Critical Role - C2E99 High Seas, High Stakes

Episode Date: March 19, 2020

Slowly recovering from the midnight attack, the Mighty Nein continue their course for the long-awaited peace talks between warring nations...Watch Critical Role live Thursdays at 7pm PT on https://www.twitch.tv/criticalrole

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

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

Five years. It's our five-year anniversary, which is insane. It's insane. Woo! Insane enough. Indeed. No. Bring it back.

A lot of things are insane now. Right now, today in particular, things are really insane. So I just want to take a moment to tell everyone, things are crazy right now. We're all doing the best we can with it. Do your research, stay healthy, take care of yourselves. We're doing the same here. Let's make tonight a celebration

that is also a distraction from today's chaos and a moment of respite amongst the rest of our focus. Trying to remember what's important. Exactly, exactly. And tonight, we have been streaming this crazy little D&D group for five years, which is, I can't even fathom, considering what this could have been.

So thank you for joining us and being a part of this celebration. And let's go ahead and get into some of our announcements for tonight before we can jump into our session, beginning with our first sponsor of the night, our friends at Griffin Saddlebag. Sam. Tonight's episode is sponsored by our friend and fan of the show, the Griffin Saddlebag. Maker of illustrated and game-ready magic items that can be applied to any 5E campaign setting.

5E! The first book, a 200-page compendium containing 365 illustrated magic items, treasure tables, subclasses, settings, and villains is available on Kickstarter. Each item designed, written, and balanced with 5-yee in mind, making them easy and exciting to pick up and implement in any campaign that might need a little upgrade from the standard loop.

You can support the effort and check out the exciting Kickstarter rewards and stretch goals like the awesome official Griffin saddlebag. Whoa! Where did that come from? Is this real? This is a real Kickstarter reward.

This is really cool. That's so cool. You can check it out at thegriffinsaddlebag.com. That's G-R-I-F-F-O-N. Your support makes a big difference. Let's see what mine came with. Oh no. All right.

Always carry this with me when I write. Sure, that's standard. I was wondering where my change went. You're so rich, dude. A good year, a good year. No, it's fake. Oh, what's this? A song I wrote to commemorate

the five-year anniversary of our show! Oh! Ahem! Oh boy. Yeah. It's actually sentimental, it's not stupid. We gather together, Matt tells us a tale. His monsters to slay and his oceans to sail.

Just some good friends rolling dice on Thursday. We don't play to win, but we win when we play. It's been five years of broomsticks to steal, of goldfish to heal, of sprinkles to kill. It's been five years of me getting sliced. Don't touch Laura's dice. And hey, do you spice? It's been five.

That's it. Oh, that's great. That's great. Oh, that's great. That's great. But check out the Gryffin saddlebag thing. I threw it away, but the Gryffin saddlebag's really cool, and it smells like leather.

Get it. Oh, shit. I've actually been following them on Instagram for a long time. The illustrations are badass. Wait, I got to see this saddlebag's really cool and it smells like leather, get it. Oh, shit. I've actually been following them on Instagram for a long time. The illustrations are badass. It's really cool. I'm a backer of it, you should be, too. They're really, really good.

I was going to sing that during my graduation ceremony. You spent five years conditioning us to bullshit. Yes! Thank you, Sam, that was really sweet. And check out the cooking salad bag. That's super fancy. Second sponsor for tonight are our friends

who've been following us since the beginning of the campaign, D&D Beyond. D&D Beyond! If you haven't yet checked it out, and you haven't heard it, then this is your first time watching the show, or testing it out, and what the hell are you doing? Give it a shot.

It's an awesome online digital tool for keeping track of your campaigns, your characters, and everything about 5th Edition D&D and beyond. They have a bunch of great tools on there for preparing your campaigns and counter builders, all kinds of fun stuff, making custom items. Check them out at dndbeyond.link slash Critical Role. And on that note, you will be able to get all the stuff

from the Wildemount guide, which comes out next week on D&D Beyond. You can pre-order that now. It'll be available next Tuesday. As part of that, too, next Tuesday is the actual release of the Explorer's Guide to Wildemount. Woo! Super weird to have that coming out finally.

Super stoked for you guys to check it out. Me and a bunch of other Relaytown people worked hard on making this as awesome a book as we possibly can for you guys to check it out. Me and a bunch of other Relaytown people worked hard on making this as awesome a book as we possibly can for you, for players, GMs alike. Even if you don't play, it's a lot of fun stuff in there to follow along with the world lore, but hopefully it'll inspire you to write your own campaigns in Wildemount and throw your friends

in the same kind of chaos that I do mine. So it comes out next Tuesday, and if you haven't yet, you can reserve your copy now at your local game store or at the Critical Role shop or Amazon, wherever else books are found online in the tabletop RPG space. Next announcement we have, this Monday, March 16th, at 7 p.m. Pacific, here on Twitch channel,

we will be streaming the Doom one-shot. Oh my god. Doom! Doom! Doom! To celebrate the coming release of Doom Eternal. I've been a fan of the Doom franchise since way back in middle school for me.

Yeah, early, mid-90s. I have a hard time removing my memories of Doom II with Nine Inch Nails, Downward Spiral, and Soundgarden. There are certain songs that came out of that era that we listened to while playing Doom II that to this day, all I can think of is Need Even the Dead when I hear The Day I Tried to Live and stuff like that. So anyway. Downward Spiral was on repeat.

Oh god. That album was so good. Anyway, enough about that. Swanshot's going to be amazing! We have some fantastic guests coming to join us, as well as some players here at the table. We have our own Sam Riegel, Laura Bailey coming to join for this cast, as well as Taliesin Jaffe. Oh!

We have Anjali and Jasmine, two amazing players. Yay! And friends. It'll be for Jasmine's first time with us on stream here in the studio, so excited to have her down here. And Anjali will be joining us here at this table, I believe, for the first time for the game, because we had her as part of Undeadwood before. They'll all be playing a bunch of awesome demons

involved in the assault on Earth, as it is hell on Earth, and super stoked about it. I'll be jamming it it myself and I'm super excited for you guys to check it out. I've been super, way too excited for this game. It's absurd. I haven't had this much fun with a one-shot in a while. Like, I have fun with them, this I'm super stoked for.

So definitely check it out. Busting their ass on it, too. Heck yes, everyone's been kicking ass on it. So check it out. The VOD will be available immediately on our Twitch channel for all of our channel subscribers and on YouTube immediately on Wednesday, March 18th. You can check it out.

Doom Eternal itself launches next week on Xbox, PS4, PC, and Stadia March 20th, next Friday. Not this coming Friday, but the next. Yeah, check it out. Laura, you have some announcements to make, I think. We have a poster. To celebrate our fifth anniversary. We asked our buddy, Hugo, to come with us

to illustrate this thing. Holy moly. It's so good. It's so good! It's big. It's got all of our characters, like ever. It's got all the guys from the first campaign. It's a campaign. All the player characters? We got the Darrington Brigade.

We got a lot of Matt's characters, too. There's just a whole bunch of people. We've been staring at this thing in the office for weeks. You just get lost in it. Dawnfather's Wild. There's so many little Easter eggs in there, little characters. That's it, that's all you get.

That's the sneak peek. That's all you get. That happened. It's in the U.S. and U.K. stores right now. There it is. Hey! Okay. I think one of my favorite little moments in that is the Bright Queen and King Dwendal

both looking up at Juman Saord in their dragon form, all just like, hi. It's a lot of fun little Easter eggs. I would show you, but you have to look at it in person to see that. Nice. Good, good. Sure.

We have, Jesus. What were you doing? We have, I think I counted 17 beverages on the table right now. Wow. We're sad. I think it's more. Five, six, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15.

And then two. 16. That hydro flask over there. What better time to drink yourself into a stupor than during a pandemic? Kyle, we need more drinks. It's like Andromeda strain, right? If you drink enough alcohol, it can't get into your system.

Yeah, sure. Anyway. Why not? Much love to you guys. Happy five-year anniversary to this incredible community. To many years more of supporting each other, of being lights in the dark for each other, for telling stories to inspire each other, and to jump into tonight's episode of Critical Role.

Ooh! Let me beat that! Roll! Roll! Critical! Critical! Roll! Roll! Critical! Roll! Roll! Critical! I'm not DM to guide you And they rise from the flames for the battles ahead Villains beware cause you're about to be dead They got magic and flair, they got falchions and cunning They don't see over there, there's a monster incoming

Inspiration is waiting, rise up, don't think twice Put your fate in your hands, take a chance, roll the dice Roll the dice Can you answer the call? 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 To roll Oh! And welcome back. Good for Kate. So, last we left off, the Mighty Nein had made their way to Nicodranas. They had discovered some secrets in regards to one of their allies, Essek, and his involvement with much of the events

that led to the current war between the Kryn Dynasty and the Vandalian Empire. After a deep discussion, you had left business in Nicodranas, gathered your ship, and made your way with the armada towards the meeting point where the negotiation between these two factions is to take place. After some days at sea, the storm began to brew.

Dreams were had invoked by an element of divinity and one's path to embrace who they are and whatever this path may be, as well as being awoken by a pained nightmare come reality, as Fjord found himself under attack by what was immediately obvious to be agents of Uk'otoa, seeking the still hanging elements

of his unveiling and freedom. A battle took place where these various deep sea creatures, these mutated and altered entities, here under the will of Uk'otoa, stormed the ship, crawling through its many decks to assault you, as Fjord fought valiantly to keep them at bay, and you managed to come and support him in dire need. During the final moments of this climactic battle,

in the midst of the rolling seas, the flashing lightning, curling thunder, and the waves of rain battering down upon the deck, both Orly the barred tortle and your friend and companion Fjord lay slain both Orly, the barred tortle, and your friend and companion Fjord lay slain before you dealt the final blow to the assailants. And that was where we left off. Mighty Nein, as you gather here

on the wet decks of the ship, still rolling with the ocean as the storm batters onward, you look down upon the scattered bits of blood and your unmoving allies. Caduceus, Caduceus! I'm going to walk over and quickly. Caduceus, why are you walking? Come on, Caduceus, Caduceus!

Cast Gentle Repose really quickly. Caduceus, why are you walking? Come on, Caduceus! I'm going to quickly cast Gentle Repose really quickly. Okay. On which should give us a second. What does that do? What are you doing? Gentle Repose means that there's not a, the time limit is extended. On both of them, or who? I'm going to do both of them really quickly.

How do you mean? Time limit? So that's... The target is protected from decay and can't become undead. It also expends the time limit on raising the target from the dead since they spent under the influence of the spell.

Wait, but why not just go for Revivify? Quickly detecting magic. Do I see anything inside Fjord? It's two rounds. Uh. Yeah. You do not see anything. Fjord? It's two rounds. Yeah. You do not see anything. That's a bonus action.

I will say for the purposes of this, there is nothing, nothing is emanating in Aura. And then taking the diamond and pushing Revivify as quickly as possible. Okay. So I've rolled this privately in the past because I misremembered my own rolls. So I'm going to have you,

which is part of the intended design, to go ahead and roll a d20 for me and add your spellcasting modifier. I'm going to be holding onto Fjord's hand. Okay. Does anybody else want to do anything in the time it took me to do that little thing? I'm going to reach over and try to cast the same thing on Orly,

because I don't know how much time I have on Orly. So you have a diamond as well? Yes. Okay. I'm just going to keep watching the water. 300 gold. Where's my spellcasting? Last thing I did in the turn of Wisdom Outfire. Wisdom Outfire. Do you have a diamond as well? Yes. Okay. I've just got a 300 gold. Where's my spellcasting? Oh, it's your wisdom modifier. A wisdom modifier.

Last episode was Land by Fjord, so I guess I'm sitting him up towards Jester. And I'll take his other hand. Okay. Just have to hold on to him. Come on, Caduceus. Don't suck, come on, don't be a dick. Okay, that's 11.

That's an 11. With your modifier? Why would, why would? Okay. Because Fjord had not previously died. That leaves the DC at a certain number. And so as you focus and pushing the diamond down towards where the most gaping wound is,

you watch as it slowly turns to dust within the wound and itself become almost a congealed, grainy material into the exposed blood. There's a moment of pause before the divine energy you channel through the Wild Mother creates a mess of vines that begin to grow from the wound and wrap around his torso. As the vines begin to condense

and create a small nest or cocoon above where the wound is, you watch as they turn bright green, then turn brown and die and wither, the leaves of the vines immediately crumbling and decaying to dust. As they do, leaving the wound itself partially healed. You pause for a moment, and you hear the breath begin to come back into the lungs.

Cure wounds, level three. Go ahead and roll for that. I reach down and I kiss Fjord on the forehead and I immediately spin around and cast Revivify on Orly. Okay, he may join the table again. Oh, that's a little bumps and downs. Is he technically unconscious?

Revivify? I will. No, he comes back to one hit point. One hit point, so he is conscious. Okay, never mind then. All right, I'll tell you how many hit points you have in a second. But the DC has increased for the next time, too.

23. So you're at 24 hit points. 24. Do I need to roll for Orly? You do. So in that moment, you reach over, holding on and wishing for the aid of the Traveler, and you all, now that you've seen him,

for a brief moment, you can see as Jester, her small diminutive form on this massive deck of the ship, the storm battering around her, putting her hands on this large, shelled, unmoving, still creature. You see the green cloak momentarily engulf her before it vanishes when you blink. Not sure if it was there even to begin with.

And what did you roll? 19. 19. 19. There's a moment of stillness before the chest inhales and the body begins to stir, and as it does, it leans into one of the bagpipes and you hear this beforehand, Well, uh...

Um... Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. My heart is sore. I'll cast Third Level Await. No, I won't heal you, because I don't have, I'm going to healing ward you, no? Because he didn't.

Because I have that prepared. You didn't prepare the cure. Shut up. I'm starting to Healing Word you, no? Because he didn't. Because I have that prepared. You didn't prepare the Cure Wounds? I'm starting Prayer of Healing, so in 10 minutes, the six most hurt people on deck are going to get a boost. Okay, well, I'll still Healing Word him, because why not? At its second level. Okay.

Which is 24. In 10 minutes, the six most hurt people get 21 hit points. Okay. 11 points of healing to orderly. That's decent, that's decent. Still propping Fjord up with a bow. Just breathe, breathe slow. I spin back around the Fjord.

Slow. You all right? I mean, aside from no. Yeah, no, I'm fine, thank you. Are they all gone? I think so. Yeah. They were really, really hacking you up. Yeah, it feels pretty shitty

inside of my chest right now, not going to lie. I think your lung is still punctured. Really? Yeah. Oh god, like you can see it? It's just, you can see a little bit of a puncture wound. Just push it back in. Okay, ready, one, two, three. Ah, don't touch it, don't touch it, don't touch it!

Okay. Did you feel the stone? The what? The what? The stone. Oh. I can't talk right now. The orb? The bowl.

What else were they here for? It has to be that. I didn't know I still had it. I can't feel it now. I don't know where it is. I thought it was in the sword. I thought this was... You hear this strange guttural impact,

a resonance that sounds familiar to you. It's the arrival of a Dimension Door spell. Oh. Oh. Immediately, you hear a brief incantation beneath someone's breath, a little ways away, the storm almost swallowing it entirely, but Caduceus, here in the middle of chanting, picks up, I need Beauregard, Caleb, Veth.

Yeah, I need all six of you to roll wisdom saving throws, please. All the four. And me? You? Yep. Can I make a reaction? Oh god, natural one. What kind of reaction are you making?

Natural one over here. I'm going to cast a spell. Is it a reaction spell? No. Then no, you cannot. Wisdom saving spell? S. No, you cannot. Wisdom saving spell? Saving throw, yeah. Two. Hmm. 25.

Okay. 11. Okay. Natural one. Okay. Natural one. Okay. 22. All right.

Caduceus and Caleb, you feel this influence try and climb within your body, and you manage to shove it away while Beauregard, Veth, Jester, and Yasha, while Beauregard, Veth, Jester, and Yasha, your bodies immediately lock up and you find yourself unable to move, your muscles frozen in space

by some kind of arcane influence. Do I see anyone from the Cerberus zooming in on the boat? You turn around and on the deck, you see, freshly arrived, a half-elven woman with short brown hair standing there, long robes flowing in the wind, hand out. Yeah, hello, identify yourself, please.

I would like you to identify yourself first. Get away from the wounded one. Yes, we are the Mighty Nein. Here's one of us. We just had a lot happen here in a very short amount of time. Very well. We'll figure out Prowess's fate. You can hear now other bells ringing and you can see off in the distance

other ships that have slowly begun making their way in your direction after hearing the initial bell. I was wondering if anyone noticed. You can hear now other bells ringing and you can see off in the distance other ships that have slowly begun making their way in your direction after hearing the initial bell. I was wondering if anyone noticed. Oh, fuck. My apologies, I am just taking the necessary precautions.

Is she dressed like a Fjallraken? No. Very fine robes. You've seen her once before from a distance in Felderwin. Oh. Says Lady Vess DeRogna. Oh shit. The Archmage of Antiquity.

Ooh. Well, I assume then, based on your confusion at my arrival, that you are not responsible for the wounded on this deck. Please tell me immediately what has transpired in the past minutes. The boat came under attack. Yes, please keep telling the story.

