Critical Role - C3E32 A Stage Set

Episode Date: September 8, 2022

Bells Hells tinker with former friendships and robotic inner workings before returning to Paragon's Call, this time as newly minted members... 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/PsycomResources Watch Critical Role Campaign 3 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. "It's Thursday Night (Critical Role Theme Song)" by Peter Habib and Sam RiegelOriginal Music by Omar Fadel and Hexany Audio"Welcome to Marquet" Art Theme by Colm McGuinnessAdditional Music by Universal Production Music, Epidemic Sounds, and 5 AlarmCharacter Art by Hannah Friederichs Twitch subscribers gain instant access to VODs of our shows like Critical Role, Exandria Unlimited, and 4-Sided Dive. But don't worry: Twitch broadcasts will be uploaded to YouTube about 36 hours after airing live, with audio-only podcast versions of select shows on Spotify, Apple Podcasts & Google Podcasts following a week after the initial air date. Twitch subscribers also gain access to our official custom emote set and subscriber badges and the ability to post links in Twitch chat!

Good day, Critters! Travis Willingham here, and I am excited to welcome you to the podcast version of our Critical Role show. If you would like to watch the stream as it airs, you can tune in on Thursdays at 7 p.m. Pacific at twitch.tv slash criticalrole or at youtube.com slash criticalrole. The video-on-demand versions are immediately available for our Twitch subscribers or on YouTube the following Mondays at 12 p.m. Pacific. Podcast episodes are right here on the Critical Role Podcast Network on Thursdays, one week after the initial broadcast.

Now that we've got all that covered, let's get this adventure going. Hello, everyone, and welcome to tonight's episode of Critical Role, where a bunch of us nerdy-ass voice actors sit around and play Dungeons & Dragons. Dungeons & Dragons! Before we get into our episode tonight, though, we do have a few announcements to get through,

beginning with our first sponsor of the night, Quip. Sam, what's up tonight? You guys all know that Quip has these amazing smart electric toothbrushes that make your mouth feel great when you use them. But what you don't know is that when we took on Quip as our sponsor, one of the conditions was that I, Sam Riegel, never put their toothbrush

in my mouth on camera. This is true. That was their one big- That's a really cool one. I know, I like the one on camera. This is true. That was their one big- That's a really cool one. I know, I like that one. I really do. That's awesome. Yeah, yeah. That was their one big no-no. They said, do not do that.

And listen, I get it. No one wants to see me shove something into my mouth covered in toothbrush, no matter how, toothpaste, no matter how awesome the toothbrush is. How about a toothbrush? It would look gross. However, they never said anything about me shoving other things into my mouth or brushing my teeth with other things

that resemble toothbrushes. There we go. So tonight, that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to brush my teeth, not with quip toothbrushes, but with other things while Marisha reads the copy. Is it like an every two or three year quota? I've got to read the copy? I've got to brush my teeth.

The faster you read it, the faster this ends. We're a sponsor's nightmare. Okay, while Sam is brushing his teeth with various objects, such as licorice. Well, that's a pickle. A lollipop. That's great. Read faster, read faster. And a cigar. A lollipop. That's great. Read faster, read faster.

And a cigar. Don't you know? No, no, no, no, no, no. No, no, no, no, no. Marisha, keep reading, please. Rest assured that he will be able to clean his mouth out later with a fantastic Quip smart electric toothbrush, which has all the guiding features of their original form.

What? Stop it! Plus a new Bluetooth smart motor. Wee-fasha! That should help clean out all of the- Get it in there, get it in there. How am I supposed to explain this to your kids? All the party horns. Oh.

No. And the pipe cleaners. I might throw up, guys. Oh my god, please don't barf on camera. The cigar is going faster! No! Pocky. Give me your nose.

Is there Pocky? There is Pocky. Yep, there's Pocky. And Slim Jims. No! Oh, wow. No! Oh wait, the Slim Jims? Don't do it with the metal, don't say the metal.

You need a mega quip. While Sam is currently jamming that in his mouth, with a free quip app, you can track your brushing, get tips, and daily coaching. I lost my spot, because I'm so distracted. And you can earn rewards, like Target gift cards, for good habits, like brushing two minutes twice a day, which will be perfect when Sam is finishing. Sorry, finished.

Don't do the metal. You're going to hurt yourself. Like a hellish bean cushion. Mouthing the bananas and the chopsticks. There's metal in the pipe cleaners, too. Don't do the pipe cleaners. No. Not do the pipe cleaners. No.

Stop it. Stop it, Sam. Put it down. You see, like Sam. Hellraiser's mouth. Can I not do the pie please? No! Stop it! Stop it, Zam! No! You see, like Zam... I'll raise his mouth. Marissa, read faster! I'm sorry, so distracting. Like Zam, you can start getting rewards at quip.com slash critical25. I'm gonna throw up a little.

And save 25% site-wide when you use... Ew. When you use code CRITICAL25. Okay, for the love of god, please stop. This is over. Matt, back to you. Holy! I found my gag. Holy shit. I found my gag reflex, guys.

There was only 12 inches in the bag. That was a lot of shit there. I'm pretty sure. That was pretty impressive, though. Samber, I'm pretty sure you just voided all your health insurance. Yeah, yeah. Blue Cross is going to send you a letter. That took way too long.

I know. I should've... I'm glad I received it. Sam's really in a critical role. Also, your policy has been canceled. I didn't want to touch any of that. No. This episode is also sponsored by our official D&D tool set, D&D Beyond.

D&D Beyond! If you have somehow not been aware or made of D&D Beyond, at this point, it is the home of all things D&D toolset, D&D Beyond. D&D Beyond! If you have somehow not been aware or made of D&D Beyond, at this point, it is the home of all things D&D via a slick digital experience and houses all of their publications, including our very own Explorer's Guide to Wildemount and Call of the Nether Deep. And with D&D growing, so should your own collection of works.

So right now you can enjoy 15% off D&D books at D&D Beyond until September 5th. Just head over to dndbeyond.link slash CRSAIL. Thanks to D&D Beyond for continuing to support the show, and I'm going to brush my teeth with this D&D book. Because I know better than to do that. You look so traumatized right now. Marisha. I don't feel good.

Yeah, reminder that you can join us for the sixth episode of Foresighted Dive next Tuesday, September 6th at 7 p.m. Pacific on Twitch and YouTube. Traumatized. Laura. Traumatized. Laura, please.

Bring it back, bring it back. It's fern week. You better believe it. So seriously, I can smell the pickles and it's grossing me out. Okay, we've got, check it out, a giant cute, cute Mr. Plushie. A little chonky boy.

Also, if this guy's just too big for you, you need something a little smaller. Check out this one. Take it with you wherever you go. Oh my god. I love it. I know, even the boxes are cute. These are so cutey cute.

And then also, check out these awesome fern shirts. Yeah! Sam is wearing, dear god, Sam is wearing one. There's drool on your arm. Look at all these little details. Anyway, check them out, They're in our stores. Oh, look at Mister on the chest. I know, I love it.

Awesome. Oh my god. Wow. Liam. Oh man, I got some, too, and it's a good one. It's not Fern Week, it's Ashley Week. I am so excited to announce the critical role of the Mighty Nein Origins, Yasha. Yasha! is now available.

Created in partnership with Dark Horse Comics, it's written by Cecil Castellucci alongside our very own Matthew Mercer and Ashley Jenkins. Yay! With amazing art by Will Kirkby, done by colorist Diana Sousa and writer Ariana Mayer. This book, it's here. This book is gorgeous.

The pages of this book are gorgeous and it's available now. So grab your copy at your friendly, local Kamek book shop or bookstore. Take it home with you, Ish. I'm gonna take it home. Yeah. Oh, I'm so excited.

Do you want me to sign it? I'm okay. It smells like mint and pickles. It does. It's a gross combo. A lot of smells. It's a weird, this is the weirdest smell. Get it out, get it out. Like, I want to eat the pickles, but I also feel a little nauseous.

I couldn't eat the pickles. I'm not touching those pickles. On that note, let's go ahead and jump into tonight's episode of Critical Role. Oh my god. Critical. Thursday night.

Critical. Thursday night. 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 How do you want to do this? It's Thursday night All ye critters come join us How do you want to do this? 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 play

It's Thursday night 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 And welcome back. So, last we left off, You're welcome.

And welcome back. So, last we left off, Bells Hells in the city of Bassuras, chasing down Arman Treshi, a fugitive from the Mahon house Treshi in Drusar, who seemed to have been caught up in a number of problems in the city, mainly involving this Shade Mother business and was turned in by Lady Imoth after you had turned her in.

He fled the city and you've been chasing ever since. Upon arriving here in the city of Bassuras in the middle of the Hellcatch Valley, you also uncovered a number of interesting elements. One that he has held up within the Seat of Disdain, the House of Power, the Fortress of Power, for the Paragon's Call that he was so entwined with, and also managed to have a strange run-in

with an assassin that was revealed chasing down the Calloways, revealing themself when you met Birdie Calloway. You then traveled with Birdie along to a secret laboratory where she and Olly, Efren's father, had been allied with another strange ally of, Fearne's father, had been allied with another strange ally of Treshi's that you had encountered once before,

Ira Wendigoth, the Nightmare King. It seemed that the Calloway family had been working while she was being kept by her grandmother Morrigan in the Feywild to understand the nature of the Red Moon Ruidus, of which it seems your friend Fearne here was born under. Now, as part of this interest in ascertaining its nature in hopes of protecting their child from its strange,

continuous apparition within the Fey Realm, Ira seemed to have acquired the item he needed that you had delivered from Mori to complete this device that the Calloways had been completing with him and then he absconded with this information before revealing some other odd connections to other weird mysteries that float about here in the Condor Marquette.

Some tense encounter and realizations with your parents, Fearne, and a possible path to reconciliation, at the very least getting everything out in the open. It was decided that Olly would stay back while Birdie would take you on her crawler alongside yours back to the city of Bassuras to look into some of this trashy business.

You also discovered upon reaching out fresh cut grass to Dancer that it seemed there was some tension in the past. You weren't aware of an emotional request to not find them. And realizing that you may have been responsible in some way, shape, or form for the dire end of your previous group,

you reached a threshold of stress and tension and began to assault your friends. In this brief altercation, you managed to calm Fresh Cut Grass, and in these tense realizations and hurled insults, the rest of you sat there a bit scattered, broken and confused. You, Laudna, dealing with the reemerging influence

of one Delilah within yourself and what that draw might mean should you give into it. It seems that the only functional mind at the moment, as pointed out by Ashton, is Orym, and the rest of you have some shit to work out. But after spending a night of rest here in the laboratory, shortly after sunrise, you once again stood onto the crawler that you had purchased and had worked on

by Imahara Joe alongside Birdie's crawler that you had purchased and had worked on by Imahara Joe alongside Birdie's crawler and then rode off into the dusty desert of the Hellcatch back towards the city. And that's where we pick up from here. So as the sun slowly begins to rise higher, higher on the horizon, the blue sky getting more and more vibrantly blue, the day getting warmer,

the sweat beginning to build beneath your armor and clothing. I would like one of you to roll a d20, just to ascertain if the day is eventful or the next few hours of travel are eventful before you get to the city. That's a 15. 15, okay.

The multi-hour excursion back to the city That's a 15. 15, okay. The multi-hour excursion back to the city goes without issue. Oh, great. Early enough in the morning where it seems no tense business was waiting for you, unlike your journey towards the laboratory. But after a few hours, some loudly-shouted conversation over the roaring sound of these automaton's legs

digging into the ground behind you, the front wheels tearing into the dust and rock and shale. You eventually begin to see the definitive shape of Bassuras on the horizon as you go past one of the long bowing bridges over the ravine below, and you can see the climbing red walls of the Carmine Curtain.

Before long, you are back in the familiar township itself. The bustling, strange, sometimes aggressively dressed populace of Bathsworth sits around you. You tear in past the central walls of the Carmine Curtain, and you watch as Birdie skids off to the side and comes to rest, the growling purr of the arcane engines within the automaton coming to a restful state,

the legs curling down to allow you to disembark from the machines. As you all pull back the bits of cloth and face masks as you were keeping the dust from being inhaled, Birdie pulls her goggles up, dusts off her face a bit. Well, all right, I guess we're here now. I'm probably going to make myself scarce, given the fact that you is out there somewhere.

I don't entirely trust those who've been working towards the demise of me and my husband and my daughter for some time, so I got what I came for originally, but just wanted to make sure you got back here safe. Is there anything else you need from me, Fearne? I don't think so. All right, well, it seems y'all had a means

of getting in touch with me to begin with. I guess if anything comes up, or any words of warning, anything that might behoove what we're trying to do back in figuring out our next part of the path ahead, now that we have an idea of what's looking to transpire with some of these folks you're tangled with. If we can be of assistance, they'll let us know.

In the meantime, we'll just start looking to see if we can figure out where they're setting up shop to the east, I guess it was. Are you going to be in the Hathaway? I think so, for the time being, unless we have to leave it. I'll probably be doing some runs out and about, just trying to gauge the terrain

and see if I can be helpful. All right. Make up for some mistakes and misplaced trust, it seems. Well, if you need us, we should be here for at least a little while longer. Don't hesitate to come and call. Okay, well, it shouldn't be too hard to find you.

You're a bunch of sore thumbs out here in the Dust Bowl. So... Anyway, I'm going to go grab me a quick meal at the Taste of Tal'Dorei, because, you know, might as well while I'm here. And then shove off from there, goes ahead and starts walking the beast of a crawler over to a side hitching area,

like behind her. She sets it over and chains it to the side. Stay safe, I suppose. Make sure you all don't go disappearing again. Well, I don't think there's much of a reason to. Kind of out in the open now. Just be careful. You too.

It was really nice to meet or hang out with you, Birdie. It was really nice to meet or hang out with you, Birdie. Yes, let us know if you need anything and we can do the same. Can I? Oh, you want to give me a hug? If. Yeah.

All right. She finishes hanging up and just runs over and quickly comes, but then just gingerly takes the moment to hold you. Just rock with you a little bit. This feels nice. It does. I thought about it often.

Me too. All right. Well, I guess we'll be in touch. And if anything comes our way that seems to align with what you're doing and looking for, since a lot of our paths are converging, interest-wise, we'll find a way to let you know. Okay. Until then. Until then.

She pulls her goggles down and takes her scarf and tucks it around and adjusts her posture a little bit. You know, to not carve quite a visage. Then bounds off, being the dictator that she is. Across the road, leaves little tufts of dirt and dust behind her. Okay. How are you feeling?

I'm feeling... I'm feeling okay, I think. Considering, uh... Lots of stuff happened. That I... Just found out. Um... But I'm okay. I'm okay.

I think. And... We just gotta keep moving forward. You know? Mm-hmm. I guess we have found out a lot about a lot and each other. Yeah. Where should we head first?

Are you wanting to see Dancer first, or we should head straight to Disdain? I mean, we could just park, or we could go get a drink, figure out Dancer, if that's what you're up for. What you're up for? You don't have to be. I mean, I'm curious, but.

I'm a little nervous that if we head over there, that you might give a little switcheroo again. I don't think so. I am, I mean, I'm nervous, too, but maybe she'll have an answer about why that happened or can help prevent it from happening again. Although, I don't know if she wants to see me.

I guess I could reach out to her and just find out. She might go running. Mm-hmm. Are you talking about, you actually want to see Dancer? Well, yeah. Oh no. What do you mean? Oh, fuck no.

Why? You got to send an emissary for you or something. Why? Because when you get eyes on her, you're going to go all fucking... Come on now. What? You're just going to be like... Arterial spray! And then they'll be tracking the crime scene and it'll lead right to us!

I didn't even know... Listen, I'm sorry that I clobbered you a little bit, but... Little nicks. Just little. I didn't... It wasn little bit. Little Nicks. Just little. I didn't, it wasn't me. Little Nicks with a buzzsaw. I told you, you should take it off of me. No, absolutely not.

Why don't we go to unleash that beast when the time is right? Sorry, you know, within reason. Well, we could, for the meeting, though, take it off of you. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I think when we go to Paragon's Call,

potentially get piled on by 100 people. Maybe it's better, if you're up for it, to go see Dancer first. If I'm on me, if we can find her. How do we do it, too? I mean, how do we not scare Dancer off? Well, we're not very scary people. I mean, you're not.

You're all real friendly. Well, maybe. Well, some of you. Maybe we send in, you know, a... Well, who do we? We don't even know where she is. I mean, just hypothetically, I mean, I can reach out to her, but if we were going to send just one or two of us first,

like up on ahead, who do you all think are the nicest of the bunch of us? I mean, not me right now. Normally, I would have said. Yeah. Yeah. Probably Orym. Mm-hmm, and Fearne. Yeah. Oh, really?

Oh, Jesus. You're very, and Fearne. Yeah. Oh, really? Oh, Jesus. You're very, until someone actually gets to know you, they would find you extremely comforting and calming. That is so nice of you to say. Thank you. Until they get to know you. That's, well. I think you're real sweet, too, Imogen.

Oh, thank you. Yeah, you're pretty polite. Like, you've got a lot of manners. That couldn't hurt. You do. You've clearly got other shit going on. If she's just going to try and steal shit, no offense. It's real hot. That's very true. I don't know. I feel like I'm not that observant.

Well, I'll just see if she's open to it, all right? Didn't not. Maybe somebody else should send the message, actually. That's actually a fair point. Oh, the Emissary idea's pretty good, huh? The old man's got a couple ideas and the beeb on it. I was just assuming that you were full of shit, because I know that if you actually thought

that they were going to go nuts, you would be really down for that. So I just thought you were just trying to be suspicious. I mean, not yet. I feel like we need Dancer, but eventually. Ah, okay. So I could reach out to Dancer, but I- Have you done that before?

Reached out? To her? Not to Dancer. To her specifically? No. You can do it even if you've never met her? As long as I'm familiar with her, you could describe her to me. Okay. And what are you going to say? Exactly. I have no idea.

I mean. We've detained the beast known as FCG. It's totally safe. We've wiped the memory. We need you to help us put the pieces back together for good. The truth. What is she?

It's not wrong. I'm a bit of a monster. No, you're not. A little bit. No more than the rest of us, except for this one. I'm just worried that I don't know what set me off. Well, it's just. Maybe I just shouldn't do anything for a while until I know, you know? Yeah, probably right.

What was it that set you off? Leading up to all of this, these past handful of days, you've been kind of, you know, stressed a little, not yourself. And we have seen some weird moments from you outside of that, you know, like moments where you started glitching out a little bit. And you seemed down and depressed.

Are you feeling depressed now? I don't have any feelings. I'm a robotic entity. Not true! That's not true! You definitely have feelings, because you were very angry at all of us. You yelled very mean things. I'm sorry.

You look like you feel sad now. Do you feel sad right now? Because you went a little... What does that feel like? Oh, emotions are tricky. Wait, this spur's an idea. Can you guys keep going? Can you describe it with wood?

I describe everything with wood. And you just see shit flying. Chetney chisel hands. Chetney chisel hands. Under these fingernails is each a different bit. Veiny ass fucking knuckles. It's like snow. Except it's wood.

Ow! If you'd like to reach out. All right. Well, here's an idea. Oh! What if we do detain you? And tell Dancer that. Okay, like put me in a net, wrap up my wheel, something.

Put one of those boots. Something silly. Like a parking boot? You could just act like, maybe we can just act like they're shut down. You know what I mean? Act like it? Yeah, like we can wheel you in. I don't want to lie to anybody.

It's not lying if you don't tell a lie. That's right, if you don't say anything. I think we just promised. Yeah, we could tell the lie. That's true. I'm in there. Yeah, you're just doing the cold fish. Where'd you get those pickles?

There was a vendor at the street. Yup. Did you want some? So strange in this climate. You're eating Bosphorus street food. You are braver than I thought. But the whole point of this. It's the desert of keeps. There's a hobgoblin back there with a card.

He's just like, You want more? I'm kind of into it now, actually. Get them quick. They're hard to find and they don't keep real long. They're really good. I doubt it. Add a little toothpaste. Oh!

What? What? That's the weirdest thing you've ever said, Imogen. But if the whole point of this is to get to the bottom of things and you're genuine, then we don't need any kind of trickery. I agree. Why don't we bind you up for the sake of dancers' comfort and let them know that.

And they might come in angry, they might come in terrified. Okay. But you'll have done all you can today to make an effort. Sure. I'll put on my grapple cannon and I'll let out the line and you guys can wrap it around me.

All right. You get into our heads. Can you send a vision of FCG to them? No, I don't think so, but I could let them know that I mean, that we've captured them. Okay. Just trying to figure out how we make it feel safe for Dancer to meet with us.

Yeah. What was Dancer's job? What does she do? She's a tinkerer of things, and she builds things, and she's a marvel with all kinds of machinery and tools. I mean, her job was we were adventurers for hire, sort of like we are now.

Is there a world where we say something like that to her? Like we want to, of course, again, this is lying, but I don't have a problem with that at all. If we tell her, you know, like, we have something we need to help your expertise with. Mm-hmm. And then we see her and then we're like, oh, here. Oh, like hire her?

Yeah. That's interesting. I Oh, hire her. Yeah. That's interesting. I mean, she's for hire. For sure would probably show up. Right. Is she important to you? And then just have FCG? Of course, she made me. Oh. I don't know if that's true.

Yeah, I feel like that was under some debate at this point. Well, she made me what I am. Maybe she just turned you back on, but maybe she messed up. Maybe that's why things are difficult. Things are getting jumbled up. Maybe. But the first point is still true.

She's important to you. Yeah. So you'd want her to know that you're being honest and sorry. What if we bring your Shredder arm to her? Give it to her. That's fine with me. Doesn't FCG need that arm? Maybe after talking,

they'll get it back. I don't know how important is she, is my question. Do you have an opinion on this? Because I have an opinion on this. Regardless of all of it, we have to find her first. So I do have to send a message. Right, yeah. Right? I mean, we can at the very least offer

the one thing that clearly she wants, which is a little bit of closure from this. I'd hate to be running from this shit for the rest of my fucking life. How do you know she wants closure? Anyone that freaked out and panicked wants to not feel freaked out and panicked, and has clearly spent a very long time

feeling freaked out and panicked. Anything would be better. I'm going to cast Sending and try to reach out to Dancer. Okay. Ask her to meet one of us in a public spot. Dancer, we've captured your automaton,

preparing to disassemble. Is that true? Where can we meet if you're interested in recouping some costs? We're in Bowsorus. Make a deception check for me. Oh, you're so cold. Can I give her Guidance? That's really good.

