right.
Two out of three, I bet.
Thank you, Travis.
And last up, next weekend in Austin, Texas,
we are having our live show,
The Adventures of the Darrington Brigade.
For those who are attending,
we'd like to remind you
to have a strict no-spoiler policy,
so those who will be there,
please do not post spoilers online for the show,
as you'll be the only ones to see it for a little bit.
It'll be held at the Abbas Concert Hall in Austin.
Super excited for it.
And for everyone else who cannot be there,
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on Friday, November 29th
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Is that the day after Thanksgiving?
So you can cuddle around with your family
and eat leftovers and watch us be silly at all?
Snuggle up in some taldore blankets.
All right, Laura.
All right, it is comfortable, but all right.
Yeah, I'm super excited.
Everyone's made their characters,
and it's going to be interesting.
There's some fun stuff in this one.
So yeah, check out all the information
at critroll.com slash events.
I believe that concludes my announcements,
and as such, I think it's time to bring us
into tonight's episode of Critical Role.
SAM and LAURA, and SAM and LAURA, and SAM and LAURA,
and SAM and LAURA, and SAM and LAURA, and SAM and LAURA,
and SAM and LAURA, and SAM and LAURA, and SAM and LAURA,
and SAM and LAURA, and SAM and LAURA, and SAM and LAURA,
and SAM and LAURA, and SAM and LAURA, and SAM and LAURA,
and SAM and LAURA, and SAM and LAURA, and SAM and LAURA,
and SAM and LAURA, and SAM and LAURA, and SAM and LAURA,
and SAM and LAURA, and SAM and LAURA, and SAM and LAURA,
and SAM and LAURA, and SAM and LAURA, and SAM and LAURA,
and SAM and LAURA, and SAM and LAURA, and SAM and LAURA, and SAM and LAURA,
and SAM and LAURA, and SAM and LAURA, and SAM and LAURA, and SAM and LAURA, SAM and LAURA, and SAM and LAURA, and SAM and LAURA, and SAM and LAURA, and SAM and LAURA, SAM and LAURA, and SAM and LAURA, and SAM and LAURA, and SAM and LAURA, and SAM and LAURA, SAM and LAURA, and SAM and LAURA, and SAM and LAURA, and SAM and LAURA, and SAM and LAURA, SAM and LAURA, and SAM and LAURA, and SAM and LAURA, and SAM and LAURA, and SAM and LAURA, I'm sorry. The adventure begins, they were always beside you
Your nerdy best friends and the DM to guide you
And they rise from the flames for the battles ahead
Villains beware cause you're about to be dead
They got magic and flair
They got falchions and cunning
They don't see over there
There's a monster incoming
Inspiration is waiting
Rise up, don't think twice
Put your fate in your hands
Take a chance, roll the dice
Roll the dice
Roll the dice
Roll the dice roll the dice Roll, critical Roll, critical
Roll, critical
Roll, critical
Can you answer the call?
Digging deep in your soul
As the legend unfolds
Now it's your turn
To roll
And welcome back.
So last we left off,
the Mighty Nein, through the help of some allies
they've gathered from now different parts of Exandria,
you uncovered the true form,
the true identity of the mysterious Angel of Iron's entity
that this cult was based around.
It turns out to be Thurisdun, the Chain Oblivion.
No big deal.
Uncertain if members of the cult are aware
that they're worshiping or along with this secret.
It's a very bad dude.
So you've began to gather information
about this individual and elements of Obann's possible plan.
As part of this endeavor, you've made your way to Zadash,
back in the Empire, to ask for some aid
as you were sent to Ormyd Haas,
one of the members of the Cerberus Assembly,
who has some sort of a connection
or old friendship with Yussa,
and you have started the process
of disseminating the information of the dangers
that seem to be mounting around you.
After which, you made your way to the Invulnerable Vagrant
to check up on the stock of items they have
and to just check in on good old Boomhead's soul.
After looking around at the wares,
which were a bit thin, as it seems that him
and his simulacrum have been focusing on producing items
that have been commissioned for the war effort
by the Cerberus Assembly.
Partway into this conversation, Caduceus felt
a sudden, terrible, sharp pain in your back.
All of you beginning to realize that a blade
had penetrated him between the shoulder blades,
and you watched as this entity,
this dark elf female figure with reddish hair,
pulled back a little bit by a black bandana,
swats and cloak and leathers,
seemed to be halfway emerging from the ground,
semi-spectral, and had stabbed Caduceus.
Smiling, then vanished back into the floor out of sight.
And that's where we left off.
So, Mighty Nein, roll initiative.
Oh!
I'm mad, I'm mad, I'm mad.
Bad dude.
Are you a bad enough dude to bring back the Betrayer Gods?
Eh.
That's pretty decent. Bad dudes.
Average.
That's a fuck. Average. Eh. Fuck's pretty tough. Bad dudes. Average. Average.
Average.
A-A-F.
So, starting at the top here, we have 25 to 20.
24!
Woo!
Yes.
Cerne, right?
20 to 15.
15.
Oh fuck.
Okay.
Wow.
Yeah. All right. Okay. Wow. Yeah.
15 to 10. 13. 12.
11.
Okay, so we have Jester.
Or Caduceus and Caleb.
You guys have had a couple of battles
where you guys weren't at the same time.
Fjord, you have?
11, so I'm.
That bit has ruined me because my head is just going
.
Hi-ya!
Yeah, it's good, so I'm lost.
All righty.
You guys are all of us?
So, top of the round.
You've just watched this creature,
this assassin-type entity,
vanish into the floorboards
underneath the invulnerable Vagrant.
Everyone's staring in shock.
It's your turn, what are you doing? Where, where? Stop. Shit. entity vanish into the floorboards underneath the invulnerable Vagrant. Everyone's staring in shock.
It's your turn, what are you doing?
Where, where?
Stop. Shit.
Turns out Morty and Nott are pretty close.
Where did they disappear down to?
Right behind Caduceus, right?
Oh shit, oh shit. Get it real high.
Get it up there.
Is that really it?
Somewhere in Fjordland's notes.
Right behind Caduceus, right there.
Okay.
Yeah, okay.
Oh, I can't, I have no shot.
You have no shot, you have no eyes on the creature.
Oh, she's gone.
She's sunk in the floor.
She's just here.
Inevitable end, I assume can see up through the floor,
I'm just guessing.
So in order to hide,
I'm going to go jump on that table.
That's not even sketchy.
You're going to jump on which table?
The one with the pillow.
The one in the middle?
We're going to treat it like Trevor's.
Yeah.
No move.
All righty, so you leap up onto the table there.
Bonus action, hide, get low.
Can't hide in the middle of a table
that's elevated in the middle of a chamber.
But I'm hiding from the bottom.
From the floor. Oh, from the floor.
From the floor, so they can't see me from below.
So you're underneath. No, no, no.
No, I'm over it,
assuming that whoever is under the floor can see up.
Okay.
But not through the bottom of it.
We'll see what it does.
Go ahead and roll a stealth check.
Okay.
With advantage, because of me.
Because of me, yeah, a million.
Like 30.
Your cloak blends into the actual coloration
and pattern of the wood on the top.
Then I will hold my action until I see an enemy.
Okay, what action are you holding?
Firing a crossbow-type device.
You got it. All right, that finishes Nott's go.
All right.
Oh fuck, already? Come on!
No!
God, there's no wheels.
I'm just writing the end for their turn.
Okay. What's your creepy laugh?
What's your creepy laugh?
It's not a creepy laugh.
As you all quietly look around, Nott jumps onto the table,
gets low on things to prepare.
The table is the inevitable end.
No!
Swooping up from underneath,
you see it rising into the air and actually
slightly floating about six or seven inches
off the ground, takes two strikes at Beauregard.
No, wait.
May I fire?
You may.
I'll take my shot.
It's going to go straight through.
Oh, not good.
Not good. Those balls, dude.
15.
15 misses.
Yeah, for sure it does.
It actually goes into the table
and everyone at this point has been looking around,
hears the sound of you fire the crossbow,
glance over and you see it emerge
and both blades going towards Beauregard.
The first attack against you.
Wait, what?
28 to hit?
28 to hit?
28.
Correct.
Yeah.
Barely misses. 28 to hit? Yeah. 28 to hit? 28. Correct. Yeah.
Just barely misses.
And the second attack is going to be 20.
20 is my AC.
So yeah, they both hit.
Okay.
So, that being the case, you take...
We didn't figure out what class we're thinking.
They are, right?
I wrote Black Seven.
10 points of slashing damage
from the blade, and then sneak attack,
because you did not know where she was coming from
from underneath.
It's going to be...
That's bad.
That's fine, what are you talking about?
Don't monks get their campy surprise or something?
I don't know, I'm just making this up.
Ah, no.
I hear a lot of dice.
I hear a lot of dice. I hear a lot of dice.
Can you take that feat?
I could.
The Absorbing feat.
I actually thought about it.
Additional 34 points of piercing damage.
How much? 34.
Okay.
In addition to the 10.
Correct. So that's 44.
44 points of piercing damage.
I need you to make a constitution saving throw.
Poison daggers.
That was their first attack?
Correct.
Ooh!
Although I don't, I don't, no, I do, I am.
That was one dagger did 40?
Correct.
Vax is attacking us.
The second one is coming.
What was it, poison?
I'm immune to poison.
That's right.
All poison?
Because of monk shit. Because of monk shit.
Yeah. Monk shit.
There you go.
The second attack does 11 points of piercing damage.
Oh.
Oh god.
But you are immune to poison, so no effect.
As the two strikes into you, you feel the pain,
you turn around to defend yourself.
You can see from the wounds this dark, dark liquid
beyond your own blood is spilling across the wound
and you can sense it would have been poison,
but your body rejects it entirely
and you can see this assassin grimace look
and is going to try and slip back under the floor.
Sentinel! Exactly.
You do. All right, go ahead and make an attack.
Are you poison conducive?
Nope. Okay. I got decent, go ahead and make an attack. Are you poison conducive? Nope. Okay.
I got decent. Brave cleric shit?
Okay.
No, 15.
15.
Bummer.
Slips back into the floor.
Coward!
Finishing their turn.
Beauregard, you're up.
Ow! Yeah, up. Ow!
Yeah, yeah.
Fuck!
I am going to...
Hit the floor.
I kind of, actually.
I'm going to stagger to the middle.
Okay.
I'm a three-point landing this shit.
They crouch down into like,
a low crow kind of thing thing and take patient defense.
Okay.
And that's my bonus action.
Can I hold my attack for if I see her?
See her within range? Within range.
Yeah.
If you have any daggers or things you want to throw,
you can do that. I guess I'm going to throw
my Anastarzies.
It's up to you.
And Jester, you are on deck. Who would I go for?
Actually, yeah, I'm going to stay right here
because I'm in this awesome cross section
where I'm between everybody.
You got it.
Okay, and you're holding either physical or ranged attack.
You can just hold attack and you can choose at the moment, actually.
That's fine. I'll allow that. All right, Jester, what's your dexterity, by the way? Okay, and you're holding your physical or ranged attack. You can just hold an attack and you can choose at the moment, actually.
That's fine, I'll allow that.
All right, Jester, what's your dexterity, by the way?
My dexterity? Yes.
Saving or just regular?
Just your regular, it's your dexterity score.
Four, plus four?
Oh, your dexterity, yeah, your dexterity's really high.
So yeah, you go, go ahead.
Oh, okay, I'm going to jump up on the table next to me.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, she's so cute.
And keep my back against the wall.
All right.
Not next to the window.
I'm going to, as an action, I'm going to Invoke Duplicity.
All righty.
And I'm going to make my duplicate
appear directly next to me,
and then I'm going to have her hop down off the table
and run across the room and jump up on the table
across the room and put it back to the wall over there.
You got it. Nice.
Oh god. And as my free action,
Yes.
Free action?
Can I kick the shield that's at my feet
and bring it up and use it?
Sure, do you have a shield?
Yeah. I have a shield already?
I have a shield.
Like a skateboard kick?
Yeah, skateboard kick.
Let me double check and see if it requires a toon mix.
Yeah, that's a big one. I don't know if it does,
because if not, that's pretty rad.
I don't have any of the spells that I want for this.
That you're like, oh, hell yeah.
You're fighting and stealing?
It does not require a toon mix.
Fuck yeah, yeah, skateboard kick it up,
grab onto it, kick, slam. All right, so. Skateboard, kick it up, grab onto it.
Kick, slam.
All right, so your armor class is considered one higher
for the duration of this encounter,
as long as you hold that shield.
All right.
For that base, I'm going to go ahead
and pull the shield off.
What about a field?
Woo!
Nicely shielded. Nicely shielded.
Thank you. Way to go.
All righty.
So Jester, is that the end of your turn?
Yes. All right. It's the Pumat's turn. The Pum that your turn? Yes. All right.
It's the Pumat's turn.
The Pumat's turn?
Ooh, they get to fight!
Oh, shit!
So Pumat, who sees this happen,
first he sees Caduceus make that face and go,
Oh, are you hungry?
Then sees the whole assault go,
Oh no, this is real bad.
Pumat's upstairs.
And this Pumat goes ahead and runs this way.
He's going to go ahead and double dash
and head back up the stairway out of the way.
Watch all the Pumats be blood hunters or something.
Yeah.
Crazy.
They start slicing their arms.
After Pumat Prime sees that one run off
and ensure the other two aren't down here,
looks back and sees all of you
getting up on tables and goes,
Well, I ain't one to miss a clue here.
Gets up on the counter and is going to go ahead and...
This'll be interesting.
I love it when you say that.
Is going to go ahead and,
the two people that look the most hurt right now
are Beauregard and Nott.
Or sorry, Caduceus, right? Yes.
It's going to go ahead and cast Greater Invisibility.
Ooh. Yo.
But has the ability called Split Enchantment,
which when it casts an enchantment spell
of first level or higher.
Actually, no, I don't know if it's an enchantment.
That's an illusion, shit.
I don't know if I can do that.
Split Enchantment? So you can split the card? Yeah,'t know if it's an enchantment. That's an illusion, shit. I don't know if I can do that. Enchantment?
Yeah. You can split the cost.
Yeah, no, that's not an enchantment spell.
That's not bad.
Instead.
Know everything about D&D.
I know.
No, we'll still go ahead and cast
Greater Invisibility on you,
because you're the one who seems to need it the most.
Does that mean I can't do anything without dropping Invisibility? That means you, Greater Invisibility on you, because you're the one who seems to need it the most. Does that mean I can't do anything
without dropping Invisibility?
Greater Invisibility means you can use anything you want.
You can cast spells, whatever, and remain invisible.
But someone just bought them, right?
So, can we buy them in here?
That's true.
I only have one.
There you go. Who bought the potion?
Who has all those potions?
I think we bought them as a group.
You did, but somebody's holding them, right?
That's Fjord and Caduceus.
It would've been Fjord and Caduceus
because they were at the table, yeah.
All right, and then Pumat's going to move up
against the wall as well,
so everybody else getting up against it right there.
Yeah.
Yeah.
All righty.
So you are, for the time being, invisible.
Cool.
That's going to finish Pumat's turn.
That brings us to Caduceus and Caleb.
You guys can choose between the two.
I'm going to back up into the stairs.
Okay, like onto the stairs?
Yeah, I think onto the stairs.
Like right around there?
Yeah, probably halfway up, just to sort of like,
yeah, but yeah, so I'm.
I'll say for the purposes of that.
And I'm holding a spell.
Okay, what spell are you holding?
Holding Bane. Bane, okay, got it.
We'll consider this to be you halfway up the stack.
Okay. All right.
Caleb, what are you doing?
Caleb was examining a brass lantern
when all this happened, and he turned and saw
shunk, shunk, shunk, ffff, people disappeared,
so the brass lantern goes to the floor,
and Caleb just goes fff just goes and is also invisible.
All righty.
And will woodenly climb up onto the table
that he's in front of.
I like that all of us are just like,
I don't know. It's a rat.
There's a rat lost.
I'll use that for you for the time being.
That'll work. Yeah.
All righty.
So that finishes your turn,
and then that brings us to Fjord.
Yes, I will also hop up on the bar.
All right.
In front of me, and I will turn to face,
yeah, the main floor, and I will hold Eldritch Blast
whenever we see InvisiFuck.
You got it. Yeah.
All right, top of the round, not.
But they're not here.
It's eerie and quiet.
Everyone's in position,
and there's just this tension in the air,
not quite sure where they're going to pop up.
Good god.
I will bonus action.
Well, I can't really hide because they know where I am,
unless I scramble and go somewhere else. I will bonus action, well, I can't really hide because they know where I am
unless I scramble and go somewhere else. I'm going to scramble across to the bookshelf
and hide on the third shelf up.
Over here? Yeah.
Okay.
The third shelf.
Fuck, so that's good.
It shrinks in. Yeah.
I'll allow it.
Being a goblin.
I'm going to ready my bola shot,
my trappy, yeah.
Okay. And ready it.
Roll your stealth check for your hide.
Gremlin on a toy shelf.
Stealth was not great. 15.
15, got it, okay.
Next up. 16.
The figure emerges here under the floor.
I saw her!
Actually, I bet Bane, I would be first,
so Bane first. Okay, great.
Correct.
So Bane, what is the saving throw on that?
17 charisma.
17 charisma.
And my throw card.
Fail.
Yeah!
Take it!
Hit it!
Bane makes her weaker.
Saves, it's a Bane means that.. Saves an attack minus a d4.
Yeah.
Saving throw and attack rolls.
No!
Bane.
Okay.
All right.
All right.
Why?
All right, so that goes off,
and then now, Nott, you can take your attack.
Okay. And you can take your axe off.
Eldritch Blast goes off.
Oh, yeah!
Go for it.
And my Throwing Dart. for it. And my throwing dart.
All right.
And my axe.
That one totally misses.
Wait, wait, before it finishes.
Oh!
If only that was something better than a dart.
17.
What is it?
17?
Was it 17?
Move, move, damn it!
Darn.
Darn.
We're all on them.
19.
19.
I heard a tit or something.
19 hits.
19 hits. 19 hits, good to go.
19 hits, that's good.
One, two, three.
One, two, three, four.
11 points of force damage.
Okay.
So you fire the Eldritch Blast. It strikes or seems to strike,
but right where it hits and impacts,
the image fades and now you can see
the figure has been to the right of it
and there's now two other illusory versions
floating around it.
This is your fault.
I'm blaming you.
I'm blaming all this on you.
I think I got that one. Yeah.
So now there are two images of it
that are shifting in and out of its space
now that it's triggered.
Go, go, go, go, go, go.
Do I have to pick one to do that?
What was your second attack?
That was the second, the first one.
Oh, that was? Gotcha.
All right, now you go.
Do natural 20.
Awesome. Oh, I'll get it.
So, and darts are just d4, right?
We have got the debate about this
and I always fucking forget.
Right, technically it's dagger.
I mean, I'm okay with letting it be considered
a martial weapon because you made it to be that way,
but we're considering it,
you were making it to be a monk weapon, that's fine.
I'll say that in the time that's happened,
you've adjusted it, so go for it.
So that's a d6, right?
That's whatever your martial arts score is.
Cool, roll bit!
Oh.
It's always to one.
Seven ed. That's crit.
Double that crit!
To two, plus. Two for an awesome total of eight.
Hey man, that's eight points that she didn't.
Eight points of damage.
It hits, but you can see the armor
takes most of the brunt of it,
and as soon as it impacts, she reaches down
and grabs it and throws it onto the floor.
Looks back at you angrily.
Awesome, pick that up later.
Actually, it doesn't look back at her angrily
because she's not there.
What? Beau's there. I'm not invisible.
Oh, you're not invisible?
No, he wasn't able to do both.
It was an illusion, it wasn't enchantment.
You're the special.
I was going to try that, but then I forgot.
It was illusion, not enchantment.
I was like, ah, that's not bad.
21.
Jesus. 21.
For darts?
Yeah.
You're a...
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay, wow.
Where were you?
That's right. 12. 12 points of damage. Okay, wow. Where were you? 12.
12 points of damage.
No, six, seven, 10, 10.
10 points of damage.
All right, so both darts end up piercing into the assassin.
Now looking about.
Now they're going to take their turn.
I was still going to shoot my bola.
That's right, yeah, shoot your bola.
Eight plus, I don't know, is this like a called shot
or something weird, or is it just a normal attack?
It's not going to hit, it's plus 10.
So it's 18. 18 does not hit.
Bane anything, Bane? No Bane?
It doesn't affect our armor class, unfortunately.
So after being hit with the daggers,
hears the sound, the head turns and twitches real fast over the shoulder and ducks out of the way with the daggers, hears the sound, the head turns
and twitches real fast over the shoulder
and ducks out of the way as the ball goes
scattering into the wall, almost hitting you, Jester,
and knocks a bunch of shit off the table.
Sorry, sorry.
So now they take their turn,
and you watch as it goes ahead and pulls up.
No.
Mm-mm.
Begins to, let's see here.
He's going to go ahead and begin casting
some sort of a spell, muttering under their breath.
No.
You watch as in a
Counter spell.
Counter spell, all righty.
That counters it, never mind.
Yes!
Because you are no longer invisible.
Yes, I am greater in visibility.
Your parade of invisibility, you are now visible. Did greater? You did greater? You are now visible.. Yes, I am greater invisibility. For radio invisibility, you are now visible.
You did greater?
You did greater? You are now visible.
But he did greater.
You did greater as opposed to greater?
Yeah, then you're fine.
Greater. Yep.
Great, so the spell finishes,
but you see the head turns over after hearing the sound,
and while you're invisible,
it vaguely knows where you are, yeah.
I'll just go ahead and do that.
No, no, no, you don't!
Put it out!
One die said it. Drop it.
Does anyone go ahead and vanish back?
No!
It's the worst.
Ugh.
I hate when they vanish.
Could have been worse.
Could have not Counterspelled.
What was the spell?
I know. It was Faerie Fire.
It wasn't a big deal.
Oh!
Well, I mean, you know.
Faerie Fire could have also been a clutch action.
It's pretty legit.
So anyway, finishing that, Beauregard, you're up.
Jester, you're on deck.
Mm-hmm.
This is some stuff. on deck. Mm-hmm. Yes.
Stats and stuff.
Going to crack my knuckles together, light up the lightning gloves.
Shhh!
The bolts now crackle across your forearm.
You can feel that tingly sensation
as the electrical energy can surge back and forth
across your arms and they go a little numb
from the vibration.
What are you doing?
What would I do if I were her?
Okay.
Walk through and view it.
I'm going to get near Jester and guard here.
Me, I'd kill the cleric.
Oh, that's so dark.
That's true.
All right, that finishes your turn, Beau.
I'll hold my attack.
Okay, you got it.
Jester, you're up.
Okay, for my action, I'm going to use my...
Major defense.
My Rod of the Solitary Scout.
Whoa. And I'm going to cast
Grease on the floor.
Okay, what's the radius of that?
It's 10 foot.
Where do you want it to go?
I'm going to guess that she's going to appear around here
next time to get the board. Grease!
Her bow, right here.
Okay, you got it.
And then for my bonus action,
I'm going to cast Spiritual Weapon.
Awesome.
At what level?
