Critical Role - C3E14 In Too Deep

Episode Date: February 24, 2022

The ball takes several unexpected twists and turns when dancing shifts to fighting and fighting shifts to fleeing...Due to the improv nature of Critical Role and other RPG content on our channels, some themes and situations that occur in-game may be difficult for some to handle. If certain episodes or scenes become uncomfortable, we strongly suggest taking a break or skipping that particular episode. Your health and well-being is important to us and Psycom has a great list of international mental health resources, in case it’s useful: http://bit.ly/PsycomResourcesWatch Critical Role live Thursdays at 7pm PT on https://twitch.tv/criticalrole and https://youtube.com/criticalrole. To join our live and moderated community chat, watch the broadcast on our Twitch channel.

Hello, bees! This is Laura Bailey, here to welcome you to the Critical Role podcast. If you'd like to tune into the show as it airs, you can watch Critical Role Thursdays at 7 p.m. Pacific on twitch.tv slash criticalrole and youtube.com slash criticalrole. Our lovely Twitch subscribers can view the episode on demand right away. Or you can find it on YouTube, Mondays at 12pm Pacific. And of course, for all you fantastic podcast listeners, Critical Role episodes hit feeds on Thursday mornings, a week after the episode first airs. With all that said, let's get into another episode of Critical Role. Hello, everybody, and welcome to tonight's episode of Critical Role,

where a bunch of us nerdy-ass voice actors sit around and play Dungeons & Dragons. We're the Dungeons & Dragons! We, wow, we... Got a lot of energy, man. Yeah, apparently! Oh my god! Yeah, we got some announcements to get through before we jump into tonight's game. Beginning with our first monster of the night.

Skillshare, Sam. This is your fault. it's your fault. Y'all came in with weird energy and you done fucked me up. I am non-functional. Skillshare, Sam, fucking go! This episode is sponsored by our friends at Skillshare, an online learning community with thousands of inspiring classes for creative and curious people.

Skillshare offers classes designed for real life and all the circumstances that come with it, including graphic design, creative writing, music, and I found out recently dozens of courses on, this is true, artificial intelligence and machine learning, which I found fascinating, so much so that I took a class, fed a bunch of my old commercial bits into a computer, and programmed an AI to write tonight's ad copy.

Already starting good. So what you're about to hear was written by a machine, I've never seen it before, and it's based on what a computer thinks my ads sound like. So here goes. Hey, Matt and the gang, is it Thursday already? Cute. It's me, Sam, with another advertising

commercial ad experience. Okay, you know, the AI made a little verbal mess up, but so far pretty good. There's more. No one truly loves me. My life lacks purpose and I fail to connect with those around me on a deeper authentic level. Sure, they say I'm a valued friend, but there's a part of me that doesn't believe them.

That's why I make an ass of myself in front of thousands of people every week. It's me convincing myself that I don't care about the constant echoes of rejection in my lonesome, hollow life. Well, that got pretty heavy pretty fast. Sorry, guys. I thought this was going to be like

a weird computer writing thing, but it took kind of a dark turn. Well, that got pretty heavy pretty fast. Sorry, guys. I thought this was going to be a weird computer writing thing, but it took a dark turn. We can just wrap it up there. I don't know. Keep going. I like this. Really? Is it funny? Is it funny, though?

Well, Sam, I actually think that this might be good for you to hear. Oh. Yeah. Okay. Why else would I eat disgusting food, dress up like a cat, or pinch clothespins to my face if I wasn't begging the world and myself to notice that deep down I don't believe I matter?

Wow, this is not what I thought the AI was going to do. I thought it was going to make some silly mistakes and word things, like call the show Chronicle Roll or something, but this is. Sam, it's okay. We're here for you. We all are. Finish the ad, Sam.

It's important. Oh. Okay, I'll read the rest. The truth is, every laugh I earn is one fleeting moment of freedom from myself. One extraordinary second to breathe when the crushing weight of existence is lifted from the mantle of my being.

And for a heartbeat, an insubstantial fraud like myself can pretend to feel alive. Back to you, Mark. Mark! Ha ha, see, it made a mistake! Stupid AI thinks Matt's name is Mark. What a dumb computer, so ridiculous. Right?

Anyway, with membership starting as low as $10 a month with an annual subscription, Skillshare is a great way to learn and explore classes to unlock your creativity for social good. And as a special offer for our audience, the first thousand critters to join Skills Share by following the link skl.sh slash critical role 01221, holy shit, will get a free trial of a premium membership.

Go check out Skills Share for yourself now and thanks to them for continuing to support the show. Mark, back to you. I get it, because it was a... Wow. Thank you, Sam. And thank you, Sam. Why? Oh.

This episode is sponsored by our friends at Ghostfire Gaming and their new campaign in partnership with Eldermancy, Sunken Isles. Sunken Isles is a unique adventure that allows the party to choose between two or more adventures every week. Each choice will leave players with either a reward or a consequence.

The adventure begins with the introduction of a volcanic spirit, an undead dwarven king, a bloated pirate captain, an ancient being, and the roaming creator of the Isles. Each of these forces immediately sets out with their own plans and it's up to the party to forge new alliances to fight back against their armies. Check everything out now at sunkenisles.com

and thank you so much for supporting the show. Woo! You okay, Zan? How you doing? Should I not be? Laura, we got some merch talking about the way. Oh, it's fun to tease me about my problems. Oh my god! Tameal, everybody. Laura, take it away!

We got merch! Check it out, we have Vex and Veth, no. Nope. Check. Jesus, Laura. Nope. Shit. Jesus, Laura. Aw. Vex and Vethnet Gators. It's a rogue kit, y'all. Yes!

Hello, gators! I'm hooking it up. Who wants to wear a black one? Me! Here you go. Well, okay. Wow. Well done.

Well done. Put them on. Wow. Or do I need to show you how to? No, I think it's like this. Yes. And then, it's cool, it's got a drawstring. All the art is by Grace Berrios.

So cool, and it's got a little noseband that you can tighten on your nose. And you can tighten it. Yeah, sweet, huh? On the playa, you can't see me anymore. And if you don't pull it up, it just makes a really cute little scarf. Oh my god, it has a nose thing in it?

Yeah. And then pull it down, and look how just fly you look. Oh, that's cool. Yeah. Pretty white. Anyway. We also have, oh, we also have an Essek chibi pin! Aww!

My boy! Art by Jenny Parv. I want to pull this out, because I know you want to wear this, Liam. Yes. You didn't pre-open it, though, right? No, of course I didn't. Why would I do that? Look at him, he's so cute!

Aw, buddy. That's in our store. We also have... These are Mighty Nein. Oh! Wyrmwood dice trays are by William Kirby. Look at, look at, they're so pretty. These are stunning in person.

They feel beautiful. Wait, I want that one. Yeah. Does me? Does my baby? This is all by Ten Nights. You got to see this, it's so cool. And they've got these little things on the back so you can hang them on your wall because they're art. That is brilliant.

Check it out. They're available now at wormwoodgaming.com. Tell us time and you can remove it from the wall. Are we having a bug feast? They're so cute. Is that a bug feast? Probably. I didn't say that. We're having a hamster spiritual weapon.

Yeah. That's pretty adorable. Oh, well, good. Thank you, Laura. Of course. You're welcome. Travis! Huh? Spiritual weapon. Yeah. That's pretty adorable. Oh, well, good. Thank you, Laura. Of course. Welcome. Travis! Huh? Oh! Guys, episodes one through nine

of The Legend of Vox Machina are available right now on Prime Video! This is it. We're coming up on the last weekend, the finale. The last three episodes of season one release at 12 a.m. Pacific on February 18th, which is midnight tonight! Oh!

Oh man, we are so deep in Percy's backstory. It's going down. Just deflates at the end, though. Yeah! We didn't at all build the show, so it just ramped up to the very end. Yeah, nothing like letting the air out of the ends. The final watch party is this Tuesday. Very seen elsewhere.

February 22nd at 7 p.m. Pacific on our Twitch channel. Join us, watch the show. We can't wait! Thanks, Travis. Let's go, Mr. Fake! Awesome. I was teasing. When I watched those last three episodes, I was shocked Pikachu through all three. Yeah.

I was shocked. Yeah, we're coming for you with the last three. It's going to be fun. Shocked if anyone gets the seen elsewhere joke, but yeah. I was shocked. Yeah, we're coming for you with the last three. It's going to be fun. I'd be shocked if anyone gets the same elsewhere joke. But yeah. I did. I felt, we're old. I know, we're old. I know. Thank you all very much for the fun times,

laughter, and the existential crises. But I believe that concludes our announcements. So let's go ahead and jump into tonight's episode of Critical Role. Critical. Critical. It's Thursday night. One by one we climb until we reach the top. Two by two we fall.

Will we meet our end or meet our destiny? Hold your breath and roll. Bye. There is magic and mystery Who knows what will happen He might But one thing's for sure We never give up on the fight From the healer To the renegade We all share the same goal Adding more allies

Taking more chances Hold your breath and roll You can certainly try It's Thursday night All ye Critters come join us It's time to continue our flight There is magic and mystery From darkness our friendship will rise

But one thing's for sure We never give up on the fight Oh, get ready It's Thursday night Bye! And welcome back. So last we left off, a group of heroes under the watch and patronage of Lord Eshteross have been dragged into a masquerade ball, The watch and patronage of Lord Eshteross have been dragged into a masquerade ball being held by the mysterious Chandei Quorum,

of which the intent was to both discover, if possible, any membership to the Quorum, which is maintained as anonymous, as well as place an enchanted ring, a replica of an enchanted ring, onto the thumb of Lord Armand Treshi. You bought outfits, you presented yourselves to this event

and arrived to where there were drinks and music and many, many upper crust individuals in the society here, rubbing shoulders, making deals, making snide comments and rumors. And in the midst of this delightfully chaotic social environment, the Dance of the Crossroads began, in which you began to attempt to make this endeavor viable.

Through your quick wit and eventual... Through your dedication to the goal at hand. Yes! Trying to talk you guys up here. You eventually manage to achieve the baseline of your goal. The bare minimum required of you. D-minus is still a passing grade. But the evening is not finished, as it is only partway through.

After this ring was placed upon his thumb, the dance come to a conclusion. The machinations of other things transpiring seemed to have been followed by Chetney, who wandered out to discover that Cyrus, the brother of Dorian, was in attendance to the party, seemingly with his own ideas, and had wandered off into further down the left hallways,

deeper into the chambers beyond. Upon searching for him, you also discovered that another figure that you had just met that evening seemed to have some communications with Cyrus and Lord Armand Treshi, known as Lady Imoth Kaed, had gone off to the side, looking a bit odd, a bit out of sorts,

a bit ill in some ways, had been doing some sort of a burglary of her own in one of these chambers, and seemed to be in league with some of these shade creepers that you had encountered in previous moments, not but a week or so before. While this is happening, Ashton, who had created a mask in the image

of the Nightmare King, Eirendigoth, seemed to draw the attention of Lord Amon Treshi, who had some dealings in secret with the Nightmare King, who then notified the captain of the Paragon's Call that are present at this event. This General Ratanish approached you, asking questions, and pulled the mask off your face, in which you responded by slapping him square in the middle of this event.

I was physical assault, that's all I'm saying. He slapped back? I went first. I know. I'm making no judgment of that one way or the other, but nevertheless, it is now seeming to lead to a duel, a fisticuffs throwdown on the outside of this event in which the hustle and bustle of the chamber has now shifted from their own political attempts at making deals,

and now enthrallment with the coming violence that is drawing its way to the outside of the chamber. As the rest of you are gathered, and I believe you've returned at this point? I think I made it back out into the middle chamber after the second journey into the room and back out. Gotcha. Or did we end on you seeing what had happened?

We definitely saw that. I can't remember if I made my way back into the main room or not. Well, regardless. While you look into your notes for that, the crowd abuzz with conversation, excitement, claps, murmurs, begin to shift to the outside under the stars, just upon the grassened landscape

on the exterior of the Chandei Quorum chambers. There you can see amongst the glowing pedestals with nightlights and the various carriages and carts and sill goats that have brought individuals up through the entire evening, that are placed off to the side at rest, there is an open space here. The crowd seems to already be aware

is a common dueling ground when events like this transpire and people come to a disagreement. The crab begins to shift and encircle the space as you feel this is where it's going to happen. How do you prepare in advance? I know some of you had done a little bit of, like you had went ahead and... What did I do?

I don't remember what you did. I don't remember what I did. Did I bind with him? Yeah, I think you just bound with him as you were all making your path towards where the showdown was about to happen. All right, I'll go and you go. I was staying inside.

Gotcha. Away from the ground. Okay. And I stayed close and was at the front of the ring around them so that I could be there if it came to worst. I'm going to go outside as well. Okay. I just going to go outside as well. Okay. I just also gave him that definitely very small saber that fit right into the pocket of his jacket.

I've already dropped the jacket. Oh. I am sleeveless. I'm in that nice vest. Yeah, I need some room to move. This is a fist fight, by the way. I believe we agreed this is a fist fight. You agreed it was a fist fight.

Mm-hmm. Holy fuck, Dom. He said that. Laudna, we're about to you. I'll also stay inside for the moment. Okay, Dorian? I'm following the crew out to watch. Okay.

Is Lord Eshteross around, or? Lord Eshteross is around and staying close to them. You can see, especially in an environment that involves unexpected change, he's very nervously glancing about the space and staying near his guard. But as the circle begins to almost close, it comes to more of a semicircle with the stone roadway

that curls around the front of the complex where everyone was dropped off for the event, still leads outward. There is a crescent-shaped crowd around where the center of this grass-covered small hill is, where you can see General Ratanish, the half-giant brute, step up there and shrug off parts of his

hide and fur armor with bits of metal. As he pulls the edge off his shoulders and throws it to the ground with a heavy. You see he flexes and starts throwing some punches to the air and cracks his fingers, and his eyes don't leave being locked on you as he steps up to the center of that space. Anybody around got a drink?

In the crowd? You see an older woman comes forward with what looks to be a flute of some sort of a bubbly drink. I think I need that more than you do. Thank you, thank you. Good luck. Thank you. He you. Good luck. Thank you. He's going to die.

Turn back around and feel the warmth beginning to burn in your stomach. There at the top, you see now, sufficiently stretched at least, and arms at the side, looking at you expectantly, General Rotanish gives you a glance and a beckoning hand signal as he goes, Very well.

I'll let you through the first punch. Okay, just to be clear, since... If I win, do I get my mask back? Sure. Awesome. Wow, fuck initiative, I suppose. No, throw first punch. Sure. Just leans forward.

I headbutt. I'm going to rage and headbutt. Okay. Ugh. We're breaking the rules. I haven't thrown a punch yet. So as you feel that burst of energy hit you, go ahead and roll your d4. Come on, come on, come on, come on, don't fight.

Fuck. Mm. What is it? It's useless, so ain't got nothing. Uno? Two. Yeah, space. Ain't got nothing.

Could always unrage and rage again. May happen. But go ahead and make your attack roll as he stands there at the front, head forward, arms to the side, seemingly ready to take the brunt of whatever you throw at him, as you suddenly glance at him and then move forward.

All right, I figure that's respectful. Do I want to? I'll start simple. Whoa! By throwing it off the table. It's good, it's good. Ominous, ominous. I can read it. No. Should I roll it again, or? Unless it was a 20. It's good, it's a good moment. Ominous, ominous. I can read it. No.

Should I roll it again, or? Unless it was a 20. It was not a 20. Okay. Roll on the table. If it rolls off the table, I usually don't count it. Oh, okay, that's better anyway. 25? Oh wow. 25 hits.

So you do? Seven points of damage. Seven points of damage. A-wrack! The resounding impact and the sound of bone and cartilage impacting immediately causes this brief in the air as you take the first hit.

He watches General Rattan and. I get a second attack now. If you want to take a second one, yeah. I want to take a second attack. Fuck yeah, you do. Just a good ear boxing as I back off. Go for it. Oh yeah, let's go.

That's an 18. 18 hits, yeah. Seven more points. Wow. After he reacts for a second, he comes back with a bit of a grin. You can see the blood already going to pour from the nose as the sides of the head get hit.

He puts his arms up to try and block it, but you're just a little bit too quick. Whack on the sides, he's like, now roll initiative. Yeah! That's 14 free points, baby. We take those free gifts. Yes, we do. Ask him to fuck your rolls.

That's a punch. That's a punch. 16. You got 16 as well. What's your dexterity? My dex is 16. Rollies! Rollies! 16, you do go first. Ah! Come on. Rollies.

I was excited Vav was going to play Rollies. All right. I am beyond Rollies. You do not Rollies. I am Rollies. You are Rollies? He is the one. You do not roll a lead. You are a lead. You are a lead? Sh, sh, sh, sh, sh. Whoa! He is the one. So yeah.

I'm going to give a little spin, see if I can get an elbow right below the ribs. Go for it. That's another... 27 to hit. I should just probably make a point. 27 to hit? I rolled an 18 plus seven. Plus seven. 25.

25, excuse me. Brain is a little broken. He's a saint. Because I'm actually nervous. So yeah, you were going for the elbow to the side? Elbow right underneath the ribs. All right, so after boxing the side, you squirrel underneath and crack right in the side.

It hits, but it's just hitting a wall of dense muscle. You get the impact and you know, you can feel the chest compress from the pain, but he's just taking it with stride. All right. Unless you're made of stone. Well. Or stone. Stone adjacent. I'm going to, since this is my turn,

I'm going to use my bonus action to, I'm going to drop rage and use my bonus action to rage again. Okay. That's just making. Do you take an exhaustion point? How does that work? No, just rage. I think.

Oh, you just get multiple rages per day. A certain number. Over again. Okay. Yes! Okay, that's good. We would never tell what the action is. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. It's good, though, it's good.

It's an initiative, I think so. DNA. These pages, the pages are blank. These just take them out. So what did they notice about you initially in this fight, and then what transitions? It was just like, for a second, my head seemed to get less there.

There was almost a transparency underneath the glass in my head wound. I don't know if it would've even been caught. It was super fast. Now there's just a little sparks of colored electricity dancing around a bit in there. It's just got a little, one of those little Christmas toys that you spark up.

You got it. Just a little bit. All right, you have one more attack. I do. So I'm going to try and pop up and hit him in the chin. And this is now mine. Thank god.

Eight, nine, 10, 11, 15 to hit. 15 to just hit. Okay! Good to know! Mark it down, 15's a magic number. That's another... Seven points of damage? That's another seven points of damage.

All right. And so where's that hit going? That's going to the chin. To the chin, so after you turn around and smack the elbow to the side of the chest, then you turn around and whack right up to the side of the face. You hear this cracking sound as his teeth

impact against his own teeth, the jaw forced to clench, and in the crowd, you hear, Ooh, ah, around. You hurt to hit. Wow. Now that we're awake, it's my turn. Now that we're awake.

He's going to rage. Asante! Ah! Arrache! All right. And as soon as you watch him, you just go, he goes from this calm and collected state to this square jaw clenching

where the blood is now in the teeth from the impacts that you've given him. And the blood almost seems to bubble a bit at the edge, the corners of his mouth. The air around you in this cold night seems to almost suddenly warm up. Oh fuck. He's going to make two strikes towards you.

That is going to be a 16 to hit? 16 is my AC. And a 20 to hit. No, that doesn't. Okay. Oh, here doesn't. Okay. Yeah. I don't know. I think it is. Oh, here we go.

Oh, he gets to roll? He does. Oh, fucker. So that is going to be eight points of bludgeoning damage. Reduced to four. As he rushes towards you and grabs the back of your head and just slams into his knee.

Just crack, almost Muay Thai style. With that, he's going to spin around with a back fist. It comes with an extreme speed towards you for nine points of lightning damage, reduced to four. All right. This guy's a big fella, and you can see now, after the impact hits you, your eyes go wide for a second, and the crowd goes, oh!

Some whispering, and you can see now, members of the Paragon's Call are beginning to move in the crowd and keep a boundary there. They're also like, come on, come on, cheering him on from the side. Other people start whispering around the space. New round, your round. You got those first four without any rage.

I'm... Fuck it, let's make a reckless attack. Go for it. Let's see what happens. First four. That hits. It's 18 plus seven, so that hits. That definitely hits. Seven points of damage. All right, you got it.

Two. Two definitely hits. Seven points of damage. All right, you got it. Reduced to three. Let's go. Yeah, that also hits. Seven more points of damage. Reduced to three. So how do these hits come at him? So still getting my bearings

after the pretty impressive hit. I go in for another headbutt and don't actually go for it, just go for a straight jaw punch, connect, just go for the same thing again, it's just two nice big hits. Two rep in the same space. The one actually gets a square hit. The second one, he puts up his arm to defend.

You glance off and still catch the jaw, but it reduces the weight of the impact and he grabs your wrist in a reaction to that. Now he has you there for his round. He immediately comes in. That is going to be another 16 to hit and a 24 to hit. Ooh!

This guy's good. That's another eight points of bludgeoning damage and nine points of bludgeoning damage, so four and four. As he grabs your wrist and then brings his arm up and pops where the elbow is in the arm, if not for your tensing of your muscles and pulling away, he may have broken your arm, but you just manage to take the hit.

You pull your arm back, and as you do, you pull him towards you, and he headbutts you in reaction. Everything goes white for a second. And as you pull away, you notice where the headbutt was. There's a flash of flame and you take three points of fire damage. The air around you is significantly warm. For a middle of the night, cold sensation,

it's almost like you're standing in the middle of a hot desert, oddly. And that hit left a singe mark on your face. the night, cold sensation. It's almost like you're standing in the middle of a hot desert, oddly. And that hit left a singe mark on your face. Mm-mm. Oh no. What the shit? He just starts grinning at you. Your turn. What the shit?

Ah! I'll hold off on Reckless now that I know he's got a little bit of that. I want to see how much more of that there is. All right. It's up to you. Just give us an advantage every time when he attacks you, too. I know he's got a little bit of that, I want to see how much more of that there is. All right. It's up to you. Just give us an advantage every time when he attacks you, too. I know. Uh, yeah, I know.

Let's see where this goes. Oh, the temptation. Natural 20. Yeah! So let's pop a Chaos Burst into this. All righty. Eight out of eight. Thunder damage.

Nice. Oh, it's not like a damage damage, is it? It's with your fists, which technically are not a melee weapon. Oh. Even if I've got my fucking, okay. You don't have anything on your fists. So you're not letting me use the? Not for this ability, no.

Unfortunately, a lot of these abilities are contingent on a melee weapon, which fists don't count. So a natural 20 doesn't do anything. It just does two points of damage as opposed to one for you. Fuck! That's what makes monks special.

Wait, hold on. You do one point of damage when you hit, so now it's two, plus your modifier. So if you're doing seven, it would be eight now. All right. Do you get to roll an extra damage die at this level? No, no, no. Unfortunately.

All right. You go and attempt it, but you haven't been in a fist fight in a while where you've thought you needed to emphasize any of that energy. And the minute you attempt to, you realize that it needs a focus. It needs something to drive itself through. The chaotic energy that seems to occasionally muddle around

in your head needs an implement to go through, and it's just not able to come through your fists. Gets them by the nose. But that's one strike. Bless your bench! Bless your bench! Man, that hit hard. I know. I'm going to just be making sure I'm within 30 feet of Ashton in the crowd. You do have to finagle a little bit,

but you manage to get near the front line and thankfully you're short enough, comparatively, to some of the other patrons that without issue, you can keep an eye on them and stay within 30 feet. Okay. That definitely hits again, so that's another seven points of damage. Seven points of damage.

How does that hit come through? After that beautiful hit that seemed to do very little, right to the fucking forehead. I'm just going to take the knuckles backward and do a full spin and just do the backhanded slap again, which is really fucking hard. I'm just sticking on the face. Got it.

Crack, crack, crack. Just a large, heavy impact of meat on meat. Everyone goes, oh! From both impacts of that round. And he seems to stagger for just a second, pull back a bit into a defensive position, wipe the blood from the front of his lip and go, Where have you been all my life?

He says, and he rushes in. You take three points of fire damage as he rushes in. No kiss. I don't like the fire damage. That's going to be a 20 to hit. Yeah. And, oh, that's a 23 to hit.