I'm going to cast Cure Wounds on myself at 5th-level, if you don't mind. Anyone have Minor Illusion or something? No. 5d8 plus one. Some sort of creatures out of the sea swarmed the ship. I'm going to go find, did any of the swords ping when I cast Detect Magic?

No. Can we describe to you what the people look like? Show her what we saw. Okay. Sure, I'll cast Silent Image and make an image of what one of them look like. You do find the sword that the leader of them seem to be holding, it is currently just a regular weapon.

It has lost any sort of visual representation of the sort of fathoms that it previously had. Could we, during the fight, did any of us notice? I mean, obviously, Caduceus did, but did we notice that they looked like Fjord's old sword? Fjord's old sword. Fjord's old sword. Fjord's old sword. That's what I was about to say. That's a really good one.

I would say Beauregard would have noticed, probably. The people that were fought most of the time on the deck. Caleb as well, actually, would have noticed because you guys were closest and with the most immediate visible range until the very end. Jester, your perception isn't bad. I'd say you probably noticed it, too,

before the moment where Yasha ended up snapping its neck and throwing the corpse overboard, which the corpse is still hanging on the edge of the boat, by the way. Oh, well, that's what they look like right there. I'll put it back up. 38 points of healing from the Cure Wounds. Not bad for a new paladin.

Did you say she was alone? Alone currently. You should learn it. That's useful. So these creatures who point out responsible for this attack, could you please tell me if you have any inclination as to why? Seemed random. Random attack.

This is a fearsome vessel that we command. Yeah, that's true. I mean, we were pretty famous pirates on the sea, so maybe they just recognized our flag and our... I have a feeling it has something to do with the location that we're at currently in the ocean as well. We might be over their domain. I will say...

Go ahead and make a deception check. Veth, with advantage, because they did help you. God. Natural 20. Minus two. Vess gives you a look and goes, Very well. These are dangerous waters.

The closer we get to the reef itself, we were prepared for such a thing. Well, I'm glad that you apparently are safe. I'm 99, correct? Yes. I have been made aware of who you are. The Martinet speaks highly of the aid that you provided back in Rexxentrum.

Are you traveling with the Martinet or are you on your own ship here? I am traveling where I please. But I'm here on the same mission. But nevertheless, we appreciate your contributions to ending this conflict. It is unfortunate that you have been pulled into whatever entities wish to see it not come to fruition,

but glad you're all safe." At which point, Orly limps up behind and goes, We appreciate your appreciation. Anyway, I leave you to your recovery, if you require anything. If any of you have the means of reaching out, I'm not far. And when all of this is over,

if you're looking for work, there may be some possibilities in the north should we work together. I drop into Zemnian. We greatly appreciate your aid out here. It's nice to know that we can count on each other in this difficult moment. Julian's in a response and Zemnian, of course.

And it's this forthrightness that lets us know who our friends are in times of confused politics. Good way of confused politics. Good way of putting it. But we all want an end to pain and suffering as much as is possible. As much as possible. Well, anyway,

hopefully there's still time to get some sleep. I myself am a bit frustrated. The storm made it difficult enough to bed down. I'm a bit winded. Hopefully we can talk about the north on a different day. There is plenty of time on the sea. They'll know how to find me, I'm sure. Very much so.

Sleep well. Good night. And then Dimension Door is away. The other ships, ding, ding, ding. Other bells start going off. Fucking bitch. Were you hitting on her? Were you hitting on her?

Do you think that would have been useful? I could have been, I'm not sure. But you were talking to her and all of a sudden she starts talking like something down. Let's take a look at this. The body I was holding is still. I'm going to put it back on the side. No, no, no, I, oh, I.

Fjord, do you recognize these creatures? I don't think so. Do I recognize these creatures? Here's the odd thing. In the brief moments that it's been dead, what you've noticed is this very humanoid creature with a dull gray-blue skin, these yellowish eyes, very reminiscent of the entity

of which you were once bound to. As opposed to hair, it has these long, almost rubbery tendrils that emerge from the back of its head that are long, almost like it has a set of thick tentacles that protrude from the back of the head. Its jaw itself seems to open on both sides. There's a smaller mouth surrounded in teeth,

and whereas these additional sides open up as part of its screech. Claws, almost fin-like protrusions from the forearms and the knees. But as you guys are inspecting it, its form begins to slowly shift and change into that of a 40-something, scruffy-chinned,

slightly balding man. A fisherman. What the heck? Do you recognize that dude? What? What happens to the jaw? Does it remain in pieces or does it feel? No, it reverts and seals back to a normal human body. Wow. What?

Do you know this guy? I don't think so. No sense of recognition. Oh my gosh, if you would have kept doing, would you have turned? Would you look like that? Yeah. If you would have kept. You'd turn into?

To Tinnacle Man? I don't know. I can't imagine that's a reward, but it might be. Do you think he has one of those things in his chest? Caleb starts inspecting the body and feeling for a seam in the jaw, just to work on a cadaver. There are two other bodies

of a similar type creature on board, though not quite as prominent in, it seems, the hierarchy upon their arrival. They, too, have reverted to a normal form, one of which appears to be elven, one looks to be kind of a, to be elven, one looks to be kind of a, best you could say, is a goliath and a half giant body.

The elf being female. And they're both, they're a little gaunt, a little sallow. Female goliath? No, female elf and a male goliath. Beau, do you want to? The gender was difficult to discern in the creature form of which you battled. Beau, do you want to? The gender was difficult to discern in the creature form of which you battled him. Beau, do you want to search through the pockets, see if there's...

Yeah, do you have a knife? Who's got a knife? I got a knife. I got an axe. Do you want? Here's an old rusty dagger. Should we open them up and see if there's orbs inside? I was... In the book. We're all on the same page. The head's just on the...

Yeah, I'm going to help. I'm really good at this stuff. All right. So what are you doing? Yeah, I'm going to search for a leg and warp in the body. Okay, roll a medicine check. Do you want a blade or are you going to use your axe? Well, you got a blade there. I'll fillet back the skin a bit and hold it.

I'm going to roll a hit. I thought you said you were really good at this. I mean, I am. But this just really grows every time. Just grab it like a book and open it real fast. I already opened it for her. She's going to read it. Got it.

Just go one, two, go. I'm going to reach it up and look for a hard orb or something. Three. There you go. Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god. Yeah. What do you got? Anything? Let me check. Make a medicine check. Describe the smell. Do I get advantage

because everyone is helping me? I'm giving you a d4. Does she give advantage because I'm there helping pry back ribs and sternum and shit? Sure. Yeah! Is that triple now? Sure, sure.

Not all d4 and the four at the same time. 25. Is that your boy now? Sure, sure. No, I'm four and the four at the same time. Okay. Hmm. 25. 25. First, as it opens and you dig in, it's a unique smell in the sense that the interior of a human body itself has a not pleasant scent.

But this is briny. All the organs seem in order for a human body, though everything has a slightly dull grayish blue tint, similar to the coloration of the skin of the creature's form at first encounter. Dead for a long time or something? There's some sort of transition that has happened, that has left their organs just miscolored

and the scent itself adjusted accordingly. After spending a few moments giving a thorough, jolly search, Good for them, fucking. does not seem to be anything else in there that wasn't originally intended. Aliens three. Maybe you should check the other two just in case.

No, I don't. I have a feeling Fjord would not have turned into one of these things. I feel like they were a servant in a different way. Do you know what I mean? Maybe Fjord could have controlled them. But the thing is, they were probably trying to get it out of you, so maybe none of them have one.

But it was the big guy. They were like trying to get it out of you, so maybe none of them have one. But it was the big guy. They were like the bigger guys who definitely seem to be calling the shots and running the show. We have one of the big, we have the big one here. Which one? The main one. That is what I was just, I was just going to say. It might be a little presumptuous of us to try to understand the hierarchy of Uk'otoa's minions.

We had falchions. We had the same curved blade that I did. I didn't see an eye or an orb in the sword, though, right? No, just a similar shape. Same barnacled growths on them, similar perpetually wet oceanic essence to it. I spent enough time with it, it was the same. Even the swords have reverted back.

Should we search for an orb in you, Fjord? I mean, not like that, but should we? Do you have one inside of you still? All evidence seems to suggest yes. How do we get it out? I don't know. How did you get it in? I...

Do we have to go back to that temple? Do you have to give it back? Oh my gosh. I don't know if you can. What if? No. I mean, it... What if we blink into the ethereal plane? Do you think we would see it in the ethereal plane?

What do you mean, like in me or outside of me? You would have probably, now I don't know. That's true, I would have seen something with Truesight. Do I remember back to the party if I saw something in Fjord with Truesight? Not in that instance, no. I had a dream where I ingested a sword I could try and throw up.

There was another one where I just pushed it into my chest. Do you have two orbs in you still? No, no, I'm just saying I consumed two. No, no, I only have, because I opened the key to one of the locks of Uk'otoa with the sword. How did you get it open? Did you pull it out? There were two eyes on the sword and I placed it down into the ground,

but I had to use the pommel of the sword. There are two that you've placed, actually. Two that I've placed. So you have two orbs inside of you. You have two orbs inside of you. You have two orbs inside of you! No, you've placed two orbs. There was one at Iruke's. I placed one from the pommel.

Correct, sorry, there were two that have been placed, yes. Yeah, because the third one unleashes the gates, right? Right, I was holding the last key. Does your sword, falchion, whatever, right now have an eye on it? It did when I threw it in the pool of magma. Wait, where's your sword?

The current sword does not. No! No eye, right? No eye, no eye, no eye, no eye, no eye, no eye. No eye. Can you try and make it a thing? Can you try and make it have an eyeball? Why would you do that?

That's the Wildmother's sword. I think that's how that works. I mean, if we get it, then we just toss that bitch in the ocean and keep going and it'll be fine. Make me an eye. No, Fjord. Nothing happens. No, it doesn't work.

How do you get this orb out of you? Should we slice him open? Jester, you have been able to find things. Would you be able to locate it? I mean, I could if I sleep on it, you know what I mean? I got to sleep on it, I got to think about it. Yeah. Beau, Yasha, you can divine aspects or whatever.

If I lift my arms, can you push around in my guts and my ribcage and see if there's any, I can feel if there's a tangerine in that bitch. Can I try and basically expel? If we're doing this, I cast Locate Object, level three. Oh, you have it already fucking prepared? Well, good for you.

Okay, and you are? Trying to find the orb. Okay. You can sense that there is something of the essence that you're seeking for within Fjord's body. Oh. Though here's. It doesn't feel like an orb, does it? I mean, it resembles an orb, but it's there.

It's shrubbing itself. That's as much as you can make out. It's not like, oh, it's definitely in the thigh. Correct. When that thing was in my chest before I decided to take just a quick repose, was he doing the same thing that we were just doing? Was he trying to grab something out of my chest?

He was hacking into your chest. It felt very centralized. It's not me that he wanted, he wanted something out of me. I don't know, he also was trying to pull you down into the ocean, so. They really wanted to kill you. Wait, wait.

They were trying to take me off the boat? I think he was trying to take you off the boat after they knew that most of the team had been compromised. Yeah, we weren't giving him time to do his work, and so he needed to leave with your corpse. Or they just really liked you. Or they had to take you somewhere, dead or alive. He seemed very much like he knew what he was doing

and what he was going for in his chest. I think he ran. So maybe if I die, something happens. Or maybe it doesn't matter. So you had a dream that you swallowed this orb and the orb is there? Open your mouth. Yes.

Ah. Do I see anything in his throat? Make a perception check. Is the tonsil swollen? I'm strapped. Good. A 20, what is that? 24. 24.

Did I have that right? Fall back right there. Yeah, no, 22. 22, okay. Mild discoloration around the tonsils. I am going up with sea water every night. Throw them overboard. Actually, fairly healthy, but no orb.

I don't see anything. I don't see anything. Well, look, I mean, you had wet dreams for months about trying to... Not quite as that makes it sound. Get Uk'otoa free. We know very clearly what Uk'otoa's mission is, and I'm assuming...

Maybe it's like Beetlejuice, if you say his name three times in a row, it's really bad and he'll show up on the boat. What is Beetleju do? The ship. You know, like Candyman. Is that a drink? It's not awful. I don't know what candy. Kind. Like the Blair Witch.

What is the Blair Witch? I don't know how to get this out, but I think it's fair to assume. How is the ship, by the way? Not too bad. Below Dex is a little tore it up. A little tore it up from the floor?

Galen, at this point, arrives at the deck and goes like, Oh! Everything okay? I mean, kind of. Yeah, just fine, you know. Spilled a bit of wine. Yep. I start getting to repairs. Yes! Okay. Start with Oh no. They start getting to repairs. Yes!

Okay. Stop with the cannon! You know what? Oh, I have an idea. What if I send a message to Essek? To say what? Say, come over here and help us get this orb out of Vorn. I think that would be... Let's wait. Why? That's just, there's too much happening all at once.

I just, this feels like, this feels like so many moving parts. I think my only question, not my only question, one of many questions is, were these creatures that came for you, was one of them or all of them actors or operators like you yourself were at one time? Or like Avantika was? Or are they just sent by, you know?

I don't recognize the goliath or the female elf, correct? No, upon expecting their corpses, these are all just. My question is, and I don't know if there's an answer to this, is there a way to determine if a body is cursed after death or during life? I just don't. Hold on a moment. You want me to try the pressure points thing?

It cures curses. Well, yeah, but I don't know if it detects curses. It would detect good and evil, maybe. Detect good and evil? I don't think I have any. No, I don't have that prepared. Well, maybe I do, no, I don't. It's a service that I offer.

You know, if you need it. I've burned almost every spell I have at this point. I'm going to go investigate just the other dead bodies. I'm just going to start. There's some down below deck, right? Mm-hmm. Let's make sure to collect more. Just go around and collect stuff. I'm going to feel all of Fjord's chest.

It's such an extreme transformation. And this area. The abs area or the pecs area? No, the abs, you know, the solar plexus. The sternum? Yeah, that. Yeah, but you should like the solar plexus. The solar plexus. Yeah, man. Yeah, but you should get all up and down. I'm really going to tickle him, you know what I mean?

I need to feel to see if I can feel anything. Do you mind? Is this okay? I just want to see if I feel anything. I was just dead, so have at it. No, I mean, if this is uncomfortable for you, let me know. I'm actually enjoying it, it's fine. Roll a medicine check. Yeah.

Yeah. 18. 18. I didn't get guidance. Too late. He seems sound. You don't feel any odd... Hardness. Hardness. The other bodies that are around,

the sea spawn in particular, the lesser, strange, aquatic fish mutated creatures did not, yeah, yeah. They did not revert to their form. They are still this, they're mutated, torn asunder selves based on their various means of being destroyed. Only the three elevated entities that you battled,

the ones that return to some sort of natural humanoid body. Can't you speak with dead things? I can, tomorrow. Okay, we should try to if we can. It might provide some answers. Until then... Think about what you want to know. Well, I'm also a bit of a homing beacon.

I was sleeping in the captain's quarters like a dingle barfed. Yeah, we should, you know what? We should all sleep in the captain's quarters. Maybe you can string us up a little alarm, Caleb. I think that we maybe need to fall on old practices, even though we're on the ship. If I could add to the protocol, perhaps,

Caleb, about what time is it today? Oh, it's exactly... I'd say at this point, it's around 2 30 in the morning. Could you remind me, oh god. So 2 30 in the morning every day, and I'll cast Underwater Breathing just on everyone just in case they don't just come for me or us. Like 2 a.m., we should do it at like 2 a.m.

What about bedtime? How long does that last about? 24 hours. What about bedtime every night? Do it right before you go to bed. 24 hours. Right before bed. Just in case they blow up the ship

and then we're all in the water. Yeah, or Uk'otoa comes up and tentacles around the whole ship and cracks it in half and then brings Adana to the ocean. Has he been released yet? I don't think that's very... The fact that you're walking around means that's not going to happen.

I mean, I don't think he's been released yet. I actually don't know. I just assumed with the sword being thrown in that the last key and the sword were destroyed, but. Well, obviously not. Fucking clearly. I think they need you to release him. Seems like a rumor that would spread pretty easily

if he were released. Uk'otoa's going to get what he wants, whether you help him or not. Well, I don't know. Is it worth taking a swim, seeing what we're parked on top of? And the pouring rain at 2.30 in the morning? I don't know. It's also really cold.

The two other ships have now closed in to check and other bells are ringing and Orly is interfacing with them, letting them know that things are, the danger is past, and a little bit of shouting back and forth from ship to ship, you know. Do you need aid? I mean, we're right near the temple.

Nearing the Inklaw Reef, right? You guys are just north of Inklaw Reef. North, okay. You have about, I'd say, with the weather as it is right now, between six and seven days, if the storm continues. It might be less if it lets up. I think the temple is inland. It's not out here, the last continues. It might be less if it lets up. I think the temple is inland. It's not out here, the last one.

You believe, based on the visions you had, that it was north of Nicodranas. Yeah, just west and south of the gate entrance of the Empire. Yeah, the wooden gorge, yeah. I just mean we're near the other temple, the one that you already opened. You are, you are just north of Uruk-Hazel. Sometimes the two of you are here.