At fourth level,
so that I get 4d8 attacks.
So it's a serrated lollipop.
2d8, you mean, right?
Because every two levels, the damage dice goes up.
Right, I was looking at Spiritual Guardians.
That's okay. Yes.
All right, so where would you like to go?
Ooh, that's a good one, too.
I'm going to go Spiritual Guardians instead.
Oh, never mind, that's not a bonus.
That's what I was doing.
Spiritual Weapon!
All right.
Spiritual Thumb.
Something with spirits.
It's going to be right next to Caleb.
In between you and Caleb?
Yeah, in between me and Caleb.
You got it.
Okay.
That finishes your turn, then.
Pumat's turn. I'm going to put it here.
All right.
And you're good there?
Yeehaw! Okay.
Brings it to Pumat's tomb.
Pumat is going to go ahead and maintain
greater invincibility on you.
Thank you.
And is going to...
Actually, Pumat's not going to do that,
because Pumat feels that you're probably
at least got out of the moment of danger
and can be more useful elsewhere.
So Pumat is instead going to go,
Oh, wherever you are, hope you're safe.
You two seem to be pretty helpful.
Sorry if it's a little cramped.
And uses Split Enchantment to cast Enlarge
on both Beauregard and Fjord.
Oh shit!
Let's go!
Bring out the big minutes.
Whoa!
That's a four and three 50.
I have three 50.
What?
Okay.
Now that's what I call super duty.
Yeah, where are you? Where are you guys? Let them duty. Get rid of the grease on the floor, you guys.
Let them fight.
Yeah, you'll probably be about there,
just outside of the grease.
That's you.
Make sure you have concentration on that.
You're maintaining concentration on your invisibility.
And I'm maintaining concentration on the...
Correct, but you are no longer invisible.
I'm no longer, I'm about to be invisible again,
but I'm no longer. Extra d4 or anything?
That's okay. All right.
After your hits?
Yes. Okay.
And with that, he's just going to stay up against the wall
because it seems to be working out all right so far.
That finishes his turn.
Caleb and Caduceus, pardon me.
I'm going, well, you go first.
Well, I saw this.
Aw, wait.
Hmm?
You can't do that either?
It's transmutation.
Goddamn it!
This is lame.
It's my own fault, it's my own fault.
Can't you just say you have split transmutation, too?
I mean, he's Fu-umat, he can do whatever.
Give it to the bug.
No, give it to you, because you're the closest.
Take it to the fridge!
Plus, we haven't seen the thing yet.
That would have been real cool, though.
That would have been, that's on me.
Not used to playing an enchanter.
That's a new one.
All right, so. So I saw the inevitable
end stare right in my general direction,
and then she sunk into the floor, so I will carefully get down
onto the floor and go to the table in the center of the room
and change my position and wait and hold.
I will cast a spell the moment I see her.
Do you need to know the spell?
Yes, because you're holding.
Okay, we'll make it Magic Missile.
All right, you got it.
Okay.
I'll hold Path to the Grave.
I'm actually going to cast Invisibility on myself,
which I can do as a bonus action.
Yes, you can.
Then I'm going to shift.
I'm going to shift down and just behind the,
and just on top of the bar there, like right there,
just so I'm no longer in the same place,
and I'm going to hold Sentinel at death's,
I'm going to hold,
where'd it go?
Path to the Grave for right before Caleb.
You got it. Okay.
That finishes your turn.
Yep.
Fjord, you're up.
Okay.
This is new.
Wonderful. The ceiling here is about
15 feet off the ground, tall to 15 feet,
and you're now almost hitting,
the chandelier in the middle is about eye level,
and you're like, oh, this is really strange.
Will it be disadvantaged on a melee attack
with my sword if I swing at this cramped?
No, it's not that cramped.
Okay, cool.
You just don't have a lot of vertical movement.
Great, I'll summon the sword.
So it's like it's you, Travis, in a room.
Yes. Yeah, basically.
Anywhere in Europe or Asia.
Boy, that was terrible.
I will use the command word,
GALASVAH, and make all the runes glow on the sword.
The rune now lights up around him.
I'll hold a melee attack until
the inevitable end appears around me.
Okay.
You've got it.
Nott, you're up.
I'm just going to say, we're sitting ducks in here.
We're not, should we develop some sort of strategy?
It's fine.
I don't know where Caleb's already occupying it,
so I'm going to move to that middle table as well,
just to keep lady Luck guessing here.
Shit over on the floor.
And I will, what was that that you just knocked out?
Crown on a pillow.
Yeah, it's Flair, it's Flair.
Whatever it is, I'm going to bonus action steal it.
Okay.
And then prepare a spell this time.
Do you want to make a sleight of hand check?
Sure.
Can you do that as a bonus action?
Your cutting action?
I don't know, I have no idea.
If not, forget it. Cutting action is staff,
disengagement, hide.
Correct, unless you're...
It would be your action.
Then never mind.
I will just hide up there and prepare a spell.
What spell are you preparing?
Hideous Laughter.
You got it.
All righty.
Finishing your turn.
Merging up through the floor right here.
Oh shit. Perfect.
As if the footsteps across the floorboards
were a giveaway of movement,
is going to rise out.
Yep.
So you guys go?
Oh yeah.
Release all the spells.
Simul spell.
Who goes first?
I do, but it's just a challenge,
it's just a challenge of Path to the Grave.
I'm trying to think.
Technically, I'm trying to think this,
because technically they're hidden from you,
so I think they might get their attack first,
and then you get the reaction.
Okay. Because you don't notice
where they're coming from until they arrive.
Okay.
I'm just trying to think here.
That makes sense.
Because they're hiding and stealthing as well,
and popping up and trying to surprise each of you.
So I'll let you do that going forward
in this instance after the attack.
That's fine.
So it's going to be one attack,
both attacks at you, Nott, actually.
Sure.
Because you are not immediately visible,
though they were drawn to the table,
you're who they see on top.
Okay. With the d4, remember?
Correct.
That is going to be 17.
Miss!
Second attack.
I used that item to block it.
Natural 20.
Okay, okay, okay.
As a reaction, I'm canceling the natural 20.
How, what's the distance on that one?
30 feet.
Double checking, 30 feet.
30 feet. 30 feet?
Yeah, you can do that.
Yep.
Whoa, frame rate.
That's a reaction.
You would've been bad.
You'd have been instantly dead.
Yeah.
But I got friends.
So the first one misses, the second one does hit you.
I got friends.
You take... Brain hit you. I got friends. You take two!
Warlow is here.
Warlow is here.
Chase this Bob-Lews away.
I can't tell who's singing right now, is it?
La-di-do.
Okay.
With the weapon attack in there, that is
51 points of piercing damage.
Of what damage? Piercing damage. I will Uncanny Dodge that.
Does that use my reaction? It uses your reaction.
Which I need to cast the spell.
Correct.
So, but I've already committed to casting the spell,
so no Uncanny Dodge. Correct.
51. 51 points of damage.
You should make a constitution saving throw.
Okay.
17.
You lose the spell.
It breaks your concentration as you're focusing on it
from the impact of the blow.
They're not poison?
I need you to make a constitution saving throw
now against the poison on the blade.
19.
19, yeah, you managed to resist it.
Okay, okay.
Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow.
I hate this table.
All right, now you guys can take your actions,
except for Nott, who the impact is so painful
that the spell just fitters out of your fingers.
Pop pop, with my lightning gloves.
You first. Yeah.
So his hands just light up and five.
Yeah, you would do that.
Five little pink dots spiral out like homing missiles
and go and hit Fjord.
Immediately.
Yeah.
Point blank rage.
It's like a shotgun.
And they have vulnerability to it.
They have vulnerability to the magic missile.
From? From my path to the grave.
That you were holding.
Oh, I lost my fucking path to the grave
because I was holding it, and I used that to cancel.
Which means you wouldn't have the reaction,
which means that was a critical hit.
No, I would have used, I would have lost it.
You used your reaction to maintain the spell.
Oh shit.
So I'm sorry, taking that back.
It was 51, I said?
Wait, let me double check.
Two? Well, no said? It's 100. Wait, let me double check. Two?
Well, no, the 51 minus nine.
So that would be a 40.
Oh my god. 42.
84 plus nine.
93 points of piercing damage.
Okay. So you're zero.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, you're zero now.
What's your hit point, Max?
Pew!
81. I am unconscious.
No, you are not.
I'm dead.
I'm going to double check the rule here.
Assassin.
When it comes to taking damage.
Assassin.
Oh wait, did you go that far down?
Massive damage can kill you instantly.
When damage reduces you to zero hit points
and there's damage remaining.
Oh, it's damage remaining.
Sorry, not total amount.
I misremembered that.
Yeah, that's good, that's good.
That means you would have had to be
at zero hit points for that to,
you would have had to be low.
I misremembered that rule, so you're fine.
You are unconscious.
Okay, I'm fine.
What is the thing that you just read
that needs to be also figured out?
If you're unconscious and the extra damage
goes over your maximum hit points,
it's instantly done.
I misremembered.
Then it's thumped.
Fucking rules left and right tonight.
My apologies.
Okay, well, in that case.
But you are unconscious.
Wow.
Wait, do it as Mordi.
Ah!
All right.
It's still double damage on the magic missiles, then.
It is.
So 40 total.
Oh, or double damage on the dice.
Oh, he's checking again!
30.
It's weird when you hold actions,
so I'm checking one thing.
So ready.
When you're ready something.
I mean, it was my, yeah, it was.
It is, real dandy right here.
Rolls and everything.
Wow.
We're losing against one person.
Interesting.
Yeah.
This is terrifying.
I thought they might not be out here for us,
but I think they are.
Interesting.
When the trigger occurs,
you can either take a reaction
right after the trigger finishes or ignore the trigger.
But the trigger hadn't happened yet, so.
Let me see here.
First you decide what to do with the trigger reaction,
then when you choose the action, take a response.
You can choose to just leave the lever open.
You just tell us what you think, Matt.
Okay. Call it like a boss.
Yeah, all right.
That's the internet.
Yeah, it's getting a little messy here. I'm working with this interesting dynamics in this one.
Shake, shake, shake.
So if you're holding something,
it uses your reaction to release it.
So if you want to change it up, which...
We're already going here now.
Yeah. Right.
We already said we're releasing spells.
But going forward now.
If I want to drop my reaction for a different reaction.
For something else, you can do that,
but you lose the spell that you're holding.
Yes, obviously.
So, we're fine now.
Okay, cool, cool, cool.
Just like they did in the beer.
So the vulnerability does go through.
The vulnerability goes through.
And that is the 40 points of damage.
Is just the dice doubled, though, or the whole thing?
The whole thing is doubled.
Okay, so 40 total.
I know, it's a lot of stuff in the hair.
Look at your ability.
Is the vulnerability against anything,
or does it say attack?
Props to Taliesin's hair tonight.
Thank you.
Fresh hair. It's a good color.
If I recall, your ability is for attacks only.
I don't think it's effective on spells.
The next time you or an ally of yours
hits the cursed creature with an attack.
Correct, so it is 20 damage, and the next attack
against it is doubled, so keep that in mind.
That's fine.
Okay.
It's been a bit of a busy week.
We're getting back in the swing of things,
right into combat.
I'm trying, it's a lot of layers.
Holy shit.
You're not even looking at their sheets.
So now you, you said you were making your...
I was holding a melee attack.
That's right, so no good on that one.
I'm holding punches and I got reach.
Yeah, go for it.
The first hit will be doubled on damage.
Roll the crit, roll 20.
The enlarge doesn't increase my melee range to 50.
No, you do an additional de-score per melee hit.
Yeah, you do. 20.
Come on, keep the streak alive.
My anime puncher in the face, 19.
19 hits.
They are going to use their reaction to parry
and add five to their AC, it misses.
Fire rogue, fire rogue combo.
Do I not get the, do I,
is it the next one that does damage or the next attack?
The next attack.
So the next one hits.
Okay, so here we go.
Yeah.
It's technically a reach attack. Yeah,. It's technically a reach attack.
Yeah, still 10 at the moment.
Just like causes it to ground itself.
What was it? 18.
Just bargaining for life. 18 just misses.
No hit.
Hooray, C's 19.
Yeah.
All righty.
Fuck. Let the Mighty Nein live.
No, stay, I need you.
Then they vanish into the ground.
Ah! Take on their energy with them. No, stay, I need you. Then they vanish into the ground. Ugh!
Taking their energy with them.
All righty.
After vanishing, Beauregard, you're up.
Ugh.
Okay.
I am want to, I really want to... I am going to...
go around this grease pit,
kind of over here.
But as I go, I'm going to go...
I'm walking over here!
Oh, you're drawing.
All right, over to Fjord.
Yeah, give me a little bit of room.
A little bit of room there.
I got something right up in the space.
Okay.
Then I'm going to halt my melee attacks.
You got it. All right, Beau's turn's done.
Jester.
Jester is going to tell her duplicate mentally
to jump off the table
and come over and run right here.
Right there or on the?
Like, kind of on the grease. In the grease?
Yeah.
And then as...
I got it again, patient defense.
Patient defense is a, yeah, you can do it.
That was action. Sorry, keep going.
Then as an action, the duplicate is going to cast
Spiritual Guardians so that the guardians
go around the duplicate. Okay.
What's the radius on that one?
That is a radius of 15 feet.
15 feet. All around her.
Our familiar faces.
15-foot radius.
Warmth. At fourth level.
Poof.
So keep that in mind there.
And any time that they enter it?
They take damage. Yeah.
That's a roll to take damage, yeah, got it, okay.
And you are now focusing on maintaining
concentration on that.
All right, that finishes your go, Jester?
Yes.
Pumat's tune.
Pumat is going to...
Mind your big moves.
What?
Now, Pumat's tune.
Yes!
We're on very little sleep.
I know.
We're on little sleep today.
Here we go.
We're going to go ahead and Pumat is actually going to start focusing on a spell
and holding it, looking a little nervous, like,
Where were you coming from?
Just keeping my eyes peeled.
And that's going to be the end of his turn.
Caduceus and Caleb, what are you doing?
You first, I'm still figuring my shit out.
Oh shit.
I don't like this, but I'm going to do it.
I am going to cross over and carefully climb up
next to Jester on her table.
All right.
And I am going to do nothing.
Okay. That's it. Caduceus?
I'm going to cast Prayer of Healing, where'd I go?
Healing Word.
For my action, I'm going to,
since I'm about to become visible,
I'm going to make myself look like a Pumat.
Okay.
And for my spell, I'm going to cast Healing Word
at, um...
Let's just do third, let's do third level,
because fuck it.
All righty. Actually, on...
On my sword.
On...
On Nott, all right, just go ahead and roll the dice.
I don't have to roll the dice.
That's right.
That's right.
Brave pirates, man.
Well, that's 17 hit points back up.
Woo! Woo!
I saved!
Good job.
Then I'm going to just gently get
within fighting range of Fjord
so that if anyone tries to attack me,
they also are within Fjord's range.
You got it. Okay, that finishes your go. Fjord, so that if anyone tries to attack me, they also are within Fjord's range. You got it. Okay.
That finishes your go.
Fjord, you're up.
Uh, yeah.
Everyone's in a gathering around you.
Mm-mm.
Can I, is it an action to ask Pumbaa a question?
If it's a quick one, nah.
Can I say, like, what's in the back room?
Oh, that, that, this is going to hold my spell.
That's where I do all my enchant work there.
All the tools and equip pieces, why?
Okay, go.
I'll charge up two Eldritch Blasts
and I will hold my action for them to appear.
Okay, you got it.
All right, ending your turn, Nott.
You're conscious.
Thank you, Caduceus.
This sucks.
Do you want to stand up?
I will stand up.
No, I won't stand up, there's no reason.
Well, am I going anywhere?
Then just lie in bed.
You should pretend you're still dead.
You shouldn't have talked to them.
I'm just going to lie there.
All right, stay prone.
And prepare that same spell again.
Okay, you got it.
And I don't have any potions.
I don't have any potions, so I'm good.
That's it. All right.
Bonus action, hide.
All right, roll a stealth check.
I think he knows where I am.
You're playing possum.
Yeah, playing possum.
So 29.
29, damn.
I'm just going to roll my tongue out of my mouth.
I'm dead.
That's pretty good.
Emerging from the ground here.
Come on, Bish.
Perfect.
Following the footprints and footsteps
all heading in that direction,
she emerges from the ground right in the center.
First off, what are the effects of the grease spell?
They have to make a saving throw or go prone.
D4.
Let me look at the...
What if grease is the most powerful thing we have?
Grease two. Grease two is most powerful thing we have? Grease 2.
Grease 2 is pretty powerful.
Pretty powerful.
Probably will make the save.
What save is it, it's a constitution?
No, it's a dexterity save.
Dexterity save, yeah.
Yeah. It's 23.
Yeah, they make the save.
I'll cast that Hideous Laughter.
All right.
Are they still baned?
They're still baned.
That wasn't with Bane.
That's rough.
They didn't roll a high enough stealth check this turn.
Actually rolled a natural one.
Oh, hey! So you were able to
gauge where they were going to come up from the ground
so they do not get the surprise action.
Sneeze from the grease on the way up.
Just made a sound when the mouth hit it.
Oh, nice. Oh god!
Spiritual guardians?
Would that be instantly before?
Does it say on the spell when they enter the space
for the first time?
Then yes, that would affect them.
Okay.
Saving throw on that is a wisdom?
Wisdom, yes.
All the left here.
14.
Oh, they fail!
Yeah, so go ahead and roll full damage on that.
Awesome.
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
Okay.
Ah, balls.
Then 15, 15 points.
15 points of damage, you got it.
And, bop, bop, bop, bop.
Yeah, he blasts.
So you do that, well, you do that, too.
Well, y'all let you blast.
You know, blasts.
Let Beau go first, just in case I get a sun on her.
Go for it.
You're first.
I see her in the grease pit,
and I'm just going to charge up my fists and punch her.
I kind of bailed on that description, I'm sorry.
I haven't done that in a long time. That's okay, I'm sorry. It's been a long day.
It's okay, go for it.
Pop pop.
Oh my god, did you see that?
Okay, okay, 28 and 24.
Yay.
Okay, 28 and 24 both hit, yeah.
First one's doubled.
Okay, well, let's do this first one.
It just sits there until someone hits.
That's right, she didn't hit last round.
I rolled a six, so 12, so 18 on that first one.
It's not just dice, it's total damage.
Shunt dice.
Including your modifier.
The whole attack.
So it's a six plus?
Well, I have two attacks.
So it'd be the first, which was six plus what?
Six plus six.
So 12.
24.
Yeah, it's a whole attack doubles. Yeah, it's vulnerability. Six plus what? Six plus six. So 12. 24. 24 for the first. 24 plus 12.
Yeah, it's whole attack doubles.
Yeah, it's one ability.
Yeah.
Second attack is?
Then the second attack was terrible seven damage.
Seven damage, got it.
Terrible damage.
Stunning Strike.
Stunning Strike?
Oh, got it. D4.
Finally.
Minus a D4, yeah.
Thank you.
Bane.
Bane. Bane.
Bane, bane, bane.
Stunned.
That's where I went!
No!
Bane that fool.
Stunned!
Woo!
Yeah.
Well, hold on, hold on.
No, I love it.
For the first attack,
because there's still two of the mirror images up. Oh. Yeah, no, hold on. No, I love it. For the first attack, because there's still two of the mirror images up.
Oh. Oh shit.
Yeah, no, that hits.
Does that also get a d4?
They both hit.
Yay! No, it's not.
It's just a roaming force, yeah.
No, we're fine.
But there's still two spectral images floating around.
So that works there.
Stunned. She doesn't even get a turn.
And then. Which means she has to stay visible.
Did I do it?
Is there something else that was invisible?
You did two attacks and a stunning strike.
That's what you got.
Yes, you do.
Oh, I still have my bonus attack.
No, it's not your turn.
You're holding your action.
24 and 14.
You have a technically advantage on those attacks
because they are stun.
Okay. 24.
And a 19 for the second one.
Yeah, both hit.
Got a roll damage. First one is 18,
no, sorry, that's a lie.
13 points of force damage.
No, it's not, because one of the images absorbed it.
The second one is... Does hit. 14 points of force damage.
14 points of force damage.
Got it.
And the d4 is only on melee hits, right?
Oh!
Several full arms.
What's up?
The d4 is only on melee hits.
Correct, not ranged.
All right.
I'm still casting Hiddia's Laughter,
even though it's already stuck.
It's a wisdom? it's already stuck.
It's a wisdom?
It's a wisdom.
I say to her,
ah, you know why I joined a Therizdun cult?
Just for the hell of it.
Oh!
I'm going to keep saying it, though.
Wisdom at 15.
Yeah, 23.
Oh!
Rolled a natural 17, plus your penalty is there.
But nevertheless, emerges from the floor.
And is now crumpled over,
looking around, eyes wide,
looking a little bit frustrating,
but there's still a slight grin to the face.
It's not even, it's...
Can I say Beauregard and Fjord
both make perception checks for me real fast.
Uh-oh, someone else is in the room,
and it's Yasha, and that's to bring out a dead.
16? Copy of 16.
And I still have C and visibility.
Just straight perception?
13. Okay, no worries.
All right, so now, Beauregard, it's your turn.
Oh, I'm not supposed to, ooh!
Ah!
Ah!
Oh my god, I got ballistic on this girl!
Go for it, go for it.
Full Rocky Balboa.
Do it.
Rocky.
One to the ribs, one to the temple.
That's fucking terrible.
Yeah, terrible. 17 and 15.
Give advantage on each attack.
Okay, well, miss. Both of them? Okay, yeah. First Yeah, terrible. 17 and 15. Give advantage on each attack. Ooh. Okay, well, miss.
Both of them. Okay, yeah.
The first one, miss.
Shit, both shit, all shit.
All right. Four rolls of shit.
A natural one and a four.
Yeah, so miss-miss on your attack, on your action.
So every bonus action.
I did a take five. Yeah.
For the flurry of oath.
Yes, thank you.
Wow, wow, you guys.
End of day.
It goes.
Okay, 26.
26.
That hits.
Nine damage.
All righty.
This is the last pop.
18.
18 misses.
Yep.
I rolled an eight and a three.
It's an action check.
Yep.
Yeah, they all hit.
Can't roll high on that last mirror image.
Okay, that finishes your turn, Beau?
Yeah.
End of your turn, no longer stunned.
Oh!
This is till the end of your next turn.
Oh, that's balls.
Okay.
All right.
Jester, you're up.
Oh, okay.
But you locked down their round.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that makes sense.
Okay, I'm going to make my duplicate turn
and look at her in the face and then just reach out
and go, boopop right on her nose
and she's going to cast Inflict Wounds.
Yes! Okay, okay.
At 5th-level.
Oh shit!
Come on, come on.
Let's go.
So I have to roll as a hit on this?
Yeah, you got to roll to hit.
Melee spell attack.
Okay, okay. Roll the boop.
I might actually use it.
Fuck me running!
Still one.
You!
I know. You know what? It's okay.
That happens with a click bonus a lot, doesn't it?
It just happens to me a lot, yes.
But I'm going to use my bonus action
to bring my spiritual weapon over.
Mm-hmm.