He's rolling pretty decent. You're both rolling pretty good, actually. That is a nine points of bludgeoning damage reduced to four. And that is 11 points of bludgeoning damage reduced to five. As he comes forward and rushes you again with a jumping knee towards your head, That is 11 points of bludgeoning damage reduced to five. As he comes forward and rushes you again with a jumping knee towards your head, you try and move out of the way,

and he just grabs the back of your head as you dodge it, and slams you onto the ground. Your face impacts the dirt, but there's a rock there that catches your forehead, and immediately you can feel the blood beginning to run. As you start to get back up, you feel his hand grab the scruff area of your neck, lift you up, and slam your back down over his knee.

Almost like a half-bane back break, but you manage to tense up and pull off the side. But nevertheless, you can feel the muscles tear and flare up a bit as the pain in your body. You pull away and release. He gets his fist up and goes, You know, if you're looking for work, there is opportunities.

You have some skill, and I like the fact that you do not give a shit. You are so much fun. All right. At the top of Ashton's turn this time, I'm going to use a bonus action and pump four temporary hit points into him with Ardent Armor.

All right. Explain how you do so. Oh, okay. I'm not on the battlefield, I guess, right? You are not, you are hidden within the crowd. Everyone's eyes are on the scuffle. I know how much he likes boozing, so I'll grab somebody's liquor and I'll just say,

Yeah, refill that shit! And I'll just chuck's liquor and I'll just say, yeah, refill that shit! And I'll just chuck it at his face. That bite. It spreads across you. Ow! Ow, it burns! Oh, no. I'm bleeding! He threw alcohol on a bleeding person.

It'll staunch the bleeding. I'm not that kind of a doctor. What color is your blood? I thought about that. I mean, I think it's a deep enough red that it's almost, like, it's not quite black. It's like really dark wine, basically. Cool. Yeah.

Number low. Which, with the additional wine that may have been thrown on you, it now just blends in as a splash of differentiated red. So I think temporary hip dance. Oh, okay. I'm going to take that four away and put it in temporary.

Indeed. Good room, I'm here to go. It's your go. What are you doing? You're both now squared up again on the hill, on even ground, a few feet from each other, and you can see he's now fully engaged and in a proper stance. What do you do?

I guess I should impress. I'm going to run straight forward. Well, let's see if I hit. Okay. Run straight forward, try and grab the wrist. I'm going to try and see if I can make a kick attack. Okay. 14, that's not going to hit, is it?

14 does not hit. You go and try and grab for the wrist, and he just slaps your hand out of the way to the side. Kind of gives you a little bit of a gleaming glance and a head tilt. I'm going to spin around, try and make a kick to the chest. That, on the other hand,

22, that hits. 22 definitely hits. Seven more points. Seven more points, introduced a three. Great. As the second one does connect, it's still hitting a wall, like a heavy rock. And yeah. That finishes your go?

That's all I got. Okay, as soon as your blow spins around and hits him in the back of the head, he seems to go low. There's this moment where his massive height, especially compared to you, seems to diminish rapidly. That's a natural 20. Oh no!

As he goes into a spinning kick from underneath. Now, there is a control and discipline to his fighting style that it began more brutish, but now has becoming refined, and as he spins, you feel your legs leave from underneath you. As you're coming downward, he grabs your head and

right onto his shoulder. Yo! May I absorb some of this blow? You may, yeah. That goes to four plus seven. 11 points of bludgeoning damage. Plus. Oh no.

Oh, that should be the start here. So 14 points of bludgeoning damage, reduced to seven. Seven. Then I take half of that? Is that right? You would, yeah. So you would take. Is that the four or the three? You would take three.

I take three. It's always round. I take four. You take four. Okay. Correct. Oh! So you hit and you feel your jaw almost dislocate from the bottom of the skull from the impact, but it doesn't hit as hard as you expect. Something seems to guard you.

There's a slight sense of not aggressive or dangerous warmth that wasn't there before in a brief flash. For a second, you can't help but, out of the corner of your eyes, see fresh cut grass seem to almost accept the portion of the blow themself. After that strike, it's going to... That is going to be a 11 to hit.

So I'm just going to fall back and let it fly over me. Okay, yes. Now, after impacting that way, spins around to try and grab you, to almost bring you in some sort of a piledriver-type maneuver. It's now getting into full physical wrestling aspects,

and you just fall out of the space as the hands go wide and grab nothing. It's now your go, what are you doing? Ah, I'm going to try and make that wrist grab again and try and turn it into a thing. Go for it. Here we go. Nope, that's a 12. I'm still a little woozy.

Make a grab. Ducks head of the way. He's backing away from you and leading you in a certain direction across the battlefield. Go make your next attack. Ooh, crazy looking. Yeah, just landed. I can read it.

22. That hits. Oh, that's good. So that's another., I can read it. 22. That hits. Oh, that's good. So that's another. So I definitely wooze you for a second and smile, look up, run over, and flip around to get an elbow to the ear again and land on the other side. In the ear?

Correct. Oh, fuck. You impact on the side. You see him go down to one knee for just a moment before kicking back up onto his feet. He seems to faint to one side, and as you prepare to block, he instead weaves to the other direction, comes from the other angle, and that is going to be a 19 to hit.

That hits. Oh, man. And a 20 to hit. Both hit. So what you don't notice is he's moved you over away from the center of this grassy field, and the crowd's shifting with you guys as you begin to move away from the initial starting point. Brings you over to where one of the small marble pillars

is holding one of the lanterns above. With that feint, he jumps up, jumps off of it, and then crack, just kicks you right across the face midair for nine points of bludgeoning damage reduced to four. Then as soon as you take the brunt of that to the face, the jaw spitting your dark blood across the grass right next to you, he then leaps in the air,

two fists just hammer blows you over the back of the shoulders for 10 points of bludgeoning damage reduced to five. You feel the wind leave your lungs for a second for 10 points of bludgeoning damage reduced to five. I see. You feel the wind leave your lungs for a second, your vision begins to go unfocused. The sparking in your skull is still present, but it's flashing at times,

and folks are starting to, like, you can see people beginning to make bets off to the side, and a lot of the other Paragons call her, like, nodding in an odd element of excitement and respect. All right, so. How does Ashton look right now, by the way? I've looked better. 100 gold, I'll take that action.

Yeah, I've looked better. Has the opponent moved him further than 30 feet away from me by any chance? They've begun to, but the crowd has been shifting with it. As long as you're keeping up with the crowd, you can still keep that tether. Is it moving farther from the entrance?

It is moving farther from the entrance. It's still in the grassy area, but it's starting to get closer and closer to the stone road. So I'm currently up against the pillar. Yeah, you just got knocked up against it because he jumped off of it to hit you, but you're about five feet from it now.

All right, I'm going to try and use my very intense hair straight to the face, just as a hop up. Oh, Sonic the Hedgehog him, hell yeah. Come on. Yeah, that hits. That's 28 to hit. That'll hit, yeah. Seven more points. Seven more points, all right.

So three there. It's nice not to have to roll for you. All right. I really wish I could add that little chaos burst, because that'd really help right now. And with that, I'm just going to, I assume that's given me just enough to come in and keep trying to get the eyes to bleed.

Okay. 18? 18 hits. Seven more points. All righty. Right below the eyes. See if I can get them to bleed. You're going for the cheekbone area, just starting to pummel the face. And there is the smeared mess of blood

that is in the lower part of his face, beneath the nose, but also yours as well. You're both just messes, but you're both grinning through the blood and pain. There's a certain connection that comes in that moment of one-on-one battle that is weirdly almost a friendship if you weren't trying to murder each other.

You can see there's a level of respect and enjoyment here. It's amazing. As, just go right into it. But as you push upward off the side of the face, reaches up to try and grab, that is going to be a 10. Goes to reach for your wrists and you pull back away. As you break the attempt at a hold,

he comes forward with his foot up to go for a full-on kick to the chest. That is going to be for 17. 17 hits. For 11 points of lightning damage reduced to five. I'll take half of that. Okay. So you take two points of damage and you take three.

You just get kicked backwards in the crowd. But you did also take the damage from the previous one that you did not expend as well. Yes, of course. Yeah. I know it. The kick burns you for another three points of fire damage as the foot impacts you and there's a smell of charred charcoal and brimstone for a second.

You fill back and the air in your lungs seems to be unfathomably hot for a split second. You find yourself coughing as a reaction to it. No, is he hot? He's coming straight towards you. Is he really attractive? So cool. He's so fucking hot, you don't even know.

Yeah, he's really attractive. Wait, let me check my notes. Yes, he's hot. 12, 12 misses. It's still staggering from the impact. You try and grab the leg and I miss. As you go for the grab, he just leapfrogs over you from behind.

What are you going to do in response to that? I'm going to try and swing around Haymaker and hope I hit something. All righty. Yeah, that hits. That's 19 to hit. 19 hits. Full spinning haymaker right to the face on the seven points.

Okay, you see after he leapfrogs over you, he's turning around to try and go ahead and grab for you again, but wasn't expecting the speed in which you whipped around and just whack right across the side of the face for another three points of damage. He's looking a little roughed up. Fuck.

No matter what, I'm not forgetting this. He's like, Gaffer still stands when this is over. You want work? I can put it to you. Very. We'll talk later. But first, you understand I have to finish a show. I'm not backing down. We'll talk later. But Fjord, you understand, I have to finish this show.

I'm not backing down. That'd be rude. Good. At that point, he jumps forward. Actually, you think he's going to try and kick you again, and as you put up your arms to block, he hooks his foot over your hand and jumps almost on towards your shoulder for a 19 to hit.

Actually, you know what? He's going reckless now. He's going all in. Yeah, here we go! Yeah, that definitely hits. It's higher than that. Pick it up a notch. That's nine points of lightning damage, reduced to four.

As he kicks you, he almost jumps up the front of you and then kicks off of your back, sending you flying even further forward, just past the grass into where the stone is. As you catch yourself and begin to turn around with a, sending you flying even further forward, just past the grass and to where the stone is. As you catch yourself and begin to turn around with a speed that you weren't even expecting, he's already back upon you

and is now trying to grab the back of your head and slam you face down onto the stonework of the road right there. Reckless. What about the teeth? It's a natural 20. Oh! I may absorb this one as well.

Oh jeez. That is absorb this one as well. Oh jeez. That is going to be... Oh, FC Jesus explodes. 13 points plus 19 points of bludgeoning damage. Reduced to half, so that would be nine. You take half, which is four. You take five. Are you still up?

Kind of. Oh my god. Four. After that, he catches up to you, grabs the back of your head right as you start to catch your senses for a second, and then wham, hit the stone, and then he just grinds you across the ground.

Yeah! Stone on stone. Everyone can hear the heavy sound of stone grinding at stone and your body drag you across the ground. Yeah! Stone on stone. Everyone can hear the heavy sound of stone grinding at stone, and your body drags across of it as you're trying to find some sort of purchase to get yourself back into a place of control. The crowd just like,

Oh god! People cheering. Yeah, get him! What are you doing? I'll let you know if I hit. I'll also take two more points of fire damage. Oh! Oh, I take two more points of fire damage?

Three more points of fire damage. Three! I take two more points of fire damage? Three more points of fire damage. Three or two? Three. I'm out. Oh! No! As it drags your face into the stone, you feel your consciousness begin to fade. Oh, what a way to end it.

It's about to end. But then the heat just picks up and darkness takes you. Full road rash. The rest of you watch as General Rutanish releases him on the ground, gets up and ready to fight, goes, Is that it?

Well, that is mildly disappointing, but not entirely. Grabs the back of his shoulder and picks him up off the ground. You can see his feet dragging in there. He goes, Gentleman. And tosses your unconscious body over to one of the Paragon call members who grabs it. Go ahead and roll a death save. Help?

Help. They're not going to kill you. They want to work with you. Natural one. What does that mean? What does that mean? What does that mean? That's two death stings. Oh, Jesus!

Help. As you land on his arm, he goes, I'm bossy, he's not doing well. You really did a number. He's like, patch him up. Okay. He earned it at least. They glance at each other

and they start quickly looking for any materials. Oh, they don't have any? I'll zoom on over. I have a healing potion on me, if they would like that. I can do this, I can do this, I can do this. I'll go up and I'll just say, excuse me, I know this fighter, but may I please lay something on you?

Taliesin does not want to lose another game. No, not right now, please do it right now. Learn how to argue it. Level five! Not in the mood. Not in the fucking mood right now. This is not how I want to spend my weekend. No?

I've just healed you nine points. Wow. Yay! Okay. Oh my god. Not right now. You take your breath as your eyes begin to slowly focus out of the dark space that you found yourself for a moment. The crowd now is all eyes on this

interesting end of the scuffle. The Paragon's Call are still holding you up. You're conscious, but your feet are still limp and almost dragging on the ground interesting end of the scuffle. The Paragon's call, they're still holding you up. You're conscious, but your feet are still limp and almost dragging on the ground as they're holding you aloft. The human who's there next to you glances down and says, Hey, thank you for your help, whatever you are.

Oh, you're kindly welcome? Then smacks you in the face a little bit. Not enough to hurt you, but enough to, hey, hey, wake up! Oh yeah. Oh, I haven't been hit like that in months. You're amazing. Rotanish, after checking in with you,

turns around to the rest of the crowd as everyone gets quiet and goes, and these are the skills that you could easily pay for to keep your people safe. Hashtag add. Oh. I knew it was going to be that.

Hashtag promote. Do you need a remote? No. Gross. I'm on cameo. Hold on, let me cross out the hot note. Oh man. This is just fists. Imagine the strength of me and my soldiers,

my guardians, with our arms and weapons, at your beck and call, how much more comfortable your people will sleep. Fuck this guy. And if you are not interested, we respect that, and we will speak to other folks elsewhere who might be. But please, let us continue the party.

Inside, inside! Everyone starts pushing the crowd a bit and people begin to shuffle and start heading back into the chamber. Presently, it's, you're inside. I'm here. Everyone is. You're both there. You're also out here?

Yeah, I checked the notes. I'd just come through the double doors. That's right, you just came out. All're also out here? Yeah, check the notes. I just come through the double doors. That's right, you just came out. All right, cool. I realized Cyrus was gone. So the littles are all here. You have a high enough perception. Passive perception. You have really high passive perception, actually.

I sure do. Yes, you do. So to that point, after this presentation by Ratanish, everyone starts looking about, you do glance over and see Gavis lean in and is listening to somebody. Looks like a really well-dressed woman in probably her early 50s or so,

who is whispering into his ear, arm on the shoulder, and you can see him listening intently, gives a nod, and she releases her hand, clasps hers together, and as the crowd is shifting, goes and saddles up next to Arman Treshi, and they both begin to whisper together. Wait, is that Janna Hexum? No.

Oh. We don't know her? As I would recognize Hexum. What does she look like? Yeah, what's she? You can see she has darker black hair with streaks of gray that are coming through. The hair is gently braided in this long braid

that heads down the back, and you can see there's these golden silver rings that at the very base of the braid are tied into it and hang. These beautiful earrings that are long and dangle past the shoulders, and her dress is this deep red and gold coloration, where she has almost a combination of a shawl scarf

that wraps around her arms and keeps them together when she finishes her conversation and prepares to reenter the building. Does she have rounded ears, pointed ears? She appears to be human. Okay. This is happening inside while the fight is going on or right after the fight has ended?

This is right after the fight has ended. Now for the display. I'm just going to sit with Ashton outside for a bit and make sure they are with it. How many fingers am I holding up? How many fingers do you have? You know what? I never actually thought about that. I think it's 10.

I think it's 10. Let me look at my character art. Let me look at my character art. It's 10. I got 10 fingers. Are those? Is that? I can't tell. No, that's 10. That's 10. Yeah. I don't know.

I cannot wait to do that again. Wow. Holy shit. Imogen and I are just looking at the Whisper network on the inside. Okay. Or at least that's what I'm doing. I don't want to speak for you. Yeah, no, that's totally what I'm doing. Well, as the group begins to fill out of the interior again,

it's a loud bustle of conversation. Some folks being like, Sit there, I'm way back in. Like, ah, I can't believe I lost the money on that one. Somebody else is talking about how, who even lost that? What was this? What even started that?

Did he slap him for no reason? You know, oh, they must have some long, arduous history. When you're a warrior for a lifetime, you build rivals everywhere. And it's just all this extrapolation about this interaction that people are just creating their own lore in this spot about what they assume it might be,

because it sounds interesting. But... Yeah, if you want to both make, because you're looking to the crowd, both make perception checks for me. 20 total. Eight total. Okay.

As the crew begins to move in, you sense the impressive return of proximity minds and those whispers getting depressed a bit and you begin to back away instinctually as it becomes briefly a bit much, as it washes into your mind and distracts you from focusing on the group. Laudna, as you glance through the crowd,

you see the other side of this conversation. As this woman walks alongside Arman Treshi and they're both having, almost hidden within the crowd, a very quick, intense conversation back and forth where they both just keep looking around and glancing back towards the direction of where Rotanish is.

Where is Rotanish? Rotanish is still towards the entrance, but is now heading in with the crowd and people are patting him on the shoulders. You can see he stands quite tall over a lot of the group, but he got blood all over his face. He looks hurt. Looks like he definitely didn't come through

in a perfect spic and span-type presentation, but still has some vigor left in him. People are clapping his back and congratulating him and introducing themselves to him. Most people were avoiding the Paragon's Call earlier in the evening, you saw, as they were mingling through. Now there's an introduction's been made,

and now they're starting to want to engage with the current star of the moment. There, to the back of it, you can see fresh cut grass, the rest of your troop that was in the exterior, over in the direction of the now conscious and brutally bloodied Ashton. Just lean on me, Ashton. It's all right. Are there any

looky-loos still kind of? There's a handful that are just watching to see what you're going to do. They're heading inward, but they're also keeping. I'm going to lean forward. Father. I see you're like. Fuck.

Might as well start some rumors if I can't. Make a deception check. Bonuses, because they can't see my face through the blood. I'll give you advantage, because they're definitely invested in whatever falsehoods are being spread throughout here, yeah. That's a deception check, right? Yes. Oh, thank god.

Wow, nope. That was a zero with advantage. So the closest person was like. A zero with advantage? Wow. The person closest to you goes, watches this display and turns to their friend and you just barely hear,

as they begin to walk into the building, he beats him so hard he's asking for his father. Wow. Did you say that the woman with the long braided hair walked indoors with Treshi? Walked in with Treshi after coming over and engaging Gavis. Okay, so Orym sees that FCG, he's here,

but he sees that FCG has got care for Ashton, so I'm going to follow in at a distance and just try to get within earshot. Okay. And observe. I'm going to keep eyes on him, too. Okay. I'm going to make my way over to Ashton, pretending that I don't...

Mm, I forget. Every time. Every time. Pretending that I don't know him, like I'm another patron. Oh, thank god. What? I'm going to walk up to him and I'm going to be like,

young man, such a show of courage and braggadocio. I must shake your hand. And as I do, I'm going to be like, young man, it's such a show of courage and braggadocio. I must shake your hand. And as I do, I'm going to cast a level two cure wounds on him. Aw, that's slick. Thank you. What do you think of me? Whoop. Okay.

10 points. Hey, that's nice. And then I'm going to do a very flambant move, and I'm going to go to, well done, well done, to kiss him on the cheek. And as I do, I'm going to do a very flambant move and I'm going to go to, well done, well done, to kiss him on the cheek. As I do, I'm going to whisper in his ear, We need you. Then I'm going to walk away.

Okay. Oh, that was so much fun. Who was that stranger? Like Ratatouille or something. I didn't really catch it. Are you up to going back into the party? No. Just to, okay.

I think going back would be a very bad idea at this point, but I feel like we learned something. Sadly, this fucked up my new clothes, but that's okay. Do you feel badly about how this went? Do you need revenge? No. It's right about this time that three of the members of the Paragon's Call crew,

the Minotaur, the Half-Orc, and the human have stepped beyond the crowd to approach you. Oh no. The Minotaur. The general would like to sit with you at the table and converse. I'm a little punched at the moment. Reaches into the side of his little vest

that he put over the heavy hides and the meager attempt at looking presentable and pulls out a thick piece of cloth, like a napkin of some kind that may have been stolen from the inside, and reaches over and wipes the blood off your face aggressively, like a mom who's done with their child.

She's like, Now you're presentable. Comes inside and grabs your shoulder. Will there be booze? Oh! And don't even pay attention to you. Just begin to muscle Ashton back as you watch him. Try to tag along just to make sure

that they don't take him and throw him in the back of a station wagon or something. Okay. Do we see him come through the door? Yes, you watch him flanked by the crews. They're being brought over to one of the distant tables on the far left-hand side, where you see General Botanish is now

finishing stretching the arms and massaging part of the shoulder. A few other people are talking at him, but you can see he's not really listening and seems to still be in the moments of conflict before glancing over and seeing Ashton approach and gives a nod. You hear in your head,ancing over and seeing Ashton approach and gives a nod. You hear in your head,

how you doing, Ashton? How? Mm, probably, but we'll see where this goes. We'll keep eyes. You're seeing this, too, after the request you just gave. He's quickly pulled off to the side. Where's the woman? The woman is now within the crowd a bit,

moving off to the far back where you see her and Armand separate and now begin to be having conversation, entertaining other guests and talking about what just transpired. Does she pass me at all? She begins, I would say, if you're trying to cut her off or whatever,

she's trying to move through the crowd and around to the center back of the room. So you could either follow or cut off, or what are you trying to do? I should follow him. Oh, were you guys following? Yeah, I followed, I went right in. You keep a close ear out.

I will. I'm going to see if I can draw some attention and gather people towards the back of this room. I'm going to do that party power move. I'm going to sit at a table alone by myself towards the back away from things. I'm going to just alone look open and see if I can make eye contact with her

if she glances over. Nobody's going to make eye contact with you. Right. You're not right. All right, you go ahead and set up in that space. It's a party power move. I'm going to try to use my size to stay hidden behind other people between her and I

and just overhear as many conversations as I can. I'd like for you to roll a stealth check and a perception check. What are you doing? Aw. I was following the people in after he said, Father, and I correct them.

No, no, no, that was his father that was beating him. Make a deception check. No! Yes! Thanks for having my back. You got it, baby. Probably not going to work. No.

I appreciate it, though. Eight. They look nothing alike. What does that even mean? I do not mean it, I just, I... And they just wander off, flustered by the encounter. Then I'm going to walk over and... I'm going to walk over to where FCG is. Okay, the music is picking up once more.

While the evening seems to have definitely crested between both the Dance at the Crossroads and now this exterior duel where the energy is starting to wind down a bit. You imagine there's probably maybe a few more hours of this event, if anything. People are beginning to, they're getting to the part of the night

where they're starting to just get to the business they meant to do if they haven't yet. Because everybody's come back in and I'm still, well, my invisibility's going to wear off in an hour. So I'll just find a corner and I'm gesticulating wildly because nobody can see me. Like, fucking Cyrus! Shit!

Who can I see in the room that hasn't gone off to a side or being tended by his daddy? What'd you roll for stealth? Stealth 12. 12, okay. You can roll a perception check if you'd like to, Chetney. Sure, I would like to look for Dorian, but I would take really anybody.

The only person who's trying to be hidden is actively hidden. Perception 19. Orym. So you do see Orym dodging through the crowd, keeping that servant energy, but doing the thing that he's been doing for most of the night, which is paying attention. Dorian, you can see as well,

you can see pretty much everybody else who is present in this event. You see me standing awkwardly in the middle of the room. Not knowing who to talk to and what to do. Oh boy. I'll go. Do I see Imogen? Oh my god.

That was the same pose I was doing. That's it, I know we're late. You drink too fast, goddammit. Remember to open up. Get all the jokes. If I can see, or I'm trying to be sly, I'll go towards Imogen. Okay.

Hey, Imogen? Hi, there you are. What's, how you, what have you been doing? Oh man, you spent the craziest night and nodding like the hot sexy way. Listen, I was tracking a couple of things, but I saw, are you around people? I mean. Are we alone?

There's no people. Kneel down. Hey, how are you doing? I'm great, too. Listen, I was going after Dorian's brother. Cyrus was here. Oh! Yeah, but he was here with the elf woman, Emoth Cad. I don't know what you're talking about. Anyway, she turned into something else.

She went into a secret room. What do you mean? And then I lost Dorian's brother. What do you mean she turned into something else? What are you talking about? She got all crazy and went into these secret rooms, passed the double doors over by the Pisher. I got all of a sudden.

