Critical Role - C3E34 What Dreams May Come

Episode Date: September 22, 2022

Bells Hells grapple with a devastating loss, refusing to accept fate's machinations as they attempt to stay a step ahead of Paragon's Call... 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!

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

Hello everyone, and welcome to tonight's episode of Critical Role, where a bunch of us nerdy-ass voice actors sit around and play Dungeons & Dragons. Oh! It's a little weird. Well, speaking of which, our first sponsor is NordVPN. Ashley, last time you revealed yourself to be the virus known as Seti,

hypnotized us and took over the set, so what happens now? What happens? Nothing! I won, the bad guy won, that's it, the end. But NordVPN is still our sponsor, and their whole thing is providing the highest quality encryption for your internet traffic

and hiding your IP and physical location, available on Windows, iOS, Android, and Linux. With one simple click, it's easy to get high speed protection. So what, my guy? Well, a computer virus winning isn't exactly reinforce their whole security concept as a company. That's your problem, friendo!

Like our audience, I was sick of Sam's endless hacker gobbledygook and had to stop it. So from now on, no more computer talk, no more LED costumes, no more gleam in the cube. These NordVPN ads are going analog, baby! Starting with the most non-hacker activity ever, balloon animals! Matt, what color animal should I make? Giraffe? I heard sword! Give me two seconds. It's going to be real good.

I'm excited. Oh wow. That's pretty good. Oh wow! Aha! Oh wow! Okay, Aha! Oh wow! Okay, how is this related to NordVPN, though? Ah, give me another one, tuna breath!

Great. Monkey? No, I heard spaghetti! There it is! Look at this noodle! Well, another NordVPN in the can. Nope. Another NordVPN ad in the can. Go to nordvpn.com slash Critical Role

or use Critical Role to get a two-year plan plus a bonus gift with a huge discount. Matt, hack to you. Thank you, Ashley. Wow. The sword was impressive. That sword was impressive. Did you build a crossguard to that?

That was... It's a saber. That's a great sword! Did you know how to do that, or did you just improvise that? I just know how to make a little sword. Just looked it up on YouTube. Oh my god. Well done, well done.

A little bit like a dick. They all do. Exactly. This episode is also sponsored by our friends at Cash App, the easiest way to send, spend, and save money. You can invest as little as $1 and connect to your direct deposit to get paid two days early. So check out the number one finance app

in the App Store or Google Play Store now. New users can use CritRoll and they'll receive $15 when they are finishing completing their account and $10 will go to our very own Critical Role Foundation. Yes. Terms of life. Yay. Woo!

Taliesin, we got an announcement over on your wall. Yeah, yeah, yep, yep, yep. All right, all right. Our second official Critical Role novel, The Mighty Nein, The Nine Eyes of Lucien, is coming in November with our pals at Penguin Random House. Featuring incredible cover art by Matt Hubel, which I hope is correct.

This is a tale from author Madeline Roux, chronicles Lucien's early life and his fateful meeting with the Mighty Nein. Wow. And now, I am pleased to reveal that our narrator for our audiobook is Robbie Damon. He did such an incredible job narrating the audiobook version of Kith and Kin,

so we're thrilled to have him return. Yes. Story time. Pre-order your copy in your preferred format at your local bookshops or CriticalRoleBooks.com and look for its release on November 1st. The library goes! Laura, you're up.

Hi, guess what? What? Chicken butt. Chicken butt, Kith. We're partnering with the wonderful folks at Pin Club to bring you these bells, hold on. Chicken butt. Chicken butt, yes. We're partnering with the wonderful folks at Pin Club to bring you these Bell's, hold on. These Bell's Hell's 8-Bit Chibi Pins. Oh, they're so cute!

Look at these designs by the Pin Club team. They're amazing. They're made of hard enamel, feature gorgeous metals like gold and rose gold, and it has a special, is that gun metal? I don't know, it's dark. Collect all seven, and guess what? You'll receive this free Critical Role pin collector's book to keep them in.

Wow! Really freaking cool. When you're not wearing them out in the world, these Bells Hells 8-bit chibi pens, you want to see it? Golden's best. Our limited edition, so get yours now at pinclub.shop slash criticalrole. Did I say that right? Yeah, pinclub.shop. We got there, we got there Role. Did I say that right?

Yeah, pinclub.shop. We got there, we got there. URLs. Did I say it? PinClub.shop slash Critical Role. Yeah. Da-nah! That's all I've got. Aren't they so cute?

And that little box is really cool. Oh my goodness. Anyway, that's what I got. Cool! They got the 8-bit vibe. I know. I'm all in. Okay, well, I think that concludes our announcements.

No, listen! The last game goes in. It's so crazy! So let's go ahead and jump in to tonight's episode of Critical Role. Critical. Critical.

It's Thursday night. One by one we climb until we reach the top. Two by two we fall. Will we meet our end or meet our destiny? Hold your breath and roll How do you want to do this? It's Thursday night All ye

critters come join us It's time to continue our flight There is magic and mystery, who knows what will happen in life? 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 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

there is magic and mystery from darkness our friendship will rise. When one thing's for sure, we never give up on the fight. Oh, get ready, it's Thursday night. SAM and LAURA SAM and LAURA SAM and LAURA SAM and LAURA SAM and LAURA SAM and LAURA

And welcome back. So, last we left off. SAM and LAURA SAM and LAURA SAM and LAURA Last we left off, Bell's Hells had infiltrated the Seat of Disdain and had located what looked to be the cell

holding Armon Treshi, the target that brought them to Basuras in the first place. Convincing him to come along with you at his best interest, you tossed him into your portable hole and ran into Artana Vo, another bounty hunter. After making an odd alliance with her, you begin to escape the compound,

noticing that it was under siege by what seemed to be Artana, or at least a group that was likely in cahoots with her. In the midst of this chaos, some of you were running interference in the middle of the courtyard. Other ones were trying to whisk Armand out. You all began to reconvene,

but not before running face to face with Otohan Thule. Once, while our good friend Laudna was climbing the side of the fortress, in the secondary time as you attempted to escape in two separate groups at the exterior of the perimeter wall in the middle of a raging sandstorm that had just begun to calm, Otohan squared off with you.

The skirmisher that one half of your group had been using to escape had been sliced through, exploded, and left your party sundered and separated. After a brief discussion, combat ensued. And throughout this combat, one by one, some of you began to fall, Otohan gleefully carving the life for members of Bell's Hells,

eyes focused and trained on Imogen and asking for her to give in to her nature. With each death, the pulse within her began to grow stronger and stronger. In the back of Imogen's mind, Fearne and Orym, both lie slain in the center street here, the sandstorm smothered Basaris Laudna on Death's Door.

When that impulse, driven by trauma, anger, and whatever strange force lies within her, pushing Imogen over the edge, and in doing so, screaming, that latent power and energy swelling within her, pushing Imogen over the edge. And in doing so, screaming. That latent power and energy swelling within her, overtaking her body. Where once a sandstorm once stood, instead, bursts of red energy and light

began to swirl around. The surrounding structures began to carve away. The secondary internal storm beginning to just tear and destroy within the proximity. With a final scream, everything goes white. Fresh cut grass. But I'm just a little boy. In this pure, endless void of all color,

you feel the psychic pulse open a flood of memories, waking to Dancer's curious smile, enjoying polishing the armor of your other automaton companions, exploring this new world with fresh eyes and protecting your friends, meeting Ashton in the depths of your despair, discovering a new family, and righting wrongs,

lifting the spirits of those you admire. Older memories break through. An endless cloudscape rushing past a skyline of pristine lavender spires, a parade through prismatic cobblestone streets, thousands of metallic beings cheering, celebrating. A dark room. A man you fear, of short, graying blonde hair,

shouting, his mouth making no words. None of this imagery makes sound, it's just visual. But you know there's anger in his heart, the intent. The defiance. A green path of flowers and stone stairs. A kindly older noblewoman greets you. You like her and your new life away from him. She sits and speaks, silence,

but you know the words of confidence and vulnerability that she shares. You grant her perspective and encouragement and understanding. She smiles. She frowns. She is gone. Chetney.

Within the endless light, you feel like your very soul is pried open, memories spilling forth, gentler times of wayward romances in your youth. Deanna and her laugh, Fru Del and her patience, how you filled each lonely gap with work, fixation, and even the longest of lives

can extend rapidly under such pursuits. But within your belly, a hunger stirs. An itch hits your skin. An iron smell fills your nose. A howl pierces your ears. You look up to the full, glowing, red moon, Ruidus, above you. From its ruddy light,

streaks a single beam of pure crimson light that envelops you. You let it wash away the sadness and you give in to the beast, tearing your skin away as you feel the anxious tingle that you always feel at the zenith of this moon now grow into an uncontrollable impulse to hunt,

to kill, to eat, to ruin. It sees you now, and it's found common ground. Ashton, enveloped in shadowless infinity, too bright to blink nor look away, you're a child. You are worried as others rush to finish something you do not understand.

You do not hear your elven father shouts orders without sound, pointing about excitedly. You look back to your saintly, strong mother, the fear within you growing with the tension in the air, but she touches your shoulder and kisses your head. She points ahead as the many people take their places around the vibrant, glowing gateway. Your mother steps to your father

and hands him his vestments. He places leather mask and headdress upon his face, the details curving upwards as if reaching for the sparking opening. It begins. Laudna. Here beyond the Edge of Death, Laudna. Here beyond the edge of death, the light envelops you.

You remember soundlessly the lush forests of the Parchwood surrounding the edges of your family home. You remember the warmth of the fire under the hearth and the comfort of a stew's smell filling the air as your family gathers for dinner. Dinner. An impossibly long, decadent table. Watchful guards. The Dark Lord and Lady speaking wordlessly

in a dread that fills your heart. Her gaze meets yours. A gaze that never stops. You see her at the edge of your vision always. Her shape creeps beyond every blink. Her words mingle with your own. You fear you may lose yourself. Are you yourself, or just her, incubating?

I am of his blood. I will endure. My will is unrelenting. You are my vessel in life, on life, in beyond. I will endure. Imogen. Uh-huh. Your entire body and spirit shakes into energy,

a cosmic mass of vibration and power. You feel your body pulse and burn, unstable unstable and threatening to burst, wanting to explode. You wince and hold yourself with all your might, your eyes tightening shut. You're walking, toppling over a rock by a swaying tree. A hand catches your clumsy form just as it strikes the dirt. You cry loudly, silently, as your eyes meet hers,

her lavender hair tied up over her ears in a long braid. Your smile, her smile, calms your tears to a still. She wipes your cherub cheeks and lifts you into her arms. She speaks to you wordlessly. In your mind, you know everything is all right. She suddenly looks concerned. Her face snaps away into the distance. With intensity, you open your eyes once more,

and there in this vacant space, crackling before you, you see Otohan staring back, her body crackling with the same type of energy as yours. You are a true predator, a gift in their image. If you can be as strong as we can, to deny your nature is to be consumed by it.

To embrace it is to master your own fate. I am proud of you. The voice of Illyana echoes in your mind. Run, Imogen. Run. What do you do? Is it too late? I try to back away. What do you do? Is it too late?

I try to back away. You back away, and Otohan just begins to close the gap. I turn my back and take off as fast as I can. You turn around and she's right there in front of you, smiling. The bell tolls and looms soon enough. Come, create something beautiful with us. And she reaches out. I look up and I try to take off into the air.

You look up and she's right there looking down at you. What do you do? I try to blast her face. Okay. Then, Moen, you reach within you, and as the energy begins to burble up and ignite, this bright, burning, chaotic, swirling energy begins to build up and build up

as you unleash it with an immense scream. You watch her get blasted and streak away into the white darkness. The light blinks out, a void envelops you, and you hear the sound of a thousand, 10,000 stones and bricks hitting the ground.

The wind hits your face, the sand stinging across your cheek as you come down to your feet. Looking around you, you now stand in the streets of Bassuras once more. In the vicinity where a number of buildings stood, most of them are gone. Oh my god. There is a circle of earth pushed away.

In that moment, your companions appear where they were, as they were, as they were. Oh god. Oh, fuck. This combat is brought to you by WizKids Miniatures. The newest set of pre-primed miniatures from WizKids is available now at your local game store. Check out the entire Critical Role collection

at wizkids.io slash crminis. Does that mean if, okay, here's my question. Oh my god. All the buildings are gone. Would all theminis. Does that mean if, okay, here's my question. Oh my god. All the buildings are gone. Would all the people that had been on the ground, would they have been just like, was it just the buildings? Was it? He said we kind of

reappeared. It was the Shadow Assassins and then we reapperated. So the Shadow Assassins are gone. And all of your companions then, a moment later, all appear where they were. How the fuck would that work? I don't know. Wait, you're there, though. Indeed. Laudna.

You were next in the initiative order when we last left the hall. What do you mean? You can't bring up this shit now without me! Wait, what? Yeah, this is it, you guys. Oh my god, she really was. What?

She's next in the initiative order. Yep. Wait, is Otohan here? You've ruled out the saving throw. Otohan here? To the Roald Deth saving throw. Otohan is nowhere to be seen. I can't breathe. Otohan is nowhere to be seen. This is it, this is it.

I don't know. I've been thinking about this moment for so long. For exactly one week. For exactly one week. Oh, which one? Let's do the red one. Oh god, the red one. Fuck you, Ruudas.

My heart is pounding. Does anybody else hear a high-pitched ringing? Yes. Okay, call, call, call. What is it? No. What is it? What, bad or good? What is it? I can What is it? What, Vattergun? What is it? I can't see it. Natural one.

Ah! Laudna, in the final moments before you expire, please explain to me what crosses your mind. I imagine it would be confusion. Flashes of all of the powerful women in her life. Imogen, Fearne, her mother, Delilah. As Delilah is still there. But still powerful.

As the darkness begins to creep in and carry you to whatever threshold lays beyond an oddly familiar threshold. This is a line you've walked for many years. As the dark curtain begins to fold in, you feel her arms wrap around you. As Delilah embraces you from behind and whispers in your ear, Worry not, child.

Death is but a waiting game. As Laudna's final breath escapes, then she lies still, cold. Oh my god. What happens next? Well, who's next in the initiative order? Oh my god! That is FCG. FCG! The math. The math just hit what it was.

I told you I didn't have a good feeling about that roll. Why did you roll the red one? It's real pretty. So I can't, can I see Laudna? At the moment, no. Because the rubble of the building that currently sits between you and her unconscious body on the ground obscures your vision.

Where is she? Oh, is she over here? She's back in the back. Dude. So we got three down, although I don't really know about Laudna. I can see Orym and Fearne down. Boy, oh boy. Tell me this, Matt.

Yes? The difference between unconscious and dead Correct. is a game mechanic. What does it, does, would I perceive any different? How do I know they're dead? I would say, for the purposes of gameplay,

your connection with your friends, there is a difference between seeing a person on the ground who is writhing in pain or breathing heavily from the exhaustion of a battle, but not present, versus... And I hope that, you know, few of us know, but when you see a person expire, you know. So they're dead. So I get to decide who lives and dies now, guys.

Tell me this, because I want to do this right and not metagaming anything. Fuck. Do I know that Fearne has the Revivify spell? I mean, I would leave it between your discussions and having how long you've traveled together and tactically sharing or not sharing what capabilities you have at your disposal.

You know she can heal people. We've also, we haven't role-played taking a poop, but we all know that everybody poops, so we can assume conversations have happened. When will we? Same thing. Same thing. Same thing. Imogen doesn't want to. I don't want this.

If you bring it back, the people back to life is the same. I don't want this to be cheap, right? When we started off, I saw Orym go down first, and he's who I was trying to get to first. Now Fearne's down two. I'm smart enough to know that she has healing abilities. So I would go to her.

Even though she went down second, I think I would go to her first. Okay. So on your turn, you're heading towards Fearne, you said? Yes, I also don't know how Revivify works. I've never done it before. Oh shit. Well, first off, can you hold it?

Can you hold it and then I can at least push her body towards you and get you closer? Oh, do I have to be touching? Probably. Revivify, I'm pretty sure, is a touch-based spell. And is it instantaneous? I believe it's an action. Yeah. But it does have a material cost.

It does have a component cost. You have that. It is touch, it's touch. I Yeah. But it does have a material cost. It does have a component cost. You have that. It does touch. It does probably. I got to get her over there. So I'll move and I can't use my action to get any farther. 30 feet, right? Yeah, I guess I will hold my action. Don't drag me.

I can't get you that far. I can't get her that far, but I can maybe pull her. No, I should not hold my action. Why? Because if you don't get her to me, it's gone. Yeah. So I will not do that. Okay, okay, okay.

Jesus. I love this. And then everybody. It's 10 rounds before anything's fucked. Yeah, we're on round five, I think, now, right? Four or five? Well, not five of them being down, you're on rounds. Yes, of Orym being down. We're on four five, I think, now, right? Four or five? Well, not five of them being down, you're on round four. Yes, of Orym being down, we're on four or five of that, yes.

That happened quite a bit before. At least. We should still take our pants off and wait some of the tension. I can't, yeah. Just everything underneath the table should stay. Maybe six, I don't know, I lost track. You got a little kickstand going? No. I don't know, I lost track. You got a little kickstand going?

SAM and LAURA, LAURA and SAM, and SAM. Oh my goodness. Oh no. Yeah, I'll just move over there and say, Come here, Pate. Imogen, what do I do? What do I do? And that's it. That's it, that's all I can do.