That level smells like a swirly.
Yeah.
No, no, no. I try to bring it down overhead as my duplicate's over. Mm-hmm. That little spell just took a swirling. Yeah. No, no, no!
I try to bring it down overhead
as my duplicate's going. Go for it.
It's so cool. I know!
Oh, that was a two.
I rolled a one and then a two.
Where's my jail?
What Kickstarter dice is that?
Now, these were the Dispel dice,
and I'm not going to blame them
because they're really, really beautiful.
You can blame them.
But. I'll use them
for the rest of the night.
All right. That is some punishment
on that five spells.
Does that finish your turn?
I mean, yeah.
At least, you know what?
I hope she feels at least a little embarrassed
because she got booped on the nose.
She did. That's true.
You can see as soon as the illusionary jester pulls back,
there's a look of on her face,
and looks back, one of those rack focuses in the illusion,
then onto you back there,
doing more actual casting,
just starting to piece two and two together.
All right, that brings us to Pumat,
who actually was holding his spell
that I forgot to release there.
Fuck!
Fuck!
Balls!
Which would have been...
Yeast?
What? It was an acid arrow.
I'm angry!
Well, it's for you.
He would have had advantage.
Ah!
You're so emotional.
I'm so emotional. You would be, too. You're so emotional. I'm so emotional.
You would be, too.
La la la.
So spell attack would have been.
Everything we're doing tonight
could have been so cool. Yeah, that would have hit.
So Pumat deals.
Good Pumat.
Roll it, roll it, roll it.
Wash and burn. Six.
Oof. Oof.
Six. It's so crazy, though. 12. Oof. Oof.
Six. It's so crazy. 12.
Catch yourself.
Natural 20.
Shut up.
15 points of acid damage.
That wasn't as bad.
Okay.
Yeah, 16, 16, 19.
Whoa!
15.
You keep it over there, then. Yep, keep it.
And is currently splattered with acid
that'll continue to burn for the next round.
Now it comes to Pumat's turn.
Pumat is now going to go ahead and,
seeing how the tide is turning here,
he's going to go ahead and cast,
let's see here.
What you doing, Pumat?
Hmm.
I'm going to cast Blindness and Deafness on them.
Ooh, that's good.
Who's doing what?
Pumat is casting Blindness.
Which one?
Blindness.
Pumat Prime or two?
Pumat Prime. Pumat two is technically you.
Yeah, stuck with the root.
So you're going to throw? D4. Does save, unfortunately. With a, yeah. Pumat 2 is technically you. Yeah, it's technically me right now.
Saving throw.
D4.
Does save, unfortunately.
With the D4, even?
Oh, the D4. Thank you.
Pumat, that's...
Still saves. Yeah.
Only took down one.
Doesn't work, but Pumat is now going to move over here
and get ducked behind.
Now that you guys seem to have it taken care of
and just cast a spell,
well, that's a poopy chance there.
I'm just going to go ahead and crouch down
and get down low behind.
All right, finishing for Matt's turn,
that brings us to Caleb and Caduceus.
Yeah, okay, I'm just going to fire
our five more magic missiles sideways,
and they'll swirl and twirl
and then strike right in the middle.
Those auto hit.
That is 11 points of damage.
Then he carefully gets down off the table
and just feels his way sideways along the wall,
quietly as he can, towards the stairs,
but sticking to the wall.
Here?
As far as he can go, even, yeah.
Are you doing a stealthy cross?
I mean, that would be an action to be stealthy.
Yeah, but you're just trying to be, yeah.
Hugging the wall. You got it.
I love that you have little teeny health potions on the map.
I've had no way to use them for a long time.
They're the teeny tiniest little things
and they're just getting tossed around.
It's like it's a battle room.
Battle room, battle room.
Battle shop.
All right, that finishes Caleb's turn. Caduceus.
I'm going to go for a Blight. Go for Blight, all righty. For,'s turn. Caduceus. I'm going to go for a Blight.
Go for a Blight, all righty.
I don't know what else. Constitution?
Constitution, d4.
13.
Oh, never mind.
You win?
Did you just win? I mean, I didn't win,
but like, you know. You won the game?
I won the game, I dd's over. 11 with the bane.
Oh wow.
That's eight d8.
Did my hair in my coffee?
Ooh. All right. Where are my eights? You got the whole caboodle? That's 8d8. Did my hair in my coffee? Ooh!
All right.
Where are my eights?
You got the whole caboodle?
Did my husband just laugh at me?
Yeah. Yep.
8d8, here we go.
Should have. Is that a first?
You should have.
You sure?
I think so.
I'm just going to have to write this down
because I'm too tired to actually get the math to work.
16, 16.
I'm already rolling ones in the game.
I don't need them in real life.
Ugh.
32 points of necrotic damage.
Ooh.
There you go.
That's nasty.
There you go.
Carson's stuck.
You don't happen to be part magic plant or anything.
No, unfortunately, sorry.
Okay.
No, but that stun kept her from going back into the floor.
Stupid.
That's good.
That's Chris Harley herself.
Yeah.
Actually, that wrecked a lot.
Yeah, and then...
Yeah, that was huge.
Just for, do I have anything I can do for bonus action?
I don't think there really is anything I can do.
I've already done my Hidden Spent. Fjord, you're up. This is our first rep for that. I'm anything I can do for bonus action? I don't think there really is anything I can do. I've already done my Hidden Spent.
Fjord, you're up. Yeah.
This is our first rep for that.
Yeah, I'm just going to stay right where I am.
Okay. Stay right where I am.
Huh?
Is it you? Yeah.
It's close to Fjord's possible. You should whip that shit.
Huh?
What? She's a whipper.
Whip that real good.
He's already got the other weapon,
so you'd have to switch it out.
You've got a keeper here.
Yeah, I don't know if that would do it.
So with my bonus action,
can I cast Hexblade's Curse on her?
Hexblade's Curse.
Two minutes to go.
Maybe it probably slows her down for one round.
Can't do anything today.
I want to part here. All right, there we go.
Stacking them on.
Whoa.
Can I reach back with the sword
and pulse the runes and I will cast
Banishing Smite on this melee strike?
Sure, yeah, go for it.
Banishing Smite.
So that is...
Banishing Smite.
I don't know.
I just roll a regular melee attack and see if it hits.
That is 20.
20.
She's going to use her reaction to parry.
Add five to her AC, it misses.
A bit.
Didn't she already burn her reaction?
No, that was Delka's turn.
Okay, never mind.
Wow, so does that cancel out that spell, too?
Look at the spell, see if it says
till the next attack hits, or just the next?
It is the next attack, next melee attack.
The next melee attack?
It is...
I've never used it before.
That's okay.
Next time you hit a creature with a weapon attack.
Hit a creature, so it's still there,
you have a second attack.
That can still work.
Oh great, okay.
Get it?
Yeah!
24.
24 hits.
Let's roll to see if the last mirror image.
No, that hits.
Yeah!
What does this do? 5d hits. Yeah!
What does this do?
5d10.
Ooh!
Damage.
And, let's see.
Oh, come on.
24.
33, one more, right?
That was five. That was five, okay.
33 points of force damage, I think.
Did it happen to reduce the target
to 50 hit points or fewer?
Yes.
It banishes it.
Whoa!
To where? To where?
The target is native to a different plane of existence
than the one you're on.
The target disappears, returning to its home plane.
If the target is native to the plane you're on,
the creature vanishes into a harmless demi-plane.
While there, the target is incapacitated,
it remains there until the spell ends,
at which point the target reappears in the space it left.
How long is the spell?
One minute.
Okay, so we can prepare.
So we can heal.
Whack!
You watch,
after this large arc of divine light green energy,
you see these spirals of strange vines
begin to curl around the blade.
The first swing goes wide.
You see as she dodges out of the way,
immediately taken aback by the sudden burst
of divine energy.
The second swing, however, is a backhand at the side.
As it impacts, it flashes, and you can see the vines
reach out and wrap around her.
Suddenly, she's cocooned very much in the way
that you were when you made the transition,
except the cocoon suddenly crumbles
and there's nobody there.
Wow.
Tight.
How long does that last?
What?
That's how long she's got.
You got one minute.
Oh, all my shit will disappear.
I need a healing potion!
Just to duplicate and the spiritual weapon.
Someone heal me!
Should we down potions or?
I'll jump over and cast Cure Wounds at 3rd-level.
On who?
You not.
On me.
Yeah.
It just brings it back after we've had it. It just brings it back after we've had a moment of wrong.
It just brings it back after one minute.
And did you add a d4 for things?
I'll use your mooning turn level on you.
Yeah.
Which is awesome.
A large four points.
So eight.
Oh, that's good.
Three points of damage on one hit.
23 hit points back.
If the spell ends before one minute has passed,
if it ends before a minute, the target reappears.
Otherwise, if it doesn't end in under a minute,
it stays on its home plane, am I mistaken?
It remains there until the spell ends,
at which point the hit points are back.
You could drop it.
No, no, no, that's if it's native to a different plane.
If the move. It might be.
Right. There's a difference between banishment and banishing smite, they're different spells. It might be. It is. Right. There's a difference
between banishment and banishing smite.
They're different spells.
Oh, okay. Yeah, banishing smite.
Yeah, it comes back when the spell is done.
It's not quite an awesome banishment.
Okay. It does a shit ton
of damage as well, that's the benefit there.
It's more like a do whatever you need to do.
Get out of this good shit.
Correct, all right.
So you guys are getting prepped here.
What are you doing? Okay.
So, so, so.
But she'll reappear right there.
Right where she was. Correct.
Okay, does the grease stand up?
The grease is still there.
How long does the grease stand?
That was a great one. It just doesn't say.
Oh no, one minute, sorry.
I think it was a one minute transformation.
Okay, where did she go, then?
She's right there.
She's going to reappear right there.
I'm willing to reposition to where I'm
right there in between.
How long is Big Fjord?
Do you stay Big Fjord?
For a little bit. Big Fjord.
All Fjord's big.
I'm going to be in that. Instead of home.
Okay.
Hey, I'm going to shout at Jester.
Jester! What?
Look out the window, see if anyone's outside.
Can I peek out the window and see?
Or does shrink.
Okay.
I'm going to use my gloves.
I'm going to run across to the other window and look out.
Over here? Yeah.
Just to see if anyone's outside.
Currently? I mean, there's people walking outside.
Any enemies?
Make a perception check.
One.
Looks pretty safe.
Okay. Just do what you got!
Do I see anything outside?
Make a perception check.
20.
20.
You do not see any of that. You see people walking through the street,
they hear noise and then it's quiet.
They're not really sure what's going on.
And I forgot, because Grease is a concentration spell.
It didn't make an effect on this.
You have to choose between that or your illusion
because you are concentrating on your thing.
That's fine now, but just to remember.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I suppose the last things I'm going to do are...
I thought, because it came out of the wand,
that I didn't have to. But you're still maintaining
concentration on the spell that you cast through it.
Understandable. Yeah.
That way you can have multiple things concentrated.
I did not understand that.
I'm going to use the rest of the minute
to find a place under the table over there and hide.
Go for it. As best as I can.
For a hide.
Terrible, awful, terrible, 16.
16, okay.
Everyone else set? Wait, wait.
Are you sure?
Grease is not a concentration.
Are you sure grease is concentration?
It doesn't say it on this thing.
Is it not concentration? No, it's not.
Okay, then never mind.
I assumed it was, not bad.
I'm going to. You're right,
just one minute, so never mind.
Instead of healing myself,
I'm going to use Anti-Life Shell.
I've literally, this is the first time I've had anyone use
grease in a game in five years.
Which is a shame, it's a great first-level spell.
And then, what's that other one I was going to do?
I'm sorry, I'm having a little trouble with my,
I'm shaking too much to make my thing work.
And, you're waiting.
He wants to do something,
and I'm going to hold a shoot action.
Caleb's invisibility will drop in this minute,
so he's going to go up to the top of the stairs
and sit in whatever doorway is up there,
peering down from above,
and everyone sees Frumpkin come
down the stairs and sits on the table at center.
Okay.
Actually, he stands on the floor next to Beauregard.
Okay, right there?
Yeah, precisely there.
You got it. I also put a death ward on myself.
Okay, death ward's on you.
I've got a death ward and an anti-life shell,
and I'm readying, because I don't want to get hit.
Is anti-life shell concentration?
It is concentration. Nice, all right.
So you were just like, nope, nope.
I'm putting a 10-foot wall around me where,
yeah, no enemy can, anybody else can get within 10 feet of me.
You got it. Can I get up on the table
where Nott was over here?
You're also, you're still Pumat?
Yeah, I'm going to stay Pumat.
Okay.
In the same place?
I'm going to, yeah, I'm going to stay up there.
I just want to be in the middle of a bunch of people.
And also, yeah, because my 10-foot little radius
is good for anybody.
Pumat's going to go ahead and move over here and be like, ah, great, okay, I'm just going to be in the middle of a bunch of people. Also, yeah, because my 10-foot little radius is good for anybody.
Pumat's going to move over here and be like,
all right, great, okay, I'm just going to go ahead and move.
And this table, tables seem to be safe, right?
It's working out well for everyone?
I may be, yeah,
we're pretty spread out.
Yeah, I'm okay, I'm going to trust my little thing.
Then I'm readying my, yeah, I've got something ready to go. What are you spread out? Yeah, I'm okay, I'm going to trust my little thing. Then I'm readying my, yeah, I've got something ready to go.
What are you readying?
The same thing I did last time, the Path of the Grave.
Okay, got it.
I'm going to climb up on that table,
and can I hold the last charge of the sword,
and I'll hold Faerie Fire.
Sure. Oh, yeah.
Yeah. I'll hold an attack,
waiting for her so I can clock her as soon as she reappears.
Okay.
When I think there's like 10 seconds left,
I take out the catmint and bring up Cat's Eye,
and the claw is floating center of the room,
10 feet in the air.
Basically above Beauregard and Frumpkin.
There you go. Yeah. That's a lot going on right there. Basically above Beauregard and Frumpkin.
There you go. Yeah.
That's a lot going on right there.
I'm going to bring my duplicate back up.
Yeah, okay.
Actually, yeah, back me up against the wall.
I'm going to try to boop her again
as soon as she comes back in,
so she's going to go right in front of her.
Right here?
As close to, yeah, like right in her face.
You got it, okay. Your face be sitting there.
So I'm holding Inflictuos again.
Everyone situated? Yes.
All right, as the minute comes to a conclusion,
Vane is no longer there.
Hexblade's curse lasts for?
Let me check.
I think you're probably onto something.
Did take 2d.
What a crazy-looking battle map this is.
I love how it lasts for one minute, so it's toast.
It's a giant orange paw in the middle of the room.
All right, that's the damage it took
from my acid arrow. Good call.
And...
Shit.
Shoosh!
Appears there, who's taking the first attack.
I'll swipe.
Let me hit Faerie Fire, because everybody else gets it.
I have advantage on what I want to do anyway, but go for it.
No, no, go for it.
Well, no, no, do it.
Okay, get it.
Yeah, so Faerie Fire.
We're still technically going through the same.
That's fair.
Oh, initiative order.
I'll say initiative order for this
and say what's been happening at once.
No, it's the same initiative order
because combat hasn't really ended.
Okay. So we'll say not.
I fire 29 to hit.
That hits.
Do I get sneak attack, dammit? You're not hit. That hits. Do I get sneak attack? Damn it!
You're not hidden.
I hid.
But you roll really low
and she has a higher perception,
but she is technically in base-to-base
or in melee with Beauregard, so yes, you do.
All right.
Let's drop it.
Ooh, lots of threes, lots of threes.
What was the total attack on that, too?
It was a 29. 29, yeah.
That's a... Let me roll.
Nope, actually, the last mirror image
absorbs the attack.
She still has that?
She had one left. Not anymore.
Damn. But now they're gone.
Now all the images have vanished.
What slight weird shimmery aspect of her body is now gone,
and you can see her as physically there
as you could imagine she could be.
Your image is gone because it lasts a minute.
Oh, this isn't a spell.
This is an inherent ability. Oh, it's a feature.
Okay.
It's an unsweetened ability.
I was going to ask similar to it.
Okay.
So that finishes your go.
Next up is Beauregard.
That's your, you don't get to attack?
These are held actions.
No, these are held actions.
Oh, held actions, right.
I'm just going to go with a giant haymaker.
All right, so you get two strikes.
Make that hay.
Hay.
That's good.
Okay.
Yes, it's good.
All right.
19, so 29, but the first one failed.
15.
15, yeah, 15 hits. Or sorry, the 15-year-old, you 29, but the first one failed. 15. 15, yeah, 15 hits.
Or sorry, the 15 you rolled, you mean, yeah.
15 doesn't hit, does it?
Sorry, I thought you said you rolled a 15 in the dice.
The first one, 15 misses.
Yes, and then I rolled a 19 for a 29 to roll.
That's nine damage.
Stunning strike.
Skakooj.
Come on, come on.
That is a 17?
Yeah. Does that work?
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Save.
Okay. Saves.
Oh, it does not have a bane on it yet.
Nope, no bane yet.
All right, so that saves.
All right, that finishes your go.
Jester.
Boop.
Oh!
Come on!
What level?
What level? Fifth level!
A fifth level boop?
Fifth level bo A fifth level boot? Fifth level boot.
Whoa!
It probably counts, I mean, it's flat.
It's a cool roll.
Yeah, but it's only a 15 total.
15 total? It was not hit, unfortunately.
Yeah, if only Fjord, you had gone first,
then I could have had advantage.
Sorry.
I could have held it till after Fjord went.
No, I couldn't, that's a rage.
It's okay. Because it's a reaction, it's not like a trained thing,
and so that was the easiest way to go through it.
Pumat is going to go ahead and release.
He's going to attempt.
Is he eating ice cream over there, or is that an acai bowl?
He's going to attempt to dominate person.
Ooh.
Dominate person?
Yeah.
But 20, so she resists.
Yeah, because she got advantage on it,
that's why I didn't cast it.
All right, so that brings it to Caleb and Caduceus.
My giant cat's claw grapples.
Grapples, okay.
Grappling hand.
And she's medium, right?
Yes.
Yeah, so it's at advantage.
Strength, ooh.
Yeah.
But it's very high,
so that is a 32?
32, all right. 34.
The cat's claw grabs down
and seems to be unable to grasp
the body's seeming momentary immaterial
immune to being grappled.
Ooh!
All right. Interesting. That's a bonus action, though, yeah? material immune to being grappled. Oh! Meow.
All right. That's a bonus action, though, yeah?
That's right, yeah.
So, magic missile.
Go for it, roll damage.
What level?
Fifth. Okay.
Fifth.
Yeah, pass the grapes.
We were able to hold a bonus action and a regular action?
I know, I just reacted. Oh wait, that's right.
No, I would say, I would say if you were, thank you.
The cat's claw has its own movement, though, right?
The cat's claw has bonus action.
Yeah, the bonus action, so that would be
in your held action if that's what you wanted to use it for.
So no magic missile on that. Go for it.
All right, Caduceus.
Path to the Grave. Path to the Grave.
Fjord.
Prairie Fire, Saving Throne, Dexterity 15?
Dexterity, Dexterity.
Yeah, that's in 20.
Well. Wow.
Literally.
We all prepped and we all whipped.
It was a pretty rough round of preparation.
I'm sorry, guys.
Beauregard got nine points of damage.
That's true, that's true.
All right, Nott, you're up.
Oh, okay, I will fire again.
Attack.
Let the quadruped down.
Goddamn it!
12.
12.
That is hard.
Fire it again, bonus action.
All right.
Okay, 21.
21, reflex, or reaction to Perry.
Goddamn it!
She's amazing.
She's spinning, whipping around,
things are going through her.
Maybe I should just jump out the window.
That finishes your turn?
Yeah, I'll still run and hide on a shelf.
Okay.
Up on here? Yeah.
We just recruit her.
Okay, go ahead and roll a stealth check.
Well, I don't have a bonus action to hide with,
so I'm just up on a shelf.
You're just up on it.
I've been dead for a hundred years.
I'm not on a shelf.
Okay, it's now her turn.
She's going to bonus action to disengage
and vanish into the floor.
Goddamn it!
Hang on.
Sentinel?
Do you have a reaction, Sentinel?
Disengage?
Wait, does Sentinel ignore disengage?
I feel like it does.
It does.
I feel like it does.
No, it doesn't.
I feel like I'm not.
Let me check.
Sometimes you don't. You doesn't. I feel like I'm not. Let me check. Sometimes it opens.
I'm dying.
My mom loves Omnijoy and Bounce.
Yeah, even when they take the disengage action.
It's so gross.
Sentinel is so obnoxious.
All right, you bitch.
Come on, get her to stay.
It's just a regular old punch.
You're going to get it out of your mom.
Okay, I'm going to turn around
and I'm going to do a big swinging TIE fighter kick
just right across her face to try and get those bitches to stay.
TIE fighters kick?
What movie am I missing?
17. 17 misses.
Why do we suck? It goes two inches
just above her head as she disappears
into the floor. We don't have to
telegraph her attack too much.
Yeah. We are bad at everything.
That's why they tell the MMA fighters
never to try that shit.
Yeah.
So for the purposes of brevity,
you guys prepare your stuff,
and a minute goes by and she doesn't appear.
God! Two minutes,
five minutes of silence and getting ready
for certain positions.
I fire anyway.
You fire.
You take a little bit of time.
Should we run up and check on Pumat? Yeah, yeah, yeah, someone go check on the poo. Can we run up and check on Pumat?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, someone go check on the poo.
Can I run up and check on your cat?
I just back up and start looking.
Pumat, Laural?
You see the three of them from upstairs look down.
We're just taking it easy up here.
Everything okay?
Pumat's like, yeah, no, we got it, don't worry.
Scared them off off whatever they were
it's uh why doesn't happen every day kind of i'm gonna goes to us i don't know i'm gonna i'm gonna
make some tea anybody want any uh oh so so much i'm gonna let's put a few pots out, come on. Come on, boys, help me out here. Do we have tea sitting on the tables, please?
Trevor.
So as you guys take a moment and...
I sit on the edge of the counter.
I don't trust it.
I'm not going to feel safe anywhere ever again.
That sucked.
Nothing went right.
Nope.
It's clear Obann wants us dead.
She probably can't be killed right now, anyway.
I don't know. What?
Well, Laughing Ant couldn't be killed.
I bet she can't be killed either.
How did they know we were here?
Scrying, yo.
How do we protect against that?
Who knows how long they were following us.
Maybe we just need to watch our backs.
Pumat!
Comes back in with one tea set
and two other come out with two other tea sets.
It's about all we got at the moment, but it's warm.
Is there anything that you make or sell
that can protect us from scrying eyes?
Well, I mean, yeah, I can make some things
that can make it undetectable.
I'm going to need a few weeks per implement to produce.
Per implement?
You can't make them simultaneously?
It's sort of like a...
Well, it only takes me that short period of time
because all four of us are working at it.
Oh, okay. Wow.
Wow.
I can't just turn it around too fast here.
It's a finely crafted art form.
Oh yeah, that sounds cool.
Oh, here, just pouring everyone
cups of tea in the center of the chamber
as it's doing that, but Matt goes,
So, why?