Yeah. You can do it, you can do it, Chet! I think Dorian needs to be aware that his brother is missing. His bro... Can I look around? Do I see Dorian? Dorian's hard to miss. I'll do the same. I've made my way over to my date, Fearne.

I'll see if I can talk to Dorian if he has not blocked me out still. Oh my lord. Oh my fucking lord. Who is that? Hello? I can't quite tell from the voice. Who's speaking?

Chet's been following your brother and he's gone missing. Oh, missing? I don't know. How could he go missing? From the party? I think so. He said he followed him into a back room

and he's missing now. And some elf woman turns weird and attacked and went into, I don't, I couldn't follow. Attack someone? I think so. All right, well, can you send him over? Or should we talk? I don't know, that sounds not right.

Come over here. Okay. I'm over here. Where is he? You can come over. He's right next to me. Okay. Just look down. I imagine they're like 16 feet apart. Yeah. He's staring.

He's staring. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, all right. And I'm walking over. Gesticulating a little, but just staring. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, all right. And I'll walk on over. Gesticulating a little, but just staring. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. I'll come on over. Is Chetney still invisible, or is he? No, you can see him.

You can see him. He's just little. Watch out for that shit! We don't have hair! We keep our boots down! That's very strong language for a nice party. Although we're not going to start this again, I swear, just the information check.

Oh, right, your brother. I was with him for a second. He said he was trying to earn some money to get rid of his problems. Yes, yes. They're not a physical one, but the one that we all know about. The starts with a B. I know, you don't have to hint at it, yes. Then're not a physical one, but the one that we all know about. You know, like the... It starts with a B. I know, you don't have to hint at it, yes.

Then he was working with this woman and then I lost track of him, but when I followed her, she was back in this room and she looked like she didn't live there and she was turning it upside down and there were all these little creepy creatures and they were digging through stuff.

Wait, wait, wait. Creepy creatures? Yeah, they were all shadowy and like. Were they small, smaller than you? Yeah, yeah, yeah, about my size, a couple different variations, but then she went from being totally normal into she was sweating and then. Then it was no good, and she had a moldy smell.

Dorian. Okay? Dugger. Yes? But what does that have to do with my brother? It doesn't make any sense. And he was working with her? Yeah, he said he was trying to make good on his thing. All right. You don't think he could have been taken by the Shakers? I asked him if he was working protection or something,

but he didn't really elucidate. So you looked for him and then he was just gone? Yeah. Actually, I heard him go under the pisser, so then I checked there, and he wasn't inside. Goddamn it, it's so southern now. Fuck! You're doing great, you're doing so good!

You got it, you're doing great, Chet! Fuck Shanna! Okay, here we go. I'm back in it. You have to get up a touchstone. You have to have a touchstone for every performance. You got to check in. Yes. So I went, and he wasn't in there.

Uh-huh. And I came back out, and he's gone. She's too powerful. It's like a black hole, man. It's so close to old Rosspector. It's so close! I know, I love it. You hit the event horizon, you're like, .

Wow. Each hour is seven years. Oh my god. We've done what we came for. Should we go look for him? Is he accessible? Yeah, where did you go? Where was he? So those double doors over there,

behind the guards, to the right was the room that she was ransacking. The restrooms are to the left. Guards. Yeah, there's two guards by the door. You can go if you just have to go to the restroom. Did you check the restroom to see if he's in there? I did. Empty.

Room, no service. Maybe the restrooms have holes in them, the same way the other rooms did. There are holes in the restroom. I don't know how many nice places you've been in, but. Not that kind of hole. You don't think that he could have been taken to? Honestly, I don't know.

Wait. What? I could try something. Yeah, just try something. Try it. What is it? I'm going to try. Ah. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. She's going to kill us.

I'm going to reach out. I'm going to reach out. I'm going to open up my mind, and you guys are going to see my eyes start flickering white. I'm going to try to reach my mind out and see if I can find Cyrus. Ooh, what? Okay.

If I can, I'm going to send him a message. Okay. If I can, I'm going to send him a message. Okay. So you are attempting to? Cast Sending. Cast Sending to him, okay. Oh shit! All righty. You begin to concentrate

and focus on the memory of the voice and the expression and the dress that he was wearing in that brief moment. Actually, you did not see his dress in this chamber. I didn't, but I know what he looks like. But you know what he looks like and what he wore previously. You focus and concentrate and you feel this tug.

You're not able to place the direction of it necessarily, but you find a connecting point to his mind. What would you like to say? Cyrus, where are you? Your brother's looking for you. Are you all right? Okay. He responds, I'm fine.

Don't tell him, don't worry. I'm paying my debts. It's being taken care of. He sounds like he's safe. He said he was paying his debts. He wouldn't tell me where he was. What? Paying his debts?

In the bathroom? That's how it starts. Sounds like a lot of work. I will pay. What are you talking about? Purple dresses! I will only call taking a dump, paying my debt. Can I get paid some debt? Make it a deposit.

I mean, we can look for him in the bathroom, but he sounded like he wanted to be left alone. Such a departure from, are you pooping? I mean, it could have been so easy. Are you pooping? I suppose I have to trust him for now. But I am concerned about this woman. Yeah, I mean, she was crazy, but we're not supposed to make a big...

But what if he is making some sort of deal? What if he has a chance to free himself? My brother, I know he presents a certain way, but he is capable. And if he's in the midst of some sort of plan to get himself out of this, I don't want to ruin it for him. If you think you can trust him, then.

I do trust him. Well, then we will, too. Well, thank you. But Chetney, was there any more exits out of that area, or do you think those two doors are the only way? Fuck! I really should have looked. I was rattled.

I was on my own. There was a hallway to the left and the right, but did I remember seeing any other doors at the end of the hallways, or were there windows? Within this chamber, there are two other sets of doors to the far right and the far left. Yeah, well, within the main dome chamber you are. There's other doors that lead into other portions of the,

and there's a lot of hallways and chambers beyond that. That was just the one section that they went to. Everything is guarded to each of these entrances, so there's no real difference between them necessarily. It just depends on where you want to go in the Quorum Chambers beyond. I mean, we do have two rooms available to us. In here?

Yeah, Lord Eshteross said that we had rooms here to stay the night. Oh, do we have that on paper somewhere? I don't think so, but I mean, Lord Eshteross can certainly get us in. Or you in. We're not with the same party, but we have rooms available. Oh, we'll go find out about the rooms.

And help me keep an eye on that exit. You see my brother leave, come find me? Yeah, sure. I've got to tell Lord Eshteross about the shake, and Laudna, I'll be back. Are you all right? Yeah, I'll be back. Are you all right? Yeah, I'll be fine. Okay. Okay.

So you're going to go ahead and watch the back door. You're going to go find Eshteross. While this is happening, and the three of you are reconvening, Rishu, you're at the table in the back, keeping your own pace. Notorious. Very inviting. We'll come to you. Yeah, we'll come to you in a bit. So worried. He's like,. Very inviting. We'll come to you.

Yeah, we'll come to you in a bit. So would. He's like, I don't know what to do with that. Nobody's going over there. The two of you have met up and Eshteross has come to you as well. He's just trying to look for familiar faces. You can see he's looking anxious and uncomfortable.

I'm going to link my arm in his. The object has been acquired. You mean delivered. Do you have it already? No, no, no, we put it on. It's okay, we put it on his thumb. Oh my god. It's okay. We put it on his thumb. Yeah. Eshteross takes off his glasses and beams in. No, hold on just a second.

Wasn't the whole thing because we needed to give you his? No, it wasn't at all. I understand. She doesn't know the mission. Conduct it. But you know what, though? Bonus, I do have the ring off of you. As soon as you hold it up,

Eshteross snatches it from you and says, Be careful. That was my lunch. What are you going to do with that one, though? Just remove it from any possibility of it being linked to us. I know, but I think I should wear it. Don't go flashing it anywhere.

I could eat it if we're trying to get rid of it, or I trust Fearne to conceal it. You decide. He trusts me. Don't go showing it in public anymore. He hands it over. No, no, no, no! No, no, please, Fearne! She's got no fur! She's got fur.

We'll cover it up. No! No! No! Oh fuck. No, no, no, no! I love it, I love it. Oh fuck!

I love it. Oh my god, no. It's for safekeeping. Of course. You put it in a pocket, it can fly out. Do you have a hole in your pocket? I am, yep. You can eat it.

Thank you. I'm here to serve. Eshteross glancing over at the direction of Ashton. Is your friend all right? I think he'll be okay. He's recovering, but that was quite a walloping he took. And now, they took. And now the general wants to sit down with them to converse about something.

Is the general bad news? He's with Paragon's Call, right? I'm not terribly familiar with this individual myself, but I am aware of their rebranding in recent years. Were they a scallywag before, who's now put on airs as some sort of formal group? More or less, yes. They are known as the Hellcatch Valley

Problem for quite some time. Very brutal mercenary group who definitely got things done through fear and brutality, which worked well for those who would be willing to let their morals slide. But it seems they're making a more social play these days and are looking to be a little more official. Well, I think we inadvertently bolstered that aim of theirs. Well, I think we inadvertently bolstered

that aim of theirs. We gave them a whole bunch of free advertising for their abilities. I mean, we could always fight him again. I could fight him and really drag him into the dirt. I appreciate you wanting to help, but I think at this point, she's keeping her eyes and ears open.

It's likely that they have made such a display, certain important individuals might be looking to make connections. But even so, I grow a bit nervous with our presence lingering here, now that the main goal has been completed. The longer we stay, the more chance we have of causing issues.

We start rustling up the others and get out of here? Unless there's anything else to handle, then. As I walk up. Mm. Oh, I'm sure you guys already informed him. Everything's all right. Jenny was following, do you know who that woman was that was with Lord Armand?

Do you guess? She apparently went back into one of the rooms and turned into something, I think like Dugger, and was surrounded by a bunch of those shade creepers. I don't think I knew that. I don't think we knew this. I didn't know that. That just happened?

Holy shit. Yeah, so I don't know we knew this. I didn't know this. That just happened? Holy shit. Yeah, so I don't know if we should gain access to the rooms that you said that we had and try to see what's going on with that, or if we should just pretend like it doesn't exist. Also, Dorian's brother is mixed up in it, too, because he was walking around with her, and he says he's fine, but I don't know. He could be in trouble. We also didn't get any information

on who's in the Chanté Quorum. Yeah, one of our missions was to do that. That's all I'm trying to do. I know, I feel Laudna's putting out the vibes. Yeah. Gorgeous. Got it, got it. She's so good at talking to her.

Beautiful. Most eligible bachelorette of Jrusar over here. Just... Look at those shoulder blades stick out. There are definitely eyes on you. Do you still have this scary fox head in front of your face? Yeah, it's right here with missing eyes.

Did you take your mask off? Right here. Oh, that's right, I still have my mask on, too. So it's like dead fox and a dead fox. Yeah. Black eye. Yeah. If there is Mahaan House pulled into them, whatever this creature business is,

that gets very messy, politically. I would call the guards, but I don't even know what sort of web of approval has been placed and put ourselves in a position of weakness. Do you think the Quorum could be involved? I have no idea. Anything is possible. But at the very least, we can't call on the guard or trust them at the moment, just in case.

If you need to help your friend, do it quickly. Try and find out if there is enough information that we could perhaps bring it to the attention of someone I trust in this space. So it wouldn't be wise to go digging in right now? If you do so, do it quietly. How do we find out where our rooms would be located? I can do that.

Oh, that's right, we can spend the night. Wait. Would someone accompany me? I wish not to walk unattended. Sure. He clutches his cane close and begins to walk towards the entranceway. Who's coming with him?

I'll go. Okay, please wait. Do we need to communicate with the others? I can do coming with him? I'll go. Okay, please wait. Do I need to communicate with the others? I can do that while I'm walking with you. Oh, okay, okay. I just had an idea. Sorry, sorry, before you go, I just had an idea. You said that we were trying to find Cyrus?

Mm-hmm. I might be able to find him. What do you mean? If he's around. I think, oh man, can I do this? Hold on, did I load this spell today? Yeah, I did. You can find it.

Well, yeah, Dorian gave him one of the stones, right? That's right. Yeah. I could find it. We could also use it. Oh shit, yeah, we also could do that. We could make it a column. But yes, yeah, we also could do that. We could call him. But yes, that might make noise, you know? So it might be smart to just locate him.

If we need. Because he might not want to tell us where he is, you know what I mean? Well, first let's take care of what our children are doing. But what if that should get him in trouble if that starts like. I know that's what I mean. Does it make noise? Does it beep or something?

The stone? Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do. Someone set the stone to vibrate. Check and iron together. You can come. No, no, no, I got to keep eyes on Ashton. Should we go try to go in the back and find out? Do not go wandering around that back area until all of us can go back there. Because. Are you telling Fearne or Ashley?

Well, I'm just saying, you know, okay, I won't. She's going to do it. At least if you do, Fearne, do it quietly. So quiet, my god. Don't go by yourself. Don't go by yourself. No, no, no, no. No, I'll figure it out.

I'll figure it out if I do. It's okay, don't stress. She already negotiated you down. She's so charming, you know? She's just so... I got it, I'll be safe. Go, go, take care of everything. I don't even know what I'm tatt-

Let's go. All right. You walk with Eshteross towards the entryway where all the sign-in and weapon check-in was established. Well, that's happening. Orym, you rolled on perception earlier. Ah, 16. 16. It's hard to cut through the chatter

of the conversations around you to pick out anything specifically. You do watch as the woman that you're keeping an eye on circles back around after, you watch as she goes and has little greetings and brief conversations with a handful of other people. Some of them approach her and she talks. It's quick and cordial, but she definitely has

a curtness to her engagement. She has business to attend to. You even get a name. You would with a 16. So I'm first to ask, Mistress Orlana Shashadri. Orlana Shashadri. That's a great name. Or. Orlana Shashadri.

Shashadri. Shashadri. Kind of just looking around and. If she gets within 15 feet of me. Unsettling presence. She would probably eventually arc past you. So as she is in the process of, and she's doing an odd, from this person

to this person to this person, is very much on a path, closing out interactions for the evening. At one point, does pass by, and you do Unsettling Presence. She's walking like, you can see the air escaping from her mouth. It gets cold suddenly.

She turns around and looks at you. Oh, hello. Hello, I am afraid we have not met. No, we haven't. What's your name? My name is Mistress Shashadwe. And who might you be? Lorelai.

Lorelai de Rolo. Make a deception check. Yeah. What the fuck? I don't know. Oh, I'm just getting lost. I do not know. Winging it here. Yikesies.

Eight. Eight. Durala of the Whitestone Duralas. That's correct, you've heard of us. I've heard of the family. I cannot say I've heard of you. I'm the unspoken sibling. I can't imagine why. Well, I hope you enjoy your evening.

I was curious. Yes? You seem to be chatting up Armand. I was just hoping to bend the ear of you other Quorum members. Well, Mond is not a member of the Quorum, but a business ally of mine. We've had dealings in the past.

But you are. I am not a member of the Quorum either. I am but a lower mohon house. We focus in livestock and beasts of burden. We do not have the influence to be so involved. Insight check. Make an insight check. Big roll, big roll, big roll.

Big money, big money. Here we go. Eat it, butter. What is it? Natural 20. It's a natural 20. You guys need to tell us what number it is. It's a six. We're getting old after all these years. Vah, I can't read anymore.

Eight again. What? She's hard to read. Yeah, fuck it. Maybe it's the distraction. Maybe it's you've not been so one-on-one focused by a person of such intense social practice directly at you with a combination of curiosity and disdain,

but you're not certain. Well, perhaps we could still find business dealings. Maybe at a later time. A later time would be preferred. Have a good night, Lorelai de Rolo. She turns and heads back into the crowd. I think I'm going to have Lore. Ashtalai.

As you have been sat down at the table, Ratanish, you can see, is sitting there, finishes wiping off the lip and uncorks this bottle of a dark brown liquor and pours a glass in front of him, pours it in front of you, sets it down, corks it again. Apologies, I don't like to be touched.

About earlier. I am intrigued. It is not often that I encounter individuals in such a ridiculous atmosphere who maybe is bold and quick to tussle with you. It was refreshing. Thank you. I was not looking forward to coming here, and boy, this was better than I could have hoped. Honestly, it has made my night far more memorable.

I appreciate that. Cheers. He leans forward a bit, still grinning. What is your name? Tonight, the name is Aaron. I'm a professional. If you find me in a couple of weeks, that may change. Fair enough, Aaron, fair enough. Tell me, where did the inspiration for this come from?

He lifts up the mask from the side of the table. You can see it's still mostly intact, though. It was torn from your face, but he twirls it on the finger a bit. Yeah, I suppose I can. You did kick my ass. Seems only fair. Something I saw. I see a lot of weird shit. Freaked me out.

Figured maybe it'd make me intimidating. Since I'm working here tonight, I didn't expect to have any fun. I thought maybe I could be spooky. So you're telling me that you've seen the inspiration for this, you have encountered something that inspired this? Well, there's been weird shit around town lately.

You never know. Shit's been weird around here. But this, this in particular, I would like to know. It's just unblinking eyes focused on you. Yeah, I don't know. It would behoove you to tell me. I would like to keep this a very,

very positive relationship. It's already gone up to such a wonderful start. I just would like a bit of information. You say you're a professional. Well, this is the trouble, is that sometimes some of the stuff you're involved in, you are, let's say, locked in the contract

until the contract is finished. I certainly wouldn't work for you if I couldn't prove to you that I am definitely a staunch professional. What I can say, I suppose, without actually breaking anything tonight, is that the reasons I am here had nothing to do with that and here had nothing to do with that

and definitely had nothing to do with you. I didn't even know who you were until I still honestly just have the vaguest idea of who you are. So this was just not what I was expecting the night to be. And the reasons I am here genuinely had nothing to do with you. I cannot get into the reasons why I'm here,

but they were honestly pretty boring. You do not seem like a dear and local. You're Hellcatch Folk, aren't you? I recognize like. Don't hear that very often. Well, growing up in such an environment breeds a specific kind of person, and there is an unspoken kinship,

those who survive such a desolate and interesting place. Yes, there is. Well, I will not wish to impede upon your professional means of maintaining anonymity. I respect that. But if I might be so bold as to recommend in the future, when you are involved in the destruction of property

within the city of Drusar, do not immediately show your face in the center of its political method. Oh. Assuming that that advice meant anything to me, I would have been fine if someone hadn't come over and ripped a mask off my face.

Would not have been as much of a problem if someone hadn't come and destroyed the tower, but you know, that doesn't matter to me too much. It is more important to those who are occasionally in business with me. I will say, you and whoever you work with, That doesn't matter to me too much. It is more important to those who are occasionally in business with me. I will say, you and whoever you work with, they do fine work.

Well, I work for a lot of people, and I assume you work for a lot of people, too. And I believe in keeping things professional. I do as well. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers the drinks together. Now. If I'm in a situation where I can tell you anything I lose will. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers the drinks together. No. If I'm in a situation where I can tell you anything

that I think might be interesting to you that doesn't put me in a breach of contract, I will let you know. Like pulls a chunk of flesh out of, like the inside of his lip, out of his tooth, flicks it off to the side. It's a big city. This city is not so large. It goes deep.

Yeah. Well, should you be looking for more interesting employments, I think you know how to get ahold of us. I will genuinely consider the offer, and honestly, after tonight, I feel like there will be plenty of opportunities. All I can do is hope that when next we meet,

it is not as opposition, because I would hate to cut your throat. Oh, honestly, I do look forward to another round at some point. Maybe after a few nights sleep. Good night, Eric. Good night. Was it Eric?

Rigel? Regal? Ratatouille? Piss off. Everyone knows who you are. Thanks for the drink. I know. Sorry. Damn it. I love this guy. I know the sending stones

are losing battles. I'm so excited. That's right. That's what it looks like tonight. Oh man, I'm going to get my ass kicked in a month. So Ashton, you watch as, being released from the table, just as Eshteross and Imogen leave the two of you to head towards the front to look into the room arrangements,

Ashton manages to reconvene with the two of you. What was that about? Holy shit, that's a dangerous motherfucker. We'll get into that. Okay. He sure looks like it. I mean, he dragged your face across the ground. Oh, I've been knocked unconscious by many times.

Okay. Well, you still look great. Thank you. Yeah. I break and bruise very well. It just sets everything. Yeah, it just adds to the whole thing. Yeah. A chunk of hair comes off. It's like a rock.

So listen. Imogen said that Dorian's brother is here. I'm fucking an idiot. Yeah, right? And the woman who was with Treshi? Yeah, she doesn't like me. She doesn't? No.

Well, turns out Chetney went in the back and followed her, and she is not what she looks like. She turned into some weird creature, and... I thought this gave a telephone. I know, I just love it. She's gone. Is Chetney all right? I think he's okay. No, that's you.

Oh! That's you. All right. Get me through. We should probably get the fuck out of here at some point. What do you want to do? Well, Fearne was suggesting that we go after the monster lady and investigate her. Just us, privately, just us gals.

I will admit I'm tired. Yeah. And I have ruined several of these tablecloths at this point with my version of blood. I actually, honestly, I'm not entirely sure what this is, but yeah, I'm not entirely sure what this is, but yeah, I'm a little tired. Okay, let's just sit here and just wait and see what happens. First Lord of Strahd.

Oh, he's with Imogen. He's with Illijan. With Maude. He's with Maude. Maude. Yeah. She's serving him and. With Maude. He's with Maude. Maude. Yeah. She's serving him and taking care of him. Yeah. Yeah, I should probably just keep an eye on, but probably keep some distance.

You know what? You relax. I'll go get us some drinks. Yes. Okay? I'll be ready. Insight check. Make an insight check. Instagram. Yes! Instagram. Roll a disadvantage.

14. You can make a deception check or just roll for the hell of it and just, based on the roll, see how you want to go with it. Seven. What does he sense? Well, I was going to take a little bit of a detour.

What's wrong? Nothing, I just feel like my... I just feel like I've got, I want to help stay and make sure that Ashton's all right, but I just have a sneaking suspicion that I should also stay with you to make sure you're all right. And I'm a little conflicted is all, so.

Oh, oh, well, I'll be right back. You're making, I know that tone of voice. I know that tone of voice. You do? I do. What is it? You should go. I'll be fine. You'll be fine? You should go.

No, no, no, literally, I'm just going to go get drinks, and then I'll be right back. You can watch me. Yeah, no, she's talking too fast. You should go. She's talking too fast. The speed of my way that I talk doesn't have anything to do with where I'm due with, whoa. Whoa. I get so bad at this.

Listen. No, it's fine. I'm not lying anymore. I will come right back. I'm not going to go where I was going to go. Your impulses, I think you should follow them, all right? You have great instincts and you should trust them. All I'm saying is, I'd like to be there to support you.

That's so nice to hear. Yeah. You make good decisions. And make good decisions now and I will be there to support whatever they are. Really? Yes. Okay. I'm coming with. Okay, let's go. I'm going to go bleed next to Laudna.

I think that's a really good plan. Okay. Ah, yeah! Okay, so you head up towards Laudna. You guys are heading to get drinks. You're still with Eshteross. You're amongst the crowd. I'm just going to stay where I am. I'm just going to keep wandering amongst all these people

and try to find out the last piece of information we came here to find. Okay. You are getting a sense that at the bare minimum, that at this point in the evening, the conversations have grown more direct. The play is a bit over, and now people are, as the evening begins,

to draw closer to a close, trying to get the real business in. Make an insight check for me. Insight, not perception, correct? Correct. General insight. Cool. MATT and LAURA say, Are you being watched?

That is dog shit. Four. Four. You're not familiar with a lot of social dynamics in this level of politics, and you're having a hard time picking up patterns of who's more important than who, whose connections are beyond just common conversation.

It's frustrating because you're in the middle of it, and you know you're in the right space, but there's a level of social perspective and expertise in clocking those dynamics that you just lack the experience for. You've been trained as a soldier, as a warrior, and you're a little out of your depth here

and it's frustrating. Different country, even. Yeah. Chetney, you were keeping an eye as a soldier, as a warrior, and you're a little out of your depth here, and it's frustrating. Different country, even. Yeah. Chetney, you were keeping an eye out in the backspace of the chamber. Like a hawk, back on those doors. Perception check, please.