Sure. Guidance, boop! Okay. 19. 19. I take it back, you're not the nice one. I'm not. Not too much of a wait before Dancer responds.

I'm curious which automaton you're talking about, but I'm listening. I'm having a liquid breakfast at the Revel and Break. Revel and Break. Oh shit, oh shit. Where's that? Have we heard that before? Revel in Break, those of you who are from Bastros would know, is a drinking establishment

in the undercarriage, not far from where you last stayed here in the city. Wonderful. There we go. Let's head over. Oh boy, I'm scared. Out of curiosity, Ashton, what was that twisted face you just made? I was just impressed by the sheer

cold calculating-ness of that. That was very well done, my god. It was a little scary. It hadn't occurred to me. Imogen's very capable. Insight check. Something about that you said dream. I dream of a lot of things. I know you do.

Ruffle and break, right? Are you genuinely wanting to? I'll insight check. All right, so you can make deception or persuasion. Your choice, you don't have to say which, and just give me a number. 18. 15.

I'm telling the truth, darling. I would never dream of it. Ever. Stop making that face. I can't make faces. I just wear them. Somehow you emote so clearly. I just wear them.

Yes. You notice earlobes have formed. Not ears. Just the lobes. Exactly lobes. I hate this so much. Now we know where she is, but I don't think that we should all rush over

like we were saying. I think one or two of us should go in. That place is a shithole. I mean, would it be a terrible idea? Even for this place, it's pretty rough. Yeah, it's definitely like, it's not the roughest here. It's definitely for travelers and the weary

or needing to work out some aggression folk of the city. It's definitely the shitty watering hole among shitty watering holes of that region of the city. Not the biggest dive, but pretty divey. Would it be insane for me to actually mention if someone tries to offer you anything, don't take it, just considering who hangs out there.

I would tell you nobody offers you shit at the early break. You buy your own drink. Just doing what we out there. I would tell you nobody offers you shit at the early break. You buy your own drink. Just doing what we're reading. We don't all have to go in, that's fine. Laudna and I can hang out on the outside, so when she inevitably runs. I see what you're referring to.

We can clothesline her. Yep. That's pretty. Anything outside of alcohol, maybe. Okay, yeah. That was definitely what I was pointing at. If everybody offers you anything that isn't alcohol, don't take it. Fair enough. Yeah, Chetney and I was pointing at. If everybody out there doing anything that isn't alcohol, don't take it.

Fair enough. Yeah, Chetney and I will stand guard. Should we bring FCG in right away? Maybe we can hold him outside. That way, if she does want to come in and see them, you know, you're right there. You're ready. What did you just tell her?

You said that you shut me down or you've just captured me? Captured you and preparing to disassemble. Oh god. Preparing to disassemble. But never! I know, but just hearing the words. Who would you feel most comfortable

with disassembling you if it came down to that? Shh! Oh boy. He's the most skilled. That's probably true. Finesse, baby. You wouldn't feel a thing. He's the most skilled. That's probably true. Finesse, baby. You wouldn't feel a thing. He's the most skilled, but I worry about that ticker of his.

It could go at any moment. I could make you real calm before I did it. That scares me more. I'm just saying. I think Ashton. Thank you. A nice big clonk on the head, slats out.

This is really the way to go. It's the weirdest Short Circuit reboot. All right. Do you mind if I come in with you? Not at all. Just to be some muscle in the corner. I'll hang outside with you guys. All right.

Do you want to take the buzz saw? I'll carry it. Okay. I'm unassuming. As we're going, did Dancer work for or with any repeat clients or anybody that would be interested in her automatons or collecting them, as found again? She frequented a few salvage yards in town,

of which I remember the names. And we were hired by folks in town, but I- No repeat vendors, right? Anybody she might owe a debt to? A debt? I mean- Like a repo? Where's the big old salvage yards? Oh, you're talking about the-

Ye olde salvage yards? Ye olde, ye olde salvage yards. I mean, there's a number of places there. There's the Easter Eggs, has the Finders Takers, which is the Finders Takers. That's where Esmer is, where he went and had the bomb, situated there. Oh yeah, Esmer, yeah.

Her former lover. Yep, there's a number of shops and places. And the Sonion Row is probably the one place you're thinking of that has the most scavenger, scrapyard feels. That's where Imahara Joe is. And a lot of the, what's referred to as the roaches. Okay. So yeah,

those would make the most sense. All right. I'm all weird with eggs and roaches now. Wow. No? So what's the plan? All right, I hand over my buzz roaches and owls. Wow. I'm done. So what's the plan? All right, I hand over my buzzsaw to Orym. And I...

And we head over to Revlon. Just fall into the furnace. Just start wrapping you up. Sure, yeah, I'll wrap myself. Okay. So you head over towards the undercarriage, which is less intense when it's this early in the day. You're probably at this point a couple hours shy of noon, and so it still definitely has that kind of morning energy to it. trying to shield themselves from the heat and the bleariness that their eyes are currently dealing with

while others are out there in the process of probably even finishing their night. A couple of stumbling folks eventually coming back after a night of whatever revelry or debauchery they had gotten themselves involved with. Atta boy. But upon approaching the outside

of this caravan serai, last time you were here was evening and bustling. Now it's fairly empty, other than a few folks keeping watch, a couple of other individuals that are passed out. Here, upon the outside of the Revlon Break, you can see it's a ramshackle watering hole. It looks to be a drinking spot that is partially open. There's an entryway, but the area where most folks drink, there is an opening, almost like a skylight

that looks above with a thick silk that can be drawn to close it in case the weather gets tumultuous. But for the time being, it's a partially shaded open feel, as there are a number of tables scattered about with chairs around them. You can see there's a central pit

that's dug into the ground. Looks like maybe individuals need to work out their aggressions or disagreements can go to, but it's also maybe a little early in the day for that. There's maybe only three patrons that are visible within the room at a quick glance. One of which looks to be a female in their... It's hard to see at this distance.

But you do see a woman with jet black hair and an olive skin, light brown eyes, sitting at a table, head and the palm in one hand holding their face, and a big dark red clay mug on the table next to them and a big dark red clay mug on the table next to them with their arm draped over the edge of it. But they don't seem to notice you stepping towards the front entryway.

Just head straight over to that table. I, before coming in, took the arm and wrapped it in the cloak that we've been wearing cloaks occasionally, so it's just a package under the arm. Gotcha. Is there, can we, do you want me to take the back or you take the back or you want the front?

Oh, which do you prefer? The back. I'll take the front. What should you prefer? The back. I'll take the front. So I'll just make my way, if there's a back door to this. I'll just stay here with FCG. Stay here. It's too far now.

We've gone too far. Okay. Park by the front door and then we'll turn. Disarm and banded the really valuable thing, so you know. Yes. So as you walk through, Orym, you pick it up. Just a brief smell in the air. Very faint, very faint, but for an open air space,

there's a, maybe it's towards the table, so there's a very faint mustiness just hangs in the air. But you approach the table, and the woman looks through the spreading of the middle fingers over at you and sits up, looks over, and you can see there is a, looks to be a tattoo of a star on the right cheek. It's marked right there.

A pretty heavy hood and cloak that rests over the shoulders and hangs down past the chair and collects at the base across the floor. The other hand, as you get close, it looked like it was gloved and wrapped, but now you can see it is a metallic prosthetic. It is a tinkered prosthetic. You can see all sorts of mechanical cables and pulleys

and odd clockwork elements. As it moves, you can see there's a jerkiness to it. It is imperfect and does not move smoothly, but it seems functional enough. It sits up, and grabs onto the side of the table. You can see there's almost a bit of a shift in her physicality to adjust

for its sudden and strange movements before looking up at the two of you. Well, I assume by your direct approach in that you're the ones who contacted me? That's right, we are. Morning, man. Based on the rapid series of events, I think I have an idea of the automaton you're talking about.

Just go ahead and takes a sip, and you can see there's that bit of a hungover haze to her eyes. A bit of a weird one, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah, I can say that. And you're responsible for all that? I mean, I was. Bottom, fair and square.

Bottom. So, all that personality, that was before you? Oh, yeah. I'd love it. I wish I could take credit for all that, but I think maybe in the long run, that was part of the problem. See, all the rest of the things that I make myself,

they listen. They don't become challenging. I see. This one was quite challenging. So did you... Or? Took him down? She's seated at a table, you said? All right, so I'll place it down on the table and unfurl.

There's an immediate look of recognition and that look of somebody that is suddenly remembering something traumatic and then bearing it quickly. I think one thing that we're hoping to know. I'm going to cast Detect the Hearts. Okay. That's wrong. Cool.

Is, because we've had such a time with this one, I think we're curious to know what happened that led for them to be this way. I mean, I wish I could tell you. Caught me off guard. As you're starting to read past the thoughts, too, you're immediately feeling waves of emotion,

fear, sadness, but then recollections of joy, kinship. The surface thoughts all seem to be revolving around the idea of what went wrong. Don't know why it went wrong. That's the general surface thought you're getting at the moment. We've never seen anything like them.

Neither have I. Yeah, and they seemed real friendly. Real sweet. And all of a sudden, red eyes. Almost demonic, right? Yeah. Looks like you made it out luckier than I did.

That was close. But you did have some good times. Yeah. I mean, I took a lot of pride in managing to get him back to whatever he was. How did you do that? Roll a persuasion check.

Just like, this is to gauge how open they feel. Can I assist? Yes, you may. Just by looking sweet? Yeah, either you can give her advantage or. I have advantage. Okay. 14 have advantage. Okay. 14.

14. I've been here most of my life, and there are a number of junkers and traders and crawlers and the occasional ascent adventure that scoots through with some findings they need to offload. Now, a bunch of us in the Sanya and Ro, we keep an eye out for anything interesting and unique.

It's where a lot of us craft our tools, and in some cases, our companions. That's where my specialization lies. I made good money growing up making small, friendly types that just like pets, if you will. This one came through. It was something else. I wasn't the only one interested.

I had to pull in a lot of favors to get Joe real distracted. But went all in. Pretty much everything I'd saved up, because I knew there was something special about this thing. It was old. Who was the seller? I don't know.

Never saw him before, never saw him after. They were a... They were just a laundering trader. Inside check. Go for it. Was it an advantage? Because I still got Detect Thoughts up. I'd say yeah.

Ooh. Come on. Nice. 22. Ooh. 22. Oh! For Whisper! I don't have anything to read. I do, but it's for a combat, but this isn't combat,

so I don't know what to do. Read it anyway. Okay. This Whisper is brought to you by the WizKids Combat Cam. What, a WhisperCam. WhisperCam. Coming soon. Our WhisperCam sponsorship is back

with our partners at WizKids, makers of amazing Critical Role miniatures. Enhance your home games with Critical Role minis. Available at wizkids.io slash CRminis. And your local game store. Go. Woo! There you go. Yeah, it was, we get a lot of strange folks that come through and this one was carrying a whole odd batch of things

that they had supposedly found on a trip somewhere deep in the Rumadam. Rumadam? The Hoobah? The Rumadam Desert. Hoobastank. Hoobastank Desert. Were there any peculiar markings on this particular cellar?

Anything that we would be able to identify them with? I mean, they wore masks under that. That's why they don't have much more information to give you. Mm-hmm. So you don't get more mysterious than this one. What are you doing these days? Lifts the cup and sloshes it a little bit. Well, I'm trying to get back to my trade. It's interesting, after I had

after I had roused FCG and had this companion with capabilities and a few other friends of mine, we decided to change our fortunes a bit. Instead of sitting back and waiting for adventurers to come by and give us piddlings for our trade. Maybe we'd give a shot at it ourselves. We did pretty good, actually. It wasn't too bad.

We started making some nice coin and a small name for us. Yeah, moving beyond the Hellcatch, just working up on the Wildlands for a bit. And then we had the incident, and I lost everything. I'm so sorry. Yeah, me too. But you move on.

When you live a life and grow up in a place as harsh as this, you're not completely unfamiliar with the idea of hardship and picking up and pushing forward. Sometimes it's the only chance. It's the only real path you got. How did you get them back online? Oh, weeks of tinkering.

There was something there. There was a hum. It wasn't like they were broken. They were just dormant. They were just, there was something. There was something. Yeah, we're thinking about opening them up, getting a real good look at everything in there, but didn't want to damage it, you know?

Oh, just be careful, you know? If you see anything that glows, don't pull it out. Oh, there's glowing stuff? Oh yeah. Energy centers and power cores that keep most automatons going. It's part of their initial design, but even me tinkering around, this was old shit.

Really? Yeah. No, this was craft far beyond anything I'd ever seen. So I didn't mess with much because I didn't want to mess it up. Did you have to replace anything? No, no replacement. Just more like things were dislodged a little bit. All right.

So I had to just figure out where to reconnect them. Then all of a sudden, one day, we had FCG. I've never... There's something special about that one. Mm. I've never, there's something special about that one. I'd heard rumors from recent years of automatons' personalities, you know. The stories you hear of the old pre-Divergence and stuff. Yeah, we heard some of that stuff, too.

So it just seems like rumor until you finally meet one. Or in this case, Bowen. They are special. We agree. There's one detail we're leaving out until now. We still care about them. I'm sorry. I brought this, and I nudge it across the table,

standing on my chair. FCG sent that. Um, I'm not gonna pretend to know what you went through. It sounds terrible, man, but, um, we've spent enough time with letters to get a a sense of what you liked in the beginning. Saved our lives.

Uh, well, a lot. And, um, I don't know if you'd be up for it, but we've got them bound up one-armed. Their eyes are blue currently. I don't know if Their eyes are blue currently.

I don't know if you're looking for closure or understanding, but fresh cut grass is. You don't owe them anything. You don't have to go, but that's a gift for under the arm. You can keep it. I hope you give it back. But it's a gesture of

goodwill, something. I hope it's worth the good time you had with him. Make a persuasion check. Is anybody watching this shit, by the way, in the bar? Not really. Okay. Just checking. Bartender's keeping an eye on it because anyone's putting up a hand to order something,

but no one's paying close attention. I have no modifier, 16. Nice. Oh my god, you rolled that. I was like, oh. No. You catch, just surface thoughts reading, rapidly bouncing between trauma and warm memory. Trauma, warm memory. This back and forth of trying to decide.

This back and forth of trying to decide. You watch as they close their eyes for a second. Yeah, let me talk to him. Gets up from the table, grabs the arm, holds it at the side. Out there? Yeah. Takes a couple steps, turns around, goes back, Out there? Yeah.

Takes a couple steps, turns around, goes back, takes another big swig. I'm going to send a message out to FCG. You're going to hear in your head, we're on our way out with her. Oh, and also, hold me. Okay. We wouldn't let anything happen to you. You have my word.

I'm not getting close to them. Just so you know, we won't let you touch them either, just so we're clear. Yeah, all that profit's going to be hard. Just kidding. Shit. Bad cop. Crystal.

What did you do with Imogen? Should we do something? What do you mean? Should I put my hand over your mouth type of thing? Oh, like you're holding me hostage? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Do you have a knife? What do you fight with?

Sure, I actually put my sickle around your throat or something. Yeah, yeah, right up to it. Just don't hurt me. No, I wouldn't do anything, but I'll just act like I'm real tough. Oh, should we? Are we threatening him? Should I threaten you?

No! Is shit happening? What happened? Oh, yes, I sent a message to Chetney. He's around back. I said, Chet! What? I think they're coming out.

See you! Oh, fuck, is this what it's like? Oh, yes. Yes. Do's like? Oh. Yes! Stop. Yes. Do you not? Do you like it? Most people find it unnerving. Oh, I want you to sing a song and see what happens.

Oh, I should practice. Okay. I'm coming around. All right. Also, Matt, just because we're level seven and I want to use it, I want to use Know Your Enemy on Dancer as I watch Dancer walk out and size him up.

How are their armor class and current HP in comparison to mine? Okay. Well. How often can you do that? Non-stop. Whatever you want. One minute. You just need one minute with anybody.

That's crazy. All of them are less than yours. They are not as experienced or as hardy as a fighter as you. You get the sense that their strengths slide in their creations. As you all begin to step out from the, you actually see this fresh cut grass.

In the dark open doorway, you see there's that bit of sunlight that comes through the open, screened roof before they come to the front door. You see this, from the darkness, the shadow. Just this brief flash of Dancer before they step back into the shadow of the darkness, the shadow. Just this brief flash of Dancer before they step back into the shadow of the frame, before they step directly into the doorway

and lean against it, holding in one hand the buzzsaw hand and the other metallic arm that replaces the one that you saw them, or apparently may have removed. They just stand there, leaning in the door, as the one that you saw them, or apparently may have removed. They just stand there, leaning in the door, looking at you about 15 feet, not taking another step. SAM and LAURA, We're out of London!

Ah! Dive out of the way for no reason. Weirdest TPK we've ever had. My mission has been accomplished. We didn't check inside of him, oh no! And episode 31 is about on schedule. Yeah, I think. Real quick DM. Yes.

Is the street busy right now? Is there anybody watching this exchange from all of a sudden? I mean, it's not terribly busy at this hour, but you also are a unique crew having a unique moment in the middle of a unique part of town. Yeah, we sexy. There's nobody crouching in the corner going,

what are they doing? But other folks are out of business who are walking past, other folks that are setting up shop. There are a number of folks that are just glancing over with a curious eye, like you do when something new is happening in your everyday life.

I just keep an eye on the public. Okay, fair enough. Hey. Hello. Smiley day to you. Hadn't heard that in a while. How are you doing? Bad.

It's been a while since we've talked. It's been a while since we've talked. Yeah. Are you still having bad dreams? Are you still having bad dreams? This was a bad idea. Don't go. I don't know what I did.

I mean, I do, but I don't. But I'm sorry. I just wanted to talk to you because I found some new friends. I don't want to hurt them. I thought maybe you might know more about me. But also, you know, I belong to you, so if you want to take me back,

I'm yours. I promise I won't do it again? I know it's a promise you can't keep. Look, FCG, there's a lot of time we spent together that I'm real appreciative of. There's a lot of conversations we've had and a lot of personal shit

that you've helped me through. But you also took a lot from me, and I can't forget that. Our paths are diverged. They're gone. I just, I don't want you to do to anyone else what you did to me. If that means trying to figure out what or who you are, then go and do that.

How? Where? Who do I ask? How much of me is me? And how much did you put on? I put on very little. You came out pretty much like this, though you seemed to take to my voice a little bit and mimic me slightly, but... I mean,

you came out cheerful. You didn't set me to be? I didn't set you to do anything. I just woke you up. You didn't tell me how to take care of people? No. Cure people? You did that on your own.

It's part of the reason I found you so helpful and eventually found you as a friend. You're not like anyone else I've met of your type. Do you want me to go with you, or no? No. Is there... You know, of all the Nesses,

Forgive Ness is my favorite. Is there anything I could do to... to earn yours? I can't say yes or no, I don't know. Life is uncertain. Maybe in time, maybe we'll never see each other again. I don't think forgiveness is in the cards for right now. And that's okay. I don't think forgiveness is in the cards for right now.

And that's okay. It's okay by me, but I'll keep trying. Maybe I'll figure out a way, if I figure out more about me. Figure yourself out first, then we can talk about that. Okay. There's something in you. There's some mighty,

mighty violent hidden in there. And I just want it as far from me as possible. I don't... I don't hold you completely responsible because knowing you as long as I did, whatever that was, wasn't... I didn't feel like you. But it doesn't mean I still don't think

every day what happened. Because I don't think every day what happened. Because I don't remember. Can you tell me a little bit about what I did? You really want to know? Yeah. The Division. Tarawyn, Azeen, Axor,

Oatmeal, Thunderstorm, Pussy. You killed them. Killed them all. Almost killed them. Killed them all. Almost killed me. Did something set me off? Was there a word or a spell or a earthquake? No, you just... broke. You've been acting a little strange leading up to it.

You've gone through a few rougher scuffs and some of those creatures followed us outside of the mines and you were helping us recover and you just cracked. I don't know how else to explain it. Like a switch went off in your head. Did I look like I was enjoying it?

No. But you looked like you were intent on finishing the job. You got away? Did I let you go? Or did you get away? Only you could know that, and if you don't remember it, then that's going to be a mystery for the times. Look, figure yourself out.

Sort your shit. And if you're going to figure out what the hell button goes off inside that head of yours, that weird ancient metal brain or whatever you got, you can get rid of that, you come back and talk to me, and we can begin a road to forgiveness. But until then, you're a time bomb. I don't want any part in it.

Okay. Do you, just, sorry, if I do, is there a switch, a button, a knob, a wire that these folk can cut, turn me off? I mean, there's one way, but it's real deep inside there and there's no turning you back on if they do. What does it look like?

The glowy bit I was telling you about? The glowy bit I was telling you about? There's a runic cable. You pull that. It's going to take a lot of work to put it back. That's what it took me to get you going. Okay. Well, sure was nice seeing you. Hey, don't drink after like 11.

Try to get sleep because you're always cranky when you don't get sleep. And find someone to talk to. You're always better when you talk. I know you might not have too many friends in town who like to talk to you, but someone will, even if it's a barkeep or something. You always do better when you talk. Sometimes you forget to eat, so eat, please, too.

Take care of yourself. He looks at the buzzsaw arm, tosses it a few feet out into the dust. Poof, poof. Guess your fate's with the gods now. I don't know much about that masked person, but I've done a couple of dealings with Joe. Maybe he's got something.

Thank you. Be careful. She turns around and steps back in, closing the door behind her that had been left ajar when you arrived. SAM and LAURA Why don't we get out of the street? Yes, please. Do you want me to unwrap you?

Maybe. That's it? That's all? Fuck. I get too sober at a lot, now. What's that? What's that? Nothing, no, just settling in, you know. We should get out of the street, yeah. We should talk to Joe.

I think the dealer that found you, I think Joe knows a little bit about them. They might be able to tell us. Yeah, I mean, our best bet is going for the back. And also, maybe just if Joe can remember them, think about them, and you get a good enough read off of Joe, maybe you can find them.

Okay. Now, or don't we have to go to the? You got a little time, in my opinion. Did the dancer go back in the water hole and break? Yep. Revel. We did not ask her if she put your tongue in or if the-

Ugh. That was there? Yeah. Oh! I feel like if it had been put in, it would have turned by now. That's true. When she was talking, did she have a tongue

or did I cut it out of her? She formed the words, so I think she had a tongue. Oh god. This was like a steam-powered tongue. Must've been one of the other folk. She could've gotten it replaced. Like her hair. Steam-powered tongue.

Yeah. It's not canon. No. Look. You've done enough today. I can do it. Go on. All right, well, to Joes or...