Who was that? What'd you do?
Where'd they go?
What's?
We found ourselves in the attention
of some rather terrible people since we last saw you. Apparently.
Apparently they've become a bit aggressive
with their plans to even the scales.
Have you ever heard of the Chained Oblivion?
Wait, are you serious?
Afraid so. She's serious, yeah.
Doesn't she look serious?
So wait, this person's involved with that Thurisdune fella?
Apparently.
That's real bad.
And they know where I work now.
Well.
I think they were after us.
Should we burn down the store, start afresh?
I like where you're going with that,
but I think that should be a very last case scenario.
You don't respectfully. Caleb heals the flame
in his hand.
He's about to.
Anyway.
Beaumont, you don't happen to have any secrets,
arcane items, relics that perhaps you have stowed away
in your room, in your back office
that you don't have out on display?
Anything that might have drawn the attention
of someone like this?
Only looking out for your well-being.
Because it's either us or some special thing.
They were coming for us or something you might have.
I can't imagine, they didn't really come after me.
Yeah.
If your goal was to get in and out,
why would you do it at a time where you have to fight
seven, eight other people?
Well, besides that fact,
most of the stuff that I have right now
that hasn't already been shifted off
to Assembly's requirements are the things
that I keep on myself to keep me safe.
And I want to hold onto those right now.
What are you planning to do?
We have no fucking idea. Yeah, you know, if you planning to do? We have no fucking idea.
Yeah, you know, if you were to trace someone
that could fall through the floor,
I know what we would do.
What would you do?
What would we do?
We'd probably scry at them.
That sounds really smart.
Great, good.
So we're going to them.
That is correct, we have to find them.
Because it is only a matter of time
before this happens again, and I hate to tell you all,
but we are back to camping together,
indoors and out, and back on watch.
Is it just this one person?
No.
Oh, okay. There's four assassins,
and they're all super powerful.
There's Yasha, who you met before.
She's the really tall girl with...
Wait, Yasha's working with the...
Not intentionally, she's being trapped.
She might have been evil the whole time,
we just didn't know. No, she's not.
She's good and she's being mind controlled.
That's probably where I'm at.
She's being mind controlled?
Yeah.
See, that there is usually some,
that's some of the magic that I can dabble in.
I don't choose to, but it's similar realms
of arcane specialties. Have you ever heard of a thing
on the back of the neck?
Something that glows, I can't remember the color.
Was it red? Was it glowing red?
I can't remember.
I can't remember, as Jester, I can't remember.
Was it orange? Orange?
It was an orange, it looked almost like a cigarette. Like the cigarette lighter. Oh, yes, right.
It's like, I mean, I don't know,
you can draw it for me.
And he pulls out a little thing.
I will draw you a really good depiction of it.
Make a dexterity check.
Aw, ma.
I'm scared to roll tonight.
No, no, no, you're out of combat.
This'll be great.
No, it won't. No, it won't.
Everything's bad, the whole world sucks.
I'm blessed. I already rolled it.
What'd you get?
I rolled a six.
Aw.
So Pumat, he looks at it and goes,
I'm not sure particularly what this is.
It's definitely a glyph,
but if it's some sort of mind control thing,
then there are limitations to that kind of enchantment.
How long has she been under this individual's influence?
Months.
That's a powerful one.
Can it be dispelled with some sort of spell?
Most magic can be dispelled.
Oh.
You just got to.
I think it's on multiple people.
Wait, on multiple people?
He's also working with a creature
called the Laughing Hand.
Big, blobby, terrible-looking thing.
Lots of mouths. That sounds real bad.
He's got a giant blade on his arm
and he's got lots of mouths all over him.
Covered in mouths.
Wow, that's a delightful image for a day.
And then this chick that you just saw.
Yeah.
And then the main guy is like,
he's a devil and he's got wings.
His name's Obann.
So they're all controlling this Yasha girl?
Not all of them.
Obann is controlling all of them?
Well, at least Yasha.
Obann's got something maybe on all of them.
Well, maybe there's a chance of dispelling
or getting rid of it,
but you've probably got to be able to see it to do that.
You don't happen to have any
dispelling stones, do you?
We had one, but Fjord used it.
Effectively.
Well, how many of you guys can dispel?
Okay. All right.
You guys still have some sound opportunities there.
That might work. Maybe we should find Yasha and try to get her out. I still have some sound opportunities there.
That might work. Maybe we should find Yasha and try to get her out.
Like stealth, like we go on the offensive.
We try to.
And we just like, all of us,
all at once hit three dispels on her.
Yeah, get out while they're sleeping.
Change the odds.
That's fair. Get her back.
Do you think the rest of them are in the city?
Do you think they're in Zadash?
I will definitely be able to scry.
Scry on that shit.
Well, I used both my fifth levels on booping.
Tuvon, how'd you scry?
On booping?
Well, I mean,
I don't really have it prepared.
I don't have to usually do that,
but with a night's rest,
I can probably go ahead and get that situated.
How about you, Jester?
If we're looking for information to follow, folks,
we should probably double up on as many
sort of distant eye-peering as we can.
Yeah, yes.
Yep, double up.
That's smart.
Why don't we go into the back room or upstairs,
somewhere a little bit not in the front of this door?
Yeah, yeah.
Pumat, go ahead and close up and lock up.
We're going to go ahead and head into
the old enchantment chamber.
Is that what it's really called?
That's what it's called. It's called my bedroom.
Oh.
We get to see his comic book collection.
That got like 200 bucks. My bedroom. Oh. We get to see his comic book collection.
That got like 200 bucks. Yeah!
So he leads you into the back chamber.
Wow, cool CD tower.
Boy, I haven't even seen the laser disc section yet.
It's a...
So great!
Tribe Called Quest, awesome!
Right, right.
You guys see your gavel and I taste.
So, leads into the back room.
It's cluttered, like ceiling to floor.
Everything is organized.
It doesn't look like it's a hoarder's chamber by any means,
but every bit of space is used.
You can see that there's a table arranged
with a whole bunch of clamps and small arcane devices
that are used in the process of enchanting
different types of materials and items.
You can see there's small clusters of things
that are used in that process,
both to begin to trigger and inscribe
and permanently create these rituals
that produce these items over time.
You guys all get in the back room
and he closes the curtains like,
All right, so what are we doing here now? It's a check magic. No.
See, I'm black!
Well, we can't scry, right, Mr. Ducey?
Not right now.
So nobody can do that right now.
We could all go to sleep, I guess.
What time is it?
Did we come in here in the morning?
It's the midday. It's midday,
like early afternoon.
I think we should definitely take a rest, right?
Is everybody here?
Of course. We'd like to rest,
but I don't know if the Pumats would want us
to invite further danger here.
I think it might be best that we maybe sleep in
different places.
If they're going after you guys, specifically,
and I mean, respectfully,
maybe not be sleeping so close.
Are there four beds in here?
That's a good idea.
Or is there one big bed?
There's one bed and there's,
oh, the simulacrum sleep upstairs.
So they do sleep.
We can also sleep in the soul.
I've got my room in the soul.
They've already gotten in there before, though.
We could sleep with the gentlemen.
They can get in anywhere.
Aside from the crafting materials,
is there anything on the walls that just stick out
as particularly crazy or interesting or rare?
Make a perception check.
I can look into it.
A 12.
A 12? I mean, look around.
You have no idea what most of this does.
A lot of it's just odd canisters that are labeled,
but the labels have been rubbed off over time.
Just at a glance, you can't really read them
from this distance.
You can see that there's some pouches and things
that look like they contain elements,
but you can't really see what they are.
It's like a wall that says,
kill stick or anything? No.
You gather there's probably quite a lot of worth
in this room and just raw materials
that allow these enchantments to be inscribed,
but you have no real knowledge
of specifically what anything does in here.
Caleb, should we offer to compensate the souls
for the damage and trouble we caused them?
Yes, that seems fair.
Can we help you make up for any problems
we've caused for you, at least with the grease?
That's easy to clean up.
I mean, it's not like you burned it down or anything.
Well, there is a bit of acid on the floor, but.
And grease. Ah, that's mine.
No, the grease has gone.
Grease has gone. Just evaporated?
Yeah, it just, you know what?
It gives it character.
Don't worry about it.
I can just move the rug over a little bit
and no one will be any wiser.
It's a good rug.
Really ties the room together.
Oh, good, yeah, I appreciate that.
Hey, Pumat? Yeah?
How much for this shield that I'm using?
You're going after this Chain of Oblivion, right?
Yeah. 5,000 gold.
Go ahead and take it.
Yeah!
Really?
Yes!
Oh my gosh, what does it look like?
You look at it, it has a red leather
over the top of it,
and there's a bunch of these brass studs
that poke through.
It doesn't look extremely detailed, but it's pretty,
and aside from you holding it,
has not seen any combat use,
so it could very well look on a wall.
I run over and give him a hug.
Oh!
Thank you so much.
Oh, at least I can do you.
You know, kept me safe.
I mean, you brought it here, so.
Yeah, it all comes out in the wash.
All right.
We're here.
Yeah, go ahead and get your rest about you.
Maybe come on by tomorrow,
and we'll all see if we can find a quiet space here.
Maybe not in the middle
of the chamber and see if we can ascertain
any information about where this figure
or the others might be.
Yeah.
So we're not taking a sit down and rest here?
We're taking a short rest.
Somewhere else. Somewhere else?
So we don't draw attention to him.
But like a short rest here,
but a long rest somewhere else, right?
We do need an hour to just. Do different things. Yeah. Doing a short rest here, but a long rest somewhere else, right? We do need an hour to just.
Do different things. Yeah.
Doing a short rest, not here.
Right?
I thought a short rest was here.
Oh my god, oh my god.
I think he said to me we should leave.
Okay, so we'll stay here for an hour.
Yeah, oh, that's fine.
Just, he reaches under the table
and into a little box
and pulls something out and affixes it
onto the front of his robe.
I'll just stay in the other,
just do it on the other side of the room.
Oh, no problem.
You recognize the brooch specifically.
Yeah. It's similar to what you have here.
I mean, just because I'm a little nervous
walking out this door if we're not at full health.
Everybody keep their backs to walls.
Okay, well, if we have just freeloaded our way
into a short rest here, I'm going to do Arcane Recovery.
You can take a short rest if you'd like.
Short rest it is.
Six plus eight equals 14, so we're at three.
Okay. Two, three.
You got to be quiet. Too quiet.
What the hell?
All right.
After you finish your short rest,
what would you like to do?
We need to give the Pumats their space, so.
Let's go somewhere and decide what we want to do.
We could do that over a drink.
An afternoon. Perhaps.
Jester, you said you had wanted to
perhaps speak with the gentlemen.
It's a safe place to go.
Also a place of beverages and revelry.
Tucked away from prying eyes.
He may know some information.
I doubt she'll want to jump in and try and
stabby stab in the gentleman's place.
I mean, probably not.
We have to be super careful on the way there, though.
Also, it seems like quite a lot for Davos, a lot.
And going there could be a lot.
Yeah. You ready for that?
Well, I mean,
you know, I've already seen him before,
so it's not like that's the first time ever, so.
Well, but sometimes thinking about something
and then the moment, you know.
Yeah. They're two different things.
That's true.
I think just pull the band-aid right off, you know?
Just go and see him.
You're going to call him Dad
as soon as we get there, aren't we?
Yeah, what would you say?
Oh, hey, Dad. Oh.
It's good to see you again.
So glad that I'm here now.
We can be a good family. Oh boy.
Is there anything you want to say to me
since it's been a long time and you want?
You're not my daughter.
I don't know who you are.
I'm just setting you up for the worst, for the worst,
so you don't have this reaction when you see him.
He's not going to say that because I'm his daughter.
I disavow you.
You're nobody to me. No, he's not going to say that.
Well, I'm just setting you up
so that you don't do that when you see him.
It is good to role play scenarios, you know?
I'm going to, if he says that, I'll just say,
well, okay, then I guess I'll go.
What should I say?
I don't know, I have never been in this situation.
I think maybe, you know,
a man like the Gentleman
seems like he might have commitment issues,
and if you want to eventually build a relationship with him,
you might want to do it slowly, over time.
Wow, that's really good advice.
It's true.
You have a pretty good relationship with your dad, right?
Yeah, it's what I attempted and it failed,
so I don't know if, you know.
I'm just going to go in there as my mom.
Oh, that seems...
I don't know!
That seems the only way.
Wow.
Missed me on that one.
He's the thing.
He doesn't know I'm in the city,
and if I go in there as my mom,
and he doesn't recognize her,
then he's not my dad.
I don't know if...
But if I go in there as my mom,
and he's like, oh my god, sorry.
I don't know if tricking your father
into a relationship with you is the best.
I missed you so much. I'm sorry I left you
when you were pregnant.
Oh no, this is so... Let's play a game, though.
Talk like your mother.
Oh, I do that all the time.
Let's hear it. Let's hear it.
Why are we?
Babadon, it's so good to see you.
It's been so long.
I've missed you so much, my dearest.
That's pretty good, actually.
She's almost as full as me.
No, no, we're missing the point
that this is a bad good, actually. She's almost as full as me. No, no, we're missing the point that this is a bad idea, though.
Well, actually, I mean,
doesn't he have vials of our blood?
Does that give him the ability to know
that we are here now?
Only if he's actively looking.
It's not like he's got them on little dingers or something
that says when they're close by.
What if he's assigned someone
to tracking all the vials of blood?
Okay, are we still missing the overall point
that you can't trick your dad into a relationship by pretending to be your mom? Send someone to tracking all the vials. Okay, are we still missing the overall point
that you can't trick your dad into a relationship
by pretending to be your mom?
Well, I think what Jester is going is
an illicit reaction. I'm going to find out
that he actually is my dad.
But here's the thing,
I'm going to be honest with you guys, okay?
But not with him.
You're going to be honest with us, but not with him.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, obviously.
Are we going to have to watch you flirt with your dad?
No, it's really just to see this initial reaction, you know?
I like it. Because here's the thing.
Every time I've told him he's my dad,
every time I've talked to him, I was lying.
He doesn't actually say, like,
oh my gosh, Jester, please come see me.
He doesn't say that.
What does he say?
He says,
you're not my daughter.
I don't know who you are, you've got the wrong guy.
You were surprisingly accurate, actually, then.
Well, I'm sorry for that.
What is it?
A couple of variations on your plan,
not saying not to do your plan.
You could paint a picture
and show it to him to see if there's a response, or you could have Fjord
or myself take on the appearance so that his either
affections or ire. You can wash his face.
If he comes after me like he's going to make out with me,
I'll just drop it, you guys.
It's not like I'm going to be like, ooh.
Sometimes you panic and do weird things, though.
What if you like, what?
I'm just saying. I'm, like, I'm just saying.
I'm just saying. I'm just saying.
I mean.
I think it's a good idea.
I think it's a really good idea, you guys.
I support you. I actually like it a lot.
Thank you for it.
I support you, but I just.
Beauregard does not like this idea.
It sounds weird. Amazing.
It's weird. It's a little weird,
and you know, what almost got you killed
in Nicodranas was by doing this exact same thing,
and that's what got you kicked out in Banyer.
Best case scenario, what is the best thing that can happen?
I care about it.
First you don't succeed, try, try again.
He goes, Marianne, I've missed you so much,
and then I drop and I go, ha ha, you fucking liar, you, try again. He goes, Marry and I've missed you so much. And then I drop and I go,
ha ha, you fucking liar, you are my dad.
And then you betrayed your dad right in front of him.
But he's a gentleman, he's into sneaky shit.
He'll be like, oh, Jester, you're so sneaky.
I respect you so much more than before.
Wow. That's right.
That's right. I like it.
I think he'll be embarrassed.
Okay.
I think he'll be embarrassed and he'll be resentful a little bit. I think so will be embarrassed. Okay. I think he'll be embarrassed
and he'll be resentful a little bit.
I think so, too.
Look, I know we're the Mighty Nein
and we like to build expectations
way before any situation we get into, but...
Just come here, come here, come here.
I pull her aside, pull her aside.
What the fuck do I do?
Just away from the guys.
You notice ever since she got the robe,
she's really, Beau's been really,
there's been a take charge attitude
that she's kicked in.
I'm coming, too.
All right, come on, Chaos crew.
It's always been a pain in the ass to be honest.
I'm very impressed by Red.
This is like, I like this new vibe.
Girl talk. What is it?
Girl talk.
No.
I want to help you figure this out.
I really do. I think it's you figure this out. I really do.
I think it's important, if he is your dad,
for you to find that out.
I think that's fair, and to actually maybe have a chance
at a relationship with your father.
I just want to let you know
that I'm not trying to shoot down your idea
because I don't support what you not trying to shoot down your idea
because I don't support what you're trying to go for, but I just care about you and your safety,
and this has given me that tingle up the back of my spine
like it could backfire in an unsafe way.
I agree.
I mean, I will say this.
The last several times that we've seen my family
have been in disguise, and it just feels wrong.
It doesn't feel good.
It doesn't feel like you're really making a connection
if you're deceiving them with your very appearance.
Okay. You can do this, Jester.
Go with your instinct.
What if then, what if we go,
and they go as me,
and if he is like,
he just keeps denying it, denying it, denying it,
then I bamf as Marian, just to see what his reaction is.
You could. And then I can bamf,
because if he really loves my mom,
then he'd be like, for a split second.
That feels maybe.
More upfront and less potentially bad.
I think that you will know
in the first second of seeing him as yourself,
if he's your dad.
Just the way he looks at you when you walk into the room,
you will know instantly.
He makes a whole career out of secrets.
I know, but a parent cannot disguise
the way they look at their child.
Hey.
One of the only good nights that I ever had was my dad.
I found him with a half-empty bottle of wine.
He passed it over to me.
It was probably the only real conversation
we really ever had.
Were you disguised as your mom?
No, I can't do that. Okay, cool, cool.
Maybe just sitting down, having a drink with them.
I don't know.
Did you play Uno?
I used to be in a play Uno with my dad.
He was more of a Parcheesi type of a guy,
which was terrible.
Fucking plays Parcheesi.
It's a Parcheesian game. I was going to say, are Uno and Parcheesi. It's a Marquesian game.
I was going to say, are Uno and Parcheesi now weirdly canon?
Oh boy. Invented it.
Canon.
Canon.
Jenga, Parcheesi.
Yeah.
Sorry, I have to throw up. Just all of Milton Bradley.
Sorry, guys.
My father's name was Milton Bradley.
All right, I won't do it.
If you guys think it's a bad idea, I won't do it.
I'm proud of you.
I think it's a good idea to see him.
Okay.
And we're going to be begging for sanctuary
for anything. Caduceus, you just
walk into conversations.
You just showed up, you scared me.
Well, I mean, no matter where I go.
It's okay, Caduceus, you know.
You're welcome into any conversation.
Well, you guys were taking a while,
and I think we should stick together, so.
We did just walk three feet away.
All right, all right, let's go, let's go.
Are we all looking like the Ruby of the Sea when we go in?
Yeah, we're all walking in as the Ruby of the Sea.
We all sing a song when we walk in.
It's like Harry Potter.
All of us.
We say all in unison, it's nice to see you. It is. It's like Harry Potter. All of us.
It's nice to see you.
If we go tomorrow, we can do that.
But not today.
No, because then I won't be able to see
the way he looks at me, right?
True. Right.
How far are we from the Gentleman's?
I mean, let's see.
He would be in the Intersted Sprawl,
maybe a 40-minute walk from where you currently are,
not terribly far from the Pentamarket.
Maybe a little less of a walk.
I'm going to keep my eyes very open
and I'm going to use some hands ability
for the walk and then some.
Do you have hands or walking ability?
Are you guys beelining right there?
Yes, I mean, what are we doing?
Yeah, just go walk.
Okay. With, I mean, totally like we doing? Yeah, just go walk around. Okay.
I mean, totally like,
the middle of the walk outside.
I'm keeping my eyes goddamn open.
I'm going to attack the darkness.
That's a 24.
Okay.
Other than drawing a few looks,
most of them towards Nott,
who is unabashedly in goblin form.
A few people give a strange eye,
and you are wearing some unique threads.
Out of fashion. Oh yeah.
So you're drawing a few stares,
but it seems no one's following you.
You're just not inconspicuous.
Do we need to walk back to back all the way there? Like link arms? Sometimes no one's following you. You're just not inconspicuous.
Do we need to walk back to back all the way there?
Like link arms?
Not inconspicuous.
Yeah.
Linked arms with a rotating circle.
Like a phalanx.
Look, we have a circus.
Street performance.
You guys.
Caleb is going to take out,
he still has a brown cloak that he got in Zadash ages ago,
and he's going to cover up his Xem'nean clothing
as they walk through town.
It's a white cloak that was just made brown
by contact with Caleb's body.
Constant fear.
Constant shitting.
Nonstop shitting.
Like, all right.
We all put on our non-Xem'nean. Or Xem'nean clothes. mean, we all put on our non-Zemnian.
Or Zemnian.
Yes, we all put on our.
Non-Drawhats. Yes, we all put on our Zemnian.
Okay.
Take care.
Okay, so you make your way over to the Evening Nip.
As you enter the dark dive bar interior,
bringing back memories to your first journey here
to Sadesh, you come across the familiar burn scar dwarf Clive
who watches the entrance.
He gives you all a stir and look for a second,
not recognizing you as you enter.
Can I help you?
We bring many gifts.
Fucking man, you are fast.
You're led over towards the doorway
and you descend into the spiral staircase
down into the Gentleman's Lair.
As you enter the chamber below,
you can see some old faces, some new faces.
The large ogre that previously was the overall
watch bouncer there is standing there.
That's right.
Glances over.
You can see a few figures sitting around.
They all look as you begin to walk down the steps,
everyone putting their hand towards their blade.
Then no relaxing, except for the new faces don't relax.
Some of the ones that you recognize
slacken a little bit.
To the back of the chamber,
where you've many times seen the gentleman.
He is sitting there with a pair of spectacles
at the end of his nose, currently
poring over what looks like a stack of paperwork
with a number of large bags on the table,
and is currently in the process of counting
and putting gold into what looks like sacks.
You're not sure what the breadth or reason of this is,
and then standing behind him, you see Saurah,
the, you know, goliath bodyguard,
just staring you all down as you approach.
He takes a moment, looks up.
Oh.
My goodness, it has been some time, has it not?
He takes the glasses off, sets them down.
Mighty Nein, right?
Indeed.
You look different.
Hardened.
I take it this war has been profitable for you as well?
No, we've actually been pretty broke, I feel like.
We're doing okay right now.
Ebbs and flows, you know.
Hmm.
Well, there are bitter businesses in times of war.
Are you coming for work? Because I have plenty.
I'll just hand him a handkerchief.
Just have a little, a little,
little schwitz there.
You're schwitzing a little bit.
Thank you.
We've actually come for help,
and hopefully to have a conversation about...
About the fact that you're my dad!
Well. Insight check!
Make an insight check.
Four!
I was going to say, I've got the insight up anyway.
I have advantage rolling right now. Sure.
That's a 25.
25.
Oh, guys!
You know what the worst part is?
Oh!
Oh, the whole brick!
Nott is out in the front just going like,
and produces his temp feedback going,
man.