Mm-hmm. That's a 16. 16. While all this is happening, while all this chaos is unfolding and the groups are now going into this feverish speed networking portion of the evening, you've seen this group of two folks

throughout the night, but it hasn't really caught your attention. And now you see them again, but they're definitely a bit... Their air, you suddenly zero in on, and they are walking with direct intent. You see these two individuals, one of which is a tall half-orc man, the other is a short, intense female gnome.

They're both wearing these dark green, almost trench coat-looking outfits. They're nice, but they're definitely function. And they both have kept together the entire evening. But at this point now, you can see they're talking to guards, specifically the ones in the back of the area. And the guards, there is a recognition and almost a disarmed openness

to how they talk to these individuals before one of them motions off this way. And they both nod. They open the doors for them and they head off into the hallway beyond where you just previously were with authority. Garin. Yes? I saw those two.

They've been making the rounds. Eyes like a hawk, I have. They haven't faded with time. What two? The two in the dark green robes that just moved through the tall half-orc man and the gnomish woman. Did I clock that at all?

You've seen them around the room. Okay. You silly bitch, open your eyes. Sorry, sorry. Make a history check for me. A history check? Correct. These checks are crazy. Maybe.

16. 16. You describe them, what they're wearing, and it tickles a memory in your head. You've heard of a group, two individuals like this before called the Green Seekers. Green Seekers? They're fairly well-known detectives.

Ooh! What? That had been, had done some work in Ancrelle, done some work here in the Wilds, had done some work in the Hellcatch Valley, which is where they really broke out and made a name for themselves in the criminal underbelly there. But they're definitely wandering agents

that have a very strong moral compass and follow whatever scent crosses their path. That's as much as you know about them. Shit. Chetney, when you were following my brother and you said he was looking to broker some sort of deal. Right. Did you feel that it was nefarious

or underhanded in nature in any way. It certainly didn't seem upstanding. He wasn't very quick to speak about it. I feel like if it had been on the up and up, he would have been more open. All right. And they went into the exit? Yeah, that's where I was.

Off to the left is the Pisser, off to the right is the Doom Room. The Pisser. Pisser. Oh, I have an idea! All right. Let's make this room work for us. Okay, all right. How about we go up to the guards?

Sure. And we say, hey, there's some shit going on in that room to the right. Okay. They're challenging the Chandei Gorum, we're going to, you should go check it out. And then while they go, you go, look, do you need to pee or anything? I could lie that I need to pee.

You don't have to pee. They won't check my bladder? No, I've got to. You haven't been drinking at all? Not really, no. That's just wasting an opportunity. All right. Let's go.

Shit. All right. We head over towards the guards. Correct. Okay. You both. We leave them there. Yes, you. Just behind them. Yes, you, are you letting them know

or are you just following them? No, just this little bit behind. What's happening to me today? So you approach the back part of the room and the guards are standing there, spears in hand, as you approach. Excuse me. It's the back part of the room, and the guards are standing there, spears in hand, as you approach. Excuse me, I wanted to let you know, the bathrooms are absolutely pristine.

However, when I was coming back in, there was a room off to the right, second on the left. The door was slightly ajar, and I couldn't help but hear a commotion of what sounded like a woman in trouble and a man's voice screaming, oh, the Chande Korm is vulnerable. Now, normally, I would keep this information to myself,

but I respect the environment, so I don't know. It might be worth a little looky-loo. And also, I have to pee. Make a deception check. Make a persuasion check. That's a winner. Wow. Covering some bases there.

Oh, yeah. 14 deception. 12 persuasion. Did you say persuasion? This would be persuasion, yeah. That's 12. 12, okay. And both the guards look at each other, look back to you.

Are they with you? You glance over and see behind you, fern and fresh-cut grass. Fuck. Oh! Smiley day! Oh, hello. Hello, I just, oh, I have to go to the restroom. The bacon-wrapped persimmons

just didn't sit well in my stomach. Persimmons? Oh, it's a lovely restroom. I'm actually fine. Help yourself. And I'll just walk off. All right, as you're walking that way, the guard speaks up, bait and clears his throat. You, one of us will have to escort you. The guard speaks out, clears his throat.

One of us will have to escort you. This hallway is for those who are staying on the grounds. Only. Oh, I thought we were... I believe we're staying as well for the evening, yes. Because that was part of the invitation, is that if you hang out, you drink a little bit, and then you get to stay. So. Ooh, I really have to go,

and I'll do a little potty dance. For sure. You make a persuasion check. This is like, hanging on by a thread. Oh yeah. I'm not, I'm not. I'm already starting to walk off. Wow.

13. Gotta love her. We had it! They roll their eyes. It is really weird that they didn't tell you guys this part of the party, that that was happening. You may indeed use these services. You just must be escorted now. Oh, that's fine.

All right. They open the doors, and you watch as the two guards emerge, and both walk alongside both of you. Do you know where you're going? Well, I don't know where the restroom is. Which way's the restroom? Oh, ah, yes.

Thank you. I'll walk briskly towards it. Same. All right, you both head that direction. One of the guards stays behind. One of them stays behind now at this point. The other one follows the path of the two of you. What are you two doing?

What are we doing? Are we just waiting for them? Is there a plan here? What's happening? I was just trying to get the guards to go check on the room that I was in. By the way, have you heard about the shit that was going on a little while ago? So I heard, Fearne told me that Imogen-

Wait, over here. Roll over this way. Fearne told me that Imogen told her that you told Imogen that you were in the bathroom with a monster lady and she attacked you while you were trying to pee. Is that what happened? No, I'm confused.

No, no, I was going after Cyrus because he disappeared and off and to the right, the lady Emoth Kaj, she went into a room and there were all these creepy, dark creatures around and she was dripping with sweat and looked kind of monstrous. But I left and couldn't find Cyrus, so I came back out to find you guys.

And the plan right now, Dorian's going to go check it out? I think he might go try and look for Cyrus. He mentioned something about holes in the wall, but look, he's in the restroom, so I don't see why there wouldn't be holes in the walls. I guess we should just hang here for a second until we get some sort of a signal?

Yeah. As we're walking to the potty, I'm going to lean to Fearne. The potty. The potty. I have children! I know. I'm sorry! I'm sorry, so we're walking to the pisser! Sorry, I'm sorry.

Walking to the pisser, bro! I lead over to Fearne and I go, Talk to him, talk to him, talk to him. To the guard? I'm going to nod my head to the guard. Okay. Whoa! How long have you been working at this establishment? I have been working in the chambers

for close to a decade. Close to a decade? As soon as he's engaged with her, I'm going to cast Minor Illusion as soon as I see that he's distracted. Okay, what are you doing? I am going to, as far away as I can from us, toward the direction of where Chetney mentioned,

it is going to be the voice of a woman screaming in distress. Ooh. Okay. You suddenly hear breaking through the quiet in that direction, This woman's screaming down the hallway. That was good.

All heads turn, and this is further down the left? Or in the direction of that? It's, I think hallway. That was good. All heads turn. And this is further down the left? Or in the direction of that? It's, I think it's the other way. It's where Chetney said the commotion was coming from. Correct. Yeah. The guard goes, Shit.

And gets his spear and just abandons the two of you for a moment to go follow the scream sound. The other guard, who's standing at the door, you can see, hears the sound as well. The other one meets up, they make eye contact, and they both begin to head down the right side to follow suit. What do you do?

Oh, okay, that was great. Just trying to go off of Chetney's play. Okay. We do have to look in the bathroom, though. I am? You do have to go to the bathroom. No, I don't have to go to the bathroom. I should be looking in the bathroom. Okay, look in the bathroom. I. Hiya. You do have to go to the bathroom? No, I don't have to go to the bathroom. I should be looking in the bathroom. Okay, look in the bathroom.

I'll stay here and keep an eye on the guards. Perfect. And I'll pop into the men's restroom. And pay your debts? Go, exactly. Pay my debts. That's the real work, you guys. Let's go. I guess I'm going to look for my brother.

You step inside, and right as you come within the front door, you see a short, rotund, well-dressed man in his late 60s with thinning, combed-over hair, who's in the process of putting his pants up, and goes like, Excuse me, and pushes past you, and turns right,

That bathroom's going to smell. and begins heading back towards the main chambers. I'm going to follow the guards. Okay, you follow the guards? Yeah. Okay. I'm going to follow the guards. Okay, you follow the guards? Yeah. Okay. I'm going to look under stalls? How do you make a beep-beep-a-boop-boop in this universe?

I don't know. I don't know if they have a hole in the ground or there's stalls. There is a small hallway and there are what looks to be three small water closets that are off to the sides of it there. But they're individual doors. But the one that the gentleman just came out of

is not great. The other two appear to be empty. Very nice. I'm not going to say his name. Not great. I'm going to go test the one closest to the smelly one. Is it open? It's open. Yeah. Open it up.

God, I turn to the other one, whip it open. Empty. Empty bathroom? Yeah. Fuck. Okay. Fuck, Fuck. Okay. Fuck, fuck, fuck. So I'm going to go back out, looking for my guard, Fearne.

Fearne's gone. This is like a production of Noises Off. The play that went wrong. Yeah. I'm going to head back. Fuck, I'm going to head back to the group. Well, you can probably still see me. Yeah, you glance up the hallway

and you see her disappearing in the direction the guards went. At this moment, Fresh Cut Grass and Chetney, what are you doing? Because you watch the two guard, one guard who's there. You hear the scream. We should help.

I guess. Was that Fearne's voice? I don't know, we should just capitalize. All right, we're going in. Okay, are you following directly after the guard? So there's two guards. One's way down the hall, one's closer to us. The scream happened.

The first guard looked in and leaned into the hallway. The other one you saw walk past him quickly and said a word to him. He went and joined him, and they both just began barreling down the hall in the direction of the scream. That's when you guys began to have this conversation. Maybe we should follow them? Yeah, I mean, that could just tell us to leave. What was the, I the scream. That's when you guys begin to have this conversation. We should follow them?

Yeah, they could just tell us to leave. What was the, I'm sorry. What room were we supposed to be inspecting here? Down the hall on the right, second door to the left. That's where the guards are headed? I assume that's where the scream came from. There was some shit happening. Okay, let's go. Let's do it.

Yeah. Before I leave the bathroom, I'm going to take one final look and see if there's anything out of sorts that looks totally wrong about this space. Make a perception or investigation check. Oh, which is better? Poop and shit, it's poop. It's an eight. What is going on?

You're pooping eights tonight. Poop and shit and poop? Poop and shit and poop. That's it? That's all that's in there? That's all that's in there. Okay, cool, cool, cool. I'm going to burst out and look down the hallway and see the commotion that I created.

Hi. Hi. Did everything come out okay in there? No, no. No, brother, no, nothing. Did you find your hole? No, no scary holes. No, just normal holes. I don't know what we're doing here.

We're looking at the guards to see if they've gone over to the door where the commotion came from. All right, let's follow the guards. Well, I think we just come in and look. All right, go! I'm with you, I'm on your six. Are the guards rushing to the door, second on the left, where Fearne should also be heading

at this point? They've moved beyond your sight in the immediate moment, and it's still darkly lit in this space, and it curves around the side. You see Fearne is also now beyond your side as you guys stop and converse. What the fuck? But you do hear the footsteps.

You hear what sounds like some sort of a physical commotion ahead, and the door is still ajar. Cool. Now, Fearne, you were following that direction. motion ahead, and the door is still ajar. Cool. Now, Fearne, you were following that direction. The guards had moved past. You get there first, as you come by the side, and the door itself is now open,

and you hear first some whispered hushes. Let me see. What the fuck? You hear somebody else try and scream before. Then silence, then this heavy dragging. Do I see that the guards are coming? From the room to the left,

that is, the door is partially open, where you think you saw the guards duck into. How'd you get getting booked out. Oh, got it. Okay. Eton. Oh god. Oh god. They've been out there this whole time?

I thought they were going to actually see him scream. Oh. This is a turn of events. Okay. Episode title. Turn of events. It all hinges on your good judgment. Okay. Episode title. I can't. It all hinges on your good judgment. Okay, I'm just going to stay there and just listen.

Okay. Just to interject briefly, Imogen, on the elbow of her sleeve, feels her elbow tug a little bit. Mm-hmm. Uh, Maude? Where the hell is everyone? Well, I told them to wait because we were going to get access to the rooms.

Are they not there? Eshteross turns around, and now you can see he has the keys in his hand, and goes, He's been had. Great. Where are the green seekers? They're beyond sight.

They went through the same back doors. Yeah. They're back where we are. They were there. But we don't know where. Okay. Not that I've watched it. They're where they were. But we don't know where. Okay. Not that I've watched it. Laudna's over there and Ashton's bleeding over at that table. And everybody else is missing?

Yeah, I'm over there, too. I haven't seen any of the others in five minutes. Laudna, in your head, where did everyone go? I haven't the slightest idea. I'm totally out of the loop. Okay. You just see me. Do you want to come with me? I'm just making pate tap dance.

Come on, get over here. I was trying to make myself open to Quorum members, and maybe pate, maybe they'd be interested. Don't stop. Keep that up. That's great. Tug, tug, tug, tug, tug. Me? What? Every dangerous person here knows each other. We're in over our heads.

There's a lot going on. I make my way over to the edge. You did it yourself. Can't save yourself. Dare you. I fell off. At this point, you're entering the room again, heading in that direction

as you're having this conversation. Eshteross has the keys in his hand and is looking about nervously. You meet up with these two. Should we just, maybe they already went back? Maybe they already went back, you know them. I bet they didn't wait. But we're staying here, right?

Huh? Back where? Back in the back, where the rooms are. Oh, I haven't told you. Okay, sorry. Meanwhile. Roll a perception check for me. Come on, come on.

Big money. Big numbers. Terrible. Mother bitch. The worst. 11. 11. 11. You listen in and you faintly hear this sound. Then

some heavy dragging on the ground, some metal scraping. Then you hear. Some sort of conversation through non-human voices in this chamber. Seems a little, I don't know, tense, if anything, but unable to understand the language at all. Okay. It's right about this time

that you all begin to approach Fearne, who is carefully listening around the partially at all. Okay. So what about this time, that you all begin to approach Fearne, who is carefully listening around the partially open door. Okay. The guards went in there. They got eaten. Oh! Wait, wait, wait, what did you just say? I assume I just heard, like,

I'm eating. Maybe they're eating. Maybe they were hungry. I just heard, like, I need him. Maybe they're eating. Maybe they were hungry. I doubt it, because there was also screams of pain. Is this the monster room? They're still in there. Did I just kill those two nice guards?

Probably. Oh, shit. We should get back up, because we're supposed to be keeping a low profile. Should I go? Let's avenge them. Should I turn into something and then go in there so I can see better?

No! Yes, yes, yes. Yes! What if they're still alive? We could help them. They're dead. That's a Lee See, man. That's a Lee See, man. One of them's still alive.

I have healing powers. Thank you to Onkka. We don't know that until we go. I'm going to go in and look. Oh. You are God's hand. We don't know that until we go. I'm going to go in and look. Oh! As fresh cut grass wheels into the room. We're going to get so framed. You come into the room and you can see across the way,

there is the open balcony that leads outside with the cast of moonlight pouring through. There is a number of, looks like there's a little library off to the pouring through. There is a number of, looks like there's a little library off the side there. There's a desk. A very faint bit of torchlight that's glowing in the room. You do see a blood trail, a heavy blood trail,

and a secondary smaller one that are both dragging through to a doorway that leads into an adjacent chamber, a continuation of this suite beyond. So they're dead. They're dead. We hear this, are we peeking through the doorway? Hey, yeah, you can come in. You can come in. Okay, okay.

It's fine. Is there any people in here? Right now, roll a perception check. There's two rooms, right? It's not just one room. Yeah, it's one room, and then there's a doorway that leads into a cell. 25. 25. Whoa, jeez.

You, as soon as you all begin to scuffle, you hear in that next chamber over that's part of this suite, you hear scratching sounds and. So they're either dead or in the process of dying. So if we want to save their lives, MATT and LAURA If we want to save their lives, we should go in there and help them. Otherwise, we are just going to leave them to die.

Wait, who are we saving? The two guards that Dorian killed. Why? Because they're innocent and haven't done anything wrong. How do you know? They have souls. Breaks the tense silence of the room.

What are you doing in these chambers? You look for the source of it and you don't see anyone else in the room, but you, with your extremely high perception roll, glance up and see, latched to the ceiling. Shut the fuck up. In her dark gray silver dress, pale, sweaty skin, latched,

head turned down, black eyes, an extended jaw dripping liquid saliva from it, the sharp teeth exposed. You see Lady Imoth Karr looking down as she is crawling back from the hallway through the door behind where you came in. So close. She came behind?

Goals. Ew! You can see wrapped around her shoulder, it looks like a satchel that is somewhat half full. Yeah. Hello? Smiley, smiley day to you. And that's where we're going to take a break. Oh! No!

Smiley day. Well. Well, hell. Well, hell. Well Well Well We'll pick up from there in a few minutes And yeah, we'll see you here in a second 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 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. Hello, everybody, and welcome back.

So. Where we had left off. Oh, that's right. Uh-oh. Shit. Laudna. Orym. What?

Who now? Imogen, you all together have been gathered with Ashton, not far behind, and Lord Eshteross, who had gathered the keys to your suites in hopes of following up the strange information that Chetney had bestowed upon you of an interaction he had in the back chamber,

and then noticing that the rest of your troop seems to have vanished somewhere. Cyrus is here? What? Yes, yes. Oh my god. What a fucking idiot. Yeah, no, he sounds like a moron,

but Dorian says he trusts him, but still. Everyone's here, it's like a bus station. Yeah. So we should head back? I mean, I don't see anyone else. We should probably go see where they went off to. Yeah, sounds cool. Hey, what are we all doing?

We're going to find our runes. Oh, perfect. You know, I don't say this often, but man, I'm done for the night. I'm really had a great time. Just ready to get some sleep. It's been great, but yeah, I'm fresh done. Yeah, let's just go.

You want to hit the head? Yeah, let's go pass out. And a nut. Okay. I think we might need you. For what? Emotional support? Oh no.

Who do we have to punch? You remember Dugger? Yeah. I think there's remember Dugger? Yeah. I think there's another Dugger. Oh, no. I mean, I'm only going to be, so you, Paul, let me put on a mask. What party were you all at?

I was at a totally different party. Do either of you guys have something for him? What do you mean? Something to, some refreshment? I've got some. Something for him? What do you mean? Something to, some refreshment. I tried. I've got some. I mean, it's only going to do so much. Could he hold it for you, though? Do you want to hold onto it just in case he's?

Sure. All right. Yeah, I'm a little tapped. Okay, let's go see if everybody's dead. Yep, yep, all right. All right, so you are now heading through the currently unguarded doors to the back of the chamber.

Great, we're on our way. And there's still mulling conversations. Yeah, everyone is very intensely focused in the middle of the social space here. Should I try and send a message to them just to see where they are? That's a good idea. Oh yeah. Sure. Good idea.

All right. Take a strand of my hair. Oh, Chetney! Chetney! Now just to double check. 120 feet. Give me a new hat. You have to point in the direction.

You have to point in the direction of the creature. While I'm walking towards where we're going. Yeah, where are you pointing? Towards the double doors? Towards the double doors, I guess. There's no response. There's no response. Do I see any of our crew over there?

No, the doors are closed and they're just there. No response, he's dead. We should hurry. All right. We walk a little bit faster. I was going to say, I probably would like to go try and catch the others. Not drawing too much attention to ourselves, but still. Well, you are in the room.

Oh, did I go in there? Yep. Did you go in? Did you go in? Did you go in? Yeah. Yeah. So while you are heading towards the chamber, we come back to the other group,

which currently has latched above. I pooped. I pooped. Smile of day to you. That's right, I left off. Is this where the sleeping quarters are for the evening? Sleep can be arranged.

Oh. Well, we didn't realize this room was already taken, so we'll just go. We start backing out, and run real slowly out of the room. As you take the first step, she makes this spittle spray from her mouth a little bit as her head turns to the side.

The bones in her arms move in a very unnatural way. She drops from the ceiling into the doorway and is now blocking your exit. You hear the chittering sounds of other creatures in the other additional chamber of the suite. . Is the doorway still open? Or did the door close?

She's standing at the doorway, now blocking the space, and goes, Sorry. We've got business for her tonight. I need you to all roll initiative. Yes! All of us, even the ones not in the room? The ones around the room,

we'll do your elements between. Okay. I'm a fool. Oh god. Come on, baby. Oh dear. here we go. They're going to die before we get there. I love it, I love it, I love it. And we're bringing. Oh, a little rug!

Both rugs! Look at the cute little bear. Wow, this is a great little bear. Look at the little bear! Ooh. Uh-oh. She looks like a fun mime. All righty. So in this room, we have... Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. You're fine, you're fine.

Fresh cut grass. Oh no. We have Chetney. Oh, so she's in the room. Yeah, she came in through the ceiling and then dropped down to prevent you from exiting. So she wasn't in the room when they walked in? Mm-mm. No.

Oh! Oh, wow. Is the door open to the other room? Or the in? No. Was she in the? Oh! Oh, wow. Is the door open to the other room? Or the inn? She followed the man. She was on the hallway ceiling. I thought she was on the, oh god. The skittering, or the guards were dragged to the blood. I thought she was in the room on the ceiling.

She was in the hallway? Up on the fucking- She came in front of the hallway on the ceiling. That's just wretched. The blood streaks. The blood streaks are leading to what room? Into here. These are big streets. There's a door?

I'm really glad I didn't go in there by myself. There's a door right here. I see that we have Ashton's. Man, but that. I'll do it later. All right, so getting into this insanity. Yeah. Oh boy. Ooh. Jeez.

Die roll. You guys can do it. You guys are going to be fine. Four to one. No problem. Yeah. All right. 25 to 20. Even for the outsiders? Nope. No. The outsiders are not rolling yet.

Okay. All right, 20 to 20. 20 to 15. Seven. 18. 18, and what's your dexterity? I don't know. Plus three, 16. And you rolled 17?

Yep. Chetney? I rolled 18, 17. Great. Yeah. All right, so 15 to 10? 10 to five? Grassy. Four. Four? Gee. Whoa. Fearne, where are you?

Both at four? Both at four. Both at four. Rollies. Rollies? Know what you're doing. Jax first, then rollies. I'm rollie-ing. Whoa. Fearne, where are you? Both at four? Both at four. Both at four. Rollies. Rollies? Know what you're doing. Dex first, then rollies. I'm rollie-zing. Whoa. Mine is, I got a 16 on rollies.

You can just jump the dex. I got a 12. Rollies? Wait, what's your dex? You can jump straight to rollies. My dex is less than yours. You may choose to rollies, should you not wish to handle the dex. Rollies. Rollies. Rollies.

All right. I challengex roll? Rollies. Rollies. Rollies. All right. Yeah. I challenge Lucien to rollies. That would have changed campaign two very, very much. All righty. Who went first? I'm sorry. So you're both four? Yes. Got it. Wait, who won rollies?

FCG. Wait, who won rollies? Is this serious? It matters! You made it matter. So Lady Emoth actually begins. Lady Emoth? Okay. Lady Emoth rolled the highest.

After ascending to the ground and snarling, you can see the absence of white in her eyes and the jaw itself extending long. The teeth almost seem somewhat translucent as thick slobber drips out onto the ground in front of her. Her arms and shoulders bend back and she quietly growls.

There's still a sense of keeping things quiet and contained as she begins to rush forward towards you, Fresh Cut Grass. Well, hello. Hot letter! She is going to go ahead and make two claw attacks against you. Mm-hmm. Natural one.

The first strike goes towards you and you just wheel back out of the way. The second one, that will hit, however, with a 26. Yes, it will. You take six points of piercing damage. Okay, okay. And? Plus 11 points of necrotic damage.

Okay. Oh boy. As her claw, the first one misses, the second one, she leaps forward again and drives it right into the chest area of your torso and streaks down the metal in the front and leaves this gash in the front. Now that she's up close and personal in the face, you can see the blackened veins across her body.

There's almost small, I want to say large, porous openings at certain parts of her skin that seem to almost breathe on their own. Ew! In parts of her shoulders and open areas. That's going to finish her turn. This campaign's for you, Travis. Yep. Dorian, you're up with Chutney on deck.

Damn it. I'm just going to look at her and I'm going to say, Where's my brother? And I'm going to cast Dissonant Whispers. Ooh, okay. Is that a wisdom save for her? That is 14. Wisdom?