That seems like an errand. I think that's probably first. Do you want me to go there while you guys do other things? I mean, there's- I would love to go. I do want to be able to. Oh, you want to come with. But I'm sure other folk have to get other things

and go shopping. Like what? What are you doing? Chetney, you're always asking for more shopping. Well, I know I just need wood material. Actually, I do need some paints. Okay. I need some paints. Oh no. Some pants or some pints?

No, some paints. Wearing a pair, though, right now. No, paints, like colored paints. Oh, do you want to get it painted? Oh no. Well, go get the bus arm. This is yours. Use it wisely.

Put it on. Spin it. Lock eyes with Chetney. Zero expression. Sharpen a little bit on my finger. Oh baby. Okay. Gives me an idea.

Me too. Well. It's interesting, because she was saying that cable that's connected to your bits, she had to jostle it into place. A few things were misaligned when you were found. What if she connected it poorly or messed something up in the process

and that's why you keep switching? Like there's two inputs, one for evil destruction and one for function normal. Can't get that one wrong. She just put me in, she put it in the wrong one. Yeah, it's possible. Maybe one little cable's touching the evil part,

you know, and the rest of it's in the normal bits. That makes mechanical sense. You literally had your wires crossed. Two port, one of them. No go. I don't know how the three slash marks across the chassis. How'd they make it like that? I'm just curious what you were in your past life,

because you have this very helpful side of you, but what if you were an assassin? Yeah, bro. Ooh, and certain things just take over. Oh, wow. How old are you? What if you're 1,000 years old? Is that even possible?

At least. No. If we're to believe the people we're talking to. Look, metal corrodes, okay? It doesn't have the evergreen standing power of wood. Wood rot. It would just be dust. What? Wood rots. Not under the right care, it doesn't.

Well, not under the right care, it wouldn't. He's magical. What if I'm much older and wiser than Chetney? You have to be. You definitely are. You might be older than all of us. Chet. Hmm? What does it feel like?

You're a young buck compared to this one. I don't know. I don't give a shit. Just a silent little fart and he moves on. A little senile. Remember where you are right now, sir? Where are the paints? You're wearing them!

All right. Where's our crawlers? Right outside. We got them right here. We got to tell you. Well, maybe we can park them over at Joe's. They don't need any more fixing? We're going to just drive? We got one crawler.

We got a crawler. Let's park it over at Joe's. Okay, great. I bet Joe would have some paints. Yeah! You know what? Oh yeah, probably. I would have some. Fucking at Joe's it is!

We're fucking at Joe's. Yeah! There's no fucking at Joe's. I'm telling you, he wants to fuck you. Joe wants to fuck me. Definitely. Joe can fuck me. Or he can fuck me.

So heading to the Morrow Joe's? Yeah, but as Orym and Imogen walk out the door, he just quietly says to you, I really wanted to ask about pussy, but I couldn't find a way to slip it into the conversation. Oh. I didn't mean it like that. No, yeah, sure you did. No, but I didn't.

What? Walk past him? Sad thing is, I didn't. It's the worst ask me about my t-shirt. Oh my god. I want that as a merch item now. No! I'm not going to do it.

It's really funny. Just make one. Ask me about my pussy. Say it. Ask me about my pussy? That would sell. FCG killed it. Would it? Ask me about my pussy. Ask me about my pussy? That would sell. FCG killed it. Would it? Ask me about my pussy t-shirts? We are going to Joe's. That's an uncomfortable invitation.

Yeah, I don't think you should make that choice. Fresh kite grass destroyed my pussy. No. There it is. No! No! So you make your way through the street. Wait, it's tough. I was dancing around.

I was dancing around. Oh boy. Oh boy. I see what you did there. That's good. You could have a whole line. My pussy has a buzzsaw. Oh, that's good.

That's actually not bad. If you see my pussy, call this number. Oh my god. Oh, it's awful. Sorry. Well, it was a good run. It was a good run. We made it to this episode and no further. Wait, weren't you the one-eyed monster?

Yeah. I was. The one-eyed monster slayed my pussy. Aw. Okay, okay, okay. No! This is canon. That is canon. I know! The flesh chunk is not, but that is.

Sam! What's wrong with you? I... I'm just, I'm yes and-ing that. I mean, he did just shove a cigar, dry pasta, and pickle. Slim Jim. This whole time. All of that led up to the fucking joke. You asshole.

Well played. Okay. Wow. Oh. Wow. So, returning to the southern streets that surround the Samagunda Strip, you come to the heavy industrial reach known as the Sanyin Row, the familiar cluttered streets

that are the outskirts of the ends, the clumps and piles of partially cobbled or abandoned scrap, the rusted and useless bits of metal intertwined with individuals that are in the process of prying bits apart and having conversations in small trees in the street before you arrive

and they scatter off into the shadows until eventually you return to the familiar outside of Imahara Joe's shop. You can see there's somebody on the inside in the process of finishing a deal with Imahara. Contracts are being written out in exchange of money before the individual leaves. He looks over and sees you as you approach.

Oh, hi. Welcome. Do you need repairs again? No, paint. Do you have paints? Yeah, we have some paints here. Some metal-based paints, if you'd like. Metal-based?

Oh, shit. Joe. They could work on other things. No. All right, just show me what you have. Oh. It's okay to try new things, Chetney. Even vase. Natural-based Ladna.

Maybe you could give it a nice shave. Betray thyself. I'm doomed. Maybe a multimedia situation, you know? Could add a little extra something. Just elevate your art. I mean, even just some pigment, I can spit in it and be fine.

Is it just metal based? You know what? Here, I'll tell you what. I have an idea. And he watches you, climbs up onto the tables and reaches to one of the upper shelves and pulls down this small glass pot, like a semi-translucent jar that you can see inside has like a dark blue coloration to it.

And the way it moves, it has that kind of thicker feel to it, like a paint does. So this is one of the bases of paints. But, and he goes and runs off to another area, reaches into a box and pulls out this like cluster of rocks, sets it down and kind of like cluster of rocks, sets it down and pulls one off,

brings it back and holds it on the bottom. And you watch as all of a sudden the color gets darker on the bottom. If you magnetize the bottom of it, it pulls the metal from the paint and draws it to the bottom of the pot, which leaves the top of it metal-free. Oh my god. I knew there was a way we could work together

and you found the way! Ah, science. It'll get you. Boy. I hope you do that to all your paints. Oh my god. Yes, thank you. I just need a little time.

Okay, well, for this pawn here, it'll be eight silver. If you want a magnet as well, that'll be an additional two silver. Good gold for the batch. You got it! If you want blue. One gold, yep. Do you want multiple colors? Just gold for the batch. You got it. If you want blue. What color do you want? Do you want multiple colors?

Just this color? Multiple if you got them. I do have the primaries and a few secondaries. You can mix them to make tertiaries if you prefer. Yeah, let's go. All in? Creativity is bustling, Joe. There's no time to fucking waste.

All right, you're right. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. And he grabs three more magnets and the system on the table runs over and starts pulling off one of the pots. One, like, I'll clean that later.

Pulls down. It's got a blue, a green, a yellow, a red. What looks to be sort of a brown mixture. He's like,

yeah, I was messing with that. Don't know what it turned out, but it might work for you. Sure. What looks to be, like, a jet black coloration. Oh, yeah. And he's like,

this, you can probably mix and make most things you need from this set, I'm pretty sure. I'm not much of an artist myself when it comes to that. This is mainly just for large splash paints and emblems. Don't degrade yourself. Come on. Look at what you do. It's in the eye of the beholder.

So much art. You're right, I'm bad about that. I appreciate that. I'll save it for this one. Put it at a solid four gold. You got it. An investment in the future. Oh shit.

You mean all of our gifts are going to have color on them now? Just bought a pot of brown paint. Okay, there's no reason to set expectation out there. Just let the artist work. Four gold. Brown paint? Brown wood, what will they think of next?

Oh my god. I've learned something about you. Okay. We came, I saw, Imahara Joe, we came to ask. Yeah, yeah, what do you got? A couple important questions, yeah. Oh, more than one? Well. You are many questions. What were you going to ask?

The thing that we came here to ask about the person who sold? Yeah, so, you know when FCG came through for the first time and Dancer bought them? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That vendor. Yeah? What do you know about them?

Dancer seemed cryptic. Not much. They've only come through about three times in the past few years. We need as much information as you can give. Tall person, I'm pretty sure, masculine presenting, at least.

It's a really intricate metal mask. They wore dark hood cloak and they used one by the name Dee. Dee? Dee. Always masked. Doom! Holy shit, it's Dr. Doom. In the interactions we had. Metal mask.

Do they come through once a year specifically, or is it just whenever? No, no, it just seemed sporadic. It wasn't like a clockwork scenario, but they came through once about five years ago and brought a whole manner of strange, fantastical pieces of recovered ruins and automaton pieces,

some that stemmed from, I mean, cultures of history I didn't even recognize necessarily. And actually, a lot of the original upgrades and ideas that we had for some of the ruined crawler chassis and the more recent versions of the Skirmisher crawlers, a lot of that was based on the initial materials that I bought from him and just figured out how it functioned together and incorporated that

into the designs and as such, they can travel faster, and it seems to be much more reliable as far as power input goes. So most of it's just in pieces, but often, occasionally, it comes through with actual, what can be considered weaponry. But that was the first thing that came through with an actual full automaton,

at least by the time they got to me. And it's always ancient bits and bobbles? As far as I know, yeah. They didn't say much. I definitely inquired and they say they just do the rounds, I think was what they said was the term. The Rumedon Desert? Rumedon? Yeah, yeah.

Primarily, I think it's where... I think so. Do you know of any ruins out there? I haven't traveled up there. I've stayed in this space. There's ruins all over. You know, a lot of ancient spaces buried, which makes for a lot of ancient space is buried,

which makes for a lot of good work for folks, I think, within your line of work as mercenaries. And occasionally makes for some fun findings from people like Dee or other individuals. Which, by the way, if you ever come across any sort of odd ancient technology or strange arcane segments of any kind of odd, ancient technology or strange arcane segments of any kind, really. Bring them to me first. I'd definitely be interested in checking them out.

So you know about arcane mixed with technology? I mean, that's my specialty out here, yeah. So Dancer made mention that when she was bringing FCG back online, that there was a glowing, I don't know, crystal or something? Mm-hmm. And the cable leading to it,

she said it was an arcane cane, like runic? Runic cane, yeah. Technical term is the Lay Tether. But yeah, for most devices, it points to a number of the similar energy orbs that you've seen in the shop before. There's only, actually, at this point, only two ones that are currently set up, and they're hanging by chain arrangements.

They're waiting to be put into or put back into different automaton that he's currently working on. He's like, these are generally utilized as a power source and the cradle for the various enchantments that motivate an automaton to be itself and to function as intended. So the Lay Tether is essentially the point that takes and channels a lot of that arcane energy

and the inherent enchantments to the various runic imprints The Lay Tether is essentially the point that takes and channels a lot of that arcane energy and the inherent enchantments to the various runic imprints across the body that then convey the means of locomotion, the means of following direction, and in some cases, preset runic enchantments within. So yeah, I believe that's what they're referring to. So if that Lay Tether was jostled or misaligned,

it could set things off in a weird way, potentially? I imagine so. There's usually a blast of arcane feedback and whatever the out of time may be ceases to function or explodes. Okay. All right. That's something. Yeah.

Do you know of anyone who is a specialist in arcane ancient? Arcane technology? I mean, ambassadors, that's kind of me. Beyond that, you're probably likely to want to hit up one of the universities. Eos? Eos would likely have some, Jussara would.

I'd say up in Stratos, but they're a bit far, a bit cold. Or Anker El, there's some really great universities there. Those are probably your best bets, but I dabble. In your head, you hear, would it be massively inappropriate for Joe to take a look at that tether and see? Not at all.

I don't know if that's strange or not. I got no problem with that. Would you be able to take a look at the tether that is holding FCG's core? You see this odd rush, almost not quite a blush to Joe's face, but a simultaneous confluence of extreme excitement a simultaneous confluence of

extreme excitement and acknowledgment of the delicacy of such a maneuver. Like a, yes, yes. If you are okay with that. Sure. Is there... Yeah, of course.

I mean, is it dangerous? Yeah, we don't want to touch anything. No, no, no. I mean, it's fine. I don't want to go off again. So yeah, I would do anything. Now you're delicate work. I mean, everything's dangerous to a certain degree. It comes to the territory, but...

I also don't want to hold us up too much. If you guys want to go off ahead, I can stay here for a while. It'd probably take me about 10, 15 minutes or so. Oh! Okay. Can we watch? If you'd like. Yeah. Will I be awake for it?

I don't quite know how I would have you not be awake for it. Can you shut down voluntarily? I don't understand quite how you are, so please tell me if there is a way to do that. Well, I mean, I can go into a rest mode. Sure, then we can try that. We'll keep an eye on him, though,

so it won't be any like, you know, won't yank your thing while you're sleeping. Yeah, maybe you should stay awake. You know how when people do brain surgery and they have- I don't. I don't either, at least. I'm sorry. Yeah, no, but maybe I would.

It makes you feel better. I was sitting here thinking it, too, going, I can't think of an equivalent that would actually make that sense. You had brain surgery! I remember it. It was a very loose hole in your head. I had ventilation.

It's not really the thing. Yeah. I think we should try to keep you awake. All right, but if it gets scary, will you distract me with something? Oh, we'll disarm you beforehand. No, no, I mean, yes, of course. Would you like to grip my hand?

Sure. There goes that hand. Yes, that's true. All right. The hand are yours. Rayda, close the door, and you see one of the assistants. Ah! Oh!

Your fingers look like the top of his hair. How are you driving? The assistant closes the door and locks it. One of the associates, and they're going to draw the windows closed, and Imahara Joe takes his goggles, he has them on his forehead, and pulls them down. takes his goggles he has on his forehead and pulls them down. You can see he's getting them ready with the various intricate multi-distant lenses on him.

He begins to adjust a little bit, pick it up, goes over. It's uncomfortable, let me know, but this would be the easiest way to do so. He begins walking off, and you now, I haven't really noticed it before, but there are these large runners in the ceiling, these metal chain-based racks that slide up and down across the way. It drags one over and it makes this metal rolling sound as it pulls over to the side.

Another one, these hooks, and draws them up under parts of your chest chassis. Does that hurt? No. Can you... Do you feel pain when things hit your? I do, and I mean. You feel pain. Well, I think I do.

I get a buzzing red explosion of something. I get a buzzing red explosion of something. I feel it sometimes when I heal you all, too. Really? Yeah. Fascinating, okay. I'll be gentle and Reese is over and grabs a chain, and begins to pull on it. As it does, both of the chains that are affixed to you

pull taut, making it lift you up off the ground. You rock a little bit as you do, and you worry for a moment you're about to spin forward and lose it, but it still manages to hold you upright. Can you do a backflip? I don't do that. I would highly not recommend doing that. Just hold still.

I want to see it. They only go one way. Come on, let's be real. Oh, that's true. Are you going to try a backflip? I might need a boost. Maybe you should just eat and not listen to me. I can't listen to the do you want to boost? Yeah, maybe you should just eat and not listen to me. And listen to the two ones you want to boost.

Yeah, just choose. All right, forget it, forget it. Explore your core, your soul, and you're doing backflips? Sorry, I'm sorry. It's just I've never flown before. You were super anti-flying earlier. I can make you fly if you want.

As long as I don't have wings. No. Okay. At this point, you can see the other interns or associate workers are curiously getting close. Joe takes his goggles down and takes these two hooded lanterns that dangle at different points in the ceiling and lowers them onto lower rungs in the chains

and turns them inward to give this nice, direct light on you. At which point, he reaches into his tool belt and starts carefully and surgically looking around the outer aspects of your chassis before eventually finding a series of clips or bolts. You're not entirely certain how it's affixed, but he goes, Okay, I think I see, I think I see,

and does one little tug, and you watch as the metal section of your torso opens up. You okay? Do you want to go to sleep? Do you want to go to sleep? I don't know, this feels weird. This feels weird.

It's just like taking a shirt off. Are you okay? Are you sleep? I don't know, this feels weird. This feels weird. It's just like taking a shirt off. Are you okay? Are you okay? I think so. I can stop any time. Nope, I'm going to look down. You don't have to look. Oh, okay. What do I see? You look down. I see just loose change or...

No, just moldy lines watching around. Well, no, on the inside, you see the exterior of what looks to be a metal vat, or almost like the bottom part of a metallic bowl. This would be where whatever you ingest comes into. Sure. So you're not looking inside of it. It's still solid from this perspective.

Smells like old beer in here. Yeah. It does have a unique scent. Holy. Yeah, with all the shit that's in it. But you also see there are a manner of strange, glowing runes that sparkle on the bottom of it. There are these odd,

almost pipe-like protrusions that come out of these different runes and converge and move back and behind it. Oh, fascinating. Wow. I don't know what to do. It's okay. Glancing over it, there's

clicks over a different lens. Let me know if you start freaking out, all right? No, I mean, it just feels real weird. Do you want me to draw any of this? Like take notes so I can sketch the inside? Yeah, yeah, yeah, please do. Awesome. Make me a copy. I just take my chisel and start digging it into my head.

Oh shit. Oh my god. What? What? You used paper? I ain't fucking with you. I'm just scaring you with paper. Seems needlessly elaborate. There's another copy! Ugh!

Tender Spitting Press, make it matter! Damn it. About six copies in before he starts getting a little woozy. Oh! Looking at this. Forgot to sign them. Interesting. There's some sort of a transmutation enchantment here

that seems to be taking force inside here and reallocating it. Interesting. Why is that interesting? Oh, like what's in the cavity? Whatever's inside this ding, ding, ding. Because I eat metal and stuff, and so it's turning it into

whatever I need to repair myself. Wow. Interesting. Transmute what now? Transmutation, I think you're saying? I guess we're saying whatever. Shh. Fucking. It's more Caleb has a new tweet.

I may have, it's a little hard to get in here. Oh, oh, oh. Do you? Hey, buy me dinner first. May I look beyond this collection device? Yes, you have my consent to reach beyond my collection device.

So now you're just making it weird. Imordro pulls up and reaches this little latch and you watch as it hangs open slightly, like and pulls outward to reveal a little more space behind it. It's hard to see from your angles, but there's a very faint, almost a violet glow that is now visible

on the backside of it, deeper within the chassis of FCG's chest. I think there it is. That's the power core. Does it look like the same sort of purple stone that we've seen before? I mean, similar shades, but make a perception check. Is it a dark violet?

Actually, make an arcana check. Can I help her with that? If you'd like to, yeah. I'll give you assist. How's your arcana? Is it terrible? Oh, really? Then I'll give you. I'll roll as well.

It's hard to see, yeah. It's definitely not as. I can do it. I can do it. Bright light. Oh, cacks. Correct, but it's definitely not as strict. Oh, I can do it. I can do it. Bright light. Cacks. Correct, but it's just a dull, That's pretty good.

That's my arc average. 21. 21. Having quite a very familiar couple of interactions. Laudna's like, Yeah. Don't you fucking touch me. Get her away from me! Get her away from me!

This does not have the same sort of arcane signature of those stones. All right. Just another purple stone. Yeah. There are many things with many different, similar colors in this world. There is only one. Sure.

Only one thing that looks purple in the whole world. Doot. Doot, doo-doo-doo-doo. That was too quick. Whoa! That was way too quick. What a dickwad. Jesus!

You're not even allowed to say one syllable. Relentless. I'm going to jump on your ass. That was sharpshooter. Quick draw. That is the funniest table bullying I've seen in a long time. Do-do-do-do-do-do. You know, I tried this at home.

Did, um... Shit. You know I tried this at home. Did, um... Shit. Oh yeah. What do the runes say? Why do I keep doing that? Do we know what the runes are saying? Do we come to read them? Do you have a rune? Roll Arcana for me.

What about that lens? Can I see it? You can't see it. At this point, the metallic device that would act as your stomach is now dislodged on the far side and is now leaning out, almost like it's on a slight... It's a good time to try it.

I was... Hinge? Yeah, hinge, I guess, to my brain. Try your lens and see if it works. Oh, man. We got it back. The green lens. Oh yeah, that's right. But it's possible it is broken since that fucker.

Could be. Yeah. Wait, didn't we try to? We haven't tried to use it since. Since we mended it. Yeah. It seems like a time. I know you can read it. I'm going to try to look through it with the lens.

Okay. It gives a nice, good green chance to. It's a rune. It doesn't necessarily mean that it translates. Uh-huh, uh-huh. Laudna is going to attempt to read the runes. Okay. Okay, make it out of the contract.

Read the runes. Oh, look at you! Read the runes. Read the runes. Kind of just whisper in the back of my head, Delilah, what do you see? Ooh! CX.

Ugh. CX. She said CX. CX, CX, CX. Nothing of particular interest to me. To you? To us? I don't give a fuck. I don't give a fuck. Exactly.

I just shake my head. I'm sorry, it's not, I just can't right now. It's okay. Okay, I found it. I found the core. You see he pulls into his pouch of tools and pulls out these little handheld mirror devices and puts them underneath to reflect

so he doesn't have to get too intrusive in there. He gets a close look. Well, you know what? While you look at it, I'm just going to cast a spell just to see if it changes or anything. Okay, what do you cast? I'll cast Guidance on Joe.

As you cast Guidance, you watch as all the runes, and you haven't noticed before, but on the inside of the chassis, whenever the spell begins to form, all of these invisible runes and runic shapes on the inside of the metal all swell with light, and that core swells to the purple color just blossoms, and Joe pulls back,

Did I? No, I did it, I did it. I just wanted to see if it would have an effect. Interesting. You are filled with magic. That's pretty cool. That's not wrong. It looks great.

Everything looks good here. That lay tether? The tether is appropriately placed, from what I can tell. To get a closer look, I'd have to do some severely invasive inquiry, and I don't think any of us want to do that, just in case. You don't see anything that seems out of place, anything that seems...

Is there another stone? Something that's hidden? A missing setting? Or is missing one rock? Or has an additional one or something? Best I can tell, everything is as intended. Letters, what if you try to cast a damaging spell? All right.

My chassis isn't on, so I can't really aim too good. But sure, I also don't have that many hurting spells, but sure. I'll cast Spiritual Weapon. Oh. Since I can cast that from anywhere. That feels nice, though. Oh. Fucking nice.

Is that too nice? Do you have anything that's like a zap. That feels nice, though. Oh. Fucking nice. Is that too nice? Do you have anything that's like a zap? I do have a zap. Do you need an enemy? Far away or close? I can take this, this is no problem. You want to? Yeah. Okay.