Special kids are right in this one. No, no, no, the first one you went to, which is to the lower right in the back. That may be a thing to do tomorrow as well. I can commune tonight. I can ask the Traveler if he knows anything or if he can sense the orb in Fjord. We know the orb's in Fjord.

Yeah, but if he could find out where it is or if he knows how to get it out, if he's heard about anything like this. I'm going to sit down, I'm going to commune, I'm going to spend 10 minutes and I'm going to set up a ritual. Actually, could we join you and just see if the Wild Mother might have anything to say about it as well.

Maybe just meditate. Do you have commune? Caduceus fought very hard for you when you were down. I don't know if he's feeling up to it. I'll give it a try, but I don't promise anything. I'm a little burnt. Have you spent your time focusing on casting Healing Spot, by the way?

I thought it got interrupted by, I assume that that Paralyze willpower roll just completely blew that. Oh, did I succeed? Yeah, you succeeded, so you managed to continue. Oh yeah, extra 21 hit points then to you, you, you, and then anybody else. Anyone else? Yeah, 21, two, three, four,

and then two of the crew members. I'm at full if anyone needs it more. Oh, I can take some, too. Unless, yeah, Orly might want Yeah, Orly will take that happily. So that worked. I thought I'd blown that. Oh my gosh. I'm going to use my percentile dice

to try and cast Commune, if that makes sense. Oh, so you're using your Divine Intervention to commune with the Wild Mother? Okay, give it a shot. I'm going to set up all my little statues that we've spent all this time making. I'm going to have so many little teeny Traveler decks sitting around me as I try.

Woo, Caleb! Will you cast Pretty Lights or something so that it makes it extra special, pretty? Yes, cast Widow Guest's Pretty Lights. I cast Widow Guest's Pretty Lights. They are green, they are glowing a pale green and floating around Jester's head. That's really pretty.

All right. That's huge. This is pretty great, now that I know that you're not actually a goddy-god-god, I can just talk to you right now like I would normally talk to you. So hey, can you come here really fast? Because I've got some major questions I need to ask you

and we need your help. The dried and rotted bits of vine and leaf that originally congealed around Fjord's wound begin to blow with the wind. As they blow, they seem to scatter wider and create more in their space. As the swirl passes your vision, it seems to wipe into the cloaked figure that's so familiar to you.

As Artagan steps forward and goes, Hello, my dear. Hi. I have some questions. Oh my gosh. I'm not going to ask you that. We just had a crazy fight. You're lovely. Proud of you. So Fjord has a thing, like a ball, an orb, an eyeball stuck inside of his body.

And these dudes are coming after him for it. They're like, we really want to let Uk'otoa Uk'otoa out. Uk'otoa. Yeah. And I was wondering if you know how to get the orb out of him. The question's... Okay, hold on, hold on. No, no, no, no, you asked your question.

The answer is, I believe I have an inkling, yes. Oh, come on, man. Not my rules. Is that the only question you get? No, I get two more! Okay, okay, okay. I got to think of how I'm going to phrase this. It'll involve me dying. Not my rules. Is that the only question you get? No, I get two more! Okay, okay, okay.

I got to think of how I'm going to phrase this. It'll involve me dying. Yeah. Do we have to cut him open to get it out? I wouldn't recommend it. Okay, okay, that's good to know. I like it more. Is it something that's within my skill set now?

I think you are quite capable, Jester. Okay. That's the magic eight-ball bullshit. He's so, so smart. Okay, so something that I can do. You have removed types of curses before, have you not? I mean, yeah, I mean, Greater Restoration, but does that remove a ball from somebody?

You know a lot of spells. I will say, you guys expended a hell of a lot of Greater Restoration diamonds when you were at the Clay family, more than you had technically had at the ready. That's true. So unless you guys have picked up specifically, beyond the diamonds that you just used on Revivify,

you do not have greater restoration capabilities. What do you need for it? I need diamond dust, at least 100 gold's worth. Yep. I have a diamond. Yeah, but we shouldn't. But I shouldn't use it, no. I have gold dust. No. I don't need that. I need a diamond. Yeah, but we shouldn't. But I shouldn't use it now. I have gold dust.

No. I don't need that. I need diamond dust. Orly! He's interfacing with the second of the ships that's now currently turning back and slowly making its way towards its position in the armada formation and turns back. Mm-hmm.

Orly, do you have any diamond dust on you? Because I know you do your enchanted tattoos and stuff. Did anybody? My skill set definitely allows me to work with it, but my customers have to provide the components. You understand? Yeah, yeah, of course, of course, of course.

Yeah. There's no way that being stabbed by one of those swords is like a slowly growing disease. Is it? Sure, I mean, everything's possible. Is there any way to detect a disease or a poison or a? I detect good and evil, maybe, or detect, do we have detect poison?

I don't have anything like that prepared. I have it on hand, I just don't know if I need it. I'm going to send a message to Essek. Okay. No one poorly turning into a fish person. Hey, Essek, do you have any diamonds on you that you'd be willing to give me? Like something worth like 100 gold or something?

I promise I will pay you back or I could give you some gold now. I really need it. Can you just come over here if you have it? For the element of that message that he did receive, he responds, It is early, Jester. Oh shit, it's too dark in the morning.

Unfortunately, that is not the type of component that I prepared for the journey. That's it. I have this stuff that we got way back in, I don't know, Zadash? Rexxentrum? I have no idea where we got this. This bag of green glass dust stuff.

I mean... Does that do something? It's not diamond dust, though. I know, but does it take the place of that? How much do you have? Because you used it. 800 gold worth of residuum. Residuum, by its nature, can be used to replace any amount of money's worth of a material component.

That's part of the reason why it's also so sought after and so rare. Can I get 100 gold? I mean, sure, yeah, I don't know. You can do this if you like. This is, it's going to miss a roll. Caduceus is going to do it. You've done a lot tonight.

I would recommend holding his hand. This may hurt. Or his abs. Hold my hand for just a second. What are we doing? We're just going to try something. Have you ever gotten a tooth pulled? Yes.

It's like that. That didn't feel very good. Well. Then hold my hand. You can squeeze it as hard as you want. Do you want to bite down on something? You can use my bo staff. This is making me feel, yeah. You want to bite on the bo staff?

Oh, it's a little big. Oh, it's really big. You want me to tell you a joke to lighten the mood? Take a swig from the flask. I have the bo staff in my hand. Okay, you'll be fine. Just for added bonus, I'm going to cast this at like six levels.

Fuck you! So you're casting Greed of Restoration? Yep. I'm going to cast Tasha's Hideous Laugh Throw. On Fjord? Yeah, just so he's laughing while this happens. Okay, roll a wisdom saving throw, Fjord. Love that joker.

18. 18. Eat it. I'll still tell you the joke anyway. Why did Captain Tusktooth start smoking cigarettes at the dock? Why? Peer pressure. Oh, wow.

I think everyone takes psychic damage at that point. Didn't work, you didn't laugh, everyone! Sorry. Yeah, I'm just going to take the Residuum and I'm just going to take the residuum and I'm just going to pulse it through you and see what happens and give it a... Mark 100 gold's worth of residuum off of your list.

That's my level six for the day. As you concentrate, Caduceus, and reach out towards Chess, you find your vision darken and your instinct immediately is that fight or flight, that fear impulse kick in. But you find yourself surrounded in warmth, like you were dropped into a warm bath.

Caduceus, as you concentrate, the same lichen that grows upon your armor begins to grow from your fingertips and find its way, gathering at the center of Fjord's chest. This bright pink plume of fungus begins to just grow and generate around the sternum. And you, in this moment with your eyes closed,

that warmth, you feel this twinge of pain right there that begins to grow and grow and burn and sear. You feel his hand squeeze tightly. Nausea begins to kick in, wave after wave, as this horrible pain begins to burn from the inside. It is awful. It begins to come in such heavy waves that you find yourself falling to your knees

and that nausea is burning heavily within the depths of your chest and belly. Caduceus says, you hold tightly. You watch as Caduceus falls to his knees and begins to just shudder. All of you begin to grow nervous with what is happening, especially with how now, barely recovering from the edge of death,

he seems to be convulsing in the way that he is. You're hurting him. I'm going to link my arm in his arm just to keep him there and to keep him upright and safe. Okay. The pain begins to entirely consume your perspective. The warmth isn't there. The darkness is barely something you can concentrate on.

It is just the pain, and it feels like a burning, white-hot poker right in the center of your chest, moving up towards your sternum, up to your clavicle, and as the nausea kicks in, you find yourself retching. You watch as Fjord suddenly doubles over and vomits what seems to be gallons of frothy seawater onto the deck of the ship. This horrible, guttural, all-muscles-tensing vomit.

As the seawater splashes onto it with a heavy you see a singular cloven crystal. Don't touch it. Somebody pick it up with an object and let's put it in the bag as quickly as possible. Your vision returns. I take off my sash and scoop it up with an object and let's put it in the bag as quickly as possible. All right. Your vision returns. Take off my sash and scoop it up and tie it off.

I hold back his little teeny man bun. You okay? Holy shit! Put it in the bag as soon as possible. Oh, it's coming out of your nose! I put it in this, it will be gone. Perfect. Gone. What does that mean, gone?

How gone? It's the Amherst. No one can be gone. Perfect. Gone. What does that mean, gone? Now gone. It's the amber stone. No one can see me. Perfect. Use my long sleeve to wipe up Fjord's face and mouth. Caleb starts placing out the pieces of amber around it on the deck, and as a ritual casts the Vault of Amber, and it just goes. Widowghast's Vault of Amber? No, just Vault of Amber, and it just goes.

Widogast's Vault of Amber? No, just Vault of Amber. You don't have to say the Widogast part every time. Most of the time will suffice, but occasionally you can just dial it back for the actual function of the spell. It's WGVA. Just put a gas on that. All right.

Oh my god. And then I take all those, I collect them, and I keep the one piece of amber now on a chain. Okay. And mix the other. How do you feel, Fjord? A few gallons lighter. You're the best.

I mean, I feel... I feel fine. I mean, I feel... I feel fine. I mean, given the circumstances, you don't sense any physical difference before or after, beyond just a sense of well-being that washes over you, knowing that that thing is out of you. Can I make myself look like Jester?

Certainly. Does it work? Yeah. Okay. What was that about? I'm just making sure I could still, you know, do things. I hadn't realized that was there.

It's not the source of your power, Fjord. Not anymore. That's good. What did it look like? Really slimy. Crazy. Strangely, like an eyeball. Did it move? No, it just rolled and stopped. And you throw up that much,

like, eyes and the nose just go. It's like being on a car wash, couldn't see anything. Speaking of, Marius! How did he survive this shit? Get a bucket and a mop, clean up this puke, okay? Swab the deck. Swab the deck, Marius. Stopped raining at the wrong time.

Actually. It's still raining, but he's just. Marius, did you kill a guy? Did you kill that guy? I grievously wounded him. Oh my god. Hey, what a proud dog. Good job, Marius. Thank you. How bad is Grievous?

It's pretty bad. Okay, well done. Yeah. Good work. I'll get the mop. Might get rid of the bodies of the three fish people. Soap over. Keep the...

Yeah, hopefully he's better at cleaning than he is at killing. I want to help with that. Do you think that maybe Caduceus should cast that spell on all of us, just in case we all have strange curses or things inside of us? Did you go around swallowing weird balls, too?

I mean. My teenage years. College of Edgars. I think Yasha and I are going to go downstairs and start gathering up the fish people. Okay. I'm going to cast Decompose on them, too, just to. Actually, if you wouldn't mind

bringing them up here first, just to see them. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, they do make a weird sound as they hit the deck. Like Donald Duck hiccuping. They hit it,. They're like. I know people did some passes of them. Thanks, Oblivion.

Can I strip them down and turn them around and see if they have any tattoos, like look at the back of their neck? The people people? Those are the people people? These are the fish people. We have all of them up here now. Could be a bite, could be a stab wound, could be a... Yeah, I just want to look for any markings on their body.

Make an investigation check. Hell yeah. That's what I do good on my good days. Okay. Got a high modifier. 19. 19, okay. Luckily, fire's good. On the sea spawn creatures, the ones that maintain their fish form,

you don't see any particular tattoos. You do notice they have heavy gills. They are very physically altered, and their mutations, the ones that have heavy quills themselves that project from the body, they are far from human. But no particular markings beyond just their physical alterations.

The tentacle arms are quite disgusting and have their own, almost like a shark skin, where from one direction it's smooth and the other hand, and it pricks up into a very grating texture. The humanoid bodies that have reverted from the three there, you do notice on the leader, the lead one,

in the middle of the chest, there is a familiar, single yellow tattoo of an eye. Is this the one we cut into? Yes. So you would have already noticed it, but it didn't come up earlier. Right. But yeah. Well, it's half, there's half of it here

and half of it over here. Yeah, you have to put it back together. Have these ones that have been brought up, have they transformed back into their original states? Yes, that's the elf and the goliath. Oh, okay, sorry, there's no others, right. Wouldn't stay. Does it look like the Avantika's tattoo?

I mean, it's similar, but the design's different, but it's a similar type of, you know, very much a tattoo scarring experience that is part of a worship or a symbolism for a familiar entity. Did you have one of those tattoos? I did, but you don't want to see where it is. It's very painful.

Right on the taint. Yep, right on the in-between-us. Whoa! Had to hold my ankles and rise the lightning. Actually. Yep. Just. Oh, that's right, there's no machines. I call it a Katoa.

Just a couple of times, and it's old, came up, and swallowed it back down. Five years, everybody. The art that's going to come out of that one. Oh no! Hopefully a gift. I don't know, I'm choked. Dig, dig, dig, dig, dig, dig. Chiseled, as it was described.

Mm-hmm. So it's mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Might want to bite down on this. Boy, that was a two minute detour, guys. Yeah, we needed a good laugh. It is still raining, it is still freezing, it is still AM hours. Yes.

It's still 2 45 now. We need to go to sleep. We got to go to sleep. We got to go to sleep. Let's toss go to sleep. We got to go to sleep. Let's toss these bodies over. Let's keep the humans and toss the fish. I'm going to decompose the fish if we want to drop them. They don't grow fungus, but you watch as elements

of the body begin to grow a little more translucent and bits of foam begin to gather at the joints. Ooh. Before you throw them overboard. They grow. Sploosh. Yeah. Sploosh. Yeah. Sploosh, sploosh. Barf is on me.

I should really wash my arm off. Yeah. I'm going to wash my arm off. Yeah, you're halfway to the bicep. Should we make a dome? Would you like to come to the captain's quarters, or should I join you in the small room? I feel like it's safer if we're in the captain's quarters.

He doesn't want to be alone. Well, he shouldn't be. Is there room for all of us in this room? Last time I woke up, there was a blade sticking out of my chest. I don't know, is there enough room for? I mean. It's cozy. It'll be super cozy.

Let's go down. Because you have a desk and a bed in that chamber. Yeah, room for a dome. We can go downstairs and use for the dome, I guess. Oh, to get rid of the desk and the bed. No, that's fine, we'll go below. Okay. We should do the mid-level, not the bottom. Yes. Okay.

So you guys head to the gun deck. There is a chamber that is definitely large enough to fit all you comfortably. Oh yeah, I had a big bed in mine. Yeah, okay. And I did cast Underwater Breathing at two in the morning. Good night.

Okay. You guys ready yourselves for an evening's rest, eventually going to complete the rest of your night's sleep. So go ahead and take your long rest. Oh my god. Dude. I'm also, any time we do this, Caleb will go down to the bottom level of the ship

and use his silver wire to make an X across the ceiling for where he believes we have stationed the dome, so that there is an alarm set beneath the dome. Okay, fair enough. That will be part of the bedtime ritual. Okay, sleep doesn't come all that easy, as there is the sound of Galen. Wow, at 2.30, good for him.

You told him to go fix stuff, and it was there. They're sleeping during the day when you guys are running the ship, so you guys are running odd hours, Wow, a 230, good for them. You told them to go fix stuff, and it was there. They're sleeping during the day when you guys are running the ship, so you guys are running odd hours, so there's always some crew manning it as you continue. But you manage it. The gun deck does have a bit of damage,

both from the fight, the scuffle, and a lot of the, you can see about three of the cannons themselves have a lot of just hundreds and hundreds of tiny gash marks across the iron. Not enough to damage them or make them non-functional, but they definitely look textured and weathered. Some of the wood around them is splintered. The wood on the ceiling itself has a couple of moments, or a couple of locations that look a bit damaged,

but that's what Gallant's currently working on repairing and getting some patching elements to it. Whoops. Look at all these lovely spells in the back. That's so nice. that look a bit damaged, but that's what Gallant's currently working on repairing and getting some patching elements to them. Whoops. Look at all these lovely spells in the back. That's so nice. But the next day comes to you. Without issue.

Without issue. The rain does, however, greet you in the morning as you awaken. So at this point, you guys have a few more days to continue. The next day progresses, which I believe is the sixth day? I'm going to interrogate. The fifth day, I think. Fifth day? Okay. Want to interrogate the bodies?