Wisdom, yes. 13 on her end. Ooh, okay. She has to go with it. Let's go, let's go. All right, 3d6. Great. That is six points of damage, but she must also be moved back

her maximum distance. Okay, so she immediately leaps back into the air, under the ceiling. Skitters back. Okay, okay, that's a good move, dude. And is currently now in the back hall, upside down, her hair stringly hanging from above. That's a good move.

Awesome. Get her away, she's scary. Yeah, yeah. All right, are you going to stay put? No, I will stay put. I want to stay with the group for now. You got it, Chetney her up. Uh, right. Well, I want to stay with the group. You got it, Chetney, you're up. Right, well, I'm totally armed. I'm going to shimmy out of this dress.

Just let it fall to the floor. Undies on, okay? What color? They're kind of cream. They're like mother of pearl. Ooh, okay. They are white. I mean, look, you got to stick with the one that brung you.

So anyway. I'm going look, you got to stick with the one that brung you. So anyway. I'm going to run over to FCG. Wow. Open your mouth! Ah! I'll shove my whole damn arm down in there and start looking for the chisel. Okay.

Because there are guards out in the hallway, so, you know. You do eventually find it. It does take your full action to remove it, but you do find a chisel. You pull it out, and it looks like maybe part of the metal began to corrode in a way, but it's still largely functional and usable. Fuck yes.

It's game time. Ooh, I feel lighter. Amazing. Let's see. With my bonus action, I'll draw it across my hand and imbue my Crimson Rite. All right. But I got to roll a d6. That's cocked. One point of damage.

There you go. All right, so you take one point of damage as you draw it across your skin. The blood, as it pulls across, you can see it's almost absorbed into the chisel, and as it does, the chisel does what? It ignites with flames. All righty.

So is that your turn? It is. All right. Chetney finishing that as she's up in the back. Because my movement's still there, I'm going to run over towards the doorway to see if there's anybody else in there. How fair is this fucking fight? Okay, you head to the door and look.

The first thing you notice is two guards on the ground here and here. It's the same. There's blood being dragged, and one of them you can see is coughing blood up from gash marks across their face and neck. Currently, what looks to be

two little humanoid creatures with all black eyes and grayish skin. They're just these horrible toothy mouths and clawed arms between these tattered cloaks. And yeah, that's what you see. Two of them. Copy. We got two more here! Guards and enemies.

That's five, 10, 25. Movement's 25? It is. That gets you to the door. Thank you. All right. Finishing your go, you hear from around the corner, . Oops. Two more emerge from around the edge.

One of them is going to attempt to leap over you through the door. Your timing sucks! Okay. It leaps through, but you do get an attack opportunity on it because it does pass through your combat space over here. If you want to make a strike. Hold on, it leapt over me? Yeah. Oh, motherfucker.

How are you timing? It's not that hard. With a chisel. That's a 20 to hit. That definitely hits. You can go ahead and roll damage. Great. Plus blood break? Seven. Yeah, plus. So 11 points of damage.

Seven slashing four fire. All right, it leaps over you. You strike in the front. It lands and skids to the ground, grabs its stomach and turns back at you, spittle flying out and hitting your face a bit. Gotta use your diaphragm. No.

It's going to continue moving over this direction angrily. That one's going to stay there, and this one's going to attempt to close in on the space here as well. So you're technically in that there. This one also is going to charge over. This one's going to try and leap past all of you and get into the next chamber. It's going to be a harder DC for it.

Rolls a natural 19, though. Leaps past over you and is going to rush over here to engage with Fearne, the first it sees. I can't even swipe because that was my reaction. That was your reaction. So the two that are right there on the doorway engaging with you right there. Rolls a two.

That misses entirely with a seven. The other one, 13 to hit. Misses. Misses. This is with no armor on. Oh yeah. Okay. So as it goes and swings towards you, reaches out with its claws towards you, you go ahead and just duck out of the way

and its hand strikes the stone framing of the doorway in front of you. AC 16. It's like, with no armor? Mm-hmm, yeah, 18 normally, and then down two for the shield to 16. Well, you have a breastplate on. Gets your armor up that high.

A breastplate is... Thank you. Basically, what's your dexterity modifier? Dex is plus two. So you'd have an AC of 12, so the second hit would hit you. Would hit, okay. So keep that in mind.

All right, so as this one goes and strikes towards you, you take... Why did I wear a dress? That's a terrible roll. You're not in a good place. You take four points of piercing damage. Yes. And two points of necrotic.

Okay. It's a claw, you just pull out of the way and it catches your forearm and you're like, ah, it stings, but you've had far worse. The one that's running towards you on the other side that rushes to Fresh Cut Grass is going to attempt to attack you with a natural one.

You are just nothing, ducking to the side. Ready for it? Without issue. The one that rushes up to you, Fearne, however, is going to leap in the air, claws out, and intend to just go like a frenzied strike on you. Four, 18 to hit?

Yes. All righty. You. There righty. You. There we go. That is five points of piercing damage and seven necrotic. Oh. Okay.

That finishes their go. Fresh Cut Grass is Fern on deck. If I had to estimate the distance from me right now to where I last saw Imogen, Eshteross, all them, would it be within 120 feet or no? The doorways that lead down the Sog Sphere is another room here, and the hallway continues this way. About here is where the door would be.

But they're beyond that across the hallway. But they're beyond that across the hall. But they're beyond that across the hall. So I'd say they're probably a little more than that right now. Okay. So casting Message would not be smart. Okay. So in that case, I'm going to try to... No.

Okay, I will try my best. Boy, what's the best play here? Do damage or defuse? I'll try to defuse. I will cast, I will say, now, ladies and gentlemen, we don't want to fight here. Let's just calm this down and I'll cast Calm Emotions on all of them. Okay.

I can center the radius within, in the center of all of them and hit all of the little critters. The little critters you can, yes. Yes. Okay. It's a charisma 14 save. It is. If they are hostile, do they get advantage on it?

Let's see. No, I do not think you can. However, if they are attacked or harmed, then it goes hostile again. So let's go ahead and roll for these. The one that's next to Fearne, natural one, you're just pulling the ones up there. So this one, we'll say,

is a little more docile for the time being. Kind of goes into a confused and looks over to its leader for some sort of interaction. The one that's right in front of your face, that fails as well. Nice. They do not have a, they're not known for their intense wisdom.

We'll put a marker. Except for Charlie. Except for Charlie, he's pretty tough. There you go, that's the coloration I want to pull for. Yeah, just can't smack them around, is the... Going back to the two that are facing you. That succeeds, and succeeds, 14 out of 16. Okay, so the two that are right there in the room

with you, put their claws to the side and start looking over down the long hall where the Lady of Moths is hanging from the ceiling and getting ready to possibly charge back in. Do you want to stay put? No, I'm going to go diagonally that way and duck around the alcove there. Yeah, just so I'm out of sight a bit.

Okay, you go ahead and skitter off those two because they are docile at the moment, or at least not actively engaged in aggression. Do not take any swipes on you as you move out of their combat range. And for my bonus action, if you'll allow it, I will use it to speak to my comrades and say, if you attack them or any of their friends,

they will once again become hostile. Shit. There's two others in the other room, right? Not affected? Yep. Okay. That seems to be the moment. Yeah. Shit. There's two others in the other room, right? Not affected? Yep. Okay. That seems to be the moment. Yeah. Okay, that finishes your go.

Fearne, you're up. Ooh. Going to blow it right here. Yeah, immediately. Immediately. I figured. Oh. So we can't hit anybody in here.

But they can't see anything in the next room over, so you could have fun with her. Yeah, okay. So what we're going to do here is we are going to, me, I am going to bring Mister into the game. So Mister apparates from underneath your shawl.

Good boy. Where do you want us to place him? Just beside me, in between Dorian and I. Our baby. Okay. Now, does Mister do anything when he arrives, or? No, I think it's the next, I think I command, hold on, I will tell you right in this moment.

Okay, no worries. You find it. E, okay. As an action, you can expend one of your wild shape carry that features summon your wildfire spirit rather than assuming you use one of your creature within 10 feet of the spirit. When it appears, must succeed in a dex saving throw

or take 2d6 fire damage. So we might be fighting them if they fail. If, knowing this, do you want to place them between the two of them? Or somewhere else? What would Fearne do? You do your thing. Okay. Dance.

Let me see, how far can I place him? Yeah, baby, pull. 20 feet? Within 30 feet, I think? Yep. Within 30 feet of me? Okay. Correct. So you could move and choose elsewhere if you wanted to. Okay. Ooh, that's a bit of a pickle.

Ooh, what a pickle. What you got? Okay. Ooh, that's a bit of a pickle. Okay. Ooh, what a pickle. What you got? Okay. Shit. Can I put him in the room? Over? Which room? The room in here? Yeah. If you get enough

visual sight, you can, if you move over. Yeah, I'll move over a bit. Like there? Yeah, to where I can see, and I'll move over a bit. Like there? Yeah, to where I can see, and I'll pop them right in front of those two. All right, so both of them have to make a dex save? Yep. Does that mean that the guards that are down

would have to make dex saves, too? If you put him right there? So if you put him there, likely, yeah. That's okay. Okay. Okay. So. They were never making it out. I mean, they're probably half eaten. Double sixes, they both fail, so go ahead and roll.

Okay. Damage on that. Oh, what a dumb roll. Three. Three? Three points of damage. Three points of fire damage on each of them as Mister suddenly vanishes from your shoulder and bursts into flame into the other room

with a bright light. It blinds you momentarily, Chetney, as you watch the flaming Mister and the two shade creepers withdraw. The two guards on the ground begin to writhe as they burn. They're not dead, but they're certainly closer. It will be soon. Oh man. As I see that, I'm like, oh, I'm so sorry.

Is that your bonus action? And then as a bonus action, I am going- Is that your action? That's my action. Yeah. As bonus action, I am going. Is that your action? That's my action. Yeah. As a bonus action, I'm going to produce a flame blade from my hand and have that prepared. And I'm just going to look at FCG. Describe how you create the flame blade, if you could.

So I just fling out my hand and it just very slowly starts to come out of my hand. Hell yeah. Yeah. Cool. I'm waiting. But I... Are you?

Because it seemed like you just killed some people. The one that's docile, that's right in front of you, just looks over at you, up at you, looks over and sees Mister appear and burn his friends, and then goes, I'm sorry. The one that didn't see it.

So you summoned it, you still have to use your action to attack next turn, correct? Yeah. Okay. But yeah, the one that didn't see it, which is over by the wall, is still just standing there going, Okay, okay. But definitely one of them broke from that. Okay. But that's your turn.

All right, that's my turn. That's my turn. All right, so at the end of this round, you all have come through the hallway and you glance down one side and over the other and you hear a commotion and you see, suddenly, you do, actually, because you have the super high fucking crazy passive perception, all of you just hear noises

and you're not quite sure what's happening. You watch something skitter across the ceiling back into the hall and you see what looks and you see some sort of humanoid figure that's almost spider-like on the ceiling. I've heard a description that I didn't see before, but does it look Dugger-esque from my point of view? There's not enough light to see. Okay, just something creepy.

Yeah. And we're how far away? You were down here. Okay. Looks like the purpose of the placement is somewhere in this neighborhood. Are we in Loosey Goosey? I would say the purpose of the placement is somewhere in this neighborhood. Are we in Loosey Goosey? I would start running in.

Okay. Are you moving and dashing? Yeah, but I would be like, hang back, and I would start running at him. Okay, what's your speed? It's 30. 30? 30, and you're dashing as well? Yeah.

That will get you double move to about there. So you are now in the hallway, but that's your full turn to get to that place. I would take off running as soon as he took off running. Right, I need you, and then you go ahead and do the same? Uh-huh. That'll get you about there. I wouldn't dash, though. I would probably just take my 30

and then try to attack the thingy that I saw. There you go. So you are still back in the hall. I'll stick with you. I'll stick with Laudna. Okay. So you both have an in the hall. I'll stick with you. I'll stick with Laudna. Okay. So you both have an action to go.

Okay. That's your turn. But we need you to roll initiative now to see where you are. This is essentially coming into the space. Cool. Yeah. 10.

Okay. You got you? Five. Okay. Should we just put them at the bottom of our initiative? Is this after Fearne before Emalda? This is them moving in while it's happening. Now they're rolling initiative and they're going to be added while it's happening. Now they're rolling initiative

and they're going to be added to it this round. Oh, okay. I didn't put what the numbers of individual people were, so. I got it. It's all situated here. Fearne and Freshmere Gats are both four. Dorian was 18, Chet was 17. So Dorian is at the top. I mean, Orym is at the top.

Orym is at the top. Orium is at the top. Okay. Also 21, Longo after. Yeah, and I'm right after you. You said it out loud. At the Orym. Well, I'm thinking of cookies now, too. Sure. Me, too.

Thinking of cookies. And? And thinking of cookies. Got it. So at the top, Orym, you rush in and watch this creature up there. It hasn't quite noticed your approach and is more focused and is getting ready to tear back into this open doorway.

You can hear scuffling and sounds of growling and skittering from within. What do you do? Do I see it better now? You do now. Okay. And it's covered in mucus and shit? It definitely evokes a similar vibe as to your encounter with Dugger, if a little more refined.

Okay, then I'm going to run at her and leap nine feet into the air and double slash her legs. Because of your jump, you can do that. So you rush up, go ahead and land back on the ground below, but go ahead and make your two strikes. Orym got, oops!

Okay, first one is not that good. Where'd it go? That is a 14. 14 misses, unfortunately. Second one is a 20. 20 does hit. On a dagger. So that's three.

So I have his eight and I will make it a goading attack. So she has to make a wisdom save. You got it. That is a failure with an eight. So she takes 15 points of damage from the second slash. Nice. The blade slashes across the stone of the wall, and then I kick off, and as I'm coming down,

rake it across her leg. And any attacks on anyone but me are at disadvantage. You've got it. Okay. As the first swing goes wide, you go and strike towards her. She pulls up and it hits the wall and then you swing upward with your momentum as it goes down and as you do,

you catch part of her leg and you hear onto the ground. That's it. You glance back to you land and see, and it's still in the shadow, but some of the light from the torch catches the eyes, almost like a cat in the shadow when a flashlight moves by, and you're like, and, hey, Fearne, and that's it.

Oh, hi. Does it start the initiative now, or would we have gotten an attack as we ran up as well? You guys actually, yeah, you guys still had an action, so you could do that now. Oh, sweet. Then we'll come back, because that should technically have been before him. Oh, okay, okay.

Then I'm going to, Bless you, then we'll come back. Because that should technically have been before him. Oh, okay, okay. Then I'm going to, Bless you, bless you, bless you. I'm going to see her, and as I run up, just shoot my hand out, and I'm going to cast Tasha's Mind Whip and try to hit her. Watch her whip. Mind whip. Yes, mind whip.

Watch her whip. Roll that. Could you try again? Could you please? I'm going to try to get a mind whip. It's an intelligent saving throw. Okay, you got... Natural 18. Ah.

Does save, unfortunately. Watch me nae nae. I, as I run up. So it takes half damage, though. Oh, it does? Yes. Come on! That's cool. Well, then I'll roll that. Mm, mm, mm.

Get that nine-bit damage. Not bad for a servant. Oh my god. 16, so. 16, so eight points of psychic damage. You got it. So as you extend your consciousness and tear through the creature's mind,

it manages to just catch you in the moment and the wills collide, and you still manage to push through and do damage, but there is resistance. All right, so that finishes your action at the end of the last round. Laudna, what are you doing? Um, oh shit.

That's fine. Oh goddammit. Laudna, what are you doing? Oh shit. Fine. Oh goddammit. Hang on. Oh shit. It's a bonus action. Um, bonus action, Hex. Okay. Can I Hex her? I should prove. He axed.

I can still take an action as well, yeah? In this round? As long as it's not a spell, if it's a cantrip, you can. Yes, I will cantrip Eldritch Blast. You have two now. I have two of them now. Go for it. Okay.

Is this, what is this? This is a six. All right, six plus seven is 13. 13 misses, unfortunately. Okay, and the other one is a 17, plus seven, which is 24. That hits. So go ahead and roll damage for one, plus hex damage. I've never had a problem reading my dice ever

in my entire career. 13. So six is in my entire career. 13. So sixes and the nines. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sure, sure, sure. Those are always nines. Can get a little... Way down. There is no six. No sixes on those dice. Way down.

Nice. Even a d6 is okay. Nice. 13. 13 points of... Of necrotic. Necrotic damage. You see as it impacts the creature, seeing you all rushing into the hallway, you striking from below at that point, and glancing over at everyone else in the other room,

you can see it's contemplating and calculating its next move. So now we're at the top of the round. You had taken your action already. Yeah. Now... Okay. One of the guards is not looking

like it's going to make it. Yeah, I don't know. Come on, come on. One of them in the background, the flames are smoldering on its boot, and it's like, His name is Russ. Just bleeding out of the mouth and the ground. Oh, Russ. Poor Russ. Don't do it, don't name it.

All right. Don't name it. It is now at the top of this. Ashton's go, since you rolled so high. Fuck. Of course. His birthday was next week. No. He was about to retire. He was about to get a promotion. Whoa!

Can I see anything that's going on over there? No, all you do is hear sounds from within and you just see your friends focusing on this creature that's still lashed to the ceiling. It's humanoid, but moving unnaturally. Okay, I'm going to take a few steps forward. I'm going to drink a potion, because it's looking like that.

Hey! And that's plus two, right? Yep. That's nine hit points you get. Nice. And pass that over. two, right? Yep. That's nine hit points you get. Nice. And pass that over. Pass that over, baby. I'm going to take a sip and Sorry.

I'm going to yell. Pass that over, baby. Fuck, are you guys all right? You all hear Ashton's voice from around the corner shout, asking if you're all right. Hello! Fuckin' hell! I'll answer on my turn!

All right, you staying put? Yeah, I'm coming a few feet forward. I'm just staying in front of the spellcasters. Cool, cool, cool, cool. Okay, you got it. Finishing your go. Yeah. It is now Lady Emoth's turn. Looking down at you in the ground,

she spider climbs across the ceiling. Over here. Oh no. and she spider climbs across the ceiling. Over here. Oh no. And is going to dart down towards Fearne, and is going to go ahead and... You watch as her neck curls back. It seems to almost lengthen as it does so. The spinal column itself pulls back, and you watch as right above where their

somewhat bony sternum is, the flesh seems to almost gather up before she fires a line of translucent spittle that goes right through Fearne and you. Need you both to make dexterity saving throws, please. middle that goes right through Fearne and you. Yeah. Ah. Need you both to make dexterity saving throws, guys. Yeah. He knows what he's doing. Dexterity saving throws. You with your skills.

Me too? Sure. Oh, so bad. That's a lot of dice. So bad. 10. 17. That's a success. dice. So bad. 10. 17. That's a success. You take half damage on this. So Fearne, let's see here.

You take 12 points of poison damage. Jeepers! You take 24 points of poison damage. And you are poisoned. Well, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I have a thing of a poison. I have advantage against poison. Then roll again.

Okay. Just on the poison effect? What's this for? I have advantage on poison because of the halfling that I am. Oh, okay. Because of the halfling that I am. But is that still a dex save, though?

Still a dex save, yeah. Okay, so that is 16. 16 succeeds. You only take 12 points of poison damage, and you are not poisoned. Remember your rules, folks. Look at that. Oh shit.

All righty. It burns. So as you both manage to get out of the way before it can completely engulf your eyes and nose and ears and any open, sensitive spaces. It's in my urethra! So while it stings and burns into the skin, it could have been a lot worse.

All right, that finishes the Emoth's go. Now we are back to Dorian with Chetney on deck. All right. Drop down are back to Dorian with Chetney on deck. All right. Drop down right next to you. After spitting this line through the Dorian beyond and you see your friends get coated, she turns back to you and. I said, where is my brother?

I'm going to pull out the Gambler's Blade, close the gap, and just take a piercing slash right at it. Heck yeah, go for it. MATT and LAURA, SAM and LAURA, and LAURA, and LAURA. You have, no, you do not have advantage. Just buckle that shit. Yeah. Wait, the Hex, what does Hex do?

Hex just does additional damage when she damages. When she does it? Okay. But it will get a disadvantage on checks. I'll say dex checks. You got it. Dex checks. That's 18. 18 hits, go ahead and roll damage. Sweet.

Nice, seven plus three, that's 10. 10, awesome. Do you have any other abilities from your deck? Yes, so for my bonus action, I'm going to expend one Bardic Inspiration and I am going to use Slashing Flourish. Okay. So I take that stab at her

and then I look for two other people and while I take that stab at her, and then I look at the two other people, and while it's still stuck in her, I pull it out, and I stick it straight back in her again, because if a weapon attack hits, it can use it to deal the extra damage equal to the number that I roll. So I think that's another seven? Well, you roll your Bardic Inspiration die.

Oh, I pull my Bardic Inspiration die. Yeah. Which is what? Oh no, I've never used this before. Oh no! That's right, because you've been given other people's bardic inspiration. It's got to be, oh, it is a d8.

Yeah, yeah, so just roll that again? Roll it again. Come on. Ooh! Baby, let's go! That's an eight. Oh! An additional eight points of damage to it. But then also with Slashing Fur Flourish,

I pull it out and I can also hit anybody within five feet of me. So would that be the two little guys? If you wanted to move in closer to have done so, I'll allow that to make that guy. Just one of them? Just one of them, yeah. Yeah, then the little guy in the light, and I'm just like, that's for you too, bitch.

I'll stick him with that one. So he also takes eight points of damage. So you're going to stick it in her, pull it out, stick it back in her, pull it out, and stick it in the other guy? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, cool. I'm just poking everybody. It's a board.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So after you stab it in her, pull it back and stab her again, moving to the side, and then flourish back and strike the other guy who had already been wounded by Chetney. The blade carves through him and he like just crumbles to the ground. Yes.

Shoo! All right. And the body and the blade carves through him and he just crumbles to the ground. Yes. All right. And the body ignites and burns in a radius. Oh shit, forgot about that! I need Fearne to make a dexterity saving throw. Sorry, Fearne! Oh yeah. I burst into flame. Put me when I burn! Eight.

You take four points of fire damage. So many eights? From the burning atmosphere on the creature. But that creature is dispatched. It's heavy damage. Awesome, that finishes your go. Dorian, Chetney, you're up. Can I see, quickly, looking through the doorway,

past the two shade creepers that are there, do either of the guards look more alive than the other? Yes. This one, you're uncertain if they're alive. This one, you see a little bit of movement as one of the legs is twitching a little bit, and almost like it's trying to kick away. All right, I will try and run by the shade creeper

on my right along that inner wall and head towards him. So to not draw attacks of opportunity from both, if I can, if it is, I'll try for it. I'm going to try and push towards that card. Okay, are you trying, they're both blocking your path unless you go around this way, unless you arc around,

otherwise you could try and leap over. Oh, I see. Yeah, I'll try. Oh, is that going to spin my action if I try and leap over there? No, just an acrobatics check. Okay, I'll try it. All right, so since they two have leapt over you, you're like, two can play this game, bitch. You go ahead and immediately pull back

and go into a Chetney leap over the one in front of you. Roll an acrobatics check for me, please. Okay. Uh, 17? 17, so. AJ ain't nothing but a number! Landing right next to our good monkey boy there. You land.

One of them does, no, actually, you're still in melee with both of them, so none of them get an attack of opportunity. You land next to the guy there on the ground, yeah? I'm next to the guard that looks like he might have some life left in him. We got to have one of these fuckers alive, otherwise we're going to get framed to shit.

I will take out the green healing potion, the greater healing potion that also has, I think poison immunity or whatever in it. I'm going to dump it in his gullet for my action. Okay, go ahead and roll a 2d4. 2d4. I'm here for sour apple. I know most people like it. I'm here for sour apple. I know most people like it.

Make it. What about six? Six points plus, it was a four and a two, so six plus four? Yeah, so it's 10. 10. Hey! Heals 10 points. You finish administering the potion, and the guard

looks down and sees the flaming monkey and sees the two other creatures there and immediately grabs the spear and sits up and puts its back against the wall that separates the two rooms. We're friends. We're here to help. Things are about to get wheeled.