Okay, yeah, then I'll shoot the Sacred Flame. Okay. I'll stand to the side so that nothing important gets hit. Okay. It usually comes out of my so that nothing important gets hit. Okay. It usually comes out of my chest, though, so I don't know what's going to happen. Step aside! Stand aside!

So you cast Sacred Flame, and as you do, all the interior magical runes all glow once more, but as they do, Watch out, Joe! they, you watch as all the runes seem to gather the sudden flash of bright energy in the center that then seems to almost blow out like a candle in your direction and vanish.

Then where you're standing, flames apparate around you for a second and burn for how much? Oh. Fuck him up! Yeah. Top level. Six points of damage. Out and I'm down. If we were staring in when that happened,

did we see any other things seem to light up? Any stones? Different runes? Yeah. Is anybody else looking? Is that just me? Does that got a 13? I don't know what that is. I'll check it.

I was looking. I was looking at Ashton's. This is not also real bad. Not good. 17. Oh, okay. It, you don't see a major difference. Different runes almost light up at different times, but there isn't a change in color.

There isn't a uniformity, there isn't all of them always activate as once. There's almost like a sequence that was different, if anything. I'm doing my best to sketch these runes, but I don't know what they are, so, you know. It's interpretive. Sure. It's interpretive.

And in no particular order. Can you see where his eyes turned red? So I wonder if there's something, like whatever the wire or whatever is connected to the eye? The ocular. Ocular region. Maybe there's a cable or something

that attaches to something else. Maybe whatever that's attached to is what makes him turn. Like an LED. Like an LED. Pulls back a little bit. Big old goggled lenses on Joe's face, looking up at you. Absolutely. Very much like Rick Moranis in Penetrant Kids.

Like, are you okay with me? You're going to pop off my eyes? Well, I look into the cranial cavity. The dome is going to get in your head. I mean, I trust you all to repair me. Wow. So go ahead. Are you sure?

I mean, I feel like I have to do this. Recess back into the chest, locks it into place, latches it, goes ahead and does everything arranged back where it chest. Locks it into place, latches it, goes ahead and puts everything arranged back where it was supposed to be in the torso, and then closes the chest until it latches, finishes that area there. Takes the chain, lowers you slightly

to where you're now, your head's a little below eye level for Imahara. And walks around you now, behind, so you can actually see, and starts looking at you. Oh god. He's guessing? He had already seen you. I do not know how to do this.

I do not see any sort of seam or entry point. I do not see any sort of seam or entry point. And to be perfectly honest with your torso, that was just a standard automaton point of access, but I do not see a means of... I don't want to do any exploratory drilling or cutting. That sounds right. That sounds right.

Can I look? Just see if there's a little button. By all means. I'll make an investigation check for you. I'll help you. I'll give you, what is this? Investigations. It's an investigation. Is that wisdom or intelligence?

It's intelligence. I will enhance ability. Oh, so you get advantage. Oh, I do? Yeah. Okay. And you can guide her. Sure, I'll guide her, too. Okay, okay. And add a d4. And then a d4.

And a d4. And this was perception? This is investigation. This is investigation, I mean. Where's my debt gum for? Here we go. Oh. Mm-hmm. Ooh, a four. Well, it was a little capped. Damn. Where's my debt gum for? Here we go.

Ooh, a four. Well, it was a little capped. Three, four. It looked like a four to me. I know, it did. It looked like a four in the first one. Was it? Well, you re-rolled it. I re-rolled it. Okay, so.

Honest player. 14. 14. You don't really see anything. I don't see anything. Well, what if you just twist an eye? Sure, try that. Twist an eye!

Untwist an eye. Twist an eye! That's a crazy thing to put back together. I trust you. We're like experts. I don't. Okay. Should we just twist a little? I don't want to do it. Do you want to do it?

I can do it if you want me to. Do it! Okay. What don't want to do it. Do you want to do it? I can do it if you want me to. Do it! Okay. What if nobody does it? No. Milo did repair one of your eyes when you came in, but the repair was done to the lens. The actual eye itself was not heavily tampered with. You watch as Fearne begins to torque the eye a bit

and it becomes very uncomfortable very quickly. Does it hurt? Uh-huh, yep, but maybe keep it. I can stop. A little bit more. What if you snap your eyeball? Maybe that's not a good idea, but we got to solve this. It's not supposed to do.

We learned a little. We did. What if I get mad at you or something? I know, you know what? I wonder if when we open up the front, maybe I can make you think of Dancer. Maybe we can look at that. Now, what are you,

I'm just curious now that we've done a little bit of this. I'm not entirely certain what you're looking for now. We checked, we looked towards the core and the cable and everything was straight there. Imahara Joe, it was crazy. He just snapped and his eyes went all red and then he was like, Gah, you're all horrible and I hate you.

And he went on a rampage. Yeah, hi. Sorry, that was yours to share, probably. No, no, no, no. I probably should have let you speak. Sorry to hear that. I mean... I mean, red automatons do rarely have a,

say, a degradation of the enchantments built within, and there can be some unexpected behavior, but those are very rud rudimentary automatons, and usually those are through intentional tampering or extreme degradation over age. But looking over you, you are in very, very good condition, regardless of the- I work out. Well, good for you.

Hold on a second. He gets up and lowers you from the chains first, so you're not hanging. He goes and sets those off. I thought that was really good for the... Yeah, like a spinal joint. Spinal column, spinal cable. You look taller, yeah.

Yeah. You look taller. You see he goes over towards a back room and opens a door and vanishes in the back. He just left. That would be interesting. He just quit the business. You hear him drive off. Ooh.

You see? He's gone. The shop is ours now. Did you get a good visual on this D? The D? Joe's D? Yeah, the mask. What if it's Gloria? I should've seen that coming. I think that's a no.

That's a no. I mean, there's no way. I mean, I didn't get a visual. But I can always try to get a read. You know what I was thinking, too, Ashton? Know who I feel might know something about this d? Joanna Hexum. Maybe if we reach out to her,

she loves trading and dealing, and she traded automatons and ancient artifacts. What if that's a really good idea? What if she knows? That's a great idea. Oh, come on, you've made up with her. No, that's a really good idea. What? No, that's great.

That's great. Don't be like that. About this time, Joe comes back into the chamber, holding a book and flipping it through. A book? He sets it down. That's scary. I read something about this.

This is kind of, might not be anything, but it's interesting. Goes through. Okay. There is something called the Care and Culling. The Care and Culling? The care and culling. The care and culling? The care and culling. I have to.

May I speak to a manager? Burn it all! This ends today. Call the Karens. Go ahead and film me, I'm filming, too. Care and culling. We are the worst. Yep. I hate all of this.

So much. Nothing that ever leaves my mouth in the right form is safe. Nope, you cannot say words. Never. We ruin everything. It's true. I'm used to it at this point, I'm numb. Don't touch my dog.

The care and culling. Oh my god, I. The Care and Culling. Oh my god, I wrote it Care and Culling. Oh no way. Was an event during the Age of Arcanum where after a series of gifted automatons that were distributed amongst different locations in Exandria, primarily as caretakers or as helpful companions.

Suddenly just killed their, the people they were gifted to. And wait, when was this? You said in the 80s? This was far pre-Divergence. I don't think the date's specific here. This is cobbled together from scraps of historical notes. Wow.

A robot uprising. Yeah. But, I don't know what I was telling you before, it seems that all these designs were originally created and then distributed by political figures within the city of Aeor. Oh, Aeor. And the, as it's put here,

targets were of various political competitors. Assassin bots? Oh, so. You were an assassin bot? But wait, I was designed as a helper who was going to get order 66 or whatever and snap. Is that what it was called? Yep. They were created and distributed by who again, did you say? Political figures.

Political figures with an Aeor and were meant primarily as some sort of a peace offering or reaching for some sort of collaboration. Not all of it worked, many of them survived, and at that point, a number of lines were drawn and it looks like the distribution of any gifted arcana outside of Aeor was considered historically moot,

which is why it's so rare to find any of their tech outside of whatever ruins come out of the north side of Wildemount these days. Most everything else that's been cobbled together was found in other civilizations that had interactions beforehand. This was apparently one of the moments that brought that to an end.

So you could have been gifted by someone out of Aeor, ended up in the Rumadan Desert, or whatever city was around there. I wonder who your target was. Older. This is terrible. No, this is great. That means you are actually older than me.

Yeah. You don't want to be the oldest? I thought that was a point of pride of yours. Well, I mean, that was like 1,000 years ago. I mean, I can't compete with that shit. I'll try. Does it say how, what was supposed to set them off?

Yeah, what the trigger was. No, these are, it shows you the book, and as he goes through, to set them off or? Yeah, what the trigger was. Yeah. It shows you the book, and as he goes through, it's a bunch of summaries of verbal tales or scraps of historical information from that era with additional notes from different researchers doing their take on it or their interpretation of this. There's nothing specific about it beyond just the acknowledgment to the event, historically.

But this book in particular deals with the loose history of a lot of the technology that I myself focus on, which is why it caught my attention when you mentioned this change of behavior. Oh man, we got to go and see what's out there. Yeah. Maybe your old home is out there.

Wow. Maybe we got to go to Aeor. Where the fuck is Aeor? I hear it's cold. Level seven, let's go. At this point, you see Joe closes the book and gives you a look, and his face turns a little sad and sets it on the side and just kneels down a little bit to get eye to eye with you.

Look, I don't mean to tell you this to bring discomfort. What I can say is you are unique. I've seen many, many different people, let alone beings of your persuasion, but nothing quite like you. And I've spent a lifetime building, changing, improving all sorts of creations. And what I can say is that improvement

is something that I've always strived for, and not something that you were above. You're a very nice man. Look, whatever this says, and whatever's happened, you know, that's maybe part of the nature that you were created for, but I mean, what is life if not finding ways to buck the supposed reasons for creation and carving its own path?

I hope you're right, but I'm not alive. You keep saying that, apparently, but what I can say is that I was created. So was I. I wasn't created to help. I was created to kill. What if you were created to help and then somebody put in a secondary program or something?

You know what I mean? It's just like an additional little bit. It sounds like I was made to look like I was helping. I'm going to tell you something right now. To trick people. There's an awful lot of people in this town, in this world, who may have also been created for violent purposes. A lot of wars have been fought with soldiers born and bred.

Is that any different than you? When the war was over, you know what a lot of those soldiers did? The ones that survived? Started a family, started a business. Just because you're made for a purpose doesn't mean it defines you. You know, some people go their whole lives

without a purpose, and you had one to kill people, but that was, you know, you had a goal. That's just not helping. Maybe, maybe that's you, but that's ancient history. Yeah. Maybe some of it's true,

maybe none of it's true. Maybe none of it's fucking true. Yeah, this is just a hunch. Or maybe it's hardwired in. Do you want me to keep twisting your eye off? Or do you want to leave it alone? Leave it off. Maybe not. That was an interesting detail. They're just sliding the end.

Watch yourself when you sleep, because you know from now, she's going to try. Yeah, she's trying to steal my eye. Letters. What? I'm going to hold up the lens in front of your eye. Do you see anything? Looks a little, no?

A little green? Nothing special. Everything looks a little green. You take it off? The whole room looks a little more orange now. Yeah. You said it hurts when you heal us. Yeah. Like it caused you pain? Sometimes, yeah.

Like a red explosion was how you described it? It's a jolt of something. I mean, I don't know what pain feels like to you, but it feels like a hot bolt of something. Yeah, that sounds about right. You don't remember anything from when you flipped out and went all buzzsaw? No red hot explosion?

I don't remember anything while I was killing, but maybe right before it? I'm only wondering if before we get you down, if we maybe just open up your gam one more time and give you a smack. You know, like everything glowed when you cast a spell. Sure. That's cool. I have to see his pain receptors.

Yeah, what happens if it's, you know, not healing positive stuff? Okay, I'm down to try it. Well, we don't know who you were. I think we want to know more. I'm sure you do, but what I care about is who you want to be now. I gotta figure that

out, I guess. Don't you know? No, I just found out about all this stuff. I don't mean uncovering all the secrets, Letters. I mean, who do you want to be today? Killer? No.

Or healer? Yeah. I know how much you love healing. I do. I know. I lie. I always prepare those spells. Yeah. Because there's nothing better. It know. I lie. Always prepare those spells. Yeah. Because there's nothing better. It's just the best.

Than being in clerical heels. That's right. Helping people is its own reward. Yep. Mm-hmm. Joe. Yeah, we can open the windows, by the way. Do you have or know how to do some type of programming for taste?

What I mean is, he's never tried food or alcohol or, you know, a delicious meat pie or what if? Don't give him the taste of meat. If I had some sort of a taste receptor. Yeah, like a, is there something to install? To give him that? If it was a little moist

so that the food would make good contact. Like a little flap? Like a little tasting flap. Perhaps a little porous or bumpy? You know. dancing flap. Perhaps a little porous or bumpy? You know. This arcana's a little beyond me. No!

Coward! Something to think about in the future, because it certainly seems like there's something very involved. I'll give an eye out if something comes through. That seems an odd request. Okay. Tasticles. Tasticles.

Tasticles. Actually, can you open your mouth, FCG, as wide as you can? Ah! Do you think there's a way to get into the cranium through the mouth? Goes ahead and takes from the hood of the lanterns and puts it up inside.

Oh, it looks like it's solid. There's not much of a hinge or a... Well, I mean, I could look, but... It's invasive. It's in his head. We got other stuff to do. All right. Okay. Right now.

We're probably going to a place that has universities where they study this stuff. That's true. Joe, are there any more, can you remember anything more about this Dee character? What was Dee's elbow imaging? What was Dee's nuts? Just keeps coming. Just keeps coming.

Did he have any accent? Did he have an accent? Deep voice, mid-range? I mean, deepish voice, from what I can recall. It's kind of masculine. I'm going to, wait, wait. I'm going to, oh well, okay. I guess I'm going to ask your permission

because this could be a bit invasive, but if I could get a read on what he actually looked like, it would help us out tremendously. Sure, yeah, you can do that. All right. So I'm going to cast Attack Thoughts and try to just shimmy on into his brain and just get a good, solid look at

So you're pushing? At Dee. Okay. Yeah. Fails the resistance, and you do see him like. Sorry about that. Ooh, that's. Think it, D. You do see this image of a late afternoon of a dust storm having just finished blowing through, and you see this cloak flapping,

somewhat tattered at the edges in the breeze. You see a large, heavy hood and a cart being brought along by what looks to be a metallic version of a crawler. That's just kind of the back half, the legs, but it's like a thick beast that's pulling forward, like an automaton beast of burden. And as the cart comes by, you can see there's like a piled up, like a tarp is clasped over and kind of flapping against the ropes that keep it tethered down. You can see bits of metal poking out. You just see Dee walking forward

before tapping the outside of this beast to stop and glancing over and giving a bow. And yeah, you see this metallic mask that's worn that covers the face, intricately made bits of metal. Almost like a Doctor Doom look to it. Just gives a bow. Can you see his eyes,

like his actual eyes through the mask? You could see that from Joe's perspective, Joe never got terribly close. It was very much like a, and you watch as Joe puts a hand out like, that's enough, and then begins to remove the tarp and begins to lay out these various findings within the cart.

And there are pieces of machinery, there are parts of arcane weapons. A lot of it looks heavily damaged and destroyed, things and remnants of ancient days past and wars long fought and buried. But yeah, as they lay them out, they take a step back and reveal. And then Joe comes up and inspects a few,

points out the ones that he wants, talks to them, whistles out loudly to one of his assistants to come out with a chest, counts out some money, and then tosses it out across the way. This is distance that's being kept that this D figure is maintaining. Then once the amount is satisfactory, goes ahead and takes the unchosen bits, loads them back up in the cart, gives another bow, slaps the side of this odd, like headless series of, now as it gets closer, you can see it's like four legs,

but they operate on this outside, weird side elbow feel, and they pull it forward across the dust, and the cart begins to move past as Dee crosses and continues into the rest of the town. And what do Dee's feet look like? I know this is random. Can I get a look? Leather boots. Okay. Yeah.

All right. Thank you. Thank you for asking. I don't want to feel that again. That was weird. It's like a cold. You know when you drink something really cold, really fast, and it hurts a little bit?

It's like that. Put your tongue on the roof of your mouth. It helps a little bit. Not helping. Thank you. Anyway, is there anything else I can do to help? No, we're good. Thank you so much, Joe. Okay, well.

I appreciate it. Good luck. If you need anything else, any repairs or anything. Fresh cut grass, right? That's me. Before you go, he turns around and heads back into the back room and returns something in his hand.

I don't know if this is something that'll help. I can see you look a bit more or less. In times where I felt a little lost, I had something that helped me. Maybe this will help you find the right path. And puts a coin or a medallion in your hand and you look at it and it has this profile of a woman's face, hair flowing

and swirling into the boundaries. This is the token of the Changebringer. Changebringer? One of the many gods that looks down upon us and protects those who wander free, keep roads open, and guide those who are lost on the paths beyond. She's been a source of inspiration for me

for quite some time. If you ever feel lost, maybe she'll help you, too. Thank you, Joe. I won't eat this one. Please don't. I think we'll see you again. I hope so.

But right now, we got to get across town. Yeah. All right, well. Thank you. Does anyone have any money to take? Oh, you've already, we've done quite a bit of business, and to be perfectly honest, just the chance to inspect a piece of history like you has been the gift in its own right.

So thank you. I've learned quite a bit, even just our short time together. In fact, I may reiterate some of my designs. So thank you. You're welcome. All right. Stay safe out there.

Bye. Pounds full of characters. Thanks, Joe. Okay, thank you. Chetney will catch up, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Thanks, Joe. Okay, thank you. Chetney will catch up, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let him sleep. So I'm huffing paint and a laugh. We just... He's just a flailer.

He fell asleep standing up, too. It's so embarrassing. I like a slurp. As you step out into the hot midday sun of the town of Bassuras, a series of answers, possibly, or further mysteries around your recently dangerous and also conflicted friend.

We're going to take a break. Whoa! Because we're at that point, and we should do that, and I got to pee. All righty. And deal with Chetney's immediate aneurysm that killed his character. It's really sad.

Aww. It's unfortunate. We knew it was coming. We did. Anyway, we'll be back here in a few minutes and we'll pick it from there. See you in a minute. Hello, Critters. This is Ashley Johnson,

president of the Critical Role Foundation, our 501 non-profit organization with a mission that might sound familiar, to leave the world better than we found it. We partner with other nonprofits to raise funds supporting causes that mean a lot to us. And we allocate 10% of all donations to an emergency relief fund that allows us to provide immediate assistance in the case of natural disasters or other unexpected emergencies that require quick action. To learn more about the Critical Role Foundation and to donate, visit criticalrolefoundation.org.

And welcome back. So, picking back up as you exit Imahri Jo's back into the city of Basuras to find your next location of fortune, what are you doing? Oh god. Oh my god. We're going to Paragon's Call

unless anyone has, well, they're whispering about stuff, but we're going to Paragon's Call, right? Unless anyone else has anything else to do? I think that's where we're at. Should we be concerned about if Otohan sees you? Well, you've seen her in your dreams, but she hasn't seen you.

I'm pretty sure she's aware of who she is. She's in my dreams. How do you know that? I guess I don't. It just feels that way. Do you talk to her in your dreams? I have. Oh.

What is said? So far, she just said, interesting, and lunged at me. Oh. Then I woke up feeling like she'd maybe killed me. Yeah, I don't like that. Yeah, it's not a good indicator. It's not great, no.

Perhaps we should just maybe try and keep you a bit more... Concealed? I mean, I can do that. Sure. Or we don't worry about it, because she wouldn't want to fuck with Bell's Hells. Yeah!

Right? Yeah. Look, we got to have a little confidence in our identity if we're going to pull this off. I do get the impression that she maybe controls a large force of very strong fighters. So maybe she wouldn't be too intimidated by us. Not just Paragon's call, you mean. Exactly.

Can we talk out what we're about to do? A little bit. Yeah. Step one. Sure. Walk through the door. Knock on the door. Oh, knock. Oh, damn it. I'm fucking it up already. Slow it down. All right, I'm sorry. See the plan. Knock on the door. You're making it up. Oh, damn it! I'm fucking it up already.

Slow it down. All right, I'm sorry. See the plan. Okay. Start over. Step one. Knock on the door. Very good. All right. Step two.

Announce ourselves. Very nice, Ashton, yes. Okay. I almost had it. Step three. Ask toon, yes. Okay. Fuck. I almost had it. Step three! Ask to see our accommodations. Huh? I was going to say pass through the threshold,

but I guess we could just go through that. You don't have to get so granular with it. Well, you did. Fuck. Okay, look. Fuck. No, but I mean, how are we going to keep you low key? Even at the gate? I don't know.

Well, maybe we just meet this thing head on. Yeah, what if, yeah. I'm not in a challenging way, but I mean, like, you know. Head on. Maybe you call it out. Apply directly to the forehead. Well, no, but a few times you've done magic that have turned you purple and lost your hair. Maybe you could do something like that

and change your appearance again while we go in there. Like? Turn yourself purple again or whatever you were. Or we could shave your head. Or that. I mean, I could try to do some sort of spell that would cause the stone to flare up and maybe it would do something.

We could try. Sure. I'm all for stone flares. All right. I'm going to just... Just fuck with the wild magic? Just goes. Mm-hmm.

That's what it's there for. You fuck with the wild magic? I am going to... Yeah, let's fuck with the wild magic. Fuck with the wild magic? Yeah. Twin spell. I go to the frozen north. Twin spell catapult at first level.

What are you going to fling? I'm just going to pick up a couple rocks and fling them in opposite directions as we're walking. Ow! Well! And that will set off the... Zoom! Like fire off, you hear the faint ripple

of the air being broken through at a massive speed as the rocks just vanish from view. Go ahead and roll a d100 for me. Ah! Someone is dead five blocks over. Yeah, chop a penny off the Empire State Building. No, I'm going to do this one. Oh wait, I can't, that's not, I can't do it like that.

No, no, yeah. Two, two, two, two, ten. You can do it. I believe in you, Laura. Thank you. Hold on, I got to, yeah. Two d10. You can do it. I believe in you, Laura. Thank you. Hold on, I got to find 10. Oh my god. Shut up! You got to find the right d10.

That's not the right one. She's got a search board in the smallest rolling area ever. I don't know how to read this, because I'm not sure what I did. What's the double digit one? Oh, you know what? I only did a single. I did both singles. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Oh my god. Okay, now I'm going to do I did. What's the double digit one? Oh, you know what? I only did a single. I did both singles.