I have no spells. I have one spell slot left. Use your action to dash if you want to try and move again. Oh sure, to be there for the next round. If you want to. Sure, I will action dash to Fearne. Okay.

That finishes FCG's go. Oh my god. You have a bonus and nothing bonus. I can... No, but you already used your spell. Don't use your spells. Ashton, you are actually over here. And then a bunch of shit just happened.

A bunch of shit just happened as you land. The memories begin to fade for a second. The light subsides and you're back in the city. The storm, still blowing, but beginning to subside. You just see FCG rushing, panicking, and a number of your friends lying still on the battlefield. Boil, boil, boil. It's quiet.

I'm going to turn around and just fucking book back. I don't know what else to do. I'm just going to book towards FCG. Okay. If you move, you can easily get over here next to her. Okay. What the fuck? All right, so Ashton rushes up to you.

Chetney, you are on the ground and conscious in your woven form. You are looking, after taking some hits and coming back, you do not see your quarry anywhere. You are right above you. You see the energy crackling around Imogen as it fades and she touches on the ground and you can see the somewhat lightning-esque

designs and colors of her body have stretched even further up her skin. If I drop Unconscious, does that hybrid transformation, do I revert back into sexy Chetney? I could check it, but I don't think. I don't think so. Because I think you only get to use it a handful of times.

I wonder for a second, so yeah. Yeah, I'll say it so it continues. When you die, you revert. Do I see any enemies? Is Otohan or anyone else around? The buildings aren't, but. Make a perception check for me. That's a natural 20 for a 21.

Nice. Thankfully, the dust storm is not strong enough to obscure the environment too much beyond just a couple of blocks away, but glancing around in the space, your keen eyes as you roll over, look around and glance. Nobody.

Yep. Yep. Hmm. I will move. Where in the fuck am I, even? You are on the ground in front of a midget over there. Oh. I'll stand up. You've got a monkey butt in your face.

Is the monkey still alive without fun? Yeah, it stays around and acts on its own accord. I thought you said he bamfed away. Yeah, I thought he bamfed. I think he left. Did he bamf? Yeah, he said he bamfed out. Yeah. Okay. In the last. I'll listen to you guys.

I'll turn around and look at Orm. Or maybe it was just that you weren't able to do something through. I wasn't able to do spells. I recall you reading up the rule that if you're unconscious or dead, he acts in his own accord. That's right, yeah, yeah, yeah.

He's back, baby! He's back, guess what? I just couldn't, I think it was that I couldn't do the spell through it. Welcome back, Shredder. I'll walk towards Orym and kneel down and just prop up his head and shoulders, just trying to get a look at him, and I'll look back at Imogen and say,

What happened? Yeah, that's it. That's all I got. Okay. I don't have any werewolf shit, you guys. I mean, I could bite him. Bite Orym? Yeah. Make him a werewolf? Wake up! Well, he's dead. I just mean bite him.

I get real nervous when people die. Imogen, it's your turn. Did you bring. Make him a werewolf? Well, he's dead. I just mean bite him. I get real nervous when people die. Imogen, it's your turn. Did you bring him back as a werewolf? It's just one of these. A dead werewolf, but yeah. Yeah. No, no, no. Drop it. Just leave it.

I got nothing. Wait, nothing would happen to you if you died. Oh boy. I don't know. I don't think so. Can I see? I'm going to mail you one word. That's true. I'm sure I shouldn't say no. We'll say no. Laudna? Where is Laudna on this fucking table?

Laudna? I reach out with my mind. There's nothing there to reach back. I run out a few steps to see if I can spot her. I'm looking around everywhere. Okay, you run past Chetney, off into space, and just as you get to the edge of your movement, about there, in the rubble of one of any of my buildings,

you see a hand limply on the outside. I'm going to take off as far as I can to her. Okay. You can get just within reach of her. I'm going to start holding rubble off of her. Just slapping her. Beating the shit out of her. Holding rubble off of her

and try to get her unburied. You just do Ed Harris in the Abyss. You bitch! Yeah. You never gave up on anything in your life! You bitch! Such a good move. Uh-huh. So good, right? True or false? Such a good move. Uh-huh.

This is a good run. Oh, why? Why would you start that sound now, Matthew? It's on the playlist this time. Look at him, he'll have to. He's got a hole out of curiosity. Who has the hole? Imogen had the hole. Imogen. He has the hole. Oh yeah. Do you think Wutz's butt might have solutions?

Oh god, Wutz's butt is in there. Yeah. He might be slowly dying himself. He's probably still alive, though. I'm not thinking at all about fucking Armand. I got a different idea, though. This is like five minutes later. What if he's got a Revivify bracelet or anklet or a cock ring or something?

Like a... Just a cock ring. A Revivify? I only have this. Can we make that an item in our game? Is now. You have the ability to enchant items. I mean.

I mean, people can push it out, and they're like, oh, sorry, I'm on your junk. They're not going to check for a cock ring or a revivify. Depends on what city you're in. True. You never know when you're going to have a heart attack in the sack, you know what I'm saying? Glee! I'm back, baby!

That's your backup character right there. Glee! Glee! Oh, hey, bada bing, bada boom! Oh my god. Yabba-goo! Yabba-goo! I fucked myself to death! Oh shit. Glee!

All right, well, if that finishes your turn, that brings us to FCG once more. Oh! There's not a lot of people left. Yep. Isn't it great, you guys? This is how fast initiative can always go. A trim table.

This is a regular-sized party. All right. Drawing on my inner mechanical powers, I will lean down and touch Fearne on the side of her cheek, on her face, as gently as I can with my metal hands, and I will whisper in her ear, and I will whisper in her ear,

please don't leave us, and I will cast Revivify. Okay. Do you have the 300 gold worth of diamonds? I have one diamond worth 300 gold. All righty. That is expended upon casting the spell. Now, as part of this, because Revivify works differently than larger resurrection magic, you are the only person who can contribute to this ritual.

Oh, wait, what? It's a horse ritual? It's a faster ritual. So you're the only person who can contribute to this. Already? She already got a two to ritual, though? She's just been hit for a second, though. I mean, what you whispered is the initiation of it. Just in the moment, this is you,

and you're the only person who can do this. You attempt to reach out and call the spirit back. What do you do to reach out to Fearne to try and reach across this bridge of life and death? Wow. What do I do? Is this a s- Should I be?

Ha. Oh boy. I have a bag of gems, and I believe we discussed that we're a couple of diamonds that we're enough to. We have that bag of jewels. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, bag of giants. Bag of giants. I'm going to,

boy, I don't have the spell to be in her mind. She doesn't have a mind anymore. Eight diamonds of 300 gold, so they were three diamonds. You don't have to worry about a spell specifically. This is just part of the ritual of you beseeching to the spirit and whatever that means to you, whatever connection to the character you're reaching out for.

What does that, how does that apparate? Sure. I think I would just talk to her and tell her, or try to tell her spirit, anyway, that I, you know, I know your family

has not been easy for you, but I feel like you're making a new one with us. And I want to help you. I want to help you be whole again. And... you be whole again. And... And I think you would break all of our hearts by leaving. And I just need you to stay.

I need you to stay. I'll just command her to stay. Okay. As you complete the ritual, I need you to stay. I'll just command her to stay. Okay. As you complete the ritual, I need you to roll a d10 and add your spellcasting modifier. Roll a d10. Sorry, d20, my bad. Okay.

Sorry. Spellcasting. If it doesn't work, I don't worry. Spellcasting. What is my spellcasting? It's wisdom, so whatever your wisdom bonus is. That's a seven plus three. 10 is literally the difficulty class base on this

for a character who has not died. I hate this game. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding, I really do. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding, I'm not that one. Fearne. Oh. No. Nope.

In the shadowed darkness, as you felt the world pulled from you and whatever dark thread of the Unseelie or beyond that's been haunting you through mirror upon mirror whatever dark thread of the Unseelie or beyond that's been haunting you through mirror upon mirror since you've come here, you feel it get its tethers in you, and you feel yourself being pulled. Just as you feel that sense of hopelessness

wash over you, that light glimmers, and you hear the words of Fresh Cut Grass echo. That light becomes a tunnel, almost a ladder before you. Do you reach for it? Nope. Baby! Well, what else is there?

Do you look behind you? I'm sorry. Yeah, do you look behind you? Yeah. You look behind you, and you see a dull green sliver of a moon. You see a blackened hillscape of tangled jungle and thorns, brambles and eyes,

so many wicked hungry eyes waiting for you. Behind those eyes, darkness, uncertainty, cold oblivion. I'm not quite ready for that part yet. I'll turn around and start reaching out. As you reach out and grasp what looks to be a ladder-like structure, you hold onto it, and it seems to pull you away.

You glance back and feel the tethers tear free from you. You can almost hear the screams of disappointment and frustration in this endlessly echoing space below. As you glance back up, the ladder is no longer a ladder, but almost like an arm of light pulling. As the light rushes up towards you and your eyes are flooded, you begin to focus once more as you blink, and the hand of light is now a hand of metal, and you glance up into the face of Fresh Cut Grass,

who is pulling you from the ground. I'll stay. Jeez Louise, calm down. Oh boy. You are at one hit point. Oh. Oh my. I don't even know how to do this. Will all the red go away?

Oh, I think I... I think I also absorbed five hit points in the last round from something else. Okay. Dead bros. What's, what's? Fearne. Hi, thanks for doing that. Sure. That was really,

really nice of you. How's everybody doing? Real bad. Okay. I'm going to get up and dust off a little bit. Orym's dead. Not quite your turn yet. We'll get to that in a minute. Orym's dead. Not quite your turn yet. We'll get to that in a minute. Orym's dead and you have 16 seconds to save his life.

Oh my god. No, six times six is 30. 36 seconds, right? No, how many rounds we got, Vess? Stop trying to put a number on it! 30 seconds left. You have 30 seconds left. Time doesn't mean anything anyway.

Wait, what do you mean? 30 seconds! That finishes that round. You got 24 seconds to save his life. Top of the next round, Ashton. I got 24 seconds to save the world! I can see what the fuck is going on over there, I believe, from my vantage. You glance around and look,

and indeed you see Imogen just beelining over towards the rubble and beginning to brush it away, just pulling it off of what you can see. I saw the shoulder. The outer shoulder and arm of a lynx. Full speed, well, let's see how long it takes me to get over there. I've got a walking speed of 40.

40? It's okay, guys. The dust is alkaline. Static. You can dash and get there if you'd like. I will dash and get there and in a second, start helping. Okay. Can you call Jiana Hexum?

What? Can you message Jiana Hexum? Fuck Jiana Hexum, what? Tell her I will do anything. Tell her whatever she needs. Fuck. I'm just going to start digging in. Okay. Finishing Orym's go, that brings us,

oh sorry, Ashton's go, that brings us to Chetney. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Loot bodies? They're gone. A lot of them. Yeah, that's right. I got a good pair of scissors.

Oh, look at this sword, mine! Little small paper. Is Fearne still on the ground next to FCG? Yes, she's just coming back to life, literally. I'm going to pick up Orm, and I'm going to split the difference between Fearne and Laudna. Okay.

Just tracking both edges of our- I'm sorry, Orym, is that right? I'm going to go right here. But when Fearne gets up, she won't be able to go that far. He's pretty light. Okay. So that gets you about there. What's your speed?

He's like, how do I just be out of it? But you use half of it just getting up, because she's prone. Where are you going? 35. He's going away from us? Oh, no, I'm just, yeah, let's go that way. Where are you going?

Where are you going? Oh, okay, that's better. I guess half my speed, because I'm carrying somebody, right? Correct, but your running speed is what? 25. 25? Oh, so it's... You can, if you want to dash, you can get there. Yeah. Okay.

So you do manage to pick him up, and he's pretty light, I'll say, thankfully. He's, you know, he's a live fellow. It's like carrying a toddler, and you're a werewolf. You're fine. You're fine, you getwolf. You're fine. You're fine. You get there. You're fine. So you rush over with his limp body in your arm,

rush over just as Fearne is starting to climb her way back onto her feet. So finish your turn. Unfortunately, yeah. Imogen. You've taken a round with Ashton's help and you've cleared what little bit of debris may have fallen off the nearby structure

that was now barely, what little bit of rubble there still stands after the strange occurrences of recent moments. What would you like to do? I'm just going to put Laudna's head in my lap and brush her forehead off and say, Come back, come back. Okay. And I'm going to

reach into my pocket and get out the rock that Fearne hid in there. and get out the rock that Fearne hid in there. Mm-hmm. I'm going to say, I know you're there, you bitch. I know you still want her. I'm going to put the rock on Laudna's chest.

Okay. With her hands over top of it. Okay. Finish her hands over top of it. Okay. Finish your turn. Fearne, you're up. What the fuck do you mean Orym is dead? At that moment, the lifeless body of Orym is placed in front of you

by the woven form of Chetney. What? Tell me you have something. Oh god, I didn't even say that. Yes, yes, yes, I can, I can. Um. What? I've never done this before, but...

How do I do this? You just touch him and say something to him, or pray. Do you have a thing to pray to, or a way to bring him back? You know him better than a lot of us. Can you say something to him? Do I need anything?

I just do it? Or calls him? I just do it, I just touch him and then? You need a diamond. Do you have a diamond? Why would I have a diamond? Because you steal everything. Oh yeah, maybe he stole a diamond. Do you have a diamond?

Do you have a diamond? She lost the last worth at least. No, I have it, I have it. Oh, you found it? But do you have a diamond? But do you have a diamond? Mm-mm. Oh. Oh. Oh boy. But do you have a diamond? But do you have a diamond? Mm-mm. Oh. Oh.

Oh boy. You don't have a diamond? We have, we have, I feel like we got some, but I don't have it. It's up to 300 gold worth of diamonds or diamonds. Ashton has diamonds, Ashton has them in the bag. You don't have any, I'm not the judge.

Nope. I don't have anything. Do we have anything? Any, any? Diamonds? Any diamonds? Orym is dead! Orym is dead! We know, fuck, yes, diamonds. Yes, diamonds, yes.

Fuck! Get over here. Run the jewels. It's not my turn. All right, that finishes your turn, Fearne. Oh god. I'm just going to grab Orym, and I'm just going to take him and put him in my lap and just hold him.

Okay. I can do this, I can do this, I can do this. I can do like a little bit here. Fresh Cut Grass, it's your turn. I can't carry him. I mean, maybe I could, but I can't do the spell, so. You can't do it when he's alive.

So there's not much purpose in me carrying him if I can't do the spell. I can carry him. How much fucking, we're running out of 30 seconds! Well, after I'm about to go, it'll be down to 18 seconds. And how far away is Ashton? He got over there in one round.

He did. We'll be fine. He will have dashed. With a dash. He'll be fine. Nobody can carry him and dash. I can't carry him, but I can't do the spell. It doesn't help. Maybe you could go a little bit

and Ashton can meet you, and then you can come back and give it to Fearne. That's very, well. He made the whole span. I just watched him. He made the whole span in one round. Yeah, but he didn't have any actions left. Told you I'm going halfway the other way.

I will go halfway just in case that helps us, I guess. Half of your movement to the, I don't know, reach right there. And I will hold my action to dash. Okay, you got it. Getting ready to get the wheels prepped. All right, we're now at 18 seconds, top of the next round. Ashton.

What the fuck do we do? Laudna's dead. Is she out of the rubble? She's free of the rubble, yeah. Imogen's lap. Fuck, shit, piss, fuck. Boy, I do not like this fucking choice. I just like your heart.

I do not like this fucking choice. I'm going to, we got 18 seconds, fuck it. Can I grab her and dash towards the center, too? You can, I mean, it's half movement carrying another body. So it'll be 40 feet, though. 40 feet if you dash, yes. MATT and LAURA, in deep breath,

Robin might weigh less than Orym. I was about to say, yeah. I know, my way less than warm. I was about to say, yeah. I know, from a mechanical standpoint. Stress me. And an exhaustion statement. And how much can you move? I can move back, but I need some diamonds. He needs diamonds.

Fuck, okay. I'm going to fucking, ugh, I'm going to fucking dash. With Laudna, or? I am making eye contact with you as I grab her. Can I tuck the rock into her shirt? Because I don't want it to fall away at it. Sure.

I'm going to drag away at it. True. I'm going to drag her, too. We've got two damage. Don't drag her! Pick her up! I'm picking her up. I'm not going to dust the fucking ground with a rag doll. All right, you pick her up and kind of fireman's carry. Turn around. In dark mode. Roll fire on that. Roll fire on that.

SAM and LAURA, LAURA and SAM, 35, 40. That's as far as you can get right there. I'm carrying her there with a full movement. And while I'm carrying, I'm just going to be like, We have another down! Great. At this moment, as you see him rushing by,

you hadn't quite focused yet, but at this moment, fresh cut grass, do you realize that Laudna is also no longer with us? Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Okay. All right. with us. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Okay. All right. We got to decide, Fearne. Ashton, that finishes your turn. Unless I can do something with my fucking bonus action.

Unless you got something you want to do with your bonus action. With Chetney on deck. Nope. Chetney. Can we toss the diamonds to SCG? It's your turn, Chetney. Toss the diamonds to SCG. It's your turn, Chetney. Yeah. Could I help in this movement train? Sure. Should I take him?

I guess, but Fearne would have to move up to him, but she could do that, right? She can move 25, 30 feet before she does this. Just set them next to each other so you can go eeny, meeny, miny, moe. Motherfucker. You just have to touch them. So.