Weird. Wheeled. Don't hit me. Oh! And with that, you transform into your leg cancer. Go! With that, you transform into your like-hand hybrid form. The guard just goes. It's not quite sure where to focus its fear,

but it's back against the wall, spear in front of it, and it's in a defensive mode right now. Okay, that's my turn. That finishes you, just in a defensive mode right now. We're good. That's my turn. That finishes you, Laudna, you're up. Bathroom guard. Literally bottom, what? Me? Your turn, yeah.

Oh shit! You were staring at me expectantly. Okay, well, fuck. Imogen and I are fucked right now. So I look at Imogen. Hi, run forward. Okay. You have 30, that's your movement.

Damn, so I can't see shit, can I? Not right now, no. I will dash. Okay. It's a bonus action to dash? No, it's your action to do that. My action? Yes. Unless you're rogue, because they can do that.

Right. Can I see her? Oh yeah, she's right there. Yeah. Okay. I will Quicken a spell. Mm. Okay. Because I can do that now. That sounds fun.

Spin two sorcery points. Actually, wait, what? Hang on. Doing this for the first time. Hang on. New toy. Action. New toys. Oh shit.

Can you spell it again? One action, two sorcery points to change. Okay, okay, okay, okay. So two sorcery points to change. Okay, okay, okay, okay. So two sorcery points and I will chill touch her. Okay. Ooh, nice, nice, nice, nice.

Quicken means you can turn into a bonus action. Mm-hmm. Yes. So badass. Pretty cool. All right. So from the ceiling, from the darkness, you just see two skeletal hands reach out and clasp on top of her.

That'll make it. Make a rain spell attack. Come on, don't fuck me. Natural fucking one. God. Natural one. That's why you can't say that on the non-guild dice. Yeah.

Yeah, I can't say that on the non-guild dice, huh? You rush around the corner, drawing on that source of arcane power within your blood, your cold, half-undead blood, and release the chill touch. The two skeletal claws collide downward, and this creature, as the claws strike, seem to slide off of her from the strange layer

of weird, viscous excretion that coats her exposed skin. Well, there goes my sorcerer points. Ooh. It's a worthy shot, though. All right, it's my turn. All right, finishing Laudna's go. The rest of these individuals are? Oh shit.

This one, which has now been attacked, is going to shift around behind Dorian. This one here is going to run through here. You have a reaction, so you do get an attack of opportunity. Does Mister get a reaction? Mister does not. Who gets an attack of opportunity? You do, Chetney.

I do? Yes, because one of them rushed past you. Amazing. That one's going to turn and strike towards you. I just have... I still got my chisel. Amazing. That one's going to turn and strike towards you. I just have... I still got my chisel. Yep. The werewolf with the chisel.

I'd watch that. That's 22 to hit. That hits, go ahead and roll damage. Two plus eight, ten, plus... Five, 15. 15. As that one rushes past you, you quickly streak out and catch the back of its head,

and as it moves two steps forward, it goes and that head wobbles as you've actually severed the back of where its spine would be at the back of the neck, and it just crumples into the ground before bursting into flames. Make a dexterity saving throw for me. Okay.

Dexterity save. 17. 17, you succeed. So you only take three points of fire damage. Three points of fire. I turn and look at the guard and go, Friend! The other one is going to go ahead and strike you.

That is a 17 to hit. That thing does hit you? It does without all my other stuff, yeah. All right, you take, oh, there we go. Eight points of piercing damage. Okay. Reduced to four because you are in your hybrid form. And it's non-magical?

It's non-magical and non-silver. You do, however, take nine points of necrotic damage. Copy that. Damn. Damn, man. Hmm. Copy that. Damn. Damn, man. Hmm. All right. So that'd be three points of bludgeoning damage. I looked at the wrong bonus, but yeah. Three instead of four? Three instead of four.

So you get one more. Then there is the one that is now moved behind Dorian and is going to go ahead and strike you. It does have advantage because it is flanking you with Lady Amoth. And yeah, that'll, I'm pretty sure it hits with a 19. Oh yeah. Yeah, okay. It circles around.

It shakes off the influence from the calm emotions and unleashes into your back as you just see it move around with unnatural speed and it tears into you for five points of piercing damage. Mm-hmm. And 12 points of necrotic. Oh my.

The claws just burn into your back and you feel your whole back muscles tense up from the pain before you pull away. It's now attempting to climb onto your body and tear into you. Oh, fuck you! Come on, come on! I just had a massage, man! Imogen. You are ruining the mood!

You're up with Fresh Cut Grass on deck. Okay. All right, having seen Laudna take off running, I'm just going to close my eyes and put my hands down and Misty step to the doorway. Hell yes! Yes, yes, yes. So you're going to move forward?

Fine. If I can, So you're going to move forward. Fine. Then just. I, if I can, I'm just going to use the 30 feet of Misty Step to get to the doorway. Okay, we've been, 15, 20, 25, 30. I can Misty Step that far? You can move Misty Step this far. Okay, and then I can walk in.

But then you can continue to move, yeah. Great. Then I'm going to use my action. Can I see Scary Lady? You can. Bad Scary Lady, not good Scary Lady. Yeah. It's good to see she gets.

Be specific. All right, I am going to... I'm going to just look at her and say, Take it in! I'm going to send all of the mental anguish that I'm feeling from the party and send it to her, and I'm going to cast Dissonant Whispers. Is that a cantrip?

Because you did cast Misty Step, which is technically a spell. Oh, I thought because it was a feature that I could do it. Does... Feature from which? Fey Touched. Gotcha.

Does it still count as a spell usage? It's like casting a spell when you use the feature. Got it. But you can still do a cantrip. Got it. In that case, I'll do the same thing, but with my sliver. You got it. Same thing. Is it a saving throw or a attack roll from you?

Same flavor, different text. Intelligence saving throw. You got it. That is going to be a 14. Yes, 15. You got it, just misses. Oh, yes. Hurt, hurt.

Seven points. Seven points of damage, all right. She's now on the ground and seems to be wrestling with the pain, striking the head. For a second, you watch as the monstrous form snaps back and you see the woman once again, almost brought back to her previous form in the party before looking over right at you.

Right there. All right, does that finish your go? Yeah. All right, if it should grass you up, Fearna, you're on deck. I just ducked my head behind Laudna. Sorry. We got a lot of heavy hitters here,

so I'm going to look up at the wall beside me and see a crude poster, a picture of Russ the guard, and it just says, Guard of the Month over him. I'm like, I'm coming for you, Russ! So I come out and I start like, I'm coming for you, Ross! So I come out. I come out and I start making my way over to the other door. Do I see, do I see,

can I see past all this melee madness to see if any guards are awake or alive or anything as I'm walking? No, no. The closest you can get is about there, which will get you into melee with that one over there, but you can see this guard across the way and a little bit here. This guard is now conscious and back against the wall,

sitting spear in hand, and is just taking in the chaos around it. The other one is on the ground and not moving. It's a little hard for me to see. So there's one bad guy in front of me in the room. Right here is one bad guy. And behind me is the bad lady. Behind me is the bad lady. Over here is the bad lady.

Rules are I can cast a bonus action spell and a cantrip spell, is that right? Correct, if you'd like to. Wow. Or you can cast a spell and then you do a bonus action feature, up to you. I will use bonus action to cast Spiritual Weapon. Okay, all righty. In what form?

Well, we're at a party. So I would like to cast it to look like a formal invitation and on the front it says, The honor of your presence is cordially invited. Then if you flip it open, it says, To a whoopin' ass whoopin'! I like that it would say it says, to a whoopin', an ass whoopin'. I like that it would say whoopin' ass whoopin'. Yeah, it's an ellipsis. Emotionally charged with the writing.

I was already there for the honor of your presence. I didn't want to reprint. Is that a headroom? I was already on board. I hired a calligraphist and I didn't want to pay to redo it, so just left it in. What's your presence? It's Gordrillion.

Diated. Diated. I don't have a... Why not? to redo it, so just left it in. What's the problem? This is gaudily invited. Gaudily requested. I don't have a... Why not? I don't have an invitation. Matt, you're breaking the... Where do you want it to go? Breaking the...

A piece of paper, I can whip one up. I mean, I feel like the bad lady is now swarmed by our people, but yeah, I'll attack her. I'll attack her. Okay, on this side or this side? On my side. Okay. There it is, go ahead and'll attack her. Okay, on this side or this side? On my side. Okay.

There it is, go ahead and roll an attack. Okay, attack. Let's get our Ted Grasso. Nope, four plus something. I'm sure it doesn't hit. It hits her like an invitation would. He flops against her. You got to angle it.

Angle it for the paper cut. Yeah, now you know. You're not wrong, sir. An honest VP, I'm sorry I can't attend. I still have an action. Oh man, I can't reach the dead guy. He's probably dead. I see the other guy's doing okay.

Is that Russ? No. Oh no! No! Fucking terrible. We're killing the NPC we made up. No! No!

I can't reach him to spare the dying, so I guess I'll use my action to cast Sacred Flame. I guess I'll style it that a little door opens right here my action to cast Sacred Flame. I guess I'll style it that a little door opens right here and a little hose sticks out and. It's like a blast of fire. You got it. At the guy in front of Chetney.

You got it, you got it. It's a deck save, I assume? I think so. Let's see here. Sacred Flame is a deck save 14. Yeah, it failed with a six. Okay, I assume? I think so. Let's see here. Sacred Flame is a dex save 14. Yeah, it failed with a six. Okay, I roll a 2d8. Ooh. Seven points of damage.

Seven points of damage. The flames seem to emulate him for a minute before he shakes it off. Looks hurt, but it's still like. Okay, okay. Okay, that finishes your go. You got it, Fearne, you're up. Okay. Put the worm on deck

at the top of the rope. So Mister, we'll start with him. He's going to shoot a flameseed at this boy here. One in front? Okay, you got it. Yep. Yes, 15 plus seven, so. Correct. Yeah. Go ahead, hold it, Ash. Okay.

Get my little teeth, my baby teeth. Nope, it's gone. Okay. Did we win? Did we win? Yeah, it's the same one both sides. 11 points of damage. 11 points of damage on him.

That's a horrible damage. Damn. Okay. Yes! He explodes from the flame seed that's thrown point blank into its back and just detonates around. Not Mister!

Mister is Mister Immune to Fire? Chutney. Well, I feel like he would be. I assume he might be. It would be a resisted to, immune to? How can you tell? Look. Call Aurea. She's deep into it.

He is immune to fire, yes. So he takes some damage. I need both Fresh-Cut Grass and Chetney to make dexterity saving. Oh jeez, sorry. That's okay, 17. That's good, that's good. That's a success. Is this considered meh?

Never mind. 16 plus five, 21. Okay, yeah, you both succeed. You both only take five points of fire damage. Five points. Sorry, guys. Well, it's all right. All right. Okay, and I am going to turn around.

Oh no! And flip my flame blade and try to Oh, okay. Sorry. Just hit the camera. Try to slice it across her throat. Such a dangerous place. Go ahead and roll an attack. We do a spin-on attack modifier. Go for it.

Okay. Is there an advantage because I'm flanking with Dorian? Yes, there would be. Yay! Yay! There you go. Rules queen. Oh yeah! Let's go. I'm going to get you. Good deal.

Natural 20. No! Woo! Murder! So go ahead and roll 3d6 and double it. Okay. Come on, come on. Make this a good roll. Howdy-der-der-der-der-dee.

Did you just roll sand? Yes. Yes. Why? It's like some broken croutons. Okay, okay, it's not terrible. Salt grains. Yeah. Ten doubled. Ten doubled, 20.

20 points of fire damage. That's no joke. Okay, okay, okay. That's not nothing. So describe how this crit goes through. She's currently focused between you and Dory and she just took the blast attack from across the way, just dodged the chilled touch,

and is now glancing around at you. So I'm going to turn around with all the mucus all over me. I just got shampoozled. Then I'll just try to slice it across her throat to try to open up all the mucus sac. Okay, she pulls back and the blade cuts past and you see the cut does go through

and a bit of excretion down the side of the neck. It's heavy, it doesn't bisect her in any means, but it definitely cuts through. Does it smell? Close. You're not close enough, but it does not smell great. Actually, with your senses, yeah, it doesn't smell great. Okay, and then.

Like a Shih Tzu. Can I have Mister walk to me? You've already used your bonus action to have him attack. Can you move him as part of that as well? Actually, no, he has a speed of 30 feet on his turn, so yeah, and he can fly. Okay, so I want to get him as close to me as he can get. The monkey can fly?

You really glossed over that. Yeah, he goes like. That's what he looks like. Yeah, he glides through on fire. Oh my god, he's so cute! I didn't know he also flew. He just hovers in the air. Oh, I'm such a proud mother.

Okay. So cute. Okay, great, that's my turn. All right, that finishes your go. Top of the round, Orym, you're up. Okay, so slinging Venom or Poison off of my body, I will bonus action Second Wind to start. Oh god, I missed Second Wind. So I rolled a 10. Whoa, yeah.

Nice. So that is Let's go. To start. Oh god, I missed second time. So I rolled a 10. Whoa, yeah. Nice. So that is Let's go. 15 back. Oh, nice. Yeah, you needed that after the V-I. Yes, I did. Okay. Oh, it brought me up to full.

Now, it's really crowded in front of me, so I just crouch and start to run, and I go underneath Imogen, underneath Laudna, underneath Fearne, and I use Bait and Switch to say, sorry, coming through, and switch places with her, move her back. I will take the superiority die to my AC, add seven to my AC.

Whoa! Great. And I will attack with a dagger, at advantage, because I'm flanking with Dorian. You are. First one is a 19 plus. Second one is an 18. Both hit. Go ahead and roll damage. That's a fighter combo moves, man.

It pays off. I love it. I love it so much. Do this! Do that! This six, and then... Crossword back down. Mm-hmm. Eight for the second.

Nice. Action surge. I continue to slash. You got it. Then we get a 22, and we get a natural 20. Wow! I make the natural 20, just in case a goading attack, and I will try to slash her,

I will slash her across the eyes. Go for it. Oh! You're a murder man. Go for it. Oh! You're a murder man. Fuck this party! Four plus five is nine on the first, and the second is two, so all the dice are doubled. So two.

16. That's 20 plus 25 on that last slash. Wow. On a dagger? Hell yeah. Oh, you rolled an eight, yeah! Hell yeah. Okay. So after ducking through, pushing back Fearne and just getting the first couple strikes

and releasing that further push of adrenaline and speed forward, you gash once again and then with backwards swings, you watch as she turns back to try and slash towards you, not expecting you to be coming with such a vicious strike, and as you do, . Ah!

Yes. You see her scratching almost at her face as black gore begins to pour from one eye. You've set this massive cut from top to bottom right there. Sick. Sick. You can see where the cheek is, opens up a little bit. You can see the sharp teeth within.

Wisdom save for her. Indeed. Because I used another superiority die for a goading attack. 14? No, wait, I don't know. Confidence, wait, wait. I'll be right there. I don't know.

I'll be right with you. Features and traits. Where are you? It's a 16 fail. So it's a fail. Powerful. 16! Damn! And I will...

So disadvantage on anyone but me, and I will stay put, because I know that Dorian and I have her surrounded. You got it. Okay, that ends your turn? Yep. All right. The other guard, one of them, this one over here, is going to stand up. That's not Russ.

And go over towards the other guard on the ground. Oh good! And manages to try and deal with his wounds, but he's no longer with us. Oh! Russ! How could you? Yes! How could you? How could you? You're a monster!

Russell! You had ample opportunities to save both of them. Aw. You got burned. I mean. Oh man. My bad. He grabs the body and pulls it back

and is slapping the face, like, come on, come on, trying to wake him up. It's really sad, actually. That's really sad. But it's not real. But it's not real. Well, it's still saggy. Ashton. Let me take my 40 feet of movement.

10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35. The hallway is currently constrained and tightened. You have many friends that are blocking your path inward, but you can see beyond them to this mass of spraying blood and growling claws. Ah, fuck. I can't get through this shit, can I? Not until they move out of the way. Okay, I'm going to rage,

and I'm going to hold my fucking action. You got it. So what do I get? Trash. Gravity roll. Okay, cool. Okay. That finishes your go. Yeah, the light bends around and everything gets a little black and white

around my head. Wobbly wobbly. Okay. Lady Emoth, grabbing the side of her face, just dark, dark black, liquid dripping from the wound. I'm down here. Leaps up into the ceiling.

Both Dorian and Orym get a tax opportunity. Okay. Help, Mister? Crack out. Mister does not have to. Oh, that's right. He doesn't have to. Almost a 20. 20-something. Flanking. Oh, that's right. He doesn't have to. Keep doing it. Oh, Mr. 20. Advantage. 28. Oh, advantage. Something.

That hits. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Eight damage? Yeah. And 24 to hit, or do it again? That hit to hit, yeah. So roll damage. Okay. Great.

Four is it? Seven. Seven points roll damage. Okay. Great. Seven. Seven points of damage, nice. You both streak upward, more blood drops to the ground, but she latches into the ceiling and begins to skitter across. Five, ten, underneath the hall. Oh no. Oh no. Keep fucking going.

Oh no. Damn it. Ah, she's getting shot. Running. She's walking. Does Chet get to hang out here? That's you, baby. She's on the ceiling. No! Both Fresh Cut Grass and Chetney get attacks of her? No! She's on the ceiling. Both Fresh Cut Grass and Chetney

get attacks of opportunity if they want to take them. As a reaction? When she passes us by? Correct. How high is the ceiling in here? The ceiling is about 10 feet or so. So you could, she's pretty close, but you could rush up and try and strike as she goes past. Yeah, I'll try. Hmm.

The only means with which I would have to hit her are my Spiritual Weapon. Spiritual Weapon is not going to take opportunity, but this would be you trying to punch her as she runs by. I'm three feet tall. I can't jump. Well, she has to go through the doorway, though, however it does bring her within the space. I see.

Well then, sure, I'll take a weird swi- Would this use my reaction, though? It would, yeah. Help me help you. I'll take a weird, would this use my reaction, though? It would, yeah. Help me, help you. I'll take my reaction. My next turn's coming soon. Yes. So I get it back. It's up to you. All right, yeah. I'll go up and I'll punch. You'll Mario punch it? Yeah.

All right, roll a d20 and add your strength modifier. Did you get it? It was a 22 to hit. That definitely hits. 18 here. That hits as well. So you do one damage plus your strength modifier. That's two points of damage. All righty. Every little bit.

Eight points of slashing, four points of fire, so 12 total. 12 points, okay. Wow. You watch as she skitters around the way, through the hall, across the ceiling, over you, and vanishes around this corner. Oh, come on.

She's got some crazy movements. You hear her, she rushes by, she's like, She'll help me. She'll help me. Oh god. She'll help me? Darts around. She'll help me? Oh no. Finishing that.

Dorian, you're up. Chetney, you're on down. Is that a little creep still on my back? Yep. All right. Finish him. I'm going to reach back behind me and try to grab onto him. Yeah, he's right there. For my action, I'm going to try to throw him off of me.

Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you just go ahead and make a strength. An athletics check, I'll say. Athletics, okay. That is a 24. strength, an athletics check, I'll say. Athletics, okay. That is a 24. You, without an issue, throw them off your back onto the ground in front of you. You want to throw them across the area?

Yeah, I want to do. No, never mind. What do you want to do? I want to do, have you ever seen a flip throwing in soccer? I want to have them like this, and I want to do a front handspring and throw them as far away as possible. Woof, woof, woof.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ah! It hits the bookcase with that higher roll, hits the bookcase, falls to the ground. On the ground, the bookcase. Yeah! Just gets showered in books. Ah, They should have earthquake-proofed it. Go ahead and roll a d8 of bludgeoning damage to it,

if you don't mind. Okay, cool. A one. Okay, so you can see it still like. It's currently restrained, but it's still alive under there. It hasn't taken a whole lot of damage, but it cannot currently move from its position without trying to escape.

That's awesome. You want to stay put, or? Yeah, yeah, I'm good. I just want to get him away from everybody. Okay, you got it. Finishing Dorian's go, Chetney, you're up. I'll turn and try and go after 25 feet. Can I see anything? You turn the corner and you see her. The bed itself is pulled away from the wall.

There is what looks to be the base board and base portion of this chamber wall is now pulled open and there is a hole that leads a dark interior. You can see her in the process of slithering into it. Get her out. So from where I was, yeah, can I get within melee?

You could if you jump onto the bed. Yeah. Oh, well, I will definitely jump onto the bed. Okay. Onto the bed. It's a water bed. And I will take my... His claws puncture it.

Ah! I'll take my claws. I'll take my claws and say, Where's you going? I'll shove it up against her back and I'll cast Inflict Wounds. Oh! Arr!

Arr! Arr! You have to roll to see if you hit first. Oh, sorry. 15 plus five is 20. Yeah, that definitely hits. Great. This is the second one I started with. Let's bring it under a swirl.

Well, eight, 20. 20 points of necrotic damage. Whoa! Nice, as you reach out and claw into her and this burst of dark energy swarms down your forearm, into your claws, and digs into the leg that you're grappling as she's pushing her way and you hear her scream and the muscle seems to pulse within your grip

before it begins to slip free. That hurt her a lot. That's what Dissonant Whispers sounds like. Yeah, that's what Dissonant Whispers sounds like. Okay. You have a hold on her, though? No, I didn't grapple her. It wasn't a grapple, that was just an attack.

Grapple would have helped, not done any damage, but it may have held her in place, but that was your action. Yeah, but she's at the top of the initiative anyway, so she could have tried to break it. Yeah, that's my turn. Okay, finishing Chetney's go, we're back to Laudna. Uh-huh.

Um... So she's been walking across the ceiling and shit. Is this not a full ceiling? Is there like, I'm kidding. Where's the door? So this is a chamber. What's a door? The only opening is right here that goes out into the balcony.

And there's a door here. And there's a door there. That leads into the secondary chamber with another balcony and then the bed area on this side. Fuck, I don't understand it. And all the other dudes are dead? You hear the shuffling of something. You're not in the chamber.

So you don't see much because you're currently in the hallway. Oof, all right. I go in the chamber. Okay, so you can move in past Fearne on this side. You come around this way and you can see the bookshelf is now on the ground and there are books scattered around it.

You can see something trying to push its way out from underneath the bookcase that is currently pinned. Oh, he's still alive, though. Yeah. All right, well. Eldritch Blast. Go for it. Finish it.

It is restrained. Save advantage on these strikes. Oh, that's fun. So first one. 10 and 11, but that's still 18. That hits, second strike. And then second one. Natural 17, so 24. They both hit, go ahead and roll damage for each. And that's a d10. Nope, he's not hexed.

Wow. What the fucking bitch tits? Oh my god. Okay. So that is four. And then plus CX. So that's a total of? 10? 10, yep.

That's math. 10 damage. Launch both the Eldritch Blasts. Books go flying out from the impact of the force and go scattering across the room. It's still under there. It's looking really hurt. What the fuck? It's trying to claw its way out from underneath.

Laudna says. It's barely holding on. It's having a rough night. I just look at Imogen and I just... You're doing great. It was great. Yeah. I guess it's my turn.

All right, finishing Laudna's go, it's going to try and get itself free from underneath the books. With a natural one, it does not. It's like. And just gives up. It's just awaiting the eventual end. All right, that brings us to Imogen

with Fresh Cut Grass on deck. I'm going to run in the room, shouting, Where'd she go? Books under the books. She's under the books? I don't know. You see something skittering under the bookcase. I'm going to keep going.

I'm going to run into the other. Okay. Oh yeah, she's in the bedroom. We'll say that's as far as you can get probably here with your movement. Can I dash? You can. Kind of pushing past you. Yes.

30, that's as close as you can get. And I can't see anything, right? No, but you hear the growling of Chetney around the corner and some sort of a scuffle just beyond your sight. Shit. That finishes your go. Fresh Cut Gas, you're up for a new item.

Don't let her get away! Hmm. Nice, Russ. Shit. I can't make it there, either. I'll enter the Russ. Shit. I can't make it there, either. I'll enter the room. Maybe. Russ is dead and gone, yeah? So I'll just keep. He's certainly not moving.