Hold on, hold on, hold on. Oh my god. Okay, now I'm going to do it. Single and a double. You got to pick which one's hundreds of. 45. Isn't that what I got before? No. No. We hope.

Both rocks and your feet lift off the ground. Oh. And you're just hovering there. Oh shit. As if you had cast a levitate spell on yourself. Okay. Do I look different? Yes, you do.

You look taller. This will work perfectly. Yeah, this will definitely not draw any attention. We could just. We have robes. Yeah, we have things. Maybe we could just throw a robe on you and then they won't see that your feet aren't hitting the ground.

There's a part of me that thinks maybe if she really is visiting you in your dreams, you are a samurai. If she really is visiting you in your dreams, she probably knows you. Can sense you. Uh-huh, probably. If that's what's happening.

You know, Fearne, we haven't really had a moment to unpack this whole you being rudisborne thing. Oh my gosh. Oh, that's right. Do you have dreams? Like you mentioned. I sure, I have a lot of dreams, but nothing to do with

the moon. Do you ever dream about the future? I say, floating next to you. All the time. Wait, levitate, do you have to stay in one place? Yeah, correct. You can go up and down. Okay, hold my hand and just drag me, okay. Dynasty.

Yeah, you're a balloon, essentially. Okay. Balloon. Inception. I don't have dreams like you, but I don't know. That's not something that I felt in my bones, that I was probably Ruidus-born, but maybe that's not something

that you just know right away, obviously. The bones tell me nothing. The bones. They don't. All right, well, I don't know. I guess we should start with step one and go knock on the door. Knock on the door is a solid start.

All right. Well, hold on. Orym looks like he's got concerns. We were going to get a hideout. We were? We were. Oh, yeah, to stash. To lay low with Threshie.

We don't have that. We have a vehicle, though. Okay. And you know what? Jolox has a whole lot. So we kind of have a hideout. And we have the Call, though. Okay. And you know what? Joe likes us a whole lot. Exactly. So we have a hideout. And we have the Calloway Castaway.

I mean, that is a definite hideout. That's out of town. Yeah. Oh, but it's so close. We can go there. It took us quite a while to get there. Like an hour. A couple hours. It took longer because we fought that giant thing. It's not a meeting.

Okay. And honestly, getting out of town is probably better. We'll see him coming. We can cut the bridge after we cross it. Oh! And strand ourselves. No, hideout. We have an airship. Do we want to try and take care of that before we?

No. Hell no. Take care of what? What, a hideaway? Finding a hideout really quick. Slightly narrow hideaway, we got one. And we have a hole that people can breathe in for nine minutes and 59 seconds. Exactly, and we just open it back up

whenever we need to, get into the castaway. Calloway castaway, hideaway, what are we calling it? Yeah. I can think of so many ways I could possibly go wrong, but I'm still into it. So we sort of have a hide away. What are we calling it? Yeah. I can think of so many ways that could possibly go wrong, but I'm still into it. So we sort of have a hideout. Yeah. Yeah. And we have you.

Floating. Floating. Should I put like a? Unrecognizable. My scarf up. To the person we're going to see. I mean, that's my question. Do you want to be recognizable or do you want to be unrecognizable?

How long do y'all think I'm going to float? I don't know. What if I float forever? I mean. Your other things lasted for a day. So maybe I'll just float for a fucking day. I think at the very least, you're going to float until it isn't funny anymore.

This is the best. This is going to be interesting. How are you going to sleep? Oh, honestly, probably really comfortably. Just relax. What happens if you just relax? Go live. Let go Just relax. What happens if you just relax? Go, Liv. Let go of me. What happened?

Let go of me. Do I just keep floating up, or am I staying still? No, I mean, you're still floating wherever you were. But I'm not moving. I'm going to try to turn her sideways. Okay, she goes sideways. Just spin and see what happens. Hoo!

Here's a hypothetical. Hoo! Ah! Imogen just. Whoa, whoa, whoa, too fast, too fast. Just spin and see what happens. Ooh! Here's a hypothetical. Ooh! Imogen just. Whoa, whoa, whoa, too fast, too fast. Here's a hypothetical. Shit goes sideways, we got to run. Telekinetic shot.

We got to run. What do you do? Can you run? Nope. We can drag her. Yeah. We can drag her. I'll hitch myself to her and speed away. We can tie her to the back of the crawler.

I am very fast. She can be like a little flag. Can't you go up? Yeah. How high? I just keep going up. You keep going up? Are we in the middle of a thoroughfare?

Hey, don't draw so much attention to yourself! Get the fuck back down here! Teleconnects, Josh. Up! Come back down. We're fine, it's fine. Let's just... You know, I feel like we just need to

fly by the seat of our pants. Yeah, come on. That's what he's saying. We got to make some... Yeah, we got to do something. And you know what? Absolutely, Orym says as he thinks about the totally viable plan Imogen thought about 37 days ago.

We have a hideout! Well, and also that plan went away because someone used our bead of capturing bubble thing and it broke. There's been a lot of broken rocks. Sometimes I do stupid shit. What do you fucking want? He's talking about the thing that I broke.

You broke something? Yeah, he broke something. I break everything I touch. I just assumed that I broke it. That's fucking crazy. I'm broken inside. God, we've done that every single while. No, no, no, no. That was really intense.

But really, that was pretty solid. We're going to figure out what this is. You're not broken. I'm a killing machine. All right, let's go. Yeah. Your is yours, Let's do it. He's starting to believe.

Nothing like weaponizing someone's damage. Become the Neo you were meant to be. Yeah. My eyes didn't turn red. They've just been blue too long. Oh no. Their natural shade is red. Orym, as you are all walking

in the direction of the Seat of Disdain, just walking past individuals in the street, and you generally keep a very watchful, keen eye of anyone in your vicinity, one person that's walking down the road on the outskirts, about maybe a block away, keeping an eye over in the direction of the wall, looks back, doesn't even notice you,

but just walks past you. A familiar female hunia, orc-elf hybrid, thin, dark leather clad physique, cloak, hood, heavy belt, many pouches. You recognize this to be Artana Vo. Artana Vo? The bounty hunter that shot you briefly with a crossbow while you were looking for Gurge.

Oh my gosh! We snuck into that. We snuck into her room. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We don't know much about Artana other than they're a badass. Their sister ran the tavern or pub that they were laying in the land. Oh, oh yes.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. What is she doing here? Artana, vote. But she has? There's a merc who was hired to get Gurg just enough for the money, if I'm remembering correctly. Oh, wow. And they're about a block away. Yeah, well, they just walked past.

You gauge them looking back at the wall around the Seat of Disdain, and they keep walking. They're Prey-O-Midali, sister. Nice notes, Laura. Nice notes. Thanks. I'm not going to say anything. I'm just going to slip away and follow. At a distance.

Did Artana see us? Didn't seem to, at the moment, pay much attention. Arms down the hut. I didn't even tell anyone. I tapped Fearne's knee and said, I'll be right back. Okay. Okay.

You follow at a distance and you watch Artana duck into the side of two buildings and essentially separate off from the rest of the main street. And you glance over and see them almost like blocking around. Do you continue to follow?

Sorry, didn't follow the visual. You're walking down the main road. They begin to pass by. You turn around and watch. And after a short walk you see them duck off the main road into essentially like an alley between two buildings. That parallels the exterior perimeter of the wall. Yeah, but I will crouch down even lower

than my 3'3 height and creep along. Make a stealth check for me. Okay. That's not bad. That is a 19. 19, okay. You continue forward, watching Artana step down the alley, and then she stops.

She stands there. Hey. Sorry. Looks back over the shoulder. Not sure if you remember me. I remember. You're just sorry, right? Yeah.

Can I help you? I really was just struck by the fact that I'm seeing you here. What brings you to town? Just visiting an old friend. Insight check, she's talking to me about... 17. 17? Yeah.

I mean... She's pretty clear in what she's saying, but you get just enough of a sense, based on all the context around, that's probably more to it than that, if it's even true. DM, help me remember in the past, because I do not have a great memory. Artanova was after Gurge. Correct. DM, help me remember in the past, because I do not have a great memory.

Artanova was after Gurge. Correct. Gurge was got for, ultimately for Treshi, right? Because Treshi had his underling. Correct. Who had Gurge and Wendigoth down below underneath the tower. Yes. So she'd been hired by Treshi.

Hired by, or Treshi's underling. So she could have been hired by either Treshi himself or Treshi's elf lordling. Folly Detrano? Yeah, that's the one. Okay, okay, okay. Doing great. Okay, well, no beef.

She was married. Doing great. Okay, well, no beef. Really just bumped by the coincidence. Yeah. Yeah. Stay safe. Okay. She just keeps walking. I hightail a fuck at the group. What's it for? What's it for? That's why she's not working for Treshi still.

She is. They come back and just spill all that. I don't know if she's still working for Treshi or just the highest bidder right now, but I feel like we should, I hate to say it, move now. Yeah. Because I don't know what that means,

her on the game board. Let's get in there. Yeah, we might not be the only ones sent to get Treshi, also. Or someone is sent to get us. Yeah, one or the other. She didn't seem like she could have maybe gone for me then and there. One person against the seven of us is a little ballsy.

Maybe she has nothing to do with us. Maybe. Maybe she's meeting up with more us against Paragon's cult. Or she's just an informant, to your point, more of a spy. We're not that quiet, I mean, all things considered. No.

Fuck. Let's go. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I don't know what else to do other than make noise. Stepping closer to the outskirts, now early afternoon here in Bassuras, you come to the familiar double large gates,

the doors that lead into the inner courtyard of the perimeter wall of the Seat of Disdain. As you approach, you can see at the top, glancing over the side, there's a couple of armored Paragon's Call figures with crossbows that keep an eye as you approach. By the way, your levitate drops. Oh. I'm levitating.

10 minutes? About 10 minutes, yeah. I'm levitating. Wow. Mm-mm-mm. So, last call for somebody that has any common sense. Going once, going twice. I'm putting my hood up and just kind of...

I'm going to knock on the door. Step one! Boom, boom, boom, boom. Person looks for it, we're over. According to plan, very good. Wait, where is our crawler? Who is this? What do you want? Where's what? We left it at Joe's.

Okay. We're Bell's Hells. We were here to see Ratanish, so just let us in, please. Leans back before you even finish. Hello? The doors begin to open up just wide enough to allow one person at a time. Drop the motherfucking gate!

But you go ahead and look past the gap between the doors now. La la la la la la. Let the gate drop! I'm going to murder all of you. Fair enough. Where are our accommodations? Step three.

You skipped step two. It's okay. No, we already announced our steps. He did step two. We're coming in. Hi. Stepping into the courtyard, you can see there are a number of Paragon's Call figures

in the center here. The familiar courtyard space that some of you have seen, at least. You see there's a defunctor, currently not being operated, rune crawler in the corner near the wall where the doors are. There looks to be a tent set up.

It looks like there's a mammoth crawler on the opposite side, and there's a large section of boxes and crates that are currently being checked and loaded onto this mammoth crawler. There's workers loading them? There are Paragon's Call members. Yeah. Can I read it in their lips?

What are they saying? The moment they're not communicating anything, there's one person going through and checking things. Other folks are lifting them for damage and then putting them up onto the side. As we move forward here, I will keep dipping back in that direction to see if I catch any snippets of anything.

Same crawler we saw Otohan on? Yes. Then beyond the way, there's a small fire pit, a little section of rock, and you can see all manner of just materials, barricades, so some trained dummies in the far end, and the actual stronghold of the Seat of Disdain looms before you.

As you walk through, the guard that was on the top of the wall comes back down and is stepping up beside your group. Words got around that Rutanis should be here shortly. Just, I guess, hang tight. Any particular place, or just stand here in the middle of the court like a bunch of assholes? Like a bunch of assholes, please. All right.

Heads back up onto the rampart. A few moments pass, and then eventually you see a few figures, one of which is Rutanish, emerging from the stronghold. Arms out, like, Well, it is good to see you. I'm glad you finally came around. We had a little bit of business to take care of.

Well, it took the time it was going to take, and so we're in town for a little while. We figure we can make a little bit of business to take care of. It took the time it was going to take. So we're in town for a little while. We figured we could make a little bit of money while we're here, see if you need anything. Indeed. Well, I will say very much, your performance in the Deathwish made me quite a bit of gold.

I appreciate the fantastic display of recklessness. Thank you. Quite delightful. Universal. So this is your crew, right? They recognize some of you from the race, yes. I hope no one else from the call was mortally wounded in the race.

Nothing that couldn't be corrected. We are very used to people getting very messed up in the race. In fact, some of them rely on it. Hmm. Oh. Oh. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Let's go.

I'm keeping an eye out for Otohan or the old guy. Make a perception check. Lewdness. Lewdness tower. Sure. The Martinet. Oh, a perception check. I'm so good at perceiving.

Cocked. Perceiving, hey! Wait. 20! Oh! Not too bad. Glancing about here, you see that there doesn't seem to be a figure that resembles Otohan visible in your current purview.

You do catch the 20 perception. The wind's picking up a little bit, and you can see a little bit of cloud cover starting to push in, just from that faint bit. You see the banners and stuff from the top of the line flickering loudly. You can hear the sound of it moving and tearing against the wind.

There's probably going to be a brief dust storm to come through here shortly. We have goggles and stuff from the race, right? Yeah, you got stuff like that. Sure, I'm going to put mine down. Wrap my scarf around my face. Okay. Prepare for it. Well, regardless, I'm glad you made it.

We are excited to have you to be helping with us. It is fortuitous timing. We are doing a very large shipment of the city very soon and we need people to keep watch while we're away well it's perfect, we've got some time to kill we're not really planning on spending a bit of time in the city

anyway and this is a good way to fill our pockets while we're here perfect, it's low stakes primarily for the first time as working together, we just want to make sure that you're reliable. It's not entirely uncommon for us to have individuals

trying to break in. So just keeping an eye out for reprobates. I'm a big fan of low responsibility, high violence possibilities. Well, you've come to the right place, my friend. Okay. Well, you've come to the right place, my friend. Okay. So, we've spoken before, I cannot remember names.

It doesn't matter, I don't care. Let's get you situated. We have set aside a room board for all of you to be able to rest for a bit. Oh, nice. I was going to ask. Stay offside or not? We have places in the barracks below. Also, if anyone requires any sort of a weaponry,

armor up, things that I've... I'd like a uniform. Well, we can, after some time, give you a uniform. Yes, we can do that. That just helps me get into the role, the job, you know? Immerse myself. All right, well, we do have yellow cloaks, and we can get those to you.

Come with me. He turns around, and his flanking, you can't tell if they're bodyguards or protectors, but you do recognize them as some of the figures that were at the ball as well, that were walking around with him. They continue to pass beside him. You see that one of them looks to be a human,

and the other is a half-orc. You see a third waiting at the stronghold as a little gnome that meets up with you. So it's a group of four all together with Rutanish, and they seem to be his accompanying bodyguards. Are they flanking us? No, they're not flanking you guys, but they're definitely keeping around his flank.

Okay. Just in case anybody gets too close. As you walk past, you could see other figures looking out. A couple people recognize you as you walk through the area and catch them, even like, Ha-ha! Hey! Yeah.

A lot of people whispering, excited to have new blood. And of course, you made quite a display in the middle of town not too long ago. So you are there. And that brief window of local celebrity hasn't quite worn off yet. But while fresh to you,

and familiar to you, and familiar to you, Fearne, as your furry incursion into this place once before. Furry incursion. Indeed, furry incursion. You enter the interior of the low-lit stronghold itself on the base floor. We're doing it. We're in. Here, these fortified walls

and halls bend to the right and left. Immediately, you have to go through the front doors. It curves down these long stretches of stone hallway with a number of doors off to the side. You bank around and down past a few doors, around again, and to the left.

This is on the opposite end of the front door. You can see there's a war room that enters. There's stairs that lead up to a large advanced platform where there's a long table with chairs around it. Looks like there are banners hanging in it. There are boxes and crates around. There looks to be some sort of sketching implements and a large map on the wall, the Hellcatch.

Continuing past that into the next hallway to the right, and down, there is a door on the left that Ratamush opens and turns back to you all. So this is where your quarters will be. There are, I don't think we have enough cots for everyone prepared. Maybe we weren't aware it was quite as large a group with you.

I will look for a few to be placed in here. Maybe a bit cramped for now, but you figure your thing out. But there should be lockboxes for each of you, for your personal belongings. Keep a close eye. Things sometimes do go vanishing if you're not careful or you're a heavy sleeper. But just, you know, maybe don't keep all of your very luxurious belongings upon yourself at all times. You'll be okay. Mm-hmm. But yeah, welcome to set up in here.

We'll do more of a full tour once you've gotten yourself situated. Excellent. Welcome to the call. He has to walk away. As he walks away, can I get a vibe check on his armor class and current hit points as compared to mine?

Sure. His armor class. He seems much nicer than I expected him to be. You know, just very accommodating. I mean, he's not trying to like. Armor class is not all affronts. Good as yours. Okay. And was the other one you were asking for?

Hit points. Current hit points. Current hit points, quite a bit more than yours. Ooh. Okay. Cool, cool, cool, cool. Little toot squeaks out. Quite a bit. He walks away, and the other figures stand there watching.

The little gnome creeps by and goes, Hey, welcome. He darts off down the hall after him. Thanks for being so kind. Everybody's so nice. You know where the weapons room is? We're being set on. We got weapons. I want to see what sort of shit's available.

It's about this time that across the other side of the hall, the door opens and Minotaur comes pushing through. Here it comes. This Minotaur also was present for the ball in Jrusar. Oh! Oh shit. One of the other ones that was accommodating for Tanish. He sips through. There was a minotaur there?

I'm looking. I feel like I would have made a note. He glances down at the rest of you. All right, I'm to show you your way around. Who? You're giving us the tour. I am. I'm Ruckmund. Ruckmund.. Rockmund. Rockmund. What a big, strong name.

Thanks. Rockmund. Rockman or Rockmund? Rockmund. Nice name for a mighty man. Rockmund, so strong. So, you see a new room. You see a new room. You see the war room.

Most of these chambers are barracks. There's an armory by the entranceway. Just go ahead and go left. And as he follows you guys, you see slung on his back, on a leather harness, there is a large curve, almost an executioner's axe, that is slung over. It's almost completely hidden by his shoulders,

the way it sits back there, except for the little corner blade that now peeks out the lower half of his body. Damn. Do you ever stab yourself on that by accident? Well, eventually, all the scars build up a resistance. Hmm. Cool.

He keeps walking. He's wide enough to the point where the hallway almost scrapes him shoulder to shoulder, but he pushes through. It's almost like a sweeper. You know in Labyrinth, the cleaners that push them through? He's like that behind you. He's pushing forward and you have to keep moving

or else he's just going to bump into you. There's just horn scrapes that go all the way down. Yeah, pretty much. Like rails. But yeah, pushed, almost backtracking now towards the hallway where you first entered and down the corner until eventually you move past a door that he slams open to the side and gestures into it.

Little rough on the hinges, that can be. Go ahead. Sorry, I'm on my own strings. Waits for you all to enter. This is the armory. Whoa! We have all manner of standard breastplates. Weapons of acquired ammunition.

If you need anything, axes, blades, daggers. It's cool for us to just use stuff. I'm going to go get a dagger and stick it back in my thigh holster. I lost my last one on me. Do you have tiny guns for monkey hands? What about teeny tiny daggers? What if he has teeny tiny daggers?

What's the smallest little weapon you have? The smallest weapon? Yeah. She's serious. Like a dart. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She's fucking serious. Ty's throwing stars.

And everybody goes over and starts rummaging through this open chest, this storage chest on the side. Awesome. Things are falling off the side. Ting, ting, ting, ting, ting. A shield goes and rolls. Super loud echoing throughout the chamber.

It pulls in and rubs out this tiny little throwing dart. It's almost like a kunai. There's the handle on it. It doesn't have the loop, but it has a singular point. It looks probably, and it looks so small in his hand. Okay, this'll work. Mr. Connor crawls over your shoulder and Do you want this?

Strike a pose. Ooh, so tough! What a tough guy. Maybe you should hold it, you know, this side. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Maybe as you guard the arms. On point, okay? I'll practice you for a little practice.

Nothing bad is going to come of this. Oh, where is Mister? Where's Mister? Oh, he's here. Oh! There he is! Okay. Burping him? Yeah. He's burping him and he hits his first weapon. He's just going to

squint a little bit. That's all that's going to happen. He's just slowly stabbing her shoulder from behind. Ammunition is good. Do you have any explosives or black powder in case there's an invasion launch? Do we have to set an ambush? That's actually a very good idea, yeah.

I don't anticipate this, but that's what we do. Firearms, black powder, ammunition. What kind of ammunition? Do we just crossbow rounds? Dynamite. You're all pretty new here and you're asking us for some tall orders. You got a little bit of a trial period here

before we get you all the munitions. This was just questions. These are not necessarily requests this is not necessarily requests. We just blew through all of our shit during the race. Understood. We do have a powder munitions expert that works on our team, assembling all that, but they're elsewhere below.

Well, that makes sense. Below? How far down does it go? Oh, there is a basement below and three floors above. Wow. And a roof. What are you guys shipping again? Not entirely sure. Best to go ask questions. Yeah, traditionally.

Traditionally, you don't ask. Oh, I'm sorry. No, that's fine. So how many soldiers are here? Well, present here, about... 40. That's a lot. We're in the stronghold, and then we have patrols in the city of about 20, patrols outside the city of about 50,

and then a few separate liaisons that work with other cities and areas throughout. Coming up. So I'd say, I think our total number is somewhere in the 200s, 300s. And who's the big boss? Like, who's in command of all these forces? Oh, that would be Otohan.

Otohan? Yes. Have you met Otohan? I think so, I think you did. I have not had the pleasure, no. She's around here somewhere. I'm sure she'll make herself at home. Great. Goes over and looks over on the side wall

and pulls off these mustard yellow capes, cloaks. You see the pull, takes a few and does a count and throws a few over his arm until eventually there's just a giant bundle of, cloaks. You see the pull, takes a few and does a count and throws a few over his arm until eventually there's just a giant bundle of yellow cloaks and begins passing them out to all of you. Thank you. MATT and LAURA, SAM and LAURA, and LAURA, and LAURA, SAM and LAURA, and LAURA, and LAURA, and LAURA, and LAURA,

Fucking like a train. Good looking out. All right. Yes, I'll meet you to the next floor. Oh. Goes ahead and leads you along, back down the hall near where your barracks were stationed. From first going to second?