Do we know if? Well, I mean, she's got to get the diamonds in her hand and come back. Well, do we, I mean, like. Oh my god. I can walk. Do we know if there's, if either of them can do a- What's your speed, 30? 35. Oh my god. Do we know if either of them can do a rift? What's your speed? 30?

35. Oh my god. Do we know if either of them can pull somebody out from death or do we not know? We don't know. We don't know. But we do know that Laudna has come back from the dead before. Yeah. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it.

I hate it. I fucking hate it. Okay. Well? Mister can teleport 15 feet. We'll get to them in time. Mister can grab the diamonds. We'll get to them in time. Yeah, I'll take Orm.

Yeah, we're not. And I'll walk 15 feet towards where FC's going. Fuck. Lifting him back up, carrying him over to here. Okay, great. Doesn't matter either way. Great, so now. Now they're close to each other while you choose. Yeah. Okay, great. It doesn't matter either way. Great, so now they're close to each other while you choose. Yeah. Okay.

So I finish this Chutney's Go Imogen. It's going to be easier to be dead for this choice. Why do you spend the rest of your time? I know how you feel. Oh my god. All I'm thinking about is how I have the ability to split spells and dual spell. It's useless for this.

Is it? I've got a lot of diamond. Maybe you could jumpstart us with another. You can't twin spell somebody else's spell. How much diamond do you have, by the way? It's 300 gold worth of diamond that came in that bag of gems. I have it marked down.

That's right, there's three. Okay. I had it marked down as well. So. It's the same one. But you know what's funny? As I was saying, is it the same one marked down? But she doesn't have it.

No, he had one already. Here's the thing. You had it in the bag of gems, and then I crossed it out like somebody took it from the Bag of Gems. So somebody took those diamonds. So it was probably her. It was probably her that took the diamonds to have. You just don't realize you have them on you,

because maybe you didn't write it down. But somebody took those diamonds. I don't feel like I took the diamonds. I genuinely don't remember. I trust the person who would have taken them to know whether or not they took them. I don't feel like I did. Maybe we gave them to FCG. Somebody took them.

Well, if we all get close enough. It doesn't matter. I'm going to just I don't feel like I gave them to anybody. walk back. I think I just looked at going, that's neat. in a state of shock and just saying, I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. Can you save them? I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. This is... It's not fair for you to choose. Well, Fearne, it's your turn. It's not fair for you to choose.

I don't know what to do. Get over here. Okay. Five more feet of movement, if you'd like it. In fact, I'll put you here. Rollies. Oh no! I was going to say coin flip, but rollies is... Oh my god, if you guys rollies it,

for whoever wins gets about that. This is the darkest shit ever. The darkest rollies? Pretty dark. Darkest time of the year. Hold on, because one is impartial, and one's a coin flip, and one is one of your falls. I don't know how healing works. Maybe I can just cure them.

Maybe I can cure one and I can revivify another. I think they're dead. That doesn't work. Okay. They're dead. I hate to say it. She has been dead before. Well, haven't we all in some ways?

I have. You have? Wait, what? I think. I mean, technically, she has. Nail. Nope. But. Nope. We're running out of time.

Okay, okay. Imogen, I don't know what to do. I don't want to put a choice on you. I don't know what to do. Should we do like a Who Votes for Orym? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. That's so weird.

No, I mean, there's five of us up, so it would be, we could vote three out of five. No, we're not doing that. We're not doing that. No, we're not doing that. That's terrible. I was just trying to. The only thing I know,

and it's a horrible thing to think, is that Eladna has come back before. But I don't want to say Orym if it means that Laudna's gone forever. If Orym were here, he would absolutely say save Laudna. He's too nice a guy. I reach into my pocket and pull out a small platinum coin.

Oh my god, what are we doing? Are you flipping a coin right now? Well, sure, but this one's made of platinum. You could use a wooden one. I have one from a god. Well, that's good, too. It's on his fucking face. Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ. I mean, listen, you can suffer with the grief of this decision, or you can just let it go. I was just given this coin by Imahara Joe. Okay. And it's from a god. I cannot believe we're flipping fucking coins for their lives. I don't know. Does that make this?

We could say a prayer. I could say a prayer. Who would you pray to? Well, this person, this coin. What is that god? It's the change bringer. Well, they're certainly bringing change. Maybe, maybe we can pray to Laudna's god

and she'll bring her back. And then I can bring back Orym. You know? Flip the coin. Oh, do you want to choose which one's Laudm, you know? Flip the coin. Do you want to choose which one's Laudna, Imogen? I don't get to go. You don't? Okay, okay, okay. This is me, this is on me.

Give me the coin. Okay. I'm going to send a message to Delilah as soon as I can. Yeah, yeah, you send that fucking message first. So I have a third spell left. I want to send a message to Lila, but it's not my fucking turn in the initiative. Oh, yep. Nope.

Oh no, Marisha! Told you it was time. Okay, do I flip a coin or do you guys rollies? I'm not getting involved. I agree. Oh, thanks! Okay, give me the coin. I'm not getting involved. I agree. Oh, thanks! Okay, give me the coin. I'm not getting involved. I'll hand over this coin, but as I do.

They have the easiest shit to deal with right now. I hate this. You just flip a coin. What are you going to do? I don't fucking want to. I'm going to hand over the coin, and as I do, I will hold it for a second and just say, I don't know you,

but please guide us in the right direction. To the Changebringer? Yeah, to the Changebringer. Oh boy. Which one is which? Okay, so... I'm going to go this side for Orym. That looks like his shield. It does, right?

That's exactly what I was thinking. And then this one's going to be for Laudna. I don't want to do this. Then don't do it. Just decide. I'll make a choice. Yeah. Okay, okay. Can we at least just smush them together? Okay. Can I make one? Laudna's been dead before.

Maybe something could happen. Orym is just living and breathing like everybody else. If you want to make a decision, that might sway it, or flip the coin and let fate have it. By the time that transpired here, I'll say it's another round. Oh god! Then 12 seconds,

and you can take all your sending if you want to. I'm going to send a message to Delilah. To Delilah, okay. I don't know if she's able to do that, but I'm going to try to send a message to Delilah. To Delilah. Okay. I don't know if she's able to do that, but I'm going to try to send a message to Delilah. She's on a plane somewhere. Somewhere. You better bring her back.

I know you want to be in this world, and she's your only way here. Get your ass down here and bring her back! Yep, got it. Poor thing. I would if I could, but I ask you to bring her back, too, for both of us. That's all you get.

Did you get it? Did she say anything? Did she give you an answer? She's still fucking weak. That fucking bitch. Whoa. Oh god. She stole my coin, didn't she?

She stole your coin. Okay. Okay. I'm going to kneel down. Ooh. I'm going to go to Laudna and push her hair to the side. We'll find a way back for you, I promise.

We'll find a way back for you, I promise. No. I'm sorry. I don't know what to do. It's a coin's fault. We can be met at the change bringer later. Oh, I don't like how this is making me feel. Okay.

I'll go to Orym. Just going to gather him up. Hi. Hi, friend. Can you please come back? Because I'm getting a little scared. And we need your help, because we can't do this just by ourselves, okay? Oh my god, I'm shaking so bad. What do I do? I just roll. Roll a d20 and add your wisdom modifier.

Fuck, okay, okay, okay. Give me a fucking flask of tissue. Oh, sorry, I forgot what I was doing. I mean, I didn't, but I forgot I had to roll my game. Okay. My wisdom modifier, Jesus Christ, I'm so sorry. 17. 17? Yeah.

Okay. You expend the spell's energy, place your hand upon Orym's cold body. Orym. The tension has passed, and a calm peace comes over you. The tension has passed, and a calm peace comes over you. There's this shadow, this looming darkness of

regret and anxiety gives way to the sounds of a soft breeze of zephrah through the tree. You feel the presence you've missed for a bit as you turn from the shadow amongst the various cherry blossom branches and the wind that blows and this soft dreamscape before you. You see Will.

Just looking back. You want nothing more than to stay here. In that moment of relinquishing to whatever the next life may be, you hear Fearne's words echo out from above. The soft dream begins to fade a moment, and you glance up into a shaft of light. Their words call out to you,

and you're torn. You look back down to Will, who looks back at you, and as his voice echoes, You're not done. I really wish I could stay. I'll still be here. Oh, I miss you so bad. There will be a time.

I look forward to Derek. Say hi to Derek, friendly. Say hi to Dad. I will. He reaches out and embraces you. Like a hot spring that just envelops you. You feel the warmth and light of a connection you've missed for so long.

How? Go. He throws you up towards the shaft of light. As you drift upward, you watch the tree begin to fade. You see his face begin to fade. You feel the sting of dust and sand against your cheek. You blink, squint, and come to focus. As you look right up into the face of Fearne,

upside down above you, tears streaming down her face. Hi. Hey, Fearne. Hey, Varni. Hey, best friend. We were in a bit of a pickle, and... I'm glad that you're here. Where's everybody? Well,

everyone's here, but Laudna is not. SAM and LAURA What do we do? Letters. Letters. We've done everything we can so far. Oh no! No! What are you doing? I am... Mm-hmm.

What do we do, though? What do we do? Because we always do something. I'm going to grab the portable hole off, who has it? I have it in my shirt. I apologize, I'm just going to grab it, fucking throw it down. I'm going to just fall on my knees

and then pull Vonda. I'm going to jump into the hole. Is he still breathing? You jump into the hole and immediately almost break an ankle on the bits of clutter that you've been tossed in there. Some known, some unknown by Fearne along your journey, but you see there, crouched in the corner,

immediately standing up, putting his back to the inside of the hole is Armand Treshi. Now getting a good look at him as well, from your perspective, but the first time you can see he's thinner, looks a bit paranoid in his eyes, and he's like, What? What do you want?

We have a problem. Can you, a friend of ours has died, can you fix it? Do you have anything that can fix it? No, I'm not a miracle worker. What fucking use are you? What do you have? I'm going to jump back out of the hole. Okay. He goes ahead and starts to climb after you

to try and get up towards the edge of the hole. Don't keep him in the fucking hole. He's coming out. He's crawling out. He's trying to crawl out after you. I'm going to pop him out back in. SAM and LAURA, in the side. Does that give us an extra 10 minutes? That was some air.

You can call in favors. I can find people. Her? You can heal people. Can you heal her? I... I can't, because I... We picked you, and we didn't. We flipped a coin, which feels super careless

now that I'm going back on it. Imogen? I'm sorry. Okay. You'll just keep hearing it. We'll consider it in our heads over and over again. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. Orym's going to stumble off in that direction

and just start yelling, help. No, no, no, no, don't. As you start shouting help and FCG tries to stop you, the storm stops subsiding. You can hear the tense shouts and rallying conversation

of the Paragon's Call beyond the partially crumbled wall that currently surrounds, or mostly surrounds, the Seat of Disdain. We still got to get out of here. Can you pick her up, Ashton? I'm going to unfold the hull and put her in the hole. No, do not put her in the hole. Where else are we going to put her?

She's going to be in there with Armand and just rattling around. No, you carry her. You carry her to Jote. Okay. Fuck! As you pick her up and lift her, the rock that you placed within her grasp

tumbles free and hits the ground. Fuck. I'm picking that gum. Okay. Full fucking speed, I'm picking that gum. Okay. Full fucking speed, I guess. Restruction. Where's the ointment from? This is the seat, so. Away, towards Joes. Fucking away,

we're heading toward Joes. Full goddamn speed. Okay. Charging and running further into the streets of Bassuras, running from the sound of a rallying Paragon's call, angered at the recent assault upon their homestead. The storm itself subsiding, the people of the city beginning to slowly peek around the edges and try and grasp what sort of maelstrom

just burst through the center of their city. You go rushing to find shadow or solace, a place to reconvene and gather your thoughts in whatever the next step may be. We're going to take an early break so we can give our players a moment here to process. We'll pick up here in a few minutes. See you guys there shortly.

Why, hello there. This is Critical Role's resident art dad, also known as Liam O'Brien. We are continuously amazed at the artwork this community creates. That's why each Thursday at 8 a.m. Pacific, we share a curated gallery of submitted fan art over on CritRoll.com. If you'd like to submit your art for consideration, visit CritRoll.com slash submit. And thank you to all of the incredible artists who share their talents with us week after week. And welcome back.

So, picking up where you left off, the storm subsiding, the winds beginning to die down a bit, where the midday sun is now peeking through, the intensity. I ask the rest of you, what do you want to do? I ask for my coin back. That fast? Do you give it? No. I think we are running, if I recall. Yeah, we're running.

Are we running to Joe's, or are we trying to run somewhere else? Maybe. I'm trying to remember. It wasn't nighttime at the time. Sorry, I'm trying to remember. Was it nighttime at the incursion? I thought the sun was. No, the sun was up.

There was a dust storm, though. It was going all crazy. Yeah, so we're good. Sorry, continue. Just want to double check on myself to make sure I don't throw the time off. Oh, okay. We just need to get somewhere alone so we can talk this out.

Let's go to Joe's. Anywhere will do. We will. Joe's is, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. We're running. Let's go. Okay, all right. So charging probably at a white arc, I assume, to the streets.

I'll drop my wolf form, too. We have no way to contact the airship, right? Not yet. Not yet. I can do it after we take a short rest. Okay. So are you attempting to look inconspicuous? There's still some dust storm up, but yes, and I will aid Orym on keeping eyes

on rooftops and behind us as we move, making sure no one's far. Because of the storm still being around somewhat, the DC isn't that high, but I would like you all to make a group stealth check to just look like people dodging through a storm. That's so much. Oh.

This is a B. A disadvantage? No, no, for me, for me. Oh. 26. 26? 11. 11?

13. 13? 12. Eight. 25. 25, okay. Some middling scores, some really high scores. One low one. As you push through the streets, the wind and sand still whipping past you, you pull your various bits of Bessarian garb

across your face and your mouth to protect from any of it getting into your lungs and dart past other people that are emerging from the domiciles, looking to basically find any sign of it clearing, as well as investigating the apparent, large eruption of noise that seemed to rock the center of the city but a moment ago.

You dart around, mask your movements as looking back as well, and try and match the curiosity of the various denizens as you hear in the distance these shouts and yells of either Paragon's Call or other figures of some importance in the city, also seeking the source of this recent event. Pushing through the streets,

you eventually round back around to the front of Imahara Joe's place. The doors are closed, the windows are shut. It looks like it was closed for the storm and is still currently sealed. There's a back door, right? There is a fence around it, but as you're inspecting this,

you welcome a bang on the door. That's what you go to. Is there anyone running around on the street? Thank you. There's a handful of people that are darting past and moving from place to place. Especially as it's clearing up, folks are starting to open up a little bit.

They're just waiting for it to pass. You get the sense that this is not an uncommon occurrence here in Bassuras, so people are just treating it as it is. We're not wearing our cloaks anymore, right? Our Paragon's Call shit? No, we would have ripped those off, I assume. Okay. And they're still things.

So you knock on the door, the curtain pushes past, and you see one of the associates of Imahara Joe glance past and closes it up. The door opens, and you see a young dwarven male figure lean through. Can I help you? Yeah, we need Joe. Is he here right now?

Yeah, he's working. Okay, okay. Pulls back. You recognize you've seen this fellow around the office a bit. As he pulls open the Okay, okay. He pulls back. You recognize, you've seen this fellow around the office a bit. As he pulls open the door, on the inside, you can see everyone's hunkered down a bit. There's a little table put in the center

with a somewhat chipped tea set that has freshly steaming tea in it. Most of the employees of Imahara Joe, as well as Joe himself, are sitting around it, waiting the storm out. He glances over towards the rest of you. Oh, hello, you're back so soon. Come in, come in.

It shouldn't be long before the storm passes over. Thank you. I'm going to open the hole really quickly. How are you doing in there? So. That's a valid point, because he was in the hole for the run through the city there. I mean, we would have opened it if we would have.

I was counting and I was paying attention. Right, this would be about the time you need to open it. And so, yeah, he's like. Do you want out? Yes, please. You promised to behave. I am at your service. That'll do.

Sorry, things have been really fucked up. I'm out. I close the. Looks around. Tie up his hands, don't let him run. Fair. Where the hell am I? Halfway out of this.

Glance around, looks over. I'm behind with 50 feet of rope. Okay, check. Hold still. This is the Imahara Jewel's place. Jo, we're sorry. We're putting you in a little bit of danger. People are after us.

I wish I could say that's not an unfamiliar occasion based on the clientele I work with, but I'd like to know a little more about this danger so I can adjust accordingly. What am I in now? Did anyone see us come in? Was anybody looking? I was always looking.

Correct. Both of you make perception checks. Or if you're helping him, he already has an advantage. Natural one. Much better. Changed into a 19, making that a 25. Okay. It gave him advantage. No, he already has advantage from his shield.

Oh, well, fuck you! Just roll on your own. Guess what? That's the 18! Great, all right. Both of you glancing outside and taking a moment, peering through the curtains. Not enough to reveal that you're peeking through, but just enough to glance both sides of the street

as well as the nearby walkways between the buildings. You don't see any signs of somebody immediately in pursuit. I say to the dwarf, you might want to lock that up. I would lock that up. Okay. He locks it up, looking over at Joe, and Joe gives him a nod, sips his tea, and sets it back down on its pristine porcelain saucer. I'm just going to stay on the ground next to Laudna.

Is she all right? No, I finished putting her down. I imagine you had put her down since you pulled it. Oh, I was, I've been, yeah, I was in a gig. I've just had her over the fucking shoulder. Just fucking over the shoulder. He could do it. I have not been thinking clearly.