Sure, I'll just keep going, hearing Imogen's call. Over, Russ. And use my full movement to get as far as I can. You get right this way and- Do I see? You can barely see the Lady Moth part of her. She does have three quarters cover

because you're only seeing her legs after she's trying to push her way into the hallway. So she does have a bonus to AC. I can literally see that line of sight from her. Oh yeah. Yeah. FCG's head. It's just barely. And Chetney's in the way, too, yeah? Yeah, so three quarters cover,

which means it's possible. If I didn't grapple, I'd figure I'd have to dash to get there and then you wouldn't have an action anyway. Yeah, exactly. I can use an action to get to her and then do nothing. Yeah. Or I don't have any freezing spells or holding spells. You don't have your grappling handy.

I don't. Yeah, I don't think so. It says it's in the backpack, which we left behind, so I don't have your grappling handy. I don't, yeah, I don't think so. It says it's in the backpack, which we left behind, so I don't have that stuff. Unfortunately. I have no way of holding her here or confusing her or anything. So I can only just either rush to her or attack her. I can't touch Chetney, right?

Yeah, if you rush to her, if she leaves, you get Attack of Opportunity and so will I, or you can try and hit her from here and try and hit her before she goes. My Attack of Opportunity is up 2.5. Yeah, so maybe not that one. Let her have it. Can you buff Chetney?

Only if I can touch him. I mean, I could cast Cure Wounds on him, but. Or give him a better AC. I can give him a better AC. Chetney can't be anymore. It doesn't really help, though, I don't think. Or give him a better AC. I can give him a better AC. Doesn't really help, though, I don't think. I could calm her emotions? I could enhance his ability.

There's not much I can do. By the way, there's spiritual weapons coming with me. The invitation. Just floating. It wants its RSVP. Do you want the salmon or the prime rib? Please. All righty. I could charm her.

I could charm her. I could charm her. Rob, old man. Yeah, do it. Yeah, do it. She's going to beat it. So, give it a try. She lost both wisdom saves against Orym.

No, this is fast friends. Let's be friends, young lady. You rolled a one! Both wisdom saves against Orym. No, this is fast friends. Let's be friends, young lady. Yeah, fights. Yeah, it might not, but. I think that's for just... I need you to, I'm supposed to give her a command. Oh, okay. Or a task. Oh, yay, okay, that's a higher spell.

That bed looks pretty messy. We probably should make it. Shit. All right, that is a wisdom saving throw. For just 14. She can roll pretty well. She rolled specifically at 14 plus bonuses. So she succeeds. Good shot.

That was a very, very, very good shot. Very good shot. She's making the bed on my mind. All right, Fearne. Okay. Military corners. I want to try to get in there, so... How far am I? 25, 30 is as far as you can get.

I have 35. You have 35? So you know what I'll do then? Hmm. Okay. With Mister back there, I can teleport with Mister. So I can teleport with Mister. So I can teleport 15 feet.

So if he can get me the rest of the way to see her. What can't Mister do? Okay. So I'll have him. So there's a bonus action to make him teleport? Yeah, so I can get within range to see her. So that's one of his actions that he can do. This is action. He does go. Yeah, shares your initiative count,

so you can totally do that. Okay. Awesome. Does that leave an action for you or a bonus action for you? Or does that leave both for Fearne? That's... No, to get him to teleport,

this is here. I think that's just his action. The only action it takes on its turn, it's the dodge action, unless you use a bonus action to command it. So it's a bonus action for you to tell it to teleport. Okay, so you can still do your action. Yes, I can still do my action.

Indeed, so you both. Next to you, Imogen, you watch as the flaming monkey comes cruising through the air next to Fearne, and so they both go and vanish, and a moment later, emerge, and burst a fire around the room. You just barely see them just beyond the edge of the wall as flames light up the room in a splash.

Go ahead and roll damage on that one, which is 1d6 plus your proficiency modifier. My proficiency modifier. Oh, okay. That is a 20 on its save, so it succeeds on the save. Okay, nine total. Nine points of damage. It does succeed in saving throw,

so it does not take any damage, unfortunately. But you are within the room. Do I take any damage from her? She teleported. It is five feet, so no. Okay. You're just are within the room. Okay. Do I take any damage from her? She teleported. It is five feet, so no. Okay. You're just out of the radius. Am I in range of her at all, touching-wise? If you wanted to emerge touching her face,

you could be there. Yes. Yeah. So I am going to reach down and try to grab an ankle and cast Burning Hands and try to just carry it. You're just going to... I love the and cast Burning Hands and try to just get rid of it. You're just going to... I love the idea of Burning Hands as a contact. It's so great.

Okay, that's a dexterity check. Go ahead and roll damage on it. Okay. So that is a 16. Does that succeed? Oh! 16 is the... Okay, so half damage, but yeah, go ahead and roll.

Okay, so... Seven points of damage, that's so bad. Reduced to three, okay. But can I... I guess I should have tried to do a grapple instead, because I'm trying to keep her there. Right, but the flaming hands burn through, fill around her and the hole where she's currently going

just all of a sudden lights up with bright light. You have to avert your eyes from the intensity of the blast before it diminishes and she's still trying to slip through and vanish within. That finishes your turn, Fearne. Orym. Okay, Orym, like a tiny Olympic runner, just starts bolting.

I've counted it out. I think I can get to here at 55 feet and do the same bait and switch move and switch with Fearne so that she backs up and I'm right up against, if I use Movement and Dash. Correct, yes. I would get all the way up behind Fearne, bait and switch, move in, take the armor class for myself again,

roll the seven again. That's the end of my turn. You got it, but shh. But I'm right within melee. You got it. Okay. Oh, that's good, so you can take an attack if she gets away. Great, good, good. Ashton?

I'm in run of the room. You missed the action. I've had enough. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, I take it in. My card's full. There's a thing underneath the bookcase. Yes. I'm going to end it. Yes.

Top of the gulf. Are you just, what weapon do you have? Nothing, I'm just, I'm going to pick up the bookcase and slam it. Yes! Okay, so roll your attacks and damage for it. Advantage? Yes, it is restrained, so advantage on these strikes.

Thank god for advantage, because there was a one on the other end of that. That's a 20 to hit. 20 to hit hits. That's at least seven points of damage, unless I get a bonus damage from the bookshelf. You just see one clawed hand. It explodes. I need you to make a dexterity saving throw.

Cool, I have advantage on that, too. You do? This is my Dean Coup. Yeah. Dean Coup. Yes. My Dean Coup. He changed out the Coop collection.

20. 20, you take three points of fire damage and it just turns to ash from beneath the fire. Sorry, does it? Yeah, you can go with the book. The bookcase is, yeah, it's smoking. It's not enough continuous fire to catch fire to things unless they're extremely flammable.

The books in there are definitely burning, but it's more of ash and the pages are being damaged, but it's not starting a fire yet. Do I have any more movement left? How far have I moved? That would be, I'll say 25 feet of movement. Okay, let's see if I can get into that, into the room at least and not block it.

I have 40 feet. 40 feet, you can get right there, yeah. Okay, and everyone get in? Yep. I'm just running in. No! Good day! All right, it's now her turn. She's going to go ahead and use Slippery Dash.

Slippery Dash! Well, actually, no, sorry, I said it wrong. She actually has a cunning. It's my least favorite reindeer. Technically, it's a cunning action, but it's Slippery Dash. It's going to be a bonus action to disengage. It's my least favorite reindeer. Technically, it's a cunning action, but it's slippery dash. It's a bonus action to disengage. All her mucus, huh? Yep, and then

She's so scary. slips down without taking any attacks of opportunity because of the disengage action and vanishes into the wall below. Oh, come on. Oh no! Real close. She's hurt. Just out of curiosity, does disengage also get you out of a grapple,

or no, you have to roll to break the grapple? You have to roll to break the grapple? You have to roll to break the grapple. Um. God. Good enough. No! We all converge. We were there! Yeah! I know.

Just at the very end. Anyone in a distant shot that want to throw down the Hail Mary? I've got a hell of a distance, but I'm So far away. So far away. Can I try to thorn whip her ankle? Never get there. You, the hole is about this big in the wall.

If you want to glance in, you could almost get your arm in there to look down, and there's no light. She got to move, she got to dash. She is, shh. It has to be a reaction attack, and only two people are in a position to do that. We had something explosive to drop down there, but no. Fuck. Can I stalk back through the room

and go to the balcony and look over the balcony? Yeah. Curious what we see or how high we are on this ledge. Okay. Son of a bitch. You look over the balcony. There is the courtyard below, and there's probably about 30 or so feet

before the cliff edge that just drops off into the end of this top part of the Core Spire. So from the edge of the balcony, you can see pretty much the entirety of Jrusar down and around you and the surrounding jungles of the Odean Wilds, at least as much as your eyes can pick up in the moonlight. I'll drop my werewolf form

and walk back over to the guard that's cradling his comrade. Yeah. He just takes his hand and closes his eyelids, stands up. What was that? Who are you? I don't know, but listen,

there's going to be more people coming. We need you to make sure and vouch for us. We didn't do this. We came to your rescue. You understand? I know very much so, but what can I say you are? Well, like a name? A name or a person, an affiliation, something. Now's our time. Oh boy.

Now's our moment, this is it. I've got a thing I've got to get to. Who are you here with? No, we're not here with anybody. We're not here with anybody. We were here as representatives of? Of the deceased Bertrand Bell. Carry on his legacy.

Yep, yep, yep. Okay. Make a deception check. Fuck. Come on, come on, Laudna. Come on. Natural 20 right here. It's pretty good.

I think, what is that, a 16? No, it's a 10. Why? You can't read this. But 13. 13, he goes, Okay, all right. Bertrand Bell, okay. And you saw the crazy lady on the roof

and all the little guys? Yes. And they hurt you? Yes. Okay. Whose room is this? This belonged to Gris Alacrita's. Oh. Gris Alacritos. This is Grease's room! Wait, Grease, oh, the headmaster guy.

The headmaster. But that's just random. He's not a bad guy. That's not a bad guy. Might be. He knew the Gorgine, right? We got to give a name. We got to give a name.

Give him a name. We knew the Gorgine, right? He said, we got to give a name. We got to give a name. Give him a name. He had asked you to do the Gorgine, right? What's your name? No, he said he was a friend of Ajit and said, you know, he's somewhere at the party. Okay. What's your name, young sir or Adam? Do not.

Do not? Do not. Do not? Do not. Do not. Because of the words. Do not pick a name right now. I do not hit her, I do not. I was going Duhas, but that works well, too. It's a little more. For all critters named do not out there, I'm so sorry.

Bye. Same to the Purrbonds. Are we evacuating the premises or staying to face the music here? I don't think there actually is music here. I feel like this was a pretty open and shut nightmare, this. This is clearly some crazy shit that we are not capable of.

Are we in the same spire where we were in Dugger's place? No. Don't think so. I don't think we've ever been. This is the first time we've been to the. Yeah, which one? This is the top of the Chorus Spire,

so I believe it might be, yeah. Oh yeah, it is. Oh, I thought we were. Yeah, which one? No, this is the top of the Choruspire, so I believe it might be, yeah. Oh yeah, it is. Oh, I thought we were. Yeah, it is. Because we, Shadana's place is in the Choruspire. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know what to do. I go into the other room, put my dress back on.

Okay. Jesus. Yeah. Oh. I'm in. Orym's going to go grab the torch that I see burning on that wall in the other room. Okay. Then carry it back to the room with a hole in it. Pulls out that rope that they bought and says,

tie up, and it wraps itself around the leg of the bed. Then I hold the other end and say the same thing, tie up, and it loops around my ankle. Are you doing it? I got a torch, and I'm going to start to climb down in to get a look around. Okay. As you begin to head downward,

it's relatively easy because one, you're compact, and two, the interior of this wall is knotted, but the space, while it is small, is lubricated. So you slide down relatively easy, not over not, until you reach the end of the 50-foot rope and it just continues down into the darkness below. I figure.

I want to be sure. Right as you're down there, Dorian and Laudna, you hear a ruckus in the hallway, like the sound of a voice, or voices, elevated. Oh, here we go. All right. How do we look? How do we look? You look amazing, as always.

You've got some goo. Sorry, yeah, yeah, yeah. Game face, game face. Everything's normal. We're just here for, we're down and up. Ah! You listen in and you can hear the voices. They're echoing through and it's like,

no, you've got the wrong idea. This is, I am a lord. I'm supposed to be here. Titania, you can look it up. You just hear, keep it quiet. We got you. That's the Sperto. Toodle-oo. Yeah, that's the name he was using.

That was the fake name, right? Yeah. Yeah, I'm. You hear the doors opening into the main chamber from where you came from, in that direction, and the sounds of discussion and music all of a sudden entering the chamber. Be quite careful. There's quite a bit of debris.

Are you going out in the hallway? You guys are still in the room. You're hearing these from over here. They're coming in, though, right? No, no, they guys are still in the hallway. You're hearing an instrument. They're coming in, though, right? No, no, they're coming in through this way. They're moving away. You hear it coming this way in the hall, and then you hear doors open into a main chamber.

What? Shoot me. Do I recognize this voice? It is indeed the voice of Cyrus. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was like, come on. And I'm going to break for the door. I'm following behind.

Are you telling anyone that you're all leaving or are you just doing it again? Cool. We're the worst group. We're informing anyone about anything. I will stay because I'm in the same room and I'll go back and get everybody. I can see Ashton through the door and I just say, be right back, brother alert.

Okay. Fucking shit. You go into a chase and head just as the doors close. You push through and open, and you can see people in the chamber are beginning to spread apart from the central area. They're all looking upon what looks to be a guard and two green-cloaked figures that currently have your brother in shackles

and are holding one, each of them on each side of him, holding his arms and parading him through the central area. Of the party? Of the party. As we're walking away, I'm going to turn back towards the direction and send a message to Imogen as well, and be like, We've got a Cyrus alert. Cyrus alert.

Orym's down the fucking tunnel. We'll try and handle it. I'll shout. Right about now, Orym gets up from the tunnel, because you've made your... Yeah. Let's, then I start heading off after Laudna. I'll book it with you.

As we turn the corner and I'm walking away from the guard. We're Bells Hills, and don't you forget it. And I'm going to keep walking out. Are we? And I run after her. All righty. I'll just say, I'm sorry we laughed at your name, do not.

And hope you don't laugh at ours. Touché. You all begin to head down the hall into the main area, following where you are. You can just see the crowd has parted and people are whispering to each other and your brother is still like, this is a misunderstanding.

I don't know. We're going to work this out. Does anyone know Lady Emoth? Cadiz? Oh shit. She was my date. Oh shit. We were supposed to. You were, anyone?

People were like, is that, I don't know, they're all talking amongst themselves as the, seeing people, hearing people, like, oh my, is that the Green Seeker? It's like, oh, yeah, I've never actually seen him in person. They just continue to drag him through the room.

What are you doing? So they're full on shame-dragging him? Or they've arrested him and they're just bringing him out to the front. Perp walk. Perp walk, all right. What do we do? Do we create a distraction? I don't know. I don't know what to do.

Um, a distraction. Do you have anything in mind? We have to get him out of there right now. Create an illusion? I don't know what to do. I don't know, just wing it! Darkness! Good god. What were you about to say first? No, you tell me. What are you doing?

No, you tell me first. Oh my doing? No, you tell me first. Oh my god. What were you about to do? Oh, it's the police. I thought he was there with her. Gavis rushes up towards the investigators and starts asking them questions. One of them talks on the side,

and Gavis turns around to the rest of the troupe. Not to worry, everyone. It seems a burglar has been apprehended within the chambers and will be dealt with appropriately within the Citadel. So one, thank you to the Green Seekers and our fantastic wardens for finding such a perpetrator. And please, let us continue the night

unworried and unbothered. Now fuck that darkness. The music swells. I'm going to do it in the ceiling, though. In the ceiling. In the ceiling. Uh-huh. So it's a 20-foot radius sphere. Mm-hmm. How far up? Are you just creating a sphere of darkness? It doesn't...

What are you doing? There are multiple chandeliers in the room and in a wide space. It's a very big dome chamber. Coming from the top of the dome, you just see the chandeliers start to as they're getting snuffed out from this magical darkness that is coming down from below.

Okay, so the central chandelier in the middle of the room suddenly and this sphere of dark shadow encompasses the chandelier. I don't know, I'm trying to make a distraction here. All of a sudden, everyone in the room, after Gavis just begins to calm everyone down and people begin talking, all of a sudden, what? Emuhtar's looking up

at this sphere of dark shadow that has now appeared in the center of the room. What are you doing? You hear in your head, Laudna, we can't fight them all. I just want to scatter them away. I don't know. How far are we from them?

I shudder. You, from where they are? Yeah. They're probably, I'd say if you're just watching from a distance, not trying to make a huge scene, they're like 40, 50 feet ahead of you. And darkness is swallowing all the light in the room? Just the central chandelier.

There's a lot of light sources everywhere. There's just more of a sphere of darkness that encompasses the central chandelier. They can totally still see. It's like a distraction. Yeah, everyone is looking up at it at the moment. Oh my god. One of the patrons goes,

flicks their finger and the darkness vanishes. You're not the only magic practitioners in the city, unfortunately. Of course not. Are we all out to the chamber? You've all now caught up a little bit and you watch as everyone's still, while people are wondering what that was

and starting to make questions and Gavis is still trying to lay down the tension of the room, things are definitely, the energy's weird. The party's gotten odd, and people are starting to look around. There's definitely a chaotic anxiety. What are you all doing?

Are we goopy like Ghostbusters at the moment, or are we just like? You're a little goopy. Yeah. I think most of us are. Yeah, some of us. I don't, I mean, what can we do? I don't even understand who these, who they are. Can I go up to, is Gavis surrounded by a bunch of people, or is he?

Gavis is, Eshteross, by the way, as soon as you come into the room, is like, shh, and the next team says, What is going on? Time to leave now. I'm going to lean over to Laudna and I'm going to say, tell them I'm sorry. I'm going to reach in my bag.

I'm going to pull out my last vestige of my trip to Gilmore's. I have got a smoke grenade, and I'm going to pull it, and I'm going to pop it, and I'm going to throw it right at all of them. At who? At the guards that have my brother, and everybody, I'm going to pop a smoke grenade.

Pop smoke? And throw it right into the middle of the mat. Oh boy. And it's my brother! Sorry! What's it do? It lobs through the air and lands right in the middle of them and creates a 20-foot radius smoke screen.

I'm going to sprint straight for it. All right, everyone distracted with the darkness appearing and then vanishing, shouting. Suddenly, the smoke fills the reach. People start freaking out. Some people start fleeing from it, not certain what it is. If it feels like it's an attack or an aggressive action.

Some of the guards glance around to see where the source was, but they weren't paying complete attention. As soon as you do this, Eshteross begins to follow up behind you. You rush towards and into the smoke. Do you want to do it overtly or stealthily? Overtly.

Okay. Just full bore running right in. or stealthily? Overtly. Okay. Just full bore, running right in. Okay, you go charging into it, and you watch as this wave of smoke and fog just hits you, and the light suddenly dims from inside, and you can just see shapes moving within. Make a perception check with disadvantage.

With disadvantage? Because you are walking into a fog cloud. Shit. Six. Six. You go rushing in and then bump into a figure. You see as a half-orc in a dark green cloak

suddenly turns around right towards you and goes, Hey, what do you think you're doing? What the fuck? What are you doing? Oh my god! Yes. I bumped into him. Yeah.

I'm going to say, I'm going to put my arms on his shoulders and go, Don't worry about it. And Cash Charm Person. Oh shit. You're also hidden by the cloud, so if it succeeds, nobody's going to see it. I know. And if it doesn't,

you're arrested. I know. That's a natural nine. 14 to save. Plus four. Oh! I'm not even joking. He has a really high wisdom, because they're investigators. They're high intelligence, high wisdom.

Yeah. Fuck, okay. He just misses an encounter and says, What are you doing? I said, don't worry about it, and I'm going to let him go and try to fade back into the smoke and feel around for my brother.

Yeah, it's okay. Oh my god. How long does that last? One hour. Yeah, an hour, okay. But they know that you're trying to. As you finish casting it, you see in his other arm is still holding your brother,

like is right to the side, and the other figure is just out of vision in the smoke. You're still wearing a mask, he's still wearing a mask, right? Or has his mask been removed? I don't know. The investigators are not wearing masks. Okay. They're not.

I'm sure he's got my brother on a mask, too. Oh no, I mean Dorian and Cyrus. You haven't said you've taken your mask off. I still have it. Cyrus does not have a mask on. Cyrus has had his mask pulled off. Got it. Are you still holding him?

Yeah, they're both holding by the arm and then smoke apparated and he got into a guarded position before you bumped into one, turned around, and then you charmed him and he's like, Okay. We can't see what's going on in there, right? You guys just see smoke. How many patrons are still around? How many party goers? Oh, there's probably close to there, right? You guys just see smoke. How many patrons are still around?

How many party goers? Oh, there's probably close to 80, 85 or so in the room still. We should just soothe them. I'm just going to fan out around the clouds. Fan out, and I want to get somewhat close. Right as you turn the corner and see, as you move past the half-fork that you bumped into,

the other figure, which is the shorter, gnomish member of the troupe, the female gnome, same coat, is holding onto the other side of your brother's arm, chain still behind his back, and just goes, What the fuck? And is about to look over in your direction, sees you, mask and all, and gives an intense look before

she drops to the ground. What? Whack! Hits their face, and you just see a shadow pulling back with a long, dark cane in their hand. Yes! Oh shit! Come on! And just, all you hear is, go, and it steps back into the fog.

What do you do? I... Oh my god! I'll look to the charmed person that is holding my brother, grab his arm, and is like, you heard the man, we've got to go, and try to lead my brother out of the smoke. Make a persuasion check.

Come on, Dorian, this is it! He's charmed, right? Oh boy. He is. So you'd have advantage, technically, because he is Charmed. Persuasion? You have advantage. For a 16 plus six, 22. Oh, okay, I'll do it with advantage, sure. What happened?

Oh my god! I roll advantage. Oh my god! Unbelievable. Natural 20, yeah, 26. 26. Oh shit. The half-orc looks at you and goes, I guess I can finish the investigation

if you're taking them down to the Citadel. And hands the arm over to you, the chains at that point. The other gnomon goes, Wait, what the fuck are you doing? And once again, the cane, whack! Cracks her in the back of the head.

Ah! While all of this is going on, Wait, here is House. No. House. House. Okay, I didn't hear that right. You didn't.

I'm going to crack my neck and drop on all fours. Oh, Jesus. And grow a little bit into my Form of Dread I'm going to crack my neck and drop on all fours. Oh, Jesus. And grow a little bit into my form of dread and say, Get out! To everybody around. Okay, make an intimidation check. Oh my god.

That was the worst. Do you want any of these? Do you want any of those? No, no, fuck all of those. Okay, total chaos. Okay, where's my intimidation? It's pretty good, it's pretty good. All right. Don't fuck me, Gil. Okay, okay, 21.

21. The majority of the- 22, sorry. No, I'd say all of the attendees in your vicinity just go scattering and running out in a mass exodus towards the front entranceway. The downside is the seven or so guards that are in the chamber now have their spears out and are coming in your direction. Run.

God. Wow. I've got my brother by the arm, and as we walk out of the smoke right before we leave its precipice, I'm going to tap them and cast Invisibility on him. Okay. Brilliant. Slick. Do you have High Level Soul? This is, I just used my second level of Invisibility.

That's it, yeah. Your brother, while still holding the weight of his arm, goes, Dorian. His image fades, but you still feel the weight on your arm, and he gets up back on his feet. Okay. You hear him whisper under his breath

and just follows your lead. I want you to make a deception check just as you exit to kind of, actually, no, this would be stealth. See if you can mingle within the crowd that is now rushing out from your distraction. Get, go in the crowd, in the crowd. 22 on stealth. 22.

With your brother under your arm and the mass exodus pushing through because of Laudna's distraction and furious intimidation. People might be bumping into your brother, but they're not even caring because they're fleeing from this terrifying creature that has appeared in the middle of this party. And with that, you push through out into the road

where you can see the carriage awaits off to the side. What are the rest of you doing in this moment as Laudna is now drawing the attention of the nearby guard? We're making our way to the door. I'm not abandoning Laudna in the room. Did anyone leave a pipe or something? I'm not abandoning her.

What, she's going to get a cup of coffee? Oh, there are plenty of drinks around left behind. I'm going to see if I can find some tobacco or something. I'm going to, shit. How do we get there? I'm going to step up. We'll see if we can get us through, yeah. Step up next to Laudna and cast Calm Emotions.