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Do we eat breakfast first, or while we're interrogating, we should eat breakfast? Let's have breakfast first. Also, Caleb, your magic is so impressive. I sometimes take it for granted. Where does that go? Just to another dimension, or is it just hidden?

Yeah, well, it is with me, but it is not on this plane. It is anchored to a point within this one specific Yeah, well, it is with me, but it is not on this plane. It is anchored to a point within this one specific hunk of amber. So anchored to that, and wherever I bring said anchor, that pocket travels with. So if someone were to trace or try to locate it,

it wouldn't point to your hunk of amber? Well, I also have this, and I pull out the necklace I've had since the beginning of our story. This keeps me and all my possessions hidden. Not you, or any of the rest of you, but this, your Cat's Eye marble is now erased. Well. Very well.

Those have been really useful when we had the beacon on us. You're... Well, I haven't figured out how to do it yet. I'd prefer that. I just didn't want all of a sudden the attention of this thing to be pointed at you. I probably know what you look like very well.

The attention is still probably pointed at you. People have tried to find us as we have tried to find other people, and you are still the last one who had it. So they would come with questions, perhaps. Unless they were tracking the ball directly. We just killed five or six of his men, so maybe.

Oh man, Uk'otoa is so pissed at you. I have a feeling Uk'otoa is not the sentimental type. Yeah, it would be. He's a ragey type. I feel like he can get more fish people. There are more fish people in the sea. There are plenty of fish people. We should see if these are just devotees

or if they were taken. Yeah, that's what I'm wondering. What do we do with the ball now that we have it? What do you mean? It's in his hidden dimension of nowhere. Just keep it forever, give him the way? Leave it there? Possibly find a way to destroy it.

I don't know if it can be destroyed. At the very least, we could take it to the Happy Fun Ball at some point. Put a ball in the ball? Put a ball in the ball. Put a ball in the ball. Metaball. What if we actually put the ball into the lava? We are, yeah.

Going to a volcano, I was about to say. Maybe it'll have as a cool effect that you could use to enthrall the guests. That's a good idea. Maybe we can turn all of the other people that worship the Traveler into fish people. Wow! You know, you throw those pine cones into the fire,

they burn blue and green, maybe this one's yellow. Yeah! Like a light and big eyeball. Crazy fire colors. Still a little woozy, yes. Maybe it would anger a titan at the bottom of the sea and create a tidal wave. It's hard to predict.

You never know. Let's ask some questions. Think about what you want to know. Oh, me? I mean, yeah. Okay. I haven't thought about it at all, let's do this. Which one do you want to start with?

The leader. Yeah. Tattoo McFuckribs. You don't want to work up to it? I love the McFuckrib. We can ask all of them? It only comes every once in a while, but it is the little thing I guess. Sure, let's ask the, um.

Only one at a time and only once. Yeah, let's start with the female elf then. All right, it helps if they see a friendly face, so hold on. I'm going to look like a Vannika. Oh. Okay. This is weird. Will she be able to see all of us, or just you?

Do you sound like a Vannika, or are you the only Vannika that's playing? I sound like me. I don't really. That's great. I can try and I'll do a thing. But they're not really that smart, so. I think that they only really pay attention

to the person who casts the spell. I think everything else is just not there. This is so weird right now. This is not life. This is, I'm really glad that I can't see what this looks like right now. I feel it's, whoa. But yeah. I'm also so short.

That's what it sounded like on Sunday mornings. All right, I'm going to put one of them up. Which one? Which one do you want, the half-orc or the? The female. The female half-orc. I'll put the elf. Okay. Start burning some of the fungus underneath it,

getting the sp underneath it, getting the spores out, and I'm going to cast Speak With Dead. Okay. The dull, lifeless look in the eyes is maintained. The eyes do roll to look towards you. Slumbering. Just looking at you.

He's such a good sleeper. Who gave you your mission to find the orb? He's trying. Oh god. I have to finally do it back to you guys. I would ask, was she a willing follower? And the other one would be, does she know how she came to take that previous shape?

Were you a willing follower of Uk'otoa? Uk'otoa. Uk'otoa. Oh, hey. Can you ask her how she took the previous shape. I wonder. Did the power to take your previous shape come from you or something else?

It was granted. Reward. It's probably the end of that. You have two more questions. No, that's three. You have five questions. High five. Five? All right. Were they coming for the orb

or were they coming for me? A reward for what? Religions. Were you following the orb or the one who carried it? Yes. Fuck off. Dead people are the worst. Well, that's no help. A bit of froth stumbles out of the mouth.

Decompose. Decompose. Decompose. It's Caduceus' version of talk of the hand. Yeah. I'll toss that one over in a minute. Do you think those fish people were like fiends, or do you think they were just like, just regular old creatures?

Should we ask them, do they have a headquarters? Do they congregate?, do they have a headquarters? Do they? Where do they come from? Congregate, yeah. Where do they go to commune with, I'm not going to say the name. I'll find out also, I think we'll ask also if they know who you were.

If that makes sense, or if they just. I'll say yes, because I had it, but maybe you can ask, like, if he didn't have it anymore, would you still want, were you still going to need him? It's a little complicated. Fucking Mother Dead. So you have the goliath and the human man. Which one's the leader, is it the?

The leader would be the human man. Yeah, so let's start with the goliath then. All right. The thin but very tall, half giant figure is brought into the center place where you had previously set the ritual. And sits there, lifeless, jaw open. Oh no, not the open mouth.

I'm going to prop the head up in my hand. Terrible, terrible. Tung halals out a bit. Where do the disciples of Uk'otoa congregate? Wherever there's water. Do you know the name of the bearer of the orb? Maybe. Maybe?

They don't have to hear us. They can lie to you. Oh. Uk'otoa. Uk'otoa. Demands honesty. Tell me the name of the orb-bearer. I don't know your face. I say what I wish.

I say what I wish. Do you still look like a pot of cat? Yeah. Ask what color the fire would be if we threw the orb in lava. How long have you been a follower of Uk'otoa? Uk'otoa. Not long enough.

This guy sucks, this guy sucks! Asshole. The worst. What happens if Uk'otoa can't retrieve the orb? You'll find out. Has Uk'otoa been released? Same. He has it. That guy sucked.

That guy was the worst. What a dick. It's like talking to Shelda. Ugh. Oh yeah. I'm right here. Oh. Oh, talking to Shelda. Ugh. Oh yeah. I'm right here. Oh. Oh, hey, Shelda, sorry.

Last one, if you want it. Wait, do you want to change your appearance to make yourself more imposing? Make yourself look like one of the fish people. Make yourself look like Fjord. Make yourself not like one of the bad guys. Fjord is a follower, or what? You could try and make yourself look like Bandren.

I could if I could do this more than once a day. I could do it. like one of the bad guys. Fjord is a follower, or what? You could try and make yourself look like Bandren. I could if I could do this more than once a day. I could do it! Yeah. Sure, sure. If someone wants to do that, then I'm okay with that. But I don't think I should look like you. I think that would be a very bad idea.

What if we just looked like... The Sylvan woman. You could. I don't have any objections to you looking like me. Why would that be bad? If I were a follower of Uk'otoa, why would I tell you anything? Because you could lie to them and say,

it worked, you killed me. I'm now a follower also. I don't know, you could just lie. If I said that to you, would you believe any of it? You're very convincing. I'm not that convincing. Can you roll a deception check against a dead? We can.

If there's grounds for deceiving, yeah. Usually, finding a friendly face is the best way. Deception modifier. Unfortunately, that was not a face recognized by the individuals. What about if you show them the orb? I think that would be a mind-bendingly bad idea. They'd be like, I'll give this to you

if you answer my question. Well, you know they ran with this crew. Why not just make yourself look like the other woman? Yeah, the elven woman, and brainstorm with this last one about what to do next. Well, if someone wants to do that. Maybe you pretend to be him. If someone wants to do that, that's fine.

I just can't do that again. Sure. Is that a woman? I will make myself look like thea. Oh, you need to make me, because they won't talk to you. Oh, I was going to speak with Dea. Oh, then you do it. Go ahead.

Yeah. I pull out the pearl and place it against Jester's forehead and spend a moment making geometric shapes. Whoa. Around her head, so, you know, for lying to the dead. Okay, okay. What am I asking her? That's a good question.

Well, let's talk it out. They came to get Fjord. You are talking to your, presumably, your leader. Yeah. We don't know if they came to get Fjord. You are talking to your, presumably your leader. Yeah. We don't know if they came to get Fjord or the orb, if they know who Fjord is. Both. Okay. We don't know.

We still haven't gotten the question answered on if they needed Fjord alive. Okay. Are more coming, maybe? Okay, so I'm going to be like, oh man, everyone got killed, except for me. The target got away? The target got away.

What should we do next? Do we have the reinforcements coming? Should I go after him or should they go after the orb? They threw the orb away. Should they go after, no. What should we do next, Fearless Leader? The dead can't really, they're not that bright, either. So they're, making them think complex thoughts

doesn't often go very well. So I should just be like. I don't know what to do without you. Who should I go to? What is our next move? Yeah, they used it. I can't remember anything. Tell me where I'm supposed to go now. Okay, cool.

All right, I'm going to disguise Elf as the elven woman. Okay. You know what makes me wonder? I'm already the elven woman. I wonder if how long they were the creatures. How's that going again? Have they been like that for a long time, or did they change at will? how long they were the creatures. How's that going again? Had they been like that for a long time, or did they change at will?

That's a good question. I bet they were the creatures. For a long time. Probably for a long time. So I probably should have just made myself look like a. Yeah, yeah, you probably should have like. It's probably an easier voice. Could they talk? Can you do the voice or sound?

They made a lot of. I feel like they were talking. Yeah, blah, blah. It's probably an easier voice. Could they talk? Can you do the voice or sound? They made a lot of. I feel like they were talking. Yeah, there you go. Were they talking? I don't know. I'm just going to read the album, because fuck it, I already did it. Great. They were saying commands to each other, weren't they?

Do I remember them saying commands to each other? They were communicating, but they were doing fish sounds. Were they speaking in common? Were they really speaking out fish sounds? No, They were communicating. Were they speaking in common? Or were they speaking officially? No, they were not in a speak. All right, I'm going to speak with Dad on the, what is it, the Goliath guy? No, the human.

On the leader. No, the human. That's the one we haven't talked to yet. The Baldi. The one that we chopped up. The one we chopped up? Yeah. Okay. Good thing I'm not looking at myself. Okay. Cast to speak with Dad.

Whoa. Okay. So the final, the human man, as you reach forward and finish the completion of the spell on it, you can see one of the eyes, because one of the eyes is damaged and ruined from the battle, the other one is like. Well, she's definitely like, be away from them. What'd you say, from over there?

Don't go over there. Okay. Oh my gosh, they really fucked up your body. Ooh. The eyes are looking at you. Ooh. Well, that battle did not go well, huh? Looks like we got defeated and they got away, but...

What do we do now? What? Leader? Roll a deception check. Oh, what do we do now? What? Leader? Roll a deception check. Oh, what do we do now? What? What? You turned pretty soon on necklace.

Good. It's too late for that. No, it's not good. Shit. Red. Roll! That was a very Stanley Spadowski reaction of you. That was really good.

That was 23. 23. She found the marble in the oatmeal. She found the marble in the oatmeal. I speak with him for guidance. That's a good idea. I don't know why I didn't think of that first. So I got hit in the head pretty hard in that fight.

I can't remember if we're supposed to follow the orb now or are we supposed to follow the green guy? One in the sea. Oh, but not if the orb can get out of the guy, which is what happened. Where should I go? What should I do? Should I keep going after the guy? Find the Bet betrayer.

The betrayer. Okay, okay. It's you, Tarv. Okay, good idea. Then once I get him, I'm going to take him back to the temple close by, maybe? Is that the way to take him back to the temple close by, maybe? Is that where you should take him? Yes.

The final seal. The final seal. Cool. I'm not asking anything else. I mean, you got one more question, you might as well. Oh, you're pooping. Are you pooping? What does Ukatel fear the most? Ukatel.

Oh! Maybe that's a shit question. I don't know. Yeah, so, our god, man, he's pretty scared of that green guy, huh? Is he super scared of him? What is he scared of the most? What are his weaknesses? Strong Bad wants to know.

I can't contemplate something far more than I... And decompose. I really wanted to show him that that wasn't actually the Elune chick at the end. You were so good! Oh yeah, he totally bought it. Yeah, so that's the trick then.

We have to play dumb with dead people. I'm going to switch back to myself. They're not real. It's okay, they're just not real. Why don't you choose them? They're not fish food. You thought they wanted you, the big player. No, I heard these. They also going after you, Fjord! They wanted you, the big player! No, I have everything.

That's awful. They also want him to open up the last seal. Wow. I get the distinct impression this is probably going to happen every time we get on a boat. This was a success. I feel rejuvenated and enthused. You got rid of the ball?

Yep. No problem. We know that they're searching for you still, and do we need to protect you at all costs? I feel like if we just tied a little flag and a bell to the sphere and just threw it over the side of the boat, we could just fish with it. Wouldn't really worry about me so much.

Maybe. No? They'd come and get it, and then Uk'otoa would be released, and then we'd all have to fight a giant. I get the distinct impression that, yeah, Uk'otoa would be released, and then we'd all have to fight the giants. I get the distinct impression that, yeah, Uk'otoa really wants to find you, too. Okay. Good. Traitor's not a nickname you give to.

We just need to be prepared to have a fight every single night before we go to sleep. Pretty much. No fucking way. We just have to string up the ship, and just a little while. Well, now we would be prepared for it, you know? Should we try and ally ourselves with one of the other ships? Just, what would we say?

We should tell Essek. We're going to be attacked every night by a bunch of fish people. We might not be attacked every night. I mean, it's going to take, we killed all of those, so it'll take time for word to get back, right? From the... This is the fifth day, you guys,

I mean, depending on how long the storm lasts, it can be anywhere between another four to six days. We're going to gauge it as the weather comes. I'm going to ask the Wild Mother to end the storm. Ooh! Are you going to try again? I mean, it's a new day. Okay.

74, so no, I don't think that works. Sorry. That's okay. It's the Hail Mary. Are the other ships going full steam ahead? Full mast? I mean, they're all going as quickly as the slowest ship. So it's not extremely quickly, because they're traveling,

but they're also traveling in a formation to be ready for any sort of attack or assault that were to transpire on a mass scale towards the ships that are in the center of the armada, which are the Wyn of Aeons and the Blue Heaven, those that are transporting the artifact and the prisoner for this negotiation. So all the rest of the ships encircle them

and they all travel at a continued pace. You guys are on the outskirts in the back right. Do we have to get out of the prison? No. We don't know who's a prisoner. Is it prisoner or prisoners? The prisoner is Vence. Vence, yeah.

Sorry. You're going to be trading. I think as long as the two of us stay before you shoot me. Yeah, no, I'm giving you a break. I'm re-uploading from the cloud. That's okay. Your phone.

You cannot unplug your phone during this time. That's a pretty solid defense. We need to be ready every single night. It won't be every single night. It might not be at all, but we need to be ready. And I think it is likely that if they come back, it will be more than the first time. I wonder if I could cast a wind call.

That's true. They will learn from their mistakes and see that we were able to handle ourselves. Well, that might be it for a while. Right, maybe we should try and moor next to the other ships. For the best, expect the worst. Well, we should continue repairs on the ship

and just keep plowing ahead as fast as we can. Okay. Okay. All righty. Caleb. Are you going to take this Vesteragna? Did you just roll dice? Are you going to take her upess Taragna? Did you just roll dice? Are you going to take her up on wanting to talk with her, or is that something we're actually going to do right now?

Well, she asked us if we wanted work in the north, but we are far too busy at the moment to accept any work. I mean, beyond us accepting work out of being too busy, wouldn't we want to avoid working for Vess DeRogna? We are not working for Vess DeRogna. I know, I'm asking. Yeah.

Can I summon the sword and cast See Invisibility? Sure. I got the sword and cast See Invisibility? Sure. I'll pull the sword. Any orbs? Make a perception check. It's got it. 12. Okay, at the moment, you do not see any orbs,

any scrying beacons around you? I think it's not insane to at least tell Vistara what we know now. I mean, we know it, I don't see what the harm of just letting them know that we know what's up. That is complicated. Super complicated. Yeah, how do you mean, let them know what?

That it was a cult of a sea god that's got a grudge against one of our people. What would that benefit us, though? They'll just be like, oh, great, well then don't follow us anymore in formation. Go away. It's making us unsafe. I mean, I can't imagine that half the people in this group don't have weird stuff like that.

Yeah, but they keep it secret. Exactly. I mean. Everyone's got their shit, and you keep it on lockdown, man. You're not worried that no one's talking to anybody else? Well, I am worried, Caduceus, but we are gambling a bit here.

If we let them know that there is an all-powerful monstrosity under the ocean that is going to stop at nothing to unleash itself by murdering us, probably the peace talks will be called off. You slurred that guy for a while, dude. That's crazy. I'm just going to point out they were surprisingly chill about the last time this happened.