Tying him up. Just a little bag of bones. I haven't been fucking tying him up. Oh my, I am sorry to hear that. Once again, what am I in? One of the sects, clans, what are they called? The groups doesn't like us very much right now.

They might be watching, looking for us, or maybe they're doing something else, but there was a big attack on the Paragon's Call and we ran. It wasn't us. It wasn't us. It wasn't us, actually. It really wasn't. They kidnapped me.

Treshi now says, arms bound. We did kidnap him. Are they angry at you because you kidnapped this guy? No, no. I mean, among other things. I assume they don't like that, but I think that's the least of their words. Well, I mean, honestly, it was like a transfer. You didn't look like you were very welcome company

where you were at. Tell me, were you a guest or a prisoner when we found you? You can turn around. Jazzy. I'm on prison. Looks over to you. Yes. I guessed and a prisoner?

You know what happens to people that answered a question with multiple choice with a single answer? They lose a finger! Oh shit. I've heard that, too. They just start glaring at you. No, it's okay. I have all these tools, right?

But those I save for people I like. I got this real pointy son of a bitch right here. Joe goes, okay, okay, you know, if people are looking for you, and are you followed? Are they coming? No one saw us.

You're good for now. You're certain? I am. Not good enough. And he turns around and moves one of the tables over. Could you give me a hand? Yep, yep, let's do this.

Across the ground, move this table over and he pulls up a hatch that you can see has a hidden, broken interior. As he pulls it up, puts it over, there's a set of stairs that go underneath and beneath the floorboards of the structure. If you can hide, hide there, please. Thank you, Joe. Thank you.

All right. All of you. He looks to Armand. Okay. The less I know at this point, honestly, probably the best. I'm going to go ahead and hold on to whatever plausible deniability I can maintain. Let's say that you owe me a favor.

Get inside, get inside, get inside. Real quick, do you or any of your friends here know how to bring someone back to life? If I did, do you think I'd be doing this job in this shithole? That's a good point. Sorry, I'm just a little concerned about this. That's what I was expecting in the middle of my tea.

And that coin you gave me, that deity, you really believe in that one, right? Yeah. They haven't led you astray before? I'm still here. I've helped out some of the good people in this town with their guidance, but.

Okay. Not deep in it, but, you know, it doesn't hurt to have a little faith. All right. Down, let's go. Down, down, down. We're going to try to stay less than a day, 12 hours if we can help it. Oh, so you're in for a long haul. Down, down, down. We're going to try to stay less than a day, 12 hours if we can help it. Oh, so you're in for a long haul.

Okay, well, stay really quiet. And if anything does go down, I will do my best, but at a certain point, I have to protect the people I care about, too. Of course. We clearly threatened you. Obviously. It was a terrifying encounter,

and I'm lucky to escape with my life. Got that right. Okay. You all get down and he moves the hill back over on top, gets back to his tee. You hear him gently say, Well, I mean, we all chose to live here. I'll give you all a little hazard pay. How about that?

Just a couple of, yeah, okay, okay, okay. You hear a little rattling of porcelain on Sauter. What do we see down here? So this is a small storage space. Down in here, you can see there are a number of crates and cases and chests and box that are filled with all manner of metallic ingots with what looks to be raw materials,

bolts, nuts, tools. This is essentially a storage, a subterranean storage room. I'm going to anxiety eat some of the bolts. Plenty here to popcorn chicken it, yeah. Cool. There's no other entrances or exits into this little storage space, right?

It's just enclosed? You can do an investigation check. I'll use my nose, too, to smell for drafts or any kind of crafts or anything. 23. 23, okay. I will say for this, no advantage, because there's no real draft coming through. I'm amazing. But you're amazing. So 23 is still a pretty good roll. Itantage, but. I will say for this, no advantage, because there's no real draft coming through.

I'm amazing. You are amazing. So 23 is still a pretty good roll. It's pretty amazing. As you're all adjusting to the subterranean dark space, you feel your way around and you do see on the northeastern edge of this small cluttered chamber,

it looks like there is a door. It's mostly hidden and covered in dust and dirt. It looks like old roots of something that may have once grown above and was cut to build the structure, but was left behind. Hang over the upper part of it and make it a bit obscured, except for an approached bright light.

But you know, you got darkvision and you're able to scope past it. It looks like this is some sort of a doorway. Watch the trashy, keep him quiet. Don't let him touch anything on himself that might be like a beacon or a little bitch signal. I'll just whip out my blade and start spinning it. That's what I'm talking about.

People, we are, in fact, going to get you out of this. Or if we get out, you get out. Well, that is good to know. So what do you want? You obviously made quite a scene. What do we want with this guy? We've got to bring him back.

What did you do? Why? What did you do? Why? What did he do? I mean, he's trying to get Paragon's Call. He unleashed the Shade Mother. That was not my doing. That was Ira. The dubious creature at best, maybe.

It was my mistake to do business with him. Why were you doing business with him? Because he's effective in forging the chaos we needed to push the council to require the help of the Paragon's Call. What chaos? Creating threats, dangers, to have the people rise up, feeling like they weren't secure in their lives, but the council, the Quorum, wasn't doing its job,

and so we needed additional aid. Just to get Paragon's Call to be hired by the Drusar Quorum? Well, that's what I thought it was. You were using the Nightmare King as a psyop? More or less. I punch him. You're using you.

Thank you. Look, I didn't seek him out. He made himself available. Our timetable was short. I was getting a lot of pressure from both O'Han and the call that we had to work quickly. I was out of options. I didn't think he would take it so far.

He was overzealous in his work. He was far too knowledgeable and curious about my dealings with the call, asked too many questions. I was about to end our relationship when the tower fell and did the work for me. So it was his fiddling with the Shademother and that imbecile Imoth that set me on the run

in the first place. I did not want this to happen. Otohan wanted Paragon's Call to be up in Jrusar, but why? Just for influence, power? What does she want up there? That is a fucking question, isn't it? Do you know? No. Insight check.

Make an insight check. Ooh, let's go. 23. Oh! Get over there! This whisper is brought to you by something. God, I've lost it. Here it is.

Here's something. You know, start playing 1D&D today. Download 1D&D playtest materials. Try them out in your home game and provide feedback at dndbeyond.link slash crdnd. I just a hunch, but I think you know a lot more than you're telling us. I'll spin my blade faster.

Make an intimidation check. Intimidation. Yes. Eight. The blade gets stuck. Needs some oil. You always got a tent, wait. How many fingers do you have? No, no, no, no, no. I'm just asking a question.

Thank you, Dan. I really want to punch the wall right now. Why do that when his face is right there? I know to make a lot less noise. So give me a reason not to figure out what will hurt the most. You make an intimidation check. All right.

Ooh, natural ones, that's an eight. Eight. Chuckles to himself. Oh my god. I would be lying if I said I wasn't surprised that a group of imbeciles like you were the ones to extract me, but I imagine that she'll find us soon enough. Yeah, I should have assumed someone of your statue.

Stab him through the foot? Stab him through the foot. Oh god! I cover the mouth. I push him back in the hole. Damn. He's into the hole. I push him back in the hole. Damn. He's into the hole. You hear a,

Keep it quiet, please! Sorry. Sorry, Joe. We're having a bit of a raw day, Armand. We just lost one of our own, as you can see. I'm the peaceful solution guy in this group. So why don't you just start fucking talking right the fuck now? and I'm the peaceful solution guy in this group. So why won't you just start fucking talking right the fuck now? Intimidation check.

The DC gets higher with each failure, so. Sorry, loading my D&D Beyond page. D&D Beyond, guys. Hey. Intimidation, you said? Yes. 23. Rolled a 19.

Damn, okay. Down in the hole, glancing up at you, you can see the sweat beads gathering on his forehead from what little bits of light are peeking through the floorboards at the top of Imahara Joe's shop. Huffs a little bit, takes a deep breath. Look, this is all bigger than me, okay? I thought it was an opportunity to establish myself

as indispensable in Trussara. Arise within my house, make greater allies within the core of mine. For now, I am a fugitive of my own choices as well. Aw. Okay. My hope was that if we can complete these last shipments, my contract would be done.

And she promised to help clear my name in Jrusar and reestablish my Flemne's alliance with the Kaal if we did so. But I'm quickly coming to believe that our deal was likely more about this shipment line from Wildemount than over political interests. What were you shipping? What does the Cerberus Assembly have to do with all this?

I don't know the specifics of it. I have a shipment line that crosses the Osmond Sea into the Menagerie Coast, and I've been allowing numerous shipments over the past year or so to pass through across the sea and wait by a compatriot of mine, Andrusar, who's been holding onto them

until the time was right to bring them here to Bassuras. Once they were here, the call took them to wherever their site was. They are shipped through an intermediary to try and keep it separated and hard to follow, hard to trace. Camilla arranged for their acquisition and distribution out of the city.

But you don't know what was in the shipments? Once again, the less I know, the easier it was for me to feel comfortable doing this business. Lots of small boxes, lots of big boxes. Make an insight check. Roll it, roll it. Girl. Crates with stamps. 19.

19. More whispers means more D&D Beyond. I threw away the page. You did, it's far behind you now, but try D&D One today. Follow the link that Sam mentioned before, and if you can't remember it, that's what rewind is for.

Yeah, just hit pause on Twitch and rewind. Did that work? Sure. I appreciate that on Laura's notepad, the whole page just reads Laudna is dead. Well, the trail. It technically says Laudna is derd. That's your note? Laudna is dead.

There's not, is there at least a smile? A sad derd? Laudna is derd. That's it. Laudna is dead. She is. Good episode title. As you say, with symbols on them,

stamped on them, gives you a look. Yes. Any dealings with Hexum? Insight check. Jesus. So many insights. Instead, you took a second. If you had not answered immediately. Where's insight?

There it is, 12. 12? I mean, he's starting to crumble a little bit. All right. I'll say between the pushing and stuff, you get the sense he's hiding something still with the response to that question, which might tell you something.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that'll do. That'll do. I have a need to protect her in her scheming, okay? You want to bend her arm for answers? Be my guest. I should, well, go ahead. She held onto them until it was time to ship. Wow.

What did you say? She held onto them until it was time to ship. If they went straight through, that would draw more eyes. So we received them, she held onto them. When the coast was clear, we would continue shipments to Bassuras. Heart of the Chain. I don't know what the ship is.

No, but we've seen, Ashton's seen some boxes, right? We have one in the hole. We have one. We do. We have a couple things in the hole. We have one. We have one, we should look.

It's in the hole next to Armand. We'll get it out and put him back in it. He's in it. He's in it. We're talking down to him. Pass that box up, Armand. I cannot, my hands are tied. I'll get it. He's in it. He's in it. We're talking down to him. Pass that box up, Armaud. I cannot. My hands are tied. I'll get it. Drop down, and I'll pull up everything of interest.

The small. Which boxes did you put in there? I think we got two of the crates and one of the little safes, if I recall. Little box. There's a special box. If I recall, one of the boxes broke. One of the boxes broke.

If I recall. Don't be wrong. We'll go back and check. We'll go back. We have at least one crate and one box, If I recall, one of the boxes broke. One of the boxes broke. If I recall, don't be wrong. We'll go back and check. We'll go back. But we have at least one crate and one box. There are potions? Indeed. Yeah, two of the potions. From the broken crate. Yes. So he looks at this. These are indeed examples of the contraband.

It began slow years ago and it's been ramping up in the recent year. The potions are the contraband or these boxes are the contraband? All of it. Half of one. Did you open all the boxes? No, we haven't opened any of them.

Open it. Let's see what it is. It was the black box. I passed it up to you all. It was the black. I passed it up to you. There's plenty the black. I passed it up to you guys. There's plenty of minds on this. Can I go look at that door and just check it for rusty hinges, a welded frame, a lock, anything,

just to see if it's off or off? Make an investigation check. I'll open one of these boxes. I have Laudna's head in my lap. I'm just sitting. 18. The door does appear to be locked. But there is, it doesn't have an overt knob or anything. It looks like it just has a pull handle,

but as you tug on it, it has something blocking the opening. And you can't really, you're not sure if it's something enclosed on the other side or if there's, oh no, you rolled an 18. I would say that you can tell that there is a slide bar

that is locking it in place from the opposite side. And there is a hidden mechanism to alleviate the bar's tension. Oh yeah, let me get to work on that. Okay, while you're working on that. I'm going to open the box. Okay, the crate or the black box? Did we get a full crate, or did we just?

I grabbed a crate. I'll open the crate first. Okay. Sorry, so it's a couple of potions from a smashed crate, a full crate, and a black box. Is that accurate? Five gold. And the black box was the more armored of the other.

Was the Cerberus Assembly insignia. You know, my mind space. Is that exactly what you wrote down? That's totally what I had written down, actually. Be very careful with that. The crate and the black box are both locked. Oh, the crate's locked? The crate is locked as well.

Though the black box looks like it has a more intense locking mechanism upon it. The two vials that you received that fell out of it, you look at them, too, and these crystal vials, similar in shape as to the things that you saw set within Fearne, that you saw set within that weird device on Otohan's back.

Oh. The crate has that? Cylinders, that weird device that she was wearing under the cloak. The crystal, and now you look at it, and you look at the crystal potions that you scoped up, and they look very similar to what you saw set within the two cylinders of the device on her back. Gray fluid.

Do they drop anything? A weird gray flowing fluid, and as you swirl it in there, you see it. It seems to ignore gravity for a moment before it settles in, almost like a slow-motion mercury that floats and then reconstitutes. Can you remind us, did we see those things

in action on her back? No, you just saw. Just saw some of them there on her. But we saw those things appearing from her back. We saw those mirror images. You saw those things appearing. Not connected to. But they came from behind her.

They seemed to more or less appear in spaces around her. But you did see energy flashing from underneath the cloak. She pooped them out. She pooped them out. More or less, yeah. She just took a big squat and made more poop fighters. Do you know what these are? Defidication. What?

Does Treshi, do you know what this is? These are? Is that how big it is? It's about that big. That big? What is this? What the damn is this? Outside of the human big. That big? What is this? What damn this? Outside of the Hena, are these horned? I do not know. I do not care to ask.

Look, the people I've been dealing with are very dangerous people and have shown historically that the less you know, the better chance you have of getting out alive. I made money. I made allies, and through this process, a lot of my house came to a higher prominence. I was a golden child for a time

before all this Shade Mother bullshit took down a few months. Honestly fucked everything up. So, just so we can make sure that we can get you out of here, who should we not trust? Give us a list of people you would not like to see on your way out.

Otohan Fu. If you can protect me from her, I will get everything you need. Anything. We can work on that. Who was attacking the shipment? I have no idea. Weakness?

It was that woman who showed up in there, but I assumed that that was, I'd heard that there was a bounty out from ahead in Jerusalem. I left and I assumed you were here for the same bounty, but your words say that you're into other interests. Yeah, we're altruists. I think we need to have a group meeting. You trying to unlock that door?

Yep. Working on that latch. You got it, go ahead and roll a... Does this all count as a rest? We're short resting right now? If you want to take it, make the search. Yeah, I'm just sitting there. Okay.

So we'll count this conversation as a short rest. Nothing real physically intense in this moment, unless somebody decides to, in which case it might shift. A dexterity check plus my Gloves of Thavery efficiency. That's a 26. 26. Shk! The door opens ever so faintly,

and you can see a tunnel beyond it. Good to know. Mm. Smells like? It smells a little musty. It smells like minerals and... Damp at all? Make a perception check for me with advantage.

Smells like fruit! Smell advantage. Yummy fruit! Fuck. 17. 17. The smell reminds you of a particular moment during the Deathwish run, in which you were pushing through a subterranean cavern

that existed beneath the plateau the city was built upon. That had a big, terrible creature in it. Yeah. Yep. The Fagoroth was in there. But it has that mineral, musty, earthy smell to it that stands in stark contrast to what the rest of the city smells like. That's good to know, though.

Yeah. Back door. I'll leave this door open, just in case we need to Just a touch. Skedaddle! That's a good point. If we're going to hit those crates or that box or somewhere where if it's trapped,

it won't fuck us up too much. Yes. The crate and box are locked. The crate and box are locked. We can probably assume that the crate has more of these potions in it. Let's assume. The box seems more interesting. Let's open the box in the hallway.

If you want to take your short rest to inspect the potions, you might be able to ascertain their nature. I do have Identify still. You do? But I'm not going to use it until we open the smaller black box. To see what that selection is.

Just in case that's more interesting. We should open it in the hallway. Should we open it? Can we open it? Yeah, check. Can you get this? It looks a little tricky. Can I check it for any kind of traps first? You may, make an investigation check for me. Just because.

Investigation or perception, your choice. Guidance. Which is a? Plus d4. You don't have any d4s? Hidden amongst the rest of them. I don't have advantage on this. No, you do not. This is not sent.

Amazing. 17, 18, 19, 20, 21. 21, indeed. The box is trapped. Okay. Let's take it into the hallway showing. If something goes wrong, I have a potion. Okay. It'll bring us all back to life.

Yeah, because I have a lot of hit points because I'm durable as fuck, 400 plus. We don't want to wait on this thing? No, I mean, you know. Should we wait while we're at least on a, so we can regain health points on a short rest? Can I tell from that check what kind of trap it might be? Or on what part of the apparatus?