I don't know what to announce.
I can't live enough to get any help.
You know what, Laura?
You know what we have that's really soft and nice?
Blankets. Blankets?
They're Tal'Dorei map blankets, guys.
So, we've been through this.
So.
That's it.
I have a deep contact from beyond the battlefield
and the lines in the current conflict
providing me with intel.
Keeps me from being surprised,
which is the majority of my business.
He spoke of a troop of Dwendalian defectors
who championed a great boon to their queen.
Not going to lie, the vague description
did tickle my memory.
Anything else tickling your memory?
I think I have a proposal for you.
Oh?
We find ourselves in need of,
just to start with, some sanctuary for the evening.
We're being hunted.
Oh, yeah, sanctuary is very much one of the things
that we can provide for compatriots and business
relationships.
If we give you some intelligence,
because we know some stuff, and we have some stuff
that I think might affect your business in the city.
Would you be willing to maybe help us with our problem?
And in return, we'll see how much we know that you don't.
Your sentence structure confuses me,
but you seem like an honest fellow.
Yeah.
Sure, go ahead and...
It's really hard to put together in my head,
but I think I did.
No, no, no, no.
Almost as if you were making it up.
Interesting idea.
Go ahead and provide the intel.
Well, for starters, that definitely was us
that you heard talk about.
Wow.
There's more.
Beau, if you want to get in on some of this,
we are currently being hunted by
what we thought was a cult called the Angel of Irons,
but it turns out, I don't know if you've heard of the
Angel of Irons.
Has he heard of the Angel of Irons?
Perception, insight checkception, an insight check?
Make an insight check.
A million. 22.
22, he goes,
I can't say that I have.
Sounds, well, cult-y, to be perfectly honest.
Well. Yeah, it's basically cult.
What do you know about the Betrayer Gods?
Well, you did roll an insight check.
Oh, oh.
You guys, all month long,
Critical Role is partnering with OSD.
That's a better call.
The link is criticalrole.com slash OSD,
supporting our military community.
If you support them, you'll feel as comfy as you would
in a blanket.
What do you mean, I'm your dad?
Oh.
Caleb, you were saying about?
Ferry's Dune!
Have you ever heard of Ferry's Dune?
Ferry's Dune.
I know of the tales.
Why?
Yeah, this cult wants to bring them back.
Unleash him.
They've already made some progress.
They're doing quite well.
Poking holes.
And they seem to be parading around in your city
at the moment. They just attacked
the shit out of us.
What was the assassin's inevitable end?
What's the name of the assassin
who just attempted to attack us?
Successfully. Successfully.
All right, and you escaped them and you came here.
Oh, we. Were you followed?
No, no, no, no, no, no.
Of course not.
I did my best to make sure we weren't followed, but.
We were being super stealthy on the way over.
Pretty versatile.
We weren't, but I mean,
but I was paying, I was watching,
and I didn't see any signs of being followed.
The issue that we are concerned about is that
they are bringing something
that seems cataclysmic upon the world,
and the war is their cover.
I mean, that is rather dire.
They were the ones that attacked the Cobalt Soul. They're the ones who've been opening
on both sides of the war,
rifts to other dimensions, letting creatures through,
trying to get the other side to take blame.
That's terrifying.
It's unclear how far the corruption reaches
and exactly its influences on the current world events, but...
You have beaten in the government, both governments.
We also know that you are much more,
normally much more concerned with your own business
and your own profits,
so all of this information might be interesting to you,
but do you want with us?
Maybe we have traveled far and wide now
and have allies in distant corners of the realm.
Well, here's my perspective on this.
I'm a smuggler.
I'm certain all of this is terrible and dangerous.
This is far above any of our pay grades down here.
If you want sanctuary, you have it. If you want work, I'll find it.
If you want something that's hard to acquire,
that somebody else currently holds onto,
I can arrange that.
But going after terrible gods from eons past
and cults that are embedded in governments
using a proxy war, this,
I'm going to be perfectly honest,
is far beyond anything I want to get involved with.
Do you smuggle people?
I try not to.
Have you smuggled people here recently?
Has there been a request?
Recently, no.
Since I've reconnected with the Mardoons,
I've been able to close my business opportunities
that dealt with such things.
It's a messy business, and while profitable at times,
just never quite rubbed me the right way.
So you are?
I've done things I'm not proud of.
You are no altruist, that is no surprise to us.
You are a smuggler.
Have you smuggled anything extraordinary
in recent months?
I mean, I've sold a number of relics
out of the Savalirwood.
That's primarily some of the business
I've been doing with Ophelia
since you brought her back here,
which has been quite profitable.
I, uh, it's hard to smuggle out much
under the nose of the Trabane family, but
did sell a strange skull from those ruins recently
to the Stassmans out in Kamordah.
Stassmans in Kamordah?
Yep.
Mm-hmm.
Yep.
Who's the Stassmans?
The person that just attacked us.
Who's the Stassmans?
I believe the Stassmans are the people
that are chasing us, perhaps.
Stassmans chasing you?
They're a wine family.
No, I don't believe they are.
That's why they were by, remember?
Why? They were by your family, Beau.
That's why the Stassmans had this call.
They've had a taste for unique antiquities for decades.
They have quite the collection and they pay well.
They might not have known.
Belvin Thicket.
They were over by Voh's family.
So they imported this skull,
and then Obann went there to get it.
Yeah. Were they working for Obann,
or was it just coincidence?
The Stassmans might be dead.
You said they've been gathering antiquities for years?
For decades, yeah. For decades.
How many of these antiquities have you supplied them with?
Oh, well over a dozen, probably.
Do you happen to have, yes, an inventory,
a record of what those things might have been?
I'm so sorry to ask, but this is...
I'm so sorry to disappoint,
part of my business is keeping certain elements to myself.
Of course, perhaps a favor for a favor, then.
I'm sure coin.
Of course, I've given you sanctuary for the evening.
What favor do you owe me now?
We would be very interested to learn
what some of these relics might be.
Perhaps there is a job of particular import
that needs a delicate touch?
I appreciate what you're saying,
but I do not relinquish that information.
I run a business, and that business runs on trust
between the clients and myself.
Well, gather up your pennies,
because there are forces at work
that will tear it all down around us.
Well, then.
I hope the allies you have in both governments are helpful.
We do as well.
Have you heard any rumblings about a particular item
perhaps traveling from the Dynasty into the Empire.
It's been referred to as a beacon.
It's geometric in shape.
It has magical properties.
12-sided.
If you look into it, you're really lucky.
Okay, I'll say I'll make an insight check.
I'll help now.
I was about to say, I'll join that insight check.
Okay, both of you guys roll.
Trying to just test this.
I'm slowly migrating my way over towards Jester
while this is happening. 20.
20?
At the lower 13. Okay.
Oh!
All these time-lifes, man.
All these time-lifes.
I'm at the point where I'm almost out of it.
DM from his lap.
Just sit in his lap. Just stay there.
dndbeyond.link slash Rick and Morty, everybody.
Hey, should we pass out those healing potions?
All righty.
They're all for me. Okay.
Have you talked to the Stassmans lately?
Do you know if they're alive?
No, alive.
They might be dead, because they could have gone there
and killed them just to get the skull from them.
Same people.
I'll look into it.
If there's any way to find out,
that would be very helpful.
He snaps his fingers and you see the strange,
little, creepy, gnomish, halfling-looking person.
You're not quite certain.
What race? What race. But they approach and he says,
Could you please look into the Stassmans for me?
Would I remember anything about the Stassmans?
Saunters off.
They're a competitive wine family.
They're wealthy.
What area are they from?
Camorda. Camorda.
Sorry, you said that, yeah.
They're kind of the Atomos family of Camorda.
Mm-hmm.
They're house on house.
Yeah, they're strange.
They have an aesthetic that doesn't mix
with the rest of the people there.
They're not terrible, but they're definitely wealthy.
They flaunted a bit.
And they just have unique interests
in a home-based museum.
And they actually are one of the houses
that many of the various diplomats and nobles
from across the Empire and sometimes Menagerie Coast
come and invite them to stay with them,
partially to show off what they have
and to make more connections to possibly
continue to embolden that collection.
It's like the family from the burbs.
I'm very excited.
Kind of, yeah, actually.
Love that movie.
But please, make a place your own,
and if anything does come up that can be of help to you,
I'll let you know.
But please understand,
this is beyond me.
I just whisper,
I nudge Jester.
What?
One last think. I cast Disguise Self and he gives himself into marriage.
Get it, get it, queen, let's go!
Okay.
What's he do, what's he do?
As soon as it goes up,
because he's putting his glasses back on
as this happens, and he goes like.
What's going on?
What is this devilry?
Oh, do you know the Ruby of the Sea?
I've heard of her, yes.
Is this her?
Insight check!
Make an insight check.
Well, I'll tell you. Help me!
Are you just going to take my insight check?
Because I just did one, too.
Oh. Do it! Do it. just did one, too. Oh.
Do it! Do it.
I do it, too.
18. I'm looking you in the eye.
Everyone is.
Well, I mean.
No, it's fine. We'll take it.
One. We'll take it.
Drain to a one.
I'm probably going to get a one as well.
Cocked.
I got a two.
27.
You're fine.
You brought him in.
It hasn't changed from last time?
Okay, just checking. You brought him in. It hasn't changed from last time? Okay, just checking.
Okay.
That's nice.
Worth it.
Some say she's the best lay ever.
Well, that's impressive.
Maybe I'll have to stop by someday.
I drop this guy's cell.
He looks up to you and says,
I have work to attend to.
It's payday, and I'd like to make sure
that my employees are well taken care of.
And he puts the glasses completely on
and begins counting coins, going back to his-
Hey, Jyn?
Yes?
I think you can call him Man for short.
Mr. Man?
Gentleman's fine.
Mr. Gentleman.
You wouldn't happen to know who's on the Tal'Dorei Council?
Wow.
That is two hours and ten minutes.
Oh fuck.
I love you.
Hold on.
130 minutes!
You earned every view, earned that.
Wow!
I do.
Fucking killer.
We're just curious.
Am I getting contact with one of them?
I don't know about this cult thing.
Is that going to tell us?
Do you have any names?
Mm-hmm.
Are you writing them down?
Is that what you're doing?
No, I'm finishing my work.
Oh.
We'll go find our clue.
You said before that you had work,
that you had jobs.
Are those on the table, or you've retracted those jobs?
I mean, yes, but it depends on what you think
of more pressing matters.
You seem to be racing towards these grandiose visions
of being heroes running into the maw
of terrible black devouring gods.
Just the maws of, like...
We can't do any of that without allies
and without information, and you have both.
So we're going to, hopefully we'll find out
what happened to that family.
And sometimes a job can be rather revealing.
We'd be very interested to hear what you might have,
be in need of.
All right.
I have one shipment that's going up to Ophelia
in about a week, heading up towards Shadycreek Run.
With the current war effort and the very watchful eye
of the Righteous Brand and the Crown's Guard right now,
looking for any sort of incursions by
Kryn assassins or scouts,
it's been difficult for us to move across the road.
So basically, if you have your skill sets
and deception and illusion, as you've displayed,
you would be good candidates to see this delivery done
and not tied up in inspections.
If you were to deliver it safely to Shadycreek
by a three-week span from today,
leaving a week from now.
Let's see here.
That will pay out 2,500 gold pieces.
I don't think we're interested in gold.
But if you feel like divulging the names
on that council list,
we could come to an arrangement.
Or other information that might be more pressing.
We will certainly consider your offer and we thank you for the sanctuary.
Of course. We'll get back to you.
Let's see, for what's opening there,
I do have my guest chambers available,
and he points behind you and to the left of the room,
when you head down, there's the spiral staircase
that leads inside, and to the immediate right and up,
there is a balcony, and you can see there is a bedroom up there and a small staircase underneath that leads inside, and to the immediate right and up, there is a balcony, and you can see there is a bedroom
up there and a small staircase underneath that leads up,
and he points to it and says.
For the record, the assassin can pass through stone
and was jumping in and out of the floor.
You're fucked.
Yeah.
Somewhat. Somewhat.
So if it shows up, just please leave.
Sure, I'll remember that.
Anyway.
Thank you for your hospitality.
Of course.
Stay as long as you need.
Food, drink at your disposal.
We are friends. I need a drink.
Me too. And it's good to see you
all safe.
As we walk away, I walk over to Jester I need a drink. Me too. It's good to see you all safe.
As we walk away, I walk over to Jester and put a hand on her shoulder.
I lean on the other shoulder.
You all right?
What'd you think?
Did you see the look in his eyes?
Did you get anything, The glint, recognition?
Caduceus, what do you make of him?
I'm still trying to figure it out. He is, even from my experience with
complicated individuals,
and underworld types, and I have had some experience.
I haven't quite pinned down what I think yet.
Well, he is literally a slippery one.
I mean, if he is your dad, fuck him, right?
Why do you want a relationship with someone
who doesn't want a relationship with you?
That's true.
You're too good for him.
Yeah.
Would you... If you knew he was your dad,
would you be...
proud of that? Happy?
I don't know. I was just kind of happy that I knew.
You know?
Mama seems so sure.
But if he doesn't want me, then I don't want him, it's fine.
I just wrap my arms are under.
We're glad to have you.
Thank you. I'm glad to be here.
Sometimes found family is better anyway.
It's been nice.
My dad didn't want me either, so.
Fuck them.
Fuck them. Well, I. Fuck them. Fuck them.
Well, I mean.
Oh, fuck them.
Well, if he is your dad, he's not bad.
He even said he hardly ever human traffics.
I mean, that's principles.
He could human traffic all the time.
That's why I asked.
I was like, if he is my dad,
I just don't want the Caduceus.
He doesn't, he doesn't, mostly, you know?
What?
I just figured out what that meant.
I was just putting that together.
Sorry, I was thinking about carts.
There was a, anyway.
I'm a thief.
Real fast, just because it's easy to me having to get up.
Just close your ears.
What? Cup your ears. Everybody? Okay.
Everybody, including? Everybody but Caduceus.
Oh!
What do you mean?
While this conversation's happening,
you can see that the gentleman is,
with the head down in his work,
his eyes are very clearly trained on his roof.
I think, no, no, no.
Yeah, all right, we're good.
What just happened?
Stuff for later.
J'all.
All right, so you have drinks readily available.
The bartender serves them up.
Some people come, some people go.
Most everyone leaves you to your own business,
and they wish to be left to their own.
You watch as the gentleman gives out payment
to the employees, each one stepping forward
and being handed their pay before he goes
and requests that one of the finer bottles of wine
brought in from Fiolin is given to you.
I look at it real quick.
It's a good wine. Is it?
It's actually pretty good.
It comes from the Plum Groves.
Fiolin's up on the Menagerie Coast, one of the wine spots. Yeah, it's fine. Is it? It's actually pretty good. Comes from the Plum Groves. Feelings like up on the Menagerie Coast
in one of the wine spots.
Yeah, it's fine.
Is it made from grapes?
I'm not going to drink it.
You want a whiskey?
Yeah.
I'll go to the bar with Beau.
I take a swig from the bottle.
Take it with me.
I'll get a couple of whiskeys.
Oh, me and you are going to the bar?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right.
Okay.
Is there anything you guys want to do?
Are you just bedding up for the night to rest?
Can I have the milk, please?
Yeah, behind you goes,
yeah, I'll get you milk.
Do a whiskey for the cat.
Smell that.
Uh-oh. No!
Pours it.
It's a little thick.
Slides it over.
I bring it over and set it down in front of Jester
and sit across from her at the table and say,
a parent is a parent.
Everybody's different, but
sometimes it's hard to write them off.
Give it some time.
If everyone's busy, I'm going to take a pot of tea over
and see if the gentleman would like a pot of tea.
I'm going to get some hot water and make my own tea,
because I... Okay.
I appreciate the offer, but I'm fine.
It's very rare.
How rare?
Only comes from the Blooming Grove.
I actually was hoping to ask a favor.
Have you heard of the Blooming Grove?
I've heard of it, yeah.
It's a little ways out of Shadycreek.
It's a graveyard. It's much more ways out of Shadycreek. It's a graveyard.
It's much more than that, but yes.
All right.
Bring me a bit, I'm curious.
I'm poor.
My family has been watching over the Blooming Grove
since it was created.
We were the ones who planted the first body beneath it.
And we have worked very hard to maintain it,
and it is dying
from something.
Would it be possible to have someone check in on it
and report back?
Would it be possible to have some news
of if it still stands, if it's holding fast?
My family had to.
I don't know where they are,
and I don't know if they're okay.
It's been a long time,
and there is a part of me that is very lonely.
Make a persuasion check with advantage.
Persuasion, 16. 16, takes another sip.
I can arrange that.
I'll gladly leave you some tea,
if not for yourself, to impress somebody
who might be impressed by such things.
I'm not going to lie, it's delightfully musty.
I wasn't expecting that.
I apologize, I'm a little...
Family is so complicated, and it was cruel
on occasion to my siblings
and not as honest with my parents
as I wish I could have been, but it is a unique
and exquisite complication for family.
I know I've had my knocks growing up.
A brother I don't care to speak of anymore, or speak to.
Well, I'm just saying, you should tell her.
I think it would do you good, both of you.
Thank you for the tea.
I had one last sentence two minutes ago.
I'm sorry that your father has not been a part of your life.
He's the one who has missed out.
And I drank half of the milk and it's really, really bad.
Yeah. It's really, really bad, Caleb.
It smells really terrible. Yeah. Really, really bad, Caleb. It smelled really terrible.
Make a constitution saving throw.
Maybe soon, I don't know.
Woof.
Please spray red milk all over the gentleman.
That is a seven.
A seven? Yeah.
So you drink it.
Just immediately, just on the counter.
Not like a full vomit, but you just spit it back up immediately.
Just like, oh.
It's good you didn't drink it.
I take the wreck from my dress
and just wipe Caleb's mouth.
Thank you.
Froth could come and start licking the milk.
Don't drink it, Froth!
No! Is Nott, all right, my soul, at the bar with Nott? Don't drink it drunk. No.
Is Nott, am I still at the bar with Nott?
Yeah.
Ah! Yeah, that's good.
Ah! Another.
Got any lime and salt?
No lime.
Salt.
Pulls a little pouch of. You pull some of those.
Pouch of salt.
Add some of the rotten hallucinogenic fruit
that we took that one time.
You can rub that on the ground.
One, two, three.
Big stuff, big stuff.
Have you thought about that secret you were going to tell me?
I'm sorry, what?
Have you thought about that secret you were going to tell me?
Oh, we're still doing that thing?
Confide in.
Confide.
It really looks from your eyes
like you've been thinking about this.
Been a week, surely you have.
All right.
One more round.
Okay.
Who goes first?
Do we go at the same time?
Hold a pressure. Sure.
Should we flip for it?
Ooh, let's flip for it.
What do we flip for?
I don't know.
A coin that I don't have.
I don't have a coin.
Oh, yeah, oh, perfect.
This is awesome.
Okay, ready? Oh, that, too.
Number or not? Heads or tails? Tails. Tails, wait, tails, ready? Oh, that too. Number or not?
Heads or tails?
Tails! Whoa.
Tails, wait, tails who go first?
You go first!
Or tails, you get to choose.
Tails, you get to choose.
Okay, okay. I get to choose.
All right.
I'm drunk. Oh, that's a big flip.
You don't have enough dinners.
I get to choose. Natural 20.
You do. Or it's the heads.
Heads, sorry, it's a Kraken. It was a Kraken symbol. What does that mean? Heads and heads. You get to choose. I get to choose? Natural 20. You do. Or it's the heads, heads! Sorry, it's a Kraken!
It was a Kraken symbol.
What does that mean?
You get to choose. I get to choose.
You go first.
Listen to me.
Stay in your personal sphere
when you are playing Dungeons & Dragons.
Stay here.
Fuck you, you're not here.
Put your arm away from my face!
Fuck you!
All right.
It's a little embarrassing.
But when I was in that prison cell
with Widogast over there,
for the first few days,
I was kind of attracted to him.
I mean, he was filthy, obviously, and very, very,
I mean, he smelled awful, awful, yeah.
But...
I just saw him one night,
sort of trying to look out the window.
The moonlight was hitting his face, and
he was very handsome.
You know, I got that vibe before,
thought there might be that feeling.
Had a little bit of a crush.
But then I got to know him.
Yeah, and friend-zone? Well, I mean, I'm a crush. But then I got to know him. Yeah, and kind of friend-zone?
Well, I mean, I'm also married.
Happily married. Yeah, totally.
I will say, I haven't looked at another man
other than my husband quite like that.
He's very exciting and...
In another world, maybe. Yeah, another time, another place.
Dish the dish, bish!
I might have a similar problem.
Wait, you're into Caleb, too?
No! Gross!
No! Gross, he's filthy and disgusting!
No, not Caleb! Oh, cool.
Me? No!
It's me! No!
Is this your way of telling me?
It's Jester.
Wait, what?
I'm sorry, what?
I'm sorry, what?
I don't know, it's just like a,
it's just crushing, I don't know what to do with it.
Wait, what?
What?
Three more, three more rounds!
Three more each.
You fucking tell anybody.
Of course I'm not going to tell you, you know.
Look at this face.
You tell everybody everything.
I'm cool.
You are going to let it slip.
No, of course not!
I shouldn't have told you.
Wait, what about her?
For me, it's his rugged jawline,
it's his intellect, it's his...
Are you talking about Caleb again?
Yes, yes. Yeah, yeah.
It's his, I don't care about the world,
I don't care how people look at me,
I don't care how I present myself. I like that.
It's sort of interesting and confident.
What is it about her?
She's fun.
She makes me laugh.
I like her ridiculous plans.
I think she's complicated and layered.
I don't know.
That's cool.
I'm not going to act on it or anything.
I wouldn't have thought she's your type.
I don't think she thinks that I'm her type.
You're not serious, though, about this.
This is a crush.
This is not a thing that you're going to actually pursue,
right? Yeah!
Because I don't know if...
Wow, what if...
But what if she doesn't know anything about...
Hey, have you noticed that she doesn't know
anything about herself?
Like, she doesn't know who she is,
she doesn't know what she likes.
I don't know if she'll see you.
She could be lost.
She could be a sea right now.
And you could be the anchor that brings her home.
The dark.
I don't know.
Flame in the darkness.
The anchor brings you to the bottom, if I recall.
I think you mean the anchor that brings her to the bottom.
What if she's lost because she doesn't know
that you're what she's looking for?
She thinks she likes Fjord.
I could be her beacon.
Do I need to stop saying these things?
No, these aren't any of these things.
Ooh.
It's just this is dumb already.
You even consider that as a possibility? It's not a possibility. I'm already just. You even consider that as a possibility.
It's not a possibility.
But maybe it is. No.
Don't worry, I'll do some work.
No!
No, no!
He's doing it!
Not confiding, this was an exercise in confiding.
Oh shit.
I see what you're getting at.
We have dating submit again. Fuck yes.
Very black and white.
It's just, don't tell the secrets.
It's not that I'm getting at anything.
It's that this stays between you and me.
This is our girl thing, okay?
Okay.
Okay. Yeah.
Chaos crew.
Chaos crew.
Link sees.
What is this? What are you doing?