How many people are actively repairing the boat? Just one? I'll go with what the group is. Well, you have Gallant is the carpenter assigned. The other carpenter is Jester. I'll go, fine, I understand what you're saying. I'm going to go out and visit. No, Jester, take someone with you,

and also someone go help Gallant. I just had a horrible thought that maybe since these humanoids could turn into those things, I just don't want to make sure we'd have some black pearl thing happen and some fucking ship comes up out of the ocean. I don't know what that means. Like a black pearl, you've never seen a black pearl before?

Yeah, it comes up out of the ocean, turns into a ship, and then we're fighting like an undead seaperson ship. Is this a real thing? I don't know. I just vomited a ball, what do you want from me? It's true. I'm going to go.

You want to go check out on Gallen? Yeah. I think we should just start working on the ship, just in case. We're all healed. I don't know if all the ball-y trees. We're going to fix the ship. All right. Gallen's done quite a bit. Gallen's currently sleeping,

because Gallen was up all night doing repairs. I'll start where he left off and keep going. So you continue going. No worries. I'll supervise. All right. I'm the cannon master. I'm equal with you. Yeah, but I'm in charge of the cannons. Then look at your cannons while I look at this wood.

Cannons are scraped up, I might add. Yeah, fix those cannons. Somebody fucked them up. I'll sand and polish the cannon metal. Let me tell you, sanding iron, it's a great use of your time. Then I'll stop after five minutes and start working on other stuff.

You feel accomplished. Sure, sure. My head's tired. The day, go. My point was, why would we even want to go talk to Vessarog now? Beyond us being too busy, she's like one of the prime murderous candidates of the Cerberus Assembly.

Yeah, we are on the same page. I was just asking if you were going to take her up on her offer, and you're like, well, we're really busy, and I was like, that's not the point, though. Yeah, but Beauregard, we want to at least create the semblance of cooperation. I mean, we don't trust them. They know that.

They don't trust us, we know that. But if there is even a hair of doubt in their minds that perhaps their Empire citizens feel the need to cooperate or feel allegiance to country. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I'm with it in here. So keep it hazy. Yeah, I was just checking in with you, man.

Just wanted to know what the greater plan was on how we were going to do this. How we're going to turn these peace talks into actual peace? No, you know what, never mind. I think we're on the same page. I think so. Yeah. Do you want to go talk to Vess DeRogna today or no?

Because she was like, oh, we're going to be here on this boat and we got time if you want to come and talk to me, I'll be here. So I was just wondering if that was a plan. But if not, then fuck her. No, I think sometime in the next few days, it would make sense to try to, again,

put out a show of good faith that we are trying to coordinate, and also not wait until the day and see what happens. Mm-hmm. So what, tomorrow? You want to do this shit tomorrow? Let's go tomorrow. All right. Okay. If you wanted an escort over to the Cerberus ship,

you could have just asked outright. I was just looping you in on a potential plan, man. All right, man. And I walk away confused. Okay. The rest of the day goes by without issue, the storm still maintaining, though not as thunderous as the night before,

the rain itself not relenting. The evening comes to and you guys are sleeping below deck with the same arrangement, I assume. Ooh! We should put a Fjord dummy in the captain's bed. A what? A Fjord dummy. Oh, like a decoy. Yeah! A Fjord dummy. Oh, like a decoy. Yeah! A Fjord dummy.

I will also send Frumpkin the monkey to hang from the rigging of the ship within 100 feet so that he can tell me if anything is climbing onto deck. Okay. Easy enough. Pardon me. Okay. The rest of the day. We'll take some shirts and pants and stuff them.

Stuff them with straw. Put them in the captain's bed. I'm going to paint. Mass amount of straw that you guys keep below deck of your ship at sea. We're going to, you know. Rags. Rags, stuff them with rags. All right, you can find some rags. I'm going to just the head.

Galen's like, I don't need those bedsheets anyway. It's fine. Just the berries inside. Just the head. Galen's like, I don't need those bedsheets anyway, it's fine. Just the berries inside. Just the head. LaPleau, did you kill anyone surrounding a bedsheet? I'm going to use my paint. Yeah, yeah, good use of it. Thank you.

To paint a Fjord head that looks like Fjord's head. You're using your magical paints, right? Yeah. And it's going to become a Fjord head? It's not going to come alive, And it's going to become a Fjord head? It's not going to come alive, but it's going to look like Fjord. Okay, you finish it, and it looks creepily realistic. Whoa.

Fjord's face going, Oh, Eric. Here. Oh, Eric. You going to practice making out with him? No, he's sleeping, it's weird. All right. It's also just a head. Yeah.

Well, I put it on the decoy body. Yeah, it's good. Okay, mark the used paint on it. I'm going to. She has just his face, a little weird when you look back, yeah. Okay. Fjord!

Ah! Okay. The decoy is set. You guys complete the sixth year in rest. Actually, before everyone beds down, Caleb finds a moment to wander up to Yasha as she's just staring out at the ocean. Two square feet with the back as well.

Hey. Hey. You were awfully quiet the last day. Are you all right? I think so. What's out there? Just watching the storm, I guess. Keeping tabs, making sure nothing else climbs aboard. You'll come to bed in a bit, yeah?

Yeah. Okay. How are you? Oh, very good. I... You know how Fjord said he had a dream that he swallowed that ball and then it was there? Yes. Does that make sense to you? and it was there. Yes.

Does that make sense to you? That he dreamed and it became so? Yeah. Well, that has never happened for me. But there are a great many things in this world, are there not? Yes. I seem to find that to be true every day. You having colorful dreams lately? Yeah.

Well, they're usually, you know, not very colorful, but just strange, I guess. Yeah. Well, I guess we should get some sleep. Yeah. Dream again. I hope so. You, for what it's worth,

you seem a little more steady. I feel a little more steady, which is weird because we're on a boat. Sorry, that was a bad joke. It was pretty good. Yeah, I feel like this group is pretty special. I know you and I both have gone through some things

and we carry a lot of weight with us. But boy, do I feel lucky to be with these people. It's all about who you choose to surround yourself with, I think. That makes all the difference. I think it does.

I feel safe with these people. We feel very safe with you. I hope so. Caleb pats her arm. We feel very safe with you. I hope so. Yeah. Caleb, Pat, sir, I'm going to go get things ready down below. Join us when you're ready. I will. Continue to look out for a bit,

then I'll head downstairs. Okay. As you all find rest for the night. I'll look over here. I don't want it. Dream! I really am dreaming. Dream, dream.

The bold face that you've grown to carry gives way when consciousness does, as being captain of the ship requires a certain amount of strength and face. But in those solitary moments of sleep, the memory of what it felt to give way to darkness, the finality of it, the experience and memory of the life leaving you

is cold and scary. experience and memory of the life leaving you is cold and scary, especially knowing that that thing was still inside you. In that quiet, cold, isolating memories. You close your eyes and give in to sleep. There is that bloom of green, that warm blossom

that helps wash away the anxiety. And while you don't see the face, you can feel her there with you, comforting. What was once a recurring nightmare of dark, lightless, abyssal depths, it's nice to have a warm, motherly embrace to greet you on the other side. And even in that cold moment of loss, there's a part of you that believes

she would have caught you. And that's comforting. Day seven comes to you all in the morning. As the storm subsides, the clouds break, the rain halts, and you all are getting closer and closer The clouds break, the rain halts, and you all are getting closer and closer to your destination. Is there anything you want to accomplish today

or do we move on to the next day? You look like you maybe have, with the weather clearing up, all things going according to plan, maybe two, two and a half days to your destination. Oh, yeah. Can we see the Cerberus ship within view? You can, yes.

It's cloistered in the center next to the Blue Heaven. How far off is it about? I'd say it's maybe about 350, 400 feet off, approximately. Okay. Do you want to go for a walk? Yeah. The cats fly on the both of us.

Okay. Awesome. Come on. Think of a wonderful thought. Yeah, yeah. And we had you to love. Back in a bit. Sure, fine, fly away.

Breaking faces, people. You guys coast through the sails amongst all the Dwendalian ships and the handful of shorewarden clonk, my brain short-circuited there for a second, the Concord ships as part of this armada as well. It's a beautiful sight now with the sun bright in the sky, the clouds mostly broken, the reveal blue above.

It's energetic. As you coast your way through and over the water towards the maroon-colored, stylized ship that is the Wind of Aeons, as you draw closer, you can see the crew on deck in the process of keeping eyes out. Someone looks up and points, you can see with a spyglass in your direction,

and stepping behind them, you can see the martinet. Knock, knock! don't shoot us. The arcane anti-air gun swivels into place. Turns around. Yep. And as they're flying through the air, Caleb just gives a half grin to Beauregard because flying is dope. Yeah, this is great.

You guys touch down. I do a little air backflip and then gracefully land, kind of Silver Surfer shit. Hell yeah. I just land normally. Right, of course. As you guys land, the martinet sent it looking and goes, It's never seven. So by what do we owe this pleasure of a visit?

I think we just want a bit of a check-in as we draw near to the hour at hand, yeah? So far, so well. Things have been prepared, guarded, and there has been no anomalies besides what I've heard is the apparent attack upon your ship. Yeah, we met Lady DeRogna the other evening. Is she here traveling with you?

She is. Yeah. He looks genuinely surprised to hear that you met with her, so. Huh. She was very kind to check in on us after the attack. Indeed, she was quite kind. Yeah. Would you like me to fetch her for you? Please.

What? No, I thought I heard something on the ship breaking, but I was mistaken. Oh. Yes, yes, I think it'd be good if we all spoke together, including anyone who is here who would be involved in deliberations. Hmm.

You see him do a familiar hand motion as the one you've seen Jester produce many a time. Lady Vess, you are being requested to the deck, please, if you don't mind. You have guests. You got, like, five more words. Maybe ten? No, he's succinct, I forget.

Yes, pithy. Yep. She just apparates next to him. Well, it's very nice to see you both. Sooner than anticipated. Yes, they were just saying that you had met and checked in on them. So what is it you would like to discuss with us? Is it something that requires privacy?

In time with the lady, but until we get to that point, I think just a general sync up on what we're going to be doing. I think the Expositor would like to know what your plans are for the moment. And how do you see us functioning into these? Yes, the Bright Queen very specifically requested that we be there to ensure that no funny business.

And you are. That is why you're part of this armada. The discussion is to transpire between both our lead ship and theirs. They will be anchored together, and this deliberation is to be helmed by the Emissary Lord Zadandrath himself. I will be present for this,

as well as a few designated Righteous Brand elite soldiers, and they will have their dignitary as well as protectors as well. Will Master Ikithon and any of his protégés be present? No, he is not part of this discussion. Is he sailing with us? No.

All right. But during that time, Aethesius or Laudan may join as well, which would be interesting, having to keep him and Zaddan civil has already taken quite a bit of my attention. Lady Vess is here as a, how do we say, ancillary force, much like you are.

She will not be part of the discussions, but will be keeping an eye on the perimeter, as will you. That is your purpose here. Are you expecting any interference? I'm always expecting interference. What have you done any interference? I'm always expecting interference. What have you done to prepare? I have my means. And the key to preparing for interference

is not letting all of your plans known, but trust and be assured I have taken precautions. Trust comes slow. If at all. Very true. I think perhaps something that would assuage our nerves in this endeavor is inspecting the beacon as discussed.

Lady Vespik up and goes, That these have killed Spire, and Martina puts his hand up and says, And you would wish to inspect right now? No time like the present. Right around, looks to Lady Vess, and goes, Come. Turns around and the two of them begin to walk

towards the stairway that leads beneath into the ship. You follow? Mm-hmm. Yes. All right. Are we alone? Or are we being followed? Make a perception check. Okay, 20. 20.

There are two Righteous Brain soldiers that just keep a perimeter on the deck. They come together behind you guys and step to the top of the stairs following you, and then stopping at the top to just play vigil. Okay. You're led below to a center deck, which is where the gun deck would be.

And you've seen some of the weaponry before. As opposed to cannons here, they have these, they look like cannons, but there are a number of arcane runes burning to the sides of them. They're beautifully made, very elven in construct, and they have almost like a brass coil towards the edge of it. School of Evocation?

Yes. Yes, you recognize those actually immediately. There's four of them below, two on each side. Magic cannons. Magic cannons. That's cool. You pass down. Which side you're on. Yeah, this is the deck where you had previously seen the discussion

between the Martinet and Essek. You head down to a lower deck, which has a very, very heavy enclosed door with no handle. As you approach to it, you can see the Martinet and Vess look at each other. They both mirror an incantation silently. You cannot hear what they say.

They face away from you so as not to have lips red. But they both place their hands on the door simultaneously. There's a brief flash of energy, and the door just disappears. It flickers and then vanishes. And there, inside a chamber, you can see there are some tables. There is a tea set on one of the tables in there.

It's beautifully decorated. The interior here doesn't feel like it's the middle of a ship. It feels like it's the center of a guest pavilion or some sort of a meeting space for high-end political figures. It's a beautiful rug on the floor, tapestries and paintings in the walls.

It seems very out of place. But as he steps in, you see he lifts a finger and tea is poured into a couple of cups. Are you thirsty? Sure, yeah. Thank you. Lady Vess? Lady Vess goes ahead and lifts up a secondary cup and they both lift them over to you

before pouring some of their own. Ooh. This is truly a deck of many things. Oh. Whoa! See, steward! Well played. Wow.

Single sweatshop just starts to go down Caleb's. I just nudge Caleb, his drinking hand, and I take a sip first. Do I taste anything off about the tea? Anything weird? Sense anything? Because you're immune to poison? Yes. You piece of shit. Okay.

You taste it. It is quite delicious. It has a bit of a fruity, almost mango-esque flavor to it, but not overwhelming to the point where it feels like it's a juice. It's just enough to make it pleasant, but still light. It's nice and does not seem to carry any sort of toxin that you would recognize or discern. Okay.

It's a lich's phylactery. Yeah. All right. Both campaigns got you. recognize or discern. Okay. It's a lich's phylactery. Yeah. All right. Both campaigns, got you. Eventually, they both sit down, and Lady Vess mentions for you guys to take a seat. Thank you. Do we see the beacon in this room with us, all right?

No, you do not. So, how is it you will be a help to the negotiations in a few days, Lady Turokna? I have been brought here as an associate to the Martinet to ensure the transition of this artifact continues without issue, to answer any questions that are brought up,

and to assure and hopefully discuss possible future alignment between interests of various arcane projects between the dynasty and the empire. We are not confident, but at the very least, every beginning conversation is challenging, but it is the beginning of a conversation.

Is the martinet here in the room for us? Yes, the two of them are sitting at the table next to you. They double open that door for us. I didn't know if he left or not. You have hopes, then, not just to end the war, but to create agreement and collaboration between the two nations? Well, it would be for a much more effective

series of programs to work together than against. I agree. Does that have something to do with the potential work offerings that you mentioned to us before? You see that Margen gives her a look. Yeah. Possibly. Of course, which is why I was saying

after this negotiation, that would greatly set the stage of what was possible. So if it is possible and things go well, then maybe there is work for you to do at the behest of the Assembly. Well, our calendar is a little full in the short term. Yeah. Got a few stops to make,

going to be on the sea for a little bit. Oh, there is no pressure at the moment, of course. There is always time. Miss Lionett and I are very curious what your proclivities are, what you are trying to achieve or discover in the north. Well, those would be on a need-to-know basis. Looking at the martinet, is he pissed?

Is he intrigued? Make an insight check. Natural 20. Woo! Theoretical. Whispers, man. Definitely get a Whispers. Who's bringing these Whispers to us, Sam? There's no sponsor for the Whispers, but I'll just say, nope, this isn't a page.

If this was a combat cam, it would be from Dwarven Forge, but it's not, it's just a Whisper. So I'll just say that it's sponsored. Happy five years! Sponsored by the fifth year anniversary of Critical Role. Cheers. Cheers! Aw.

No more champagne for us. Monsignor says, Ah, but nevertheless, you are here for a reason. He goes ahead and snaps his fingers, and on the floor next to him, you watch as a iridescent chest appears in space there, this slight drifting smoke around it.

City bang bang. Yep. As soon as it appears, you hear and it opens the lid, and there inside, with a faint, familiar, undulating gray glow, you see a beacon. Can I tell from this distance if it's the one that we saw at Pride's Call, or is it? Make a perception check.

The one that we know is lost. It's a beacon! What is it, did you say? Perception. Balls, titties and balls. Five. A five total? Yeah, I rolled a two. You die.

You can't tell. Do I recognize it? I know it's not. Make a perception check as well. You guys can both do it. I would guide you, but you didn't take us. No, I didn't. Sometimes players just run off and do shit on their own. She wouldn't know about that.

No. Where'd she go? She's painting dicks in a church somewhere, I don't know. She's fixing your ship right now. 15, not my ship. 15. 15. Glancing over, it's not too far from you, but giving it a once-over, and you guys have a moment.

There is a pregnant pause at its reveal and they're allowing you to inspect. There isn't any haste to break the purpose that you're here for. But its size is larger than the one you saw at the Vergesen Sanatorium. The handles and inlay match those of the ones the Assembly had, or not the Assembly,

the Dynasty had constructed. This is not the one that was recovered from Pride's Call. This appears indeed to be one of the stolen ones. Not the one that we toted around for a while. No, that one you gave to the Bridegroom. But this one is nearly identical to that one in the structure around it. May I?