Yeah. Does it want to do traps? There is, it is a very well-crafted box. You can see there's this heavy, polished iron frame to this black material, almost like a polished slate that has been polished to a dark, dark black with some sort of a coloring agent. The latch on the front of it,

you can see there is, beyond just the lock itself, there is some sort of a coloring agent. The latch on the front of it, you can see there is, beyond just the lock itself, there is some sort of a golden wire that is looped through and into the box on each side of where the key enters that you can just barely make out from the slight gap between where the latch covering and the actual slate box front is. You get the sense that even putting any sort of a key

or any sort of contact with there will trigger something. Something metal will trigger it. Yeah. Good thing. I'm a master of wood. What are you going to do, Chetney? Tell me how in this moment, your wood specialty becomes the heroic point. It's like I can still hear her voice.

So my options are use metal tinkerer's tools to try and pick the lock, but if I touch the gold wire, that's a problem. Correct. Or try and pick the lock with finesse wooden tools, but they are not as durable as metal. If that's what you'd like to try. Is the impression that metal touching the gold wire

would close the circuit, or is it just pressure on the gold wire? You get the sense, the way it's designed, it's not in the way of the key. Right now, it's just, if it touches it, like Operation. It's just against it, so it looks like it might, a metallic connection to the wire would be the trigger. Well, that's a high DC, I think.

Do you need me? Can you guide him again? You're trying to spring this ship? Or you could use my dude, I'm at one hit point. Sure, we could wait. You could hold my hand and use me as a tool. Which would be really exciting. Just hold my hand and you can use me as a tool.

Well, it's not that. The keyhole's very small already, but there's a thin gold wire on the inside of it, and if I touch it while I'm working on the lock, which isn't a problem, we all die. So I could either use a wooden tool and it wouldn't trigger that gold wire, and I can be a little bit more liberal

with my application of skill, or I'd have to be really careful with the metal tools. I know how we all wouldn't die. I'm going to do it in the sealed hole. Yeah, go in the tunnel and shut the door, yeah. Go in the hole. We'll close the hole. Yeah, it's just me in there. We'll count for a minute.

Yeah, it'll be fine. Open it up. No, no! We don't have any pills! What is she doing? Guys, we can't bring him back! If you hear a, you'll know what happened.

As if nothing had happened. We can just wait. What are we waiting five minutes for? If we wait an hour.. If we wait an hour. A little less than an hour, then we can all just heal up and be at full health. Yeah, let's wait an hour. Great.

There's no rush. In the meantime, I would like to have maybe a fucking private conversation. I'm going to, since he's in the hole, it'll just be a minute. I'm going to close the hole. Wait, wait. Yeah.

We got to tell Lord Eshteross, I cannot believe I am the fucking person saying this, but we have to let him know what the fuck happened right the fuck now. What? Does... Okay, okay. This is real bad. This is a hard conversation.

We've got to talk out what we're going to do next. Yes, we have to warn Eshteross. And next, we fix that. Fix what? Laudna. Oh, Laudna. We are fixing that. We got to get out of here.

Who can fix this, though? We will fucking find them. If Eshteross is running away, I mean, if we're going to tell him he's in grave danger, he's not going to be able to help us with this. But he's powerful. Maybe he knows people. Maybe he knows. But if he's running away from something,

how's he going to help us? If he can't help us, we'll fucking find someone. Maybe he knows of someone that can help us. If he can't, because he's got to save his own hide, is there anyone else who can help us? Yeah. I mean, we remember, we met that professor at that school in Drusar.

Yeah, oh, in Drusar. The one in the Learned Center that knew about. The one that we went to for you. Yeah. Ajit Dayal. Ajit Dayal, yeah. There's Hexum. What might Nott say? Does he know about reincarnation? I don't know, but he's got to have a hookup.

He's out of school. If Hexum's into some dirty stuff, we could get lucky. I'm happy owing more. I mean, we got to get back to Jrusar. That's the one. Maybe, unless Eshteross knows somebody around here. It's a long journey back. Five days, right?

My nana can bring people back. What? Has she done it before? Oh yeah. Yeah. What do you mean, oh yeah? Your nana? Where's your nana? Well, she's in the Fey Realm, but how do we get there? I don't know, actually.

Does your mom know? Her dad? Would she do it? I mean, we just heard a lot of stories about strings attached to any deal made with your nana. Also. But she's your nana. Also, if we go to the Fey Realm to try to ask your nana. Also. But she's your nana. Also, if we go to the Fey Realm to try to ask your nana for help, and we come back,

is the Apogee Solstice going to have happened 40 years ago? What are our other options? FCG, that's a great point. There is, okay, there is the... Terrible point, FCG. You should be very, very careful. There is the lord and lady of Laudna's hometown. Whitestone? Yes.

She was brought back once there. Maybe going there could bring back that thing. Yeah, but Delilah's. But they know everything there is to know about them. Yeah, so we talk to Delilah and get her to bring her back again. I tried. Maybe she has to be there or something.

Delilah is gone. But in the city, how did she get her back the first time? I don't know. She was powerful. She was really powerful. Delilah's gone where? Delilah lives in Laudna's head. She's not a physical being anymore,

at least not according to Laudna. But she's real, right? Well, yes, she's still some powerful entity. I thought she was like a goddess or something. But she certainly didn't respond when I- She is powerful. She's not a goddess. The Dorolos know everything there is to know

about that woman. That's one option. Another is calling my boss. Can she bring people back? Usually. She can bring people back? But wait, I thought... I thought...

I mean, how long can Laudna be? I don't know, but we could reach out to her. You could reach out to her, and she could maybe, not here, but she could come here. This is weird, but if we can figure out the right, sorry, tree, she could come here. That sounds amazing.

There aren't a lot of trees around here, but I'm just saying this to say it. Weren't you trying to protect her from the people who are in this city with us right now? Which is why we got to get out of the city to understand what the fuck is going on, FCG. I know, but you'd be bringing her. I'm not asking you to bring her

into the middle of this city. We got to get out of here. Okay. But we could get a day or two away, get a head start. So we call the airship. Yeah. It picks us up. Yeah. Then hopefully by the time it gets here, which is in a day,

then we'll know where we're going. And if she can come, we stay here for a day day and then we can leave. Sure, I know. Go back where she came from. But at least where she is, she's protected. If she meets us on an airship somewhere, I don't know, can't Otohan find us and find her?

Is she really going to listen? I'm just a random person in her head. But yes, we should definitely call her. She found a useful study. She knows where she lives. True. Does she do this a lot, your boss? Bring people back?

No. We try to not let that happen where I'm from. Right. Would she want money for it, or? I mean, I don't know. Laudna is a unique case. But I can't think of anyone better to ask than her or the Duralus. It's a solid option.

We've got a good list. We've got to rest and make our calls. Yeah, first priority is to get out of here and get somewhere safe to alert Lord Eshteross. As soon as the short rest is done, I'm going to send a message to the airship. Once we're done with this, I'm going to open the, it's not been close to 10 minutes, just not for.

For? Oh. Thank you for the privacy. Least I could do. You're good, you really... If you just count to 540, you don't have to worry until that point. Imogen, do you think someone needs to

take care of Pate and Sashima? I use my telekinesis to lift Pate up. Yeah, we should take care of him. Ah! I'm horny! Oh, I got a chubbuzz. It's really, it feels icky. Yeah, I'm walking away from that shit.

Really makes sense when she doesn't. I'm just going to keep him. I'll keep him on my belt for now. I'm slowly, just meticulously making wooden copies, thin slivers of my tinkerer's tools. Okay. Go ahead and roll a dexterity or intelligence check, your choice, plus your proficiency modifier. Tinkerer's slivers. Okay, I'll do the same and pause it. plus your proficiency modifier. Take a little sip first.

Okay, I'll have the same and plus five. Oh, 19 plus five, 24. 24. Within rapid time. To the point where you even take a moment to polish, you know, properly smooth. A little oil. Yeah, just make an impeccable replica

of your thieves' tools, made of shreds of leftover mahogany. Ooh. Nice hardwood, functional. Might only be good for one lock, but pretty solid. On the back end, I also worked in several different surface heads, so it functions as a toothpick as well.

Wow. Wow. Wow. Very, very impressive. I'll be impressed at the end of that process. We're going to do this in the pit? Have we rested? We're waiting an hour. We're waiting for an hour. I'm just doing this slowly.

Pantay is just petting Laudna's head. Oh, that's so creepy. Orym's going to sit down, crisscross applesauce, and hold Laudna's hand. Okay. All right, so you take your short rest. Yes. You can go ahead and spend some motherfucking hit dice.

No, shush! Stop being foul. You remember that we did a short rest, right? I think I remember that note, too, as soon as you said it. We did a previous short rest because I only have one hit die left, which I've just used if we are short resting now. I didn't use any of the hit dies

on the last short rest. I think I did, but I don't remember how many, so I'm just going to allow myself three today. Because I don't remember. I'm going to find it until this clusterfuck. There's a possibility that only I needed to do healing because I was the one who was, I think we fought me today.

Yeah, we fought you earlier in the day. So I had to heal myself a ton. That's why I used six of my seven hit die or something like that. I think I could go two. I think I'm allowing myself four. I'm going to use all my sorcery points. Oh no, when I finish a long rest.

Fuck me running! I thought it was a short rest. Do we do a long rest? Do we just? No, I'm working on this box. I'll go in the tunnel. We'll have to do it. Fuck! That means I'll have to do it.

I can't call the airship until we sleep. Okay, well then we should get to sleep soon. Until it's me. It's been a long day. Yeah. So much has happened. Fucking long day. Maybe something amazing will be in this box.

Don't worry, if I come out of here like Bruce Banner, though, you know what to do. Are you in the hallway? Not yet. I'm saying my goodbyes right now. Is that where we were going to put you? We're doing the hole? No, not in the hole. In the tunnel. In the tunnel. Well, we're going to put you in the hole, right?

Why? With our arms and all of our shit and the dynamite? No, No, not in the hole. In the tunnel. In the tunnel. Well, we're going to put you in the hole, right? Why? With our arms and all of our shit and the dynamite? No, we put him in the tunnel. What would that be special? I mean, we wouldn't know until it was over. I was thinking the tunnel might be better. Yes, the sound of it. Plus, if it goes bad, I could just scream and yell. We wouldn't hear anything. Please let me in!

We would hear nothing. We would just open up and find Potpourri. Do you have any other spell slots available? I have, yes, I have two first-level spell slots. Depending on how many sorcery points you have left, you can also convert spells into bonus points. No, I know I have zero sorcery points left. Gotcha.

I used up all seven sorcery points in the full day of fighting that we've had. Okay. Let's stay. It feels like it's been weeks. Give the old man some luck. Yeah, of course. Are you ready? Are you doing this?

Yeah, I was born ready. We're going wood tools first. Yeah, sure. Yep. I will guide you. I'm going to go over and flick your penis. Nipple beam. The tip of the beam? Guidance.

Double guidance? Can you double up on the guidance? No, but hers are fun. One of them's an iceberg now. Woo! I'm ready. What is it? Oh, it's a d4. We just did this, okay.

So here's the scenario. With the wooden... He was doing something else. The craft that you did, they will act as lock picks. The DC is the same, but if you roll less than 20, they break. Yeah, that's fair. Roll less than 20? Well, yeah.

But they still can work if they're broken? They can function. Well, no, if they're broken, they're broken. Got to roll higher than a 10. You don't know what the DC is for the lock. Oh, oh, oh, I understand. We good. Okay.

14, 20, 24. 24, okay. It takes you a moment, and you get the sense that this is an extremely intricate lock. Spending a few minutes with it and like this. This is that wire thing? Yep, yeah.

The sweat forms in your forehead. You can feel it dripping into your bushy eyebrows and starting to get in one eye and it stings a little bit. Oh, fuck me! Then eventually, does not trigger the trap. Oh! Release!

That was amazing. Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh. You open it up. I'm still seeing it, don't rush me. What are you doing there? It's triggered! It's horror! No, I'm okay.

You open it up. The box, which is about one foot by one foot or so, has a smaller, there's a thick wall to it. It's protecting what's inside, or at least is... There's a heavy buffer. The actual space within it is about six inches by six inches in the center. By six inches, like a cube.

In there, you see a pile of finely ground green glass. Oh, of sensual markers. Beer bottles. Could be a lens. Could be a lens. That lens was made for sensual. In little shards and pieces or any sort of crafted shapes?

No, actually. It looks all like it's been evenly ground to almost like a sand consistency. Whoa. Precisely calculated amount of that. Oh. Wait, is it powder? Right. It's like a sand. Oh man. Green residual sand.

Residual. I don't know what it's. Are you going to just snort it? Wow. I just do it number. What? What? Fuck. Only one way to be sure.

Oh! That's fucking terrible. Do we know what that is? Ah! Burns. If you'd like to roll an arcana, if anyone has more than zero in arcana, you can go ahead and roll.

Orym. Just one. Make a history check. Yeah. Come on, baby. Low DC specific. 26. Ooh! 26. Always roll high on those history checks. You know exactly what this is. You know this is, one,

this is the prime controlled export from Whitestone. You also know that your leader has been working with the Lord and Lady of Whitestone to ensure that this material, which as far as you know, is only available out of the Alabaster Sierras that surround Whitestone, doesn't fall into the wrong hands.

The fact that this has been shipped in this space is a concerning revelation. You also know that its application is used in the amplification of various forms of arcana, simple to extremely powerful. And you're in the tunnel with it. So, all right, we've wandered in. Ah, the drip's so good.

It's time. What? No. Why is there a dividend? It just got powdered. That's what I noticed. It's open! Put down the ecto-cooler. Fuck's sake.

It's piping in! Oh my god. Just your wolf tail, all of a sudden, just popped out and it's just wagging. Get in there! Okay, you're ready to go now? Just needed a few hours. Hey, Chet, can we bring this back into the room?

Just that little green pill. Okay. Carefully open. Okay, so this is from where I come from. Not exactly where I come from. This is from Tal'Dorei. It's extremely valuable. It is found in one place that I am aware of,

and it is bolstering my belief that we need to reach out to either the Barolos or the Tempest or both. This shouldn't be here. The other stuff, the stuff in the vials. Oh yeah. We have to figure that out. We have to figure that out. I can identify that now.

Is it dangerous, this stuff, or valuable? Yes. Oh. Yes. Okay. It's used to. Multiple choice. Multiple choice answered, yes. Okay, I go over with a finger. Always works.

Should we close it then in case we lose some of it? Yeah. I think Chetney spilled a little bit out because there's a little bit missing. Yeah, there's just... Can we not make a canon that Chetney person snorted it? It's not a cannon.

Give it to Fearne and put it in our inventory? Yeah. So we'd remember it. I can take care of it. Just add it to the inventory. Do you want me to keep track of the inventory? No. Because I did Disarm the Trap. Correct. I'm going to take this paper here. Yeah, so I don't think we can close it again.

Well. If we close it, it'll just be a simple picture. It's unlocked. Also just double up. Would it relock if we close? Any way to know? Yeah so I don't think we can close it again. Well. If we close it, it'll just be a simple matrix. It's unlocked. Also just double up. Would it relock if we close? Any way to know. You don't really know. Can I spend another?

You barely fucking picked that lock. Like, you didn't get high enough to fully understand it. You just know you managed to squeak by. I felt it. I saw the matrix. Yeah, yeah. Can I spend a minute to look at it now that it's open to see if,

being able to see inside of it, if I might be able to disable whatever the trap is or the trigger or the explosive or anything that's in there? If you'd like to make a roll for it. I'll just look. If I can't see it or if it's part of the inlay or whatever, I'll leave it alone. Investigation? Investigation, yeah.

18. 18? 13.5. There might be a way to disable it, but it's going to be a tough roll. We could transfer it. Yeah, let's do that. As far as I know, it's not combustible. It's not explosive, unless you add magic.

I mean, I am magic, but I think if we just leave the chest behind, that might be in our best interest. Otherwise, we're carrying around an open chest. I agree. With the symbol of a pretty bad organization on it. Just again, because it's that six by six and a big-ass chest, it's hollow,

or is it just padding on the inside? There's no other secret compartments to the? Thick metal. It looks to be a thick metal. Okay, okay. Like a lead? Lead can block people from being able to locate things. Oh. So if that

is a lead box, then I mean, it could be useful. Would they be able to track that specific dram of? They would try to track the box because they wouldn't be able to track the residuum. So I mean, wherever we leave that box, if we leave it under Joe's place, we're leaving him at risk.

That's true. Joe has other boxes, I'm sure. Yeah, but if anyone tries to... But this one specifically. But this one goes out to the cave. Then leave it deep in the cave. Is there a reason it's in that casing? Is it very dangerous just on its own?

Can we just put it in a baggie? Yeah, does it have a bad attitude if it gets jostled? Well, we have to not, I mean, we have to be careful with you guys. Roll an arcana check for me, Orym. Around it. Take a number, Orym. 19. 19.

Residuum can be very dangerous or volatile if the magic channeled through it is dangerous and volatile, because it is an amplification material. However, it is just an amplification material, so depending on the magic that it's utilized with, it can have unpredictable, if powerful, results, which is why it's so sought after and dangerous. You can also entirely replace material components

based on the worth of it. Yeah, that is correct. I take one craggy finger now and I hold it up to Armin. Jesus Christ. Good, Chet. So it's an amplification material. For magic stuff. So you don't want to fire anything into it. It's not going to catch fire normally, but.

Your 20s are always the best the fourth time around. You don't want to run any kind of sorcerer shit through that. This place's creepy. What do we have that we could put it in? Me? No. I'm not putting it in. Or any box that Joe has.