If I see you doing that, I'll do the same thing. Okay. To the guard? To the guards, to everyone. I'm just going to cast Calm Emotions to try to make them indifferent towards Laudna. Okay. Laudna. All right. I'll do the same thing.

Instantly try to drop my Form of Dread as well. Okay, there are six cards. You'd have to wait until they get close enough that they would be within the radius, but they're all out, so. Natural four. Natural one. This is on Imogen's stuff.

That'd be a 14? 15. That's cock. Okay. I don't know. On yours. Natural one. You guys cock. That's three. I don't know. On yours? Natural one. You guys are fucking lucky as shit. Well, we sucked it up the whole ball. That is going to be a 14 again?

14. One of them succeeds. And a natural four. So five of them stop and put their spears to the side and glance back at the smoke that's still brimming through and just a little confused, and you drop the Form of Dread, and the one that still is like,

Who are you? Get on the ground! Oh my god, how dare you treat a lady as such? Oh god. What? Is everything all right, sir? I don't... Rude. Do you know who I am?

Make a deception check. Please do, good. Fuck, fuck. I'm trying. I'm trying. Ooh! Lots of two. Five. Five.

This one guard still has his spear towards you. The others have stopped and like, calm down, man. They're just chill, but that one guy is intensely questioning all this that's happened in the room, and then you just transform into this creature, and is like, I said, get on the ground. At which point, the guard that you had saved

in the previous room comes through. There's been an attack. And the guard with the spear was like, Is it this one? No, no, no, she helped save me. They're gone. They're gone, though. They're gone. What?

I'll explain. Stumbles forward. The moment the spear towards you puts it down and they all begin to scatter a bit to try and calm the crowd as they're now exiting the room. They're gathering up with your friend that you made fun of after saving his life. And for the moment, at least,

they're all clocking you closely. They are making it very, very strong intent to remember your faces, to remember how you look, the interactions that have been going on. We're fucked up fucks, mask. The masks help. I've got a mask on.

No one will remember me. Yeah. I know I've said multiple times, I take my mask off since I can't fucking see through this. I would say that in the middle of all that chaos, if Orym saw Dorian exit the cloud, he would wind his way through the crowd, Assassin's Creed style, just to,

not sure what's going on. I think you guys went out the door, you said? I will say, from your perspective, they exited a fog cloud. You saw him go into a fog cloud, and then that's the last you saw. Cool. Especially with a stealth check, you have a high mass passive perception,

but he actually rolled a higher stealth than you're possible. Okay, great job. Can I try to take a look and look through the crowd to see if he popped out the other side? How long does that smoke grenade last? At least a minute. Yeah, I have to look. Depends on the currents in the room.

20-foot radius. Martyr. Four round? Mm-mm. God, that'd be like 24 seconds. Not long. This is basically four rounds. 20-foot radius, four rounds. Four rounds, okay. So the smoke by now would be beginning to dissipate.

So as you're all moving forward and keeping a keen eye out there, the smoke disappears and you can see one of the investigators, the half-orc, is standing there and assessing the area, nodding. And his friend's getting up and is like, Ah!

Gus, what the fuck? Gus! Smacks him and is like, What do you mean? What's wrong? Where's our prisoner? We just... And slaps him in the face. He's like, Ah! Shit.

Shit! They both begin to charge into the crowd, but you do not see Dorian. You do not see his brother. Perhaps we should go. I don't know if they're going to let us. The guards have eyes all over us. We can try.

No, the party's over. Can we try to leave? Are the guards going to let us leave? There have eyes all over us. We can try. No, the party's over. Can we try to leave? Are the guards going to let us leave? There's only one way to find them. Yeah. That's okay. We start to walk out, and as we're walking out, I'm going to reach out with my mind

and send a message, or try to cast Sending to Dorian. Okay. Did you make it? Where are you? Close. A few steps from the carriage. Great.

We're on our way. Oh shit, I can't do that. Yeah, it's fine. You get 25 words each. It's not my mental thing. Nope. All right, so you head to the carriage that is marked for you and your troop.

The paid hand that recognizes you upon arrival opens it up, does not notice your invisible brother. As you all begin to exit the chamber, the guards definitely keep an eye, but it's less of a, we're going to keep you, and more like, we have reports to make. We have records of your arrival. That's all you can consider.

You are now definitely persons of interest. Just let us just went on the way out and make eye contact. Great party, I tip a gold coin. Just going to hold it in his palm. Blood and great party. Carefully, you all begin to come to your carriages, respectively.

Eshteross is already inside his. You can see him, cane, top in his hand, just clenching his jaw and looking forward. As you enter the door, he doesn't even look at any of you. You come in and quietly the door close, and then with that, the sill goats begin to make their way on, and the carriages, one by one, begin to leave and disperse until eventually,

tensely, you come to the Eshteross Manor. As the door opens, he hasn't said a word along this journey, unless you have any words to impart. Maybe we'll just wait till we get home. Pretty hanged on right now. I know, I feel like he's like Bruce Wayne in Game of the Year. We really let this guy down.

The door opens. He gets out. The door opens into his manor. You all enter and he gives a whistle and the carriage closes the door and takes off the next one of your troop. Just a short time behind, you're dropped off back into the manor, the late near midnight hours of the night in the city,

as you all begin to convene within his study. And you see him now pacing back and forth in front of his fireplace, which has been freshly lit by his associate. As we're going in, can I just make sure everything smells like us? Make a perception check with advantage. Yeah, no foreign scents,

anything that might be trailing us. 18. 18. Nothing catches your attention. You feel fairly confident. We're alone. Well, that was certainly eventful.

We are open to notes, if you'd like to give us any. This is our first big brouhaha. I can certainly see why you don't attend very often. Oh. Did you tell anybody of your connection with me? No. We deliberately didn't. We actually didn't tell,

but full disclosure, it's not just us. I tapped my brother and dropped the invisibility, so he's there with us. He was in trouble. So you've ushered what is now currently a fugitive of the Quorum. He was invisible. But also, he wrongly accused, I think.

I don't know if he did anything else. I don't know. You can see, his brother's still chained, by the way. Oh shit. He's like, Yeah, no, I... I'm not good at this. This whole thieving thing.

Oh shit, you stupid son of a bitch. I'll come up behind him and start picking his little box and everything. A list of people. Oh my. What were you doing there? I was trying to pay off my bounty. I didn't.

I'm so stupid. What can you tell us about the people you were working with? Thanks. I was... You know, folks around the Corsairs knew that I was looking for work, fast cash, whatever was available.

One of them mentioned that they occasionally do work with Lady Moth Cot. She worked for a while with that Duggar fella you guys were looking for a while back. Oh. And she, I don't know, we hit it off a little bit after she wanted to hire me to...

She said she was going to escort me into this place. I was going to help her steal some stuff to both embarrass some other lower Mahan houses and make some cash on the side. It was meant to embarrass some other people here. And she promised me that she'd, you know, she's got a great treasure hidden somewhere that she was going to help split with me afterward.

So your bounty was for being falsely accused of stealing from the Mahon house, and you thought the best way to pay it off was to literally steal from another Mahon house. They're in trouble, aren't you? Yeah. Honestly, I'm not worth this. I, at this point,

evil, I'm so sorry. It's fine. The Green Seekers. I barely remember a tale of them, but why are they after you? The bounty, I understand, but why them? What else could you have done? I don't know.

They kept asking me questions about some tower, some sort of other burglary, destruction, or something. I don't know anything about it. I feel like I, yes, I wasn't doing something great, but I feel like I got something pinned on me that wasn't my doing either. But still, I...

The Green Seekers thought that you had something to do with a burglary at a tower? Yeah. Oh. He's a tower? Yeah. Oh. He's a patsy. They think he's me. Emoth came in on the arm of Armon Treshi. You know anything about him, or are you clueless?

I don't know much. He just pointed me to a few people whose rooms would probably have the most valuable things to grab, easy. He did? She did. She did. She refused to introduce me to anybody at the party, which I understand if I'm just trying to keep a low profile, but apparently I failed at that.

Did Emoth ever talk about a woman that she worked for? Did Emoth ever talk about a woman that she worked for? She said she had a... She had a partner, a business partner, somebody she went to often. Yeah. Did she say her name? No. I think it might've been her mother.

Yeah, she called her mother a few times. So Cad was your one point of contact. Yeah. She worked with the Corsairs before. It seemed to be reputable. It was the kind of job that not more than one person could do, and honestly, you've met the Corsairs. There aren't many that can hold themselves

in an environment surrounded with wealth and well-to-do sociology. So everyone pointed it to me as the most likely choice. The new kid without any known rap, really. Is that from the bounty? Actually, no. I'm real bad at this. I'm so sorry.

I just got to turn myself in. What? No. Ashton, tell him no. No. No, you'll be dead in a week. No. What do I do?

I can't go back home like this? I can find a way to... Back home like what? You mean free and not dead? Not in a box? How do we even get you out of here? Eshteross, who's been just pacing this whole time, stops and puts his cane on the ground and turns. MATT and SAM say, MATT and SAM say,

My skyship should likely be loaded for its next journey in the morning. If we can smuggle... I don't know. If we can smuggle you onto it, just get you out of Marquet, at the very least. Is it, where is it bound to? Where's it going?

Come on. Is it private? Is there anyone else aboard? All under my employ. So we just have to get him on. Maybe you can go get a large chest or something? We can put you in a carriage? We can figure it out.

I'll talk to Captain Zandis. We're old friends, and they would be very discreet under my instruction. Would be the first time I've smuggled anyone out of the city. No. Will the Green Seekers try to follow? They won't have any idea where he went, right? I think you're lucky enough to have

pulled him free without much information, but it's likely they are looking for a certain type of person. Well, we're going to be on their radar shortly. Aragorn's call, too. I bet they're looking for him also. They're going to be looking for a certain type of person. You're offering. I'm going in.

In. Sorry, go ahead. It's all right. You're offering my brother free passage out of the city. He's talking about you as well. I know. Wait, wait, wait. Yeah, I don't know if that's necessary.

We just get your brother out and we get out of town. Do you think this man could possibly take care of himself with what he's done in the city? Could possibly figure out a way to fix any of this? Plus, the family resemblance is quite strong. I'll turn to my brother and I'll say, this deal with Lady Moth,

was this your last ditch effort to get out of this bounty? A lot of help that it was. I'm not good at a lot of things. I don't like you. That is not what I expected you to say. I'll turn my back on the rest of the group and I'll look to Lord Eshteross and I'll say, We'll take you up on your offer. Oh.

Very well. It'll have to be before sunrise. I've gone to utilize the darkness to our advantage. I'll have to expedite passage and the paperwork, but it can be done without any sort of irregularities. First light? Before.

No, no, no, no, no. We can cut your hair. We can make you look different. That's very sweet, Fearne. We could pay off the debt. Do you need any of us to come with you? I can't be a burden to this group anymore. Not like this. Not for this. Not for now.

Not for now. This is a family issue This is a family issue and we will take care of it. Your brother, Sirius, looks up to you, grabs your hand, and just, Bronte, I'm so sorry. Don't be.

Don't be. We're all just trying to find our way. And it appears for now, our way is somewhere different. Ashtraw steps up a bit and clasps his hand on your shoulder and goes, You need not take this responsibility, but I know that you're the kind of person that would. I would, too, in your position.

I see the looks on your faces. Do not consider this failure. Like it or not, you've all succeeded at many great things this night. Trust me, I've worked with and work with others who, well, you heard what happened to the rest of Bell's compatriots. You have a knack for survival.

And we've, we've a few things that we have in our pocket that can help in what's ahead. I do not think we are hopeless in this. And yes, this is your fault, he says to Cyrus. And Cyrus sinks into his shoulders a bit. But if you are willing to work to amend these faults, this is an opportunity that I am granting you to do this,

to make it up to your brother, to make it up to these people, and to make it up to me, because this is not a cheap excursion. Do you hear me?" Cyrus looks back. Yes, sir. Who knows, maybe this is the experience you need to

find the strength that your family history requires of view eventually. I'll be working on my end to see what I can do. Do you have anywhere in Emon you could go? Emon? Probably not. Maybe somewhere different in Tal'Dorei. Kymal, perhaps. I've heard things about it.

Music, gambling, a place where a simple bard could blend in. Hmm. Maybe some opportunities to, he claps the back of Cyrus, make some money the proper way. And Cyrus nods, still as tall and as broad a figure as he is,

is very much a shrunken, guilt-ridden individual. Stand up. Do not sulk. It doesn't befit a man of your station, of your blood. Sarah stands up and turns to Eshteross. Your family relies on you. Your family relies on you. Your brother relies on you.

Find that strength in yourself. Do some good in this world. And maybe learn a thing or two from him on who to trust. I'll go get the paperwork completed. In the interim, set your affairs. He takes his cane in hand and exits the chamber. I hate this. Are you sure?

No, of course not. You'll come back, right? Maybe in time. No promises. We have to sort this out, him and I. I'm sorry. No, you don't. You're like family to me, very much so.

But this is my family. And we have to see this through, whatever it is. No goodbyes. Not for now. Man, I'm so upset that I could just kick the dirt. Are you trying to kick the dirt with your little legs? I am.

It's also very clean in here. I forgot you had a stupid little wooden feet on. I kick the dirt right in front legs. I am. It's also very clean in here. I forgot you had a stupid little wooden feet on. I kick the dirt right in front of it for him. It's just a carpet. Okay. But also, you know, I think this is the right thing for your family. And I support this decision, but at the same time,

I don't want to lose you. I think there's a couple of stones that y'all have that maybe we could keep one, so we could We could still talk to you. still call you every once in a while. Yes. That's a good idea. Cyrus, do you have the fuck?

He reaches in, sheepishly pulls out the other stone. Oh yeah, you gave it to that shithead. Here. I'm going to toss it to Orym. I'm not going to say I'm happy about it, but I think we all understand. This feels so dour. It's a real downer.

Come on, we just had a great night. Wasn't it fun? It was something. It was strange. Well, we were clicking. We had chemistry. Yeah. What was the... What was the... Ashtorethas's house attendant's name?

Does anyone recall? Evelyn. Evelyn, right. Evelyn? Yes? May I bother you for something? It is not a bother. Do you have any wine and some cups?

Yes. Yes. May we have any wine and some cups? Yes. May we have some? Of course, I'll be right back. She leaves and comes back with a tray with all manner of wine glasses and three hefty bottles that are freshly uncorked and sets it upon one of the small tables on the side of the study

and presents it to all of you. This is how we met? This is how we got to know each other? Why not? No pressure. Smells good. May I? Oh yeah. To the...

Oh. Oh. What did you say? Bells Hells. I said Bells Hells. Bells Hells. But do you say? Bells, hells. I said bells, hells. Bells, hells. But do you like it? I did, it felt good. Does it feel good? I mean, we are a bunch of hellions. We raise hell.

Well, I like it. And we killed Bertrand. That is true. I mean, in a way, yeah. I finished his song, by the way. I did. What do you mean? I will play it for you the next time our paths cross.

That's a promise. I feel like that's just a... Ah, you know. Leave a little something behind. Cheers to... To the Belzhelians. To Belzhel's. Belzhel's. I'm not holding a cup.

You are a cup. You're right. Cling! You know you are always a part of Belzhel's. You know what's funny? I've always felt my entire life, always, like I was on the outside looking in. And you,

you have all made me feel like I am part of something bigger. And I will be forever grateful for that. Thank you. To Dorian, who is leaving us for his stupid brother. What the fuck is up with that? Hey! What the fuck is up with that?

May the hair in your ears never fall out. Oh. Thank you. Do you have hair in your ears never fall out. No. Thank you. Do you have hair in your ears? Someday, I'm sure. You're not a burden, by the way. You shouldn't have said that. You're quite the asset.

You, you little fuck! I'll cut you up and throw you out! Stop, stop, stop! You keep your shit intact! Who is this? Who is this guy? He is a friend of very hairy, angry friends. I get it. Look, I am sorry. Yeah. I remember you.

Yeah, you want me to leave you with something to remember me by? I'll tell you what I'm sorry about! Look, I get it, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, all of you, all of you. I'm so sorry. You're an idiot. I know. Better earn this, this is a good one.

I mean, it's a little famous and pretentious, but he's good, so you earn it. No, you're right. Don't put anything in your mouth without his permission. You're just going to choke on it. Got it, got it, okay. And just maybe don't come back next time. Fair, fair.

Not in a she-wants-you-to-die way, right? Oh, no, no, just, you know, you can come back, but you should stay home and raise a garden or something. Honestly, I agree. I, um... I've gotten a taste of the winds I was seeking, and I got blown in the wrong direction.

Maybe I'll find them. Maybe it's, when all this is over, it's time for me to go home and be who I was meant to be. Let's just get out of here first. Okay. You hear in your head, I know what it's like to have people shouting in your brain all the time.

So before you go, I just want to apologize for submitting you to that earlier this evening. No need to apologize. Very few people have challenged me the way you have. It's been fun. Just remember, it's okay to accept help. You really don't have to do it on your own. Thank you.

I've always felt like there's been someone protecting me. I feel like now I have the chance to protect someone else. That's nice. I wish that person had been around this evening. It may have made things go a lot better. That person who protects you. That would have been great. You have mentioned before

that you have other people back in Tal'Dorei, do you think? Oh! They're still around? Interesting. Very interesting. All right. That's something to consider. You know, Ashton,

you weren't my first adventuring party, either. I don't take a big swig of wine. Remember how I gave you shit about when you first came into town and you got a bounty put on your head almost immediately? Yeah, no, I remember it very, very distinctly, actually. On the airship ride over, I will tell you a tale of why we probably shouldn't go back to Emon.

Okay, I look forward to that story. Aren't we going there, though? No, I don't think so. You are, you're going to Emon. I thought Eshteross said we could go to Qymo? I think you have to stop through Emon first. Oh shit. That's where it lands. Do you have money and stuff to get out of there?

Do we have money? I have some saved up, yeah. Why didn't you use it towards your bounty? I was going to. It wasn't that much. I'm sorry. That was going to, it wasn't that much. I'm sorry, that was... I have... I have here, six platinum. Six platinum.

There's two more. It's yours. What a loveless, selfless gift. Well, you know, I... Thank you so much. Plus, you got the airship, you know. Yeah. That's true. What do you think I could sell you?

Two hedge! Two hedge! I'm sorry! What do you think I could sell this for, Chetney? I'm kidding, I'm kidding! I will treasure it always. See that you do. I'll put it in my little pocket. On the floor.

On the floor. It's an immediate. Go! I'm like, oh god, I don't want to crush it. I put another 10 in your hand, Planum. More, thank you. What is this for? For the company.

For all those nights in the bed together. No, no, no. It wasn't like that, it's... You don't have to deny it. If you do find them, all right. Say hi for us. Oh, you couldn't stop me if you tried. Any messages you want to send,

or should I leave it up to my imagination? Well, I can't wait to hear. A progress report? Oh, I'm sure it will be full of simple things. Oh, quiet life. I'm sure nothing has gone wrong there. I reach up and take both Fearne and Dorian's hands. I got so used to it.

It feels weird that it's over for now. I will miss big spoon, medium spoon, little spoon. Big spoon, medium spoon, little spoon. That's true. Fair enough. I know my spot. One less spoon. Well, there's still a few hours, probably, if you guys wanted to just...

Just lay on the ground together. Do one more spoon? One less spoon? Just so cute. Should we all just lay down in a row and spoon? Yeah. No, lie. If you want to lie, I'll try to make a little wood carving of you.

I already shot that video. A little etching. I don't like this feeling. Mm. It's a little sad. But the right thing. It's a weird feeling right here. Sad is sad.

Up here? No, it just hurts. Oh, okay, okay. I thought you were going to. I don't know how fey creatures anatomy. Well. Shit. Shit?

You're a good man. Ugh. Has yet to be proven. Would anyone like to hear a song? Oh, yeah. All right. I've been working on this one. Is there a place where all of our shit's been stored

that we would have had access to, or in the carriage? All the things that you checked were then placed into the carriage during the event. All right. I'll pull up my lute, and I will try to sing a little song for everyone. All right. Are you going to sing it? No!

I know, I know! I'm sorry. No! But the real question is, is it good or is it bad? Mm-hmm. I think it's good. You don't need to roll for that. Yeah, and so through the wee hours of the morning

and the late remaining parts of the evening, you drink as friends, share stories as friends, and remember this face until it comes back around to cross your paths again. Dory. Yes? Worcestershire. Oh, harder than goodbye.

Oh, wait. Worcestershire. It, wait. Wush to shush. It's good. Thank you. I'm going to take one of the teeth from the mimic in the alleyway. Sure. And I'm going to pull out a ribbon

and make a little necklace. Just, you know, for you to remember us and the adventures that we've had in case something bad happens and we never see each other again. It is entirely possible, but I'll tell you this. If for some reason this tooth ever falls off, there is no way I would ever forget you.

I will never forget you. I hope not. It's not goodbye. No. See you later, that's all. And you are a good man. We've seen all the proof we need. Why not give him a halfling hug? Oh.

Bring him in tight and I will kiss his tiny little forehead. Oi. Oh shit. Give me a hug. Mm. Gonna miss ya. I will miss you so much,

and I'm going to pull out a dead little Bertrand doll, and I'm going to make them make kissies together. Oh, you said you were so horny, didn't you? Oh, Bertrand. Oh yeah, so much. I didn't know I was going to Daddy. The metal cane on the ground. You see Eshteross there.

It's time. All right, then. Until next time, Dorian. We'll see you later. Bik-Gro-Pok. Please be safe. I'll be fine. And make good decisions.

I can't believe I'm saying that. Yes. We'll be all right. We'll be all right. We'll be all right. We will be all right. I promise you. It's enough of this. Send a message every day on that stone.

I will absolutely not, but thank you for suggesting it. But if you need me. Should you need us? Just call. And I'll take my brother, clasp him on the back, and walk toward wherever Eshteross is leading us.

I'll lead you out the front door to the awaiting carriage, where he's going to hide you both underneath one of the back seats. Orym, can I have the stone real quick? Break it in. I'm just checking. I know you just left, but I was just seeing if you guys were okay.

Break her, break her. Break, break her. How does this come through on the stone? You hear the words directly into your head. She's whispering in your ear almost, as you hold the stone up. Do I know how to make it send back? You just speak into the stone.

It works just fine. End. Okay, well, at least just let us know when you get there. I don't know. Let her keep going. Let us know when you get there to the ship and then when you arrive in Emon. Yeah! College.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just to make sure. When you get into your dorm at night, give me a call. You have to hold it further away so he can see you. You can't. Just got to. I'm holding the he can see you. You can't. I'm holding the top of your hand. I can only see your mouth. I slowly take it back from her hand and say,

we'll figure out how it works together. You hear the distant muffled of the door in the carriage, and the wheels creak as it takes off. Eshteross steps back into the manor and closes the door. You've all had a very long night. Get some rest. Eshteross.

Mm? Are you mad at us? No. Actually, very quite proud. Sorry we weren't great party guests. I didn't bring you to be good party guests. I brought you to be problem solvers. I think you did quite a good job.

A little messy in some ways, but nothing I can't clean up in time. But get some rest. There's work to do. If you were to look where the carriage went away as it pulled away, left floating there, where the carriage just went away, with Levitate on it.

He's just a little toy boat, and a little kid from the street runs along and snatches it off and runs down the street. I love it. A natural end to the episode. We'll end it there. Robbie. Oh, I love that!

I love it! Robbie! Oh, I love that! I love it! It will be love! That's all you wanted, right? Robbie, thank you so much for joining us. What a blast! Yeah, man! So much fun! Definitely the last time we drag you into our chaos,

but definitely the big, heavy introduction between EXU and this, you're part of the family now, so don't go too far, bud. All right, thanks, guys. Goo, I'm so proud! Love you so much. Love you guys, too! Stop it! First big tear-jerker moment of scene three.

Oh, Chad! You look in the mirror and the turret explodes. Got you, motherfucker. Oh my god! I thought you said the ship exploded, killed the kids. He was like... It was a bomb! It did, there was just a timer on it. In three, two, one.

Bam! Fuck. Almost, problem almost solved. Amazing. Well. All of you, give some love to Robbie Daymond. He's fucking brilliant. Dear friend.

Robbie Dryman. So proud of you. Damn you! Savage! Oh wow. Thank you all so much for joining us. We love you very much, and is it Thursday yet? Good night. We love you, Robbie! Yay! 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?