Of course. Martinet, watch this. Do it. I lift it up and set it down. There's little tables, tea tables? There is a table, and as you look for a space, then Martinet wipes his hand and you watch the tea set shift over, and lift and back, and float there in the air.

Beauregard, will you have a look at this with me? Same, yeah, samesies, yeah. I would like to slowly take time to check if there are anything hidden or affixed to it. Make an investigation check. Okay. Balls! Eater of balls. 15.

Oh, that's not bad. 15. You take some time, you inspect it, look over, look at the casing, looking at the handles, looking within it, it is unmarred. There are no cracks or imperfections in the dodecahedron itself, the beacon seems solid. The golden materials and the inlay that holds it there

and fixes the handles to it seem pristine. Doesn't appear to be altered in any way. It's different than the one, it's different because it is a unique beacon, but it is familiar to the one that you had lugged around for quite some time. I'm going to inspect it further, don't mind me, and begin to go through the process of casting

Detect Magic upon it. Okay. They do not clinch. You cast the spell and a very, very strong, magical aura emanates from it. And is it all dunamancy? It's all very heavily dunamancy. And while all the schools of magic

are contained within dunamancy in that sense, the dunamantic essence from it is so strong and so esoteric, and much like when you had first inspected the beacons upon arriving, it is almost overwhelming. It's like looking into the sun. And finally, I will place both my hands on it and stare into it.

I'm going to step in front and just not take my eyes off of the two of them while he takes a minute. Okay. I'm going to take a dive. All right, you continue to focus and lean towards it. As you do, you feel your essence extend and the interior of the chamber fades away as you feel your consciousness drawn into a nexus

of possibility, infinite and endless around you. Starscapes, are they stars, are they people? Are they points in time, historical moments, future moments to happen? It is so much information at once, and you feel a part of yourself pulled in and a part of it comes into you. And in that space of endless possibility,

you can see the threads of fate and the bodies that walk in the world around you. You feel like you have an outside look on Exandria and beyond, the tapestry that creates it, but yet it's so small in this one infinitesimal moment, and have both at the same time overlapping, it's starting to pull at the edges of your sanity for but a moment, and you withdraw

as the moat itself is carried with you, and you have a fragment of possibility within yourself. You keep an eye. They don't clinch. They seem almost impatient. I don't flinch. They seem almost impatient. I don't say anything, I just look at them, like those tough-ass bodyguards. Just see.

Those tough-ass bodyguards. What's it look like? Yeah, those tough-ass bodyguards. Just this. Just this. Right now. His life. I've seen her get in a dude's face before with that look, it's not pretty. Right now. It's like... I've seen her get in a dude's face before with that look, it's not pretty. Oh, that's a story for another time.

Oh yeah. I know. Stop the show and tell the rest of us. We doing sand kings? No, never mind, carry on. Sorry, carry on. So I was given this instinct as a guy to intervene when somebody else is bothering your girlfriend or wife,

but I don't need to. I just get to watch her destroy them every time. Anyway, Caleb. I see why this is of such value. Two nations are at odds over it. I commend you on letting go of it.

It is important to keep things under control. And hopefully, without disrupting society. To Lady DeRogna, so much to learn. I am surprised you are able to let it go. Well, it is not easy, by any means. But...

It is just how things have to be. Seems like a missed opportunity for our home. Well, if these talks go well, maybe there will be opportunities to share without bloodshed. Does she seem bullshit? One inside check. Come on. Does she seem bullshit?

She is made of bullshit. 100% pure bull manure. So, um. So the guy turned into jelly on the airplane, too. So, um. So the guy turned to jelly on airplane two. 10 total. Rolled a two at 10 total. Oh. Whisper. I mean, she's generally pretty guarded and hard to read.

You're not sure if she's telling the truth, she's lying. She's putting a statement forward and is sticking to it. I hope you have a very understanding contact on the side of the Dynasty. I hope so as well. We'll be keeping our fingers crossed. Yes, sir. This all seems to be in order.

I feel confident this will go very well. As do I. We have all the pieces in place. We'll keep our ship very close by on the day of the negotiations. It lowers the beacon into the same chest and it closes and vanishes. We'll make sure we're stationed on the other side.

Where are the prisoners? Where are you keeping them? Those are being maintained by the Lord Graf in the Blue Heaven. Hmm. Well, I think we've done what we set out to do here. Yeah, I have no further questions. Well, prosecution rests. It was a pleasure to see you. And to our victorious peace talks.

Yes. Thank you so much, both of you, for your time. They both stand up and guide you back to the deck. See you later. Hit you later, DeRogna. Looking forward to it, Beauregard. Yep. And I pull out the Raven's Feather again

and I cast Fly on the two of us. Will Fly last for how long? 10 minutes. 10 minutes, yeah. So it would have waited, yeah. So Mary Poppins away. All right. As you guys glide your way back towards the ship, we're going to go ahead and take a break.

Because it is 915. A serpent comes up out of the water and snatches both of you. You never knew what happened. Don't spoil my return, man. Wait, can you do the noise again? Which one? You know the one.

The cheater. Oh! I love it so much. It made me feel so bad. That sound in particular, it reminds me of the poor wolf coyote from Sword in the Stone. Oh! That can't catch up, and that one moment where he's super tired and he's like,

. I love it so much. Anyway, anyway. We're going to take a break here. We'll be back here in a few minutes. Before we get to that, we do have our Wyrmwood giveaway of the night. We have this fantastic black walnut table tray

made with leather. For one lucky winner in the chat, tonight's chat keyword is punish. Punish? Punish. Put it in once, and only once, more than once to be disqualified. Once again, for U.S. and Canada only, excluding Quebec, maybe only for a little while longer,

because I saw an article that Quebec's trying to loosen their giveaway laws. Whoa! So fingers crossed, because we would love to get some Quebec people into this. Yeah, that'd be awesome. Chill, Quebec. Chill Quebec.

Hashtag chill Quebec. I dig it. Anyway, we'll be back here in just a little bit with the second half of today's session. We'll see you shortly. Hello, Critters. This is Ashley Johnson, president of the Critical Role Foundation, our 501c3 nonprofit organization with a mission that might sound familiar. To leave the world better than we found it. We partner with other nonprofits to raise funds supporting causes that mean a lot to us.

And we allocate 10% of all donations to an emergency relief fund that allows us to provide immediate assistance in the case of natural disasters or other unexpected emergencies that require quick action. To learn more about the Critical Role Foundation and to donate, visit criticalrolefoundation.org Welcome back, everyone. Let me see

if I have the information on our winner tonight. Hasn't come yet, strangely. Oh, interesting. Ooh! What? It's suspenseful. It is, but when it arrives, I will announce it. Oh man.

But that's okay. Until then, let's go ahead and jump into the story. Yeah, we'll jump now into the episode. Totally fine. All righty. So, you both return flying through the air, landing back on your ship, where the rest of your crew waits on day seven.

Hello. Hey, where are you guys? You know. Did you find out anything? Over there. Yeah, it appears to be the beacon that was stolen, not the beacon we saw in Frenk's call. You went to look at the beacon? Yeah, we checked it out.

It's the one that was stolen from, when we saw it be stolen? No, we recovered that one. Yep, you have that back. There were two. This one was stolen from where? The Dynasty. When? Did we witness this? Around the same time. Around the same time, okay.

The one in Price Call we saw was smaller. Wasn't the same. So they still have an extra one that no one's accounted for. That they found buried, I believe. Correct. Yeah. That they found buried, I believe. Correct. Okay. That's good, right? Mm-hmm.

Well. Good as it can be. It's complicated, but they seem, as best Beauregard and I can tell, to be, we couldn't find anything wrong with it. Good, I mean, as long as they didn't give you anything to drink, I think we'll be okay. Oh yeah, that'd be bad. Yeah, it went great.

Cool. Yeah. We were attacked while you were away. Oh. Yep. Fish people? More fish people. Lots of fish people. More preparedness time. We were only gone for like

14 minutes. 15 minutes is crazy. Four throw, four more balls. Battles happen in less than a minute, 14 minutes. 15 minutes is crazy. Four more balls. That was happening in less than a minute, you guys. Like, it's in and out. Wow. Luckily we survived. I'm like a skee-ball machine over here. Some of them weren't even balls, they were like triangles.

Today's photo number is 22. Like a great white shark. 16. Two. There you go. I think they're eggs. I think he's laying eggs. You know too much.

I want the golden goose. Also, there was some pretty interesting interactions and glances between Vess DeRogna and the martinet. Oh, are they boning? I think he definitely hates her. So, yes. Yeah, they might be hatefucking. I mean, it's a good time, if I do say so.

But that's not the point, my point is. It's just good color. Yeah. It seems like she's running her own show, separate from Ludinus De Martinet. There is friction amongst all of them, it seems like. They are all vying for power for the Assembly, but then within the Assembly,

they are all vying for power. Kind of threw her under the bus by mentioning the job offer that she gave us the other night. Ooh. And the Martinet did not look too stoked. Oh, nice. Nice work.

Just sewing a little, you know, in party fighting. Yeah. So if you look at it right, it was a complete and total victory. Is it normal? I mean, didn't, who was it that said, was it Yussa that said wizards have a hard time working with each other because they're very powerful? Or was that Halas? No, it was Yussa that said wizards have a hard time working with each other because they're very powerful?

Or was that Halas? No, it was Yussa. And ego plays a great part in it as well. Do you think as you get more and more powerful, you'll become egotistical Caleb instead of nice like you are now? Oh no, he's getting more and more warm every day. He's nice?

Of course he's nice. He's very nice. I'm just fucking with you. That's fine. I don't know. I think you should stay like you are. But get incrementally more powerful until you can achieve your goals. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

If we recruited another wizard, would you guys butt heads? Well, you know, Essek and I get along fairly well, I think. That's true. And wizards I've known in the past, we did not butt... Heads.

Butt heads. You butted other things? Are you saying butt heads or butt heads? Yeah. Or bum. Speaking of wizards, I would love your help. I've been working on a new spell. Oh, yes? Yes, and I would love your help at some point. Where are all my alarm bells going off? Tell me more.

No, I just started tinkering with it, so maybe when we have a quiet moment, we can work. I'm curious to hear and to see. Mm-hmm. Oh, that's all I want to talk about now. I mean, yeah, but everyone's here. We have work to do on the ship, so let's tally ho! Yeah. What?

Yeah. I'm going to go keep working on the... I'm going to boast and then go. I'm going to wander off and stop working on the repairs because it's boring. Okay, checks out. I'm going to wander up and sit up in the crow's nest. Okay, there are still pillows

and possibly some blood up there. Woo! Perfect. Yep, yep, yep, most likely. Yeah. Blood, stain, most likely. Yeah. Blood, sand, pillows. Mom, the rest of the day goes on. I want to send a message. Okay, send a message.

The rest of the day continues with Jester. I want to send a message to the messenger that I summoned that's bringing the cupcakes. Oh, that's such a fucking 90 miles an hour. Hey, it's Jester. Did you deliver the cupcakes. Oh, that's such a fucking mess. 90 miles an hour. Hey, it's Jester. Did you deliver the cupcakes? I'm just wondering, because I haven't heard from you, and then I realized we're at the sea,

so you probably can't find me. Okay, so the spell that you cast was... Gotta go fast. Planar Ally, right? Yeah. Planar Ally is right? Yeah. All right. Planar ally is such a fascinating spell. There is no response.

Okay, so they're probably either dead or they did it. I'm going to send a message to the hag. Okay. Hey, it's Jester. I sent you some cupcakes. Did you get them? Oh my gosh, they are black's Jester. I sent you some cupcakes, did you get them? Oh my gosh, they are black moss, just like I promised you. Are you thinking about?

A moment passes before you hear, I did. They were tasty. I feel like I could feel a breath on my neck as she was sending me a message. That's really weird. Could be very bad.

Yeah. Six more messages. Yeah. One last thing. Okay, so. I want to scry on the Traveler. Ooh. Oh shit. Okay. What? Dude.

Just feverish, being there. In the family, I'll just wank in the bank. As you sit down and set up your ritual and begin concentrating on the divine gifts that are granted to you by the Traveler. You beseech him to take your vision to show you the Traveler,

and as you sit there and complete your incantation, all you hear in your ear is, Curious. Oh shit. I wasn't really thinking about that one. No, you were not. Look, okay, here's the thing. That's all you get. Oh!

He just hung up on your ass! I just lay down on the crow's nest and take a nap. Bloody pillows? I'm going to flip them over. The bloody side down. There you go. Unlocked his phone. You see him in purple with the sunburn

when you wake up? Just like that. All right. So the rest of the day progresses, uneventful. To the night, the same preparations are made to rest safely. I'm going to add one more to it, actually. This is something that I have seen before

but I've never tried, but I thought it might help you sleep a little better. I take my staff and concentrate for a second, say a couple words, tap it on the ground, and cast Guardian of Faith, which is this spectral suit of armor with a shield with the emblem of the Earth, of the Mother here, and a giant sword and a crystal

for where the head should be, just a big amethyst crystal. Appears right by your bed. What does that do? Lots of stuff. It'll stay there till the morning, and if anything comes within its very impressive reach, it'll just start dealing with it.

That's very thoughtful. Thank you, Caduceus. Caduceus? You're so distracted by the truth. Your Wild Mother is a... Yeah, I haven't seen this done in quite a while. That's cool. Wild Mother is a... Yeah, I haven't seen this done in quite a while. That's cool. Okay.

Thank you. Just for now, while we're on the boat. All righty. You'll be able to sleep. Oh yeah, that's fine. Let's just stay there. Strange. Hmm. Okay.

So we've got dome, we've got alarm, we've got crystal head, we've got monkey in the rigging. Yeah. Nothing's getting lost. The Jester up in the crow's nest, because I'm still asleep in the crow's nest. Yeah, Jester's the only one who's unprotected. Oh. I go outside. We wouldn't see that.

Yeah, and just look up and look around and check, see if I see her. Yeah, I mean, eventually you discern that Jester's missing from everywhere else in the ship. Hanging out on the side. Yeah, just curling and uncurling. Yeah. Jester.

Jessie, are you asleep? Whoa! Don't roll out of bed! How long was that, What time is it? Ah, Caleb would know. He's not here. But we're getting ready to go to bed. Do you want to go to bed or are you going to stay up there?

Well, I just was sleeping. Oh, you're super awake now? No, I'm still tired. I'm going to calm down and go to bed. Okay. Be careful, it's dark. Don't trip on your tail. Oh, my skin hurts.

You get a sunburn? Ooh, wow, it's weird. You get a little purplish when you get a sunburn. Oh, that's super cute. I mean, it's deadly. You could get sick from that. It's bad for you, right? Yeah. You know, most tieflings can't get sunburns

because of the resistance you fire. Interesting. But they're not. Ooh. Because you're blue and not red? I think it's because of my dad. Mm, water, sweaty. Yeah.

Well, you look good with a little purple. It's nice. Thanks. You look healthy. Oh, thank you. Okay, we should go with a little purple. It's nice. Thanks. You look healthy. Oh, thank you. Okay, we should go to bed. Yeah. Okay. First off, I do have the winner. Oh!

Hey! A little delayed there. The winner is called Saratosh Rahal. Meanwhile, you dream of a winner. It's all me. I had it on airplane mode and figured the text would come through via the internet Wi--Fi, and it did not. But the winner is Lady Lucara.

Lady Lucara, congratulations. We'll get that sent to you. Woo! Thank you, Lucara. Congrats. All right. So coming into the eighth day of your journey, you're not too far from your destination.

The wind is picking up, however, in the morning. It is colder, a bit of marine layer has curled in, but the wind is blowing in your favor, which does help you catch a little bit of ground throughout the day. Unless there's anything else you would want to attempt on this day, we will continue on to the next, as not every day of this journey is eventful. Very well. Good.

Continue on to the ninth day. And on the 10th day, on the horizon, you begin to see a number of small shadows appear. As you grow closer, they are ships. And as you grow closer, it's pretty easy to tell that this here before you is the Kryn Dynasty Armada. About a dozen or so vessels out there,

nearly all made of a familiar purple wood, with gold detailing hoisting gray sails that carry the familiar symbol of the Dynasty. Within a certain radius, you can see the sky suddenly takes a midnight hue. Oh, and bringing a ship with them. As the armada you're with grows closer at a certain point, you fall under this veil

and the sun vanishes. Though it may be, we'll say two o'clock in the afternoon, it becomes pure midnight where you sail. Cool. That's two from... On all sides of us at this point? On all sides of you. I mean, you pass through and eventually

just the sky is enveloped. You hear gasps and whispers throughout the crew. You can see a mirrored formation of ships on their end and begins to break at the front as the Blue Heaven comes to the front line of the armada. On the opposing side, you can see what looks to be a main Kryn ship begin to approach as well.

What was once two almost oval-like armadas, as far as formation goes, break into two triangles, flat end to flat end, as they tend to merge and meet each other in a guarded stalemate of military positioning, the two lead ships coming into contact. You then watch as the lead Kryn ship that is approached, which, let's see here, the past perception here, Caduceus would probably be the one to notice it.