Correct. Okay. I just want to keep track of stairwells going up. Is it continuous stairwells? Well, the first stairs that you come to are at the end of the hall from where he emerged, just leads up to the secondary floor. There isn't a bunch of staircases in one area, but you do see stairs that go up.

That's exactly what I'm curious about. Okay. Leading into the second floor, you do notice other similar repetitions of barrack chambers. There are a few doors that are partially ajar. You can see in one room, there's a few soldiers that are playing cards at a table. And you do come across the opening in the same space where the war room was in the lower floor.

You now see a series of long tables arranged, and this is a mess hall area. You can see there's already a smell in there of old, dried food, possibly a bit of musky mold. And there's nobody currently eating in there, but it looks like there was a meal not too long ago that hasn't been completely cleaned up yet. But there's room in here for a few dozen people

to eat comfortably amongst all the various scattered tables. You also see beyond that, what looks to be the entrance to a small kitchen area that's hidden off to the corner. This isn't a full block hallway, but it's a three-wall hallway, and then that goes around the perimeter of the space. Then the far end corner,

that's where the kitchen itself is installed. Shows you around. Looks like this is where most of the meals are had. This is where the... You'll be relegated to a specific squad over some time, and that's when certain squads at certain times will be eating together. But for now, you can just join in

when you need to, I suppose. But don't eat too much. We have limited stores and people get very angry if you're taking more than you should. Are there any areas that are off limits? For now, we'll say there's no reason to go to the basement. Be escorted if you decide to wander elsewhere

when you're not being asked to, but for now, it would not reflect well on your first day. Oh no. And if we really need more food, we can always just head out and grab something outside anyway. Are we allowed to leave? Well, you are allowed to leave if you'd like, yes.

And do we have to make our presence known every time we come in? I mean, as long as you're wearing your cloaks and in time, your medallion. That'll be enough. Especially if you're known to the perimeter guards, which you should be as of now. So we'll continue the watch.

Oh yeah, thanks. Yeah. Leads you past a number of storage chambers, other barrack rooms. There's one figure that looks like he just woke up, comes out and gives a nod and recognizes another person that was obviously at the Deathwish. Has that brief moment of recognition and smile. That brief celebrity window once again.

Other. Then eventually, you lead up to the third floor. Here, the barracks chambers, the halls get thinner and thinner. It pinches off the higher you get to the third floor. There are more barracks doors, but these are more intricate, larger, and there is one very large room with a double set of iron doors that is currently closed on the far end.

In the middle space, where the bottom war room and the central kitchen area is in this, there is a tower war room, a secondary smaller version, and this one is intricately decorated. This chamber has a beautiful dark mahogany round table in the center of it, high-back chairs, and these hanging banners all around that carry both symbols of different townships and cities throughout Marquet and beyond, as well as, in the center of it all, in the back, the golden buzzard skull of the Deathmaven,

or the Duskmaven, the Raven Queen of Marquet. Oh, that's right, and Duskmaven. Cultural interpretation of the Raven Queen. At this point, your Minotaur companion goes, this is utilized as the hosting chambers for business, the Paragon's Call, with individuals that travel as emissaries from different parts of Exandria.

Downstairs, that war room is more for the general soldier discussions. Who's the most famous person you've ever had? That war room is more for the general soldier discussions. Who's the most famous person you've ever had? That's a good question. I don't really keep up with those aspects of modern social dynamics, I apologize. Modern social dynamics.

Anyone you admire. Not really. All right. That's mana culture, you are. I appreciate the lessons I learn on a daily basis from Ratanish. So I would say Ratanish is pretty cool. Oh, is he?

Is he like your mentor? Your minotaur mentor. I would consider him a teacher, both of skill, combat, talent, and philosophy. Oh my god. Wow. He has no sense of humor. No, he does not. He's all right.

Okay. Flirt harder. Hey. Anyway. As you pass through perimeters, you do see. He's moaning. You do see there are breaks in the hallway that lead outward, and you notice there are some balconies,

these fortified balconies that sit on the outside of this fortress, where there are defensible walls with notches for artillery, crossbows, weapons to be fired through. And occasionally, as you go through the halls, too, you see the little points of light where other ranged, defensible positions sit.

They have little arrow slits in the wall to fire from. Are there any rooms on this level? There are rooms. There are a few other barracks-looking chambers, but the doors are nicer. You don't know if these are guest chambers or if these are for more elite soldiers of the Paragon's Call.

And cycle through the third floor into the final staircase that ascends to the roof. And as you come to the roof, which is where you saw Treshi take a break that one time, as you emerge, there are all manner of chairs arranged for individuals taking watch. You're passing call soldiers as you do, and up here, you can see there's at least five different

call soldiers that are keeping eyes out. There's a large mount. Let's see, it first looks mounted, a ballista, like a multi-armed, two massive longbows that are crossing each other, affixed to this massive bolt thrower. But the basis of it, you see, has a number of wheels, like a caster, and it can be adjusted and moved

and dragged from one wall side to the other. There's a number of barrels filled with these long, jagged-looking metal bolts. Oh shit. But there's braziers up here, a series of large signal braziers that currently aren't lit, and they're just filled with all manner of dried wood

at the ready in case they need to signal to something. But this is definitely a fortified watch point. From this height, you can see much of the city. The only things that rival the size of this building at this height are the cisterns, the large, crooked metal towers that gather the various monsoon rains when they wash through.

It's from this point also you can see, indeed, at the distance up the northern regions of the city where the wind is currently blowing from, the horizon is a bit muddied with brown and gray, meaning there is definitely a dust storm on its way to the city. As this happens, you can see across the city, there are other people who are starting to

close their shutters, lock off their windows, open portions of different roofs, and visual, elevated portions of the town are being locked down for the coming dust storm. At which point, the minotaur leans forward and glances over. Looks like we'll have to buckle down soon anyway. Well, any questions?

Is there anywhere that we're needed the most? On the wall, inside the building, in the courtyard? For today, anyway. For the time being, just get yourself affiliated with your space. If you get told to handle any orders, handle them. Oh, okay. But primarily, you're just going to be keeping guard

and watch while we take a good portion of our men for this shipment. How soon does that start, just so we don't go off and get drunk and do anything silly? Well, today's day of packing. We leave, I believe, tomorrow, fairly early to try and make the most of the day. And then.

Do you know what the day rate is? How long you guys are going to be gone? I know it's a lot today. No, no. Each time we do one of these shipments, it takes about a week or so. And so that's times seven, eight, so, and then whatever our day rate is, we'll be getting our pay for that then.

Right. All right. Yeah. Where are you going? They're new. Flirt harder! Why are you doing? They're new. Flirt harder! Why are you staying here? Oh my god. I'm just like,

just gives you a look. I'm just curious. This is all just so fascinating to me, you know? I understand. The first thing you should not be is curious. If you ask too many questions, you'll be ousted or disappear. Oh.

Who? Have you ever been disappeared before? I have. I'm taking them through the ropes. They're a little grand. All right, that's okay. I'll make sure that their responsibilities are on your hands.

Will you be going with the shipment, or will you be staying here? Oh, I'm to be with the shipment. Right. They're sending their elite and most trusted and effective soldiers on the shipment, which is why you were staying behind. Well, you're in good hands.

I hope someone makes an attack on the fort so we can show you how much we mopped the floor with these fuckers. I would be very impressed, and I hope that happens. I do. For the sake of your glory, and not because you will ruin this opportunity and be outshone by our more trained and trusted members and employees.

I appreciate your faith. He's a comedian. He's a bit very blunt. Thank you so much. We do appreciate it. Of course, your honesty. Rockmund. You've been very helpful.

Good. That concludes the tour. May we return to your duties or your barracks. The choice is yours. Orders will come when they are needed. Follow me. And he pushes you all, arms out, funnels you back down to the stairs.

That was a good view, but that's okay. Like a parent giving a tour for children in a museum and just pushing you all this way. Hey, hey, hey. Still playing with my new toy. How's my man's AC? Oh my god. His AC. This is the new What Time of Day is it?

I'm so excited. It's the first game I get to play with him. Key mind, dude. He's better than you. No, he's a pretty big guy. He wouldn't be that hard to hit. He's not fully armored right now. He's in his casual strolling gear.

Fun, okay. So yeah. Okay. All right. Leads you down through the third floor. I think he took a shaman to you. The second floor. Yeah. The first floor and back out to the courtyard

where you see Rutanish is there waiting, talking to a few people, arranging more of the shipment being moved on to this mammoth crawler and handing it on ladders. There's a ladder up to the first platform of the massive mammoth crawler and they're doing a fireman's line, bringing some of these crates up, and some of them are too heavy,

and bringing something up, and they're just glancing over. A lot of them just seem standard and heavy as fuck. Even the ones like the smaller ones, they're kind of like, and handing it over to the next individual, who's like, to get it up, it's two people to carry

up, and two people to carry it halfway up the ladder and then lift it up enough to get to the first tier of the Mammoth Crawler, where two more help and bring it on. Wow. Maybe they need help loading the boxes. I'm going to walk over and grab one because these people are embarrassing. Okay, cool.

It's heavy. I'm pretty fucking strong, so. It's true, it's true. So you start helping load it. Yeah, just a little bit. And then he's like, I appreciate that you are taking initiative. There's a dust storm coming.

I mean, for god's sakes, you don't want to be the fuck out here for that shit. This is true. I will say initiative is rewarded in situations of defense of the Paragon Skull. Initiative is considered extremely bad if you are taking things you're not given orders to do. As far as this board, okay.

I order you to help with the loading of this place. Oh, thank god, we're done. See, there's a process to this. You wait for the orders, then you do them. When it comes to cutting throats that do not wear the capes, please, take your initiative if you feel it's necessary. And if it is not necessary,

then we just disavow any knowledge of you and toss you to the dogs. I forget that I actually had things I liked about this town. This is crazy. But yes, whatever can be done to help, please load up quickly, especially before this storm hits. He pulls out a cloth and puts it over his face a bit.

How long do these storms normally last? It can depend. Sometimes a few hours, sometimes days. Hoping for a few hours. They're real pretty. You hear in your headshed, the storm will be in real nice cover if we're trying to sneak someone out.

Yeah. Mm-hmm. I'm hoping for days. Unless I take treasure with them. Yeah, I know, that's the problem. Oh, he could be the package. So you jump in and start helping them move stuff? Yes. Yeah, come on, buddy. I'm not weak as fuck.

What am I going to do? No, you can do it. I'm strong as shit, I'm with you. Throw me a box. Yeah, our magic people don't have to. I'm made to kill. Lift'm with you. Throw me a box. Yeah. Our magic people don't have to. I'm made to kill. Lift with a leg. Mountlift.

Listen to your inner voice. Are there any boxes that are easy to look inside? There are a number that are not fully closed or some that don't have a lid, necessarily. And you see all manner of masonry materials. There are stone bricks. There are cases marked mortar, and there are tools.

It looks like there's a lot of construction materials. All right, but what construction materials? Y'all building something? Nobody answers. You can see, there's a lot of people who are sweating. They've been doing this for a while and it's backbreaking work. The new kids come up and especially the casters

are barely helping. As soon as you ask that question, someone glances at you and gets back to work. Questions are the easiest way to get a deafening silence in this kind of work. Why? That was a question.

There is... It catches your eye as you're having this conversation. You lean down and pick up a crate, or go to grab it, and you look down, and the size, the shape, the width, the length, the concert of this crate looks exactly like the one that you came across at Hexum's. Shit. Fuck.

Yes. Does it have a label on it? It is. Actually, make a perception check for it. You see there's some elements on it. 10. 10, okay. Did you see this one?

You glance down at it and you can see there is a well-worn name that is essentially ink stamped onto part of the wood. It reads, Treshi. He's a vampire. ink stamped onto part of the wood. It reads, Treshi. He's a vampire. He's moving the soil. Okay. Is it open?

No, it's closed. Yeah, I'm going to move the coffin. How heavy does it feel as I'm moving it? It's not very heavy, and as you move it, you feel things inside that are clinking. There's a faint sound of glassware. All right, I pay attention to where I load it on the cart. Was there others like it, or is that just the one?

You see maybe three others of the exact same size. Okay. About three feet across, about a foot wide, about a foot deep or so. We can go over. Most of them are masonry construct materials. You see a handful of those crates and there are two small black super lockboxes,

like reinforced chests that are in the tail end of this, sitting in the middle of this whole scenario. Are they heavy or are they? You haven't gotten, they're in, everything is being moved away from around it, so you have to move the rest of the boxes. Someone else grabs another one of the trashy-marked crates and starts moving over

and sending over to you to pass up the front there. The black box is also marked with the trashy stuff, or? Make a perception check. That's a two. Plus something. Yeah, that's a two. Don't you have an advantage on perception? Oh, you're right. Because your shield? It's been a while.

It's been a whole week. It's been a while! But still pretty crap. That's a 12. 12, while. It's been a whole week. It's been a while! But still pretty crap. That's 12. 12, okay. Not as bad as it looks. So yeah, the black crates do not have a trashy name on them that you can see,

at least from where they're sitting and over there in that space. What are the AC of the crates? Pretty high. You want to do it harder. How fully packed are the crates? Is there some space in there, or are they packed to the gills? I mean, the ones with the construction materials

are packed pretty well, but there's some small gaps in there, like a foot here, the other. All with lids or tops off? It varies. Some are closed, some are not. It looks like some of it was just kind of what was amassed and found. Some of it was, you know,

shipped and brought along with some semblance of, well, this is just stonework and mortar. No one's going to try and steal this from these people. Right. So there wasn't a lot of care put into that. But the other trashreshymark crates and the more locked box ones are being watched. As you're grabbing them, there is definitely,

like, this has been nice. They didn't seem like they were paying too much attention, though they're always with someone around. Now that you're here in the middle doing this, you begin to realize that, like, Everyone. Everyone is watching you. They're using this as a gauging mechanism.

Yeah. I can't lift crates because it'll rip my arm off the shoulder. So I touch them and pretend to help. And then I want to look back up at the fortress and see, do I see anybody peeking through windows? Any sign of Treshi? Make a deception check. Basically just want to see if there's Treshi.

Boom! Mm, that's not too bad. 17. 17. You do not see anybody that resembles Treshi from what you can tell. You can see there are the bodies on the roof, the very, very top of the fortress that are patrolling and looking down on them,

just keeping an eye on what you're doing and looking just past the walls beyond. That third floor, are there windows? There are no windows. There are arrow slits in the occasional reinforced balcony that is defensible. Balconies, right, right, the balconies. Which are open.

You know, they're not enclosed with glass or anything, but they have these heavily reinforced stone walls, almost like crenellated sides where they're high enough to defend anybody who's being shot at by any sort of ranged weaponry, but they can still fire through pretty easily. And they're open up top? They are, yes.

Doors on the other side, I guess? Just regular doors getting into the, okay. I'm going to go over and try to see if I can move a crate or something and help out. Okay. But at the same time I do that, I'm going to use Telekinesis to try to push the lid on one of the trashy crates and see if it will move at all. Okay.

Nothing that I'm looking at, nothing that I'm touching or anything. I'm just going to try to do it with my mind. It shifts ever so slightly, but as it does, you hear and feel resistance and the slight flick of what you didn't notice was a lock on the box. Okay.

It's locked. That is the last one of the Tresi Crates being lifted as you're helping carry it over to the base of the ladder that leads up to the crawler, which hands it off to you and one of the other figures that grabs it. And this is just one card. They're not loading multiple cards.

There's just one card that you're able to pull onto. Or is it a couple of cards? You don't see any cards anymore. These were offloaded. Yeah. And then they may have been here for a short time, and then now they're being loaded up onto this crawler. Yeah, this crawler. Okay. This is the last one and we're carrying it.

I'm helping, am I helping out somebody else? Obviously, I can't help you. Somebody else is helping you carry it. It's giving you that look of like, you're not even trying. I'm trying, I'm trying. And then as we're walking towards the ladder, I'm going to trip.

Okay. As soon as we get back into the room. So you're trying to trip and push. I'm just going to get fired the first hour. I just want the crate to fall. I know, I understand. Go ahead and make a strength check. Oh boy.

No. Five. Five, okay. So you trip and try and make it fall. The person holding it goes like, whoa, and catches the other side and it slams into the ground and cracks. But nothing more than that. I'm so sorry.

You do hear a heavy clattering of some heavy glass. Nothing that sounds like shattering, but definitely like. I'm sorry, I'm just, I was just trying to help. Don't even touch it. I got it. It's not okay. Any reactions stand out above from all the people looking down on us in that moment?

You can see everyone leaning forward, and the general sense of tension in the courtyard now is definitely elevated. I will not help anymore. I'm sorry about that. I was just trying to. Picks it up and brings it over, hands it to you and the other individuals helping you carry it up.

You lift it and set it up onto the car. So all of those are now loaded. Now it comes back to the two lockboxes and a handful of other masonry crates that are going to be handed beyond that, too. If nobody's volunteering for the lockboxes, then okay. Go, girl. So you go over, and these, as you walk up, they are,

it's like a black metal that, even the layer of dust on it, you can see beneath it. It's really, really well made. It looks reinforced, and there is a heavy lock on the front. There are two handles on the sides that are kind of bolted in, and as you go to reach one of the other, unless anybody else comes up there,

another person comes over to grab the other handle. I'll help. Thank you. No problem. Okay, you both lift it up. It's lighter than you expected. Oh. The box itself has a good heft to it,

but whatever the contents are, it isn't filled with rocks or metal ingots. So not too bad. Just walking it to the crawler. Yep. Okay. Just walking it over. Walking it over to the bottom where? I grab it, I pick it up, I assume by myself.

It's pretty light. The other person next to you goes and reaches the other handle and is like. Here, I'll just get the other one. Okay. What kind of locks on it? What kind of, what's the, is it just a standard closed lockbox or?

There is a fairly well-made latch on it. It's not masterwork make by any means, but it definitely isn't a easy general store-bought padlock or anything. I'll make sure to set it down in a direction where I'm going to try and scoot it in a way where that lock could be accessible. Okay. If it were.

Just don't stick it in the lever. Is there another one, or was that the other one? There's another. There was two of those. Can I have your help again? Of course. Thank you. I'm going to look at the box and see if there's anything written on the box. The lock, everything.

Most of the crew that was doing the hard work before has now backed off, and they're letting you do the majority of it, partially because they're exhausted and they're letting this be a trial run of the new crew just doing manual labor without fucking it up. Lazy. So what are you looking for specifically?

How big is the box? Oh, it's about a foot and a half by a foot and a half. It's almost like a cube, almost, with the slight rounded edges on the top, but it's a very well-made metal chest. Okay, I'm going to look for markings on the lock, around it, see if there's anything on there. And since we're in the cargo area,

can I give it a, just see if there's any unusual scent, fey feet, or undead? Yes, you may. Go ahead and roll for that smell to the air. And you are searching for, you said, markings around? Markings, the lock, any names. Okay.

Make a perception check for me. 18. 18. 21. 21, okay, 18. You smell in the air, there's definitely the scent of fey from Fearne, but nothing undead or fiendish or additionally fey that catches your immediate attention.

No markings around the lock, but at the very, very top of the box, there is a symbol that is faintly engraved in the top of it. It's three elongated diamonds that all can join in the center. Almost like a, there's two points here, a third point with a curling underneath

of multiple small spines, almost like two hands holding in the bottom, but they're thin and long. It's also just getting there. Oh. Oh. Chetney. Hmm?

Do you see what's on the top of the box? Can I see what's on the top of it? Yeah. Can I see what's on top of it? You can see it as you're carrying the box, however. You can also make a history check if you want to. I've only been around for fucking ever, y'all. You're a youngster.

That's true. Oh, 30, 20. That's pretty well deployed. This technically you wouldn't have an advantage on because this is not pertaining to the certain creatures you hunt. Fae Fiena Red Dead? Not as good.

No. 14. 14? She got a one. A one. A one. Yeah, you see the symbol. You don't recognize or acknowledge really what it means. It's probably like a flower. I have a wishy. Yes.

The person loading the crates and chests up on top of the crawler, prowler? What is it called? Yeah. The mammoth crawler. Is it just one person stacking things up on top? There are two figures up there that are accepting. They were accepting the larger, heavier crates. There was a, especially for the heavy masonry materials,

there's the chain for that purpose. You guys got there just in time for most of the heavy shit to be done, and now you're coming over and picking up the lighter shit, and there's a little bit of an air of course amongst the people who've been here for as much time as it took to get the rest of it loaded up there. From where you can glance when you're approaching it, too,

there's a lot of masonry. There's a lot of construction materials that had already been loaded up there. Okay. But. Where was the first black chest placed? It was placed a little further in, meant to be, there was almost a gap left centrally amongst the rest of the,

most of it was arranged in a C formation, and for the more fragile materials, those have been set, it looks like, towards the center of that grouping. Oh my god, don't. Don't. I'm just going to put it down. The twinkle in your eye. I'm not, that's always there.

And then put it down. Okay. Are we handing the box up now, or? You put it down. Or we'll, I guess, pass it off to Ashton. Yeah, up to you. What do you do? Should I try to put it in my skirt?

No, we're going to need to. What the fuck? No, nope. Hand it up to Ashton. Hand it up to our being. Watch. What's an interesting way to get killed? Why don't we find one of these? All right.

The second lockbox emplaced upon him. We are onstage at the Globe Theater. No one will see. No one will see. Why? Everybody will see. With that, there are about five more crates of construction materials, one after the next,

and you're starting to really break a sweat here in the heat with the work, for those of you who are putting the work in. But you do manage finishing loading the Mammoth Crawler, at which point they set it up there. They take a large woven net and lay it over the boxes and begin to bolt it down. You can see on these hooks on the edges of the Mammoth Crawler

to keep it grounded and keep it locked in for the coming sandstorm. Yeah, do we see the storm on the horizon? At this point now, the sky's starting to darken a bit and the wind's picking up that. And folks are starting to glance around at the leader's ship, and at this point, as the final elements are situated, Rattanish approaches.

Very good, for your first orders, well done. Now, no further orders beside sit tight, stay in your chambers, maybe get some food in a bit when it is prepared in the mess hall, and wait out this storm. Well done. When is everyone leaving? Again? Tomorrow.

That's when you will be given your next round of orders to keep watch. Sorry, I just didn't know. As soon as we were taken over, like, guard and just seems like it. You'll be notified. All right. So, welcome to Pargrine's Call. First day, not so bad.

Do you have any hats? Like matching hats? I just feel like the blue clashes with the yellow and I just want to rep. Call. We do not have any hits. I'll make some. Blue does not clash with yellow. Look at FCG. It looks great.