I'm making a pact.
Oh, CC! It happened!
I did it.
Oh, wow!
That was cool!
Thank you.
I infinite it just now.
Whoa, that was good! A good invention.
Hey, but no matter what,
we're not letting this break up the three of us.
No.
Absolutely not.
Okay, I'll screw ride or die.
It's not going to change anything.
No.
Don't let it change anything.
It won't.
I will behave the same.
You're already not.
Cool as a cucumber.
Oh my god, I do all three of the shots.
All right, I'll walk back over.
All right.
You guys all bending down for the night?
Okay.
What? Nothing.
I just fucking throw a coin at Nott.
Oh fuck, my ears!
All right, are you guys planning to crash here at night, then?
Yes. Yeah.
Okay, so you all go to bedroom.
You, there's like...
We all go to bedroom.
You go to bedroom.
We all go to bedroom.
Sorry, I didn't mean to invade your space for secrets.
Huh?
No, just don't punch me in the face.
I'm not going to punch you in the face.
I'm not that unaware.
Mostly.
There are five beds,
so people have to either double up or get on the floor.
But there are cushions everywhere,
so you can make shit bed on the floor. But there are cushions everywhere, so you can make shit bed on the floor.
Just make a perception check.
Oh shit.
Oh god, it's not the assassin again.
Please don't be the assassin.
Who?
20.
20.
You have a sense that something's off,
and you come in, middle of the night, maybe you have no idea what hour it is,
but everyone else is dead asleep.
Yes, Caleb? I didn't realize
we were going to stop.
I was about to say, who's taking first watch?
Caleb's already said that we're never going to sleep
without somebody awake ever again.
I can take first watch now.
The dome is up now.
In the room?
Are we? The dome is worthless
for this woman.
Just wired.
So on your watch, you start to nod off a little bit.
Just a little bit, and you catch yourself.
You get this weird sense, and you glance over,
and at the curtains that are drawn at the balcony,
where the steps lead up,
you see a figure just looking in.
As soon as you straighten up, the figure ducks around the side.
Could I see what the figure looked like?
From what you can see, it's backlit,
because there's no light on the inside of the room
you're in or much.
Most of the light's going to be inside,
so you just saw the outline of just a light
bit of a figure peeking in,
and they vanish around the corner.
I hit everyone.
No!
There's somebody there! Go and peek out the door. You peek out the corner. I hit everyone? No! There's somebody there!
I peek out the door.
You peek out the door.
You look out the edge,
and you can see, walking towards the bar,
the room itself is fairly empty,
except for the ogre bodyguard,
but you see briskly walking to the bar,
the gentleman.
Oh, he was the one?
You gather that he's probably the one who was looking in.
Never mind. What is it?
Nothing, go to sleep.
Oh shit. I go chase him down.
Okay.
As you start descending the steps,
he looks up at you, and you see that he puts
his second glass of wine, or a second glass
up onto the counter, and begins to pour it.
I go sit down.
Slides the glass over to you, takes his,
not even looking at you, he's just looking ahead,
sitting next to you, takes a sip.
How is she, Marion?
Oh my god.
So you do know her.
Once.
Did you love her?
Yeah.
He lets over and gives another shoo motion to the ogre who leaves the room
and heads into one of the back open archways
and closes the door, so it's just the two of you
in the chamber, definitively.
Why did you leave? Why didn't you, I mean, why didn't you come back?
Did you know that I was?
I didn't know about you until you showed up.
Then I couldn't come back. What?
I was a merchant sailor out of Fjallraven.
I was working with the Solvia family
to ship along the coast.
I was young, I was impetuous,
I was trying to make a coin and, you know,
make a difference to whatever that meant,
but I wasn't wealthy by any means.
But when I met Marion, I spent every copper I earned
to see her. I had to see her.
It wasn't until she told me about her feelings
that I found myself lacking to meet the standards
of such a vibrant creature as her.
I was nothing. I had nothing.
So I told myself,
I would find a fortune
and come back.
And I could prove
over all these other people
that I was worthy.
But our ship was attacked,
and I was taken prisoner and dragged to Darktow.
I've been there.
Yeah, right.
I managed to earn my freedom while I was there, using the skills I didn't know I had,
skills that I still to this day employ,
a knack for speech and business.
I earned quite a fortune while I was on that island.
But the things I had to do
changed who I am.
I was a criminal.
My name was merely a bounty now to most people along the coast, especially
Nicodranas. I cared too much for Marion to drag her into this underworld that I couldn't
escape from, so I never returned. I knew she'd be all right without me. She's much stronger than I am.
But in my attempts to be worthy,
I fell deeper than I ever was.
It wasn't safe for her for me to come back.
With my growing influence, I began to draw the ire
of the Plank King, and I knew it was time to leave,
so slinking north, I found this bed of thieves
and built this lawless empire now.
It's not really something to be proud of, I'm sure,
but I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
She loves you.
You should have trusted her.
I don't know. I don't know.
I don't know how you guys could make it work or anything, but
I always thought growing up,
I wish I could have known her before you, you know?
Because afterwards.
She's never loved anyone since.
She's told me stories about you.
She said you were the most charming person in the entire world.
I'm not that person anymore. I don't know.
I think your charm got you pretty far.
Why didn't you just say yes?
I sent you so many messages.
I sent you so many messages.
Just, you could have just said yes.
I'm your dad.
Oh man, Jester.
I didn't know about you, but man,
I really want to hang out and get to know you. Jester, I didn't know about you, but man, I really want to hang out and get to know you.
Jester, I'm not your father.
Any man can have a child.
Only someone who's around to raise them well
can call themselves a father.
But for whatever it counts,
I see a lot of her in you.
It's the horns.
Well, that certainly helps, but
you're bright, you're clever, you're funny.
And you, you can do a lot of good. I'm glad that you haven't fallen into the same traps I have.
I want to protect you from the darker parts
of the worlds where we've crossed.
You want to protect me?
Yeah.
I'm going to call your dad.
It's all lived up.
He takes a big drink of his wine,
puts it back down, rubs his forehead,
shakes off his hand.
So basically, you can't smuggle people ever again.
Okay with that?
What should I tell Mama?
What should I tell her? I don't know if you should.
Growing up, you know, it was just me and her.
We told each other everything.
I feel like, I don't know,
these last few months, I've just been keeping so much.
You're making a difference in this world.
You're making friends in places where no one is able to.
Marion is...
There's another Leiker out there, and...
I know that in this line of work,
it's only a matter of time until
either I have to disappear entirely,
I get a knife in the gut,
or I get thrown into a dungeon somewhere
for the rest of my days.
And what I consider the
best bit of parenting, if you want to call it that,
or show my appreciation for the time that I had with her,
is to not drag you both down with me.
You understand that, right?
Yeah.
You understand that that kills me, right?
It's real easy to forget everything
and be lost in the stupor of alcohol and drugs
and women and men and just
be caught up in your own little game of kingpin.
But when you walked in,
all that's changed now.
Wow.
Hey, I've got an idea. What if you decide to give all this up
and Mama decides to leave the Lava Chateau.
You know she's been thinking about stopping
for a while now.
She just doesn't know what to do with herself.
I think you should go back to Nicodramas secretly
and sweep her off her feet,
and the two of you could ride off into the sunset,
take a ship somewhere, and just live happily ever after.
It's a nice dream, isn't it?
Yeah.
It's a nice dream.
And finishes his drink.
Gets off of his stool.
Puts his hand on yours.
Good night, Jester.
Hey, Dad.
Next time I'm in town,
let's play some Uno.
Marquesian, interesting.
Okay. Okay.
He turns around and takes a few steps and stops.
Takes a deep breath and then keeps walking
to his bedchamber.
I sit there for like an hour,
just not really sipping my drink, just staring.
Did you hear that?
We found him.
We're going to go back to bed.
And that's when we take our break. Oh!
We're all done upstairs.
Just completely slaughtered.
I'm just saying, I walked for a while.
Rolled some hit dice and fucked us up.
Oh, there's a conversation end, like,
oh, hell, okay.
All right, we'll be back here
in just a few minutes from our break.
It was a little late break there,
but I lost track of the time.
So we have our Wyrmwood giveaway tonight.
This is the Black Poisonwood Dice Vault
for one lucky winner.
Smells nice.
The word tonight, the keyword is surprise.
Surprise.
Once and only once in the chatroom,
more than once you'll be disqualified,
and for the U.S. and Canada only,
including Quebec, because of stupid laws,
we will return shortly with the winner
and the rest of the session.
See you guys in a minute.
Show me what you got!
Why, hello there.
This is Critical Role's resident art dad, also known as Liam O'Brien.
We are continuously amazed at the artwork this community creates.
That's why each Thursday at 8 a.m. Pacific, we share a curated gallery of submitted fan art over on CritRole.com.
If you'd like to submit your art for consideration, visit critrole.com slash submit.
And thank you to all of the incredible artists
who share their talents with us week after week.
Congratulations, Thor Bailey.
You got me.
Welcome back, everyone.
So we have the winner.
The winner of the one-word giveaway is
Think Not Think.
Think Not Think.
Think Not Think.
I don't know how you say it with the emphasis,
but congratulations.
You won it, we'll get that to you ASAP.
So.
Oh shit.
Oh, if it was a break,
why didn't we discuss what we're doing?
We had to squeeze peanut butter and...
No.
What are we doing?
I don't know. I don't know either.
You wake up, we'll say for the first time,
you wake up without issue.
The sanctuary in the Gentleman's Lair
seemingly went undisturbed
beyond your brief evening's conversation.
You wake up. Weirdly, because you're a Teminjurahas, undisturbed beyond your brief evening's conversation.
You wake up. Weirdly, because you're a Teminjurahas,
used to not looking to sunlight to gauge morning,
and subterranean sleep also presents a similar experience.
But the day is yours, what would you like to do?
Well, one thing we can do is be proactive.
It's only a matter of time
before this person
comes for us again, so we go to them instead
and we try to bring back our friend.
Right.
So let's start the day off correctly, right?
We are going to look in on them, yeah?
A little morning scry.
Are we going to join with Pumat to double our fun?
Yeah, because he can do it, too.
He can really.
He'd probably totally survive the night.
Oh gosh.
From the Gentleman's to Pumat's,
we don't go through the Tri-Spire, right?
Gentleman's to Pumat's? Yeah.
No, but the Tri-Spire is visible.
Did we ever get word on the family
on whether or not they were all right?
Did they figure that out, or?
So you can go ahead and ask about that?
Oh yeah. About which family?
Your family? No, no.
Well, no, obviously not yet, but.
The Stausmans? Yeah, the Stausmans.
Oh, yeah, so word comes back,
and as you guys come to consciousness,
Gentleman's not up yet, but he does eventually join you
as you're gathering your stuff.
So looking into this family, the Stassmans,
apparently they were burgled
not but a few weeks back.
Two members of the family were killed.
Oh.
We told you they were probably dead.
You were right.
But so that is concerning.
Thankfully, most of the family seemed to survive,
though some injured and recovering,
so I didn't lose a client,
but for whatever information, that helps.
No, that does help.
That sort of paints them as being innocent collectors
of antiquities, rather than.
I wouldn't say they're innocent, but.
Well, more interested in the objects,
ogier d'art, than the actual use of them.
That, I would think, would be a little more...
Bible.
So, should we head back to Grumot's?
Yes, I think so. All right.
You guys make your way out of the Gentleman's Lair,
up to the streets of Zadash, and the morning is yours.
You make your way towards the Pentamarket.
Is there any place you want to stop on the way
to the Pentamarket or just be lying there?
I do think on the way out, we'll check to see
if there's anyone waiting to see
who exits this establishment.
Perception check?
I'll just like, eyes open the whole fucking time.
My eyes are closed.
That's it? 18.
18? That's just Dom Caleb.
You should really be looking.
I'll get you.
Nobody seems to be expecting or shifting once you arrive.
The city is busy,
and the presence of Crownsguard and Righteous Brand
is a little more robust
than the first time you had come to this city.
Being in a time of war,
it seems like there is definitely
an intent to magnify or focus a lot of that protective
aspects to the larger cities, and so Zadash,
being one of them, definitely has a larger presence.
But nobody seems to be paying you specific mind
beyond just the occasional glances from passersby.
You hear the Cryers crying?
Immediately, no, but if you continue to travel,
you can eventually begin to hear things like
one town crier in the distance you hear shouting out,
Warfront, positive successes in the east!
Ashgard Garrison reclaimed for the Empire!
Interesting note, there is actually a standard accent
for all criers in every town.
It's true, it's true.
They hire based on that.
They do, they do.
The high baritone voice!
They were all raised in the crier pits to the west.
And found.
Jessie.
First cultural. There's no interest in going to the west! Jessie, to the old news.
There's no interest in going to the Pillow Trove
to check it out or anything?
You didn't have any packages?
Did you have any packages coming?
Well, not.
Is that a no, or are you saying my name?
I'm saying your name. Okay.
We sent.
Yeah, I'm right here. What are you doing? We'll just keep walking. We're wall Yeah, Martia, what are you doing?
Just keep walking.
We're wall walking, I think.
Well, yeah, but I'm going to hang back a little bit.
Are we walking to the soap room?
Yeah, we talked about girl stuff.
We're having periods right now.
Yeah, we're both on it.
I push the boys forward.
Ooh, look at this.
I don't know what we're going to, but come on.
I'm getting swept up in the, I feel okay.
You guys admire the harvest-themed decorations
throughout the city, you know,
the brown and red and golden tapestries,
and you can see there's some decorations
that show the recent harvest's...
What is it called here?
It is the Harvest's Rise Festival
was about a day, two days ago, I think.
So there's still decorations up
and there's still elements of celebration around.
We miss the festival.
We're in the young play now, though.
Why not send?
Anyway, conversation.
So, remember the letter that we sent to Astrid?
Of course I remember the letter that we sent to Astrid, yes.
Well, we told her to send something back
to the Pillow Trove.
Send something back, is that what we did?
She said we told her we'd be staying at the Pillow Trove.
But it's a hotel, we're not going to stay there forever.
Should we check?
Let me send a message to the proprietor
of the Pillow Trove. Okay.
Hello, it's Jester, Lavorre.
Just wondering if we have any packages there for me
or not, the brave?
What did we sign the letter?
Who's a legal firm?
Not in brave legal.
Lavorre?
This is like a lawyer title, for our office.
All right, Madame Luena responds and says,
It appears there is a package present for a,
for a not-in-brave, it is attention to a Lavorre.
Oh shit. You've got mail.
Wait, is that good?
No!
I mean, not after we know what's going on!
Oh my god, we have to tell everybody what we did.
So an enemy sent us a love letter or something?
I don't know what they responded.
Oh my god.
You know, people are complicated.
She could be a murderer, but also have a flourishing
pet pound of life.
What did we say in the letter?
I don't remember! I don't hear!
I was very drunk!
I was very drunk at the time!
Nott, you talked me into it!
I think we said something like,
we want to meet Astrid because we have,
I think we were, you know what it was?
What?
We have the estate of your uncle
and we want to give you some sort of will.
You were left something in a will.
That's the dumbest thing, that's like the stupidest.
Apparently it worked!
What if the thing back is like?
A human hand! Yeah!
Like if it's poison or something,
something that will explode as soon as we open it.
Could be. Could be.
I've got Mage Hand, and we'll have Caduceus open it.
Have Caduceus check for traps.
I could do that, too. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Always check for traps. Always check for traps.
I've died a lot lately.
I know!
What are you feeling about that?
Real bad.
Yeah.
Yeah, real bad.
Okay.
All right, how do we tell the others
that we need to go there? We should just tell them.
You've sort of been yelling the last 20 seconds.
Oh, nice!
Ah, these periods!
Cray, huh? Yeah.
Anyway, we have some intel.
We have some intel we need to discuss with you.
We might have to just make a quick little
swing around the Pillow Trove.
Mm.
I want to.
Yeah.
Remember a while ago, I let you know
that we had reached out to,
oh boy, I can't even remember her name.
What was her name?
Something starts with a...
Aysa?
Something, I don't know. Astrid. Oh yeah, I can't even remember her name. What was her name? Her name starts with a... Aysa? Something, I don't...
Astrid.
Oh yeah, you know what?
It was Astrid.
We reached out to Astrid.
We told you about this, you know that.
And apparently she's written back.
Maybe.
Or somebody else from the Academy.
Interesting.
Yeah, so the package is at the Pillow Trove. Interesting.
Yeah, so the package is at the Pillow Trove.
A package? Yeah, it's a package. You reached out to Astrid, or someone from the
You know, she was just somebody that Caleb loved,
and he wasn't talking to her ex.
We thought we were doing Caleb a favor.
It turns out we were contacting our enemy.
Well, we didn't know at the time.
Right.
How do you propose to go and collect this package?
I'm sure she's not keeping an eye on the Pillager.
It's been a long time.
Who knows how long this package has been here?
I could disguise self. Disguise self?
Or just go in as somebody else.
You could disguise self.
I can.
So you're picking it up on behalf of the not-and-brave?
I should go.
What are you talking about, Caleb?
I should go, because I cannot be found.
Ah.
Caleb should go.
Okay, okay.
You can also disguise yourself, correct?
Yeah, I should disguise myself as you.
Why me?
Because it's addressed to you.
The package is for you and me.
Oh, well, that's true.
Okay, okay, okay, okay.
I'll give good money if it's from the Cobalt Soul
trying to sell you life insurance.
I will give really good money if it's just junk mail.
It's actually not a bad deal.
Don't open it, though, because it could explode with poison.
Yeah, just bring it back.
The bot had already occurred to me.
So yeah, let's swing by the Pillow Trove
on the way over to Pumat, yeah?
Yeah.
Green? Yeah.
Did they say anything about the package?
Like, anything specific?
Like, it's not like, you know, ticking?
Size.
What would tick?
What's a tick?
You know, when Jester does her messaging,
when Jester does her messaging,
she doesn't get a lot of detail back.
It's just like a yes or no,
and then stop looking at me, I'm pooping sort of a thing.
I mean, that's detail.
Do we have that?
Yeah, it's like a request and an observation.
Stone, that device that you throw and dispel something with?
No, no, no, no, no, no.
That...
That projects sound.
Yeah.
What does that do?
We've used that once.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you can make a recording.
I pull it out and go,
Caleb doesn't smell bad at all anymore.
Then I put it down.
We have established that I am not able to... And 30 seconds later, you hear, Caleb doesn't smell bad at all anymore. Then I put down. We have established that I am not able to.
And 30 seconds later,
you hear Caleb doesn't smell bad at all anymore.
And I didn't even see that just then.
That's getting rough.
I think he wants you to record something like,
I'm Jester, I'm here for my package.
I'm Teddy Ruxpin.
We love you guys, be my friend.
Okay, okay, okay.
Hold on, let's group think this one.
Everybody, please, because we have established
that I am not the best with accents.
I think you're good.
But it needs to be something
that could repeat believably.
You follow? Beliefably?
So what, is it supposed to be like?
My name is Jester Lavor,
I'm here to collect my package.
And then I'll wait a little bit and I'll go, yeah.
Yeah, and then maybe a thank you or something.
Like Feras Bueller. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Okay, so I'm going to do that.
I'm going to say, hello, my name is Jester Lavor,
I'm here to pick up a package for me.
Oh, I have the package right here, here you go.
Oh, thank you so much.
Will there be anything else?
No, that will be all for today, thank you.
Okay, bye.
Mild problem, I do believe the stone
probably picked up what you were saying,
so maybe we should get a clean take.
I was saying it very clearly.
Okay.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I don't remember what we did.
We'll say at this point, you guys have approached
the exterior of the Pillow Trove.
Does anyone look like they're, Does anyone look suspiciously at us
like they're waiting for us?
Does it feel like a trap?
Continuing the roles that you guys have had
for the whole journey here, it does not appear
that anybody is doing that, from what you can tell.
Let's back it up a block or two,
and maybe make the fragments of dialogue, you know?
Speaking as someone who has adapted many anime scripts,
keep the pieces succinct,
and so they can be repeated logically.
Okay.
Hello, my name is Jester, Lavor.
I'm here to pick up a package.
Thank you.
Yes?
Thank you.
No, that will be all.
I'm going.
Okay, bye.
Mm-hmm.
We will never remember that.
So much. She will remember that.
She will remember that.
So you receive the stone.
Yeah, and so this works by giving it
a little squeeze, right?
Or does it just go?
It just goes.
It just goes.
It goes.
And it repeats every 10 minutes.
It repeats, yeah.
Oh, 10 minutes.
I thought it was five.
I think so.
You have to do five or 10.
I'm going to look at it.
I think it's every 10.
I have a thank you, yes, mm-hmm, yes,
and I lost it after that.
Well, it was also my name is Jester Lavorre.
Yeah, that's before baggage.
I made it out of a baggage.
Yeah.
So we have a-
Have we ever went on tours or something?
Echoes of Time?
Five minutes. Five minutes, there we go.
You know, we could just record,
like not scream into it.
So down for this.
Leave it in the diplomat's bedroom.
Really try to remember.
Just like muggle your-
Do you need backup?
We could go apeshit on this
and have you recorded it into a phone for the fun of it.
It'd be pretty great.
I mean, I'm into that.
Or she can live repeat it and you have to do it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Live repeat it.
Exactly. Okay, that would be great.
All right, so do you transform into?
Yeah, absolutely.
I am a little blue tiefling who likes pastries, and it's every,
what did we say, five or ten minutes?
Five minutes. Five minutes.
So I hold everyone out here for 15 minutes.
And I try my best to absorb it.
I never, Liam has no memory,
I am never going to be able to remember.
Roll a deception roll.
I'm going to lip sync. Oh, wait, I'm never going to be able to remember. Roll a deception roll. I'm lip sync.
Oh, wait, I'm giving you a little bit of guidance.
And I'm going to, before going in,
cast some Dunamancy on my, no, I'm not.
Oh, right.
That's okay, I'm going to cast Enhance Abilities on you.
Alleyways around here?
I mean, they're not any tight alleyways.
Actually, the Tri-Spire is pretty open
because it's one of the more affluent areas.
There's no super tight alleys.
Okay, forget it, forget it.
You've got some Guidance.
I've got some Guidance.
All right, you have about 30 seconds
until it repeats itself.
That's not good.
Add a d4.
But you're outside, you're just practicing right now.
You're just practicing. Okay, okay, eight.
And you said deception, right?
Yeah.
And, oh, I have a high deception.
I forgot, 16.
Actually, Caleb's not doing bad.
After the second pass or so, he's doing pretty well.
Caleb, you're doing great.
Yeah.
All right, I think you're ready.
Ready? Okay.
I'm going to, before he goes in,
cast Enhance Ability on charisma checks.
Nice. Okay.
And I'm tapping with Guidance
right before we send you underway.
All right.
Guidance lasts for? One minute.
One minute, okay.
You enter and you find your way to the front area
and you can see there is a clerk there who goes,
Hello, can I help you?
Hello, my name is Jester Lavor.
I'm here to pick up a package.
All right, I'll go check for it for you.
Thank you.
Yes?
Hmm, what's up?
Can I help you? Thank you. Oh, all right what's up? Can I help you?
Thank you.
That's mm-hmm. Oh, all right.