You do not know Undercommon, do you? I do not know Undercommon, no. You recognize that the ship has script on it, but you cannot read it. No idea. But approaches the Blue Heaven, they both drop anchor right against each other as they coast close.

Now with them side to side, plank walkways are set up between the two of them and the stage of the negotiation is being set. How far away are we? You guys are, at this point, probably 800 or so feet back. 800? Mm-hmm. Closing in as the formation begins to tighten.

I speak undercommon? You do. But I don't see anything? You're not quite close enough yet to see the ship. Okay. Captain Dusktooth, cannons are loaded and aimed at the ships. Which ships?

Because they're right next to each other. Yep, both. You're prepared to take out both vessels? If need be, sir. You are excellent at your job. Stand fast. Stay ready. Aye aye, captain.

Oh god, we're going to get him killed. Okay. All right. All right. You can see now, between these two ships, Lord Zedden Graff approaches and begins to meet with Kryn dignitaries on the opposing side,

led on their end by the Dust Captain, who you've recognized previously as the Hand of the Bright Queen. Elite soldiers lead both sides. The Wind of Aeons approaches, but it does not get immediately close. It doesn't need to. You can see the conversations begin to ensue,

and eventually a flag goes up on the mast of each ship, signifying the beginning of these negotiations. Do we have a looking glass on our ship? I have a looking glass. Let's look at what they're doing. Let we have a looking glass on our ship? I have a looking glass. Let's look at what they're doing. Let's have a looking glass. I have a magnifying glass. I can make it even more powerful.

I will burn your retinas strong. In an eclipse, you don't want to do that. I pull it out and I pass it around to everybody, do the binoculars of the stadium thing. Okay, you go. Ory has one as well, so I'll share his. Okay. With that and the proximities you all

are Mermada Titans in, you do recognize the name of the ship that is affixed to the Blue Heaven. It's the Vyn Arathach, which is under common for the Everstorm. The Everstorm? That's cool. That's dope.

Venerabok. At this point, you can see all the ships, the Righteous Brand soldiers are now coming to the decks as a show of power. On the opposite end, you can see Aurora Watch soldiers are coming to the decks as well. There's very much a display of tense might on both sides,

holding the line as the two center ships display of tense might on both sides, holding the line as the two center ships become the core of what is to transpire. Play nice, play nice. How close are we in terms of, is there a rough feet? When the ship comes to a stop, you're about 500 feet from them.

There's no way we can get closer? You could if you want to tell Orly or if the captain wants to push ahead. I think we do. Captain? What do you say? Can we get closer? Should we just slowly circle?

What are the other ships doing? Are they keeping, is there like a... There is a formation. A halo-like distance that they can go? Yeah, they're keeping a distance from the ship and there is a formation. A halo-like distance that's being moved? Yeah, they're keeping a distance from the ship. There is a network. They've all hit a formation around it, which is what your ship is currently maintaining,

is following the formation of one of the ships around. You can break it if you want to. And just for a visual idea, if they're in the middle, are the ships maintaining a clockwork pattern around it? Partially, they're almost two sides. If you're seeing, it is a loop around the two ships in the center. It's two halves of the circle

are where the two armadas came together. And they're stopping, it's not constant movement. Correct. Okay. Yeah, they're all stopping and currently holding their position. No. And how far out are we from their ship? About 500 feet. 500.

Our range, so you know, is about 480, so we would have to pick up and move if we wanted to fire from a distance, but if we move, so will they. We really shouldn't do anything unless we have to. Get me 20 feet closer. Veth, just so you know, if shit goes down,

I want you to pack the good powder. Are we clear? Yes. That is a thing that you can do as the master guy. Packing the good powder. Yep. You remember what that means, right? I feel like I know what it means.

I don't have a job on the ship yet, but I feel like I know what it means. I feel like you should maybe stick with Veth and just, you know, oversee. Pack the good powder? Yeah. Yeah, I'll help you. I'm the powder monkey, though, so what's Yasha? You can teach Yasha what that means.

Co-monkeys? Yep. Co-monkeys? Yep. Cool. All right. Is Falken still a monkey? Is there a trio of monkeys? Yep. Can you actually teach a monkey to be a Powder Monkey, or is that? We'll find out. Mine, you can.

It's like cool Jaeger-ing. I'm watching through the lemon glass while everyone's talking. All right. As you watch, you can see other figures that appear to be members of higher Noble Station joining and flanking the sides of the Dusk Captain.

You can see Ludinus is now joining the right-hand shoulder of Lord Seddon Graff. Oh, Ludinus is there. I'm just letting everyone know. You got it. With my spyglass, of that circle, knowing that they're in the middle, Oh, pack the good powder, it's right here.

Let's say it's o'clock. Are we at three o'clock, six, nine o'clock, or are we on the left or right of that meeting area? If you're looking... If the division line between them is the three o'clock to nine o'clock upper part is the Kryn Dynasty, and we'll say the bottom half is the Empire and the Clovis Concord,

you guys would be at the five o'clock. We are fucking back there, aren't we? Okay. At the nine o'clock and three o'clock positions, can I just check to see what the Dynasty side ships look like they're doing? Can I check their portholes? Can I check their decks?

Are they armed? Are they more for show? They're all armed. I mean, you can see they all have, much like all your ships, the weapons are on display. The gun holes aren't down. There's definitely a, this is a peace talk, but everyone's also making sure that the other side knows that they're ready to defend if anything goes poorly.

Very much this tense, neutral ground with the outside threat of any foul play will attack. Last question. Are there any ships, and just to scan across, knowing that the vision is limited, are there any ships that are empty of crew on top of the deck? Currently, no.

Okay. They all have crew or they all have, almost every deck has soldiers on it, except for yours. Everyone else is a proven Hamada and has a military presence on the deck as well as crew members. Okay. Everything's out for show right now.

Weirdly enough, a figure steps up from below your deck. You see an elven figure with blonde hair. This is Lord Desiren. This is Essek in his illusory form approaches. With us? Yeah. Steps up from below your deck. Why did you get here? I arrived but a few moments ago.

Why do people keep bamfing onto our ship without permission? Well, we do that a lot to other people. You're not wrong, it's fair. It's good to see you. You as well. It is best that I'm nowhere near these negotiations. The Magnet has the Beacon's transference handled.

I'm just here to be watchful. Will they know it's you? Like, will the people on the other side? There are many wards placed around the proximity of this negotiation, I'm certain, so I would not wish to put myself in a precarious situation. I figured this was the safest place to be, if you don't mind. I'll borrow that spyglass for a little bit.

Of course. I'm going to keep an eye. I want to slowly pan through the other ships, not the two main ones, and I just want to look an eye. I want to slowly pan through the other ships, not the two main ones. I just want to look for anything unusual or anybody. Okay. Roll a steps and check for me. Just in general. 21. 21, okay.

Looking around, you can see there are all forms of dexide ballista that are armed but not aimed yet. You can see at the front of some ships, there are figures that appear to be at least magic practitioners on display. Everyone is fully armored and just at the ready. You do not see any funny business at the moment.

No funny business at the moment. No funny business, all right. But everyone is tense, as you'd expect, given the circumstances. All right. May I? Oh, yeah, yeah. I want to see who is standing and representing

for the Empire on their ship. Okay. You see the Dusk Captain is the primary conversant. The two figures to the right and left of her, you do not recognize, but they are both drow. And they're conversing back and forth. You can now see at this point,

soldiers are bringing up, from two opposite sides, looks like large metallic boards, and then you realize they're mirrors. Oh. A mirror placed on one ship and a mirror on the other. Yeah. Upon this center space between the two where this heavy gangplank has been assembled slowly over a period of an hour or so,

there is now an open walkway, like a 20 by 20 foot portion of solid deck between these two ships. And mirrors are placed there along with chairs, and this is where the discussion is to happen. Chairs. Caleb, what form is Frumpkin in right now? He's a monkey.

At this distance, you can begin to see now, the mirrors begin to shimmer, and from the perspective that you have, you cannot quite see the one that's facing away from your ship, but the one that's facing this direction. You gather with a couple of glances and the angle that you're at,

you can see the Bright Queen, her visage appearing on the other mirror. Oh man. I feel like we should be there. I know. Do a few of us need to get closer? We've got water breathing. I don't know if we should.

You've got lots of warts, you know? If we get, yeah, and if we get, if we even rattle that, the whole thing falls apart. Let's just see if it grows on its own. Do not think you are the only ship keeping a very close eye on every other ship on this armada. Plus it's 500 feet, you'd be trapped in the middle.

It'd take you too long to get there, and if something happened, you'd be stuck. You're doing as you will. We can just walk over there. Yeah, you in the water. You could just walk over there. Yeah, that would go well. Hi, I can be invisible. The only part we're really not looking at. They would know that it was not really, you know. Like, they would be able to see you.

They'd probably be able to see. I think the only thing that's not being watched is beneath us, that's it. But I don't know how to remedy that. I think we're here for the show. Yep. By the way, Captain, Yasha reminded me what pack the good powder means, and we're all set.

You reminded Yasha of what the powder means? Yasha reminded me. Oh, okay. So we're all good. Is the good powder packed, Master Gunner? The good powder is packed. Co-Monkey reports a fine packing. Of the good powder. Of the good powder. They have been, each of the wads have been prepped.

Wow. Yeah. What the fuck, Veth? She's a natural. Yeah. She's a killing machine over there. Yasha, do you have extensive experience on the water? No. I do not. She didn't have harp experience, either.

She's just good. She's a fast learner. She picks things up, you know? Yeah, I have experience packing. You do pack. For sure. I've seen you, you're very good at packing. Definitely packing, yeah. She learned how to knit while we've been sailing

in the last three days. Oh, any other languages? Not yet, but we'll see. Shine. Pig common. Pig common. About what time of do, is it? At this point, it's hard to tell.

It is perpetual midnight where you currently stand. But if I remember every hour of the day leading up to this moment. Correct, you're keeping tabs on it. At this point, I'd say as time progresses into the afternoon, these negotiation talks go on for a few hours. Lanterns are lit across the decks of the ships

to give this still, slightly swaying with the waves, almost firefly-light type look across both armadas as they meet on that edge. Just for color, if a sun was in the sky and the Dynasty fleet came forward, does the sun appear in the night sky, but just without light, or does it disappear? Currently looking up,

you can see the outline of where the sun would be, but it appears to look like a very dull moon. That's so cool. I wish I had that. Hey, Essek. I mean, sorry, should I not call you that? In mixed company, I would not be preferred. Yes, please. Hey.

Oh my god. Can you scry on them? I would probably say I would prefer not to. Would they know that you're scrying? They would know they are being scryed upon if they have the right words, which I have to assume they have every sort of word present on this for that reason.

How do we hear? We don't. We trust. This is really boring without knowing what they're saying. Jester. What? Welcome to politics. Oh! I hate politics.

Jester, boring is good, also. Not boring is, with this many people, probably not. That's actually a really good point. The hours progress into what would probably be early evening, and then at a point, people leave their chairs, the mirrors are taken, and it looks like the negotiations for the day have ended.

For the day. There's no signs of completion. There's no movement of any ships. There's been no handoff of beacons or prisoners. We could be here. Not yet. No one said this was a one-day thing. There's only so much food. How long until Traveler Con?

You have somewhere from this point in time, I'd say, my details here, roughly two weeks. Okay, okay, okay, okay, we got it. How far away are we from Rumblecusp? From your current meeting here, you're about a six to nine day journey if you go above the Inkclaw Reef

or about an eight to 10 day journey on the southern side of the Inkclaw Reef. Okay. Six to nine or eight to 10? Yeah. All right. Okay. All right. So you've got over two weeks before it happens. You have time.

We've got a week for this to conclude. Until this runs into that time, but yeah. What? How would you like to send a message to the Bright Queen? Oh my god, I was thinking about doing that. But she's in the middle of a negotiation. No, she just finished, she's not talking.

What should I ask her? Be like, how's it going? How's it going is the first thing to ask, yeah. Does she feel it's going well? Does she trust that it is going to reach completion smoothly? Just an update. Yeah.

I'm sure she totally wants to talk to you. No, she does not, but I think it's a good idea. I'm going to send a message to her. Okay. Sure. Oh, we took a long rest. Mm-hmm. You did the night before. Oh, we took a long rest. Oh, we took a long rest. You did the night before, yeah. Oh, we took a long rest.

Oh, we took a long rest. Okay. You're right. I'm going to send a message to the Bright Queen. Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep. Oh my gosh, I could see you in the mirror. You look so beautiful. What were you guys saying? Did it go well?

Are you happy? I am in the middle of a discussion, but I will respond that things are progressing as expected. Not poorly yet. She thinks they're going decent. Not poorly yet, she says. Okay. I do not think she wants me to send another message to her.

What does Aurelia have to do with this? That's what you're going to do. I don't think she will. We won't push it. Okay. Maybe one day at a time. Should I send a message to King Dwendal and find out what he thinks? Oh my god. How did negotiations fall apart?

We didn't have as good a relationship, I feel. That's true. I think, Vanduul? What about Martinet? Yeah. I'm going to send a message to Martinet. Yeah, yeah, there we go. Yeah.

Hey, so you were there? Oh my gosh, what happened? What did they say? We're just so curious. I really want to know... how. Oh. It seems

things are open to progression in the morrow. The ice has been broken. Nobody's killed each other. I call that a win. He used a good amount of words in the response, and he says it was going really good. Where's Nott Essek?

Is he still on the boat with us? He's still with you guys. He's nervously watching and checking in for your responses and stuff. Nott Essek, are you going to stay on the boat with us tonight? Because you can't go any closer, huh? Are you going to sleep here?

Are you going to sleep on our boat? I can probably handle myself, do not worry. Where are you going to sleep? I could return to my tower. Oh, and then just come here tomorrow? Yes. That's pretty cool. That is pretty cool. Technically speaking, nobody's sleeping

in the captain's quarters. Well, we have our Fort Decoy. That's fair, there is a dummy in there. Oh, yeah, no, never mind. Very strange, but okay. Essek. Ooh, should I tell it? What? Never mind, go to the tower. He doesn't even know

about that yet. It's one problem at a time. We have a lot of irons in the fire. I can only imagine. Hey, when you come here tomorrow, will you bring some pastries? Because you'll be, like, something good. Will you bring us a present?

Make a persuasion check. Something good for you. Oh! Oh! Oh! It looks so good. It looks like I got eight, but you like me, I say, come on. I'll just top it off. Things are a bit tense for me to head to the bakery, but should all things go well, maybe another time.

Nonetheless, I will take my leave for the night. But should all things go well, maybe another time. Nonetheless, I will take my leave for the night. Thank you for not throwing me into the water. You're keeping it together? As well as expected. You're going to Banff in the well? I feel safer being closer to the information. Just not close enough. Yeah, that tracks.

Anyway. Scalpel spell. And he scuffles. This usually works. That'd be really funny. What the fuck was the thing? But he usually walks. That'd be really funny. But he is gone. Damn it!

But yeah, evening's rest comes to you guys. If there's anything you want to discuss, you can. Otherwise, we will continue on for next morning. Go into bed early. Okay. All the protections, all the protections. You got it, same set up. All the same set up. These. Guardians and such. You got it. All the same setup. These guardians and such.

Crystal heads. Crystal heads. This boat has got everything. I'm going to send a message to Essek. Jesus. Okay. You have like assistants. Like send one of your guys out

and then just have them come back and then you can have it in the morning for us. That's good. What a good breakfast that would be. You and the room. Bap. Bless you. I'm trying to sleep, Jester.

There is no bakery open at the moment. My sincerest apologies. Being on the water's lame. Not a lot of seaside bakeries out there floating. Sorry. He's a war criminal, you know. What are we going to do with him? After we fix the war, then we'll punish him.

I don't trust him. Of course not. That's why we'll punish him. Could don't trust him. Of course not. That's why we'll punish him. Could bring baked goods, I agree. Yeah. Maybe if he brings some baked goods, then we will punish him less. One year off his sentence?

Sure. For every piece of food. There's plenty of people in your own nation to be furious at. Sure. Yeah, we should get them, too. What are you talking about? Are you trying to, what are you saying? I'm saying she has a lot of vitriol for Essek,

and that is understandable, but there is just as much fault in our own country. Oh yes, no, I think the order should be punishing everyone in the Empire first, because we're going to become a team of ninjas that just does that for a while. Yeah, and it's not a pissing contest of evil or who's the bigger war criminal.

And then after all of the Empire folks have been punished and killed by us, team of ninjas, then we will punish Jassic, or at least see that he gets some sort of... I don't know, there has to be some sort of, we can't just let it go. Justice. Yeah. I'll add him to the list.

He can be at the end. We will be at the end. We will be at the end. I'm going down. Below decks. Sure, sure. Actually, I leave the deck late. On my own. I'll go to sleep.

Okay. All right. Everyone's going to sleep. The night goes on quietly. The morning comes as dark as it left you. As you all come to consciousness, and the morning comes as dark as it left you, as you all come to consciousness, have your morning meal, as flavorful as it possibly can be with Caduceus's.

I'm going to try and bake. I'm trying to bake. Wake and bake. Okay. Try and bake. Wake and bake. On the ship? Yep.