I mean, he has lots of stuff. Or a pouch. I have a bunch of bottles. I have a bunch of random ass bottles. You might. Should I ask him? I'm just going to knock on the door for a second. Okay. Yes?

Joe, do you have a lead box up there or down here? A small lead box? I have lead. I don't have a box. Can you make a small box out of lead? How small? How soon? I mean, soon? Tomorrow. Enough to hold a cantaloupe.

That's an odd request. We do have a lot of things currently in the queue that we're in the process of developing. That'll be a bit of a premium to go ahead and bump it to the front, but. You got it. Whatever you need. I got a bag of gems, man. It doesn't have to be pretty. You can just,, but. You got it. Whatever you need. I got a bag of gems, man.

It doesn't have to be pretty. You can just, you know. Yeah, it can look like shit. It just needs to be made of lead. Yeah, just secure. You're aligned with lead, right? Look like shit, the better, actually. 300 gold? Got it. Yes, sir.

All right. I mean, he's covering our asses. Sure, sure. We should be paying him for that. So. I'm going to get rid of this box. I'll be back. If you don't hear from me in an hour, I'm dead. Right. I just take the box and I start walking down the tunnel.

Okay. But I'm slowly keeping an eye out for any pressure plates or any other weird shit. Understood. Make a perception check for me. You're going with him. I'm going with him. He's not going with himself. Natural 20! Yeah! Nice! Pretty confident that there is nothing affixed to this tunnel that is a trap as you move through.

It does go on for quite a while. The box is pretty heavy, too, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I start dragging it after we're like... It's not terribly heavy. Well, actually, with the lead, it's pretty heavy. No, you're right. The contents are not heavy, but the box itself is really heavy. I mean, I'm strong as fuck,

but you know. You're very much... Once I'm out of pride's reach. As you go. Oh, there are wheels on it. Did you see? It does grind through. But no, you continue on for a while before the tunnel opens up into an underground cavern.

You, with darkvision, have no issue seeing, but there is definitely the familiar interior of this subterranean tunnel network that you had ridden through beneath Bassuras. So glancing about, you're uncertain at the moment, which direction goes where, but it definitely opens up into a cavernous space. You mean anoid tunnel, right?

Not a wide tunnel that hasn't gotten wider and wider as we get to the mouth of this thing? Right now, it's about 15 feet, and now it opens up into a 30, 40-foot cavern. So Orym, we're going to play a game called Run, okay? I just fucking throw the box into the cavern. Shook! Run back.

You got it, all right. So you both run back to the chamber. Good point. Return, okay. There's a. You got it, all right. So you both run back to the chamber and return. Okay. I'll hold one of those vials of gray liquid, I guess. And I will, my lens will pop down. I'm going to use Identify. All right. I'm going to close.

The box did not detonate. I'm going to close the hole again so that our friend doesn't have to learn what the fuck we found. Sure. For your own good. Mm-mm. Okay. You focus on it, and as your eye focuses, the flash of built-in, knowledgeable, arcane power

flares for a moment into your eye, and as it does, you begin to ascertain the nature of this strange vial. This is a Potion of Possibility. Potion. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. When you drink this clear potion, you gain two Fragments of Possibility. Two Fragments of Possibility?

Each of which looks like a tiny grayish bead of energy that follows you around, staying within one foot of you at all times. Each fragment lasts for eight hours until used. When you make an attack roll or ability check or saving throw, you can expend a fragment to roll an additional d20. Then you choose which of the d20s to use.

Alternately, when an attack roll is made against you, you can expend a fragment to roll a d20 and choose which of the d20s to use, the one you rolled or the one the attacker rolled. They got all the toys. So two of those? Two of those, but what about the other crate we have? Probably has another one or two in there.

Maybe. Should we open up that crate and find out? It's up to you, it's long. Let's do it. Chetney, is this trapped? What? You're so talented. Is that crate trapped? Let me look.

Investigation check. Guidance. Thank you. Whoa, that's not good. 14. 14 seems to be safe. Seems to be safe. Well, take it in the tunnel, maybe.

Take it in the tunnel. What's the box made of? Wood? Metal? Wood can't hurt you. Not me. Take it in the tunnel. Okay. Shut can't hurt you. Not me. Take it to the tunnel. Okay. Shut the door after me. After me. I'll use my regular thieves tools on this.

Okay. Since we are not stepping into the tunnel, we're going to go ahead and just change our positioning here. We are underground. Yeah. See you guys later. Can't wait to see what you rolled up. All righty. so you go ahead and

you're trying to unlock it? Yeah, I'm going to try and unlock it, even though I have no idea if it's trying to do that. Wait, wait, wait, wait! Open the door! Don't do it, don't open it. Open the door! What's the password? Grendel.

That might be it. That was about to be it. I'll open it. You got me. Oh, again? Sure. Got you. Thank you. Clothes are gold. Dope.

Super dope. 28. Woo! 28. Those gloves are the favorite, y'all. Man, all right. So this lock, it's an intricate lock. It's not as intricate as the lead box was, but it's still fairly decent design to it.

You realize in that moment that the lock itself appears to have been trapped and you missed it in the first go. You realize in the same moment, being a person who is so well versed in wood, that this lock isn't as well fastened to the wood crate itself. So as opposed to unlocking the lock itself,

you whittle around the lock until it's no longer attached to the crate. Yeah! So good. Awesome. With there, you set it down gently into a pile of gently marked shavings. I pocket the shavings, nothing goes to waste. Just sawdust in your pockets.

Yeah, it makes a good deodorant, or antiperspirant. Open the lid, and there are six more of these potions in there. Six more? There's only two in the box. Open the door. All right. Wow, two more, that's great.

Two more. Two potions. See the riches in the fucking box, man. They must have been damaged in the heist. So I know what they are and what they do? Thank you. Do we all wait? As part of Identify, you know exactly what they do.

You don't understand their nature. So we all take one of the potions because there's six of them. No, there's eight of them. Oddly, you would learn the general school of magic that you're familiar with as part of the Identify spell helps you understand the nature of it.

This is something you've never encountered before. This doesn't fit directly into transmutation or evocation or divination. It sits outside of it. It's not something you've ever encountered or read. It's very odd. Two nematic immunity. Each take one of the potions

and then leave two. Is he telling us that he has them? Yeah, he just made it. Keep two in the group inventory and then everybody mark down one in your own inventory. One potion of possibility. You got the inventory, lady? Yeah, what's it called? Well, we also have

a backup potion of possibility. Potion of possibility. What? Because we know it probably Not Imogen. Imogen is obviously not keeping inventory, but Laura is keeping inventory in addition to it. You're taking a second inventory list just because you don't trust Ashley Johnson? No, I completely trust Ashley Johnson.

I do not. Ashley Johnson told me she didn't trust Ashley Johnson. I, this is not my specialty. That's fair, that's fair. I am disorganized and I'm a scatterbrain, so. I trust you. Okay. Oh, cool.

Would that be something we can add in the potion? You can, look at that. Indeed. It just popped right up. But the strength is knowing this about myself. That is a strength. It is. Self-awareness is very important, too. I got a lot of it.

Ooh. So it just stays up until you use it? Or until eight hours later, in which they vanish. Oh, so those are your possibility unless you're planning on using it in the next eight hours, exactly. Last more than eight hours, please contact your physician.

That's what I did. Oh. That potion sure would have helped when Laudna rolled that one. I've got persistent possibility. Yes, it would have. when Laudna rolled that one. I've got persistent possibility. Yes, it would have. Oh man. Damn.

Well, we were running. It's just pulse, not pause right now. Because you're not typing it in correctly, dude. I did POS, though. That's POS. Is that all of the crates and boxes and shit? It doesn't have it. You must not have our Critical Role Contest.

Can you explore? I don't know you. Do a sweep if you want to. Unique equipment, I open the hole. Critical roll. Contest. I don't know if you can do a sweep if you want to. Unique equipment. Actually, please keep a note of it. I'll drop down into the hole. I don't want to put it in the hole with Armand, though. I'm just going down anyway. I don't want to put those potions in there.

No, no, no, we're holding on there. Okay. We can take Armand out of the hole, what? No. Not yet. What is he going to do? Your head still tied? Not quite. What is he going to do? Your head's still tied? Not quite tied. Turn around and show me.

Do we have one of those clothes, by the way, still? One of the what? Paragon's Call clothes. Okay, you're good. We must. Do you need any water or anything? They could use some water, actually, if you have some. Me too. I'll let you know if you find any. Are there any other boxes down here or anything?

There is a Gianna Hexenbust. Oh, the one that looks like you? The one that, yeah. There's some Taste of Tal'Dorei tankards. Four sticks of dynamite, apparently. How do you know? You're not the inventory person. We used to have five sticks, but now we have four because we used one of them somewhere.

I have one on my person. I go over to Tresh. I just pat him down, make sure he hasn't grabbed any of his shit sitting down here. Okay. Make an investigation check. Or see if he just has anything good. That's true.

Lying liar. Fucking awesome. 24. 24. Check for a cock ring of Revivify. Yep. I give a full, like... Full pat down. I never told anyone about that thing, I don't know. I love my gut.

Yeah! After a... I got three of them lined up, just in case. Three of them. A thorough, illegal airport pat down. Favorite? No, nothing. You get the sense that whatever immediate belongings

he had with him were left behind in the Seat of Disdain or had been confiscated when he was placed within his cell slash guest room. Has not grabbed anything else from the chamber because there was nothing for him to grab that seemed to be of use in the moment. Fair enough. I am taking a little bit of rope.

Well, I'm going to walk over to Imogen. We're going to fucking fix this, okay? Trust me. We're going to fucking fix this. What are you going to do? Whenever we have to. Don't panic. You can help if you want. I'm going to lay some of the Paragon Call blankets down

and then gently wrap Laudna up and then tie it together so she'll be easier to carry and not be a cadaver that we're running around with. Okay. Okay. Like a Bjorn sash? I mean, you've seen a mummy. There's a spell that will make the body last longer. I'll look it up.

I don't have any spells currently, but I'll look it up. In the morning. In the morning. Okay. That's metagaming for that. That's all our boxes and crates and everything we need to? Okay, and SAM, and MATT, That's metagaming for that. That's all our boxes and crates and everything we need to. Okay.

No spells either. All right, so what now? Are you resting up here for the evening, here in the basement of Imahara Joe's shop? Yeah, I mean, we could stay here. We could take our chances down that passage and save Joe the trouble. I think as long as we're keeping watch,

if we hear something coming, then we can drop into the tunnel. That's right. We can skedaddle. Because we know he'll open the door, but if it's empty, then no harm, no foul. We stay unless there's a commotion above. Cool.

Oh, and we have that statue. Yeah. I'm going to pull that statue. It'll help. We're going to pull it out and we'll put it on the other side of the door so if we have to run through the door, we can just tip it. Oh.

And shut the door real well. Nice. Okay. All righty. Which statue is this? Is this the shifting face statue? Does it want to change its face? Shifting face statue. Yes.

I wonder if we still have that. I did just randomly roll it. I love that Arman was just dealing with ship? Just want to change the shape. I wonder if we still have that. Yeah, just randomly roll it. I love that Arman was just dealing with a statue smashing into him in the hole. We do it a lot better than the grog bag of holding. That thing was a fucking meat locker of horror. Yeah. Yeah.

Brought me poop. We actually had to get you a cooler, didn't we? Decaying body parts. Getting hit with a statue of his own face. Yeah. Appropriate. All righty. So you are taking a long rest.

Is anyone keeping watch? Yes. Yeah. All right, who's keeping first watch? I will. Go ahead and make a perception check for me. With advantage, all the rest of you begin your evening's rest. Sleepy, guys.

Fuck. That's pretty good. That is a 24. Okay. First quarter watch, or I would say a third, since it's in three waves for a 10-hour period, for us, everyone gets an eight-hour watch, or an eight-hour sleep. You will be watching until the end of the afternoon

into the early evening, since you definitely set up here a little earlier in the day, comparatively. Even with the short rest entirely, but no major event. You can hear now work going on upstairs in the Mojahojo shop. A couple of shouts here and there, some conversation.

It's like a music box that's put on for a bit to keep the work atmosphere going. It looks, or sounds, I would say, like they're getting to work on your box. But you finish your watch, no major issue. I would say that the whole time, I also couldn't stop thinking about Thule and thinking about Thule and thinking about seeing Imogen reminding me

of my own day six years ago and how much there's to do. Mm-hmm. Okay. That's it. You finish your watch. Can we take a second watch? I'll take it. You finish your watch. We take a second watch? I'll take it. All right.

Whoever else rests, Chetney, if you don't mind, go ahead and roll a perception check for me. 18, 19. 19, okay. Partway into your watch, into the later bit of the evening, you hear the door open up top. Oh shit.

A couple of heavy footfalls hit. Anymerharjo's voice go, Hey, stranger, can I help you at all? The voice goes, Yes, we're looking for some problem makers who might be involved in an assault on the seat. Do you know anything about this, Joe? Well, I don't know why you're coming to me for this.

What do they look like? Are they coming around for a reason? Well, yes. Word is around here that these same people were doing some business in your shop in recent days. Got some crawlers from you for the recent Deathwish run. You're all watching that.

You know what we're talking about? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, they're out-of-towners, right? New folk came in here, kind of tore through the run. Took down some of your folk, too, if I recall. Yeah, yeah. You seen them anywhere, Joe?

Bit of a pause. Wish I could help you, buddy. I haven't seen them since they left. Isn't that right? You hear a couple of the voices go, Yeah, yeah, no, no, no, no. Say, okay, okay. You don't mind if we have a look around, do you? Be my guest. I got nothing to hide.

It's just my workshop, though. I mean, it's a lot of tools and we'll take a while. I'm going to press a digitation to the ground to make it look like we weren't here. A few other bootfalls begin to enter the chamber on the wood above. When the low lantern light peeks through, you can see the shape of shadows moving overhead.

Some shifting of chairs. Moving of curtains. Why don't we have a look in your workshop at the back? Oh, please, be my guest. What are you all doing? We're in the tunnel now. The door has been shut. I would wait until there's a large sound

to just try and shut the latch on the other side of the door, but not until there's a bang or something. Okay. Until they're moving the fucking... Anything else. Yeah. Okay. Then holding her breath.

A few quiet moments pass, walking around, shifting of things. A growl, Joe going, I, look, we've been in good standing for a while. I've been really helpful here. I have nothing to hide on this. And believe me, if anyone was trying to get involved

in some of your business, I would really not want to be a part of that. So... No, I... But I wouldn't be doing my job if I wasn't thorough. Why is the dust shifted on this? Oh, it's just our storage area. Don't worry about that.

Oh, I think I'll worry about that just for a moment. After all, you got nothing to hide, right? Yeah, yeah, no worries. Let me just go ahead and move that out of the way. You mind helping me over here? Let's move it here. Shit, why are you so clumsy? Sorry, it's a heavy table. Shifting off to the side.

While that's happening. We've moved the latch when that large sound hit, and now Ashton and I are holding just on the other side of the side. While that's happening. We've moved the latch when that large sound hit, and now Ashton and I are holding just on the other side of the door. Yeah, same. We're in the tunnel? We're in the tunnel, yeah. And I press a digitation to the ground to make it look like we were not there.

I take it you've closed up the hole? Oh yeah. The minute we had something, we closed it up. That was one of the first things we did early on. And are you staying there? I'm staying there with Ashton if you guys want to go further down the tunnel, but. I'm going to stand and hold the door.

They may see the door. So we have Fearne, we have Kenny, and we have Ashton waiting at the door. Okay. The rest of you are heading down the tunnel. Just a ways? Sure, a ways. Do we need light down here, or should we?

It is pitch black. I'm using Stancing Lights. Okay. Okay, and I'll go out front. We'll track the lighting orbs. Far enough away where it wouldn't peek under the door, right, the light? Far enough down. Okay. It only gives 30 feet or,

no, I don't remember what it gives, but I'll go far enough down. Okay. 120 feet. Fuck me, running. Oh god. Maybe no dancing lights. I'll do one single dancing light far away. I just don't want it to come out. Yes, exactly. I know. Far away.

You hear it beyond the door. Thank you. Give it the rounds. Your feet at their footsteps, coming down the steps behind. You hear rummaging and moving, crates being shifted. No, the minute I heard the sound, I got really dancing. I don't like it, I don't like it.

You should do a thaumaturgy. Okay, okay. Okay. SAM and LAURA make a sound. Okay. I think I'll get a little more rest. Yeah. You look at the back, and you hear multiple footsteps now

rising up the stairs once more before . You hear the footsteps. I think we're okay. Unless they left somebody in the room, just wait. Wait. How long do you wait? Until we hear them leave the shop.

If it's been a while, I'm going to slowly back up. Been a while. Just get a second of air in that thing. Okay. Good looking out. Yeah. Wait, you know what I can do? Just do it.

I'm going to use Open Mind to see if there's any thoughts on the other side of that room. Yeah. Okay. Oh, good idea. Gwen. All right, so you're casting this using Open Mind. Oh yeah, because I don't want any spells left. Okay, so that would be with people

that are in your proximity, in order to get them within proximity. It would be three people, so. Hosts of the day, they'd have to come back to the door. Three people and then the individuals you're going for, which would be three more in the basement. Well, I would do it after they left. So I'm trying to see if anybody is still in the basement.

Okay, okay, so go ahead and roll for me. Okay. And I add anything to it? I can't remember. It should be under the open mind ability. Yeah. It's a DC the Open Mind ability. Yeah. It's a DC plus the number of minds that are within a distance of you.