Blue and yellow go together so well. Excuse me, excuse me. Just worry about yourself, okay? I swear they're really good at what they do. Purple and yellow's a whole other thing. They're really good. I think blue and yellow works very well. Oh, okay.

But no heads. You are welcome to make a head if you want to wear one, but we have no uniform heads. It's not part of our uniform. I'll make one, and then you tell me if you want any duplicates. I just need a little advance notice. I'm very backed up in orders these days. Very well.

And I will say, you know, personal hobbies are encouraged here at the Paragon School. Fuck. You are not intended to be waiting alone, staring at the wall while you're between orders. Do you have any hobbies? I do.

Detect thoughts. All right. I love you. I love you so much. You immediately get a wave of imagery, like surface imagery, curling through his mind. You see what looks to be the very small tools meticulously adding filigree

to what looks to be a piece of jewelry. You see the bending of metals and these little curls and then setting a little stone in there. As you get this image, he looks and goes, none of your business. Understood. Well, it is time to make haste with the interior before things get too bad.

Go. We'll see you inside. My Etsy store is called Rattan-ish. Etsy store. rattan-ish. Etsy store. Rattan-ish. I have a discount if you buy a book. At this point, it looks like a number of the perimeter guards do not get to leave, but they are now heavy goggles,

face wrapped in a very thick cloth. They are still just walking the perimeter, but keeping low. As you all begin to step into the interior, the first wave of dust begins to really darken the sky above as it hits. As you step in, the doors close behind you, and you begin to hear the sound of dust and sand

hitting and scraping across the exterior of the fortress, giving this faint, echoing sound, almost like a very distant crackle. At which point, all the different members of the call begin to scatter amongst the interior of the fortress, and you get the sense that you're left to your devices at the moment. Never alone, because there's many people within the fortress, but you get the sense that there is an immediate sense of worry, because anywhere you go, you'll likely find somebody.

And we're in a big donut, right? Like a courtyard where we can see higher levels around us? Not the courtyard anymore. You've now entered the fortress. But when we were loading, we were. When you were loading, you were in the courtyard, yes. Which mostly surrounds, the fortress doesn't sit right in the center.

It's a little off-center, but the courtyard does surround the fortress with the wall that's like a large pentagon. We can head to our quarters and have a little. Yeah, let's head to our quarters, catch up. All right. You head back there and you can see two additional cots have been added.

There are now cots for all of you to stay. The floor is very cluttered now. There's maybe a good foot and a half of space between each cot. And yeah, I mean, it's not great, but it's better than not having beds, I suppose. There are empty shelves. Once again, you have the lockboxes at the base

of each cot, and it's yours. I reach in and pull out the Treshi scribble. Scribble. Scribble. Should we make sure we're not being watched or listened to? We're in the recorders. Yeah, maybe they bugged it. A little what?

Well, I'm just looking, I'm not speaking. I can't detect magic. I thought you had a thing where you could not ever do it. You can identify it. You can identify the object, never mind. Oh, I can. You can detect magic? Yeah, I can. Oh, let's do that. Oh, great.

That'd be amazing. I didn't know I could do that. Yeah. Jesus. Huh? That's where we're going. Level seven. While we're in there, just while I was playing this round. Oh shit. How long can I have been able to throw?

That's a toothpick? That's supposed to be a toothpick? Really? I'm just going to walk along the walls and look for any holes and see if I can find it. That's a really good idea. Detect magic. She's detecting magic.

Or if you can hear anybody. Can you hear people's brains? They're paying attention. So you're detecting magic in your chambers you can hear anybody. Can you hear people's brain? If they're paying attention. So you're detecting magic in your chambers where you're sitting? Yeah. Okay, looking around the room, glancing about, nothing seems to spark

a glow of magical essence beyond what you have on yourselves, necessarily. Nothing in the, I guess, under the cots in the hallway. I don't know. You pulled out the thing? Yes, so for the item that you have that is tracking the ring.

Yeah. Did you return the ring? We returned the ring to the shop, I think. I think you did, yeah. So we were hoping maybe he went and got it. Seems to be pointing away in the direction of where it was. But I think I can,

because I've seen him, I know him, I could find him here if we, yes. We have to find him before he leaves. We do know this, right? This storm could be an excellent cover to get him out. Absolutely. The moment he gets on that crawler. He's going to go with him, right?

I mean, maybe. We assume. If all his stuff is going. I don't necessarily know if it's his stuff going. It might be that they're doing a job for him. I don't know, it looks like they're building something. Would one of those things head out in the middle of a sandstorm?

No. Would they delay? Maybe they're heading out to that camp outside of town that we saw from a... Yeah. We saw? They would have to be insane to go out in this weather. That would, that's... Chet and I saw a symbol

on top of one of the little boxes. Draw it. Well, it was like this, and then it had diamonds all coming together, three of them. I'll draw it. Does that sound familiar to any of us? Anybody here train in history? Yes. Or proficient in history?

Go ahead and roll. I know. Come on, Rudy. Pretty good, 22. 22. Yes, you. Pretty good, 22. 22. Yes, you recognize the symbol she draws, this to be the symbol of the Cerberus Assembly. Cerberus.

Cerberus. I thought it was the soldiers. Okay. Same bad people. The Soldiers Academy is not the same as the Cerberus? No, but they're entwined in some ways. From the Sultress. Okay. Trent, the Cerberus Assembly.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know nothing. One's a university, the other's a cabal of powerful mages. What's the symbol for the Sultress Academy? It's three thing diamonds. It is three diamonds. For the Cerberus Assembly, it's the three diamonds. It is three diamonds. For the Cerberus Assembly, it's the three diamonds

and the symbol of the eight candles around it. Sultry's Academy, the mascot is a wildcat. Yeah. It's a Spartan, actually, which is really weird in Exandria. There wasn't, it doesn't even have Spartans. Let's go, Cat! Everyone knows Spartans don't exist. Cerberus.

Well, I would say if his luggage is getting loaded onto that crawler, we can assume he's probably trying to get the fuck out of town. I don't know. I don't necessarily think that's, that's not luggage on there. Yeah, but it. Why would it go without him?

Those were very fancy and bolted with locks. We might be building something similar to what Fearne's parents were building. I'm just saying it would make more sense if we assume he is leaving, because if he leaves, we're fucked. Right, but we won't leave until the storm goes up.

No, but I'm just saying we've got, what time is it? I'd say all the work you've done, getting Filyd here, it's mid-afternoon. So we've got the day. Or however long this storm takes. While he's asleep, we could grab him. The storm takes.

Why would he be asleep right now? No, at night. Oh, that's fair. That's what we know. It'll probably be garden. If the storm gives us more time in the morning, fantastic! But we can't assume that it will. It's probably in the basement, right? Or there was a locked room.

Or in those top rooms. Can any of us change our appearance? Yeah, I can. We can go invisible. Did you want another? No, I'm good. I think a snatch and grab inside the building is a terrible idea.

I think that if we're going to do this, we're going to have to find a way out. Well, yeah, if we grab him and we put him in the thing, no one will know we have him when we go. Put him in what thing? Oh, in that thing. In the hole. It's just about finding him and, yeah. But they won't leave without him in my safe. Oh, in that safe. In the home. It's just about finding him and, yeah.

But they won't leave without him in the morning. That's what I'm thinking. It's a big assumption that he's going with them, but yeah. But it's safer to assume that he is, because if he's not, then cool. We can just snatch him when everyone else is gone. If he's not already gone. Oh no.

We don't know if he's here. We don't know. We can here. We don't know. We can find out. Maybe. You said you can detect people. I can know where he is right now. So when the party's getting ready to leave, I can detect if he's with them, I guess.

But by then it's too late. However. Why don't you just look for him now then? Yes. I could. I could find him in the place right now. What are we going to do with him? We're going to just go get him right now?

But then when they go to look for him, they'll be like, where is he? Lock the hatches, batten down the gates. No one in. We just have to get him and leave. We don't have to stay here. We just have to get him and leave. There's nothing keeping us here. And even if you just find out where he is now, we at least know if he's up or down.

We just agreed to do this job. We're just going to quit without two weeks notice? That's not right. That's the idea. You can ignore your HR protocols. Yes. You could just, you know. I mean, how are they going to have time

to find a replacement for us and train them? We're in the state of California. They're very forgiving with the laws. Is Vassaras a right-to-work city? Yes, actually. So side note, we know that Otohan, well, we don't know. We think that Otohan has had dealings

with Cerberus Assembly members, so small chance one is here today. Also, if we can- Is it Daleth? Sorry. No, I wasn't saying. Fearne, you were going to say something. I was not, actually. Were you going to say, doot-a-doot? Yeah.

Okay. Doot-a-doot-a-doot. One of us here. Our mission was to come grab Tresh and get out of here. Yeah. But don't you feel like our mission has changed a bit now? There's some grand conspiracy going on that involves gods and the moon and something being built in the desert. If we nab this guy and leave, we don't track any of that.

We don't get to see what they're building in the desert. We don't get to see what the moon is doing. We don't get to go to Eos. We don't get to do any of that. We just go back home with a guy. No, we go back get to go to Eos. We don't get to do any of that. We just go back home with a guy. No, we go back home and get an airship, correct? And then we go wherever we need to. We can also just toss his ass on the airship

and then we can take the crawler to Eos. I'm saying, if we follow these people, we might learn more than if we just abandon them. Mm. Oh. Mm. Oh, I like that. I say we listen to the

That way, kill it. killer assassin over here. If he's on the cart, then we're safe. When he's not on the cart, we're also safe. That kind of covers all the tracks. Stowaway onto the crawler. Seven people on a cart, then we're safe. When he's not on the cart, we're also safe. That kind of covers all the tracks. Stowaway onto the crawler. Seven people on a cart.

They'll never see us. Question, is there a way that we can, is there something we can do to the cart to actually know where it's going and when? Like, if there's a way that we can track it? We could go get that ring. And buy that ring. Correct, and put it on the cart.

Throw it on the cart. Correct. Put it on the front. Throw it on the cart. Or... Wait, do we have sending stones? We only have one. We could use the sending stones. We only have one. Oh, but or, or... Imogen can hide on the cart. You can communicate with us wherever you are.

I just hide on it and just send y'all messages. Hard no. Okay. Well, I could do it. First step one. Ooh, I'm not going to send anybody along. Locate Treshi. Step two, go get the ring. Because that covers all of the things

that we're considering, right? We don't already have it. We didn't buy it. It's in the fucking shop. I left it at the fucking shop. I remember everyone was like, what if he goes back and get it? We can come and go out of the fort, plus there's a fucking storm coming.

We'll be back there in no time. Yeah, I agree. All right. Storm is more than you think it's going to be. Please, I've seen a storm. Someone fast. And furious. I could go. You're neither of those things.

I'm furious, but I'm not that fast. Make three stops on the way. Should we locate Treshi? Yes, let's do that first. While I'm doing that, I'm going to take out a backpack. Don't worry, I'll move slowly. I got a glass eye.

I don't remember where from. I got some copper wire. I know this is a big ask, because it doesn't involve wood. Can you fashion this into some sort of a bauble or trinket or piece of jewelry that looks homemade? Like a brooch. Are you asking me to work with the metal?

I am. Brooch? Give it here. Brooch? Brooch? What's the difference? I don't know. I think one is just a brooch is a poorly said brooch. I've heard people say brooch. They were wrong.

Well, you're also, you lived in ancient times. You might use a brooch back in the day. That's the real point. What do you want? Save the etymology. You want the eye to be wrapped in the little piece? Yeah, like it's some sort of a pin or something. Like a brooch.

Hold on, give me the eye. Give me the battle! I got some insight into our main contact here. I tear a little strip off of my yellow cloak. Oh, you want to give this a gift to retail? I take the strip and wrap it around my eyes like a blindfold. Or he'll see the art.

Oh my god. Or he'll see that Chetney's working on it and he'll be like, oh, you have an interest in metal work as well. And then they can bond and become best friends and we can get more information out of it. I see. That's not a bad idea. Oh, sorry.

How's he doing blindfolded? Let's roll. Can you go ahead and make a dexterity check for me? Guidance. With disadvantage, because you're blindfolded. But Guidance. Oh. Ooh.

Nine. Ooh. Okay. Okay. Nine. Ooh. Okay. Okay. It... So it definitely, you put it together, and it definitely resembles, I guess you can call it a brooch.

Or a brooch. This is more like a brooch, let's be honest. With a nine, this is definitely a brooch. It... It's a great glass thing. It looks almost like a corkscrew, more than, like, to actually apply it to something, you have to push it into a thick enough material

that'll grasp into it, but might hurt yourself in the process. But you know, it's a piece of jewelry. I hand it back over and take off the blindfold. Never happened. I never have it. I actually never have it. You can have it. It know. Never happened. I actually heard about it. You can have it.

It hasn't happened yet. But if that man comes around, just act like you just made it. No, I can say that Chetney makes jewelry. I don't fucking make jewelry! Listen to me, Chet. This is not a bad thing. You're allowed to expand your creativity.

I don't know if there's a big market for wooden jewelry. I'd wear it. Yeah, wooden beads? Would it turn you on a little? I'm going to put my brooch. Where should I put the brooch? To be full display. I didn't make that. Right on your bosom, right in the area.

Yeah, put it where your flower is right here so it catches the cleaves. Okay. All right, I'm going to put it right here. It's beautiful. I mean, it's adequate. He did his best. He did his best. I did nothing!

Pretty good for not having worked with metal before. Well, I mean, his best could only be that good because he's just, you know, everyone's got their limits and clearly Chetney has limits. If I locate this person, I've only got an hour. All right. Don't get mad. It's nice. It's very nice. Up or down. That's all I care about right now.

Are we allowed to leave the room? Yeah. Yeah, we can go anywhere we want. Just not go to the few dead spots. I'm going to try to find him. We ready? Yeah! Are you casting? Locate creature. Locate creature, okay.

Do-do-do-do-do-do-do. Ahead of one of the wealthy's Mahon houses. You finish concentrating on this spell for a moment, and as you open your eyes once more, you see the lens eyes of FCG glowing this faint white coloration. And as you envision the individual of Arman Treshi, you sense a strong pull in a downward direction.

That's the fucking basement. Like almost directly beneath you. Ooh. Directly beneath. What's the form made out of? That's harder. So. Like, almost directly beneath you. Ooh. Directly beneath. What's the form made out of? That's harder. If only I had chosen a different spell, I could.

Stone shape? Below us? Yeah. That'd be great. I'll go check it out. Wait, how? Invisibility? Yeah. Do it. All right, take the jewel thing,

just in case you get stopped. What am I going to do with that? You're going to charm the Minotaur Man. I'm going to make a connection with you right now. I'm just letting this happen at this point. Wait, the jewelry's not the Minotaur Man's. And? No. Ritanish.

Oh, that was Ritanish? If you find him and you can get to him. In my mind space. Give him the hole, just in case you can get him. You want the hole? Say it again, but slower. Here you go. Just don't lose it.

Okay. I tuck it in my harness. Just let us know if you see him. Just tell me in my head if you spot him and you have access to him. We're connected? What are we going to do? False. Yes.

What exactly are we going to do if we? Bless you. Thank you. How do we get out of here? I'm just trying to run a little recon. We don't even know anything about the basement. I'm just saying. Okay, recon, I'm okay with. Well, Fearne went through it, right, as a little...

You went through the basement? When she was a little quokka. You made it to the basement or on the ground floor? I did, I did. You made it to the basement? No. You didn't make it to the basement. She doesn't know anything. I don't think I did. I don't think, it all looked the same.

We don't even know where the entrance to the basement is, right? No. Like, when we went upstairs, were there stairs going down? No, there was a hall to the left. I'll try there. So you're just going to take the portable hall. Just in case. You know what I'm going to do?

I'm going to go invisible. Shani, before you go, if you get him, get him in the hole, come back and put us in the hole, and then go out. I'll be right back. Anyone want to come with me? Where are you going? Where are you going? Ashton, Orym. To poop. What?

I'm going to go get that fucking ring. Oh god, you're leaving? There's no way to get out. They're not going to let you out of the- They said we can come and go. We can come and go. Yeah, we can come and go. We can go to this shit. I'm going, if anyone wants to come. Oh, I'm coming. Do you have your goggles and a mask?

Hold on. Sure. My eyes have a weird glassy layer of top of them. Whatever you do, protect your lungs. It's fine. It's going to be okay. Oh boy.

Be safe. I will. I'll be right back, I promise. I am. You better be. Yeah, you need an accompany. I'm going to fucking have to go. Right. You're a local. Good luck. Yeah.

Okay. I want the fucking ring back. I've got this cool orb, and I want the fucking ring. I'm going for that ring with Ashton. Yeah, you're coming with me? I'm coming with you. All right. Okay. So you come into the front gates, and there are two members of the call

that are there keeping watch, sitting. As you approach, it's like, okay, if that's what you want to do, and they pull the gates open, and immediately, it is just blustering, darkened sandstorm. You push outward into it, and your eyes are stinging, and even just trying to go

through, you can vaguely make out the shape of the wall around you. It's middle of the day, but the shadows that are being cast and the density of this dust storm, you can see the darkness of the wall and gauging the shapes of things that were out and about. The mammoth crawler looks like a looming beast, standing two and a half stories tall over there. It takes you a second to gauge it. You push past, holding your eyes tight, go to the main gates, and you can see there's nobody there to crank and open them.

But you do see on this side, there are two large chain cranks. And so you can go ahead. I'm going to go. May we all have a friend this good. It's difficult. They're situated in like a pulley system where it doesn't take a whole lot of strength to do

in comparison to the size of these gates, but it's still difficult anyway, especially with the storm going and you push and the gates open just enough for the two of you to leave and you push out into the street. And looking out here in the street, you can just see the vague shapes of buildings nearby

and you can see the, visibility is dog shit right now. I'm going to take out a length of rope and I'm going to hand half of it to you. I was going to do the exact same thing. Do not let go. All right. You have got, yeah, masks and goggles

and I've got the hood up and anything I can do to... I should know the easiest way to get to the market, or at least a way of finding the next... Like, what direction to walk from where we're at to the next physical object that would identify where we are. Yes, I would say make a survival check. And you get advantage because this is your home turf.

And I have the orb. Oh. That's true, you do have the orb. In the direction. Yeah. That's get advantage because this is your home turf. And I have the orb. Oh. That's true. You do have the orb. Just point me in the direction. Yeah. Where the fucking ring is. No, that. It doesn't. Oh, it does. It does take you in.

Yeah, it does. So we do have a compass. So you do. So you don't have to worry about it as much. As you begin to consider that, you pull out the orb and you can see in the dust, there's that faint blue glow as you hold it underneath. And you, clutching onto both sides of that cloth, push on, following this,

weaving through streets and alleys until eventually you come to the outside of the... Vandana's going to get exfoliated into dust. Yes, that is exactly what's going to happen. There's that. Oh wait, there it was. The Bank of Renewal? Apologies. was. The Bank of Renewal? My apologies.

No. The Bank of Renewal, yes. So you come to the outside of the bazaar. All the shops are shuttered. All of the carts are closed. It is right now a ghost town, as everyone has locked in for this storm to pass. So you move past the main gates,

and you see the shadow of the main entryway arch that you push past. So one's pushing back. A couple of loose things tear past you, hitting the ground and then disappearing into the storm beyond. You continue to push through, eyes squinted, into the middle of the main thoroughfare,

gauging and looking at the orb. You eventually come over to the middle of the main thoroughfare, gauging and looking at the orb, you eventually come over to the exterior of the shop where the hero family currently holds the ring beyond, but the door is closed. Bank of Renewal? Bank of Renewal. Door's closed? Yes.

Sorry, seeking shelter? The door opens up and already, at the gate you see, out on there, eyes closed, like, Quick, quick, come in, come in! Thank you, thank you. So sorry, thank you. Oh, you're crazy to have been out there yourself.

Yes. Well, we got caught out there. We didn't plan for that. Oh, I'm so sorry. It's all right. Well, you're welcome to lay low for here as long as you need. Thank you.

Goodness, quite the shop you have here. Yes, don't take anything. Oh, oh. Where would we go? True. If it lets up a little, then we Where would we go? True. Oh, if it lets up a little, then we do have to go back, and we do have to go back eventually.

So if it doesn't let up, we're going to have to go back into it. Right. Well, let's just see what happens. All right, so what do you do while you're in here? Look around. Look around, small talk. Okay. Give you some small talk and glancing around

as you wait for a period of time. Mm-hmm. So. Mm. How have you been? Oh, you know. Good, good. How have you been? You know, good, good. How have you been? So much dust in my eye.

Yeah, yeah, you're real good. You're real good all the time. I'm great. You are. Oh my god, don't be so judgmental, Ashton. You're great, you're kooky. You're a good time. You're very, you're kooky. You're a good time. You're very kooky, you're fun. Why? Ooh, look at these weapons.

It's fun. Are there weapons in there? I don't know. I'm making it up as I go. Yeah, it's a jewelry shop. Mm-mm. Well, it's more of like a- Look at these decorative weapons. Actually, it's a pawn shop.

It's like, so you may see, I would say yes. You do see a handful of weapons that are hanging. A lot of it's more collectibles and jewelry and things that are more. Where are the shop owners? They're sitting on opposite sides of the room in the chair, just watching the two of you as you make small talk. So the thing is, yoink!

I'm just glancing over the cases. Yeah, no, I spend time, I've known a lot of kooky people in my time. They're always fun. Mm. And there's always other shit happening. Looking to make a purchase while you're stuck here? Maybe.

You know, I'm always like, I must say, I just, I've got a little bit of impulse control issues, and so while I wasn't looking, I'm kind of suddenly looking. She has a lot of impulse controls issues. Look at these rings. If you want something, just get it.

What? Just, you know what, just get it. What? Life is short. Life is short. Life is very short. Why did you have to say that so, like, meh, if you want something, get it. It's right here. Just going to get back. Hmm.

Is the ring here, by the way? Yeah, is it here? Make a perception check, both of you. Oh no. That always goes well. 14. 14? 16.

16? You pick out the ring before you do. But yeah, it is still present and set within these little, I want to say like softened leather that has these slits cut into it. They're placed independently along the way to reveal them, but keep them in place.

You know, I'm not really into pawn stuff too much, because it's hard to tell. It's quality, you know what I mean? I don't care about quality, as long as it looks good. I mean, who cares what it's made out of, as long as it does the purpose, which is. I know, what if it's from a scorned lover and it's cursed? Most of the scorned lovers I've ever met,

and they had shitty jewelry. Yeah, that's fair. Most of the ones I know were, kind of didn't have shit, so you know, it doesn't have to be a real ruby or whatever. I don't know. Oh. Huh. didn't have shit, so it doesn't have to be a real ruby or whatever. Oh. Well, what do you see? Oh, look at that.