There's a mess, I'm going to do my best. Okay, go ahead. Go ahead and roll an intelligence check for me. Oh, awesome. Oh no. That's the best, because I'm so intelligent. Come on, let's go. That's a 14.

Oh, that's not bad. Pretty good. Not bad. Good tap. With the sort of spellcraft you have at your disposal, the materials that you've already brought along with you, you manage to pull out some, they're technically baked. What are you making? What are you making? Technically baked.

I'm attempting to make a cake, but a healthy cake. I mean, with what, you know, we're not crazy people. Like a mushroom cake? It's not a mushroom cake. It's more of attempting a truffle cake, but we'll see how it comes together. Okay. I mean, truffles are mushrooms. I know.

I don't know much, I know that. I don't think I have chocolate, so I'm making do. I'm finding what I can and throwing something together. It's going to be okay. This is the, and you succeed in creating what you set out to create. and as you all come to, you are met with the curious smell of something baked on the sea by Caduceus,

for Caduceus, and the rest of you. I try it. Caduceus? Is it good? You feel poison. Sound equipped. Yeah, do I feel poisoned? Do I feel? You do not your veins? Yeah, do I feel poisoned? Do I feel? You do not, you are immune to poison. Well, could I recognize?

It's not poisonous. It's not poisonous. To you. Remember that last of that psychotropic fruit that I've just been holding onto? No! Just kidding. Instant diarrhea. We're all going to find it ourselves.

It's going to be great. It's a bit dry. It's a bit. We're all going to find a mess out. It's going to be great. It's a bit dry. It's a bit crumbly. It's sweet enough that compared to a lot of the rest of the high seas, flavorless food you've gotten used to, it has something to it that is different and unique and a little sweet. Perfect.

Thank you, Caduceus. No problem, I'll get better at this. No, you don't need to. This is the best thing I've ever tasted. I mean, I'm excited to learn. This is good. It's very delicious. Thank you. Requires a lot of water to drink with it, though. Yeah, it's real dry.

The negotiations begin once more. The deck is filled with all the figures. The ships are once again populated with a show of power as the two sides continue conversations. Another hour and a half continues. Essek in his illusory self appears once more on the deck. No. I hope I have not missed anything.

Literally nothing has happened. Well, they've just been talking. A moment passes as you're having this conversation where you see there's a mild flash at the location of this discussion. Oh? Looking glass, looking glass. Everyone's got a look.

You look over and you can see a lot of the ships suddenly grow tense and people begin doing the same, and everyone's looking over, and you see a Lutoness suddenly grow tense and people begin doing the same and everyone's looking over and you see Ludinus opening a chest. Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit. This is it, this is it. You see the beacon is removed from it.

Okay. Just hand it over to Lord Zettingrath, who takes it. I'm so nervous right now. I know, me too. Steps forward and presents it to the Dusk Captain. She steps forward and takes it, and there's a moment where they both hold the handles together,

looking directly into each other's eyes, wordlessly. Lord Graff's expression is smiles, confident, charismatic. The Dusk Captain is cold and reading. Eventually, he lets go. The captain is cold and reading. Eventually, he lets go. She takes two steps back and hands it to one or the other queen at her side,

and they begin to do a thorough investigation of it while she does not break eyes with the Lord Graff. Because you're right there, that's fine. SAM and LAURA, LAURA and SAM, tense moments continue until eventually, it seems they finish their investigation and they begin walking the beacon below the deck of the Everstorm. More conversations continue as they sit back down

in their chairs and the mirrors are having this conversation. Then you watch as two figures are brought in their chairs in the mirrors are having this conversation. Then you watch as two figures are brought to the decks and chains. Those are prisoners. You see one of them, familiar visage of the Tascand, Adin Tathasar. Adin Buzil. Yeah.

Yes. I'd love to see. I'd love to see. Get it right. Get the wrong name right. Coming up on the blue heaven in chains as well, Vence Nuthilius. Two figures are brought to the center. They are both traded off,

the chains given to the other. They are then brought to the opposing ships and brought below deck. Essek, did you ever talk to him? Did you hang out with him? We once knew each other for a while. Does he suck? That is a word, yes.

Okay. He looks like he sucks. How does it feel seeing him in chains and not you? Honestly? Thring. Looks like things are going well. You hear a horn go off. SAM and LAURA, ALL AROUND

SAM and LAURA, ALL AROUND It's heavy thing. Is it? That's it? Sure. It's all about growth. It's low guttural, yeah. I hate you all so much. It'll pass, man.

Just give us two minutes, it'll pass. Yeah. That was a good one, though. Guys, I don't want to fight a fucking sea dragon. Okay. No, no, no, no! Okay. Oh!

Oh no! So. As the horn blares, everyone stands to attention at the edge of the boat decks. You watch as the initial flags that were placed at the beginning of this negotiation that signified its start come down and are replaced with new flags. These, you can see, hold a deep blue color.

And on a political, nautical standpoint, you're told by Orly as he looks over and turns back, Hmm, seems it all's gone well. That's right. We came to a close. You can see a skiff's beginning to make their way away from the Blue Heaven, and people on those ships are shouting up to Dex as they pass by.

You can see the mirrors brought away and below Dex, and that platform between the two ships is being deconstructed. As the skiff comes closer, you can hear the voice shouting out, Negotiations have completed, and King Dwendal has declared the war come to a close. All Armada ships are returned to Nicodranas. Guest vessels are free to disembark

and travel as they please. Thank you. Do we tip? I don't think we tip. We wait. Waiting and watching still. Time passes as the remnants of that platform are finally disassembled.

The anchors are pulled up, remnants of that platform are finally disassembled. The anchors are pulled up, and you can see the two tense groups on each deck just looking towards each other. Give a tense nod. The horns blast once more, and the armadas begin to break and separate to their sides. The sails begin to unfurl once more and pick up the wind.

And it seems the negotiations are over. That's it, huh? War's over? No. I figured there would be some sort of fireworks or something to signify, but I guess that's it. No. Figured there would be some sort of fireworks or something to signify, but I guess that's it. Hey, guys, we did it!

We won! Yeah. Good job. Doesn't really feel that way, though, does it? I really expect it. Then to fight? Yeah. Something to go wrong at the last minute, with our luck.

Well. Yeah. Sometimes, no matter how hard everybody tries, everything quiets down for a while. Outwardly, at least. For a moment. People won't get hurt. Do you think it'll really end? Nothing like this ends, it just calms down.

I think this will help pull eyes away from what's ever next. Tense endeavor endeavor both sides is attempting to beat the other towards. The war may have come to a close, but their business continues on. It has for a long time.

Where will you go now? Well, I have to take care of a few loose ends and ensure that all of this can be laid to rest. What are their names? It's not their names. They're not people. They just have some business to tend to.

And then, maybe I could take a breath for the first time in months. And if you're interested, we could still do good things together. Very interested. Yeah. Just, you know, send a message. Yeah, I think we need to let this settle. That we do. Just hope everyone travels home safe.

Well, we're heading to a volcano soon. What does that mean? What did that mean? Insight check. Insight check. Make an insight check, go for it. He's made of chairs. Chairs all the way through. Just rub, rub, rub, rub, watch it.

Hooper, Ben, 18? 18. Oh, 18 whisper, it's like a half whisper. Just a half-burp. He's made of chairs. Guys, that's your hands. Oh, is he a whisperer? It's like a half whisperer. He's a half-er. He's made of chairs. Guys, wash your hands. Wash your hands as often as you can. Remember to cover your mouth if you sneeze.

I've been so bad about that. Cover your nose if you sneeze. Try to avoid handshaking and hugging. Gotta do the elbow sneeze. Or any personal contact that's unneeded or necessary. Don't enjoy each other's company. No fun. That'll do.

If you have a wife or a loved one or a husband, or don't kiss them or touch them in any way. No, that's not what I mean. That's what they recommend. They were all red. You cut them out of your life. Don't do any of that. Whenever you finish what you're doing,

just let me know. We can talk in a more safe environment about the Tangled Web that all of these people have built. These people? These people. It seems like you've spun out a thread or two yourself, I see. Yep, a little humdinger you did. I do not exclude myself from these statements.

Well, we have our peace, so happy days. Hmm. Happy days. Hmm. Happy days. Until then. Send cupcakes. I'll leave it. Fuck. No.

Oh shit, I have some cupcakes. We should eat them before they go bad. You've had them for weeks now. Well, just a week. I mean, if they're cupcakes. I think they're probably already bad. That's okay. I've had them for a week.

We'll still eat them. They're preservatives in your cupcakes. If you heat them up a little, they still taste good for a few minutes. Do they look good? Do they look like they're not moldy yet? Weak old, non-preservative cupcakes. If you heat them up a little, they still taste good for a few minutes. Do they look good? Do they look like they're not moldy yet? Weak old, non-preservative cupcakes. That's not weak old in a bag of whole.

We can heat them up. It's a fantasy world. Rules still apply. They look quite stale. Okay. And starting to show a little bit of white dust on the edges. You can cut it off.

White dust? I know of white dust on the edges. You can cut it off. Yeah, you can cut it off. I know that white dust. Can I or can't I? Yep, it's on the cusp. You can cut away and go for it. Yeah, I'm going to cut just around the dust. It's very dry, very stale, but functionally edible. I cast Decompose on the chunk with the dust.

It is immediately covered with red eyes. That's really cool. Yeah. You just want that? Oh! There you go. I'm going to keep trying until I get it. I believe in you, Ashley. Thank you.

Wow. That was like, I didn't expect it to really happen. What do we do now? Like, if we just go to the Traveler? Go to a volcano and party till we're, drink our faces off. Yeah, we got to make sure it's, you know, clear the area, make sure it's secure, you know.

Yeah, we waited a day. Assign the landing area. Prep. I mean, can we even see any of the ships anymore? Yeah, are they all there? What are we doing? Yeah, are they all sailing away, or are they gone out they gone over the horizon?

What is the occasion? They're leaving. I mean, I think we ended war amongst our people. Maybe, for the time being. Maybe. Do I need an occasion to hug you? No. No.

Oh, you're going in again. Do it again. Yeah, with this one, I want him to reciprocate, though. He's not reciprocating. Look at him, he's going to do it, he's going to do it! It's awkward. Put that arm around her. Give her a big hug. It's a Voldemort hug.

Ooh, it's sort of okay. It's like when he dances. He doesn't look like he's frowning quite as much. I just hope it sticks. Yeah, me too. All the coronavirus that you just spread between the two of you? We've been doing that for a week and a half.

Oh! Purell your faces! Oh, I can hear the stubble grinding the flesh off of you. My grandpa used to do that to me as a joke. Burn the Marisha off of me. Careful, fire topping. All righty.

Tusktooth, are we setting sail for the volcano? I believe so. I mean, time is on our side. We don't know what the weather will be. Master gunner, I believe, if we want to enjoy this voyage. Agony! I think north of the Inklau Reef

is probably the fastest way. Is it more dangerous to go that way or something? Or is there any advantage to going to the south side of the Uruk-Azul area? Hmm. As far as I understand, the only real benefit is avoiding main sailing lanes.

Mm-hmm. Maybe trying to not stick so close to dangerous coastal denizens, but we are armed. That's true, and we do need a little bit of excitement after that political soiree. Take us south of Uruk-Azul and of the Inklaw Reef, and let's make our way towards Rumblecusp.

Make our way towards Rumblecusp. Make our way towards Rumblecusp! Wow, wow, right in my ear. The captain has declared we are going south. Wow. Rumblecusp! Why is there a ghost? Wilmot. Aye, aye, aye. Drop the cells!

Captain has too, has declared. I can see Marius LaPaw doing this. Fuck you, Marius! Nuh-butt! Pulling up the anchor. That's not a big dipper. The sails pick up the wind and begin heading southward from the meeting location.

You watch as the midnight begins to subside as it travels with the armada. Cool. And the bright noonday sun blares down upon you. Takes a moment to adjust, but the warmth is welcome. Why wouldn't they just, you know? I mean, do you think they just teleported away with the beacon, went straight back home?

They wouldn't take it on the ship, right? Well, I don't think so. That would be dumb. They would be risking it at sea. As the armada between the joined interests of the Dwendalian Empire and Menagerie Coast make their way westward, you break away from both factions as you see them vanish on the horizon, along with the southern tip of the continent of Wildemount.

You can just barely see westward, elements of the island of Uruquesil, this distant little bump. And you continue southward for the day, for a second day, for a third day, making your way around the southern edge of the Inkclaw Reef, making sure, carefully, with the aid of Orly

and the map that you have there, to avoid any of the dangerous elements of the reef's tops. You can see there are areas where it breaks the surface, and you use those to guide yourself and not get too close to what would be a very damaging experience across the razor-like reef. It's about the fourth day or so that, who's keeping a watch on this one? I usually do.

Okay, make a perception check for me. All right. Yeah, 21. 21, okay. The fourth day or so of traveling here as you're crossing around the reef and starting to head upward in a northern swing towards Rumblecusp, that you, keeping a watch towards

where the back of the ship is, you can see there's a small, looks almost like a piece of land that's breaching the surface of the water. You're like, oh, it's a small part of the reef behind, but it's keeping pace. Oh, son of a bitch. Captain, we're being followed by a tiny island.

I'm sorry, could you say that again? Sam, we're being followed by a tiny island. I'm sorry, could you say that again? Sam, we're being followed by a tiny island. Would I have any recollection of anything like this? I go back and look at it. Okay, you can see it now that Caduceus points it out. Tiny island. Yeah, it's moving. Yeah, think about it. Have I heard any stories about moving tiny islands?

How far away? Make a tiny island, Shaggy. Yes, exactly. You're proficient in that, right? I would say go ahead and make a history check with disadvantage. With disadvantage. Fjord, you can make a history check. Okay. Okay.

Two 20s, two 20s. What the heck? Five-year anniversary luck. Cocked, one is cocked. Oh, one is cocked. Oh, one's real good, though. One's really good. Oh, it was a two, and then you rolled a two again! A two and a 19. 19.

Both got 19. Okay, well. Yours was a disadvantage. Mine was a disadvantage, so 10 total for me. Okay. Nothing comes to mind, and you both watch as this tiny island is gaining. How close? And the water around it is starting to rise as it cuts a swath through the waters.

As you look over and you're called to the edge and you glance over and you can see it, and you've heard tales of certain entities, of various types that are spoken of in mythology, people that traverse the waters of the city and ocean and seas beyond. This looks indeed like an island, but just below the surface, you can see the limbs pushing through the waves.

As it continues to grow closer and closer and you meet these thoughts, these myths, these tales that you've heard across the Lucidian Ocean and the Suvane Islands. You see the snout rise, pointed, the nostrils flare. Oh! As you realize you are being chased by a dragon turtle.

No! No! Can you see? And that's where we're going to finish the episode. I just met somebody in Chicago No! Have you seen one of the? And that's where we're going to finish the episode. I just met somebody in Chicago that's like the monster I want to see and not see at all. Oh no!

This is going to go great. A dragon turtle? Have you seen a picture of a dragon turtle? I'll show you. Giant. Let me see, Matt and Josh. It's iconic. Dragon turtles.

It's iconic. What it sounds like. Is it a dragon or is it a turtle? Yes. Yes. It is awful. We are fucked. And they're like house people. They're big. What? You guys are fine.

Inside of it? On it. Dragon turtle. Oh, it's like an island. It's an island. Yeah, yeah, if the island is the tip of the iceberg. There it is. Oh! Yeah!

Yeah, I love it. That's a fun one. That's a big turtle. Maybe we can befriend him. I love you. On the five-year anniversary, I feel like this was a gift. You say that now, wait till next week.

If we would have not fucked around so much, we would have fought that today, potentially. There's nothing that we didn't fuck around. We didn't fuck around. We didn't fuck around at all. We just watched. I tried to scry on my traveler. If we went north of the Urufei,

it would have been normal. You wouldn't have come across this, though. I mean, yeah, I was a perfectly reasonable amount. No regerts. No regerts. No regerts. We'll pick up from there next week. But from there, happy five-year anniversary.

Yay! Oh my god. We love y'all. My legs can't stop moving. Oh my god. This is insane. Yay! Freeze frame. Jeez! Tenuous peace has been found, and nobody fucked it up, and I'm really proud of you guys.

Look at that. We're the best. You've set some right pieces in motion. I was waiting for boats to go like this. Mushroom cloud! Oh yeah, of course. Of course. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Of course. And for both sides to be like, oh! Oh, fuck! Based on a lot of decisions and things that had happened in the past, everything was coming to this moment, and it seemed to go okay. Wow.

Wow. We are the best at D&D. Go! Go team! So. Woo! Oh, I got all of you. With that, we'll see you guys next week. Thank you for coming with us for these crazy five years. Super excited to see where it goes from here. Take care of yourselves, take care of each other, be safe.

Do your research, wash your hands, all the stuff you know. Wash your hands. Wash your hands. We're going to get through this together, guys. Wash your stubbly face. Gross. We love you very much, and is it Thursday yet?

Good night, guys. Oh my god. Thank you so much for joining us on this adventure. To help new listeners discover the show, please give us a rating and review on whatever podcasting app you're listening on. Until next time, is it Thursday yet?