Open up your mind. Class features? Open Mind. You cast Wisdom saving throw. Okay, Wisdom Saving Throw? Okay, Wisdom Saving Throw, which is, I rolled a 12, and the DC is eight plus the number of creatures, so I succeeded.

Okay, all right. You expand your consciousness beyond the doorway, keeping all the whispers and thoughts at bay, pushing off into the space beyond this ecris. Nothing finds you there. They're gone. It's about this time that you hear, Well, Joe, there is quite a purse,

should you have any information about these individuals. Otohan would personally be happy to do a favor and pay very handsomely. So stop on by, should anything come into your periphery. And thank you for your cooperation. You hear numerous exhales from above. Amazing. Open the door.

Aw. Poof. We don't have to go into the cavern. We could stay in here. Yeah, let's go to sleep. I just sleep in the cavern and go, Thanks, Joe. I was going to say, if I want to go in there and go, thanks, Jone. That was a pucker moment.

Yeah. 400 gold. Yeah, sounds right. Appreciate it. Fair. You get back to rest. Who's taking the last watch? I'll take the last rest. Okay, perception check, please.

As I'm resting, I'm watching Chetney the whole time I'm resting. I've just got my blade out. Just spinning it and looking at him while he sleeps, remembering how we started this day. Oh no! What the fuck? Perception?

18. 18, okay. While interrupted mid-sleep, the rest of you find a return to a very exhausted and necessary rest. You keep an eye out. Everything seems to be fine. Until you finish a long rest.

Oh! So we can all take a long rest. I have a question. Yes. Did I, I mean, obviously, you probably would have said it if I had. Yes, you did. So I didn't have... No, what's your question?

So I didn't have the dream that Laudna walked into the storm like Bertrand did? Not in the moment, though. Okay. That's comforting. At the moment? No. It's the first night of rest. But you do feel a little element lingering, a little bit of that buzz

from that moment that doesn't quite subside. Like the faintest of butterflies that just continue to turn in your stomach. Yes, I feel that right now. I feel it. So go ahead and look at your feets. My feets? Yeah. Ooh. What? You did that fucking shit?

What did you do that? What? How? Sneaky. With D and DBR. So you all come to consciousness, finishing your long rest. You can go ahead and heal up as you want to. Sore, tense, battered, emotionally spent,

but physically recovered to a certain point. But the day is yours. What would you like to do? Chetney. Yes? I want to talk to you about what happened yesterday. Huh? When I was feeling weird and you about what happened yesterday. Huh? When I was feeling weird and you came and hit me. Mm-hmm. Thank you.

Thank you for trying to reach out, and I'm so sorry for what I did to you. Now more than ever, we need to stick together. I'm sorry about that. Oh, well, I wouldn't worry too much about it. It just seemed like you needed to let off some steam or something. I shouldn't have taken it out on you,

and I know that I said some things and I shouldn't have to all of you. So I stayed up during the night to make you this. Oh! It's a toolbox for your wooden tools. Oh! Oh no! And look your wooden tools. Oh! Oh no! And look at the frame.

Oh! I used my blade to carve it during the night. It's not as fine workmanship as you, but. No, it's not. But I thought that you might like it. How? How? Oh, I love it. I love it so much. God, it's awful. I love it so much.

God, it's awful. I love it. All of you mean so much to me. I'm sorry that I did that to you. For Laudna's sake, we got to stick together and be honest with each other and not hide money from each other. You know, just in general.

That's a general comment, not directed at anybody. FCG, this is so great. And can I just say, it's not all bad what happened yesterday. I am actually encouraged by what I saw you throw down with. That's the shit I'm talking about. So if you need to let that out every once in a while, on our enemies, fully encourage a while, on our enemies, I fully encourage it.

Just on our enemies, because when your eyes go red, that's some crazy shit, but I'm here for it. Well, it sounds like I'm not the only one who has some dark powers hidden within. We should probably, maybe just a little bit. Get the fuck out of here? Talk about

Oh. The breaking down of a block of buildings and Ah. Rules mechanics have an ear. That was a lot. Sorry. No, you're fine.

I just, we were talking, we made, that was, what did you do? It was like a boof. I'm getting so tired of this. I close the fucking tunnel, the hole again. Oh, I took it out. I'm sorry. Oh, I've been holding it.

I was going to say, I've been holding it. I'm going to let you take care of that. I have no idea what happened. I have no idea. I lost control. I don't, I felt more in control than I'd ever been at the same time. There was so much.

And then Otohan was there. She was super into you. And then she just wasn't. Did anyone see what happened to her? I hit her. And then when we came back to the city, she just was gone. Came back? Where'd you go?

I don't know. Everything was white. Everything was stormy. Everything was just gone. She just wanted you. She didn't want us. Clearly. I'm sorry I ran. Why did she want you? I assume because

we have similar sort of abilities. I mean, did she talk to any of y'all in your mind as well? Maybe. No. Yeah, she did to you. Oh, well did she talk to any of y'all in your mind as well? Maybe. No. Yeah, she did to you. Oh, well, she reached into my mind. Yeah. I don't know. That white flash was weird.

That's all I'm going to say, is that white flash was kind of weird. I've never had anything like that happen. I mean. That was more, I didn't think I was capable of it. Well, you've never removed a city block before? Not to my knowledge. Also, in that moment, it's like,

I saw my mother, and as far as I know, she's, she, she was gone from the day I was born. I don't remember her in my childhood. And she was there. She was there. What do you, wait, what do you mean? Like, at the end of?

I saw into my memories. I saw my mother before she left. I think she was really powerful. She was still talking to me. Your mom? Yeah. Did Otohan talk to you in this? I mean, she was trying, but my mother was still telling me to get away from her.

Just to be 100% clear, your mom in this vision was not Otohan, right? No. She's not the same person, two different? No, she's not. Okay. And your mom's told you to run before? Every dream. My mother always tells me to run away from a storm.

Are you sure she's saying that you should run away from the storm and it's not that you should run away? Wait, huh? What's the difference? Well, the storm would be the thing that's dangerous. What if, sorry, Wait, huh? What's the difference? Well, the storm would be the thing that's dangerous. What if, sorry, what if you're the thing that's dangerous?

You did make some pretty big bone. Well, how could she run away from herself? I mean, if you ever, I'm just saying, if I ever removed a city block and the people around me were hurt, I think they'd probably be scared. Didn't you say your dad always kept a distance? Yeah.

I'm not scared. I'm not scared of you. I'm not either. I fuck with you big time. But like... Yeah. Did anyone else see anything? See anything? Like visions or something? Yeah, did anyone else see anything?

I mean, I saw some old... some old flings. Oh yeah. Oh yeah, when she went off, I saw some stuff, too. You did? Me too. Another land and lots of automatons and a man who was mean and a woman who was nice. I don't know where it was or who those people were, but.

Automatons like you? Or like Oatmeal? No, like me. Well. I saw my parents. Your parents? Yep. Aren't you an orphan? I'm going to give you 10 seconds to work that out.

So you do have parents. Five. But I didn't know if you ever knew what they looked like or saw them. I don't. Then how did you know that they were them? I do. You just know.

I... You just knew. It's a dim memory that was just suddenly really fucking clear. Do you want to tell us what they looked like? Oh. They were, actually, I've been meaning to ask, did that helmet, the armor and the helmet

is exactly what I think it is? It was the, okay. Is that like, hmm? They were football players. Oh. Is it the armor that you took? The helmet that I, yeah, was the stuff we saw in the museum.

I don't know why it did something. The helmet that you took from the museum. You remember he took the armor in the museum? Yeah, he took some stuff from the museum. I pull out. The Gianna Hexen? Why was it there? I pull out the helmet that I stole from the museum. It was some sort of ritual, I guess.

I don't know. They were doing something. I think my mother said, I believe, I think it was my mother said, it begins. Then I woke up and had to. It begins. I don't know.

What? This is it. This fucking thing is it. It's what I fucking got. Is that helmet or armor from somewhere that you recognize or people? What did it say in the museum where it was from? Do we remember?

Did you write it down? I did, and it's a... It sounded like Ashari, but it wasn't Ashari. Yeah. That's right. Ashari. Ashari. Which, while the term, the language base is similar, it isn't Ashari-based. It is more elemental-based.

It's what the secondary portion of the word is derived from. What if you put it on? I'm not putting it fucking on. Okay. What if it's like a lock and a key? What if you put it on and you grow wings or some shit? I throw it to you. You figure it out.

You can see that it is a cured leather mask and headband combination where there are these leather tendrils that curl up almost like a living flame in the back that weave and pull upward. There is a sculpted heavy brow that pulls across the nose. It looks like it's a ceremonial dress

more than it is an armor. Got it. I'm going to, just while everything's happening, I'm going to send a message to the captain of our airship. It also looks slightly damaged. Xandas? Yeah, or the headpiece. Can I do?

I can identify it. Yeah, I was going to do an investigation check. I feel like we did. It was a basic-ass thing last time we were here. Yeah, it wasn't. I recall it's just a basic-ass thing. It's just a helmet. Like a ceremonial headdress.

I'll admit I was working out the courage to talk to you, Orym, and I, because I don't know, thought maybe, I don't know, I thought maybe you would know what the fuck it is. I don't know. I don't know what the fuck I was thinking. It would have triggered any kind of knowledge

or memory I had when I saw it the first time. Roll a history check. That's an 18. 18. You've heard about it once, the Ashari village. It's kind of, at least in Ashari terms, it's used as a tale to spook people it's used as a tale to spook people

from toying with the elements if they don't know what they're doing. Okay. You don't know much beyond that. You know that it was a group of people that delved into things they didn't fully understand or knew how to control. But it's somehow connected to my people, or? Only in the sense that the Ashari are considered,

and long historically, guardians of the elements within Exandria, both control and uncontrollable. What the Ashari village did was reckless, and they paid for it. That's basically what you know. the Ishari village did was reckless, and they paid for it. That's basically what you know. Okay, I'll share that little dribble of info. Yeah, that was a memory of the last day

I spent with my parents. How old were you? Too young to remember. And... Who were you? Too young to remember. I remember vaguely watching everything fucking go, everything just rip apart. What do you mean? Metaphorically, physically, what do you mean?

Oh. Wind and light and air and people flinging through the air, cracking and breaking. This is your last memory of your parents? Yeah, I woke up wandering the deadlands outside the city.

Stop it. After however long they fucking found me. Put me in the Greymoore home. So there was a cataclysmic event with your parents and elemental forces? I don't know. You remember them saying, It begins. I remembered saying, it begins.

I remembered it today, yesterday. Imogen, did you see any of this in us while we were seeing these things? I know you said some weird shit in my head. Well, in the past, but yesterday, no. It was just the storm. So you, prior to that moment, when you had that memory,

you didn't remember it before then? It was vague. Okay. It was not... It was not faces I could pull together, not words I could really put together, just flashes of something. It was a very long time ago

and I was a very different person. And a lot's happened since then. And it's not really the sort of thing one really wants to dwell on as much as possible. Plenty of other awful fucking things to dwell on. I'll tell you what I know. I don't have a lot of answers,

but this schoolwoman is playing a long game and whatever she's interested in with you, she's not going to stop. These are the people who attacked my home and took my family from me. That was six years ago. They seem a lot further into whatever plans they have. So if she's willing to play

whatever game they're playing for years, then she's not done with you. I know. So there's no point sitting around wondering. We need to get help for Laudna, I hope. Then we got to find this woman and stop her. I've called the airship. We've got to find this woman and stop her.

I've called the airship. I'm calling the airship. I call, okay. Before all of this, as soon as we woke up, I called the airship. Okay, okay. So you're reaching out to, I believe, Captain Zandis, then? Captain Zandis of the Silver Sun. You got it.

Well, hi, Zandis. Oh, hey, Zandas. Oh, hey, Zandas. We need you to come get us at the edge of town. Lay low, if you can. It's hectic here. We are on the run. Come fast, please. We are on the run. Come fast, please.

Oh, hey there. Yeah, you're in luck. We've been circling around for a bit, so really only about a half a day away. Half a day. Okay. Sucks you're on the run, that dude. You want to get word to Estrelstor? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I should mark these spells off, that's for sure. Then maybe that's where we hold, unless you can think of who you want to talk to to fix our problem. Should I call? Uh-huh. Sorry. No, what? Well, I know we're all a little unsettled, but,

and obviously, Miss Laudna, but how do you feel after that? Do you feel the same, different? It's hard to tell, Chet, because I feel really sad. Right. Um... I feel like there's a bit of a... Like a fuzziness at the back of my brain, if that makes sense.

Little pinpricks that weren't there before. When I look at my arms, do the marks look any longer at all than they were? They've crawled at least an inch to an inch and a half up from where they previously were. So they're getting out of here now. They're now higher. Just press the elbow. Orym just abruptly hugs her around the knees,

above the knees, and you hear down by your thigh, We're real sorry, Imogen. I'm so sorry. I feel like if I hadn't run away, none of this would have happened, and you guys wouldn't be hurt, and then Laudna wouldn't be gone. I just thought we were all running,

and then she just kept coming for us. We were. We were running. We had to. She wouldn't have even gone after you if... It's like she was trying to make me break. That might be so, but we went into her house. All of us. I just didn't know how powerful she was.

I just didn't know how powerful she was. I just didn't understand it. There was a love that we didn't know. Yeah. And that's not your fault. I didn't mean to be insensitive before. I mean, we didn't know how powerful she was. It seems like she's the only one that knew how powerful you were.

Yeah. I know a thing or two about people being afraid of you. I just want to help you embrace it, or control it, or use it, or something, but we were all on the same team. You didn't run. We all did. She was just fucking strong.

Yeah. Could we see if Otohan had those? Or probably not with her armor. Her whole body was covered in leather armor, except for the fingers were exposed and her head. Those barrels on her back. Just pure magic potions on her back. No, I was down there fucking around

near her ankles at one point. It looked like these big cylinders that were under her cloak, but I couldn't get too good of a look. You got to look at it. Do they look like the things that we had? Yeah, yeah. Looked like they were metallic cylinders

and they were set into them. What was set? The crystalline potion. The crystalline potion. The gray, yeah. You can use those things that will. Fuck. That's...

I've been meaning to ask, do you know what that is? What is? These? The mark of Ruedas? I don't fucking know. Do they hurt? No.

Do you remember when... I can't remember if we've talked about this before. Do you remember when those first showed up? Yeah, they started showing up when I started having dreams. How old were you? About 18. How do they make you feel?

These? Yeah. Well, up until yesterday, they kind of felt good. I mean, at first they were terrible. It let everyone in town know I was different, you know? And then as soon as I realized I could defend, like,

when I defended Lana when she came to town, then it was like, they were, they were proof that I was stronger than I thought I was. But now it just feels like evidence. Looks like proof to me. You fucking saved us. Yeah. You saved all of us, and we're going to save her, too.

Yeah, we will. That's proof that you're going to be able to fucking do it. Yeah. I don't want to give it in. I don't want to be like Otohan. So don't. That's some hero shit, man. And also,

it seems that you're more powerful than her, or could be. Maybe just in that moment, you know, she wasn't expecting a fucking blast to the face. If we learned anything yesterday, it only takes one moment. We all know now that that's in there. And that saved us. Yeah. in there. And

that saved us. Yeah. I mean, you took down a city block, but that's pretty fucking cool. But at the same time, you guys didn't get blown away like the buildings did, so maybe there was part of me protecting you at the same time? That's how I feel about it. I think so.

You think you could choose when to do that, Power? Oh. You know, it was seeing three of my best friends die that triggered it, so I don't know if it had happened just on the rag. At least I would hope it wouldn't. I don't want to see that again. Well.

It's interesting to know it's in there. Yeah, it would be nice to be able to control it and not feel like I was part of something evil at the same time. Goddamn superhero, are you fucking kidding? We've got to save Laudna. We're going to have to save Laudna. And then we've got to find out what's going on with

the Apogee Solstice and if they're trying to... This is so big. Oh shit. We have to call Lord Estrus at some fucking point. Yeah, we got to call him. Get the fuck out of here. Power is power. What you do with it is up to you.

Yeah. We're going to leave, we're going to lick our wounds, and we're going to figure it out. You got us. Yeah. Okay. Let's just get out of here and help our friend. Yeah.

All right, what do we need to do? Do you need to rest? Do you? I need to send a message to Eshteross. We need to open the hole, make sure Treshi isn't dying. Just go like 90 seconds. Yeah, I only close it for conversations.

Do you have any more diamonds? This is my new favorite. You'll thank me later that you know nothing. Those are our last diamonds, by the way? They were our last diamonds. We got to get more. Yeah, keep an eye on the diamonds. Although that shit doubles as the best one.

It's not going to work for this review. Actually, it does. I just missed it. Although that shit doubles as the best review. Actually, it does. Thanks, Maisie. I just missed it. Now it's back. Oh no. Yeah, that is the natural property. Yeah.

I'm really sorry. So am I. I'm glad y'all are back. Thank you, FCG, and you, Fearne. What did I do? Well, you brought back Fearne. Well, I'm sorry Fearne. Oh. Well, I'm sorry I couldn't do more. Any luck with that spell?

I'm sending message right now. What spell? Oh, we were talking about it. Oh yes, yes, yes, yes. If anyone has a pinch of salt, do you think Joe might? A pinch of salt? I mean, he probably isn't going to charge us 50 fucking gold for it. That's all right. I just need a pinch of salt. A pinch of salt. I mean, it probably isn't going to charge us 50 fucking gold for it. It's all right.