Is there anything else you need?
Yes. Yes.
Okay, what can I help you with?
Mm-hmm.
I didn't get that.
No.
Okay, look for the package.
Bye.
Roll a deception check.
With advantage and a d4.
Okay, bye.
Okay, bye.
Good stuff, good stuff.
27.
Whoa! Whoa!
Okay.
Shit.
Pretty good.
This is a little titty sounding.
A few moments later, it takes, you end up waiting in good luck. Shit. Pretty good. First it's a little tinkly sounding.
It takes, you end up waiting a good, like,
13 minutes.
So it repeats a few times?
Just squeeze it to make it stop.
Yeah.
Eventually, she returns with a single envelope.
Less of a package, more of an envelope.
And goes, I believe this is for you.
We're looking up.
Anything else you need?
Very well.
Have a good day.
He sits back down.
All right, and you walk outside
and join the rest of your compatriots.
Everybody sees Jester's form come out and stand,
as soon as the door closes.
Oh!
What's your trap?
You got it!
Hey, good job!
Should we open it, check for traps?
Oh, great idea.
Maybe not right here in the thoroughfare,
says the little blue tiefling.
There's three right now.
Let's find a dark alley.
This is what it always feels like.
See?
Yes, we're ducking to an alley.
Fuck this, come on, let's go to an alley.
We can find an alley.
So you leave the Tricepires to find a hidden alley?
No, we need to go as far away as possible.
We need that.
Let's go to Pumat's and then open it.
Okay, Pumat's. All right, you guys make's go to Pumat's and then open it. Okay, Pumat's.
Okay.
You guys make your way to Pumat's in the Pentamarket.
The Cynaut Sides is closed still.
Pretty.
So you approach in the door.
Oh no.
Should we knock?
Boom!
Knock, knock, knock, knock, knock, knock, knock, knock, knock.
Is it about, should it be open by now?
Yeah, usually.
Oh no. Oh god.
Do not kill Pumat, Sully. I would be so mad.
I will kill you.
I pull out my little copper wire and say,
Pumat Prime, we're your friends, the Mighty Nein are here.
Are you possibly at home?
Yeah, just getting a few things together here.
Just, uh.
Fuck you, bitch!
Nobody needs that!
Fuck!
Matthew Mercer!
I'll send one of the others down
and get the door for you.
Eventually, the door opens up and Pumat,
one of the Pumats is there, goes,
Welcome and good morning, come on in.
We were told to keep the place kind of, you know,
free of any other foot traffic,
based on the intent of the day.
Come on in.
Still, it's Jastrow.
I hope you don't mind us imposing.
Is it all right if we come upstairs?
We need a bit of privacy for a moment.
Sure. We hate to impose.
I haven't heard the other one talk before.
I know, right?
Normally she doesn't.
I'm learning.
We could take tips from you.
Great, all right, come on in.
So you guys come in.
The center table is removed,
and you can see there's a space for scrying
already set in the center of the floor.
You can see this beautiful crystal ball.
The focus you use for your scry is very, very pretty,
but this is a very, very nice
show model, if you will.
Set there, and you can see Pumat
is in the process of setting things.
All right, yeah.
So you're alive, that's good.
Guess it means the thing's not following you
too far behind, right?
Less than 24 hours.
We were hoping to elicit your aid to find our friend,
but before we do that, we have a side task.
Do you mind if I set up shop in the corner for a moment?
I have to inspect some things.
Sure. Yeah? Yeah. inspect some things. Sure.
Yeah? Yeah.
Um, not the brave.
Yes! Would you come over here with me?
Yes!
So.
In a moment, I'm going to see if there is anything
of an arcane nature to worry about,
but could you just check for your run-of-the-mill
physical traps? Of course. I always check for traps.-of-the-mill physical traps?
I always check for traps.
On the envelope?
On the envelope.
Why not?
29.
29.
Wait, plus a d4.
Plus a d4.
Ooh.
33.
Holy shit.
That envelope is fucking not trapped.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
You are so sure? We're all dead. That envelope is fucking not trapped. Oh, yeah, you're right.
You are so sure.
We're all dead.
Good to go.
Okay, so I turn my back to the Pumat's and his setup,
put the envelope down on the ground,
pull out my spell book, open it up to the correct page,
and spend the next 10 minutes ritual casting
to attack magic on it, just in case.
It's a fucking letter.
It's a fucking letter. It's fine.
Yeah, you take 10 minutes, you finish.
It is not magical. Just 10 minutes.
Okay.
Rubber gloves.
Burn it just in case! What does it say?
What does it say?
A YouTube unboxing of the letter.
All right, let's read it.
The group sees a little flash.
We have a knife, by the way,
if we want to lock the front door, like really lock it.
Oh, good call.
Although it could come through the floor, but yes.
That's true.
So my back is to the group, but they see a little
and Frumpkin walks around and just sits behind me
staring at the group.
Okay.
And I will read this out loud,
even though I'm just reading it in my head.
Okay.
To the attention of Mrs. Slavor, Nott, and Brave.
I have received this letter on behalf of my elder mentors
of the Soltryce Academy.
This is a curious bit of fortune, it would seem.
I have not spoken with my uncle for quite some time,
and while I am sad to hear of his passing,
I am also quite interested to hear about this inheritance
and the circumstances surrounding his death.
I can be reached at the 31st Wode Stone Manor
on the northeastern end
of the Shimmer Ward of Rexxentrum.
Shimmer? The Empire.
I want to go there.
I travel often, so I should not,
so should I not be present,
present this letter to any present servants
and stay within the visitor quarters as our guest.
I will return within a day.
Astrid.
This is great, we have an invitation to Rexxentrum.
You heard it out loud.
Yeah, that was just for the benefit of you all
and the audience.
What does it say?
Well, your ruse perhaps has worked. Maybe.
Really? Maybe.
What does it say?
My old friend has said that you could come to
meet her at her home in Raxentrum
to explain an inheritance.
Oh yeah. It was very clever.
Yeah, we told her she got a lot of money and stuff.
We can't go there.
Yes, we can if you have a letter inviting us.
We'll give a safe passage.
Yes, but there's no inheritance.
She doesn't know that.
We didn't specify what.
It could be this jade necklace or something.
It could be I pull out that hideous mask
that I bought that day. It could be this.
It's the rest of it, you don't know.
Oh, I forgot about that.
Her uncle's an asshole.
I put the mask on.
It's all she got.
She had a good life.
Do I know the Shimmer Ward from Rexton?
You do, actually.
It's the central portion of the city.
It's deftly walled in, surrounds Castle Ungebroch,
which is where the- Say that one more time.
Let me find the map for you.
Ungebroch.
You would have this.
Castle, yeah, Ungebroch. Ungebroch. I'm probably messing up the pronunciation. Yeah, Ungebroch.
Ungebroch.
I'm probably messing up the pronunciation.
Yeah, Ungebroch.
You've been to Braxton Trimms, so you can have this.
Okay.
Ooh.
But the Shimmer Ward is the central
pentagon-like area. Yeah, Ungebroch.
Yeah.
Shimmer Ward is also where the candles are.
The candles are the towers of the Cerberus Assembly. Oh, that's not. Shimmer Ward is also where the candles are. The candles are the towers of the Cerberus Assembly.
Mm-hmm.
Oh, that's right.
So that would mean that she is well off,
doing well in the center of the city.
We've seen that based on the letter, yeah.
And that is
nobility, government,
assembly, go ahead.
Actually, you would know this.
The address that's given there is a manor
that exists on the grounds of Trent Ikithon's tower.
So I recognize the address?
You do.
In fact, you're pretty sure all the handful of buildings
that exist on that plot are all owned by Trent.
Second cult leader.
Or a landlord.
What the fuck?
This is Michael.
Well, um.
Yeah, you got two.
You know, my friends,
just do me a favor and maybe don't write any more letters
to my old school chums, okay?
Not a problem.
You meant well, I know.
Thank you. At the time,
I just wanted to get you
connected with people in your life.
She seemed so special.
She was.
Does it look like our handwriting?
Yeah.
Does it smell like perfume? No Yeah. Does it smell like perfume?
No.
Is there a, like a,
do you like me, check this box sort of a thing?
I don't think that box is here.
Well, that's an option, though,
if we get to Rexxentrum.
So, Pumat,
I think we are ready to look into our friend.
Scry guy!
All righty, let me just go ahead.
I got that spell right here.
We're looking at your friend Yasha, right?
The one who was the pale face,
burly-looking badass, that one?
Yeah. All righty.
Let's use that. Who wants to go first?
I'm not kidding about let's use that knife.
I'll scry on her first.
For the duel? All right.
Nott has it.
Nott.
If you're planning to scry on anybody else,
I don't know who they are, so.
Okay.
It's the only person I know.
Who else are we going to scry on?
Well, let's see if Yasha works.
The inevitable end, you could scry on them
because you saw them.
Oh, right.
Ooh, yeah, all right.
Should we do that first?
I think we should do Yasha to begin.
Yasha to begin?
Yes, to see what state she's in, to see.
Okay, Yasha.
If she has done Yasha before,
the Enable to Burn could be insanely hard to look in on.
Hey, whatever works for you guys.
I'm just having a host. Let's do Yasha.
Start with Yasha.
Maybe Pumat should do it, then.
He can still have my fifth level.
Okay, sure, sure.
Wherever you prefer.
I'm going to throw Guidance at Pumat as well.
Caleb walks up to watch and just plants his hand
on Nott's shoulder and gives it a gentle squeeze.
Pumat, when you're looking in on her,
look at her eyes, okay?
Just try to see how she's feeling.
And pay attention to her neck.
And if Obann touches her at all.
And if you see any lightning around.
I think he's going to be quite observant.
Okay.
All that's been noted in the old nugget.
Okay.
All righty, boomats, get around.
Not to make you jealous.
Well, I can't do magic anymore.
They only get spells once,
so they're just more of my hands here.
So I'm the spellcaster, they're just,
you're my associates.
Oh!
They're like, yeah, you know,
I mean, there are elements of missing it, I guess,
but we're just happy to help,
and he seems to do most of the pulling.
Everyone goes,
Anyway, continue.
Yeah, of course, no worries, all right.
Plus, we make a mean acapella group.
Oh, I bet.
Doesn't that have good tune?
He concentrates on this large crystal sphere
that has this gold leaf lattice
that curls up around it.
It looks almost like an intricately carved geometric nest
that builds up around two-thirds of the actual sphere.
As he focuses on it, the eyes close,
the eyes open once more, and they're just clouded over.
You have a memory flash of when you first met Shakasta
with that snow-blind look.
As he quietly focuses. Shakasta.
He focuses for a bit and starts talking loud.
You need to make her save.
All right, she's,
she's walking.
She's walking, she's got some companions around.
They're all kind of cloaked right now.
It's a bit of rainfall.
Where are they?
Open a mist town, there's a...
That's a big cell.
They're walking up to Rexxentrum.
Oh!
They're in Rexxentrum?
Trying to get a look at her eyes.
They're...
They're focused.
Is her neck glowing?
Yeah, her neck.
Guidance.
I can't see, unfortunately.
Cloak's blocking it all.
Ah.
Sorry, here's a big one with him.
Does the big one look weak?
It's a big, I don't know,
I can't get a good look at it, I'm focused on Yasha.
It's big, though.
I wonder what would happen if I Scryed
at the same time on the Leaven Hand,
how weird would that be?
I'm going to do it.
That'd be pretty weird.
At the inevitable end or the Leaven Hand?
Which one? At the inevitable end or the laughing end? Which one?
Inevitable end.
So?
Inevitable end.
I'm going to scry on the inevitable end, I guess.
Okay.
MATT and LAURA and SAM and LAURA and SAM and SAM.
Yeah, we know where the laughing end is.
Hold on, the laughing end, inevitable end.
To the hymen of the last rope.
To the hymen of the last.
10 minutes. So yours will end by the time rope. To the Heim of the Last Ten. Ten minutes.
So yours will end by the time,
his will end by the time yours ends.
He's like, all right, they're approaching
the outer gates.
Boy, it's raining hard.
Raining hard.
Maybe I shouldn't have done that.
There's a guard questioning them.
Oh no.
Oh no.
They're going to kill that guard.
All right, now the guard lets him in.
Oh, because he manipulated the guard.
He's going to charm people.
All right, now they're entering the city.
I haven't been to Rextrum in a while.
It's real big. Do you see a woman
with red hair and dark elf-looking features?
Do you see the Inevitable End?
There's only so much radius around.
Inevitable End. Actually, there's a fourth much radius around. I'm a balloon.
Actually, there's a fourth trail in him.
Oh god, it's her.
Yeah!
Incredible.
Well, at least she knows she's not going to attack us here.
I'm getting a little nervous.
I'm going to, blinks his eyes.
Sorry, kind of crept up on me there.
It was getting a little uncomfortable
after what happened yesterday.
Were they talking at all?
No, they were pretty quiet.
Just making their way up. Turn of the Rexxentrum.
Why do they go on a turn of the Rexxentrum?
Maybe they're reporting back to their bosses?
Or...
I hear you.
Soldiers Academy?
Oh man.
Cerberus Assembly?
Is there anyone else?
That's pretty much all of them for.
I mean, that was what we were looking for.
That was great. In one try.
It was an excellent job describing it, by the way.
Well done. Of course, yeah.
Is it just a small cult then?
Is it just the four of them?
They're really powerful.
They might be meeting up with people. Who knows? What if they're leading a whole cult then? Is it just the four of them? They're really powerful. There might be a meeting of events.
Who knows, what if they're leaving
a whole cult meeting right now?
What if the Soltryce Academy is the angel of fire?
Should I try scrying on Vence?
Yeah, see if he's in Rexxentrum, too.
Well, when we last spoke with Ormit Haas,
who said that Vence is in Rexxentrum.
Do it. On a mission for Ludinus.
Ludinus. Ludinus.
Lu-nu-nus.
By a luminescence.
Evanescence. Yeah, do it!
Like a ludicrous.
Okay, we should get ready to go to the Cobalt Soul
and bamf over to Rexxentrum.
We need to be at the Cobalt Soul to get there,
or can we do it from anywhere?
We can do it from anywhere.
Oh right, we bamf into the Cobalt Soul.
Yeah. Okay, okay, okay, okay. I'm going to get there, or can we do it from anywhere? We can do it from anywhere. Oh right, we ban Venge with the Cobalt Soul. Yeah.
Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, I'm going to scry.
We can send a message.
I'm going to scry on Vence.
On Vence.
Right? Or on Ludinus.
No, Vence?
Vence, because Ludinus will block it.
Blunt it. Yeah, yeah, he's too powerful.
I'm going to try it.
Yeah?
Maybe and see if he's meeting up with them or something?
Or in the city at the very least.
Actually, they give it five minutes
and then see if maybe he's on the move, too.
Just out of curiosity, we know now that,
well, I mean, would Trent Ikithon be someone
that we want to scry? No, no, no,
he would block it.
Don't bother.
I would give it maybe, Chester, maybe give it an hour
to let them get together.
Oh no, it's not. Vesterrogna? Maybe, Chester, maybe give it an hour to let them get together.
Vestirogna?
They're all going to be able to block it.
They all have this thing that Caleb has.
But Vence won't.
Caleb, do you remember the approximate time
that it would take to walk from the gates to the towers?
Yeah, of course I do. It would be about...
At a casual pace, it would take...
Wait, to where? To which part in the city?
From where they were.
To wherever Vence King Dwendal, wherever.
Gotcha, gotcha.
That size, dense city,
recently after a festival, I'd say probably
at most an hour.
So I should wait like 30 minutes and do it.
Maybe we should go there now.
Yeah, I was saying, are we not trying to get there now?
We should get there now.
Have you been preparing a scry during this time?
I was, but then as soon as you said
it would be ended, I was like, oh, never mind.
The fun of it was to be scrying at the same time.
Right, right.
So you're not scrying on vents?
What are you guys doing?
Not this second, because there are not,
our chances of landing on them with your eyes
at the right moment are slim, but if we do it right now,
they've just walked into the city.
He's not waiting for them there,
so maybe give them some time to wind their way in
and get where they're going.
Maybe we should get over to the, yeah,
we should bend there and then I'll scry.
Pass the time on the way to the soul,
and then we could get there, and you can scry.
Oh god.
What?
Can't scry from the soul?
No, I'm just nervous about going home.
Oh.
Sure.
I think we know where they are, though.
We should take advantage of this, yes?
I trust you guys.
And we already had that. This is the first time we've been ahead of them. Impruning? I trust you guys. And we don't have to just.
This is the first time we're going to head up.
We're running in again.
Well, that's what I was about to say.
Before we do this, why don't we head back to the soul?
I can check in with Zeenoth, then we can check in
with Keith the Doc over at the Rexxentrum Ranch.
We can also. And maybe get
a little bit of backup.
Let Dairon know we're going to go there.
She can help. She can help.
Can we change our clothes out of this,
out of these Xhorhasian clothes?
We've already changed. Oh, great.
You do also know that you can use
the teleportation circles at the Cobalt Soul
and not cast a spell slot. Ooh.
Yeah.
That's worthwhile.
And we can let everybody who needs to know
where we're going, because we have a lot of people now.
We've got to let everybody know what's about to happen.
We're trusting in allies. Yeah, we should let lot of people now. We've got to let everybody know what's about to happen. We're trusting in allies.
Yeah, we should let Orniths know.
Mm.
Great. The Tal'Dorei Council.
Fumat, thank you. It's been a hell of a two days.
I'm afraid we're going to take our leave now.
Well, all right, no worries.
All right, guys, close up the shop.
He reaches over and grabs a bag from behind the counter.
Where are you going? Are you coming with us?
I figured you probably needed some help
if you're doing stuff.
Yes, we do, Fulma!
We do a trip with Pumat!
Absolutely. Should I not?
No, you should.
Pumat, oh my gosh, come with us, oh my gosh!
Are you coming, or all of you?
Well, no, they're not much help.
I need them to continue to run the shop.
I still got to make my money.
Yeah, I mean, they know what the side's like.
Respectfully.
Respectfully, that is very generous of you.
Boy, this is some real dangerous dung
you've stepped in, right?
Like, this is going to affect all this bit.
I'm going to sign this waiver right here, if you would.
Yeah, we're not liable to anything.
Not a fan of citing paperwork.
I haven't had a chance to thoroughly read, respectfully.
Understand this.
Smart.
Yeah, let's go!
Yeah!
All right.
Wow.
This is big. Oh fuck.
We're rolling with Pumbaa.
Holy shit.
Hey, before we leave his place,
was I able to retrieve my little bola thing,
or was it destroyed on impact?
No, you were able to retrieve it.
Okay, great. Yeah.
It's a little...
It was already, there was one that you said
was fucked up to begin with.
Yeah, was that the one you fired?
I don't know.
You said that one is probably less reliable than the other.
Yeah, no, the one that you fired
was the Dust Five of One, and that one is busted.
You collect it. So I have one left.
Yes, you have one left, but you were sure
that that one is probably pretty much it.
All right, so you guys make your way.
Should I send a message to Orm in the house on the way
and let him know what's going on?
I have no input on that because I wasn't there. I mean, he should know, right?
He was concerned.
And we should let Allura know, too.
They're in Rexxentrum.
And the Tal'Dorei Council, yes.
We have the seal from the server's assembly.
We'll also see how much the Cobalt Soul can do for us.
They can probably take care of spreading the word to people.
Good idea, so I don't use up all my spells, okay,
because we might be fighting or something.
Oh man.
Oh man.
Okay, let's go. Let's do it.
To the soul! All right.
You guys make your way to the Valley Archive.
No issue entering with the recently anointed Expositor.
The chambers are yours, what would you like to do?
I'll look for Zeenoth.
Okay, it takes a moment, but you find him.
Dairon is not present, but Zeenoth is around.
You see he's still, you know,
he's looking pretty healed at this point, you know?
It's just a little bit of a slight limp,
and he goes,
Hello, can I help you?
Xe'nor, how you doing?
Paramount.
All right, all right.
Pleasure to see you as well, Expositor.
And the rest of you?
You're looking fit.
Pumat, I wasn't expecting to see you.
Yeah, you know, I just needed a vacation to,
you know, go relax and have some totally not dangerous times
with my favorite customers.
Oh dear.
Oh, what's that, a friend?
Right.
Kind of what he's talking about is what I'm here for.
We got to get to Rexxentrum.
Oh, well, yes, right this way.
Obann and the other four are there,
and they're on the move.
That's not good. Yeah.
Well, let's get you there right away, then.
Can you get a message to Orimith Haas
and tell him what we just told you?
Certainly, yes, I can have that arranged, yes.
Super important.
Or we can go maybe Lady Allura, if possible.
I should send a message to her directly.
I'll do that.
I know that the Cobalt Soul is often isolated
from these other type of institutions,
but I think in this moment,
we need to cooperate with the Cerberus Assembly
to try and handle this.
Won't be the first time.
All right, I'll prepare the folks here,
and if you're heading to Rexxentrum,
just go ahead and let them know the same.
Will you let Cathedoc know I'm coming?
Yeah, I pissed him off last time.
That can be done, and look for Archivist Cathedoc.
They would be the ones who handles the arrival.
I was misperm, that's same, yeah, same guy.
I was thinking the same.
Cathedoc. Dude, Cathedoc.
Right.
Have them, if possible, introduce you to the
the high, what is it?
The High Curator, Yudala Fon.
And you've never met Yudala, but you've heard of it. Yudala Fon is the. Yudala?
Yudala Fon is the. Yudala Fon.
Correct, is the High High Curator of the Cobalt Soul.
Like, outside of the one that's in Vasselheim,
which is the only equal level,
they are both the dual leadership
over the entire structure of the Cobalt Soul.
Okay. So like Yeezus.
Sure.
Got it.
Yeezus.
He guides you down
to the subterranean teleportation Nexus Chamber
and the same Rexxentrum entryway
that you guys had previously brought your horses through
lies available and at your disposal.
Looks so beautiful without horse plops everywhere.
Yes, no, it did take quite a bit
to get that stain out of the marble,
but that's all right.
Good luck.
Be safe.
Thank you.
Turns around and...
Oh!
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I take a step forward,
plant one hand on Beauregard's shoulder
and use the other hand to start to weave the air around me
and here we go.
All right.
As you guys step into the circle
that sits at the end of that hallway,
you all vanish through, arriving on the other end.
It's getting real.
Rexxx. You step through
the other familiar chamber on the opposite end,
the interior of the Nexus, the Teleportation Nexus,
all the doors closed around you still,
and that staircase that leads into the upper floor.
There is, within the room, a single armed warrior
of the Cobalt Soul, adorned in full armor,
who notices your arrival, spins and goes,
Crean!
Oh. No.
No.
I'm Spawsitter Beauregard.
You're from Zadash. Right, right.
My apologies.
You hear some footfalls coming down the steps.
A couple other soldiers arrive,
and the familiar half-orc
personage of Archivist Cathedoc comes,
white hair, goes,
Oh, you've arrived.
Is this, are you here to help?
Yeah, what's happened?
Has something already happened?
It appears that some form of
Kryn assaulted certain parts of the city
in the past 10 minutes.
What? Oh shit, it's happening now.
It's not what you think it is.