Hmm. I don't know, I like this one, though. Yeah, that's nice, too. Would you like any help? Just looking. I got cash, whatever. I guess we're stuck here for a bit. I guess we could try on some rings.

All right, maybe we'll try on some rings. If you don't mind, I don't want to, you know, you were so gracious to. Just going, so yeah. To open your doors. All right, we can try on some rings. Let me see your fingers. Mm!

Those are very... Dainty. Yeah, because you're still wrapped up and as soon as he gets a close look, he's like, ah, he's very cold to the touch. Oh, sorry. You should get, you need to warm. Poor circulation.

Extremely poor. Mm-hmm. I do not know if I have anything that might fit you. It was from this shop. That's true. Pulls the ring that you pointed out, and it is like, Tresherine goes, this will not fit your finger, I am so sorry.

Well, what about you are the one who looked at it, yes. I'm going to put it on whatever finger, because this one's all full up with rings. It's going to be a thumb for you. That's made for a dwarven digit. It looks nice. I like it. It's all right. How much? Pure platinum.

Pure platinum. Indeed. Really? Very good eye for quality, I'd say. It is. I do like it. How do you know it's pure platinum? How can you confirm that? This is my job. I literally confirm the materials of which Shuri is made from. There are many methods of looking into it. Yeah, I've lived, this is, yeah.

This is a shop with a rep. If you're feeling it's a strong suit, it'd be a 350 gold. Once again, pure platinum. 350 gold. I mean, you know, as you said, you deserve something nice. You see something, get it. It's been a while.

I don't know. Let's see. I'm looking at the wrong thing. See, in here, I look at him. I thought I was the wrong thing. See, and here, I look at him. I thought I was the one with impulse control issues. Well. Impulse of purchases.

I'm trying to take your example. Let's say, what is the woman on the other side, by the way, who's sitting, the other member of the hero family that's watching this is just very intently watching both of your hands. Sure. Not doing anything shifty. No, not at all.

But they have run this business for a long time. Yeah. 300 gold. Make a persuasion check. Come on. Where's my persuasion? Oh no. No.

No. I'm sorry, I have to send Fjorm. I have a business to run. Look, I owe you anyway, because, you know, you helped cover me when I got this little guy, so. I'll toss in 50 gold. Just say I've never done anything nice for you. Okay, now you've done something nice for me.

Great. Fine. Eh. Yeah, all right. Let's do it. We're buying it. All right. Okay. Fantastic making a deal in an unexpected period of time, but hope you enjoy. How much money do you have, T? I have 300. Okay. Fantastic making a deal in an unexpected period of time, but hope you enjoy.

How much money do you have, T? I have 300. I have more than 300. Do you not have 50 gold? I have 50 gold. Okay. I can cover the other 300. Very exciting retail purchase. We overcooked this way too far.

You did, but you know, D&D. Yeah, I know. No, I don't want to do anything weird. Well, hold on. I'm going to buy it back. Thank you for that. There's a lot of button involved. Purchased.

We're lining up a kill shot or something. Nope. Sometimes. Planet of the Tree. Sometimes you just buy it. I love it. Shedden's already dead. Yeah. Okay, yeah. We buy the ring and we head back.

It could only be renewal. We buy the ring. Once we're on the street, by the way, on the way back, I wasn't fucking kidding, by the way. You guys just buy the ring and leave, and they're like, you can stay here for, where are we going?

We got shit to do. Sorry, we gotta go. Bye. The last thing he hears is the door close, like, what the fuck, Dershowitz? What do you mean? You're very kooky. I know.

Most of the people I've ever met who are very kooky are hiding a bunch of shit. Bad shit. I like the kooky. I don't mind bad shit. Most of my favorite people are a lot of bad shit. You've already seen a lot of my bad shit smashed in. I don't think I've seen more than maybe

just the first branch of a very big tree. You know about as much as I do right now, all right? All I know is I watched what the fuck happened yesterday. Or was that today? Jesus. No, that was yesterday. Not one of my proudest moments. No, that was yesterday. Not one of my proudest moments. No, that's okay. I was just really curious what you were afraid of.

So you were very afraid. And that freaks me the fuck out. We can tell Fresh Cut Grass as much as he wants, as we want, that he does not have to be defined by his past trauma. But what happens when your past trauma does not loosen their grip? What if your trauma doesn't let you forget?

Well, and I'll admit I'm being a bit of a hypocrite here, I suppose my first instinct would be to break its fingers. Too bad I can't break something I can't see. Well, we'll have to work on that, won't we? I'm open to suggestions. I like you. I like you, too. You're such a shit.

I'm just putting it there. I especially like you when you're being serious. I've done a lot to try and run away, reclaim my life. And it doesn't really seem to fucking matter at the end of the day. No. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe not, but I figure I'm always going to be a bit broken, and I'm okay with that.

I can work just fine. I can be the person I want to be and still be a bit fucking broken. But FCG, Imogen, I think they can fix themselves. You and I, we're broken on a visual level. Quite literally. You're the fundamental one.

You can still be the best broken thing you can be, though. Absolutely. Do you think we're past redemption, beyond the point of return? Fuck no. I mean, to be fair, I'm not even sure if I... What redemption even means. I...

Most days like who I am. At least I think I do. Most days I'm doing what I think is right until I'm proven not to be. Some days I do stupid shit. Some days you do stupid shit. Most days. But

for some fucking reason I've decided this is the this is the horse I have hitched myself to for a while, and I do not fuck around with that. Oh, you mentioned fresh cut grass and Imogen, and I think where we have our similarities is that we've resigned ourselves to not being able to fix what's deep down inside, but if we can give them the life we never had.

I can even think that there's ways to work around it. I don't know. I worry about you. I suppose that's what I'm trying to say. That's sweet. I just hope that, you know, pay attention, maybe communicate with everyone a little bit more. Your bullshit is adorable, but not all the time. Mm. Mm. As you press further into the storm,

this conversation. Pulling onto this fucking core. Yeah, we're like, look at it. Which is great, too, because this gentle, soft conversation you're having at the table has been loudly shouted over the roaring sandstorm while you're moving through. Yeah. It's adorable, but don't.

Oh, it's adorable. I'm a big fan of having an intimate conversation right over here. Everyone can see your damage. No shit! Meanwhile, Chetney, you vanished. What are you doing? I just stayed in the room. Stayed in the room?

No, I'm just kidding. No, I'm out. I'm out, I'm running. I'm actually tiptoeing with my elven boots. Tickety tickety tick. I would like you to make a stealth check. Stealth check. With advantage, because you're moving quietly while invisible. Thank you.

I'm just going to keep focus up, so if the blip moves, natural 20. Ooh! Yay! We're at 28. Yeah, whoa, whoa. 28. Dun, dun, dun, dun.

Okay. It's good you rolled that. Tickety! Because these hallways are not extremely wide and there are other members of the call walking through, some of them carrying materials, other ones coming out from above, where they were just covered in dust and sand. And you basically are, while you're invisible, you're barely dodging full-on that Japanese

game show where they're trying to make Tetris block shapes while it's coming at them. Different members of the call, you're having to move around and not bump into them as though something's turning the corner and not make any noise. You definitely dodge between them, keep quiet as possible. Heading past the staircase to the left, the staircase going up and to the left down, there is a downward staircase that leads into the basement.

It is, however, closed off right now with what looks to be a barred grate. Barred grate. All from floor to ceiling? Actually, it's a hatch grate that is currently held down and is locked. There is a padlock on it. Oh shit.

Well, let's get to work on that padlock. Okay, go ahead and make a d20 roll, adding your proficiency modifier and your dexterity modifier. Wait a minute, I have a thing for this, don't I? Is this a sleight of hand? A sleight of hand is a stealing thing. If you took lockpicking as your other expertise,

then that would be doubled. I have stealth thieves tools. Wait, I have... Oh, wait, where's my fucking... I have a glove that helps. Yeah. Yeah, plus five to that. Okay. I have a glove that helps.

Yeah. You know, you got to check. Sorry. Okay. Seven, 17. 17? It takes you a moment. It's. 18, excuse me. 17. It takes you a moment. It's 18. Excuse me.

Ooh. Okay. 18 was the threshold. I was going to say, it takes you a moment to realize that this lock is not budging, but you just push a little further, you find the right tumbler, it clicks and swings open. And the gray makes a slight sound as you open it, and there's that brief moment

where you hold yourself. But nobody seemed to pay attention. Nobody was close enough to hear it. That would be din happening outside, slamming the fortress. Before I step through, can I look down the stairways and see if there's anything that looks like pressure plates, anything along the walls, any kind of a reach? Make a perception investigation check, your call.

Investigation. I don't think I have advantage on that. 16 plus five, 21. Ooh! 21. Dancing about, you feel fairly comfortable that there isn't any sort of pressure plate or trap scenario in front. So, okay.

So you head down the stairs. You head to the basement floor. Down here, there's a unique combination of scents. There is one, a faint smell of black powder that permeates the air, as well as rust. A whiff of... Shit. Oh, man.

Don't shit where you blow. And you come down the bottom of the stairs and turn around, and you can already see this wider hallway that heads down to the opposite end and goes further than the floor space of the fortress. There's actually a series of tunnels and hallways beneath here. Oh, I'm downstairs.

It smells like black powder and poo. I'll keep you posted. Okay, so where are you headed from here? You're just on the stairs. Are you heading to where, beneath you, Envision, your room was? Yeah, if it was straight down, I'll try and remember where I was

and try and look down the hallway for any sort of compartments or doors that might be directly underneath. Okay. But also keeping an eye out for traps! Roll a perception check for me, please. I'm looking for everything. I'm looking for all of it. Ooh, 10.

People, things. Feel pretty safe and comfortable in the thing here is trapped. You continue to the right side, which would lead you to the area beneath where the building was. As you head down that hall, it opens up into another small room,

like the hallway widens out into a large square chamber. Here you can see there are six different sets of prison bars, like jail cells down here. Oh my god. On the right-hand side, you see, that was pretty good. You should be in the voiceover. Dubbing specifically.

I can't see it. You see in one of these jails, most of them are empty, but to the right, there is one of the larger ones between the bars. It looks like there's been furniture put in there. It's almost like this cell has been retrofitted to be a guest room, to be comfortable. There's been a bed placed in there

with actual cushions, pillows. There's been a chair. There's been a bookshelf situated. And there is a latrine, which is where that faint scent was coming from, that your woven nose picked up so accurately. But they're sitting on the bed, book in hand, reading glasses at the end of the nose,

you see the handsome dark skin, dark hair, and somewhat haggard-looking, once-nice robes of Armand Treshi. Fuck. Get it. I scan the down floor. The cells seem to be empty, but is there anybody down the hall?

Do I smell any other scents other than the shit, black powder, poo, and him? Those are all the scents you smell, but you glance down the hall, even on your... Yeah, you don't see anything. Oh god! I glanced down the hall. Yeah, further down the way, you don't see anything. Oh god! That glanced down the hall. Yeah, further down the way, you don't see anything.

I don't trust it. It's too easy. Keep going down the hall. That's our guide. Yeah, but I'm going to have to pick a lock. It's going to make noise. I'm going to have to slit his throat. That's going to make noise.

Okay. You continue down the hall and it curves. Glad that you reported to Imogen about the poop smell, but not actually see. Imogen, I've located trash can directly below it. However, the floor is not clear. Let me do a clean sweep. I'm going to stack some bodies.

I'll get back to you. Okay. As you continue down, it curves to the left and there, the hall continues on a lot further down. It looks like there are two small doors to the right, and then one large metal door on the far, far, far end. And there is, walking towards you on this area,

two, Paragons call, really well-armored figures with blades on each side that are just patrolling through. two, Paragons call really well-armored figures with blades on each side that are patrolling through, and they're walking in your direction. Cool. Cool, cool, cool. Are they elbow to elbow, and how wide is the area? If I look at it, I'm like, if I go sideways,

there's a 50-50 chance I turn sideways and they could walk right on either side of me? That's about right, yeah. Ah, penis. Um. Why? Why is that funny to me? They're approaching.

Do you back away or stay put? Hmm? Yeah, I'm going to back away and just go back to the stairwell, see if they come all the way or not. Okay. So you go ahead and head back to the staircase and watch as they approach.

They're walking alongside. One of them mutters to the other. They walk in. One of them walks up to Treshi's bars and gives a little knock and is like, You need anything? Treshi goes, No.

I'm reading. Don't bother me. Goes back to his book. And they're right there. Just keeps walking. They both come back to the base of the stairs and turn right and head down the other hall, but one of them stops at that point

and stands for a second, just keeping watch. Right at the base of the stairs? Just past the base of the stairs. Just past the base of the stairs. So he has view of the hallway that the other soldier's going down, view of Treshi, view of the stairs, and view of the hall that continues down to the left turn where you first saw them.

He's going to cross? Yeah, he's sitting right there to have the best view of the position. Sweet. Oh, why can't I just assassinate people? Damn it. Always better this way. Mm just assassinate people? Damn it. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Yeah. Travis, you're trapped.

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Where does one end? Where does the other end begin? So I'm going to, moving stealthily, I'm going to move around him and I'm going to go down the tunnel past Treshie and go towards that large iron door down at the end.

Okay. I'm going to risk it. All right, so you move down that hall. Make a stealth check for me now as you're passing directly in front of one of these figures again. If I make a move on the lock, it makes noise. If I make a move on Tashy, the guard sees it. If I try and take the guard, the other guard's going to come back.

So I might as well see what's at the other end of this fucking hallway. 22. 22, not bad. You quickly dart back down, head down that hall, cruise down the opposite end of the hall, and as you begin to see these, this massive metal door come into frame. It is wider than the hall perspective you had

when you first entered the hall. It seems like the door just gets bigger and bigger the more view you have of that. There is a small room with two tables and another Paragon's Callguard that is currently sitting there shuffling cards, just absentmindedly. It looks like there is a hole in the ceiling

where a large chain is that he can pull on, almost like a pull chain that goes up. You don't know what that leads to. But the metal door is massive. It's a vault door. It's a full, thick metal vault door. Mm-mm. Who's the man?

Oh boy. Like a monster, is he? Oh boy. I don't know. I think. All right. Oh boy. Shit. This is good.

I'll start making my way back down the hallway to the stairs. Okay. You curl back, you head back to the stairs. And out. And out. You go ahead and lift the latch, close it. Do you relock it or leave it open? Yeah, relock.

Close it back up and you head back to the chamber. To the room. And right about this time, we'll say you both have returned. And as you enter the chamber, the two very dusty, dust-coated, Laudna and Ashton had just sat down with the rest of the crew.

Did you steal the ring? Oh yeah, we got it. Why are you talking so loud? Oh! Oh, sorry. We've been shouting. Yeah, it was really, yeah, okay. Inside, side voice. We got it. Yeah.

We didn't steal it. No. Oh my god, I paid it. Yeah. We didn't steal it. No. Oh my god, I paid a fortune for this. We just paid for it. That's successful, though. Yes, yes, we do have it. It wasn't really a good opportunity. They were just, we were the only ones.

They'll never suspect a thing. So you found Trashy? Yeah, he's downstairs. Are you here? Yep. Ah! One of six prison cells. He's got a nice setup. Prison cell? Prison shitter's downstairs. Are you here? Yep. Oh! One of six prison cells. He's got a nice setup.

Prison cell? The shitter's awful. Yeah, he's in a prison cell, locked in tight. There's two guards on sentry, and then there was a third in a boardroom down there. It was a large vault door and a big chain hanging from a room and another one. So too much for just me, as much as I wanted to. Did it seem like he was packing up to leave,

or did it seem like he was just sitting there? No, he was just sitting there in a big old comfy chair reading. Can you imagine? Prison cells and a vault door. Yep. So that means he could potentially be staying. I think...

Or they're just protecting him until it's time to go. Yeah. I don't think he's a guest. I think he's cash. Would they really put somebody they were trying to take care of in a prison cell, lock them in in the vault? It's definitely safer down there.

Exactly. That's a lot of protection. It is. You might be paying a lot of money for it. If you wanted to get out and get, like, I don't know, it just doesn't, I don't know, maybe, maybe not. I mean, they asked him if they needed anything,

but they seemed real cordial. I don't know, it's kind of wishy-washy, but we don't give a shit, right? We're here to get him. Easier to get him out if he wants to leave. But I'd need somebody to come with me. It was too much, even for me. Well, I could help from up here, potentially.

What else was down there? It's the guards. They're not just Dressy. What else was down there? Six cells that are empty except for his. Two guards on sentry, one in the back room. Maybe more, give or take, if we go back another time. A big vaulted door and a chain that went all the way up into a tunnel. But I don't know what that is, unless they got a bell that they're ringing.

Maybe an alarm or something. Yeah, it's probably an alarm. Mm. So our options are trying to get him out now and not set off an alarm and get ourselves trapped inside of a fortress, or to shift plans entirely, plant this ring on the crawler. I think they're moving him out. You said he was all threadbare and his clothes were shit.

He's reading a book. All his belongings, one would presume, are being loaded onto this thing. Yeah, that's what I mean. Did it seem like he had his belongings all around him, or was it empty in the cell? No, you had a bunch of nice furniture in there, right? The cup-ature? I mean, for a prison cell, yeah.

There was a nice bed that had been moved into it, like a bookcase. The handful of things that could fit into their larger prison cell, that would make it seem like a nicer, tiny apartment. Like Hannibal Lecter's prison cell? Kind of, yeah, but still behind bars. So those... shit.

Our Ta-Neh-Boh's in town. Maybe the pressure's just getting too hot and he wants to get the fuck out. That's what I assumed. This is where I'd go if the pressure was too hot, though. But if he's, I mean, he was looking very skittish and cagey when we saw him on the roof, and that was a handful of days ago.

And there was a bunch of guards around him who were like, All right, come on, Mr. Treshi, back downstairs. You've had your free time. Well, it's an easy choice, because when the crawler goes, he's either on it or he's not. If he doesn't go, we grab him here. But if he does go, we follow, figure out what the hell it is, and either grab him or deal with whatever problem is bigger. Fuck, I just, as I just yelled at somebody about honesty issues, those crates that we were loading

with his name on it, those big crates, they were not actually his stuff, per se. Those crates were what I was trying to nab from Hexum's house way back in the fucking day. What are they? I don't really remember. That's where everything got weird. What do you mean?

Crates are crates, right? These crates are crates, right? These crates are... The sound, the feel, the size, the label. This is... I did mention, maybe we should reach out to your dear old Joanna Hexum. I think that... You've paid off your debt to her.

There is no such thing as really paying off your debt to someone like that. Well, you can get back into debt by asking what was in the crates. I think that she would have said something if she wanted me to know. I think that there are... I think I'm going to have to send out some fucking feelers

that I don't really want to send out. Why not just ask Haxem? I mean, our theories at this point are that they're all construction materials for the thing out in the desert that's looking at the moon, right? And that's it. Whatever's in those crates

is more than construction materials. Yeah, so if there's a destination B, can't hurt to ask her, because that's all we got. Shit. I say we put the ring on the crawler and follow it. We know that Thule and this elf from the Cerberus Assembly and this Unseelie court are collaborating somehow.

Yeah, ultimately, Trashee seems pretty low in the totem pole. We're supposed to stay here and guard the place while they're gone. That's cool. If we all abandon our posts and chase after them, they'll know? We don't care about being good Paragon's clone members. No, I know, but someone will send,

might send word to the caravan that, hey, those seven people that you left to protect your fortress all left. Well, we can make all of that look. For a time. We can make all of that look a little odd and not necessarily pitted on us. Okay. There's lots of ways. that look. For a time. We can make all of that look a little odd and not necessarily pitted on us.

Okay. There's lots of us. So first things first, we got to plant that ring? Or do we do that in the morning? Or in the middle of the night, when everyone's asleep? Yeah, that one. Okay. Now, Storm. And there are three other people that I know of

who might know what's in those crates. And depending on how things go, we may have to look some of them up. Shit, fuck, piss. That's great. Maybe she wants them back. Maybe she'll tell you something we don't know. That's valuable. After all, it's only your debt.

Oh no, not anymore. Oh, is it shared? There are people that debt doesn't really belong to. Oh. She will. Ashton, I would share debt with you any day. Ah. It's about this moment you begin to hear voices down the hall, raised voices,

shouts of other call members yelling, Out front! Now! Arms! Fuck yes! Oh, I need to do this so badly. Fuck, now what's happening? You begin to hear heavy footfalls now as other call members are emerging from their rooms.

They start rushing out towards the front of the fortress. Those of you who are following suit, you can see individuals are rushing off and they're donning armor fast and grabbing weapons. There's this energy of chaos we need to build throughout the base of the fortress here. Dust is starting to blow in from the outside. As you will push past the main doors,

which are now held open. In the darkened dust storm that is currently filling the outside, so you will push past the main doors, which are now held open, and in the darkened dust storm that is currently filling the space, you can hear other shouts happening. As you glance over, the size of the massive shape that is the mammoth crawler, you see flashes. The body of one

of the Paragon's Call is now landing and rolling on the ground next to you, part of the shoulder just burnt. You see him trying to sit up, but someone pushes him down and runs off into this. Someone looks back at you. The wrath of the Lord. Defend the Lord!

And rushes in straight into the dust towards where the mammoth crawler is. And that's where Laudna's head is. Oh my god. Who's there? He was burned? Yeah. No, don't. Stop. Ooh. Load!

This is the perfect time to plant a ring. This is the perfect time. I forgot. Steal the load. Who's coming? Steal the load! We have so much shit we can do now. What an opportunity. Oh man. Chaos!

Yeah, there's chaos running. There's a lot of things you can do in chaos. Depends on what you're feeling. And you have a week to think about it. We'll pick up from there. We're going to have to hit our thread. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hardcore, hardcore. We've just been handed, yeah, this is going to be a terrible, wonderful time. Num-nums. Num-nums.

Num-num-num-num-num. Good shit, man. I want to hit shit. Pick up from there next week. Thank you all so much for joining us for this wild, tension-building, slow burn episode to whatever the hell's going to happen next. To quote the great Willy Wonka, suspense is killing me. I hope it'll last. Thank you for joining us.

We love you very much, and is it Thursday yet? Good night. And this concludes the current chapter of Critical Role. Your essays on the history and impact of the various ages

and epochs of Exandria are eagerly anticipated. Just kidding. No homework for you, but if you are inspired to do some writing, please leave us a review. Your words can really

help new folks find our show and encourage them to give it a try. Thank you so much for joining us on this adventure. Until next time.