I just need a pinch of salt. A pinch? Yeah. I have a packet from Taste of Tartars. Yeah, I mean, Bailey. That's right. That's not salt. It didn't break properly. If you can undo her shroud so I can reach her face, I'll just place two copper coins on her eyes

and a sprinkle of salt. I don't have lips. I'll lean down and give her a kiss on the forehead. Thank you. I'll cast Gentle Repose on her. Mm-hmm. All right. Yeah.

Ritually? I don't know. Is that a thing? You can cast it as a ritual, which, yeah. Takes like 10 minutes. I'll just, yeah, sure. Okay, so don't use your spell slot for it. Yeah. Okay. See you.

So as you complete the ritual, you focus on her body, her corpse, her essence of whatever earthly connection still remains with the currently absconded spirit that you know as Laudna. You complete the ritual and there's a flash of vibrant, warm, orangish light around it. And none of you pick it up, but you do.

A weird sense that the spell definitely headed something off at the pass. Oh shit. Now she rests for the next 10 days. For the next 10 days. You got to repeat the the next 10 days. For the next 10 days. You got to repeat the spell every 10 days. Wait, wait, wait, what did you just say? Oh, cured that meat.

Oh. Okay. We don't know that, though. We don't know that. That's so funny. Oh no, no. We're just walking around with all sorts of atom bombs. Oh man.

Learn to juggle. Not to be disrespectful, but is there anything that she had in her possessions that we think we might use to bring her back or help us in our endeavors. She had a immovable rod, for instance. Did she? Does she still have it? I will admit, that's practical.

Maybe we can ask Angel later about it. Why don't you ask Pate? He raises up. Yeah, you can discuss that at another time with the player. Yeah. I got to send a message to Eshteross. You have to do it. Just, yes.

I always call a message, but whatever. I'm sending. Okay. We have Armand. We lost Laudna. Do you know of someone powerful enough to bring her back? Tell us what to do. Is that it?

Yeah, he asks us, but no. He responds rather quickly, I am very sorry to hear. A terrible sacrifice. Perhaps we can make right on this with our mind. Such magics are rare, though. This doesn't know of anyone. Did you warn him? Warn him of what?

They're coming for him. How would I know that? Oh, didn't one of us know that? Well, Orym knew it, but we never talked about the fact that Thul got that. Otohan said out loud. Yeah. Oh, she did? I just trust his name. Oh, fuck.

Okay, then I would have warned him. You had six words left. I had six words left. BTW. Also, you in danger, girl. Use your wand. Pooping. Sorry.

Otohan. Do you want to use another? No, no, no. Can I say, if I knew that he knew, I would have warned him in that message. You should set it down to my body. I can also, I have Sending. It would have changed his response, so it's okay.

I can use Sending as well. Okay, well then you fucking won. All right, I will follow up with, also, you in danger, girl. Otohan knows you sent us and might come for you, so be safe. I knew this time would come. I will see if I have contacts who can

aid in Laudna's predicament. Bring her here. Okay. I will prepare. Shit. That's good, that's good. He's not going to prepare. Shit. That's good, that's good. He's not going to run. Yeah.

He's strong. He's getting all those weapons out of the bushes and bookshelves. He's going to have a day around him. He's all covered in mud and disappearing into the... Yeah. He's painted like a full paper. I'm here, kill me! All right.

I don't trust you. Come on, kill me, I'm here! Do it! No, I'm not. Do it, you're one ugly mothball. Oh my goodness. All right. What'd he say?

He talked like Arnold Schwarzenegger. I will hide for long enough. This is really weird. He was like, rookies. He was doing bits. Pushing, coming in bits. These are fresh ginger snaps. He said, come. He said, come. Did anyone, well, if you relayed the whole message, did anyone else notice he said there's nothing he can do

and then suddenly there's something he can do? No, he said these magics are rare. Rare. And he said he would look for someone. Yeah. Okay, I think we should keep looking for someone, too. Further motivated. He doesn't know, he doesn't know for sure.

Let's go check. The other person we should send something to is your boss, your leader? Or should we wait? I think we should wait a little longer. Let's get on the ship. Let's get out of here. Okay.

We said half a day, so we could wait just a little bit and then make it to the edge of town where they dropped us off before. It's also going to take a while to get to the edge of town. We are very conspicuous. While you've been doing the messages, I just wanted to hand FCG this. Use the paints from Imahara Joe,

just in case you start feeling wild again. I just thought maybe we could craft something that could help you describe your emotions. So, you know, if you're feeling happy, you could just leave this up. Or maybe if you're like, Ah! I'm going to bust all of you! You can do this.

Or maybe we could just mount it to your chest or something. And you know, that's for rebooting. Like an emotional thermometer. Isn't it so cute? It's for rebooting. Like an emotional thermometer. Isn't it so cute? It's real smooth. The paint is slightly corrosive, so just be careful. Oh, look at the sad little scar. Why is the paint corrosive?

I think it's meant for metal, but it's really burning the fuck out of my skin. My fingernail, my prints are all gone. See, I'll go on. So, you know. I love it. Oh, it's real cute. I like the suave one over there.

Yeah, that's if you want to get your freak on, you can just walk around and let people know, hey, it's time, if you're interested. Just put the vibe out with the arrow. That's your move. I'm very happy right now. Content? You can't tell because my face can't make emotional movement.

This one could be unsure or you got a dookie. Nine o'clock is just Marisha. That's fantastic. Thank you for what you said. Thank you for this emotional clock. Thanks for my toolbox. My amateurishly made toolbox. I did the best I could.

I have a very large buzzsaw. It's okay. It's not a fine cutting. I understand. It's got a wide gauge to it. The drip of the stain is particularly horrifying, but you know. I had to, I salvaged what I could from Joe's while he was asleep. We've got a long trip ahead of us. Maybe we'll refine your skills.

I have to be able to pass on my craft to someone. You could be my legacy. Is there one here that eye rolls? Somebody's going to loot one of their bodies one day and be so disappointed. Fuck. I mean, it would be amazing if he could pass on his legacy to you

because you won't ever die. Didn't you ask to be taught by him? I... Well, we're all going to die. I don't know. No, not if that's in the cards for me. I mean, I just did, so we all die at some point. No, Orym actually knows a all die at some point. Well, I'm actually not so aware that it would work.

Oh no. Well, shit. Do we move from our position, or do we wait it out here for our airship to arrive? I think it's going to take. Oh. Oh shit. Yes.

There go the emotions. Don't panic. Don't panic. You're allowed. Give him some room. Hey, T. Give him some room! Give him some room! He's going to kill all of us! Doomsday Clock is a concern. Killing everything! Is that a concern?

Ah! Whoa! Damn, what time of the day are we? Because it was, I mean, it's keeping watch and there were people coming. Oh, that's right. Is it early, day are we? Because it was keeping watch and there were people coming. Oh, that's right. Is it early, early morning? Right now it's early morning.

All right. So it hasn't even gotten light yet, early morning? I'd say you're just past dusk at this point. Okay. So if we're going to go, we need to go. Now is better than later. Yeah. Now is definitely better than later. Let's settle our debts upstairs

and take the tunnel out. Deep, deep, deep, deep. Okay. For the sake, deep. Okay. For the sake of equity. Yeah. You make your 400 gold payment amongst whoever here wishes to split that cost into Who has money, Chetney?

Chetney, you just want to cover it? Can't do it. I have... I'll throw in 100 if need be. I'll throw in 250. Did you choose the wrong one? You chose the wrong one, you stupid. This thing is for toddlers.

We just need 50 gold from the rest of you, from the last four of you. You get off a lot more. I mean. No! I mean. She's a team player. It's what she would've wanted. No, I can do 200. I'll do 200. It mean, she's a team player. It's what she would've wanted. No, I can do 200.

I'll do 200. It's what she would've wanted. It's 400, right? Yeah. Oh, I'll do 150. I'm there. We're even. You just need 50. I'll do 50. I mean, I'll give less.

No, you can do it. No, that's fine. It's good of you. Okay. All right. How much money do you have left, Chet? Are you almost out of your money? Like 5,000 gold. Is it? I make more.

For me, I can't swim in it anymore. This is what happens when you steal. We don't know how much you have, and we just assume that you have a lot. Get out of here with that mess. You pay up and settle your debt with Imahraj. And now have in your gathered materials a singular lead box.

We put the white powder in it. Okay. Easy enough to do, easy enough to seal. It has a loop for a lock, but it is currently just a box with a lid. Heavily lead lock. Does it shut at least? It closes, yeah. Like, securely?

Yeah, I mean, you can latch it over, but you have to put a lock onto it to close it. I don't have that. I'm just going to tie it with a little string, like with some rope, to keep it shut for now, so it doesn't pop. He chuckles and gives you a lock. Oh, thank you. Just keeping you on your toes.

I like your resourcefulness, but you're going to want to use this. Hands you two copies of the key. But glances you over a bit and says, So I take it you're leaving soon, for all of our sakes? Yeah, we're out. Well, good. Wherever you're off to, good luck.

Thank you for everything you've done for us. You're a good guy, and I'm sorry if we brought danger to your doorstep. I hope next time we see you, it'll be under much more lighthearted circumstances. Takes his goggles off a bit and sets them down. I hope so, too. And look, I'm used to being on the edge of troubling circumstances.

Honestly, it pays pretty well. I got enough friends in this place to feel okay for the most part. You should be careful out there. Thanks, Joe. If that person ever comes back who dropped him off, should we have,

should we give him a message or something? Or do you want to steer clear of that? Oh, I'd love to know more. Just see if you can find out anything about him or where he's from or. I didn't. Oh, that. Dee? Dee?

Okay, yeah. I'll keep an eye out. Tell him one of his, I guess one of his friends just wants to know about him. Okay, I think I got an idea. Not going to lie, I'm curious myself. I mean, you're certainly enough of a curious specimen over conversation. Maybe that'll be enough to interface a little more

than the distant auction he likes to hold. Sure. Okay. Well, with all due respect, please leave. Great. Yeah. I'm keeping the paint. It's fairly corrosive. Don't let the kids play with it.

On the way out, just as a quick pat, I don't know if you know any of the Greymoore kids, but if you see Zeeland, Bennett, Shady Sally, any of those kids, if you know them, if they're still around, let them know I'm looking for them. Okay, I'll get the word around. Not often folks come to me and want to be found,

so that's unique. Appreciate it. All right, stay safe. Stay low. Is there anything we can do to make ourselves more? In conspicuous? Yeah, as we head out. Going on to the skyship.

I mean, I know, but as we get to the edge of town and they've gone to all of the businesses and offered a huge reward for us. Do we have our old shaggy cloaks? Do you have any tarps? We have cloaks from when we first came to town. You do? You have those still? Pull up my jumpsuit and put the cloak over it.

Got a big satchel on top and a bunch of other shit. I just look like I'm towing things. I strip down naked. It's reverse psychology, you see. When you see me coming, everybody just looks the other way. It's like they don't want to have the uncomfortable eyes meet, right? I just want to punch you when I see that.

So I don't know if fight or flight, I feel like. So leathery. Just such a good hide for that. I just want to. It's okay. I don't need to read thoughts to know what you're thinking. Mm. I'll lead the way! All righty.

I would like a group stealth check, please. Oh fuck. Okay. I don't know anything about this. And, man, I'm biting it on stealth tonight. I'm going to have my head on a swivel, too. Okay. Stealth, just go.

15. 15. 16. 16. Four. Four. 14. 14. 10. 10. 20. 20.

Okay. No. It's a challenging go, and you move, at times, slower than you want to because there are patrols around, not just of the Paragon's Call, but pretty much any Crawler gang you're currently paranoid of.

A few ayu as they pass, but no different than when you first came in here. Some of it you can't tell if it's just posturing or genuinely curious or a glimmer of recognition. But the few times that does creep upon you, you quickly pass through the various alleyways and try and lose them best you can. The adrenaline pumping through your body

for the better part of an hour, you eventually get to the closest outer edge of the city from the ends. There, as you begin to push beyond the carmine red wall and into the outer skids of the city. You make out the shape, a distant floating object. It gets larger and larger and larger.

It's a little way south from where you're currently standing. You didn't specify where in the city it's going to be. I just assumed it would be where they dropped us off. Yeah. I don't know if you have any way of indicating a position of pickup or you're going to meet them outside of the city. What do you plan to do?

I got one of these dynamite sticks. Oh, wait. That sounds loud. Can we? Where are you keeping it right now? Get a message out? Yeah, we'll just send it out. Get a fireball. I'll just use Sending to Xandis

and give him our exact location. Give him your location. Oh, right, okay. Appreciate the more specific information. That would have been extremely, I don't know, time-consuming. Anyway, see you in a second. You see a list a bit to one side

and shift when you're heading your direction. As it does, you also begin to notice that there are crawlers starting to head out in the direction of the airship. Looks like a pack of three are curious as to why an airship would once again, in the middle of the day, head off of the normal airship shipment paths.

Well, fuck, there's a normal one? Well, if you recall, Bassuras is not a common skyship trade route. Right. But they're on the ground. At which point, the skyship, you can see, begins to lean forward, lifts in a forward direction to pick up speed.

The sails flare up even wider, and it begins to careen quickly in your direction. Can we catch it on the run? Is there a ladder drop down? Well, as it gets to the edge of the city, and there are larger buildings, you can see it begin to get closer and closer. Folks are starting to come out of their city and look up,

and you can hear a voice going, Oh, what is that? This guy should put, get the kids! I want them to see! Then people start coming out in the streets to look up to it. Look. As it begins to push down, you can see off both sides,

two rope ladders begin to unfurl. Run and grab them. Can you hold onto Laudna while we're? She's Bjorned, right? Bjorned, I've got a big backpack. As it pushes through the street, you can see it's having a hard time. They're not precise vehicles.

As it pushes through around, you see one of the rope ladders, it snagged on the edge of a roof before about 10 feet of it snap off. Oh jeez. It's starting to lose some height, but it's pushing through the outside of the skids, which is the best possible position you have here

before it starts to get into the higher buildings outside of the Carmine Wall. We should have gotten farther out of town, I guess. This was not well thought. But what are you doing now as they approach? Are you pushing off to try and meet it? I mean, yeah, we're trying to run and grab onto the rope so we can lift up.

All right, so you all rush off and try and make a leap for this. I'd like each of you to make a dexterity check. Orym's going to try to be the last one on just in case anyone falls off. We'll say dexterity saving throw. I'm also going to, well, I won't give any use. Ugh.

Natural 20. Yo! Natural 20. Natural 20. Yo 20. Natural 20. Y'all dang! A deck saving throw, group deck saving, come on. 23. Natural 20. 17. Natural 20.

17. Eight. Eight? Natural one. Oh! Okay, okay. Before I hop on, or maybe because I rolled a 20, this can work, can I use a 4th-level spell to hit anybody that looks like they're not going to make it

with a fly spell? If you'd like to, yeah. Yeah. Oh, cool. All right. I can hit two people. So as you all begin to leap and climb, and hold on, and it's like the rope itself swinging left and right, at one point,

it slams into the side of Ashton's hip and it hurts. You take seven points of bludgeoning damage. Damn! Shattering the corner of this roof off. You're like, oh! You have the white searing pain for a moment before you hold on and clutch.

No, don't go. No. You almost lose your grip. Rock and roll. You full-on miss the ladder. Oh! You almost lose your grip. Rock and roll. You full-on miss the ladder. Oh no. A bit of it. As you go downward,

suddenly you're about to hit the ground, and then you just coast along the ground. What? What? What is this? Devilry? You glance up and you can see, hand extended at the top of the ladder,

Imogen looking down at you. He's starting to believe me. Are you doing this or am I? I try to go up! All righty. Pulling up. You coast up alongside the edge of this rope ladder. Is there anybody else that needed it?

It was just you? I just keep going up. Up in the way, you coast past the sails, and as you tear up past, you can see now, on the deck, half the crew there waiting, and Captain Zandis, they're sitting in there with their arms on the sides of the wheel for the actual skyship, shout out,

There's no way to do it! The rest of you, as the ship begins to pull up and pull up, you can now see the crawlers are now following in tow, and you hear Let's get the fuck out of here. Rifles firing. Oh no. But the skyship is a little too quick

and a little too far out of the range to make any sort of impact. Well, you do hear a few of the bullets make their mark on the bottom of the wooden hull, but it's a strong hull. As it pulls up over the city, pushing through the pillars of the smokestacks

of the various cisterns that climb out of the top of the city, it turns to the left, it begins pushing in a northward direction, taking you back out of the top of the city. It turns to the left. It begins pushing in a northward direction, taking you back out over the belly of the Hellcatch Valley, onward to your destination, back to where this all began, the city of Jrusar. Chetney goes, whoop!

That's roll pick up next. Oh my god! That's too much, too much, too much. I used a third-level spell since Chetling was the only one that needed flying. Fuck. Okay. Fair enough. Only a third. Only a third.

You lost one, guys. I miss her. You lost one. Yeah. I miss her real bad. I know. Me, too. No. Oh, you're awful. We'll pick up from there next time

and see where this rush to adventure to the northwest and all these moving pieces eventually carry us. But in the interim, thank you so much for joining us. We love you very much, and it's Thursday yet. Good night. Oh no. Thank you so much for joining us on this adventure. To help new listeners discover the show,

please give us a rating and review on whatever podcasting app you're listening on. Until next time, is it Thursday yet?