Or maybe it is. Or it is.
Or maybe it is. Or maybe it is.
Where? How large are the forces?
We're still ascertaining the amount.
It's only been recently happening.
We just found out ourselves and began to arm up.
Are they assassins, or does it sound like...
Apparently, they are riding on purple wormback.
That's green. Where is this happening?
Come.
Take it.
Comes to the top there.
Leads you to the top area and the exterior.
First off, seeing the interior of this library,
you guys were impressed by the Valley Archive,
but here within the Rexxentrum Archive, the Cobalt Soul,
this library is easily 50% larger or more,
and there are multiple floors.
You can see from the interior,
probably four full 15-foot high tiers of libraries
that just expand from level to level
with all sorts of little pocket chambers
and walkways that connect between them.
On the inside, there are people that were doing research,
but are starting to put books away
and usher from the word that's spreading
of this immediate chaos that's breaking within the town.
You're drooling.
It's a little, like, right, you got to, yeah.
I don't know if I can do this.
Cathodoc leads you outside into the middle
of what is the Tangles, which is one of the regions
of Rexxentrum.
You immediately can see the beautiful Cerulean building
you stepped out of, marked by four short,
multi-level domed towers of polished blue stone.
You saw them from the inside and the elements of some sun
that was poking through from the outside.
It's this beautiful, it would look almost like
a futuristic SimCity building if it wasn't just
a polished piece of stone and glass.
You step out into the Court of Colors,
which is this region of the Tangles.
It's on the western edge of the region.
You can see harvest-themed banners around you,
the decor line of bright red-brown cobblestone streets
that curve into crowded cross streets
lined with carts and social spots.
Some of the local business appear to be closing quickly.
Others are already deserting it
and starting to go into their respective homes.
As you can see, Crownsguard's starting
to usher folks around,
but you don't see any signs of any attacks.
Can we get high?
Maybe.
Hey.
You got this.
You can do this.
We need you.
We need you to do this.
Yeah, good.
Good.
Can you take us to a point of elevation,
somewhere where we can see more clearly across the city?
Perhaps I'm coming this way.
He leads you guys up another spiral staircase
that goes to a little parapet that overlooks
from the second-to-tallest tower.
You can see the expanse of Rexxentrum,
for those of you who have never visited,
which is pretty much all of you but Caleb, I believe.
It is a sprawling metropolis of
multitudes of towers and chimneys of all heights and sizes,
many of which almost seem to have this ominous
lean-in type feel, that crowd around
the immediate space you're in,
and just continue on in all directions.
You can see the roll of the hills
that the city was built upon.
You can see the rising wall that surrounds the Shimmer Ward.
You can see little plumes of smoke,
and you can see people in the streets,
some just still going about their business, unaware.
You can make a perception check if you'd like.
Plumes of smoke like Stacks or like,
I'll, yeah, you can do it.
Yeah.
Advantage.
So you're aiding?
Guidance.
Oh, thank you.
Yeah, I'll aid you.
Where's my d4, is that right?
Oh wow.
How is that even possible?
What is it?
Double ones? Double ones? Double ones.
Double ones. From you?
You guys glancing around up here.
Shit.
You have 13, technically.
Double ones from me. No, but it's ones.
Right. Double ones is nice.
I'm distracted, apparently.
You guys looking around, because partially
you've never seen something this large in your life.
You grew up in a small grove in a dark forest.
This is awe-inspiring and terrifying in equal parts
and so much bigger than you want.
You wouldn't even know what a little smoke would be.
This is the antithesis of how you were raised
and you find yourself immediately lost
and a little strangely claustrophobic
in how big it is and how lost you feel in the center of it.
I'm going to do a go for it.
All of you looking around and trying to take it in,
you have no idea, nor do you see any signs
in the immediate vicinity of any conflict.
There's not like everyone's rushing for battle.
They're just like, words starting to spread
and people are starting to just hunker down
and be defensive.
That's where it stands.
Who's leading us through this?
Cathedoc still? Cathedoc is just like.
Cathedoc?
Is this all the way we've got?
Did you see anything?
Nothing yet, no.
We're just trying to be careful
and be ready in case anything happens.
The edge of the city?
Was there an incursion within the city?
We didn't get anything beyond just the knowledge
that apparently there was.
Where did this knowledge come from?
I'm kneeling down and starting,
setting up my scrying circle.
You were sent a message from whom?
From one of the various interconnected
messengers of the local crownsguard.
They have a few individuals that,
in emergency circumstances, would send out to.
I don't think, I think this is Yasha, I think this is Obann.
Okay.
She's going to scry.
Who are you scrying on? Yasha again.
Yasha again?
Okay.
While she's doing that, I'm going to just go
and stroke Caleb's hair and say,
it's okay, you got to calm down, buddy.
Yasha has a really low wisdom.
16?
17! Okay.
That's why I scrolled on Yasha.
Okay.
As you sit there and focus for a bit,
and you're all nervously looking around,
and occasionally you can see, off in the distance,
a little bit of activity.
You hear some shouts, but they're echoing around.
It's too much and not enough.
The city is so big that you,
it's like looking over the entire valley of Los Angeles
and trying to pick out where a fistfight is.
Mary Poppins. Yeah.
Are we hearing cries or?
You're hearing conversation, you're hearing yells,
but a lot of it is just general social din
and people that seem to be hearing rumors
or worried but not quite know what's going on.
Thousands of voices.
Yeah, it's chaos as far as a social environment
in an urban sprawl.
Yasha, as you focus in, is walking through the city still.
You see her walking intently, and on the peripheral,
where the edges of the immediate glance of your scry
fuzzes, you can see the figures described previously
by Pumat following along.
Look for landmarks. No violence.
People just walking by, some people giving strange looks
as they go, but they seem to be going about their business
or rushing past.
A few crownsguard go charging by.
You hear some shouts, but it's all muffled
and can't really make it up as the focus
is on this particular individual, Anyasha.
They're beelining somewhere.
Do I see any landmarks, any tall building,
like spires or shop signs that she's passing by?
Make a perception check.
Come on.
Guidance.
Just do better than me.
Better than me.
21. 21.
You can make out the cobblestone street a little bit.
You can make out shapes. What color is it?
It's a dull brown.
Dull brown cobblestones.
Not much beyond that.
Unfortunately, the scry is limited,
and you didn't quite roll high enough
to make out anything beyond just the shapes
on the exterior of the street and people rushing past.
But they haven't started attacking at all.
That's not her. You see no violence.
You don't know where they're heading.
Might be a distraction.
You could. Yeah, that's possible.
Okay, so you could either,
someone could turn into an eagle
and do some swoops around the city,
or you could scry on Vence first.
Her neck, is it totally lit up?
With that perception check, her hood is still up,
so you can't really tell, but just looking at her face,
you can see that she has that same intense,
conflicted look, the brow is furrowed,
and while she's walking with absolute purpose,
Terminator walking through the street,
there is an expression that looks sorrowful and
regretful.
The Laughing Hand, does he seem like he's walking
weird or weak or anything?
He is walking alongside, from what you can make out nearby,
like three feet from her.
You can just make out the shape and the movement
each step from your memory.
It walks with the same gait,
though the weight behind it
seems to be a little bit off kilter.
Okay.
I can't see anything around her.
It's just buildings, it's just shapes.
But they're not where the fighting is.
So we see the city, we see the sprawl,
but we don't see any attacks.
Do we see the edges, the walls around the city?
From this perspective, no.
It's too far, and the walls are about as tall
as the sprawl is on the edges.
It doesn't loom over so high.
Some of the buildings in there are pretty tall,
and from this distance,
and with the terrible perception roll
that represented the group's perception check,
it's real hard to make out much anything,
especially with the rainfall that's now hitting the city.
It's dampening some of the long distance visual range.
Should we go where? What?
He wants to scan the city.
Come with me.
Yes.
Giant eagle.
Okay.
Pull Nott up into the air. All right.
And start, I want to try to ring the city.
You begin to see, at this point,
as you go up into the sky, through the rain,
and some of the perception comes in,
there are griffon riders in the sky,
which are some of the military defense
of the capital specifically,
but a lot of the northern area.
And the minute you head up into that area,
three of them turn immediately to this gargantuan eagle
that is suddenly taken to the skies,
unapproved, unnoticed, in the middle of what seems to be
some sort of a threat or danger,
and they all beeline right towards you.
Okay, in the moment that I'm elevated and we're here,
do we see anything in that second that we are here
that we did not see before?
Make a perception check with disadvantage.
Both of us.
That's not going to work for me.
However, you think you get advantage as an eagle?
Eagle with sight.
Right, so it's just a single roll.
Could have been better.
Where'd my giant eagle go?
Where my giant eagle at?
It's just a nine.
14 for me.
In being distracted by seeing
these griffon riders come at you,
the rain that's pouring down
that's limiting your vision already,
the low fog that begins to come up from the streets,
when the temperature meets with the general heat
of the populace, especially when they're crowded
in certain spaces, you can't make out anything.
Okay, and where are we, in that split second,
where are we in relation to where we were
on the ledge with our friends?
You are, at this point, I'd say about 100 to 150 feet
above them and to the east,
which puts you a little more into the city,
which is, when you were trying to get a view,
you probably would have leaned a little further in there.
Okay, so seeing those things encroach,
I just drop it, turn back into Caleb,
and they start to plummet,
and I let us plummet for a while,
and then eventually cast Feather Fall.
Okay.
I mean, they're still giving chase.
That's fine.
You fall faster than they fly. Or pretty equal as they go into a dive,
but you're falling and falling and falling.
And you featherfall the last minute,
they pull up and then head over to a,
one of them stops near by a roof,
the griffon coming to a halt,
perching over there.
Looking over in the direction
of where you guys had fallen, the soldier on top
looking down and trying to see where you guys had fallen
while the other two veer off,
possibly in pursuit of other dangers.
Are we ground level now?
We're not with them? You guys are now ground level.
Okay. Are we within sight of them?
Or just off somewhere?
You guys have fallen within the city roofline,
so you guys have no sight on them.
You watch them and then just vanish into the city.
Try to message the others,
and I just raise my hands up into the sky
to show that I'm not doing anything and wait.
All right.
Most people scatter with the griffon landing on the roof.
The griffon then swoops down
and lands on the cobblestone center of the street
next to you, heavy impact, and the guard immediately says,
Who are you, what's your business?
As it was coming, I disguised myself as a halfling.
Okay.
And I try to subtly just step in front of Nott
at the same time.
We are here from Zadash. I try to subtly just step in front of Nott at the same time.
We are here from Zadash.
We got word that there is trouble in the city.
I am a citizen of Rexxentrum,
and I have come to do my part.
Roll a persuasion check.
Come on, K.
Come on, KK.
Six.
Ooh!
He steps off of the griffin.
The deception would have been better.
And approaches,
pulling the blade from the side,
and looking at you as he walks in.
You'll have to come with me,
and explains this to the captain of the guard.
Of course.
Come. Lead the way.
Is it just one guard?
Just one guard.
Okay, fuck.
Well, this is going to go well.
It's not going to go well at all.
Where are the other riders? They're up in the air?
They're up in the air. Yeah.
You caught the eye of a handful and one of them pursued.
You don't see as much of an immediate danger,
more of a person of interest and a concern.
What are you doing, Nott?
Got to get out of here.
Is he on foot?
Yeah. Okay.
The griffon's there, maybe 10 feet from him currently.
I'll cast Phantasmal Force on him.
Okay.
Well, that would be a 12.
Okay, so it works.
I will make him think that his griffon
is starting to get loose and run away.
Okay.
He goes, nope.
Jem'Hal! What did you get?
Jem'Hal.
Dang it.
The griffon's like.
He's following him as he's shouting and making calls.
Stay put, I'll be right back.
Of course, I'm here to do my part.
As soon as his back turns, I cast Fly on the both of us
with my Raven's Feather.
Okay.
You both?
Jet. Jet.
And you guys, while this is happening,
what are you guys doing?
Building tops.
Just staring out like, what are you guys doing? Building tops. Just staring out, like,
what the fuck just happened?
He flew and then someone just plummet, right?
I mean, can anyone see, could you see him?
What?
We still need to know where this is happening at,
because someone else want to try.
You got a pooh bot? You can use a pooh bot.
Going out there, I don't know,
as a regular-ass bird or something?
I mean, I could try.
Sure, I'm going to Polymorph myself.
Into what? A sparrow.
What are you looking for?
Visibility's pretty bad, but it's possible.
Do they see any of these griffon riders?
You can, once they went after Caleb, yeah.
Okay.
Why don't we be clever about this?
Let's figure out where they could possibly be heading.
Let's see if we can cut them off.
I've got Locate Creature.
Well, I mean, they plummeted right over there.
They can't, they're not that far.
I love your concern.
Matt's like, is there anything I can do?
Can you polymorph?
Nah, I didn't really prepare that one.
I'm sorry. No, it's okay.
I can still scry.
Want me to look after that Yasha friend?
Maybe here in a minute.
Let's see if we can figure out where they're going
in a second, see if we can get some idea
of what they're heading towards. You said you knew a cultist, right?
Yeah.
Where would you put a cult in this town?
Have you ever been to Rexxentrum?
Well, it's been a long time ago.
Am I Sparrow right now?
I don't know, have you committed to your polymorph?
Well, I said I did it, so it seems...
Well, I'm just ensuring.
You seem uncertain. Well, I said I did it, so it seems. Well, I'm just ensuring. You seem uncertain.
Well, I am.
Okay.
All right. Only because I am.
Maybe if we figure out where they could,
I mean, we've got some leads on maybe where a cult might be.
Why do we? Oh, what?
Where the cult, if you know cultists, I mean.
Where would the? Well, where would you find a compound in this city? We were just talking. No you know cultists, I mean. Where would the?
Well, where would you find a compound
in this city we were just talking?
Oh, no, we weren't, never mind.
Fuck, I don't know any of that shit.
We're supposed to look for the High Curator.
High Curator?
By which point, Archivist Cathedrax Pisa goes,
The High Curator is currently out meeting
with the Crown's Council
before these attacks seemingly began.
So he's not around, but we'll probably be back
in the next hour or two. Wait, what?
They're... The Crown's Council?
The Crown's Council.
Who are the, who's that?
All of the individuals around the Kings.
All of the important people in this city
are conveniently meeting right now during this attack?
Is that what you're telling me?
No, they're there most of the time
to have conversations.
What? Where's the council?
Yeah.
Where's the castle?
I'd say. Where do they meet?
Kind of points over there.
We should go there.
We should never commit.
We should never. It's a noncommittal sparrow.
I didn't commit.
Okay, so you didn't commit.
Your intelligence would be to.
Let's head to that castle, then.
Wait, where's? Castle Ugrach? Where's Caleb? You are back. No, nope. Let's head to that castle, then. Castle Ugrach?
Where's Caleb? You are back. No, no, we're flying around.
They're flying around.
Can you see anything?
Before we go blindly into anywhere,
is there any indication?
Like...
Where they're heading?
Where the cult would meet?
Yeah.
Okay, hang on, let me think about this.
Is there anybody else, any place else,
anything connected to these guys?
I mean, there's Vince.
There's Vince. We should do that.
I pour through my notes.
I'm actually pouring through my notes,
but then Beau pours through her notes.
All right, so you're going through your notes.
Do I remember anything?
Make an intelligence check.
There's the candles, there's the castle uka rock.
Come on, come on, just.
There's Astrid's house. Fuck! There's the Court of Colors the castle Uka Rock. Come on, come on, just. There's Astrid's house.
Fuck!
There's the Court of Colors.
We're fucking garbage today.
We're garbage people.
Sorry.
Seven. Seven.
Jesus, guys. Not quite clicking
between the notes.
I feel like we should know something.
I know.
Here's all we got.
We're missing something, right?
Astrid's house, Shiver Ward, Castle Uka Rock,
candles, tangles, court of colors, Crown's Council.
That's all we got.
Gonna scry on Vince?
Yeah.
I'm going to scry on Vince.
Yeah.
You're going to scry on Vince? Okay.
I'm committing to that one.
Noncommittal Sparrow. Scram, Benz? Okay. I'm committing to that one. Noncommittal sparrow.
I mean, I like you.
One of my arms is a teeny tiny sparrow wing,
and that's it, just because I couldn't fully.
All right.
You got a wing hand.
All right, as the rain is pouring down
and soaking all of you out here on the top of the terrace,
you begin to prepare the scry ritual.
It takes 10 minutes to do so.
You guys fly over and land,
perched back on the, as you can see,
Jester rapidly preparing for this ritual.
At this point, you do hear,
partway through your preparation,
about seven or eight minutes into it,
you hear some shouts and what seems like
some sort of a distant muffled explosion
to the north of where you currently are.
We got a lead!
Okay.
Talking about the sound, is it at the walls of the city?
It seems within the city.
Within the city.
We don't see any smoke or anything?
No smoke. Is there anything we can do to move through the city
without being caught up by the security of the city itself?
Well, the air is not good.
I mean, it's not a coincidence that they are here
and this is happening.
I don't believe so.
Something just exploded in that direction.
We need to go there, let's run through the city.
Let's just for look and then we head.
The rain's frustratingly starting to bleed
the elements of the ritual,
and then you feel the rain suddenly stop,
and you glance up above you,
and you see this green cloak protecting the rainfall
from messing your ritual. You get to the final moments of preparation.
You place the focus down in the center,
and with that, the cloak wraps around you,
and your vision goes dark for a second.
You're focusing on Vence.
You come to a dry place,
a place of light.
You see colors.
You see Vence clutching a satchel under his arm.
He's got something. He's taking steps,
and each step echoes across a hard floor in an open space.
It feels like a very large, enclosed area.
You can see it's a beautiful cathedral
with candelabras flickering,
massive stained glass walls in the sides and the distance.
A brightly adorned priest walks by hurriedly and nods.
There's a priest.
And Vence walks into the center of the room
behind the central altar,
where you can see an older woman,
in elaborate red, gold, and white robes,
her gray hair pulled up tightly behind her head.
Old woman, red, gold, and white robes.
Vence approaches and goes,
Red and gold?
Angel's Eye, Cardinal Respa.
Cardinal Respa? Cardinal Respa!
Angel's Eye, is it Angel's Eye?
She returns the smile. Angel's Eye, he said Angel's Eye. She returns the smile.
Angel's Eye, young Vence.
Has the children had luck with the secret texts?
They're talking about secret texts.
He hands her two scrolls.
Two easy scrolls. He gave her scrolls.
Taken from the vaults of Vasselheim,
these should reveal the thing below and the path to it.
The Regents will be on us in time,
but not before our work has already begun.
Very good.
It sounds like the diversions are already in place.
Oh god, they're talking about diversions.
The seed of word has been planted.
Coming off the Harvest Rise Festival,
our Lincoln Jor-Has, says the assaults,
are now. The Thrice Festival at Lincoln's Jor-Has, says the assaults are...
now.
He hands the satchel to the woman
with the rest of the scrolls.
You can see with the scrolls there's something else in there,
some sort of familiarly shaped device.
No, he's got the beacon.
No, it's more of a silvery disk.
Oh, he's got a portal.
Says,
I exist within the cellar.
Prepare the Fane for their arrival.
Greet him and his family.
They should arrive very soon.
Oh my god.
Of course, and she will remember this,
and so shall our young friends.
Jeez.
Thank you, cardinal.
Her eyes immediately train onto you.
Me? Me, me?
You sniveling worm, you walk unshaved by distant eyes,
and he goes like, what, no, shit, I didn't mean, and
the ritual ends.
She saw that I was crying, holy shit!
Oh my god, that was so great. From everything that she was muttering,
does that spark any memory?
The location, the church, the colors, the sting-
There are a number of temples throughout this city.
What about the colors, red and gold?
Yeah, red and gold.
Who does that religion follow?
In Rexxentrum, those color schemes
tend to fall deeply into the worship of Pelor,
the Dawnfather.
The largest temple to the Dawnfather in the city
is known as the Chantry of the Dawn.
You know this to reside to the southern edge
of the Shimmer Ward within the Tangles.
Away from the explosion. You've passed it once or twice.
Are we going there? We got to go.
We got to go now, or else.
The explosion to the temple?
To the temple. Temple!
It's a diversion.
They're going to try to open the portal up and bring.
A fane?
I don't even know what that is.
She has such a shame.
They know the devices, it's the things that split.
They're bringing something across.
We got to go, go, stop talking.
Run, double time.
Who's with us?
I will point and lead towards the temple.
Before we leave, I turn around to Cad,
Cad, fucking what's his fuck, what was his name?
What was his name?
The guy, just like Cathodoc guy.
Cathodoc?
Right, yeah, Cathodoc.
Cathodoc, yes.
I let him know where we're going,
and I say, you need to check in
with the headmaster, the head curator.
I don't think she's safe.
I would send over a team over there.
All right, well, Lynch as this is taken care of.
This is a diversion.
There's bigger shit happening here.
All right. Do you want any backup
since where we're going?
Do you have backup to spare?
I can probably bring a few soldiers
to meet you in that direction, yes.
Have them meet us at the Chantry of the Dawn.
Very well. Anybody.
I dropped my staff, hang on.
As this is happening, the rain subsided a bit.
There's a small clearing in the clouds.
A little beam of light just crests down
onto, loosely, the area of the city where the Chantry resides.
Some ritual is happening.
We got to go. Yeah, we're moving on.
But isn't Pelor normally like a...
So we took the stairs,
whining, we're going downstairs to get out of here.
Pelor was one of those responsible for chaining.
For banishing, yeah.
Oh, that's where the chain is.
And him and Malor teamed up together. Team Ioun. Is that where one of the chain is. And him and Malor are teamed up together.
I'm in Ioun.
That's where one of the chains is.
I've been trying to break it.
I'm in Ioun.
Right, too many gods.
Let's go!
Teaming up.
Let's go, let's go!
Too many gods!
Too many gods!
As you guys grab your arms and rush your way down
through the Archive into the streets of the Tangles,
heading eastward, deeper into the city of Rexxentrum,
we're going to end the episode there.
Pick up there next week.
We're hunting. Wow.
We're hunting. We're hunting rabbits.
Wow.
Good episode.
Good rolls, guys.
Yeah, double ones. Sixes and sevens.
Fucking double ones.
Double ones. Most receptive person.
Double ones. Double ones.
Hey, that's special.
It is. Yeah.
You never forget your double ones.
Yeah.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
What's that? That's snake eyes.
That's, yeah. Yeah.
Wow, wow.
We'll pick up there next week, I'm excited.
Thanks.
Shit-skittin' Rian.
It is, everything's coming together.
Normally, if you rolled double,
there's a form of D&D where you roll double ones
and you just have a minor stroke and that,
right, like,. Right there.
You just zero out your hit points.
Oh no, not now!
My cholesterol.
To see Caleb Widogast disassociate for four hours.
Oh man.
Ah, good game, guys.
Oh, meow, that was great, Matt.
Thank you guys for coming along.
Yeah. For Crazy Adventure.
Wow, so much happened.
We'll see you next week.
Until then, remember, we love you very much,
and is it Thursday yet?
Pickle Rick!
Oh, hey, Ashley Johnson here,
and I sure do hope you're enjoying the adventure.
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